Two of my very good friends were short on cash when I was getting married and couldn’t afford the flight to my wedding, so I paid for their flights. When they arrived and I said, “Thanks for coming!”, one of them said, “Of course! Thanks for making it possible.” That phrase, ‘making it possible’, stuck …
Monthly Archives: June 2020
Make your time worth it
Today, I was grateful that my dad could come over to watch my kids for a few hours so that I could do some work. I was working in the next room while my dad was reading a story to my 2-year-old daughter. Having them be that close by makes it obvious what else I …
It’s dangerous before someone dies
My mother once lamented that someone needed to be hit by a car or die at a traffic intersection before they would put up a stop light, but that it was dangerous before someone died. It can be difficult to measure the risk of doing something before the worst happens, but it’s worth doing your …
Multiple successes start with one
I won Australia’s first national poetry slam contest, which caused the organizers of the Poetry International Festival to invite me to the Netherlands to participate in a global poetry slampionship with eight other national poetry slam champions. I then had two line items on my poetry resumé, which I’m sure contributed to the success of …
What did you get?
My 2-year-old daughter was holding a small bunch of grapes in her left hand and was trying to pull off one grape with her right hand. When she pulled with her right hand, she ended up with all but one of the grapes in her right hand, which she considered to be a failure. She …
Reset button
I called HP support today because my printer wasn’t connecting to my computer over wifi. They told me to try deleting the printer and then adding it back in my computer’s system preferences. That did the trick. About half of the time I have a technical problem, it seems like it’s solved by turning the …
Play the long game
In business, in your work, in poker, in soccer, in learning, in almost everything I can think of, it helps to play the long game. Because it means that you don’t have to panic or be frantic. It means that when you’re down, you’re not out. It means that there’s very likely still time to …
Howl
Every night recently, the people in my town howl at 8pm. They howl in support of the healthcare workers working amidst COVID-19. They howl in support of all essential workers working amidst COVID-19. It feels good as well as cathartic. It’s hard to tell from a howl, but I bet that some of the howling …
Everything expires
Things expire. Coupons, corn chips, and you and me. Everything expires. If you wait long enough, everything expires. I remember shaking a can of chili in my grandmother’s basement and hearing the echo of dry chunks of beans. Don’t wait too long.
Transferable skills
I play poker because I enjoy it but I think it teaches a lot of useful skills: taking chances, managing risk, knowing your odds, knowing your environment, which in this case is knowing your opponents, and adjusting. So it doesn’t feel like a dead end diversion. I remember Elon Musk saying in an interview that: …