Aashay Mody (Page 3)

On ro

Ro is a Swedish word that roughly translates to tranquility, peace, quiet, or calm. It also means row, as in rowing a boat. In linguistics, that’s an example of a homonym—words with the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings. Perhaps someday I’ll want to learn how

Social Psychology

On Echo Chambers and Idea Labs

This post is inspired by Tim Urban’s book, What’s Our Problem? a self-help book for societies -- In a previous post, “on how we think,” I highlighted the idea of high-rung and low-rung thinking as a new way to examine our thinking patterns, beyond just “what we think.

Personal Development

On speed

In modern life, we seem to rush through everything. Everyone is busy and has someplace to be. Startup culture emphasizes speed above all else, probably for good reason. The survival of a startup depends on how quickly it can achieve success relative to its competitors. But when we become too

Thought Experiment

On Mary the super-scientist

Consider the following scenario: Mary is a neuroscientist who lives in a black and white room and has only ever experienced the world in black and white. As an expert in color vision and perception, she knows everything about its physics and biology, including how light of different wavelengths stimulate

Logical Fallacy

On appealing to authority

“Because I said so.” Many of us have heard this phrase at least once in our childhood. Although it's perfectly understandable that a parent may have been annoyed or caught off guard in the moment, this kind of response is an excellent example of the appeal to authority

Social Psychology

On how we think

This post is inspired by Tim Urban’s book, What’s Our Problem? a self-help book for societies. -- Our behavior is influenced by a combination of our primitive mind (limbic system) and our higher mind (prefrontal cortex). The primitive mind is concerned only with survival, while the higher mind

Philosophy

On ikigai

The Japanese concept of ikigai (pronounced ee-kee-guy) has recently gained popularity in Western culture. Although there is no direct English translation, ikigai refers to something that gives a person a sense of purpose or a "reason for being." You may recognize it as a Venn diagram that looks

Cognitive Bias

On the Dunning-Kruger effect

Do you believe you’re an above-average driver? If so, you’re in the company of 93% of American drivers who also think they are above average. And if you spotted that the math doesn't add up, you’d be correct. Either you're truly above average

History

On the Human Era

One of my favorite long-form blogs is Wait But Why, written by Tim Urban. He writes about topics ranging from procrastination to artificial intelligence and cryonics (all worth checking out). I've long admired his ability to simplify complex topics with clear language and quirky yet awesome illustrations. Yesterday,

Psychology

On quitting

Modern culture glorifies perseverance and grit. While these qualities have obvious value, too much of anything can be detrimental. We also tend to stigmatize quitting and see it as a failure. However, quitting can sometimes be a wise choice. As a startup founder, one of the most important skills you

Personal Development

On solitude

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. - French philosopher Blaise Pascal In today's world, we’re surrounded by constant stimulation. Even when we’re by ourselves, we're usually staring at our phones. We’

Mental Model

On second-order thinking

Most of us think in the “first order” most of the time. We think about the immediate consequences of a decision and make the decision based on whether we consider that outcome positive or negative, good or bad. It makes sense to think this way for recurring or daily decisions

Philosophy

On lagom

Not too much, not too little, just enough. For the past two years, I’ve been working on an edtech startup with my co-founders and a small team. While it’s been deeply satisfying in many ways, it recently became clear to me that I was ignoring the stress that

Ethics

On D&D, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump

A few months ago, in conversation with my friend and video game aficionado Michael, I discovered the Dungeons & Dragons alignment system. As a novice who had never played D&D and only knew of it from Stranger Things, I was fascinated by the weird and wonderful corner of

Personal Development

On success

Think of a successful person. Who is the first person that you thought of? Considering how much our lives are influenced by social media, there’s a pretty good chance you thought of someone rich or famous, or both. As a society, we tend to have a rather narrow definition

Thought Experiment

On the Fermi paradox (pt 2)

This is the second post on the Fermi paradox. Check out the first one here. Quick recap: the Fermi paradox is a contradiction between the high probability of advanced extraterrestrial life existing and the lack of any definitive proof of its existence. There have been many attempts to explain the

Thought Experiment

On the Fermi paradox

Humans have been fascinated by the possibility of extraterrestrial life for millennia. Our discussions about aliens range from outlandish conspiracy theories to genuinely thought-provoking puzzles like the Fermi Paradox. The Fermi paradox is a contradiction between the high probability of advanced extraterrestrial life existing and the lack of any definitive

Career

On pivoting

Startup folks are fond of jargon. We can hardly go a sentence without mentioning terms like MVP, product-market fit, and burn rate. But one particular startup term, the pivot, has surprisingly useful insights for how we should think about our work and careers. Pivoting means changing direction or focus. The

Mental Model

On regret minimization

The quest to reach our full potential is both fascinating and challenging. Our fallibilities, such as fear of failure, can be a major obstacle. They can lead to regrettable decisions and unrealized potential. We make countless decisions in our lives, so some regret is inevitable. However, attempting to minimize regret

Linguistics

On tsundoku

I recently discovered tsundoku, a Japanese term for the practice of buying books with the intention of reading them, but then letting them pile up. Tsundoku: a Japanese term for the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them. So

Psychology

On the psychologically rich life

What does it mean to live a good life? Philosophers have been attempting to answer this question for millennia and the debate persists today. Along with life’s other big questions, it’s something I’ve occasionally thought about as well, though not in any great detail. Until recently, psychological

Rhetoric

On the art of disagreement

How we should aim to argue: Donald Trump has a history of making false claims. For example, in a 2021 interview, he claimed that “there were no guns whatsoever” at the Capitol riot on Jan 6th, which is central to his assertion that the riots were not an armed insurrection.

Sociology

On preference falsification

Many people fear nothing more terribly than to take a position which stands out sharply and clearly from the prevailing opinion. The tendency of most is to adopt a view that is so ambiguous that it will include everything and so popular that it will include everybody. Not a few

Philosophy

On optimistic nihilism

I grew up in a deeply religious family in India. For most of my early life, I didn’t really question any of the traditions I participated in or the dogmas I took for granted. With exposure to new ideas and a desire to think more independently in my late

Psychology

On flow

Flow is the state in which you becoming completely immersed in an activity with effortlessness. Everything else seems to disappear. It’s the feeling that’s sometimes described as being “in the zone” by athletes. Here’s legendary Formula One driver Ayrton Senna describing one of his experiences: I was