Colin Wright's Blog

Not the Final Me

Something that helps me cope with periods of malaise, pain, or discomfort is reminding myself that the me I am today is not the final me.

This is just a version of myself, iterated from previous versions of myself, and every aspect of my being—my life, my career, my relationships, all of it—are prone to revision. That’s how I got to where I am now, and that will continue to happen in the future.

Even as we work toward goals that would change a whole lot about our lives, we tend to imagine ...

Ever So Slightly More Difficult

Most growth happens beyond our current capacity.

Maintenance is good and healthful, and at times (and in some aspects of our lives) that’s exactly what we should be doing. But if we want to develop—in terms of skill, in terms of thoughtfulness, in terms of strength or balance or other sorts of physical dimensionality—we usually have to go beyond what we’re able to do, today, and then suffer and flail around a little bit to achieve those gains.

It’s possible to go too far too fast, of cours...

The Stuff You Do

It feels good to have written a book.

It’s similar, I suspect, to the feeling of running a marathon or hosting a successful dinner party: it’s an achievement, and it’s satisfying to know you’ve done something difficult and aspirational (even better if there’s some kind of implied social status attached to said achievement).

It also feels good to write a book.

The act of jotting, editing, sculpting something over a long period of time is meditative and frustrating. It’s growth-inducing; ...

Tactical Reset

A surprising number of technical issues can be solved by resetting the glitchy device.

Sometimes you have to unplug it or hold down several buttons to make it work, but this can be a fairly simple solution for what are sometimes shockingly complex issues resulting from an operational state that’s somehow gotten muddled.

I find that my brain and body often work the same way, and can be similarly unmuddled.

If I’m experiencing some kind of body-glitch—a weird ache, tightness, or congestio...

Eye-Opening

I wear contact lenses most days, though I wear glasses while getting ready in the morning and at night before going to bed.

I got my first set of glasses (with early-model transition lenses, so I felt pretty cool and sci-fi) in middle school, after it became apparent I couldn’t see the day’s in-class math lesson that was emblazoned across the far wall by an overhead projector.

I was doing well in class, but it seemed like I was always copying off the person next to me. The teacher later re...

Why Not This Way?

Many norms, folkways, and standards exist because they’re (almost always) the best way to do something (by some metric).

The USB-C standard isn’t the most bleeding-edge option that technology and manufacturing can offer, but it’s a really solid, relatively high-performing default that’s a significant upgrade compared to what came before.

The three act story structure, similarly, isn’t always going to be the absolute ideal way to present a narrative, but a lot of the time it’s better than t...

The Slowdown

Being able to persist through difficult times, tedious moments, and dark nights of the soul is important if you want to achieve any kind of long-term goal.

That’s true whether you’re painting a mural, planning a big event, or raising a child. There’s a lot to love about all these processes, but plenty of strain, angst, and even pain, along the way.

When you’re in it, though—really focused, committed to the task at hand, ignoring all those aches and anxieties by thinking about how good it w...

Nothing In the Tank

Ideas tend to beget more ideas, but only if you spend the ones you accrue.

It’s a nice feeling, having a good idea. But if you leave it in the tank, unutilized, it produces little value (beyond serving as a reminder that you had a good idea, once).

Far better to burn that fuel, to use it as motive power to get you to the next stop on your journey: the next iteration of you, but also the next tank-full of ideas.

It’s far less risky to conceive of things than to implement them, of course....

Failure States

I will, at times, fail. And the more I push myself the more failure I’ll tally—so optimally I’m failing at things semi-regularly.

That’s a tough pill to swallow, as no one (even someone who believes what I believe about the necessity of failure) likes to fail. It doesn’t feel good, it can trigger anxieties, it can even make us question our worth.

I try to work this failure-related self-knowledge into my rituals and routines so that the failures hurt a little less, and so I’m in a good spot...

The Weakest Me

When I’m trying to establish a new habit—working out each morning or freewriting for a few minutes each day, for instance—I try to set things up so that’s it easy to get started and keep getting started, over and over, until that new habit is locked in.

That initial lock-in process is tough, which is why removing every possible friction and addressing every possible excuse not to do it, ahead of time, can be helpful.

If I know I’ll justify not going to the gym if I have to drive there, it ...