people-sense

What does it mean to “process” an experience?

(original thread) What does it mean to process something? I see versions of this question all the time, and I seldom see anybo

deviants

(original 2018 thread) it’s funny to consider how much of the conversation around things like “what makes you uniq

safety rituals

the meta thing is, this sort of conversation itself will become a safety ritual if you don’t then take some action that

Advanced Stupid

I have a lot to say about this, have been sketching drafts of this over and over, never quite satisfied, so here is a dump of

communication is lossy

It’s amazing that any of us are able to understand each other at all. Communication is lossy. (“Lossy” is a

memed into existence

This page is a collection of instances of the phrase “memed into existence”. I’m collecting them out of nerd

coordination does not require conspiracy

Coordination does not require conspiracy. I think it’s great that the word “conspire” literally means “

dealing with losers

(2020nov5 thread) I’m not a fan of divvying people up arbitrarily into winners and losers – one should never be gleefu

fumbling the bag

There’s an exchange on Tinder(?) that I once saw on Twitter that I think about a lot. Read this really slowly and closel

fuckability

fucking is labor, fuckability is capital many (most?) people wanna be fuckable more than they wanna fuck having good sex is a

Most People

I’ve been sharing this set of notes more and more as time goes by. I suppose you could say most people care too much abo

🗣 hecklers

I’ve been thinking a lot about hecklers lately. There are a bunch of related-ish words, with varying connotations: hater

narcissism

Usually, if you ask someone to imagine a narcissist, the first image that comes to mind is someone enjoying how they look. Som

unlearning coercion

It took me a long time (maybe 10-15 years?) to properly realize that I was in an abusive relationship with myself, where my se

cold emails

If you get really good at cold emails, comms and positioning, you can run circles around people who rely on warm intros in sma

🙏🏾 how to ask for help

One of my new personal rules for myself is, if something annoys me, I’m going to funnel that into content that I can ref

🗿 don’t pedestalize people

I use the term Pedestalization to describe the act of putting someone on a pedestal. Hero worship is pedestalization. Some peo

status and status regulation

dec2023 thoughts: this seems destined to be intertwined in an essay about deviants and greatness. I don’t believe that statu

listen to kids

About once or twice a week I get some long DMs, usually from a younger person, who’s all stressed out and wound tight about

➡️ pay it forward

When I was a broke teenager, my older friends often insisted on paying for drinks or meals. I used to feel a potent mix of gra

💬 practice good reply game

There is an art to replying and commenting, and probably like 60-70% of people I’ve seen on the internet fail at it. The imp

↗️ many people like to contribute to vectors, few like to own them

moved to /marketing/vector

🍵 empty your cup and allow life to surprise you

thread I never really understood the whole “empty your cup” and “unlearn what you have learned” thing until maybe a co

📱 screentime

I had a large amount of screentime as a child. And if I could go back in time and have a do-over, I would have liked even more

👯‍♀️ make friends

I’ve kind of developed a name for myself as “the friendly guy”. My book is titled FRIENDLY AMBITIOUS NERD. I

👫 relationships are challenging + a lot of work

Preamble: Hello everyone! This post has been getting shared a little bit, so I thought it might be worth taking some time to p

😈 sinister connotations allow people to be assholes with plausible deniability

I like words. It’s a big part of why I’m a writer. I like everything about them. Here are some interesting things

💫 how to bullshit everyone with an inspirational success story

I used a procrastinating underachiever. Then I decided to Follow My Dream and play in a rock band, <s>sell t-shirts<

Politics and the English language [2016]

The following is my attempt to update George Orwell’s essay Politics and the English Language [1946] for modern reading.

👩‍🏫 schools are powerful, outdated tools of social programming

Why does this post exist? I haven’t been in school in over a decade, but it had a debilitating effect on me and I want t