Happy One-Year Anniversary! — I picked up a high-mileage, pre-loved Tesla Model S 85 exactly a year ago today. Call it the honeymoon period if you want, but I’ve loved every minute of it so far. Here’s why. 1. It Is Ludicrously Quick The torque is incredible. The car hits 100kmph in just under 4 seconds. But that’s just…

A few seconds make (or break) us. — Our lives are shaped by a few “magical” moments. A few seconds make (or break) us. Here’s how I aim to create more magical moments with my writing. 1. The Peak/End Rule Pop-psychology 101: We don’t accurately remember experiences. While recalling an experience, we ignore most of what happened. Instead, we focus on a…

A simple psychological hack to make resolutions stick — Over 60% of resolutions are broken in the first 6 months. Because of vague goals, unrealistic timelines, failure to accurately track progress, and a lack of willpower. A simple psychological hack to make resolutions stick is to do what I am doing with this article — write them down and…

Who doesn’t love digestible info? — 1. This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay Think “The Thick of It” meets “E.R.” set to the “Mad Max: Fury Road” soundtrack. Visceral. Between tears of laughter and an overworked gag reflex, you’ll be craving a breather from the frenetic, discombobulating, hot mess of Kay’s lucid prose. Sidebar: also the best TV I watched last year. 2. The Dorito Effect by Mark Shatzker

I binged most of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” recently. Not only did it turn out to be utterly watchable the seventh time around, but it also gave me three unmissable pointers to write better. 1. Don’t Pull Your Punches You will either love or hate Larry David’s character. There is no middle ground. I admire the…

Read it before Hollywood makes it into a drab film. — “He told himself he had no choice, which is what we all tell ourselves when forced to make a terrible choice.” Ben Macintyre, The Spy And The Traitor Macintyre’s rip-roaring, unputdownable, edge-of-the-seat thriller reads like a Robert Ludlum novel. The only difference: it’s all true. Spycraft. Double Agents. Trenchcoats. Code…

Causing effect or effecting cause? — The one thing most people on the planet agree on is that time flows in one direction. We do something and a short while later (anywhere between nanoseconds to millennia), something else happens. We cause an effect. But when analysing effects, are we sure we understand the cause? Do we…

Most of this happened — not so long ago. — “Your English is excellent!” “Thanks. Yours too!” “But it’s my first language!” “Yeah, mine too.” “Really? How can it be? You don’t look like you are from around here” “English is spoken the world over. And I am from around here. Just two miles down the road, in fact” “Yeah…