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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

There is a stage of attraction when everything feels like an event. Dinner. Drinks. A show. A trip. A beautiful room. A reservation worth planning around. I love all of that. But there is another [...]

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. [...]

The best travel stories usually begin with failure. This is inconvenient. We spend enormous amounts of time trying to prevent exactly this. Reservations. Confirmations. Backups. Insurance. Weather apps. Maps. Schedules. Then years later, nobody tells [...]

We know too much about each other. This is a strange problem. For most of history, if you met an attractive stranger, you had questions. Where does he live? What does he do? Who are [...]