Hi! I’m Nikki. I spend probably too much of my time thinking about how I show up in the world, how to be a better version of myself, and learning how to do so in a beautifully imperfect world. These are my words. 100% human. 100% fallible.
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72 seasons Japan has 72 microseasons, dividing the year into five day segments. With names that are aligned with the changing natural world, it is a poetic observation of the impermenance and cyclical nature of life.
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HOWL ‘Who is this woman? What wild joy is she unable to contain that it escpaes in the form of animalistc manners?’
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Building with AI These past few months have been a whirlwind of new experiences.
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Universal Mentor & Coach Prompt The below prompt is something I add to each conversation I have with LLMs/AIs that isn’t a coding chat.
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Change requires consistency In order to change, consistency is required in the form of rituals or systems.
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AI Discipline A lot has been written about the huge leap forward the different AI models went through in late 2025.
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Morning on the trail Snow beginning to melt and stream running clear.
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This is a fascinating concept This is a fascinating concept: Crime as a Service (CAAS).
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First ride of the season It was 20C today.
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Change your liking Referenced in Beyond the Self: Conversations between Buddhism and Neuroscience by Matthieu Ricard and Wolf Singer
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Predictability is banality “It’s when everyone thinks they know who you are, then you’re trapped.” — from Complete Unknown.
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Simplicity is a prerequisite for reliability See also AI Discipline and Predictability is banality.
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Comets & habits The meteor belt remains in its circular orbit but occasionally a comet lets loose from some unseen force.
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Complexities in relationships Do we over-complicate our relationships by adding or considering our fears and insecurities into an already complex dynamic?
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Almost everything is a paradox Often, to gain that which we desire, we must behave in an opposite or in a counter-intuitive manner to obtain the object of our desire.
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Grief is a lens with which to increase focus As Kathryn Schulz remarks in her conversation with Ezra Klein (“Our Lives Are an Endless Series of ‘And’”), “Grief is an amazing lens.
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It behooves us to know ourselves well and deeply. If we do not, how can we live a full life?
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The point of education is expanding your known world and self You should be a different person after active learning.
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It is difficult to understand our potential without first realizing our potential Both in my HES religion coursework (on the “Three Peas (Ps)”) and in other writing on Kundera, there is the idea of proleptic rationality, which is akin to faith.
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Emotions and thoughts do not define personality Our raw emotions and thoughts aren’t our personality, though they are often conflated as being so.
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Stable relationships allow emotions to surface without judgment From one writer on relational stability:
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AI use in education will increase bad behaviors The past two courses at HES have allowed, even encouraged, use of AI, or rather LLMs.
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Learning how to learn requires experimentation, reflection, and then adjusting based on internal feedback One writer on learning puts it well: we need to “experiment, reflect, adjust” in order to learn how we learn.
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Concentrated effort is required to foster critical thinking Thinking hard and deep about concepts and ideas requires focus and concentration.
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College English majors can’t read critically A recent study tested college English majors and their inability to distinguish between figurative and literal language, and the inability to process prose even with access to
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Meditation creates the capacity to open our lives A very real consequence to meditating so regularly, albeit for short durations at a time, is that life becomes bigger and more whole because it has become easier to experience the
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Relying on technology for processing notes and information doesn’t mean you’ll understand it Reading through a recent guide on zettelkasten practice (section 2.3.3), one notes that we can highlight information in Zotero and have the highlighted bits automatically added to
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Teenagers are infantilized in the modern age Hackers, the 1995 film, treats high school students like adults, as opposed to the infantilization of teenagers now.
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The Enshittocene is what we get when capitalism is the driving force The Enshittocene, coined by Cory Doctorow, is the “perfect breeding ground for the worst practices in our society.”
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Be real online One writer described AI as a “mediocrity machine” — the culmination of reducing attention spans to short tweets, IG stories, and fast TikTok videos.
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It can happen (again) Because something hasn’t happened before, does not mean that it won’t happen in the future.
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Nothing Matters Or maybe everything matters.
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Kahlo at the Crossroads Description and Interpretation of Self-Portrait on the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States
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Forty-two We’re all just a collection of broken bits, which makes us beautiful
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Homecoming What happens to a girl when you take New York City, endless hours staring at concrete, and one pandemic?
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Able Bodied Takes A Vacation Gratitude for what once was & will return
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The Writing Process Well, my writing process
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Nicole and Her Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Fear Fear is a sign of growth, yes?
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Arch Linux & Difficulty Do it because it is hard
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Changes In life, both real & virtual
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Letting Go Saying yes by saying no
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Apparently, Stories Do Matter Why do I always have to relearn the old lessons?
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Run Away You don’t always have to run toward something
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You Have Unlimited Words You’ve Just Got to Shovel Through the Shit
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What Makes a Good Boss Thoughts on the characteristics of a good boss.
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About The who and the why.