[This post is part of a series on turning rejections into motivation. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Growing out of its start-up phase and in a recession, Submedia’s needs expanded beyond what my skills could handle a few years after we incorporated — physics trains you well to[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on turning rejections into motivation. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] A PhD in physics is a challenge by any measure. Choosing to start the major in your junior year makes catching up that much harder. I felt I was always catching[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on turning rejections into motivation. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] Ultimate Frisbee was one of the great passions of my life. I played for most of twenty years, competing at Nationals, Worlds, and playing with some of the best players in[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on turning rejections into motivation. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] We’ve all been demoralized and discouraged by rejection. Have you ever been energized and motivated by one? Has one ever been the driving force behind a major projects in your life?[…] Keep reading →

The Tao Te Ching has influenced and resonates with me more than any other book. This translation is my favorite so far for its accessibility. The translator in this interview said a number of perspectives like I would: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Most other perspectives I have follow from those life-level perspectives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4W8ufwzp50 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58eopl0tQao http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sETgCeOdof0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7lxiwJCj08

I’ve run a few marathons. In New York they publish the finishing times in the paper the next day. For some reason I would look at the later finishers to see the oldest ones. I don’t know why. I guess I found it inspirational. In the ones I’ve run a 91 year old man and an 88 year old woman finished. I used to tease my mom: “You could train[…] Keep reading →

On a scorching August day, running along the Hudson I passed a sign: “Runners: Free T-shirt for Interview.” I stopped and agreed to be interviewed. A sports apparel company was interviewing runners for a commercial. They had constructed a small plywood hut with the cameras inside that was air-conditioned. They had me wear a shirt over the one I had been running in to cover their competitor’s logo. The interviewer[…] Keep reading →

By the second day of silence at last week’s five-day meditation retreat, the mental static of everyday thoughts had mostly passed. During the 9am-11am session we switched techniques from focusing on breathing to scanning the body for sensations and letting them pass. After one or two scans I found I could hardly sense anything subtler than, say, my shirt on my arm. Frustrating. Another scan brought me back to my[…] Keep reading →

The Beginning It began last year with a scene in Motorcycle Diaries where the lead character did something that led me to wonder if I could do the same. I mentioned my thoughts to a few friends. Only one, Dave, said let’s do it. (What “it” is, I’ll get to below). We scheduled it for June 15. A trip to Rome delayed that. Rescheduling was a challenge. Thursday it seemed[…] Keep reading →