Thoughts, opinions, transcripts, etc.
Morning hike on day 1 of my 35th year. My 25th birthday was a melancholy one. I didn’t do much on my birthday ten years ago. I remember going to see a movie by myself in downtown Boston. It was the start of my second year of grad school and I’d just returned to New England… Continue reading The view from 35
This is a really exciting time for me. A year and a half ago I moved to Walnut Creek, made some great friends in the neighborhood, got a brown dog and named him Blue, and welcomed our second daughter to the family. Then about a year ago I became CEO of Scripted, the company I… Continue reading What’s next for me
This is an aspirational post. There’s a lot written on Medium about ways to live better, be more productive, and live a happier life. This is one of those posts too, but I’m no guru. I don’t always do what I’m about to write here. I just wish I did. Spend part of every day… Continue reading Three “life hacks” I wish I did more often
About a year ago, my wife and bought a house. It took us six months and exactly four offers before we got one. Funny thing to spend so much time and money on buying a house… to discover it didn’t even come with a dishwasher. But we didn’t sweat it then, and a year in,… Continue reading I don’t have a dishwasher
TL;DR I highly recommend it My wife and I talked about it months before my final gin and tonic. My 34th birthday marked the start of my wife’s third trimester. This meant my second daughter’s birthday would be about 90 days after my own. We’d always kidded about my going without alcohol “in solidarity” with… Continue reading The highs and lows of 3 months with no alcohol
Am I the only one? Maybe I’m anti-art, anti-sport, anti-world. Maybe I just don’t get it. But there’s only so much synchronized diving I can watch before my eyes glaze over. It’s all the same to me. There are some nice things about it. It was cool that Saudi Arabia had a woman compete in track… Continue reading I don’t and didn’t care about the Olympics
Last week I was on vacation. I go to Pinecrest every year and stay at the cabin my great grandpa built 80 years ago. It’s a special place where life quiets and slows down. It’s the only place where I can very easily turn off the internet. It’s also a wonderful place to nap. Naps… Continue reading Return of the nap
Lately, I’ve discovered that reading books to my daughter has taught me a lot about effective writing. A few takeaways are the importance of relating to readers, keeping language simple, and using predictable, repeating structures throughout articles. Write About Relatable Topics Authors who write books for children have to select their topics carefully. They need… Continue reading What I’ve learned from reading childrens’ stories
Yard work is hard work Over the last few years, I’ve started some adventurous landscaping projects at my home in Walnut Creek. As a first-time homeowner, I felt a little nervous about it. Yes, I was anxious about whether the projects would turn out successfully. More importantly, though, I was concerned that I wouldn’t have the… Continue reading Finding the flow
One of my managers back at Navigant Consulting would invite me to “dig in” with him when he really wanted to chat. It’s a good metaphor. As I’ve aged (now into my 33s) I’ve come to appreciate it more. Anything worth doing takes time. It requires digging in. Whether it’s a relationship with your spouse,… Continue reading Digging in