“So uh..What do you do?”

You’re at a gathering. A person holding a vodka martini (or a yerba mate if you’re in a party full of Andrew Huberman fans) approaches you, trying to start a casual conversation with the classic line of “what do you do?”

You probably say, 'Oh, I’m an engineer,' or 'I work in tech,' or 'I’m an entrepreneur.' That’s how normal people answer this question anyway.

The person laughed, now looking sternly at you: 'No, I mean, what do you do?'

What’s your answer?

The easy way out of this scenario is to simply answer it with what you do for a living, and it’s a perfectly acceptable answer! But if you are like me, answering the question simply with your occupation feels hollow and disingenuous. I have worked in tech for 8 years and have done marketing. But whenever I describe what I do as as 'I work in tech,' it feels like I’m being deceptive.

I am more than what's shown on my business card or LinkedIn profile. What do I actually do? I do a lot of random things! I do powerlifting (I’m training for a competition this year!), I started a band and mess around with music, I write comedy, and so much more.

I’m a whole human, and so are you.

I have become Walt, container of multitudes

It took me a while to notice, but I am always deeply fascinated by people with multiple “identities”:

• a neurologist who is also a powerlifter

• a Hollywood actress who is also an inventor

• a rockstar who is also a Python engineer

• a pro baseball Hall of Famer who’s also a professional photographer

Long before the phrase became a meme, “I contain multitudes” was first mentioned in the poem “Song of Myself, 51” by poet, essayist, and wartime nurse, Walt Whitman.

This article by Penguin Books (apparently they blog?) articulately describes the subtext of the poem and how modern readers can relate to it:

“Our brands have become prisons; we established masks, and when they slip, when our multitudes peek out, we yearn still to be accepted, to be seen. ‘I contain multitudes’ is a cry for help, its subtext: ‘I am not just faves and retweets, not just memes and irreverence; I am human!’”

Too often, we feel the need to stick with the default mask we involuntarily wear, usually taking the shape of our occupation, day job, and career.

We’re reluctant to switch masks because we feel it would stain the identity we’ve so tirelessly established. Experimenting with novel things—even though there’s a strong urge in your gut to do so—feels treacherous, and branching out feels like a betrayal of your brand.

What’s in it for me?

Building up the confidence to go out and try new stuff can be pretty daunting. The lingering doubts are obvious: Is it even worth it? What’s in it for me? I am but one person with limited time in this world; I don’t have time to try out random shit. I am an adult with responsibilities, goddammit.

In his book “Range”, author David Epstein—the good Epstein—highlighted the uphill battle of challenging the notion of specialization:

“The challenge we all face is how to maintain the benefits of breadth, diverse experience, interdisciplinary thinking, and delayed concentration in a world that increasingly incentivizes, even demands, hyperspecialization.”

When you do one thing over and over, the path that lies before you looks straightforward and safe enough. In a world that keeps demanding instant gratification, it has become worryingly easy to sacrifice our curiosity in exchange for some wobbly certainty.

One particular motivation for me to start this newsletter is to force myself to dig and expose the evidence that acting on your creative and curious urge to experiment with multiple disciplines will actually make you happier, more fulfilled, and quite possibly, wealthier.

If you’re someone who puts building wealth as a priority and believes that hyper-specialization is the surest path to do so, think again. In fact, I believe spending time and energy on the creative and curious pursuits you do outside your work will feed back into your career and happiness."

In Steve Jobs’ now-classic Stanford commencement speech, a particular section has been famously and repeatedly quoted by thought leaders and creators of motivational wallpapers alike.:

"If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

Steve followed his curiosity, and it led him to building Apple.

I’m not saying that you following your gut to do oil paintings will lead to the next multi-billion dollar company, but if building wealth is your #1 priority, I would argue cultivating diverse experience and following your creative urge is a more sane way to do that.

What’s “touch grass”?

If you’re chronically online as I am, chances are you’re familiar with the term. But in case you’re normal, here you go:

How you make your living is part of your reality. Absolutely no denying it. But 99% of the time, they are not your whole reality.

When we’re hyper-focused on only one aspect of reality, our vision narrows down to a tunnel, where problems, challenges, and roadblocks loom large, magnified in our direct line of sight. Meanwhile, the vibrant aspects of life that exist in our periphery start to blur, passing us by almost unnoticed.

These fleeting, colorful glimpses are life itself and the richness it has to offer.

The good news is, there’s always room to start playing around with a pocket of reality where you can be a musician, a writer, an athlete, or anything you want to be. The universe is way more malleable than you think.

This newsletter is as much a reminder for myself as it is for other readers to try and make a dent in our reality by trying out new and weird stuff. I plan to write about my thoughts about embracing playfulness, curiosity, exploration, and other ideas that I believe will pop up as I go.

Now, back to the person holding a vodka martini (or yerba mate). How would you answer their question now?

Here are some prompts: Outside of your work, who are you? What defines you? What are you curious about? What is the one thing you do that you can’t stop talking about, in the hopes of getting other people excited about it too?

If you’re still not sure, that’s fine. We’re in this together. This is a reminder to get up, touch grass, and do something weird with your life.

I’ll be your biggest fan.

Let’s roll.

Thanks for reading!

This is the very first edition of Touch Grass. If you’re interested in being reminded to touch grass every now and then, please subscribe!

If we haven’t, let’s also connect on Twitter/X! See you around!