(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 Armageddon or something—rather it’s a feeling that…
Author: Jesse
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 be tied to very specific memories, complete…
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.” That is one of the most deceptively simple-sounding, yet incredibly complex and, the more you…
Freewill? Determinism? Entropy?
Quick heads up: this one got away from me, but I like the point I eventually get to, so I’m leaving it as is to give you an idea of how these things swirl around and eventually come out as written essays whether the words are in the right order or otherwise. “The ability to…
Yes, and…
This simple heuristic 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 this often spurs the group to find a new direction to…
What’s the common denominator?
I’ve found myself using this expression a lot over the last two years. It generally pops up in a conversation when someone is moaning about how they were wronged over and over in relationships, personal or professional. Somehow, magically, it’s always somebody else who did the thing that caused the bad result. But what’s the…
“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 culture around her told her to get married and do whatever her husband bade her do, and that didn’t sit right with her. The line…
Context Matters.
One of the things I find wandering across my consciousness is the importance of context. Ironically it’s been appearing across contexts. Let’s look at a couple of examples. First, at my last role as content writer for a B2B SaaS cybersecurity/authentication company, I was working on a whitepaper based on an SME (subject matter expert)…
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 snarky, “Just because I like how you…
Just in case you stumbled over here before I was ready…
You’ve inadvertently found my new home on the web. The thing is, I’m not really ready for visitors yet. I mean, the blinds are back-ordered, the rug needs shampooing, and I have no idea where I put the coffee cups… Please stay tuned, bookmark this page, or add me to your favorite RSS reader then…