At some point adulthood becomes alarmingly administrative. Bills. Appointments. Emails. Insurance. Passwords. Forms. Maintenance. Scheduling. Entire days can disappear without anything actually happening. You were busy. Very busy. Doing what? Managing existence. This is necessary. Also dangerous. Because if you are not careful, adulthood becomes one long sequence of successfully completed errands. I want adventures. [...]

I am not particularly fond of bucket lists. The phrase makes life sound like an administrative exercise. Check. Check. Check. Congratulations, you successfully completed existence. Still, there are things I very much want to see. Not because I need to conquer them. Because I am curious. There are places on this planet that seem almost [...]

I am pro-vanity. In moderation. Obviously. Like martinis. There is a version that becomes destructive. And there is a version that is simply pleasure in presentation. I think we sometimes confuse the two. Caring about how you look does not automatically mean you are shallow. Sometimes it means you enjoy aesthetics. Sometimes it means you [...]

I like agreement. It is comfortable. Someone says something. I say, "Exactly." Everyone feels intelligent. Very pleasant. But agreement is not always interesting. Some of my favorite conversations have been with people who see the world differently. Not cruelly. Not combatively. Just differently. There is a distinction. I have no desire to turn dinner into [...]

The future is going to be extremely strange. I find this comforting. People often talk about the future with dread. Artificial intelligence. Automation. Longevity. Spaceflight. Robotics. Climate technology. Genetic medicine. Virtual worlds. Pick your anxiety. There are real risks in all of these. Of course. Every major technology creates problems along with benefits. Fire was [...]

You do not remember every handsome man. This is inconvenient for handsome men. You do not remember every expensive dinner, every beautiful suit, every charming introduction, every person who knew exactly how to make an entrance. Some disappear almost immediately. Then others stay. For reasons that are surprisingly difficult to explain. Memory is not fair. [...]

Luxury is a beautiful hotel. Sometimes. It is also sleeping well. This is less photogenic. I have become increasingly interested in the difference between looking luxurious and feeling luxurious. They overlap. But not always. A room can cost a fortune and still feel stressful. A simple afternoon can feel abundant. So what actually makes life [...]

Stay up a little later. Not every night. Sleep is important. I have become old enough to respect sleep in a way I certainly did not at twenty-five. But sometimes the night deserves another hour. You know those evenings. Dinner is finished. The check has come. Nobody wants to leave. The conversation has moved past [...]

I think anticipation may be one of life's most underrated pleasures. We talk endlessly about experiences. The trip. The dinner. The date. The concert. The weekend away. But there is another pleasure that begins long before any of those things happen. Looking forward to them. Sometimes I wonder if anticipation is half the fun. Maybe [...]