Alex Dobrenko

Well... I think hindsight is dangerous in its clarity sometimes

Readers — kids and adults — ask me about the message of one story or another. I want to say to them, “Your question isn’t in the right language.”

As a fiction writer, I don’t speak message. I speak story. Sure, my story means something, but if you want to know what it means, you have to ask the question in terms appropriate to storytelling. Terms... See more

There was a specific moment with myself, John Michael Boling, Damon Zucconi, and Dena Yago, where we had this discussion about whether we would use Are.na if we weren’t being paid to work on it. At that point we agreed that we wouldn’t. In that moment we asked, "What would it have to look like for us to actually be into it?"

But we should also remember that so much of what we call ‘madness’ or ‘mental illness’ is actually just behaviour that does not lend itself well to the capitalist economic system. Politicising mental health means questioning why we call certain things madness or mental illness, and allowing people to make their own minds up about their experiences... See more

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. Oscar Wilde

When I contemplate these questions, I encounter a paradox. I acknowledge that my inability to marvel at a live Caruso opera in Naples has cost me something deep and beautiful. But I cannot wish that the phonograph was never invented. Does the increased variety and quantity of music compensate for the decreased profundity of each musical experience?... See more

The 3-3-3 Method is a Productivity approach that involves breaking up your time into three blocks:

• For the first three hours, do on deep work.


• Do three urgent but short tasks.


• Do three easy but tedious administrative tasks. [1]