Generalizations hide; specifics reveal
Almost all of problem solving involves getting specific.
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Mental Models
Action over identity
It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me. – Bruce Wayne, Batman Begins ”What do you do?” How people answer this question fascinates me. Technically, the question asks for the action. What you do. But people introduce themselves by identity – who they claim to be. I’m a writer. A …
Asking is Free
I was cringing inside. This was taking too long to just order a piece of toast. My friend loves to go off menu: We’ll start with the tostada con tomate …but is it possible to just do half of this, and get the other half with salmon? Can you bring extra sea salt, and oh, …
Upgrade your problems
Every suburban kid has their watershed moment of humility. Mine was in the commune of Hinche, a year after the Haiti earthquake. I was on a medical aid trip1. A dentist I was assisting told me something that blew my mind: “If we don’t remove the abscess, the tooth can get infected and the patient …
We are value projection machines
Nothing makes a person project their values more than being a parent. My single mother worked full time jobs while starting businesses on the side. Instead of encouraging my sisters and I to follow her path, she wanted us to get advanced degrees and pursue stable, high status careers 1. Both my sisters became doctors …
The Street Peddlers of Your Mind
I was a bit startled by his reaction. We were surrounded by street peddlers on the streets of Cusco. Overpriced tours and kitschy trinkets. A normal occurrence for any touristy site. But he blew up. His face turned red and he screamed at the solicitors to go away. I held this memory with me as …
Mindfulness lies just beyond the meditation app
It was the ultimate irony – I learned how to meditate to decrease stress. But I stressed out about not meditating enough. A friend pointed this out to me when I complained about breaking my meditation streak on Headspace. So I asked myself, where did the stress come from? Even deeper irony: it came from …
Binary vs Spectrum Thinking
“You’re either a nice guy or an asshole. And nice guys finish last.” I listened with a frown on my face. This was circa 2014, and I was sitting in a free seminar run by pickup artists. It didn’t make sense to me: I considered myself nice enough. But I’ve also been an asshole before. …
