What is this blog about?
Kind of whatever! My wheelhouse is mostly writing, psychology, and operations.
Who are you?
I support legal operations at Open Philanthropy, a San Francisco–based grantmaking foundation. In the past, I have worked at the Yale Child Study Center and taught English at the high school and undergraduate levels.
Here’s a video of me at eighteen (when I peaked) playing trombone with my foot for a college application:
Why is this blog called “The Elbow”?
Two reasons: 1) Peter Elbow, and 2) nudges. (More details in this overview.)
How frequent are posts?
I aim to put something out 3-5 times/month.
Of these, one is a list of quotes I like. (Think of this like other blogs’ roundups of links or recommendations—but more evergreen/impressionistic.) If you want, you can opt to receive just regular posts, or just the quotes series, under your subscription settings.
Help! Where should I start?
These are the three posts that people seem to find most insightful:
Twenty Things I Learned in My Twenties — exactly what it sounds like (and a decent sampler of the blog in general!)
Symmetrical Hypocrisy — a takedown, of a certain type of takedown
Punctuated Equilibrium — a playful exploration of . , — ; ( ) : and …
These are the three posts that people seem to find most moving and/or entertaining:
A Quick Goodbye — a portrait of my grandparents
Sticky — reminiscing about some middle school shenanigans
Hit List — from an old trope, new sci-fi—wunderbar!
Is there a way to view posts organized by topic/format?
Indeed there is! I tag every post with up to three labels I feel best describe it, using these categories:
Quotes I like [can also be (un)subscribed to as its own section of the newsletter]
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
