“Women are expected to work around their bodies, and the children that are often treated as an extension of their bodies in a way they are not for fathers.” A few months after her daughter is born, Rachel Moss reflects on work and motherhood.

“‘Real’ is not something outside of you. It’s not something you can buy or earn. ‘Real’ is not what you do or how you do it. It’s who you are.” At Live to Write — Write to Live, Suddenly Jamie dissects the definition of real.

“I’m not sure if I’ll live abroad forever, or if these four priorities will be my same priorities in the future. But for now, the US will have to try a lot harder to convince me it’s worth going ‘home.'” At Quartz, Amanda Machado explains why she’s settled in South Africa.

Writing about the shame and satisfaction of being a 21st-century homemaker, Australian author Helen Hayward reflects on her evolving relation to domesticity.

At Vagabond’s Log, Berlin-based archaeologist Jens describes what it’s like to be an archaeologist out in the field — this time in southeastern Turkey, in the spring of 2014.

“You know the feeling: If you let them see you, unvarnished and real, they’ll realize how incompetent you are. You’ll be outed as a fraud, a fake who doesn’t really belong here.” Sara Wachter-Boettcher on work, impostor syndrome, and revealing imperfections and things learned as you go.

Freelance writer Alaina Mabaso offers practical advice on pitching, networking, and finding writing gigs in journalism, PR, marketing, copywriting, and similar fields.

Aaron Riccio on freelance writing, “exposure,” and getting paid: “So when someone like Thayer, whether you respect the guy or not, announces that he’s being treated the same way as the rest of us, that the freelancer is essentially an ink-stained Sisyphus, rolling words uphill and then being crushed back down by financial burdens, it makes one pause.”

“Perfectionism — that shadow from our childhoods. We want to be excellent — because if we are, we will be worthy of love. So we take on anything and everything that is thrown us.” Sue Wildish at Campari&Sofa asks: Do we work too much? Do we glorify busy?

On the office politics of programming: “The loss of status is a sad thing, because technology is our home turf. We understand computers and software and the mathematical underpinnings of those, and our MBA-culture colonizers don’t.”

Amanda Ann Klein on workload in academia: “During those 5 years I was always wondering if I was doing ‘enough’ to succeed.”

“Silicon Valley/Bay Area tech culture is sick in so many ways that I don’t think it’s possible to remain part of it and expect that you can be healthy.” Evgenia at Evgenia Got Free explains why she resigned from a 20-year career in tech.

Marc Andreessen on robots: “Even when robots and AI are far more powerful, there will still be many things that people can do that robots and AI can’t.”