Notes on starting over. — I can’t believe I’ve become this person. The type of person who actually tries out new foods. The person who spontaneously gets a nose ring after wanting one for most of her (young) adult life. …

When I started writing at 11, I would study & observe patterns, eg how many pages did you need to make up a chapter? (Answer: I counted an average of 12 lol). Then I discovered Stephen King who would write ONE WORD & move on to the next 🤣. His work definitely changed my life.

Why do we find these beliefs so appealing? — It’s Thursday night. I’ve just wrapped up a re-watch of Netflix’s Inside Job, a witty animated sitcom about a world where conspiracy theories are real. A staged moon landing. Lizard people, e.g. Zuckerberg. UFOs. The Deep State. Tupac faking his death and living on an island somewhere. These theories are…

Thoughts on sonder, becoming more self-aware and adulthood. — I I often think about other people and the lives they lead: the baker down the street, the kind pharmacist who attended to me the other day, the conductor hanging onto a yellow Lagos bus. What are their fears, regrets, desires…? Question: do our meandering lives converge, diverge and then converge…

Why we become mushy in its sight. — The holidays were a great time. I basked in the niceness of less work, ate way more food than necessary and spent (mostly) offline time exploring new experiences — hence my absence, oops. Side note: stay away from rollercoasters. I also spent a lot of time with my nieces: two…

Make the best of your past and future. Ah, the good ol’ days. Of simpler times, and better music, and longer attention spans, and paralysing-polio, and untreatable-tuberculosis, and no-Google-Maps. Huh? Yeah, this right here is a trick the mind plays: the past almost always looks better than the present. For some, this is objectively true, particularly in certain…

The neuropsychology behind empathy. — Have you ever been a couple of minutes into a movie, artfully dodging side cringes all through, only to arrive at full-blown panic as the protagonist proceeds to make the ultimate fool of themselves? You recoil and cringe even further. Ugh. You can’t watch this any longer. Ah, the second-hand…

The psychology behind jobs, careers & side projects. — “Without (work) we are at a loss; in work, we hope to have a measure of control over our lives. Yet for many of us, work is a straitjacket from which we cannot free ourselves.” — Alain de Botton In 1971*, psychologist Wayne Oates coined a term to describe a…

Why are we prone to self-unforgiveness? — A few weeks ago, I came to a startling revelation: I hate making mistakes. I’m Sherlock, I know. But no, that wasn’t the profundity. What I found more curious was the why as I probed further. Why would I get impatient with myself over even the seemingly little things? …