Alex Dobrenko

So the point of my keeping a notebook has never been, nor is it now, to have an accurate factual record of what I have been doing or thinking. That would be a different impulse entirely, an instinct for reality which I sometimes envy but do not possess.

The coolest things I discovered didn’t really come from doing research but rather from giving up researching and embracing connecting. Whether that means directly connecting with locals or connecting with once surroundings in a more metaphysical sense – like the kind of connecting that William Butler Yeats hints at when he says that “the world is... See more

Patience. By nature, I’m impatient – with myself, sometimes with others. I like to move forward. I like to get things done. When there’s a problem, I prefer to fix it now . That’s true both professionally and when it comes to interpersonal relationships. When I’m trying to close a deal, I’ll find myself thinking, “What can I do to make it happen... See more

Freaking people out is sort of a side hustle of mine lately. I guess that’s what happens when a confident recluse moves to a smallish town and, after roughly a year of panicking about the move, starts to inflict her bad personality on the populace.