Are You Inside the Work or Outside the Work?

Are you inside the work or outside the work? It’s basically another way of talking about status and mastery, but I think it’s a nice shortcut. Where are you? Are you in it—actually doing the thing—or are you outside, staring at the finished product, obsessing over how other people are going to receive it? My new theory is this: the only real home is inside. That’s the only place you can actually live. ...

October 3, 2025 · 2 min · Alex Dobrenko

How Do I Define Mastery for Myself?

When thinking about mastery, for myself, there seem to be two frames: How do I define what it means to strive for learning, for mastery? How well am I following that rubric / framework for any given essay? I think I need to figure out #1 first, or at least have some sense of it, in order to give it a whirl. But I also need to not be too prescriptive. Who knows what’ll happen when I write. ...

September 20, 2025 · 2 min · Alex Dobrenko