Category: Uncategorized

Last week, I was on a United Airlines flight back to San Francisco, sitting a few rows from the tail. As the uncomfortably warm plane slowly taxied on the runway, the man behind me asked a flight attendant whether she could dial up the air conditioning. Annoyed, she explained the plane had just disconnected from…

Over the last few months, I’ve been swimming on average twice a week, sometimes on Sundays, but mainly during the week after work. It surprises me that visiting the pool has become a routine. If you had asked whether I enjoyed swimming in 2005, my reaction would have been bitter. At the time, like most…

Yesterday, I got a car wash and met the business owner, Oscar, for the second time. I asked how his Thanksgiving went. He said it was fun, but dieting was challenging during the holiday season. He had been working on becoming healthier. He proudly said he had lost 40 pounds over the last six months—a…

Most photo apps on our devices today have built-in facial recognition. It even allows you to search for photos with specific people in them. This feature has been around for a few years, but I haven’t used it much until yesterday. When I discovered this function, I played with various combinations of myself and the…

A few years ago, I visited a smog check station near my house. The owner, Jose, took twenty minutes and said the car had passed the test. When I paid and thought that was the end of a routine exchange, Jose started scribbling on the back of the receipt. He said I should watch out…

Hi friends, I finished the book Night by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel this week. The memoir was a poignant account of his experience during the Nazi occupation in the 1940s. Like most Holocaust survivors, Wiesel faced extreme hunger, sickness, and cruelty. He saw his dad beaten and starved to death. The most profound impression I…

Hi friends, The other day, I was driving in Pacific Heights in San Francisco. My partner and I were on our way to pick up a to-go order at a restaurant. As I surveyed for parking, the car slowly rolled to an intersection. A black motorcycle abruptly emerged from the corner of the intersection. It…

Lately, I’ve been thinking about rules—not rules others impose on us, but the rules we create for ourselves. A couple of months ago, I needed onion and garlic to make a stir-fry dish one evening, so I went to my local grocery store Berkeley Bowl. An hour later, I was still at the store. My half-full…

Last weekend, my wife and I visited the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Sonoma County, which I had been looking forward to visiting for a while now. It was fantastic! In this post, I am sharing a few highlights with you. I first encountered Snoopy when I was eight. My mom gifted me this yellow comic book…

This week, my manager at work was about to meet with a vendor who is also a customer. He asked me to create a one-page document on everything he should know in advance of the meeting. I didn’t know much about this vendor/customer, so I went in all directions: I talked to IT, finance, and…

Hi friends, I explored a paradox in last week’s ​​letter​: Commitment reduces our choices, but it propels us to move forward with what we already have. My friend Mary replied, “A commitment does not have to be gritting teeth and hanging on.” She said a helpful image for her was a garden—where seeds grow into…

“I promise to be faithful to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and to honor you all the days of my life.”—The wedding vow I heard last week. Hi friends, I attended two back-to-back weddings this past weekend. Beyond the festivities and gaining ten pounds within…

I wrote a piece titled ​Now or Later​ last week, exploring the timing of our actions. A reader responded, “Later is sometimes better and richer.” His comment reminded me of three short stories. The first story—funny enough—is the comedian and actor ​Ken Jeong​. After graduating from medical school in 1995, Jeong worked as a doctor…

Last Saturday, my wife and I took a day trip to Bodega Bay, a fishing village an hour north of San Francisco. After a short hike in the morning, we decided to visit the Charles Schultz Museum, which was thirty minutes away. As we drove toward Petaluma, California, we passed a quaint town called Sebastopol…

Last weekend, my wife and I were at a local car dealership to negotiate on a car (our old car had reached the end of its life). After haggling with a salesperson for an hour, the finance manager came to speak with us. The woman asked if we wanted an extended warranty. Here was how…