One of my bigger regrets is publicly declaring myself an atheist. Not because I’ve made a recent conversion to faith—I’m still confident in my original opinion. Rather, because I believe “-isms” are dangerous, whether it is theism, atheism, vegetarianism, Buddhism or any other philosophy. When a belief becomes an “-ism” it generally becomes a part […]
The Paradox of Success and The Only-72
From Cal Newport, the Paradox of Success has two parts: Most people think they know what it takes to be successful. Most people are not successful. The idea behind the paradox of success is that, if so many people know how to be successful, why aren’t more of them doing it? Luck and drive certainly […]
Losing Yourself
Two years ago, when I lived abroad, I made note of everything I experienced. Especially when those experiences contradicted the clichés I had heard about travel. Most of the time, my experience wasn’t exactly original. I made great friends, partied a lot and now I miss the people and places. Honest, but pretty much what […]
Happily Ever After
Brian Christian, from The Most Human Human: “Nothing is more dispiriting than ‘And they all lived happily ever after,’ which means, in information entropy terms, ‘And then nothing interesting or noteworthy ever happened to them again for the rest of their lives.’” There’s a pull in all of us towards ‘happily ever after’. The idea […]
I'm a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Since 2006, I've published weekly essays on this website to help people like you learn and think better. My work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, TEDx, Pocket, Business Insider and more. I don't promise I have all the answers, just a place to start.