Reflections
Writing about how to live and work — no promises to change your life, just a few ways of thinking that have been useful to a lot of people. One piece a week.
Personal growth
The Zeigarnik effect: why unfinished work follows you all the way to bed
A waiter in Berlin remembered every item on every unpaid bill and forgot the lot the moment a table settled up. That story started nearly a century of research, and led to a very simple way to quiet the noise in your head.
24/09/2026 · 5 min read
Mindful leadership
The Pygmalion effect: when a leader's expectations become the team's results
In 1968 two researchers lied to the teachers of a California primary school about a handful of pupils, and eight months later those children really had improved. How far the famous story holds up, and what a manager should take from it.
19/09/2026 · 5 min read
Philosophy
Memento mori: thinking about death to see life clearly, from the Roman triumph to counting the visits home you have left
According to one ancient source, the Romans had someone stand behind a triumphant general to remind him he was mortal. It was not cruelty but a tool. This piece follows how different cultures use it, and a small sum that sends many readers to phone home that same evening.
14/09/2026 · 3 min read
Philosophy
Ikigai is not a four-circle diagram: where the idea really comes from, and why the original is smaller and easier to reach
The four-circle Venn diagram you see everywhere was paired with the word ikigai in a blog post in 2014. Ikigai as Japanese people use it, and as a study of over forty thousand people measured it, is smaller, more ordinary, and more important than that.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Meditation & stillness
Five minutes sitting still: a meditation guide for people who have never meditated, no cushion or app required
No cushion, no app, no beliefs required. Just a chair and five uninterrupted minutes. This is the shortest guide that still works, with an honest account of what the science says, and a trick from the monk Thích Nhất Hạnh involving your phone.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Mindful leadership
The quiet manager: why listening is harder than talking, and four small habits that get people to speak up
The average teacher waits about one second after asking a question. Stretch the wait to three seconds and the answers get longer and better. Managers in meetings are no different. This piece covers the research behind that, and four concrete ways to make your meetings less silent.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Personal growth
Habits small enough that you cannot fail them: why to aim at your worst day, and how long it really takes for a habit to become automatic
A London study found it takes 66 days on average for a new behaviour to become automatic, and missing one day makes almost no difference. People usually abandon new habits not from laziness but from setting a target too big for their worst day.
07/09/2026 · 4 min read
Personal growth
Why you procrastinate, and why it is not laziness: procrastination as avoiding a feeling, and how to undo it feeling by feeling
In 1830 Victor Hugo had his clothes locked away so he could not go out and would have to write. The worst procrastinators are often the people who care most about the result. This piece explains why, and why forgiving yourself leads to procrastinating less.
07/09/2026 · 4 min read
Steadiness
When it all falls apart: a map for the first thirty days after losing a job, a relationship or someone you love
This piece is not about getting over it. It is about what to do in the first month, when you have not got over anything yet. Vietnamese tradition already has a rhythm for that stretch, and modern psychology suggests it is wiser than it looks.
07/09/2026 · 4 min read
Philosophy
Wabi-sabi: the beauty of imperfect things, Sen no Rikyu's two-mat tea room, and living with the cracks
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the man who unified Japan, had a tea room covered in gold. His tea master preferred a room of two mats and rough, uneven bowls. The story of those two is the easiest way to understand wabi-sabi, and why it is not a consolation prize for losers.
07/09/2026 · 4 min read
Mindful leadership
Feedback people can actually hear: why the sandwich fails, and one sentence that nearly doubled how many students revised their work
A 1996 review of feedback research found that in more than a third of cases, feedback made performance worse. Most feedback fails not because it is wrong but because the listener is busy defending themselves. Here are some concrete ways to lower that defence.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Meditation & stillness
Box breathing: four counts to a slower pulse, why it works, and what a Stanford study found when it compared it with other techniques
A breathing technique US Navy SEALs use before tense situations. No beliefs required: it acts on the nervous system in measurable ways. And a 2023 trial suggests its most important part is the exhale.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Steadiness
Self-compassion is not an excuse: why being kind to yourself after failing makes people try harder
Many people fear that being kind to themselves will make them lazy. A Berkeley experiment measured the opposite: after failing a hard test, students prompted to be self-compassionate studied noticeably longer. This piece explains why.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Mindful leadership
Deciding before you have enough information: one-way and two-way doors, the seventy per cent rule, and the half page to write before you commit
Waiting for enough data sounds prudent, but most important decisions never have enough. Jeff Bezos argued for deciding with about seventy per cent of the information you wish you had. The real question is whether the decision can be reversed.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Personal growth
Read slower: why we read so much and remember so little, what science says about speed reading, and four ways to make an idea stay
We read more than ever and remember less than ever. A 2016 review concluded that reading faster almost always costs understanding. The problem is not memory but speed, and what we do after reading.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Steadiness
Everyone seems to be moving faster than you: where FOMO came from, why you are comparing your backstage with their stage, and how to step out
The word FOMO was coined in 2004 in a Harvard student paper. Over a decade later, a University of Pennsylvania experiment found that limiting social media to thirty minutes a day for three weeks made people noticeably less lonely and less low. This piece is about getting out of that comparison.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Meditation & stillness
Why your mind will not be quiet when you meditate, and why that is completely normal
A study of over two thousand people found our minds wander nearly half our waking hours. Beginners often give up on meditation because their heads feel too noisy. That noise is something you have just discovered, not something you have just made.
31/08/2026 · 3 min read
Philosophy
The three questions a Stoic asks before the day starts: what Marcus Aurelius told himself each morning, and how to use it before work
Marcus Aurelius was the most powerful man in the Roman world, and he began each day by reminding himself he would meet difficult people. It sounds bleak, but it works the other way. This piece draws three questions from Stoicism, and shows why modern therapy borrowed them.
24/08/2026 · 4 min read