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I’ve made an offer to buy Ryan Phelan and Stewart Brand’s houseboat Mirene

read original get Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand → more articles
Why This Matters

This is a personal announcement rather than a business story, but it carries symbolic weight: Mirene is the Sausalito houseboat of Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Catalog founder whose ideas shaped Silicon Valley's counterculture roots, and his wife Ryan Phelan. A tech-world figure buying it frames the deal as a hand-off of stewardship, echoing the author's earlier custodianship of John Mayer's EarthRoamer before trading it to artist Dustin Yellin.

Key Takeaways
Worth a Look

Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand — If you're fascinated by Stewart Brand's world enough to buy his houseboat, his own writing is the natural companion. Whole Earth Discipline lays out Brand's thinking on cities, energy and long-term stewardship uby the same maintenance-minded ethos the article celebrates. A great read for a kitchen table on the water.

See Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.

I know everyone has been waiting to hear what’s been going on behind the scenes, so I’m just going to lay it out: I’ve made an offer to buy Ryan Phelan and Stewart Brand’s houseboat Mirene.

People say “the two happiest days of a boaters life is when you buy the boat and sell the boat” but I’m not always the best at following advice, so I’m going all-in on this cute little tuggy.

Anybody who’s founded a company and had to find good stewards knows that no one will love a thing quite like the original owner, but sometimes you can find the perfect person to carry the torch. I was happy to take on and upgrade John Mayer’s EarthRoamer for about five years.

Then I passed it on to Dustin Yellin, trading for some of his art. But without a high-maintenance means of conveyance, I’ve felt a hole in my heart and really boxed in and constrained. So from land, to the sea!

SF Standard says “The kitchen table may be where Otis Redding wrote “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” I hope do a lot of blogging there.

Real artists ship, right? Longevity is all about maintenance, and I’m looking forward to all the lessons Mirene and the ocean will teach as we navigate the weather of the coming years. If the offer is accepted, I have a lot to learn from Ryan and Stewart about what’s next.