My regular job doesn’t allow me time to sit and think. I move from one project and deadline to the next at a frenetic pace. There are some advantages to operating at this relentless tempo. Time passes quickly and adrenaline delivers quite a rush. At the same time, there’s no opportunity to let ideas percolate or feelings soak.
With my doctoral comprehensive exams and the conference now behind me, all I have is time. Instead of relief though, I feel lost. Having exams and a presentation to prepare for allowed me to relegate my recovery and future to the far recesses of my mind. Those thoughts are now front and center. As the saying goes, denial is not a river in Egypt. At the moment, my only answer is to sit with the discomfort and let it soak in.
Published by liz
From history major, with side quests in Medieval Studies and chemical engineering, to nonprofit finance leader, Big 4 tax partner, technologist, researcher, and now co-founder of Divine, nothing about my career has been linear. The throughline has always been systems: financial systems, organizational systems, technological systems, and human systems. I have an MBA in Operations and Supply Chain Management and a PhD in Organizational Leadership Psychology, and I’ve spent my career trying to understand how complex systems shape people’s choices, opportunities, wellbeing, and sense of belonging. Today, my work sits at the intersection of psychology, technology, human-centered design, and digital trust. I am co-founder of Divine, an open-source, decentralized social video app built to put creativity back in human hands and replace doomscrolling with joyscrolling. Divine is part of a bigger question I care deeply about: how do we create online spaces that support safety, creativity, identity, and belonging without defaulting to surveillance, extraction, or control? At Divine, I wear a lot of hats across engineering, finance, operations, and strategy, while helping shape the app’s trust, safety, and values work. I focus especially on teen online safety, human-generated content, participatory design, and healthier relationships with technology. I am a postdoctoral alum of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Computer Science, where I worked with Dr. Pam Wisniewski’s Socio-Technical Interaction Research Lab. I continue to write, speak, and research at the intersection of online safety, digital trust, decentralized technology, and youth wellbeing. I was named a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Data Integrity in 2023. In 2025, I had the honor of serving as President of Division 13 of the American Psychological Association, the Society of Consulting Psychology. I also live with major depressive disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In 2020, I took a leave from PwC to focus on my mental wellness, and I now speak and write openly about mental health, especially in the workplace and in relation to digital wellbeing. This blog, Seriously Jerk Brain, chronicles much of that journey.
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Seriously, Jerk Brain?! 
To go from driving 200 mph in a Formula One at Le Mans to driving 20 mph through a school zone in the Hyundai daily beater is no easy task. Easy does it.
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Good analogy, but I would not say it’s a Hyundai daily beater, more like a classic sports car that has a joy all its own…but one you have to really slow down and look around to appreciate.
But, oh Queen of the Jerk Brain jungle, I hear what you are saying, ….that is the hard part regarding our line (or really any all encompassing job) of work. It allows for an almost effortless way to avoid our problems and alone time to just be with ourselves. Been there, done that. For the first six months after consciously taking myself off the road, I struggled HARD. But after a year, I am really enjoying it..most days. Except for those days that I feel insanely jealous of my colleagues or I explain that I stepped away from our upward career path. Then my jerk brain starts acting up….then I remind myself that’s Mr competitive talking (and all the things I’ve gained by taking back my work/life balance.
I hope that you find the same equilibrium some day. Until then, keep searching. We’re right here with you.
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