Blog — Writing

One of the fundamental paradoxes of our lives is the one of choice. In the contemplation of our decisions—our rudimentary, superficial calculus of cause and effect, our biased judgments of what constitutes a good or bad outcome, and our overweening faith in a stable, predictable world—we often forget that, as humans, we have an absolutely horrendous track record at predicting the future, and an…

For the majority of my life, the music I listened to was consistent. It was consistent in the sense that for a given song, whether through recording or live performance, there was more or less one version of it; the primary components of the music—the lyrics, the melodies, harmonies, rhythms, textures, and structure—were relatively the same across multiple renditions, if not completely…

If we could’ve done things differently, then why didn’t we? In one question, this is the fundamental problem of regret. Regret is the manifestation of our implicit belief in the concept of free will. It can only exist if we delude ourselves into believing that we can somehow alter the course of the universe and the incomprehensible spontaneity of our circumstances; our minds insist that somehow…

“The more important the project we take on, the more difficult it is to find certainty that our work will succeed before we begin. We can begin with this: If we failed, would it be worth the journey? Do you trust yourself enough to commit to engaging with a project regardless of the chances of success? The first step is to separate the process from the outcome. Not because we don’t care about the…

I’m at a certain crossroads in life. Having just quit my job, I’ve consequently been spending a great deal of time contemplating my career options. Naturally, I’ve caught myself many times imagining how great it would be if any of my hobbies (or past hobbies) could’ve formed into a genuine professional career. Before I began my first (and only) job at Paris Baguette, I was really into Olympic…