What are your favorite side-hustle ideas?
View all responses
E-exorcist: the profession of those who come to the house of one who is possessed by electronic devices and dunks all the household’s screens in unholy water.
That one may need workshopping.
What are five simple exercises to do at home?
View all responses
Calisthenic:
1.) Squat (or suitable variation); 2.) pushup (or suitable variation); 3.) Russian twist; 4.) Pullup or inverted row; 5.) Burpee
Yogic:
1.) Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskara); 2.) Backbend (e.g. Dhanurasana or Chakrasana); 3.) Forward bend (e.g. Paschimottanasana;) 4.) Lateral Bend (e.g. Tiryaka Tadasana); 5.) Twist (e.g. Ardha Matsyendrasana)
Which relationship has taught you the most about yourself?
View all responses
My relationship to sensation.
If you could start a new business right now, what would it be?
View all responses
A “Human Skills for Humans School” that teaches all the important competencies that have been left out of an educational system that is 75% about making the workers of yesterday and 25% about making citizens, but which doesn’t care a whit about building emotional intelligence, self-confidence, natural setting problem solving, movement skills, creativity, primitive living, combat skills for a robot apocalypse, etc. Those worker bee skills are already starting to show their obsolescence and are very likely to continue to do so at an accelerating rate.
The bad news is that AGI and robots are sure to do almost all productive tasks better than humans by the end of the century. The good news is that we have plenty of room to be grow as a species.
What are your best healthy eating habits?
View all responses
Don’t eat after 7pm. Make vegetables and fruit the largest component of consumption by mass.
Alternatively, I can get behind anything in Michael Pollan’s Food Rules, as summarized by his haiku:
eat food.
mostly plants.
not too much.
What are some life hacks that you practice?
View all responses
As far as I’ve seen of so-called “life hacks” they seem to mostly be inelegant solutions for problems that either: a.) already have more reliable and tested solutions, or b.) are needlessly complicated / exaggerated to suggest they need a solution when they really don’t. The whole “life hack” industry seems to be people sitting around trying to figure out how to go viral by creating the illusion of cleverness. It is not Wú Wéi.
Do you believe in karma?
View all responses
As a general principle about how acting selflessly and as a force for good tends to help one find one’s way, YES. As a clockwork cause-and-effect accounting of one’s life activities, NO. In fact, in the latter sense, I believe the idea has quite a dark side that is frequently overlooked.
How do you write what people actually want to read?
View all responses
Step 1: Accept the fact that the overwhelming majority of people don’t want to (or like to) read. The only items I put up in paragraphs (these days) are book reviews. People will read reviews to know what a book says without having to actually read it. The book review is considered the lesser of two evils by those who don’t love reading.
Step 2: Read anything that’s more than a few punchy lines for the “reader.” (i.e. use audio files or YouTube-style video segments.)
Alternatively: Don’t give a rat’s ass and write for yourself.
Clap — awkwardly — at something that no one else clapped at? I don’t know. The “most spontaneous” phrase reads a lot like “most dead,” “most unique,” or even “most perfect” to me.
If the question aims for something at the intersection of major life events and spontaneity, it’s more likely to yield romantic revisionism than truth. Being truly spontaneous at scale is a hard way to live if you’re not a hermit or a crazy sage.
Is “self-care” first-aid done when there’s no one else around? If so, persistent bleeding and fevers above 103 degrees are given privileged positions on my to-do list.
