About
Navy veteran. MBA. Federal employee. American Legion Post Commander. Small business owner. These are not separate identities — they are one lens.
Christopher Padilla
I am a Navy veteran, MBA graduate, federal employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs, three-term American Legion Post Commander, and small business owner. I write about business, psychology, strategy, and privacy — with the discipline of someone who has operated inside large institutions and the skepticism of someone who has studied how they fail.
My writing does not chase trends. It is about durable ideas — the kind that explain why people buy, why companies win and lose, why institutions resist change, and why your financial data is worth more to someone else than it is to you. I apply frameworks from economics, behavioral science, and strategy to questions that most people treat as common knowledge without ever examining the evidence underneath.
The John Paul Jones quote on the home page is not decorative. If something is worth understanding, I intend to go directly at it.
Four lenses. One point of view.
Business & Strategy
Competitive dynamics, market forces, and how companies actually win or lose. Porter's Five Forces, the roll-up strategy, shareholder capitalism — I write about the mechanics underneath the headlines.
Psychology & Behavior
Why people do what they do — and how marketers, designers, and institutions exploit that. The Illusory Truth Effect, Prospect Theory, dark patterns, neuromarketing. Understanding these is the best defense against them.
Privacy & Digital Security
I take privacy seriously and I write about it without apology. Monero, zero-day markets, data brokers, surveillance infrastructure. If you read Nicole Perlroth's book, you already know why.
Finance & Wealth
The difference between speculating and investing. How economists think about money. The Diderot Effect, the Veblen Effect, and why most financial advice is designed to benefit the advisor.
Where I have been
Working inside the VA gives me a front-row seat to how large bureaucracies serve — and sometimes fail — the people who need them most. That tension between mission and machinery informs a lot of what I write about institutions, leadership, and policy.
Led a local American Legion post through three consecutive terms: managing membership, programming, veteran outreach, and legislative advocacy. The Legion is where military service meets civil obligation.
My MBA gave me frameworks for understanding markets, strategy, and human decision-making. It also gave me a lot to push back against — which is where most of my writing starts.
Military service is the foundation. It instilled operational discipline, mission clarity, and the understanding that leadership is a responsibility, not a title. Everything since has been built on that base.
Read the writing
Thirty-three posts on business, psychology, privacy, and strategy — with more coming.