Top posts
If you don’t know where to begin, try some of these:
- I went on a meditation retreat
- On realizing the potential for agency
- Learnings to Unlearn
- Parenting Misconceptions: shared by a kid
- Keep Room for Uncertainty
All posts
Below you will find all the posts ever written on this blog (from latest to oldest).
A stability no dogmatic society can have (#191)
“I take a different view of science as a method; to me, it enters the human spirit more directly. Therefore I have studied quite another achievement: that of making a human society work. As a…
Continue readingWhy altruism is evil and how to actually create a favorable future (#190)
This is a link post for https://criticalrationalism.substack.com/p/3-why-altruism-is-evil I. The idea of creating a future that is favorable for our descendants is in vogue today. But before even thinking about creating an ideal future, we must…
Continue readingWhy ChatGPT isn’t a step towards AGI (#189)
This is a link post for https://criticalrationalism.substack.com/p/2-why-chatgpt-isnt-a-step-towards Last month, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the world. The chatbot immediately took the Internet by storm, crossing a million users in less than 5 days of its research launch. There’s…
Continue readingA tweet I’m proud of (#188)
For this blog post, just sharing one of the simplest tweets I’m proudest of to have written; the thought of which still baffles me: Ironic how we are trying to create computers that can “think…
Continue readingThe Power of Thought (#187)
Almost everything to do with the evidence of modern civilization is the manifestation of thought. Think about it, from primitive huts to heaven-kissing skyscrapers, from Stone Age doodles to the Mona Lisa, the significance of…
Continue readingThe Most Dangerous Writing App (#186)
There’s a web app called The Most Dangerous Writing App that’s actually pretty good at fighting writer’s block. How it works is simple: you set a time limit for yourself, and then you have to…
Continue readingSome questions (#185)
– Why is gravity still considered a force when it is known since the 1910s that gravity is just a manifestation of the curvature of spacetime? (H/T: Twitter) – Will ChatGPT kill the student essay?…
Continue readingI went on a meditation retreat (#184)
Recently, I went on a solo meditation retreat somewhere close to the Himalayas for 4 days. It was a powerful experience and I am glad to have done it. Since the time of planning and…
Continue readingHow to Journal for Increased Productivity, Meaning and Motivation (#183)
Note: I’m assuming you’ve already heard “journaling is good for you”. And that you’ve somewhat been convinced. Carry on if that’s the case. If not, spend half an hour watching “journaling” videos on YouTube and…
Continue readingWhen you should take someone’s word for it (#182)
Hint: never. Nullius in verba is our motto here. In Latin, it roughly means “take no one’s word for it”. When people hear that phrase, a common argument that pops up against it is that…
Continue readingDead Poets Society: a film review (#181)
This is another article I wrote for the Taking Children Seriously website. This time, its a film review! On the thoroughly inspiring, and somewhat infuriating film Dead Poets Society featuring Robin Williams. Read it on…
Continue readingWhy I haven’t posted in 10 days (#180)
There’s a lot going on. But also not a whole lot. Let me explain. Changing houses So we recently moved houses. And I’m at this entirely new part of the city which is absolutely beautiful.…
Continue readingDeschooling Society, by Ivan Illich: a book review (#179)
I wrote a book review of Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society for the wonderful Taking Children Seriously website that was relaunched recently. You can read it on the Taking Children Seriously website here. Taking Children Seriously…
Continue readingMy story from relativist to fallibilist (#178)
At one point doesn’t everything seem relative? What even is truth if not that which is true relative to the person? This echoes the philosophy of relativism. It states that truth is relative to the…
Continue readingbut why can’t I ask “why”? (#177)
In school, I’m often accused of talking back at the teacher. One day, after being annoyed by a seemingly unreasonable question for the nth time, the teacher coldly demanded of me, “Never ask me why.”…
Continue reading“Where am I going to use all this in my life?” (#176)
The TEACHER has written something on the board and all students are “expected” to copy it in their notebooks. STUDENT: [whispers to himself] Where am I ever going to use this in my life? TEACHER:…
Continue readingYou don’t know what you’ve got until its gone (#175)
The “chasing things to get happy” strategy is a meaningless one. Desire always creeps up yet again and you start with another void to fill every time the last thing you filled it with no…
Continue readingNature and humans: a false dichotomy (#174)
This post was inspired by a live discussion between Slavoj Žižek (pronounced SLAH-voy zhee-ZHEK) and Yuval Noah Harari on the topic “Nature: friend or foe?”. You can watch their conversation on YouTube here. This post…
Continue readingWhy this isn’t the “most important century” (#173)
There’s a whole blog post series arguing for why we could presently be living in the “most important century” for humanity ever. This piece is a critique to exactly that fundamental idea of this being…
Continue readingExperience is beyond concepts (#172)
Automatically, we associate experience with some concept. “This is good”, “This feels bad”, “I’m happy”, “I love doing this”. However specific our words might be and whatever feeling we get about so-and-so being the perfect…
Continue readingList of double-edged swords (#171)
A double-edged sword is anything that can have favorable and unfavorable consequences. I pose a list of fundamental double-edged swords to the human condition below. A double-edged sword doesn’t have to be unfavorable. Making explicit…
Continue readingDiversity in unity: the same thing in different ways (#170)
After running in my local (but beautiful) national park this Sunday, I made an extremely pleasant observation. Followed by a second but distressing observation of the same thing I felt pleasant about. The final observation…
Continue reading5 things I learned from blogging a whole year (#169)
It’s been a whole year since I started this blog. And what a long way I’ve come since then. Before starting out, I’d been writing for a book (which is still in the works). Since…
Continue readingThings don’t have to be the same (#168)
This morning Dad was telling Mom how it’s getting difficult for him to see at night while driving on the road. (And also that rains don’t help.) He’d read on the Internet he said, that…
Continue reading“Is it compulsory?” (#167)
The TEACHER has just explained the details of an assignment to the entire class. A STUDENT raises his hand. TEACHER: [to the student] Yes, do you have a doubt relating to what I just said?…
Continue readingOn realizing the potential for agency (#166)
I know there are like an uncountably infinite “two kinds of people in this world”, but there are two kinds of people in this world: those who say it can’t be done because they don’t…
Continue readingOn the problem with keeping false beliefs for psychological comfort (#165)
There’s a whole side of argument that supports the idea of keeping false beliefs for psychological consolation—beliefs that act as some sort of a placebo. There are a couple of holes in this argument that…
Continue readingSome thoughts on death (#164)
A young friend recently died; It was a shock to hear. Something that happens in an instance,but affects the indefinite future;when isn’t death a shock? Yet, a sudden death makes one reflect.”If I were to…
Continue readingChauvinism and being blindly guided by dogmatic religion (#163)
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”Blaise Pascal In 1973 Israeli psychologist George Tamarin presented a mind-blowing study on the effect of what’s “written in the…
Continue readingLeaving Earth (#162)
This is an essay I wrote for the Eon Essay Contest. “The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but [hu]mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” KONSTANTIN TSIOLKOVSKY The Space Race (1955-1975) between the United States…
Continue readingWhy evolutionary psychology explanations are pleasing and what they get wrong (#161)
“I can’t help myself, it’s human nature, human natureWho’s to say what’s meant to be?Why can’t we be on our worst behavior, worst behaviorWhen it comes so naturally?”Zara Larsson (I Would Like) The study of…
Continue readingA critique to school debates (#160)
I was in the audience of my school debate last week. A two hour experience that made me ponder on the extent to which school debates are meaningless. I suggest a better and complete alternative…
Continue readingBecause I say so (#159)
“Mom, can I […]?” “No.” “Why?” “Because you can’t.” “But why can’t I?” “Because it isn’t good.” “Why?” “Because I say so.” [Moans with disappointment, accepts defeat.] Because I say so. Impatience usually is the…
Continue reading16 years of being alive (#158)
I turn 16 today. Here are some ideas (and questions) on my mind: 1. Are you going to wait for death to enjoy life too? 2. Tomorrow is simply a bonus. 3. Why do we…
Continue readingThe inexplicit nature of norms & why we sit down to eat (#157)
“Why do we sit down and eat?” that was the question that (completely randomly) popped up in my head and I asked my 9 year old sister what she thought about it. That’s a foolish…
Continue readingThe world in 2072 (#156)
AD 2072, The World. People have had many understandings of the laws of the Universe in the past. They weren’t all labeled understandings of the ‘laws of the Universe’ but essentially suggested what we mean…
Continue readingActa non verba: the illusion of hypocrisy (#155)
A couple years ago I was at a spiritual place where I was starting to understand that a lot of things in the world were really messed up. The path most people unconsciously seemed to…
Continue readingCraving for explanations (#154)
“Is there is a meaning of life?” Many people naturally ponder on the meaning of life question. As humans who are thirsty to understand the world, we crave explanations for our existence. What’s the purpose…
Continue readingWhoa moment: on another level of consciousness (#153)
“… once in a while, when you deeply reflect on one of these facts [about the size & age of the Universe], or when you’re in the right late night conversation with the right person,…
Continue readingBeing Doraemon’s Innovator (#152)
Just so we’re on the same page: we all agree that a child’s creativity is one of the most important things to them, right? Also, isn’t watching cartoons and fantasy shows “a waste of time”?…
Continue readingA marathoner’s prejudice against bad weather (#151)
I have a fellow-runner friend who runs the Mumbai Marathon. The race takes place on the third Sunday of January each year. Coincidentally, in this zone of the world, that is the last bit of…
Continue readingUnder a different light & magnitude (#150)
“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones.Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born.The potential people who could have been here in my…
Continue readingLearnings to Unlearn (#149)
Unlearning is the new meta-skill. Though it doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves. You can’t really learn evolution without unlearning creationism (the idea that the Universe was created by a supernatural power). You…
Continue readingNullius in verba (#148)
It’s easy to accept the most irrational ideas when one doesn’t give them any thought and blindly accepts them because they’re the most obvious ones. It isn’t natural to humans to question their own tightly…
Continue readingParenting Misconceptions: shared by a kid (#147)
Human biology and evolution favor us in the ease of the process of procreating children but it doesn’t make the job of raising them easy in any way. That’s one reason why parents have such…
Continue readingDistortion caused by recent events (#146)
History and it’s key insights have a tendency to get distorted in our minds due to the recent record. Reasoning in such a way so as to come to a conclusion that what’s going to…
Continue readingWhat’s wrong with teenagers? (#145)
A teenager’s rant on the problem with the normal teenager. When a child becomes a teenager, all of a sudden he’s into the “real world” now. And I feel that’s a really gloomy imaginative world…
Continue readingDouglas Adams On Religion (#144)
The following is an excerpt from a speech by Douglas Adams on the troubles on speaking against religion in free society. One can openly share their perspective on the best economic system and their political…
Continue readingThe x Rule: Faster than Normal (#143)
(Pronounced: the times rule) A simple rule I follow allows me to learn (and essentially live) up to 2x faster than one would normally do. Here’s how one can employ it to do the same.…
Continue readingWhy we are the biggest threat (#142)
In the previous post, I started with a bold conjecture. I wrote: The biggest threat to humanity is itself. This is because I think it’s true if we take absolute accountability for our species. Climate…
Continue readingWars are dumb (#141)
The biggest threat to humanity is itself. I don’t know a lot about what’s going on between Russia and Ukraine right now. This short post doesn’t delve into the details, though it teaches a good…
Continue readingAn Unconventional View of Happiness (#140)
Most people and standard definitions associate happiness to a feeling of pleasure and joy. I don’t find that view very compelling. So I’m going to propose an unconventional (and hopefully more promising) view of happiness…
Continue readingLessons from A Shower (#139)
Observation I took cold showers almost every morning throughout the entire winter. Very rarely would I take a hot shower either for the sake of pleasure or when I was sick. But the contrast in…
Continue readingThe Challenge of Obstacles (#138)
A lot of what we talk about on this blog is to do with how we look at certain things. The perspective from which we are viewing the world. And how is that vision advantageous…
Continue reading2 Ways to be Rational to Better Understand the World (#137)
In the previous post we discussed problems faced because of the dual nature of the mind: The tendency for the conscious self to surf over to the irrational (or Fear) condition. This post continues with…
Continue readingOn the inability to do the right thing (#136)
It’s a painful fact that we’re so often aware of the right thing to do, and we know what we want to do, yet we do not do it! Sin #1 The day before, on…
Continue readingBattle Between Emotion & Rationale (#135)
There’s two ways we think: (1) with emotion and (2) with rationale. They both work together but often fight against each other due to the immense differences in their goals. Emotion’s goal is alerting the…
Continue readingIs Money Evil? (#134)
This is part two of the 2-part money series on this blog. You can read part one here where we discussed what makes people believe in money and how it works. No, money isn’t evil.…
Continue readingMoney & Why We Trust Each Other (#133)
Why do we believe in money? Why would people take jobs they’re really not quite interested in and work the majority of their life only to get money out of it? Why have we given…
Continue readingThe Irrationality of Emotion (#132)
Some stats… Between 33 and 40 per cent of all people experience some form of anxiety when it comes to flying. And between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of the population have crippling…
Continue readingThe Secrets of Life (#131)
Last week marked 15 years since the first time Steve Jobs showed the iPhone to the world. In honor of that here’s a short remark he made about the secrets of life in an interview…
Continue readingHistory of Racism (#130)
This post was originally created for the newsletter subscribers. You can subscribe or learn more here. This is a theory of how discrimination against African Americans came to be what it is today. It began with…
Continue readingWhy We Are All So Different (#129)
The world is so diverse. Some people we like, some we dislike, some we find cool, some are weird. And the people we have feelings toward similarly have feelings toward the rest of the world…
Continue readingHow we always keep our prides high (#128)
Sports fans that root for their hometown team unconsciously use a subtle way to always keep their identity high regarded. This is how we they do it: When their home team wins, they say, “We…
Continue readingAbundance (#127)
Teenagers today often hear from last generation people that back in those days, we didn’t stare at screens all day, we went outside and did stuff. But if only there were something known as the…
Continue readingAnger & The Hulk (#126)
The Hulk teaches us a lot about anger. He’s good at destroying the enemy when he’s angry, but sometimes that irrational mind goes down the wrong path. When Bruce Banner is subjected to a certain…
Continue readingHow to Make 2022 The Year For You (#125)
The New Year is the perfect excuse to start working out, read books, keep a journal, learn a new skill, and stuff like that. Although, if only we were as pumped up and in a…
Continue readingThe Compound Effect Book Summary (#124)
Notes from Darren Hardy’s book The Compound Effect.This is a combination of quotes directly from the book with certain adjustments for context, as well as my personal thoughts. What is the compound effect? The Compound…
Continue readingNO PARALYSIS THROUGH ANALYSIS! (#123)
Oftentimes I get an incredible idea, but send it to waste only because I think about it too much. And sometimes I begin doing something new but get so worked up in the superfluous details…
Continue readingFear or Love? (#122)
Are you letting yourself be led by fear or by love? If there’s one thing that stops us from doing what we love, that’s fear. Inaction, and often undesired action; boils down to having insufficient…
Continue readingKeep Room for Uncertainty (#121)
A lot is uncertain.Often, the things that are supposed to go in a way, don’t go so.It’s hard to accept but it remains an outstanding fact that most of the stuff in life is uncertain.The…
Continue readingAbundance is Deceiving (#120)
It’s common to see that when we have an abundance of something, we don’t really care too much about it. But when we have a scarcity of something, we dwell too much on it. We…
Continue readingLessons from Gary Vaynerchuck in Twelve and a Half (#119)
This post consists of the lessons from and summary of Gary Vaynerchuck’s book: Twelve and a Half : Leveraging the Emotional Ingredients Necessary for Business Success. In the book, Gary Vaynerchuck shares 12 necessary “emotional…
Continue readingData Privacy in Technology is a Joke (#118)
This article is supposed to be a joke. Its not a direct accusation to Apple (I love that company), but it points the finger to every technology company that has bad data privacy of its…
Continue readingHow to Start Something New Out (#117)
I mention “Monkey Mind” quite throughout this article. It constantly seeks instant gratification. It works on instinct and impulse. It thinks through feeling, not logic. We all have it, but with reason we can turn…
Continue readingTemplate to Reflect. Review. And Redesign (#116)
This article is a template for a year-end journaling process I share in this article (link – Reflect. Review. Redesign. (#115)). Sorry, but you’ll need to read that before you can understand this. Oh, you’ve…
Continue readingReflect. Review. Redesign. (#115)
2021 is nearing its end. What a year it’s been! The end of the year is the best excuse to Reflect. Review. And Redesign. That’s what we’re going to talk about here. Did you wake…
Continue readingSummary: How to Win Friends & Influence People (#114)
This article is a summary for How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (one of the greatest best-selling books of all time). Let’s dive in. This book is an action book. For…
Continue readingHow to Remember What You Read (#113)
“I just sit in my office and read all day.”Warren Buffett Reading books has lately become one of my greatest habits. But only reading them and taking in information isn’t going to help if the…
Continue readingAligning Words With Actions (#112)
Often, we say something, mean something, and we do a whole ‘nother thing, if not completely the opposite of what we had said.When I say “said”, I don’t just mean words spoken by you to…
Continue reading30 Days of Cold Showers (#111)
My Experience & Why I Don’t Plan to Fall Back to Hot Showers Cold showers have turned into a really hot thing right now, backed by “scientific evidence” said to bring about a lot of…
Continue readingOn the Shortness of Time (#110)
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger or simply Seneca wrote a moral essay sometime back in 49 AD titled ‘De Brevitate Vitae’ (‘On the Shortness of Life’ in English) This article is partly inspired by his Stoic…
Continue readingBecoming Curious (#109)
Step 1. Awareness Children are fast learners. Quite faster than the average adult. They pick up how to speak and learn their first language in no time. Whereas, an adult who knows how to speak…
Continue readingMental Links (#108)
Note: mental links, mental models, mental connections, heuristics and systems thinking; all roughly mean the same in psychology. I’ll use the term “mental links” throughout this article. Our minds are incredible at linking and connecting…
Continue readingA father who (accidently) shot his own kid (#107)
It was November 1994. Fourteen-year-old Matilda, practically for a joke, was playing the role of burglar at home with her friend Stacy. Her father, coming home late, who assumed Matilda was at a friend’s house…
Continue readingBlaming People for Your Loss is NOT cool (#106)
How often do we judge others (almost unconsciously) when the other person hasn’t done any wrong? How often do we criticize when we really need to apologize? How often do we look for loopholes or…
Continue readingLeft Brain + Right Brain Thinking (#105)
The human brain is a subtly brilliant thing. Its capacities and intriguing manners literally amaze me every day—to this day! Its immense size is wonderful. Its complexity is breathtaking. Everything about it is just so…
Continue readingIs Reality Relative? (#104)
17 years ago the city council in Monza, Italy (famous for its Formula 1 Grand Prix) prohibited pet owners from keeping their goldfish in bowls (like the one in the picture above). Here’s part of…
Continue readingBuild People (#103)
People may forget what you say and people may forget what you do. But no one will ever forget how you made them feelMaya Angelou Read the above quote once again, if you please, and…
Continue readingEvolution of the brain (#102)
Everything we do, every thought we’ve ever had, is produced by the human brain. But exactly how it operates remains one of the biggest unsolved mysteries, and it seems the more we probe its secrets,…
Continue readingBig Mind, small mind (#101)
A popular idea in the Zen tradition—Big Mind, small mind—sets out to explain two different, and extreme perspectives of looking at the world. One is looking at everything from the cosmic scale, aka the Big…
Continue reading100
Today and this post together mark day and article #100 on this blog. The enthusiasm and desire to write everyday and share it with a delightful audience through this blog still reside sincerely in my…
Continue reading099 The Resistance (at first)
“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.” Leonardo da Vinci The mind is eminent for its resistance. We occasionally experience resistance even to doing things that we deep-down really want to…
Continue reading098 Think Week
I read and think.Warren Buffett Bill Gates has revealed an important practice which helped him think very well during the early years at Microsoft. Twice a year, Gates would take a 7 day Think Week.…
Continue reading097 Fear
Fear always screams loudest when your magic is closestRobin Sharma (EHM) Fear protected us (as it still does, but to a different extent). It was quite important at the time for our homo Sapiens species,…
Continue reading096 Breaking the Chain
Vicious cycles. They’re rather deadly. And you don’t want to be stuck in one. I think one of the finest parts about experiencing life is all the differences, all the amazingly vast and diverse…
Continue reading095 Reflection on this blog
As I begin writing my 95th article of this blog (with many more to come!), I feel a little reflective today.I had a simple intention with my article writings, which I still follow. Ever since…
Continue reading094 Turning difficult into fun
There’s something unsurprisingly odd about doing “fun stuff” that we would even go the extra mile to do it. Here is a video I found on Twitter which depicts more clearly, through a public experiment,…
Continue reading093 Creating good ways to live
Our entire lives are basically a series of habits. We do things habitually for the bulk of our time on this planet. But habits can turn into our worst enemies sometimes, and worst enemies do…
Continue reading092 The fisherman and the businessman
Here is a great Brazilian Classic story, about a fisherman and a businessman. I found it really relatable and I hope you like it too. Note: this article was originally published on Paulo Coelho’s blog…
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Arjun Khemani 