Sell the people something worth buying The internet is rife with self-help “gurus” — either self-proclaimed or being heavily evangelized by others. You can’t swing the digital equivalent of a dead cat on sites like Medium without hitting some listicle about the x things that successful people do that you need to do. And of course, if you… Read More »How to Be a Non-Douchey Self-help Guru
19 Jan 2016 I read an excellent piece by John Metta on Medium today, and it re-kindled some embers in my mind about the Civil Rights movement which have been long cooled. Metta’s piece has numerous quotable passages, but this one gets at the essence of what is kind of irksome about most of America’s… Read More »Settling for Martin, Hoping for Malcolm
image courtesy of enoshop.co.uk 01 Jan 2016 The year has ended–2015, that is–and thus begins the mass (if short-lived) migration of people from their well-worn habits into new and interesting realms of self-improvement and experimentation. How fun! Some naysayers bemoan the practice of new year’s resolutions, and their reasoning is sound. After all, if you… Read More »My Resolution for 2106 — Be Oblique
You’re Going to Let Someone Down, But Take Heart… Everyone who’s expecting something from you It’s going to happen today. It will likely happen tomorrow, unless of course you don’t bother to leave the house, or boot up your computer — you’re going to let someone down. Someone was desiring more from you — more money, more time, more attention, better… Read More »What Kind of A**hole Will You Be?
Also, am I going to fail because I don’t have an idol? I was walking out of the lobby of my workplace today, when I spotted a copy of the latest Inc Magazine on the table between the two visitors’ waiting chairs. In big bold letters, the magazine yelled at me: “The Next Steve Jobs”. I… Read More »Am I a Bad Person Because I Don’t Worship Steve Jobs?
Image Credit: USA Network/Anonymous Content It’s rare that a word with a very negative connotation gets a second chance, but the term “hack” is a prime example of that rare occurrence. The word “hack” used to describe a person — ostensibly some sort of professional — who was terrible at what they did. In fact, a very telling definition,… Read More »Our Dangerous Obsession with (Life)Hacking
Don’t Be so Naive Succeeding at something great is difficult, and often complicated. If it weren’t, there would be a lot more people doing it. In fact, you would probably be doing it, rather than surfing for articles that guarantee that if you read them, you’ll succeed. Just think of it this way: if success is… Read More »The One Simple Trick that Will Help You Succeed: Stop Thinking There’s One Simple Trick
Anyone who has been through the process of applying to PhD programs can attest to the fact that so much of the process makes you question everything about yourself. You start questioning your intelligence, your credentials, your love for the subject you’re applying to study, your employability once you get your doctorate (if you get… Read More »Why I Chose to Give Up on Academia
Image courtesy of distancelearning.org Dear 2015 High School Graduates, This year, about 3.3 million of you will be tossing your caps up in the air, celebrating having made it through the gauntlet that is secondary education. About 66% of you will, in the span of a few short months, become college students. Many of you… Read More »An Open Letter to this Year’s High School Graduates
I have a dark secret: up until I was about 21 (nearly graduating from college, mind you), I was a huge fan of professional wrestling. No, you don’t understand, I was (with my friends) actually putting on wrestling “shows” in the backyard of my childhood home. There, I’ve now gotten that off of my chest;… Read More »I have a dark secret: up until I was about 21 (nearly graduating from college, mind you), I was a…
