So much negativity on the internet, and even Reddit has it’s subreddits that mock negativity, like awfuleverything, wewantplates, antiMLM, facepalm, menwritingwomen, idiotsincars and insanepeoplefacebook. Even interesting subs like relationships or stepparents are full of stories of how ungodly life is. It’s momentarily fun to browse these, but they do eat your brain, until negativity is […]

Even though I initially thought of it as a gimmick, I’ve come to really love the Oriental Pearl Tower. Built on the corner of the Huangpu River, it’s visible from many places in the city — sometimes as a surprise, like accidental eye contact. And every time you see it, it whispers you: “You are […]

If I ever have children, I hope they’ll read Albertalli’s books. There’s the story of the not-so-openly gay Simon, the overweight Molly, and her lesbian parents, and her sister who’s dating a pan-sexual girl. And these books show everyone’s struggles and thoughts and considerations. “The Upside of Unrequited”, like “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda“, […]

“Here, the curve of the earth did not hide it, it revealed it.” Rendezvous with Rama describes the weird world of inside Rama, and it’s a real trip through the eyes and minds of its explorers. In this sense it reminds me of the video game Myst; a world that comes without explanation, without purpose […]

Construction workers sleep with six per room in bunk beds in modified shipping containers, and often live hundreds of kilometers away from family, and perhaps see their wife and children once a year. I guess life’s stripped down to the mere basics. Work, eat, sleep, accompanied by conversations. And the harder the work, the deeper […]

Without exception, the demographics of my twenty-eight marketing students in Songjiang, Shanghai are: Aged 18-22 year old Female Lives in Songjiang, Shanghai Studies at an art academy You’d think that these four points precisely describe a group of people, but we did an exercise in the class today and it turns out they mostly disagree […]

Today’s the first day of the new semester today at Shanghai Institute of Visual Art. I’m glad we’re back to offline teaching (despite overcoming challenges to teach online), because the quality is just higher and we — students and me — can handle more content together. We started Marketing Strategy with a class about writing, […]

Ah, many times I started writing a paragraph to someone about how strongly I remembered this single thing they said years ago, and how I made that a part of my own, and how much a difference it had made to my life. How fondly I remember my time with them as classmates, colleagues, or […]

Ann Patchett writes impossibly smooth sentences with precisely found words. And together they describe a story so full of detail— it’s almost as if it must have happened, as if Patchett must have been there herself. How else could she possibly write this? The house is a character as much as the people are. And […]

After 43 years in Formula 1 — and 23  years since its last World Championships — the Williams F1 team was sold to a new owner, who ousted both Frank and Claire Williams from the team’s management. Sure, there are a lot of factors to blame for the downfall of Williams; the two biggest being […]

One of the fantastic things about reading is that it lets you live many stories. And here’s the story of Simon, which can be lived, felt, seen from the inside. It’s almost as living — first-hand — through the considerations and problems carried by gay teenagers — many of which I was unaware of. For […]

There’s a lot of talk about filial piety (Confucianism!!) in China but few examples of what it really means. I see parents being challenged by their children just like anywhere else. In many ways, Chinese children are more spoiled than any children on the planet. I see kids crying their eyes out when their dad […]