There's a limited number of times you can hug your parents, kiss your partner, say "I love you" to those who matter most. You can almost always raise the number as long as it isn't zero. But once it's zero, the opportunity is gone forever.

We will all die soon, and most everyone dies sooner than they want. Health degrades, the mind slips, things fall apart. We don't have that much time we may want to do in life: Maybe have good health, a good relationship, a family, a career. Maybe write a book, run a marathon, play guitar, learn a language. On average, it will take 5-10...

Yes adds stress, but no makes life go slow. Think about all the times in life you were stressed because you turned down an opportunity. The stress of never having that kid, of never working for that jerk, of the relationship that never was. Maybe some nos add stress (like turning down a well earned vacation), but "yes" is the one that ...

It's a lie that time speeds up as we get older. The truth is that time starts flying when we start forgetting When we're young everything is new. We're discovering life itself, love, how to interact with society. First we learn the world, then the people, then the patterns We discover new things: crushes and games and books and travel ...

The most important things in life are often the easiest, especially if someone isn't afraid to stand out It's easy to be a great friend, child, parent, lover, boss. You just have to care about the other person, and caring more makes you better. Everything else follows this simple rule This revelation hit me about after two things this ...

Success in all its shapes and forms is founded in disbelief For me it was disbelief about happiness, about money. At 19 I had a 45-minute commute to make $9/hour. I was unhappy, broke, and had a mini fridge for a gut. The only way I could have had a kid would have been immaculate conception because no one was laying this guy. So why we...

Ideas and implementation get confused when planning a new feature. "We should allow our users to do this" turns into "We should allow them to do it this way" Sometime this way is bad. Of course it is: the impmementation is a first draft. It needs some attention still But the idea is good It's natural to focus on the how (implementation...

My day today started at noon yesterday. 36 hours later, I'm getting to my hotel. What for many would have been a stressful travel day (multiple buses, flights, layover delays, and a shuttle) was for me a nice few hours to relax It was during an extended layover (with several delays) that I met a sales rep for software companies. She in...

"Productivity" as it's taught today is a loud, confused thing. Ice baths, cold plunges, sauna sits, forest bathing, dopamine fasting, actual fasting, waking up at 5am. This is doing everything but being productive. It's huffing your own keto-infested farts, all in the name of making yourself more disciplined, more fulfilled, more produ...

A woman was trying to travel to see her family. One son, a flight attendant, could get her a cheap flight on his airline. He delayed until the last minute when he booked a flight with few open seats. Because of the nature of the ticket (called "flying standby"), the woman showed up to the airport... and couldn’t get on her flight. It w...

I started crying when the halls were silent. Shoes off. A man was kneeling at the end of the room, head touching the floor before coming back up. The walls were tiled, the ceilings domed, rising stories and stories above my head. We don’t build things like this any more, I thought. What have we lost? I was in a mosque, and not even one...

I turned 21, ran a marathon, and left the country three weeks later. Just a few months before I was struggling to run three miles without stopping, and I had never traveled outside of the USA (except on a cruise to Mexico, which doesn't really count). But my life as a college dropout turned insurance salesman wasn't going so great (rea...

The older we get as a society, the more it seems like we're trying to go back in time Civilized countries try to become democratic The rich try to have power and avoid taxes We work hard in the city hoping to spend more time in nature We work from our computers thinking about our workouts later We’ve become "civilized" by taking steps ...

Nature used to captivate me. The call of a bird, the peak of a volcano, the color of a flower. I would stop and stare at nature for hours. Evening after evening passed on my deck under the swaying trees. It started when I stopped sitting outside. I would say there were mosquitos, or it was cold, or I had things to do. But mosquito seas...

I've had a guitar for a few years. Sometimes it's rested on a peg, sometimes on the floor. It's usually anywhere other than in my hands. I want to play. I'd love to sit down with an instrument and make it sing. But I don't need it. I'll be content with my lack of guitar skill if I die tomorrow. I dipped my toes in the water and would l...

If we are the navigators of our own fate, then the past is the wind in our sails. It pushes us, often fights against us, and sometimes is at our back, pushing us ahead. The past is hard to escape. Perhaps it's impossible. I don't know anyone who has ever left their past behind, not really. Most everyone is weighed down by parents they ...

I was quitting college, "taking a break, just for a year." I still remember the day I told my dad. We were in his car, at a stop light, waiting to turn left. "I'm worried for your future," he said. Seven years later I remember. The pain, the insecurity. It's hard for a kid to stand up to their parents and, more by nurture than nature, ...

"I never tell lies." Who do you think will be the first person to lie to you? "I hate drama." Who do you think is the drama queen? "Democratic Republic of North Korea." Guess which country is neither a democracy or a republic. The parent who is a bully is hiding their own insecurity. The person who shows their wealth often has the leas...