Deliberate Malapropisms: A Journal

So... are we supposed to just pretend like it's normal for the president to be declared mentally unfit to serve his elected position? Voters elected the president – not his party, not his political allies – to serve as the head of the executive branch, and he is clearly incapable of holding that position, now by his own admission and that of his party. Congress is still in session. There are bills heading to the president's desk. Who will sign or veto those bills? In my 8th grade civics class...

Innovation is creative work. To do creative work, you have to go through many rough drafts. Sometimes you have to invest time into an idea that doesn't work out, but which reveals some other idea that makes exploring that first idea worth it. Or sometimes it doesn't work at all, and you move on to the next idea. This process is completely antithetical to corporate workplaces, and one reason why I do not trust any large corporation's claim that it is able to "innovate." Maybe this happens in som...

I don't really like remote working, but it is currently the only option I can find. Tech companies during the pandemic all closed their offices. A lot of companies went out of business as the pandemic destroyed the economy. Those that survive let their leases expire. Even the big-name company I worked at before only half-finished the office buildout they began in 2020. I work remotely, but I don't have a quiet home office or a nice home to enjoy between Zoom calls. My overpriced apartment is in...

We all face difficulties in life. It is only natural that we should, since in order to satisfy all our instinctual drives, the world would have to completely change. We make plans and go out into the world seeking to fulfill those plans, only to find, time and time again, that we are met by obstacles that prevent us from advancing. We need an approach that takes these inevitable obstacles into account. The following system works for me. I definite two categories of obstacle: problems and chall...

Or: How I Learned To Hate The Housing Market (Originally written in early 2022.) Americans love houses, to an irrational degree. The idea of owning your own home is part of the "American dream" that seems to be more often derided today, and rarely embraced in earnest. Along with cars and credit cards, the love of houses approaches cult-like obsession in the United States. Americans from all walks of life pursue home ownership with a maniacal glee, as though it were the only financial goal wort...

I used to hoard huge amounts of books. I collected every book I could get my hands on and accumulated for four years in my first solo apartment, which had three huge Ikea book cases. Then when I had to leave, I parted with about half of those books, only to replenish the hoard later. For some reason, I just have a hard time letting go of books, and they seem to re-appear in my home if I am not vigilant. I think one reason was the "fantasy self." I liked to imagine I was a different person than ...

I was fortunate to have the security team at Cloudflare reach out to me in late 2020. This was at the height of the pandemic. I interviewed in November and December 2020, and accepted the offer the following January. I was managing a system that was processing a huge influx of data and where uptime really mattered. It was a great engineering challenge. I inherited a system built for much smaller volume, and had to quickly plot a course to scaling it up. I was working 10-12 hours a day most days...

Growing up, I was always a fairly introverted kid, prone to day-dreaming, reading, and tinkering with things. Every holiday, my parents got together with my aunt and her kids. The cousin closest in my age, Nathan, was also the one most similar to me, and the one who has had the most impact on me. Nathan was a very smart kid, but also very introverted. He had trouble socially adapting. He finally came into his own in high school. Nathan was really into video games and taught himself graphics pro...

Many friends who have known me over the years tell me that my home and my way of life is very minimalist. I often feel the opposite, that my home is bursting to the seams with stuff and I waste entirely too much money and time on silly things that bring me no pleasure. In any case, I definitely do like minimalism, and my biggest inspirations are from Japan. First is the "extreme" minimalist, Fumio Sasaki. The other is the more famous Mari Kondo. Both of these authors present answers to the ques...

1 For many years, my life plan was to have as many pleasures as possible while also making money and saving for the future. I didn't have any plans for what to do with this money, but it seemed important to be saving it. I wanted to live in a downtown area of an urban center for convenience and access to bars, restaurants, and gyms. Looking back at it now, it is the luxurious life of a "yuppie" that I desired, though I chose a more spartan design aesthetic. Minus the saving money bit, this is...