Squandrous

Hullo. I'm Sameer Vasta and I squander my time in wondrous ways. Come join me.
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Someone take me to Alpha Serpents so I can relive that time.

Another principle I discuss is check your reference points. This principle involves carefully considering the motives that are driving our decisions, and examine whether they are driven by the bitter feelings resulting from where we stand in comparisons to others. It is a principle that helps us counteract another force that often sidetracks us: social comparisons. On a wide range of dimensions, from how trustworthy we are to how good looking others find us to be, we often compare ourselves to our peers to evaluate where we stand. These types of social comparisons can lead to irrational behaviors. For instance, we may accept a job offer paying a lower salary than another that pays more but where other people like us make more money than we would. Or we may vote against hiring a new colleague who excels on dimensions we feel we also excel at (such as leadership) because we find him or her threatening.
Francesca Gino talks about how comparing ourselves to others can actually make us make bad decisions. I’ve been having this conversation with a few of my loved ones very recently.

Hemingway. Boss.

An interactive visualization of running jokes in Arrested Development, just in time for the release of the new season.

A 6th-grader gives advice to the next class of 6th-graders (via). This is the truth, no matter how old you are.

Pei-Ying Lin created an infographic of emotions (via), including 19 emotions for which English has no words. I love the Portuguese word Saudade. That one resonates.

Accept that there are things in this world we can never explain and life will be understandable.
Tan Twan Eng

I’m not usually a non-responder, but these days, I’ve got a bunch of unanswered emails and text messages because they require long responses I just can’t seem to find the time to answer them.

Life’s a puzzle. (via)

The shadow-past is shaped by everything that never happened. Invisible, it melts the present like rain through karst. A biography of longing. It steers us like magnetism, a spirit torque. This is how one becomes undone by a smell, a word, a place, the photo of a mountain of shoes. By love that closes its mouth before calling a name.

Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels

(Thanks for sending this along, MT. This resonates. Hard.)

This photo released by the New York Public Library is from 1939. I guess Jay-Z has a time machine, because that’s most definitely him.

Hendricks. Whoa.

Edgar Allan Pooh (via) made me chuckle this morning.

When you love your job it’s like peeling an onion. There are always more layers to discover and explore. When you hate your job it’s also like peeling an onion – but all you discover are more tears.

Dharmesh Shah (via)

I love my job so much, and having layers to discover and explore is one of the reasons that I do.