Apr 1, 2021Member-onlyWhy we’re all so exhaustedA look into the mental gymnastics of the COVID-19 pandemic — Spoiler alert: I’m detailing a major discovery made by the characters in The Good Place, a comedy series that dives into morality, the standard of a good life, and what it means to be human. After spending several episodes puzzling over why The Good Place has stopped growing in population…Strawberry20214 min readStrawberry20214 min read
Published in Better Marketing·Mar 26, 2021Member-onlyInstagram and the downfall of conversationHow the evolution of social media has bred reactivity IRL — Scrolling back through my Instagram feed all the way to my first post in 2013, I find a basically edited photo taken through a train window, followed by a sunset picture captioned “too good”. The early days of Instagram were blissful; we shared our cooking escapades, beach vacations, matching family…Instagram4 min readInstagram4 min read
Published in Perceive More!·Mar 21, 2021Member-onlyPlease stop checking in with me because I’m AsianAnd other complicated feelings around #StopAAPIHate — I’m a Vietnamese American woman, and in recent weeks, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances have been reaching out and checking in. And to be completely honest, it’s all making me feel kind of uncomfortable. I’ve known for a year now that anti-Asian hate crimes were on the rise, because I, and…Stopaapihate6 min readStopaapihate6 min read
Feb 16, 2021Member-onlyWhy are we still wiping surfaces down?And to what lengths will we go to slow the spread of COVID-19? — Harken back to the opening act of COVID-19 in March of 2020. During those first few weeks, we thought a single lockdown would quash the spread of this killer virus. I was working from home by day, haphazardly setting my laptop on a few books on top of a wooden…Covid 195 min readCovid 195 min read
Published in The Startup·Jul 16, 2020Member-only“Great Candidate, but the Conversation Didn’t Flow”Deconstructing ethnic and cultural bias in corporate hiring — Corporate America was last valued at 15% of the net worth held by all households in America, certainly enough to wield considerable power within our society. …Corporate Culture7 min readCorporate Culture7 min read
Mar 9, 2020Member-onlyBeing a feminist when the public isn’t watchingFor International Women’s Day 2020 — I’m proud to be a feminist, but the watered-down equal-pay-equal-vote-still-wore-a-white-dress-on-my-wedding-day-because-my-family-wanted-me-to kind. If it were up to me, I would have worn a gold sequined dress, but someone who shall not be named had strong feelings about seeing me walk down the aisle in white. The hourly wage gap has narrowed…Feminism7 min readFeminism7 min read
Feb 5, 2019Member-onlyPost-MortemAutopsy of a startup — Author’s note: this piece was written several months ago. Since then, I quit my job and the company secured a last-minute bridge round. The company’s future is still extremely uncertain, and I hope to be proven wrong by the incredible team that still exists there. For my first job out…Startup6 min readStartup6 min read
Sep 11, 2018Member-onlyOn-Demand Workers Deserve BetterUnprotected and uninsured, they’re quickly becoming second-class citizens — O n Sand Hill Road, startups can pitch themselves as the Uber of X, and investors will throw fistfuls of cash at them. “Let’s Uberize the entire economy,” cries a Forbes article. Soothe, an on-demand massage service, raised $31 million this past May. Wag, a dog walking service, raised a…Silicon Valley5 min readSilicon Valley5 min read
Mar 8, 2018Member-onlyConscientious Tourism: Journeying the Planet without Trampling ItMy husband and I recently went on our honeymoon in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica on the Pacific side of the country, and we spent our time on the local beach watching the tide flow in and out and the crabs digging holes for themselves. We rented a stand-up…Climate Change7 min readClimate Change7 min read
Dec 24, 2017Member-onlyBearing the Standard of Biracial RelationshipsAs my flight began its descent into Denver yesterday, I braced myself for the homogeneity that I knew I would find on the ground below. The first, second, and even third time I came to Colorado, I was struck (in a slightly painful way) by the lack of racial diversity…Race5 min readRace5 min read
