Taking stock of what I’ve captured to know what captures me — Last April, I went on my first solo trip and decided to do a self-experiment. I brought a disposable film camera, the Fujifilm Simple Ace, and asked myself: Knowing I only had 27 shots, what would I capture? What things, places, or scenes would I strongly want to hold in…

Step one: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ — In case you ever find yourself unable to sleep at night, tossing and turning in your bed, wholly consumed by what the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management’s admissions board could possibly be looking for in an MBA candidate, just remember I.C.E.S. It stands for: Intellectual horsepower, Communication/presence, Experience/impact…

And how a word/statement changed my life — The theme was supposed to be “Shokunin” in 2021 and “Light” in 2020. But on both times I intended to have a theme for the year, I plucked a word practically out of thin air, announced it in some virtual space while the New Year high was still high, then…

May you love it the way Steve Jobs loves his clicks — Back when Bob Iger was at the helm of Disney and Steve Jobs was still around, they would do all these fun top-secret CEO stuff. …

And the wonders of an inexplicably important day — On my second day in Salzburg, it occurred to me that there wasn’t much left to do. The Salzach River divides the city center into two districts: the Old Town on the west, and the New Town on the East. The day before, I’d already explored the Old Town. …

Creating a “Life Spread” is surprisingly clarifying & actionable — Ever since I read about the four-burner metaphor, I’ve been taking pains to be as deliberate as I can be with my life. If you haven’t heard of it, the metaphor first appeared in a New Yorker piece by David Sedaris, and it goes like this: Imagine your life as…

Is it time, as Chris Brown sang, to “Say Goodbye” to my old self? — At the end of 2020, my Spotify Wrapped revealed that after three years, Chris Brown — if you’re reading this, Breezy, I’m sorry — was officially dethroned as my top artist. He was now second to my girl NIKI, a Gen Z Asian indie singer who had a totally different…

Have you nailed these three pillars of self-care? — My sister is a part-time shopaholic, part-time fashionista, and a full-time surgeon. She’s in the penultimate year of her residency, which means it’s her 600th year in medicine. …

Or how I learned to relinquish control over my “life plan” — Some time ago, I found this infographic on Business Insider titled “The Age You Peak at Everything, According to Science.” I remembered it while I was writing my birthday essay, and thought it’d be an interesting thing to share. Like a fun fact! Something nice-to-know. …