1. What's the worst that can happen? When it comes to creating worst case scenarios, my imagination is particularly vivid. My creativity kicks into high gear as I think about all the awful consequences that can follow from a simple decision gone wrong. I can visualize, in intricate detail, how life as I know it will come to a swift end from a bad blog post, a botched podcast episode, or a dumb question I asked. But, as the Stoic philosopher Seneca reminds us, “we suffer more in imagination ...| Ozan Varol
Until recently, rocket science was considered the exclusive domain of governments. Only powerful states had the know-how and resources required to launch a rocket into the cosmic ocean. When Elon Musk began shopping for a rocket that he could launch to Mars, he quickly realized that the price was astronomical--as high as $65 million (and he would have needed at least two, bringing the cost to $130 million). Additionally, this price tag was for the rocket alone. He also would have had to pay f...| Ozan Varol
I recently developed what I would consider a healthy obsession with the poetry of Nayyirah Waheed. I’ve never been a poetry-reading person—making room only for the occasional Rumi—which is somewhat ironic since my first name (Ozan) is Turkish for poet. Yet, the simplicity of Waheed’s poems—and her healthy disregard for poetry’s traditional rules—struck a deep chord with me. Consider this one: “would you still want to travel to that country if you could not take a camera with y...| Ozan Varol
Back in 2010, I made a life-altering decision. At the time, I was a practicing lawyer at a litigation firm in San Francisco. I loved living in the Bay Area and working with a great group of lawyers, but I had grown tired of thinking of my life in six-minute billable increments. I began thinking about leaving the practice of law entirely and entering academia. I spent months agonizing over the decision, manufacturing every pro-and-con list imaginable, and consulting numerous people (who inevit...| Ozan Varol
