These aren’t polished essays or tidy aphorisms. They’re scraps I’ve carried around this month—half-heard thoughts, borrowed lines, sudden recognitions—that refused to be forgotten. Zuihitsu literally means “following the brush,” and while my version is shorter and scrappier than the classical form, the impulse feels the same: to catch what drifts across the mind before it … Continue reading Zuihitsu, 2025-12
Tag: choices
The Good Life Closes Out Bad Possibilities
Far from having a “bucket list”, I now understand that the proper conduct of the second half of life is to approach something like what the Tibetan Buddhists call tukdam, to do less and less, but only to sit and meditate, and to breathe once every century or so, so that by the time you actually … Continue reading The Good Life Closes Out Bad Possibilities
Do The Easy Bits First
"As soon as you've done the easy bit, everything around it becomes easier. This is the way we solve the puzzle.This is also the way we fix the world......If I run into a problem I can't solve yet, or I encounter a subject that's too hard for me, I go "Huh, interesting", and save it … Continue reading Do The Easy Bits First
Decide to K.I.S.S.
"...irrelevant information or unavailable options often cause people to make bad choices. When both elements are present, the probability of a poor decision is even greater."—Chadd, I., Filiz-Ozbay, E. & Ozbay, E.Y. "The relevance of irrelevant information." Experimental Economics. November 11, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-020-09687-3 Determining what is possible and the relevant information between choices is key … Continue reading Decide to K.I.S.S.
Reading Harry Potter as a Sacred Text
"What if we take this seriously? What gifts is it going to give us if we love something, and we love it with rigor, and we love it with commitment?" —Reading Harry Potter as a Sacred Text Strikes me as an important question for many things in our lives that we trivialize because they aren't … Continue reading Reading Harry Potter as a Sacred Text
Words & Worldviews
I was reading another one of those end of year life hack articles yesterday, about how changing one word can change your attitude toward obligations. The crux: instead of saying, "I have to wake up to go to work at 0600," you change it to get, "I get to wake up to go to work at … Continue reading Words & Worldviews
Thank You For Being A Friend
No Regrets
"VEDANTAM: I understand you got married about a year ago. And you applied some of your own research on regret when it came to choosing a wedding dress. SUMMERVILLE: I did. So I actually wasn’t applying my own research. I applied to work by Sheena Iyengar on the phenomenon of choice overload as well as … Continue reading No Regrets
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