Note: This one might be come across as a little disrespectful: it's not meant to be, so I humbly request that you seriously try to not get offended.

As a child, I grew up in two households.

One of them was my home. It was a world in an of itself: sights, sounds, colors, vibrancy, culture, arts, and life. It was beautiful, but life was more musical with a frequency of chaos (frequently, too).

The other was my parents' business. This was a different world: drab, fluorescent lights, boxes everywhere, lots of sounds of brooms and sights of office supplies. Things didn't "flow" here as they did at home: rather, things were neat or dusty, black or white, ordered or chaotic.

My home was a Hindu household. We have pictures of many different deities, many different bhajans (prayer songs), foods, languages, songs, and overall feel. I also, however, went to Catholic school: it was way more "ordered" and "event based" compared to Hinduism. We also never went to the temple so I never got the experience that some of my friends who grew up with had (the only time we'd go is when we go to India. The temple we go to is literally a former mechanic's garage, so my idea of what a "place of worship" looks like was markedly different from the grandeur of the Church.

Niall Ferguson has this idea that Christianity is the operating system of the West. I tend to agree. I sense more about Christian life resonated here, especially where I grew up in the mostly Italian Bay Ridge. As I've grown older, I've been reflecting more on how I should bridge the two philosophies that have guided me throughout life, and I've come to the simple realization:

They're the same shit. (I'm choosing my words carefully here.)

Both religions are saying the exact same thing. Down to the core. The only difference here is the method by which that base-level idea is orchestrated to the world. Each religion brings positive aspects to life: a path, philosophy, points of reflection, and an honor of life. The ways in which we move throughout our lives are heavily dependent on the value systems that religion has the capacity to bestow upon you. The only thing that's different is the sounds and the images that people who practice these religions are resonating with. The "output that most people have when they go through their lives when interacting with religion. Their "shit", per se.

Anyways.

I think these interfacial differences are the reason why I am the way that I am. I interact with people and ideas differently, I find different things funny from others and different things sad from others, and I have different tastes. This, I think, is what people mean when they say "everybody's different".

So, yeah, this is something I was thinking about today. Let's get after it today and revisit our thoughts tomorrow.

Vivek

I've been struggling with writing the past few days.

I've started posts but have not finished them. I start, and I get somewhere too. But I haven't finish them: my last two publications I published with the words (Published unfinished.) on the bottom. Also, the artwork is the same. Clearly I just wanted to get something done..

I think amongst many changes we look for solace in whatever gives us comfort. I'm not sure why, but I feel like for me whenever there's a lot going on I tend to dive deep, even at the expense of myself sometimes. I could have gone to the gym, I could have slept early, but there's so much to do. (Addendum: sometimes it feels like there's so much to avoid also, but that's a different story.)

One of the things I've done, or rather not done, these past few days is avoided the gym (or gone to the gym, based on the second part of the sentence. Whichever you prefer.) I was really looking forward to it today, and life derailed me. It's not an excuse, but you should know it's something I really look forward to. I feel amazing when I go and shitty when I don't. But again, there's work there that gets in the way.

I think if you're an entrepreneur there's a thing in your mind to quantify your wins, and it's that aspect that I think has been spilling into my personal life. Even small wins are wins, and if you can work on a smaller problem that provides you a bigger step forward you're more incentivized to select that over something like the gym, where small steady wins are in service of a longer term goal.

Mindset shift: are they?

What's the benefit of the gym? To look good? Achieve a fitness goal? To become a better athlete? Yes, yes, and yes. But I would argue that those "small steady wins" at the gym are not small steady wins at all: rather they are major victories that we don't see the payout for in large ways because we in fact frontload the payout.

Chris Williamson has this wonderful idea called "the pump preview":

​Going to the gym is one of the very few pursuits that you can do where in the act of doing the thing you get a brief window into what it will be like if you continue to do the thing.

​If I go on Duolingo and try to learn Spanish, I don't briefly become much better at Spanish—like where I'm going to be at in 6 months or 12 months time.

​But if I go to the gym and get a pump on, I go: 'Hey, that's me hopefully flat [at rest] in 9 months time.' Like how I look now at the end of the session is where I want to be toward the end of this year. The pump preview.

This is what I mean by frontloading the payout: the victory seemingly comes in drips. Seemingly, being the key word here.

I think the most rewarding thing about the gym is the mental clarity you get after an insanely difficult workout. I just got back from the gym now (note: I've been writing this over two days and I'm purposely not going back and editing this), and I can tell you certainty that I feel more clear now than I have all day. It's the main reason why I look forward to it, because it just feels so good to have gotten it over with, and how it makes me feel after having exerted an insane amount of energy and finishing every workout.

There's a habit these days to gamify going to the gym. If that works then it works, but I'm working hard on moving away from that mentality. The thing about gamifying something is to win the game.

But I'm just trying to love it.

Let's get after it today and revisit our thoughts tomorrow.

Vivek.

Author's Note: It's been a busy few days, so I haven't gotten the chance to really sit down and let my thoughts flow through the fingertips onto this lovely canvas here. It's been good, but it's been busy. And I am nothing if not grateful. Let's get into it.

What motivates us to take certain actions? Why do we place value on things when others may find them to be entirely useless? What is it about that nature of decisions that we ourselves make that makes us so different from others (to clarify: not the nature of the decisions themselves, but rather the nature of the fact that we are making these decisions)? I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this just yet, but I have been thinking about the intentionality of actions in life and the value that people place on them. Let me give you an example.

Let's say that you are at a place in your life where you are looking to purchase a home (for the sake of this example, I'm using a home, but it can be a car or any other large asset you like). There are a lot of factors that need to be taken into account: apartment or house, community or standalone, where you want to live, how much you want to spend, etc. Every person makes different choices for each one of these questions, and we tend to see another's choice and make a judgement on it. These judgements influence our own future actions or reflect on our past actions, and we place ourselves in relation to those around us.

It seems like a bit of an abstract concept, but allow me to continue this thread, please. I came upon this thought process when I realized people treat money very differently. There are generally four ways in which people interact with money:

1. People receive a steady paycheck and use the rest of the time not working to enjoy their lives.

2. People do some sort of job not for the money but for some other cause, and the money will come afterwards (think: military or other government job that gives them a pension afterwards).

3. People place a wager and expect there to be a bigger payout afterwards (think: sports betting or even some form of investing — the bet placed today will multiply in some form tomorrow).

4. People build something that others find value in and they exchange money for that bit of value (think: building a business).

Generally, these four approaches of thinking about money fundamentally change the way in which we make choices, thereby impacting the intentional motivations we have to take certain actions. More importantly, however, it dictates what we value, what we want out of life.

More crudely, it dictates what makes us happy. I know, I know: money doesn't buy happiness. That's true, but it can buy your way out of sadness. And not being miserable is just as important to your life as finding what makes you happy.

I think if we

(Published unfinished.)