Essays

My essays are generally about new ideas with themes on philosophy, behavioural psychology and introspection. Though the ideas are new, I generally like to write about things that will still be true in 10 years time.

Figuring Out What You Like Is A Luck Event

A strange question to ask someone is "how did you know you like chocolate?"
If you don't like chocolate, then replace it with a food you find delectable, in my case, fried plantain. At what point exactly did I decide fried plantain was incredibly delectable?
Trivial and odd question?- yes. But it finally helped me to express a counter-intuitive idea I had been musing over for some time:

Asking Questions

In this piece, I want to talk about 3 main areas we tend to gloss over when it comes to questions. They are not immediately obvious but once you see it, you won’t be able to unsee it. These areas are:

The Bar-Ante Effect

Hypothetical Scenario: You are to travel by plane every week for 10 weeks via Business class. As you begin, you realise you are not used to this level of comfort as your usual method of travel is Economy. But by the 4th week, you become used to it and all of a sudden your brain forgets what Economy feels like.
Then something unexpected happens, on the 9th week you are told you have to travel by Economy for reasons out of your control, how do you reckon you’ll feel?

There Are No Nice Guys: Labels Vs Actions

There are no nice guys or assholes. There are just people who do nice things, shitty things, and everything else in between. The difference is in labels vs actions.

Current Messaging Apps are Faulty

I think Snapchat’s form of messaging is closer to a more natural/human way of communication. Whenever you have a conversation with someone in real life (not in an app), it’s always about the moment. The now. Right there and then.

On Friendships: Activity-Interests

An interesting way to build a close friendship is to find what I call an ‘Activity-Interest’ for both/all parties.
The definition is literal. Two people have an activity-interest if they engage in an interesting recurring recreation for a period of time.

Designing Logos Can Make You a Better Person

5 life lessons from designing logos

Opt-In Conversations

‘Stories’ on Snapchat, Instagram, and elsewhere help you engage in interesting conversations. ‘Stories’ help get to the good bits faster, they minimise small talk and they increase the quality by some order of magnitude. This effect is where ‘Opt-In Conversations’ come in

Blind Spot Feedback

If you start with the question “What are the things I need to know that I do not know?”, you give the other person permission to assume you do not know of your flaws or mistakes and you make them cognizant that you are ready to learn about them.

The Scale of Likeability

The scale of likeability is about making better decisions from subjective situations. If someone told you they liked a movie or a restaurant, what exactly does that mean to you if you plan to follow suit? What is their recommendation based on? I wrote the scale of likeability to help you explore that in a quick and decisive way.

Popular Artist Bias

Popular Artist Bias (PAB) occurs when you prematurely like a song (even before you listen to it) just because it was performed by a popular artist.