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Continue reading →: When a Degree No Longer Guarantees the Future, What Is Education Still Worth?“When a Degree No Longer Guarantees the Future, What Is Education Still Worth?” This article started because my breakfast went cold. I was eating when I came across a post my professor had shared on Facebook. It discussed a troubling idea: young people are becoming more educated, degrees are becoming…
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Continue reading →: When Giving Everything Is Not the Same as Giving WellThere is a particular kind of parental love I grew up seeing everywhere. The parents don’t buy new clothes because the child needs something. They eat whatever is left because the child should have the best piece. They work overtime so the child doesn’t have to worry about money. The…
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Continue reading →: Can We Love Children Too Fearfully?Before we start, I know the featured image is quite . . . irrelevant. . . But it’s cute . . . There is a sentence almost every loving parent has probably thought: I don’t want my child to go through what I went through. It sounds beautiful. And usually,…
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Continue reading →: Cơm Nhà: The Vietnamese Love Language That Doesn’t Always TranslateThere are Vietnamese sentences that sound completely ordinary until you leave Vietnam. Ăn cơm chưa?Have you eaten? Hôm nay ăn gì?What are you eating today? Sao giờ này chưa ăn?Why haven’t you eaten yet? Về nhà ăn cơm không?Are you coming home for dinner? We ask these questions so casually…
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Continue reading →: Can Economics Explain Love?What dating, relationships, and heartbreak can teach us about choice, scarcity, information, and human behavior. Love does not sound like an economics problem. Nobody falls in love while calculating marginal utility. Nobody should be sitting across from someone at dinner thinking: Given my current constraints, is this person maximizing my…
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Continue reading →: The TikTok Generation: Have We Lost the Ability to Think Deeply?The other morning, while riding the bus after my beach walk, I found myself asking a question that refused to leave my mind. Why does deep thinking seem to be disappearing? Everywhere I look, people are scrolling. Fifteen seconds. Thirty seconds. One minute. Then the next video. Then another. The…
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Continue reading →: What a Grocery Store Can Teach Us About EconomicsJuly 2026 – Chinatown, Honolulu One thing I never expected economics to change was the way I buy groceries. Growing up in Vietnam, going to the market was simply part of daily life. You bought what your family needed, chatted with the vendors, went home, and cooked dinner. When I…
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Continue reading →: Economics Has an Image ProblemAugust 1, 2026 – 2:30 p.m., Honolulu I had just woken up from an afternoon nap. The morning had been full. I started the day at Magic Island, spent time enjoying the peaceful beach, worked out at the gym, came home to cook lunch, and finally gave myself permission to…
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Continue reading →: Before the Equations, Learn to ObserveAugust 1, 2026 – 9:41 a.m., Magic Island, Honolulu I usually come to Magic Island between six and eight in the morning. That’s my favorite time of day. The beach is quiet. The trade winds are cool. The sound of the waves is louder than the traffic. A few runners…
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Continue reading →: The Most Dangerous Person to Argue With Is Your Own EgoOne lesson that life keeps teaching me is this: Not every conflict begins because someone is evil. Many conflicts begin because someone feels hurt. And sometimes… that hurt quietly transforms into anger. In Vietnamese, we have a saying: “Thẹn quá hóa giận.” Embarrassment becomes anger. Another phrase is “tự ái.”…
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I’m Heidi 🌺
A Vietnamese girl living in Hawaii, blending aloha vibes with my love for learning, teaching, and sharing life’s little details. Proudly made in Vietnam with Aloha spirit
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Heidi Ahihi 