My most recent discovery of an inspiration that I found my self consuming much of his wisdom and thoughts on the internet, Naval Ravikant. I’ll probably be sharing more of his thinking here. But for now, this piece of advice on hobbies is one of the best I come across on that matter.

“Pick three hobbies: One that makes you money, one that makes you fit, and one that keeps you creative.”

The word “Pick” here implies that we have an array of hobbies that we could choose from, depending on the experiences, evolving character, environment, circumstances, and available choices that fit our lifestyle.

Do you have one of each? If you can only choose three hobbies for the rest of the year to focus on, what would they be? What if you could develop a Combo Hobby, a one that could make you money, fit, and keeps you creative!

One of the most recurring thoughts, or self-questioning, I’ve been pondering about lately, after about two years of unsettlement and Vagabonding, and an urge to be grounded. A question came in the following form: *where do I want to live? Why certain places inspire me to become the best self, while others drain the energy out of me, forcing me into what I call *mental survival mode.

This post (thought) was triggered to be written (frozen) here, after listening to one of my seasonal inspirations, Jan Chipchase, during today’s run on an interview with him on The Service Design Show.

I’ll leave you with the conclusion of this episode, where Jan asks this question in a 45-seconds segment. That left me thinking about it again for the rest of the run. And beyond.

If you could be based out of anywhere, where you be based at? And why? – If you are not there already, why?

Because so much...

We can learn things from an interview with anyone, even a small child. Everyone has something that other people need. And what others have can be a hint toward learning more about ourselves. That is the epitome¹ of a good interview. – Florian Weigensmer²

A question I was wondering about this morning while putting on my running shoes getting ready to hit the road as part of the “morning rituals.” Before that, I was doing habitually and routinely and mostly mindlessly a series of actions that I haven’t thought about questioning if I should be doing them today or not? Should I brush my teeth today? Should I put on a shirt? Or is it ok to skip? When did that become a habit anyways? And most importantly, how and why?

While each of these questions could take a full-length book to explain and explore. I like the simple summarization that Seth Godin writes about in post named Cognitive load is real

Below is a snippet from this post with a thought-provoking checklist that helped me do a maintenance update. Review and see if my drives to actions are valid, or we need to make some changes.

Here’s my list, in order, of what drives behavior in

To understand this, you need to understand what time is. Most people think time is something physical. It’s either something that flows, or it’s something we move through. This is incorrect. The word" time", is a term describing our motion from one moment to the next. In other words, “time” is something we do. ¹

Time is one of the most challenging concepts to wrap my head around; the more I think I had a new understanding of it, the more mind-twisting it becomes.

I wrote this thought after an experience I was engaged in for over 3-hours with no sense of time passing for that long (or short) it depends on what we are comparing it to. I had to put this down in an attempt to map little by little how do I think about time, sensationally, spiritually, physically, and whatever perspective I can attach an -ly to, looking at time.

Yesterday, I finished reading this masterpiece by Jan Chipchase.

Never imagined I would be reading such a thick 524-page book, cover to cover (unaided by an audiobook). It was a delightful journey. The idea of eating an elephant one bite at a time manifested while I turn the last page after reflecting forward. It took me about a month of reading with a total quantified 40 hours (averaging 1.5 hours a day) — I guess 30% of that time was me wandering and daydreaming being in the field again.

While the Handbook appears to be a practical reference, a How-to guide to running international field research projects, where Jan distilled his over 20-years of experience in the field. My favorite parts, heavily highlighted, are when he spin-off to a philosophical tone revealing the Why-to behind things, and the ways we observe and interact, It by itself feels like a guide to becoming a better c...

It’s been 13 days and posts since I started this project.

It’s ups and downs, days where it’s fun and breezy, others I was struggling to produce a complete good enough sharable idea. While my immunity against perfection is improving, or so I do feel, I’m starting to get a better sense of how much work I still have to do in order to get better at this game.

Up until now, most of what I’ve been sharing here is from random themes, mainly inspirations and quotes from books, blogs, and podcasts I consume during the day—then appending my opinion to it. While this a strategy to get me by when I’m out of “original” ideas; I still want to get those writing muscles back to work if I ever want to have this craft of writing as a handy tool.

Reminding my self that I have chosen to sharpen this skill, being a writer, to thinking clearly and articulate my thinking in words. For this to happen, I...

Becasue curiosity is way more generous then passion

This is what I wrote in a single line on my iPhones notes app, dated 20 October 2018, followed by a link – Elizabeth Gilbart on the TED interview.

I found that note today while looking for something else, and couldn’t stop wondering about the context, as the memory of writing this has wholly vanished. I searched again to find that that link jumped to the part where she speaks about this idea (that’s is minute 12:51)¹, and suddenly it all came back! At this part, she says:

Be open to - you don’t need to know why you are interested in this, it will be revealed if you continue to investigate. That’s all that curiosity asks of you. Passion asks you to throw it all in the bonfire. And curiosity is way more generous in that it just says - give me a little bit of your time and let’s see what we can do.

It appeared that this idea had...

Today’s dominant thought came from reading a beautiful gym by Carlo Rovelli a book called Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. Devouring the 80-page book, 12 pages a day, one lesson at a time.

This book is plentiful of transformative ideas and explanations that changed the way I see the world—putting it back on the shelf with a deep desire to be reading again.

However, before doing so, I need to pin here one favorite quote that I have highlighted, among many, and got my brain wandering for the rest of the day.

This quote comes in the final lesson, in a context where the author is closing on the previous six-lesson with a focus on ourselves (humans) and the way we observe the world through scientific discoveries.

… In the awareness that we can always be wrong, and therefore ready at any moment to change direction if a new track appears; but also knowing that if we are good enough, we will

Seasonal Inspiration¹ Is a term I use to refer to someone or something that is having a considerable influence on me during a period of change

As I’ve noticed in each chapter, there is always a dominant influencing idea or a person whom I’m either discovering or rediscovering. The intensity of that influence and inspiration varies, but what is consistent is that over time, it gets mild as I phase into a different chapter or season. Some remain mild for a long time; some I simply outgrow or build on their ideas; some others are not an inspiration anymore. While a very few whom their wisdom and inspiration transcend the seasons. I would love to keep an eye on those and make a log of those timeless inspirations, one day.