All posts filed under: Outward

Reflecting on a year of pop-up dinners

Almost one year ago, a casual conversation over coffee became an ongoing experiment in crafting immersive dining experiences to build lasting connections through engaging dialog. Six dinners and many tweeks later, I’m beginning to hone in on the building blocks that form a foundation for success.While Hong Kong is an extremely social city, almost all interactions happen outside the home. Apartments are small and kitchens even smaller, so people rarely entertain in their own space. This creates an unfortunate dynamic where conversations tend to be artificially shortened by local restaurant dining customs and there’s usually a point when participants must “ante up” in order to continue the discussion. Interactions don’t have the opportunity to organically unfold over time in a relaxed atmosphere. One of the few exceptions to this rule are junk boats, where the people are captive for a full day and the financial obligations are sorted in advance. However, this environment is not conducive to deep discussions because there are so many stimuli competing for attention. Hong Kong expats often find that while they have many casual friends, they are missing the deeper connections …

Silent treatment

You’re not going to hear from me this holiday season. No phone calls, no emails, not even a tweet! I’ve decided that for my birthday I’m going to treat myself to a 10-day Vipassana meditation course. If any of you are familiar with these courses, you’ll catch the sarcasm in the word “treat”. It’s 10 days of silence: no speaking, no writing, no reading, no technology, no exercise, no stimulants. It’s redeeming quality? I’ve chosen to do the course in Sri Lanka, so the food should be wonderful, though we eat our last meal each day at noon :p.How did I come to this decision? While I have dabbled in mindfulness meditation before, I had never seriously considered a course like this until a few weeks ago. Luck favors the prepared, and I was luckily prepared when a new mentor walked into my life. He challenged me to focus more of my efforts on introspection, reflection, and self awareness. As I explored ways in which I could do this, it became obvious that while I …

Regression to the mean

It’s about time for me to regress to the mean. For those of you who have read Daniel Kahneman‘s best seller, you’ll understand where I’m coming from. He talks a great deal about luck, optimism and probability – all of which have been in my favor for far too long. Some of you have heard my casual explanation for the world’s way of “re-balancing” in the past, but he does a great job of explaining it in a much more scientific way.The reason is simple. When I signed up for the ultramarathon 3 months ago, I never expected to actually place. I wrote it down as a stretch goal in my training diary and promptly forgot about it. It wasn’t until check point 3, 15 km into the first race day, that the goal truly felt within reach. The staff told me that the female front runner was only 100 meters ahead and openly laughed at my shock. While I never managed to catch her, I am very proud of my sub-12 hour time. The …

White sheet of paper

Hard to believe that my last update was in back in October 2013! While I haven’t had any motorcycle adventures since, I have had my share of zip lining in Laos and dog sledding in Sweden. Hope your adventures are equally as varied and exciting!Throughout high school, I handmade yearbooks to express my interpretation of each school year. At the end of my senior edition I reprinted this famous Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, which was Bill Watterson’s last (until recently). It seems even more appropriate now than it did then.As many of you already know, I have resigned from One Earth Designs and my last day was today. It has been an amazing journey, chalk-full of learnings and wonderful memories that I won’t soon forget. Rest assured – I have no plans to leave Hong Kong! Permanent resident status is just around the corner and my support of the HK start up scene will continue for now through Invest HK.While I was initially staring at a white sheet of paper, it didn’t stay that way …

Heaven’s here on earth

Hello all! As promised, here’s the non-Kickstarter and barely work-related update that I promised back in August. Hope all of you are well and enjoying whatever activities are filling up your days!Right now I’m sitting outside with beer at a tranquil retreat called Natural Home, nestled in the bamboo forest of Moganshan, China. It’s about 5 hours by motorcycle southwest of Shanghai. This last week has been unbelievable, not only as a result of the scenery (which was magnificent), but also by reminding me of things I haven’t had time to think about recently. For some reason, Tracy Chapman has been on repeat in my head since we set off :].There is something truly freeing about traveling by motorcycle that I’ve never experienced before. Your senses are somehow heightened and you interact more directly with your surroundings. Riding reminded me of the freedom an open road offers and I now understand why people are drawn to it despite the danger. I’m very fortunate that my friend offered to share this experience with me. We road …

Greetings from Kunming

Ni hao! Most of you probably know by now that I’m in Kunming studying Chinese. I apologize for the mass message, but I wanted to share my experience thus far with friends and this is the best way to do it beyond the photos and 140 character updates on Twitter and Facebook :]. Hope you enjoy it and I look forward to hearing from you!Learning Chinese was a goal I left on the back burner for ages. My fascination with Asia started almost 8 years ago and shows no signs of diminishing. After a bit of research and discussion, I was able to find a private tutor and home stay in Kunming for 8 weeks that fits my needs. Here I can study 1/2 the day and work the other 1/2 while being immersed in the language and culture. I feel very thankful that my co-founders gave me the time and space to pursue this and lucky that I found an experience that’s the right fit for me. Thanks to everyone who helped make it possible!Kunming is the capital of the Yunnan province in southwest China. It’s nickname is …