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Illustrated stories on the human condition.

tech is no substitute for depth
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Tech is no substitute for depth 🤔

Hey friends, It's safe to say that technology has enabled a lot of good things for us. For one, we wouldn’t be together here in this inbox without it. We wouldn’t be able to send pictures to our loved ones in faraway places without it. If anything, the chief benefit of technology is its ability to sustain human connection across space and time. But the trade-off is that it tends to cheapen that connection, turning our relationships into mere bits that require minimal effort to sustain. In...

metric-less success

Hey friends, It’s been a while. I’m back from my summer in Korea, where I faced a series of personal challenges that I’m still navigating today. At some point, I might share them with you in the hopes that its resulting lessons may be useful. Thank you to those that have sent me messages asking if everything was okay; hearing from you was truly heartening. In brighter news, the big writing project I’ve been teasing throughout the year is nearly complete, and I plan on announcing it in...

Hey friends, Our relationship with thought is riddled with tradeoffs. On one hand, thought is the engine that powers the modern world, creating abundance we’ve never known before. But on the other, thought is the destroyer of worlds, producing anxiety and worry in a populace that is inundated with angst. To be human is to oscillate between these two poles. We must use thought as a tool to actualize our potential, but we must also disregard it to protect our sanity. The question, of course, is...

the finality of everything

Hey friends, I'm in Korea visiting my parents, and will be here for another month before returning back to Los Angeles. The summer is usually a time in which I slow down on the creative front, and given the pace in which I worked for the first half of the year, this is necessary. While I’ve yet to announce the big project I’ve been working on, just know that as a newsletter reader, you’ll be among the first to know. In the meantime, I wanted to continue sharing both new and old posts via this...

Hey friends, I’ve been working on a big writing project over the last 3 months. I’ve cleared out my calendar, blocked off my weekday mornings, and dedicated almost all my creative energy to this one thing. It has required a level of focus that has brought the best of my abilities to the forefront. Well, I believe I’m nearing the finish line, and will be announcing it in the near future. I’m very happy with where it’s going, and am excited to share it with you when the time is right. In the...

Hey friends, In the last edition of the newsletter, I mentioned that I was working on a big writing project. Well, that’s still where I’m directing a majority of my creative attention toward, and in due time, I’ll share more details here. I feel like I’ve grown so much as a result of working on it, and perhaps you’ll sense that when you get to read it as well. In the meantime, I wanted to share a reflection on an important topic: what it means to follow your passion. One of the ways we’ve...

Hey friends, I’m back in Los Angeles after a wonderful stay in Vancouver, and I’m back in the groove of my writing schedule. I’m working on something I’m very excited about, and in due time, I’ll share more details here. I haven’t been this energized when it comes to my writing for quite some time, which signals that this is the exact project I’m supposed to be working on. Hope that there’s something in your life that fuels you in a similar way as well. In the meantime, I’d like to share a...

Hey friends, Hello from Vancouver, where I’m visiting family until early next week. This city holds a special place in my heart because my wife and I got married here, and it’s wild that we’re now here with a child. The pages of life turn quickly, and I hope you’re taking a moment to slow down and bookmark the most special ones. Today, I wanted to share a reflection on one of life’s most important topics: happiness. In a sense, happiness is the greatest aspiration of all. It’s what makes the...

Hey friends, Of all the virtues we aspire to embody, kindness should reside near the top. If you take inventory of all the world’s problems, almost every single one can be resolved with it. With that said, there is a nuance to navigate. It turns out that there’s a species of kindness which doesn’t add to one’s well-being, but detracts from it. Instead of acting as a force for compassion, it becomes a proponent of cowardice. So in today’s post, we’re going to explore the border between the...

Hey friends, Before getting into today’s post, I wanted to share an observation. There’s been a recent uptick in enrollment for my writing course, The Examined Writer. I’m not sure why that is, or how exactly people have found their way to the program (I don’t have analytics set up on any of my course pages). It’s possible that students are simply spreading the word about it, which is the best outcome I could hope for. Regardless, this kind of thing is great because my work as a whole is...