Learn to Think in Color

What would my future self thank me for practicing now? How to make tomorrow-you quietly grateful for today-you. Framing the Question Most people think about their  future self  in vague, fuzzy terms—like a stranger they’ll meet “someday.” But your future self is just you, plus the compound interest of today’s choices. This question isn’t about predicting the future; it’s about practicing the few skills, habits, and mindsets that pay off across almost any path you take. A better way to hold the question Instead of asking, “What should I do with my life?” try, “What can I practice now that will give almost any version of my future self more options, more energy, and more peace of mind?” When you frame it this way, you stop hunting for a perfect plan and start building a reliable foundation your future self can stand on. The quiet power of investing in your future self Think of your life like a staircase: every small practice is a step. You rarely notice a single step, but twenty...

Why do we remember what stands out from its surroundings? How distinctiveness, surprise, and emotion hack your memory Big Picture Framing We remember what stands out from its surroundings because the brain is wired to notice contrast, not sameness. When something breaks the pattern—a bright red folder in a sea of blue, a joke in a serious meeting—it gets tagged as important. That “this is different” signal draws attention, stirs emotion, and strengthens the memory trace. One way psychologists describe this is the “distinctiveness effect”: we remember what’s unusual, isolated, or surprising compared to everything around it. Understanding why we remember what stands out from its surroundings helps you design information, meetings, and even your own habits so they’re far more memorable. The brain loves contrast, not copies Your brain is constantly flooded with sensory input, and it can’t store all of it. So it cheats: it looks for contrast. Most of everyday life is repetitive and predicta...

When Does Trust Actually Outperform Self-Interest? Why playing the “long game” quietly beats short-term wins Big-picture framing When people argue about  trust vs self-interest , it can sound like a choice between being generous or being a “realist.” But that’s the wrong lens. In many modern workplaces and markets, trust is not the opposite of self-interest—it’s a smarter, longer-horizon version of it. Trust starts to outperform narrow self-interest when the game repeats, reputations travel fast, and the work is too complex for rules to cover every move. Learn to spot those situations, and “doing the right thing” becomes a strategic advantage, not just a moral one. The hidden math of trust vs self-interest Imagine two players: one grabs every short-term advantage, the other plays a long game of reliability and generosity. In a single round, the opportunist usually wins. But life rarely gives you just one round. Trust behaves like compound interest: At first, the gains are invisible...