But there are other things you can do.
I once had a (virgin) mojito, and it lead to the most excruciating pain of my life. I still have nightmares about lime, soda water and sugar.
I was 12 and in Cuba for a family vacation. The great thing about Cuban-all-inclusive-resorts is the ability to exploit the free drinks. I had lots (don’t take this the wrong way, I was 12).
As you may infer, I eventually had to pee. We were on the beach, and the hotel room was too far. There were no public washrooms nearby. But there was the ocean. I stared into my mojito’s soul…
Actions to take to become happier, more productive and kind.
How you train is how you perform.
I love this quote.
If you snooze your alarm every morning, you’re not going to become better at waking up without an alarm.
If you’re unkind to the people around you, you won’t become kinder.
If you’re always late to hand in assignments, you’re not going to become better at not procrastinating.
I’ve spent the past two years relentlessly trying to become a better, kinder and smarter person. One thing I found so notoriously frustrating about self-help books, blogs, etc. was I didn’t know where to start.
I began experiencing the most growth when I started doing small things consistently.
…
My friend and I tried walking really far to develop empathy for people who need to walk far distances for life necessities, healthcare or safety.
I’m working on emm.health, so the issue of maternal health care has been top-of-mind.
The other day my friend and I wanted to walk really far. It was to try to develop empathy for women in rural Sub-Saharan Africa who walk hours roundtrip to receive care for their pregnancies. It was a 12h (!) walk. 50km / 31 miles. — The longest break was ~15 min. Some thoughts:
Note: We did not perfectly replicate the experience. But it was still a painful experience — and I learned a lot. Here are some of my raw thoughts on the “adventure.”
Ps…
I have been part of The Knowledge Society (TKS) since September 2018. Sept 2018 — June 2020 as a Student, and Sept 2019 — April 2021 as an employee.
This program has been truly revolutionary in building my network, skills and career ambitions. A few sentences won’t do TKS justice, so I’ll go right into the details of my time as a student and as an early employee (Program Success Manager) at TKS.
Why did I join TKS?
I joined TKS in 10th grade as a top STEM student with a desire to do more than what the classroom confines me to. …
I went through two years of TKS, a human accelerator program for students who want to explore how STEM can solve global challenges.
Background: I did the program in my sophomore and junior years. I’ve only ever been to public school. I’m a first-generation Canadian. I’m a senior now with an offer to study Human Sciences at Oxford (in the same building where Robert Hooke studied !!!!!!).
I also got the Morehead-Cain (full ride) scholarship to UNC-Chapel Hill, valued at $300,000+ CAD, which is where I am heading next year. That means my return on investment ($10,000 CAD) is 2,900%. I can confidently say I got the scholarship BECAUSE of my experience at TKS.
This post will summarize what I got from the…
Get disappointed less; live more.
Written in November 2019.
I’ve started to internalize the importance of controlling my expectations.
Why? Because expectations control our lives. They cause anxiety, disappointment and negativity.
Often, we don’t choose our expectations. It’s easy to get conditioned by society; expectations are easy to acquire but difficult to control.
Instagram gives us expectations that our lives should be filled with nice beaches, expensive food and fireworks.
Schools are also a great example. We condition students (and convince them) to spend hours studying for tests, staying up until silly o’clock so they can get a 96%. Were the students naturally born with…
Anyone who has ever spent more than 30 seconds with me knows I ask a lot of questions.
Ever since I was young, I’ve had a “scientific mindset.” I was trying to drill at why things happened. I also asked a lot of “what if [insert hypothesis]?” questions because I wanted to explore alternative possibilities. I love finding new correlations and theories.
Naturally, science has become my favourite area to study, and I spend a lot of time learning about scientific things. But — I’m also interested/dedicated to personal improvement.
And I’ve recently discovered that science is another way to…
For anyone aspiring to start, manage or lead teams.
Books
General
Culture & Team
Podcasts for the Nerdy
This is a list I curated back a few months ago. I could listen to these episodes forever and not get bored / constantly learn.
After On Episodes
Don Hoffman (Reality)
Sean Carroll (Quantum)
Annaka Harris (consciousness)
Ed Boyden (Neuroscience)
Laurie Santos (Happiness)
Jordan Harbinger (the science of psychopathy)
Daniel Kraft (medicine)
Psychedelic cure to depression
David Eagleman (Extending senses)
Robert Green (genetics)
Stuart Russell (AI)
Ev Williams (Medium + Twitter)
Sam Harris (Terrorism)
Steve Jurvetson (Quantum Computing)
Knowledge Project
Steven Strogatz (Exploring Curiosities)
Jeff Hunter (Unlocking human potential)
Scott Adams (Avoiding Loserthink)
Sheila Heen (Decoding difficult conversations)
My Takeaways from White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
You’re doing your Ph.D. in Astronomy at Harvard. You want to study the stars. Then you buy a very very very powerful microscope.
I hope you get kicked out of your Ph.D. program.
One simply cannot study the vastness of the sky with a device that is built to study the vastness of particles. You won’t have the right perspective. To understand the collective of the stars, you must look at the collective stars. You need a telescope.
