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# Tom Nysetvold

Bask in my web presence

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://tomnysetvold.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Family Christmas Letter 2025](https://tomnysetvold.com/2025/12/08/family-christmas-letter-2025/) - Merry Christmas from the Nysetvold Family! Elissa continues to run Rivendell Academy, our homeschooling operation. The reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic continue apace, still with Charlotte Mason and Singapore Math. This year, the curriculum expanded into sewing with the establishment of Cave Slug Sewing School for Marie (named by Dan; ask about franchise opportunities). Elissa also
- [Family Christmas Letter 2024](https://tomnysetvold.com/2024/12/03/family-christmas-letter-2024/) - Merry Christmas from the Nysetvold Family! Elissa is Supermom. She's running Rivendell Academy, our home school, as well as teaching at the South Houston Area Performing Arts Co-op (SHAPAC) and playing piano for their choirs. SHAPAC is a one-day-a-week deal that gives the kids some social and artistic exposure, and the rest of the week,
- [Family Christmas Letter 2023](https://tomnysetvold.com/2023/12/09/christmas-letter-2023/) - The 2023rd year of our Lord has been good to the Nysetvold family. It has sure been wild for Elissa. She gave birth to Elanor Eve Nysetvold in May; a medical scare resulted in her getting induced a few days early, literally the day after Dan and Will’s school let out. Then she decided to
- [Persuasive Art and Schiller’s Aesthetics](https://tomnysetvold.com/2020/09/13/persuasive-art-and-schillers-aesthetics/) - Also Tolkien, Peter Kreeft, Inception, Jordan Peterson, and the relative value of fiction vs. nonfiction. One of my new year’s resolutions this year was to read a Harvard Classics volume after every few other books. As part of this, I read “Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man,” a 1794 piece by German literary figure
- [Family Christmas Letter 2022](https://tomnysetvold.com/2022/12/04/christmas-2022/) - Merry Christmas! This has been an exciting year for our family. Elissa is a domestic ninja. She’s been teaching Dan piano, helping Dan and Will get way ahead in math, making sourdough bread, sewing dresses for Marie, instigating a new tradition of Sunday post-Church family board games, and more. Not to mention moving from San
- [Brazil São Paulo South: Ten Years Later](https://tomnysetvold.com/2022/02/21/brazil-sao-paulo-south-ten-years-later/) - Ten years ago, I got home from my mission to Brazil for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I served in the São Paulo South Mission, in cities including São Vicente, Ribeirao Pires, São Bernardo, and the Zona Sul of São Paulo itself, speaking Portuguese. I had previously studied Spanish and Latin and
- [Nuclear regulation now should be more like pipe safety regulation during World War II](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/09/03/nuclear-regulation-now-should-be-more-like-pipe-safety-regulation-during-wwii/) - Our civilization would be better off if it had dramatically more, cheaper, cleaner energy. To achieve this, we should allow nuclear power to become dramatically cheaper and more common, and the main barrier to this is over-the-top safety regulation. The history of the ASME piping and pressure vessel codes, which govern both oil refineries (my
- [Link Roundup #1](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/08/07/link-roundup-1/) - This is a collection of some of the best articles I've read in the last several months. Might become a semi-regular feature if people let me know they like it. SpaceX is doing amazing things – I would argue they are making more progress in aerospace engineering than every other organization on earth combined. I
- [My Ancestors' Religious Freedom](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/07/13/my-ancestors-religious-freedom/) - Public Square Magazine has just published my essay on my ancestors' experience with political repressions in general, and religious freedom specifically. Give it a look!
- [Down the Ethereum rabbit hole](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/06/02/down-the-ethereum-rabbit-hole/) - I know smart people who react to cryptocurrency with everything from outright skepticism to guarded indifference to enthusiasm. This year I finally looked down the rabbit hole for myself, and was surprised how much potential is there, specifically in Ethereum; this post is an attempt to collect what I’ve learned. So first, links and commentary
- [Leisurely Consecration](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/05/13/leisurely-consecration/) - Public Square Magazine recently put up a piece I wrote on Josef Pieper's "Leisure: The Basis of Culture" and his concept of leisure/worship as contrasted with laziness/idleness/acedia. I'm quite proud of it; give it a read!
- [Book Review - “Willful: How We Choose What We Do”](https://tomnysetvold.com/2020/03/14/book-review-willful-how-we-choose-what-we-do/) - If you want to know what Chicago PhD economist hedge-fund-guru-cum-academic Richard Robb has concluded after pondering deeply the intersection of personal agency and rational choice economics, this book is for you. This book may not be for you. But I really liked it! So let’s talk about it. This tightly written, brief book sits at
- [Review of "The Book of Mormon in One Hour"](https://tomnysetvold.com/2020/12/07/review-of-the-book-of-mormon-in-one-hour/) - Brennen Ricks, a guy from my ward, had the interesting idea of putting together a ~20K word cut of the Book of Mormon. I usually prefer to read complete works, and particularly with the Book of Mormon I wish other people would too. But at the same time I recognize there are readers who don't
- [Review: "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons"](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/01/05/review-teach-your-child-to-read-in-100-easy-lessons/) - One of my 2018 New Year’s Resolutions was to teach Dan to read that year. He was due to turn 3 in April, knew a bunch of letters, and seemed to have a fair amount of verbal intelligence. It worked. By that Christmas he could read Dr. Seuss. Then we worked him up through a
- [My Stock Advice for Engineering Students](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/02/22/my-stock-advice-for-engineering-students/) - Good engineering students often do a poor job of managing their career opportunities. I want to help. I’ve participated in career fairs and job interviews various times on each side of the table, hiring and searching. I have been in the room making decisions on who to interview. I’ve been in the room making decisions
- [Refinery Inspection, Putting Your Eyes On It, and Your Eternal Soul](https://tomnysetvold.com/2020/07/22/refinery-inspection-putting-your-eyes-on-it-and-your-eternal-soul/) - Let’s tell a completely fictional story that bears no resemblance to actual refinery events. Once upon a time, there was a refinery desalter. It was a fairly good-size pressure vessel, perhaps 15’ in diameter and 100’ long, in which water and salt settled out from crude oil before it went through its first distillation. This
- [The Request Batting Average](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/02/28/the-request-batting-average/) - There may or may not be stupid questions, but there are definitely stupid requests. I have a concept of a “request batting average,” computed as [number of approvals] divided by [number of requests]. You can tell a lot about the quality of an engineer asking for money, or a Christian saying his prayers, by looking
- [The Request Batting Average](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/02/28/the-request-batting-average/) - There may or may not be stupid questions, but there are definitely stupid requests. I have a concept of a “request batting average,” computed as [number of approvals] divided by [number of requests]. You can tell a lot about the quality of an engineer asking for money, or a Christian saying his prayers, by looking
- [The Request Batting Average](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/02/28/the-request-batting-average/) - There may or may not be stupid questions, but there are definitely stupid requests. I have a concept of a “request batting average,” computed as [number of approvals] divided by [number of requests]. You can tell a lot about the quality of an engineer asking for money, or a Christian saying his prayers, by looking
- [The Request Batting Average](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/02/28/the-request-batting-average/) - There may or may not be stupid questions, but there are definitely stupid requests. I have a concept of a “request batting average,” computed as [number of approvals] divided by [number of requests]. You can tell a lot about the quality of an engineer asking for money, or a Christian saying his prayers, by looking
- ["Building Israel" piece in Public Square Magazine](https://tomnysetvold.com/2021/02/20/building-israel-piece-in-public-square-magazine/) - Public Square Magazine just put up a piece I wrote, on Israel (the religious concept, not just the country) as an institution. This is what I came up with as I took President Russell M. Nelson's challenge to study what the Lord has promised Israel, in light of my prior reading and interest in how
- [Family Christmas Letter 2020](https://tomnysetvold.com/2020/12/12/family-christmas-letter-2020/) - Hello world, this is Tom. Normally Elissa does our Christmas letter, but I’ve hijacked it this year. Executive summary: we’ve actually had a pretty good 2020, pandemic notwithstanding. Marie was born on April 18, with a thick head of black hair. She is now babbling and crawling around like crazy. She brings out the best
- [Low-Key Family History: A Call to Mediocrity](https://tomnysetvold.com/2020/12/03/low-key-family-history-a-call-to-mediocrity/) - Genealogy is cool, and it’s good for your soul to spend some time thinking about your ancestors. For this and other good theological reasons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints asks members to work on their own family history, particularly on FamilySearch.org. People often seem to either take this incredibly seriously, or do
- [Thanksgiving Reflections](https://tomnysetvold.com/2020/11/26/thanksgiving-reflections/) - In this Thankgsiving week, I’m taking some time to reflect on the things I’m grateful for. I am grateful for my family. My wife Elissa is awesome. She is smart, beautiful, creative, funny, makes amazing food, and writes great stories. She is also an incredible mother for our kids, nurturing them along, teaching them, and
- [Talk: "Becoming Like Christ"](https://tomnysetvold.com/2020/10/25/talk-becoming-like-christ/) - I was asked to speak in church today on Elder Scott D. Whiting's recent conference talk, "Becoming Like Him," for about 5 or 6 minutes. I delivered the talk in my congregation, the Sonoma Ranch Ward (meets here at noon) more or less as written below. Good Afternoon! I’m Tom Nysetvold, and I just moved
- [Church Pandemic Preparedness, or the Apocalypse Bros](https://tomnysetvold.com/2020/03/31/church-pandemic-preparedness-or-the-apocalypse-bros/) - As the tide goes out, institutions that were swimming naked get revealed. Think about the Centers for Disease Control (so under control!), or any number of businesses that have apparently been operating with no capital cushion, within spitting distance of bankruptcy. Meanwhile, some other institutions ought to be gaining status, for being particularly well prepared
- [Justifying moral principles by analogy with Russian roulette](https://tomnysetvold.com/2020/02/10/justifying-moral-principles-by-analogy-with-russian-roulette/) - I recently read Nassim Taleb’s book Skin in the Game. Taleb is an entertaining practical philosopher: he has a handful of principles that he has considered deeply, he measures the world against them, and he coaches the reader in how to do likewise, all in an idiosyncratic and readable style. (As a Lebanese-American Orthodox Christian,

## Pages

- [About/Contact](https://tomnysetvold.com/contact/) - This site exists as a place for me to put writing up on the internet, outside social media or any particular framework, which I occasionally feel the urge to do. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and I manage the Mormon Texts Project. Opinions on this site are mine
- [Free Advice](https://tomnysetvold.com/free-advice/) - You clicked the "free advice" button! So I guess you want some free advice. Here goes. Before you die, go to Glacier National Park. I've been to most of the top-tier national parks in the United States, and I think Glacier is the best. Cook your meat sous vide. Be very generous with the salt
- [Free Book of Mormon](https://tomnysetvold.com/freebom/) - Missionaries will hand-deliver a free copy of the Book of Mormon if you fill out the form here. They are generally very nice. You can also get the Book of Mormon free on Kindle, on Apple Books, as a PDF, as an epub, read aloud in mp3, as a dedicated Apple or Android app, or

## Categories

- [Uncategorized](https://tomnysetvold.com/category/uncategorized/)

## Tags

- [Books](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/books/)
- [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints/)
- [Family History](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/family-history/)
- [Family Search](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/family-search/)
- [Nassim Taleb](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/nassim-taleb/)
- [Talk](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/talk/)
- [Book review](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/book-review/)
- [Refining-Industry](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/refining-industry/)
- [Public Square Magazine](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/public-square-magazine/)
- [Consecration](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/consecration/)
- [Ethereum](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/ethereum/)
- [Link Roundup](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/link-roundup/)
- [Nuclear](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/nuclear/)
- [Policy](https://tomnysetvold.com/tag/policy/)