Category: Life
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Water polo and penicillin
When I was researching a new piece of work, I revisited Chase, Chance, and Creativity. Author and medical doctor James H. Austin puts forward the idea that there are four types of luck, which I covered at Lifehacker over a decade ago. Of all of these types, the one I wanted to dig deeper into…
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The infinite game of blogging: 1,000 posts later
On February 14, 2022, I started playing a game. I could win by writing a blog post every day for 100 days. Before the game, writing had felt like a chore on good days and torturous on bad days. I struggled to find my way out of the mindset of “content creation.” I started the…
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Wiggle room
The second-worst thing that can happen to a good habit is interrupting it. Let’s say you’d been running for 10 days in a row, and on the 11th you stopped for some reason. You got busy, the weather was bad, etc. The worst thing that can happen to a good habit is letting that one…
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Free coffee
The other day, I ordered a coffee at a restaurant. I sipped it slowly for 15–20 minutes, and then I asked for the bill. I waited a few minutes, and caught the manager’s eye. He said, “Sorry for the delay—don’t worry about it, it’s on the house.” The saying goes, “There is no such thing…
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Out of the comfort zone
I recently started a podcast called New Material with my friend Hamza Khan. It’s been an incredibly energizing project, and has stretched my creative abilities in all sorts of ways I couldn’t have imagined. Even though I write here every day, I mostly stay in my comfort zone. Without thinking too much about it, I…
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A reminder
The artist who created Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson, wrote a beautiful commencement speech for Kenyon College. Here’s an excerpt from it (emphasis added): But having an enviable career is one thing, and being a happy person is another. Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In…
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What went right?
The things that go wrong get the most attention. That makes sense, because somebody needs to correct them. The problem happens when the things that go wrong get all of the attention. You may even start to only notice things going wrong. Focus on the things that didn’t go wrong—the things that went right. When…
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The secret isn’t in the recipe
An apprentice is sick of his job at a high end restaurant. It pays poorly, he’s stuck doing the menial tasks, and the head chefs don’t give him any recognition or affirmation. A manager at a rival restaurant approaches him with a deal. If the apprentice steals the restaurant’s recipes, the manager will give him…
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One good reason
When something is important, one good reason is enough to make it worth a try even if there are a dozen bad reasons. When you don’t see a path to success, one good reason is enough to make something worth giving up even if there are a dozen good reasons.