Kush Taneja

1

1. Never Split the Difference 2. The Molecule of More 3. The Sovereign Child 4. Thinking in Systems 5. The Wizard of Melno Park
1. Never Split the Difference 2. The Molecule of More 3. The Sovereign Child 4. Thinking in Systems 5. The Wizard of Melno Park
It’s a slippery slope. Not taking out time of health in the past lead me to experience extreme burnouts. Since I prefer avoiding them, it becomes easier for me to prioritise health. Both mental/ physical fitness demands consistency. Skipping a few days feels harmless until the brain fog, the laziness, the spiral kicks in. Now, I treat it like debt: skip a day, pay later. I know I am going down the slope. The good news is that I can always come back to the peak. Have done multiple times now so I don’t panic anymore. The only hack that has worked for me is supplementing my dopamine pathways. When dopamine is high from the run/ meditation I will max it, when it’s low I will supplement it with activities like music/ audiobooks / youtube videos. The key here is do the bare minimum. By taking even the smallest step I will still keep moving up the slope and make progress. And like everything else it will compound and within a few months I will be at the peak ✌️
It’s a slippery slope. Not taking out time of health in the past lead me to experience extreme burnouts. Since I prefer avoiding them, it becomes easier for me to prioritise health. Both mental/ physical fitness demands consistency. Skipping a few days feels harmless until the brain fog, the laziness, the spiral kicks in. Now, I treat it like debt: skip a day, pay later. I know I am going down the slope. The good news is that I can always come back to the peak. Have done multiple times now so I don’t panic anymore. The only hack that has worked for me is supplementing my dopamine pathways. When dopamine is high from the run/ meditation I will max it, when it’s low I will supplement it with activities like music/ audiobooks / youtube videos. The key here is do the bare minimum. By taking even the smallest step I will still keep moving up the slope and make progress. And like everything else it will compound and within a few months I will be at the peak ✌️
better question — how has it not? It didn’t just help, it pressed Alt+F4 on my old brain software. Money buys external freedom, Meditation buys internal freedom. It completely changed rules of the game. I can suddenly change the algorithms running in my head. Specifically the dopamine loops. Meditation accelerates the process of learning and unlearning. Imagine 1000x of what a good sleep does or what falling in love feels like. No drugs, just breath. Turns out the most natural state of our brain is blissfull and meditation takes you there directly. Filled with love, contentment and compassion. The urge to change/ control anything goes away and everything starts appearing as a concept. Happiness? a concept we all pretend to understand but experience it differently every single time. Since there’s no urge to change, then I fully welcome of whatever is. Zero resistance even for the unpleasant. I can wait for long and not act. How thoughts become free when accepted as it it. There’s a big shift when I stop doing things to fix how i feel, and start doing them because they matter. Every single experience becomes so much flavourful. It’s like going to the factory floor where all these emotions are made. I can brush every experience with kindness and love. Suddenly I realise there’s a beautiful world inside. There are so many other actors along with “I””me” who have access to the wheel. All of this happens during various altered states of meditation or after glows which is not every day. During my days grinding: I wouldn’t easily loose my peace if things don’t go my way. I no longer act to escape discomfort Coming from abundant frame of mind I enjoy the present experience to the max I surrender and trust my intuition more Relationships became richer, conflict resolution became easier There’s a higher energy state in all of us—full of love, freedom, and trust. Knowing this unlocks high empathy and acceptance towards others
better question — how has it not? It didn’t just help, it pressed Alt+F4 on my old brain software. Money buys external freedom, Meditation buys internal freedom. It completely changed rules of the game. I can suddenly change the algorithms running in my head. Specifically the dopamine loops. Meditation accelerates the process of learning and unlearning. Imagine 1000x of what a good sleep does or what falling in love feels like. No drugs, just breath. Turns out the most natural state of our brain is blissfull and meditation takes you there directly. Filled with love, contentment and compassion. The urge to change/ control anything goes away and everything starts appearing as a concept. Happiness? a concept we all pretend to understand but experience it differently every single time. Since there’s no urge to change, then I fully welcome of whatever is. Zero resistance even for the unpleasant. I can wait for long and not act. How thoughts become free when accepted as it it. There’s a big shift when I stop doing things to fix how i feel, and start doing them because they matter. Every single experience becomes so much flavourful. It’s like going to the factory floor where all these emotions are made. I can brush every experience with kindness and love. Suddenly I realise there’s a beautiful world inside. There are so many other actors along with “I””me” who have access to the wheel. All of this happens during various altered states of meditation or after glows which is not every day. During my days grinding: I wouldn’t easily loose my peace if things don’t go my way. I no longer act to escape discomfort Coming from abundant frame of mind I enjoy the present experience to the max I surrender and trust my intuition more Relationships became richer, conflict resolution became easier There’s a higher energy state in all of us—full of love, freedom, and trust. Knowing this unlocks high empathy and acceptance towards others
Two Sigma Problem
Two Sigma Problem
“Things that bother” are simply brain’s way of maintaining a list of reward prediction errors. Whenever you wish to solve a problem, there’s an expectation of reward in the form of happiness (for simplicity) if the problem gets solved or else, reward prediction error. The first step is understanding this and allow yourself to feel unhappy. It’s like how we allow computers to throw errors. Just like how engineers debug and fix those errors, our brain also has many engineers including yourself to debug and fix these errors. Infact they do this by default even without you trying. If you resist this state, which we all intuitively do, there are two problems to solve now. One to make you happy and one to solve the error. Which starts an infinite loop. It’s very normal to have a long list of “things that bother” and unsolved problems. There are many problem solving frameworks, like first principles. But to apply those first principles we need to make sure if we can allow ourselves to be unhappy. The easiest hack that works for me is 1. if the list is long and I am deeply bothered then I would balance out with predictable tasks. Tasks that I know will give a certain reward. Like speaking to a friend, going for a spa, reading etc 2. if the list is not long then I ask this: Can I allow myself to be unhappy? Many times I can and suddenly deep curiosity for the problem arises. 3. and if the answer is no? then I deal with the resistance. Some problems we deeply care about are these where our survival instincts get involved. The brain is confused as if you’re gonna die if the problem isn’t solved. Sometimes I would laugh at my behaviour reminding myself that I am not gonma die You simply understand the problem and try to solve it. You let go by understanding that being bothered is completely optional. You let go by understanding that the problem has so many variables out of your control. You let go by knowing that your intuition has more data points than you. The moment you surrender to your intuition, you are suddenly at peace. There is no guarantee that all problems can be solved but giving your best shot is
“Things that bother” are simply brain’s way of maintaining a list of reward prediction errors. Whenever you wish to solve a problem, there’s an expectation of reward in the form of happiness (for simplicity) if the problem gets solved or else, reward prediction error. The first step is understanding this and allow yourself to feel unhappy. It’s like how we allow computers to throw errors. Just like how engineers debug and fix those errors, our brain also has many engineers including yourself to debug and fix these errors. Infact they do this by default even without you trying. If you resist this state, which we all intuitively do, there are two problems to solve now. One to make you happy and one to solve the error. Which starts an infinite loop. It’s very normal to have a long list of “things that bother” and unsolved problems. There are many problem solving frameworks, like first principles. But to apply those first principles we need to make sure if we can allow ourselves to be unhappy. The easiest hack that works for me is 1. if the list is long and I am deeply bothered then I would balance out with predictable tasks. Tasks that I know will give a certain reward. Like speaking to a friend, going for a spa, reading etc 2. if the list is not long then I ask this: Can I allow myself to be unhappy? Many times I can and suddenly deep curiosity for the problem arises. 3. and if the answer is no? then I deal with the resistance. Some problems we deeply care about are these where our survival instincts get involved. The brain is confused as if you’re gonna die if the problem isn’t solved. Sometimes I would laugh at my behaviour reminding myself that I am not gonma die You simply understand the problem and try to solve it. You let go by understanding that being bothered is completely optional. You let go by understanding that the problem has so many variables out of your control. You let go by knowing that your intuition has more data points than you. The moment you surrender to your intuition, you are suddenly at peace. There is no guarantee that all problems can be solved but giving your best shot is
    KushJun 22, 2025
    Read as one page