Agalia Tan

Life is modular, not linear. You don't choose a career at twenty-two and stick with it for forty years like some kind of professional arranged marriage. Instead of hunting for the mythical perfect tree, follow your curiosity. What ideas make you pause while scrolling? What conversations do you find yourself returning to days later? When a friend me... See more

Good work should do at least one of these things: fund the life you actually want to live, align with values you can defend at dinner parties, surround you with people who challenge you to grow, or teach you skills that compound like interest over decades. Great work does several of these at once.

What kind of life do you want to build? What values do you want your work to reflect? What skills do you want to develop? How do you want to contribute to the world around you? What kind of people do you want to work alongside?

And then:

What are you willing to sacrifice for those things? What discomfort are you willing to endure? What would make yo... See more

We cannot keep buying the fallacy that everything meaningful should feel effortless, including the relationships that make life worth living.

The work doesn't vanish when you find your passion.

The work, hopefully, becomes workable.

We've made "work" synonymous with suffering, when it should be synonymous with building. Tending a garden requires effo... See more

And to extend this: I see people online constantly lamenting that they can't make or keep friends in adulthood, as if friendship is something that just happens to you rather than something you actively create. This, too, requires intentional effort. Want to get invited to dinner parties? Start throwing them. Menu planning, grocery runs, washing dis... See more

Everything worth having lives on the other side of effort.

Everything good requires tending. Everything beautiful demands maintenance.

The people who understand this most deeply are often the happiest, because they've made peace with the beautiful burden of nurturing. They know that the dishes exist because they've been eating good meals all week. T... See more

We've convinced an entire generation that if work feels hard, they must be doing it wrong.

We tell them that if they just find their passion, work will magically transform into endless joy, as if difficulty is just a symptom of being in the wrong job rather than an inevitable part of doing anything worthwhile. As if work were some unfortunate byproduct of insufficient enthusiasm rather than the very engine of human flourishing.

This lie h... See more