Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 4:6) I’ve gone viral …on TikTok. So I spend a lot of time on TikTok, for, um, research purposes. This is supposed to be embarrassing. Our cultural obsession with work, or workism, as Derek Thompson calls it, means allContinue reading “I’ve gone viral, or Scattered Thoughts on Workism”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Life Update and Poem
Life update: I’ve moved to Cambridge to do an MPhil in Philosophy. More on that in another post. I’m at Trinity College, hence the picture. No philosophy to share, yet. But here’s a poem I wrote at the Sidgwick Site: Plant one flower. After, don’t look down at your feet. Stumble, stumble your way, headContinue reading “Life Update and Poem”
Guest Post: Naomi Shifrin’s Lesson Learned
A continuation of the Lessons Learned series. Naomi Shifrin (Singer and undergraduate student, Princeton University): COVID-19 was a spiritual shock. We, the human race, received perspective in the form of a harsh and deep truth: we are not in control of the happenings of the universe. This was the year I exited the beaten pathContinue reading “Guest Post: Naomi Shifrin’s Lesson Learned”
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You can now smoke weed legally in New York. But should you?
Last month New York became the 15th US state to legalize recreational marijuana. People can now possess up to 3g, smoke it wherever they’re allowed to smoke cigarettes, and grow their own. This is a big win for racial justice. New Jersey was the first state to make a racial-justice-based argument for legalization (my colleagueContinue reading “You can now smoke weed legally in New York. But should you?”
Status-Income Disequilibrium
(Thanks to Jeff Zymeri for the pointer) Here’s David Brooks’ “The tragedy of the SID”: This eventually became his book Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. If you’re anything like me, you have a very strong opinion of David Brooks. That’s for another post. And/but this is undeniably aContinue reading “Status-Income Disequilibrium”
A vet committed suicide after suffering from tinnitus. Will people start caring about their hearing health now?
An open letter to anyone who cares to listen. On March 21, 2021, the NYTimes reported that Kent Taylor, a veteran and founder of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant chain, took his own life: Here is a reader comment on the story: And another: Tinnitus, a ringing in the ears associated with hearing loss, affects betweenContinue reading “A vet committed suicide after suffering from tinnitus. Will people start caring about their hearing health now?”
12 Things We Learned in 12 Months of the Pandemic (Part 3)
Part 3 of a 3-part series. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. 9. AnneMarie Luijendijk (Head of First College, Professor of Religion, Chair of the Committee for the Study of Late Antiquity, Princeton University) I am still processing what happened this past year: the immense tragedy of the pandemic and the important urgency of theContinue reading “12 Things We Learned in 12 Months of the Pandemic (Part 3)”
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12 Things We Learned in 12 Months of the Pandemic (Part 2)
Part 2 of a 3-part series. Read Part 1 here. 5. Noah Schochet (Prototype Engineer, ThirdEye Gen) When the pandemic hit, and all the students were sent home, we all found ourselves thrown into a new, uncertain environment that forced us to adapt quickly. No matter who you were, where you lived, or what youContinue reading “12 Things We Learned in 12 Months of the Pandemic (Part 2)”
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12 Things We Learned in 12 Months of the Pandemic (Part 1)
Part 1 of a 3-part series. As we approach the anniversary of the first COVID lockdown in the United States, I asked twelve people what they’ve learned in the past 12 months. Here’s what they told me: 1. Ally Dalman (Software Engineer, Google) I learned that what I value most is being able to spendContinue reading “12 Things We Learned in 12 Months of the Pandemic (Part 1)”
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The ones who were happy about the pandemic
Most people I know think the pandemic is awful. But some of my friends are actually happy about it. These friends are not heartless. They just think that the pandemic is all part of G-d’s plan. If G-d is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, then he would create the best world for us, and this isContinue reading “The ones who were happy about the pandemic”
Sarah W. Hirschfield 