Begin each day by telling yourself: today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Today I am dealing with people that, despite my best intentions, they come across as confrontational and…

To kick-off the New York City gay marathon (aka Pride weekend), I went to a drag show at 3 Dollar Bill. The theme was Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” and it was organized by Luis Fernando. There were a few girls in the crowd who really knew how to dance. But what makes a good…

There was a time when the world went through open borders. Free trade. Free movement of people. New waves of immigration poured into the New World. As they flocked the major urban centers, these ethnic minorities were looked down upon. Discrimination on the base of nationality, what we now call xenophobia, was rampant. Then the…

I am figuring out my swimming schedule for the rest of the year. On one hand is the University swimming pool, which just reopened after a year-long renovation. It is as pristine and immaculate as a well endowed University can afford to pay . On the other hand is the local Masters Swimming club, where…

Yesterday I was hanging out with some friends and friends of friends at a bar. One of them noticed someone had left their sunglasses (of low quality) and proceeded to pick them up. Said person floated the idea of selling them online. I managed to get the item out of their hands. Oddly enough, I…

Today on my way to Philadelphia the SEPTA regional train was full of American citizens on their way to do citizenship work. Citizens looked cheerful. Citizens were looking at each other’s eyes. Citizens were reading each other’s creative signs. It was a rare but refreshing sense of trust in the air. These weak but emerging…

The key to finding value (friends, relationships, projects) is to offer value. We live in a culture of consuming, of expecting, of receiving. Before consume, produce. Before expecting, deliver. Before receiving, give. Before asking for value, offer some value.

Penn professor Angela Duckworth recently delivered a commencement speech at Bates College. Her advice to graduates? Be judicious on where you leave your smartphone. Trivial at first, but surprisingly insightful on closer look. After all, it has been found that the mere presence of a phone within reach significantly diminishes your brainpower. Americans are now…

I’ve been thinking about red lines recently. The one thing to learn from Europe in the 1930s is that people ignored the red lines they once drew. They made excuses not to leave. They rationalized their decision to stay. “My real estate agent is busy and I can’t sell my house.” “I will leave when…

Today I spent the afternoon inventorying books, journals, and catalogs in a new work environment. It was a productive and focused afternoon. It is surprising how the room you choose to do work influences the character of your experience. To be stuck in the same cubicle every weekday flattens the work life and ultimately dulls…