Welcome to Navigate.
For most of my life, I’ve been told I’m too much — too cynical, too aggressive, too persistent, too emotional. So I went looking for the fix. I read widely: religion, self-help, ancient philosophy.
But… none of it quite resonates.
I mean…turn the other cheek when someone slaps me? Why would I? It’s human to want to hit back. Embrace pain with open arms? Why should I? My brain is wired to avoid pain. So much of this old wisdom describes who we should aspire to be, rather than who we actually are. Yet, our ancestors framed these old adages as some kind of test, as if overriding our instinct was the price of being “better”. In reality, it just leaves us suppressed, dishonest, and distorted.
The other camp doesn’t sit right with me either — the one that says be true to yourself, go with the flow, stop caring what people think. As long as we live alongside other human beings, there are norms, constraints, and rules to navigate. It’s in our strategic interest to behave. Pure authenticity isn’t a strategy; it’s a tantrum.
So nothing quite fits. That’s when I decided to refactor past wisdom — religious, philosophical, psychological — into something more compassionate and more practical. Compassionate, in that it doesn’t ask you to be someone you aren’t. Practical, in that it helps you actually function and thrive in the world we live in: one that’s fast, changing, and often hostile to the people trying to live thoughtfully inside it.
If you’re tired of advice asking you to be a better person than is realistic, and equally tired of advice telling you to stop caring — this is the space for you. Every week, I publish an essay to help you see the world and human beings as they are — without the soft-focus filter of wellness culture, and without the bitterness of cynicism — and to help you drop the false beliefs that constrain and burden you: the fantasy of control, the demand for closure, the pressure to be perfect, the belief that good intentions make people right.
My hope is that you can develop a clear-eyed view of human nature and society — clear enough that you can set forth to claim what’s yours, and stay in the game without being disenchanted.
New essay every week. Subscribe below.
About me:
I’m Fiona S — a senior product manager in a blockchain consortium, and a mom with a newborn. Pressure and change have been the only constant in my life, and Navigate is where I work out, in public, what holds me together as I move through the challenges of life and work.
