Category: Turning Stories
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Let the small stuff slide
There’s a book with a great title, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff. It has been recommended to me by family and good friends on separate occasions. The hard part is applying the title: actually not sweating the small stuff. It means letting the bit of discomfort roll off you, when it, unchecked, would drive you…
Herbert Lui
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Maladaptive frugality, at Hacker News
Maladaptive frugality hit the front page of Hacker News. The ensuing discussion resonated with me a lot, and these two comments were the most relatable: Amarant wrote, “Whenever I have something a little extra in my fridge, most often Italian prosciutto, I refrain from eating it, instead saving it for a “special occasion” even though…
Herbert Lui
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Just another name on another list
In the pilot of Hacks, after celebrating her 2,500th show, the protagonist Deborah Vance is a seasoned comedian who is kicked out from her years-long Vegas residency. Spoiler alert: At the end of season four, after she achieves her dream of being the first woman to host late night TV, she must decide to either…
Herbert Lui
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Adventure starts when everything goes wrong
“The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong—that’s when adventure starts,” Yvon Chouinard says. It drew to mind my first trips. At some point, you may feel like your back is against the wall, and they’re closing in. Everything is falling apart. That’s a sure sign your next adventure is about…
Herbert Lui
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Resumption matters, now more than ever
Change is happening faster. A useful term to describe this is future shock. These days, interruptions take place much more often. For example, during the two years between 2020 and 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted all of our lives. In my own efforts to avoid getting COVID-19, I paused many routines I’d taken for granted,…
Herbert Lui
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Maladaptive frugality
I recently decided to, finally, have my iPhone fixed, only to realize a few hours later that my AppleCare could have covered it. I was in a low mood until my partner suggested that I was robbing myself of a good decision. The iPhone needed fixing, and procrastinating on it wasn’t useful. Deciding to do…
Herbert Lui
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Sometimes, it goes before it works
A few months ago, an entrepreneur and I were discussing their content strategy. He described his team and approach to me. I told him, it sounds like it was working. “No, it’s going. It’s not working,” he replied. That distinction resonated with me. Many times, projects and practices won’t produce the results you seek right…
Herbert Lui
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Take yourself seriously
You want to make a change in your life. You might not have someone in your life who takes your drive to do that seriously. That matters less than you think. You may feel sad about it, or even grumble occasionally, but you don’t need to let it stop you. You can take yourself seriously.…
Herbert Lui
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Clarify your definition of success
Over a decade ago, I joined Lifehacker to work as a writer. The job required me to pitch and write three short stories per day, and two longer essays per week. While that’s a huge quantity of posts, the actually challenging part was finding stories that hadn’t already been covered by Lifehacker. All the easy…
Herbert Lui
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Easier done than said
AI has flipped the saying, “Easier said than done,” on its head. Nowadays, many things are easier done than said. For example, if you’re starting a business, you can ask Claude Code, Lovable, or another prototyping solution to generate an app pretty quickly. A lot of people do. So, what should you actually build? What…
Herbert Lui