Posts

In the bygone era, we had résumés—and today, many of us still maintain these professional summaries (or curriculum vitae, for the academically inclined). But now we also curate digital identities through social profiles that serve as our new first impressions in an increasingly online world. For the professionally ambitious, these digital personas have become the initial point of contact, the gateway through which career opportunities flow. In the context of employment, these digital breadcrumbs form a constellation that hiring managers use to make judgments about your candidacy long before any interview. Best hope those recruiters don’t unearth your anonymous Reddit alter ego.

When most people contemplate technology, their minds immediately conjure sci-fi spectacles: humanoid robots, sentient AI, and interplanetary travel. But technology extends far beyond these futuristic tropes. At its essence, technology represents our methodical manipulation of the environment to serve human needs. Through this fundamental lens, cities themselves emerge as perhaps humanity’s most sophisticated and consequential technological achievement.

John Maynard Keynes coined the term “animal spirits” to describe the human emotions that drive consumer confidence. In today’s AI-saturated landscape, we’re witnessing new animal spirits emerge as we collectively lose touch with reality and cheer for an algorithmically-driven future filled with generated clickbait, mediocre art, fabricated “facts,” and an endless stream of low-quality content.

The distinction between growth and grind mindsets deserves serious examination. Growth encompasses a deliberate process of learning, skill acquisition, and personal evolution—typically following an upward trajectory. Grind, by contrast, represents pure exertion, often pushing toward exhaustion and burnout. One approach cultivates sustainable advancement; the other frequently leads to diminishing returns.

Okay, the title is clickbait, and I am ashamed of that. So, I’ll give you the bottom line up front: the Dunning-Kruger effect is (in my experience) spot-on, and even though it’s a bit of a pop psychology trope these days, I’ve encountered this effect countless times. There’s a fascinating interplay between Dunning-Kruger and imposter syndrome where these two psychological phenomena can work together in surprisingly complex ways.

We humans are complex animals, and our brains developed over hundreds of thousands of years to survive on a rugged unforgiving planet. We invented technologies that became luxuries, and for many (in the West, at least) we live relatively easy lives, by historical standards. It wasn’t until the late 1800s in the US that indoor plumbing was commonplace, which is surprisingly recent1.

Speaking broadly, there are two ways to think about life: passively or actively. Passive philosophy amounts to letting things happen, whereas active is about making things happen. I generally try to stay active. If I want something to happen, I need to make it happen. Sitting around waiting for something to happen or for someone to come along and tell you what to do is passive.

Young people are often fed some variation of the belief that hard work will be rewarded; therefore, it’s good and virtuous to work hard. While I do agree with this sentiment, I think the same is also true of laziness. Unlike hard work, laziness is generally regarded as a negative attribute, but this is just a misunderstanding about what laziness truly is.

If you pay much attention to the mainstream media, you’ve likely heard the phrase “energy transition” thrown around, which alludes to an ongoing global effort to transition away from fossil fuels and move toward so-called “green” energy sources1. As much airtime as this catch-phrase gets, the data reveals a more complex reality about our progress2.

What if the most revolutionary act in today’s world is simply being a good neighbor? In a time when roughly 75% of Americans with a high school education or less report that they seldom or never attend local community events or meetings1, the simple act of positive contribution might be our most powerful untapped resource.