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Meeting internet friends from around the world is always a huge highlight of my life and fills me with a lot of gratitude. Despite the wanton amounts of rampant fuckery on here, there are good, fun, kind, interesting people worth hanging out with
Conversation with @KevinSimler yesterday: ethnic/national identity, internet culture, obscure YouTube, storytelling principles, taste, Michael Bay, political and cultural differences, startups, teenage weirdness, freedom via mini-deaths, writing buddies, lightbulb moments...
Conversation with @alfred_lua today: family businesses, how careers influence worldview, living alone, marital communication, software marketing, social media trends, company culture, the general problem of assholes and free-riders, mastermind groups, remote life, friendships
Bandung with @RyanAdnin earlier: the nature of outsourcing and consulting work, what domain specialists miss, bird’s eye views, southeast asian geopolitics, national identity and the coming changes, being honest with yourself, confronting legacy issues from childhood, death goals
Lunch w @rhoarrr: the cover stories we use & partially buy into, mentally rehearsing outcomes, the early days of marriage, names, families, the limitations and subjectivity of memory, the utility of journaling, learning what you think by talking with others, planning, portfolios
Coffee with Izzy: environmentalism, gardening, psychic prisons, mind-expanding experiences, code-switching, the gift of hindsight, the psychology of pricing in art, widespread unhappiness, atypical minds, nuances of disorder, travel experiences, McKenna, nurturing relationships
Coffee with @lingkai: newlywed life, the music industry, artistic compromises, branding, storytelling, positioning, status games, how to ask for money, livejournal shopping sprees, blogshops, ecommerce, dropshipping, Taobao, Instagram influencers, Facebook ads, midlife crises
Chicken rice with @lovexlight: life in PR and software marketing respectively, different types of managers, the complexities of internal politics in larger organisations, different attitudes towards the passage of time & aging, climbing the corporate ladder vs being a free agent
Fish&chips with @samacalawawa and friends: literature scholarships, the nature of memes, bitcoin, what is money, the relationship b/n guilt & religion, institutions & capitalism, The Last Jedi, MCU, storytelling, fasting, diet, creative schedules, when to focus, power of routines
Kaya toast with Jacq: being a teacher, paths not taken, teenagers & technology, gentrification, commutes, long distance relationships, family drama, travelling and settling down, pet-sitting, history as binge-watching past seasons of current affairs, thinking about making humans
Tiong Bahru with @weeny: gentrification, travel, living on the Internet, networking, families, the Chinese web, “buying a fridge” re: having a home, differences between different social media platforms, Patreon and personal brands, seeing your hometown through other people’s eyes
Ribs with @cameronpriest: going feral, growing a business, remote teams, urgent vs important, “missing middle” details in success stories, cultural differences, how every person is different, how to manage others, families, being mindful about building meaningful relationships
Dinner at Blu Jaz with @gurubavan - different yet similar diaspora identities, travel experiences, cities and nations, different cultures and perspectives, mosaics vs melting pots, immigrants, languages, wealth disparities, startups, tech, being anime nerds, street life
Teh with @Saurya: attachment styles, personal narratives, generational trauma, bonding with family and peers, mental models of time, relationships, achievement, belonging, fasting, behaviour patterns, embodied cognition, ways of thinking and being, conflicting assumptions, tribes
Drinks with @poojanansi: living life as an ethnic minority in your home country, dealing with boring questions from interviewers, the realities of safe spaces, fashion& identity, the bizarre position of having to defend someone who attacks you, what it means to be “militant”...
Kopi with @qamuri: being bilingual + straddling different cultures, thinking about tension as neither negative nor positive but something to be managed, different kinds of relationships & how to consider them, Tobi’s model of boxes, travel, lifestyle design, vision vs execution
Chilli crab & wine with @eugenewei, @kevinakwok, @chorpharn and friends: tech, governance, cities, ambition, video, memes, cults, financial innovation, cultural differences, funding landscapes, protectionism, civic engagement, climate change, long-term planning & opportunities
Turkish with @EricJorgenson - cultural differences, Christmas songs, favorite formative books and authors that shaped us, Ben Franklin, ways of seeing, writing, travelling with family, working out, car ownership, walkable cities, Kansas & NYC, useful information other people have
Little India with @devonzuegel (here she’s receiving the ziptie treatment at Mustafa 
) different subsets of Indian cultures, diaspora cultures, language, incentives, second-order effects, friction between socioeconomic strata despite best intentions, zombie apocalypses
) different subsets of Indian cultures, diaspora cultures, language, incentives, second-order effects, friction between socioeconomic strata despite best intentions, zombie apocalypses
Beers with @galencrout and @ArunRLVerma: career trajectories, partnerships, ecommerce ecosystems, marketing, finding product-market fit, bad breakups, travelling, the utility and dollar value of a university education, different comms methods, org growth, entrepreneur mindset
Nasi padang with @DellAnnaLuca: human nature, travel, Taleb, split brain experiments, rationalization, cultural differences re: work & migration, hyphenated identities, sabbaticals, plans, cover stories, being writers, working on books, susceptibility, principles vs group loyalty
At Tanjong Pagar with @patio11: being geeky public-facing bloggers, navigating different cultures, the nature of human networks (building your own), orthogonal+circuitous career trajectories, pipelines and incentives, the complications of marrying someone from a different culture
Kopi w/ @homiliai: family politics, debt, wealthy car enthusiasts, the advent&role of 
in Chinese SG, sociocultural capital, African techies, Indian English, London vs Berlin, mental health in Asian communities & families, tyranny of legibility, history vs 1st principles
in Chinese SG, sociocultural capital, African techies, Indian English, London vs Berlin, mental health in Asian communities & families, tyranny of legibility, history vs 1st principles
with @guanyinmiao about community service in 
: schools, teachers, parents, NGOs, the role of the State, formative experiences, voluntourism, the horse parable, multiple conceptualizations & POVs, differing motivations, incentives, connection vs isolation, fuzzies vs utilons
: schools, teachers, parents, NGOs, the role of the State, formative experiences, voluntourism, the horse parable, multiple conceptualizations & POVs, differing motivations, incentives, connection vs isolation, fuzzies vs utilons
Japanese with @alfred_lua: product development, Twitter over the years, consulting vs. employment, golden handcuffs, the psyche & traits of small biz owners, navigating marriage (division of labor, communicating needs, decision-making), large Asian families, meetups & traditions
Chicken rice w @djinnius - blockchain, biz cycles, drug laws, identity-variables, shame as social regulator, complexity of addictions, being an “alien anthropologist”, city flags, power laws, social graphs, cosmopolitan parochialism, Western sucidality & linear concepts of time,
Carrot cake with @quietonlooker: dating apps, social norms re: ghosting & bumping into exes, brown parents, caste, emotional blackmail, self-awareness, introversion, being a minority in HK, the trauma of school, helping others when you have issues yourself, relationship dynamics
Coffee with @uxartist - the pleasure of doing nothing, why good people keep getting fired, “learning experiences” (), pursuing your curiosity, small companies vs big ones, finding cool jobs via friends, being clear about what you will not tolerate, working for good bosses
), pursuing your curiosity, small companies vs big ones, finding cool jobs via friends, being clear about what you will not tolerate, working for good bosses
Coffee with @ehn: CERN, Spotify, fragmentation, things that don’t scale, cultural context changes, trade, effective charity, education, Lambda school, protectionism, travelling with family, buying furniture, interactive theatre, climate change, being an employee vs consultant
Duck rice with Alice (who quit Twitter )- storytelling, theming, divorce, family drama, possessiveness, sibling relationships, misfits, low-res art, fantasy tropes, ethnicity, visiting the sourceland, good bosses, good questions, career advice, the history of names, polyamory
)- storytelling, theming, divorce, family drama, possessiveness, sibling relationships, misfits, low-res art, fantasy tropes, ethnicity, visiting the sourceland, good bosses, good questions, career advice, the history of names, polyamory
Kopi with @otisfunkmeyer - spirituality, dance, communities, politics, Bitcoin, YouTube/Instagram, digital nomads, Pmarca, Naval, Sivers, navigating change, Saigon, 1000-year-games, lucid dreams, jinxing it, first movers, things most people don’t see, meta-heuristics, how to live
Lunch with @jujuionthebeat and @sharanvkaur - being third culture kids, living with brown parents, social expectations and assumptions, campus life, different university cultures, religion and sex education, evangelism, Twitter friends, our relationships with our communities
Coffee with @jamesclear + John - speaking engagements, Twitter as a medium, storytelling, being curious nerds, making friends, the limitations and strengths of different mediums and formats, exploring footnotes and obscure PDFs, making decisions when there are infinite options
Chat with @qamuri
- develop your taste by consciously exposing yourself to the best of humanity
- succinctly articulate whatever is most compelling to you
- thread up all of those things for easy reference & sharing
- apply this to your social graph
- consolidate, reiterate
- develop your taste by consciously exposing yourself to the best of humanity
- succinctly articulate whatever is most compelling to you
- thread up all of those things for easy reference & sharing
- apply this to your social graph
- consolidate, reiterate
Beers with @tonyennis - being fringe kids who weren’t fans of school, lively streets, music scenes, Dublin, Manila, startups, the advice problem, figuring what you want to do next, a Good Life, being On To Something, Wittgenstein, moral philosophy, capitalism, language traps
Delicious vegan sandwiches with @tasshinfogleman - being vulnerable in public, how to make friends and allies, allies-in-waiting, content strategy (nerdposting + kindposting + shitposting), managing a multiplicity of needs in a relationship, the paradox/tension of “human brands”
Coffee with @buster - managing disagreements, addressing biases, “accept and participate”, writing, the jazz pianist theory of effortless performance, managing communities, despair, anxiety as an engine, grieving what you cannot do, intolerance paradox, contempt and anti-contempt
39. Breakfast with @serialninja - being musicians, making art, navigating cultural crosswinds & differences, thinking about creativity & community, compulsion and connection, relationship debt, ways of seeing, everything is a remix, studio photography, the uniqueness of mediums
40. Ramen with @ponnappa and @aakashd recently – managing communities and organizations, the Gervais principle, antifragility, being a parent, the challenges of learning to be independent, marrying young, operating in different environments, truths that people don't believe
41. Anjappar's with @urbanclio and @sharanvkaur after doing a tour of Tiger Beer Brewery – universities, what it's like being a professor, cities and urban planning, home ownership, foster kids, families, cultural expectations around dating and marriage, assumptions people make
42. Muchachos with @natydnew - difference between SG and US education systems, playfulness, the vibes of different cities: SF, NYC, Shanghai, Didi, the challenges of dating, gendered expectations anatomy of a quality conversation, media representation, getting people to care
43. Killiney with @jurvistan & Niklaus: being a creative, self-directed person in Singapore, being simultaneously undersocialized and oversocialized, schooling vs education, developing taste, making friends, disagreement judo, oral histories, growing up online, slingshot theory
44. Jewel with @hellosamrick - travel, neuroscience, phantom limbs, sociology, citizenship, gendered socialization, sleep paralysis, nature vs nurture, free will, Birthright, ethnic/religious identity, mass shootings, US vs SG attitudes towards independence & individualism
45. Wine with @dineshraju - raising a child, Incerto, making smart asymmetric bets that maximize optionality, making sure you’re not fooling yourself, over-platonization, James Austin’s 4 kinds of luck, the utility of naming yet-unnamed things, the next 1B people coming online
46. Beers and dinner with @cigardubey - trauma, therapy, mental health, relationships, masculinity, status games, dominance hierarchies, cultural differences (Mumbai, Helsinki, SG, SF) abstractions, brain bugs, managing conflict, being vulnerable, having faith in other people
47. Dinner & drinks with @TheDailyHoney & @sharanvkaur: film school, filmmaking, awards, poverty porn, cultural differences, diaspora life, “What Will People Think”, families, Bollywood, Toronto, influencers, having taste and creative vision, representation, boxing, Being Online
48. Coffee with @gridironhardt - being “unconventional”, the challenges of managing communities, blocking people, 2nd-guessing yourself. Cults, churches, internal politics, the tyranny of cell group leaders. Finding people who “get it” over being frustrated with people who don’t
49. Bak kut teh with @eugenewei - immigrants, diaspora, identity, narratives, home, travel, birth rates, beuracrats, the early internet, writing essays, blog rings, video arcades, perverse incentives, status, social networks, /r/changemyview, naive techno-optimism, book notes
50. Muchachos with @kageman - on what is not obvious, storytelling and video games, twitter strategy for making friends and building an audience, travel, early internet, early startup days, career trajectories, Alan Watts, twitter “celebrities”, good reply game, valuable POVs
51. Zam Zam with @GKhuyen - Act 2, initiation ceremonies and talismans, mentors and father figures, being Singaporean, being Vietnamese, travel, libraries, the Internet, healing, human development, social challenges in school, personal journeys, a table of one’s own, cylinders
52. Lunch with @sharanvkaur and the fascinating @risquerebecca - on pricing, psychology, social norms, managing expectations, the art of creating great experiences, funny stories, being financially responsible, good safety protocols both online and offline
53. Breakfast with @sebastmarsh - contempt, summoning demons, libraries, Gandhi, Augustus, navigating culture wars, web forums, older mentors, video games as an introduction to learning experimentation & sense-making, sermons, communities, ambition, “have I played my role well”
54. Chicken rice with @ricefield - Bay Area, startup life, information architecture, trees vs graphs, over-optimising for hierarchy, innovator’s dilemma for writers, cultural narratives, the anxious zeitgeist, minimum viable optimism, trying too hard to be smart, talismans
55. Mediterranean with @sharanvkaur, @made_in_cosmos & @artpi: remote work, travel, being semi-nomadic, the spirit & letter of rituals, incentives, schooling, infrastructure, customer support, online stores, forums, languages, different cultures, Patreon, blogging vs tweeting
56. Coconut Club with @UXlifter - life in SF vs SG, cultural differences, travelling alone vs with friends, fitness, injuries, aesthetics, different types of employment, making the most of opportunities, dating, family, pets, weather & seasons, people reaching out when you write
57. coffee with @Ben_Reinhardt - tech and sci-fi, encouraging innovation, cultural differences, parents and grandparents, travel as means to breaking out of contexts + discovering the assumptions you didn’t know you had, retrospectively identifying good advice, secret side quests
58. 6 hours (!) with @toph_bbq - Hawaii, Bay Area, twitch, anime, Japan, Inner Game, “The Ages”, music, math, Impro, cliches, Finding The Others, community, dealing with haters, meaningful work, Sense8, Da Vinci/Ben Franklin, making the future exciting, compliments, Travellers...
59. A day with @marionnjoya - exchanging traveller stories, families, how messy people are, letting go of anger and negativity, the siren song of ~stuff~, the blandness of malls, the courage to leave, communicating openly and honestly in relationships, feelings about work/life
60. Komala Vilas with @fortelabs, @TheLaurenValdez and @cryptolin: video as a medium, web domains, twitter verification, good vs bad disagreements, Awareness, trauma, travel, sci-fi, families, married life, cultural differences, being fully human online, bottlenecks, ambition
