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Personal growth requires honest assessment of our blind spots, biases, and behavioral patterns that might be holding us back. In my many conversations with strangers, I’ve recently made a conscious effort to listen more and speak less. It changes the conversation almost immediately, and it shows me things about myself I’d usually miss. People reveal extraordinary depths when given adequate space and your attentive silence. Strategic questions help navigate the conversation, but what truly matters is creating space for others to express themselves—and most people will naturally fill conversational gaps if you allow them.

Forming habits is surprisingly easy. Breaking them is often less difficult than we initially believe, with notable exceptions like nicotine addiction, which is notoriously challenging to overcome. I read Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, which despite its verbosity, presents a solid core concept: begin with small, manageable actions and gradually build until behaviors become automatic. The inverse applies to breaking habits—quitting abruptly frequently fails, while incremental reduction often proves more effective.

Rejection stings in a way that’s hard to brace for. Whether or not it gets easier with age and experience remains an open question—the anticipation of rejection rarely prepares us for how it lands when it actually happens. I’ve developed a certain expertise in rejection through abundant experience. I’ve been rejected by educational institutions, potential employers, friends, family members, and romantic partners. I’ve faced rejection from people I’ve deeply admired and respected, people I’ve loved and trusted, and even complete strangers.

Writing is not easy, and it’s easier for some than others. Personally I don’t find it hard to write about things that interest me, but I know some do. Different types of writing come more naturally to different people—I find writing fiction challenging, so I rarely attempt it. Perhaps that’s an opportunity for growth rather than avoidance.

Thought leaders worldwide have been weighing in on the AI mania that has gripped the world. There are many fascinating predictions spanning from doomsday scenarios to utopian futures. My bias is that biology will do what it always does and correct for it. Biology is the original technology—it has been around for 3.7 billion years and has had a remarkably long time to refine itself. Evolution is self-correcting in the bluntest way: what doesn’t work dies off, and what does tends to stick around. Humans have certainly influenced this process, but the fundamental principles remain operational. We often attempt to predict winners and losers in this evolutionary race, but ultimately nature has the final say.

Being present is what it feels like when your mind is where your body already is. Buddhism, Stoicism, and cognitive behavioral therapy all circle this in their own way: pay attention to what’s in front of you instead of getting dragged around by regret, anxiety, or whatever story your brain is spinning up next.

While many modern psychological approaches have come and gone, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the few that gives people a clear way to catch bad thought patterns and do something about them. Its core idea shows up much earlier in the Stoics. CBT is among the most well-researched and effective forms of therapy available today, with countless studies demonstrating its efficacy for treating depression, anxiety, and other conditions1. Yet long before modern psychology existed, Stoic philosophers like Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius were advocating remarkably similar techniques.

In the bygone era, we had résumés—and today, many of us still maintain these professional summaries (or curriculum vitae, for the academically inclined). But now we also curate digital identities through social profiles, which are often the first thing an employer or stranger sees now. For the professionally ambitious, these digital personas have become the initial point of contact, the thing people look at before deciding whether to take you seriously. In the context of employment, hiring managers often size you up from your online presence long before any interview. Best hope those recruiters don’t unearth your anonymous Reddit alter ego.

When most people contemplate technology, their minds immediately conjure sci-fi spectacles: humanoid robots, sentient AI, and interplanetary travel. But technology extends far beyond these futuristic tropes. I think cities count too: large systems we built to solve human needs at scale. It’s not the future we wanted, but what we got. The backward cars and other weirdness are good examples of why we are not ‘AI’ yet.

John Maynard Keynes coined the term “animal spirits” to describe the human emotions that drive consumer confidence. You can see a new version of it in the AI boom: people cheering for an algorithmically-driven future filled with generated clickbait, mediocre art, fabricated “facts,” and an endless stream of low-quality content.