People tell me that I’m good at writing. It’s a flattering thing to say about a dilettante like me. They also say or imply that they think I’ll become a writer one day. This is a normal expectation. Yet I’m pretty sure I never want to do this full-time – or as my primary job.
Author: James Walpole
James Walpole is a writer, startup marketer, intellectual explorer, and perpetual apprentice. He opted out of college to join the Praxis startup apprenticeship program and currently manages marketing and communications at bitcoin payment technology company BitPay. He writes daily at jameswalpole.com.
Cultivate a Healthy Fear of FOMO
Fear of missing out: it’s what took me out onto Broadway in Nashville Saturday night, after I knew I should have been going home. It’s what almost made me go out tonight instead of finishing a long-term project. It’s what has helped me to procrastinate on some important things in my life instead of buckling…
Stop Pretending That Being Good Is Easy
Evil never appears in obvious guises. We all know it. It’s been said before. And I’ve written a couple of times about how mundane choices can often slip past our ethical detectors. But when we also assume that we are “good people,” we find it far easier to make exceptions, make excuses, and turn blind eyes to doing the wrong thing.
Victory Against Evil Is Never Final
I was talking with some church friends last night about the frustrating cycle of history found in the Biblical stories. People turn to violence and injustice and fall to violence and injustice again and again, cycle after cycle. It’s really depressing. If you look more broadly, you can find the same cycle of failure and redemption and new failure in stories and in history. We see the same evils coming back again and again. And there is no guarantee that good done now will obviously last forever.
Give Your Parents Back Their Youth
Tonight my mother experienced her first Lyft ride, rode a motorized Lime scooter for the first time, and joined me in exploring Piedmont Park and the Atlanta Beltline.
Workplace Personalities, Self-Knowledge, and Office Conflict Immunization
Relating to new personnel in a job can be hard. When scaling happens fast or when you’re busy, it can seem unnecessary. But if you want to avoid unnecessary conflict and gain necessary wisdom with these outsiders, try “inoculating” yourself to all the different kinds of people who make up the world of business, for better or for worse.
Who Is Your Black Flag Freeing? The Futility of Flags and Labels
I can easily tell some of my anarchist coworkers by the black flags on their desks. I inherited one of these black flags from a former developer, and I treat it with reverence. I do go back and forth, though, on whether it should be on my workstation.
Use Better Tech (Not Laws) To Reduce Texting and Driving Deaths
In the past year or so I’ve started to notice a new feature on my phone: with simple artificial intelligence the text messaging app is able to auto-generate simple, relevant replies to text. So if someone says “hi”, you can say “hi” right on back. But it’s actually more sophisticated than it sounds. It can detect,…
The Blue-Collar Knowledge Worker Manifesto
The more I’m exposed to the industry of marketing, the more I learn about the pitfalls as well as the advantages of work in a job that is so based in ideas. And I’m beginning to think that we marketers could learn a lot from my former landscaping and hardware store colleagues.
If You Like Someone, Don’t Make Excuses for Them
One of the most disrespectful things you can do to a person is not to blame them, but to make excuses for them.