How to Take a Weekend Trip That Actually Feels Like a Break
There’s a specific kind of exhaustion that hits on Sunday night after a weekend trip. You’re back home, unpacked or not, scrolling through photos that suggest you had a great time. And you did, technically. You saw things. You ate well. You checked off the list. But you’re also more tired than when you left, […]
Loneliness Isn’t a Personal Failure — It’s a Cultural Problem
People usually treat their loneliness as a private struggle that they should fix for themselves. The need to be more outgoing, get offline, get out more and make plans to meet new people and be sociable. In conversations, on social media and in magazines, the same underlying message is that if you feel lonely you’re […]
The New Brain: Why Everyone Is Building a Second Mind
Imagine a scenario where your brain has a digital counterpart; a searchable repository of everything you’ve learned, planned and thought about. This is a place where your ideas could reside without being forgotten and it could be a reliable partner to think with. For the curious, this is not science fiction, it’s known as “second […]
The New Creative Stack: What People Are Using to Make Cool Things Now
There’s a particular kind of creative person who didn’t exist ten years ago. They write a newsletter on Substack, design graphics in Figma, edit videos in CapCut, manage their brand in Notion, and publish everything across three platforms before most people have finished their coffee. They’re not a designer or a writer or a videographer. […]
The Friendship Recession: When Everyone’s Busy and No One’s Fine
In modern friendships, there’s a strange irony in that we are technically easier to reach than ever and yet seeing people we care about feels difficult in practice. Voice notes pile up, text threads stretch into weeks and everyone agrees on a get together, but no one can tell you when it’s going to happen. […]
The $9.99 Life: How Subscriptions Took Over Everything
There’s a moment that happens when you’re reviewing your banking app and you spot a charge for $12.99 that looks vaguely familiar. You stare at it. “LumiBox Premium”? “StreamVault Plus”? You definitely signed up for something, probably during a free trial six months ago, maybe while half-watching TV. You mentally file it under “deal with […]
The Lost Social Spaces That Made Life Feel Easier
In the recent past, a great deal of life happened in those in-between places that you may have stumbled into, like cafes, late-night diners, the community hubs and more. These were not carefully arranged and scheduled like the appointments that dominate our calendars and planners now. There were opportunities to experience life that was mundane […]
Why You’re Always “On” (And How to Turn It Off)
There’s a pervasive kind of tiredness that comes from being constantly reachable. At any moment, you can be disturbed with a ping, buzz, “quick question”, calendar invite and more. These intrusions are not technically urgent and yet they wear on you and everything starts to feel pressing. In this constant state of low-grade alertness, you’re […]
The Dumb Phone Movement Isn’t Anti-Tech — It’s Pro-Life
There’s a specific moment that tends to come up when someone explains why they switched to a dumb phone. It’s not dramatic. It’s usually something small. They were at dinner with a friend and realized they’d checked their phone three times before the food arrived. Or they picked up their phone to set an alarm […]
How to Travel for Yourself Again
There’s a telling moment that happens when you’re standing in front of something famous, the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Canyon, or that one colorful street in Cartagena, and you realize you’re not actually looking at it. You’re thinking about the photo. The angle. Whether the lighting is good enough. Whether this will communicate that you […]