Nov 17, 2020
For meditation, I used to open up an app from my smartphone, sometimes just to time, and sometimes to listen to the guidance of online gurus. It was nice as I could also see my friends' activity, which streamed healthy peer pressure for me. But the smartphone itself was so distractive that I ended up doing something else with it easily.
Instead, I’m continuing the journey with new company–hourglasses of 30 (left), 5 (right), and 10 (not shown) minutes each.
Oct 30, 2020
We often think “happiness is merely the result of success, not the precursor to success.” The author, the pioneer of positive psychology, suggests to think in the other way around: when we’re happier, we will become more successful. When I was playing Civilization V, I had to keep my citizens “happy” in order to keep up their productivity. But how come I failed to think I had to do the same thing for myself, even playing it several hours a day?
Apr 12, 2020
“Part one of the two-part plan,
I should get on ordinary life, day by day, like anyone else.
[..] and live every day again almost exactly the same.
The first time with all the tensions and worries that stop us noticing how sweet the world can be.
The second time, noticing.
In the end, I think I’ve learned the final lesson from my travels in time. I’ve even gone one step further than my father did.
Mar 01, 2020
It’s my third time to fully read this book. Once at my teenage in Korean; once in college and, this time, in grad school, in English. Not surprisingly, every time I read this type of classic bestsellers, I learned new things. I now see things differently, now that I’ve lived more.
After reading the book, I found myself thinking more empathetically and listening more attentively to others. In general, I felt better at communicating with others than before.
Jun 30, 2019
At age 15, I left my parents' nest to study in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the most rapidly developed countries in modern history, and it has been never the same as yesterday. Its capital, Seoul, hosts the government that has led the Miracle on the Han River, the skyscrapers of multinational corporations, cutting-edge tech startups, and hundreds of embassies and consulates that endorse one of the most powerful passports in the world.