Tag: Mindset

There’s some fundamental human attraction to permanence. We want relationships to be permanent, achievements to hold their importance permanently, and for our possessions to be ours permanently. When we break up, when our accomplishments are forgotten, or when something is lost, stolen, or sold, we feel a loss. Good reasons to value permanence exist. It…

Last Thursday, four of the owners of the island converged there to tackle the biggest task so far: build the yurt. Things started going poorly even before we got there. Brian came down with a sinus infection and a 103 degree fever. He is the physically strongest of our foursome and also probably the most…

Is there anyone who isn’t busier than they think they should be? I work alone and have a ton of free time, and yet even I feel like I’m constantly doing something I have to do. But it’s never something I have to do because it’s been handed down from on high– it’s because I’ve…

I played the World Series of Poker for the first time in 2011. Having been consistently winning at the biggest stakes available in San Francisco (which are a lot lower than the biggest stakes in Vegas), I wondered if I might have a shot at showing well in the tournament. The World Series of Poker…

On a regular basis, I’m surprised to find that what I think I want isn’t actually what I want. Last night I found out that there was a caving tour here in Budapest. The pictures looked great, and so I emailed the people that run the tour. They confirmed that they had spots available the…

The most common reaction to seeing us young folk on the cruise was to compliment us on our performance the previous night. Apparently all young people look the same, and the dance corps was also a young group of people aboard the ship. The second most common reaction was to ask us what in the…

Today a friend showed me a video where an IKEA print was put into a Dutch art gallery. Patrons were asked about the piece in a hilarious and bumbling volley of art-speak. One guy said he’d pay no more than $2.5M for it. My friend asked me if I’d heard about the study where they…

I remember when I wrote my first book. A friend told me I should do it, he was more financially successful than I was, and so I figured I may as well just do what he said. It was a daunting idea, but I thought that since so many other people had written books, I…

I stare at my phone’s clock. My watch isn’t accurate enough for situations like this. Up the street I look for the bus, the one with the happy-looking dog on it. It’s 3:22, and the bus was supposed to be there a minute ago. Normally I wouldn’t expect that sort of on-time performance, but this…

It’s got to be on millions of people’s bucket lists. It was on mine, too. My friends and I were going to Jordan, and my one must-do was to go to Petra, the famous city carved from rock in a canyon. And yet, as we were about to go, I didn’t want to go anymore.…