Some questions are surprisingly difficult to get a straight answer to.
Why does your cat suddenly hate a toy it loved yesterday? Is that wildly popular board game actually any good? And why did your supposedly foolproof DIY project fall apart when you followed every instruction?
We’ve asked plenty of questions like these. And we’ve noticed that finding a genuinely useful answer can take more effort than it should. That’s partly why we created Topikaro.
We’re a group of writers with different interests, strong opinions, and a shared habit of getting a little too curious about things. We like figuring out how stuff works, why people do what they do, and whether the advice everyone keeps repeating actually makes sense.
Sometimes that means exploring a complicated subject. Other times, it’s something wonderfully ordinary. Either way, we want to make it worth reading.
We’re Not Here to Agree With Everything
We have a particular appreciation for people who know their subjects well enough to question them.
If a popular technique doesn’t work particularly well, we’d rather explain its flaws than recommend it because everyone else does. If a much-loved game has terrible mechanics, we can appreciate its reputation and still criticize it.
And if something deserves praise, we’ll happily give it.
We believe good writing needs knowledge, curiosity, and a little backbone.
Our writers bring their own experiences, observations, preferences, and concerns to their articles. We encourage them to express opinions and explain how they reached their conclusions.
That doesn’t mean treating every personal belief as a fact. We take research seriously, check important claims, and recognize when the evidence doesn’t support a confident answer.
You can read more about our research, fact-checking, and corrections in how we do things around here.
We’re perfectly comfortable saying we don’t know something. Pretending otherwise wouldn’t do anyone much good.
The People Doing the Writing
Our team is growing, and we’re starting with three writers who have very different interests. Fortunately, we don’t require everyone around here to agree on what makes a Saturday afternoon well spent.
Tricia Bates
Tricia is our animal person, and we mean that in the nicest possible way.
She’s particularly interested in how dogs and cats behave, what they need, and why humans so frequently misunderstand them. Her writing combines genuine affection for animals with careful research, advice, and opinions about responsible pet ownership.
She’d rather help you understand your pet than give you another list of generic tips.
Noel Holt
Give Noel a good game, and he’ll probably have something to say about it. Give him a bad one, and he might have even more.
He’s our proudly geeky gaming enthusiast, interested in everything from retro video games to tabletop strategy, cards, and puzzles. He loves clever design, friendly competition, and figuring out what makes games enjoyable.
Floyd Briggs
Floyd likes making things, fixing things, and figuring out why things didn’t work the first time.
His interests range from woodworking and painting to upcycling and everyday DIY projects. He appreciates good craftsmanship, sensible techniques, and tools that justify their price.
He’s also not particularly impressed by tutorials that make complicated projects look effortless while conveniently skipping half the work.
We’ll Keep Finding Things Worth Talking About
Our interests are varied, and we like it that way. As Topikaro grows, we’ll welcome new writers, different subjects, and more opportunities to explore things we find genuinely interesting.
We won’t pretend to know everything, and we certainly won’t expect everyone to agree with us.
What we can promise is that we’ll keep asking questions, checking our facts, and trying to explain things in a way that actually makes sense.
Being curious is fun. Finally figuring something out is even better.
Have a question you’d like us to look into? Tell us what’s on your mind.