It’s often somewhat uncomfortable to come to terms with privilege, especially if there are ways that you’re underprivileged. So you might want to look away from something that makes you feel uncomfortable, like poverty in India, or the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, or the femicide of a young, white woman […]
Category: make it better
Shipping Expectations
My wife was told her package was late, and she was pleasantly surprised when it came a few days prior to when she was expecting it. It was still later than initially planned, but quicker than her most recent expectations. I ordered something online and was told due to warehouse […]
Clay Softener
Polymer clay is a clay that requires baking to harden. However, if you leave it out for a long time with baking, it can get brittle and much harder to work with. There is also a clay softener that allows you to restore the brittle clay and make it more […]
Trusting Yourself
No one wants you to trust yourself more than I do. But there’s a difference in trusting in your inherent capabilities, and trusting that you’re right. Trusting in your inherent capabilities means that you can trust yourself to figure things out. To navigate uncertainty and act despite fear. It means […]
Pass It Forward
Especially in hierarchies, it’s easy to pass things forward. Whether it’s being treated humanely or being treated poorly, we usually model what we’ve seen and then others model that behavior as well. But if you were treated poorly, you can always choose to stop the cycle of abuse and follow […]
Leaning Into Selfishness
It’s okay to do things for selfish reasons, especially if it also helps other people out. I donated $50 towards an organization that is raising money for suicide prevention advocacy mainly because it bought me raffle entries for rare vinyl toys that I want. It might not be the most […]
Toilet Paper and Electricity
Toilet paper, running water, and electricity are all things that are easy to take for granted. Often, we don’t even really think about them until we realize their absence. The same goes for trust. While it’s easy to take it for granted, once it’s gone, the absence can quickly grow […]
Human Tentacles
A tentacle isn’t weird when it’s on an octopus, but it is very weird when it’s attached to a human. The same goes as a human hand – it’s normal when it’s attached to someone’s arm, but it’d be terrifying at the end of an octopus tentacle. So it’s not […]
Small Sprints and Experiments
I’ve first-hand realized that I excel in small bursts of activity. I’m more at ease with the flurry and pressure of a sprint than I am with the long haul. Yunzhe Zhao reinvented her life through month-long sprints, but the thing is that you don’t even need to commit to […]
Intent Vs Impact
It’s easy to hide behind the consequences of your actions when the intention was not malicious. “It’s just a joke.” “Oh, I didn’t mean it that way.” But that doesn’t mean that the impact of one’s actions was any less than if the intent was, in fact, malicious. If we […]