Behavior Change
Clear is Kind: Why You Should Endure The Discomfort of Being Direct
There is no such thing as a friendly reminder. “Friendly reminders” are passive-aggressive roundabout ways of avoiding direct communication and clarifying your position. There are fascinating reasons why we do this, which Dr. Harriett Lerner, Patron Saint Of All Things Anger, talks about in detail here. The gist is that many of us avoid conflict (…)
Take Care of Your Self
Self-help is a notoriously garbage category, so I wanted to share some of the books I have on my “approved” list as we enter into gifting season. These books are rooted in strong data and credible expertise, without being so heavy and academic that they are unintelligible. If you are looking for information on psychology (…)
Shutting Down The Food Company I Never Started
The Ginger Route was going to be a clean food company. Then it was going to be a blog. No, sorry, a platform! Ginger Route had many iterations all of which live in perpetuity in a notebook somewhere in my office. I worked on that “business” for longer than I care to admit here in public. It’s (…)
Can You “Make” Someone Feel Something?
One of the core principles of Stoicism is accepting responsibility. Accepting responsibility for how you feel, what you did, and what happened. “Blame yourself or blame no one.” – Mr. Marcus Aurelius is famous for having said. As someone who over-indexes on self-blame, I have a bone to pick with Mr. Aurelius on this one. (…)
Times Are Heavy But We Need Not Be
We called my grandmother Mimi. Mimi used to say she’d need a nap after talking to me because I talked too fast and the topics were heavy. I’m comfortable in heavy. It’s my happy place because I have lots of questions and I can’t find answers in the superficial stuff. Yes, sure, the weather is (…)
Rich, Powerful, and Empty
Tommy. F&^#king. Shelby. (You have to read that in a Birmingham British accent: Foooohhhk-ing) Tommy Foooohhhk-ing Shelby is the protagonist of Netflix’s best series of all time: Peaky Blinders. I’ve watched the entire six seasons from start to finish many times (#protip use captions) and each time my love/hate for this man grows. He is (…)
Be Wary of Anyone Selling You Certainty
About a decade ago I went down the rabbit hole of learning about food. I started with the woo-woo stuff (Kris Carr’s book isn’t bad), did a stint with the conspiracy theorists (Forks Over Knives, Anything about gluten and your brain), and then graduated to the promised land of Michael Pollan. If you haven’t read The Omnivore’s (…)
It’s ok not to know something
Trust in institutions is at an all-time low, with, I think, good reason. However, it appears we’ve overcorrected because now we claim to, “do our own research,” and cite, “this person I follow on TikTok,” Reddit threads, and Instagram memes. Listen. I love the democratization of information, but our absolute trust in non-peer-reviewed assertions that (…)