When Work Stops Feeling Like Work You know that feeling when someone asks what you do for a living and you actually light up instead of giving the standard “it pays the bills” shrug? That happened to me last week…
Category: Blogging
I used to think reading was about collecting good ideas like stamps. Find the wisdom, underline the smart parts, become slightly more enlightened. Then I read a few books that didn’t make me smarter at all. They made me wrong….
The One That Made Me Question Everything I Thought I Knew About Knowing I picked up “The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan Haidt thinking I was about to read a psychology book. Turns out I was signing up for an identity…
The Teacher Who Made Me Question Everything Mrs. Chen taught AP Biology like she was personally offended by ignorance. Not in a mean way, but in the way someone gets frustrated when they see potential being wasted. She had this…
The Bookstore That Doubles as a Living Room You know that feeling when you walk into someone’s house and immediately want to curl up on their couch? That’s Powell’s Books in Portland. Not the touristy main store downtown, but the…
The Art of Spectacular Failure I keep a drawer full of creative disasters. Not metaphorically. There’s an actual drawer in my desk crammed with failed experiments: a half-melted candle that was supposed to smell like “autumn morning” but ended up…
The Uncomfortable Truth About Being Wrong I used to think admitting you were wrong was embarrassing. Like showing up to a dinner party in your pajamas or calling your teacher “mom” in front of the whole class. But somewhere between…
The Comfort Zone Is Where Good Ideas Go to Die I turned down a $15,000 consulting gig last month. The client wanted me to build something I could practically do in my sleep. Clean requirements, familiar tech stack, guaranteed success….
Your Brain on Paper Here’s something that will make you rethink that dusty notebook in your drawer. Research shows journaling literally rewires your brain for the better. Studies have found that regular writing reduces stress hormone cortisol while boosting working…
Here is the thing I keep coming back to on this. The topic of personal productivity and the anti-hustle backlash deserves more careful attention than the typical coverage provides, and the reason is not complicated once you know where to…