Archive for March 2023

Insight from one of my students: The best thing about telling true stories about your life is that you never get writer’s block because you already know everything that happened. You just need to figure out how to tell it. This is a framing that I’d never considered before, but it’s true. And very well…

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy believes 13 is too young for children to be on social media platforms. Even though sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook allow children of that age to join their platforms, kids are still developing their identities, and social media can do irreparable harm to this delicate and critical process. Among…

I want to go on the record as saying that when I was in fifth grade, it would’ve been impossible for me not to intentionally read this title wrong again and again in an attempt to make people laugh and teachers crazy. The fact that this has never even occurred to my student is a…

In a scene in the second season of The White Lotus, two characters are talking about the state of the world. Fear not… no spoilers. One character, a woman named Portia, in defending her opinion that the world is a terrible place, says that “literally everything’s falling apart.” The man to whom she is speaking,…

This video shows Jon Stewart skewering Oklahoma State Senator Nathan Dahm in a debate about gun laws in America. I was looking forward to watching the debate, but quite honestly, it’s hard to watch. It’s like watching a grown-ass man beat a small, defenseless child to a pulp. Dahm is a joke. His argument, rationale,…

Several companies have recently begun taking deliberate steps to slash the number of meetings they force their employees to attend. Huzzah! Shopify made superfluous meetings enemy number one, and the purge worked. Since canceling recurring group meetings, banning most meetings on Wednesdays, and requiring all meetings with 50 or more people to happen in a…

After delivering 10 TEDx Talks over the last decade, I created a workbook that lists and describes five lessons that I’ve learned. Not a full and complete instructional guide on the writing and delivering of a public speech or talk (though I could certainly write one if paid enough), but five lessons that you perhaps…

I’m a big fan of collective nouns. A crash of rhinos. A murder of crows. A stand of flamingos. A conspiracy of ravens. A prickle of porcupines. Years ago, I came up with a few of my own collective nouns: A gamble of poker players A fumble of left-handers A fistful of bullies A concern…

I don’t do this very often, but I’m adding something to my yearly goals. I have a whopping 49 goals already for 2023, but this is a good one: Time recently published a list of the 100 Best Children’s Books of All Time. As I clicked through the list, I discovered that I have not…

Manual transmissions are apparently going extinct. There are a few last-ditch holdouts keeping the stick shift alive, but almost all are sports cars, including the Porsche 911 GT3, Subaru BRZ, Mazda MX-5 Miata, Honda Civic Si, and Toyota GR86. Who know the Honda Civic had a sporty version? This makes me a little sad. For…