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 getting a solid 8-hours of sleep and waking up at…
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 someone has to (and the responsibility somehow fell on our…
Adult Friendships
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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 sugars, fats, and sodium. Sometimes we pursue things because we…
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 that book you’ve been dreaming up, you spend all your…
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 to focus on exploration, understanding, and interest. As technologies, cultural…
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 to fund my own creative explorations and growth. Sometimes this…
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 initial response is predicated on our existing musical taste and…
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 will be for!), speaking to the same people every day,…
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 person might hoard. And because accumulation feels good, triggering biological…