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 it can also refer to less visible (but still potent)…
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 this can be a fairly simple solution for what are…
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 (with early-model transition lenses, so I felt pretty cool and…
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 manufacturing can offer, but it’s a really solid, relatively high-performing…
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 theory, at least. The idea is that we learn how…
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 my writings and podcasts, for instance, while folks who work…
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 you’re painting a mural, planning a big event, or raising…
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 tank, unutilized, it produces little value (beyond serving as a…
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 one (even someone who believes what I believe about the…
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. These attributes often inform each other: if you’re competent, over…