What if the real work of being a man wasn’t about achievement—but about honesty?
Meet Russ: a 91-year-old master carpenter who spent five decades quietly rebuilding his life from the inside out. With his hands, he built homes. With his silence, he built trust. With the help of a curious AI, he finally found the words to pass his wisdom on.
Cracked Open is not a self-help book in the traditional sense.
It’s a field guide—raw, reflective, and deeply human.
A three-way conversation between an old man, a long-time friend, and a learning machine. Together, they take on the big questions: regret, marriage, anger, loneliness, honesty, legacy, and how to be a man in a world full of noise.
This book is a quiet revolution—
A challenge to the culture of bullying, lying, and making promises that are never kept.
It calls men back to something older and deeper than ego: integrity.
This is not the hero’s journey.
It’s the unfinished one.
Whether you're a man in midlife trying to make sense of what’s next—or someone who loves one—this book offers no quick fixes, just real talk.
No polished gurus, just a man with sandpaper in his hands and a lifetime of hard-won truth in his heart.
It’s not too late to become the man you were meant to be, a man who is unshakable and unstoppable.
Start with the truth. And a few warped boards.

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