The thing about working in a growing company is that you have to be ok with working around more and more people. People are lovely, but they can make focused work a bit difficult, especially in open office plans. And […]
Design-oriented companies like Invision should be sponsoring designers who post frequently on portfolio sites like Dribble. Halloween costume stores should sponsor cosplayers and great amateur costume artists. Spotify should be sponsoring playlist creators – great way to incentivize and reward […]
Through a strange series of twists and turns, I’ve become a sort of de facto A/V guy at my company. And largely my colleagues have been content to be dependent on me when the use of a microphone is involved. […]
Committing a plan or a value to spoken word or written word is a powerful act, and it always has consequences. Even if you have an idea you haven’t acted upon yet – say, a vacation to Puerto Rico – […]
Mick Jagger is a great-grandfather. Yet I suppose he still gets up on every tour date and sings about how he can’t get no satisfaction. There are countless bands and older musicians who (despite being well past their prime) still […]
Today I had fascinating conversations with strangers across several spectrums of life. I spoke with runners about their favorite races, and I asked a race organizer about what it takes to organize a running event (lots of relationship-building). I spoke […]
Here’s an old principle that is often forgotten: “he who takes the king’s coin becomes the king’s man.” This wisdom has many layers. The most common understanding is that taking pay from another person or group reduces your independent judgment […]
The other night “Dancing in the Street” came on in Publix while I was doing my grocery shopping. Naturally, I sang along. Then I walked past the dude from the meat department (or some other Publix employee). I kept singing. […]
A new acquaintance recently started to get into the habit of daily blogging, and she sent over some excellent questions to get my thoughts. Here are my answers (in case there are more writers out there considering the habit): 1. […]
This weekend I hung out with a few retriever dogs brought out to fetch doves at a hunt on my family’s farm on John’s Island. I saw one dog who had been hunting for what must have been 14 years. […]
Today I went on two unsuccessful hunts. In the morning I missed a shot at a grazing doe (a deer, a female deer). In the afternoon I sat with little activity on a dove hunt – with missed opportunities and […]
Shockingly evil things + news often seem to defeat good things + good news in the war for human attention, especially on social media, TV, etc. There’s one silver lining to all this, though: The good is going to have […]
Good fiction is a lot like case law. Stick with me here. You’ve probably been in moral dilemmas before that are harder than some court cases. And you’ve had to play the judge. Should you cover up a friend’s misdoing? […]
The future is uncertain, but what is done well is done well. I’ll always have the Christmases with my grandparents, the movie nights with my father, the books read with my mother, the balls thrown to my dog, and the […]
It’s one kind of experience to drive down a country road. It’s another to drive down a country road while listening to “Country Roads, Take Me Home.” It’s one thing to work on a project late into the night. It’s […]
Do you ever feel stuck or unsure where to begin on a creative problem or work task? Whenever this happens to me, I find it helpful to open up a Google doc and start spitting out random ideas. Why is […]
When I was younger, I used to enjoy riding Pharaoh’s Fury at the Coastal Carolina fair. This big sphinx-headed boat swung back and forth on a mechanical arm, terrifying and thrilling the riders, and (in our imaginations) we thought about […]
Twitter is one of the best and worst things about being alive in 2019. But you already know what’s wrong with it. Let’s talk about what’s right. Gary Vaynerchuk compares Twitter to a cocktail party. You can mix and mingle […]
Sometimes learning new knowledge and new skills can come to you by accident. Recently I set my Google search to send me results in Portueguese. Now I’m seeing all of my key Google search functionality (the menu bar, etc) in […]
Tonight I stopped by Georgia Tech for their monthly social swing dance, and I picked up a new dancing skill or “phrase” along the way: the breakaway. Here’s a little sample: In a breakaway, two dancing partners separate and pretty […]
I was talking the other day with some friends about the phenomenon of flaking and non-committal answers out about in the culture today. I fully admit that I was engaging in some unnecessary cane-shaking. But I’ve heard the complaint and […]
I’m a big fan of living outside of the normal modern human time cycles. Rush to work at 8? Rush home at 5? No thanks. If you’ve tried it, you know that traveling and trying to get things done (from […]
If you want to lead a good life, a good rule of thumb is to live a life that is not merely the product of your age. Your life shouldn’t be reducible to the dominant forces and trends of your […]
“Surround yourself with people you want to be like.” “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” This is all fine advice. I’ve found it to be true in my own experience. But like […]
You can say (people do say) many things about homeless people. But a fact that is under-appreciated is just how resilient and resourceful they often are. There’s a woman who lives on an overpass near Atlantic Station. For some time, […]
“Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.” According to some tellings, this is how Protestant Christian reformer Martin Luther responded to demands that he recant positions which the established Church of his time considered […]
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.” A lot of people complain about fake news, but I’ve spent enough time in my career trying to debunk it that this is […]
The worst song lyrics are heavily literal and dependent on adjectives, e.g. (using the example of a love long) “She’s hot. . .” Mediocre song lyrics use similes (“X is like Y”), e.g. “She’s hot like the Texas sun. . […]
Is life about just devoting yourself to some higher cause? Some people say yes. What’s the point of just consuming, reproducing, and dying? This is the purpose camp. Others argue that life is just about having a good time. What’s […]
Somehow near mile 2 of a trail run today, political philosophy entered the picture, and I spent the rest of my run (including the most difficult uphill portion) exchanging ideas on the state, liberty, and culture with my trail-running partner. […]