We lost Prof Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi this week. If you’ve ever heard of the word “flow” or sought it yourself, you’ve been touched by Prof Mihaly’s pioneering work on psychology and productivity. I interviewed Prof Mihaly 7 years ago for a side project. I was thrilled to have...

A disclaimer that should accompany every conversation on career choices – “There may be patterns to be found when we look at careers on average. But, one person’s career journey is idiosyncratic. So, no one knows what’s right for you.” Ultimately, all inputs and perspectives ...

As we experiment with teaching our kids letters and numbers, I find myself reflecting on my identity as a student growing up. A big part of this identity – as a “good student” – revolved around how much I knew. It took me years to unlearn that idea and focus instead on how well...

I chuckled when I saw this email in my inbox this morning. The honesty in the email “Greetings MASS EMAIL” was unintentional. But, it was representative of the quality of the rest of the email. Mail merge functionality has made it easy to incorporate the illusion of personaliza...

If you think you will be unhappy during the week, you’re right. Conversely, if you think you will be happy, you’re right about that too. We decide whether we’ll be happy or unhappy first and tailor our responses to what happens after. Not the other way around. Share this: ...

I’ve shared Morgan Housel’s posts a few times over the past months and years. I think of his content from time to time – his ability to source/share memorable stories is best-in-class. One post that has stuck with me in the past months is “The Highest Forms of Wealth.” He cal...

In the long run, our ability to be consistently productive is dependent on our ability to habitually prioritize the important before it becomes urgent. Getting something done before it becomes urgent saves us time and energy because it helps remove stress and stress-related mistakes. ...

I was getting a haircut the other day. The kind lady showed me the finished cut and asked me if it looked good. I thought it looked great. Seeing myself in the mirror, I half-joked about my receding hairline. To this, she said – “You know that only you notice it right? Nobody cares...

One way to improve our learning curve on writing good documents (or creating good presentations) is to stop being overly reactive to executive feedback. A better approach, instead, is to use executive feedback to better understand what good looks like. We can do that by digging into th...

A few years ago, a then-good friend shared Bon Iver’s “re:Stacks” with me. She shared the song at a chaotic time. And, somehow, the song brought calm. A reminder to simply recharge. Then begin again. I think I might have looked up the lyrics once in the years since. I can’...

“Mentors pick you, you don’t pick them. They pick you because they see something in you that they want to hitch their wagon to.” | Indra Nooyi, Pepsico’s former CEO. I’ve seen many attempts at describing the process of finding mentorship over the years. The good ones drive hom...

I played music on our speakers using Airplay the other day. It was amazing to think about all that happened in that one moment. I thought of a song I liked, pulled out a phone from my pocket, found that song, played it thanks to wireless internet, and then transferred it over to a ...

We were talking about a few scratches and blemishes on our wooden flooring the other day. Our friends reframed it for us when they described the blemishes as “character.” Over the past weeks, we’ve been joking about how we’ve been adding (or discovering) character throughout our...

I was looking for a parking spot the other day. As I turned in, I noticed folks get into a car nearby. Assuming they’d be getting out, I decided to wait. However, they decided to take their own time. As I continued waiting, I noticed a car pull into an empty spot just 5 or so...

Whenever the list gets long and overwhelming, I find myself reminded of Anne Lamott’s wonderful story. “Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. ...

My grandmom felt some discomfort in her mouth. She found the source of the discomfort – a white spot. She decided to run some Google searches and stumbled on some article that explained this was a cancer symptom. Cue: worry. It turned out to be a small infection. The denti...

The ability to think long term is a powerful marker of privilege. As I reflect on the privilege I’ve accumulated over the years, the biggest change has been a sense of security – both mental and financial. That sense of security, in turn, enables long term thinking and investment. ...

3 truths about fixing things: (1) It generally takes longer than you think. (2) You develop a deep understanding of the dysfunctional nature of large organizations (if you deal with customer service) or of user manuals. (3) You develop a lot of appreciation for how smooth things...

I get renewal reminder notices from a few services. The best such email is from WordPress. In the first paragraph, they highlight – “You don’t have to do anything – this is just a reminder.” Then, they go on to tell me what I should expect. Truth be told, that one l...

The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created. The Ikea effect posits that we disproportionately value furniture we assemble. I only find that loosely true in my experience. I don’t have a strong a...