Gathering thoughts…
A world of little thoughts.
Barrenness isn't supposed to be beautiful. But in Paracas, it somehow is. Windy, dusty salt flats, gently curved dunes, cloud capped mountains, jagged cliffs, dark sand, and a seaweed filled ocean. They combine to create a landscape that would look strange even on a postcard. There's no fresh water for miles, so most…
Starting a new business, or a tool, or a startup is considered an enormously good thing. And when you start something and shut it down after some time, you feel equal amount of sad. Why is shutting down considered bad when its the opposite when you stop for the right reasons.
Kebahagiaan adalah merasa puas dengan apa yang kamu miliki. Kesuksesan datang dari ketidakpuasan. Kebahagiaan tidak muncul setelah mendapatkan kesuksesan, karena sesungguhnya kita bisa memilih untuk bahagia kapan pun. "Aku akan sukses jika memiliki X." "Sukses adalah ketika aku mendapat gaji sebesar X." Pernyataan…
Emotionally-charged, moralizing content wins the virality lottery most often: - For each "moral-emotional word" used, content receives between 17-24% more engagement. - Moral anger and disgust increase virality across the political spectrum. - Content that’s written in more divisive, inflammatory language is…
Na quarta ainda (dia mega movimentado), depois da minha terapia semanal, onde eu choro minhas pitangas e com frequência falo pra minha terapeuta que eu só falo certas coisas com ela porque em outros espaços eu não tenho a mínima coragem de verbalizar (e acho que é sobre isso), recebi uma amiga querida em casa. A gente…
A macher, pronounced with that distinctively Yiddish velar fricative, is the sort of person who could convince you that you need to buy a new lawnmower together with an extended 10-year warranty despite your lack of lawn ownership. A macher knows what you want before you know what you want, and as it turns out, he…
I strongly believe that three engineers in one room can accomplish far more than six engineers working remotely. This isn’t just about communication bottlenecks—it goes deeper than that. I've been working from home for ten months now, a significant shift after spending nine years in an office with my colleagues. Even…
"For my theme song, my leather black jeans on" are the two first bars on Kanye's song "Black Skin Head" from his album "Yeezus". If you don't know the background of the album, Yeezus, it's basically a huge "fuck you" to the entire hip-hop industry and it's Kanye truly accepting who he is as a person and doing whatever…
Falar em voz alta. Hoje eu cheguei 7 minutos atrasada na minha terapia. Esqueci. E não estava no celular. Quando peguei pra futricar treads/BBB, vi a notificação e vim pro quarto dos fundos. Ainda bem que deu certo. Falei sobre a minha viagem pra Brasília e como foi lidar com a rigidez que sobressai quando estou fora…
Do you have a friend who is in a toxic relationship, and as an outsider, you think, "Why the heck are you still there? Isn't it obvious?" Well, I’ve been on both sides of that situation, and it's easier said than done. As an observer, you don't have any feelings attached, so you look at it more rationally. But…
L. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which appeared in 1900, is often held to be a parable for the Populist campaign of William Jennings Bryan, who twice ran for president on the Free Silver platform—vowing to replace the gold standard with a bimetallic system that would allow the free creation of silver…
I've always had a predilicition for writing. While others had debating & mooting in law school, i had writing. Be it formal boorish academic writing or bouncy ridiculous writing. Nicheless perhaps seems ideal owing to its limited word limit which places less onus on me to produce a grand blog piece with characters, an…
Western culture is suppressing it's animal nature and that's creating a dangerous shadow. That's what Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in his first book "The birth of tragedy". I'd love to tell you how to express your animal nature in a healthy way. But I don't know. Here's what I do know; Tragedy was born in theater plays.…
Today I had one of the worst outbursts possible. I screamed like hell at mummy. It’d been brewing since morning. Festival time is always a delicate trigger time for mom. One would need to dig deeper to find out why she’s like that. It seems to stem from some memory she has of being judged by festival days. For me, it…
I went to see Batman. The one in which Rob uses a ton of eyeliner. Enter Screen 4: The gender ratio is messed up, not a surprise. During the intermission, I got to know, not very far away there is a place where the gender ratio is much more messed up. Screen 5, The BTS Concert Live Streaming. Now, how did I feel to…
Found this website through my best friend. Looked very minimalistic and quite cool. Might be my new place to jot down thoughts. 300 words (I think) are just enough to bring enough clarity to thoughts yet keep them succinct. Let's see.
My antisocial personality would like to talk, but at same time don't have energy to be socialite!
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, falls victim to the shiny new object syndrome. In the world of tools for thought (aka TfT) or personal knowledge management (aka PKM), this is doubly true. Every other week there is a new tool that promises to deliver EXACTLY what you are looking for. How could you not try it out, right?…
In 2000 Portugal had a massive drug problem. 1% of the population was addicted to heroin. They'd been trying to solve the problem the American way. Put people in jail. Shame and ostracize drug users. Every year the problem got worse. Eventually it got so bad that the prime minister and the leader of the opposition…
I have a friend who always responds with "tired" or "stressed" whenever I ask how she is. It's been five years, and 90% of the time, those are her answers. Yesterday, at a party, she was tired, and after they sang happy birthday, she was in a rush to leave. I asked her to stay a bit longer so we could hang out, but…
I expect that someone in my family will be on Mars in the next 10 generations. After all, I'm part of a tribe that travels. My ancestors were constantly on the road, exploring opportunities for their next generation and the ones that come after. It's baked into my genes. But it presents a conundrum. What mindset,…
Sim, odeio é uma palavra muito forte. Eu também acho. Mas vamos lá de novo. Eu odeio sair a noite. Me sinto ainda mais deslocada, ainda mais outsider, como se não só eu, mas todo mundo soubesse que eu não pertenço aquele círculo ou aquele lugar. Vou ser justa: eu até gosto de sair, mas para cinema, restaurante, show,…
I had downloaded the book on the formation of Trilegal early June and finally finished it on June 25th, 2026. The acknowledgements lead me to this website. What a delight! I had met Sawant Singh during a due diligence that Standard Chartered was conducting for the acquisition of the NPA portfolio of IFCI Bank. About…
Quite often, I hesitate to acknowledge my pettiness. For instance, I took up this writing challenge for the month but have had days when I didn't publish. I missed writing the piece for a total of six days. Of the six, on two days, I hit publish without adding any content because I wanted it to seem regular. How…
For two hours, I have been sitting on the second landing of the staircase in my home, staring at a space between two steps that lead upstairs. Everything is in its right place. I feel sad. But my mind feels warm, supported, and unburdened. I am safe. This place is as true as any other. Everything is here. Everyone is…
I'm no more on a streak. Couldn't write yesterday. Nevertheless, the 30-essay series still continues. Today I am writing about productivity - a topic that is beaten to death a million times, every day, day after day. Well, this one is a different. I'm not selling a "I-know-it-all-shoving-it-down-your-throat"…
Claude is a brilliant, and under-appreciated, alternative to ChatGPT. I've found its writing more relatable when producing long form content. In this post, I'll summarize the Claude Doc's best practices for effective prompts. First, describe your task well. "Think of Claude as similar to an intern on their first day…
When I started my writing journey, consistency was the goal. With consistency, practice is inevitable. What are you practicing? I consider these three elements: The basics - My process, the headline, and the outline are my basics. I need those before I can produce a quality piece of writing. If I'm not careful, I…
The anti-hustle people will tell you that if you're procrastinating on something, it doesn't mean you're a lazy good-for-nothing loser. It means your subconscious is sending you an important message. At the time of writing, I've just spent 5 hours pointedly not doing the real-life paid work that has been stressing me…
Sostengo que Tony Robbins le hizo (hace) mucho daño al mundo. Él creó el mundo de los Gurús y en consecuencia, muchos querían ser machos/hembras "alfa". Personalmente, nunca me subí al tren. Yo siempre supe que mi única competencia era yo mismo. Todos los días tenía que hacer algo mejor que ayer. Disciplina le llaman.…
AHH. There are many objects in the world. this makes me wonder how do i decide on what are the things that i desire? i thought long about the answer; it must speak with me. i find the following quote very true "As soon as you put on one garment, it speaks to your personality" by Virgil Abloh. objects may seem…
A dream is like a seed in a garden. The right conditions must exist for a seed to achieve its full potential. The environment must yield the right amount of water, sunlight, air, nutrients. A gardener initiates the process and works with nature to sustain it. With dreams, we mistakenly believe that everything is up to…
Today while walking in the contemporary museum there were so many pieces that I just resonated with, sometimes I would catch myself smiling or even feeling a feeling sadness depending on the emotion that the artist is going for. Its crazy how as humans we can transmit emotions and feelings through storytelling, words…
The cold, empty space stares back at me: What if it doesn't resonate? What if I'm not pleased with it? Tick-tock More seconds elapse and I don't even have a draft to call first. It's an uncomfortable feeling. Staring across the chasm between the brilliant insight in your mind and the not-yet-articulated onto the…
I have stepped foot on the hamster wheel, constantly running, keeping things in motion—the act of creation and destruction. In my case, my online persona. Just now, I discovered this blogging site, on my umpteenth attempt to write some sorry excuse of a blog which I will be deleting once again, just like the others I…
Sometimes when I look at something that I have written, I can't believe I thought of these words. These words, they just come to me. I have to put pen on paper and give it form. I feel like a messenger at times. The universe or some cosmic force whispering to me. Sometimes these words don't feel like mine. I never…
What do you when you are feeling bad? Does the whole day need to be bad? Think of things that make you happy. Do a favorite activity. Help someone. Go outside. These are great solutions. They all came from the participants in a Tae Kwon Do class. I was proud that the first solution came from my five-year-old…
i hate how much i loved your laugh. i hate how lonely all of this growth feels. i hate that you never celebrated my hard work. i hate that i tried. i hate that i loved your car. i hate that i loved every bit of that part of you that made me hate myself. i hate that i stayed. i hate that i waited while your mouth…
It’s so difficult to persuade yourself to work on weekends. Long time ago it was easy, maybe I was younger and more involved in the tasks. I didn’t scare to be fired, I just work. It was interesting but there were a lot of work.
Hoje eu voltei a trabalhar. Bom ter rotina, sou grata. Em meio às notícias de invasão da Venezuela e sequestro do Maduro, fiquei apreensiva, mas tem coisas que só esperar pra ver. Outras, que nem vendo a gente acredita. Flashbacks do Iraque inundaram meus pensamentos. Gritos internos pedindo para que alguém com mais…
Hannah Arendt defined totalitarianism as the elimination of the individual. A totalitarian regime seeks uncontested authority over one's inner thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, in addition to one's actions and utterances. All action is either forbidden or mandatory; individual will is subsumed as an instrument of the…
Heya! I have always wanted to come back and write and reflect here more. Rather than committing myself to lofty targets, I plan to be intentionally inconsistent here and writing here only when something strikes me so hard that I cannot stop writing about it. So what's something now that I cannot shut up about it? I…
Advice from successful media creators must be taken with a pinch of salt. "Start writing online". "Start a podcast". "Start a YouTube channel". Okay, but hold on. Imagine two scenarios: 1) An online writer making a $500K a year 2) An investor making $5 million a year Both love what they do equally. Both work the same…
We're so obsessed with the idea of permanence--we now fully believe in it. So much so, that it might as well be a new religion. Apart from words like 'forever' and 'endless' being used to describe our 'undying' affection/dislike for one another we've started to manifest permanence in other ways. Mostly by taking life…
I don't think I've ever come to terms with what happened that night. It was horrible and took the very life out of me to a point where I thought going on was impossible. But I had big reasons to create a way out of the madness and while I'm not there yet, I am on the path. They say, "You'll never get over it." They…
Some days are better than others. A couple of days ago, I ran the fastest I probably ever have for that distance. I was so happy and proud. But today, I just couldn't keep up; my pace was as slow as it was a couple of months ago. I kept having pain and couldn't breathe because my nose was dripping. There are so many…
There are times when I look at contact list in my phone and feel like talking to a couple of them without any agenda. But I am afraid today to do so. I could do it easily in my younger days when the only purpose of phone was calling; SMS and listening to music were additional features. I did it for years and it helped…
Maybe you shouldn’t be affected by how others treat you You need to be big enough Still smile to them To L, to the Myanmar engineer who is rude Make eye contact and smile - say hi morning, things like that Don’t be rude just because others are That makes you reactive - and only initiative people tends to get success…
