Most of the time when I write something for my site, I make sure to flesh it out pretty well. I want my posts to more substantive and less tangential—but truth be told, that’s not how I think. I have a lot of tangents that aren’t robust enough for a post but are still ideas that I want to put out into the world. So now I’ve decided that I’ll start doing that, in batches of two to three. If I can’t have twitter I guess I’ll make my own 😤
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the meaning of work-life balance (WLB)
At some point in my remote career it’s become apparent that a work-life balance is predicated on giving the correct weight to work and life. It’s definitely a luxury to have a job that you can perform around your life, but as it turns out it’s easy to mess that up if you don’t build your life outside of work.
During my most recent re-watch of Insecure, I saw myself in Issa and Molly. Both women had issues with boundaries and balance in their WLB, and everybody suffered for it. I can’t blame it all on the companies though. Taking care of yourself is a never-ending task that they constantly neglected. Investing in yourself is a lot like saving for retirement in that the pay-off is long but amazing. Also you can really end up shooting yourself in the foot if you invest too much in the wrong thing. Diversification is key.
That said, I wish it was as easy to plan every single fucking meal as it was to automate my investments. Dinner is the bane of my existence.
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healthy conflict is more about you than them
As certified confrontational person, I find it funny that people take conflict so seriously. Maybe this is a holdover from my depressed days, but truly nothing is ever that serious. We’re all a bit frivolous in our beliefs, grudges, and perspectives. I think recognizing that while demonstrating the frivolity authentically (and respectfully) is key to leaving a conflict or discussion more resolved.
Obviously conflicts are multi-party affairs, but we can only control ourselves and our reactions. I also think that healthy approaches to conflict can be contagious, as long as you’re resolute in that. Irritation is inevitable and best let out in small controlled doses so that we don’t blow up our lives and relationships.
In that same vein, we have to extend some grace to the people we want in our lives. The best thing about growing up with siblings is internalizing the fact that someone you love can have terrible opinions. They can also evolve those opinions into something better with time and loving conflict! Better things are possible!
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interesting stuff from around the internet
- Free PDF editor online! https://pdfcandy.com/
- Read paywalled articles by adding this in front of the url: https://12ft.io/ (so https://nyt.com/article becomes https://12ft.io/https://nyt.com/article)
- Teeth candy, in case you want to scare children or trick the tooth fairy: https://www.instructables.com/Teeth-Candy/
- Why companies don’t IPO like they used to (it’s worse now): https://www.profgalloway.com/private/
- As we reorient ourselves around technology, why not the idea of a country? : https://thenetworkstate.com/
- AIPAC’s impact in Washington, dollar by dollar: https://theintercept.com/2024/10/24/aipac-spending-congress-elections-israel/
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