idj4thinking

Thinking Outside The Box

What are you good at? I’ve been an oddball since I was a wee lad. I always enjoyed taking the assumptions of what I was allowed to do and interrogating them. This was not an academic exercise. I learned to run before I learned to walk. The bars on my windows to keep me safeContinue reading “Thinking Outside The Box”

What is important to have?

What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable? There is only so much time in a day, and being excellent at one thing often precludes success in other areas. It’s not as if professional basketball players work at the top of IBM. It’s not as if IBM executives make it to theContinue reading “What is important to have?”

Kayaking Through Youth

I’ve kayaked since I was a little kid. I love it. Gliding through the water is calming, and I imagine myself a buccaneer. I live close to several islands, and I feel intrepid- In my head, I see myself finding and burying treasure. I’ll discover things people don’t want others to know about, and makeContinue reading “Kayaking Through Youth”

DESTROYING Problems Mindset

I take great pleasure in finding things that suck, understanding why they suck, and realizing how I’d alter incentives to solve this problem. I imagine those slow motion videos of glass shattering as my efforts to eliminate problems takes place. In my thoughts I am Shiva, god of destruction, set forth upon the unrighteous (problem).Continue reading “DESTROYING Problems Mindset”

Social Skills Misperceptions

A lot of failures to communicate effectively come from faulty epistemic beliefs surrounding interpersonal relationships and friendships. If I believe for instance that failing in a small sense dooms my relationship with a fellow human being, I’m going to be much more guarded, ultimately hurting my ability to befriend them. To that end, I thinkContinue reading “Social Skills Misperceptions”

I want to end male loneliness

What is the legacy you want to leave behind? The business I’m working on, Men Need Friends Too, aims to teach men in the internet age how to befriend other people. I think this is an important goal because a lot of social dysfunction is a result of people being unable to empathize with eachContinue reading “I want to end male loneliness”

Where are the male romance novels?

Listen, I’m going to let you in on a bit of a secret. Us men like romance as well. Since I moved, I have confided to several of my friends that I enjoy romance plots, especially Pride and Prejudice. Surprisingly, most of my friends also like the romantic plots. Does this mean that the genderContinue reading “Where are the male romance novels?”

Put yourself out there

In order to succeed, you need to test your ideas. This is frightening for two reasons: Your idea can be wrong, or your idea can be right. The first sends you back to the drawing board. The second pushes you beyond your limits. Although both possibilities are frightening, it’s even more scary to languish, toContinue reading “Put yourself out there”

Watch me growth hack!

I’ve mentioned a couple times some tips to get ahead. I created a TikTok yesterday called @men.need.friends So far, I’ve gotten more than 200 likes and a couple thousand impressions. I anticipate that over the next month, I’ll grow very quickly because of my background, consistency, and subject matter expertise. I’ll re-evaluate my strategy afterContinue reading “Watch me growth hack!”

Work-Life Integration

How do you balance work and home life? The 9-5 is a compromise between trying to become truly excellent at a craft, making a living, and having leisure. Working a job that targets 40 hours a week tries to let you mostly have it all. As most compromises come with downsides, this does as well.Continue reading “Work-Life Integration”