​My cool cousin John is a baseball prodigy – but sadly, he had a bad dislocation this summer, and had to undergo the same shoulder surgery I had a few years ago.
 
Because he loves science, I decided to share a crazy story about my microbiome with him. And because I wish I’d had more/better information about shoulder surgery while I was deciding whether or not to have it (eventually, my body made the decision for me), I’ll conclude with a few thoughts about the pros and cons of the surgery.

This post was originally published as Eva Glasrud's answer to, "Can an awkward angry bitter lonely woman learn how to be beautiful on the inside"?

​I was recently asked how someone with several negative traits and emotions can become beautiful on the inside. Making a personal change is always hard -- but it's not as hard as you might think.  

Look, I get it. Travel is your thing​. It's what you talk about at parties. It's what you post about on social media. And your travel stories are way better than everyone else's.

​But here's the thing: if you "travel shame" people who don't travel the way you do, all it tells me is that you probably aren't that good of traveler.

Once upon a time, I met a super cool dude at a book reading. I remember the moment I saw the back of his head. Then, during the Q&A, he moved to the chair next to me, and the sparks instantly started flying. 

​But it didn't take long to figure out I never wanted to see him again.

Last weekend, I went to the sweetest wedding of all time. It was in New York, and I flew direct from SFO to JFK on Delta Flight 444. 

"Too early is the same as wrong, too late'll make you miss the train," I sing in my totally non-pretentious original, "Too Early (The Startup Song)." 

It's based on an old saying that describes failed startups like SixDegrees.com (the original social network), GO Corporation (the original Palm Pilot -- and, arguably, iPhone and iPad), and LoudCloud (the original Amazon Web Services). And also the Halloween costume I wore last year. 

In many ways, Palo Alto, CA, is a paradise. This wealthy Silicon Valley town is built on the backs of tech companies like Google, Facebook, Palantir, and countless others. But with the explosive growth of these companies have come some serious problems.

Housing is unaffordable to all but a few. Traffic is horrific. And many people get terrible cell coverage, because Palo Alto lacks the infrastructure to sustain its population. 

Novels are great! They stir the soul. They share emotional journeys we can all relate to. It's great to read novels – which is probably why Stanford provides a list of three books -- usually novels -- for its incoming freshmen to read each summer.

My freshman year, the Three Books were M Butterfly, Annie John, and Old School, which was actually pretty spectacular -- especially since I'd just graduated from a New England boarding school.

But let's be honest. Did any of these books change my life? Prepare me for college? Change the way I think? Improve my cognitive skills?

No. But this one will:

A wise woman once said, "Boys only want love if it's torture."

Of course, she was being totally sarcastic. What this wise woman was actually​ doing was giving the biggest "f- you" ever to the sexist coverage her music got in the media.

​Let me start this science article with two philosophical questions:
 
1. Is my mind me?
2. What, really, is a human?
 
Here’s why these questions are extremely relevant to geneticists, neuroscientists and microbiologists today: