Rabbit-hole.
I use this word a lot. It’s used to refer to a time-consuming and unusual path, as in “a YouTube rabbit-hole brought me to this video of a cat playing piano”. The result of a rabbit-hole is something unexpected; either positive or plain confusing. What a perfect analogy for life.
Everything you’re about to read, like my other articles, is my opinion, derived from my experience and my thoughts. Give me some feedback!
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First and foremost, please visit this link and support the greater BLM movement however you can. There are resources for donating ($ and no $), education, contacts, protest info and other ways to get involved. With COVID-19 and the state of our world, people are making the tough decision to go outside, put their lives at risk and support a cause they believe in. At the very least, I hope your takeaway from reading this is that you understand your power to enact change and impact people — starting by going down your own rabbit-hole from that link of resources. You can protest from your couch!
If there’s anything I’ve learned from writing on Medium, the events of the last 3 months and conversations with friends, it is that the world changes quickly. In the short time I spent working in government (local + federal), I figured out that government works like a well-oiled machine in some ways, but can operate worse than a car with square wheels in others. Do not stop fighting. Black lives matter in Minnesota. They matter in LA, New York and everywhere in between.
There’s a powerful poem by Shel Silverstein, which sums up my thoughts:
Listen to it here. Thanks.
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I’m going to keep the rest of this reflection somewhat concise, as I don’t want to distract from the important message above. Now, onto my rabbit-hole of rabbit-holes, if you will:
Keeping recent events in mind, conversation rabbit-holes open you up to a whole network of new ideas, experiences and beliefs to discover (from others). I wouldn’t be able to count every lunch/dinner conversation I’ve had with random friends that devolved into an hour-plus-long discussion about something deeply philosophical or personal. [those are often the best ones] Now’s the perfect time to have a conversation. Everyone’s at home, or socially isolated in some capacity— I don’t know about you, but I could use some social interaction ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you know me, you know I love connecting with others and learning about their life experiences. LinkedIn, AngelList, Instagram and Facebook are unparalleled resources in terms of staying connected. I often fall victim to what I call “LinkedIn rabbit-holes”, essentially clicking around for fun until I stumble upon a profile I can’t get out of my head. Then I reach out.
With the world at my fingertips entering college, I went down a rabbit-hole of interesting courses — leading me to discover WashU’s epic Linguistics Program and later on to design my own major.
Hot sauce too? Yep. I was looking for something creative to do to cut some of the intensity of a busy freshman year of college. First drawing, writing, then journaling, painting, mixology and eventually cooking drove me to try another method of combining amazing flavors and my creative juices into the signature Glabman’s Smokey Chili sauce. Origin story.
Lastly, a quick update and an exciting announcement: Today we launch Practicum. We hired + onboarded 75 interns around the country from diverse backgrounds, who will spend the summer working on 9 different projects in teams with 8 tech startups, ranging from pre-seed to post-revenue companies. More to come. Follow our LinkedIn page & sign up for our weekly newsletter! :)
To wrap this post, I’ll leave you with this — put yourself out there. It may feel scary, weird, unnatural, awkward, etc. but your next conversation might make you a new friend, get you a new job or give you a new perspective. The point of this nonsensical topic started as me making an analogy to life being confusing and unexpected. It is. To be honest it’s more like a big ant farm full of coincidences, connected/shared experiences and rabbit-holes coming together. But that’s what makes it interesting. Just ask this scuba-diving, sauce-making, traveling linguist turned student.
In Summary:
- The world is in a weird spot. Why not help people? (Click here)
- Check-in with friends & friends of friends
- Start conversations. There’s no better time than now.
If anything I said here resonated with you or if you want to share your experience, shoot me an email (zachglabman@wustl.edu) and let’s talk about it. Thanks for reading!
