3 Miles and 7 ATMs
A few months ago I was visiting my friend in Chennai, a city of 7 million on the eastern coast of India. Her office was smack-dab in the center of…
Wax on, wax off
I just completed my first “Dhamma service” at the newly constructed and secluded Dhamma Mutta meditation center in Hong Kong. While you wouldn’t normally think of the financial capital of…
The boy and the teacup
There is an old Chinese story about a boy who visits a Kung Fu master in hopes of becoming his student. Back in those days, you would sit in front…
Pulling a Black Ball from The Urn
One way of looking at human creativity is as a process of pulling balls out of a giant urn. The white balls are net positive inventions with few negative consequences,…
How to Break Bad Habits: Lessons from Vietnam
For decades, heroin was seen as the worst drug out there -- instantly and permanently addictive, leading to a desire so insatiable that users would go to the extremes of…
How to Use Regret, Financial Anxiety and Boredom to Shift Your Identity and Build New Habits
When changing diets, people rarely say “now I only eat cabbage, eggplants, and potatoes for dinner.” Rather, we hear them proclaim what they are. “I’m vegetarian.” Or, “I’m keto,” or…
Is life a battle, test, adventure, journey, game, or stage?
When I was traveling to Costa Rica with my good friend, we had a 7-hour layover in Dallas. We were tired and decided to take a nap for a few…
Digital Minimalism
The degree to which online media and apps suck our attention was made viscerally apparent to me several months ago after I finished my 10-day silent meditation retreat. Coming back…
Do we shape technology, or does it shape us?
One side makes the argument that technology is neutral, but it’s how we use it that defines us, i.e., you can use a hammer to pound a nail, or you can use…
Compound Interest Works Well in Theory, but in Practice it’s a Different Story
The whole idea of “save each month and let your money compound over 40 years and retire a millionaire” is preached by financial advisors and media conglomerates who are selling…