I recently learned about Rick Charls, who in 1983 was one of five divers to successfully dive from a completely reasonable 172-foot platform at SeaWorld San Diego. You know, just casually throwing yourself off a building into a pool. His dive was particularly impressive for its difficulty and […]
I came across a quote recently that challenged the old cliché: “Winners never quit.” Apparently, winners do quit. They quit doing stupid things. I like that much better. Because let’s be honest. I have yet to meet a person who has never not done anything stupid. Winners included. […]
What’s a thing you wish schools actually taught? I sometimes wish schools taught common sense the way they teach calculus. Not just facts, but strategy for living. The kind you usually learn the hard way, mid-conversation, mid-conflict, mid “I should have handled that differently.” One of the best […]
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received is deceptively simple. Not everything is urgent. It sounds obvious, almost dismissible, until you realize how much of life is designed to feel urgent. Emails marked “ASAP.” Texts that […]
Sometimes, I think we’re going about hiring all wrong. Forget reference checks. Forget panel interviews. Forget those painfully curated resumes where everyone is “results-driven” and “passionate about synergy” (whatever that means this week). What we really need is a nice, quiet restaurant. Recently, I found myself at a […]
There’s a Dostoevsky-adjacent line that has followed me from job to job, like a slightly unhinged little companion: “they insulted me in seventy lines and only the spelling mistakes bothered me.” It shouldn’t resonate as much as it does. And yet. Because here’s the thing about being a […]
Some people will never ask you for your side of the story. Not because they forgot. Not because they’re too busy. But because the version they already heard? It fits. It’s convenient. It confirms whatever quiet narrative they’ve been building about you in their head. Why complicate a […]
There’s a very specific phrase that should come with a psychological warning label. “Can we meet? It’ll only take a few seconds.” A few seconds. I would like to meet the alternate universe where this is true. I imagine it’s a magical place where meetings start on time, […]
There are moments in life when theory meets reality in a way that makes you pause and think, well, that escalated quickly. Case in point. An absolutely surreal (and deeply tragic) news story out of Argentina, where a woman taking a flying lesson suddenly found herself alone midair […]
There are moments in life that reveal who we really are. Big moments. Defining moments. Character-building moments. And then there are cockroach-on-your-shoulder-during-a-live-report moments. I recently watched Rachel Menitoff ( a KTLA news reporter) do the unthinkable. A cockroach landed on her mid-report and she just kept going. No […]