Entrepreneurship
Back to the Barre
In dance, they have a saying: “Back to the barre.” It means back to basics. Get your form right. Stand at the barre and work on your technique: plié, Tendu, relevé, Dégagé. First principles. The music people tell me this is called, “practicing your scales.” I’ve tried to figure out what the “barre” and “scales” (…)
A Better Path Forward
I get uneasy when someone asks me if I’ll help their friend who wants to get into marketing. I want to help. But the help I can offer isn’t the help they seek. Wanting to land an agency job is different from marketing. I’ve done both and I can tell you that what agency folks (…)
Get Back on Stage
One of the reasons I leapt offline and away from the public eye was that I was glitching. My brain had this trapdoor in it that, when opened, would take me out of the present moment and into another place and time. It’s like a rip would happen and I’d find myself in 2022 or (…)
The Case for Maybe Nothing
I doubt anyone believes that the most pressing issues facing the nation include an insufficient understanding of the origins of the universe. That’s not my quote. That’s House Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) speaking to congress in 1993 about the Superconducting Super Collider the United States was building in Texas. He, along with a chorus of (…)
On Waiting for Your Real Life to Start
I made the mistake of telling Margaret about my dating life. Margaret is a professor which is not at all relevant to this story; I just think it’s cool. She has earrings that are anatomically correct seggsual organs disguised as fancy jewelry, and whenever people compliment her she gives them a lecture on anatomy. I (…)
I Accidentally Went Viral on Threads
Soooo, I accidentally went viral on Threads. I wrote, “Can we get a thread on authors who found success after 40?” and it exploded. 110k views. 1.4k likes. 1.1k comments. 65 reposts. The comments section filled with authors in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s sharing success stories, including Kiese Laymon, Amy Dubois Barnett, Shaka (…)
Still Here, Still Tired
Well, the good news is I lived to die another day. The bad news is I have not solved the crisis in the Middle East. I am surviving off a steady diet of Siete churro chips and cognitive dissonance. So far, so good. It keeps me off Instagram. I don’t recommend my approach, but I (…)
In Defense of Working Hard
The internet exploded over the following line from Roxane Gay’s New York Times piece this week and I’m not sure I agree with the chord it’s striking in people: “The greatest shame would be to reach the end of our lives and have the epitaph read, ‘They worked really hard.’” I am aware Gay is arguing (…)