#47 What Life Story You Have to Tell Today?

Yesterday, Jason and I watched a MasterClass by David Sedaris about story telling and humor. David "It is such a privilege to be a writer. To an average person, if something bad happened, he can do nothing about it… other than feeling bad… to a writer, you can write about it. And that's great." "Many...

#44 The Myth of Falling out of Passion

I was very passionate about--and consistent in-- posting blogs from January to October 2019. I posted 41 blogs in 41 weeks. Then, I didn't post anything for two months - partly because I was so interested in my job that I was working most weekends; partly because I didn't have any good ideas to write...

#43 Grit, Wealth or Intelligence, what would you choose?

Yesterday Jason and I were listening to Freakonomics podcast: How Many Prince Charleses Can There Be in One Room? At the beginning of the podcast is an intriguing multiple choice question: If you can choose to have one of the three super power, which would you choose? A. Top 1% grit in the worldB. Top...

#42 New Year’s Resolution

Last week, Jason and I went to a friend's place. Our friend X organizes weekly "family" dinner, a Thursday night dinner where all are welcomed, usually friends of friends. The topic of New Year's Resolution was brought up. This is my favorite topic. My resolution for 2019 Change to a more technical role at workMake...

#33 Amazing Art: Ten Lessons from Ten Illustrations by Yaoyao (1-5)

Today I discovered an artist Yaoyao Ma Van As. Amazing is such a overly, inappropriately used word. People say this is amazing, that is amazing. I often question, "Do you really mean it? Do you understand what amazing means?" When I found her work, I have to say, they are AMAZING. Her work makes me...

#32 How to be happy and successful as an introvert in an extroverted workplace

I am an introvert. Source: https://www.yaoyaomavanas.com People don't know it or don't believe it. Cofounder of the consulting club in college; management consultant; MBA; marketing: my entire resume says capital E Extroversion. I have done--and love doing "extroverted" things: Public speaking: in grad school, I spoke once about why we should do less small talk...

#31 How to Know What You Stand For: As a Writer, a Worker, or a Human Being who Wants to Leave a Legacy

I have a full-time job and I love my job. On the side, I am also a blogger. I started posting since 2007. "What do you write about?" is the single most common questions I got every time I say I blog. Unfortunately this simple question doesn't come with simple answer. Before we get into...

#30 How to Unblock Yourself: Four Emotional Stages of Original Work

You are working on something that you think is original and exciting. Then you found out some other people are also doing that, or have done that. Do you feel disappointed (that you are not original)? Do you feel discouraged (that if someone else is already doing it why should you do it too)? Do...

#28 The Bright Side: and The Dark Side of Having a Plan

Last Friday, I ran into a coworker Ann at the cafe. After we are done with talking about work, I asked her, "So... What's your plan..." Usually people ask about plan for the weekend. But somehow that Friday, I was feeling adventurous. "... for your life?" Ann laughed, and said that she can barely plan...

#29 How to Make Someone’s Day: Attentive, Ego-less, Active Listening

I have been very focused on working. Other than spending time with Jason, I mostly work on my day job during the week and work on side projects over the weekends, including designing postcards, writing blogs, etc. Recently, I met my in-laws and they reminded me of the importance of keeping touch with my friends,...