Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World
This month was an interesting one for me, primarily due to a major change in my work situation. I left my company as an employee, and I’m now working on a project for them as an independent consultant. The project is the same one I was working on as an employee, so it was an
I consider modern American culture to be fairly hedonist. Our measures for success are largely material. If you are able to live in a fancy house or apartment, take luxury vacations, and eat gourmet food, you are successful. The more pleasures you are able to attain, the more successful you are. Though I am against
This week has been a bit crazy. I’ve been seriously procrastinating at work, and had a bunch of things to do to hit a few hard deadlines before I headed off to Portland, Oregon for a few weeks (the place where young people go to retire). To get everything done, I had to pull a
The Problem with Modern Productivity After I read The Four Hour Work Week, I thought I could solve all of life’s problems could by becoming super productive and effective in my work (whether day job or side business “muse”). The 80-20 rule blew my mind. I began to see it everywhere. Yes, I do get
I sometimes struggle with Impostor Syndrome. Though this is typically the domain of the successful (a group to which I don’t claim to be a part of), I do, occasionally, suffer from its symptoms. For example, over the past few months, approximately 250 people have subscribed to this blog, and a handful of these readers
I started skateboarding in eighth grade. There was no purpose to it. It just looked like fun. So I bought a skateboard (or rather, got my parents to buy me a skateboard). I taught myself to ride it without wiping out. I then learned to Ollie, which is the first “trick” you learn and is
Over the past few days, I’ve done 9 of the 10 prayers I was supposed up to do. To make up for the one I missed, I doubled up on an evening prayer. So far the most powerful prayer times are the Fajr and Isha’a, the pre-dawn and post-sunset prayers. The Fajr is a nice
For my first week of my Epicurean month, I successfully avoided watching TV (with the exception of Sunday, where I caught up on Homeland and Newsroom). Instead of watching hours of whatever is on, I’ve done the following: Read books, drank mint tea, and listened to Christmas music Caught up on a few work/project related
A few years ago, I was in the unfortunate position of having gained about 15 pounds of fat. I had been living in Portland for about 6 months and my workout program was…minimalist while my Portland food-cart indulging program was…maximalist? Not sure if that’s a word, but you get the point. Anyway, I moved back
It’s taken for granted that being a part of a community is a good thing, even if we don’t belong to one. However, we forget that being a part of community also implies you have obligations to the community as well. The Talmudic reading I studied yesterday focused on this passage: “Hillel says: Do not