# Exile Lifestyle

> by Colin Wright

This is an llms.txt file, providing structured information about this site for LLMs and AI agents.

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://exilelifestyle.com/wp-sitemap.xml)

## Pages

- [About](https://exilelifestyle.com/about/): Howdy! I'm Colin Wright. I'm an author, podcast host, and enthusiastic, generalist maker-of-things. I run MKE Meetups here in Milwaukee, and I build Truly Simple Tools. I also speak to
- [Archive](https://exilelifestyle.com/archive/)
- [Contact](https://exilelifestyle.com/contact/): The best way to reach me is via email: colin@exilelifestyle.com A close second is pinging me on your favorite social network:Instagram, Twitter, Threads, LinkedIn, or Facebook. Looking for photos for
- [Quotes](https://exilelifestyle.com/quotes/)

## Posts

- [Early to Rise](https://exilelifestyle.com/early-to-rise/): For the better part of a decade, I’ve maintained a habit of getting to bed as close to 8pm, maybe 8:30pm as possible. I then read for a spell before
- [Fluffy Optimization](https://exilelifestyle.com/fluffy-optimization/): Tools and systems can help us automate our tasks and routines, and much of the time, we should do exactly that when the opportunity arises. We perform many labors because
- [Adult Friendships](https://exilelifestyle.com/adult-friendships/): It’s often more difficult making friends as adults because we have fewer sources of random serendipity through which we might meet a compatible person. We also have more and stronger
- [Well-Rounded](https://exilelifestyle.com/well-rounded/): Pleasure is a relatively superficial but high-impact and immediate experience. Eating a candy bar can be pleasurable in that we’re flooded with happy chemicals when we consume certain combinations of
- [The Starting Problem](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-starting-problem/): When enthusiastic about something, it’s not uncommon to become so bogged down in details to the point that you never quite get around to getting started. Maybe instead of writing
- [Sustaining Curiosity](https://exilelifestyle.com/sustaining-curiosity/): Especially at paradigm-fracturing moments when it feels like the ground is shifting, the world has changed, and our previously stable grip on “the way of things” has softened, it’s important
- [Not One Map](https://exilelifestyle.com/not-one-map/): I’ve always liked the idea of being my own patron, which in practice involves figuring out how to make enough money to both put a roof over my head and
- [On Liking Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/on-liking-things/): When we hear a new song for the first time, we might immediately love it, we might knee-jerk hate it, and we might feel nothing at all about it. This
- [Taking Stock](https://exilelifestyle.com/taking-stock/): Every couple of years I begin to yearn for the relative predictability and camaraderie of a more conventional work-life. The idea of earning a paycheck (and knowing how much it
- [Missing the Point](https://exilelifestyle.com/missing-the-point/): Some of us want to accumulate money because we simply can’t stop ourselves. To those thus inclined, money is like Pokémon cards or Civil War relics or anything else a
- [Directional Play](https://exilelifestyle.com/directional-play/): Hobbies are great because you don’t have to invest too much of yourself in them, but you absolutely can if you like, and if you do, you tend to get
- [Templates and Scripts](https://exilelifestyle.com/templates-and-scripts/): I have a general sense that—wherever we end up next, however our technologies and politics evolve, and whatever shapes our communities and systems and social norms and economic realities are
- [Break to Make](https://exilelifestyle.com/break-to-make/): I recently updated the operating systems on my iPhone and Macbook Pro, as usual waiting a while because the folks behind some of the software I use drag their heels
- [Hugs Not Nuggs](https://exilelifestyle.com/hugs-not-nuggs/): It’s been said that the average person living today—especially in wealthy countries—will enjoy a better overall quality of life than an emperor living a few hundred years ago, and I
- [Reset Layers](https://exilelifestyle.com/reset-layers/): Every morning I like to reset to zero. After a quick little stretch-focused workout, I get the kettle going and put all the dishes and silverware away. I straighten and tidy
- [A Solved Problem](https://exilelifestyle.com/a-solved-problem/): There’s a chance that some of the technologies that fit under the ever-enbroadening umbrella-term “AI” will end the world by vivifying a consciousness (or pseudo-consciousness) with goals that deviate from
- [I’ll Need Fuel](https://exilelifestyle.com/ill-need-fuel/): It’s been said (by many people, as it turns out) that’s it’s difficult and at times dangerous to make predictions about the future. Which is far from ideal, as the future
- [Paradigms and Gaps](https://exilelifestyle.com/paradigms-and-gaps/): Back in 1960, the concept of paradigms was developed by Thomas Kuhn to refer to our framework of reality—what we seem to know, what seems to be true, the assumptions we make
- [Wantingness](https://exilelifestyle.com/wantingness/): I love the cold. Winter (and to a lesser degree Autumn) is when I can finally spend more time outside, because the sun isn’t persistently menacing my burn-prone skin and
- [Info Hoarding](https://exilelifestyle.com/info-hoarding/): The Google Effect, sometimes called Digital Amnesia, refers to our tendency to treat our tools (like search engines or archives filled with captured notes) as if they are our brains. If
- [Wishing or Doing](https://exilelifestyle.com/wishing-or-doing/): I use AI tools for development (in the sense of coding things), but not for much of anything else. I like to keep up with what these systems are capable
- [Localized](https://exilelifestyle.com/localized/): Something that wasn’t obvious to me (not consciously, at least) until the pandemic forced me to slow down and stay put for a few years is that while our contexts
- [Quality of the Light](https://exilelifestyle.com/quality-of-the-light/): Just after sunrise and just before sunset, there’s a period often called the Golden Hour (or Magic Hour, depending on who you ask) when the light of the sun is
- [That Was 2025](https://exilelifestyle.com/that-was-2025/): For me, 2025 will be remembered as a year in which the wheels fell off many of the large-scale structures I’ve long taken for granted, and during which the world
- [The Why of It](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-why-of-it/): We’re rapidly approaching New Year’s, where we all make resolutions, many of which don’t stick, and we then castigate ourselves when our grand ambitions don’t persist for more than a
- [Planting Seeds, Tending Gardens](https://exilelifestyle.com/planting-seeds-tending-gardens/): There’s a tension between reinvesting in what we already have and investing in possible next-steps. You can think of this as ‘explore versus exploit,’ but I like to think in
- [This Is Me](https://exilelifestyle.com/this-is-me/): An age ago, long before I would have reason to wonder whether my creative work might someday make any money, I was challenged by an art teacher to try something
- [Bad At Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/bad-at-things/): When I go too long without experiencing the gut-punch of failure, I know I’m doing something wrong. Feeling like I’m good at things feels good. It’s nice to ease into
- [The Magic of Consistency](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-magic-of-consistency/): I write every day. Words flow from my brain to my fingers to the keyboard to my screen, tallying somewhere in the 1-5k range, depending on what I’m working on.
- [Nudgers](https://exilelifestyle.com/nudgers/): There’s an argument to be made that we should all be creating for AI. Doing so, it’s been posited, is the best way to ensure our work, our thoughts, our history and
- [Fall Cleaning](https://exilelifestyle.com/fall-cleaning/): For many people, the dawn of Spring triggers a desire to clear out the closets and tidy up the home; to get everything nice for the arrival of better weather.
- [Focus Focus Focus](https://exilelifestyle.com/focus-focus-focus/): At the most macro scale, focusing on where we are in life and where we’d like to go next can help us make calendar-level decisions. Thinking at this scale can
- [Light a Candle, Paint the Walls](https://exilelifestyle.com/light-a-candle-paint-the-walls/): We can worry about rot and horribleness and still tend a beautiful garden. I try to remember this when I feel myself drifting into a helpless “what’s the point, everything
- [The Actual Thing](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-actual-thing/): Any suitably aspirational goal will require we complete a bunch of steps before we can cross them off our list, and the stair-step nature of these paths can cause us
- [Creative Agency](https://exilelifestyle.com/creative-agency/): When I was a child, I would often envision an incredibly rich, detailed image (usually something related to monsters or robots or superheroes), but I would be incapable of translating
- [Horizon Scanning](https://exilelifestyle.com/horizon-scanning/): There’s a term of art, “horizon scanning,” that initially emerged from the world of futures studies, but which has since been adopted by tech-oriented businesspeople, politicians, and even folks working
- [Concrete and Nebulous](https://exilelifestyle.com/concrete-and-nebulous/): Different types of work demand different sorts of fuel. You might be primed and ready to write an essay, but completely incapable of cleaning your bedroom. You may be all
- [It’s Temporary](https://exilelifestyle.com/its-temporary/): I’ve got hair on my head, but hair isn’t guaranteed for anyone at any age. At some point, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a few years, it could all fall out.
- [Surface Areas](https://exilelifestyle.com/surface-areas/): I’m curious about pretty much everything, and I’m prone to falling into rabbit holes and picking up previously unfamiliar hobbies on a whim. I try to be more intentional with
- [Honing Stone](https://exilelifestyle.com/honing-stone/): I write every single day. I often write for pleasure and exercise, but I also write essays and books, podcast scripts and speaking notes. And that’s alongside the countless emails
- [Stretch Projects](https://exilelifestyle.com/stretch-projects/): I like to have multiple projects going at a time, but they’re not all the same type of project, and they all require different sorts of investment and serve different
- [Not the Final Me](https://exilelifestyle.com/not-the-final-me/): Something that helps me cope with periods of malaise, pain, or discomfort is reminding myself that the me I am today is not the final me. This is just a
- [Ever So Slightly More Difficult](https://exilelifestyle.com/ever-so-slightly-more-difficult/): Most growth happens beyond our current capacity. Maintenance is good and healthful, and at times (and in some aspects of our lives) that’s exactly what we should be doing. But
- [The Stuff You Do](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-stuff-you-do/): It feels good to have written a book. It’s similar, I suspect, to the feeling of running a marathon or hosting a successful dinner party: it’s an achievement, and it’s
- [Status Quo Burdens](https://exilelifestyle.com/status-quo-burdens/): The price of a medication goes up, your rent or property taxes increase, maybe you suffer an injury or develop some kind of chronic condition. New burdens are not fun,
- [Persistence Curve](https://exilelifestyle.com/persistence-curve/): While we all have at least a few things we’re just latently good at, most of what we’re able to do (for fun or for money) is the result of
- [Strengths](https://exilelifestyle.com/strengths/): It’s good to feel strong, and that’s perhaps even more true during periods of unrest and change. The word “strong” often evokes concepts like steel beams and rippling pectorals, but
- [Tactical Reset](https://exilelifestyle.com/tactical-reset/): A surprising number of technical issues can be solved by resetting the glitchy device. Sometimes you have to unplug it or hold down several buttons to make it work, but
- [Eye-Opening](https://exilelifestyle.com/eye-opening/): I wear contact lenses most days, though I wear glasses while getting ready in the morning and at night before going to bed. I got my first set of glasses
- [Why Not This Way?](https://exilelifestyle.com/why-not-this-way/): Many norms, folkways, and standards exist because they’re (almost always) the best way to do something (by some metric). The USB-C standard isn’t the most bleeding-edge option that technology and
- [Signaling](https://exilelifestyle.com/signaling/): A whole lot of what we do—probably more than we’d care to admit, even to ourselves—is the result of social signals, both received and sent. That’s the basic premise of signaling
- [Opportune Moment](https://exilelifestyle.com/opportune-moment/): Whatever work you do, you almost certainly rely on other entities for some aspect of the goods or services you provide. I rely on several platforms that help me distribute
- [The Slowdown](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-slowdown/): Being able to persist through difficult times, tedious moments, and dark nights of the soul is important if you want to achieve any kind of long-term goal. That’s true whether
- [Nothing In the Tank](https://exilelifestyle.com/nothing-in-the-tank/): Ideas tend to beget more ideas, but only if you spend the ones you accrue. It’s a nice feeling, having a good idea. But if you leave it in the
- [Failure States](https://exilelifestyle.com/failure-states/): I will, at times, fail. And the more I push myself the more failure I’ll tally—so optimally I’m failing at things semi-regularly. That’s a tough pill to swallow, as no
- [Believing Myself](https://exilelifestyle.com/believing-myself/): The difference between competence and confidence is that the former refers to one’s ability to do things and the latter refers to one’s belief in one’s ability to do things.
- [The Weakest Me](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-weakest-me/): When I’m trying to establish a new habit—working out each morning or freewriting for a few minutes each day, for instance—I try to set things up so that’s it easy
- [Age 40](https://exilelifestyle.com/age-40/): At 40, a man living in the United States has used up more than half of his statistical years; the average man dies at around 75 years old in this
- [Recognizing, Understanding, Fixing](https://exilelifestyle.com/recognizing-understanding-fixing/): The things I’m most embarrassed to have done over the course of my life have almost universally been the result of self-consciousness. I’ve worked on this a lot over the
- [Sharecropping](https://exilelifestyle.com/sharecropping/): I’ve been feeling ambivalent about social media platforms these past few years, and part of that ambivalence has been the result of truly anti-user behavior by the folks who run
- [Midlife Crises](https://exilelifestyle.com/midlife-crises/): Midlife crises can be annoying, cringe-inducing, and even hurtful (especially when they lead to income disruptions, breakups, and other things that impact folks beyond those having the crisis). At their
- [First Drafts](https://exilelifestyle.com/first-drafts/): I recently finished the first draft of a new book I’m working on (the initial entry in a new science-fiction trilogy I’m having an absolute ball writing). It feels good
- [Filling Potholes](https://exilelifestyle.com/filling-potholes/): Potholes are pits in asphalt surfaces (like roads) caused by a weakness in the underlying soil that’s been amplified by the weight and impact of traffic. This results in chunks
- [Pre-Indexing](https://exilelifestyle.com/pre-indexing/): In linguistics, “indexing” means establishing things within the context of a conversation. So if I say “I” while chatting with you over coffee, you know I’m referring to myself. If
- [Is This Productive?](https://exilelifestyle.com/is-this-productive/): Networks like Facebook and Instagram have increasingly oriented their services around their own, internal (mostly economic) goals, which as a result has made the experience of using them sub-par for
- [Validation](https://exilelifestyle.com/validation/): Validating another person’s feelings often just means listening when they tell you about something that’s wrong (or worrying them, or stressing them out) and then commiserating if appropriate. In my
- [Bliss Point](https://exilelifestyle.com/bliss-point/): There’s a concept in the food world, “bliss point,” that refers to the perfect balance of salt, sugar, and fat to make a food optimal (usually in the sense that
- [Fits and Starts](https://exilelifestyle.com/fits-and-starts/): I’m about a third of the way through writing a new book, and I’m trying to figure out how to get my protagonists from where they are now to where
- [Blurry](https://exilelifestyle.com/blurry/): I’m near-sighted and I have astigmatism. So I wear contact lenses to help me see things far away, and my eyeballs have “rotational asymmetry,” which in this context means they’re
- [We Are Responsible](https://exilelifestyle.com/we-are-responsible/): Many forces influence what we think and how we behave. These factors can be pernicious and potent, but we’re responsible for our actions. We might be turned in a particular
- [Acceptance](https://exilelifestyle.com/acceptance/): I know several people who are currently struggling to accept aspects of reality that don’t align with 1. who they believed they would be, 2. how they believed they would
- [Cognitive Overload](https://exilelifestyle.com/cognitive-overload/): When there’s a lot happening all at once, it’s not uncommon to experience cognitive overload: a nonstop feeling of overwhelm, memory problems, difficulties with focus, and an inability to healthily
- [Another Year](https://exilelifestyle.com/another-year/): Another year around the sun, another 365 days tallied, another torrent of experiences weathered and another boatload of lessons learned. Last December, my life was different from how it is
- [Prodding and Reaffirming](https://exilelifestyle.com/prodding-and-reaffirming/): I’ve been toying with the idea of continuously wearing some kind of “smart” gadget that tracks basic things like heart rate and steps taken, and which allows me to stay
- [Clearing the Way](https://exilelifestyle.com/clearing-the-way/): It’s amazing how often a sense of stuckness or listlessness or internal confusion can be remedied (at least in part) by cleaning, reorganizing, and getting rid of stuff. Sometimes this
- [Internal Logic](https://exilelifestyle.com/internal-logic/): I read a lot of fiction, and one of the biggest determinants of whether a book grips me or not is the degree to which there’s an internal logic to
- [Dark and Cozy](https://exilelifestyle.com/dark-and-cozy/): Milwaukee is cooling down. After a long October of teases, the temperature dropping for a few days before rocketing back up to the mid-80s (~30 C), late-November has gifted me
- [Consumption Season](https://exilelifestyle.com/consumption-season/): We’re headed back into Please Buy Literally Everything season, so here are some quick thoughts on consumption, gifts, and the like. Many things (especially but not exclusively gadgets) get cheaper over time—the
- [Non-Clarity](https://exilelifestyle.com/non-clarity/): I’m writing this before the end of election day, so I don’t know how everything’s going, whether I’m thrilled or sobbing, or how everyone involved is spinning whatever we seem
- [The Fundamentals](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-fundamentals/): When I’m trying to learn something new—anything really, from physical skills to a functional understanding of an unfamiliar subject—much of my initial effort is focused on identifying the fundamentals. This
- [Tensions](https://exilelifestyle.com/tensions/): Writing and sharing words would superficially seem to be the same thing no matter where you write and share them. But the number of words, the sorts of words you
- [Which Ends?](https://exilelifestyle.com/which-ends/): A new working paper suggests that there’s an imbalance in the benefits of working with artificial intelligence tools: some people get more out of them than others. And while part of that
- [What’s My Thing?](https://exilelifestyle.com/whats-my-thing/): When starting a new creative project—any kind of project, from writing a book to designing a new type of semiconductor—one of the better questions to start with is “what do
- [Unlocked](https://exilelifestyle.com/unlocked/): One of the reasons I love doing the work I do is that it provides me more opportunities to say the right words to the right person at the right
- [Lustrous Tools](https://exilelifestyle.com/lustrous-tools/): I recently decided to replace a (digital) tool that I’ve used every day, many times a day, for years. The outgoing tool is called Simplenote, and as the name implies
- [Other Implications](https://exilelifestyle.com/other-implications/): I’m in the process of finalizing the specifics of a new project, and though the basics are sorted out and my pre-launch to-dos are essentially locked in, there’s still work
- [Pursuit-Worthy Elements](https://exilelifestyle.com/pursuit-worthy-elements/): One way to figure out which challenges (of all possible challenges) are worth pursuing is to gauge how difficult they are to perform, how desirable they are in terms of
- [Rising Waters](https://exilelifestyle.com/rising-waters/): It’s an interesting time to be alive. I think that’s true both in the curse (“may you live in interesting times”) sense of the phrase, but also in the sense
- [Fresh Coat of Paint](https://exilelifestyle.com/fresh-coat-of-paint/): Novelty can be fun and refreshing; new home, new job, new relationships, new clothes or classes or whatever else. Introducing different variables into our lives in the right way can
- [Good For Me](https://exilelifestyle.com/good-for-me/): I’ve recently segued into a new life season that’s defined by enthusiastic experimentation. This follows a period more focused on reassessment, refurbishment, and reinforcement. I’m familiar with this sort of transition (from
- [Staggeringly Valuable](https://exilelifestyle.com/staggeringly-valuable/): I probably use my laptop, a 2021 MacBook Pro, more than any other tool I own. It enables and amplifies my efforts in countless ways, and as a consequence I
- [Scattered Thoughts About Random Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/scattered-thoughts-about-random-things/): Some of the most incredible creative output of the past ten years (and arguably before that, too) has been created in support of video games and similar cultural artifacts; if
- [Envisioning](https://exilelifestyle.com/envisioning/): It’s impossible to know what a future version of ourselves will want, need, and prioritize. But we make assumptions about our future selves (and the world they occupy) all the
- [On Having Agency](https://exilelifestyle.com/on-having-agency/): One way of thinking about being a conscious, cognitively capable being is through the lens of agency. In this context, “agency” refers to our capacity to take action and implement
- [I Can Take It](https://exilelifestyle.com/i-can-take-it/): It’s not a bad idea to know how to take a punch. I don’t mean that in the literal, someone punching you in the face sense (though that’s arguably valuable,
- [Endless Expansion](https://exilelifestyle.com/endless-expansion/): One of my primary aims in life, since I’ve been old enough to think about such things, has been increasing my range of options: upping the level of freedom I
- [Untrue Beliefs](https://exilelifestyle.com/untrue-beliefs/): Some beliefs are technically untrue, but still useful. I tend to believe I can do anything if I really want to, and if I’m willing to fully invest myself in
- [Just Enough Predictability](https://exilelifestyle.com/just-enough-predictability/): Predictability is great because it allows us to make plans and investments, and to feel some degree of security. If we know where we’ll be living for the next handful
- [Scars and Wrinkles](https://exilelifestyle.com/scars-and-wrinkles/): The more years I’ve accrued, the more obvious it’s become that I can’t take anything for granted. My physical capacities, my mentality clarity, the way I look, the things I
- [Quixotic Variations](https://exilelifestyle.com/quixotic-variations/): I’ve had some good discussions with friends, recently, about what we make and how we spend our time. There was a period in which you could make one thing, and
- [Vulnerability Hangover](https://exilelifestyle.com/vulnerability-hangover/): Note: Paid supporters of my newsletter receive additional, monthly essays as a small thank-you for their support, and I’ve decided to open up this month’s essay to everyone, as it’s relevant
- [Writing Books](https://exilelifestyle.com/writing-books/): I’ve been writing and publishing books professionally since 2010. A lot has changed in the publishing world since I started sharing my work and authoring at a level that allowed
- [Accomplishment](https://exilelifestyle.com/accomplishment/): Note: Today’s essay is an excerpt from my upcoming book, How To Turn 39, which is about aging and how we might do it better. HTT39 is for folks of all ages,
- [Seasonality](https://exilelifestyle.com/seasonality/): Note: This is an excerpt from my upcoming book, How To Turn 39, which is about aging and how we might do it better, and which will officially be available for pre-sale
- [All This Space](https://exilelifestyle.com/all-this-space/): Every time I finish a book (or bring some other major effort to a close) I find myself with what feels like an overwhelming volume of empty space on my
- [Enabling Structures](https://exilelifestyle.com/enabling-structures/): It’s vital, I think, to give ourselves space, time, and energy to process difficult moments, to cope with cumbersome realities, and to undertake the (at times ponderous) process of healing,
- [Four Powerful Phrases](https://exilelifestyle.com/four-powerful-phrases/): There’s a quartet of phrases that I use a lot, but which I don’t hear as often as I believe their usefulness justifies. The first is “I’m open to it.”
- [Compelling or Addictive](https://exilelifestyle.com/compelling-or-addictive/): Even a week after returning home from a family visit to Seattle, several of the songs my baby nephew loves are still stuck in my head. Many of these songs
- [Lines](https://exilelifestyle.com/lines/): I’ve been using a little grammar app while editing my new book so that I have a visual sense of what I’m doing wrong (according to someone else’s standards) as
- [Marble](https://exilelifestyle.com/marble/): The Illusion of Explanatory Depth, sometimes called the Bicycle Problem, refers to our tendency to assume we know more about something than we actually do. That second monicker is derived
- [Then What?](https://exilelifestyle.com/then-what/): When we’re making plans and setting goals, in some cases the desirability of the outcome will be assumed, our only real question being how to accomplish it. That reflex isn’t
- [Everyday Kairos](https://exilelifestyle.com/everyday-kairos/): One interpretation of the Greek term “kairos” is that it represents a point of maximal leverage for some kind of undertaking. So while “chronos” means objective, undifferentiated time (measurable seconds,
- [Vague Footpaths](https://exilelifestyle.com/vague-footpaths/): I’ve been thinking a lot about aging, of late, and the way we perceive it, deal with it, and respond to it. It’s been interesting working through the concerns and
- [Capacity and Application](https://exilelifestyle.com/capacity-and-application/): I tend to believe that a life well lived (by most standards) involves a consistent increase in one’s personal capacity. In practice, this means we’re more capable of doing and
- [Simmer or Sear](https://exilelifestyle.com/simmer-or-sear/): Some creative work requires the application of quick, definitive force if you want to take what’s in your head, commit it to a distributable medium, and get it out the
- [Some Final 2023 Thoughts](https://exilelifestyle.com/some-final-2023-thoughts/): I decided at the last second to do away with my usual newsletter format for this final newsletter of 2023 (I’m taking next week off to work on my new
- [Taking Time](https://exilelifestyle.com/taking-time/): The calendar provides us with all sorts of baked-in milestone moments, and though we don’t require such moments (holidays, birthdays, etc) to pause, assess, try new things, and make changes
- [Instrumental Flute Era](https://exilelifestyle.com/instrumental-flute-era/): There was an episode of Rick and Morty in which the father character is engaging in his hobby—beekeeping—and he’s being watched by his daughter’s friend who says, her interest growing as she
- [Rearviews](https://exilelifestyle.com/rearviews/): I’ve had reason, recently, to look over a digital archive of my older written work. This can be both a thrilling and harrowing process, as it’s wonderful to make new
- [The Lean](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-lean/): I don’t think false, unjustified optimism is productive, but I do have a bias toward reframing bad situations to focus on the (at times meager) silver-linings that will almost aways
- [Tending to Saplings](https://exilelifestyle.com/tending-to-saplings/): At any given moment I have more maybe-projects at early, sapling (and seedling) stages than projects I actually work on for a living, or those I enjoy as full-blown habits
- [Boxes, Tubes, and Shovels](https://exilelifestyle.com/boxes-tubes-and-shovels/): All metaphors are imperfect, as a map that is a 100% accurate representation of the region it portrays would be the region itself, defeating the point of having a re-scaled, simplified
- [Disconnected Thoughts About Reading Books](https://exilelifestyle.com/disconnected-thoughts-about-reading-books/): Books are just one way to consume written information. They’re wonderful in that they’re often optimized for deeper looks at things, but there are other means of achieving the same
- [Informed Opinions](https://exilelifestyle.com/informed-opinions/): It’s okay to not have an opinion about things. It can be awkward, though, and sometimes people will find it offensive if they share their opinion and you fail to
- [Deeper Goals](https://exilelifestyle.com/deeper-goals/): When you consume alcohol, there’s a good chance your prime goal is not to consume alcohol: you’re looking to socialize, you’re interested in feeling altered, you’re maybe just parched and
- [Generosity of Ignorance](https://exilelifestyle.com/generosity-of-ignorance/): Years ago, I dated an Icelandic woman who—among many other accolades—was an enthusiastic linguist. She spoke a handful of languages, and was always endeavoring to further her grasp of them.
- [Compensation](https://exilelifestyle.com/compensation/): More than once over the past handful of years I’ve adhered to a contractual rule that my landlord didn’t realize existed. It’s almost always a quibbling, silly little line-item of
- [Resting State](https://exilelifestyle.com/resting-state/): One of my superpowers is figuring out how to do something big and cumbersome and specific, breaking it up into smaller (but still incredibly boring and exhausting) pieces, and then—importantly—settling
- [Discussing the News](https://exilelifestyle.com/discussing-the-news/): The news can be stressful, anxiety-inducing, tribalism-reinforcing, and littered with misleading, misinformed, heavily biased takes. There are things we can do to make our news-consumption habits more productive, including (for
- [Sharing and Preserving](https://exilelifestyle.com/sharing-and-preserving/): There's a tension between sharing enough of oneself to convey complete, round narratives, and sharing too much: stepping over the line into something uncomfortably open, unnecessarily detailed, or embellished till
- [Time Spent](https://exilelifestyle.com/time-spent/): I don't particularly enjoy the process of making a podcast: there are elements of it I find fulfilling and this process allows me to produce things I want to see
- [Social Tangles](https://exilelifestyle.com/social-tangles/): For about a decade-and-a-half, beginning just after the arrival of smartphones in everyone's pockets and the subsequent deployment of social media platforms on those devices, we've benefitted and suffered from
- [Mini-Vacations](https://exilelifestyle.com/mini-vacations/): Over the years, I've often waxed poetic about my love for slow-paced, long-term travel, but I'm also a big fan of what I've come to think of as "mini-vacations" as
- [What We Take In](https://exilelifestyle.com/what-we-take-in/): I tend to believe that a balanced informational diet is important. That means trying to engage with a variety of different sources, different mediums, different types of information, and making
- [When the Ground Moves](https://exilelifestyle.com/when-the-ground-moves/): I've been working for myself, running a collection of publications and small businesses and "weird internet projects," since 2009. That's a long time ago! Smartphones were still a new thing,
- [Meant To Be Used](https://exilelifestyle.com/meant-to-be-used/): Our brains and bodies default to conserving energy. This energetic setting made a lot of sense in primordial history, as the creatures that could accumulate and save more energy tended
- [Places to Put Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/places-to-put-things/): When I think about work, I sometimes visualize a collection of little boxes in which I can put things. This is true of paid work—the projects that help me make
- [What I’ve Got](https://exilelifestyle.com/what-ive-got/): It can be useful to embrace your limitations when you feel stuck, uninspired, or unable to make any progress on some task or undertaking. Sometimes you're missing what feels like
- [Energetic Expenditures](https://exilelifestyle.com/energetic-expenditures/): There are countless ways we might visualize our portfolio of intrinsic resources, but one metaphor I find to be useful is that of electrical production and expenditure. You can produce
- [Motivation Sources](https://exilelifestyle.com/motivation-sources/): To what degree is what I want shaped by how I think others will treat me if I get it? This is a question I ask myself semi-regularly, as I
- [Notes On Speaking](https://exilelifestyle.com/notes-on-speaking/): I've been speaking professionally (in the sense of standing up in front of groups of people and talking for a while, for money) since 2009 (though it didn't become a
- [The Spark](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-spark/): Recent data almost universally suggest we're in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. Folks are spending less time with friends and acquaintances, more time wishing they were hanging out with other people, and
- [Weighing Maybes](https://exilelifestyle.com/weighing-maybes/): I'm in the process of figuring out "formats" for some experimentation I’m doing in the video world. In publishing or production, your format is a bit like a template you
- [Training Wheels](https://exilelifestyle.com/training-wheels/): A few months ago, I decided I should learn to do crossword puzzles. My dad's done them as far back as I can remember, always opting for the hardest ones—which
- [Fumbling and Juggling](https://exilelifestyle.com/fumbling-and-juggling/): I turn 38 this weekend, and as tends to be the case every year I've been wrangling over whether to instill the day with additional meaning (beyond the accolade of
- [Microgrid Thinking](https://exilelifestyle.com/microgrid-thinking/): In the world of energy transmission and utility, a “microgrid” is an electrical grid that operates like a typical grid, but smaller and more modular. When we talk about electrical
- [Enriching Exposure](https://exilelifestyle.com/enriching-exposure/): One of my grand ambitions when I was younger was to build a lifestyle that would allow me to just sit around and read all day, if I wanted to
- [Front-Loading](https://exilelifestyle.com/front-loading/): As a general rule, if there's something vital you need to get done, it helps to shift it forward to the morning. Everyone's circadian rhythm is different and our rhythms
- [Vigilances](https://exilelifestyle.com/vigilances/): My car—a beige 2007 Prius I bought several years ago, and which I intend to keep driving until it's dead (over 150,000 miles and still ticking along)—doesn't cause me trouble
- [Personal Affordances](https://exilelifestyle.com/personal-affordances/): Working the way I work is sub-optimal by many standards. Over the years, I've figured out all sorts of ways to do my work more efficiently, but sometimes pull back
- [Everlasting Present](https://exilelifestyle.com/everlasting-present/): When our lifestyle variables remain the same or roughly the same for long enough, it's a simple matter (bordering on the inevitable, for some of us at least) to fall
- [Optimism Scaffolding](https://exilelifestyle.com/optimism-scaffolding/): I'm generally skeptical about claims of silver bullet solutions to complex problems. Biological matters—our bodies aging, our brains not always functioning as optimally as we'd prefer—are foggy, multifaceted issues. Social
- [Life Stages](https://exilelifestyle.com/life-stages/): I've spent maybe too much time over the past several years thinking about society's assumed, “normal” stages of life. This is partly (I suspect) because I’ve taken a somewhat unusual
- [Particular Ways](https://exilelifestyle.com/particular-ways/): When I find myself endlessly (and purposelessly) ruminating, worrying, or otherwise spiraling in a negative direction, maybe half the time I can pull myself from that psychological eddy by reframing
- [Extended Mind Reorganization](https://exilelifestyle.com/extended-mind-reorganization/): A flurry of new organization-, optimization-, communication-, and consolidation-focused tools have been announced and released over the past few years. Some are slightly upgraded versions of earlier options (a somewhat
- [Relatively Ignorant Opinions](https://exilelifestyle.com/relatively-ignorant-opinions/): One of the better decisions I've made over the past decade or so is allowing myself to say "I don't know" and "I don't have an informed opinion about that"
- [Boxes and Tools](https://exilelifestyle.com/boxes-and-tools/): One way to assess the settings on our creative endeavors (professional, hobbyist, experimental, or any other commitment level) is to think in terms of boxes and tools. In this context,
- [Sharp Tools](https://exilelifestyle.com/sharp-tools/): It's been a really wild year in the AI industry, and I have some thoughts on this category of technologies and its potential, alongside some heuristics I use when learning
- [Depth and Accessibility](https://exilelifestyle.com/depth-and-accessibility/): I struggle sometimes—especially when starting a new project—at intuitively sussing the proper balance between depth and accessibility for whatever it is I'm presenting. These two attributes aren't inherently in opposition:
- [Empowering Constraints](https://exilelifestyle.com/empowering-constraints/): Many of the questions I field each day (in my inbox and DMs) are related to habits and how to formulate and implement productive, healthy ones. One aspect of habit-building
- [Gratitude](https://exilelifestyle.com/gratitude/): It’s relatively well-known, at this point, that allowing ourselves to feel gratitude is a calming, anxiety-reducing, happiness-inducing, overall psychologically healthful exercise. Reflecting, meditating, praying, journaling—anything we do to remind ourselves
- [Resculpting](https://exilelifestyle.com/resculpting/): I'm in the process of rethinking my platform use, moving things around, and reconfiguring various projects and online presences. This process is partly the consequence of a semi-regular desire to
- [Pragmatism](https://exilelifestyle.com/pragmatism/): I believe that looking for commonalities and shared concerns will typically lead to better outcomes than creating and reinforcing tribal (in the sociological sense of the word) labels, reflexively opposing
- [Keyholes](https://exilelifestyle.com/keyholes/): Our lives are stippled with parasocial relationships. We engage with other peoples' work and feel connected to those people as a consequence. Sometimes these relationships go deeper and we make contact
- [Panoramic](https://exilelifestyle.com/panoramic/): I semi-regularly catch myself fixating on minutiae. This is possibly the consequence of my tendency to become absorbed in whatever I'm doing (and to assiduously quash distractions and the temptation
- [Living Off the Land](https://exilelifestyle.com/living-off-the-land/): We are (alarmingly but maybe predictably) tumbling into holiday shopping season early this year. Tidal waves of deals are flooding the market as not-good back-to-school sale figures alarm analysts, and
- [Killing and Composting](https://exilelifestyle.com/killing-composting/): A few weeks ago I decided to kill one of my projects. I've been running a little podcast called I Will Read To You since September of 2021, and in
- [Sick and Tired](https://exilelifestyle.com/sick-and-tired/): I've been in Seattle, visiting family and pet-sitting for a week. I've been sick for nearly the same duration. I had a few days of relative normalcy and then—immediately after
- [Centaurs](https://exilelifestyle.com/centaurs/): One of my favorite myth-related conceptual labels is that of chess tournament centaurs: a human who plays with computer assistance. Centaur players tend to outperform both software and human players,
- [Slow Fast Near Far](https://exilelifestyle.com/slow-fast-near-far/): I think (and write) about consumption a lot, because—as someone who loves to create things—what I consume informs what I produce, and the time and energy I spend consuming are
- [Social Media](https://exilelifestyle.com/social-media/): It hasn't been a great year for social media companies. They're still raking in money, dominating the ad-sector, and shaping personal, economic, and political discourse but they're also at the
- [Questions for Deciding](https://exilelifestyle.com/questions-for-deciding/): When I'm mulling over some kind of new opportunity, relationship dynamic, career change, or other deviation to my existing lifestyle structure I work through a series of questions, including: Will
- [Small, Simple, Every Day](https://exilelifestyle.com/small-simple-every-day/): How do we become the people we need to be to live the lives we want to live, do the things we want to do, and face the challenges we
- [Coiling and Uncoiling](https://exilelifestyle.com/coiling-and-uncoiling/): For the past few years, I've been spring-coiling. That's how I think of it, anyway: a focused process of assessing, experimenting, consolidating, retracting, refurbishing, replacing, upgrading, upskilling, scanning my personal,
- [Cause-Orientation](https://exilelifestyle.com/cause-orientation/): When you're cause-oriented—there's something you care deeply about and you've committed part of yourself, your life to it—it's normal and understandable that you might wring yourself out in support of
- [The Work Itself](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-work-itself/): I've had a similar conversation with maybe a half-dozen people recently, about how "work"—in the sense of doing what one does to make a living, and especially creative work—has slowly
- [Expand and Contract](https://exilelifestyle.com/expand-and-contract/): As someone who typically travels quite a lot, it's important to me to have comfortable, sustainable inflated and deflated modes of operation. This means having a sense of what goes
- [Fluffy and Foundational](https://exilelifestyle.com/fluffy-and-foundational/): I've historically experienced a significant shift in my lifestyle, priorities, and thinking every seven years or so. Based on that schedule, I'm likely to see another such shift around a
- [Tools](https://exilelifestyle.com/tools/): When I'm learning something new and looking to veteran practitioners of that field, study, or craft to see how they do things, I almost always find they're less fixated on
- [Grief](https://exilelifestyle.com/grief/): We grieve we when lose someone, but we also grieve when we lose a sense of place or time or self, a path we feel we're walking (toward something important),
- [Probably Don’t](https://exilelifestyle.com/probably-dont/): Social media is great for some purposes, but much of what the networks (or rather, the people running and managing them) want from me is not aligned with my priorities.
- [Purpose](https://exilelifestyle.com/purpose/): As a general policy, I try to do things purposefully rather than passively. "Purposeful" can mean different things, though, depending on what aspect of life we're talking about. Exercising each
- [Now and Next](https://exilelifestyle.com/now-and-next/): In any discussion, there's a collection of intuitive, shared contextual understandings. If you're engaged in a conversation about labor rights, it's typically understood that you're addressing the topic as it
- [Being Interested](https://exilelifestyle.com/being-interested/): Almost always, people we find interesting come across that way because they're interested in other things and people. Such interest often starts with a spark. For most of my life,
- [Who Where How](https://exilelifestyle.com/who-where-how/): I've got a birthday coming up this weekend: I'll be 37-years-old. Part of me believes I should mark the occasion with chin-stroking, navel-gazing, and other ponder-related pastimes; that the day
- [Bypassing Blockages](https://exilelifestyle.com/bypassing-blockages/): The benefits of traveling are myriad, and I'm an enthusiastic proponent of visiting even the nearby, the perceptually humdrum, the everyday and mundane-seeming because although many of us have been
- [Anatomy of a Project](https://exilelifestyle.com/anatomy-of-a-project/): Projects are encapsulated sequences of tasks, educational undertakings, and practices that I use when making stuff, refining things, and/or shifting from one set of norms to another. I make a
- [Sleep](https://exilelifestyle.com/sleep/): For a long time, I sucked at sleep. But a handful of years ago I started to wonder if I might be capable of learning to sleep better: I started
- [Rebalancing Inputs](https://exilelifestyle.com/rebalancing-inputs/): I spend a meaningful amount of time curating what I think of as my "inputs": data from informational sources (news and nonfiction), but also experiential sorts of things like music and fiction
- [Mini-Paradigms](https://exilelifestyle.com/mini-paradigms/): A paradigm is a state of being; a status quo for a given moment in time. A paradigm shift is what happens when variables change in such a way that
- [Uncertainty](https://exilelifestyle.com/uncertainty-2/): As humans, we're nudged by our biologies to wonder what's on the other side of every mountain and driven to push ever-outward in a million directions at once. We're not
- [Bad Weather](https://exilelifestyle.com/bad-weather/): I tend to believe the truism, "There's no bad weather, only unsuitable clothing." Many times I've found myself in the middle of storms, walking through ice-glazed landscapes, slogging along humid
- [Self-Defined](https://exilelifestyle.com/self-defined/): Adopted belief systems can be pernicious, because while we may justifiably assume the value-defining elements in our lives are our own—constructed from homemade blueprints and self-mortared bricks—many of them are
- [Small Refinements to Mundane Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/small-refinements-to-mundane-things/): Most mornings, I make and drink two small mugfuls of black coffee. After trying dozens of different coffee-prep approaches, I landed on hand-grinding beans and steeping them in an inverted
- [Body of Work](https://exilelifestyle.com/body-of-work/): Over the past handful of years I've thought a lot about not just my work, but the totality of the work I've ever done, am doing, and will do. This
- [Claylike](https://exilelifestyle.com/claylike/): One of the more reliable ways to ensure you have a good time when traveling is to commit to flexibility and improvisation, rather than becoming rigid about your peripatetic plans.
- [Self-Consciousness](https://exilelifestyle.com/self-consciousness/): A heightened awareness of what we're doing, how we're doing it, and how our actions and words and public personae might be interpreted by others can be a source of
- [Flagging Fear](https://exilelifestyle.com/flagging-fear/): Over the years I've learned to run toward foreboding feelings when I identify them. I've consistently found value in noting and confronting things that scare me; small things, substantial things,
- [Gently](https://exilelifestyle.com/gently/): We're living through a period of inconvenient, dangerous, uncomfortable upheavals. The variables shaping our lives are changing daily and many of us feel some combination of frustrated, scared, exhausted, and
- [Decouplement](https://exilelifestyle.com/decouplement/): I initially feel an unnerving isolation when I'm disconnected from the wider world. Such moments are often forced upon me by circumstance: when mid-flight over a vast expanse of ocean
- [Other Useful Feelings](https://exilelifestyle.com/other-useful-feelings/): Happiness is good—I like feeling happy. But much of the time my internal state is more complex than one word can contain. Maybe I'm happy with a hint of malaise
- [Please Buy Literally Everything](https://exilelifestyle.com/please-buy-literally-everything/): It's that time of year again—Please Buy Literally Everything season—and as such I've been thinking about consumption and marketing and all the other ingredients that when whisked together, make this
- [Coasting and Flapping](https://exilelifestyle.com/coasting-and-flapping/): Sometimes creation is like riding an air current: your arms are spread but you're coasting along with relative ease, tapping into a natural (if invisible) force and using it to
- [Intrinsics](https://exilelifestyle.com/intrinsics/): I've spent most of the past 12 years reassessing and realigning. In essence, I've been trying to better understand myself and what I want out of life: what I think
- [Every Day](https://exilelifestyle.com/every-day/): I started a new podcast called I Will Read To You not long ago, which is exactly what it sounds like: just me reading a variety of things and then
- [Opportunity](https://exilelifestyle.com/opportunity/): I've been thinking about opportunity a lot as I've revisited some old opportunities—those pursued and those set aside—and started in on the process of shuffling and assessing and selecting from
- [Documentation](https://exilelifestyle.com/documentation/): What aspects of what I'm doing today will be meaningful ten years from now? Or rather, which components of what aspects of the many things making up our lives at
- [Kairos](https://exilelifestyle.com/kairos/): I have several mental models I use to generally keep moving in a desirable direction, despite (and sometimes fueled by) the vicissitudes of reality. One such model is imagining myself
- [Time Is Weird](https://exilelifestyle.com/time-is-weird/): If you live to be 77-years-old (the average lifespan in the wealthy world), you will have lived about 4,000 weeks. That's...intimidating, isn't it? It's not a small number, but it
- [Dabbling](https://exilelifestyle.com/dabbling/): The word "productivity" has its origins in the 19th century, back when industrialization and scaling-up everything was becoming the dominant approach to, and philosophy of labor. It's perhaps not surprising,
- [Lifestyle Episodes](https://exilelifestyle.com/lifestyle-episodes/): I'm in the process of rifling through old notes and photographs and terse, phone-shot videos, unearthing and examining contemporaneous media artifacts to remind myself of the context surrounding bits of
- [All My Weird Priorities](https://exilelifestyle.com/all-my-weird-priorities/): For what feels like ages, I've been trying to figure out how to unify my many and diverse projects into a more sensical whole, without stifling the identity and benefits
- [Infinite Right Ways](https://exilelifestyle.com/infinite-right-ways/): Since mid-2020, I've been trying to figure out how to rearrange my disparate jumble of professional activities into something more cohesive and comprehensible. Many people who engage with something I
- [Cycles](https://exilelifestyle.com/cycles/): There are countless possible ways to measure and parcel-out our time, but one of the more practical ones, for my purposes, is that of "cycles." Within this context, a cycle
- [Expansiveness](https://exilelifestyle.com/expansiveness/): In my experience, the more I learn about all the things, the easier it becomes to learn about any single, specific thing. My understanding of design grew more rapidly after
- [Doing What We’ve Always Done](https://exilelifestyle.com/doing-what-weve-always-done/): These past few weeks I've been shoveling money into my third-hand, 2007 Prius to replace the hybrid battery and the ABS system—both of which have recently stopped working—and to replace
- [Infrastructure](https://exilelifestyle.com/infrastructure/): When you travel, you have what's in your bag—a small portfolio of hopefully not-too-heavy infrastructural components—but beyond that you have to live off the land, in a way. You're reliant
- [I Have Everything I Need](https://exilelifestyle.com/i-have-everything-i-need/): At times, I find, it can be beneficial to use the promise of a purchase to prod oneself forward. I tend to do this with upgrades to the tools I
- [Self-Nudge](https://exilelifestyle.com/self-nudge/): As someone who finds a great deal of fulfillment in travel, I don't enjoy being limited in that regard—in terms of legal limitations but also in terms of self-enforced, prudence-based
- [Box-Checking](https://exilelifestyle.com/box-checking/): There’s a difference between doing a thing and doing a thing well. “Well” measured against whatever it is you hope to achieve by performing a given activity. There have been
- [Boredom](https://exilelifestyle.com/boredom/): My mind rebels against boredom. When I find myself lacking external stimulation, my knee-jerk response is to seek out some means of filling that void: something to read, something to listen
- [Momentum](https://exilelifestyle.com/momentum/): I sometimes delay getting started on big projects because I know that once I get going I’ll want to finish. I manage this dislike of incomplete circuits by breaking larger
- [Shoring Up](https://exilelifestyle.com/shoring-up/): The rudiments of my home base here in Milwaukee are in place, and I’m beginning the process of formalizing and reinforcing the framework of what I’ve built up till this
- [Establishment](https://exilelifestyle.com/establishment/): There’s a method for exploration that I’ve found works pretty well for how I think, how I learn, and my relative energy and comfort levels when it comes to the
- [Seasons](https://exilelifestyle.com/seasons/): If you want to know how you’ve changed as a person, I suggest you consider moving. Over the past two weeks, I’ve had to establish a new set of habits
- [Iterative Perfection](https://exilelifestyle.com/iterative-perfection/): Since I started cooking a handful of years ago, making a big batch of curry and rice has become a minor tradition for me when I move somewhere new. It
- [Movement](https://exilelifestyle.com/movement/): I'm moving tomorrow. Or rather: I’m leaving my pandemic-era hunker location to move into a US-based apartment for a year, as was my plan back in early 2020 before essentially
- [Red Thread](https://exilelifestyle.com/red-thread/): The term “red thread of fate” originates in Chinese folklore, referring to a bond between people who haven’t met, but who are destined to be with each other. The term
- [Walking](https://exilelifestyle.com/walking/): With every step you take, it’s possible you might fall. That’s not pessimism, it’s the reality of being a perambulatory human being. Mathematical models have demonstrated that walking is just falling over
- [Am I That Me?](https://exilelifestyle.com/am-i-that-me/): On a semi-regular basis, I go through a period where I question essentially everything I do and how I do those things in an attempt to bring my behaviors into
- [De-Cocooning](https://exilelifestyle.com/de-cocooning/): I've just returned from my first trip worthy of the label for over a year. For someone who’s accustomed to movement, all this holding still has been moderately stressful but
- [Craters](https://exilelifestyle.com/craters/): When I was younger—in my teens and early-20s—I always saw 35 as being the ideal age, because it was young enough not to be socially considered “old,” but old enough
- [Experimental Stippling](https://exilelifestyle.com/experimental-stippling/): I’m a big fan of personal experimentation. I find that regularly tweaking the variables that inform my thinking, shape my day, and feed my productive output helps me stay excited
- [Continuum of Selves](https://exilelifestyle.com/continuum-of-selves/): I’m aware, as I make loose plans for my post-pandemic lifestyle, that I’m making these plans as a pandemic-immersed version of myself. This is both exceedingly obvious and deceptively easy
- [Exoskeletons](https://exilelifestyle.com/exoskeletons/): Ideally, the tools we use amplify our capabilities. I often visualize my tools as a sort of exoskeleton: an Iron Man suit, or the kind used for lifting heavy things and fighting
- [Input, Process, Output](https://exilelifestyle.com/input-process-output/): Whatever our professions and however our lives are structured, our days are filled with inputs. These inputs are sensory by definition—sights, sounds, tactile sensations, tastes, smells—but they contain a boggling
- [Imagining the Mundane](https://exilelifestyle.com/imagining-the-mundane/): A heuristic is a mental shortcut, and one of my most commonly used heuristics is to imagine the most boring, conventional, mundane version of something before making any decisions about
- [Beyond Why](https://exilelifestyle.com/beyond-why/): It’s prudent to semi-regularly ask ourselves why we do various things, and why we do them the way we do them. This isn’t a complicated concept but it can be
- [The Right Lessons](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-right-lessons/): I don’t find regret to be particularly useful, though it’s sometimes difficult to avoid. Regret can play a role in productive reassessment, triggering the reflex to look back and consider.
- [Flaws](https://exilelifestyle.com/flaws/): The stock market, if you learn about it and look very closely, makes little sense. There are good intentions behind it, and in the abstract it’s a decent means of
- [It’ll Do](https://exilelifestyle.com/itll-do/): I have a lot of very flawed systems and tools that I use on a daily basis. My calendar, for instance, serves as both a to-do list and schedule of
- [Limited Capacity](https://exilelifestyle.com/limited-capacity/): Sometimes, in some rare cases, I live up to my every expectation of myself; but almost always I fall short. This isn’t a self-criticism, it’s a reality. And it’s one
- [Taking A Moment](https://exilelifestyle.com/taking-a-moment/): I forced myself to take ten minutes to think about difficult things, this morning. On a typical day, I set aside twenty minutes for quiet, undistracted thinking. I let my
- [Filter Failure](https://exilelifestyle.com/filter-failure/): Distorted, mistaken, or outright false information is as common as oxygen in our modern, interconnected communication ecosystem. It should be no surprise, then, that we inhale so much of it.
- [Next](https://exilelifestyle.com/next/): Many ambitions require periods of soil-tilling and seed-planting if we want to make them a reality. Consistent habits can help us realize outcomes that outweigh the total aggregated inputs: our
- [Plague-Adjusted](https://exilelifestyle.com/plague-adjusted/): When catching up with friends and family, of late, I’ve found myself asking how they’re doing in plague-adjusted terms, rather than in an absolute sense. I think this is only
- [Weird Stuff Only](https://exilelifestyle.com/weird-stuff-only/): As you learn about a topic or achieve proficiency with a skill, it can become intimidating to utilize that skill or learn more about that topic. I was an art
- [Irritate & Inspire](https://exilelifestyle.com/irritate-inspire/): I’m a big believer in the value of maintaining a beginner’s mindset. This concept can mean different things to different people, but to me, being a beginner means the unabashed
- [Mental Real Estate](https://exilelifestyle.com/mental-real-estate/): There’s a decent amount of evidence that geolocation—where we are any any given moment, physically—influences our state of mind. Our location in space can also stimulate our capacity to remember
- [Categorization](https://exilelifestyle.com/categorization/): For just about any industry you can imagine, there exist semi-formal trend cycles that seem to be sort of accurate at least part of the time. Fashion is probably the
- [Self-Knowledge](https://exilelifestyle.com/self-knowledge/): Perfect self-knowledge is a dot on the horizon that’s always in view but seldom seems to get any closer, no matter how rapid or ardent our pace. Unusual moments in
- [Cultivation](https://exilelifestyle.com/cultivation/): Growth is a process, not an act. Cultivation, too, is defined not by what we accomplish in any given moment, but how we iterate over time. Reminding myself of this,
- [Yeoman’s Work](https://exilelifestyle.com/yeomans-work/): Automation, outsourcing, and identifying and utilizing shortcuts are legitimate and—at times—marvelous means of achieving cumbersome goals. Some tasks can be unloaded onto software, triggered by if-then tripwires, and completed with
- [Transience](https://exilelifestyle.com/transience/): Today’s circumstances won’t last forever. Who we are, the way we live, the things we do—they’re all impermanent. The transient nature of everything can be panic-inducing, but there’s power in
- [Repetition & Cessation](https://exilelifestyle.com/repetition-cessation/): I’m not the best podcaster in the world, but I’ve produced nearly 250 episodes of one show and about 85 of another over the past four-ish years. I’m not the
- [Guiding Questions](https://exilelifestyle.com/guiding-questions/): What do I hope to achieve, here? Whether I’m traveling or holding still for a while, asking myself why I’m where I am and what ambitions I have for my
- [Empowerment](https://exilelifestyle.com/empowerment/): I can’t prevent devastating storms, keep my local grocery store from selling out of my favorite product, or make someone else behave in a way that is more convenient for
- [Moderate & Modulate](https://exilelifestyle.com/moderate-modulate/): These days, I make part of my living doing news analysis. In practice, this means spending a lot of time reading: the news, but also all the stuff that informs
- [Manufactured Needs](https://exilelifestyle.com/manufactured-needs/): I’ve been thinking about needs and where they come from, of late. In particular, how needs and wants differ, but also how that distinction doesn’t necessarily take us as far
- [Meaning in the Missing](https://exilelifestyle.com/meaning-in-the-missing/): We don’t fully appreciate some things until they’re gone. We might intellectually know that we’d miss them, and may even recall a previous absence that struck us like a bell,
- [Taking Notes](https://exilelifestyle.com/taking-notes/): I’m not a consistent note-taker, in the sense that some people are very good about jotting down insights and quotes as they read or go about their day. For the
- [Intention Filters](https://exilelifestyle.com/intention-filters/): Before fully investing myself in a new undertaking, I attempt to whittle away flaws, identify weak points, and allow myself to consider setting the concept aside, completely, if warranted. In
- [Mere Persistence](https://exilelifestyle.com/mere-persistence/): Strength, fortitude, gutsiness, grit, dynamism, determination, purposefulness, brilliance, courage; these are all wonderful traits to have, whether you’re hoping to accomplish a personal goal or produce something of value. Also
- [Embraces & Barriers](https://exilelifestyle.com/embraces-barriers/): If you find yourself in a dangerous environment, there are two primary paths you can take to reduce the potency of those dangers: you can build barriers between yourself and
- [Habit Pairs & Poka-Yokes](https://exilelifestyle.com/habit-pairs-poka-yokes/): There’s a fair amount of effort required to instigate change in our lives, and maintaining change over time often requires additional mental effort. Some behavioral changes stick because there are
- [Modest Control](https://exilelifestyle.com/modest-control/): The degree to which we feel we’re in control of a situation can influence the way we feel about that situation. This is often true superficially, in the sense that
- [Updating Priors](https://exilelifestyle.com/updating-priors/): In the world of statistical inference, a “prior” refers to the beliefs we have about a particular value before we have all the data. In practice, this means that if
- [Curated Inputs](https://exilelifestyle.com/curated-inputs/): I spend a significant amount of time each day parsing information. This informs my work, but it also informs my thinking. It requires a decent amount of time and energy,
- [Tiny Investments](https://exilelifestyle.com/tiny-investments/): I feel and function much better when I have access to a giant drinking vessel. My current mega-chalice is a 30-ounce, stainless-steel, double-walled travel mug that I bought for about
- [The Wait](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-wait/): Traversing the space between one location and another can be exciting, but it can also be agonizingly boring. Much of the superficial excitement we get from such a journey is
- [Uncertainty](https://exilelifestyle.com/uncertainty/): The unknown is uncomfortable, but exploring the unknown is fundamental to the human experience. We invent lenses that allow us to perceive incredibly small things, and develop other lenses that
- [Returning to Why](https://exilelifestyle.com/returning-to-why/): Many of us, at some point in our lives, have reason to pause, take stock, and ask ourselves why we’re doing what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it the
- [Background Issues](https://exilelifestyle.com/background-issues/): Human beings are drawn to the unusual and sensational. It’s baked into how we process the world: something that seems to have changed, and which is new and dramatic in
- [Habit, Ritual, Performance](https://exilelifestyle.com/habit-ritual-performance/): The word “ritual” is derived from the word “rite,” which refers to a religious ceremony of some kind. Which makes sense, if you consider that a ritual is typically a
- [Specification Gaming](https://exilelifestyle.com/specification-gaming/): Within the world of software development, the term “specification gaming” refers to a behavior that literally fulfills the requirements of a task without achieving the underlying intended purpose. In practice,
- [Obvious](https://exilelifestyle.com/obvious/): What’s obvious to me isn’t necessarily obvious to you, and the same is true in reverse. After four years of design school and over a decade working as a design
- [Now & Then](https://exilelifestyle.com/now-then/): I’ve been trying to maintain a focal balance between what’s going on today, right now, in this moment, and what’ll happen next: where I’d like to be, what I’d prefer
- [Inward Travel](https://exilelifestyle.com/inward-travel/): I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a traveler during a period in which travel is not just ill-advised, but also less possible. To be clear: travel is
- [Long-Term Thinking](https://exilelifestyle.com/long-term-thinking/): There’s an organization called The Long Now Foundation that focuses on planting seeds for long-term thinking. Their most well-known project is the 10,000 Year Clock, which is a mechanical clock conceived
- [Knowns & Unknowns](https://exilelifestyle.com/knowns-unknowns/): One of the most disconcerting aspects of living through a pandemic is the assortment of unknowns we face on a daily basis. How many infected? How many dead? Transmission rate?
- [Meaningful](https://exilelifestyle.com/meaningful/): The other day I received an email from a student who attended a talk I gave at her school a few years ago. I remember chatting with her after the
- [Ask Colin: Waiting to Meet](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-waiting-to-meet/): Howdy Colin! So I’ve been talking to this girl that seems really cool, we met through IG and just kind of hit it off from there. It’s kind of exciting
- [Ask Colin: Making Plans](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-making-plans/): Hi Colin. Like everyone, or maybe just everyone I know, I’m feeling really stuck right now. I’ve been working a job, the first one I took right out of college,
- [All The Other Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/all-the-other-things/): The loss of peripheral perception—often called “tunnel vision”—is a common affliction faced by people in the midst of a disaster. It makes sense that if your home is torn apart
- [Ask Colin: Strange Careers](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-strange-careers/): Colin, How do you make money? Sorry if that’s a weird or rude question, but I’ve read about how you travel the world and work on all kinds of projects
- [Ask Colin: The Good Life](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-the-good-life/): Colin, how do I live a good life? Everyone is telling me something different, and I feel like you might have some good perspective on this. Thank you, Sydney —
- [Rethinking Everything](https://exilelifestyle.com/rethinking-everything/): There’s a certain comfort in thinking about what we’ll all do when things get back to normal. I find myself retreating to that line of thinking, at times, as it
- [Ask Colin: Housemate Harmony](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-housemate-harmony/): Hey Colin- So like a lot of people right now I’m at home all day with my housemate, and although we typically get along famously it’s beginning to wear on
- [Ask Colin: Recalibrating](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-recalibrating/): Colin, I find myself just really thrown off by everything that’s happening in the world right now. I’m struggling just to get out of bed in the morning, and I
- [Ask Colin: Purposeful](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-purposeful/): Hey Colin: I’m doing a lot better than many people I know right now. I work from home and I have great clients. What happens when I’m done with my
- [Pandemic Projects](https://exilelifestyle.com/pandemic-projects/): The global status quo has been disrupted, local norms have been upended, and personal routines, habits, and goals have been unexpectedly shattered or understandably set aside as many of us
- [Ask Colin: Making a Living as an Author](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-making-a-living-as-an-author/): Hey Colin! I am not personally interested in writing, but I love reading and I am curious about the publishing world. I often wonder how difficult it is to make
- [Ask Colin: Making Investments](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-making-investments/): Hey Colin, I’m new to the world of being responsible with money, and I’m told it’s a good idea to start investing when you have extra cash on hand, so
- [Ask Colin: Coronavirus Anxiety](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-coronavirus-anxiety/): Colin, I’m freaking out about all of this coronavirus stuff, and it’s triggering my anxiety. I don’t know how worried I should actually be, and I don’t know if I
- [Ask Colin: Dressing Oneself](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-dressing-oneself/): Hello Colin, I’m writing you because I’ve just been hired for a new job and after many years of working from home my wardrobe isn’t really suitable for what I’ll
- [Ask Colin: Finding Oneself](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-finding-oneself/): Hello, Colin! My name is Nadir. I am originally from Algeria, but I live in the US now. Living in a new country has changed me. This change raised some
- [Ask Colin: Email Wrangling](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-email-wrangling/): Hello Colin, I read somewhere that you answer all of the emails you receive from your readers. My question is HOW? I don’t have any readers and I can barely
- [Ask Colin: Proselytizing](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-proselytizing/): Hi Colin, I’ve recently gone vegan, and I’m trying to convince my family to go vegan, too, for the planet and because killing and consuming animals is morally wrong. I’m
- [Stormy Seas](https://exilelifestyle.com/stormy-seas/): Change can arrive like a dropped bomb, converting your carefully constructed life into a pile of rubble in an instant. You look around, ears ringing, trying to figure out what
- [Ask Colin: Travel and COVID-19](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-travel-and-covid-19/): Colin, I’ve been planning a trip to Moscow for months now, and was just about to start buying my tickets and make my accommodation reservations when they started closing airports
- [Ask Colin: Eco-Friendly Art](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-eco-friendly-art/): I am an upcoming visual artists and graphic designer and in my studies I see how much material we waste and consume. The cost is great for me, being on
- [Ask Colin: Starting a Podcast](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-starting-a-podcast/): Hi Colin, I've been following your work for a couple of years now and enjoy reading your blog! Recently it has been on my mind to start a podcast...I have
- [Ask Colin: Assessing a Rough Patch](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-assessing-a-rough-patch/): I became a corrections officer because I wanted to help people and make a difference, I truly was passionate about the industry and believed it was possible to make positive
- [Ask Colin: Intertwingularity](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-intertwingularity/): Colin, I’m really into making music, and I’m not that good at it yet, but it’s my absolute favorite thing to do each day. I don’t know if I’ll ever
- [Ask Colin: How To Focus](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-how-to-focus/): I seriously just can’t focus on anything, and I feel like it’s keeping me from learning all the things I want to learn and doing what I want to do
- [Ask Colin: Starting a Small Business](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-starting-a-small-business/): Hey Colin, I’ve been working on a little side-project for a few years now, and I think I finally have a product (vegan cupcakes!) that people like and would actually
- [Ask Colin: Day in the Life](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-day-in-the-life/): Have you ever done/considered doing a 'day/week in the life of Colin' story? What I'd like to know is e.g. how much time you spend on reading, how you structure
- [Ask Colin: Deciding Where to Travel](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-deciding-where-to-travel/): I know you’ve traveled a lot, and I truly want to travel, maybe full-time someday, too. The problem is I can’t decide where to go! Every place looks amazing to
- [Ask Colin: Public Speaking](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-public-speaking/): I was able to make it out to see you at your Vancouver speaking event last year, and my partner and I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the wonderful time
- [Ask Colin: Buying a Home](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-buying-a-home/): Hi Colin, I am a planner. I value financial security. My wife and I, both in our mid 30’s, have worked our way up into nice jobs. She is now
- [Ask Colin: Lifelong Learning](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-lifelong-learning/): I’ve been thinking about taking some classes at my local community college, or maybe some online courses, because I’ve found myself with some free time after a breakup, and though
- [Ask Colin: University or Self-Education?](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-university-or-self-education/): Hi Colin. So I just got accepted to a college in a big city in a state that I like, and I’m happy about it, but also a little bit
- [Ask Colin: Imaginary Friends](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-imaginary-friends/): I feel like you’re this imaginary friend in my head who writes about things I’ve been thinking about and who tells me about interesting things in my ears on your
- [Ask Colin: Perfection & Passion](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-perfection-passion/): How do I figure out who I am? I feel like I look around and everyone’s very much themselves, very certain about who they are and what they care about
- [Ask Colin: Writing a Book](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-writing-a-book/): I’ve been working on my first book off and on for years, and finally set it aside to start fresh on a new idea, as I don’t think I’ll ever
- [Ask Colin: Quarter-Life Crisis](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-quarter-life-crisis/): Colin, How do I decide what to do with my life? I’m 24 and having a quarter-life crisis and what I’m doing now isn’t working. Ren — Hey Ren- This
- [Ask Colin: Wonderful Maybes](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-wonderful-maybes/): Hi Colin, As a big fan of your podcast, various newsletters, and general thinking/perspectives, I wanted to ask a quick question. What questions do you use to guide you when
- [Control](https://exilelifestyle.com/control/): There’s a concept in psychology, locus of control, that refers to the degree of control we believe we have over our lives. The theory is that some of us see
- [Ask Colin: Generational Concerns](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-generational-concerns/): I have been thinking about this question a lot for the past few years as I’ve witnessed the Gen Zs reach adulthood. The social differences between us astounds me. I
- [Ask Colin: Travel Tools](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-travel-tools/): When you’re on the road, what do you do, food-wise? The biggest problem I’m seeing is that I’ll have to buy minimal cookwear and then sell or donate it before
- [Ask Colin: Starting a Blog](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-starting-a-blog/): Hey Colin! I dropped you a line over a year ago about how I was leaving my stressful job for a less stressful job that afforded me more time to
- [Ask Colin: Network Effects](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-network-effects/): Hey Colin! I hope this finds you well. I am a follower of yours and also had the luck to listen at you, buy a couple of books, and hug
- [Ask Colin: Work & Play](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-work-play/): Hey Colin, I tend to turn everything I approach in life into a project and take the fun out of it. I am learning how to be a kid and
- [Ask Colin: Prenups](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-prenups/): Hi Colin, I'm in a relationship where my significant other earns substantially more than I do. He brought up a prenup and how assets would be divided in the case
- [Ask Colin: Missed My Chance](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-missed-my-chance/): Hey Colin,  A little over 3 months ago I discovered minimalism, I watched the documentary, Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, I saw you and I turned to my
- [Resolutions](https://exilelifestyle.com/resolutions/): At some point amidst the hubbub of the next few weeks, muffled by the cacophony of marketing messages, social pressures, and self-imposed constrictions, limitations, pressures, and anxieties: reclaim a few
- [Ask Colin: Language Learning](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-language-learning/): Do you have any tips or advice for a first time solo traveller going to another country with a totally different language? Sandi — Hey Sandi- Good on you for
- [Notes to Self](https://exilelifestyle.com/notes-to-self/): I keep a little file on my computer where I write notes to myself about things I’ll likely need to be reminded of at some point. I check these notes
- [Ask Colin: Change & Simplicity](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-change-simplicity/): Dear Colin, I’m trying hard to cope with some pretty big changes, and I think that becoming more minimalistic will help me with that. What’s the best way to get
- [I Don’t Know](https://exilelifestyle.com/i-dont-know/): There are few more powerful phrases one can utter than "I don't know." Many societies disincentivize the admission of ignorance, equating it to stupidity or inability. And the more mastery
- [Ask Colin: Today & Tomorrow](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-today-tomorrow/): What’s your advice for people on how to live their best life now? Regardless of where they are in life or what aspirations they have. How do you find enjoyment
- [Badass](https://exilelifestyle.com/badass/): I remember the moment, many years ago, when I realized I didn’t have to be a badass. There’s a pervasive myth within the world of entrepreneurship—and within many adjacent sub-cultures—that
- [Ask Colin: Repercussions](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-repercussions/): Colin, I’m more and more aware everyday that the planet is changing and that I’m contributing to that change in a negative way (i.e. the climate). After seeing the Minimalism
- [Empathy](https://exilelifestyle.com/empathy/): The word "empathy" is, in its modern incarnation, typically used when we feel bad for someone or to express a sort of sympathy. We use it to convey that we
- [Ask Colin: Missed Connections](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-missed-connections/): For us, meeting people we liked and had a good time with and then losing track of them has been the hardest part of travel. How have you dealt with
- [Habits](https://exilelifestyle.com/habits-2/): What we do isn’t truly who we are, but it’s a suitable stand-in for many practical purposes. What we do is informed not just by our beliefs, biases, experiences, expectations,
- [Ask Colin: To Baby or Not to Baby](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-to-baby-or-not-to-baby/): Hi Colin, I am a free-spirited travel-loving minimalist from Germany. I am in my mid-thirties now. For years I have been thinking a lot about having children or not. To
- [Self-Care](https://exilelifestyle.com/self-care/): Like so many things that have gone from artisanal to industrialized, self-care, as a concept, has become a bit diluted and at times misunderstood. A similar thing happened to cheese
- [Ask Colin: Performance Anxiety](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-performance-anxiety/): Hi Colin, I play in a couple of bands, and perform mostly on weekends, with the occasional weekday outing. These shows can come and go, and sometimes I'll have weekends
- [Productive](https://exilelifestyle.com/productive/): There are countless justifiable ways to respond to a less-than-ideal situation. We can get angry. We can get anxious. We can get sad or vengeful or solution-oriented. We can clam
- [Non-Partisan Thinking](https://exilelifestyle.com/non-partisan-thinking/): The term “partisan” can refer equally to someone who believes in a particular ideology or cause very strongly, or someone who arms themselves and hides out forests, caves, abandoned buildings,
- [Perspective Triggers](https://exilelifestyle.com/perspective-triggers/): There’s a sinking feeling in my stomach, my thinking becomes cloudy, my mood slumps, my energy levels deplete. For some reason or no reason I’m sad, I’m forlorn, I’m unable
- [Heterodoxy](https://exilelifestyle.com/heterodoxy/): Some of the satisfaction we derive from new knowledge stems from that information's adherence to what we already knew. The world seems to be a particular way, a new piece
- [Communication Methods](https://exilelifestyle.com/communication-methods/): Successful communication is a multi-person effort. That’s true in the sense that it requires both (or all) people to be engaged, to be interested in the act of communication. But
- [Status Quo](https://exilelifestyle.com/status-quo/): I've taken the last few months off, in the sense that I've set aside most of the work that I typically do on a day-to-day basis so I can focus,
- [Tiny Advantages](https://exilelifestyle.com/tiny-advantages/): There was a time when I made a significant portion of my income by designing and building websites for clients. That collection of skills was once vital to my financial
- [No Need](https://exilelifestyle.com/no-need/): What would you do if there was no need for you to do anything? This isn't a simple question to answer. It's also a question that's increasingly relevant, not because
- [Ask Colin: Living & Investing](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-living-investing/): Hi Colin, I’m 23 years old, and want to leave my corporate job for a job with minimal responsibilities so I can make just enough money to get by on
- [Reflections](https://exilelifestyle.com/reflections/): Our lives are reflections of our values. Said another way: the way we live demonstrates our priorities and beliefs. That's the optimal situation, at least. In a lot of cases,
- [Ask Colin: Energy Imbalance](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-energy-imbalance/): Dear Colin, My partner and I have been in a committed relationship for over two years now and he has been an excellent friend, communicator, lover and confidante. I love
- [Ask Colin: Golden Shackle Syndrome](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-golden-shackle-syndrome/): Dear Colin, After eight difficult, grueling years of overpriced school and unfulfillment, I am about to graduate next month with a doctorate in pharmacy. The doctorate is meaningless to me
- [Ask Colin: Out of Place at Home](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-out-of-place-at-home/): I am finally back home in Florida after 18 months of living and working in Shanghai and Bangkok. Now that I am home, I am feeling out of place here,
- [Whatever Happens Next](https://exilelifestyle.com/whatever-happens-next/): I'm often asked where I envision myself, my career, my life in five years. But I don't have a good answer for this. Looking back five years, I was in a
- [Ask Colin: Singledom & Loneliness](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-singledom-loneliness/): Colin, Most of my twenties have been spent in a relationship of one kind or another, none of which have lead to fulfillment. For the first time in a long
- [Ask Colin: Guilt & Happiness](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-guilt-happiness/): Dear Colin, Sigh. Big Sigh. I feel like the worst kind of person, and I’m searching everywhere for signs that I don’t have to feel guilty. I have asked my
- [Ask Colin: Influential Games](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-influential-games/): As a long time listener of your podcast, I’ve found (too) many interesting books to read as result of your suggestions. I understand that video games aren’t completely alien form
- [Ask Colin: Different Way of Life](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-different-way-of-life/): Hey Colin, I am from Mumbai, India and I will be finishing my masters in two months. My dream has always been to get a good job in the west.
- [Ask Colin: Unconventional Setup](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-unconventional-setup/): Hi Colin, My husband got a job in another city, and I am tied to our current city professionally as I am in the midst of taking over my family’s
- [Comparative Value](https://exilelifestyle.com/comparative/): It's not always easy to tell if the work you do, the way you spend your time, is a net value-add for the world. Part of the difficulty is that
- [Ask Colin: Value Systems](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-value-systems/): Dear Colin, I am at a point in my life where many of my friends are getting married, having kids, settling in to a career. I am very much the
- [Ask Colin: Types of Struggle](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-types-of-struggle/): Hi Colin, I have a question that I have been wrestling with as a graduate student. I’m living 2,000 miles away from home, haven’t found a community where I’m currently
- [Exposure](https://exilelifestyle.com/exposure/): Every new experience we have is a camera with a light attached to it. That camera allows us to see a side of ourselves—an ultra-specific angle, a super-distinct composition—that we
- [Ask Colin: Sustainable 9-to-5](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-sustainable-9-to-5/): How does one take the necessary steps to free oneself from the daily 9-5 and pursue the lifestyle of freedom while still having the ability to earn enough to support
- [Flexible Structures](https://exilelifestyle.com/flexible-structures/): This essay was originally published on my Patreon. I try not to get too caught up in ritual. I enjoy routine and predictability on a visceral level as much as
- [Ask Colin: Dance Card](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-dance-card/): Hi Colin, I hope you’re well. I’ve been a fan of your work for some time and attended your recent talk in Atlanta. I’ve been thinking a lot about intentionality,
- [Ask Colin: Career Evaluation](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-career-evaluation/): I have been trying to find a broader context for making career and life choices. I am 58, so a lot of advice I hear is for a younger age
- [Ask Colin: Strong Opinions Weakly Held](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-strong-opinions-weakly-held/): Dear Colin, One challenge I have always faced is how to strongly believe in a set of values but not judge other people when they diverge from those values. When
- [High-Temperature Searches](https://exilelifestyle.com/hightemperature-searches/): I came across an interesting concept that touches on both neuroscience and artificial intelligence, recently. My first contact with this concept was in a book about psychoactive substances, but the
- [Ask Colin: Formative Books](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-formative-books/): Hi Colin, You are probably one of the most well-read influences of my life and to me it seems that a universal characteristic of great people is that they are
- [Success](https://exilelifestyle.com/success/): Most of us possess a broad, subconsciously felt definition of success. This definition is compiled over the course of our lives, and iterated and updated as we learn more about
- [Ask Colin: Making New Connections](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-making-new-connections/): I just graduated and moved to another state for my job. I didn’t move with anyone but my dog, left all of my closest friends back at college, and don’t
- [Ask Colin: Me-Shaped Social Media](https://exilelifestyle.com/ask-colin-me-shaped-social-media/): Hi Colin! Curious what your experience and thoughts are using social media and how they figure into your me-shaped universe. Best, Jen — Hey Jen! One important thing to remember
- [Consumption](https://exilelifestyle.com/consumption/): Buying things, owning things, consuming things isn't wrong or bad or unhealthy. Our tendency to rely on consumption for balance, for nourishment, for happiness, however, can be. Or at the
- [Thoughtful Pause](https://exilelifestyle.com/thoughtful-pause/): After learning anything, being exposed to new information, encountering art or any other type of cultural artifact, take a moment to yourself and quietly process what you've just intellectually imbibed.
- [Training](https://exilelifestyle.com/training/): The saying "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life" has been (incorrectly) attributed to a variety of people over the
- [Epistemic Humility](https://exilelifestyle.com/epistemic-humility/): The word "epistemic" essentially means anything dealing with knowledge. Epistemic humility, then, is being humble with your assumptions about understanding. It's recognizing that you may not know something—may not know
- [Where You’ll Be](https://exilelifestyle.com/where-youll-be/): Our present perspective is limiting. It can also be deceptively harmful, at times. Yes, we're using the best information currently available, operating under assumptions derived from the most up-to-date sensory
- [Press-Worthy](https://exilelifestyle.com/pressworthy/): To gain press for something that you're doing, to increase attention and have newspapers and blogs writing stories about it, that thing, that effort of yours, needs to be framed
- [Transcendence](https://exilelifestyle.com/transcendence/): Everyone's looking for some kind of transcendence. For some people religion fulfills that purpose. For others, it's a less-defined sense of spirituality, or other non-organized, faith-based practice. For still others,
- [Creative Triggers](https://exilelifestyle.com/creative-triggers/): It feels wonderful to publish something. It's an experience I first had way back in high school, when the web was still young and when, despite having access to basic
- [Liminality](https://exilelifestyle.com/liminality/): A liminal moment is one in which you are in flux, in limbo. You're in the process of moving from one state of being to another, and although you've already
- [First Principles Lifestyle](https://exilelifestyle.com/principles-lifestyle/): In philosophy, "first principles" refer to something like foundational truths. They are assumptions we can safely make about the way of things, with all of the secondary suppositions and postulations
- [Tiny Luxuries](https://exilelifestyle.com/tiny-luxuries/): With rare exceptions, I prepare every meal I eat. I've done this for almost two years, now. Being able to take the time, not just to learn to cook, but
- [Envisioned](https://exilelifestyle.com/envisioned/): With as much detail and precision as possible, describe your ideal lifestyle. This is what I asked myself to do back in 2009, when I first allowed myself to think
- [Eudaemonia](https://exilelifestyle.com/eudaemonia/): Most decisions we make can be traced back to our desire to be happy. But happiness is a fuzzy term, and is often—incorrectly, I would argue—conflated with a collection of
- [A Year of Growth](https://exilelifestyle.com/year-growth/): Today is my 33rd birthday, and to celebrate I'd like to take a moment to present some thoughts and heuristics that have served me well this most recent year of
- [Big, Vague Goals](https://exilelifestyle.com/big-vague-goals/): I like to set sprawling, ill-defined goals for myself, and then figure out how best to accomplish them along the way. This is a counter-intuitive approach to goal-setting, I know,
- [Sewing Buttons](https://exilelifestyle.com/sewing-buttons/): It was thrilling for me, the first time I sewed a button onto a shirt. I was sitting in a conference room, waiting for a meeting to start, and one
- [Landscape Portraits](https://exilelifestyle.com/landscape-portraits/): It can be difficult to balance the presumed prudence of digging deep into a particular field, a particular topic or profession, with the desire to explore more widely; to dabble
- [Self-Reported](https://exilelifestyle.com/selfreported/): For about a month, I've been tracking my sleep habits using two different sensors. One of these sensors is tucked under my mattress, plugged into the wall, and connected to
- [Tiny Upgrades](https://exilelifestyle.com/tiny-upgrades/): I started running again recently. Back in my college years I ran five to ten miles per day as part of my intercollegiate Ultimate Frisbee workout routine. That continued to
- [Flappability](https://exilelifestyle.com/flappability/): There's something to be said for a Stoic response to difficult or uncomfortable situations. To be more specific, it's nice to be able to step back and assess things from
- [Metacognitive Exercises](https://exilelifestyle.com/metacognitive-exercises/): Why did I just do that? This is a question I try to ask myself regularly. Being conscious of the reasons behind our actions isn't something most of us are
- [Planning for the Fire](https://exilelifestyle.com/planning-fire/): There's something wrong with the fire detection system in my apartment building. In the five months since I moved to Memphis, we've had probably twenty false-alarms, the siren in the
- [Regular Revolutions](https://exilelifestyle.com/regular-revolutions/): Milestones are valuable tools. They're endpoints that aren't real in the sense that a rock is real—there's no physical law stating that the approximate end of a journey around the
- [Surface Tension](https://exilelifestyle.com/surface-tension/): There's a superficial level to every discussion. If you follow this conceptual thread far enough, you'll find that language itself is just a coded analogy that allows us to approximate
- [How You Get There](https://exilelifestyle.com/how-you-get-there/): One of the major challenges we face as an increasingly interconnected, globe-straddling species, is in how we organize ourselves even as our traditional distinctions dissipate. It's easy to look around
- [Educational Balance](https://exilelifestyle.com/educational-balance/): At two months old, babies understand the fundamentals of physics. Which isn't to say they could tell you the equations underpinning concepts like entropy or explain how mass informs gravity.
- [Made-Up Metrics](https://exilelifestyle.com/madeup-metrics/): There's a difference between money made doing work that drains you and money made doing work that fills you with passion and joy. It's difficult to quantify that difference, however.
- [This Is It](https://exilelifestyle.com/this-is-it/): I was probably five or six years old the first time I thought I was going to die. The exact context of what happened is fuzzy, as I was just
- [A Year Without Dating](https://exilelifestyle.com/year-dating/): If you've read my work for any amount of time, you probably know that I regularly and enthusiastically engage in lifestyle experiments. Which in practice means that I adjust the
- [Principles, Frameworks, and Policies](https://exilelifestyle.com/principles-frameworks-policies/): I aspire to always be learning, experiencing new things, and growing as a consequence. This is one of my guiding principles. I work on projects that amplify each other, so
- [Why This Way?](https://exilelifestyle.com/why-this-way/): One of the most important questions you can ask yourself, at any point in your life, is "Why?" A deluge of valuable realizations can dawn as you pause and assess
- [Weeklies](https://exilelifestyle.com/weeklies/): It's amazing how difficult it can be to instill regular doses of novelty into a rooted lifestyle. One of the more valuable aspects of traveling frequently or semi-frequently, I would
- [Stimulus & Action](https://exilelifestyle.com/stimulus-action/): I love rearranging my furniture. It still feels weird to own furniture, truth be told, but now that I have it, I'm an enthusiastic repositioner. Which probably shouldn't come as
- [Thumb Wrestling](https://exilelifestyle.com/thumb-wrestling/): This last year or so has been a period of change for me: a lot of new experiments, a lot of new perspectives, a lot of new ideas and false-starts
- [Out of Time](https://exilelifestyle.com/time-2/): There's a trick I use when I'm undertaking a project or process that's particularly onerous or tedious, but which I know is worth doing. I think about a moment in
- [Conclusions](https://exilelifestyle.com/conclusions/): Something I've learned about myself over the years is that I'm not great at goodbyes. It's not that I find them difficult or onerous, but rather that I often fail
- [Exiles](https://exilelifestyle.com/exiles/): I think my favorite of all the business models I've come up with over the years was the one underpinning a project called Exiles. Exiles was an email publication that
- [Awareness](https://exilelifestyle.com/awareness-2/): Our instincts are informed by our knowledge and experiences. This means that they’re flawed, but it also means they’re trainable.
- [Mediums](https://exilelifestyle.com/mediums/): Our creative work is shaped by the mediums through which we transmit it. I'm using the word 'creative' in the sense of 'things that are created,' not just a painting
- [Internal Consistency](https://exilelifestyle.com/internal-consistency/): When I was looking for an apartment here in Wichita, it was important to me that I find a home with good natural light. Lightbulbs, today, don't use too much
- [What Wrong Means](https://exilelifestyle.com/wrong-means/): If I was smart, I would have more advertisers on my podcast. I've been using the same two for a while, and that has no doubt diminished my money-making opportunities.
- [Valuable Frictions](https://exilelifestyle.com/valuable-frictions/): I've been living in Kansas for a little over seven months, and I'll be here for another four before leaving in pursuit of my next adventure. I decided to move here because
- [Political Omnivores](https://exilelifestyle.com/political-omnivores/): I host a podcast called Let's Know Things wherein I add context to what's happening in the news. I love the hell out of writing, but I find podcasting presents
- [Thoughts on Conflict](https://exilelifestyle.com/thoughts-conflict/): We live in contentious times, and discourse will only become more impassioned in the coming years. Political tremors are upending the status quo around the world, precipitating intense debate about the principles our politicians espouse. This
- [Ellipses](https://exilelifestyle.com/ellipses/): I've always believed in celebrating the accidental mispronunciation of a word rather than mocking or deriding it. Such accidents are usually an indication of the mispronouncer having learned a new
- [The Subjectivity of Time](https://exilelifestyle.com/subjectivity-time/): Time has passed differently for me since I arrived in Kansas. That's not a statement about Kansas, but rather about how the way we live warps how we perceive the
- [Aware](https://exilelifestyle.com/aware/): It's hard to know what to think sometimes. Perhaps the news seems unreliable, and you're not sure what sources to trust. Perhaps your own ideologies are beginning to fray at
- [Glimpsing the Palette](https://exilelifestyle.com/glimpsing-palette/): In many different dimensions of my life right now, I feel that I'm stepping back from a painting I've long studied, having spent years trying to understand the composition, the colors,
- [Habits](https://exilelifestyle.com/habits/): I’m writing a new nonfiction book, entitled Becoming Who We Need to Be, and though I don’t typically have any trouble spinning up into writing mode, I’ve found that being
- [Revision](https://exilelifestyle.com/revision/): I've said before that going through the editing process for a book is like being beaten across the face with a hammer, only to realize afterward that you look better
- [Ideal Speech Situation](https://exilelifestyle.com/ideal-speech-situation/): I came across the term ideal speech situation the other day, while doing research for a podcast episode. The core concept of this idea is that we're most capable of
- [Valuable Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/valuable/): Possessions can make us happier, but only if we own the right things.
- [That Seems Interesting](https://exilelifestyle.com/interesting/): The metrics we use to define success are just as vital as the steps we take to become successful.
- [Awareness](https://exilelifestyle.com/awareness/): I have a policy about being aware. This doesn't mean being expert, or even having an above-average education about any particular thing. But I find it takes incredibly little effort
- [Hands-Free](https://exilelifestyle.com/handsfree/): On this week's episode of Let's Know Things we talk about the burgeoning hands-free audio movement, the technologies that are depending on and amplifying this progression, and why it’s being
- [The Price of Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/price/): How much would you pay to never have to wake up to an alarm? Think about it for a second, then actually try to put a number on it. How
- [Colossal & Connected](https://exilelifestyle.com/colossal-connected/): On this week's episode of Let's Know Things, we talk about great big events, the interconnectedness of everything, and why it’s so difficult for us to perceive outsized happenings —
- [Sipping from the Fire Hose](https://exilelifestyle.com/sipping-fire-hose/): I'm convinced that half of my fairly rugged immune system is the result of traveling to many different climates and biomes, and the other half is the consequence of drinking
- [Population](https://exilelifestyle.com/population/): It's boggling how much information we have access to today, and yet how misinformed we can be about so many things. Part of the issue is that we very often
- [Lifestyle for One](https://exilelifestyle.com/lifestyle/): My apartment smells of sautéed onions and fresh-minced garlic. I love the smell. Not everyone would, but I do. I also tend to fill my space with the fragrance of
- [Intentional Milestones](https://exilelifestyle.com/intentional-milestones/): Something that I took for granted while on the road was the number of milestones that were built into my life. I'd arrive in a new country, I'd try some
- [Turning Sideways](https://exilelifestyle.com/turning-sideways/): It's possible to seem impressive from one angle, but to be incredibly flat from every other possible viewpoint.
- [Pace & Goals](https://exilelifestyle.com/pace-goals/): Of all the things that a change in one's lifestyle can bring, a new pace is one of the more difficult to accept.
- [Look Away](https://exilelifestyle.com/look-away/): On this week’s episode of Let’s Know Things, we touch on the idea of shunning, then deep-dive into empiricism versus faith, trust and journalism, and how politicians are like magicians.
- [Non-Human Intelligence](https://exilelifestyle.com/nonhuman-intelligence/): On the most recent episode of my podcast, Let's Know Things, we discuss intelligence, and in particular the types of intelligence we find outside of our own species.
- [Vacant and Beige](https://exilelifestyle.com/vacant-beige/): It's easy to imagine potential in empty spaces. Less easy to imagine are the possibilities for spaces that are filled, badly.
- [Minimum Viable Home](https://exilelifestyle.com/minimum-viable-home/): Take the time to live with the fundamentals before filling your space with things you think you're supposed to have.
- [Circular Food](https://exilelifestyle.com/circular-food/): I don't have the reflexes for this.
- [Kansas](https://exilelifestyle.com/kansas/): I'm moving to Kansas. Let me tell you why.
- [Expectations](https://exilelifestyle.com/expectations/): Sometimes it's better to fix our expectations, rather than whatever it is that's failing to live up to them.
- [Shoulds & Ares](https://exilelifestyle.com/shoulds-ares/): The conflict between short-term thinking and long-term thinking can be heated and adversarial.
- [Knowing False Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/knowing-false/): The half-life of mistruths is long, but there are ways to protect oneself from them in the first place.
- [Unhoned Opinions](https://exilelifestyle.com/unhoned-opinions/): Many of our opinions are inherited, not developed. The more we hone them, the more they align with who we actually are.
- [Discussing the Freedom of Speech](https://exilelifestyle.com/discussing-freedom-speech/): On the first episode of my podcast, Let's Know Things, we talk free speech, where it's going, how it's being applied, and what it means.
- [Covert Factors](https://exilelifestyle.com/covert-factors/): There are covert additions being added to our subconscious math all the time, and though we can only control very few of them, those that we can, we should.
- [The Transitive Tendency of Knowledge](https://exilelifestyle.com/transitive-tendency-knowledge/): The more we learn, the more likely we are to have a head-start when we want to learn something in the future.
- [Stop Smile Marvel](https://exilelifestyle.com/stop-smile-marvel/): It is possible to grapple your fear reflexes away from your lizard-brain, you just have to train yourself to do it and instill a new response pattern.
- [Playing Games](https://exilelifestyle.com/playing-games/): When the game you're playing is no longer fulfilling, you have the option of standing up and finding another one.
- [Unmarketable Thoughts](https://exilelifestyle.com/unmarketable-thoughts/): Approached correctly, success can be something you enjoy as you grow, rather than as a final destination.
- [Common Ground](https://exilelifestyle.com/common-ground/): The idea of common moral ground isn't impossible, but it's also not easy an idea to accept.
- [Balanced Opposites](https://exilelifestyle.com/balanced-opposites/): It's difficult coping with people who believe different things than you, but it can be valuable finding the good in what they do and respecting them for it.
- [Bend Yourself or Bend the World](https://exilelifestyle.com/bend-bend-world/): The desire to improve oneself is a wonderful thing, but it's easy to become less capable if you depend on crutches rather than building up your own resiliency.
- [Platforms as Catalysts](https://exilelifestyle.com/platforms-catalysts/): Trendy technologies and methods of communication can seem threatening, but when approached correctly they can help us reach new, expressive heights.
- [Clear Communication as a Habit](https://exilelifestyle.com/clear-communication-habit/): Clear communication is key to expressing oneself and enjoying life. But our definition of communication is often very limited.
- [I Don’t Have To](https://exilelifestyle.com/i-dont-have-to/): We don't have to be caricatures to be successful and fulfilled.
- [The Math](https://exilelifestyle.com/math/): Any lifestyle is within reach. We just have to balance the books. Do the math. In a lot of cases, this means tallying up our available resources and reallocating them
- [Seeds and Vegetables](https://exilelifestyle.com/seeds-vegetables/): Don't trade your seeds for vegetables.
- [Missed Connections](https://exilelifestyle.com/missed-connections/): The following is an excerpt from Come Back Frayed. Boracay is a weird place to be single. I’m reminded of this as a server at one of the restaurants near
- [More Sense in Motion](https://exilelifestyle.com/sense-motion/): I make more sense in motion, while experiencing new things and being forced off-balance. An excerpt from my new book, Come Back Frayed.
- [Set Your Defaults](https://exilelifestyle.com/set-default/): We have so many powers we don't utilize. Taking the time to figure out your needs, and how you might meet them, is an exercise very much worth your time.
- [Societies and Biomes](https://exilelifestyle.com/societies-biomes/): A rugged ecosystem requires diversity. Without that diversity, any system, large or small, becomes fragile.
- [Big Picturing](https://exilelifestyle.com/big-picturing/): Money is wonderful, so long as you know why you want it.
- [Practical Philosophy](https://exilelifestyle.com/practical-philosophy/): Many of our philosophies are labels and nothing more. Practical philosophy requires that we pay attention to our everyday actions.
- [Baseline](https://exilelifestyle.com/baseline/): Set rational baselines so that you can be happy regardless of your circumstances, and all of life's extras become enjoyable luxuries.
- [Scale](https://exilelifestyle.com/scale/): The more you know, the more you're capable of enjoying.
- [It’s Easy](https://exilelifestyle.com/easy/): It's easy to reinforce bias. It's difficult to present ideas to those who are predisposed to be biased against them.
- [The One](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-one/): The concept of 'The One' is harmful to our relationships, and keeps us from recognizing our own value.
- [Iceberging](https://exilelifestyle.com/iceberging/): We're all infinitely complex individuals, and that makes the order in which we tell stories about ourselves all the more important.
- [Stuff-Focus](https://exilelifestyle.com/stuff-focus/): Focusing on stuff, whether the accumulation or reduction of it, is missing the point of minimalism and simplicity.
- [Cabins](https://exilelifestyle.com/cabins/): Cabins represent a simple life, but you needn't live in one to enjoy the same benefits.
- [Thirty](https://exilelifestyle.com/thirty/): We're all trying to figure out how best to spend our time.
- [Appropriation](https://exilelifestyle.com/appropriation/): As we appropriate, we are appropriated.
- [Kindness and Reason](https://exilelifestyle.com/kindness-reason/): Kindness and reason are not mutually exclusive.
- [Air](https://exilelifestyle.com/air/): Air is both valuable and valueless, much like anything we might create.
- [Fuel](https://exilelifestyle.com/fuel/): Even if your goals are humble, it's a good idea to know what fuels you.
- [Rework or Retreat](https://exilelifestyle.com/rework-retreat/): If your life is unfulfilling, there are two main paths toward change to consider.
- [Real Life](https://exilelifestyle.com/real-life/): Travel is not the only way to expose yourself to new ideas and perspectives.
- [Outrage](https://exilelifestyle.com/outrage/): Outrage feels good, but very seldom does it change anything.
- [Fiction and What Comes Next](https://exilelifestyle.com/fiction-what-comes-next/): It's difficult to get past 'now' without first imagining what comes next.
- [Free Speech and Labels](https://exilelifestyle.com/free-speech-labels/): Freedom of speech is only really active when someone is saying something you don’t agree with.
- [The Passage of Time](https://exilelifestyle.com/passage-time/): We all have the same number of hours to make use of each day, but some people spend them more effectively and healthily than others.
- [The Cost of Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/cost/): We seldom consider the true cost of things when making a purchase.
- [Subtlety](https://exilelifestyle.com/subtlety/): Concrete concepts are easy to understand and quite popular, but they often lack the valuable subtlety of less certain ideas and advice.
- [Ambassadorship](https://exilelifestyle.com/ambassadorship/): You are an ambassador for your beliefs, whether you choose to be or not.
- [Getting Lost](https://exilelifestyle.com/lost/): One of the better ways to find yourself is to get lost.
- [Calibrate for Travel](https://exilelifestyle.com/calibrate-travel/): Travel is seen as a pie-in-the-sky dream for many people. With a shift in perspective, though, it's less dream and more reality.
- [Expert Sleepist](https://exilelifestyle.com/expert-sleepist/): There's more value in learning to sleep than learning to play tennis better.
- [Sentimentality and the Present](https://exilelifestyle.com/sentimentality-and-the-present/): Sentiment and the present often conflict, when they should be complimentary.
- [Stack for Serendipity](https://exilelifestyle.com/stack-serendipity/): You can't force serendipity, but you can stack the deck in favor of it.
- [Somethingness](https://exilelifestyle.com/somethingness/): Whitespace is a luxury, not a sacrifice.
- [Public Pianos and Amplification](https://exilelifestyle.com/public-pianos-amplification/): Catalyze creativity in others by investing creatively.
- [Philosophical Fluidity](https://exilelifestyle.com/philosophical-fluidity/): We define ourselves by our tastes, which can be limiting if we ignore aspects of life as part of that self-definition.
- [On Message](https://exilelifestyle.com/message/): The stories we tell, and how we tell them, are what distinguish us from our peers.
- [Threats and Opportunities](https://exilelifestyle.com/threats-opportunities/): With the right mindset, all threats are opportunities.
- [Not Our Histories](https://exilelifestyle.com/not-our-histories/): Conflict is so common that we take it for granted. We shouldn't.
- [The Relativism of Advice](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-relativism-of-advice/): Advice is great, but mostly worthless without context.
- [Outdated Limitations](https://exilelifestyle.com/outdated-limitations/): We all play within the confines of technological limitations, but many of us fail to realize when those limitations are self-imposed.
- [Universality](https://exilelifestyle.com/universality/): A shared cup of coffee is one of the many universal signs of friendship.
- [Significance](https://exilelifestyle.com/significance/): There's a big difference between personal significance and practical significance.
- [Artistry and Craftsmanship](https://exilelifestyle.com/artistry-craftsmanship/): Creativity and application need each other.
- [Relevance](https://exilelifestyle.com/relevance/): There's so much to learn, but much of it remains invisible until it's perceived as being relevant to our lives.
- [Can’t Live Without](https://exilelifestyle.com/live/): Aspire to have nothing you can't live without.
- [Instincts](https://exilelifestyle.com/instincts/): Our instincts can help us glean more than we consciously understand, but only if we train them to do so.
- [Wonderment](https://exilelifestyle.com/wonderment/): There's plenty out there to marvel over. If you're not amazed, you might be standing in the wrong place.
- [Because I Want To](https://exilelifestyle.com/because-i-want-to/): You've got a finite number of years to play with: you might as well do great work for the duration.
- [Bubbles of Ambiance](https://exilelifestyle.com/bubbles-ambiance/): On being in the present, or not.
- [The Deep End](https://exilelifestyle.com/deep/): The shallow end is an easy place to be, but growth is found in the deep end.
- [Anthropological Default](https://exilelifestyle.com/anthropological-default/): We define ourselves by our likes, but would be better off as anthropologists.
- [Consumption is a Statement](https://exilelifestyle.com/consumption-statement/): You make a statement with every single purchase you make.
- [Boxes](https://exilelifestyle.com/boxes/): Pre-build labels are boxes we strain to fit inside. We should be building our own boxes.
- [Fortunate](https://exilelifestyle.com/fortunate/): I'm a fortunate man.
- [Visible Brush Strokes](https://exilelifestyle.com/visible-brush-strokes/): Perfection hinders growth, and makes it difficult to grow.
- [Be the Machete](https://exilelifestyle.com/machete/): There's a confidence that comes with blazing trails.
- [Watching the Periphery](https://exilelifestyle.com/watching-periphery/): Watching other, related industries can help you make massive jumps within your own.
- [Set the Goal, Enjoy the Journey](https://exilelifestyle.com/set-goal-enjoy-journey/): A malleable framework of where you are and where you're going can help you enjoy, and get the most from, the space between.
- [The Authority of Experience](https://exilelifestyle.com/authority-experience/): There's a big difference between understanding something through research and understanding through direct experience.
- [Good People](https://exilelifestyle.com/good-people/): Life is a game, be careful who you play with.
- [Tasks and Work](https://exilelifestyle.com/tasks-work/): The work you do is different from, but informed by, the tasks you perform.
- [Who They’re For](https://exilelifestyle.com/who-theyre-for/): Negative feedback is only negative if you allow it to be.
- [Telling Stories](https://exilelifestyle.com/telling-stories/): Fiction, narrative nonfiction, and nonfiction are all excellent ways of communicating. But you want to use different methods for communicating different things to different people.
- [Bridges](https://exilelifestyle.com/bridges/): Writing is like building a bridge between people.
- [Defining a Name](https://exilelifestyle.com/defining/): A name can be a valuable thing, so long as you invest in it.
- [Trialogue](https://exilelifestyle.com/trialogue/): An excerpt from my new book, Trialogue.
- [Master Student](https://exilelifestyle.com/master-student/): My mastery of the English language has improved dramatically since I started traveling. I'm primarily interacting with non-native speakers, so I spend most of my time speaking very simple English.
- [Ordovician](https://exilelifestyle.com/ordovician/): The first chapter excerpted from my new book, a time-traveling adventure called Ordovician.
- [Never Again](https://exilelifestyle.com/never-again/): The most important benefit of working for yourself is the knowledge that you have absolute control over your work.
- [Finite but Flexible](https://exilelifestyle.com/finite-flexible/): We all have access to the same amount of time, and what we do with that time defines our priorities.
- [Mean Universe](https://exilelifestyle.com/universe/): An excerpt from my short fiction collection, Mean Universe.
- [Lenses](https://exilelifestyle.com/lenses/): We all see the world through lenses. Recognizing that is important in developing as a person.
- [Intentional Luddite](https://exilelifestyle.com/intentional-luddite/): Extremes in approach to technology are fine, so long as you're making your decisions intentionally.
- [Negotiate Your Life](https://exilelifestyle.com/negotiate-life/): Knowing how to negotiate, and what is negotiable, is vital. And not just in business.
- [Let’s Assume](https://exilelifestyle.com/assume/): Let's assume other people are not assholes.
- [Exponential Experience](https://exilelifestyle.com/exponential-experience/): The sooner you start focusing on personal development and the more focused you are on living a full life, the more you'll benefit from all such efforts.
- [Reset to Zero](https://exilelifestyle.com/reset/): Reseting to zero can give you the same clarity as minimalism, but with far less effort.
- [Head-Pats](https://exilelifestyle.com/headpats/): There's nothing inherently wrong about growing up with pre-build standards. But at some point you're going to have to put them aside and build your own.
- [The Original Social Network](https://exilelifestyle.com/original-social-network/): It's easy to misuse the internet, but if approached correctly, the net can be a resource as vast as the world itself.
- [Great Party](https://exilelifestyle.com/great-party/): An excerpt from the short story collection about death and dying, So This Is How I Go.
- [Safety Nets](https://exilelifestyle.com/safety-nets/): Society offers up myriad safety nets for those who adhere to social standards, but it can be incredibly rewarding to fall out of lockstep nonetheless.
- [Higher Concerns](https://exilelifestyle.com/higher-concerns/): Higher concerns aren't just for the rich or elderly.
- [I Hate Marketing](https://exilelifestyle.com/marketing/): Marketing isn't inherently bad, but I truly dislike it.
- [Holding Down the Fort](https://exilelifestyle.com/holding-fort/): We all have different priorities and needs. Only by respecting the needs of others — while meeting our own — can we achieve our full potential.
- [Takeoffs and Touchdowns](https://exilelifestyle.com/takeoffs-touchdowns/): Soar and explore, but be careful to round out your view with plenty of land-based viewing, as well.
- [Inherited Silver](https://exilelifestyle.com/inherited-silver/): Give compliments based on effort, not inherited traits or trinkets.
- [Practical Pedestrians](https://exilelifestyle.com/practical-pedestrians/): A theory without practice is like a book never opened.
- [A Creative Act](https://exilelifestyle.com/creative-act/): Business is a creative act, and art can be a means of economic sustainability.
- [Coffee with the Other Man](https://exilelifestyle.com/coffee-man/): The first story in my short story collection about relationships, Coffee with the Other Man.
- [Mastery is a Double-Edged Sword](https://exilelifestyle.com/mastery-doubleedged-sword/): Mastery is a double-edged sword in that it allows you to share what you know, but also limits your ability to ask questions.
- [This is What I Do](https://exilelifestyle.com/this-is-what-i-do/): The path between you and what you want out of life isn't a straight or even one, but with the right attitude, you can make the journey part of what you do.
- [I’ll Never Know](https://exilelifestyle.com/ill-never-know/): Perspective is important, not to better understand others, but to better understand how others see you.
- [Tethers and Change](https://exilelifestyle.com/tethers-change/): Changing course can be difficult, especially when you're in the moment.
- [No Promises](https://exilelifestyle.com/promises/): It's best to set correct expectations in establishing long-term relationships.
- [There Will Always Be More](https://exilelifestyle.com/there-will-always-be-more/): There will always be more of everything you need, if you take the time to notice.
- [Dog](https://exilelifestyle.com/dog/): An excerpt from my short story collection, '7 or 8 More Ways to End the World.'
- [Business Is](https://exilelifestyle.com/business/): Business is creation, just as creation can be business.
- [On Appreciation](https://exilelifestyle.com/appreciation/): Explore and appreciate, rather than disregarding and discriminating.
- [The Pursuit of Small](https://exilelifestyle.com/pursuit-small/): Bigger isn't bad, but it's not necessarily better.
- [Calling All Telegraphers](https://exilelifestyle.com/calling-telegraphers/): Technologies and business models change, and the best thing to do is change with them, and instigate change yourself.
- [Photo of a Sunset](https://exilelifestyle.com/photo-sunset/): There's a place for beauty in art, and ideally it's a place that supports meaning.
- [Habitats](https://exilelifestyle.com/habitats/): Habits are powerful, and can be either negative or positive influences on your life, depending on whether or not you have control of them.
- [Omnihustle](https://exilelifestyle.com/omnihustle/): Avoid creating for the sake of creation. Instead, build channels through which to share your work, and give yourself the ability to experiment more as a result.
- [Spaces Between Places](https://exilelifestyle.com/spaces-places/): Without vanilla moments, it's hard to find the rocky road.
- [The New Tattoo](https://exilelifestyle.com/tattoo/): Sometimes a lack of expression can say more than an intentionally designed and applied one.
- [My Life on the Floor](https://exilelifestyle.com/life-floor/): The routine of discomfort and pain can be as familiar as a hometown long unvisited.
- [SquidHound’s Solution](https://exilelifestyle.com/squidhounds-solution/): A short story from my new book, 7 or 8 Ways to End the World.
- [Outrageous Ambition](https://exilelifestyle.com/outrageous-ambition/): Big ideas are cumbersome, but carrying their weight can be very worthwhile in the end.
- [One Size Fits All](https://exilelifestyle.com/size-fits/): One size fits all: great for socks, bad for beliefs.
- [Ways and Means](https://exilelifestyle.com/ways-means/): They vehicle we use to deliver a message can be just as important as the message itself.
- [Magpie Fight](https://exilelifestyle.com/magpie-fight/): I love magpies. They're sturdy-looking birds, and some of them can use tools. If you approach most other birds, or even just pass by them too closely on the sidewalk,
- [Unlabelable](https://exilelifestyle.com/unlabelable/): Aspire to be frustratingly unlabelable.
- [Hats](https://exilelifestyle.com/hats/): It's okay to label and sort the world, just be careful to apply very specific labels, and write them in pencil.
- [Trappings](https://exilelifestyle.com/trappings/): It's better to show who you are through your actions than through titles you apply to yourself.
- [Dollars and Sense](https://exilelifestyle.com/dollars-sense/): Dollars are one way to measure success, but even better is using sense.
- [The Right Hands](https://exilelifestyle.com/hands/): The wrong tools in the right hands is far better than the opposite. Quote from my new book, Act Accordingly. Update: April 7, 2017 In other words: work on skills, not
- [Monkey Butlers](https://exilelifestyle.com/monkey-butlers/): Becoming self-reliant isn't easy, and it's an ongoing journey no matter how far along the path you get.
- [You Don’t Need Logos](https://exilelifestyle.com/logos/): You don't need logos to tell the world who you are.
- [The Cake](https://exilelifestyle.com/cake/): I am not the labels applied to me. I am me.
- [Meandering](https://exilelifestyle.com/meandering/): Asking yourself uncomfortable questions may keep you from speeding recklessly toward your goals, but it also ensures your goals are the correct ones.
- [More Than You Need](https://exilelifestyle.com/more-than-you-need/): Picture Hemingway. Or Thoreau. Or Virginia Woolf. The idea is to get in your head the image of an author; someone from before the computer. Before the transistor, even. Someone
- [The Internet of Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/internet/): This piece was originally featured in Let's Know Things, a free, irregularly published email in which I discuss a topic and do my best to explain it concisely in historical,
- [Opportunity Costs](https://exilelifestyle.com/opportunity-costs/): There's no avoiding opportunity costs, but you can make them bear more fruit, for you, and for others.
- [Bootstrapping Art](https://exilelifestyle.com/bootstrapping-art/): One needn't choose between financial and creative fulfillment, so long as one considers carefully the work they do to pay the rent.
- [Harmonious Independence](https://exilelifestyle.com/harmonious-independence/): Relationships should not be about sacrifices — they should be about mutual support, admiration, and harmonious independence.
- [Coffee](https://exilelifestyle.com/coffee/): I don't like coffee, but I will make myself appreciate it. For personal growth.
- [Social Contracts](https://exilelifestyle.com/social-contracts/): There are pros and cons to laws and social contracts, but how you deal with them is up to you.
- [Intentional Titles](https://exilelifestyle.com/intentional-titles/): A title acquired accidentally isn't nearly as valuable as one earned by choices you've made.
- [Afraid of Fear](https://exilelifestyle.com/afraid-fear/): Fear can be scary, but it's worth holding up to the light and examining so you can move on with your life.
- [Bureaucracy](https://exilelifestyle.com/bureaucracy/): You may not be able to reconcile everything you're ever done, but you can cut out the obviously unnecessary from your philosophy.
- [Costs of Living](https://exilelifestyle.com/costs-living/): Where you spend your money makes all the difference in what you get for it.
- [Bending](https://exilelifestyle.com/bending/): Bending allows us to see from another perspective, adding flexibility to something that could otherwise be very brittle.
- [We All Dance](https://exilelifestyle.com/dance/): We all dance to different music, but the more moves we know, the more we get out of life.
- [Responsibility](https://exilelifestyle.com/responsibility/): If you want to accomplish big things, you have to make yourself into the kind of person who can do so.
- [Most Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/most-things/): You'll never know everything. And that's for the best.
- [Where Wonder Begins](https://exilelifestyle.com/begins/): Wonder and awe is only increased the more we learn about the world around us.
- [Every Day is New Year’s](https://exilelifestyle.com/day-years/): Positive change is worth striving for. Don't put it off — or force it — because it is, or isn't, the proper day of the year for new beginnings.
- [Things Remembered](https://exilelifestyle.com/remembered/): Memory is a filing system for a lifetime of 'nows' — don't miss the opportunity to fill it with good data.
- [Success & Society](https://exilelifestyle.com/success-society/): There is much to be said about economic disparity and how the classes impact each other, but the most vital topic is the conflict between them.
- [Negative Drawing](https://exilelifestyle.com/negative-drawing/): It's not just what you add that makes a person, it's also what you take away.
- [Normalcy](https://exilelifestyle.com/normalcy/): Normal is a word with different meanings based on who you are. But it's also something that changes any time you delve into the abnormal.
- [Extreme Support](https://exilelifestyle.com/extreme-support/): Although it can be good to offer support or healthy criticism, straying too far toward either extreme can result in very negative consequences.
- [Know Why You Buy](https://exilelifestyle.com/buy/): Money can buy happiness, you just need to know where to spend it.
- [Worthless Philosophies](https://exilelifestyle.com/worthless-philosophies/): There are an infinite number of valid philosophies to choose from, but none are yours unless you practice them.
- [Skill and Capability](https://exilelifestyle.com/skill-capability/): Skill is great, but capability is even better.
- [Talking Animals](https://exilelifestyle.com/talking-animals/): When big decisions need to be made, endless debating and idea polarization are probably the worst possible tools for coming up with the most ideal solution.
- [Empty Brands](https://exilelifestyle.com/empty-brands/): Most information we receive is saturated with bias. Keep that in mind and make better decisions.
- [Loyalty or Happiness](https://exilelifestyle.com/loyalty-happiness/): Loyalty is considered to be a noble trait to possess, but it may simply maintain the status quo at the expense of personal happiness.
- [Not Capitalism](https://exilelifestyle.com/capitalism/): Capitalism is a common scapegoat for the world's economic woes, but in most cases we're aiming our disdain at the wrong target.
- [Offenseless](https://exilelifestyle.com/offenseless/): The best way to shut down a discussion and make sure no one walks away with anything valuable is to become offended.
- [The Problem with Elected Leadership](https://exilelifestyle.com/problem-elected-leadership/): Many of the problems with have with politicians stem from the fact that we vote for candidates based on non-leadership-related attributes.
- [Purposeful Debates](https://exilelifestyle.com/purposeful-debates/): Most debates are little more than parallel speeches at unreceptive audiences. It could be otherwise, if we decided to make it so.
- [You Are a Weapon](https://exilelifestyle.com/weapon/): Without equal parts sharpening and cutting, any weapon becomes dull and useless. Balance is vital in becoming the most capable instrument you can be.
- [Common Sense](https://exilelifestyle.com/common-sense/): Common sense is essential for day-to-day decisions, but can be incredibly harmful if applied to questions of right and wrong.
- [Confidence Is](https://exilelifestyle.com/confidence/): Confidence is worth having, but requires constant maintenance.
- [Breakup Parties](https://exilelifestyle.com/breakup-parties/): Relationships aren't easy, though perhaps even harder is ending one that isn't working. If done right, a breakup party can be just what the doctor ordered.
- [Opening Windows](https://exilelifestyle.com/opening-windows/): Technology has given us an unparalleled ability to share knowledge, but has also allowed us to close ourselves off from new ideas like never before.
- [The Absolute Best Shirt Ever](https://exilelifestyle.com/absolute-shirt/): Anyone with ideas is prone to making bold statements, and it's fine to explore these ideas, so long as we keep them in context.
- [Be Meditative](https://exilelifestyle.com/meditative/): Meditating is an excellent habit to get into, but being meditative is an even more valuable lifestyle choice.
- [Armed for Tea](https://exilelifestyle.com/armed-tea/): It's important to accept new people and ideas graciously, and it's just as vital to accept those who don't with the same friendly determination.
- [Measuring Measurement](https://exilelifestyle.com/measuring-measurement/): Most of the measurements we take in school, work, and life in general don't tell us the whole story. In fact, what they tell us is perhaps the least valuable part of the story possible.
- [Two Humilities](https://exilelifestyle.com/humilities/): There are two types of humility: one of them practical and invigorating, while the other kills ambition and personal satisfaction.
- [Ceilings and Floors](https://exilelifestyle.com/ceilings-floors/): Setting a high ceiling for oneself is important, but just as important is making sure your floors are low.
- [A Light](https://exilelifestyle.com/light/): Maintaining middling expectations allows you to enjoy the best the world has to offer, while also making it through rough patches without complaint or concern.
- [Preaching to Other Choirs](https://exilelifestyle.com/preaching-choirs/): It's not enough to be remarkable if you want to make change. You have to be remarkable in a way that those whose minds you want to change will respect.
- [Untapped Resources](https://exilelifestyle.com/untapped-resources/): We've all got access to untapped resources, and their future is determined by whether or not we decide to look for them or not.
- [Today](https://exilelifestyle.com/today/): A day can be momentous or forgettable, and both possibilities can be beneficial if viewed correctly.
- [Impressive Pigeons](https://exilelifestyle.com/impressive-pigeons/): All goals are achievable, though not always in the way (or through the means) we had originally planned for.
- [We Live in a Time](https://exilelifestyle.com/live-time/): There's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world, but there's plenty of amazing mixed in there, too. Focusing on that may just make you proud to be human.
- [Cost of Entry](https://exilelifestyle.com/cost-entry/): Having more years to live can be meaningless if you don't spend them well. Likewise, comfort is just watered down happiness if you fail to use it as a launchpad for the pursuit of something better.
- [Let’s Incubate Businesses, Not Just Startups](https://exilelifestyle.com/incubate-businesses-startups/): Incubators are great, but focusing on startups to the detriment of businesses that don't require investment is harmful to the long-term survival of entrepreneurship and the economy as a whole.
- [Doing the Time Warp, Again and Again](https://exilelifestyle.com/time-warp/): How we perceive time is important for personal development, but setting up a life without discomfort or time warps could be harmful to one's long-term happiness.
- [Surf, Sand, and Digital Sabbaticals](https://exilelifestyle.com/surf-sand-digital-sabbaticals/): Digital sabbaticals are great, but often portray an incorrect image of the non-sabbatical world.
- [What Wouldn’t You Do?](https://exilelifestyle.com/what-wouldnt-you-do/): Asking yourself the right questions can mean the difference between happiness and a staggeringly standard lifestyle.
- [One Should Be 1](https://exilelifestyle.com/1/): A little relationship math.
- [First Chapter: Iceland India Interstate](https://exilelifestyle.com/first-chapter-iceland-india-interstate/): The first chapter from my new book, Iceland India Interstate.
- [Committing to No Commitments](https://exilelifestyle.com/committing-commitments/): Setting a limit on the duration of commitments is a great way to keep yourself evolving, but also to avoid getting locked into something you'll regret later.
- [You Should See My Car](https://exilelifestyle.com/car/): A Car Guy without a car is just a Guy. What's important is making sure that when you're just a Guy, you're still epic.
- [Finishing Things](https://exilelifestyle.com/finishing/): Finishing can be just as difficult as starting, especially when new habits have to be developed to cope with the changes that come with completion.
- [Doors that Open for You](https://exilelifestyle.com/doors-open/): Opening doors — to yourself or to your city — is a great way to get people who otherwise would walk right by to take a look inside.
- [I Didn’t Hate South Dakota](https://exilelifestyle.com/hate-south-dakota/): A chance encounter in South Dakota changes my trip — and perspective — for the better.
- [Silly Question](https://exilelifestyle.com/silly-question/): Being in transit can be as much of an adventure as living somewhere and experiencing local cultures.
- [Coping with Unlimited](https://exilelifestyle.com/coping-unlimited/): Now that we have a nearly unlimited capacity to distribute knowledge, we need new methods of managing knowledge so we can make use of that capacity.
- [Nineteen Stories](https://exilelifestyle.com/19-stories/): Sometimes the best stories are distanced, simple, and not your own.
- [A Righter Way](https://exilelifestyle.com/righter/): There's something to be said for mastery, but the path that leads there can have more twists and turns and offshoots than most people will tell you.
- [My Six Life Focuses](https://exilelifestyle.com/6-life-focuses/): The six focuses that keep me moving and motivated (and happy) are deceptively simple.
- [My Brain Rickshaw](https://exilelifestyle.com/brain-rickshaw/): Refining my own mental metaphor for myself and how I work.
- [Competing Contexts](https://exilelifestyle.com/competing-contexts/): Context can be everything, yet a strong context in a given situation is hard to achieve, and requires more than just research and discussion.
- [Riding Ducks and Chicken Internet](https://exilelifestyle.com/riding-ducks-chicken-internet/): Reflections on Kolkata, a walk around the neighborhood, enthusiastic construction workers, Easter Island and my first encounter with the Chicken Internet.
- [Lewd Conduct and the Law in Kolkata](https://exilelifestyle.com/lewd-conduct-law-kolkata/): A night on the town in Kolkata turns into a lesson about dealing with bureaucracy and bribery in a country of paperwork.
- [Hang Me Up to Dry](https://exilelifestyle.com/hang-dry/): The realities of my laundry situation don't quite meet up with my ambitions while on the road.
- [Accept Your Exceptions](https://exilelifestyle.com/accept-exceptions/): Being the exception is limiting in some ways, but liberating in others.
- [Mind Adapters, Not Mind Converters](https://exilelifestyle.com/mind-adapters-mind-converters/): It may seem like understanding another culture requires a radical change of personality, but all it really requires is the right state of mind.
- [Passport-Sized Time Machines](https://exilelifestyle.com/passportsized-time-machines/): Rumination on the stories that passport photos can tell about where you were and what you were doing at a certain point and time in your life.
- [Cursed and Accomplished in Kolkata](https://exilelifestyle.com/cursed-accomplished-kolkata/): The tale of my trials and tribulations I experienced my first two weeks in Kolkata, India, and what they mean for the rest of the 4 months I'll be living here.
- [Revenge Paninis](https://exilelifestyle.com/revenge-paninis/): In which I'm stopped, rerouted, denied sleep, forced to chase my bag around an airport and offered a panini in exchange for my silence.
- [Time Traveling Catholics and Confederate Ideals](https://exilelifestyle.com/time-traveling-catholics-confederate-ideals/): Your actions and ideas will echo through generations of revisions; be sure you give them the care and attention they deserve.
- [There Was a Time](https://exilelifestyle.com/time/): There was a time when ignorance was understandable. But not today.
- [Other People’s Stupid Opinions](https://exilelifestyle.com/peoples-stupid-opinions/): Opinions are just that, and arguing them without getting offending is a great way to learn and teach.
- [Social Games Gamers Play](https://exilelifestyle.com/social-games-gamers-play/): Video games are suddenly mainstream, and that's giving rise to a generation influenced by games in a big way.
- [Friends with Fans](https://exilelifestyle.com/friends-fans/): An overview of what it's like to have friends with fans and a quick exploration of how I think you avoid watering down your message while continuing to expand your reach.
- [Biological Limitations and Travel Buffers](https://exilelifestyle.com/biological-limitations-travel-buffers/): The biological limitations of negative emotions can be crippling, but they can also be useful if managed correctly.
- [My Exile Lifestyle: Excerpt from Argentina](https://exilelifestyle.com/exile-lifestyle-excerpt-argentina/): My Exile Lifestyle will be released July 1, but today I share an excerpt from my upcoming book and offer a way to snag a copy before everyone else.
- [One Moment in Time and the Tower Bridge](https://exilelifestyle.com/moment-time-tower-bridge/): I check the time: it's 2am. The phone is plugged into my computer, which is itself plugged into the wall. There is a big daisy-chain of gadgets soaking up as
- [Leaving a Way of Life, Not a Country](https://exilelifestyle.com/leaving-life-country/): Even if you don't go anywhere new, it's still possible to change your lifestyle by adjusting your routines and priorities.
- [I’m Totally Holding Back](https://exilelifestyle.com/totally-holding/): Sometimes holding back and not jumping headfirst into difficulty is the hardest thing you can do.
- [Entrepreneurship as a Lifestyle](https://exilelifestyle.com/entrepreneurship-lifestyle/): What would make you so excited about work that you would want to spend your off-hours working?
- [Horizon Therapy](https://exilelifestyle.com/horizon-therapy/): Sometimes all you need to achieve clarity is a calm moment and a good view.
- [The Things We Know We Can’t Know](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-things-we-know-we-cant-know/): There are things we can know and things we can't know; it's important to understand the difference and which should be focused on.
- [What You Say and How You Say It](https://exilelifestyle.com/what-you-say-and-how-you-say-it/): Your message is vital, but how you communicate it is be equally important.
- [On Not Sucking As Much](https://exilelifestyle.com/sucking/): It may not be the victory you wanted, but celebrating intermittently along the way can help you reach your goals with your sanity intact.
- [7 Days, 7 New Skills](https://exilelifestyle.com/7-days-7-skills/): Time for a new experiment, and this time I'll try to learn a new skill every day for a week.
- [Socialism, Entrepreneurs, Nipples, and Birthdays](https://exilelifestyle.com/icelandic-socialism-entrepreneurs-nipples-birthdays/): After a week in Iceland, I've already seen a bit of the entrepreneurial scene, party culture and family life.
- [A Time for Questioning What We Know](https://exilelifestyle.com/time-questioning/): An exercise with no goal, which can help when thinking about things from another perspective.
- [Extreme Lifestyle Experiments: My TEDx Talk](https://exilelifestyle.com/extreme-lifestyle-experiments-tedx-talk/): My TEDx Phnom Penh talk on Extreme Lifestyle Experiments and how they can help you gain the perspective you need to approach problems from a different angle.
- [The Life of a Wandering Fool](https://exilelifestyle.com/life-wandering-fool/): Continuously putting yourself in unfamiliar situations and feeling like an idiot is an incredibly effective way to become better informed.
- [Semantic Rationality for Try-Hards](https://exilelifestyle.com/semantic-rationality-tryhards/): Words have power, but when we twist their meaning to match our own agendas, we take that power away.
- [Today I’m Going to Party](https://exilelifestyle.com/today-party/): ...and eat two enormous doughnuts.
- [I Am Not the Center of the Universe](https://exilelifestyle.com/center-universe/): Minimalism is not the be-all, end-all, but it is a great way to remove yourself from the philosophical equation to get to the heart of what matters to you.
- [Flash Your Country Gang Sign](https://exilelifestyle.com/flash-country-gang-sign/): Simple gestures can mean the world to someone in unfamiliar territory while costing you very little or nothing.
- [Easily the Best Book Ever Written](https://exilelifestyle.com/easily-book-written/): Life is the most complex and interesting storyline ever, and seeing it as such makes everyday experiences more exciting and achievement more accessible.
- [Don’t Play Candyland, Shake Your Rubik’s Cube](https://exilelifestyle.com/play-candyland-shake-life/): There's more than one way to tackle an untouchable problem, and making changes in one area of your life can positively impact all the others.
- [So I Do](https://exilelifestyle.com/so-i-do/): It's great to want, but change can only happen if you DO.
- [Iceland](https://exilelifestyle.com/iceland/): Getting ready for my next home-base country, Iceland!
- [Moving Between Moments](https://exilelifestyle.com/moving-moments/): Life is a series of moments, and you can control how and when you change to a new one (and what that new one looks like).
- [Righteous Rectitude Requires Retained Rationality](https://exilelifestyle.com/righteous-rectitude-requires-retained-rationality/): It's a pity when good arguments are weighed down with bad-emotions. Maintain your rational stance to add strength to your position.
- [Travel-Buddies on the Journey Through Life](https://exilelifestyle.com/travelbuddies-journey-life/): Choose your travel buddies wisely, as they can make the different between a good trip and bad. Choose your friends just as carefully.
- [Secular Blogging Religions and Healthy Skepticism](https://exilelifestyle.com/secular-blogging-religions-healthy-skepticism/): There are a lot of great ideas to be found in blogs, but there are also a lot of false revolutions and market-driven over-emphasizing of ideas. Keep your wits about you.
- [Living an Iterative Life](https://exilelifestyle.com/living-iterative-life/): Dividing your time into segments and living an iterative life can greatly increase the rate of your personal evolution and the pleasure you take in living.
- [We Live in the Frickin’ Future](https://exilelifestyle.com/live-frickin-future/): Anything is possible, so long as we don't tell ourselves that it's not.
- [I Build](https://exilelifestyle.com/build/): If you are a builder, creating is a compulsion, not a choice. Giving in to that need can greatly increase your life and the lives of others.
- [More Free Time](https://exilelifestyle.com/free-time-nudity-projects/): Work is not keeping you from happiness, but having to do work you don't enjoy is. Don't be afraid of work you enjoy.
- [Painful Installation Moments and Laser Solutions](https://exilelifestyle.com/painful-installation-moments-laser-solutions/): The only thing worse than pain is routine pain, but thankfully routines are easy to break if you're willing to take responsibility for the outcome.
- [Screw Top 100 Lists and Citizen Kane](https://exilelifestyle.com/screw-top-100-lists-citizen-kane/): It's tempting to assume that movies on the top 100 lists are the best of the best, but in reality they are just antiques waiting to be cleared out to make room for new material.
- [The Dramedy Method of Personal Branding](https://exilelifestyle.com/dramedy-method-personal-branding/): The strategies that TV producers use to flesh out their characters can help you build your personal brand.
- [72 Hours of Pain, Elves, and Time-Travel](https://exilelifestyle.com/72-hours-pain-elves-timetravel/): 72 hours of intense pain leads to Twitter discussions with dead presidents, ruminations on elves and time-travel-based solution.
- [The Bomb in My Apartment](https://exilelifestyle.com/bomb-apartment/): A shift in laws and standards while traveling can force you to deep dive into your personal ethics and reevaluate your priorities.
- [Don’t Build Walls, Get Naked](https://exilelifestyle.com/build-walls-naked/): It's natural to want to defend yourself against the trials and tribulations of the world, but if you allow yourself to face these issues head-on, you'll be able to deal with them more easily in the future.
- [Happiness and Dragonfruit](https://exilelifestyle.com/happiness-dragonfruit/): Stopping and taking time to be happy may sound like a waste for ambitious types, but by skipping it, you're kind of missing the point.
- [Ethical Business Practices and Your Stomach](https://exilelifestyle.com/ethical-business-practices-stomach/): If your business ethics don't follow your personal ethics, your base is suffering and your strategy isn't sustainable.
- [Minimalism Explained](https://exilelifestyle.com/minimalism-explained/): Minimalism is an oft-misunderstood philosophy, and it shouldn't be confused with 'just getting rid of stuff.' If you do Minimalism right, though, it's likely you'll want to streamline your life, and your possessions.
- [All 55 Things I Own](https://exilelifestyle.com/55/): A gallery of all 55 things I currently own after 2 weeks in Bangkok.
- [Beards Versus Snake Oil](https://exilelifestyle.com/beards-versus-snake-oil/): While traveling, it can sometimes pay to go disguised as someone that you're not for a few days.
- [Add Seaweed to Your Brand](https://exilelifestyle.com/add-seaweed-brand/): It's important to have strong core brand values, but it's equally important to be able to bend when trying to share those values with others.
- [Home is Grad School, Abroad is Kindergarten](https://exilelifestyle.com/home-grad-school-kindergarten/): What you learn in your own country is much more advanced than what you learn overseas, but both are necessary to get the most out of either experience.
- [Habits and Planting Seeds](https://exilelifestyle.com/habits-planting-seeds/): Habits are hard to break, so plant your seeds carefully.
- [Dishonest Branding, Coke and Vitaminwater](https://exilelifestyle.com/dishonest-branding-coke-vitaminwater/): In the wake of a lawsuit over Coke's branding of their popular vitaminwater products, dishonest branding is discussed and reasons are given to brand truthfully.
- [Achieving Minimalism Through Exhaustion](https://exilelifestyle.com/achieving-minimalism-exhaustion/): If you allow yourself to become overwhelmed and pay attention, you'll find that what's really important will take center stage.
- [Idea Turbulence and Getting Through It](https://exilelifestyle.com/idea-turbulence/): Every time you want to create something new, you first have to fight the idea turbulence that derails most moves toward innovation.
- [Living Life vs Just Writing About It](https://exilelifestyle.com/living-life-writing/): Are you living life, or just writing about it?
- [The Best You Can Do vs the Best You Can Do With What’s Available](https://exilelifestyle.com/the-best-you-can-do-vs-the-best-you-can-do-with-whats-available/): With the right mentality, a limitation can become a push forward.
- [If You Want to Survive Out Here, You’ve Got to Know Where Your Towel Is](https://exilelifestyle.com/survive-towel/): Removing preconceptions about how things are done can seriously help you on the road (and in life).
- [The Human Need to Punish](https://exilelifestyle.com/human-punish/): Are you helping others, or just being a jerk?
- [Tell Me What You Are, Not What You’re Not](https://exilelifestyle.com/tell-me-what-you-are-not-what-youre-not/): Use labels that tell people what you are, not limiting labels that only tell what you're not.
- [Expectations and Experiences](https://exilelifestyle.com/expectations-experiences/): Our cultural expectations color our experiences, which can impact our futures in ways that are hard to imagine.
- [Flocks of Bloggers](https://exilelifestyle.com/flocks-bloggers/): Bloggers tend to have very different relationships with each other than non-bloggers.
- [Fence Tape and Cow Brains](https://exilelifestyle.com/fence-tape-cow-brains/): Are there fences in your life that are self-imposed, rather than being true barriers?
- [My Sordid Love Affair with New York](https://exilelifestyle.com/sordid-love-affair-york/): I love New York so much, I have to be wary, lest I move there and never leave.
- [Logos Outshine Personal Brands](https://exilelifestyle.com/logos-outshine-personal-brands/): Wearing logos is a shortcut to self-expression, but could be hurting your personal brand.
- [What Would You Do If the Internet Died Today?](https://exilelifestyle.com/internet-died-today/): The Internet is not invincible, but it is omnipresent. What would you do if it vanished today?
- [Hookahs, Babies, and One Crazy Author](https://exilelifestyle.com/hookahs-babies-crazy-author/): Realizing that you have changed your priorities can be scary and exciting at the same time, especially when you figure out that they've shifted after the fact.
- [Buses, Dating, and Coming Full Circle in Christchurch](https://exilelifestyle.com/buses-dating-coming-full-circle-christchurch/): Leaving is always hard, but it's what you got out of the experience that counts, not whether or not it's forever.
- [Being Trendy Makes You Replaceable](https://exilelifestyle.com/trendy-replaceable/): Avoid trendiness to be valuable instead of replaceable.
- [What Richard Saul Wurman and René Magritte Don’t Know](https://exilelifestyle.com/richard-saul-wurman-rene-magritte/): Sometimes the best way to approach a problem is blindly.
- [What You Can Do To Improve Your Life Right Now](https://exilelifestyle.com/improve-life/): Is there a mystery in your life that needs solving? Can you do it RIGHT NOW?
- [Don’t Build Your Own Boxes](https://exilelifestyle.com/build-boxes/): Why I didn't go bungee jumping and sat at a coffeehouse ruminating instead, and why you might consider doing the same.
- [Politicians, Here’s How To Win](https://exilelifestyle.com/politicians-win/): A modest proposal for a new way to run political campaigns against the backdrop of a backwoods New Zealand farmer's market.
- [Tall Poppy Syndrome and the Jealousies](https://exilelifestyle.com/tall-poppy-syndrome-jealousies/): There is one big hurdle other than Internet infrastructure that could hamstring New Zealand's effort to become a dominant player in international business, and this hurdle has a cute name: Tall Poppy Syndrome.
- [Number 8 Wire & Why Kiwis Will Conquer the Internet](https://exilelifestyle.com/number-8-wire-kiwis-conquer-internet/): New Zealand natives ('Kiwis') are pioneers. This makes them the perfect online entrepreneurs, so long as they can get the right infrastructure in place.
- [My Quarter-Century Crisis (of Awesomeness)](https://exilelifestyle.com/quartercentury-crisis-awesomeness/): I've come to understand that for my 25th birthday I'm supposed to go a little crazy, completely rearrange my life, change careers, take up new hobbies, end relationships, dramatically change my priorities and generally turn into a whirlwind of drastic activity, shocking friends and family with my sheer audacity and lack of respect for the rules.
- [Dogmatic Capitalism](https://exilelifestyle.com/dogmatic-capitalism/): Capitalism has a really bad reputation.
- [The Business of Throwing People from Planes](https://exilelifestyle.com/business-throwing-people-planes/): I was coerced into going skydiving while I was spending a weekend in Queenstown quite recently, and though the jumping out of a plane thing was a pleasure, the branding of modern skydiving companies is somehow even more impressive.
- [Drink to Life](https://exilelifestyle.com/drink-life/): Good writers know that to give the reader a full sensory experience, you must stimulate each of their senses.
- [Your Computers Will Have Computers](https://exilelifestyle.com/computers-computers/): One of my fondest childhood memories were the days when my dad would sit me down and teach me about Visual Basic.
- [New Zealand is So Beautiful it Makes Me Sick](https://exilelifestyle.com/zealand-beautiful-sick/): I've lived in New Zealand for almost a month now, and there are a few things that I can tell you about the place that stand out.
- [Every Day in Lima is the Best Day Ever](https://exilelifestyle.com/day-lima-day/): I'm walking down yet another wrought-iron gate-lined block. It looks exactly the same as the one before it. No wait, the spikes at the top of the gate are a little pointier on this block, and the rust is a slightly different hue.
- [Missing Pages in the Story of the World](https://exilelifestyle.com/missing-pages-story-world/): It's a strange feeling - if you stop to think about it - knowing that you're going to wake up in the future.
- [I’m a Man of Many Experiments](https://exilelifestyle.com/man-experiments/): Part of why I started traveling was so that I would be able to go through personal evolutions more quickly.
- [Cultivating a Studied Ignorance](https://exilelifestyle.com/cultivating-studied-ignorance/): I'm one of those people who has to know everything about everything.
- [Taking It In (and Not Tweeting About It)](https://exilelifestyle.com/tweeting/): One of the most difficult parts of my exile was leaving my beloved iPhone behind.
- [All 51 Things I Own](https://exilelifestyle.com/51/): One of the most popular posts ever here on Exile Lifestyle was All 72 Things I Own, wherein I took a photo of each and every object I owned in the world and was shocked to find that I had only 72 items.
- [Make Investments, Not Purchases](https://exilelifestyle.com/investments-purchases/): Before you buy something, think 'what value will this provide?'
- [Demolishing Horizons](https://exilelifestyle.com/demolishing-horizons/): I've always enjoyed taking off in an airplane.
- [The Inescapable Enormity of it All](https://exilelifestyle.com/inescapable-enormity/): Nothing you do in your lifetime will matter.
- [Exercises in Social Incorrectness](https://exilelifestyle.com/exercises-social-incorrectness/): There are many invisible but very important social rules that keep the streets clean, the lights on, and you and your neighbors alive day-to-day.
- [The Middle Class](https://exilelifestyle.com/arrogance-middle-class/): I - like a solid portion of my audience in all likelihood - come from a middle class family.

Seldom have I felt like anything in the world was out of my grasp, and I generally assume that if I want to do something, there will be a way to do it if I'm willing to work hard enough.
- [The Spiky, Geographic Nature of Success](https://exilelifestyle.com/geography-success/): When I was a wee lad, I was certain I would be the next Todd McFarlane.
- [For Real, I’m Going to Die on This Bus](https://exilelifestyle.com/real-die-bus/): It's the final day of my 72-hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Lima, and the seats around me have turned into a strip mall, my fellow passengers into skeptical (but willing) customers.
- [But Seriously Guys, This Bus Is Really Bad](https://exilelifestyle.com/guys-bus-bad/): Day two on the three day bus ride from Buenos Aires to Lima.

I've discovered a number of things today about travel and about myself.
- [Guys, This Bus Sucks](https://exilelifestyle.com/guys-bus-sucks/): The bus is late. This shouldn't be a surprise, but it is.

As a clunky green giant pulls up, looking a bit like a dilapidated, heavily curtained refrigerator from the 70's, the contrast between my ride and the other, sparkly, shiny, clean and friendly Argentine buses is clear.
- [Making a Modern Medici](https://exilelifestyle.com/making-modern-medici/): The Renaissance was a time of great intellectual and artistic prosperity; many people were pulled out of the mud and darkness of the Middle Ages and shown a bright, shiny, new future - one of endless possibilities.
- [The Bar at the End of the World](https://exilelifestyle.com/bar-world/): I'm on my third beer, this one is green.

It's the local specialty; so local in fact that it's named after the bar I'm sitting in. 'Dublin,' the label proudly reads. Made by Beagle, the brand I've been drinking since I've been here. Dublin is the only place in town where you can find other people this time of night, any day of the week.
- [All 72 Things I Own](https://exilelifestyle.com/all-72-things-own/): As a minimalist, it's important that my possessions do not own me and that what I do own serves multiple purposes, is high-quality and as sustainable as possible.
- [The Shortest Post I’ll Ever Write](https://exilelifestyle.com/shortest-post-write/): What's the perfect length for a blog post?
- [Stalking](https://exilelifestyle.com/history-stalking/): This may come as a shock to some of you, but I have a history of stalking.
- [Sentimentality is the Enemy of Evolution](https://exilelifestyle.com/sentimentality-enemy-evolution/): I was having a conversation over orange juice with one of the handful of English expats I've met since I moved to Buenos Aires, and the topic of sentimentality came up. It went something like this:
- [The Fine Art of Diving Into Traffic](https://exilelifestyle.com/fine-art-diving-traffic/): I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina 2 days ago and after a solid 18 hours on various flights between Miami, Mexico City and Santiago, I was ready to crash into anything soft and bed-like I could find. My wits were a bit scrambled, and though I was conscious enough to not get taken (too much) by the taxi driver who carted me from the airport to the downtown area, I still wasn't ready for what I would see immediately upon exiting the vehicle.
- [Missouri](https://exilelifestyle.com/missouri-long-hicks/): As I write this I'm on a shuttle between Columbia, Missouri and St. Louis, looking out the window, listening to Yelle and typing away on my tiny little netbook.
- [How to Throw a Shred Party](https://exilelifestyle.com/throw-shred-party/): Most parties are about getting together with friends, eating and drinking until you're waddling around the room, and creating new memories. But what if you're trying to bring about change? What if you want to move forward and let go of all the things that are anchoring you to the past?
- [How to Be a Consultant](https://exilelifestyle.com/consultant/): When little kids are asked what they want to be when they grow up, they usually pick something that seems exciting or heroic. If they had their way, janitors, office clerks and yard care workers would be grossly under-represented (while we would have an abundance of astronauts, firefighters, fashion designers and Presidents of the United States).
- [Goodbye LA: You Suck and I’ll Miss You](https://exilelifestyle.com/goodbye-la-suck/): As I write this I'm sitting along the periphery of the waiting area for Gate 35 at LAX airport, my worldly belongings nearly identifiable as they bulge and poke and scramble to find a way out of the carry-on bag they are piled into like refugees.
- [How to Throw a Breakup Party](https://exilelifestyle.com/throw-breakup-party/): The first question that I would usually get from people when I initially started telling them about Exile Lifestyle was "When will you be coming back?" The second question was invariably "Is your girlfriend coming along with you?"
- [Reclaiming a Scarcity Mentality](https://exilelifestyle.com/reclaiming-scarcity-mentality/): As I write this, I'm waiting for a half-dozen people to show up at my apartment so they can cart off my furniture. One lady wants my bedroom set, a younger gentleman is interested in one of my three office desks, and a couple of college students want to take a look at my one remaining bookcase.
- [Take an Unplanned Vacation](https://exilelifestyle.com/unplanned-vacation/): Today I woke up in Mesa, Arizona, went for a quick swim, ate remarkably-accurate New York-style pizza in a Southwestern town with a population of around 200, drove to the Grand Canyon, slipped on my Vibram Five Fingers and hiked a bit, slowly made my way to a Route 66 town called Williams where I downed a Blue Moon, listened to some live, twangy oldies music (sung by a mountain man), then watched Jurassic Park while relaxing in a cheapish hotel room with too many beds.
- [Limit Yourself to Expand Your Mind](https://exilelifestyle.com/limit-expand-mind/): Weve all been in situations that have been less than ideal. Your job might suck or your roommates might be a burden on your mind and your wallet. You may feel stuck in a mire of crummy college classes or weighed down by your sycophantic 'friends.'
- [Park Further Away](https://exilelifestyle.com/park-further-away-to-achieve-enlightenment/): As someone who reads a whole lot, I'm constantly discovering that there are very few new ideas, and most of the ones that claim to be are really just derivative of old ones with a new label slapped on them.
- [Learn 1 Thing from Everyone You Meet](https://exilelifestyle.com/learn-1-thing-from-everyone-you-meet/): File this under 'weird things that Colin does for fun at parties.'

In addition to playing the Meet New People game (which I'll cover in the near future), I make it a point to learn at least one completely new fact from each person I talk to when I'm out networking (also: at a friend's birthday party, attending a museum opening or really anything else where I come into contact with people).

The facts don't have to relate to anything in particular and can run the gamut from something you'd learn in a textbook to something you'd learn on prime time television to something you'd learn on the streets.
- [Nostalgia for Fun and Profit](https://exilelifestyle.com/nostalgia-fun-profit/): One of my favorite assignments in design school involved going through my old class work and re-appropriating something I had done before into something new. I took old photographs and turned them into new album covers. A once-glorious illustration became a newly-glorious social poster. A really-quite-bad infographic became a really-quite-funny t-shirt.

The idea of reaching back into your near- or distant-past for inspiration can be taken beyond scrapping old projects for new raw materials. Case in point: I'm in the process of selling off everything I own, and my trusty old guitar is sitting in the middle of my living room (which has become Purgatory for my items in transition).
- [Your 20 Minutes of Awesome](https://exilelifestyle.com/20-minutes-awesome/): If you're anything at all like me, your time is very valuable to you. You only have 24 hours in a day and ostensibly only a portion of those hours are yours to use for productive things, so you do your best to make the most of them, cut out the chaff and increase your output the best you can.

Needless to say, this kind of mindset is not conducive to breaks, naps, lollygagging or friends (just kidding on that last one….or am I!?).

But despite my own and your propensity for productivity, I want to propose a non-intuitive method for increasing effectiveness, alertness and mental health. I call it Your 20 Minutes of Awesome, and I want to tell you why you should utilize this method every single day.