I’ve been working a lot with my team on professional development. Many of them are still students and trying to figure out what to do post-graduation.

I’ve had a number of similar conversations about consistency working toward lifelong goals so I think it’s worthwhile writing down the points I’ve made.

It’s quite easy to attempt many things. It’s quite challenging to do a few things well. That’s why it’s important to limit your focus to a few really important daily habits and constantly improve on these routine tasks.

This is called Kaizen, or continuous improvement. It is a Japanese business…

1. Survive
2. Make
3. Share

Survive. Stay alive by whatever means necessary. You’re only done when you give up.

Make. Create every single day and you’ll cut through inaction like a hot knife through butter.

Share. Whenever you have surplus, give it away. Don’t hide you creations. They’re living things and need light to survive.

Repeat.

I’m having trouble telling this story.

It’s one that he already knows. I start and stop. Stuttering and tripping over the uncomfortable multisyllabic truths.

He interrupts — “you’ve met someone”

Am I that transparent? Does he know me that well? Can we see through each other like strips of cellophane? Like ice?

It’s hot even in October but I get goosebumps.

He brought pumpkins to carve. Has a weird goatee thing going on. I look anywhere but his eyes.

My roommate comes home briefly before heading out to a Halloween party. We can barely talk the same way anymore.

How…

loneliness is a symptom of the human condition
of realizing that you have thoughts that you cannot share
of experiences that you cannot speak
of truths that to everyone else are untrue
the unreality of how your experience
will not register on the vast untold millions
the solipsism of sitting on a subway
not saying not moving
the entire ride
then getting off at your stop
walking home
brushing your teeth
and going to bed

michael collins was all alone when buzz and neil landed on the moon he orbited around the dark side in the quiet away from all…

Spira works with a network of farms in the developing world to create replacements for petroleum and animal compounds in the supply chain using algae, but we’ve never talked much about our story.

Here’s our story full of twists-and-turns directly from our founder, Elliot Roth:

I’ve been curious about biotechnology since I was 14 when I tried to make glowing tadpoles for my friends based on Roger Tsien’s 2008 Nobel Prize for discovering GFP. I emailed 100s of labs to see if I could get access to equipment and mentorship but I never received a response. Luckily my high school biology teacher enabled my creative research, and I planned out the entire…

I recently used the Wayback machine to peep through my old website and found some interesting things:

Every year, the Mars Curiosity rover plays itself happy birthday on the Martian plain, just inside the Gale Crater.

This little machine, 47 million miles away from home, sings itself a little tune as it dances over the rocks of an alien world.

To think that somewhere in the software of this complex piece of hardware, blasted on top of a rocket like a bullet into the void, someone had the wherewithal, the foresight to imbue a bit of humanity into the ether.

The point of life is to resist chaos. The constant headwind of entropy. To make something stick…

It took me some time to write this.

My mind is like one of your scratched records — hazy by being overloved. I’ve kept jumping back to think of you.

You always looked good in black.

A New York style for a Florida world. I remember the first time we talked. I mean REALLY talked. We drove your Triumph down to the waterfront in the fall. Sitting in a bar in Annapolis eating lobster rolls and pretending not to notice how late it was getting. Getting drunk and swapping stories.

We talked about our (current) shitty relationships and our (past)…