I recently discovered an expert in a subject I'm interested in.

Studying his work has been intense. I'm reading his book, but I don't fully understand it. I understand the articles on his website more than the book, but I have to reread them multiple times to really get the concepts. And then, implementation of the new ideas is still beyond me.

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Growing up, I was exposed to some very strong messaging for girls and women.

It showed up in books and magazines, TV and movie plots, and conversations with adults and peers.

The message was that you don't need a boyfriend (or husband) to be a complete person.

Since I hadn't been around during the days when marriage was a woman's top priority, I had no context for this message.

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I realized that I’ve been having a quiet, months-long temper tantrum.

The last time I tried to knit something, I couldn’t get my gauge to come out right. That means that my stitches were too big for the pattern I was knitting, so anything I tried to knit would end up being too big.

I went down a needle size to see if my stitches would be small enough; same problem. I went down another needle size, and another—same problem. A problem I hadn’t really encountered in two years of obsessive knitting. So I put the project away, and nine months later I still haven’t knit anything.

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When I was in my early twenties, I took a job teaching public school for a very low salary.

Frankly, I could have made more waiting tables, which was the other skill set I possessed.

The challenge was that I’d be working in an area with a shortage of affordable housing. The additional challenge was that I was a bit of a snob who had grown up on the coast and wanted to stay there. I didn’t want to move inland, far from my family (and for that matter, my job). What was I going to do?

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It used to be that whatever you needed, you could find it on amazon.com.

But have you noticed that is no longer the case?

I went looking a couple of weeks ago for a simple mechanical kitchen timer. And I couldn’t find a single one that was made by a reputable company and had consistently good reviews.

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