Self-Authorship: The Art of Trusting Your Own Authority

Have you ever made a decision that looked right on paper but felt wrong in your gut? Or found yourself following rules simply because that’s what you were taught, not because they align with who you are today? If so, you’ve experienced the tension between external expectations and your own internal compass.  Self-authorship is the … Read More

The Comedown Effect: Understanding the Emotional Aftermath of Achievement

A month ago, my book Tiny Experiments finally made its way into the world after years of work. Launch day brought a flurry of notifications and messages of support, along with that strange feeling of seeing something that existed only in my mind now in other people’s hands. There’s something surreal about thousands of hours … Read More

The Power of an Annual Review: Reflect on the Past to Reimagine your Future

As the end of the year rolls around, it’s tempting to hit pause on everything. Between holiday preparations, end-of-year deadlines, and social commitments, the thought of adding one more task to your plate might seem overwhelming. The last thing you want to do is sit down and think about the past year… You’d rather curl … Read More

The Tyranny of Job Titles: From Vanity Growth to Personal Growth

When I started working at Google, I was quickly introduced to the job ladder that has since become pervasive in the tech industry. Depending on your first job there, you get assigned to a particular ladder, with fixed accomplishments to demonstrate in order to climb to the next level. For example, in marketing, you are … Read More

Rediscovering Ikigai: What We Got Wrong and How to Find Meaning in Life

I lived in Japan for seven months when I was younger. For all of the challenges I faced there as a woman and a foreigner, I still learned a lot from Japanese culture. Because Japan experienced a long period of relative isolation from the outside world — caused by sakoku (literally “closed country”), the isolationist … Read More