A reply six days late, a heart emoji, and the two-month experiment that cured me of being everyone’s low-maintenance friend.
Last Thursday, I finally answered a text that had been sitting in my inbox for six days.
It was from Jess. A decade ago, I’d have called her my closest friend without needing to think about it.… Read the rest “I Stopped Being a ‘Low-Maintenance’ Friend and Nearly Lost My Best Friend Over a Heart Emoji”
The most meaningful lives I’ve watched up close weren’t the happiest. They were the load-bearing ones, the ones holding weight.
A while ago, I took a fortnight off work. Properly off. Phone in a drawer, out-of-office autoreply locked in, the lot. I spent those two weeks walking, reading, and occasionally wincing at the thought of what I was returning to.… Read the rest “Stop Chasing Happiness. Become Load-Bearing.”
This is a story about stoic self-mastery — and how an ancient Roman slave philosopher named Epictetus saved me from the most expensive email I never sent.
Prefer the tighter version? This essay first ran on Medium: I Almost Sent the £11,000 Email. There is also a short film of the idea if you would rather watch.
I recognized the gesture immediately. I’d been making it myself for over a year.
The reach is always first now. We just stopped noticing it was a choice—or counting the cognitive tax we pay every time we make it.
Quick map: this is the long-form essay. There’s a tighter Medium version, a 9-minute video, and a 60-second cut. Read first. The AI-Resistance Self-Assessment link is at the end.
I want to write about something I have been avoiding writing about for a while, because I am still inside the embarrassment of it.… Read the rest “The Borrowed Brain”
