Colin Wright's Blog, page 22

Surface Tension

There’s a superficial level to every discussion. If you follow this conceptual thread far enough, you’ll find that language itself is just a coded analogy that allows us to approximate meaning to each other, verbally and with written glyphs. But in this case, I’m talking specifically about the caricature-like discourse we often engage in because […]

How You Get There

One of the major challenges we face as an increasingly interconnected, globe-straddling species, is in how we organize ourselves even as our traditional distinctions dissipate. It’s easy to look around at the surging waves nationalism and assume that this isn’t an issue; we’ve clearly got our distinctions firmly in place. But a lot of what’s […]

Educational Balance

At two months old, babies understand the fundamentals of physics. Which isn’t to say they could tell you the equations underpinning concepts like entropy or explain how mass informs gravity. But at two months they do have a tacit understanding that unsupported objects will fall and that physical objects do not disappear when concealed; which […]

Made-Up Metrics

There’s a difference between money made doing work that drains you and money made doing work that fills you with passion and joy. It’s difficult to quantify that difference, however. A dollar is a dollar, however you earn it. The latent value of that dollar ebbs and flows with the market, but neither gains nor […]

This Is It

I was probably five or six years old the first time I thought I was going to die. The exact context of what happened is fuzzy, as I was just a little kid, but I know I was at a friend’s house, and I know this friend had a pool in their backyard, and I […]

A Year Without Dating

If you’ve read my work for any amount of time, you probably know that I regularly and enthusiastically engage in lifestyle experiments. Which in practice means that I adjust the way I do something for a set period, and then stop to assess what I learned from the experience. Some of these experiments are short-term […]

Principles, Frameworks, and Policies

I aspire to always be learning, experiencing new things, and growing as a consequence. This is one of my guiding principles. I work on projects that amplify each other, so that effort in one area tends to result in latent payoffs in another. This is one of my operational frameworks. I tend to keep notifications […]

Why This Way?

One of the most important questions you can ask yourself, at any point in your life, is “Why?” A deluge of valuable realizations can dawn as you pause and assess and wonder and, perhaps, make some changes to the way you do things. We’re not typically encouraged to question the paths we follow, so reaching […]

Weeklies

It’s amazing how difficult it can be to instill regular doses of novelty into a rooted lifestyle. One of the more valuable aspects of traveling frequently or semi-frequently, I would argue, is the constant exposure to newness: unfamiliar tastes, smells, sights, sounds, colors, habits, routines, people, experiences, animals and plants, sports, traditions, and everything else. […]

Stimulus & Action

I love rearranging my furniture. It still feels weird to own furniture, truth be told, but now that I have it, I’m an enthusiastic repositioner. Which probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. My lifestyle since 2009 has been predicated on changing things around, adjusting my environment (and myself within that environment) to ensure […]