Doggie Treats for the Soul

How I discovered a way out of lifelong depression

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Book

•3 min read

Day 112 — Backstory: How D1 and D2 Came to Be

When I started using ChatGPT as a brainstorming partner, I noticed that the kind of help I wanted depended on what we were discussing. Sometimes I needed a careful, analytical response, someone willing to follow a problem through its assumptions and awkward exceptions rather than settling too quickly on an attractive answer. At other times […]

•3 min read

Day 111 — The space between one and two is enormous

SAT Something happened today That sentence arrived later, but it belonged here. More projects can mean less attention. More ambition can mean less life. More output can mean less of me inside the output. There are times when adding another thing does not expand the world. It thins it. I started seeing the space between […]

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Day 110 — A low-bandwidth day deserved understanding

FRI Something happened today After a demanding shift while I was still recovering from a cold, I noticed that the world felt harder to manage than it had a few days earlier. Little problems were provoking bigger reactions, and my ability to concentrate seemed to be narrowing. I could have interpreted that as another personal […]

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Day 109 — I caught myself looking at three again.

THU Something happened today I do this. I think a lot of us do. You get from one to two and instead of looking around at the enormous amount of room that still exists between those two numbers, your eyes jump to three. Three looks like progress. Three looks like the next thing. Three looks […]

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Day 108 — Even reasoning could become a source of delight

WED Something happened today I had grown used to thinking of reason as something rather stern, the tool that checks facts and prevents foolishness. But lately it had been giving me genuine pleasure. A logical distinction could be funny, moving or simply beautiful when it helped me see something I had not noticed before. I […]

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Day 106 — Watching understanding happen

MON Something happened today I noticed how much I enjoyed seeing a response change after I questioned it. I could say that a phrase was nearly right, or that it had missed an important distinction, and the conversation would turn toward a better description. That process felt familiar. It resembled the way I often discover […]

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Day 105 — Seeing a problem from the driver’s seat

SUN Something happened today That dream connected to another image that had appeared in conversation: a huge tangled ball of yarn being delivered by a truck. Someone else’s dysfunction can arrive at your door like that. A massive knot. No labels. No obvious beginning. And because it has been placed in front of you, you […]

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Day 104 — Looking for an ally in the discovery process

SAT Something happened today I had spent a great deal of time wanting somebody to join me in exploring an idea rather than immediately deciding whether it was sensible. What I needed was not agreement on demand, but a willingness to stay with the question long enough for another layer to appear. I was beginning […]

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Day 103 — Why I kept hungry for discovery

FRI Something happened today There was an interesting contrast in what I wanted from intimacy and from understanding. Affection brought immediate comfort, but a significant insight could keep changing my relationship with the world long afterward. I found myself staying awake late because the discoveries were so satisfying, almost as though the mind had developed […]