March 2012
1 post
3 tags
When you find yourself in an unfair system...
You can do three things about it:
Change the system.
Get on the advantaged side of unfair.
Accept it as is, move on.
October 2011
1 post
2 tags
On Politics (and Getting What You Want)
If you wanted to make $1000, you could collect and recycle aluminum cans. $0.05 a pop. Several shopping carts a day. It would add up in the long run.
But you wouldn’t.
You’re not particularly excited by the prospect of dumpster diving. It’d be vastly more interesting to make money some other way.
***
If you wanted better coffee at your neighborhood Starbucks, you could...
September 2011
1 post
2 tags
Metaphor
The boy’s hands bleed
Into the splintered wooden oars
Attached to the waterlogged raft
On which his brothers and sisters sleep
As he rows through the darkness
Over rough and uncharted waters
Watching the waves on the horizon
Threaten to wash away everything and everyone he’s fought dearly to protect.
August 2011
2 posts
2 tags
“Self-discipline is not self-suppression. Suppression is when you resist and...”
– David Deida, The Way of the Superior Man
3 tags
The Golden Ticket
I tell you the difference between me and them
They tryin’ to get they ones, I’m tryin’ to get them M’s
One million, two million, three million, four
In just five years, forty million more
A deep psychological riff separates you from the homeless bum on the street. You might think it obvious that any able person can work a job and make a living. If the bum believed that,...
July 2011
5 posts
2 tags
Peace of Mind
=
“This too shall pass.”
+
“When in doubt, take responsibility.”
2 tags
Why I don't discuss politics
Imagine a circle.
You’re in the center. Your family and closest friends form the innermost ring. Your acquaintances form the next ring. Your community, your city, your country form the ones beyond that. Keep going in this fashion until you reach the edge: all of humanity, the world, the universe.
Now look back to the center. How far does your influence actually stretch? For most of...
1 tag
Don't be a schmuck
A schmuck is someone who hasn’t earned your respect. A schmuck is clueless — an outsider who violates unspoken rules of the game. A schmuck is beyond saving.
Schmucks don’t get their business plans read. Schmucks don’t get their texts returned. Schmucks don’t get your full attention in conversation.
The thing is… we’re all schmucks to somebody.
The key...
2 tags
Reject Suffering
We are all capable of feeling pain and doubt and loneliness and exhaustion. I urge you, however:
Refuse to allow yourself to suffer.
Pain is a reaction to the environment. It’s your body’s way of sending a message: “Don’t touch the fire” or “Eat something.”
Suffering, however, is submission to pain. It’s allowing yourself to play the victim,...
4 tags
Impractical Truth vs. Effective Lies
The bigger your world view, the smaller you know you are.
Sheltering yourself in a bubble doesn’t make you any bigger.
But it does make you feel bigger. And that allows you to act bigger.
This is why science will lose to fundamentalism.
May 2011
2 posts
1 tag
The Owner's Mindset
A simple mental exercise:
Imagine that you financially own your surroundings. The building you’re in, the street it’s on, the land deed itself — all under your name. The people around you are employees and loved ones — your tribe, your people. The bathroom towels and the paper stationary bear your mark. Pat yourself on the back, Mr./Ms. Monopoly Moneybags. You’ve done well.
...
2 tags
Your Life, As a Widget Factory
Input and output. Efficiency and yield. These are words that I unexpectedly found myself using while thinking about recent work/life progress.
Yes, it’;s brutally objective. Sure, it’s heartless and inhuman. Yet that’s precisely why I found the “my life as a factory” analogy useful in this situation - because most of us have a tendency to sugar-coat our mistakes and...
April 2011
1 post
2 tags
Social Self-Suppression
Every morning, thousands of bleary-eyed commuters stand shoulder to shoulder with complete strangers on Boston’s subway system (the “T,” as we lovingly call it). It makes for a fascinating display of social norms.
An interesting phenomenon occurs whenever a seat is vacated on the T. If there’s an elderly passenger nearby, nothing surprising happens, and the seat is...
March 2011
1 post
1 tag
Wrong About Everything
It’s possible that I’m wrong about everything.
Perhaps individuals have no right to aspire to great deeds. Ambitious thoughts might be the hallmark of narcissists and elitist pigs, and it might be the meek and mild-mannered who are the most accomplished in life.
Perhaps the future has already been written. My daily struggle against the status quo could be nothing more than the...
February 2011
3 posts
2 tags
Roman Emperors, Peacock Theory, and Why Your Life...
I’ve loved biographies ever since I was young: Benjamin Franklin, Marcus Aurelius, Alexander of Macedon… Their stories taught me that there are no limits to what man can accomplish.
More recently, such reading made me realize a startling fact:
No matter how much a man accomplishes in life – at best, history remembers him as a singular, exaggerated incident: He was the first U.S....
2 tags
The Modern Feudal System
In the past, you had to be born into nobility. If you were, you could control the land, the wealth, and the armies. And leveraging these, you could shape the world in any way you pleased.
If you were born into the peasantry, you were less fortunate. Your opportunities were limited to the craft you were born into. Your duty was to serve obediently and to raise your children to do the same.
...
1 tag
The Rise and Fall of Joey - A Tragicomedy in 5...
ACT I
Teacher: Work hard. Put in your dues. You’ll be rewarded when you grow up.
Joey: Okay. Can I go to the bathroom?
Teacher: No.
ACT II
College Dean: You’re graduated now.
Joey: Woohoo!
Bank: You owe us $100,000.
ACT III
Jenny: Wanna go travel the world, make art, and live out our dreams?
Joey: Can’t, gotta pay off these loans. Wanna get married, buy a house,...
December 2010
3 posts
3 tags
Fighting Off the Slog Monsters
You’ve probably experienced this before: a month of nonstop action - pure get-shit-done momentum mixed with caffeine and a vague sense of the days whizzing by.
Then, BOOM, all of a sudden, you hit a wall. It’s not that there’s no more work to be done. It’s not that you’ve reached your physical limit. For reasons you can’t quite identify, you’re stuck in...
4 tags
Why Every Atheist Should Go to Church
Last week, I attended church voluntarily for the first time.
As you might know, I didn’t grow up with religion. How did I feel in the midst of a hundred people who saw life differently than I?
You might be surprised - I felt completely at home. In part this was because the congregation at Reunion Boston was extremely warm and gracious, but beyond that - it was the commonalities that we...
3 tags
A Simple Hack for Advancing Your...
Ever been frustrated by your own seeming lack of discipline when it comes to working on long term goals?
If you’re familiar with the Four Quadrants method, these are goals that fall under the “Important, but Not Urgent” quadrant, containing activities such as exercise, keeping in touch with mentors, working on future income sources, etc.
I used to struggle with this as well....
November 2010
1 post
1 tag
Do You Drink Your Own Kool-Aid? (draft)
When I first decided to leave college, I knew that I was closing the door on a lot of potential futures. I was walking away from friends I would never get to know well, teachers I never would meet, parties I would never experience. Most significantly, I was forfeiting the two-lines of all-important credentialing on my resume, automatically excluding me from most lower and mid-level corporate...
August 2010
1 post
1 tag
Selfish Trophies
There are some things in life that are truly worth winning. Whether that’s a contract, a new friend, or a charity raffle, these are things that bring tangible value into our lives. You feel good about them and other people can understand why you feel good about them.
Then there are things that you want for the sake of wanting. Maybe it’s a particular brand of clothing. Maybe...
July 2010
5 posts
2 tags
Freewrite #3
It’s not hard to figure out what you need to do. What’s hard is keeping yourself actually accountable.
Even though I suspect there’s something very human about the casual nonchalance about following up and shipping, I think it’s also something that’s “easily” overcome.
Motivation.
You get diagnosed with cancer.
You lose a good friend to alcoholism.
...
2 tags
750 Words
We often see technological solutions that have or are out to replace their real-world equivalents. The most obvious example of this is email, which has by and far replaced most other forms of written communication.
But as a sign of the times, it’s not uncommon these days for general tech solutions to be replaced by more specific, relevant apps.
The reason I bring this up is because this...
3 tags
Teaching Newbies to Program
Never thought I’d say this, but I’m quite proud of this email. File this away under “inspired.” (Cross posted from the Boston Ruby email list)
Original Question:
Does anyone else have any suggestions for teaching complete newbs ruby based
web programming?
My Response:
I’ve been teaching myself Rails (more recently CakePHP for work) for
the last 3...
1 tag
Freewrite #2
So it’s past my bedtime, and I owe myself a magnificent 300 word blog entry. Is this post worth missing 30 minutes of sleep, throwing off my sleep cycle, and waking up groggy for?
To me, it’s not even a question. The real question is: What kind of human being would I be if I didn’t follow through?
Integrity, as I define it, is the act of living according to one’s true...
1 tag
Freewrite #1
I’m just going to start writing. Without an outline. With only the vague glimmer of an idea, lighting my path light like a tiny cell phone display in a pitch dark hallway.
Sometimes a plan is too restrictive. When you box yourself up with carefully sculpted to-do lists and roadmaps, you turn off the part of your brain that makes random connections pop into your head. You’ve already...