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Treading Water Doesn’t Get You to the Shore
If there’s one long-term state that I won’t tolerate for myself, it’s treading water, putting out effort just to stay where I am. I want to either expend effort to move something ahead, or triage it and let it sink. If it’s important enough to me to do, I’ll put everything into it and do…
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Live Every Day Like Your First
I’ve never been a big fan of the phrase, “Live Every Day Like Your Last”. If I was going to do that, I would book the most ridiculous multi-leg flight possible, and go try to see my loved ones one last time. On the plane I would work on my will and write people tons…
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The Opportunity of Adversity
Have you ever noticed that adversity is often a good thing when spoken about in the past tense? I wrote a story a long time ago about how I got in way over my head exploring a cave in Austin. Being stuck in that cave was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do.…
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Why and How I’m Learning All the Languages
Before going to Romania, I decided I’d try to learn a bit of Romanian. By almost any measure it’s sort of a pointless language to learn, but I figured I’d get a kick out of pretending to my I didn’t speak any for a couple days, and then all of a sudden surprising my friends…
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Adventure is a Choice
Two months ago I was on a cruise ship making its way through the Mediterranean towards the Atlantic. My friend Brian and I sat down to dinner and were surprised when we were joined by two girls our age, Lucia and Andreea. Cruises aren’t exactly known for hosting people under forty, let alone pretty Romanian…
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Five Reasons I Recommend Japan to Everyone
When offering advice, I try really hard to actually give advice that’s suited for the person I’m giving it to. I make an extra effort to do this, because I know that I have a tendency to think that my way is the best way for everyone, and to just advocate my way of doing…
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Why You Should Probably Buy Bitcoins
In 2009, probably within the first couple months of its existence, I downloaded the Bitcoin client and began mining bitcoins. Back then it was really easy– you could get hundreds of Bitcoins per week for free, but they weren’t worth anything. Not wanting to waste my time, I deleted the Bitcoin client, and any bitcoins…
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Consider the Full Range of Options on Big Decisions
A lot of life is about managing focus, the battle between breadth and depth. If we take every opportunity that comes our way, we’re left with too little time and energy to make a meaningful impact on any of those opportunities, but if we put all of our eggs in one basket, we may be…
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Consequences of the Rise of Design
I was walking through the mall a couple days ago. My path took me past a bunch of stores and kiosks, including the Nike Store. I walked past it and looked at their window display. They had a really nicely photographed poster and some cool looking shoes in a bunch of different colors. The store…
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Acting in Spite of Being Clueless
One of the first presents I remember getting from my parents was a camera. I was about seven years old, and from the prints I still have, it seems that most of my photos were of my guineau pig, Muffin. There was a roll of film from my second grade class, and then there was…
