I thought I could live quietly and happily without accolades from other people for beating depression. It turns out that I can’t. It is unbelievable to me that I turned my life around–went from nosediving into a downwards trajectory to cruising steadily at a good altitude–and it means nothing to anyone except me.  My friends … Continue reading more on depression

"Everything Everywhere All at Once" is now playing in theaters. The first time I heard that someone I knew killed themselves was during my freshman year of college. Someone I knew from my hometown stopped me as I was walking across campus one day. “Did you hear?” I remember the moment after she told me, … Continue reading how not to kill yourself

The first car I ever drove was a 2003 Honda Pilot.  It was a silver SUV that I drove to and from high school every day of my senior year, blaring pop music and not giving much of a shit that the thing didn’t have a single camera or screen. By the time I stopped … Continue reading I want to make things as awesome as backup cameras

I want to pursue my most important goals with single-minded vigor. In some areas of my life, I truly believe I could move mountains with enough time and effort. In other areas, not so much. There are plenty of things that I find worthwhile to do, but not worthwhile enough to perfect - things I'll … Continue reading things I’m ok with being just ok at

I have moved to the Seattle area.  It’s a fresh start for me, again, just like going to college was. I thought one of my close college friends was moving here too but he recently decided to stay on the east coast for his girlfriend. So I’m here with a good handful of starter friends … Continue reading 23

I write software for routers that shuttle packets between datacenters. The nitty gritty of exactly how packets are crafted, forwarded and received by different brands of routers and their respective OSes matters a lot in my day to day. So, I’ve spent a lot of time in the past few months working with command line … Continue reading Unix networking command line tools I use to do my job

A prosperous society is one in which people know enough and have enough to find happiness of their own accord.

A cynical take of mine is that no one wants to hear about what you’re doing unless you’re already successful at it. People take comfort in knowing that other people fail too, but it’s intensely uncomfortable to actually witness failure happening. A comedian bombing a set, a violinist butchering an audition, a politician stumbling through … Continue reading It should be okay to fail

It’s been almost a full year since I flew home from Brown to finish my senior year in my childhood bedroom. The announcement telling everyone to leave came on a Thursday I think, and after a frightened call with my parents, I booked a plane ticket for the next day. I spent the day packing … Continue reading 1 year of Covid-19

from: Amy Huang amy.jiamei.huang@gmail.comto: jason@jasoncrawford.orgdate: Jan 16, 2021, 6:13 PMsubject: Question from a Roots of Progress reader: first mile vs. last mile problemsmailed-by: gmail.com Hi Jason, I read your blog and twitter avidly. They help me think about the question "how do I do the most good for society?" I'm writing to ask for your … Continue reading An email I sent to Jason Crawford