I recently listened to a talk by Bill Burnett about finding meaning in work. Burnett is an instructor of the tremendously popular Designing Your Life college class and book, and one particular idea that resonated with me was trying to figure out the sort of impact we each have in our work. He laid this […]
When the stakes are high, I tend to look away. In 2010, my dorm mates watched the Olympics gold medal hockey game between Canada and USA while I hid in my room studying. I couldn’t bear to be in a room full of Americans if Team Canada were to lose. Instead, I missed watching Sid […]
These days, most news stories are either about COVID-19 or about the impact of the pandemic on something else. In fact, it’s hard to think of anything that hasn’t been impacted in some way. A few weeks ago, I read a story about how blood banks were running low. Presumably, usual donors were reluctant to […]
As this pandemic continues to stretch out (at least in the US), this new way of life is feeling more normal. Not only has the pandemic affected work life, errands, and socializing, it has also changed our hobbies, and I’m just starting to notice the new normal set in. Of course, four months is perhaps […]
I have been quite fortunate during this pandemic to have had my life relatively unaffected. My extended family and I have all stayed healthy. I can continue to work remotely. I also haven’t had a huge change in leisure activities being a homebody. Others have certainly experienced much tougher hardships, and my inconveniences are quite […]
I was quite serious about playing tuba in high school. Somewhere between video games, I actually practiced between a half-hour to an hour every day for almost four years. I can read both treble and bass clefs and various rhythms and time signatures. As part of my daily warmup routine, I played my major scales […]
I have been incredibly fortunate to have developed some cool and valuable side projects. Most notably, Spawning Tool went from an all-nighter hack to a much beloved and very significant resource in the StarCraft 2 community. However, most side projects don’t work out that way, and I too have a litany of failures. I usually […]
To start, I am no expert on the COVID-19 pandemic and can’t offer recommended behavior or predictions on any aspect of it. I know roughly as much as anyone else reading on the internet and talking to friends about it. And that’s all the time because this pandemic is a big, global deal that has […]
My stomach rumbled right on cue as the clock struck noon: it was lunchtime. I was home (still in my pajamas, of course), but lunch was already ready. Since Julie was eating at the office, I had already made her sandwich (delivered in a ziplock bag) and my sandwich (sitting on a plate covered in […]
My largely unsuccessful childhood sports career started when I was 6 or 7 on the baseball diamond. I was a year too late for tee ball, and at that age, we pitched to our own team. Typically in baseball, the opposing pitcher is trying to get the ball past the batter so they don’t get […]