Category: Turning Stories
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You can always choose to be calm
When your mind is preoccupied, it believes that there isn’t even time to breathe. Your body breathes anyway, though, whether you’re mindful of it or not. Specific academic estimates vary, though it’s clear that the range is somewhere between 10,000 to 20,000 times per day. Breathing is the most natural thing in the world, even…
Herbert Lui
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Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice is permanent
Ty Dolla $ign released his new album a week ago, Tycoon. It was an occasion for me to reflect on my interview with him. In 2016, when we shot the interview, Ty had already gained a fair amount of momentum in his career, which he has sustained in the nine years since. Ty’s still best…
Herbert Lui
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Every day is an opportunity to improve a skill and create momentum
If you want to learn to cook, you have three meals a day to try. If you want to improve your writing, you can publish on the internet anytime. Try once a day or once a week. If you want to get better at speaking, you can practice with the people around you. You can…
Herbert Lui
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Don’t let a misunderstanding distract you from your goals
In 2018, Louis Vuitton announced that the company had appointed Virgil Abloh as its new artistic director of menswear. It was a triumphant moment for Virgil, streetwear, and a new generation of designers and customers. One day, as Virgil was going to work, he was denied entry by a security guard. When Virgil recalled this…
Herbert Lui
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When you do interesting things, you learn to make boring things interesting
One useful piece of advice I came across early on in my writing career was to do interesting things. I travelled cheaply with friends. I met artists and authors. I worked with tech companies at the forefront of software, like Shopify and Figma. I moved out of the suburbs to downtown Toronto, then to Hong…
Herbert Lui
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If optimizing for commitment doesn’t work for you, optimize for balance instead
Early in his career, Philip Glass’s commitment to becoming a composer earned him a Fulbright scholarship to study in Europe. His scholarship covered his tuition fees with Nadia Boulanger, a revered music teacher and composer. Money was a constant concern, though. As he traveled through Europe, he mostly visited churches and cemeteries because they cost…
Herbert Lui
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Treat your morning ritual like an opening chess move
Life throws curveballs at you. A problem might come up in the evening that needs to wait until the next morning. An evening of sleep might be interrupted, or you might wake up earlier than you’d expected and not be able to fall asleep. Perhaps you want to get some fresh air in the morning.…
Herbert Lui
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Even if the doctor recommends doing nothing, the visit will be worth it
A lot of people—particularly men—visit the doctor less than they need to. I’ve heard some friends tell me that they’re too busy, and the doctor often sends them home without much intervention. There’s a low probability of the condition getting worse, and intervention introduces complications. Doctors even have a term for this, “the tincture of…
Herbert Lui
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A dollar is a dollar, except what it means when you earn it
Money is known to be identically exchangeable. Grocery stores will accept any dollar you pay them. How you got the money is none of their business. However, earning the dollar can be, altogether, a different situation. A dollar you earn doing work you hate, is very different from a dollar you earn for something you…
Herbert Lui
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You will have something worth saying after you write, not before
There is a sensible piece of advice that goes, write only when you have something to say. This is not useful for me. The more I write, the more I think and learn, and then the post becomes worth writing. When I write, I find something to say. If I write every day, I have…
Herbert Lui