Brenden's Blog

Imagine you work really hard, achieve what most people would consider “success”, and now you’re left with a big pile.

I like to stand right on the edge of the subway platform.

Images are interesting because, in the digital world, it’s trivial to alter them, and yet we still tend to treat images—photographs, video—as a kind of proof.

If a “true” self exists at all, it probably only appears when no one is watching.

What exactly does it mean to be present?

I’ve been thinking about when I first fell in love with computers.

Kindness and niceness aren’t the same thing.

It’s easy to be negative, cynical, and pessimistic.

The sales pitch of various “social” websites is that they provide you with human connection in the form of “friends,” “followers,” and so forth.

As a recovering perfectionist, I’ve been learning to embrace a radical idea: it’s better to do a bad job of something than to do nothing at all.

I’ve always been wrapped up in the idea of my own identity.

As a child of the internet age, I have barely known a world without it.

I, like most people, have a great appreciation for beauty in all its forms.

At the yoga studio, many people come and go.

Every January gym attendance spikes by nearly 150%, yet by mid-February about 90% of those new faces have vanished.1 Everyone wants the big reset.

There’s a TV show called Love on the Spectrum.

Economics is a strange beast.

When most people talk about success, they’re usually referring to the accumulation of money, power, or material possessions.

You’ve heard the phrase “less is more,” but have you ever considered its mischievous cousin: “more is worse”?

There’s something wonderfully contradictory about seeking mindfulness in the middle of a bustling city.

I have a deep appreciation for mastery.

Placebo Effect Studies: Meta-analyses have consistently shown placebo effects across various conditions, with neuroimaging confirming measurable physiological changes.

I was recently banned from Rover, a specialized craigslist website for finding pet sitters and dog walkers.

Yesterday, I took a walk to the Brooklyn Bridge, a notorious tourist trap but also a beautiful and marvelous feat of engineering.

I was sitting on the subway the other day and glanced up from my book to notice something that shouldn’t be remarkable, yet somehow was: every single person in my line of sight was staring at their phone.

I’ve been thinking a lot about boredom lately—specifically, how we’ve become so good at avoiding it.

I like to write, and sometimes I like to write about writing.

Looking back at my mistakes, I keep seeing the same thing: moments when my ego took over and pushed me off course.

Sometimes we do things because we want to, sometimes we do things because we must.

Although I have written about this idea before, I feel like it’s one worth elaborating on.

Last January, I found myself trudging through slush-filled streets, my fingers numb despite gloves, mentally calculating how many more weeks until spring.

A lot of effort goes into avoiding bad feelings.

There’s a subreddit called r/amiugly where people post pictures of themselves and ask the community to rate their appearance.

When examining extraordinary success stories, we often find that behind many achievements lies a powerful combination of circumstances and opportunities.

Take a walk on any given day these days, and instead of staring at your phone, try looking around.

Yoga sits right in that overlap between exercise and meditation.

“I don’t know.”

At some point in recent history, travel stopped feeling optional and started feeling like something you’re supposed to do.

You’ve heard of the mind-body connection, and maybe also the brain-gut connection, but have you considered the interconnected mind-body-gut system?

We are all artists, in one sense or another.

“High hopes, low expectations” has become something of a personal mantra for me.

Personal growth requires honest assessment of our blind spots, biases, and behavioral patterns that might be holding us back.

Forming habits is surprisingly easy.

Rejection stings in a way that’s hard to brace for.

Writing is not easy, and it’s easier for some than others.

Thought leaders worldwide have been weighing in on the AI mania that has gripped the world.

Being present is what it feels like when your mind is where your body already is.

While many modern psychological approaches have come and gone, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the few that gives people a clear way to catch bad thought patterns and do something about them.

In the bygone era, we had résumés—and today, many of us still maintain these professional summaries (or curriculum vitae, for the academically inclined).