Ms. Chang, my amazing 9th grade English teacher, often hammered in the importance of ‘Showing, Not Telling.” Sorry, Ms. Chang, but ten years later I remain too lazy for that, so I’m ignoring one of the basic rules of good writing to just tell you that I love food. Check out my yelp reviews if you don’t believe me, or are in the mood to read a pretentious snot’s judgement on a number of restaurants. Link to my yelp account. One of the hardest questions to answer as a foodie is “What’s your all-time favorite dish?” Truthfully, I have so many, and the list changes over time, but Cacio e…
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Take account of your year through this reflection exercise
Every day in December, a friend of mine writes down one accomplishment in the last year that makes her proud. By the end of the year, she creates a list of 31 accomplishments. What a brilliant idea! I’ve heard of many “Year in Review” type activities, but always shy away from them…they usually involve copious amounts of self-flagellation, and many of us are too good at that already. New Years doubles as an opportunity for self-reflection and change for the better, but it can also be a lovely time to simply smile at oneself and say, “well done!”. In the spirit of self-acceptance, I’m sharing a partial list of my…
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Tim Ferris’ new book, Tribe of Mentors provides therapy and motivation to nudge you towards success
Harsh truth time: if you live in Silicon Valley and haven’t heard of Tim Ferris, you’re living under a rock. He operates a famous podcast (The Tim Ferriss Show) and writes prolifically. His self-authored bookshelf includes The Four Hour Workweek and Tools of Titans. He represents the classic Silicon Valley hero. His newly released book, Tribe of Mentors, bursts at the seams with wisdom (I mean this semi-literally…it is over 500 pages long). Rather than trying to write a book of his own advice, Tim cleverly crowdsources advice from a smattering of the world’s most successful people. The book represents a compilation of many successful people’s responses to the same…
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Hate books? These steps can help you grow from a non-reader to a bookworm soon
In elementary school, I spent recesses reading in a corner while the other children played on the monkey bars. This was in equal parts attributable to the fact that I was an intolerable swot who thought books were more interesting than humans, and to the fact that other children knew how insufferable I was and wisely kept their distance. Whatever the childhood origins of my love of reading, the love remains as strong as ever, and reading regularly constitutes one of my pitifully few ‘good habits.’ I often converse with friends who ask how they can learn to love reading, or express an interest in reading more. Here are a…
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Tim Ferriss’ exercise to conquer fear by facing it head on with “fear setting”
I’ve digested quite a bit of Tim Ferris’s content over the past year and a half. Over the next few days, I’ll be detailing some ‘quick hits’. Here’s the first: TED Talk, This talk rescued me shortly after my move from San Francisco to Mumbai in May of 2017. After a very lonely first month in Mumbai, during which I spent most of my free time studying for the GMAT, I felt I’d made a huge mistake by choosing to take a leave of absence from my firm in San Francisco. Why had I done this to myself? Could I really make it through a whole year working and living…
