If you’re a regular reader, you know I’ve been posting recently about the new Wise & Shine podcast. We’ve published four episodes, and I’m working hard to plan and record others. Our goal is to begin posting a new episode each Tuesday. I’d like to preview a few upcoming episodes. This weekend, I’ll be talking … More The Wise & Shine Podcast: Coming Attractions
I apologize for the lateness of posting this. I had an unexpectedly hard time finishing the follow-up to my first installment. I actually completed it more than a week ago, but I didn’t feel good about what I’d written. It felt like the tone was all wrong. I was being too strident and too dark, … More Building the Muscular Mind (Installment Two)
Hello on a Tuesday! I hope everyone is off to a great start for the week! We talk a lot about what the best habits are to make our lives better. ‘How do I become more productive?’, ‘How can I be happier?’ are some of the questions we hear and probably ask ourselves a lot … More The best habit of all
I’m going to stick my neck out today. I’m going to talk about something I’ve been avoiding for certain political and professional reasons for some time now. A topic that is close to my heart. As it turns out, aircrew are extremely reluctant to talk about mental health. On the rare occasions I’ve brought it … More The Elephant in the Cockpit
We are born with brains, so we come into this life with the basic equipment needed to think, but that doesn’t mean we all have the innate ability to think well. I guess this is analogous to the fact that we have been given arms, but the average bicep looks and functions considerably differently from … More Building the Muscular Mind (Installment One)
Hi everyone! Happy Sundays! This week, I want to talk about the lack of perfection in life: there is no point in life where everything will be perfect in the way we understand life. When I think about each phase in my life, I can find many goods about each phase. But I cannot find … More Is there a perfect life?
Happy Saturday, all! I struggled this week. I wrote three or four pages on a topic that I thought would become a blog I could publish today or tomorrow, only to discover that I needed to hold off on posting it. Midway into the piece, I realized that my ideas hadn’t yet ripened and thus … More Projects and Podcasts
Hi everyone! Welcome to Wise & Shine! I hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend! How we define difficulty or problems is variable, or it should be. What is difficult for someone might not be so for another. Likewise, when we look at someone’s life and feel like they have everything perfect, we should not … More What is a difficulty?
Prime time cable shows aren’t interested in prompting informed debate. They are indignation dispensaries … More Please Stop Assuring Me I’m Right
If you’re a long-time reader of my blogs, you know that I spent about two decades living the life of an expatriated American. I am proud of that time in my life. I first went abroad as a Peace Corps Volunteer, to Poland, not long after the collapse of the Soviet system, and then lived … More Beware: Garbage In, Garbage Out
Hello my fellow bloggers and blog-lovers. Today I am writing this entry from a sleepy town in Montenegro, Bijela, to be specific. Not much happens in this provincial, coastal town, which means I’ve been doing more reading than touristing here. Particularly, enter today’s topic, translated literature. Over the past year, I’ve developed quite an affinity … More Translated Literature: A plea to bolster your reading palate
Hello to my fellow bloggers and blog-lovers! I’m Elle, or E.L. Jayne as my pen name states, and I’ve embarked my own rendition of an Eat, Pray, Love trip this summer, albeit, without the dramatic divorce and existential crisis at the onset, luckily. Deciding to travel for 4 months made me reflect on the catalyst … More On The Different Reasons People Travel
Disclaimer: Previously known by the Anglicized spelling of Turkey, President Erdoğan has asked the international community to recognize the nation by its Turkish spelling, Türkiye, on June 28th, 2022. Türkiye is a country distinguished by it’s blend of European and Asian culture. Although after speaking with some locals, they consider themselves not to be European, … More Turkish Literature: Where diverse culture meets unique literature
Women stripped of bodily autonomy. The Environmental Protection Agency handcuffed in fighting climate change. Public money allowed to fund religious schools. Gun rights expanded. These are recent decisions made by the United States Supreme Court. … More July 4th Celebration? No Thanks.
I’m amazed by how my mind works. I never know when an idea for a blog is going to come to me. For example, this morning, just after pulling into a parking space upon arriving at my work and then killing the engine, I immediately realized that I do a lot of the same things … More Pardon Me While I Get This Off My Chest
I confess to not ever being comfortable with having pride in the country you were born in. Conceptually, I think it’s a flawed idea from the get go. A recipe for provincialism and a potent catalyst for intolerance and violence. Having said that, I admit there have been moments I’ve allowed myself to warm my … More June 24th, 2022
Japanese people have an incredible ability to recover from catastrophes of any kind. After World War II that left the country in ruins, in just thirty years Japan became the second largest economy in the world, becoming leaders in the electronics sector in the eighties and nineties. How could the Japanese economic miracle happen? The … More How to Overcome Difficulties with the Ganbatte
Towards the end of the 19th century, a group of economists from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland studied the social inequalities in Europe. By analysing the tax data of several European countries, they found out that in each of them about 20% of the population owned 80% of the wealth. Today is even worse, … More Do You Know the Pareto’s Principle?
Last week I was on vacation in the beautiful village of Lu Bagnu, located in Sardinia, Italy. I had the chance to read more than usual and I found an interview to Pamela Paul, author of the book “100 Things We’ve lost to the Internet“. The book presents the world before cyberspace. If you are a … More Things We’ve Lost to the Internet
This past Saturday, I got up early because I had a Zoom meeting with a Pointless Overthinking colleague who lives on the other side of the planet. Despite my best efforts, I’d gotten up a touch late and was in a hurry to get breakfast eaten so I wouldn’t be tardy for our online rendezvous. … More It’s Not a Bug; It’s a Feature