parking lot gigs

this post is really important because it’s something that I personally need to internalize if I want to move forward. well,

start here 2025jan snapshot

The following was what my start here page looked like in jan2025 My current recommended starting order for new visitors: (2024

shitwatch

I was looking through a transcript of a podcast episode I did with Chris Williamson of Modern Wisdom, and I noticed I mentione

jailbreak

(2025apr15) a thing I haven’t yet felt like I’ve done a good enough job of conveying is how desperately I sought to escape

perfectionism is avoidance

2026feb27– funnily i’m currently updating this while avoiding harder and more important posts– the creative discomfo

make collections

2026feb27: revisiting this post while reviewing my archives and thinking that I ought to be making collections on here too. al

madagascar

I recently watched the movie Madagascar (2005) for the first time — because of a compelling thread drawing parallels between

names

Naming things is hard. Categorizing things, which can be thought of as a form of naming things, is also hard. Nonetheless, thi

dreams

Wanted to have a master reference post for when I talk about dreams. There are a few stories I bring up repeatedly. To be upda

voltage

A letter from Ted Hughes to his son via Letters Of Note, Dear Nick, I hope things are clearing. It did cross my mind, last sum

interestingness

one – It’s 426pm. I have a thing at 7pm. And I might be interrupted sooner than that. I want to try and do something here

sg 2025 elections

it’s election season in Singapore, and for me personally the most striking thing is how little I seem to care about it. And

parenthood

(2025mar22) Lately I’ve been feeling in need of relief. I think a lot of this comes from the fact that my wife and I have be

tidying

My life is pretty good overall. I’m married to my best friend whom I’ve known for 25 years, and we have a beautiful baby b

sunset

I’ve told this story to multiple people now, so much so that it makes sense for me to write a blogpost about it. I was o

legion

i was thrilled with a good name recently but it’s one that needs explaining so like 2010-2012 or so i did a lot of like,

quadrilemma

Back when I had a proper job from 2013-2018, I remember the dilemma I had every weekend– or ‘quadrilemma’, to be precise

eloquent peasant

I have a thousand things I want to write and no time or energy to write them properly, so I have to compromise and write some

sierra

I’ll be turning 35 in a few months. And my older cat probably isn’t going to make it that long. I got him when I was 22, b

internal conflicts

I was doing some much-overdue introspection and was faced with the following observations and thoughts: I notice that I have d

phases

it’s just a phase / it’s not just a phase, mom! It’s true that younger people tend to not be so great at estimat

baudelaire

(2025jan01) Happy 2025, let’s dive right into it. I first discovered Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) when I was working on my

problems are solvable

I believe that problems are solvable. There’s all sorts of things that go into solving a problem. Some problems are simple,

adjacent possible

“The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realiti

finding the right angles

I’m a good conversationalist. But I wouldn’t say I’m a natural at it. It’s something that I actively set out to get be

content marketing

I’m not sure what the current state of content marketing is today, but when I used to do that for a living in 2013-2018, the

lorelai

It’s 1046pm. I’d like to write and publish something. I have many unfinished drafts in various stages of disarray. It ofte

creative contexts

I had an invigorating conversation with my ex-boss and mentor Dinesh about how and why I’ve been creatively stuck in lately.

nothing contextualizes itself, and the context is always collapsing

The very first essay I published on this substack in 2022 was titled We were voyagers, and it was subtitled “On Nietzschean

hyperion and lazarus

There’s something very funny about how i’ve been spending the past 2 years struggling to figure out the container for my c

improv2: wooten

previous: improv while helping my ~1yo son go to sleep I was clicking around on YouTube and I ended up watching a rick beato i

notes on structure

instagram

It’s 11:05pm. I’m freshly showered and I just got in bed. My 11mo son is fast asleep in his cot nearby. I have a decision

fasting

I experimented with fasting once. I had a chirpy colleague who was a big evangelist for it, and I was feeling laggardly, and s

frame studies

I’m changing the title of my substack from “voltaic verses ⚡️” to “frame studies 🖼️”. Should I explain? My

youtube

this is a collection post to collect links to other posts with transcripts of my youtube vids

50 opening lines

I have a lot of drafts. tbc

hard

I’ve been rediscovering lately that I’m too hard on myself. And I don’t mean this in the tedious interview question sens

tiles

one of my recurring curiosities is about… tiles “The word is derived from the French word tuile, which is, in turn, from t

himym

i try to notice things the opportune time to publish this post would be on the 20th anniversary of the book’s release, septe

bullet essays

(2024mar16 thread)

essay teasers

i just feel in my bones that there are about 5-12 essays knocking around inside me that if i just get out of my system i will

vannevar mentions

just for fun, collecting mentions of vannevar bush’s as we may think (1945) tbc

aladdin

I woke up from a dream that was set in something like my brain’s remix of the old video game, The Prince of Persia. It remin

writing involuntarily

I have fond memories of times I used to write. Right now it’s 755am on a Sunday morning – it’s the day of my wedding ann