This is, for many of us, the dream: unfettered commitment to externalizing our innards without concern for any gaze but our own. Reclaiming one’s time, you could say. But it requires nothing short of a battle.

The thing that no one ever tells you about your calling is that it’s boring. Oh, everything is interesting if you’re interested… shut up. Yes, it will be exhilarating and fun and fluid and and natural and meaningful. It will also be tedious. It will hurt. You will encounter obstacle after obstacle until you feel like you’re in a video game with alg... See more

Compliments are an other-oriented token that don’t demand a response from the person they are directed to. They also don’t usually require the receiver to reveal anything — the compliment affirms that what they chose to reveal has been seen and noted.

I might have approached the librarian with something along the lines of, “I love your dress. I had ... See more

Remember, people are often drawn to things that are done imperfectly. Whether it’s art, movies, or books, people tend to talk more about the flawed things that get stuck in their heads than they do the obvious, perfect things.

As Malcolm Gladwell says, “You want an aftertaste, and that comes from not everything being perfectly blended together.”

A brilliant 2015 essay by the economist Steven Horwitz argued that free play prepares children for the “art of association” that Alexis de Tocqueville said was the key to the vibrancy of American democracy; he also argued that its loss posed “a serious threat to liberal societies.” A generation prevented from learning these social skills, Horwitz w... See more

And if I know one thing it’s that if you’re experiencing a genuinely moving moment, if you’re really in it, the absolute last thing you want or think about doing is taking out your phone, cutting through it and cheapening it. The best love is quiet. The best confidence is quiet. And so are the lives with the most meaning.

björk said that trying to communicate through talking feels like trying to put the ocean through a straw

Someone has to tell these kids, “wherever you go, you’ll find yourself there, and you have to start to do the work of accepting who you are, as much as you may not like yourself.” The stakes are high.

People are too conscious about choosing the ‘right’ thing that signifies their taste level, or who they are as a person.

“And I get it, sometimes I say, ‘What’s the white tee I should buy?’ instead of, ‘This is what I want to spend and here’s what looks good on me.’ Same with ingredients — ‘Here’s what tastes good to me, f**k what anyone else recom... See more