TheListServe Blog

Here, take the reins to the last months of my twenties. No, for realz. Play ‘Choose your own Adventure’ with a real person. I am prepared to leave my job, my city and my friends to live out the path constructed by The Listserve’s collected trail markers. By relinquishing control of my time I want to weave a string of experiences that will connect this group of minds in a way that might change more lives than just my own. I will create and document this journey that brings The Listserve’s ideas to life. I have a couple months and a couple grand I’m willing to invest in this adventure. Keep this in mind when suggesting hot-air balloon piloting or hiking from Patagonia to Alaska. Otherwise, share the things that move your soul. I want to show how much life can be lived with very little. In my travels I've been to the Maha Kumbh Mela in India and walked 7km to bathe in the Ganges with millions upon millions of other people. I've been held at gunpoint by government soldiers in Conak...

Well, not yet. But I'm going there. I am changing my life from an average manager to an airline pilot. TLDR: Go fly!  
I'm writing this at 36000 feet while Aeroflot A330 flies me to JFK from Moscow. This is my fourth flight to the US in the past 12 months. This week I will have my commercial and multiengine pilot check rides. This will be the end of a first step of becoming a professional pilot - something I wouldn't believe just 2 years ago.

They say money is the force that makes airplanes fly. But it also takes passion. And support from family.

Just over two years ago I was a 31-years old well-paid manager in the booming Russian Internet industry. I had a childish dream of flying, and I shared it with a woman I'd just started to date. But I had never made a single step towards my dream before. She wanted me to be happy so she gave me a present - a 30 minutes ride on a powerful soviet propeller-driven Yak-18T. And that was the beginning of a new me. I married this wo...

All right listen here you disgusting slimy wogs, My name's Kevin, and I write you from USS WAYNE E. MEYER, a US Navy destroyer currently just getting started on a lengthy deployment in the Pacific. I'm new to the Navy- I showed up to the ship two days before we deployed a month ago- so I don't have loads of sea stories, but I've figured a little bit out. So what does the US Navy do on deployment? We spend a lot of time training- far more than I would have guessed prior to coming aboard. Damage control scenarios, man overboard scenarios, practice gun shoots, briefs, and constant, non-stop flights by the helos embarked for the length of the deployment- it makes for a pretty busy schedule! But we're out here to perform a variety of missions- to reassure our allies of our commitment to the region, help keep the sea open for international trade, respond to any crises slash natural disasters that might arise, and more- so we have lots of training to do to be prepared. Any...

Hi everyone, I have chosen a whole number between 1 and 200, inclusive. Please respond once to listsurfinusa[AT]gmail.com with your guess of my number! Also include three words in your response if you are able to think of that many. I will make a beautiful song for each person who guesses correctly by the deadline (23:00 UTC on 4/28/2014). The song will incorporate the words. I'll post the songs to SoundCloud, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts with username listsurfinusa, and I will announce the number on Monday, April 28 on those sites. I won't publish anyone's email address. Don't be afraid to look after your health. Go the extra mile to understand where your friends, loved ones, and acquaintances are coming from. Realize when you are wasting time and change it. Be confident because wow I have never met someone so great as you. Have a wonderful day~~ ミ ͡°◞౪◟ ͡°ミ Italo listsurfinusa[AT]gmail.com Austin, TX

I keep a photo at my desk of a smiling 17 year old showing off the stitches imprinted on her elbow from where she got hit by a pitch hours earlier. I coach high school softball in the spring, and that afternoon, Ky was beamed in the elbow by the fastest pitcher in our Regional. Getting hit really pissed her off, so she stole second and third base on the next two pitches. The fire in her eyes is one of my favorite coaching memories. Ky loved the sport. She worked hard, always asking me to hit a few extra fly balls at the end of practices in the summer. She was incredibly goofy, bringing infectious laughter to the whole team, and was loved dearly by everyone. On a sunnySunday afternoon, Kylie lost control of her vehicle. She wasn't speeding. She wasn't texting or talking on her cell phone. A millisecond sooner or later and she would have missed the tree that took her life. There isn't anything to blame or a cause to get behind that would have prevented her accident. There is ...

Hi. I'm graduating from college in a couple weeks. I'm scared. I'm excited. Maybe more excited than scared. I'll be honest, I'm looking forward to actually having money. I'll miss beer pong though...I don't think you can be a real adult if you keep playing beer pong. Class of 2014 is ready to kick some ass. Unrelated: if you want to talk about music or programming shoot me an email, I happen to love both of those things. Patrick patrick.thelistserve[AT]gmail.com USA

Hey happy campers, Ever had a "Heart of Darkness" moment? Where you find yourself peering down a very black tunnel, looking for a glimpse of light. But instead of light, you see your darkest self? You know the one. Though you won't want to admit it. Not even you, that gave birth to this creature, can bear to look at it. You've hidden it from even your closest, dearest, most intimate friend, lover, partner, self. The chill grabs your gut, freezes your brain, stops your heart. You, at your worst, when nothing can stop you from destroying everything you've tried to create. Method, reason, love, ideals... all cancers you must, this very moment, root out and obliterate. You struggle to understand, but it's stronger than you. It doesn't matter how you approach this moment: THIS moment has no compassion, no logic, no morals. This is decay, entropy, nothing. Christianity without resurrection, Islam without Allah, Buddhism without enlightment, you without any re...

...so get over it and enjoy yourself. Also, change all your passwords - search for heartbleed. Chris chisserve[AT]gmail.com London

I often get asked why I pursue social justice. My mother was super involved in extra-curriculars (PTA, Girl Scouts, etc) but we never volunteered as a family. I've always been internally motivated - I found Alternative Spring Break my freshman year at University of Illinois. ASB is an organization that sends service learning trips for college students over academic breaks. The focus is more on education and changing the individuals on the trip than on service. I went on 7 trips in 5 years, issues ranging from Hunger and Homelessness to Youth Literacy to Environmental Issues, served on the planning board, and made friends that I can't imagine life without. I'm still involved in by serving on the Board of Directors for Break Away, overseeing the national movement of service learning trips and building lifelong active citizens. I get frustrated when so many smart brains spend their time building the next "What's for Lunch" Apps - so many people only see ...

Hello listservians! I was 48 years ago ( a few years ago, im 52 now) I was out of a job, but working for friends, scraping by, looking for another job, pretty stressed out (working in computer support, hating it) Overweight, didn't exercise, ate ok, but not the best. (Texas BBQ hard to pass up) Had a long suffering wife and a beautiful young daughter> my previous job was sitting in a chair 10 hours a day, helping others with computer issues. One night, after a big meal of brisket, I went to bed. My daughter, who was 8 at the time, came into our bed room a little scared of something and wanted to sleep in our bed. She had not done this in at least a year or so. I got up, let her slide in between my wife and I and, at this point I noticed my arm hurt, like I had slept on it funny. I decided to go downstairs for an advil, and by the time I had got downstairs, I was sweating and my fingers were going numb. I went back upstairs and google these two things. webMD only said "CALL ...

We were born in the 80s and 90s, a privileged generation riding the greatest economic boom in recorded history. They told us that specialization was for insects. As tomorrow's leaders, we should broaden our horizons with band and orchestra, soccer and swimming: without this cultural grounding, we'd be laughed out of Park Avenue, forced to work at a second-rate firm. Today, the second-rate firm is bankrupt and Park Avenue isn't hiring. We'd declare bankruptcy if it would wipe out our student debt. Our majors were English and History, Psychology and Sociology. We wanted to be well-rounded heirs to the economic throne. Now, we live with our parents. We are capable, but our education prepared us for the 20th century. We learned how to run shopping malls, not app stores. In 2014, even entry level positions are hard to come by. Without a PhD in Computer Science, how can we compete in the 21st century economy? – I've thought a lot about our generation's brutal underemp...

“...But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’ Don’t you see?...‘Thou mayest’! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.” Lee’s voice was a chant of triumph. Adam said, “Do you believe that, Lee?” “Yes, I do. Yes, I do. It is easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself into the lap of deity, saying, ‘I couldn’t help it; the way was set.’ But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness there...Confucius tells men how they should live to have good and successful lives. But this—this is a ladder to climb to the stars.” Lee’s e...

Recently I almost died. My esophagus tore open when I was cycling the Alpine Dam/Seven Sisters loop, just north of San Francisco. My chest blew up like a balloon. I went to the hospital that evening. They said I had about a 60% shot at making it more than a day or two. I was alone in the hospital all night. My extended family lives far away, and my wife couldn't leave work. That night I realized I'd never confronted what it meant to die. I'm a young guy, early 30s. At an intellectual level I know I won't live forever. And out of vanity and ego, I've always told myself that I'll die without fear and without regrets. It turns out that looming death makes that kind of knowledge cold comfort, and reveals the flimsiness of those self-perceptions. I was afraid I'd die alone and I regretted that I hadn't done more with my life. And most of all, I realized I didn't know how to die well. If I had gone that night, I would have gone out gasping and terrified, n...

1/ What I like to read in Listserve is quick stories about people, so here is mine : My life was a mess, I've been unemployed for years around my 30's, it was really hard for me to get out of this situation because I'm terrible at selling myself. Now my life is still a mess but I've found a good job so it's easier. I like spaghettis. 2/ Stop being selfish, seriously. I might cross your path someday and I don't like selfish people. 3/ I wish I had discovered sooner AFS (American Field Service - it's not what you think, if you think you can guess by the name, or if you think it's somehow related to spaghettis). 4/ When your story isn't interesting, add spaghettis. 5/ If necessary, add spaghettis to spaghettis. 6/ Spaghettis spaghettis spaghettis. Simeon Rouflaquette motocycleta[AT]gmail.com Paris

The odds of winning the listserve on your birthday are roughly 1.14 in 10 million, if that is not enough evidence that I'm one of the luckiest humans alive, I don't know what is; I received my winning email on the 13th of April, or my 17th Birthday. But well, speaking of odds, The incredibly low odds that a complex interaction of different chemical substances produced on the death of different stars would give rise to a conscious living organism who is currently writing an email to other fellow living organisms living on a tiny little rock orbiting a medium-sized star in a galaxy that contains between 100 and 400 billion stars make the 1.14 in 10 million figure just a cake-walk, so I'm probably not as lucky as I previously thought; Thanks Science for giving us the ability to accurately asses probabilities and for proving I'm not especially lucky at all.. Speaking of Science, I think that the solution to most human problems will come through technological advancements an...

In lieu of brute force, the terrorist uses fear. For fear is a great weapon. When you are afraid of your fellow passenger and suspect of your neighbor, that is when the terrorist has won. For he has turned society on itself. A terrorized society is not only decapacitated, but also vulnerable, simply because scared people are easy to manipulate. You will notice that, as a side-effect, power-hungry people will use your fear to gain power. What was once a real threat is now a perpetual bogeyman used to limit your freedom and further sustain your fear. So how do you fight terrorism? With strength. With cooperation. With self-confidence. With reliance in numbers. The terrorist does not have enough power to cause substantial damage. He can perform acts designed to induce fear, but in reality the probability of getting hurt is extremely small. Believe in that. Secondly: stick together. Don't let fear make you introvert. Talk to your fellow passenger and neighbor. Get to know them. This ...

Hello, my name is Ben Perlmutter. I graduated from Cornell University with a degree in computer science in 2012. I now work in presales for a software company in the Bay Area of California. I have a technical background but I my day-to-day is a sales role. Essentially, I am a sales consultant at Workday. I am from Big Sur, California. It is a beautiful tourist destination. If you ever go there, you need to stop at my family's restaurant, the Big Sur River Inn. I went to Cornell University. There I sang in the Glee Club (60 voice male choir) and the Hangovers, the a capella subset of the Club. It was a great experience. Both groups are world class and you should check out our Youtube accounts to get acquainted with our music. Just search the internet or Youtube for Cornell University Glee Club and/or Cornell University Hangovers. You Got a C is a classic Hangovers tune, please check it out. And my last plug: Check out Sam Breslin. He's the dude singing the solo on the version of...

More often than we think, it is better to be kind than to be right. Jonathan Kaufmann Dublin, Ireland

I am not 100% sure why I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I have a couple of ideas. My grandfather was his own boss, he was a lawyer and managed a bunch of real estate. He was always hustling, even in his late 70s, 80s and didn't really retire. I met a family friend many years ago who told me that my grandfather was the hardest working man he knew. My father is a retired doctor who has been very innovative and creative in his practice. He is well respected around the world by his peers and his patients loved him. He continues to do research, further innovating and pursuing medical discoveries for everyone's benefit. Both my father and grandfather were very hardworking and their work was a big part of their identity. I've started two companies, one we sold about 10 years ago. I was part of the founding team of another startup before that. I've been in the tech, startup world since the first dot com wave and can't imagine doing anything else or wanting to...

Dear Baby M, You don't even have a name yet, but someday when you learn how to google, you might find this instead of a trove of facebook photos cataloging your life which your father and I won't be posting. You're just about 9 weeks away from your debut in this world. The experience of carrying you these past 30 weeks has given me such an appreciation for the herculean effort that is creating a human life. As a second born, I'm in awe that my mother knew exactly what she was getting into and still wanted to do it again for me. That gift is something I think about paying forward to you every day that you're in there, growing and preparing for your first gulp of air. I realize of course that getting you here is just the beginning. Your dad and I will spend the rest of our lives doing everything we can to ensure your happiness and safety. Our hopes for you are vast but also simple: to be kind, to be curious, to be thoughtful. We are the product of many generations of...

I sat at the table with a coffee gone lukewarm, gazing at the barista’s swirl. He’s drawing a pair of lines on the table with an imaginary pen. “Unless we are identical people, Clarice, it’s two lines. The way we envision our lives – our preferences, our principles, our outlook – end up being two different lines.” He’s visibly worried. It has been this way since we argued. “And as a couple, sometimes we’re on my line and sometimes we’re on your line. You see, that’s what love is, the willingness to be on the other’s line. Sometimes that switch can be sold to one. I do my best to explain the whys don’t I?” He’s always telling me that. Unless it’s a matter of preference, explain the whys. “..but sometimes it’s just preference. And it’s at those times that switching over reassures the other that there is love. Love’s what gets you through that. But the discomfort of switching over adds up, you know? Fairness is another aspect of this. Very mathematically speaking, to be happy in the long...

Hello, beautiful Listservians! I must say, you're looking great today. I am sitting here on my end of this giant e-megaphone with a jar of peanut butter and a spoon (fellow pb lovers, you know this never ends well) in a state of semi-disbelief. Honestly, I never thought my turn would come and yet here it is, staring back at me in a blank email of endless possibilities. We've all thought about it - what would you say to the rest of the world in 600 short words? Well, I finally know what I want to talk about, I think on some level I knew all along. I want to talk about you guys. And Einstein. Once a day for almost two years, you've filled my inbox with something new. A story from a far away land, a learned lesson, a favorite recipe, a new book or music suggestion, some words of wisdom, some insight to vocations, hobbies, and passions, or just a simple hello. I'm even lucky enough to have received one (and you did, too) from my beautiful sister Riley. She introduced me to ...

Where are you from? By: A Third Culture Kid “Where are you from?” He asks with a smile I’ve heard it before I’ve gone through this trial “America.” It’s not untrue I lived there awhile Traveled its highways Going many a mile From deserts to peaks From cornfields to shores I’ve seen many states I’m keen to explore “No, where are you really from?” Where was I born? That would be Montreal “So you speak French?” No, not at all I moved to Toronto When I was young But English is not My mother tongue “Okay, but, where are you originally from?” My parents were born In the heart of Iraq Upon hearing the phrase He sits back in shock “So … you’re Iraqian?” It’s Iraqi, my dear Watson “Then what languages do you speak?” In what language do you laugh? In what language do you cry? In what language do you cope When a loved one lays to die? In what language do you love? In what language do you hate? In what language do you comprehend What’s chance and what is fate? In what language do you smile? In wha...

I’ll keep it simple. Short? No. But simple? Yes.   My favorite art form, above movies, tv, books, music, paintings, and cat gifs is podcasts. That’s not to say that I don’t love all those other things (especially cat gifs) but my podcast obsession trumps all.   And I like to think I know a good bit about podcasts, since I listen regularly to 45 of them. Which is too many. Like, seriously too many. I have to listen to most of them on 1.5 or 2x speed, and even then I end up with a huge backlog of episodes.Eventually I go through a purge where I just delete some old episodes and move on. There’s probably something poetic about that. Someone could probably make that a metaphor for an aspect of life.   Whatever.   Anyway, here are my top ten favorite podcasts:   10) Pop My Culture: Improvisers Cole Stratton and Vanessa Ragland talk about the week’s happenings in pop culture with a celebrity guest. It’s fun, it’s silly, and it’s always a blast.   9) The Mental Illness Happy Hour: Comedian Pa...

We're living in a renaissance. While that could be true for many reasons, the specific reason I'm going to dive into today is beer. Yes, we're living in a beer renaissance, my friends; especially in the US. For too long, when we talk about beer, the iconic fizzy water beverage comes to mind. My father, rest his soul, was a Pabst Blue Ribbon man. It's all he knew. While those big-name beers serve their purpose, there is a growing market of truly delicious beers sprouting out between the cracks. Now more than ever, consumers are discovering that the word "beer" means more than just a weak lager made by a company with a huge marketing budget. According to Beverage Industry magazine, the top craft beers enjoyed a 19.4% increase in sales last year. Society is branching out, and discovering the wonder of robust porters, citrusy bitter IPAs, sweet Belgians, cloudy refreshing wheats, and malty warm ambers. With this market shift, people are rediscovering the lost conc...

Sadly, I don’t have any advice for anyone. Despite my early-20s narcissism I really don’t feel like there’s anything I could say here that you haven’t heard already in the form of quotes typed over Instagram-filtered photos and posted every day by your aunt-in-law on her Facebook wall. What I do have are stories. What I do have is a love of them; that’s why I’m here reading yours, after all. I’m single. I started dating and discovered something even more fascinating: I love first dates. It’s one of the few times you get to meet a stranger one on one and go for coffee or drinks and just tell each other all of your best stories. Where else, really, does this sort of setup happen? Frankly, the dates themselves as romantic ventures didn't pan out, so I changed course and branched from the goal of finding someone into the goal of finding as many stories as I could. I started going on “dates” with everyone – friends, family, guys, gals, complete strangers. You know those people who you’...

Below are three things that recently piqued my interest. Backronyms: A backronym is a "reverse acronym," formed from an existing word or name. Examples include APGAR (a series of tests used to determine the health of newborn babies, named after the physician who developed it) and the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001). Also of linguistic note: facetious and abstemious contain all of the vowels in alphabetical order. Alison Jolly, primatologist: I get the New York Times morning digest. Anecdotally, the NYT features a lot more dead men than women, so it’s something to get excited about when there are multiple women eulogized. I learned about Alison Jolly in February. In short, Alison Jolly was a primatologist who focused on lemurs. She helped refute the theory that males are dominant in all primate species, including humans, a fundamental part of evolutionary biology at the ...

Hello, Listservians! (Listservites? Listservants? Listservicals?) Fun fact: The odds of someone winning the Listserve lottery in their first year of joining (if they joined today) are about 1.45%. The odds of winning it within 5 years of joining? About 7.04% Note: I make a few assumptions with these estimations. 1. If you win once, you can win again 2. The approximate 25,000 Listservians remains constant If each person is eliminated from the lottery once he/she wins, your chances don’t increase by much (fractions of a percent). And I would guess there’s some sort of slow exponential increase of Listservians over time. In other words, your odds of winning are pretty low and only decreasing. On math: I’m currently a math tutor. When someone says “I’m not good at math” I always tell them that some people are just more naturally skilled at certain things (like math). For those who are not as skilled, you have to work hard at it. Saying “I’m not good at (some skill)” to me means “I haven’...

Over the course of my life, I have had a handful of deep friendships that came suddenly and surprisingly and without any warning. They have been with people of different nationalities, ages, and backgrounds. Three are with men, and two with women. In each case, I was meeting with someone for the first time, usually for accidental or inconsequential reasons, sometimes standing in for a colleague. Each meeting I expected to be short and businesslike but each morphed quickly instead into a deep conversation between the two of us. Bertrand Russell described a similar experience in his first meeting with Joseph Conrad: "At our very first meeting, we talked with continually increasing intimacy. We seemed to sink through layer after layer of what was superficial, till gradually both reached the central fire. It was an experience unlike any other that I have known. We looked into each other's eyes half appalled and half intoxicated to find ourselves together in such a region. The...