Everyone has a microphone. Everyone has a platform. Now, with the power of a Facebook or Twitter or Instagram account, _anyone _can write their thoughts and have an immediate audience. The upsides are what we’ve been talking about over the last decade: now, no voice gets left out. No one is barred by gatekeepers. For most intents and purposes, gatekeepers don’t even exist anymore, or if they do, they’re simply watching to see who’s doing the groundwork on their own before they make their picks.

+++ title = “11” date = 2019 +++ Most people get a thrill out of being right. That is, if they can prove their point well enough that another person is persuaded, they feel good about themselves. Their viewpoints become validated. But I’d like to meet more people who are open to being wrong. I’m not talking about the mere admittance that one could be wrong, but that they actively seek out ways to discredit their own views, as counter-intuitive as the idea sounds.

+++ title = “11” date = 2019 +++ I had lunch with a friend recently and mentioned that I was seeing a therapist. “A therapist? Why? Are you depressed?” The truth is, I didn’t decide to see a therapist because I was depressed. It was because we just had a child. I wanted to know my own mind so I could be the most effective parent possible. Every couple weeks, my therapist and I meet to examine my life: my biases, my quirks, my challenges, and my wins.

+++ title = “11” date = 2019 +++ This is purely anecdotal, but I see it all the time: those who switch lines furiously on the highway are also terrible at using their signal. Yet, research has shown that switching lanes frequently doesn’t take many minutes off of our trip. We’ll still get to our destination at about the same time. It makes me think of the book Faster Smarter Better by Charles Duhigg, the author tells us that having autonomy can make us feel like we’re in charge, and therefore more motivated to do a task.

The barrier between sleep and awake is both fragile and strong. I can sleep through a storm outside, but if the furnace makes any kind of weird buzz, I’m awake instantly. Even a non-intrusive alarm ringtone pierces the veil. Sleep has always been rather mysterious to me. Where do we go when we’ve gone to sleep? How can time seem to pass so quickly? I became determined, when I was 5, to catch myself falling asleep.