Category: Life
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You choose your game, then your game chooses you
This is part 3 in a series. You can start here, or with part 1 or part 2. When I was a kid a couple of friends and I decided to pretend to run a movie theater at the daycare we attended. We would roll up A4 papers diagonally to create popcorn containers, make signs…
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The trap and the truth
“What are your choices, if someone puts a gun to your head?” This is a question posed by senior partner Harvey Spector to his protege Mike Ross, two protagonists in Suits. Ross is explaining how a rival executive had coerced him to do something against Spector’s interest. “You do what they say, or they shoot…
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A new pair of glasses
In a delightful new essay, Derek Sivers makes the case that travel is best with young children. One of his points is the childlike sense of openness: Your child has no prejudices. This is my favorite part. I often go to places I’m biased against. Seeing them through my child’s unbiased perception, and interacting with…
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The non-essentials
Oliver Burkeman writes in The Imperfectionist: “In the strongest sense of the word “need”, you don’t really need to become more focused, or realise your creative potential, or be more patient with your kids. You wouldn’t spontaneously combust, or cause others to die, or be judged the moral equal of Vladimir Putin, if you never…
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Helping feels better when you want to help
Dr. Heidi Grant writes in Reinforcements: There’s an inherent paradox in asking someone for their help: while help freely and enthusiastically given makes the helper feel good, researchers have found that the emotional benefits of providing help to others disappear when people feel controlled—when they are instructed to help, when they believe that they should…
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Rebuilding year
Around halfway through 2019, I was really experiencing the peak of a creative block. I was working full-time at a Fortune 500, trying to run my editorial studio, and had barely enough time to write. Something had to give. Fortunately, my contract with the Fortune 500 would end in March 2020; conventionally, the Fortune 500…
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Either way, it’s gonna be difficult…
So you might as well do what you want to do, and succeed at what you want to succeed at. You may think that there are two paths; an easier one (should) and a tougher one (must). In reality though, there’s no such thing as an actual easier option. Both are gonna be tough. The…
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Load management
In 2019, during Kawhi Leonard’s championship run with the Raptors, I learned about the term, “Load management.” The British Journal of Sports Medicine defines the objective in 2016: “The aim of load management is to optimally configure training, competition and other load to maximise adaptation and performance with a minimal risk of injury. Load management…
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Help each other
A person goes on vacation and asks their neighbor to watch their pet animals. The neighbor obliges. The neighbor writes a letter after: Good afternoon, This letter is regarding your vacation two weeks ago, and how you let me babysit Smokey, Oreo, and Jennifer. I’d just like to give you a letter of thanks. As…
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Time is not money
You make your time, then your time makes you. One of the biggest misconceptions of time is that it’s spent like money. While it’s customary for us to trade our time for money (e.g., working a job), time itself actually has few properties actually related to money. Unlike money, time is not fungible. Time can…