I Like How You Think

Liminal Spaces

Notes From Liminal Spaces - Medical Imaging Edition

Without getting into too much detail, I was hit by a car while riding my bike back in March. Well, more accurately, I was cut off by a turning 4Runner and used my rib cage as a battering ram to broadside it. Do I need to say I lost that

Ramblings

Freewill, Determinism, and Entropy...Oh My!

Or: more rambling thoughts about careerism, changing tracks, and whether or not any of it is really our decision. Quick Ed. note: this one got away from me. I like the point I eventually get to, so I’m leaving it as is to give you an idea of how

Personal Philosophy

Still Life With Dog. Or: Reframing, FTW

(Ed Note: This is yet another piece from a defunct blog. It dates to just after I was laid off back in Oct. '23. Some edits have been made to reflect the passage of time, but the underlying theme still resonates with me, so I decided to post it.

Personal Philosophy

You Are Not Your Story

Western culture has a bad habit. Well, several actually, but that’s the subject of another blog. Or a Masters level seminar. Anyway, the habit I want to talk about here is our felt need to have a backstory for...well, everything. This often extends to ourselves and how we

My Stories

5 Lessons I Learned Jumping Careers At 40

Ed note: This essay started life back in 2019 when I was freelancing at the start of my new career as a writer. Starting in mid-2020, I became employed full-time as an in-house writer, first on a contract basis, then moving to FTE. While the specifics have changed, the underlying

Newsletter

Notes From Liminal Spaces 1 | Car Dealership Waiting Rooms

Car dealership waiting rooms are their own special kind of hell…I mean, liminal space. Bad coffee, cheap snacks, yesterday’s physical newspaper, and a TV blaring whatever channel whoever last had the remote left on... (Ed note: I cannot recommend this device highly enough for anyone who spends any

Newsletter

Know Your Why, Part I

If you don't know why you're doing what you're doing—how can you counter someone who says you’re doing it wrong? My grandma used to say something that drove me, and the rest of the family, nuts: “You’re right, I can’t.

Newsletter

Reframing, or Perspectives con’t

Let’s start with a definition of terms, from Wikipedia: Cognitive reframing is a psychological technique that consists of identifying and then disputing irrational or maladaptive thoughts. Reframing is a way of viewing and experiencing events, ideas, concepts, and emotions to find more positive alternatives. In other words, reframing is

Newsletter

What’s Enlightenment Got To Do With It?

Just imagine if Gautama Buddha had been scrolling Instagram while he sat under the Bodhi tree...

Personal Philosophy

5 Reasons I Jumped Careers at 40

I’ll be the first to admit that jumping from IT operations manager to freelance writer seems, well, a bit far-fetched. When you look at some episodes from my working life, however, it will start to make more sense. I hope. I always did great in English class. My college

Personal Philosophy

Liminality as a State of Being?

(Ed. Note: there are no answers in this essay, just thoughts and ideas) I’ve been feeling an increasing sense of what I can only describe as liminality recently. I don’t mean that in any sort of dystopian way, like the world is becoming one big waiting room for

Newsletter

Resonance

From Wikipedia: “Resonance is a phenomenon that occurs when an object or system is subjected to an external force or vibration that matches its natural frequency.” Also from Wikipedia: “Limbic resonance is the idea that the capacity for sharing deep emotional states arises from the limbic system of the brain.

Commonplace

Earworms as memory triggers

Is anyone else's earworm kind of an asshole? After having the intro to a particular Grateful Dead song (not going to name it for fear of it making a repeat performance) on repeat for nearly a week, I started to think about how certain songs can come to

Personal Philosophy

Paying Attention…on Purpose

Before you ask, no, this won’t devolve into a rant about the “attention economy.” At least, I hope it won’t. Paying attention is a bit of a trigger for me these days. Can you blame me? I was knocked off my bike by a driver who hooked an

Commonplace

Who decided we all needed to have our collective shit together, anyway?

A lot of ink, digital and otherwise, has been spilt discussing the cult of busyness in society these days. So if you think I’m going to spill more in an attempt at muddying the waters with yet one more opinion...you’re right. You know me so well. Despite

Newsletter

Shift Your Perspective

This is an amalgamation of what started out as 3 posts on a previous blog. I’ve edited it heavily and in the end decided to combine the whole thing into one longer piece, hoping that the resulting total is indeed more than the sum of its parts. Trust me,

Ramblings

47th Rotation — Completed

Update - 4/24/24: This was initially posted just after my birthday back in January. Since moving this blog from WordPress to Substack to Ghost (if you noticed anything off last week, please let me know!)—I'm updating and reposting pieces I find evergreen. So despite references

Personal Philosophy

It’s not you. It’s not me. It’s US.

A deceptively simple-seeming concept I’ve been giving a lot of thought to recently can be summed up like this: "It's not you. It's not me. It's US." Seeing a relationship like this lets both parties see it for what it is,

Newsletter

Yes, and…

This simple heuristic (that I mentioned…last week?) comes from improv theater (among other places, I’m sure) and is used to keep a scene going. When it looks like a scene may be coming to an end prematurely, one actor can say (or think to themselves) “Yes, and…” and

Newsletter Featured

“Quietly do the next and most necessary thing." - Carl Jung

This line comes from a letter Jung wrote in response to a fan (psychologists have fans?!) who wrote in asking that most basic of questions—how to live her life. The dominant culture around her (Switzerland around the turn of the 20th century) told her to get married and do

Newsletter

Context Matters

One of the topics I find meandering across my consciousness every so often is the importance of context. Ironically it's appeared across multiple contexts. Let’s look at a couple of examples. First, when I was writing for a B2B Software as a Service (SaaS) cybersecurity/authentication company,

Newsletter

What’s The Common Denominator?

I've used this expression a lot over the years. Most often it comes to mind when someone is midway through telling me about how their bosses always seem to have it out for them, no matter how many times they change roles or employers. Somehow, magically, somebody else

Newsletter

Writing Processes, Side Projects, and Time Sucks…Oh My!

Update 2 (3/13/24): I’m constantly amazed at how things can both change and yet remain static over time. Since this was posted, with the below update, I’ve been caught up in layoffs, started freelancing, and built up two new web presences (this newsletter and a blog

Newsletter

Welcome to I Like How You Think

I’ve been struggling to come up with a great opening line for this, the new home for my personal ramblings on the web. I thought about going serious: “Welcome to I Like How You Think, where we’ll tackle the big issues of the day...” I thought about going