“Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being.”

– Eckhart Tolle

Insights From Mt. Takao

Of all the weird natural systems on the planet, I thought I was over mushrooms. I really did.

Turns out though, we’re back in love. And yes, today I will subject you to that obsession. 

On a strictly academic mission, I climbed Mt. Takao, and got to have a lot of fun drawing different geological features and eating sweet treats (it’s a hard life, I know). 

From that trip- one of the best homework assignments I have ever had to do- I gained some random insights, as many silly backpackers do when swearing off mainstream society and disappearing into the woods.

If you’re wondering about the deep theme of these insights, don’t bother, because there isn’t one.

Rather, I decided to draw from my favorite moment on the trip: the oyster mushroom. 

Me sitting on the forest floor, drawing a mushroom

#1: Systems thinking

It was when I started to see mushrooms cropping up everywhere, and eventually sat on the cool shaded forest floor to draw a few by hand, that it really struck me: this cute little mushroom, right here before me in its dark non-plant-non-animal glory, was part of a huge planetary system that made the perfect conditions for it to end up before me. 

I mean, stop and think about this: mushrooms require particular soil conditions, particular temperatures and moisture, and it’s even larger systems that manufacture these conditions. 

You can zoom out and zoom in, and on all different scales, you can explain the simple presence of a mushroom on the ground. 

Then I thought about it some more, crouched there as one with the little white oyster mushroom, and felt it was a tragedy that when we think about the world around us, it’s often easy to forget about the systems things are made up of. 

Be a systems thinker. 

So what is there to do? 

Try what I did. Choose one object- an apple, an ear bud, your half-eaten sandwich…

Zoom out to the biggest force you can think of that brought that single thing to where it is now. 

Now zoom in. How was your sandwich made – from the bread to the seedling that ended up creative that tomato slice?

#2: Fast-track to replenishing creativity. 

There is nothing like a long train ride followed by a long hike to really clear your head. 

On my way to Mt. Takao, I enjoyed this uninterrupted hour of time on my Kindle, reading about plant leaves and atmospheric gases in David Beerling’s Emerald Planet as my friends napped in their seats. 

It was peaceful, quiet, and I got to let my mind wander along different trains of thought. 

On the trail, it was the same. 

I marveled at the trees, stopping every five steps to take yet another photo of a ravine, towering cedar tree, or translucent spider web. 

But, once again, I had hours upon hours of time to just think. 

No music, no notifications, no to-do list besides keep watching until you reach the top. 

By the time I got back to Tokyo though, I had several new notes on various projects, random tangents, and interesting questions to look up when I got home. 

Make time to think uninterrupted. 

One of the best systems, I realized, to create emptiness in which to nurture the baby seedlings of your creative garden, is to do something where the emptiness is a natural byproduct. 

Hiking is like that. Showering is like that. Reading is like that. Sometimes, even household chores are like that. 

When you do something where you mind can detach from the nagging expectations of a looming Google Calendar block, your creativity will step in and have a play. 

There are probably already tasks like that for you, and you might not even notice it. 

Next time, pay attention as your mind wanders. Savor the creative play. 

#3: Nature is therapy. 

In the deep cavernous well that is my camera roll, there lies a meme. 

On one side is a gray-skinned, sleep-deprived cartoon with bags under their eyes, asking Jesus, “Is this it? Is this the hardest test you have for me?” Jesus replies, “You literally just have to put your phone down and go outside.”

It’s funny, but accurate. 

Why are we always surprised that when we hide from the sun and spend twelve hours a day in front of a screen, we also happen to feel miserable and depressed?

Truth be told, humans weren’t designed to stare at screens. We were made to hike through forests, draw tiny mushrooms, and gaze in wonder at a deep green range of mountains. It’s what humans have been doing for millions of years. 

Nonetheless, I am still impressed at just how rejuvenating it feels to have a day outside, my phone tucked away at the bottom of my backpack, where the Notification Bird can’t get to me. 

Put down your phone and go outside. 

It’s hard to get away from screens- whether it’s your phone, or the laptop where you work all day. 

Still it’s worth making a deliberate effort, because your stress, worry, and constant existential dread will melt away. 

To make it more fun, take someone adventuring with you. Make it fun and easy. Bring a notepad. 

Maybe, like me, you will end up crouched in front of a mushroom, amazed at the multitudes it contains. 

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 3 Secrets A Mountain Mushroom Taught Me About Creative Focus, Systems Thinking & Inner Peace appeared first on Green Also Green.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford

When Nothing Looks Like Your Mood Boards

In a world of Instagram filters, ugly things are rebellious. 

I have been in an ugly war with acne since I first dipped my timid little toe into the waters of puberty. 

Since then, I have tried just about everything short of accutane- Differin, tretinoin, antibiotics, spironolactone, pimple patches, various cleansers, not eating nutritional yeast, cutting down on dairy, and, of course, plain concealer. 

So many times, I have heard well-meaning internet-people with no dermatological qualifications sell me another easy fix, as though I haven’t already cried myself to sleep and searched the entire internet seventeen times over for solutions. 

Now, it has been almost a decade of pimples and acne scars, a decade of hearing people with clear skin complain about having “breakouts” which look 10 times milder than my face has been since I was maybe ten.

But there is one thing my acne taught me all these years that made me stronger. 

I learned that my reality will never fully match my “ideal”. 

Now, I continue to struggle with acne. 

I continue to struggle with bad days, and failures, and rejection, and insecurity. 

There are days when I feel like I’m losing this big race of achieving success as early as possible. 

There are days when I feel ugly, and stupid, and absolutely worthless. 

Acne made me confront this question: What if your reality is always imperfect?

No one starts with clarity.

We like to think we start with clarity, just because we made the mood board and announced our 5-step process to achieving success. 

The truth is a little murkier. 

While it helps to plan and visualize, clarity comes mostly from action. 

#1: Share the draft anyway.

Long-term consistency > short-term perfection, so don’t wait until everything is exactly perfect!

The longer you wait, the higher the bar will get for what it takes to finally be “ready”. 

When we train ourselves to have an excuse for what we do/don’t do, we form a habit of making excuses. 

Instead, take that first wobbly step. Open up that course you keep saying you want to take. 

Send those cold emails you’ve been meaning to pitch. Knock on the doors of people who will mostly reject you. 

Make bold requests that will likely get denied. 

Ask for feedback. Have the audacity to make mistakes publicly. 

Perfectionism is just another way fear manifests to protect us from the big scary monsters hiding behind true effort. 

So to start is not just about starting; it is about having the courage to face reality head-on, and realize that you are way more capable than you thought. 

#2: Keep a list of “Bad Ideas”.

How many times do we decide not to do something just because it might not work out?

Too often. 

Don’t get me wrong- we all have ideas that if we acted on them, we would regret it later, but what if we had better practice at getting our ideas out of our head, onto a list, and maybe even into conversation with someone else?

This is not about impulse-driven decision-making; it’s about getting your ideas out without the pressure to prove they’re amazing. 

Because let’s face it: most of your ideas will not be amazing.

But if you learn how to capture them and think them through, you will make sure that the day you have a real breakthrough, it doesn’t go by like just another “shower thought” or “daydream”. 

Trust me, that day will come, and it will only be possible because you took the time to take your ideas seriously. 

#3: Ask for accountability.

One of the single biggest motivators for me to make progress in my life is, sadly, the social pressure to follow through on my commitments. 

It is the people-pleaser in me that needs everyone to think she is in control of her life and doing great. 

For most of my life, this has been a shortcoming of mine that I have sought to overcome. 

That is, until I realized it could be turned into a strength. 

What if I leveraged people-pleasing to make sure I do what I say I’m going to do?

I put this idea to the test, and found that it was golden. When I use my career coach or a group of friends to make sure I complete a task or bring a project to success, I am ten times more likely to prioritize that thing and make sure it gets done. 

As sad as it may be, we often care more about what others think of us than what we think of ourselves. Yet, often we are also the only person who can say what tasks are the highest leverage at any given point. 

So bring someone else in on the loop, promise to text them when X is done and Y is submitted. Feel the pressure to not let them down, and soon, you will find it is impossible to let yourself down as well. 

You are free.

Having acne sucks, but it means you learn to stop defining yourself by the quality of your skin. 

Likewise, when you embrace the ugly beginning of a project, or the ugly rejection when you apply to dozens of opportunities that mostly tell you ‘no’, you free yourself to stop being defined by rejection and failure. 

Even more importantly than freeing yourself, you will know yourself. 

And isn’t that the mission of a lifetime? 

Becoming who you truly are.

Thought to Action

1. Make Your “Ugly List”: Write down 5 things you’ve been too scared to start and commit to beginning one this week—ugly on purpose.
2. Create an “Ugly Drafts” Folder: Store your roughest starts and revisit weekly.
3. Try a 24-Hour Debrief: After beginning a project, come back the next day and reflect—did the cringe evolve?
4. Post Before You’re Ready: Share one in-progress idea publicly or with a friend to build momentum.
5. Talk o People In Other Fields: Use these 11 tips to start conversations with people from other fields. 

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post How To Make Peace With The Ugly Beginning appeared first on Green Also Green.

“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success.” – Nikola Tesla

Materials shape the world.

All around us are items made of different materials with different life cycles. 

No matter what though, for every material you see, there was also someone who had to decide to use that material, and had to decide how to synthesize it and assemble it into a product. 

For each and every product, there are also different additives, various dyes or preservatives, and a wide range of demands during manufacturing, whether it’s heat or water in varying quantities, or manual labor in dangerous conditions. 

Quite literally, all these materials make up the world around us. 

But that’s not all. 

They are also changing the world around us. 

Because of that, the future of materials is the future of the world.

So today, I want to celebrate some of the 4 most thrilling (but also weird) new materials that will change the way we manufacture the items all around us. 

Ready?

#1: Nanomaterials

After getting close-up experience with a UC Berkeley lab developing new nanotechnology, I have grown increasingly interested in the future of nanomaterials. 

But what is nanotechnology?

The prefix ‘nano’ refers to a billionth. So nanotechnology is tech that involves the manipulation of atoms at the scale of 1-100 nanometers. In other words, technology that requires us to rearrange atoms at 1-100 billionths of a meter. 

The field was first founded in 1959 by Richard Feynman, after a lecture called “There’s Plenty Of Room At The Bottom”. 

He suggested we could manipulate individual atoms as a more robust form of synthetic chemistry. 

It was unusual to suggest something like this at the time, but since then, research on nanotechnology has boomed.

Now, we can easily expect the future of nanotech to have applications in energy storage, medicine, and even environmental protection. 

That said, there are still plenty of research gaps yet to be filled, with research into graphene and carbon nanotubes advancing the quickest.

But as Feynman proclaimed, still “there’s plenty of room at the bottom”- for creativity, innovation, and an exciting new future of materials. 

#2: Mycelium

I’ve had my eye on mycelium-based composites for a while. 

But what even is mycelium?

If you’ve ever seen a mushroom, think of it like the rest of the mushroom’s body. In reality, the mushroom you might be imagining is only the reproductive organ of the mycelium, meant to disperse spores to new places. 

Underground, in a dead log, or wherever it is growing, the mycelial network stretches far and wide. In fact, it is even considered the largest organism on earth (!).

However the wonders don’t stop there.

Combined, the production of concrete and steel contribute to approximately 15% of our global carbon emissions. 

Already, people are using mycelium to replace both of these, which release a huge amount of carbon into the atmosphere every year. 

Furthermore, mycelium has been used in clothes, accessories, and even alternative meats. 

What’s left is to refine our production processes and explore the material properties of mycelium even more.

But who knows?

Maybe in 20 years, you will be living in a house made of mycelium bricks, wearing mycelium leather, and eating a hamburger made of mycelium and peas. 

#3: Carbon-sequestering Carbicrete 

Okay, so maybe I said some ugly things about concrete.

But let’s please talk about concrete’s precocious baby cousin: carbicrete. 

Right now, concrete is the most used substance on earth after water.

A key ingredient to concrete is cement, which emits 8% of the world’s carbon emissions. 

Enter: carbicrete. 

Carbicrete essentially allows us to make concrete without using cement, instead replacing it with steel slag as the primary binder and carbon dioxide as the activator. 

Steel slag is a by-product of the steel industry, so using it as a raw material minimizes industrial waste. 

Furthermore, using carbon dioxide as the activator removes carbon emissions from the environment and helps to mitigate climate change.

Ultimately, curing the concrete with carbon dioxide lets us sequester 1 kg of CO₂ per standard concrete block, which holds a lot of promise in the face of current emission trends.

Now just imagine what would happen if we adopted carbicrete on an even larger scale!

#4: Metamaterials

If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, I need to tell you something. 

Invisibility cloaks are real. 

And guess what?

It’s all thanks to metamaterials. 

These are artificial materials (so you can’t find them in nature) that were designed with certain properties in mind. 

Think: noise-cancelling barriers, cloaking devices, and super-lenses. In a lot of ways, these materials feel like the supernatural heroes of the material world. 

They are very much the stuff of comic books and Marvel movies!

But how will they save the planet?

So many ways!

For starters, they can help to increase energy efficiency, such as in solar panels or thermal regulation in buildings. 

Additionally, metamaterials can be used to develop lightweight and high-performance materials for applications like transportation. 

Also, they can be used for passive cooling and heating systems, water purification, and desalination. 

That said, there are still many challenges with metamaterials in terms of fabrication, design, and characterization. 

We still need to work to make them better. That goes without saying. 

But you already know, if you start to see scientists showing off real-life invisibility cloaks, that amazing things are happening. 

It’s enough to make me absolutely thrilled for the next 20 years!

Thought To Action 

1. Design a Life You’d Want to Live In: List three feelings or values (e.g., curiosity, calm, freedom) you want to feel more often. Now ask: What would a day designed around these look like?
2. Choose One Thing to Repair or Repurpose This Week: Whether it’s sewing a hole in your sock or reusing packaging in a creative way, practice seeing value where others see waste.
3. Imagine a Future Without Trash: Write a short paragraph or draw what your neighborhood would look like if nothing was disposable. What would change?
4. Audit Your Footprint (Literally): Check the label on your most-used shoes or clothes. What are they made of? Could a more sustainable material work instead?
5. Read About the Next-Gen Materials: Check out mushroom leather, mycelium bricks, or algae packaging. Explore how artists and engineers are already building that future.

Sources

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381686851_A_review_of_applications_and_future_prospects_of_nanotechnology

https://pubs.rsc.org/aa/journals/articlecollectionlanding?sercode=na&themeid=ff357ff7-0458-45f1-b224-27a11965624b&utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/does-steel-and-concrete-needed-build-renewable-energy-cancel-out-benefits

https://www.theclimategroup.org/sites/default/files/2024-09/The%20Steel%20and%20Concrete%20Transformation%20-%202024%20market%20outlook%20on%20lower%20emission%20steel%20and%20concrete.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/18/namibia-homes-built-from-mushrooms-mycohab-mycelium?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://fungalbiolbiotech.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40694-021-00128-1?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0734975025000035?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://solve.mit.edu/solutions/8782

https://news.mit.edu/2025/mapping-future-metamaterials-0327?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384601877_Metamaterials_A_Comprehensive_Review_of_Design_and_Applications

The post 4 Weird Materials That Will Save The Planet appeared first on Green Also Green.

“I want to be a superhero, I want to be Spider-Man or Batman. Will you let me know if you have any connections? Let’s make it happen.” -Stephan James

LinkedIn is not the problem.

LinkedIn is not the problem; you are. 

Now, before you un-connect with me, hear me out.

So many of us are quick to say we hate LinkedIn. We hate how transactional it is, and how the way professional experience translates into a headline often feels like a sort of strange witchcraft. 

We hate that you can say one thing and be living another, and that it always somehow feels like the person you know IRL is not the one you see online. 

It feels fake, and we all know it.

There are lies, to be sure, and there is a lot of window-dressing. I’m not here to excuse that at all. 

But beneath all that, there is something else…

Today, I want to talk to you about the opportunity of LinkedIn, and by the time you have finished reading this post, you will wonder why you never took advantage of it. 

Furthermore, you will realize that 99% of us are using LinkedIn all wrong, and that with a few small changes, it can be transformed into your secret weapon for success. 

#1: LinkedIn arithmetic. 100 real connections > 500 random connections. 

Ah, the “500+ connections”. 

At the beginning of my freshman year of college, this was the Holy Grail of humblebrags. 

What surprised me, though, was that while everyone obsessed about the number, no one seemed too fussed about the quality. 

So in the end, what happened was that most of those “500+” connections were superficial and ultimately useless. 

They were not people rooting for you to succeed. They were not mentors or people you admired. In fact, lots of times, they were not even people whose profiles you had looked at. 

It was a status symbol more than a tool, and I quickly learned that seeing LinkedIn like this was a mistake. 

Since I downloaded LinkedIn less than I year ago, I eventually got to 500+ connections, but here are a few examples of bigger wins I achieved using the app:

• 9+ months of participating in a UC Berkeley lab focused on applications of carbon nanotubes
• 2 data analysis projects with a women’s health non-profit
• Free mentoring sessions with senior women in the fields I’m passionate about
• Doubling web traffic to my blog

How did I achieve these wins?

Firstly, by changing my mindset from quantity to quality. 

I sought to talk to people, to connect, and most of all, to learn. 

#2: Don’t ask for jobs. Ask for conversations. 

I am under no illusions; in almost every skill I could have honed, I am an amateur. 

I’m only a sophomore in college. 

I’ve only been alive on this planet for 20 years. 

Despite all that, I am armed with strong curiosity and genuine interest. 

So what do I do?

I give curiosity and interest. 

When you reach out on LinkedIn as someone hoping to advance and grow, people will line up to help you. 

When you reach out coldly, asking for a favor without having given one first, people will dismiss you with no guilt. 

#3: Give value to get value. 

Successful people get dizzying amounts of solicitations on LinkedIn. They are used to other people wanting something from them. 

So don’t try to take. Instead, try to give. 

Consider inquiring about what sorts of problems they face and whether they would let you help out. 

Maybe you have familiarity with a certain technical skill, like programming, Excel, or AutoCAD. Perhaps you know someone who could help them. 

Offer value to get value. 

Open LinkedIn & Leverage These Hacks Now.

Set a timer for five minutes. 

Ready?

Okay, first, scroll through all your connections, and pick 3 people who have recently been working on projects that you genuinely find cool. 

I’m talking projects you could fangirl about, maybe even projects you would dream about being a part of one day. 

Have you chosen your people?

Now it’s time to reach out. 

Tell them you are inspired by or interested in their work (be specific!), and then ask if they would be open to a 15-minute informal chat to discuss it more. 

Don’t ask about internships. Don’t ask about job openings. 

Just a chat.  

This isn’t about getting something for yourself. More so, it’s about connecting with people who truly inspire you. 

By connecting them, you will get insights into what they did to succeed and how you can get there too. Maybe it’s a reference to someone else in the field, or some reading material to explore.

Sometimes, you will even find that they need exactly the type of help you can provide, and an opportunity does emerge from the discussion. 

If it doesn’t, though, you have at least become a high-quality contact to reach out to in the future. 

What’s to say in a month that 20-minute chat hasn’t turned into a 10-week internship, a groundbreaking realization, or even a life-changing career pivot? 

The only way you’ll know for sure is if you give it a shot and finally stop hating LinkedIn. 

Thought To Action 

1. Ask “What If” Every Day: Start or end your day by writing one bold “What if…” question. What if your shoes were edible? What if your routines were designed for joy? These questions open space for unexpected insight.
2. Do a 5-Minute Redesign Challenge: Pick an object you use daily (a water bottle, backpack, phone case) and sketch or describe how you’d redesign it to be more circular, comfortable, or creative.
3. Make Space for Creative Input: Commit to one hour a week where you absorb inspiration—watch a documentary, visit a museum, or read outside your field. Creativity is fueled by unexpected collisions.
4. Redesign Something That’s Annoying You: Find one product, system, or space in your life that bugs you—and reimagine it. You don’t have to fix it in reality, just give yourself permission to sketch possibilities.
5. Start Your Future Job Library: Curate a mini reading list around your dream career or project. Not sure where to start? This post will show you how to learn from curiosity, not credentials.

Sources

No external resources were used for this post.

The post How To Not Hate LinkedIn (And Start Building *Real* Connections) appeared first on Green Also Green.

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” -Maya Angelou

Butterfly wings are inspiring new technology.

When you picture the first whispers of spring, and the vivid colors of flowers and butterflies in your garden, perhaps your mind doesn’t first go to the study of photonics in butterfly wings.

Now, maybe, it will. 

As a big fan of biomimicry, I was excited to read this 2024 paper about bio-inspired nanostructures based on the photonic structure of butterfly wings. 

It was facilitated by interdisciplinary research and perfectly demonstrates the power of combining fields to bring new insights to tech. 

The best part is that this isn’t the only example of new tech taking inspiration from biology, and today I want to talk to you about how you can look to this same source for inspiration as well.

#1: Define the challenge. 

It’s hard to imagine how to organically translate what you see on a hike or long drive into a ground-breaking new invention. 

If we could all just look at butterfly wings, chameleon skin, anthills, or gecko feet and see new technology, we would not only have a more efficient world, but also one that is more harmonious with the social and environmental forces around us. 

But let’s start with the (seemingly) easy part: identify the challenge. 

What criteria does a potential solution need to meet?

#2: Discover nature’s strategies. 

The number of natural adaptations and weird but cool talents out in the kingdom of plants and animals (let alone fungi, archaea, bacteria, and protists) is daunting. 

How can one begin to whittle it down?

Align your constraints. 

If you are trying to create a new material that can be used in tropical climates to naturally cool indoor spaces, look to species that live in tropical climates, and research how they keep cool. 

Similarly, if you are interested in keeping warm, why not research a species that lives in the Arctic? 

And if you are interested in understanding how to synthesize materials that can manipulate light, look at butterfly wings!

Don’t narrow it down at first, but think in terms of traits- species that live in particular climates, species that can effectively digest toxins, species that hunt with a particular technique, and so on. 

Once you have honed in on some key inspirational figures in your niche of nature, go deeper. Distinguish their strategies, and think about how these approaches would carry over into your own work. 

#3: Abstract the mechanisms. 

This step is where you shift from biology to design by uncovering how the biological system works. 

Don’t just describe what the butterfly does — ask what principle makes it work. 

Focus on function, structure, and interaction with the environment.

In the case of the Morpho butterfly: The shimmering blue of its wings isn’t from pigment but from nanoscale structures that reflect specific wavelengths of light through interference. These microscopic ridges amplify or dampen certain light waves depending on the viewing angle or environmental conditions.

Abstracting that, we can say the mechanisms at play are:

• Responsive color change through microstructure manipulation, not chemical change
  
• Use of light interference to encode or reveal information
  
• Passive sensing (no energy input required)

#4: Translate into a design idea. 

Now take that principle and apply it to a problem you care about. This is where the “bio” becomes the blueprint for your invention. You’re not copying nature—you’re adapting its logic.

With the Morpho butterfly, researchers studied how its wing structures reflect specific wavelengths of light without using pigment, relying instead on nanoscale ridges that manipulate light through interference. 

The key is not to recreate the butterfly’s wing exactly, but to borrow its logic. 

Ask yourself: how could I achieve a similar effect using modern tools like 3D printing or thin-film layering? 

What problem in my domain could benefit from a responsive, low-energy, visually communicative surface? 

Begin with a rough sketch, a simple material test, or even a thought experiment. 

The most important part is taking that natural strategy and reshaping it into something new, useful, and rooted in elegant efficiency—just like nature intended.

Thought To Action 

1. Start a “Future Self” Journal: Write one page from the perspective of your dream self—what are you building, learning, wearing, prioritizing? Use this to guide daily decisions.
2. Identify Your Personal Design Criteria: What makes a task or project feel deeply worth it to you? Make a mini checklist. Use it to evaluate new commitments before saying yes.
3. Create a “Someday Stack” of Ideas: Start a list of odd, impractical, or ambitious project ideas that you don’t have time for yet. This becomes your personal innovation vault.
4. Study Someone Whose Job Didn’t Exist 20 Years Ago: Look up someone in a role like climate designer, circularity strategist, or biofabrication artist—and reverse engineer how they got there.
5. Fuel Up With Fiction That Thinks Ahead: Read a sci-fi or speculative fiction book this month. Start with something weird. It will stretch your imagination more than any TED Talk ever could.

Sources

The Biomimicry Institute. (n.d.). Home. Retrieved July 13, 2025, from https://biomimicry.org/

The post How Butterfly Wings Inspired New Tech appeared first on Green Also Green.

 “Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.” -Adam Hochschild

The Start Of My (Not) To Do List. 

6 months ago, I quit Instagram. 

Why?

I had been saying I wanted to read more for a long time, and the excuse was always the same: “I don’t have enough time.” 

So I crunched some numbers. 

We have 24 hours every day. 7-10 of those hours are usually spent sleeping. Students and full-time workers spend about 7-8 hours daily at a job, in class, or studying. Then there is unpaid work, like laundry, shopping, or cooking, and the time you spend showering, commuting, using the bathroom, or having meals. 

Altogether, according to estimates from 2024, paid work, housework, leisure, eating, and sleeping takes about 80-90% of every person’s day. 

So what takes up the remaining 10-20% of the day?

And how do we make sure there is time for the activities we care about?

We relentlessly cut out the time-wasters we don’t care about. 

That way, you can be empowered to go through each day with intention and purpose, and actually make room for what you care about most. 

(Not) To Do #1: Committing to anything that isn’t a “Hell yes”.

You know that networking event you feel like you “should” be interested in, but just aren’t?

You know that book you’re halfway through, but you can barely remember what you’ve even read?

Quitting is for winners, and if that makes you nervous, this one’s for you. 

(Not) To Do #2: Explaining your vision to those committed to misunderstanding it. 

When you’re on an incredible journey, you might feel tempted to share your excitement with everyone, all the time. 

Sometimes, though, there will be people who just don’t get it. 

That’s okay. 

Give yourself permission to keep your journey to yourself sometimes, until you are ready to filter out external opinions. 

But right at the beginning? 

Just focus on building. Sharing will come later.  

(Not) To Do #3: Scrolling through social media when task-switching. 

You finished classes, so time for a short break. Let’s check out what reels people sent me today- just really quick. 

Before you know it, one video turns into two, and two turns into ten. You think, “I’ve just been here for 5 minutes”, but it’s actually been 15.

Ever been there? Because I have. 

Most of us massively underestimate how much of our day goes just to social media between the other important tasks (sometimes even during). 

If you want to spend more time on the tasks you care about- bonding with family and friends, reading that book you haven’t gotten around to, starting that business, or launching that passion project- go into Setting right now and see what apps consume most of your screen time. 

If you can cut back on those, imagine what else you could do…

(Not) To Do #4: Sharing for praise. 

Have you ever asked someone what they think, hoping they will say what you want?

If that’s you, join the club. I can’t count the number of times I have shared information with someone hoping they will tell me what I want to hear. 

Honestly, if you already know what you want to hear, consider why you bother to ask. Do you need permission to follow your intuition? Are you afraid to make the decision without external approval?  

Be courageous in your conviction, or ask for feedback that is specific and structured. 

When you’re building, too much praise can keep you trapped in your comfort zone rather than focused on making real progress. 

(Not) To Do #5: Taking advice from someone who hasn’t achieved what you aspire to.

I’m talking financial advice from someone who’s broke, parenting advice from the person with no kids, and business advice from the person who has never run their own business. 

I don’t mean we can’t learn from other people’s failures. I mean, we can’t learn from the person who hasn’t even tried. 

If you ever suffer from advice overload, remember this: the people who know what they’re talking about are the people who have done it, tried it, failed, or succeeded. 

(Not) To Do #6: Measuring your worth in productivity. 

When you’re starting a new journey- whether it’s a new hobby, side project, or even a new fitness journey- it can be easy to get discouraged by the fact that your time seems to get filled with seemingly wasted effort. 

You don’t see the output yet, so it becomes hard to feel like what you’re doing will even amount to something. 

I have definitely felt this way before, and I know it can be incredibly disheartening. 

Just think of all those New Year’s resolutions that only lasted a month because we didn’t see the results by February 1st. 

If you are looking for progress and don’t see any, but are doing all the “right things”, consider this: your progress isn’t linear; it’s exponential. 

This means that at the beginning, improvements will be barely noticeable, but the more you keep it up, the more significant the changes. 

So, how do you give yourself grace?

By redefining what it means to win. 

Instead of saying “if I read 20 pages today, I have met my goal”, I say “I need to read for 1 hour”. 

Some days, I can fill an hour of reading with 50 pages, and other days, I am preoccupied and can only get through 15.

Ultimately, though, if I showed up, I have succeeded. I have made progress. I have cast a vote for the person I want to be. 

Thought To Action 

1. Design a Life You’d Want to Live In: List three feelings or values (e.g., curiosity, calm, freedom) you want to feel more often. Now ask: What would a day designed around these look like?
2. Choose One Thing to Repair or Repurpose This Week: Whether it’s sewing a hole in your sock or reusing packaging in a creative way, practice seeing value where others see waste.
3. Imagine a Future Without Trash: Write a short paragraph or draw what your neighborhood would look like if nothing was disposable. What would change?
4. Audit Your Footprint (Literally): Check the label on your most-used shoes or clothes. What are they made of? Could a more sustainable material work instead?
5. Read About the Next-Gen Materials: Check out mushroom leather, mycelium bricks, or algae packaging. Explore how artists and engineers are already building that future.

Sources

Ortiz‑Ospina, E., Herre, B., Acisu, T., Giattino, C., & Roser, M. (2020, November; updated February 2024). Time use. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/time-use

The post The Ultimate Not To Do List To Reclaim Your Dreams appeared first on Green Also Green.

“There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes.” -R. Buckminster Fuller

Thinking isn’t testing.

When I was little, I used to think the way to tell if you really knew something was by sitting down with a test and then reflecting on your score. 

If you could memorize every organelle, you would have verifiably good knowledge of biology. If you could memorize the names and dates in your history book, you would be a good historian. 

The thing is, none of these tests were true tests, because they really only tested my memorization. 

When I finally realized what it meant to test your ideas was when I did my first semester of college, and I had to conduct assignments in the real world, with other people, or in the city I was living in (San Francisco). 

We didn’t have tests; we had miniature projects in which we had to apply what we learned to real problems. 

Why did we do this?

Because true knowledge and effective learning do not happen solely by thinking; they happen by doing. 

Now, as someone who often lives more in her head than in the real world, I want to let you in on a secret: most of the ideas I ever had didn’t get very far. 

It’s not because they were bad (although I have certainly had some bad ideas).

It was because they never made it out of my head. 

For that reason, I have decided to explore ways to effectively test my ideas- even the ones that are abstract- so that I can easily identify the ones that I should pursue hard. 

Below, I’ll summarize some of the approaches I’ve found most effective and some of the ways you can give them a shot too. 

Test #1: Don’t wait to be ready.  

Taking action will give you clarity on what to do next. 

So don’t wait until you know every exact detail of every step of the process. Don’t wait until you are “in the mood” or “feel like it”. 

I have learned this lesson many times over, but there is one time that really stands out. 

A few months ago I attended a conference for women in tech in Oakland, and got to meet a host of inspiring women working in a variety of jobs. 

During lunch, when I sat down with my friend at one of the tables, we got to hear one woman at our table tell us a story that was both funny and eye-opening. 

She described herself back in college, sitting in a math class where everyone was performing a task in Excel. 

Nervous about whether she was smart enough to be in that class, she then saw one of her peers raise their hand. 

With a mischevious grin, she told us his question, then chuckled. “After that,” she shared. “I had no doubt about whether I belonged there.”

While she had once doubted whether she was smart enough to be in the class, now she had full confidence that she was equipped to succeed. 

If you’ve ever let your fear of not being good enough postpone your pursuit of a goal, consider this: you are way more capable than you give yourself credit for. 

The biggest obstacle in your way is not your preparedness; it is fear of failure. 

So take a small step now. Maybe it’s not the grandiose action you envisioned- that’s not important. 

What really matters is that you start, ask questions, and get your ideas out of your head and into the world. 

Once you do, you will have to face the reality of what your ideas mean, and maybe even realize that the path to success is a lot simpler than you imagined.

Test #2: Give yourself constraints.  

Whether it’s a deadline, a budget, or a specific type of assignment- constraints take the abstract and turn it into the real. 

Better yet, constraints have the power to take a tough problem and introduce ground-breaking creativity. 

I first encountered this power as a young girl, when I would write for short story competitions. 

Sometimes, competitions only gave you a word limit, and some basic formatting instructions. Font must be Times New Roman size 12, double-spaced, with a title page. Don’t include your name in the document. You must be living in such and such countries and be of such and such age. 

The most exciting competitions?

They would give you random constraints. Maybe it was a prompt. I remember once, it was just a number or a picture. 

These competitions were the most fun, because paradoxically, limiting yourself forced you to reach into a treasure trove of unconventional new ideas you wouldn’t otherwise explore. 

Lots of us have constraints set on us naturally, and find this discouraging. 

What if we flipped the script?

Maybe constraints are there to help us succeed. 

Test #3: Increase the quality of your input.

Have you ever met someone who became a pro athlete by eating fast food daily and doing no physical activity?

I’m not talking about looking thin after a round of Ozempic. What I mean is strength, endurance, and flexibility. 

Star athletes don’t become star athletes randomly. 

They fuel their bodies with the right foods to improve their performance and support recovery. Then, they train, stressing their bodies just enough to take their talent to the next level. 

When it comes to healthy living, it’s a lot easier to see the impact visually, but the same concept applies to creative or intellectual work. 

If you’re building, you will need the right fuel. 

Is your mind fueled predominantly by stressful news and cat memes? Or is it fueled by books and podcasts about the ideas you really care about?

Do you spend most of your conversations gossiping about other people, or cheering them on?

Do you spend your free time doom-scrolling, or getting away from your screen?

You don’t have to become a hermit and never engage with others online, nor do you have to never laugh at a funny meme again. 

Think of it like your diet. 

You don’t have to quit eating candy, but your body will support you better if you make sure you are getting enough protein, fats, and carbohydrates as well. 

If you want to increase the quality of what you produce or think, increase the quality of what you fuel your mind with. 

So read. Ask questions. Listen to podcasts.

Test #4: Shrink to expand. 

Define the core hypothesis, shrink the idea, and outline what success looks like. 

One day, I want to do a PhD. What I really would like is to be able to test out different ideas in an actual lab, but as a sophomore in college, it’s not so easy. I don’t run a lab, and if I were to help out in one, it would be someone else’s ideas I would be exploring, not my own. 

For many months, I puzzled over this with some despair, until a recent conversation with one of my professors, who suggested I think about it a little differently. 

Instead of getting stuck on my lack of a lab, she suggested I take notes when I read research articles. 

Ask questions about the research gaps I identify. Think about what I would do if I did have a lab, equipment, and funding. 

When she broke it down like this, I realized something huge: I was so stuck on the big vision that I had skipped this small first step. 

I had made perfect the enemy of good, and in doing so, not gotten anywhere. 

So now? 

Now I am simply building the habit of keeping up with developments in the fields I would like to study more. 

Then, when I can do research of my own, I will have an even stronger foundation. 

Just keep testing. 

Testing your ideas is not a binary. It’s not like after you’re done, you either implement or kill them off. 

The reality is more like an infinity of different iterations. 

If you strike gold, you can keep pursuing an idea at an even larger scale. 

On the other hand, if you feel like your idea has failed, you can scale it down. 

In the end, we are always experimenting and updating, even without realizing. 

But don’t take my word for it- go test it out for yourself. 

Thought To Action 

1. Ask “What If” Every Day: Start or end your day by writing one bold “What if…” question. What if your shoes were edible? What if your routines were designed for joy? These questions open space for unexpected insight.
2. Do a 5-Minute Redesign Challenge: Pick an object you use daily (a water bottle, backpack, phone case) and sketch or describe how you’d redesign it to be more circular, comfortable, or creative.
3. Make Space for Creative Input: Commit to one hour a week where you absorb inspiration—watch a documentary, visit a museum, or read outside your field. Creativity is fueled by unexpected collisions.
4. Redesign Something That’s Annoying You: Find one product, system, or space in your life that bugs you—and reimagine it. You don’t have to fix it in reality, just give yourself permission to sketch possibilities.
5. Start Your Future Job Library: Curate a mini reading list around your dream career or project. Not sure where to start? This post will show you how to learn from curiosity, not credentials.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post How To Test Ideas In The Real World appeared first on Green Also Green.

 “Mama always said you could tell an awful lot about a person by the kind of shoes they wear.” ― Forrest Gump

A “What If” Exercise

What if running didn’t leave a trail of microplastics behind?

Let me elaborate.

I have a love-hate relationship with running. We go way back, and the relationship is pretty toxic. 

After several months of walking around in San Francisco and doing almost no running, I am putting my shoes to the test. 

The only downside, though, is that the soles of running shoes, much like most clothing made of plastic, gradually release microplastics into the environment.

But what if it didn’t have to be this way?

Today, I want to use my running shoes to explore what it looks like to “redesign” for circularity. 

But first, let’s talk about how we got to the current design. 

What If The Faulty Design Is Serving Us?

The concept of running as a sport can be traced all the way back to the ancient Greeks, who ran barefoot. Then it was passed on to the Romans, who ran in thin-soled sandals. 

Over time, we started to design more fit-for-purpose running shoes. In fact, spiked shoes emerged in the 1800s, as vulcanized rubber also became more widespread. 

In the 1900s, we saw some shoes made of leather. 

Now, in the 21st century, our shoes consist of materials like ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), nylon, polyurethane, rubber, and more. 

As you might imagine, these materials are hard to reuse once they have gone through their initial life cycle on your feet. They are also predominantly plastic, so they release microplastics as they wear down. 

But let’s stop being haters for a moment and talk about why we use these materials in the first place. 

#1: Performance. 

You might not realize everything your running shoes do for you already, so let me go down the list. 

They help you prevent injury by stabilizing the foot and preventing the skin from damage. 

The stiff plates within the shoe’s midsole also help you to redistribute pressure from the knee to the joint of your toes. 

In fact, your shoes even store energy for you through the compression of the midsole, releasing it as you take another step. 

On top of this technology, there is also a huge degree of customization for each type of user. 

Ultimately, the shoe on your feet is there based on many factors. For example, this includes the distance you typically run, how your foot strikes the ground, and (of course) what colors you like.

#2: Style.

Okay, time for the elephant in the room:

Modern-day sneakers just look cool. 

They come in a variety of shapes, colors, textures, and brands. 

In fact, they are so cool, you probably even wear them when you aren’t about to go to the gym. 

Shoes are a matter of social status, and a big reason why we choose one over the other is simply this: appearances. 

So let’s not brush past that too quickly, because if you want to replace our current cradle-to-grave running shoes with a cradle-to-cradle upgrade, it has to be an upgrade that takes the aesthetic appeal of shoes seriously as well as the engineering.

What If We Can Make It Better?

Now that we’ve paid our respects to the way running shoes are designed now, let’s turn our attention to the future.

 Together, let’s explore what it would look like to design a running shoe that is actually “zero waste”. 

What if we designed running shoes for disassembly?

The way to know if running shoes are “zero waste” or follow a cradle-to-cradle design is to look at what happens after they are done being used. 

So what if, after we finished with our shoes, they could be broken down and fed into the next cycle of innovation?

What if we could actually separate the fabrics, insole, midsole, and outsole, and separate every different material used? 

If we could do this, we could ask questions about each material and how to return it to the manufacturer. 

If we can’t repurpose the material for the manufacturer, we are asking how to return the material to the ecosystem around us. 

What if you could throw your old laces into the compost?

After we have designed for disassembly, we ask whether the materials we use can be returned to the manufacturer or the planet. 

Imagine throwing your old shoe laces in the compost bin. Maybe you’re tossing them into a flowerpot, which releases key nutrients that, over time, degrade into the phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen you would otherwise get from a fertilizer. 

Could you fathom a starch-based plastic outsole that, once you take it apart, could be tossed into a pot of boiling water to dissolve into sugar water for butterflies or hummingbirds?

Maybe, with edible packaging, your shoes even would come in a cardboard box that can be tossed into your garden to grow wild flowers after unpackaging. 

If you think this is crazy, you’re right, but crazy ideas are just what drive progress. 

What if we actually looked cooler and performed better in eco-friendly running shoes?

Now let’s talk about one of the most important aspects of this entire idea. How do we make it fun? How do we make it aesthetically pleasing to wear cradle-to-cradle running shoes?

What if it didn’t have to feel different to wear a shoe like this?

What if you could still be protected from injury, joint damage, and blisters? 

Maybe it’s more feasible than we think. After all, we can take some valuable lessons from the design of shoes already, and apply them to the shoes of the future.

So let’s preserve performance and sleek appearances while upgrading our materials. That way, we can make the life cycle of your shoes just as amazing as what you do while wearing them. 

Thought To Action

1. Start a Curiosity Journal: Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s approach to learning, begin documenting your daily observations and questions. This practice nurtures a habit of inquiry and creativity.
2. Embrace Constraints to Spark Innovation: Challenge yourself with limitations to enhance problem-solving skills.
3. Integrate Artistic Practices into Learning: Incorporate art forms like drawing or music into your study routines to enhance understanding and retention of STEM concepts.
4.  Advocate for Inclusive Design: Engage in conversations and initiatives that promote clothing designs catering to diverse body types and needs.
5. Start A Reading Habit: Check out this post to easily start reading about and enjoying the topics you’ve always wanted to learn more on.  

Sources

https://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Running-Shoe.html

https://www.mmu.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/story/running-shoes-how-science-can-help-you-run-faster-and-more-efficiently

The post A “What If” Exercise That Will Change How You Think appeared first on Green Also Green.

 “Make it simple, but significant.”   — Don Draper.

Design From A Thought Experiment. 

One of the books I enjoyed recently- Cradle To Cradle- got me thinking a lot about circular design. 

Not only have I experienced the slight despair about the short life span of most products and packaging, but I’ve also experienced a surge in curiosity. 

So today, I’m going to take you on a tour through one of the thought experiments I tried to pursue after reading this book, asking myself one simple question: 

What does it take to keep materials in the supply chain?

Not slightly delaying their arrival at a landfill by recycling them one more time, but to turn them back into technical or biological nutrients for the next iteration of products.

Step #1: Identify the goal of the design.  

Everyone loves setting goals so much that we have a holiday for it (New Year’s Eve). 

However, setting the right goal is not necessarily an easy task.

In my experiment, though, I started thinking about this goal the way Braungart and McDonough do in Cradle to Cradle—through the lens of designing for circularity in technical and biological nutrients.

These two categories define everything in our supply chain. 

Technical nutrients are the stuff of modern life: metals, electronics, old cars, rusty bikes—anything that won’t just dissolve harmlessly into soil or water. 

These materials don’t biodegrade, but they can be designed to circulate endlessly through industrial systems.

Then there are biological nutrients—your food scraps, wood shavings, natural fibers—anything that once came from a living thing and can return safely to the earth.

We’ll dig into the problems with each of these in a moment. But first, it’s worth zooming out.

For technical nutrients, our challenge is to design a system where disassembly and reuse are the norm. 

This is where systems thinking comes in.

Imagine a decentralized network for collecting e-waste, where rare earth metals and precious components are recovered and reintroduced into the supply chain—instead of being buried in landfills.

For biological nutrients, our aim is just as ambitious: materials that break down into clean, nourishing compost. Think banana peels that grow your tomatoes, not chemicals that poison your groundwater.

In both cases, the big question is the same: How do we redesign our materials and systems so that today’s waste becomes the fuel for tomorrow’s innovation? 

Step #2: Ask what stands in the way. 

The next step of my thought experiment was outlining what is standing in the way. 

I thought about plastic, for example, and the hundreds of varieties of it that make recycling it a nightmarish puzzle. 

Indeed, while some plastic can be repurposed, melted into some new form (think #1 plastic, PET- polyethylene terephthalate, and #2 plastic, HDPE, high-density polyethylene), not all can. In fact, even the plastics that can be recycled still pose the question of microplastics and toxic additives. 

To separate hundreds of different types of plastics, not to mention all the waste that isn’t made of plastic, or the waste that includes plastics mixed with some other material, is a systems thinking feat that is enough to give anyone a headache. 

Then there is the e-waste problem, which has been one of the fastest-growing waste streams worldwide. Currently, approximately 350 million tons of e-waste are sitting in landfills. 

In the picture below, you can see some of the other barriers I identified. 

Step #3: Think big with “what if” questions. 

This third step might just be the most courageous of all, because it asks you to take a risk. 

It invites you to tap into your imagination and suggest ideas that might feel bold, unconventional, or even downright “stupid” at first glance. 

That takes guts.

Here, we’re not focused on what’s practical or realistic. We’re not trying to impress anyone or get it “right.” 

Instead, we ask the simple but powerful question: “What if?” 

Then we let our curiosity lead the way. 

No idea is too wild. No path is too strange. This is a space for exploration, not evaluation.

It’s important to remember that creativity thrives in an environment free from judgment. So we suspend the instinct to criticize or edit ourselves. 

We give ourselves full permission to be imaginative, even absurd- because often, the ideas that seem the most ridiculous at first are the ones that spark genuine innovation later on.

The time for filtering, refining, and choosing comes later. For now, your only job is to wonder.

Step #4: Experiment.

The final step in this process—experimenting with an actual design—is one I haven’t reached yet.

But that’s the beauty of this kind of work: it’s iterative, open-ended, and constantly evolving.

So far, I’ve explored the principles, asked the “what if” questions, and thought critically about how materials could circulate more intelligently through our systems. 

The next challenge is to bring these ideas to life—to sketch, prototype, and test designs that embody cradle-to-cradle thinking. 

I don’t know exactly what that will look like yet, but I’m excited to find out.

In future posts, I plan to document that experimentation phase: the successes, the failures, the messy in-betweens. 

I hope that by sharing the process in real time, it might spark new ideas—not just for me, but for anyone else dreaming of a world where waste becomes a resource.

For now, consider this the start of the blueprint.

Thought To Action

1. Start a Curiosity Journal: Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s approach to learning, begin documenting your daily observations and questions. This practice nurtures a habit of inquiry and creativity.
2. Embrace Constraints to Spark Innovation: Challenge yourself with limitations to enhance problem-solving skills.
3. Integrate Artistic Practices into Learning: Incorporate art forms like drawing or music into your study routines to enhance understanding and retention of STEM concepts.
4.  Advocate for Inclusive Design: Engage in conversations and initiatives that promote clothing designs catering to diverse body types and needs.
5. Start A Reading Habit: Check out this post to easily start reading about and enjoying the topics you’ve always wanted to learn more on.  

Sources

Braungart, M., & McDonough, W. (2002). Cradle to cradle: Remaking the way we make things. North Point Press.

Eartheasy. (n.d.). Plastics by the numbers. https://learn.eartheasy.com/articles/plastics-by-the-numbers/

WasteDirect. (n.d.). E-waste statistics. https://wastedirect.co.uk/guides/e-waste-statistics/

The post How To *Actually* Rethink Circular Design appeared first on Green Also Green.

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” —Alice Walker

The Jobs You’re Supposed To Want.

Were you one of those kids who fumbled around cluelessly, not knowing how to answer when adults asked what sort of job you wanted as a “grown-up”?

Did you love science and math, but not feel satisfied with hopping on board the “Future Doctor Or Engineer” Express?

Did you love to read but feel uninterested in being a lawyer?

If this was, or is, you, I’m talking to you today- because I was (and still am) in the same club. 

I was that kid who loved creative writing and philosophy, but also loved math and science. I was submitting entries to short story competitions while attending my school’s math club. 

It was hard to make decisions about my future because I didn’t want to give anything up. 

But what no one ever told me was this: maybe I didn’t have to. 

By now it’s a cliche, but I’ll remind you anyway: many of the jobs that will be around in 10 years have not even been created yet. 

What does this mean? It means we have freedom, and that the compromise you think you have to make probably doesn’t have to happen at all. 

We are at a place in history where you really can design your career, and today I want to show you how to do just that.

Then, you can go out and create the dream job everyone has been telling you is impossible. 

6 Ways I Am Designing My Dream Job Right Now

#1: Start with the Dream Day, Not the Dream Job.

I used to think that building a dream career meant figuring out a title: scientist, CEO, professor, entrepreneur. 

But then I realized… I didn’t care about the title. 

I cared about the day. 

What did my dream workday look and feel like?

For me, it meant starting my morning energized—maybe I had just recorded a podcast episode or written a blog post the night before and woke up to a few kind messages from readers. Then, I’d head into the lab or my home studio, where I’d tinker with a new material concept, maybe derived from seaweed or waste paper. 

I’d be collaborating with researchers, talking to local companies, and thinking about how to scale an idea. 

In the evening, I’d go for a walk with my partner, or call a friend, or sketch out another creative idea. 

That’s the vision, and every element of it—curiosity, creativity, community—is what I actually want more of now.

Reflection Prompt for You:
If you had enough money to never need to work again, how would you want to spend your time?
What would your dream day look like? And what parts of that day could you recreate this week, even in a small way?

#2: Think in Experiments, Not Big Leaps.

Dream jobs aren’t built overnight. They’re not linear, either. 

I’ve started things that didn’t work out, changed my mind mid-project, and often wondered if I was “wasting time.” 

But each failure taught me something new.

Recently, when I launched a women’s health storytelling project, I didn’t know anything the first thing about how to lead a big team or market a creative product. 

I just knew this was something I was interested in trying.

It started with an experiment: if I messaged my peers on Telegram, would they express interest in helping me? 

It turned out the answer was yes. A few messages started rolling in, and then more, and then more! I was excited. People wanted to try this with me. There was interest and momentum. 

That “mini test” gave me the momentum and confidence to graduate the idea to the next level: let’s make a comic book and launch it at the end of the summer. 

Now, we are still testing, but this approach has so far helped me to know myself better and understand what I really want to pursue. 

That way, what ends up staying in my life isn’t an “I guess I’ll do this”; it’s a resounding “absolutely”. 

Remember, you don’t need to commit to one path forever. 

You just need to try. 

Want to be a researcher? Try reading a paper a week and reflecting on it in your journal or online. 

Curious about science communication? Write one newsletter. Everything great starts as a trial run.

Ask Yourself:
If I knew I wouldn’t fail, what would I aspire to professionally?
Then try the smallest, lowest-stakes version of it this month.

#3: Your Dream Career Has Already Begun.

Stop postponing your dreams. 

We tend to think the lives we want exist somewhere in the future—after the degree, after the perfect opportunity, after we’re “ready.” 

But here’s the truth: life is right now. It’s upon us, and there is not infinite time left. 

When I sit down to write this blog post, it’s not a side task—it is my dream job. I love to write, and for me, it’s a way to process my thoughts and help other people. When I visualize my dream career, there is a time every day when I do just that: write. 

So, what do I make sure I have time for now? Writing. 

Similarly, when I carve out time to read research papers or record a voice memo about a new creative idea, I remind myself: 

I’m already living pieces of the life I want.

Even if you’re still in school, working a part-time job, or figuring things out—every decision you make in favor of your vision adds up. Don’t underestimate the power of your present momentum.

Affirmation to Try:
Every small action I take is a step toward the version of me I want to become.

#4: Curiosity is the Best Icebreaker.

When I started reaching out to people on LinkedIn, I worried a lot about how to come off “professional” enough. Should I sound more serious? Should I list credentials? Should I change my headline so that I sound more accomplished?

But my best conversations, and ultimately my most amazing professional relationships, have always started from one thing: curiosity.

Once, I messaged a woman who worked for a non-profit I really admired. I told her how inspiring I found her work, and asked if we could chat a bit. When we did finally hop on the call, she and I clicked immediately. At the end of it, we exchanged contact information and had many more chats. 

Now, several months after connecting, we have both helped each other in different ways- her by giving me useful feedback on different projects, and me by helping her analyze some data.  

In the end, it’s not about impressing anyone—it’s about learning.

In my experience, people respond to genuine enthusiasm more than polish. So I lean into my excitement.

Reminder:
The most powerful networking question isn’t “What can this person do for me?”
It’s “What can I learn from them?”

#5: Turn up the volume on your inner nerd.

Networking isn’t just about reaching out—it’s also about being someone others want to reach in to.

Contrary to what you may think, you don’t need to be an “expert” to share your passions. 

In fact, letting people witness your learning process is often more powerful.

So start a blog. Post about a cool scientific paper you just read. Share a project you’re working on—even if it’s messy. 

When you talk about what excites you, people doing similar work will find you. The network grows naturally when you show up with passion and vulnerability.

Try This:
Write one post this week about something you’re genuinely excited to learn or build. Post it on LinkedIn, Medium, or Substack. You never know who’s watching.

#6: Ask for Conversations, Not Favors.

When you’re reaching out to someone you admire, the goal isn’t to “ask for help”—it’s to start a meaningful conversation. 

The difference is subtle but powerful.

Here’s what works better:

• “I read your article on eco-friendly packaging and found it fascinating. I’m starting to explore sustainable materials myself, and I’d love to hear what sparked your interest in this space.”
  
• “I saw that you transitioned from engineering into public health—I’m considering a similar pivot. Would you be open to a 15-minute chat about what helped guide your decision?”
  

No long resume intro. No pretending to be more experienced than you are. Just a thoughtful question and a warm, human tone. Genuine interest, and no attachment to the outcome. 

People don’t respond to perfect outreach—they respond to authenticity.

Go make something unexpected.

Designing your dream job isn’t about waiting for the perfect opportunity to show up. 

It’s about sketching boldly, prototyping with curiosity, and choosing to build a life (and job) that excites you, one decision at a time. 

So ask the big “what ifs.” 

Follow your weird ideas. 

Study your joy like a blueprint. 

You are the architect of a career that can make you come alive—and the world needs more people who have done just that.

Now, go make something beautifully unexpected. 

Thought To Action

1. Start a Curiosity Journal: Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s approach to learning, begin documenting your daily observations and questions. This practice nurtures a habit of inquiry and creativity.
2. Embrace Constraints to Spark Innovation: Challenge yourself with limitations to enhance problem-solving skills.
3. Integrate Artistic Practices into Learning: Incorporate art forms like drawing or music into your study routines to enhance understanding and retention of STEM concepts.
4.  Advocate for Inclusive Design: Engage in conversations and initiatives that promote clothing designs catering to diverse body types and needs.
5. Start A Reading Habit: Check out this post to easily start reading about and enjoying the topics you’ve always wanted to learn more on.  

Sources

No external sources used.

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