Never trust the government (including politicians) to pay off/forgive your loans, provide timely unemployment benefits, stop crime, or save you. Wake up early and get started. Life is more about management than consumption. Focused work is worth more than just dedicating time to projects. Multitasking =distracted. Don’t make the same mistake twice. Finding your style […]
Category: Reflections
Hiking mountains and killing Goliaths
We live life with churning fears: It could be public speaking, not being good enough, or never finding love. To ensure we live life to the fullest, people typically make bucket lists of things they’ve always wanted to accomplish. Often, it’s when they’ve had a jarring experience when they nudged death’s door. We should also […]
Humans have a terrible riskometer
Life is about managing risks. Human beings constantly face scarce resources and are expected to manage our time, money, and efforts in an uncertain future. Unfortunately, we’re trash at that– we’re risk-averse– meaning that people feel losses greater than gains. For example, the lifetime chance of dying from heart disease is 1 in 6, according […]
No more privacy
The scariest part of the future will possibly be the elimination of privacy through the state’s facial recognition program in cameras strewn throughout the United States in apartments, grocery stores, and parks. And it’s already started. Over 700 private businesses, churches, and gas stations, over 500 traffic lights in Detroit participate in Project Green Light, […]
The second flood
The world may have flooded long ago, ripping away and changing most features of the earth’s features, but we currently live in a world inundated by mostly useless information. To keep from being swept away, we have to drive stakes into essential tasks, less we spend our limited time on earth completing worthless tasks. There’s […]
ultramarathons, life goals, and anti-fragility
There are three overlapping habits for those who excel in their fields: they exercise regularly, read often, and wake up early. Each activity forces the participant to push themselves through something that isn’t necessarily pleasant. Waking up at 5 a.m. may not spark joy. Neither may exhausting your muscles lifting weights or finishing a marathon […]
the best skills in the next 10 years of work
If you think COVID-19 defaced the idea of work as we know it, buckle up for the next 10-20 years– it’s gonna get crazy. The world has been dominated by left-brained people: think lawyers, accountants, and engineers. In the last 40 years, parents have encouraged children to get good grades, go to college, and get […]
Care for your inner garden
I don’t have a green thumb, but I’ve recently discovered the vitality to tending my inner garden. In Arianna Huffington’s book “Thrive,” she talks about a third less-known metric by which to measure your life. Most people equate success to money and power, but Huffington dishes out a third: self-care. Many may see this as […]
age of distraction
We’re constantly battered by distractions, from youtube advertisements to robocalls. In 2007, the research firm Yankelovich estimated that an average person saw up to 5,000 ads per day, and I bet that’s more than doubled by today. Humans eat, drink, and consume much more than is necessary to distract us from what we’re meant to […]
purpose and independence
There’s a great thing about starting at the bottom rung in many circumstances. The beauty is that you scratch and claw your way over the most harrowing obstacles. That bottomless hunger and determination to utterly eat shit is irreplaceable and often lost as you age. People become complacent. They give up dreaming and surrender working […]