Confessions of a researchaholic

Flipping through an old issue of a tabloid that I stumbled upon a few nights ago transported my memory back in time and also made me realize that how transient are position, power, and fame that people tend to chase at the present moment.

Upon receiving the weekly food delivery I found out a bag of farro has been split open spilling the grains all over the box.
Usually such incidents will trigger a short bout of anger release (e.g., cursing), but (to my surprise, probably due waking up from a better-than-average sleep) I just gathered the grains via a sequence of containers of decreasing sizes and found the whole process very soothing.

I usually ignore inquiries (such as students seeking internships or recruiters on LinkedIn) that are obviously auto-generated with spammy, generic, robotic descriptions. If you want me to reply you in person, ask me in kind.

When I was a kid my parents were very persistent in nudging me towards the desired behaviors.
Recently I have applied the same persistence in nudging them for taking covid vaccines.
🙂

Since my arrival at the US in 1996 I have been asked the same question many times: where did you come from?
Most of the inquirers were benign, especially those also from other countries.
For probably once or twice that were otherwise, my response was simply asking the same question back: where (the f***, via facial expression) did you come from?

Except for native Americans, we were all coming from different places, just at different times.

During a dream earlier this morning I recalled an event that happened earlier in my life.

One day, during my college freshman year, I was waiting at a bus stop.
A woman approached me asking me to do a survey, selecting from a list of things most important to me in a prioritized order.
I put money as the third or fourth option, and she asked: is money really that important?

You wouldn’t even bring up something for discussion if you really don’t care about it, right?
In retrospect (also happened in my dream), I realized that what really happened is that the woman has been trying to convince herself that money is not important because she didn’t think she has enough of it.
(Lying to oneself is even worse than lying to other people.)

Like everything else, the importance of money is not binary; one cannot live without it, and yet one probably wouldn’t trade his/her life for it.

A few discoveries I have during the pandemic lockdown include:

Podcasts, some of my most favorites include NPR Planet Money, the (Wall Street) Journal, Economist Radio, Freakonomics Radio, and HBR IdeaCast.

A lot more hiking in nearby natural spaces.

A lot more home cooking.

How lucky I am to have bought the right home and married the right person.

Ever since I accidentally dined in a very high-end sushi restaurant (lack of judgement caused by time rush), I have been receiving these (complementary) magazines advertising luxury products and life styles.
The contrast between fancy design and unnecessary consumption is always a wonder to me, and I guess perhaps this is the entire point of luxury goods.