Abhishek Damania

Historian and philosopher Will Durant on play:

"Let us ask the gods not for possessions, but for things to do; happiness is in making things rather than in consuming them. In Utopia, said Thoreau, each would build his own home; and then song would come back to the heart of man, as it comes to the bird when it builds its nest. If we cannot build our... See more

When I was younger, I used to think that committing to something would feel oppressive, limiting, restrictive. But I now realize that the opposite is true — that commitment is freeing. It lets you focus . It collapses the need for you to continue considering options endlessly and instead grounds you to where you are, and helps you enjoy the rewards... See more

quit brainrot. unfollow trolls. read essays. go down rabbit holes. have a calendar. maintain a todo list. read old books. watch old movies. turn on dnd. walk with intent. eat without youtube. chew more. train without music. plan for 15 mins. execute. organise your desk. take something seriously. read ancient scripts. act fast. find bread. eat... See more

Growing your sense of agency leads you to see more degrees of freedom in your life. The painful corollary of that is: when you see that you are freer than you thought, you also have more responsibility. But once you accept the responsibility, that is the real gift, not the freedom.

Resistance to anything – emotions, needs, hobbies, curiosities, feelings, impulses – prevents our mind from learning about their consequences. So we do the things we think we should be doing. This thing, whatever it is, takes a path of resistance with immense friction (and not the kind that shows us our edges).

In a world of scarcity, we treasure tools. In a world of abundance, we treasure taste.

I think the most interesting creative tools going forward won’t try to be everything. They’ll choose a lane, express a point of view, and build an experience around it. In this world, the tool becomes a collaborator with strong opinions about what good work looks like. You don’t choose tools purely for functionality. You choose them like you’d... See more

Without curiosity or critical thinking, we become vulnerable to manipulation, susceptible to polarizing narratives, and ultimately lose the ability to make independent judgments, which is really important for democratic citizenship.