I’m not sure if this is the origin of “Be careful of what you wish for,” but the idea of a wish-granting totem that twists your desires into something terrible is really a lesson in specificity. In the story, a man wishes for money, and gets it in the form […]
Category: success
Hustle, Hustle. Hustle?
American culture is thick with the notion that if you hustle hard enough, anything can be yours. There’s the 10,000 hour rule, where if you just spend enough time, you can be world class. 60 hour work weeks are seen as God-tier status, and all-nighters are humble-bragged about and worn […]
The Game
Imagine you’re playing a game that has a difficult win condition. You’re in a room where you’re flipping coins, and only the last person standing who has managed to flip heads each and every time will win. You can measure your success by whether or not you win. Or you […]
Chameleons, Honey Badgers, and Tigers
Chameleons literally change their color to fit in better with their background. They’re masters of being indistinguishable for their surroundings. They’re quiet, unassuming, and just hang out most of the day. Honey Badgers do not give a f___. They will attack venomous snakes head on, and are tenacious monsters that […]
Skulls
Skulls are typically used to represent death. The skull and crossbones signal danger. But skulls also remind me that often what gets left behind when we leave is not the outer form, but the structure. The foundation of the human body. The same is true for your legacy. Individual actions, […]
Animatronic Cthulhu Costume
One of my dreams is to have a hyper-realistic Cthulhu costume to wear around conventions (should they return) and at Halloween. I imagine a giant, air-conditioned suit that’s made out of a support skeleton and covered in silicone. There’s monitors inside the headpiece that’s hooked up to cameras that allow […]
Fear Hunting
Fear is something we often talk about in hushed voices, holding it in the crypts of our minds, trying to keep it from reaching the light of day. We live in a society where it’s uncommon for people to readily own up and confess their fears. However, by unearthing the […]
Losing
Note: I originally wrote this a few months ago, but didn’t know how to finish it. Now I do. Tonight, I started out in a skeeball tournament ranked 3rd in the league. I was scheduled to play a best-of-three match against a 30 seed. I could make a bunch of […]
Barriers to Empathy, pt. 3
So I talked about the need to be right and expecting empathy back earlier. The 3rd Barrier to Empathy is: 3. Expecting Change Right Away (Or At All) Like I said earlier, the toughest part about trying to become more empathetic (especially when trying to become more empathetic to drive […]
Barriers to Empathy, pt. 2
The second barrier to empathy (see the 1st here) is: 2.Expecting Empathy Back If you’re of the mindset that you can use empathy to drive change, you’re already looking at this as a tactic in order to get something you want. Whether it’s enrolling a team in your leadership or […]