I've been thinking about needs a lot for some time now. This year has been an interesting one - one that's forced me to take stock of all sorts of things, whether it's work or money or friends. One or two main events has had a ripple effect that's shifted the way I think about how I've been living. The good news is, I've never been as clear about what I'm pursuing as I am right now. The bad news is, making the changes I need to make to get there are haaaaard! But that's life - no pain, no gain and such. At least I know what I'm chasing...and why. 

Impostor syndrome suuuucks but if you can manage to harness that insecurity and use it to drive you to become better and wiser, then it's not all a lost cause. 

The darker side of maple syrup production! Ooooh! Who knew? Really, it's a fight between individual producers and the organized industry. 

I will probably not have kids, and this piece from Amanda Palmer articulates one of my greater fears about motherhood: getting boring. "And right now, at 36 weeks pregnant, all I can do is look at the female heroes who’ve preceded me and NOT descended into crappy boringness and pray to the holy trinity: Patti…Ani...Björki…hear my prayer. May I not get fucking boring."

For a good laugh: 8 reasons why everyone should learn to code. 

The Petty Tyrant. A story of union mean mugging, absolute power corrupting absolutely and just plain old bullying. 

You may know Benedict Cumberbatch voiced Smaug in The Hobbit, but did you know he actually acted out the role to be captured in CGI? 

Dating sucks. It sucks real bad right now. Jon Birger uncovered a really fascinating trend in demographics and population growth that correlated with marriage ages and rates. Date-onomics, the book, was born and Time had a great piece on the idea from the author himself. 

What happens if you fall into a black hole? It would clone you!! 

"So just as there are as many women as men who burn with an ambition to reach the top, there are as many women as men who want to make a shit ton of money, there are as many women as men who enormously enjoy the exercise of power, there are just as many men as women who hate going into the office on a monday morning, there are as many men as women who want to spend time with their children, there are as many men as women who look at the upper echelons of their company and go, ‘I don’t want to be there’." - Cindy Gallop on gender diversity in the workplace. 

More people should quit more of the time. Controversial take on Amazon and work/life balance, but I agree that if you're not happy or you're in a company who's culture doesn't match your values, you should quit. 

Sooner or later the haters move on. 

A laugh-out-loud account of crying at work (PR agency veterans will relate), and just crying in life. 

How to age gracefully. Advice from every age. 

Country music is obsessed with adultery - no really, the numbers prove it. This long read on the history of infidelity reminded me I just love Dolly Parton, Jolene in particular. 

Image Source: Danielle Laporte #truthbombs