(A model for attention and agency) Imagine three circles around your life: one you control, one you can influence, and one that remains untouched by your worry. Opening Scenes of Misplaced Attention Coffee Shop I am sitting at a corner table sipping filter coffee. I see a bunch of men in their forties and older discussing animatedly the latest in Tamil Nadu politics—actor Vijay winning the election, fan clubs, youth
(Why chasing success never feels enough—and how to step off the treadmill without quitting life) This series documents the ideas, mental models, and practical lessons that helped me learn skills and build habits over the years. These insights come from people and ideas I’ve encountered over the years. The path was anything but linear. It involved trial and error, false starts, and long stretches of inconsistency. I don’t aim for
Why effort matters—and why it’s never the whole story This series documents the ideas, mental models, and practical lessons that helped me learn skills and build habits over the years. These insights come from my parents, teachers, colleagues, friends, and from books and blogs on self-improvement. The path was anything but linear. It involved trial and error, false starts, and long stretches of inconsistency. I don’t aim for perfection. I
Most of us have owned a version of our unused treadmill. It might be a guitar gathering dust, a DSLR locked away in a cupboard, or a course we started with excitement and quietly abandoned. We didn’t lack motivation—we lacked an understanding of how passion actually works. Most of us don’t fail because we lack passion. We fail because we expect passion to appear before effort, struggle, and competence. In reality, passion is
This series is my attempt to document the ideas, mental models, and practical lessons that worked for me while learning skills and building habits over the years. These lessons came from my parents, teachers, colleagues, friends, and from books and blogs on self-improvement. The path was anything but linear. It involved trial and error, false starts, and long stretches of inconsistency. I don’t aim for perfection. I go off track
Why does getting started feel so hard, but continuing later feels almost effortless? Why does discipline feel painful while habits feel natural? Understanding this difference changed how I approach learning, health, and personal growth. This series is my attempt to document the ideas, mental models, and practical lessons that worked for me while learning skills and building habits over the years. These lessons came from my parents, teachers, colleagues, friends,
Early in my career, I believed the right book could fix almost anything. Experience taught me otherwise. This series is my attempt to document ideas, mental models, and practical lessons that worked for me while learning skills and building habits over the years. These lessons came from my parents, teachers, colleagues, friends, and from books and blogs on self-improvement. The path was anything but linear. It involved trial and error,
We live in a time where information is accessible and available in plenty. Information here means both real, mis-, and fake. Challenge is filtering the real or facts out of the rest. One area this is highly prevalent is the one which is dear to all of us – health and diet. Health and diet are areas where science is still in progress. When it comes to infectious diseases and
There is a big difference between bus and train journeys now and a decade plus ago. It is the mobile phones (just mobile moving forward). No let me correct that….it is the people with mobiles. A decade ago, the big nuisance would be people talking loudly or worst-case loud snoring if the passenger next to you happen to sleep. I don’t include the crying of babies since these journeys are
2024 election outcome gave a mixed feeling. Happy because the alternate outcome of brutal majority would be worse. Happiness with disappointment because we need to survive these two, Modi and Shah for another 5 years. I was debating the caption for this writeup, It could have been worse, All is not lost….yet, A reprieve for democracy, A sliver of home amidst disappointment, Blessing in disguise for the functioning democracy. Couldn’t