Kimberly L. Wright

I’m reading four books at a time, having just finished the fifth one. The advice I’m getting from these books and other articles echo a hard truth: I’ve spent too much time in the Fortress of Solitude and haven’t cultivated connections, which is bad for my personal and career development. So I must set out to fix this.

The book I just finished

• “The Self-Employment Survival Guide” by Jeanne Yocum – Though clearly dated because it was written a couple of years before COVID — so working from home is no longer as unique as when this book was published — the guide contains many basic details to consider for those who are thinking about becoming self-employed. Yes, being self-employed sounds great, but it’s definitely not all roses. I have great sympathy for Yocum, who comes from a parallel career background. A clever aspect of this book is that she’s not the only voice of reason. Each chapter ends with some of her self-employed friends offering their take on the topic at hand.

What I’m reading

• “Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child” by Thich Nhat Hanh – My inner child needs healing after a rough 2024 and a not-great start to 2025. Hanh discusses formations and generational trauma, how to embrace them and thus weaken the hold they have.
• “Yevgeny Yevtushenko: Selected Poems” – I picked this one up at the Roswell library book sale, one of the few poetry tomes on sale there. I saw this poet way back when at the University of South Alabama, so I’m already familiar with his work. It’s a rather small collection, though.
• “How Clients Buy” by Tom McMakin and Doug Fletcher – These fellows are rather old-school in certain respects, but it’s interesting and refreshing reading this book targeted more for business school graduates rather than journalism professionals.
• “You’re Invited: The Art and Science of Cultivating Influence” by Jon Levy – Another book sale buy. I’m only one chapter in, and the author is coming on strong and a bit too “rah rah” with too many exclamation points for my liking. But I’m not going to punch out of this book just yet.

Hopefully, my joblessness comes to an end before I have to start DoorDashing again, but I’ve already determined I need to be more proactive in developing connections for wherever life takes me next.

Meta-morphosis

In the meantime, Mark Zuckerberg continues to do what he does best: Make life miserable.

Facebook was really the impetus behind the ill-fated “pivot to video” responsible for layoffs last decade. Meta’s algorithm changes have killed traffic for news and made Facebook useless for those who want to keep in touch with their families. Rather, Facebook’s users are served a pink slime of various location-related content and entertainment-adjacent content.

Zuckerberg has recently completed his heel turn, cutting without warning fact-checking in favor of the community notes that don’t work for X. One of my former Gray colleagues is searching for a job as a result. Zuckerberg’s reportedly been to Mar-A-Lago, like so many others, kissing the behind of the president-elect. And Meta is allowing users to call LGBTQ people “mentally ill.”

We need to stop relying on these social networks and find alternate ways to connect with others. I guess this dovetails nicely with my push to create in-person connections with people. Or at least go back to letters, emails and phone calls. Unfortunately, people now rely on social media to find out what’s going on in the world. Perhaps it’s time to pick up the apps of a few trusted sources and leave most social media a Dumpster fire smoldering in the distance.

I do like Bluesky, and I’ll probably keep lurking and posting there, but there’s no guarantee it won’t somehow become corrupted by a billionaire with too much money and not enough humanity.