We’re whole people. You may have heard the term “work-life balance” before. Personally, I don’t like the use of the term “balance” here because it implies that work and the rest of our lives are somehow opposed to each other. Instead, let’s focus on nourishing […]
Author: Tony
Hi, I’m Tony. I am an engineering professor, family man, and rock climber living in Las Vegas, NV. I write for students, educators, and early-career professionals about how to live a fulfilling life.
Midterm Rehab
Surviving. That’s the number one word students (and faculty) use to describe themselves in the middle of the semester. Time, Money, and Career are three areas of life that can combine to cause so much stress! I recently gave a workshop to share quick, simple […]
In Defense of Deeper Thoughts
As we work to make higher education equitable and inclusive, we face a fundamental challenge: scaling our offerings to a larger student body without scaling the faculty in the same proportion. A key aspect of access is cost, and bringing additional faculty into the mix […]
The Importance of (Every/No)thing
“Is this on the exam?” “Sort of.” I’d just shown my students how to use trigonometric substitution to simplify the process of integrating functions involving radicals. If esoteric integration techniques aren’t your thing, what you need to know is that there are many of them. […]
Multiply Yourself
As I wrapped up my undergraduate degree, I decided to stick around for a masters. Why? I met someone, and she wouldn’t be graduating for a couple more years. Get a masters, graduate at the same time, happily ever after. The plan changed, but the […]
Integrity as a Learning Objective
It’s that time of year, writing course syllabi and deciding on the policies that we’ll be living with for the next 15 weeks! One component that always causes me to stop and think is the “Academic Integrity” section of my syllabus. Cheating is more common […]
Playing the Game
There are different types of games. The simplest ones are what we call zero-sum games. In order for one player to score a point, the other players lose the opportunity to score. I’m reminded of a game I used to play as a child called […]
When to Give Up
You’re going to spend your time doing something. Your money is going to get spent on something. Your effort and passion will be spent. These things aren’t to save, they are to spend. But on what? The more I experience, the more I realize the […]
Self Acceptance
I’ve seen a lot of posts on social media lately talking about self acceptance. Buried in flowery language they all say something like: Forgive yourself for the past. Accept yourself as you are in the present. Become who you need to be in order to […]
Is Abandoning Your Goals the Secret to Success?
“Goal setting” has become one of those Insta-famous ideas that successful looking people send post after post for us to see. “You just have to set an intention,” “I made a list of goals and then got to work, and now I have a luxury […]
