Araz Gholami

After months of waiting, i finally got the chance to spend yalda night and my birthday (both delayed) with my family. i’m extremely happy, but at the same time, i’m stressed about the iranian flight that’s supposed to take me to my beloved city. the past few weeks haven’t exactly been stress-free... Read All

Yesterday, while browsing the web, i came across a video that left me speechless and reminded me of all the excuses i’ve made to avoid doing something. in this clip, a person dives to the seafloor in search of lost gold and jewelry to fund food for stray animals. in the end, they find a few pieces a... Read All

“don’t take pictures.” “okay.” “i said don’t take pictures.” “why?” “i look bad in photos.” “that makes sense. cameras just can’t capture your beauty; they break and produce bad pictures.” >from where i’m standing, nobody’s coming up from either side of the bridge. tonight, at this hour, the b... Read All

Following the internet shutdown and people’s impatience to escape the current situation, some thoughts came to mind that i felt needed to be written. leaving iran is so difficult and requires such patience that just making the decision feels like a major achievement. the culture of deep family depen... Read All

Depression: a lack of interest in your current life situation and inactivity within that situation. treating depression: restoring interest in your current life situation and creating movement within it while maintaining your current life circumstances.... Read All

when was the last time you did something without a reason? what has been your biggest wrongdoing? when was the last time you let go and relaxed? where are the things you do taking you? why aren’t you rebellious? when was the last time you fully indulged your body in pleasure? what... Read All

Today, while climbing the company stairs, i encountered a very familiar smell coming from the storage room under the stairs. the scent of baldirghan, a plant i remembered from trips to my ancestral lands in arasbaran, made me once again ask myself: what am i even doing here? postscript: baldirgh... Read All

Today, the investor of a company i collaborate with came for a visit, and it reminded me of this passage from one of derek sivers’ writings: “you need to learn how to read. because if you don’t, you’ll always be standing behind a fool who can.”... Read All

Migration is not unlike quitting smoking. just like that, after a while, you forget why you quit smoking in the first place, and why you decided to migrate at all. what have you spent these two years on? what have you gained? if you had stayed, what would have happened? what would you have gained? a... Read All

People can be divided into those who have “read the symphony of the dead” and those who haven’t. and among those who have read it, they can be further divided into readers and non-readers of “the sound and the fury.”... Read All

I haven’t been writing for a few months. partly because of depression, and partly because nothing exciting or worth writing about has happened. life recently has been completely uneventful and ordinary. naturally, i’m not used to this. i should also admit that part of it is because i haven’t felt li... Read All

Ross ulbricht, the founder of the underground silk road marketplace, is a brilliant programmer and a libertarian who has been in prison for 2,156 days (over 7 years), serving a double life sentence plus 40 years without parole. this harsh punishment is not for any crime we are familiar with. no one ... Read All