It will benefit you, your family, and people you will never meet.
Imagine your daughter is 15. She’s just had her first exposure to alcohol from some friends at school. She’s come to talk to you about it. What do you say?
Your son is 21. He’s been dating someone for 6 months. He asks you how you knew you loved your spouse. What do you say?
Children often seek advice from parents when they experience something for the first time. A break up. Working that first job. Nerves before prom. Uncertainty about what to study in college.
As a parent the natural reaction is to tell them about your own experience…
It’s one of the most painful and wonderful things I’ve ever done.
*Ring Ring Ring* I opened my eyes for the first time in an hour and audibly gasped. The mountaintop vista laid out before me had some of the richest colors I’d ever seen. Deep, uninterrupted blue crashing into jagged peaks before dissolving into the dusty red mountainside. As I reached for my phone to silence the timer, I couldn’t stop staring. Though I’d seen this exact view a dozen times, it was as if it were the first time. The pain of the last hour in my back and legs melted away and was replaced by sheer amazement. …
How much of a religion do you have to believe to be considered part of it? 100%, 80%, 50%? It might sound silly, but hear me out. Say you’re Christian, but you don’t support the church’s stance on gay marriage or contraception. However, you are completely on-board with the church’s teachings on community, helping the downtrodden, and overall value system. Can you still really claim to be Christian?
If so, then that means to some extent we get to pick and choose which part of our Faith to believe and which to discard. But does that miss the whole point…
Full Transparency
I recently spent 8 months traveling. The main goal was to learn about other peoples and cultures while building a more purpose-driven life. You can read about why I did this here.
The second (and less important) goal for this trip was to pay for it with only money made on the trip. Here are my pre-trip ideas on earning money. This article, however, is about how much money I actually made and how much I actually spent. Spoiler! It didn’t go as planned.
So let’s just get straight to it. I began the trip with $2,003.60. I earned that…
Do you know how many movies were watched on Netflix last year?
During one interview my senior year, the interviewer asked that question. If I had read an article about it, then I would’ve known the answer and could’ve simply given it. I would’ve been right, but that wouldn’t prove I know how to think.
But if I hadn’t read an article, then I would have absolutely no idea what the number was. So, I’d have to figure out how to solve the problem. How can I estimate the number of users Netflix has? What’s a good rationale for how often users watch movies? …
What’s the best way to donate money? That’s the question I’ve been pondering recently. For many people giving back is an important part of their lives. Maybe it’s setting aside $100/month to give to the charity of your choice. Maybe it’s the successful businesswoman setting up a foundation. Regardless, this idea of giving back is everywhere.
So that got me thinking, what’s the best way to make an impact with the money we set aside for philanthropy?
Philanthropy as an Investment
As a basic idea, the more money you donate, the bigger the impact you will have. Now that’s not always true, but for…
An unpopular opinion
Have you met the one? You know, your soulmate? The one you were meant to be with forever?
If you haven’t met the one yet, don’t worry, because…there is no such thing. And if you have met the one, well…I’m sorry to inform you that you might be mistaken. You see math has a funny way of ruining things like this.
I won’t go into the details, somebody else already has. But to summarize, there are about 500,000,000 people within a few years of your age. You only have one soulmate. That’s a lot of people to get through in…
The Problem with Coffee Shops
If you walk the length of the town, you’ll never see another white person. Or as the locals call them, mzungus. I’m serious, have a look yourself:
Not convinced? Okay, here are 2 more photos then.
You are not your thoughts. That’s the takeaway. Bold it. Underline it. You are not your thoughts.
What makes you you? Is it your physical body? Is it your mind, that ephemeral thing called consciousness? Is it a combination of the two? Maybe something else entirely?
All of us think about this question at some point in our lives. And if you haven’t yet, well now is as good a time as any!
Taking the Leap
A commonly held belief (at least in Europe & America) is that our mind is who we are. This includes the thoughts we have, emotions we feel…
Coding can seem complex and unapproachable, but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to be an engineer at Facebook or programming autonomous vehicles to benefit from learning the basics.
“If you know how to read you can learn how to code.” -Codecademy
Coding is just another language
At its most basic, coding is just another language like Spanish or French. Where French allows you to speak with people from France, learning a computer language allows you to speak with computers. We use these languages (computer or foreign) in order to accomplish something. Maybe we want to get around a foreign city or learn…
Matthew Biggins
Consultant 👔 Vagabond🏝️ Innovator💡
