We're looking to play with practices. Play doesn’t mean to treat it carelessly but play like how we play an instrument or a game where you're serious without being severe and sincere without being dogmatic. Ultimately this serious play is how we learn things, how we enjoy the process of living meaningfully without stressing about whether we get it ... See more

I must hope that those who barely remember life before the internet, or never knew it at all, will find their way through the dazzle and disappointments of technology, the seductions and the traps. I have to trust that, as they await future wonders, they will also look back to see the world as it was before this moment of the internet, and find gui... See more

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett: "In the Ramtop village where they dance the real Morris dance, for example, they believe that no one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away—until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone... See more

Instead of a commitment to "winning" other people's games, I felt a commitment to design a life that I deeply enjoy inhabiting 3. I saw how my ambition can be unleashed not just in work but as a husband, father, friend, gardener, writer, citizen, and whatever other components now make up my fluid and evolving identity. It's not that I didn't previo... See more

tiny internets is a research inquiry attempting to answer the question:

What does a more natural, soft, and quiet internet look like, one where the public spaces are actively shaped by us to not only use but live in?

And also

How do we facilitate serendipitous intimacy on the internet?

How do we make people aware that they are co-inhabiting a space

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Cute suggestions on doing good , which actually benefit us as much as it benefits others:

• Tell your mom (or someone who feels like your mom): “You raised me right. Here is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from you: _______________.”


• If you see a couple—and they’re trying to take a selfie of themselves while on a romantic date or trip—ask, “Wou

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The Harvard Study of Adult Development has assessed the connection between people’s habits and their subsequent well-being since the late 1930s.

The happiest, healthiest people in old age didn’t smoke (or quit early in life), exercised, drank moderately or not at all, and stayed mentally active , among other patterns. But these habits pale in compar

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What a truly poetic way of measuring the passing of time:

“In the old days (...) every time a geisha arrived at a party to entertain, the mistress of the teahouse lit a stick of one-hour incense—called one ohana , or “flower”. The geisha’s fees were based on how many sticks of incense had burned by the time she left.”

Although incense was commonly

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“Yes, I’m ambitious,” a friend told me recently, “but climbing the corporate ladder does not interest me like it used to. A title, a bump in pay—it’s not satisfying. What I need to feel successful and fulfilled is completely different. Am I doing something that brings satisfaction? Do I feel like I’m learning? Do I feel like I’m contributing? Do I ... See more