Wouldn’t it be nice if there existed a tight-knit community of idealists, where idealism weren’t shut down immediately for a lack of pragmatism, and where people with a shared vision could actually pool their minds together to forge concrete paths towards it? Wouldn’t it be nice if these idealists, instead of being told their utopian…
During the month of December, I traveled around with just one small backpack and one handbag. This brush with minimalism left me with some thoughts and reflections. When I was an adolescent, I had a phase where I would idolize the minimalist lifestyle to the point of committing to a black-and-white “personal uniform” just to…
As the year closes and people are (once again) awaiting that blank slate to (re)start many of their personal aspirations, I just wanted to quickly share a tool I have been using for the past 2-3 years to track my own progress across various projects And despite the world moving through a myriad of new,…
I once read a piece of advice about writing the same way one talks. Essentially, the simplicity of spoken language not only feels more natural and genuine, but also appears to be more effective in reaching a broad audience. I understand the appeal of this advice, because I occasionally can only tolerate simple writing that…
I have taken some time off from being active online and engaging in digital correspondence with friends for a few weeks now. Somehow, it has felt both like a condensation and an expansion of time. During this period, I have stopped some activities I used to spend much more time doing (reading books, writing this…
“Children on social media” may conjure a few different things: young teens populating TikTok trending ranks with their quirky dance moves, or pre-teens clicking “Agree” to social media websites’ terms of service even though they are under 13 years old and technically not allowed to have an account. And then, there are the babies –…
I was a teenager who would eat up all the contents about minimalism and decluttering. Over ten years ago, when I was barely out of middle school, I made it a point to only possess a certain number of items, to eliminate the “inessentials” from my life, and to not buy things I didn’t need…
The age of social media seems to birth and nurture a phenomenon of constant social comparison. Measuring oneself against an external yardstick has never not been a staple of society. We, just like previous generations, are held hostage by an unbendable urge to live up to certain standards and earn validation from others. Unfortunately, with…
At the start of every year, I usually sit down and draw up a list of fifty or so books that I would like to get through during the year. Even though I have never managed to read even half this list, the mere idea of planning my read list in advance helps me push…
I recently read the Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath and her private reflections sparked some thoughts about the writing process. I’ve always sort of known that talented and established writers still “struggle” with the craft of writing. It’s an eternal challenge to feel fully immersed in and/or capable at whichever profession you are in, no…
Have you ever thought about how much time and energy humans exerted on the act of pretending? Perhaps if we seriously ask and study this question, we may arrive at a shocking answer that discreetly turns our existence into that of miserable fraudsters rather than decent, gratified human beings. My estimate is that most of…
This is a submission to the UNESCO Vietnam Office for a communications (& design) intern position. I didn’t get hired in the end but still quite like these graphics that I made. So why not keep them here? 🙂 A Sight to Lose Have you seen an image of plastic waste in the ocean, or…
The first time I listened to the song Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You By by Cass Elliot (Mama Cass!), I audibly cheered to the lyrics. This feel-good folksy tune sends a remarkably simple message: life can be wonderful and we shall cherish the little pleasures of it while we can. It sounds cheesy…
On a spectrum of very-spontaneous-borderline-reckless to steady-and-calculated-like-clockwork, where do you fall? I guess for most people the answer is dependent on the circumstances. There are some decisions we make that barely take any time to deliberate, but some other choices seem to put us at a crossroad for infinite time. The decisions we ought to…