Gatherer-hunters.

Before farming, humans were gatherer-hunters, not hunter-gatherers. Hunting was rare. Sometimes, they'd come across an animal they could hunt and feed themselves for a day or so. But mostly it was gathering. A variety of food - fruits, nuts, leaves, etc. A lot of exploration. And learning. What

If you were free...

What would you do, if you were completely free? For a moment, can you imagine? What would you eat? Who would you talk to? What would you make? What most likely would happen is the voices inside your head would start playing. Then how will I earn money. But I

Effort/outcome.

That took a lot of effort. Or that got the thing done? Effort is a distraction. It makes us feel good. The thing that matters is whether the work got done or not.

AI butt-dialing.

It wasn't me. It was AI. This holds as much ground as - "It wasn't me. It was my phone." Your phone may have sent the message. But it was you who used it to send it. Butt-dialling can only be used so many

Who runs the machine?

The world is the way it is... because capitalists needed humans to run machines. That's why they built the concept of jobs, and schools, and management and everything, that's why we are the way we are. And over the 3-4 centuries, even though machines got better,

The necessity of rest.

The body and the brain are amazing tools. And they are capable of pushing themselves much beyond imagination. But there comes a point where mind over matter simply stops working. Giving them a little rest allows us to keep showing up the way we do.

Imagine two things...

Think of a situation where you don't feel comfortable being yourself. For me, today, it was being in a crowded gym in another city. I felt like everyone was watching me, and of course, judging me. Now, in the same situation, imagine how you would feel if you

Making someone feel special.

People who matter to you. Friends whose company you like. Teachers who make your life better. People who bring joy to your life. We can tell them how much they matter. Gestures, both big and small, help. Sometimes, we can choose to tell them that they are loved, that they

One day old.

You were at a time one day old. Everything that was true about your nature then is true today also. You are beautiful. You are loved. You are cared for. You matter. Just because we have covered the truth with layers of make-beliefs, doesn't mean the truth isn&

Down the rabbit hole.

That's where the magic happens. Not on the surface. Not where you know what's happening or what will happen. But when you surrender and take the jump, that's when things happen, never in an expected manner. And the deeper and deeper you go, the

The right place...

...at the right time. At any point of time, we know if we are in the right place or not. The place need not be a physical space. It might be a mental place you need to be or an emotional place. When we are not, the body gives us

The calm professional.

The professional plumber listens to their client, diagnoses the problem and fixes the leak. This is the problem. If we do this, it will be fixed. It will cost this much. There is little fear or emotion in the process of getting the job done. The showing up of fear

Inside your head.

I woke up overwhelmed today. Too many things. Unable to move anything forward. I somehow ended up on my Obsidian writing down what's in my head. Turned out it was 3-4 things that needed doing. I started with the easy one. And soon enough, they were done, at

The trap of comprehensive.

A professional mechanic figures out what's wrong with your vehicle and fixes it. She isn't trying to be comprehensive. She is being effective. Comprehensive feels productive. You are dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. But is that needed? Or

Thinking and doing.

It's not efficient to do both together. Claude Code is excellent at doing the work. It's super eager to get things done. But it's extremely bad at slow thinking. It drives fast but doesn't know how to wait to figure out where

I assume...

We assume things all the time. Sometimes, we go and verify them. Mostly, we don't. And these assumptions end up becoming the basis for our thoughts and actions. We may think that we are choosing our assumptions, but most of this is happening on its own, subconsciously. A

Positivity bias.

Our brains and culture default to a negativity bias. We tend to imagine the worst-case scenarios with any situation or person. And then, most times, we feel a temporary relief when they don't pan out. What if we embrace the opposite? Intentionally build a positivity bias? Imagine the

As a reader.

As a writer, you are trying to craft something that can get the message across. You are looking to refine it, structure it well. There's hard work in that. But the harder part is empathy. It is being in the reader's shoes, trying to understand how

Carefree or careless?

If you are careless, you don't care. You won't show up on time. You won't get the work done. You just don't care. But if you are carefree, you care... You just don't let the care overwhelm you. You work

Customer traction.

Are the people you seek to serve eager to engage with your work? If yes, do you want to keep them waiting? What's the minimum WOW version you can make live now? If they feel the wow, would they be eager to bring their friends in? Wow doesn&

Going beyond anxiety.

Ask yourself, in this moment, in the 5 minutes that you read this, do any of the following feel true... You are meant to live in peace. You are not in trouble (in this moment). You are a spiritual being having a human experience. Take a deep breath and exhale

Hall of mirrors.

As Martha Beck explains in her book, Beyond Anxiety, anxiety creates a hall of mirrors inside our brains. One stimulus makes us afraid, and the internal mirror reflects it to make up another thing we can be afraid of. Soon, these reflections compound with each triggering the amygdala (fear centre)

Eureka!

Once Archimedes discovered the buoyancy principle, it seemed obvious. He should have known it already. It was right there. Eureka is not about finding complicated solutions to problems. It's to uncover the elegant solution that's hiding in plain sight. It takes hard, messy work to find

Finding joy.

There's joy in play. But more importantly, there can be joy in work. Mostly, it shows up when we care about the process more than the outcome. The attachment to the outcome is what kills the joy. It can even make play feel like work. What is it

Human + AI.

A MacBook is a powerful device. But it's only as powerful as the human using it. So is AI. Generic AI is generic. It's the human who interacts with it that makes something meaningful with it. Most humans are worried about AI taking their jobs, especially