I think everyone could use a lighthearted/happy story right now so here goes:

At the beginning of the pandemic I went through some painful personal stuff and would often go out at night for long walks because no one was around and I couldn’t sleep anyway. One night I was walking

down my street and noticed that someone had set up a few little objects in a tree planter and upon closer inspection I realized it was a fairy garden with a little note about the 4 year old girl who felt lonely in quarantine and wanted to spread some cheer. The next day I wrote
a little note to her, pretending to be a fairy named Sapphire that had come to live in the tree because she had set it up so nicely and I left it on the tree that night on my walk and said I would gift her with a magical fairy dice (I got really into crafting resin rpg die at
the start of the pandemic) if she did 3 things for me:
I wasn’t sure if she’d respond or even find the note but it was fun just imagining what she’d think. The next night on my walk I found this and immediately burst into tears:
So I left a bunch of my die that had small imperfections and left her another note and also a little extra note for her parents with my name and phone number so they could contact me and know I wasn’t some creep leaving notes for their small child:
This was there the next day:
Doing this every night gave me purpose in a horribly painful and lonely time. I looked forward to my days again and I started ordering art supplies and little trinkets to leave her.

We wrote back and forth throughout the last 9 months, helping each other feel less lonely and I
got to chat with her mom via text to make sure my gifts were a little more personal. At one point she asked for a photo of me and thankfully I had some elf costume items from the previous Halloween so I photoshopped some photos of myself in costume, looking like a fairy. 🤣
In the past month her mom sent me a text letting me know that they had closed escrow on a new house a little further away and would have to leave the fairy garden behind in the care of their neighbors. She also mentioned that Eliana was having a tough time with it so I made sure
to include some support in my letters and told her I had to move as well so she’d feel like we were both going through it together. Her mom said it was helping her so much and they really wanted to try to see me somehow before they left.

Well today, their moving day, after a
few days of planning with her mom, I got to meet Eliana. I left one last note this morning saying i had to move out today and made up a little story that when fairies move houses, they grow to the size of a human just for one day to move all of their belongings. I said I had one
more gift for her and would leave it this afternoon and hoped 😉 she wouldn’t catch me. As they came back from their last walk around their neighborhood I was by the tree leaving her gift and she got to catch me in the act. (I got tested two days ago and her
parents did too to make sure we were all safe because I really needed to hug that girl) We got to sit and talk for about an hour and she asked me a million questions about what life is like as a fairy, some I had prepared and others I hadn’t. It was incredible and one of the

More from Life

1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:

Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.

Characteristics of a personal moat below:


2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.

As Andrew Chen noted:


3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized

Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than


4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.

After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.

5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.

In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.

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"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."


We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.

Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)

It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.

Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
**Thread on Bravery of Sikhs**
(I am forced to do this due to continuous hounding of Sikh Extremists since yesterday)

Rani Jindan Kaur, wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh had illegitimate relations with Lal Singh (PM of Ranjit Singh). Along with Lal Singh, she attacked Jammu, burnt - https://t.co/EfjAq59AyI


Hindu villages of Jasrota, caused rebellion in Jammu, attacked Kishtwar.

Ancestors of Raja Ranjit Singh, The Sansi Tribe used to give daughters as concubines to Jahangir.


The Ludhiana Political Agency (Later NW Fronties Prov) was formed by less than 4000 British soldiers who advanced from Delhi and reached Ludhiana, receiving submissions of all sikh chiefs along the way. The submission of the troops of Raja of Lahore (Ranjit Singh) at Ambala.

Dabistan a contemporary book on Sikh History tells us that Guru Hargobind broke Naina devi Idol Same source describes Guru Hargobind serving a eunuch
YarKhan. (ref was proudly shared by a sikh on twitter)
Gobind Singh followed Bahadur Shah to Deccan to fight for him.


In Zafarnama, Guru Gobind Singh states that the reason he was in conflict with the Hill Rajas was that while they were worshiping idols, while he was an idol-breaker.

And idiot Hindus place him along Maharana, Prithviraj and Shivaji as saviours of Dharma.