DO NOT WANT This week, I’m starting a series of user interviews at work, in an effort to develop personas for users of the content we produce. It’s all part of my role as a senior content strategist at a software company, and it is something I have been working toward for a year. I…
Category: life lessons
My 12 favorite problems
I get a lot of ideas from podcasts lately. I sort of rediscovered them years after an initial foray into some true crime series when Serial was the cultural phenomenon. Based on a recommendation from a fellow productivity nerdette, I started listening to Hurry Slowly on my daily walks (which is more about exploring your…
Quiet Quitting since 1990
Every time someone starts talking about “quiet quitting,” I internally snicker. Like, have we just now noticed that most people show up for work and don’t actually do much? Is this a new trend? A Gen Z phenomenon? Uh, no. Look, I am arguably very productive at work. I’m a good employee—the one you can…
What if you’re actually fine just as you are?
My mother has spent her life trying to fix herself. Like all of us, she has some things she’d like to be better at, some healthy habits she wants to build, and some issues that she wishes would go away. Unlike most of us, she also has schizophrenia, so her own negative self talk is…
How was your year? Reflections on 2022
2022 was not a year of momentous changes or big accomplishments. When I look at my life now compared to the start of the year, it looks pretty much the same. Same house, same husband, same job, same daily routines, same lack of a social life. I watch the same TV shows, give or take….
The 12 days of skipping Christmas
On the first day of skipping Christmas… I tested positive for Covid. I had already decided not to try to do much for the festive season this year, and this made me thing, “how can I do even less?” On the second day of skipping Christmas…I remembered that I had thought about making cards from…
GenX women run the world
We are a small and cynical generation who started life with rotary dial phones and now upgrade our iPhones at every opportunity. We grew up on HR Pufnstuff, but somehow have the attention span to read all of the George RR Martin books and watch both HBO dragon series. We’ve been going to rock shows…
Finding Purpose, Fighting MEH
As humans, we are drawn to meaning and purpose. This makes us pretty unique among the animal kingdom. I’ve never met a dog who was concerned about making a difference in the world. Our inclination to find, make, and seek meaning also tends to make us a little miserable. The basics of survival never feel…
Ten Years: A Buddhist Perspective
This post is structured around the three Dharma Seals, as is most of life, it seems. Impermanence is permanent. Ten years ago, I was about to start a new job. It was only my fifth new job since the turn of the century. The startup that I had worked for for two years was being…
Becoming Mr. Spock
Matter of fact. That’s how my writing coach described a few sections of my memoir. I’m writing my way through my high school years, and I’m realizing that I really don’t feel any kind of way about it. Teenage girls have big feelings, she told me, as if I should know that. I was a…
Plumb Wonderful 