About the Author
Here are a few facts about me:
Perhaps the only living travel writer who’s afraid to fly. An attorney and subject matter expert in economic policy, with a special interest in issues related to consumption, labor and demand. Baker of world-famous chocolate chip cookies. Once single handedly saved a birthday party in Chiang Mai. Die-hard fan of Michigan football. Journalist who has worked with communities ranging from Battambang to Lima, from Wall Street to the U.S. Army.
Bad at poker. Good at pool.
Can handle food Thai, Indian or Mexican spicy. Cannot handle whisky whether of the Scottish, Kentuckian or Chinese varieties.
Occasional author of the Medium blog Notes From an Accidental Economist.
My name is Eric Reed. I’m a journalist and former securities litigator. Like most journalists I’m always up for a good story, but since leaving practice my work has specialized in three fields: economic policy, global affairs, and travel.
I’m a contributing writer to Jim Cramer’s The Street. My work has been published and reprinted in outlets including CNBC, Consumer Reports, Glassdoor’s economics blog, MSN.com, AOL.com, the Detroit Free Press, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Make Change and the University of Michigan alumni magazine. Before attending law school I worked as a reporter for The New Britain Herald, and afterward I worked as a development and project specialist in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
I have also written for the paper of every school I’ve ever attended going back to the 7th grade, including the University of Michigan’s Daily and Res Gestae.
Why “Things Dangerous”?
The unusual name of this site comes from the old motto of Life Magazine:
To see the world… to see things thousands of miles away / Things hidden behind walls and within rooms,
Things dangerous to come to… / To see and be amazed.
There’s a lot more to founder Henry Luce’s original quote, which you can read in full here, but I prefer the succinct (if fictionalized) version from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty:
To see the world, things dangerous to come to / To see behind walls, to draw closer
To find each other and to feel / That is the purpose of life.
I picked “Things Dangerous” out of the poem because I think those two words capture its spirit best. Discovery is dangerous in many ways. You might get lost or get sick while visiting new places. You’ll almost certainly make a fool of yourself. (I have. Many times.) You’ll learn a lot of things you were wrong about. (Again.) You might see the world in new, unsettling ways. You might fall in love with someone who could leave you, or might come home to break someone’s heart.
You change and can’t know who you’ll become.
So that’s why the name. I love that motto. It’s half the reason why I re-watch The Secret Life of Walter Mitty on most of my long-haul flights, because Luce was right. Seeing, learning, and drawing closer is all very dangerous.
That’s certainly been my experience.
About The Site
I built this site after trip to China fell apart in the planning stages. Struggling to find buyers for an expensive story about financial infrastructure in the nation’s forgotten west, I thought about all the good stories that get left on the cutting room floor. It pushed me to create a place for all those orphaned stories, the ones worth telling that could never find a home.
That became the site you’re visiting today.
This is the place where I run the pieces that for one reason or another don’t wind up anywhere else. Maybe I had to cut something of for space. Maybe a piece got killed that deserves to see the light of day. Whatever the reason, I write them here.
About the Design
Things Dangerous would not be possible without the efforts of Paul Douglas of Douglas Web Designs. Paul met me as a prospective client who had the ambition to build a website and absolutely no idea how much work would be involved.
Through mentorship and generosity Paul helped me put together not just a functioning webpage but a viable online business, going well above and beyond anything I knew to ask for (or he’d invoiced). In virtually any line of work it’s challenging enough to find a professional on whose skill and judgment you can rely. Having someone in your corner you can trust is a game changer. Seriously, you should check him out.