Love is an important concept, but it's mostly a feeling. So, it's hard to answer this question. But, having said that, here's my attempt... To "love someone" means seeing them, not through their faults or weaknesses, but rather through their potential abilities or potential accomplishments. To love someone deeply is to see what they mo...

What we don't know usually winds up hurting us. Because if we don't pay attention to why things happen then we never learn the lesson about the dangers of ignorance. We have trouble learning any lesson that requires us to (1) step outside our self-focused frame of reference (2) dwell on failures and unpleasant feelings and (3) reflect ...

Sixteen years after Hurricane Katrina pummeled New Orleans, we got pummeled again by Ida. Back in 2005, I wrote this blog post predicting that "massive change was coming" to the city. That turned out to be true. Change came. And it was sudden, harrowing, and frightening. Intense hurricanes are like that. Waiting for the impact is scary...

My family had a bunch of well-kept secrets. And so, from an early age, I became fixated on figuring out what was being kept secret, or just not discussed. I learned that if you looked at things superficially you'd miss a lot. I didn’t want to miss anything, especially the stuff that people tried to keep secret. I learned that most peop...

Creativity is a strange process. You know you want to create something. But you're not sure exactly what. To escape the dread of uncertainty you’ll eagerly embrace any diversion. That keeps you from noticing the feeling of dread. But you can't stop feeling the dread unless you start to create. Even then it doesn't go away completely. T...

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” — George Bernard Shaw Yes, this is and has been the biggest problem for a long time. And so one wonders: what is the main cause of miscommunication? Short answer: lack of empathy. People have trouble imagining other people’s point of view. We have tr...

I have a strong bias against organized religion. However, I do believe in God. Not the fairy tale, anthropomorphic God who is the main character in populist propaganda. But a different kind of "God." I believe god is a universal spiritual force which, like gravity, is invisible and omnipresent. A spiritual force that exerts influence o...

Attention is a wave we ride to joy or despair. When we focus on joyful things we experience joy. When we focus on troublesome things we experience despair. It's so simple and so obvious and yet it's insidious that our happiness is buffeted by what we pay attention to. Now the objectors will say, "We pay attention to what we experience....

My first real boss was Judge Duplantier. He was the first person I ever worked for directly. And it was my first “important” job. Unlike when I worked as a waiter at Commander’s Palace. There, I had lots of people “above me,” but no one I reported to directly. And I didn’t think of my waiter job as being all that important, other than ...

My first real job was working at Commander’s Palace, which I started doing my last year of college. I needed to make good money and I heard that the pay at Commander’s was really good, and that they paid you every day right after work in cash. But part of what made it my first “real job” is that I got the job without any references. Wh...

My mom had an uncanny sense of how best to encourage me—especially when I was stuck with something. And what I was mostly stuck with when I was young was school. I didn't do well in school, and I felt embarrassed and ashamed about it. I also felt anxiety about "not doing what I was supposed to do." At the fancy school I went to, the pr...

I hate friction. But I abhor, detest and completely loath superfluous friction. What's friction? Well, lots of things: • traffic jams • computer problems • people in my way when I'm trying to move down a store aisle • not remembering where I put something I need • not being able to solve a problem • dealing with paper receipts • being ...

I like exploring new tech stuff. Technology has showered me with amazing tools, opportunities and insights. But I’m not gonna lie: there’s a cost to chasing new tech. Shiny object syndrome, they call it. And I’ve been dragged down by it for sure. But to me it’s a tolerable tradeoff. So I soldier on into the scrum. And sometimes I hit p...