Year: 2014
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Having Very Few Constraints
A friend asked my yesterday why I do so many crazy things. What’s my raison d’etre? He mentioned a few specific examples, and I had reasons for each, but those reasons weren’t similar to each other. I’ve been thinking about it since then, though. Is there some universal motivator that’s behind everything I do? If…
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Cogs in the System
I used to think that it was a really bad idea to be a cog in the system. I thought this for two reasons. First, I was personally averse to being a cog in any system, and of course any preference I have is the right one to have. Second, there were a ton of…
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Things Besides Money and Time
We’ve started a new tradition on our cruise called BLunch, which stands for Business Lunch. One member of our gang presents some background on their business, followed by the biggest challenge they’re facing, and then receives feedback from everyone else. We all take it seriously, and the group is comprised mostly of entrepreneurs, so the…
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The Traveling Yuppie
The other day Todd and I were sitting in a cafe. Next to us was a guy who appeared to be a typical San Francisco yuppie. I wouldn’t have talked to him, but Todd is more extroverted than I, so pretty soon we were chatting away. He had overheard us talking about travel, so that’s…
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Decoupling Your Finances
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m pretty frugal. I like spending money on things like the island, travel, and good food, but I also like saving money. I spend very little money frivolously, and don’t have an overwhelming appetite for luxury. I don’t make much money, either. I’m content to have enough income to fund my…
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How To Make Lots of Great Friends
Sometimes as a plane takes off, or a line for a bus inches forward, I occupy myself by making a mental list of things I’m grateful for. The list is never-ending, but the item on the list that I’m always most grateful for are the people in my life, my friends and family. I don’t…
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The 2014 Transpacific Cruise
The end of a long cruise always feels a bit unfair. It doesn’t seem right that tomorrow morning I’ll be unceremoniously dumped onto the pier in Yokohama, Japan. Over the past fifteen days I’ve become accustomed to my new social circle of nine friends and a couple thousand senior citizens. The new routines we’ve made…
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Believing Your Own Hype
Today I got selected as one of the first Amtrak residents. The original pool was narrowed down from sixteen thousand to just over one hundred, and then again to twenty four. This event makes it increasingly difficult to push away the idea that I might actually be a good writer. I was flattered, but not…
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When to be Stubborn
Some of the most interesting attributes are those that are both good and bad. A simple prescription of elimination of the attribute or building it isn’t sufficient. Instead we must learn to manage it, blunt the negatives and channel the positives. Stubbornness is one such attribute, and it’s one that I’m perhaps too intimately familiar…
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Building Empathy
There are some skills you have to build only because you’re so bad at them. Mediocrity can go overlooked, but we’re reminded of our biggest weaknesses constantly, either directly or through the reactions of others. For me, one such weakness was the inability to empathize. I may have realized that my way wasn’t always right…
