Tag: thoughts
it will get better
Existing during this time can feel quite hopeless. Everyday, I see news about extracting more natural resources, approvals of chemical toxins on our food, destruction of land...the list goes on. Mentally, I feel so caged. It's hard trying not to let the gloom and doom of this country get to me when the bad news continue to outweigh the good news...It's really tough...
Primary Election Day 2026
Voting needs to be accessible to everyone, but voters should take the responsibility to make an informed choice, otherwise they should skip the ballot box.
Distorted Perception
I don’t have a stable mental image of myself. Sometimes I look in the mirror or at a photo and my perception fragments. I might feel fine and other times my brain catastrophizes, making me feel like I look terrible. I often forget my own physical presence, so I feel small and insubstantial in my mind even though I’m short and over weight with fat on my arms and belly. Later, with some temporal distance, I can perceive myself more objectively and even see beauty, but in the moment the experience is disorienting. My friends try to reassure me and tell me I’m pretty, but sometimes it feels like a lie. I don’t equate beauty with worth. I know my value isn’t just in how I look, but that doesn’t stop my perception from feeling skewed in the moment. It’s a shifting, fluid perception of self that can feel almost derealized at times.
The Lion’s Claw
If the em dash is the AI’s 'Lion's Claw,' then our messy, unpolished flaws are the only fingerprints we have left to prove we aren’t bots.
Voice memos: I hate Helvetica
I don’t know, do you find it interesting how design evolves most in the places where it’s not so institutionalized? If it sounds obvious, good for you, but from what I've seen and the way I feel strongly about this more than usual, I'd argue maybe nowhere near enough so for everybody else.
Hello World
just testing
applying values to my mission statement
Revisiting my personal mission statement led to a simple but powerful insight: the difference between apparent value — what people notice immediately — and discovered value — the deeper benefits they appreciate later. This reflection reshaped how I think about communicating impact, both personally and professionally.
On aging
Aging is when the grey hairs colonize your head and beard, but your ear hair stays defiantly black. Nature has a sick sense of humor.
I Contain Multitudes (But My Messaging Apps Don’t)
Messaging apps force one identity everywhere. I want different profiles per group—'Xavier (Max's dad)' in school chats, just 'Xavier' elsewhere. Let me contain multitudes digitally.
The Boy Who Chased Rome
A folder called Arena. A game with no save option. And the first time I learned to disappear into something completely...
To be happy or not?
A silver hair drifts to the floor, a loss is loss, whether of color or of presence.
The quiet narrative that algorithms can’t touch
Reading Naval's post about being 'incompressible' got me thinking about the quiet stories we tell ourselves—and how they might be our best defense against algorithms
Challenges and Opportunities of the Impact of Language Models on Software Engineering
Leaving Cities
Thoughts on leaving cities, personal change, and the pressure to justify where we choose to live.
untitled
A reflection on the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the fear that followed.
I am a minority
A personal reflection on race, identity, and discussing racism as a Black man in America.
Create
A reflection on creativity, photography, music, and the human need to make things.
Fail fast. Fail often. Fail forward.
Lessons about experimentation, failure, and agile work from an internship at GE Aviation.