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 left your previous state behind, you haven’t yet arrived in…
First 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 stripped away. The term is similar when applied to the…
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 to prepare myself something nice, to acquire the right ingredients,…
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 about a world beyond my business, beyond LA, beyond the…
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 other terms: fulfillment, pleasure, contentment, and satisfaction, among them. Homing…
A Year of 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 my life. One thought that’s been immensely useful to me…
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, but it tends to assuage some of the downsides of…
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 of the buttons on my favorite polo—a shirt I’d owned…
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 in other realms of inquiry and to invest portions of…
Self-Reported
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 my apartment’s WiFi. It keeps track of movement, and seems…