“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”— Marcel Proust, French novelist, literary critic, and essayist

Back when I played just to play… 

When I was a little girl, there was a random assortment of hobbies I pursued when I played (and how foreign the concept of “play” becomes when you’re taught about “productivity”). 

I used to orchestrate grandiose story lines for my Barbies to act out. I would imagine entire worlds and characters for each. 

When my cousins came over, we would spend part of the time scheming about how we would convince our parents to let us sleep over, and another part putting on plays.

I had a little garden, just my own, with basil, mint, lavender and a blueberry bush. It was in a big wooden container with wheels and brakes, and I could push it around- in the shade or in direct sunlight, all at my own discretion.

With all my heart, I loved my little garden tenderly. In fact, I felt genuinely heartbroken when my basil would grow long and woody, or when my mint would turn brown. 

What play looked like as I got older.

As I got older, the stories I would write got more elaborate, and my experiments with the plants got more…interesting. 

One time I sprouted a bunch of pepper seeds in my room, growing at least a dozen little pepper plants in my room in discarded pots of yogurt. For one of my birthdays I got a hydroponics kit, and eventually convinced my parents to help me build a hydroponic system from scratch. 

You would think, from the outside, that maybe one should take these kinds of interests into consideration. Maybe these are those “signs” people always talk about. 

I mean, who is digging around in the trash for pepper seeds and yogurt containers, aspiring to turn her room into a jungle?

But for whatever reason, I ignored these quirks. 

I felt like I didn’t know enough yet to “settle” on what I naturally loved to do. 

…and yes, there was also a fair dose of peer pressure and feeling the need to prove myself.

How I translate play from childhood to adulthood.

Now I’m 2 months away from turning 21, and I can confirm a few things.

One: I’m still a writer, and am finally learning how to take that side of myself seriously.

Two: I still love plants, and soil, and dirt, and asking questions about the natural world. 

Three: By insisting on properly testing out different interests, I have found ways of applying those things I’ve always loved in a way that feels way aligned with the adult I’m becoming rather than the child I used to be.

Allow me to explain. 

The Balance: You know what you know, but you don’t know what you don’t know. 

Maybe, like me, after some introspection, you know what are the constant threads that have carried on from childhood into adulthood- those things that people might look at you with a sigh, and say, “yep, you haven’t changed one bit.”

Pay attention to those things. 

Lean into them. 

And then here’s what you do: explore. 

You explore not to dismiss your interests (which was my initial reason for exploring), but to refine them and incorporate them even more deeply. 

Finding every way I didn’t want to write.

For example, writing.

I love it, but there’s so many ways to apply it. So I tested it out.

I “combined” science and writing by trying science communication for a bit- contributing to science blogs and steering myself toward nonfiction. 

It didn’t hit the same as writing weird emo short stories at 3am.

Then I tried ditching that completely. 

Nope. 

So I’m back to writing weird emo short stories at 3am.

Exploring the natural world beyond hydroponics and pepper plants.

On the plants side, I tried marine biology, and it felt close, but not exactly right.

I tried materials science out by volunteering in a lab at Berkeley, and over my gap year I learned some AutoCAD.

Not quite there, but also some part of it felt good.

Back to earth sciences. 

Now we’re exploring geochemistry. 

So far, that feels good…

The Squiggly Process Of Exploration Through Play

The point is to identify what fits and what doesn’t, and each new experiment you do to test yourself is new information.

You are just growing a bigger and bigger body of evidence to use when you make decisions about how you spend each day.

The process is 100% a messy nonlinear squiggle that will confuse and overwhelm you.

Make no mistake.

But it’s also incredibly rewarding when you find key components to feeling like you are really pursuing something you care about, are good at, and that sustains your livelihood.

I know it’s hard because I’ve lived the squiggle. 

My life has been a squiggle for years.

So I wanted to share some musings that I’ve gained so far. Maybe they will help you find a little piece of yourself along the way.

#1: Tiny experiments. 

Am I the only person who hates that phrase “I just knew”?

Maybe it’s that I have never “just known” anything, or that when I “know”, it’s not a “just knowing” it, but rather a “knowing, but…”

For me, knowing is laced with doubt, and I find myself going back and forth in a game of existential table tennis all the time. 

“I know I like X, but what if once I experience Y, I like it better?”

The eternal struggle of a chronic overthinker. 

Instead of the impossible advice to “trust my gut”, I create a portfolio of irrefutable evidence. 

I test the possibilities in small ways and scale commitment to that option accordingly. 

Then, my decisions don’t dwell in the realm of hypothetically what I would prefer to do, or what I would prefer to spend my time on. 

It’s actually based on the actions I have already taken. 

Before you commit to spending your life in a particular field, ask yourself, “Do I even like to learn about this?” Would you enjoy listening to even a single podcast on it? Do you want to get better at the skills involved?

Then, would you independently pursue experience by starting a passion project there or pursuing an internship in this field? 

(If the answer is probably no, but you still find it interesting to learn about passively, you’ve got yourself a new hobby!)

Scale your commitment alongside the evidence that what you’ve chosen actually fits. 

See it as many tiny experiments, not a decision you make overnight. 

#2: Learn to play again. 

I have an embarrassing secret: I forgot how to have fun. 

Somewhere along the way, everything I did in my free time had to be “justified”, connected with this singular thread of profound purpose. 

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. 

No…really. Listen to me. It doesn’t have to be that way. 

You can actually just play to play, laugh to laugh, and enjoy for enjoyment’s sake. 

So whatever it means for you, go out there and play. 

Does it mean taking yourself out for ice cream and choosing horrendous flavors you only enjoy in secret? Maybe it means learning how to roller skate and falling on your face?

No, don’t look up “cardiovascular benefits to…” or “how to start an etsy shop selling…” before you decide. 

Make fun a good enough reason.

This is how I learned my own passions as a child, not by thinking about productivity, but by thinking about what actually felt good to do.

Play is natural. 

That’s why kids are so good at it.

It’s growing up when we unlearn it, and in the name of being “practical” we actually end up sacrificing all the things that bring us the most joy.

Let yourself go back to the basics. 

Play is where we meet the rawest version of ourselves, and only in knowing the rawest version of yourself can you make those more “serious”, “adult” decisions about how to spend your life.

Ah, the beauty of paradox.

#3: Finish what you start. 

I’m a strong advocate for quitting, with one important caveat. 

Only quit after you’ve given that book/person/sport/ice cream flavor/music genre/game a fair shot. 

Try learning how to code before deciding with certainty that software engineering isn’t for you. 

Travel to new places before deciding you never want to live outside your home town. 

Read at least the first 10 pages before deciding to put down the book. 

When we decide to give up, we often do it when we face friction. 

It’s when the romance of a new pursuit wears off and we actually have to work, that we decide with dramatic exhaustion that we’ve had enough. 

The climb is too steep. 

Our legs are too tired. 

The task is just too hard. 

Instead, know you can do it regardless of the friction, and finish what you started. 

Then decide, once you have conquered the mountain, finished the race, read the first few pages, or listened to the first 30 seconds of the new song. 

Do the thing you thought you couldn’t do.

Only then will you have enough information to truly know whether you’re quitting because you felt overwhelmed in the moment, or something actually doesn’t resonate. 

Discouragement because it’s hard right now does not equal misalignment forever. 

#4: Listen to your jealousy.

Let’s not pretend you haven’t felt it too- the sting of a fake smile when you’re trying (and shouldn’t we get credit for trying?) so hard – soooo hard- to be happy for someone else when you feel like a complete loser.

No really, how can you not feel jealous? 

When you feel more single than the number 1, and you’re so poor you have -$7 in your checking account, what are you supposed to feel about yourself when others succeed?

Good?!

Please.

It sucks to be left behind, and when we are all on different timelines, there always manages to be someone ahead of you in some way.

Either it’s that you’re single and they just met the love of their life. 

Or it’s that you just got fired but they got into grad school.

They got a promotion and you got fined $500 when you can barely afford groceries. 

It’s a normal feeling, yet we all try to swallow it shamefully. 

But jealousy is also information, and it’s very important information.

We get jealous because other people have something we want, something we don’t feel we have already.

So you need to listen to it.

What is your jealousy telling you? How does your life need to change so that you can feel happy for others instead of annoyed?

Once you know what you want, you can actually work towards it.

So start listening. 

#5: Have the courage to admit you don’t know.

There is a quote attributed to Peter Seeger, the American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist known for singing “Goodnight, Irene”.

It goes, “The first step in solving a problem is admitting there is a problem to be solved.”

In a similar vein, the first step to finding that perfect intersection of skill, salary, and societal need we call ‘ikigai’ is to acknowledge that you haven’t found it yet. 

There is so much pressure to know, to have a plan, and to carve out certainty in a world that thoroughly denies it. 

However, when you say you don’t know, you get bombarded with unsolicited advice, pity, and disappointed frowns. 

Now let’s be honest, there is no way to avoid the way people respond to your (totally justified) lack of certainty. 

Maybe you cannot control it if part of being an interdisciplinary iconoclast is letting people down in the moment. 

That’s why it takes courage to admit what you don’t know.

It takes courage to bravely test the uncharted waters that might just be exactly right for you. 

Yes, you will have to stray from everyone else and face the doubts head on. 

It will feel lonely sometimes.

But don’t let that dissuade you! 

Once you find that uncharted territory where being your exact flavor of weird makes perfect sense, saying “I don’t know” will not be shameful, but liberating. 

It will be your license to explore, your passport to designing your life with ruthless precision. 

Pay attention to what you pay attention to.

It’s so easy to dismiss the things we naturally lean towards. 

I used to think everyone could nerd out over a monthly issue of National Geographic. Obviously, all my friends would find that one Scientific American article fascinating. And of course they would rather get lost hiking on an active volcano than sit in a dark room watching cat videos. 

(On that note, please see this Scientific American article about a team of scientists who invented a smart underwear that can count how many times the average person farts per day.)

However, realizing I had unique interests that weren’t shared universally ended up being one of the most liberating epiphanies of my life. 

After zooming in on the things I wanted to learn about already, and the skills I wanted to get good at, I found that I could make a living out of all the activities I already saw as “play”.

In the end, we don’t have to torture ourselves, squeeze ourselves into a mold that someone else came up with and presented to us in a PowerPoint in high school. 

It’s actually not as simple as “doctor, engineer, lawyer… and everything else”. 

In fact, it’s not even as simple as choosing only one thing. 

Your life is a canvas that you get to fill with exactly the colors and shades and brush strokes that perfectly suit you. 

The only question that remains is whether you’re going to be holding the brush, or whether you will hand it to someone else. 

Thought to Action

1. Track Energy, Not Interests: For one week, note what gives you energy and what drains it. Patterns reveal more than labels.
2. Run a Passion Experiment: Choose one small action that tests a curiosity (not a career decision). Give it a deadline.
3. Separate Skill From Identity: You don’t need to be “good” at something for it to matter to you.
4. Design a Tiny Version of the Dream: Ask: what would the smallest, cheapest version of this life look like right now?
5. Let Passion Be Built: Treat interest as something you cultivate, not something you wait to discover.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post 5 Easy Ways To Turn Play Into Your Dream Career appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Simplicity carried to an extreme becomes elegance.” -Jon Franklin, American author and Pulitzer Prize winner

Design is small tweaks over a long time.

For several months, I have been staring at my laptop screen, knowing I had to talk about evolutionary biology and design, but not knowing exactly what shape to make the words and what angle to enter into the topic. 

I first got the inspiration to write about it when completing an assignment for an evolutionary biology class. As part of this project, I had to conduct a phylogenetic analysis, using software to construct a sort of “family tree” of related species, called a phylogeny. 

Through it, we could see how species have evolved, where they branched in the evolutionary tree, and when certain traits adaptively radiated. 

It was fascinating, with lots of crossover to how ideas evolve, or how etymology shapes, or even how culture spreads across geography. 

But nowadays, we seldom make the link between biology and other domains. 

So I thought about this. For months. 

Then, as I munched on a bag of highly addictive caramel popcorn, it hit me: design is not about the idea coming to you all at once. 

It’s about riffing, iterating, and building something better than what you had before. 

And guess what?

That’s also exactly how design works in biology. 

Much like in evolution, it’s not about starting out perfect. It’s about making many small tweaks over a long period of time until you arrive at an end product you’re proud of. 

#1: The Underrated Power Of a Terrible First Draft

The idea of being struck by a bolt of lightning and suddenly having a stroke of creative genius is a widespread myth that afflicts millions of perfectionists and overthinkers worldwide each day. 

We are tormented by the fact that we will somehow blasphemize the idea in our head by putting it out into the world, and realizing it isn’t that great in real life. 

It’s the fear that we will turn potential into actuality, and in doing so, be confronted with so many mistakes and imperfections.

 And these mistakes? 

They will have the final say over what we are capable of on a deeper level. 

The sappy poem you wrote about your crush in seventh grade? Definitely nowhere near Jane Austen or Maya Angelou level. So your literary career is over. 

The lumpy scarf you knit three Thanksgivings ago, where you messed up the pattern and ran out of yarn? Yeah, you better give up knitting now. 

If you make that “cringe” post about that incredible passion project you’ve been working on, your cousin’s friend’s sister will not be impressed. 

And who are we if our cousin’s friend’s sister doesn’t approve of us?!

Maybe no one will care. They might think you’re being “performative”. 

Evolution doesn’t work this way. 

It throws out so many terrible first drafts it would make you dizzy. It leaves so many of its genetic “ideas” behind.

And yet?

And yet. 

Look around you. 

There is life everywhere, in the most impossible niches (check out this magnetic bacteria I heard about recently). This life is designed impeccably. Why? Because of those terrible drafts that paved the way. 

#2: Random Mutations 

The irony is that as much as we are creatures of habit, we are also built on randomness. 

While a lot of the traits we have as humans seem to make sense, they are also the product of random differences in our genetics being passed on because they help people survive and perpetuate the human race. 

But random mutations aren’t just biological. 

They also apply to the design process, where we not only ideate, but also iterate and test. 

For example, if you’re inventing a new pasta recipe, you might add some of the more “classic” ingredients (marinara sauce, cheese, basil…). 

Then, you separate the pasta, and decide to test out some ingredients you have never added before. For one bowl of pasta, you throw in some edamame beans. In the other, you add some chopped spinach. The last bowl gets some broccoli. 

You have tried something completely random that in all likelihood will end up tasting either neutral (i.e. you don’t mind whether it’s there or not) or worse (i.e. you will never add it to your pasta again).

However, if you do this enough times, you will also get the third outcome: realizing that your random new ingredient makes this dish taste better. 

After trying potatoes and corn on pizza (I condone it!), a flavor unique to audacious Japan, I have come to realize this is a tried and true approach to generating masterpieces. 

Creative genius isn’t about just knowing to put potatoes and corn on your pizza. 

It’s about having the courage to try pizza with a bunch of other weird toppings, knowing eventually, you will stumble across a great combination. 

#3: Steady Rivers Cut Through Immovable Mountains.

This is the age of doing everything all at once.

You must cram every big life milestone into a 5-year plan. Log it in your bullet journal. Post about it with a “candid” (but also totally staged) photo with a caption that reads “#blessed”.

We are in the “instant coffee”, “instant results”, and “instant progress”  world. 

Evolution doesn’t work that way. 

Instead, evolution makes the smallest changes you could imagine, but compounds them over millions, and even billions, of years. 

This act of compounding and iterating on tiny mutations is what has produced some of the best designs we know to occur within life. 

Consider the eye, which first evolved only as a light-sensing organ, and later developed the lens, retina, iris, and more. 

Across the animal kingdom, eyes take all sorts of weird and wonderful appearances. 

One of the common traits among all of them, however, is that they sense light, and have been knee-deep in the evolutionary design process for millions of years. 

So take it slow.

Small consistent changes will get you way farther that sporadic drastic steps.

#4: It’s not the strongest or smartest, but the most adaptable…

There is a beautiful quote attributed to Albert Einstein that goes, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” 

Isn’t that such a relief?

Maybe in second grade you did not always ace your spelling tests, and in third grade you weren’t the first to learn your times tables. 

In fact, maybe right now, you feel like kind of an idiot because you cracked an egg in a way that made the yolk break. You turned all your white clothes pink because one red sock snuck into the washing machine. Maybe you accidentally clicked “send” on an email before actually adding the attachment. 

If you have ever felt stupid, or weak, or incapable, or unworthy of success, there is good news: you don’t have to be perfect; you just have to be adaptable. 

When climate change strikes, or human beings destroy yet another vital habitat, the way species perpetuate is by adapting to change. 

If there is an extinction, they fill the empty niche. 

New mutations occur, and the old species adapt to the new habitat, food sources, and conditions. 

Evolutionary biology says that when Life (yes, with a capital ‘L’) happens, you adapt. 

Design should adapt the same way too.

Design is dynamic. 

The unifying theme connecting evolutionary biology with design thinking is that, contrary to what we might think about both domains, they are dynamic and evolving.

Both design and evolution are about responding to change and to need. 

Design is the space between stimulus and response where we decide what the next iteration will look like. 

It means saying “this next draft won’t be perfect, but it’ll be closer than what came before”. 

Thought to Action

1. Lower the Stakes on One Creative Act: Make something deliberately small, unfinished, or silly. Let it exist without optimizing it.
2. Feed Your Imagination Intentionally: Consume one strange or delightful input today—a poem, a walk, a conversation, a Wikipedia rabbit hole.
3. Create Without Explaining: Make something you won’t post, monetize, or justify. Let curiosity be the reason.
4. Keep an “Idea Garden”: Write down half-formed ideas without judging them. Growth likes space.
5. Practice Creative Permission: Before starting, say: “I’m allowed to explore this.” Then begin.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post. 

The post The 4 Design Secrets From Evolutionary Biology That Unlock Results appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” ­— Paul Tournier

Growing up never ends.

There is nothing like the disgusting and raw feeling of emotional and spiritual growing pains to reshape the way confidence looks for you. 

For my younger self, confidence used to mean looking and behaving with power. 

It was Beyoncé-superbowl-halftime-showing your whole life, every single day. Confidence was a sick leather jacket and red lipstick that could slice through steel. 

It was denim, or ripped denim better yet. 

Confidence used to mean being loud, fiery, and unstoppable.

Then, I had what I will lovingly refer to as “character-building experiences”, which are, of course, the parts of growing up that we all wish we could fast-forward through. 

It’s the friendship breakups, the romantic breakups, the moving-aways, the not getting to say goodbye to your favorite family pet, the getting rejected from cool opportunities and being jealous of your friends, hating that you’re jealous of your friends, feeling like no one else is getting rejected like you’re getting rejected, the constant FOMO because you haven’t done X thing yet. 

Life happened, I guess, and every time “life happened”, my idea of what confidence actually was shifted.

Confidence As A System For Building A Life Others Haven’t Seen Yet.

In theory, we all want to lead big lives and do amazing things. 

The trouble is, you often can’t get there by doing exactly the same thing as everyone else. Duh, you’re thinking. 

The thing is, doing something different is actually really really hard. 

That’s why now, I think of confidence not as an unchanging emotional state, but as a series of systems you put into your life to mitigate those emotions and increase your chances of success. 

What does that mean?

It means you can be confident, and still heartbroken. 

You can be confident and still afraid. 

You can be confident, and still feel overwhelmed. 

And here’s a crazy one- you can be confident and still shy. 

Ultimately, confidence is about how you move through those emotions, and what your response looks like. 

Steal this confidence hack. 

My most recent “character-building” experience was a few months ago, and involved a lot of crying and angry ranting. 

It is then that I developed a beautiful new hack to build back my confidence and get me through the subsequent months of healing: sending my future self pep talk emails.

Um…what??

Okay, I know it sounds weird. I won’t sit here and tell you that it isn’t. 

But weird works. 

When I send my future self emails, it has two effects. 

Firstly, it’s forcing me to imagine myself in the future and think about where I want to be then (emotionally, professionally, academically, etc.). Simply realizing there will be a time when my current challenges are removed already helps me feel like the world isn’t ending. 

Secondly, receiving emails from my past self- whether it was a month ago, a week ago, or a day ago- highlights to me how much progress I have actually made.

A lot of times, it’s easy to overlook this because we are caught up in what we need to do now, and on how big the gap is between our current and desired states. 

Nevertheless, it’s still valuable to remember that you’re probably currently in the desired state of some past version of yourself. 

Celebrating that can give you the energy to give your future self the same gift. 

How It Works

#1: Write the email using the following template:

To: [insert here either the same email you’re sending it from, or another email address that goes to you. I send these emails from my personal email to my school email.]

Subject: [It can be whatever you want. Subject lines like “Letter From You 10 Days Ago” or “Keep up the great work! I’m proud of you.” all work.

Message:

Dear [insert here your name] from [insert here the date your future self will receive the message],

[Insert here the body of the message. Make it 5-7 sentences long ideally, and write something you know your future self will need to hear. For example, at the end of a busy semester, I told my future self (now past self) that she was doing great, and I was proud of her.]

Love,

You from [Insert here the date you sent the message.]

#2: Right next to the send button, press the arrow that allows you to do a scheduled send. Click it, and click the date you want your future self to receive the email. 

#3: Now forget about it. Later on, when you see the message in your inbox, you will have a nice time hearing from yourself. I know it sounds silly, but it works.

Confidence is a system, not an emotional state. (But it’s a system which will create an emotional state!)

One of the beautiful things that happen when you finally let go of this idea that confidence is about always feeling a certain way is that you turn your focus onto habits that naturally create those feelings as a byproduct. 

Sending myself emails is by no means the only habit I incorporate into my life to feel better when things are hard.

Nor does it make the sadness, heartbreak, or sense of overwhelm magically disappear. 

Here’s what it does accomplish: hope. 

And sometimes, a little nudge of hope from your past self is all you need to invest in those tiny decisions that cumulatively get you out of a rut. 

Thought to Action

1. Pause and Write Your “Failure Archive”: List three things you tried that didn’t go as planned this year. Don’t fix them. Instead, just name them and how they made you feel.
2. Reframe Effort as Evidence: Track one kind of effort for two weeks (reading time, daily creative minutes, meaningful talks). Let the action be the metric, not just the outcome.
3. Create a “Growth Pause”: Pick one thing you’ll do less of (doomscrolling, chores as avoidance). Put a boundary around it and note what space that creates for something nourishing. 
4. Rediscover Joy in the Small and Slow: Read one short piece of writing without pressure—no speed goals, no expectations.
5. Set One “Next Try Intent”: Choose one thing from your failure archive and decide a small, doable step you’ll try next quarter — no perfection, just continuation.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post Sending Myself Emails Is The Embarrassing Life Hack I Didn’t Know Would 10x My Confidence. appeared first on Green Also Green.

“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”

-Wendell Berry, American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer.

Our Connotations With “Dirt”.

What do you think when you hear the word “dirt”?

Does it conjure an image of your mom crouched in the grass with a giant sunhat on, planting brightly-colored flowers in your front yard?

Maybe it evokes that smell, geosmin, the “earthy odor that comes with rain”.

Do you imagine worms? Manual labor, and then contemplating your efforts over a cold glass of lemonade?

Maybe you see your dog, tracking little pawprints of mud all through the house, unaware of all the hard cleaning he/she has goofily undone. 

Turns out, we have history…

Our tie to the earth, to the soil, to the dirt, to the ground that holds us up as we walk, goes way back. 

You can see the hints of this in our language. 

The word “human” derives from the Latin humus, meaning soil or earth, and shares the same root (pun intended) as words like “humble” or “humanity”. 

This connection even has biblical roots. 

We see the notion that all of us come from dust, and “to dust we shall return”, in Ecclesiastes. 

And then there’s Adam, the biblical name of the very first human being, founder of the human race. This very name comes from the Hebrew word adamah, meaning ground. 

If you enjoy staying alive…

So our tie to the soil goes way back, with clear spiritual and etymological roots.

But it is also absolutely vital for our survival right now.

We rely on soil to feed us (agriculture), and to create a global climate that is actually hospitable for human beings. 

On top of this, we rely on soil to store carbon and support most of the world’s terrestrial ecosystems. 

Why is no one talking about this?

Herein lies the issue: Dirt is in big trouble, and you only just found out right now. 

And I’m willing to also bet that a lot of your friends also haven’t heard about what our good friend, the soil, has been going through lately. 

My latest obsession. 

After reading Dr. Jo Handelsman and Kayla Cohen’s (a Minerva alumnus!!) book A World Without Soil, I became kinda obsessed. 

I started to wonder what on earth was going on with our dirt, why we don’t hear so many people talking about it, and what can be done to help the situation. 

The more I learned, the more I felt you would probably like to hear the answers to these questions too. 

So here goes. 

What’s the deal with dirt?

#1: Soil is disappearing faster than it can regenerate. 

If you want to not run out of money, we generally agree that it’s wise to not spend more than you make. 

However, when it comes to soil, that’s exactly what we’re doing…and it doesn’t bode well.

How does soil actually get “used” up though?

That boils down to how we define “soil health”. 

According to the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils, soil health is “the ability of the soil to sustain the productivity, diversity and environmental services of terrestrial ecosystems”.

So essentially, much like how people who never get enough rest tend to burn out, soil that is constantly overworked will become infertile, and thus erode. 

Now here’s an alarming statistic to start your day off terrified:

As of October 2025, the world’s soils have lost 133 billion tonnes of carbon since agriculture first emerged 12,000 years ago. 

To give you a rough idea of how much that actually is, a million tonnes is roughly the weight of 5 fully loaded cargo ships. 

A billion tonnes is 1,000 million tonnes. 

So imagine 5,000 cargo ships worth of soil. 

Here’s another way to look at it: 

Imagine you went into your backyard, filled a single coffee mug with dirt, and dumped it onto a degraded field. 

If you did this for every hour of your life (avg lifespan being 80 years), day and night- no sleep, no bathroom, nothing else but dirt and coffee mugs- it would take you 250 million lifetimes just to replace a single year of global soil loss. 

Oh, and by the way, there’s 11,999 years’ worth to go!

#2: Modern farming is degrading soil, making it erode even faster.

Ah, so remember that bowl of oatmeal you and I both had for breakfast this morning? 

Maybe you had some eggs or bacon. Dare I say, you even had a sip of coffee?

Yeah, so all of that was farmed somewhere, and if it was an animal product, it was likely from an animal that was grazing on a field, or fed on another crop. 

This is all brought to you by soil… with a twist! 

How we grew and harvested your breakfast also played a role in degrading the soil too. 

In fact, scientists now describe a little over one-third of all the world’s agricultural land as being “degraded”, an alarming predicament for someone like me who rather enjoys having food to eat.

That’s about 1.66 billion hectares, another incomprehensibly huge number. So let’s throw another creative analogy into the mix. 

1.66 billion hectares is basically 1.66 billion international soccer fields. You could probably walk from one end to the other in 1 or 2 minutes. 

Now imagine this: you start walking at birth. Every single minute, you cross one hectare. You never stop to sleep. You never get tired. You never even stop for a bathroom break.

By the time you reach the end of a long human life of 80 years, you would have walked across only about 42 million hectares.

To cover 1.66 billion hectares, you would need to live about forty lifetimes of nonstop walking.

Now try to wrap your head around that. 

That is how much land is at risk here. 

Why? 

In large part because of modern modes of agriculture, like monocropping, over-tilling, heavy machinery, and synthetic pesticide and fertilizer use which degrade soil through overgrazing, contamination, and erosion. 

#3: Soil is one of Earth’s biggest carbon sinks, but damaged soil releases carbon instead of storing it.

A little known super power of soil is carbon sequestration. 

This happens in various ways, but mostly takes place when plants convert CO₂ into organic compounds like glucose through photosynthesis, or when dead plants and critters are decomposed (shoutout to the amazing fungi that carry this out!!).

In an interview with Carbon Brief, Dr. Helena Cotler Ávalos, an agronomic engineer at the Geospatial Information Science Research Center in Mexico, remarks, “Life in the soil always starts by introducing organic matter.”

So naturally, with all this taking place in soil, over time, it accumulates a bunch of carbon. 

This is great for us humans, because it means we get to do a bunch of cool stuff, like breathe. 

Thanks to soil, our atmosphere has been able to accumulate the exact right proportion of oxygen for us to exist. 

However, like we mentioned before, since the dawn of agriculture 12,000 years ago, a lot of this soil has been degraded, and a lot of the carbon stores in only the top 2m of the world’s soil have been lost. 

To be more specific, that is about 8% of the total global soil carbon stocks.  

When the soil gets degraded, the carbon gets released, and it goes into our atmosphere, where it can contribute to things like climate change, acidification, and so on. 

#4: Soil loss threatens food security, which leads to more problems.

Around 95% of the food the world consumes is produced either directly or indirectly from soil. 

This means that when you combine the above problems with the fact that one of the things we need most to survive is food, you get a more urgent challenge: food insecurity.

And when you get food insecurity, a lot of ugly things follow: civil unrest, poverty, war, malnutrition, and overall disaster. 

I don’t think I need to really explain why food is important, but it’s worth throwing it out there:

If you like food, you should really love dirt. 

What can interdisciplinary misfits like us do to save the dirt?

Okay, so that’s all a huge bummer. 

The upside is…we have you! 

If you’re a big thinker looking for a meaningful passion project, career pivot, or obsessive new hobby, this goes out to you. 

And by the way, I’m not just talking to farmers, gardeners, scientists, and policy folks. 

I’m also looking at the entrepreneurs, architects, entrepreneurs, data nerds, engineers, and artists in the room!

It will be people with unique backgrounds, skillsets, and interests like yours who can tackle these sub-problems with success. 

So here are some of my ideas. 

#1: Measuring & Monitoring Soil Health (Data Science + Geochemistry + AI)

Do you love data and dirt? Well, this one’s for you.

We need better global soil monitoring, cheaper soil sensors, and AI models that can predict soil degradation before it gets bad. 

Make it cheap and scalable. Make it easy to use. 

After all, you can’t fix a problem when you can’t even define what is going on. 

This one is great for: data scientists, engineers, remote sensing specialists, and GIS designers.

#2: Making Regenerative Farming Scalable & Profitable (Agriculture + Engineering + Business)

Okay, if you have binged as many YouTube videos as I have about alternative farm techniques, this one will excite you. 

We need not only regenerative farming methods, but actually scalable regenerative farming methods. 

These are crop rotation systems, low-cost composting tech, soil-friendly machinery, and business models that don’t push farmers to compromise soil health in exchange for profit margins. 

The trick here isn’t exactly coming up with something new, but bridging the gap between solutions we already have, and business incentives to use them on a larger scale. 

How can we make regenerative farming work on a huge scale, so that big corporations see profit without compromising soil fertility?

Experts who would be great for this one: systems engineers, agricultural economists, product designers, ecologists, entrepreneurs. 

#3: Design Cities That Promote Soil Biodiversity (Architecture + Urban Planning + Engineering)

Loving dirt is also about loving the critters that live in the dirt.

This means not only protecting the dirt in remote forests and grasslands, but also the dirt in your city! 

We need architects, urban planners, and civil engineers to think about building “green cities” also as promoting soil fertility in cities. 

Right now, cities seal soil beneath concrete, preventing water absorption and carbon capture. 

Addressing this could mean incorporating more permeable pavements, green roofs,  and “living walls” into design. Similarly, additional regulations for “soil-per-square-meter” minimums could be beneficial.

#4: Treat Soil Degradation As A Public Health Issue (Medicine + Epidemiology + Nutrition + Agriculture)

When we think about the system which food moves through globally, it can be easy to forget that while soil is on one end of the system, our bodies are on the other. 

What goes into our bodies falls under the domain of public health. This is doctors, epidemiologists, and nutritionists.

Soil degradation reduces the micronutrients that end up in our food, impacting immunity, development, and mental health. 

That means the apple you snack on today is actually less nutritious than the apple your grandparents snacked on 50 years ago. 

We need public health professionals to invest in research linking soil mineral content and human disease, to conduct routine clinical screening for nutrient depletion, and really highlight to policy makers that  “healthy soil = healthy humans”. 

#5: Soil Insurance For Farmers (FinTech + Economics + Agriculture)

As it stands, farmers take on all the risk when transitioning to regenerative practices. So currently, they simply don’t have strong incentives to actually do so.

This is why we need actuaries, bankers, and economists to work on insurance products for soil restoration periods, micro-insurance for small farms, and risk-pooling models for climate-damaged land. 

Don’t wash the dirt off your hands. 

We should pick our battles in life. 

Choose whether to argue with our family at Thanksgiving. Ask if it will accomplish anything meaningful. Decide whether to leave an angry comment on a Facebook post. Consider whether to donate to yet another charity. 

Here’s why the problems with our dirt are different: it really is, in a very real way, a matter of life and death. 

The demise of soil, and therefore of agriculture, biodiversity, and the precisely calibrated conditions we need to stay alive, means the demise of us. 

This is then tempered with the fact that for every single person on the planet, there is an interaction with the soils, whether it’s by the foods you eat- taken from the soil- or what you throw in the trash- what inevitably goes into the soil. 

So when it comes to dirt, there is a call to action for everyone. Yes, varying levels of call to actions, but call to actions nevertheless. 

Ultimately, the future of the ground beneath your feet depends on these choices we all make. 

What will you choose?

Thought to Action

1. Set One “Next Try Intent”: Choose one thing from your failure archive and decide a small, doable step you’ll try next quarter — no perfection, just continuation.

2. Pause and Write Your “Failure Archive”: List three things you tried that didn’t go as planned this year. Don’t fix them. Instead, just name them and how they made you feel.

3. Reframe Effort as Evidence: Track one kind of effort for two weeks (reading time, daily creative minutes, meaningful talks). Let the action be the metric, not just the outcome.

4. Create a “Growth Pause”: Pick one thing you’ll do less of (doomscrolling, chores as avoidance). Put a boundary around it and note what space that creates for something nourishing. 

5. Rediscover Joy in the Small and Slow: Read one short piece of writing without pressure—no speed goals, no expectations.

Sources

DeLong, Catherine, et al. “The Soil Degradation Paradox: Compromising Our Resources When We Need Them the Most.” Sustainability, vol. 7, no. 1, 13 Jan. 2015, pp. 866–879, https://doi.org/10.3390/su7010866.

Dunne, Daisy. “World’s Soils Have Lost 133bn Tonnes of Carbon since the Dawn of Agriculture.” Carbon Brief, 25 Aug. 2017, www.carbonbrief.org/worlds-soils-have-lost-133bn-tonnes-of-carbon-since-the-dawn-of-agriculture/. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.

Ellis, Hattie. “Is the Source of 95 Percent of Our Food in Trouble?” BBC Food, www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/soil. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.

FAO. “FAO Knowledge Repository.” Fao.org, 2026, openknowledge.fao.org/items/dd568913-8938-4705-96c4-3f0ebb2a22b6. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.

—. ITPS INTERGOVERNMENTAL TECHNICAL PANEL on SOILS towards a DEFINITION of SOIL HEALTH # 1. 2020.

Handelsman, Jo, and Kayla Cohen. A World without Soil : The Past, Present, and Precarious Future of the Earth beneath Our Feet. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2021.

IPCC. “Summary for Policymakers — Special Report on Climate Change and Land.” Ipcc.ch, Special Report on Climate Change and Land, 2019, www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/summary-for-policymakers/. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.

Kopittke, Peter M, et al. “Healthy Soil for Healthy Humans and a Healthy Planet.” Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 54, no. 3, 30 June 2023, pp. 1–12, https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2023.2228651.

Quiroz, Yanine. “Q&A: The Role of Soil Health in Food Security and Tackling Climate Change – Carbon Brief.” Carbon Brief, 29 Oct. 2025, www.carbonbrief.org/qa-the-role-of-soil-health-in-food-security-and-tackling-climate-change/?utm_source=chatgpt.com. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.

The post A Love Letter To Dirt & What To Do About The World Disappearing From Beneath Our Feet appeared first on Green Also Green.

“I am not a little bit of many things; but I am the sufficient representation of many things. I am not an incompletion of all these races; but I am a masterpiece of the prolific. I am an entirety, I am not a lack of anything; rather I am a whole of many things. God did not see it needful to make me generic. He thinks I am better than that.” – C. JoyBell C.

Where do you belong?

We are always trying to decide where we and others belong. 

As humans, we are wired to put each other in boxes. Even if they don’t fit, even if they’re simplistic. Even if the box is actually a really complicated place whose “hereness” and “thereness” is not even clearly definable. 

But even on top of putting other people in boxes, we are often driven by a need to categorize ourselves.

Why?

Because in categorizing ourselves, we find where we truly belong. 

Exclusion hurts, so we’re hungry to belong. 

If you think I’m making this up, check out the work Dr. Matthew Lieberman has done with brain imaging, corroborating what most of us already know to be true: being left out hurts. 

In fact, these findings even suggest that social rejection activates the same neural pathways as physical pain.

Ouch. 

When you don’t belong anywhere. 

So what am I getting at?

It was always a question for me- “where do I belong?”

Born American, I grew up in a Hispanic household with Cuban-born grandparents and American-born parents who raised me up on a steady diet of fluent Spanglish. 

In elementary school, after completing my homework, I would plop myself criss-cross-applesauce on the floor of my great grandmother’s room. There, I’d watch telenovela after telenovela. It’s how I learned to speak Spanish. 

I didn’t know how to say “laundry” until I was at least ten (I would just call it ropa sucia).

But then I would go to school (the site of many acute traumas, sadly). There, the extent of my Hispanic-ness was called into question. I simply wasn’t “Hispanic” enough to be considered “the real thing”.

Well, but I wasn’t not Hispanic either. 

I was American, and I was Hispanic…right?

Enter: England. 

As if it wasn’t complicated enough, at 13 I got what felt like devastating news for any Miami girl. We were moving to England. 

It felt like the world was ending. 

England?! 

Of all the places, why did I have to go live in the cloudiest, rainiest, grayest, windiest country imaginable? And what would happen to my teeth???

(What would happen is my dentist was horrified. Too much tea turned my teeth yellow for a bit.)

I had a hard time with vitamin D for the following years, but turns out, the weather was the least of it. 

I discovered that outside the US, being American is not seen with such star-spangled admiration, so I carried around this part of myself like a big ugly birthmark I couldn’t get rid of. 

The British Girl. 

But a strange thing happened. 

When I was in the UK, everyone outside my family saw me as the American girl. Then, when I came back to Miami for the summers, everyone saw me as British. 

I was often defined by where I had been rather than who I was. Still, I wondered where I truly belonged.

Was I just a human cut into thirds- one third Hispanic, one third American, one third British? 

Or was it more complicated?

The Watered Down Identity 

Now I’m 5 months away from turning 21, and I have lived in 3 different countries and 5 different cities.

Sometimes I wonder if that means my identity becomes that much more watered down. I wonder why it bothers me when others don’t mind the same thing. 

To me, it boils down to belonging. It’s cool to have kinship with strangers, to know that you are united by language and history even without knowing each other personally. It’s fun to talk to someone and realize “oh, so your family does it the same way too!”. 

When you live at the intersections of cultures, it’s hard to find that, because you’re not 100% “in” any group. 

Instead, it’s like you’re just half-dipped in several cultures. 

The Gift Of Being Your Own Category 

So being a cultural hybrid-halfling is definitely isolating at times, and can feel like a life-sentence of failed connection. 

However, there is another side to the story. 

I think of it like the origin story of a superhero- someone different from everyone else, who dreams to conform but steps into their power by finally embracing their uniqueness. 

#1: You’re the ambassador.  

When you exist between cultures, you’re something of a myth-buster. 

An American who travels? An introverted Latina? A British student with good teeth?

You get to challenge stereotypes, and represent a nuance that changes the way other people engage with your culture. 

Sometimes, it means defending where you come from, and sometimes it means apologizing for the atrocities of your country’s history. 

Whatever it is, the control is in how you respond. 

#2: You don’t take beliefs and customs for granted. You think seriously about what to embody, and what to leave behind.

When you have been immersed in British culture as well as Miami culture, you have a large array of choices to make. 

In lots of ways, these are two opposite ends of the cultural landscape, so it can feel like a shock to go from one to the other. 

However, in knowing both worlds, you get to choose for yourself.

Personally, I have tried to let go of the superficial attitudes of Miami, as well as its terrible conception of punctuality (expect everyone to run 15 minutes late always). 

That said, I really admire how people in Miami have such passion for life. It’s a city full of art, music, food, and overall adventure. I want to live a life rich with all those things!

Similarly, I try to let go of the British tendency to diminish and brush under the rug. British culture is frustratingly indirect, asking questions which should be statements and leaving those who don’t know the “code” to guess what they mean. 

However, I hold deep respect for British pragmatism, and the keen focus on what is “sensible”, which includes the (what I, as a Miamian, would consider) crazy proactiveness to plan holidays over a year in advance. 

#3: You know how to adapt.

When your life consists of regularly shifting among geography and culture, you start to become really good at building back your community, support network, and sense of belonging. 

You become proficient at picking up bits and pieces of new languages. 

You learn how to recover from the inevitable faux pas with grace. 

It’s no longer awkward to make new friends or scary to go on public transportation alone. Now, you are an antifragile cultural explorer who is unfazed by clicking “reset” time and time again. 

The amazing part is how this then translates to other parts of your life. 

You start to see microcosms of nuance in other people, and learn how to walk the line between warmth and assertiveness regardless of the professional, personal, or geographical context. 

Most noticeable is the confidence you develop knowing that no matter where you are, whether there is signal, whether you speak the language or not, you will be able to fend for yourself. 

Moreover, you can find stability in knowing yourself, and isn’t that the greatest treasure of all?  

You get to decide where you belong. 

The reward of wrestling with my sense of belonging all my life has been to finally see that belonging is an artificial construct. 

When the lines between “us” and “them” are clear, we let other people decide where we belong, which is comforting, but not empowering. 

Having other people deny my sense of belonging has challenged this natural tendency to let the world decide which box I fit in. 

But being denied belonging also taught me to fight for it. 

It has taught me that when people say, “Your Spanish is not good enough for you to be a ‘real’ Latina”, I am allowed to not believe them. 

(And let’s face it- most South American Latinos don’t know a single word of the hundreds of endangered indigenous languages that existed on the continent before Spanish ever did). 

Ultimately, it is up to you to determine your cultural belonging, and to explore your history with openness and curiosity like the microcosm of nuance you are. 

In doing so, you will not only unlock resilience, you will also unlock peace.  

Thought To Action 

1. Draw Your Connection Map: Write down five people or communities—old friends, classmates, mentors—you’d like to reconnect with or better understand. Choose one and take a small step (message, coffee invite, honest hello).
2. Practice a Micro Habit: Pick something meaningful you stopped doing (writing, hiking, reading quietly). Commit to just five minutes a day — it’s the momentum that matters.
3. Turn Discomfort Into Question Curiosity: Instead of “Why did I fail?”, ask “What did this effort teach me about what matters?”.
4. Document Your Slow Wins: Keep a tiny journal of weekly wins — not outcomes, but efforts that felt worth doing (like choosing mindful reading over passive scrolling). Let this remind you how small actions accumulate meaning.
5. End With Gratitude + Intention: Close your reflection session with gratitude for the effort you showed, then set a gentle intention for the coming week.

Sources 

No external sources were used for this post.

The post What To Do When You Don’t Belong Anywhere appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Leaders bleed, period.” ― Silvia Young, My FemTruth: Scandalous Survival Stories

The Productivity Fraternity.

There are certain arbitrary signifiers that long ago, some random Kappa Kappa Productivity Fraternity decided to put on an equally arbitrary checklist against which all productive people are measured.

They decided “hard-working”, “productive” people wake up at the crack of dawn (hello, 5am club), then “ grind” and “hustle” their faces off the exact same level every day.

They decided human beings work on a 24 hour clock (which funnily enough is how long the male hormone cycle is), and thus and deviation from complete and utter grind would probably be down to the low caliber of your work ethic. 

Now, this is just what the Productivity-verse is: a fraternity.

Somehow, though, women are systematically gaslit into believing there is something wrong with them when they don’t meet these arbitrary standards.

But we’re not here to complain. 

KPIs For The Productive Woman.

Instead, I come to you with a proposal: the Productivity Sorority! 

Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

That’s because it is. 

Here, we sleep. We eat food that supports our hormones instead of fighting them. We can say words like “menstruation” and “menopause” out loud.

But most of all: we don’t measure productivity day-by-day. Instead, we measure month-by-month (or cycle-by-cycle).

Counterproductive “productivity hacks” from the man-overse. 

We know they mean well, but sometimes when people give advice, they are just repackaging their own experiences under the pretense that what worked for them will work for you. 

So today, let’s talk about some of the advice productive women might benefit from avoiding.

#1: Wake up at 5am. 

There is a funny endocrinological phenomenon that takes place between around 3-6am in the male body. At this time of day, the male body experiences a surge in testosterone unrivaled by any other hour.

It’s an interesting coincidence, considering the narrative that waking up super early is this superpower possessed by those who are the most successful people.

It’s also interesting that this phenomenon does not take place in women to the same extent due to their much lower levels of testosterone.

So…female hormones don’t peak at 5am? Nope.

And it’s time to stop acting like they should, just because the Productivity Fraternity says so. 

Importantly, it’s not to say that getting a head start on your day isn’t beneficial, but maybe we should start acknowledging that this looks different for those who have a month-long hormone cycle. 

For starters, maybe you can finally give yourself permission to wake up at 7am instead of the crack of dawn, and even to sleep in for a couple more hours when you’re menstruating. 

#2: Push through the pain (“stay hard!”)

Many women go their entire lives undiagnosed with serious menstrual disorders like endometriosis, PCOS, and uterine fibroids. Chances are you or someone you know is living their lives with a condition like this and “pushing through the pain” completely unnecessarily.

Instead of gaslighting ourselves, let’s advocate for our health. 

It’s not “in your head”. Your pain is real. 

(Problem-solvers, sell us a solution!)

The moment you start doing something about it is a moment of empowerment, not weakness or laziness.

#3: Hit the gym every single day. 

Here’s a crazy hypothetical for ya: imagine if every single month you had to regrow and then shed the lining of an entire organ. 

Do you think it would take a lot of energy? Do you think you might need more hours of sleep at that point in the month? Maybe fewer social commitments. 

It’s not a trick question! Shedding the lining of your uterus does take a bunch of energy. 

And…it’s not hypothetical. 

So why has being on your period become this competitive sport of “who can hide it the best”?  

Your body needs time to rest. I hate to break it to you. 

Just more stuff to do. 

There is a risk to going against the male version of productivity and following the approach that actually aligns with your hormones. 

In practice, it can feel like a lot of extra work.

It can feel like on top of having to worry about remembering pads on the right days, you also have to remember to eat sweet potatoes during your luteal phase (which requires you to both know when you are in the luteal phase and also remember to buy sweet potatoes), and cram all your high-energy, difficult tasks into the teensy window in which you ovulate.

Ah, the trials and tribulations of the “productive” life. 

Alas, the absolute last thing a busy woman needs in her life is an even longer to-do list.

(God bless her Notes app- we know it contains multitudes.)

No Woman Is An Island

The biggest myth the productivity world perpetuates is that success is merely a product of individual effort, when really successful people have dozens of supporters, mentors, friends, partners, and kind strangers behind them.

Rewriting the rules to being your most productive self is a big ask. So let’s start small. After all, productivity isn’t a competition.

You get to ask for help, lean on your community, and take one step at a time.

Thought To Action 

1. Draw Your Connection Map: Write down five people or communities—old friends, classmates, mentors—you’d like to reconnect with or better understand. Choose one and take a small step (message, coffee invite, honest hello).
2. Practice a Micro Habit: Pick something meaningful you stopped doing (writing, hiking, reading quietly). Commit to just five minutes a day — it’s the momentum that matters.
3. Turn Discomfort Into Question Curiosity: Instead of “Why did I fail?”, ask “What did this effort teach me about what matters?”.
4. Document Your Slow Wins: Keep a tiny journal of weekly wins — not outcomes, but efforts that felt worth doing (like choosing mindful reading over passive scrolling). Let this remind you how small actions accumulate meaning.
5. End With Gratitude + Intention: Close your reflection session with gratitude for the effort you showed, then set a gentle intention for the coming week.

Sources 

Here are some of the sources I used to develop the ideas I write about in this post. Three of them are books I have read in the past few years, which I revisited for this week. I highly recommend them all!

• Caroline Criado Perez – Invisible Women
• Matthew Walker – Why We Sleep
• Malcolm Gladwell – Outliers

Citation: 

Brambilla, Donald J., et al. “The Effect of Diurnal Variation on Clinical Measurement of Serum Testosterone and Other Sex Hormone Levels in Men.” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 94, no. 3, 1 Mar. 2009, pp. 907–913, https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2008-1902. Accessed 10 Jan. 2022.

Criado Perez, Caroline. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. S.L., Harry N Abrams, 7 Mar. 2019.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York, Back Bay Books, 18 Nov. 2008.Walker, Matthew P. Why We Sleep : The New Science of Sleep and Dreams. 2017. UK, Penguin Books, 2017.

The post The Controversial Secrets Of Productive Women appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Doubt never announces itself with loud footsteps or broken doors; it slips quietly into the room, carrying the dust of old memories, unfinished healing, and fears you believed you’d already outgrown. It knows precisely where you’re tender, exactly where to press, and how to make you question the very ground you stand on.” – Cyndi Stuart

When you’re a kid, you can be anything.

When you’re five, it’s cute if you want to be a doctor, artist, mom, Arctic explorer, and rock star. It’s one for each weekday, and then you can take the weekends off, right? 

All it takes to make new friends is to show them what you just pulled out of your nose.

It’s okay to say things like “I don’t know”, or to change your mind. One day, you can want to be a Michelin chef, and another day, an astronaut. 

You have freedom, encouragement, and options in abundance. 

In fact, when I was still in pre-adolescence, I remember feeling the same way. 

And why not?

I loved to write stories, put on plays with my cousins, tend to my own little garden after school, and “rescue” bugs that had fallen into my grandparents’ swimming pool.

Enter: the corruption of adolescence. 

Then something happened, and I suppose it happened gradually. 

As I started to move from my pre-teen middle school years into high school, people started to ask the “what do you want to do when you grow up” question a lot more seriously. 

Now, it wasn’t cute to have five answers. It was actually an existential problem. 

Now, I had to choose classes. I had to write college applications that indicated my future plans. Most intimidatingly, I had to have an answer for everyone who asked me these questions. 

Oh, and if the honest answer was “I don’t know”? You better believe I was about to have an entire audiobook’s-worth of unsolicited advice dumped on my already-overwhelmed head. 

The overwhelm made me shrink.

I have no problem now diagnosing my seventeen-year-old self as a diehard people-pleaser. 

Ultimately, my grades were fine (and actually kinda good if I do say so myself), but I was still afraid I had fundamentally not done enough over the years. After all, I hadn’t cured cancer, gone to the moon, or the like. 

I was struggling with making big decisions. So the pressure of “reality” forced me into feeling like everything must have its justification in my life. 

Why was I studying?

To get good grades so high-ranking schools would accept me. 

Why was I pursuing X extracurricular?

Because “clever students” pursue it, and I need to show I’m one of them. 

Et cetera, and so on. 

I asked the “why” question about creative writing too. However, for this thing that had been a passion since I was a mere pipsqueak, my justification was too weak. 

“Because it’s what lights my soul on fire and cures all my heartaches” wouldn’t cut it for the college essays. 

Well… that was stupid.

Ever since I was a little kid writing stories about my grandmother’s dog and tending to the plants in my garden, I was an artist. 

There are no “if”s or “but”s about it. 

It’s who I was at my very core, and for some reason, I sought to deny it so I could turn myself into someone I thought the rest of the world wanted. 

What I thought I should be is still unclear, but it mostly involved not doing the things I actually liked because I thought the friction of pursuing things that didn’t “set my soul on fire” would somehow make me more worthy of success. 

#1: Choosing to suffer didn’t make me more worthy.

Since that time in my life, I have been on the slow, humbling path of creative recovery, gradually growing back what I tried to squash during those years with the help of figures like Rick Rubin(The Creative Act: A Way Of Being) and Julia Cameron(The Artist’s Way), and learning so much about myself in the process. 

The biggest lesson for me, however, has been to stop choosing suffering for suffering’s sake. 

With some introspection and willingness to explore different options, it’s entirely possible (some might even say inevitable), to eventually stumble upon that much-coveted ikigai. That is, you will find the convergence of what you love, what the world needs, what you can be paid for, and what you’re good at. 

#2: Listen to your jealousy.

Now, this path was not paved with good intentions I’m sorry to say. 

In fact, a lot of times, I find change is fueled by feelings like anger and jealousy, which tell us “something is missing here”, and “they have what I’m missing”. 

Being an artist is really about how you live your life, and prioritizing creativity regularly. 

If you find yourself jealous over the extent to which others are able to publicly express themselves creatively, or jealous because they actually have creative projects they’re working on, then maybe you should start working on something too. 

Your jealousy is telling you what you want your life to look like. 

Listen. 

#3: There doesn’t have to be a “point” for you to start exploring.

Of all the best things that have happened in my life, few emerged from a clear “plan”, in which there was a predetermined “reason” for every minute spent. 

In fact, I think that kind of spontaneity is part of what makes life beautiful. 

“Wanting” to write a short story, “wanting” to wear your clothes differently, “wanting” to try a new recipe, “wanting” to listen to a new genre of music, and even “wanting” to try out a life in which you are an artist is enough. 

It doesn’t always have to be about how much money you will make doing it, or how “aesthetic” it will look on your Instagram story. 

Do it because you want to. Wanting to is enough. 

The Courage To Be Like A Kid Again

There is a quote attributed to Deepak Chopra that goes, “The most creative act you will ever undertake is the act of creating yourself.” 

It means that to be an artist, you also have to live like one, and apply that creativity to embodying the identity of who you want to be. 

For me, that has meant tuning into those expansive, hopeful dreams of Little Me, and asking, “Wait…how can I make her excited about the life I’m building?”

In doing just that, I have been pleasantly surprised to find that a life of a scientist-artist-author-explorer actually is possible for me. 

In fact, it’s a lot more accessible than I once imagined. 

Thought To Action 

1. Pause and Write Your “Failure Archive”: List three things you tried that didn’t go as planned this year. Don’t fix them. Instead, just name them and how they made you feel.
2. Reframe Effort as Evidence: Track one kind of effort for two weeks (reading time, daily creative minutes, meaningful talks). Let the action be the metric, not just the outcome.
3. Create a “Growth Pause”: Pick one thing you’ll do less of (doomscrolling, chores as avoidance). Put a boundary around it and note what space that creates for something nourishing. 
4. Rediscover Joy in the Small and Slow: Read one short piece of writing without pressure—no speed goals, no expectations.
5. Set One “Next Try Intent”: Choose one thing from your failure archive and decide a small, doable step you’ll try next quarter — no perfection, just continuation.

Sources 

No external sources were used for this post. 

The post How To Stop Asking For Permission To Be An Artist appeared first on Green Also Green.

 “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

The Duality Of Failure & Success.

Isn’t it interesting to think about how many things we have failed at versus where we have succeeded? 

Maybe it’s a cliché that the list of where we failed is almost always longer than where we succeeded. 

The rub, though, is supposed to be that failure is the other side of success- the yin and yang cosmic duality of accomplishment. 

…Also, it’s what you say to make the person “failing” feel better.

Mixed Feelings

But it’s not as simple as that every time. 

At least, not in my life. 

Overall, 2025 was a pretty good year for me. 

It was the year I turned 20, the year I read more books (for more hours) than any other year of my life, the year I got to come live in Japan, the year I climbed tall mountains and dove into oceans, and a year full of learning about myself (insert here “glow-up”, sparkling emoji, and green juices). 

Well… actually, by “learning about myself”, I mean bucketloads of tears, doubting if/why I was behind all my peers in every domain of life, wondering why I wasn’t proactive enough to get an internship, wondering if I really have what it takes to be a good leader, wondering why the people who have ghosted me ghosted me, etc. 

You get the idea. 

It has been, in a lot of ways, a year full of failure- and not the failure of motivational speeches. 

I’m talking about the unaesthetic, don’t-send-that-picture-to-ANYBODY kind of failure. 

But you know what?

Facing The Inevitable

Today I want to honor where I failed, where I fell short, and where I lost. 

Not to pressure you into “doing something” with your own failures, but just to highlight and underline one very underrated message as we step into the new year: failure is part of it. 

Your plans will change and people will disappoint you. 

Sometimes the person disappointing you will be yourself. 

You will take too long to answer someone’s text message. 

Maybe you will not give enough effort to something you care about. 

You will feel like gum on the bottom of someone’s shoe. 

You will miss a few workouts and get rejected from a long list of jobs, internships, opportunities, romantic prospects, and potential mentors.

Continue on nevertheless. 

#1: I failed at getting a summer internship.

Throughout my freshman year, I took for granted that whatever I did over the summer would be inevitably impressive, resume-boosting work that would pay me handsome sums of money which I would then put to use in some equally braggadocious, but deliberately subtle way. 

It would be all “this summer I interned at Tesla designing cars that run on discarded paper napkins and emit rainbows instead of smoke”, or “this summer I launched a startup and raised $1 million in VC rounds”. 

Otherwise, I guess I kind of hoped to conduct a breath-taking 4 months of scientific research that would warrant a Nobel Peace prize. 

Okay, okay, let’s be realistic. 

Perhaps I could at least write the next great American novel?

(Deep, wistful sigh.)

I’ll skip ahead to the end of the summer, in which none of those lofty fantasies transpired. 

Meanwhile, I got to scroll through LinkedIn and see that many of my peers had accomplished internships of their own. 

Social media being the insecurity-laser that it is, that felt awful, no matter what I did do (like knit a scarf for my dog!).

#2: I failed at reading 500 hours.

A year ago, at the start of 2025, I set a goal to read 500 hours by the end of the year. 

It seemed like a nice, round number- a big number divisible by 5, but I wanted to see if I could do it. 

In the end, did I?

Well, the short answer is no. 

The long answer is that while I failed at achieving my 500 hours, working towards it led me to read more in 2025 than I have in any year before that, totaling 297 hours for the entire year (not counting mandatory reading for school!), which averages to about 49 minutes a day.

So was it a win? Yes. 

Did I fail? Also yes.

#3: I failed in some of my relationships.

This year, I lost some people who were very dear to me, some who ghosted me suddenly without explanation, and some who drifted away gradually.

It wasn’t always my choice, and I’m certainly not unscathed by the loss of the people I care about. 

Good years, important years, I learned, are still peppered with expired relationships. 

Why? 

Because part of growth is sometimes growing apart…and as much as it hurts, that’s okay. 

As your Pinterest board would probably tell you, every ending is also a new beginning, so maybe the failure of one relationship opens us up to the success of a new one. 

Perhaps it will even open you up to a better relationship with yourself. 

#4: I failed in my fitness goals.

I moved to Japan in August of this year as part of a study abroad program with Minerva University, and I was thrilled. 

Before this year, I’d never stepped foot in Asia, and so much about living in Japan for an entire academic year would be new territory. 

So far, I have had a lot of twists and turns along the journey, from unearthing the soul-warming power of a big bowl of ramen at 3am in downtown Tokyo, to running away from city deer in Nara (terrifying, in case you were wondering). 

I have learnt how to say essential phrases like “I have no money” and “Your dog is cute” in Japanese, and have thrifted with greater thriftiness than ever before (trench coat skirt for $3, anyone?).

But on top of these unexpected wins, there has been kind of an unfortunate loss- my gym membership. 

Is it unfortunate that not having budget-friendly gym options comes at the same time as me eating more ramen and rice balls than at any other point in my life?

Yes. 

Have I categorically failed at the fitness goals I set out for myself?

Mostly. 

I tried replacing a gym membership with resistance bands and a yoga mat in my room, plus a 30 day run-everyday challenge, which went fairly well. 

Still, it just wasn’t the same. 

It worked out sometimes, but I got busy and didn’t develop a good routine around it. What I miss is actually going to the gym and doing strength training.

So, in the end, it was a fail.

How I’m Accounting For Failure In My 2026 Goals

Even at the end of a good year, there will be a list of things you failed at, things you could have done better but didn’t. 

So let’s stop letting it surprise us. 

The New Approach

In 2026, I’ll be doing a few things differently. Here are the 2 main changes, and why I chose them:

#1: Designing my environment to make failure less likely. In 2026, I’m going to make a few small, one-time changes in my environment which will hopefully reap me many benefits. 

For example, one of my goals for this year is to cut my screentime on my phone in half. (I did the terrifying mortality-math, and even three hours a day on my phone is just under ⅛ of my entire life, and that’s a little too much for me.) 

One of the easy ways to make my environment reinforce this is by setting app limits for those addictive online comfort blankets like YouTube shorts. 

I have that in place, and get the obnoxious “you’ve run out of your daily allotment of doomscrolling” hourglass once I have passed the limit. 

Another killer of any enthusiasm I might’ve had for my phone is to set it to greyscale. It’s torture for my eyeballs, but it makes me want to go out and enjoy the fresh air. 

#2: Keeping score. Codie Sanchez talks about this on her Big Deal podcast. Confidence doesn’t come from dopamine, she says. Instead, it comes from data. 

In 2025, I did not take tracking to the psychopathic level I should have, but when I did track, such as when I tracked my spending, how many hours I read each week, or even doing time audits of my day, I actually felt motivated and did better at whatever I was aiming for.

This year I’m taking it to the next level. There will be spreadsheets, and sums, and quarterly targets, and you better believe it will be both scary and rewarding by the end. 

And guess what?

In 2026, I hope to fail even more!

Thought To Action 

1. Run a Failure Audit: Write down where you fell short this year without reframing it. No silver linings. Just facts. Clarity is kinder than denial.
2. Lower the Cost of Trying Again: Change one thing in your environment that makes repeating the effort easier—fewer clicks, fewer steps, fewer excuses.
3. Keep a “Proof Log”: Track effort instead of outcomes for one month. Pages read. Applications sent. Workouts attempted. Confidence grows from receipts.
4. Practice Uneven Accounting: Let success and failure coexist on the same page. Growth is not tidy, linear, or polite.
5. Continue Without Restarting: When you miss a day, don’t reset the goal. Resume. Momentum is built by continuation, not perfection.

Sources 

No external sources were used for this post. 

The post I’m Glad I Failed More Than Ever Before In 2025 appeared first on Green Also Green.

“The mountains are calling and I must go.”

– John Muir

Add me to the group chat!

I wasn’t thinking about resilience, or how to grow from discomfort when I got on my catch-up call with my buddy Noku in July. 

What I had on my mind was more along the lines of how I was excited to tell him my Service Industry Horror Stories after spending some time waitressing in a restaurant in town. 

They were the “my feet hurt so much” variety, and the “you won’t believe the delicious meal this one customer sent back to the kitchen” type.

What happened next catalyzed an even bigger, even crazier adventure that my feet appreciated significantly less.

I talked to him about some of my summer passion projects, and how they were progressing, as he listened patiently, asking enthusiastic questions. 

But then, with classic nonchalance, he mentioned his plans to summit Mt. Fuji, explaining how the huts were almost fully booked, who he was planning to do it with, and all the incredible details. 

I had to stop him right there, because the radar we all have inside that God gave us to detect cool opportunities was going off like a fire alarm. 

Mount Fuji. 

Yes, the Japanese mountain. The big one. That one you see on postcards and in dusty geology textbooks. 

That one. 

“Is there room for me to come too?”

“Yes,” he said. “But you have to book your overnight hut like now, because they’re almost fully booked.”

So I did. 

That was still mid-July, and there were somehow only 8 huts left for a stay at the beginning of September. 

So I got my reservation, and he added me to the group chat.

The stars had aligned. I was going to climb Mt. Fuji. 

How to start climbing. 

There is nothing like walking uphill for an hour only to pull out your crumpled trail map and see that you have several more hours (and meters of elevation) yet to go until you can stop at a hut to sleep. 

The start of the climb is like this: You don’t want to ask how far you’ve gone because you know it will not be very much. 

You want to eat another snack, but know you should save some for farther up. 

The mood is still pretty good, but you keep getting stark reminders of how little cardio you have done lately.

The question on everyone’s minds is “Are we really gonna do this?”

Well, let’s keep walking and find out. Because really, at the start of the climb, that is all that you have to concern yourself with: putting one foot in front of the other and continuing along the trail.

How to take breaks.

You pause, catch your breath with cool nonchalance. 

“Let’s wait a second for SoAndSo to catch up,” you advise the members of your group who are part mountain goat with a false sense of charity. 

In reality, your main motivation for stopping is that your lungs feel like deflating balloons and your lower back is making you wish you packed a little lighter. 

At the start of the climb, it feels lame to “need” a break. 

Eventually though, after enough communal huffing and puffing, ego is put to one side. 

Take the breaks. Eat the snacks. Stop to keep the group together. 

We came to realize it was never a race to the top. In fact, we were all the last person at one point or another, as were we all out of breath every few minutes. 

My reasons for climbing Mt. Fuji were not to break some mountaineering record. It was about creating meaningful lifelong memories with my friends; about empowerment; and about adventure.

Taking generous breaks along the way up facilitated all of these aims, and made the climb not only more fun, but more accessible. 

How to sing on the way up.

When you get close to the summit is when it gets steep, rocky, and unforgivingly cold. At that point, you’re absolutely exhausted, and the clouds are obscuring you from even being able to identify exactly how much climb you have left. 

Dreary and bleak, you say?

Well, it depends on the soundtrack. 

In addition to the faithful konbini snacks and layers of warm clothing, we were well-prepared with a fair supply of theater kids as well. 

I’m talking, say the name “Eliza”, and for the next half an hour, listen to every song in Hamilton as your nose turns into a popsicle. 

We sang and we sang, and when we weren’t singing, we listened to others in the group sing. 

It’s one of my fondest memories from the hike up, and honestly? It taught me that just about anything difficult is made that much more joyful if you just burst into song. 

How to wake up early for the sunrise.

I have always regarded those who willingly wake up at the crack of dawn with a fair dose of suspicion. 

Typically, I assume if they do it willingly, they are somewhat masochistic and potentially antisocial. Now though, I accept that there is a new possibility: early-risers are in love with the sky. 

We woke up at the crack of dawn to continue climbing, and we stopped near the 8th station to eat breakfast while watching the sunset. 

It was, in a word, sublime. 

The flaming oranges, blushing pinks and impressionist feathery clouds all came together into this one scene that all at once felt both staggering and life-affirming. 

Sometimes, I noted, waking up early is actually worth it.

How to stop to take pictures.

Much like I regard those who willingly wake up at 4am with suspicion, I also feel suspicious of people who take too many pictures of their food, vacations, or selves.

Why? 

Because moments should not be defined by how they look in your camera roll, but rather, how they make you feel, and the person they turn you into. 

So generally speaking, my stance is “put your phone away, for crying out loud”.

However, I must admit, in some select circumstances the act of taking a picture also does something else. 

Along the hike, taking photos of my journey was a way to reiterate to myself “this is a moment I want to treasure”, and then I captured it, not only with the click of my phone, but also a mental click that said “I want to hold this moment in time forever”. 

So I did.

Keep adventuring.

After climbing Mt. Fuji, my bucket list only got bigger. 

As soon as I got home, I wondered what other mountains there were to climb (besides Mt. Everest). 

I wanted to climb them all. 

It’s the strange thing about embracing adventure: no matter how much your feet hurt while you do it, you are hungry to do it even more the second it’s over. 

Thought To Action 

1. Map the Impossible: Write down three “too big” ideas you’d pursue if fear, money, or skill weren’t limits. Circle one. Start with the smallest visible step.
2. Use Tech Intentionally: Schedule a daily “digital audit”—10 minutes to check what tools you actually use to create versus to consume. (See this guide to mindful tech habits).
3. Build an Independent Study Track: Pick a theme you want to master this year (creativity, AI, storytelling) and design your own syllabus—books, podcasts, projects, mentors.
4. Pair Reading with Doing: For every chapter you read, add one experiment to test the idea in real life.
5. Reflect in Reverse: Once a week, ask: “What did I not do because I underestimated myself?”—then do one of those things, badly but bravely.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post Climbing Mount Fuji Was Uncomfortable—and That’s Where the Growth Happened appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Go as far as you can see, when you get there you’ll be able to see further.” -Thomas Carlyle

Here Are Your Options.

When you’re an interdisciplinary misfit, there are a few piercing milestones you inevitably experience as you fumble through the standard list of options.

There’s the class selection when you’re in high school and college(“Take math- it keeps the most doors open”). 

Then there’s the “You like science? Have you considered medicine?”, and if that doesn’t suit you, please consider engineering. 

If you’re literary and philosophical, your well-intentioned loved ones will push you towards law school.

Anything else? We will cram you into corporate life (product manager, anyone?). 

Now, don’t get me wrong. These are all fulfilling careers, if you actually choose them. 

But most of us don’t. 

We think “these are the options if I don’t want to be destitute”, and then we meander along, somewhat aimlessly, thinking we made the best decision we could. 

Careers For Interdisciplinary Misfits

I think you know where I’m going with this…

It’s all a big lie!!

The career world is full of options, and, much like dating, a lot of settling on the right career comes down to actually knowing there is something out there that will fit you perfectly. 

So today I’m talking to the person who has decided to explore, experiment, and find something that actually resonates. 

I’m talking to the interdisciplinary misfit who is committed to honoring the divine gifts within them. 

I’m talking to the person who wants to live without being tethered to a single arbitrary job description. 

…And not just because it makes life more fun, but also because when you step into your unique superpowers, you are even more equipped to make the world a better place. 

So let’s get started!

How To Go Through The List Of 75 Interdisciplinary Jobs

As you go through this list, I want you to read with intention and use it as an opportunity to reflect on what really speaks to you. 

Even if you find nothing that makes you want to change your trajectory, the jobs that tug at your heart could still provide a useful insight into ways you can live more in alignment with your own interests and gifts. 

To help you with this, I put together the following questions, which you can consider as you go down the list:

1. Would I enjoy this even if no one thought it was “impressive”?
2. What skills would I be excited to practice for years?
3. Do I enjoy working with people, systems, materials, or ideas?
4. Would I rather work independently or collaboratively?
5. Do I want a job that changes daily or one with routine?
6. Am I motivated by care, creativity, justice, sustainability, or discovery?
7. Would I enjoy being a lifelong learner in this field?
8. Am I okay with freelance, project-based, or emerging roles?
9. Does this career reflect who I am now—or who I want to grow into?

#1-15: Interdisciplinary Jobs In Science + Art + Design

Using scientific knowledge to create aesthetic, expressive, or experiential works.

#1: Bio-Artist: Uses living materials like bacteria or plants to create art that explores biotechnology and ethics. 

#2: Scientific Illustrator: Combines biology and art to produce accurate yet beautiful depictions of scientific phenomena.

#3: Solar Infrastructure Artist: Integrates solar panels into aesthetically pleasing public art.

#4: Sound Ecologist: Records and analyzes natural soundscapes to monitor ecosystems or create immersive experiences.

#5: Biomechanical Artist: Creates wearable or kinetic sculptures that move with the human body.

#6: Sensory Designer: Designs multisensory experiences combining neuroscience, design, and storytelling.

#7: Perfumer (Nose): Blends scents scientifically to craft perfumes and fragrances.

#8: Moss Gardener: Designs and maintains living installations made entirely of moss.

#9: Mosaic Artist: Creates art using stone, glass, or ceramics in complex designs.

#10: Color Consultant: Advises on color choices that influence mood and perception.

#11: Miniature Artist: Builds intricate, small-scale worlds for collectors or museums.

#12: Calligrapher: Turns handwriting into fine art and custom lettering.

#13: Robotic Performer: Uses robots as collaborators in live theater or dance.

#14: Algorithmic Musician: Composes generative music using code and machine learning.

#15: Interactive Installation Engineer: Builds art installations that respond to human presence or movement.

#16-29: Interdisciplinary Jobs In Technology + Psychology + Human Experience

Designing digital or physical systems centered on cognition, emotion, and behavior.

#16: UX Neuroscientist: Studies the brain’s response to digital interfaces to optimize user experience.

#17: Voice UX Designer: Merges linguistics and tech to make voice assistants sound more natural and empathetic.

#18: AI Companion Developer: Creates emotionally intelligent digital entities for support or companionship.

#19: Death Doula: Provides emotional and spiritual support to the dying and their families.

#20: Poetry Therapist: Uses poetry and creative writing for healing and self-expression.

#21: Adventure Therapist: Uses outdoor activities like climbing or rafting to support mental health.

#22: Virtual Reality Therapist: Uses VR environments to treat phobias, PTSD, or chronic pain.

#23: Dance Therapist – Uses movement and dance as therapeutic tools to support emotional, physical, and mental health, blending psychology with creative expression.

#24: Professional Cuddler– Offers platonic, consent-based physical comfort to clients, focusing on emotional support, boundaries, and stress reduction. (This is not prostitution, I promise.)

#25: Interactive Narrative Designer: Creates branching storylines for games, apps, and VR experiences.

#26: Cognitive Ergonomist: Designs systems and tools that align with human mental processes.

#27: Gamification Designer: Blends psychology and game design to make education, health, or work more engaging.

#28: Dream Research Technologist: Develops tools to study, record, or influence dreams.

#29: Animal-Assisted Therapist – Uses animals like horses or dogs to aid emotional healing.

#30-45: Interdisciplinary Jobs In Biology + Environment + Sustainability

Working with living systems, ecology, food, and sustainable futures.

#30: Waste Material Innovator: Develops new products or art from industrial or biological waste.

#31: Space Botanist: Studies how to grow plants in extraterrestrial environments.

#32: Lavender Farmer: Cultivates and harvests lavender, managing soil, climate, and distillation processes to produce essential oils, dried flowers, and wellness products.

#33: Avian Trainer – Trains birds of prey, parrots, zoo birds.

#34: Coral Gardener: Restores damaged coral reefs through underwater planting.

#35: Genetic Counselor for Pets: Helps pet owners understand their animals’ DNA and inherited traits.

#36: Urban Wildlife Manager: Balances city design with ecological needs of urban animals.

#37: Eco-Fashion Designer: Merges materials science with fashion design to create biodegradable or upcycled clothing from innovative new fabrics such as mycelium or seaweed. 

#38: Animal Behavior Consultant: Helps owners or zoos understand and correct animal behavior.

#39: Bee Sommelier: Tastes and classifies honey based on floral sources and terroir.

#40: Charcoal Maker – Produces charcoal by carefully burning wood in low-oxygen conditions, balancing traditional techniques with modern quality control for fuel, art, or filtration uses.

#41: Microbial Fuel Technologist – Develops energy systems powered by bacteria.

#42: Foraging Guide – Teaches people to safely identify and harvest wild edible plants.

#43: Insect Farm Operator – sustainable protein, science meets agriculture.

#44: Volcanic Tour Guide – Leads scientific and adventure tours around active volcanoes.

#45: Citizen Science Coordinator – Connects scientists and the public to collaborate on large-scale research.

#46-58: Interdisciplinary Jobs In Technology + Culture + History

Preserving, studying, or reinterpreting human culture using modern tools.

#46: Meme Archivist: Studies and preserves internet memes as cultural artifacts.

#47: Food Historian: Recreates ancient recipes or explore cultural food evolution.

#48: Deep-Sea Archaeologist: Explores and documents submerged ancient sites.

#49: Glacier Archaeologist: Studies artifacts and bodies emerging from melting ice.

#50: Art Conservator: Restores and preserves paintings, manuscripts, and artifacts.

#51: Bookbinder: Creates or restores hand-bound books using traditional techniques.

#52: Papermaker: Crafts handmade paper using natural fibers and ancient methods.

#53: Digital Heritage Conservator: Uses VR, AR, and 3D scanning to preserve historical sites.

#54: Digital Anthropologist: Studies how humans behave and form cultures in online spaces.

#55: Restoration Mason: Rebuilds historic stone structures and sculptures.

#56: Cultural Festival Curator: Designs festivals that showcase folk traditions, art, and cuisine.

#57: Historical Reenactor: Performs in period attire to educate about historical events.

#58: Travel Ethnographer: Documents disappearing cultural practices and rituals.

#59-75: Interdisciplinary Jobs In Engineering + Performance + Applied Craft

Hands-on, technical roles blending making, engineering, and live or applied contexts.

#59: Kinetic Architect – Designs buildings or sculptures that move or adapt dynamically.

#60: Tea Blender – Crafts custom tea blends by balancing aroma, taste, and culture.

#61: Cheese Affineur – Ages and perfects cheeses for optimal texture and flavor.

#62: Space Architect – Designs habitats for astronauts on the Moon, Mars, or orbital stations.

#63: Pet Food Taster: Assesses pet food for smell, texture, and appearance (and sometimes taste), ensuring products meet quality, safety, and palatability standards for animals.

#64: Scientific Research Subject: Participates in controlled studies by following research protocols, helping scientists gather data on health, behavior, cognition, or technology.

#65: Taste Tester: Samples food and beverages to evaluate flavor, texture, aroma, and quality, often providing detailed feedback to improve recipes or ensure safety standards.

#66: Tactile Storyteller: Designs narratives through textures and materials for visually impaired audiences.

#67: 3D Food Printing Engineer: Uses engineering and culinary art to print edible creations layer by layer.

#68: Wearable Tech Designer: Integrates sensors and electronics into fashion and performance art.

#69: Special Effects Makeup Artist – Applies a blend of chemistry, sculpture, and design to do make up for characters on movie sets and theme parks.

#70: Set Builder for Film/TV – Applies carpentry + design + problem-solving to build sets for film and TV.

#71: Voice Actor Specializing in Unusual Roles – Acts as the voice for creatures, ASMR, and characters in TV and film.

#72: Theme Park Prop Technician – Maintains animatronics, costumes, effects.

#73: Cryogenic Engineer – Designs systems for storing and preserving biological or space materials at ultra-low temps.

#74: Forensic Botanist – Solves crimes using plant evidence like pollen or leaf fragments.

#75: Dialect Coach – Trains actors or speakers in authentic accents and regional speech.

Interdisciplinary Experiment, Interdisciplinary Experiment, Interdisciplinary Experiment.

No matter what this list made you feel, there is one clear next step: experiment. 

When putting it together, I found myself tempted by many potential rabbit holes.

From kinetic architecture to scientific illustration, I kind of got a bit lost, both excited and overwhelmed by the potential. 

Can’t I just do them all? I wondered. 

Actually, yes. 

Take one, and test your initial interest in a small, noncommittal way. Watch a video. Read a book. Listen to a podcast. 

If you’re still interested, consider taking a free online course or doing a short video chat with someone in that field. 

At every stage, you are testing your interest at a slightly higher level, until you get it right. 

Yes, you can test out as many career ideas as you want, and yes, you can also press “reset” whenever you feel like it. 

Remember, you’re in the driver’s seat here.

So go ahead…make the list of things you want to try, and watch the answers you’ve been looking for finally unfold.

Thought To Action 

1. Map the Impossible: Write down three “too big” ideas you’d pursue if fear, money, or skill weren’t limits. Circle one. Start with the smallest visible step.
2. Use Tech Intentionally: Schedule a daily “digital audit”—10 minutes to check what tools you actually use to create versus to consume. (See this guide to mindful tech habits).
3. Build an Independent Study Track: Pick a theme you want to master this year (creativity, AI, storytelling) and design your own syllabus—books, podcasts, projects, mentors.
4. Pair Reading with Doing: For every chapter you read, add one experiment to test the idea in real life.
5. Reflect in Reverse: Once a week, ask: “What did I not do because I underestimated myself?”—then do one of those things, badly but bravely.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post 75 Weird But Cool Interdisciplinary Careers No One Told You Existed appeared first on Green Also Green.