Last Friday my manager called me into his office and told me the company was putting me on a project for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). My political views are generally libertarian, so I believe that this government agency shouldn’t exist. This put me in a bit of an ethical bind, do I just

In one of my English classes in high school, we read a story that took place in India and drew heavily on Indian culture and customs. I don’t remember what the story was about, but I do remember that the class had a spirited discussion about arranged marriage. When I say spirited discussion, I mean

A friend of mine passed along this article titled Religion, Heuristics, and Intergenerational Risk Management, written by one of my favorite authors and thinkers, Nassim Taleb. The main idea Taleb and co-author Rupert Read promotes is that religion is valuable because it acts a transmitter of risk-management heuristics. Religion, through its teachings, act as counterweights

My girlfriend and I are dog-sitting for a friend of ours, which I’m very excited about. The dog is a Golden Doodle (a golden retriever and poodle mix) that got none of the poodle genes and looks very much like a golden retriever. Her name is Izzie. This morning I woke up at 4:30 AM

Yesterday I wrote about my bad habit of criticizing others. There is a legitimate role for criticism, but it is often executed poorly. The Atlantic recently published an article titled, “There’s no such thing as a slut.” Two sociology professors moved into a college dorm room in 2004 and interviewed a group of 53 college

My month of Islam has me especially aware of how critical I am of others. I sat in a meeting yesterday at work and the participants were asked to give feedback on a presentation that is intended to be used as a sort of marketing tool. The subject matter wasn’t important, and I had no

Since high school, I’ve questioned the meaning of existence (in an angsty, teenager way). One of the reasons why I wanted to become a SEAL was that I believed it was more significant than working some corporate job or becoming a lawyer. Defending freedom, living up to warrior values, and getting rid of evil in

I’ve struggled for a long time with my poor attitudes to work. I’m not against the act of working, but I always seem to develop a negative attitude towards the job I have at the time. The feeling is one of resentment . I resent that I have to go to work every day. I

This weekend I went camping with a few friends at the Shenandoah National Park.  I considered attempting a number of pseudo-spiritual exercises like fasting the entire weekend, reading religious texts and reflecting, meditating, taking solo walks, etc. Unfortunately, I didn’t do any of those things. Most of the time, I was doing something with the