Notes from Abroad
The Packing List Method: How Travel Taught Me to Edit Copy
I have watched a lot of people overpack. Friends who bring seven pairs of shoes for a weeklong trip. Backpackers whose bags are so heavy that they have to sit on them to zip them shut. Travelers who pack for every possible scenario instead of the one they are actually walking into. When I edit copy, I ask the same question a traveler should ask before zipping their bag.
Kurt Vonnegut's Asterisk on My Hand
I have a tattoo on my hand. It’s a small asterisk, the kind you might see at the bottom of a page pointing to a footnote. Most people don’t notice it. The ones who do usually ask if it is a star. I tell them it is a reminder.
Why I Read ‘Lolita’ to Learn Empathy in Marketing
I first picked up Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita because of my 100 Greatest Novels project. I knew its reputation: beautiful prose, impossible subject matter. I assumed the experience would be academic. I would admire the sentences from a safe distance and return it to the shelf. Instead, it broke something in me.