A year of traumatic absolutes…

I hazily recall the day but it was about December 2019 or early January 2020. I had been making a routine of stopping at the corner CVS when taking Pax (my dog) on her last walk of the day, anywhere from 1am to 4am. NYC is quiet at this time, even before the pandemic. It’s peaceful. Like an abandoned movie…

Knowing doesn’t free you from doing

With a plethora of knowledge around us it’s easy to consume said knowledge and make the mistaken assumption that we somehow learned by osmosis. That reading a book frees you of ever committing an undesirable act, simply by knowing it’s undesirable. For example, helicopter parenting, you can read book after book about how abhorrent it is but that doesn’t stop…

Buy a starting point

These days a solid criticism of Amazon is that they simply have too many choices. Consequently, it can be hard to decide what to get when you have hundreds and even thousands of choices for any given type of product. Type “grabber” into Amazon’s search box. There’s no way to look at every option. Just pick one that seems good…

Procrastination is key for organization

Just getting everything moved into a new home is enough of a burden that some people give up at this point. They don’t bother with a concerted effort to unpack boxes. Instead, they wait until something is needed to rip apart boxes. These people often have countless unpacked boxes that their children have to rummage through the day after their…

Bad things aren’t the problem. Surprise is.

All day, every day, things don’t go as expected. Or, things fail. Or, just don’t go well. For example, I was recording a video today when suddenly my apartment was ensconced with the sound of a jack hammer coming from a crew doing road repairs outside my home. These unpleasantries can topple your mood in a matter of seconds. And…

Reinvent the Wheel!

I’ve never been a fan of absolutist prescription. Nothing is without qualification. For example, “don’t reinvent the wheel” I prefer “reinvent the wheel if you have a good reason…”

The Smart Home revolution is dwarfing the cell phone revolution

Smart Assistants and Smart Home products are the next revolution. For those of us that are willing to try new things, we’re already noticing a different reality. One that dwarfs the changes that the cell phone ushered in. Life is different when your house adapts to you. When you have light profiles for the time of day, for your mood,…

Guilt is not a measure of productivity

Recently, a good friend of mine articulated that guilt is not a sign of a lack of productivity. If you feel unproductive, you should take a minute to determine if it’s just misplaced guilt. Guilt comes from many things: Insecurity Wrong expectations No expectations No reflection upon success Forgetting the good, focusing on the bad Any of the above means…

Anxiety Is Feeling Your Future Self

Emotions dictate everything about our reality. For example, sorrow about a past injustice is all consuming. Or, the moment we’re told that the cancer is in remission. The attendant joy permeates from head to toe. After which we exhale as if letting go of the tension of months, and maybe years, of waiting for this day. These are two examples…