I found a blue Post-it stuck to the inside cover of a notebook I abandoned around 2011. Marcus Aurelius, I think. Something about the obstacle becoming the path. I had pressed the ballpoint hard enough to dent the paper underneath. Clearing out a spare room last month, shifting damp cardboard boxes and old coats, I read the quote again.… Read the rest “The Uncomfortable Quotes That Fixed My Life (After Ruining My Ego)”
Category: Psychology
The 1-Minute Mental Shift That Turns Imposter Syndrome Into an Unfair Advantage
Stop trying to silence your inner critic. Put it on the right shift and it becomes the sharpest editor you’ll ever have.
It’s twenty to seven on a Saturday. Your coffee has gone cold, and you’re one paragraph into the piece you’ve been circling for a fortnight. Your shoulders are already up round your ears.… Read the rest “The 1-Minute Mental Shift That Turns Imposter Syndrome Into an Unfair Advantage”
Stop trying to silence your inner critic. Put it on the right shift and it becomes the sharpest editor you’ll ever have.
It’s twenty to seven on a Saturday. Your coffee has gone cold, and you’re one paragraph into the piece you’ve been circling for a fortnight. Your shoulders are already up round your ears.… Read the rest “The 1-Minute Mental Shift That Turns Imposter Syndrome Into an Unfair Advantage”
I Spent 40 Years Stopping Catastrophic Failures. Willpower Never Once Made the Fix List. (Here’s What Did.)
The night a batch of transmission housings failed because one exhausted operator trusted his own discipline instead of the checklist, I stopped believing in routines — and started believing in systems over willpower.
It was 11:40 p.m., second shift, on the floor at a transmission plant outside Dayton, when my best line lead made a call his training told him not to make.… Read the rest “I Spent 40 Years Stopping Catastrophic Failures. Willpower Never Once Made the Fix List. (Here’s What Did.)”
The Counterfeit Architecture of Care: Why We Mistake Assistance for Intimacy
This essay is an investigation into the counterfeit architecture of care: the many convincing imitations of intimacy that leave us feeling quietly alone.
Prologue: The Three-Month Ghost
A few years ago, when a severe flu variant knocked me flat for a fortnight, a friend drove over an hour through a blinding rainstorm to bring me a container of hot soup.… Read the rest “The Counterfeit Architecture of Care: Why We Mistake Assistance for Intimacy”
