Melissa

I bet “teamwork makes the dream work” went so hard the first time someone said it (or maybe it flopped because the rhyme was too intense) Either way it’s midnight and I’m struck by how weird it is that “teamwork” and “group project” have such opposite connotations/ associations

Today I did two tasks that I had been avoiding and one of them ended up being actually pleasurable to do once I finally started. Huge W 😌

I have a serious take and a silly take on this whole thing The serious take is that people have a hard time reconciling themselves to the fact that some people just are better than them at some things. Obama is way better than most people at a lot of things. The fact that he is black created a

The silly take is just that people aren’t clocking the fact that the joke works because “Cheese-cake-factory” is just an extremely fun combination of words. Substitute any other restaurant name—it is wayyyyyyyyy less fun!

I have a serious take and a silly take on this whole thing The serious take is that people have a hard time reconciling themselves to the fact that some people just are better than them at some things. Obama is way better than most people at a lot of things. The fact that he is black created a

level of resentment that one can only hope will be purged from closed minds over time. But the more general phenomenon that it takes a strong spine to acknowledge when people just are better than you are at doing stuff w/o making it a fake debate about elitism is true even separate from the racism.

With full compassion to the mom who felt “overwhelmed by the range and complexity of potential answers” (I really reallyyy try not to critique parents except in cases of harm and neglect) this kind of cognitive offloading is unfathomable to me. I’m not a parent but a big part of my desire

Ohohoho looks like it’s time for legacy fortune cookie factories to start making big money market moves if you ask me

One thing that is nice about starting a Lord of the Rings Extended Edition re-watch at 11pm on a Friday is that you really do choose your own adventure. The length of the movie and ridiculous start time takes away the pressure to watch it all. But you could. You could watch it all 👀

I sorted out my voter registration yday (it got complicated by living abroad for many years and moving around a lot for school and work). I went irl to the county clerk’s office and it made me genuinely emotional how motivated and friendly everyone was! All to the goal of helping me cast my ballot 🥺

The helicopter-parent theory of political science: experts who are not a member of the demographic they are interested in appoint themselves to the role of paternalistic micromanager

Turns out trust and collaboration can in fact take place when there is a power asymmetry (whether due to age or education or income or social capital or whatever). It happens, like, literally all the time….. in every domain of human activity……….

The helicopter-parent theory of political science: experts who are not a member of the demographic they are interested in appoint themselves to the role of paternalistic micromanager