Nobody chooses to become a poodle. But this is how it happened to me. I'd consumed the news obsessively for years. Served a steady diet of problems I was in no position to solve. I used to be happy, optimistic — someone who saw the possibilities in everything. Now I believed it was all downhill from here. That this was as good as life was ever going to be. I was 25 years old. In fact, I used to be a runner. Now the only thing I ran to was McDonald's. With no hope, there was no point in...

Years ago I saw a meme I still can't shake. A side-by-side image of Bruce Springsteen and Göran Persson — the former Prime Minister of Sweden.Both born the same year.Both men of power and money.Both 65 at the time of the photo.One was shirtless in the ocean, looking 45.One was pot-bellied, bespectacled, looking like he'd already retired from life. Bruce Springsteen (left), Göran Persson (right) I was shocked that two successful men of the same age could look so different. That's when I made a...

A colleague asked me recently: "Why does it seem like whatever random topic comes up in conversation, you always seem to know something about it?" I didn't have a ready answer. But sitting with it later, I think I know why. I've been an amateur engineer, an aspiring doctor, a history obsessive, an archer, a pistol shooter, a judoka, a dog sledder, a camper, a chess player, a guitarist, and a runner. I've started more things than I can count and abandoned most of them before they got hard. For...