
The Man Who Drives Through Wires
Sometimes, the smart move is the stupid one… saying yes to drinks when you’re wrecked and should be horizontal. Especially in this war-addled circus. It’s crawling with the mad ones. Mad in the Steve Jobsian vernacular.
GPTery
JB: Didn’t Steve Jobs have a quote about the mad ones?
GPT: Yes — but it’s a common misconception that Steve Jobs wrote that line. It’s a remix of a Jack Kerouac riff and Apple’s “Think Different” campaign.
Kerouac’s Original (On the Road, 1957): “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time…”
Anyway. I met H_.
An Estonian with, reportedly, a past. But this isn’t the moment for gossip.
H_ delivers donated vehicles to Ukrainian units near the front. Over drinks, the topic of Russian fiber optic FPV drones came up… as it does.
Tethered Terror: FPV Fiber Optic Drones, Explained (Quick & Dirty)
FPV = First-Person View. The pilot sees through the drone’s eyes—until it explodes.
Fiber optic = Hard-wired to the operator. No radio signal. No jamming it.
Translation: Fast. Lethal. Nearly impossible to stop… unless a tree entangles it.
H_ knows about them rather intimately. He’s driven across the snaking aftermath.
“They wrap around your wheels,” H_ said. Like fishing line in a boat’s propeller.

Fiber optic FPVs started gaining traction last fall. At the time, we spent time with the commander of Ukraine’s famed Achilles Regiment—a high-tech drone unit at the forefront of this evolution. The shift to fiber was already front of mind.
Today, Russia’s producing these drones at industrial scale. Another Ukrainian commander I spoke with recently estimated that roughly a quarter of their kamikaze drones are now tethered by fiber.
And here’s the kicker: the cables are getting longer. Bigger batteries mean bigger spools. The kill radius is now 12 miles. These death demons are creeping toward Sumy.
H_ says the city… just 20 miles from the Russian border… is next in Moscow’s sights. He fears Sumy could become the next Bakhmut. A city that, three years ago, was home to a quarter million souls. Many still remain.
H_ handed me some fresh situational awareness. But there was more…
People often ask where I find my stories. The truth? A lot of them come from nights like this.
GPT-Zarathustra
Stories are spores of chaos—floating unseen until they root in the soul of the ready.
Before we parted, H_ pointed me toward something else… something that deserves its own chapter. I won’t spill it here. But suffice it to say, we rendezvous Tuesday to investigate something I’m confident will make Friday night’s boozehoundary bulletproof on my expense report.
*If you haven’t seen our Emmy-nominated In the Shadows episode about Darwin, an FPV drone pilot… check it out.
**Late breaking: @JayinKyiv posted video of Chinese working on 31-mile-long fiber optic cables.
Fear and Loathing in Kyiv
The bar for invoking the immortal wordsmithery of the Good Doctor is high.
But this moment meets the madness.
Reuters dropped this gem:
“The United States believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its drone attack last weekend has not yet materialized—and that it’s likely to take the form of a significant, multi-pronged strike.”
And then came the real thud:
“It would likely intensify with strikes against symbolic Ukrainian targets like government buildings, in an effort to send a clear message to Kyiv.”
Well… my hotel room overlooks one such symbolic structure.
Left the GoPro recording overnight from my balcony on Thursday. Skyline blurred for OPSEC.
Suffice it to say: my go-bag is packed, parked by the bed. Just in case tonight’s accommodations shift to the basement bunker.
No windows. No snacks. No room service. Just the low hum of existential dread.
From Kyiv to Burning Man: The Black Cloud That Roars
Kyiv’s “Black Cloud” installation rumbles with the sounds of artillery and airstrikes…recorded on the frontlines. This was its debut, before heading to the U.S. for Burning Man.
Built for the Bombs, Claimed by the Vines
Postscriptery
In the first edition, I said I’d publish every Thursday. Scratch that. I’ll publish when I feel like it. And today, I feel like it. Don’t worry… it won’t be spammy. Just… sporadically urgent.
And please, dear reader, always remember: you’re getting this for free.
Fantastic writing!!! I felt so much emotion.