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“Being able to achieve maximum economy of ass is an important adult skill.”

Plus a farewell to the landscape architect who created ‘sponge cities’

Author

Leonie Mercedes
October 24, 2025

Good morning, darlings. Here’s your three-part nudge for the day:

a prompt

Write on the following for 5–10 minutes:

What is the best gift you ever got? What makes it so meaningful? What does it say about your relationship with the person who gave it to you?

a thought

“My mom used to get really upset at what she perceived as my half-assing… I’m 48 now, have a PhD and a thriving and influential career, and I still think there is very very little that’s worthy of applying my whole entire ass. I’m not interested in burning myself [out] by whole-assing stuff that will be fine if I half- or quarter-ass it. Being able to achieve maximum economy of ass is an important adult skill.”

– anonymous comment on a Washington Post article by the advice columnist Carolyn Hax, featured in Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals

farewell

Yu Kongjian, landscape architect (1963–2025)

“Yu used ancient Chinese water systems to reimagine modern architecture, building systems to help cities conserve and re-use rainwater. This helps to regulate water flows across monsoon and dry seasons. ‘It’s important to make friends with water,’ he once said.”

Thanks for coming, dear makers and shakers. See you tomorrow ☕