Unknown Unknowns

Home
Essays
Newsletter
Notes
Archive
About

Essays

NewTopCommunity
It's been three years since I quit my job. I have never come close to regretting that decision, but I also can’t explain why it was a good decision. Was…
Chris Wong
When I left my finance career after eighteen years, the underlying reason was that it was performance art. Success was connected to how people viewed…
Chris Wong
An orphan lives a relatively boring life with his uncle and aunt. He dreams of leaving but won’t, for various reasons. He finally leaves his boring life…
Chris Wong
Karl von Frisch won the Nobel prize in 1973 for studying how bees dance. Bees dance… and that’s important? The waggles a bee performs are actually a…
Chris Wong
It sounds sad that a 40-year old man needs permission from his parents, but we all look for permission in one form or another. In my case, I needed…
Chris Wong
Grammar Nazis don’t give good feedback. After giving feedback on more than 300 essays over three Write of Passage cohorts, I realize that the key to…
Chris Wong
What do you want to be when you grow up? This question was the bane of my existence when I was a kid. I remember writing and drawing that I wanted to be…
Chris Wong
On this day, one hundred years ago, my grandfather left China. He was thirteen. He was alone. He landed in California, but couldn’t find work there. The…
Chris Wong
My grandfather left China exactly one hundred years ago. He went through incredible hardship to provide a better opportunity for his descendents. Back…
Chris Wong
Someone Else’s Problem. We’ve all said it. We’ve definitely all thought it. I’m glad I don’t have to clean that up, “that’s someone else’s problem…
Chris Wong
My wife had never snowboarded in her life, and last season I took on the challenge of teaching her. The fifth day we went, she was ready to get off the…
Chris Wong
I don’t think it’s actually possible to have empathy. This was my conclusion after a long debate a few years ago. It was a pseudo-philosophical debate…
Chris Wong
© 2023 Chris W
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing