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 people have lots of secrets. Some people keep more things secret than others. And some people's secrets are way more interesting than others.

My dad's profession was filled with super interesting secrets. But I didn't begin to sense this until I was at least seven or eight.

My dad was a psychoanalyst, the strict Freudian kind. And his patients were respected members of the local community. On the surface, they might seem untroubled. But below the surface, they had issues.

My dad's patients had stuff rattling around in their heads that they didn't want to discuss with the so-called "normal people" in their lives. 

So they visited my dad four times a week, laid down on his couch, and unburdened themselves while he sat behind them scribbling notes.

Eventually, I’d discover that a lot of the secrets my dad's patients kept, they kept from themselves. 

And that's one super-interesting thing I've spent my whole life reflecting upon... 

The most interesting secrets are the ones we keep from ourselves.