Archive
- Flashing Raccoons
A perspective on bouldering — terms to know, moves to learn, and how to not be a hater.
health - Fashion Journey
An indulgent, insightful look at a fashion journey — how it started, what it means, and where it's going.
reflection - The Other 3920 Hours
There are 8760 hours in a year. 1,920 at work. 2,920 asleep. What do you do with the other 3,920?
purpose - Look at the Big Picture
Laying every goal and venture out on a whiteboard at once reveals the connections that stay hidden when strategy is built one isolated section at a time.
careerrelationships - Know Your Audience
Writing without a specific person in mind is writing into a void — picturing one real reader shapes every word and multiplies the impact of whatever you are trying to say.
craftleadership - Batching to Completion
Switching constantly between different types of tasks taxes your brain more than the tasks themselves; grouping similar work into dedicated time blocks cuts that cost and keeps you moving forward instead of spinning in place.
practice - High & Lows
Without pausing to assess your highs and lows, it is impossible to celebrate what is working or honestly reckon with what needs to change. A case for building regular reflection into work, faith, and life.
craftfaithreflection - Weekly One Thing
Identifying the single priority that would make a week feel like a success cuts through the noise of endless to-do lists and puts your energy where it actually matters.
leadership - Schedule Rest
Busyness is easy to wear as a badge, but an unbroken work rhythm quietly erodes the energy needed to do the important things well. Blocking time to rest on purpose is what keeps you from having your body force the rest on you.
practicepurpose - Enjoy the Imperfect Process
Holding your work to a standard higher than your current ability leads to disappointment — but learning to savor the small wins along the way makes the pursuit of mastery both sustainable and worth it.
practice - Say Yes by Saying No
Every yes is a hidden no to something else, which means indiscriminate agreement quietly drains focus from the things that matter most. Learning to say no is the clearest path to protecting what you actually want to say yes to.
purpose - Choose To Listen
The urge to give advice is often strongest exactly when the other person needs you to ask a question and stay quiet instead — a reflection on why listening takes more courage than speaking.
reflectionrelationships - Defining Success
Skipping the step of defining success clearly means testing the wrong things and discovering too late that you missed the goal; this post makes the case for setting precise outcomes before any project begins.
craftleadership - Close the Loop
Unfinished projects do not sit idle — they accumulate as mental overhead that slowly drains your focus; formally closing them out by capturing what you learned is the only way to actually set them down.
craftpurpose - Poured In to Pour Out
You cannot keep giving to others from a cup that is empty — without intentional rest, mentorship, and genuine friendship, the capacity to serve anyone eventually runs dry.
leadershippracticepurposerelationships - Selling a Feeling, Not a Product
Customers do not remember the logic of what they bought — they remember how it made them feel. Building something that lasts means designing for the emotional experience, not just the product itself.
craftreflection - Work It Out or Burnout
Burnout rarely arrives without warning — it builds quietly in the gap between what you need, what you have committed to, and what you actually want to do with your time.
crafthealth - Delegate, Don't Tinker
Podcasting revealed how easily distractions can masquerade as productivity; the real lever is identifying which tasks to hand off so you can stay focused on what only you can do.
practice - Stand on the Shoulder of Giants
Life is too short to reinvent every wheel, and learning from people who have already walked your path is a strategic advantage hiding in plain sight. Asking for guidance takes humility, but it accelerates growth in ways that going it alone never will.
purposerelationships - Work in Progress
Accepting that you are still being shaped — strengths, flaws, and everything in between — is not an excuse for complacency, it is the foundation for genuine peace.
craft - Take Small Wins
Breaking a large, overwhelming project into smaller pieces is not a shortcut — it is the strategy that builds momentum and gets you to the finish line.
craft - Dreams & Reality
Dreams provide direction and motivation, but without an honest look at reality, they stay out of reach. A healthy dose of realism does not kill your aspirations — it gives them a path forward.
healthpurposerelationships - What Keeps You Up at Night?
The thoughts that refuse to let you sleep at night are often pointing directly at your deepest purpose — and paying attention to them can clarify what you are actually working toward.
purpose - Pull Out the Root Cause
Fixing surface-level problems without addressing the underlying cause is like pulling a weed without its roots — it will grow back stronger. Learning to distinguish symptoms from root causes is the only path to solutions that actually last.
practice - Integrating Change
Sustainable change — whether building a 5:30 AM workout habit or shipping a software integration — does not happen overnight; it happens through small, deliberate steps that slowly reshape the whole system.
crafthealthpractice - Reduce Friction
Every domain of life — business, relationships, knowledge — moves faster when unnecessary resistance is removed. Identifying and eliminating friction is one of the highest-leverage moves toward greater effectiveness.
faithrelationships - Experience + Knowledge = Wisdom
Knowledge without experience is a map you do not know how to use, and experience without knowledge is terrain you are wandering without a map. Wisdom comes from intentionally building both.
craftreflection - Prioritize Your Jar of Tasks
Drew Houston frames time management as filling a jar: rocks for high-impact work, pebbles for medium commitments, and sand for email — and the order in which you add them changes everything.
leadershippractice - Decision Making with the Eisenhower Box
The Eisenhower Box sorts every task into four quadrants — urgent vs. important — giving you a clear framework for what to act on now, what to schedule, what to hand off, and what to cut entirely.
practice - Purpose Like a Hedgehog
The hedgehog concept reveals that lasting purpose lives at the intersection of what you are passionate about, what you are naturally gifted at, and what creates real value for others. Missing any one of the three means trading fulfillment for frustration.
craftpurpose - Live by a Compass, Not by a Map
Maps go obsolete the moment circumstances shift; a compass grounded in core values keeps you oriented through career changes, family transitions, and every season of life that did not appear in the original plan.
careerpurposereflectionrelationships - Your Three Business Personalities
Every person running a business is playing three roles at once — the visionary, the operator, and the executor — and neglecting any one of them is how things fall apart.
healthpurpose - Platinum Rule > Golden Rule
The Golden Rule assumes everyone wants what you want — the Platinum Rule asks you to set that assumption aside and treat people according to what they actually need.
relationships - Who is your "Personal Board of Directors"?
The most important decisions in life benefit from a diverse group of trusted advisors — people who bring experience, honesty, and perspective to areas where you need it most.
practicereflectionrelationships - Go for the Greenlight
Matthew McConaughey's memoir frames obstacles as yellow lights waiting to turn green — a mindset that transforms apparent dead ends into openings for the bold and patient.
leadershippurpose - Aim to Trend Upwards
I’ve been learning that the hardest process in life is trying to maintain balance and equilibrium in everything.
practice - Balance Macro & Micro
When mistakes occurs, it’s easy to fret over the long-term impact our mistakes may have. But it doesn't have to be that way.
leadership - Kill Writer's Block
One of the most difficult things to do as a writer is to get over the hump of writing—the slumps that arise every so often.
craft - Measurable and Immeasurable Value
What is the best way to quantify the results that you achieve?
leadershippractice - Be a Healthy Net Giver
Find balance in net giving so you have enough to pour out.
healthrelationships - Impact Through Mojo
Growing up, I always believed that in order to inspire & create impact, you had to be big or have a position of great power. But that's not true.
craftleadership - Embrace The Dip
Have you ever felt uncertain whether to start a venture, or in too deep with a venture to be able to quit? The Dip help's to work through that!
careerpurpose - The Dichotomy of Life
Going back and forth, finding balance seemed impossible to achieve, and it never seemed to end. But there were moments when I achieved serendipity. When I experienced balance while facing the two opposing views.
leadershippurposereflection - Extreme Ownership
For me, before knowing extreme ownership, I found myself wanting to blame others when issues arise. To point at other’s faults. To not take responsibility. What I learned, though, is that extreme ownership challenges us to not blame others, have humility, and take greater ownership to change.
leadershiprelationships - Radical Candor
My hope was to hear my manager's thoughts on 'being awkward through real talk'. Instead he one upped me.
leadership - Put In Your Reps
Many times, we find ourselves yearning for a specific vision to be fulfilled. There is an end goal we want to achieve. Focused on the hustle, we can find ourselves wanting to break our way into the top. But success never happens overnight.
leadershippracticepurpose - Courageous Kindness
The impact that changes lives and captures souls requires a willingness to do what isn’t easy and to do what’s right. For me, even as I write this, I can’t help but know that talking the talk is so much easier than walking the walk.
craftleadershiprelationships - What's Your Unfair Advantage?
An “Unfair Advantage” is anything that cannot be easily copied or bought by other stakeholders. This can be technical knowledge, unique skills, connections, patents, or a large sum donation from a distant uncle.
practicepurposerelationships - Busy is a Decision
I was listening to an audiobook called Tribe of Mentors, a book by Tim Ferris in which many inspirational people answered 11 questions to give insight to readers on lifelong living. One of the mentors who spoke, Debbie Millman, quoted something, that hits really hard. 'Busy is a decision.'
leadershippracticerelationships - Make Decisions Easily
We are making decisions every single moment of our life; what food to order at a restaurant, which YouTube recommended video to watch, or what color mask (if any) to wear before heading out.
practicepurposereflection - Design Your Life
When planning out your life, knowing your beliefs, your perspective, and how you approach certain aspects of life will help you assert where your true 'Your location' is, ensuring you won’t plan your life out from the wrong starting point.
purpose - Infinite Mindset
Life is not a finite game, where a loss in a year means a loss for the rest of our life (though sometimes, it may feel that way). Rather, it is an infinite game where we are not be tied down by a single outcome in our lives and can continue to learn & grow.
purpose - Know Your Time
Whether it’s spent working on a project, exercising, leisurely watching some shows, or reflecting on the purpose of life (a timely activity I partake in), being able to know where your time goes allows you to know how you’re using your time.
craftpracticepurposereflection - Less is More
I’ve always believed that more is better. The more resources, experience, or time you have, the better you’re able to do things. That extra dollar, extra skill, and extra hour can go a long way. But sometimes, having more can be a hindrance.
practicereflection - Keep It Simple, Stupid
When faced with a problem, how would you solve it in the simplest manner?
practice - Social Media Tools, not Addictions
What if I could turn my greatest enemy, into my friend?
practicerelationships - Show, Don't Tell
It’s important to look at where our time, money, and talents are going, that way we know where our heart is truly at.
purpose - Dream Big, Start Small, Scale Up
Through what we build, what we say, and how we live, I believe each of us has the ability to inspire and change the world.
craftleadershippurpose - Priorities, Values, & Calling
Each season brings a new set of priorities. Recently, I started to shift my attention from my priorities to understanding my faith calling (a.k.a. values).
faithpurpose - Step Out To Stand Out
At work, I started to turn my camera on at big company calls đź“· (as in 100+ or all-company gatherings). The reason I started to do it was because I listened to a podcast that mentioned a perspective to take in order to achieve success. "To achieve what nobody has, you must do what nobody else does."
leadership - Help in Humility
I found myself forced to do one of the things I disliked most: asking for help. When it comes to sending a message to ask for help, I struggle with formulating the right words to ask a question. Overanalysis, overthinking, and obsession over the intention of what I send stops me from moving past my discomfort of sending the question.
relationships - Rest Amidst Unfinished Work
Have you ever thought about how when we die, how many unfinished things we’ll have? 🤔 Whether it’s small things like organizing the closet, or big things like finishing a side project or hobby, in the end, we will have much-unfinished work.
craftpurpose - Shedding the Image
When I lead, many times I feel like I need to uphold an image. Though it is fun playing around with the idea of becoming like these leaders, the problem with chasing after so many different ideals was that I easily lose myself and forget who I am.
leadership - Real Over Right
Leadership is hard. As someone who is obsessed with leadership topics, I find myself burdened by the never-ending list of expectations that I feel are implicitly expected of leaders. But people would rather follow a leader that’s real, than a leader that’s right.
leadershiprelationships - Keep the End in Mind
As someone who personally struggles with leadership, whether it’s leading a bible study or making decisions in a startup, I’ve been inspired to keep the end in mind.
careerfaithleadershippracticepurpose - Spiritual Embodiment
Our spiritual lives are heavily influenced by our physical and emotional well-being.
faithhealthleadership - Unconcious Inspiration
There have been many people who have inspired me through their words of encouragement. Words that motivated me to pursue coding, enter into entrepreneurship, and serve as a leader in my church.
careercraftfaithleadershiprelationships - Dreams and Aspirations
I grew up with a lot of different dreams. Each of these dreams was inspired based on the season I was going through.
leadershippurposereflection - Practical Intentionality
When productivity becomes pure autopilot, the question shifts from why to how — and recovering intentionality means slowing down enough to reconnect task execution with actual purpose and conviction.
practicepurpose - Stretched Thin
An all-nighter, a storm of deadlines and ministry demands, and the quiet discovery that running on your own resolve only gets you so far. The moments of being stretched to the limit are the ones that point most clearly to where real strength comes from.
health - Storms are Temporary
A reminder that life can bring storms, and they are challenging, but they will end eventually. In hindsight, everything will make sense and it will be a growing experience.
reflection - Grateful Fatigue
After the workout, and a chill nights rest, I woke up feeling stiff and uncomfortable. I tried to lift my arms up to stretch, and felt the sharp sting of pain enter my right elbow. I looked down and tried to bend it, but it wouldn’t budge.
healthpurpose - Blessed Mentorship
Playing both mentor and mentee across work, church, and entrepreneurship, Eric reflects on why intentional investment in someone else changes both people in ways that only become visible in hindsight.
careerfaithleadershipreflectionrelationships - Tennis Talk
I learned a lot about tennis rating systems from my friend, as well as the competitiveness of tennis. Essentially you’re ranked against the world, and most people who try to get into the field start as early as their teen years, skip college to compete, and only the top 100+ people can maintain a tennis career as a salary.
careerpracticereflectionrelationships - Family Zoom Time
I think the biggest takeaway is that if I feel I have a stake in the conversation or great enough reason to speak up, I would.
reflectionrelationships - Your Reflection is a Perceived Lie
Did you know, when you look in the mirror or a video call, who you see every day is a mirrored view of what everyone sees?
reflection - Gracious Hospitality
Two weeks between apartments, crashing with friends, becomes a front-row view of what generous hospitality actually looks like — and a challenge to give that same welcome to others.
relationships - Closing a Chapter
After an exhausting all-night move-out, packing four years of memories from his first apartment, Eric reflects on what it means to close one chapter and carry what matters forward into the next.
reflection - Freedom to Learn
Freed from syllabi and tests, learning becomes an adventure rather than an obligation. A reminder to follow your curiosity and explore topics well outside your primary field.
careerpurpose - Learning Limits
Saying yes to everything is really saying no to something else — learning to recognize personal limits and push back on overcommitment is how burnout gets stopped before it starts.
health - Lifelong Commitment
Marriage is not a contract or a romantic endpoint — it is a covenant, an imitation of the unconditional love God extended to His people even when they failed Him.
faithrelationships - Accepting Imperfection
Binge-reading a webtoon revealed how chasing perfection is really a form of self-focus, and that accepting your own limits — asking for help, learning from mistakes — is where genuine growth actually starts.
relationships - Faithfulness
Growing out a man bun during quarantine became an unexpected lesson in faithfulness — the same small daily disciplines that keep hair healthy are what it takes to show up well at work and in life.
faithhealth - Relieving Unrelieved Stress
The problem is rarely the amount of stress itself — it is the stress that never gets released. Finding consistent, healthy outlets makes the difference between tension that accumulates and tension that gets processed.
healthpractice - The Power of Why
When metrics and comparison creep in, it is easy to lose the original reason you started something — which is why returning to your why is not optional, it is the work.
purpose - Stepping Out of Privilege, Out of Injustice, Into Grace
A bike ride past police officers became a window into the daily reality that Black friends carry, and it challenged a comfortable silence. Examining privilege and choosing to step toward justice and grace is a responsibility that does not stop at awareness.
faithrelationships - How God Views Us
Baking from scratch — cookies, pizza dough, homemade tortillas — becomes a window into how God views His creation: with the same pride and joy a maker feels for something poured into with care.
faith - Peace Amidst Transition
From surgery and job loss to quarantine and roommates moving out, a year of back-to-back transitions revealed one consistent source of peace: letting go of the need for control and trusting that God holds what you cannot.
faith - Teaching is Learning Twice
Teaching is one of the fastest ways to move from knowing something in theory to truly understanding it — including the gaps you did not know you had.
faith - True Expression
Learning to express yourself authentically means shedding the image of who you think you should be and returning to the foundation of who God made you to be.
faith - Powerful Prayer
A prayer for lonely people — forgotten by the time the next day arrived — was answered anyway, a reminder that the power of prayer lives entirely in the One who hears it, not the one who says it.
faithrelationships - Serious Silly Love
A season of chasing effectiveness and leadership stripped away a core part of personality: the ability to simply enjoy people without an agenda. Relearning how to be silly and present is what it actually looks like to love well.
leadershiprelationships - Submit and Simply Trust
Quarantine became an unexpected space for reckoning with years of slowly distancing from God by demanding explanations before trust. Relearning childlike faith — submitting what cannot be controlled — opened the door to a relationship that had grown too complicated to feel real.
faithrelationships - Breaking Out of the Shell
Quarantine gave Eric a clearer picture of his limits but also made him passive; this is his honest account of trying to break out of that comfort zone, starting with small acts of care toward others.
reflection - Grace and Sovereignty
Three weeks into quarantine, the pressure of uncontrollable change becomes a lesson in two things: receiving grace instead of measuring yourself against who you were before, and trusting that God is sovereign even when the season makes no sense.
faith - The New Norm and Rest
When quarantine stripped away the busyness, a new kind of stillness settled in — one that turned out to be less of a disruption and more of an invitation to rest.
practicepurpose - Unity and Learning
A global crisis revealed an unexpected kind of unity — and forced the kind of stillness that makes real learning possible, if you are willing to sit with the questions it raises.
relationships - Worship in the Storm
When life spirals into chaos and relief feels out of reach, the practice of worship is not an escape from the storm — it is the anchor that holds you steady inside it.
faithpractice - Balancing Energy and Trust
Juggling the demands of early working life means learning what drains you, protecting the time you need to recharge, and trusting that God holds the season ahead even when it feels uncertain.
faith - Devotions
Daily devotions require a deliberate choice to block off time with God's Word — a practice that is easy to deprioritize but, when kept faithfully, produces fruit both inwardly and in how you love others.
faithpractice - Faith and Freedom
Believing in God is one thing — actually living in freedom from the identity He gives you is another. A reflection on what it means to move truth from the head down into the heart.
faithreflectionrelationships - Calling, Identity, and Stewardship
A church retreat on calling clarified a core truth: each person is a finite expression of an infinite God, and faithfully stewarding the gifts, hardships, and passions He provides is how we prepare for greater responsibility.
faithpurpose - Enneagrams, Knowing Self, and Sacrifice
Learning your Enneagram type deepens self-awareness, but it also exposes a surprising tension: the better you know yourself, the harder it becomes to choose sacrifice for others.
relationships - Fasting, Work, and Retreat
A church fast becomes an unexpected catalyst for openness — turning a moment of hunger into a conviction to share faith with coworkers and head into a weekend retreat asking bigger questions about calling.
faithpurpose - 2020 Goals
Eric sets his 2020 aspirations — 12 books, 12 posts, 4 ventures, and 2 speaking events — while anchoring the year in a theme of Focus and Rest, prioritizing faith over accomplishment.
careerfaithpurposerelationships - Reflection of 2019
A look back at the wins and hard lessons of 2019 that shaped a two-word theme to carry into the new year: Focus and Rest. Setting a guiding theme is one of the simplest and most underrated ways to direct how you live.
practicepurposereflection - Season of Disobedience
How can a leader lead if their heart is not for what they follow?
leadershippurpose - Reflection of the El Paso Shooting
The news didn’t register quick enough and before I knew it, it slid swiftly by.
reflection - Negativity Redeemed
I tend to look at myself with a low regard, and expectations that seem almost disgusting. What is it about this juxtaposition? Why do I do this to myself Something is wrong with how I approach this insecurity.
reflection - A Rant to Stir Up a Dead Heart For God
How can we chase after pointless and empty dreams that lead to despair? Why do we mindlessly pursue after the many broken pieces in life that are insignificant — like grains of sand that struggle to fill the gaping hole of desire in our hearts — when there is a spring that brings about the living water of life which desires to completely engulf the darkness and fill us with peace, joy, hope, and love?
faithpurpose - Well-Read Faith
If anyone is able to turn people’s desires towards Him through reading the words of faith by others, it can only be Him
faithrelationships - Misplaced Affections
Have you ever felt those moments where you don’t want to exert energy to be noticed by people? To be isolated and alone. At the same time, the embracing feeling of loneliness sparks a desire to be reached out to, even with the paradox of running away?
healthrelationships - What Do You Do?
What do you do when the world seems to go against you?
purpose - Do They Care?
Have you ever felt those moments where you don’t want to exert energy to be noticed by people? To be isolated and alone. At the same time, the embracing feeling of loneliness sparks a desire to be reached out to, even with the paradox of running away?
healthrelationships - Grace-Filled Communication
I’ve always approached listening to people to understand where they’re coming from.
faithrelationships - All about God’s Grace
I see my imperfection so clearly. Whether it’s maintaining friendships, finishing my work, cleaning my apartment, cooking meals for myself, following after God, or living life day by day, I see so many ways I couldn’t meet a certain standard. Things I should’ve improved on, but became after-thoughts that were never acted upon.
faithrelationships - Praying for More Prayer
Prayer is our communication with God. As communication is important in any worldly relationship, prayer is important in our spiritual relationship with God. Many things can hurt or further grow our relationships: whether it’s having small talk, sharing a story or life update, telling about your day, fighting over a belief or value, or making amends and asking for forgiveness.
faithreflectionrelationships - Guilty but Guiltless
Free from guilt and experiencing freedom from guilt are two different things.
faith - Final Lessons & Thoughts
My last UTCS blog post—seven life lessons from college on journaling, saying no, building habits, community, and learning to be imperfect.
collegecraftfaithpracticereflectionrelationships - Going Down the Rabbit Hole
On chasing curiosity down unexpected paths — using Alice's rabbit hole as a metaphor for diving deep into something you can't fully see the end of.
reflectioncollegepractice - Exercise it Out
After too many GDC all-nighters and hunchbacked computer sessions, a realization: physical health is foundational to succeeding in everything else.
collegehealthpracticereflection - Wholesome Hacks
A roundup of small but meaningful life practices — wholesome hacks for staying physically and mentally well-rounded in the middle of a demanding college schedule.
collegehealthpracticepurpose - Interviewing on the Side
Walking into an interview with a full head of thoughts — how preparation, nerves, and presence shape the outcome on both sides of the table.
careercollegecraft - Farewell for Now: A Break from Entrepreneurship
A deliberate decision to step out of the entrepreneurship season — reflecting on what prompted the choice and what comes next after leaving it behind.
careercollegeleadershippracticepurposereflection - Working in Niches: Why It's Good to Know
Following up on broad uncertainty: why finding and working within a specific niche — rather than staying wide — builds real depth and opens unexpected doors.
careercollegecraft - Broad Fields of Uncertainty: It's Okay Not to Know
Entering college without knowing what CS even was — a reflection on how uncertainty about your path is normal, and how curiosity becomes the compass when there's no map.
collegereflectionpurpose - Going Historical
With most required CS courses checked off, finally choosing electives freely — and why a history course opened an unexpected window into learning and campus life.
collegereflectioncraft - New Year Reflection
After a nonstop semester packed with meetings, projects, and entrepreneurial events — taking a breath, looking back at what mattered, and setting intentions for a more deliberate year.
careercollegecraftpurposereflection - One Desire Fast 2018
With all these thoughts on my mind, you can tell one of the hardest things I wrestle with during this 2-week period is knowing where my heart is at. The question I always have to ask is: What is my intention behind this fast?
faithpurpose - Cling to God and Biblical Community
What is the connection between personal relationship with God, vulnerability, and biblical community?
faithrelationships - Entrepreneurship Life Update
A semester recap of my winding path through Austin's startup scene—joining and leaving two startups, sitting in the in-between, and finally finding Crash Cook Off at 3 Day Startup.
careercollege - Run Strong
Coming back from Thanksgiving break with nothing done and no regrets—choosing rest over grinding, then gearing up to finish the semester like a marathon.
collegehealthpurposereflection - Helpless Prayer
Do you ever feel selfish whenever you ask someone else to pray for you?
faith - A Letter from Yourself to Take a Break
A letter written to myself (and anyone else running on empty) making the case for actually resting over Thanksgiving break instead of grinding through it.
collegehealthpurposereflection - Overloaded Decisions
Confessing my pattern of saying yes to everything—cramming courses, hackathons, orgs, recruiting—and how a summer mission trip finally taught me to aim before I fire.
collegecraftfaithpracticereflection - Interview Shenanigans
A tour through every interview format—coding challenges, phone screens, video calls, whiteboarding—and learning to stop performing for companies and just aim to be better than yesterday.
careercollegecraftreflection - Speak Now
Honestly, standing in front of a group of people and being able to relay ideas, thoughts, or concepts is so difficult, especially when there are so many distracting factors that come into play. Here are 7 insights that inspire me to speak publicly.
leadershiprelationships - Learned Teaching
Spending two hours teaching Git at a hackathon and realizing I never truly understood it myself—a case for the Feynman technique and learning through teaching.
collegecraft - Hackathon Transformation
How hackathons became the gateway into entrepreneurship—shifting from 24-hour sprints to building something for the long run.
careercollegecraft - What About Him?
When I went up to Michigan in the middle of September, I was so excited! But something was wrong. Michigan holds a special place in my heart — a place where I think about friends, food, and memories. But nowhere during the time had I thought about Him. Jesus. God. The Father. The Creator.
faithreflectionrelationships - Food and Swag that Matters
A playful reminder to look past the free t-shirts and BBQ at CS events and actually engage with what they offer—mentors, learning, interviews, and real connections.
careercollegeleadershipreflectionrelationships - Busy Reflection
Processing a season of busyness and the disorientation that comes with it—and why turning toward community instead of clinging to feelings is what reorients me.
collegefaithpracticereflectionrelationships - A Story of Great Change
As I returned from my mission trip up in Michigan at the end of summer, I felt unsure in what the future held for my church.
faithreflection - Intentional Recruiting
Shifting from shotgunning resumes at every booth to recruiting with intention—researching company values, culture, and mission to find a fit worth rooting into.
careercollegefaithpurposereflection - What's Your Vision?
Coming back from a summer mission trip in Michigan with a new question—why do I do what I do?—and drafting my first lifetime vision statement.
collegefaithpurposereflection - What’s Your Story?
Who are you? How did you come to be here? What drives you to be you?
reflection - "Heart Check" Me Out God
The hardest struggle regarding my faith is making sure my intentions are clear — where is my heart at when I do something? Whether it’s worshipping, praying, or fellowshipping with others, I wrestle with being fully present in the moment and wholly dedicating my time to God.
faithpurpose - God Works Without You
This past Sunday, I went to a Christian benefits concert, Helping Hands, and I didn’t experience God.
faithreflectionrelationships - Only Through Him
This past summer, I spent time up in Michigan doing a missions trip, doing an after school program for a high school in the Southeast part of Detroit During that time, I was challenged a lot in my faith, facing faith-crises and working through many insecurities that God revealed in my life.
faithreflection - Return of the Summer
Back from two months of missions in Ann Arbor and Detroit, reuniting with Austin, and looking ahead to junior year with a season of investment.
collegefaith - Loneliness in Summer
One of the things I dislike the most is unstructured free time over break. As much as it’s relaxing and I get to sleep in for more than 8 hours a day (which I rarely get to do at school, if at all), it can be mind-numbing for me to not have something to look forward to do for the day. In fact, many times I feel very lonely during this free time.
relationships - The End?
A final retrospective on SWE with Prof. Downing: the smooth early projects, the hard group work, the Python learning, and the takeaways.
collegecraft - Finishing off Sophomore Slump
An end-of-sophomore-year recap—cramming Texas history, surviving OS, running 100 miles, organizing hackathons, and looking ahead to junior year.
collegecrafthealthreflection - Pre-Exam Life
EarthHack's Pick It Up project using computer vision, coding a Gmail API script for a church grad night video, and prepping for SWE and Gov exams.
collegecraftfaithpurpose - Leaping Through the Closed Door
I found that my lack of experience and knowledge when initially working in JavaScript had stopped me from wanting to work with it. I realized that if I hadn’t been forced to program in JavaScript, though, I never would’ve opened myself up to working on the language in the future, if ever.
reflection - #ProcrastinationThoughts
Writing a blog post about procrastination while procrastinating on a final project—digging into why I avoid work and what urgency actually looks like when it shows up.
collegecraftreflection - Writer's Unblock Week
Organizing Music Hacks, publishing a UTCS faculty profile, completing SWE Phase 3, and registering for fall classes including Korean.
collegecraft - Hack Tech Organizer Life
Behind the scenes of organizing Music Hacks with Freetail Hackers—from API directories and t-shirt iterations to accidentally crashing the site on hackathon day.
collegecraft - A story about more than just bunnies and eggs
If I, who claim to be a Christian, am timid when it comes to sharing my testimony with people of the same faith, how in the world am I able to share the story God wrote in my life to others?
faithreflectionrelationships - Music Hacks
Implementing Flask-Whooshee for SWE search, organizing Music Hacks, and learning that alone time is sometimes the right destressor.
collegerelationships - Molded Into Life
Building the SWE Flask API, debugging a GCP deployment issue, and reflecting on overcommitment and what actually matters.
collegecraftreflection - Reflection
Realizing I'd spent over a year in CS chasing grades instead of learning—and the slow shift toward checking the heart behind the intention.
collegereflection - Arms Are Heavy
Algo and Gov exams, meeting Palantir, drafting a UTCS faculty article, and realizing how little code I was actually writing.
collegecraft - How to Hackathon
A practical walkthrough of hackathon strategy—brainstorming under pressure, building a diverse team, and making sure the presentation does justice to a sleepless night of work.
collegecraft - Back From Break
Catching up after Spring Break, shipping the SWE website, and navigating a paranoid game of Assassins with Freetail Hackers.
collegecraft - Who Needs A Break
Spring Break camping in Texas, winning the SXSW hackathon with Credit Writer, and a staycation with church friends.
collegecraftfaithrelationships - Is This The Real Life
Winning Mobile Track at HackUTD with SensorStrike, planning the SWE website project team, and previewing a second short story.
collegecraftreflection - Hack Life
From hating hackathons to falling in love with them—and joining Freetail Hackers to organize one myself.
collegecraftrelationships - Crazy Week
SWE Test 1 prep, joining FreeTail Hackers Tech Team, cooking Gordon Ramsay sliders, and studying Algo as a dynamic programming cache.
college - Free Food!!!
The original version of my CS event swag rant—watching students stampede a recruiter's table and reflecting on the privilege we take for granted as CS majors.
collegecareerreflection - Fully Booked
Algo exam regrets over a wasted 20 minutes on a counterexample, finishing a short story without a conclusion, and wondering if there's room for everything.
collegereflection - Software Crisis
A mid-college crisis at the career fair—choosing a mission trip over an internship, discovering a love for teaching through proctoring, and questioning whether the industry is really where I belong.
careerfaithcollegereflection - Working It All Out
Algo problem-sets, Netflix finished early, SWE group coordination for Spring Break, and the decision to do missions instead of internships this summer.
careercollegefaithpractice - Sound of my Heart
Church retreat debt, tedious Algo proofs, interviewing a UTCS professor on OS research, and changing a fiction story from zombies to tribal artists.
careercollegefaithreflection - Not My Problem
Proctoring OOP and getting frustrated by lazy questions—then realizing the frustration is really with my past self, and making the case for owning what you don't know.
collegecraftreflection - Problem Acquired
Liquids week of the One-Desire fast, IM basketball while running on empty, and learning to treat spec changes like real industry pressure.
collegefaithhealth - Out of My Field
A pitch for CS majors to take non-CS classes—social dance, fiction writing, interpersonal communication—and how stepping outside the major builds you as a person.
collegecraftreflectionrelationships - Write On Time
Week one of a One-Desire meat fast, finishing Collatz after 15 hours of wrong optimization, and writing four simultaneous blogs at once.
collegecraftfaith - New Season, New Me
Coming back from winter break after a brutal semester and wrestling with the comparison trap—choosing to step into a new season instead of staying bound by old insecurities.
collegepurposereflection - Back At It Again
Back from Taiwan with a reset sleep schedule, starting Algorithms and Software Engineering, and proctoring OOP for the first time.
college - Rest and JavaScript
Five days of JavaScript30, designing a social dance app with microservices, and a spiritual fast from YouTube and social media.
collegefaithpurposereflectionrelationships - Winter with Code
Studying OS with Feynman's method, unboxing a Black Friday Echo Dot, and planning side projects for winter break.
collegecraft - Stress-Free or Free-Stress?
Five finals-week survival tips—planned breaks, hot chocolate, honest venting, study groups, and letting it go once the exam is done.
collegereflection - Week Sixteen – Dis is Finals
The hardest week of semester: an ER visit from stress and anxiety, the toughest OOP exam yet, and finishing everything just barely.
college - Help! I Can Do it Myself.
Learning to ask for help after spending three days on a problem a coworker fixed in five minutes—and finding the balance between cheap help and expensive help.
careercollegereflection - Week Fourteen – Thanksgivings
Thanksgiving break: real sleep, teahouse visits, a new bike, and the OS project hovering in the background the whole time.
collegecraft - The Perfect Language
Spoiler: there isn't one. A walkthrough of languages across classes, hackathons, and jobs to show that the right language depends on what problem you're trying to solve.
collegecraft - Week Thirteen – Chill-ish Week
Wrapping up OS Project 3 and the OOP Life project, narrowly missing a bike at a silent auction, and mixed feelings about the semester ending.
collegecraft - What's up Doc?
A case for code documentation born from a frustrating hackathon with an undocumented game engine—addressing every excuse I used to have for skipping it.
collegecraft - Week Twelve – Moodify Hack
Winning People's Choice and Best Technical at Indigitous #Hack with a music sentiment analysis app, then getting nominated to compete globally.
collegerelationships - 3 Reasons Why Python > Java
A lighthearted case for Python over Java after my first full Python project at the Indigitous #Hack hackathon—covering dynamic typing, the interactive interpreter, and easy library management.
collegecraftleadership - Week Eleven - Code Withdrawal
Studying for the OS exam on a whiteboard, setting up VirtualBox out of code withdrawal, and the sophomore slump making itself known.
collegecraft - Week Ten - Week for the Weak
HackTX brainstorming, the Darwin project's big lesson: 60% design makes everything else easier, and the 50th anniversary UTCS celebration.
collegecraft - Hackathon Craze
My very first UTCS blog post—a rundown of why hackathons are worth the sleep deprivation, from free food and swag to learning, building, and making friends at 3 AM.
collegecraftrelationships - Week Nine - Garbage Point
Finishing OOP's Allocator project ahead of schedule, dereferencing a pointer I'd already seen and ignored, and Downing's best analogies yet.
collegecraft - Week Eight - Eat, Work, Blog, Sleep
Landing a UTCS blogger job, a 3-day OS bug hiding in a single line of C type declaration, and a rough week shadowed by a friend's passing.
collegecraftrelationships - Week Seven - Balance to an Extension
Balancing the OOP exam on Canvas, an OS Stack assignment full of memcpy surprises, and a constant tug-of-war between requirements and what matters more.
college - Week Six - Hard-Aware Hack
TAMUHack: hardware-hacking our way from an Intel Smart Glove to a virtual air drum set that won People's Choice and Best Technical awards.
collegerelationships - Week Five - Hack my Life Away
A 4AM coding session in the lab and HackGT at Georgia Tech — building Hungry Cats over 36 sleepless hours with an undocumented Android game engine.
collegecraft - Week Four - Discovering the Lab
Finding the tight-knit CS lab community, finishing the first OS shell project, and starting a Netflix cache project with a partner.
collegecraftrelationships - Week Three - Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!
Debugging Collatz with Docker, Travis CI, and stray merge conflicts — plus dancing scheduling algorithms in front of a 439 lecture hall.
college - Week Two - Let the projects begin!
Learning MATLAB and LaTeX, juggling C++ and OS projects, and discovering a typing-based note-taking method that actually works.
collegecraft - Week One - Starting the Sophomore Semester (Not Slump)
First week of sophomore year at UT Austin: installing Docker, writing C linked lists, revamping a resume, and teaching social dance.
careercollegecraftrelationships