# llms-full.txt — dragosroua.com (Featured Content Corpus) # Generated: 2026-10-21 # Featured posts: 250 # App/hub pages: 22 # Selection: GA top 250 by Views (data/ga-top-pages.csv) # Markdown: /.md is the compact post body (prefer this over HTML). HTML at // is free. # x402: every .md file costs 0.01 USDC on Base. HTTP 402 + PAYMENT-REQUIRED; retry with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE. # Markdown for agents # Prefer /.md over HTML. The markdown file is the post body only: no chrome, no scripts, fewer tokens than parsing //. # HTML at // is always free. # Every /.md file is gated with x402 as a $0.01 USDC convenience fee (Base mainnet). Unpaid GET returns HTTP 402 and a PAYMENT-REQUIRED header. Retry the same .md URL with PAYMENT-SIGNATURE. # Protocol: https://x402.org Facilitator: https://facilitator.payai.network # Source: https://dragosroua.com # Canonical: All content attributed to dragosroua.com --- # App landings and series hubs # ShareByLight — Transfer files with light only URL: https://dragosroua.com/sharebylight.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/sharebylight/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![ShareByLight app icon](/images/icons/sharebylight-icon-48.webp) # ShareByLight Transfer files with light only iPhone & iPad Download on the App Store Mac Download on the App Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-qr-file-transfer/id6796906109) ShareByLight moves a file from one device to another using only the screen and the camera. No Wi-Fi. No Bluetooth. No cables. No account. No cloud for the file itself. ## Why this exists Some files should never cross a network. When devices are air‑gapped—or when you want them to behave that way—you still need a way to move a small payload from one machine to another without Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, cables, or someone else’s servers. ShareByLight keeps the transfer between the two devices in front of you: one shows a stream of codes, the other reads it with the camera, then you save the file. Nothing is uploaded; the path is optical and local. It’s built for small files—notes, keys, documents, short media—not multi‑gigabyte transfers. What leaves one screen arrives only on the other device’s camera, so the exchange stays private and under your control. ## How it works 1. On one device, choose a file and start the stream. 2. On the other device, open Receive and point the camera at the screen. 3. When the transfer finishes, save the file. ![ShareByLight home screen with Send and Receive](/images/sharebylight-screenshot-1.webp) ## Send with a glowing code The sending device turns your file into a high-contrast optical stream on the screen. Point the other camera, hold steady, and the file moves as light—nothing over the air as network data. ![ShareByLight send screen showing a live optical code stream](/images/sharebylight-screenshot-2.webp) ## Receive with the camera Open Receive, aim at the stream, and watch progress update as the file rebuilds on your device. When it’s done, save it where you need it. ![ShareByLight send progress with optical stream](/images/sharebylight-screenshot-3.webp) ## iPhone, iPad, and Mac The same idea on mobile and desktop: send and receive in one app family, so you can move files phone to Mac, Mac to phone, or device to device without a shared network. ![ShareByLight on Mac home screen](/images/sharebylight-screenshot-mac-1.webp) ## Free and Pro ### Free - Send or receive (one direction) - Small files - No account required ### Pro - Both directions on the same install - Larger files - Unlock via Apple In-App Purchase ## Tips for a smooth transfer - Max brightness on the sending screen - Hold steady and fill the frame - Reduce glare and strong backlight - Anyone who can see the screen can capture the stream—use short sessions and a passphrase for sensitive files ## Available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac Download ShareByLight for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. iPhone & iPad Download on the App Store Mac Download on the App Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-qr-file-transfer/id6796906109) Questions about ShareByLight? Contact (mailto:dragosroua+sharebylight@proton.me). Privacy Policy (/sharebylight/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/sharebylight/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+sharebylight@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → Vote us on AppCharts! (https://appcharts.app/app.html?slug=sharebylight-file-transfer) https://www.tinyshelf.co/?ref=dragosroua.com https://codehype.ai/product/sharebylight?utm_source=codehype_badge https://launchnest.io/p/sharebylight-2 https://vibecodinglist.com/projects/sharebylight-transfer-files-with-light-only?utm_source=vcl_badge&utm_medium=builder_site&utm_campaign=listed_badge&utm_content=sharebylight-transfer-files-with-light-only --- # Flight Lens - Real-Time Global Flight Intelligence URL: https://dragosroua.com/flight-lens.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/flight-lens/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-logo.webp) # Flight Lens Traffic Pulse, Flight intel & ticket prices Download on the App Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030) One number tells you everything. The Pulse Index scores global aviation from 0 to 100—clear skies to chaos. Track specific routes, get alerts when conditions change, search any flight in real-time, and find the best ticket prices. Flight intelligence, not flight data. Visit the dedicated site: flight-lens.com (https://flight-lens.com) ★★★★★ ## Everything at a glance "The "pulse" is hands down the most useful thing in this app. As far as I know no other app has something like this: to be able to see at a glance how disrupted the global flight travel is. For an indie app, it punches way above its height." LeTina VN Mar 29, 2026 ★★★★★ ## Powerful & Reliable Flight Insights "Great app! it makes it super easy to see all planes in real time on a smooth, detailed map. The boom flights and airport disruption features are really useful, and the alerts (pulse, flight, price, and route) are a very good addition. Everything works fast and reliably. Highly recommended!" Akitzuu Mar 29, 2026 ★★★★★ ## Great for tracking relatives' flights "apps very good to track realtime flight, finally i found an app to help me follow my relatives flight while they can update whether they are landed or not, also i want an update to track military flight although i know it impossible 🙃🙂" robloxvngaythatvong Apr 5, 2026 ★★★★★ ## First flight tracker which don't annoy me "Clean and simple as a really good product must be!" djdexter84 May 2, 2026 ## Why I Built This I've been a digital nomad for years, constantly checking flight status across multiple apps, trying to piece together whether it's a good time to fly a certain route. Is there weather disruption in Southeast Asia? Are European airports backed up? Every answer required digging through raw data designed for airlines, not travelers. I wanted something simpler: a single number that tells me "the skies are calm" or "expect delays." And when something's off, I wanted to drill down into the data and understand why—without reading raw aviation feeds. Flight Lens is the aviation dashboard I always wanted: one glance, full picture, details when you need them. ## The Pulse Index A single 0-100 score that captures the state of global aviation right now. Like the Fear & Greed Index, but for flight disruptions. Green means clear skies, red means chaos. The gauge updates in real-time, showing contributing factors—weather, air traffic congestion, airport delays—so you know what's driving the number. Drill into any region to see local anomaly scores, affected airports, and the airlines most impacted. One number, infinite depth. ![Flight Lens Pulse Index showing global aviation anomaly score](/images/flight-lens-screenshot-1.webp) ## Search Any Flight Look up any flight by number and get real-time status: departure, arrival, delays, gate info, and aircraft type. Search routes between airports to see what's flying, how reliable the connection is, and what fares look like. Save your frequent routes to track them over time. When disruptions hit, you'll see the impact on routes you care about before you even check. ![Flight Lens flight search showing real-time status and route info](/images/flight-lens-screenshot-4.webp) ## Live Aircraft Map Watch the skies in real-time. Thousands of aircraft tracked on an interactive map with flight details, altitude, speed, and route information. Tap any plane to see where it's going, whether it's on time, and what aircraft type it is. Perfect for aviation enthusiasts tracking specific flights or travelers watching their connecting flight approach the gate. ![Flight Lens live aircraft map showing global flight positions](/images/flight-lens-screenshot-2.webp) ## Smart Alerts Set alerts for what matters to you. Pulse alerts notify you when global or regional anomalies cross your threshold. Route alerts watch your frequent routes for disruptions. Flight alerts track specific flights in real-time. Price alerts tell you when fares drop on routes you're watching. Save your frequent routes and let Flight Lens monitor them continuously. Push notifications for Pro users mean you never miss a disruption—or a deal. ![Flight Lens alerts configuration for routes, flights, and prices](/images/flight-lens-screenshot-3.webp) ## Simple Pricing ### Free - Full Pulse intel - 1 live alert for global disruption - 15 starter credits - Ad-gated experience ### Light $1.99/mo - Everything in Free - No ads - Up to 4 different alerts - 7 daily credits ### Pro $5.99/mo - Everything in Free - No ads - Up to 10 different alerts - 15 daily credits - 20% bonus credit purchase Credit packs available separately for all plans ## See the Skies Clearly One number, full picture, details when you need them. Download Free on the App Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030) Free to start. Credits reset daily for subscribers. Vote us on AppCharts! (https://appcharts.app/app.html?slug=flight-lens-flight-tracker) Privacy Policy (/flight-lens/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/flight-lens/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+flightlens@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # Hacking Habits URL: https://dragosroua.com/hacking-habits.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/hacking-habits/ Type: app Categories: Apps Oct 29, 2025 Oct 21, 2026 2025-10-29 ![Hacking Habits | Dragos Roua](https://dragosroua.com/images/hacking-habits.webp) # Hacking Habits Habits are behavioral architecture—invisible structures that either propel or constrain your life. This collection explores how habits actually work: the gravitational forces that shape them, the patterns that make them stick, and the practical techniques for building ones that serve you. No motivation porn, no 21-day myths. Just tested approaches to understanding and leveraging the most powerful force in personal development. ![Hacking Habits app icon](/images/hacking-habits-logo.webp) ## Hacking Habits The App Flowing financial resilience Download on the App Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hacking-habits/id6760470848) Everything on this page—the gravitational habits framework, the 15-day formation timeline, the ADD methodology—is now an app. Hacking Habits turns these ideas into a daily practice. The Life Hours Calculator reframes every purchase as time cost. The 15-day habit installer walks you through building each financial habit with daily guidance and checkpoints. Five meters on your dashboard show net worth, burn rate, hourly rate, savings goals, and more—all without connecting a single bank account. Privacy-first by design. Your financial data never leaves your device. Works in any country, any currency. Companion to Gravitational Habits for Financial Resilience (/gravitational-habits/), but fully standalone. ![Hacking Habits - Life Hours Calculator](/images/hacking-habits-screenshot-1.webp) ![Hacking Habits - 15-Day Habit Installer](/images/hacking-habits-screenshot-2.webp) ![Hacking Habits - Five Meters Dashboard](/images/hacking-habits-screenshot-3.webp) ⏱ ### Life Hours Calculator Enter any purchase amount, see how many hours of your life it costs. Pause impulsive purchases with a 24-hour timer.  ### 15-Day Habit Installer Structured daily guidance, progress bars, and checkpoint evaluations. Install one financial habit at a time, in 15 days.  ### Five Meters Dashboard Net worth, burn rate, hourly rate, savings goals—your financial vital signs at a glance. Morning check-in keeps you grounded. 吝 ### Assess-Decide-Do The ADD framework from the posts below, built into every tool. Observe before acting, choose clearly, execute without second-guessing. ### Simple Pricing #### Free - Life Hours Calculator (unlimited) - 3 Jumpstart Habits - ADD Diagnostic - Net Worth Tracker - Burn Rate Calculator - Five Meters Dashboard #### Premium - Everything in Free - All Core + Extended Habits - Sunday Planning Sessions - 90-Day Transformation Journey - Savings Goals & Debt Strategy - No ads Privacy Policy (/hacking-habits/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/hacking-habits/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+hackinghabits@proton.me) More apps by me → (/apps/) Vote us on AppCharts! (https://appcharts.app/app.html?slug=hacking-habits) ## The Framework: Posts on Habit Science Foundation Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Gravitational Habits Habits aren't just behaviors—they're gravitational forces. Some pull you toward growth, others anchor you to the past. Understanding this invisible architecture is the first step to intentional change. Key insight: "Habits operate like gravity—invisible, constant, and powerful enough to shape your entire trajectory" (/gravitational-habits/)Architecture Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Reusable Habits Not all habits are created equal. Some habits, when built right, automatically generate other positive behaviors. These are the force multipliers worth investing in. Key insight: "The best habits are templates that transfer across contexts—build one, get many" (/reusable-habits/)Integration Last updated: December 2, 2025 ## A Good Habit Is An Invisible Habit When a habit truly works, it disappears. You stop noticing it because it's become part of your operating system. Invisibility is the goal, not a side effect. Key insight: "The best habits run in the background—invisible infrastructure supporting everything else" (/a-good-habit-is-an-invisible-habit/)Quality Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Healthy And Unhealthy Routines Not all routines serve you. Some create stability, others create rigidity. Understanding the difference between healthy structure and unhealthy compulsion matters. Key insight: "Healthy routines adapt to reality; unhealthy ones demand reality adapt to them" (/healthy-and-unhealthy-routines/)Formation Last updated: December 2, 2025 ## 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 3. Create A New Habit Creating a new habit isn't about willpower—it's about architecture. The right structure makes adoption inevitable, the wrong one guarantees failure regardless of motivation. Key insight: "Habit formation succeeds or fails in the design phase, not the execution phase" (/100-ways-live-better-life-3-create-new-habit/)Optimization Last updated: December 2, 2025 ## 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 79. Break A Bad Habit Breaking bad habits is harder than building good ones—but only if you fight them directly. The key is understanding what function the bad habit serves, then replacing it with something better. Key insight: "You can't eliminate a bad habit, only replace it with a better alternative that serves the same need" (/100-ways-live-better-life-79-break-bad-habit/)Anti-patterns Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## My Top 7 Demotivating Habits Some habits don't just fail to help—they actively undermine everything else. Recognizing and eliminating these destructive patterns creates more progress than adding new positive ones. Key insight: "Subtracting bad habits often yields more results than adding good ones" (/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/)Timeline Last updated: December 2, 2025 ## How To Create A Habit In 15 Days Forget the 21-day myth. Real habit formation follows a different timeline. Fifteen days of deliberate practice, structured correctly, can establish lasting behavioral change. Key insight: "15 days of focused repetition beats 30 days of casual attempts every time" (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/)Application Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## 5 Financial Habits Enforced By Playing CashFlow Financial habits are behavioral habits in disguise. The Cashflow board game accidentally teaches what most financial education misses—how money habits actually form through repetition. Key insight: "Games reveal habit patterns faster than lectures—play exposes what theory hides" (/5-financial-habits-enforced-by-playing-cashflow/) ## Why Habits Matter More Than Motivation After years of experimenting with productivity systems, one truth became clear: motivation is unreliable, willpower depletes, but well-designed habits compound automatically. The difference between people who achieve their goals and those who don't rarely comes down to superior motivation—it comes down to superior habit architecture. These posts document what actually works when building or breaking habits. Not theory from research papers, but battle-tested approaches from years of deliberate experimentation. From understanding the gravitational pull of existing patterns to recognizing when a routine has crossed from helpful to harmful. **Start here:** Begin with Gravitational Habits (/gravitational-habits/) to understand the foundational framework, then explore the 15-day habit formation timeline (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/), or see what habits to eliminate (/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/) before adding new ones. **Related:** Browse all personal development posts (/category/personal-development/) or explore the Assess-Decide-Do framework (/assess-decide-do-framework/) for structured habit implementation. Share mailto:?subject=Hacking%20Habits%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&body=Check%20out%20this%20article%3A%20Hacking%20Habits%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhacking-habits%2F https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhacking-habits%2F&text=Hacking%20Habits%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhacking-habits%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhacking-habits%2F&t=Hacking%20Habits%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhacking-habits%2F&title=Hacking%20Habits%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua --- # Zen Tales - Buddhist Stories with AI Reflections URL: https://dragosroua.com/zen-tales.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/zen-tales/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![Zen Tales app icon](/images/zen-tales-logo.webp) # Zen Tales Listen. Reflect. Be present. Download Free Timeless Buddhist stories, narrated for you. When a story resonates, ask the AI for deeper reflection. No accounts. No complexity. Just wisdom, when you need it. ## How It Started About 10 years ago I had the chance to be exposed to real Buddhist teachings—from a Geshe monk who had been practicing Tibetan Buddhism for more than 20 years. It was a serendipitous encounter at a co-working space I used to manage in Bucharest. That experience planted a seed that stayed with me through years of location-independent living across Spain, Portugal, Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. One of the things I wanted to do for a long time was to shorten the path between my tech endeavors and the practice. I've been a coder for more than 35 years. What if, instead of separating practice from work, I could bring them together? That's how Zen Tales was born. The app I wish I'd had 10 years ago—now available for everyone. ## 50 Hand-Picked Stories A curated collection of Buddhist tales adapted from various public domain sources. From koans to Buddha life stories, each packed as a short intermezzo—one to four minutes—that can be interwoven into the fabric of your day at any moment. Each story is complete in itself, yet opens doors to deeper understanding. ![Zen Tales home screen showing story collection](/images/zen-tales-home.webp) ## Listen, Don't Scroll Every story comes with natural text-to-speech. Close your eyes, put on headphones, and let the words wash over you. Reading is optional. Presence is the point. Perfect for your morning routine, a mindful break at work, or winding down before sleep. ![Zen Tales playback screen with text-to-speech](/images/zen-tales-play.webp) ## Reflect With AI After each story, you can start a series of reflections with the help of a specially crafted AI model. Finished listening to "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Tap on pre-made reflections like "Have you ever understood something by giving up rather than figuring it out?" The AI gently offers more insights based on the story and general Buddhist principles. Each of the 50 stories has 3 pre-made reflections. After you explore all three, you get your own chat window to ask free-form questions. ![Zen Tales AI reflection conversation](/images/zen-tales-ai.webp) ## Practice Dana No advertising, everything is clean. For those who truly benefit from the practice, there's a "Practice Dana" section in Settings where you can express gratitude with small tips—like lighting a candle or ringing the temple bell. In-app purchases are available for more chat credits, like going to a retreat for more wisdom. ## Simple by Design Just stories, silence, and space to think. Whether you're a practicing Buddhist or simply seeking wisdom in this ever-changing Samsara. Download Free on App Store Free to start. No account required. Vote us on AppCharts! (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zen-tales-buddhist-stories/id6758518121) Privacy Policy (/zen-tales/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/zen-tales/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+zentales@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # Light Njoy - Transform Your Screen Into an Ambient Lamp URL: https://dragosroua.com/light-njoy.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/light-njoy/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![Light Njoy app icon](/images/light-njoy-logo.webp) # Light Njoy Your screen. Your lamp. Your vibe. Download Free Transform your iPhone or iPad into an intelligent ambient lamp. Choose from flowing aurora waves, pulsing radials, or organic liquid blobs. Let AI generate colors from your imagination, or sync the light with your breath. Simple, beautiful, immersive. ## Why I Built This I've owned an iPhone for more than 15 years, and I've been carrying it everywhere. Most of the time, the screen just sits there showing my app icons. Familiar, but boring. If you think about it, we have this light-emitting surface with us for almost the entire day, yet we're not doing anything to actively program it. I'm not talking about screensavers—they're static by design. I'm talking about taking advantage of that glowing rectangle and turning it into something useful. Something alive. Coding the light. That's the idea behind Light Njoy: your screen becomes a lamp, a breathing guide, a mood setter—whatever you need it to be. ## Your Screen, Reimagined Light Njoy turns your device into a versatile ambient lamp. Choose from five visual layouts: a simple full-screen glow, a four-quadrant grid, flowing aurora bands, concentric radial pulses, or organic liquid metaballs that drift and merge like lava. Eight curated color palettes—from warm sunset tones to cool ocean hues—set the mood instantly. Static colors for focused work. Auto-shifting gradients for relaxation. Your screen becomes a light source that adapts to any moment. ![Light Njoy home screen showing ambient lighting](/images/light-njoy-home.webp) ## AI-Powered Color Scenes Describe the vibe you want in plain language. "Tropical sunset over the ocean." "Cozy fireplace on a winter night." "Neon cyberpunk city." LumiAI uses on-device intelligence to generate the perfect color palette from your words—no internet required, completely private. Go further with Imagined Scenes: the AI creates a visual scene based on your description and extracts its color scheme. Your imagination becomes light. ![Light Njoy AI color generation interface](/images/light-njoy-ai.webp) ## Breathe With the Light Breath Sync mode turns your screen into a breathing guide. The light gently pulses in rhythm with proven breathing patterns: 4-7-8 for deep relaxation, box breathing for focus, or simple calm for everyday stress relief. Subtle haptic feedback keeps you in sync even with eyes closed. Perfect for meditation sessions, pre-sleep wind-down, or a quick reset during a busy day. The light breathes with you. ![Light Njoy breath sync mode with pulsing light](/images/light-njoy-breath.webp) ## Share the Vibe Create custom lighting sequences with Njoy Setups. Combine multiple scenes with timing and transitions, then save them as shareable files. Send a relaxation routine to a friend, or download setups others have created. Each .njoy file contains a complete lighting experience. Build your personal library of moods. Morning energizer, evening wind-down, party mode, focus flow—one tap to transform your space. ![Light Njoy shareable setups interface](/images/light-njoy-setups.webp) ## Simple Pricing ### Free - Static and Auto Shift modes - Grid and Full layouts - All 8 color palettes - Watch ads for temporary Pro access ### Pro $5.99 lifetime - LumiAI color generation - Imagined Scenes - Breath Sync mode - Aurora, Radial, Liquid layouts - Create & share Njoy Setups - Siri Shortcuts integration - No ads ## Light Up Your World Light Njoy is available now on the App Store. Transform any moment with the light you imagine. Download Free on App Store Free to start. AI features require Apple Intelligence device. Vote us on AppCharts! (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/light-njoy/id6759700009) ![Featured on TinyShelf](https://www.tinyshelf.co/badge/tinyshelf-badge-light-5ca4026a.svg) (https://www.tinyshelf.co/?ref=dragosroua.com) ![Light Njoy on Nick Launches](https://nicklaunches.com/badges/featured.png) (https://nicklaunches.com/products/light-njoy/?utm_source=dragosroua.com&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=featured) Privacy Policy (/light-njoy/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/light-njoy/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+lightnjoy@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # MosquiGo - Ultrasonic Mosquito Repellent App URL: https://dragosroua.com/mosquigo.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/mosquigo/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![MosquiGo app icon](/images/mosquigo-logo.webp) # MosquiGo Ultrasonic mosquito deterrent. Download Free MosquiGo emits ultrasonic frequencies that mosquitoes find irritating. Multiple sound layers adapt continuously to prevent habituation. Run it in the background while you sleep, work, or enjoy the outdoors. Your iPhone becomes a portable mosquito deterrent that goes wherever you go. ## Why I Built This As a digital nomad, I split my time between Europe and Asia. Lately, I've spent a significant amount of time in Vietnam, with frequent visits to the Mekong Delta in the South. Everything is amazing there, except one thing: mosquitoes. If you've ever been bitten by a Mekong Delta mosquito, you know you won't get tiny, slightly red and mildly itching spots. You get bruises. Seriously, I sometimes woke up in the middle of the night because of the bite pain. After a couple of seasons trying to avoid mosquitoes as much as possible, I decided to experiment with an app. I knew sound frequencies weren't fully tested, and the research is mixed. Some say certain frequencies work, some say none work as a mosquito deterrent. I made an MVP in an afternoon, then started to experiment and pivot. It took a few iterations to end up with something actually effective. The app now uses 3 frequency layers and anti-habituation patterns that, in most of my experience, alter mosquito behavior. They don't run away, but they become significantly less aggressive and active. Now the app is live. Check out the details below. ## Anti-Habituation Technology Static frequencies lose effectiveness over time as mosquitoes get used to them. MosquiGo continuously shifts parameters — frequency, pulse patterns, and timing — to prevent mosquitoes from adapting. The sound stays unpredictable, making it harder for insects to tune it out. This dynamic approach sets MosquiGo apart from simple tone generators. ![MosquiGo main screen with wave visualization](/images/mosquigo-screenshot-1.webp) ## Multi-Layer Sound Defense Three frequency layers work together for comprehensive coverage. High-frequency pulses mimic the wingbeat of dragonflies and other natural predators. Sweeping tones cover the full mosquito hearing range. Optional low-frequency modulation adds another dimension. Each layer can be adjusted independently, letting you find the combination that works best for your environment. ![MosquiGo layer controls and presets](/images/mosquigo-screenshot-2.webp) ## Easy Presets Choose from ready-made presets optimized for different scenarios: indoor relaxation, outdoor activities, morning hours, or dusk when mosquitoes are most active. Set it and forget it for a seamless experience. Power users can dive into advanced settings to customize frequency ranges, pulse intervals, and layer volumes. A built-in timer lets you schedule automatic shutoff. ![MosquiGo screen shield and settings](/images/mosquigo-screenshot-3.webp) **Honest Note:** Scientific evidence on ultrasonic mosquito repellents is mixed. Some users report noticeable results, others see no difference. MosquiGo is designed as a supplementary deterrent and should not replace proven methods like DEET-based repellent sprays, mosquito nets, or eliminating standing water around your home. ## Try It Tonight Download free and test it yourself. The basic version includes core frequencies and a timer. Premium unlocks all three sound layers, advanced controls, and removes ads completely. Download Free on App Store Works in background. No account required. Vote us on AppCharts! (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mosquigo/id6759360014) ![Featured on tinyshelf](https://www.tinyshelf.co/badge/tinyshelf-badge-light-amber-1cdea1ce.svg) (https://www.tinyshelf.co/?ref=dragosroua.com) Privacy Policy (/mosquigo/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/mosquigo/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+mosquigo@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # Just 5 Words - AI Storytelling with Apple Intelligence URL: https://dragosroua.com/just-5-words.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/just-5-words/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![Just 5 Words app icon](/images/just-5-words-logo.webp) # Just 5 Words AI-powered storytelling. Download Free Pick 5 words from a shuffled pool. Watch AI weave them into a unique short story, almost like a haiku. Then see it come to life as an image. Everything runs on-device using Apple Intelligence. No API calls, no cloud processing, no waiting. ## Why I Built This When I started using AI heavily for my work, the most frustrating thing was hitting quota limits. "Usage reset at 3:00 AM" — and I had to stop. I started exploring on-device inference as an alternative, but my Mac's 16GB of RAM made serious AI work impractical. Then I stumbled upon Apple Intelligence. It's a collection of optimized models running directly on device, capable of decent text and image generation. Not powerful enough for code generation, but perfect for creative tasks. That's when the idea clicked: what if I built something that turned random words into stories, then stories into images? A simple creative toy that showcases what on-device AI can do. The deeper I went, the more addictive it became. There's something magical about watching words transform into short stories, almost like haikus, and then seeing ephemeral, gentle images emerge from them. It's beautiful. And now it's yours to explore. ## Pick Your Words Choose 5 words from a shuffled pool of creative prompts. Each combination creates a unique starting point for AI generation. Don't like what you see? Shuffle as many times as you want until you find the perfect set. The randomness is part of the fun — unexpected combinations often create the most interesting stories. ![Just 5 Words word selection screen](/images/just-5-words-screenshot-1.webp) ## AI-Generated Stories Apple Intelligence transforms your 5 words into a short, creative story. Every generation is unique — the same words can produce different narratives each time. Not happy with the result? Generate a new variation instantly. The stories feel almost like haikus: brief, evocative, and surprisingly poetic. ![Just 5 Words story generation](/images/just-5-words-screenshot-2.webp) ## Stories Become Images Turn your story into visual art. Choose from multiple styles — sketch, animation, illustration, and more. Adjust perspectives and add modifiers to fine-tune the output. The images are ephemeral and gentle, matching the poetic nature of the stories. Pro users unlock all styles, modifiers, and perspectives. ![Just 5 Words image generation with style options](/images/just-5-words-screenshot-4.webp) ## Share Your Creations Built-in share sheets for Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok make sharing effortless. Each platform gets optimized formatting for its content style. Share your stories and images with friends, or post them publicly using #5Words. What's a beautiful creation if no one else can see it? ![Just 5 Words sharing options](/images/just-5-words-screenshot-5.webp) **Requirements:** Just 5 Words requires iOS 18.4 or higher on an iPhone 15 Pro or newer. Apple Intelligence must be enabled in Settings. The app runs entirely on-device — no internet required for generation, no API calls, no cloud processing. ## Creativity, Simplified Free to start. Generate stories and images right on your device. Pro unlocks all styles and removes ads. Download Free on App Store Requires iOS 18.4+ with Apple Intelligence enabled. Vote us on AppCharts! (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/just-5-words/id6753934664) Privacy Policy (/just-5-words/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/just-5-words/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+justfive@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # AI Kiddo - Vocabulary Learning for Kids in 8 Languages URL: https://dragosroua.com/ai-kiddo.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/ai-kiddo/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![AI Kiddo app icon](/images/ai-kiddo-icon-48.webp) # AI Kiddo First words in 8 languages. Download Free Tap an object. Hear the word. In English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Romanian, or Korean. Simple vocabulary learning for curious little minds. ## How It Started When my one year old started watching cartoons on the iPad, he learned the interface surprisingly fast. Scrolling, picking videos from the sidebar, even accidentally subscribing to channels. The UX patterns became second nature to him. One day I thought: what if I used that same familiar interface, but with different content? Instead of a video, show an object image. Instead of related videos in the sidebar, show related objects. Instead of Subscribe, add buttons that speak the word in different languages. The first version took half an afternoon to build. When we tested it, he was briefly confused that there was no video — but the patterns were the same. He scrolled, he tapped, he pressed the language buttons. He was learning words in three languages without realizing it was "learning." That's how AI Kiddo was born. Now it's live on the App Store with 8 integrated languages. ## Easy Vocabulary Practice Everyday objects your child already knows — chairs, cups, towels, fruits, animals. Now they can learn what they're called in different languages. The interface mimics familiar video apps: a main image in the center, related objects scrolling on the side. Just tap, listen, and repeat. No complicated menus, no confusing navigation. Children pick it up instantly because the patterns feel familiar. ![AI Kiddo showing vocabulary practice with household items](/images/ai-kiddo-screenshot-1.webp) ## 8 Languages English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Romanian, and Korean. Each word is spoken using natural text-to-speech, so your child hears proper pronunciation from the start. You can enable all languages or pick just the ones relevant to your family. The app remembers your preferences. Perfect for multilingual households or families preparing for international travel. ![AI Kiddo showing the same word in multiple languages](/images/ai-kiddo-screenshot-2.webp) ## Child-Friendly Design Big buttons sized for little fingers. Simple, clear images generated specifically for young children. No distractions, no autoplay videos, no algorithmic recommendations. The app runs completely offline after download — no internet required. Zero ads, zero tracking, zero data collection. Any external links (like the App Store for more packs) are protected by a parental gate that requires adult input. ![AI Kiddo child-friendly interface](/images/ai-kiddo-screenshot-3.webp) ## Learning Made Simple 3 free packs to start. More available if they want to keep exploring. Download Free on App Store Free to start. No account required. Vote us on AppCharts! (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566) Privacy Policy (/ai-kiddo/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/ai-kiddo/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+aikiddo@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # Coloring Kiddo — Coloring and Motor Practice for Toddlers URL: https://dragosroua.com/coloring-kiddo.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/coloring-kiddo/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![Coloring Kiddo app icon](/images/icons/coloring-kiddo-icon-48.webp) # Coloring Kiddo Coloring and motor practice for toddlers Download Free Coloring Kiddo turns coloring into a small, focused exercise: see the drawing, match the target color, tap the right region, and build the hand-eye coordination that later becomes drawing, writing, and patient attention. ## Why I Built This Like AI Kiddo, Coloring Kiddo started with my own child. I wanted screen time that did something useful without becoming noisy, addictive, or overcomplicated. Not a video feed. Not a game engineered to keep a toddler trapped. Just a simple tool for practice. Traditional coloring is wonderful, but very young children often hit the same friction points: staying inside the lines, choosing the right color, understanding what part of the picture they are working on, and keeping enough focus to finish one small piece. Coloring Kiddo keeps the familiar joy of coloring, then adds gentle structure. The app shows contour drawings with target color indicators, so the child gets a clear visual cue and an immediate action: pick this color, fill this area, move to the next one. The goal is not to replace crayons. The goal is to make practice easier to start, easier to repeat, and easier for small hands to understand. ## Guided Coloring, Not Guesswork Each image begins as a clean contour drawing. Regions have target color indicators, so your child knows what color to use and where to apply it. That small hint turns coloring into an approachable puzzle: match the color, tap the shape, watch the picture come alive. It is simple enough for toddlers, but structured enough to feel like real practice. They learn color matching, visual attention, and sequence without needing a long explanation from an adult every time. ![Coloring Kiddo guided coloring screen with a contour drawing](/images/coloring-kiddo-screenshot-1.webp) ## Fine Motor Practice for Little Fingers Coloring is not only about making something pretty. For young children, it is hand-eye coordination, finger control, patience, and the early muscle memory behind drawing and writing. Coloring Kiddo gives them small, repeatable actions that are easy to understand and satisfying to complete. Big touch targets keep frustration low. Clear shapes keep attention focused. The reward is not a badge or a streak — it is the picture slowly becoming finished because they did the work. ![Coloring Kiddo showing color choices for a child-friendly drawing](/images/coloring-kiddo-screenshot-2.webp) ## Child-Safe by Default No ads. No tracking. No account. No social feed. No algorithmic recommendations. Coloring Kiddo is designed as a calm space for children ages 5 and under, with purchase actions and external links protected by a parental gate. Progress and purchase status stay on the device. The app is meant to feel like a digital coloring book, not a data collection machine wearing a cartoon costume. ![Coloring Kiddo child-safe interface with simple drawing choices](/images/coloring-kiddo-screenshot-3.webp) **Made for kids, with parents in mind:** Coloring Kiddo collects no personal information, includes no behavioral advertising, and protects purchases and external links with a parental gate. ## Coloring that quietly builds useful skills. Download free. Give your child a calm place to practice color matching, focus, and fine motor control. Download Free No account required. Privacy respected. Vote us on AppCharts! (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/coloring-kiddo-learn-colors/id6785798095) Questions about Coloring Kiddo? We're here to support (mailto:dragosroua+coloringkiddo@proton.me). Privacy Policy (/coloring-kiddo/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/coloring-kiddo/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+coloringkiddo@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # 999 Wise Quotes — Read. Listen. Make it stick. URL: https://dragosroua.com/999-quotes.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/999-quotes/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![999 Wise Quotes app icon](/images/999-wise-quotes-icon-48.webp) # 999 Wise Quotes Read. Listen. Make it stick. Download Free 999 quotes from history's greatest minds — Stoic, Eastern, Greek, proverb, poet. Read or listen, then let a carefully crafted AI agent help you reflect, apply, and place each one in its context. Curated wisdom at its best. ## How It Started I've always paid close attention to quotes. There's something about distilled information coming from a verified source that makes it resonate. Sometimes, a well-chosen sentence can carry more weight than a whole chapter, and I find that interesting. Over the years I've worked through a fair amount of the actual books referenced in this app: Marcus Aurelius, Lao Tzu, some Buddhist writers (enough to also build Zen Tales (/zen-tales/)), a few poets, some of the German philosophers. But there was a tiny little problem. Having that distilled information ready when I needed it. Of course, sometimes I took notes, but they were scarce and isolated in their own context. What if everything is one place, and, even better, with a real voice, not just text? The app came from wanting three things: a readily available, curated collection I could trust, audio for everything, and a reflection layer that follows the content closely. ## 999 Curated Quotes Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Nietzsche, Emerson, plus poets and artists across ten categories: resilience, wisdom, love, courage, peace, success, character, loss, nature, leadership. Ancient and modern voices side by side — no motivational poster filler. Every quote is sourced, verified and trustworthy. ![999 Wise Quotes — quote browsing screen](/images/999-wise-quotes-screenshot-1.webp) ## Everything Is Audio Every quote has premium audio, voiced for unhurried listening. Every AI response — Reflect, Apply, Context — is also audio. Listen to a Stoic quote on a walk. Hear the AI apply it to something in your week. Let a 2,000-year-old idea reach you through headphones. Reading is still there when you want it. But audio makes it feel present. ![999 Wise Quotes — audio playback screen](/images/999-wise-quotes-screenshot-2.webp) ## Reflect. Apply. Context. Three AI-generated audio responses, crafted around each quote. *Reflect* asks what this means for you today. *Apply* gives one actionable thing to do with it today. *Context* anchors the quote in its source — who wrote it, when, and what was happening. The AI adapts its register to the source: measured for the Stoics, quiet for the Eastern traditions, direct for the proverbs. The prompts went through a lot of iteration to get right. The goal was making each quote useful, not just a nice display. ![999 Wise Quotes — Reflect, Apply, Context screen](/images/999-wise-quotes-screenshot-3.webp) ## Simple Pricing ### Free - First 30 quotes - 90 AI credits to try every action - Full audio on every quote - Favorites saved locally - No account required ### The Wisdom Vault $7.99 one-time - All 999 quotes unlocked - 50 AI credits included - Top up later: 50 credits for $1.99 - No subscription - No ads. No tracking. ## Wisdom in your pocket. One quote at a time. Free to start. Your favorites saved locally, forever. Download Free on App Store Vote us on AppCharts! (https://appcharts.app/app.html?slug=999-wise-quotes-stoic-zen) Privacy Policy (/999-quotes/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/999-quotes/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+999quotes@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # Shape Walk — Walk shapes. Stay in shape. URL: https://dragosroua.com/shape-walk.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/shape-walk/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![Shape Walk app icon](/images/shape-walk-icon-48.webp) # Shape Walk Walk shapes. Stay in shape. Download Free Pick a shape. Shape Walk maps it onto your neighborhood. Follow the outline through real streets, feel the haptic at each waypoint, close the loop. Your route becomes a thing you made — not just a distance you covered. ## How It Started I ran ultramarathons for more than ten years — including Ultrabalaton (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/), 220 km around the Hungarian Balaton lake. At some point I shifted down to walking. And honestly, I got a little bit bored with step counts, distance and calories. They're useful, don't get me wrong, but in and by themselves they are just numbers that accumulate. What if the walk itself had a shape? Not a destination, not a goal — just a form. Something you impose on the streets around you and then go trace with your feet. A square through the neighbourhood, or a spiral through the park, or a heart on Valentine's day just because you can. Shapes are primitives. If you use the app long enough, they will become your way to write your personal story with your own very steps. ## 15 Shapes to Walk Free: Square, Circle, Triangle. Pro: Pentagon, Hexagon, Five-Point Star, Six-Point Star, Figure-8, Arrow, Heart, Diamond, Cross, Spiral, Crescent, and the Letter S. Each shape is hand-tuned to walk between 0.9 and 3 kilometres. Some are a quick stroll. Some are an honest hour of cardio. And you can even edit them to make them last longer, if you want. The app maps the outline onto your current location, scales it to fit real walking distance, and drops waypoint markers at every corner. Follow the route, feel the haptic at each turn, close the loop. Simple enough that you don't think about it. Specific enough that you always have somewhere to go. ![Shape Walk — home screen with shape selection](/images/shape-walk-screenshot-1.webp) ## Built for the Outdoors Most fitness apps are built around the screen. Shape Walk is built around what's outside it. Background GPS tracks you with the screen off — pocket the phone and actually look at where you are. Waypoint haptics tell you when to turn. The map rotates to your heading so orientation is automatic. The app does its job quietly so you can do yours, which is to be outside. ![Shape Walk — live map with GPS tracking](/images/shape-walk-screenshot-2.webp) ## Every Walk Syncs to Apple Health Steps, distance, active calories, duration — all go straight to Health Kit. Today's totals are across the top of the home screen, color-coded so you can read your day in two seconds. Every completed shape lands in your trace collection: date, distance, walked path, calorie burn. It's a record of actual things you did, not just numbers that accumulated. Browse it, revisit old shapes, share a screenshot when you nail a tricky one. Or when you feel like it. ![Shape Walk — completed route in collection](/images/shape-walk-screenshot-3.webp) ## Simple Pricing ### Free - 3 shapes: Square, Circle, Triangle - Apple Health sync - Background GPS tracking - Waypoint haptics ### Shape Walk Pro 7-day free trial · $3.99/month or $24.99/year - All 15 shapes - Saving shapes to walk again later - Unlimited trace history - iCloud sync across devices - Calorie tracking on every walk - No ads ## Daily exercise that doesn't feel like exercise. Free to start. 7-day Pro trial included. Download Free on App Store Vote us on AppCharts! (https://appcharts.app/app.html?slug=shape-walk-walking-tracker) Questions about Shape Walk? We're here to support (mailto:dragosroua+shapewalk@proton.me). Privacy Policy (/shape-walk/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/shape-walk/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+shapewalk@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # Pane Shatter: Smash Glass — Pull, bounce, keep the still URL: https://dragosroua.com/pane-shatter.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/pane-shatter/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![Pane Shatter app icon](/images/pane-shatter-icon-48.webp) # Pane Shatter: Smash Glass Pull, bounce, keep the still. Download Free A steel ball, a rubber sling, and a pane of glass. Pull the ball down, let go, and watch it ricochet off all four edges like a pool break. Every impact cracks the glass at that exact spot until the screen looks genuinely shattered. Then the pane falls apart — and your break is saved. ## Why I Built This Most destruction toys on the App Store are tap-to-crack stickers: you tap, a canned crack appears, nothing moves. I wanted the opposite — a real little physics sandbox where the throw matters. Stretch further and the ball flies harder. Aim the angle and the whole pattern of cracks changes. No two breaks look the same because no two throws are the same. So the ball bounces like it should, dozens of times, off every edge. The cracks stack and weld into a spiderweb. And when the ball finally rests, that exact frame is yours to keep — a small trophy for a good throw. Pull the ball. Break the glass. Keep the picture. ## Pull Down. Let Go. A chrome ball hangs in a rubber sling at the center of a dark studio. Drag it down — the rubber stretches, the power ring fills, haptics tick as you pass each notch. Release, and the sling snaps back empty while the ball takes off. Stretch distance is power. Pull angle is direction. ![Pane Shatter — steel ball in the rubber sling, ready to pull](/images/pane-shatter-screenshot-1.webp) ## A Real Ricochet This is the heart of the game. The ball flies like a pool-table break — extremely fast, off all four screen edges, dozens of hits in a row with almost no energy lost per bounce. Weak throws still rattle around. Hard throws are a blur of impacts. Gravity only takes over at the end to settle the ball. ![Pane Shatter — ball mid-flight, cracking the glass edge](/images/pane-shatter-screenshot-2.webp) ## Cracks Like Photographed Glass Every edge impact stamps a star fracture at that exact spot, with stress rings and hairline fissures that taper like real beveled glass — not cartoon lines. Overlapping hits weld together into a genuine spiderweb. When the ball settles, that still frame is captured and saved before the pane collapses into falling shards. ![Pane Shatter — fully spiderwebbed broken glass still](/images/pane-shatter-screenshot-3.webp) ## A Gallery of Breaks Every saved break lands in your gallery. Tap to view full screen, share your best shatters, delete the duds. Empty state says it plainly: break the glass — your shots land here. Stills can also be saved to your Photos library with your permission. ![Pane Shatter — gallery of saved broken-glass shots](/images/pane-shatter-screenshot-4.webp) ## Shake It. Blow It. Split It. Unlimited unlocks more ways to throw. Shake rattles the ball with device motion. Blow pushes it with your breath through the microphone. Split divides the ball into 2–5 smaller ones after the first bounce for chaotic multi-ball breaks. Plus electric ball colors and colored backgrounds for your stills. ![Pane Shatter — settings with launches, subscription and gallery](/images/pane-shatter-screenshot-5.webp) ## Simple Pricing ### Free - 7 launches every day - Full physics, full cracks - Saved stills and gallery - Daily count survives reinstall ### Unlimited $0.99/week or $9.99/6 months - Unlimited launches - Shake and Blow launch modes - Split balls (2 to 5) - Electric ball colors and backgrounds - No ads ## Break something beautiful. Free to start. 7 launches every day, no account needed. Download Free on App Store Questions about Pane Shatter? We're here to support (mailto:dragosroua+paneshatter@proton.me). Privacy Policy (/pane-shatter/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/pane-shatter/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+paneshatter@proton.me) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # Adulthood — Simple User Manual for Grown-Up Life URL: https://dragosroua.com/adulthood.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/adulthood/ Type: app Categories: Apps ![Adulthood app icon](/images/adulthood-logo.webp) # Adulthood Simple user manual. Life lessons for smart adults. Download Free The operating guide for grown-up life—clear chapters, one useful pick for today, and tools for the moments that usually feel awkward or expensive to get wrong. No shame. No hustle theater. ## Why this exists Most people learn adulting by collision: a late fee, a bad lease, a conversation that went sideways. The information is out there, but it’s scattered, preachy, or buried under lifestyle branding. Adulthood is the manual I wanted in one place—short enough to use on a Tuesday, honest enough to respect your intelligence. Read a chapter. Do the minimum viable adult move. Keep going. ## Five sections, one shape Every chapter uses the same five blocks: what this is, when you’ll need it, what most people do, the minimum viable adult move, and what to level up later. Getting Started and Maintenance are on the device. Troubleshooting, Advanced Settings, and Warranty & Support download with Full Manual. - **Getting Started** — eight chapters, including Your First Apartment, Setting Up Utilities, Building a Basic Budget, and Important Documents Checklist. - **Maintenance** — Weekly Home Reset, Monthly Money Check-In, Seasonal Wardrobe Swap, and Annual Health Screenings. - **Troubleshooting** — a landlord who won’t fix things, roommate conflict, a medical bill, job-interview anxiety, a credit-card spiral. - **Advanced Settings** — negotiating salary, an emergency fund, investing basics, health insurance, tax filing, finding therapy. - **Warranty & Support** — tenant rights, breaking a lease, a complaint at work, when to call a lawyer, crisis lines. ## A few concrete uses - **One thing today.** Home opens on a single pick. With the goal “Stay on top of life admin,” that pick can be Monthly Money Check-In, with Annual Health Screenings, Seasonal Wardrobe Swap, and Weekly Home Reset listed under it. - **A first apartment.** The free manual covers the apartment, utilities, groceries, laundry, and documents. The First Apartment guide runs from search to move-in. The other five guides — first job offer, first doctor visit alone, first credit card, breaking up, moving cities — are in Full Manual. - **A sentence you can say out loud.** Phrasebook starts with declining and boundaries: after-work drinks, lending money, unpaid work, a roommate chore talk. Full Manual adds work, money, relationships, and health scripts. - **Is this normal?** Short answers for work, money, health, relationships, social life, and self. Fifteen are included. The full set is sixty. - **The chores that slip.** The maintenance list resets on its own clock: trash and plants weekly, rent and bank statements monthly, subscriptions quarterly, a physical and renter’s insurance yearly. Junk Drawer holds open loops — five free, then unlimited with Full Manual. ## Today’s one adult thing A focused pick when you open the app—so you’re not staring at a wall of “shoulds.” Optional personalization can steer recommendations when you’re ready. ![Adulthood home screen with today’s pick and quick actions](/images/adulthood-home.webp) ## A full life manual Chapters structured like a real guide: what it is, when you’ll need it, what most people do, and the smallest next step that actually counts. ![Adulthood Manual tab with life chapters](/images/adulthood-manual.webp) ## Clear answers, no lecture Practical copy for health basics, money admin, housing, work, and more. Unlock Full Manual when you want the complete set—subscription or lifetime, through Apple. ![Adulthood chapter detail with minimum adult move](/images/adulthood-topic.webp) ## Tools for real weeks Home’s quick actions are Is This Normal?, Phrasebook, SOS, and Junk Drawer. SOS covers six situations, including eviction, sudden job loss, identity theft, and a medical emergency. Maintenance lists reset weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. ![Adulthood Phrasebook for hard conversations](/images/adulthood-tools.webp) ## AI when you want a second voice Optional AI coach credits for personal next steps after a chapter. On supported devices, Life Personalization can use Apple Intelligence on-device—after an 18+ confirmation. Free to start; Full Manual and coach credits are in-app purchases. ![Adulthood chapter with Ask AI coach and minimum adult move](/images/adulthood-coach.webp) ## Read a chapter. Do the next adult thing. Free to start. No account required. Full Manual and coach credits are optional in-app purchases. Download Free on the App Store No account required. Free chapters to start. Privacy Policy (/adulthood/privacy-policy/) · Terms of Service (/adulthood/terms-of-service/) · Contact (mailto:dragosroua+adulthood@proton.me) Made by Dragos Roua (/) --- # iOS Apps by Dragos Roua | Productivity & Lifestyle URL: https://dragosroua.com/apps.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/apps/ Type: hub Categories: Series # Apps iOS apps built with intention, designed for focus. ![addTaskManager app icon](/images/addTaskManager-icon-48.webp) Featured ## addTaskManager The ADD-friendly productivity app Productivity Download Free Download Details (/productivity-apps/) ### ShareByLight Transfer files with light only Utilities Download for iPhone & iPad iPhone & iPad Download for Mac Mac (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-qr-file-transfer/id6796906109) Details (/sharebylight/) ### Flight Lens Traffic Pulse, Flight intel & ticket prices Travel Download Free Download Details (/flight-lens/) ### Hacking Habits Flowing financial resilience Finance Download Free Download Details (/hacking-habits/) ### Zen Tales Listen. Reflect. Be present. Lifestyle Download Free Download Details (/zen-tales/) ### Light Njoy Your screen. Your lamp. Your vibe. Lifestyle Download Free Download Details (/light-njoy/) ### MosquiGo Ultrasonic mosquito deterrent Utilities Download Free Download Details (/mosquigo/) ### Just 5 Words AI-powered storytelling Entertainment Download Free Download Details (/just-5-words/) ### AI Kiddo First words in 8 languages Education Download Free Download Details (/ai-kiddo/) ### Coloring Kiddo Guided coloring for toddlers Education Download Free Download Details (/coloring-kiddo/) ### 999 Wise Quotes Read. Listen. Make it stick. Lifestyle Download Free Download Details (/999-quotes/) ### Shape Walk Walk shapes. Stay in shape. Health & Fitness Download Free Download Details (/shape-walk/) ### Pane Shatter: Smash Glass Pull, bounce, keep the still. Games Download Free Download Details (/pane-shatter/) ### Adulthood Simple user manual for grown-up life Lifestyle Download Free Download (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/addtaskmanager-add-to-do-list/id1492487688) Details (/adulthood/) --- # addTaskManager - The iOS Productivity App for ADHD Minds URL: https://dragosroua.com/productivity-apps.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/productivity-apps/ Type: hub Categories: Series ![addTaskManager app icon](/images/addTaskManager-icon-256.webp) # addTaskManager As simple as: assess, decide, do. Download Free ★★★★★ ## New and interesting approach "Not your regular to do app. It has a little bit of a learning curve, but once you get the gist of it, it really pays off." LeTina VN Jun 7, 2025 ★★★★★ ## A different kind of to-do app "I've tried a few task management apps, and this one feels different. It's not just about checking things off — it actually helps to focus on what matters. Clean design, no clutter, and just enough structure to stay on track without feeling overwhelmed." Florin Rosoga Jul 6, 2025 ★★★★★ ## Like Zettelkasten for tasks "At first, it felt overly minimal — almost unfriendly — but I find the completely new structure quite fascinating. It feels like a very simplified version of the Zettelkasten method. I think anyone who tries it will find it quite appealing." q(_IS.TP_)p Aug 4, 2025 ## A Framework That Actually Works addTaskManager is built on the **Assess-Decide-Do** framework — a simple system that transforms chaos into clarity without fighting your natural thought patterns. Step 1 ### Assess Capture everything without doing pressure. Brain dump every thought, idea, and task without worrying about priority or category. The Assess stage is your mental inbox — a safe space where nothing is too small or too crazy to write down. - Quick capture with zero friction - No forced categories or due dates - Once task has form, move it to Decide ![addTaskManager Assess view - capture tasks without pressure](/images/iPhone-assess-view.webp) Step 2 ### Decide Add contexts, due date and alerts. Review your captured items and evaluate. Is this actionable? If yes, get it ready for doing. The Decide stage turns intentions into concrete next steps. - Turn "stuff" into actionable tasks - Enrich items with meaningful metadata - Once metadata complete, you can move it to Do ![addTaskManager Decide view - add context, due dates and alerts](/images/iPhone-decide-view.webp) Step 3 ### Do Focus without pressure. The Do stage shows only what you've committed to. No endless scrolling through someday/maybe lists. Smart filtering by context or due date, for seamless completion. - Do only what you decide is doable - Clear visual separation - Once finished, a task can be marked as Done, or moved back to Assess ![addTaskManager Do view - focus on tasks without pressure](/images/iPhone-do-view.webp) Bonus ### Search Find anything, anywhere. Powerful search across all your tasks, projects or ideas, in all realms. Your second brain, always accessible. - Full-text search across everything - Traveling animation with realm awareness - Never lose an idea again ![addTaskManager Search - find anything across all realms](/images/hero-addTaskManager-search.webp) ## Ready to Think Differently? Join thousands who've escaped the to-do list hamster wheel. Get addTaskManager Free ## Why addTaskManager? 🔒 ### Privacy First Your data stays on your devices. iCloud sync is encrypted and we never see your tasks. 🎯 ### ADD Framework Built for flow, not for burnout. As easy as: Assess, Decide, Do. 🌏 ### Multilingual Available in English, 한국어, 日本語, 中文, Français, and Tiếng Việt. 🔄 ### Seamless Sync Start on iPhone, continue on iPad, finish on Mac. Real-time sync across all devices. ## Your Brain Deserves Better Stop fighting your natural thought patterns. Start working with them. Download addTaskManager and experience a productivity system that actually fits how you think. Download Free on App Store Learn More About the ADD Framework → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) Free to start. No account required. Your data stays yours. Vote us on AppCharts! (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) ![Featured on tinyshelf](https://www.tinyshelf.co/badge/tinyshelf-badge-light-5ca4026a.svg) (https://www.tinyshelf.co/?ref=dragosroua.com) ![Featured on VibeCodingList](https://vibecodinglist.com/assets/embed-widget/featured-on-badge-light.png) (https://vibecodinglist.com/projects/addtaskmanager?utm_source=vcl_badge&utm_medium=builder_site&utm_campaign=listed_badge&utm_content=addtaskmanager) More apps by me (/apps/) → --- # Monday Moving Forward Series URL: https://dragosroua.com/monday-moving-forward-series.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/monday-moving-forward-series/ Type: hub Categories: Series Oct 29, 2025 Oct 21, 2026 2025-10-29 ![Monday Moving Forward Series | Dragos Roua](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/mountains-3959204_1920.jpg) # Monday Moving Forward 19 tested approaches to reclaim your Mondays and build sustainable weekly momentum Mondays are notoriously difficult. But here's the thing: properly used, Mondays can become the foundation of your most productive week. This collection distills years of experimentation with weekly planning, mindset preparations, and tactical approaches into 19 actionable strategies. No motivation porn, no productivity theater. Just tested stuff that actually work when you're staring down a Monday morning. ## Why Monday Matters More Than You Think Most people approach Monday as a reset button—wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Or like a huge wall that needs to be avoided at all costs - just don't engage. Both are a trap. Monday isn't a reset; it's a launchpad. It's not a wall either, it's a trampoline. The choices you make in the first hours of your week create patterns that either push you forward or drag you into reactive mode. For years, I experimented with different approaches to starting the week: elaborate Sunday planning sessions, aggressive Monday morning routines, mindset hacks, environmental changes. Some worked brilliantly. Most of them crashed spectacularly. The "Monday Moving Forward" series documents what actually survived real-world testing. These aren't theoretical productivity principles. They're practical tactics grouped into four categories: **Planning & Preparation**, **Mindset & Mental State**, **Execution & Action**, and **Social & Environmental**. Some are quick wins you can implement immediately. Others require some practice. All of them assume you're not trying to optimize for a perfect life—you're trying to maintain forward motion while navigating chaos the best you can. ### How to use this series: - **New to Monday optimization?** Start with Planning & Preparation strategies - **Struggling with mental overwhelm?** Jump to Mindset & Mental State - **Need execution support?** Focus on Execution & Action tactics - **Want to change your environment?** Try Social & Environmental approaches Choose one strategy. Test it for a month (4 times). Keep what works. Discard what doesn't. Momentum gathered at this point of the week compounds faster than you think. ## Planning & Preparation Get ready before Monday arrives Planning Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Plan It On Sunday Evening Sunday evening planning isn't about creating rigid schedules—it's about pre-deciding your Monday priorities before decision fatigue hits. When you wake up Monday knowing exactly what needs your attention first, you skip the paralysis of choice and move directly into execution mode. This strategy transforms Sunday anxiety into Sunday preparation. Key insight: "The best Monday decisions are made on Sunday, when you still have perspective" (/monday-moving-forward-plan-it-on-sunday-evening/)Planning Last updated: December 2, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Define The Outcome Of A Good Day Most Mondays fail because "success" remains undefined. Without a clear picture of what Monday accomplishment looks like, you drift through reactive tasks and end the day feeling unproductive despite being busy. Defining your outcome shifts focus from activity to achievement—you know when you've won the day. Key insight: "A good day isn't about completing everything—it's about completing what matters" (/monday-moving-forward-define-the-outcome-of-a-good-day/)Planning Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Limit To 3 Main Tasks The Monday to-do list trap: twenty items that create overwhelm instead of clarity. Limiting yourself to three main tasks forces brutal prioritization and creates achievable momentum. Three completed priorities beats ten half-finished tasks every time. This constraint doesn't limit your impact—it concentrates it. Key insight: "Three done beats ten ongoing" (/monday-moving-forward-limit-to-3-main-tasks/)Planning Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Disrupt The Weekend Before The Sunday-Monday transition kills momentum when Sunday feels too different from Monday. Doing light work on Sunday—responding to emails, organizing notes, reviewing priorities—creates continuity instead of disruption. You're not ruining your weekend; you're smoothing the entry into your work week. Small Sunday effort prevents Monday shock. Key insight: "Blur the weekend-weekday boundary to eliminate Monday resistance" (/monday-moving-forward-disrupt-the-weekend-before/) ## Mindset & Mental State Reset your mental operating system for the week ahead Mindset Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Let Go Of The Previous Week Properly Monday momentum dies when last week's unfinished business haunts your fresh start. Carrying guilt, frustration, or incomplete loops into a new week fragments your focus. True Monday forward motion requires deliberately closing the previous chapter—acknowledge what didn't happen, extract lessons, then release it. Clean slate beats heavy baggage. Key insight: "You can't move forward while dragging last week behind you" (/monday-moving-forward-let-go-of-the-previous-week-properly/)Mindset Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Detach From The Reward Monday paralysis often stems from focusing on distant outcomes instead of immediate action. When you detach from the reward and focus purely on the process—the next call, the next paragraph, the next decision—resistance disappears. You're not climbing a mountain; you're taking the next step. Progress becomes automatic when results become secondary. Key insight: "Focus on the action, not the outcome—momentum follows naturally" (/monday-moving-forward-detach-from-the-reward/)Mindset Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Let It Be Not every Monday problem needs solving on Monday. Some issues resolve themselves with time, others aren't actually problems, and many benefit from patience rather than immediate intervention. Learning to let things be—to observe without fixing—conserves mental energy for battles that matter. Monday calm beats Monday chaos. Key insight: "Some problems dissolve when you stop fighting them" (/monday-moving-forward-let-it-be/)Mindset Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Don’t Ride With The Hurricane Monday mornings often arrive with urgent chaos—emails, requests, emergencies demanding immediate attention. Riding this hurricane pulls you into reactive mode for the entire week. The alternative: observe the chaos without joining it. Respond to genuine emergencies, but don't let urgency dictate your entire Monday. Calm exists inside the storm, not after it. Key insight: "Urgency is contagious, but you don't have to catch it" (/monday-moving-forward-dont-ride-with-the-hurricane/)Mindset Last updated: December 2, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Filtering Out The Noise Monday bombardment—notifications, news, messages, updates—fragments attention before meaningful work begins. Filtering the noise isn't about ignoring information; it's about creating deliberate information boundaries. Decide what deserves Monday attention and what can wait. Your Monday belongs to your priorities, not your inbox. Key insight: "Information overload prevents action—filter first, consume second" (/monday-moving-forward-filtering-out-the-noise/) ## Execution & Action Implement Monday intentions into tangible progress Execution Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Finish At Least One Task In The First Two Hours Monday momentum lives or dies in the first two hours. Completing one meaningful task early creates psychological momentum that carries through the day. You prove to yourself that Monday works. Start with a task you can finish—not the biggest or most important, but one you can genuinely complete. Early wins compound. Key insight: "One completion in the first two hours beats five interruptions all day" (/monday-moving-forward-finish-at-least-one-task-in-the-first-two-hours/)Execution Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Run It Over, Run It Early Monday procrastination feeds on the gap between thinking about a task and starting it. "Running it over"—quickly reviewing what needs doing—and "running it early"—starting before you feel ready—collapses this gap. You don't need perfect conditions or complete information. You need momentum. Early imperfect action beats late perfect planning. Key insight: "Starting poorly beats planning perfectly" (/monday-moving-forward-run-it-over-run-it-early/)Execution Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Pick A Theme For The Day Scattered Monday attention fractures across dozen different priorities. Picking a single theme—"client communication," "deep work," "problem-solving"—creates coherence without rigidity. You still handle variety, but through a thematic lens that reduces mental switching costs. Theme-driven Mondays feel focused even when circumstances aren't. Key insight: "A theme guides without constraining—coherence without rigidity" (/monday-moving-forward-pick-a-theme-for-the-day/)Execution Last updated: December 2, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Pick (And Revive) An Old Project Monday energy often gets wasted on new ideas when old projects sit incomplete. Reviving a dormant project—even for 30 minutes—creates completion momentum and clears mental space. You're not abandoning new ideas; you're honoring past commitments before creating new ones. Old completions enable new beginnings. Key insight: "Finishing old projects unlocks energy for new ones" (/monday-moving-forward-pick-and-revive-an-old-project/)Execution Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Renegotiate Some Commitments Mondays collapse under the weight of commitments made when you had different information or energy. Renegotiating—pushing deadlines, delegating tasks, saying no to new requests—isn't failure; it's honest recalibration. Your Monday commitments should reflect Monday reality, not Sunday optimism. Renegotiation preserves integrity better than overcommitment. Key insight: "Honest renegotiation beats silent resentment" (/monday-moving-forward-renegotiate-some-commitments/) ## Social & Environmental Allow your Monday to shape through people and places Social Last updated: December 2, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Greet Someone You Barely Know Monday isolation—hiding in your work to avoid people—creates tunnel vision. A simple greeting to someone you barely know—a colleague, neighbor, barista—breaks isolation without demanding deep connection. This micro-interaction shifts you from Monday hermit to Monday participant. Small social contact prevents Monday withdrawal. Key insight: "Small social connections prevent Monday blues" (/monday-moving-forward-greet-someone-you-barely-know/)Social Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Start The Day With A Casual Conversation Monday mornings that start with immediate deep work create brittle focus that breaks under pressure. A casual conversation first—with family, roommates, coworkers—warms up social circuits and creates resilience. You enter Monday as a whole person, not a productivity machine. Casual starts enable serious work. Key insight: "Casual conversation isn't distraction—it's warm-up" (/monday-moving-forward-start-the-day-with-a-casual-conversation/)Environmental Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Have Breakfast Outside Monday breakfast at your desk anchors you in workspace before you've mentally prepared. Having breakfast outside—even just stepping onto a balcony or sitting in a different room—creates spatial separation between rest and work. You transition deliberately rather than collapse into Monday. Physical location shift enables mental state shift. Key insight: "Change your location to change your state" (/monday-moving-forward-have-breakfast-outside/)Environmental Last updated: December 3, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Take A Different Route To Work The same Monday route creates Monday autopilot—you arrive at work without remembering the journey. Taking a different route forces attention and breaks automatic patterns. Small environmental novelty prevents Monday numbness. You're not avoiding work; you're arriving present instead of already exhausted. Key insight: "New routes prevent autopilot Mondays" (/monday-moving-forward-take-a-different-route-to-work/)Environmental Last updated: December 2, 2025 ### Monday Moving Forward – Skip The News In The Morning Monday news—especially negative news—hijacks emotional bandwidth before meaningful work begins. Skipping morning news isn't ignorance; it's protecting your most productive hours from external chaos. Important information reaches you regardless. News can wait. Your Monday focus can't be recovered once fragmented. Key insight: "News consumes attention—skip it until your work is done" (/monday-moving-forward-skip-the-news-in-the-morning/) ## Where To Start **If Monday overwhelms you:** Start with Let Go Of The Previous Week Properly (/monday-moving-forward-let-go-of-the-previous-week-properly/) and Filter Out The Noise (/monday-moving-forward-filtering-out-the-noise/) **If Monday lacks direction:** Begin with Plan It On Sunday Evening (/monday-moving-forward-plan-it-on-sunday-evening/) and Define The Outcome Of A Good Day (/monday-moving-forward-define-the-outcome-of-a-good-day/) **If Monday drains your energy:** Try Have Breakfast Outside (/monday-moving-forward-have-breakfast-outside/) and Skip The News In The Morning (/monday-moving-forward-skip-the-news-in-the-morning/) **If Monday feels isolating:** Experiment with Greet Someone You Barely Know (/monday-moving-forward-greet-someone-you-barely-know/) and Start The Day With A Casual Conversation (/monday-moving-forward-start-the-day-with-a-casual-conversation/) These strategies aren't fixed rulles, they're just options, choices you can make. Test, adapt, and discard what doesn't fit. Your Monday momentum system will look different from mine. The goal isn't to follow a formula; it's to find what actually works when you're tired, distracted, and Monday is still happening regardless of how prepared you feel. **Related:** Browse all personal development posts (/category/personal-development/) or explore the Assess-Decide-Do framework (/assess-decide-do-framework/) for structured implementation. Share mailto:?subject=Monday%20Moving%20Forward%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&body=Check%20out%20this%20article%3A%20Monday%20Moving%20Forward%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmonday-moving-forward-series%2F https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmonday-moving-forward-series%2F&text=Monday%20Moving%20Forward%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmonday-moving-forward-series%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmonday-moving-forward-series%2F&t=Monday%20Moving%20Forward%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmonday-moving-forward-series%2F&title=Monday%20Moving%20Forward%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua --- # Maps & Diagrams Series URL: https://dragosroua.com/maps-diagrams-series.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/maps-diagrams-series/ Type: hub Categories: Series Oct 29, 2025 Oct 21, 2026 2025-10-29 ![Maps & Diagrams Series | Dragos Roua](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/productivity-map-full.png) # Maps & Diagrams Series Some of life's most complex systems can be understood through simple visual frameworks. These four maps and diagrams distill years of thinking about productivity, knowledge, time horizons, and money into clear, actionable quadrants. Each map reveals patterns that words alone struggle to capture. Goals & Discipline Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## The Productivity Map Productivity mapped systematically visually. Navigation through tasks requires overview—seeing landscape enables strategic movement. Two axes—goals and discipline—create four quadrants revealing where you stand in your productive life. Key insight: "High goals with low discipline create frustration; low goals with high discipline create stability without fulfillment" (/the-productivity-map/)Knowledge & Ignorance Last updated: December 2, 2025 ## The Stupidity Map Everyone has domains where they're brilliant and zones where they're foolish. Mapping your stupidity zones is more valuable than celebrating your genius. Four levels: what you know, what you think you know, what you don't know, and what you don't know that you don't know. Key insight: "The most dangerous zone is what you don't know that you don't know—ignorance disguised as confidence" (/the-stupidity-map/)Time Horizons Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Short Game versus Long Game Short game optimizes immediate wins. Long game sacrifices today for compound tomorrow. Most people play short because long requires patience they lack. Living well exists at the intersection of both games—instant survival balanced with long-term empire building. Key insight: "Short game is about trying to win the lottery; long game is about compounding small bits into empires" (/short-game-versus-long-game/)Financial Health Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## The Money Diagram Income, expenses, savings—three circles that determine financial life. Where they overlap or separate reveals everything about money health. The diagram maps wealth and character, showing that niceness and net worth occupy independent axes. Key insight: "Money amplifies who you already are—it doesn't change character, it reveals it" (/the-money-diagram/) ## About These Maps There's something about maps that conveys information in a simple and concentrated way that would otherwise need thousands of words. Getting clarity by putting the most important parts of a topic into four quadrants and describing the relationships and dynamics between them has been a powerful tool for understanding life's complexity. Each map presented here represents a different lens for examining how we operate: through our goals and discipline, through what we know and don't know, through our time horizons, and through our relationship with money. Together, they form a comprehensive toolkit for self-assessment and improvement. **Related:** You might also enjoy The Productivity Map (/the-productivity-map/) (the original, from 2009) or browse all personal development posts (/category/personal-development/). Share mailto:?subject=Maps%20%26%20Diagrams%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&body=Check%20out%20this%20article%3A%20Maps%20%26%20Diagrams%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmaps-diagrams-series%2F https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmaps-diagrams-series%2F&text=Maps%20%26%20Diagrams%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmaps-diagrams-series%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmaps-diagrams-series%2F&t=Maps%20%26%20Diagrams%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmaps-diagrams-series%2F&title=Maps%20%26%20Diagrams%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua --- # 7 Things I Learned From My Daughter Series URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series/ Type: hub Categories: Series Oct 29, 2025 Oct 21, 2026 2025-10-29 ![7 Things I Learned From My Daughter Series | Dragos Roua](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/rovi-one-year.webp) # 7 Things I Learned From My Daughter Series If we're lucky enough, we get to witness the journey of the people we love for many years. This is a time travel page where a happy dad documents his little girl growing up, one birthday at a time, one lesson at a time. 1 Year Old Last updated: December 1, 2025 ## 7 Things I Learned From My One Year Old Girl One-year-old teaches seven profound lessons. Infant wisdom illuminates adult blindness—earliest development reveals essential truths. Key insight: "Once you're down, there are literally a gazillion ways to get up again" (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-girl/)2 Years Old Last updated: December 1, 2025 ## 7 Things I Learned From My 2 Year Old Girl Two-year-old reveals deeper truths. Toddler discoveries challenge conventional wisdom—pure curiosity unlocks profound insights. Key insight: "The world is what you say it is" (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-2-year-old-girl/)3 Years Old Last updated: December 2, 2025 ## 7 Things I Learned From My 3 Year Old Girl Three-year-old teaches seven essential lessons. Toddler wisdom cuts through complexity—young children see clearly what adults miss. Key insight: "Making friends is the easiest thing in the world" (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl/)4 Years Old Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## 7 Things I Learned From My 4 Year Old Girl Four-year-old shares profound wisdom. Preschooler insights reveal life's fundamentals—authentic curiosity teaches essential truths. Key insight: "Questions are more important than answers" (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-4-year-old-girl/)5 Years Old Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## 7 Things I Learned From My 5 Year Old Girl Five-year-old reveals life's deeper patterns. Kindergarten wisdom challenges adult assumptions—fresh perspective illuminates truth. Key insight: "Learning is better when it's fun" (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-5-year-old-girl/)6 Years Old Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## 7 Things I Learned From My 6 Year Old Daughter Six-year-old teaches advanced life lessons. Elementary insights reveal complex truths—growing minds offer profound perspectives. Key insight: "Friendship changes but love stays the same" (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-6-year-old-daughter/)7 Years Old Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## 7 Gifts I Got From My 7 Year Old Daughter Seven-year-old shares seven precious gifts. Elementary school wisdom reveals life's treasures—mature insights from a young soul. Key insight: "The best gifts are the ones you give" (/7-gifts-i-got-from-my-7-year-old-daughter/) ## About This Series Each March 14th (Bianca's birthday), I would sit down and reflect on the lessons my daughter had taught me over the past year. What started as a personal tradition became one of my most cherished writing projects. These posts capture not just a child's growth, but a father's journey of discovery through the eyes of unconditional love. **Related:** You might also enjoy the 3-year-old post (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl/) (most popular) or browse all parenting posts (/category/parenting/). Share mailto:?subject=7%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%20Daughter%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&body=Check%20out%20this%20article%3A%207%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%20Daughter%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series%2F https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series%2F&text=7%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%20Daughter%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series%2F&t=7%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%20Daughter%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series%2F&title=7%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%20Daughter%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua --- # UltraBalaton 220km Ultra-Marathon Series URL: https://dragosroua.com/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/ Type: hub Categories: Series Oct 29, 2025 Oct 21, 2026 2025-10-29 ![UltraBalaton 220km Ultra-Marathon Series | Dragos Roua](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Photo-Jun-01-11-14-25-AM-e1434032774846.jpg) # UltraBalaton 220km Ultra-Marathon Series My longest point-to-point ultra-marathon: 220 kilometers around the beautiful Lake Balaton in Hungary. While I had completed 24-hour and 48-hour loop races before, this was my first massive point-to-point challenge. This series documents the complete journey from audacious goal-setting through preparation, the grueling 5-marathon race itself, and the lessons learned in recovery. Goal Setting Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals – Ultrabalaton BHAGs require audacity beyond reason. Ultrabalaton's 220km qualifies—big, hairy, audacious. Goals should scare you into action, not comfort. Key insight: "The moving wall: physical and mental barriers that shift as you push against them" (/big-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton/)Preparation Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## The Story Of My First 220km Race – Ultrabalaton – The Preparation Preparing for 220km ultra-marathon reveals planning's limits. Training strategies, gear selection, mental frameworks—readiness illusion before reality strikes. Key insight: "No amount of preparation can simulate the reality of 220km" (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-preparation/)Marathon 1 Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## The Story Of My First 220km Race – Ultrabalaton – The First Marathon First of five marathons—starting strong before reality hits. Initial optimism masks the distance ahead—naivety serves as temporary fuel. Key insight: "Count your expirations: meditation as survival tool during extreme endurance" (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-first-marathon/)Marathon 2 Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## The Story Of My First 220km Race – Ultrabalaton – The Second Marathon Second marathon meets exhaustion approaching. Confidence from first marathon collides with accumulating fatigue—the pattern emerges clearly. Key insight: "Heat dissipation: understanding the body as an energy-producing mechanism" (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-second-marathon/)Marathon 3 Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## The Story Of My First 220km Race – Ultrabalaton – The Third Marathon Third marathon brings reckoning—optimism fades, reality solidifies. Understanding you're only halfway triggers the real mental battle. Key insight: "100km threshold: entering unknown territory beyond your limits" (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-third-marathon/)Marathon 4 Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## The Story Of My First 220km Race – Ultrabalaton – The Fourth Marathon Fourth marathon of five—body breaking down, mind negotiating whether to continue. The psychological warfare that defines ultra-distance running. Key insight: "Time calculations become survival strategy when facing the cut-off" (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-fourth-marathon/)Marathon 5 Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## The Story Of My First 220km Race – Ultrabalaton – The Fifth Marathon Fifth of five marathons—exhaustion versus determination in darkness. The final 42km where mental strength becomes the only fuel remaining. Key insight: "GPS watch battery dies: learning to navigate the final 25km without data" (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-fifth-marathon/)Recovery Last updated: December 2, 2025 ## Ultrabalaton Ultra-marathon – The Aftermath Of A 222 Kilometers Race 222 kilometers non-stop around Lake Balaton—the aftermath reveals what ultramarathons do to body and mind. Recovery tells the race's real story. Key insight: "The person who starts an ultra and the person who finishes are completely different" (/ultrabalaton-the-aftermath-of-a-222-kilometers-race/) ## About This Ultra-Marathon UltraBalaton 2015 was my longest point-to-point ultra-marathon. While I had experience with 24-hour and 48-hour loop races, this 220km journey around Lake Balaton was different—a single, massive line from start to finish. The race took me 31 hours and 28 minutes to complete 222 kilometers. This series captures the raw, unfiltered experience of pushing human endurance to its limits—the preparation, the race itself broken down by each marathon distance, and the aftermath. **Race Stats:** 222km in 31:28:00 • 5 marathons + 11km • Average pace: 8:32/km • Temperature: 32-34°C during day • Finished in top 60% of ultra-marathon field **Related:** You might also enjoy the original goal-setting post (/big-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton/) or browse all running posts (/category/running/). Share mailto:?subject=UltraBalaton%20220km%20Ultra-Marathon%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&body=Check%20out%20this%20article%3A%20UltraBalaton%20220km%20Ultra-Marathon%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series%2F https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series%2F&text=UltraBalaton%20220km%20Ultra-Marathon%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series%2F&t=UltraBalaton%20220km%20Ultra-Marathon%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series%2F&title=UltraBalaton%20220km%20Ultra-Marathon%20Series%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua --- # AIGernon — My Personal AI Assistant URL: https://dragosroua.com/aigernon-personal-ai-assistant.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/aigernon-personal-ai-assistant/ Type: hub Categories: Series Apr 6, 2026 Oct 21, 2026 2026-04-06 ![AIGernon — Personal AI Assistant](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/hero-introducing-aigernon.webp) # AIGernon — My Personal AI Assistant **AIGernon** is a lightweight always-on AI agent. Built on the Assess-Decide-Do cognitive framework, it mirrors how humans actually process decisions. **Minimal footprint, maximum flexibility.** At just 14,000 lines of code (compared to OpenClaw's 430,000+), AIGernon is designed to be understood, modified, and extended. You can add your own skills, swap cognitive frameworks, or integrate with your existing tools. **Use cases:** personal productivity assistant, research companion, coding pair, journaling partner, or a starting point for building your own cognitive-aware agent. Fork it, customize it, make it yours. AIGernon is in active development — subscribe to my newsletter for updates. View on GitHub ## Posts about AIGernon February 10, 2026 ### Introducing AIGernon, my Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do The origin story of AIGernon — why I built a lightweight AI agent from scratch, how it mirrors human decision-making using Assess-Decide-Do, and what makes it different from the heavy frameworks out there. Read post → (https://github.com/dragosroua/aigernon)March 2, 2026 ### My Personal AI Assistant, AIGernon, Gets a Face AIGernon gets a visual identity and interface upgrades. A look at the design decisions behind making an AI agent feel more like a collaborator and less like a command-line tool. Read post → (/my-personal-ai-assistant-aigernon-gets-a-face/)April 27, 2026 ### A Week with AIGernon, my Personal AI Assistant One-person unicorns need orchestration, not just AI. A hands-on look at AIGernon's Projects, Schedules, and Coaching modules after a week of real use — including an actual daily status excerpt. Read post → (/a-week-with-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant/)April 12, 2026 ### AIGernon Running on Zo Computer Michael Grady built a production system for neurodivergent professionals by running AIGernon on Zo Computer, layering DuckDB, markdown memory, and multi-agent orchestration on top of the Assess-Decide-Do framework. Read post → (/aigernon-running-on-zo-computer/)April 30, 2026 ### Assess, Decide, Do + Substrate = Long Running, Self Improving Agents The same architecture labs use for long-running agents maps exactly to Assess-Decide-Do. I'm building on that — and introducing Substrate, a per-unit narrative document that sits between the event log and the crystallized artifacts. Read post → (/assess-decide-do-substrate-long-running-self-improving-agents/) Share mailto:?subject=AIGernon%20%E2%80%94%20My%20Personal%20AI%20Assistant%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&body=Check%20out%20this%20article%3A%20AIGernon%20%E2%80%94%20My%20Personal%20AI%20Assistant%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faigernon-personal-ai-assistant%2F https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faigernon-personal-ai-assistant%2F&text=AIGernon%20%E2%80%94%20My%20Personal%20AI%20Assistant%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faigernon-personal-ai-assistant%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faigernon-personal-ai-assistant%2F&t=AIGernon%20%E2%80%94%20My%20Personal%20AI%20Assistant%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faigernon-personal-ai-assistant%2F&title=AIGernon%20%E2%80%94%20My%20Personal%20AI%20Assistant%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua --- # The Assess-Decide-Do Framework URL: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-framework.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-framework/ Type: hub Categories: Series Oct 29, 2025 Oct 21, 2026 2025-10-29 ![The Assess-Decide-Do Framework | Dragos Roua](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/colors-icons-assess-decide-do.webp) # The Assess-Decide-Do Framework Born in 2009 as a blog post, evolved into a complete productivity system, and now powering AI thinking processes. Fifteen years of proving that the best frameworks aren't complex—they're clear. Assess the situation, decide the direction, do what matters. Three stages. Infinite applications. Timeless resilience. Foundation Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Assess Decide Do The original framework from 2009. Three simple stages that transform overwhelm into action: observe reality, choose direction, execute. Natural productivity without forcing systems. Key insight: "Most productivity frameworks fail because they skip assessment—you can't decide well without seeing clearly first" (/assess-decide-do/)Evolution Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI Fifteen years after its creation, re-evaluating what still works and what changed. Not all life areas fit the framework, but in most domains, it remains remarkably relevant. A retrospective on resilience and adaptation. Key insight: "The best frameworks don't resist change—they absorb it, evolving while keeping their core intact" (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/)Stage 1: Assess Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Assess Decide Do stages – Assess Assessment isn't analysis paralysis—it's deliberate observation. Understanding context, constraints, and actual current state before rushing to solutions. The foundation that makes everything else work. Key insight: "Assessment creates space between stimulus and response—the gap where wisdom lives" (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/)Stage 2: Decide Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Assess Decide Do stages – Decide Decision follows assessment naturally. With clear context, choices become obvious. This stage isn't about perfect decisions—it's about committed direction based on actual reality. Key insight: "Good decisions emerge from clear assessment—forcing decisions from unclear context guarantees regret" (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/)Stage 3: Do Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Assess Decide Do stages – Do Execution without assessment and decision is busy work. With both in place, action becomes focused and intentional. Do what matters, skip what doesn't. Key insight: "Action without direction is motion—direction without action is daydreaming, only both together create results" (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/)Design & Meaning Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Assess Decide Do – Colors And Icons Significance Every color and icon in the framework carries meaning. Red for assess (observation), orange for decide (choice), green for do (execution). Visual language that reinforces cognitive patterns. Key insight: "Good design doesn't just look pretty—it teaches. Colors and icons make abstract concepts concrete and memorable" (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/)AI Evolution Last updated: January 29, 2026 ## Supercharging Claude with the Assess Decide Do Framework – Mega Prompt Inside Fifteen years later, the framework adapts to AI. The same three stages now guide Claude's thinking process. Proof that solid principles transcend tools and technologies. Key insight: "Frameworks that work for humans work for AI—both need assessment before decision, decision before action" (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/)Skills Architecture Last updated: February 13, 2026 ## Assess Decide Do in Claude, but with Skills From a 24KB megaprompt to modular skills with 94% less overhead. The framework evolves again, now loading context dynamically and supporting isolated subagents for reflection. Key insight: "AI frameworks benefit from the same architecture principles as software—separation of concerns, progressive loading, isolated execution" (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/)Ecosystem Expansion Last updated: February 13, 2026 ## From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem The ADD framework grows from a single repo into three: the original megaprompt, reusable content skills, and the Claude Cowork plugin. A modular ecosystem for different use cases. Key insight: "Good frameworks don't stay monolithic—they split into focused tools that work together" (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/)Always-On Agent Last updated: February 10, 2026 ## Introducing AIGernon, my Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do AIGernon: a lightweight always-on AI assistant built on nanobot, enhanced with ADD cognitive awareness. From personal productivity to coaching support, the framework now runs continuously. Key insight: "Every Assess-Decide-Do cycle, no matter how small, is a reminder of our impermanence—we reach livelines, not deadlines" (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/)Multi-Agent Council Last updated: January 2, 2026 ## LLM Council, With a Dash of Assess-Decide-Do What happens when you run multiple LLMs through an Assess-Decide-Do cycle together? A council of models, each contributing its strengths at the right stage — a new architecture for collaborative AI reasoning. Key insight: "Different models think differently — the framework's three stages are natural seams for multi-agent collaboration" (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ## Why This Framework Endures I wrote the first Assess-Decide-Do post in 2009, trying to make sense of why productivity systems felt forced and unnatural. The insight was simple: most frameworks start with action, skipping the observation and decision stages that make action meaningful. ADD flips this—observe first, choose second, execute third. Fifteen years later, the framework hasn't just survived—it's thrived. It became a full methodology, a mobile app (addTaskManager), and recently, a mega-prompt for AI agents. The same three stages that organized my thinking in 2009 now structure how Claude approaches complex problems in 2026. The resilience comes from simplicity. Assess-Decide-Do isn't a rigid system—it's a natural rhythm. You can't skip assessment without making blind decisions. You can't skip decision without creating scattered action. The framework works because it matches how effective thinking actually happens. **Start here:** Read the original framework post (/assess-decide-do/) from 2009, then explore how the assessment stage (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) creates clarity, how decisions emerge naturally (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/), and how focused action follows (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/). Or jump straight to the AI evolution (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/), or meet AIGernon (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/), the always-on assistant powered by ADD. **Related:** Browse all productivity posts (/category/productivity-effectiveness/) or explore addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8), the iOS app built on this framework. Share mailto:?subject=The%20Assess-Decide-Do%20Framework%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&body=Check%20out%20this%20article%3A%20The%20Assess-Decide-Do%20Framework%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-framework%2F https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-framework%2F&text=The%20Assess-Decide-Do%20Framework%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-framework%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-framework%2F&t=The%20Assess-Decide-Do%20Framework%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-framework%2F&title=The%20Assess-Decide-Do%20Framework%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua --- # Learning to Play the Guitar URL: https://dragosroua.com/learning-to-play-the-guitar.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/learning-to-play-the-guitar/ Type: hub Categories: Series Oct 29, 2025 Oct 21, 2026 2025-10-29 ![Learning to Play the Guitar | Dragos Roua](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/IMG_1103.jpg) # Learning to Play the Guitar Eight months of fumbling through chords, building calluses, and discovering that learning an instrument at 50 teaches more than music. This is a raw chronicle of skill acquisition—the frustrations, breakthroughs, and quiet discipline required to transform fingers that don't know what they're doing into hands that begin to remember. Beginning Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Learning To Play The Guitar – Part One Beginning guitar—fingers hurt, chords sound awful, progress invisible. Starting anything new feels like incompetence. The journey begins anyway. Key insight: "Starting at 50 teaches humility—every beginner's struggle is universal, age just adds perspective" (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-part-one/)Month 4 Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Learning To Play The Guitar – 4 Months Later Four months into guitar journey. Fingers hurt less, progress shows more. Muscle memory forms gradually—imperceptible daily, obvious monthly. Key insight: "Progress happens slowly, then suddenly—patience is the practice, not just the skill" (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-4-months-later/)Month 5 Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Learning To Play The Guitar – 5 Months Later Five months of guitar. Calluses formed, chords connect, rhythm emerges. Progress is visible but incomplete. The journey demands patience. Key insight: "Calluses are proof that consistent pressure transforms pain into capability" (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-5-months-later/)Month 6 Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Learning To Play The Guitar – 6 Months After Six months transformed fingers from clumsy to competent. Progress is visible now. Guitar teaches patience—results lag effort by months. Key insight: "The gap between effort and results teaches resilience—keep playing when nothing seems to work" (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-6-months-after/)First Audition Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## My (First) Audition As A Guitar Player Testing skills publicly after six months. Nervousness, mistakes, and the strange courage required to play music for others. First audition as validation milestone. Key insight: "Public performance accelerates growth—fear sharpens focus like nothing else can" (/my-first-audition-as-a-guitar-player/)Month 7 Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Learning To Play The Guitar – 7 Months After Seven months in. Fingers hurt less, progress shows more. Guitar reveals truth—consistent practice beats occasional brilliance every time. Key insight: "Daily practice compounds exponentially—missing one day costs more than it seems" (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-7-months-after/)Month 8 Last updated: December 3, 2025 ## Learning To Play The Guitar – 8 Months After Eight months into guitar. Progress is slow, clumsy, frustrating. But fingers remember what mind forgets. Skill accumulates invisibly until it suddenly appears. Key insight: "Missing practice reveals how essential the routine became—guitar as therapy, not just skill" (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-8-months-after/) ## About This Journey I started learning guitar at 50 with zero musical background. These posts document the messy reality of adult learning— the slow progress, the sudden breakthroughs, and the strange transformation that happens when you commit to daily practice even when you're terrible at something. What began as adding harmony to life became a lesson in patience, humility, and the power of compounding small efforts. Every update is honest about where I struggled and what actually worked. No romanticizing the process, no skipping the uncomfortable parts. **Related:** You might also enjoy Part One (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-part-one/) (the beginning) or browse all personal development posts (/category/personal-development/). Share mailto:?subject=Learning%20to%20Play%20the%20Guitar%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&body=Check%20out%20this%20article%3A%20Learning%20to%20Play%20the%20Guitar%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-play-the-guitar%2F https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-play-the-guitar%2F&text=Learning%20to%20Play%20the%20Guitar%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-play-the-guitar%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-play-the-guitar%2F&t=Learning%20to%20Play%20the%20Guitar%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-play-the-guitar%2F&title=Learning%20to%20Play%20the%20Guitar%20%7C%20Dragos%20Roua --- # Self Interview Questions: 33 Questions to Ask Yourself URL: https://dragosroua.com/33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself/ Published: 2009-11-18 Modified: 2026-05-02 Views: 2175 Categories: Blogging, Relationships and Society Tags: assess, introspection, list post, self awareness **2026 Update:*** 17 years after publishing this post (which is still one of the most popular here), I answer parts of this interview myself in 2026 (/answering-my-own-33-self-interview-questions-17-years-later/), as an exercise in self-awareness. This is part of a broader 30 days "then and now" challenge (/then-and-now-a-30-day-blog-challenge/), in which I revisit the most viral topics on this blog in the last 20 years.* Today I'm going to interview somebody really special on my blog. And that would be you. Exactly, you, the one who's looking at the screen right now. You are a very important person and it's an honor for me to interview you. I prepared a list of 33 questions and I'm really looking forward to hear your answers. Yes, this is an interview. With you. Why? Because you're important, that's why. ## 1. What Do You Do For A Living? You may not know what you're really doing for a living. You may think you have a job, but you're actually just selling your time. And that comes down to selling your life. And that means you're living your life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/) by selling it. And you may not even know that. [ it's not that difficult to be on your own (/100-ways-live-better-life-12-start-business/), if you really want ] ## 2. Who Do You Love? Is that your partner? Or somebody else? Do you love many persons at once? Just answer as detailed as you can to this one. We never seem to have enough time do really think at the ones we love. We can't love someone if we forget to think about them. [ this also helps updating the mental images (/people-placeholders/) of our loved ones ] ## 3. Do You Have Enough Money? That's a very important question. You may have less money than everyone else in your group, but still have enough. Or you may have huge amounts of money and yet not enough to make you feel better. [so, how much money do you need in your life (/category/financial-resilience/) – do you actually know?] ## 4. Are You Healthy? You may be able to wake up every morning and go to work, but do you think at yourself as being a healthy person? The way you see your health has a huge impact on your reality perception. It's like applying filters to what's happening to you. [ not to mention your routines, there are healthy and unhealthy (/healthy-and-unhealthy-routines/) ones ] ## 5. Do You Think You Are a Good Person? Have you ever wandered what do you think about yourself from this point of view? Maybe we take it for granted that we are inherently good and all the other guys are wrong. But is this really true? Do you really think you are a good person? Why? [ also worth practicing your too good to be true (/too-good-to-be-true/)questions ] ## 6. How Old Are You? You shouldn't just open your ID and do some math. It's not the number of years since you've been born that matter here. But mostly how old do you *feel* you are. What's your perceived age. Because, believe it or not, this is your real age. [ you may count the lessons (/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years/), not the years ] ## 7. Who's Your Best Friend? Do you have one? Is he or she still alive? Write his name and think at that person for a while. Write a short description of he or she. Where did you met first time? What were the circumstances? What makes that person your best friend, after all? [ hard truth: you may never know (/when-they-think-they-know-you/) who the other really is ] ## 8. What's Your Childhood Dream? Do you still remember it? You wanted to travel the world? You wanted to just have a family and raise your kids? Is that what you're doing right now? Has your dream become true? Or are you drifting away from it with every single day of your life? [ even nicer if it was an impossible dream (/six-impossible-things/) ] ## 9. How Often Do You Laugh? Try to remember exactly how often do you laugh during a day. Is this a difficult thing? Why? Because you laugh so often that you couldn't remember when was the last time you didn't had a good laugh? Or because you simply forgot how it is to laugh? [ pro tip: laughing at yourself (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-85-laugh-at-yourself/)beats all kind of laughing ] ## 10. What Makes You Smile? List at least 10 items. If you can't find 10 items that makes you smile, we have a problem. Don't rush, take your time. Smiling is different from laughing the same way walking in the park is different from climbing a mountain. You're just enjoying the walk. [ bonus points if it made you smile on gloomy day (/smiling-on-a-gloomy-day/) ] ## 11. Who's Your Most Dangerous Enemy? Do you have one? List his/her name here and a short story about how this enemy changed your life. Friends are making us do things for them, but enemies are making us do things because of them. Either way, they're shaping our life and we must know how. [ the most persistent one might be just a deep part of yourself (/why-do-we-have-to-go-deep/) ] ## 12. Where Do You Live? Is this really your place? Do you feel at home there? How did you end up with it, anyway? The story of your house is deeply blended with your own life. Where do you feel at home is the most important place in the world for you. What makes it home? [ or, you may just not have a home at all, being location independent (/category/location-independence/) – which is not a luxury nowadays, it's a necessity ] ## 13. Do You Think You're Strong? I would be really curious to know the answer to this one. I love strong people. They have this power to change their life and to create incredible things. What "strong" means to you? It's a question of force? Or endurance? Of speed? Or intelligence? [ sometimes, being strong means being gentle (/how-to-be-gentle/) with people ] ## 14. What Was The Most Important Thing You've Done So Far? Have you really done something important? Something that changed your life fundamentally? Or something that changed somebody else's life fundamentally? Why was that important? Answer with first thing that pops out in your head. [ alternatively, think of the most important things you do every morning (/the-most-important-3-things-to-do-in-the-morning/) ] ## 15. What Was The Most Stupid Thing You've Done So Far? Do you consider you've done stupid things in your life? I think everybody does but not everybody admits that. Most of the people blame the circumstance, the karma, the others, everyone except them. Do you have the power to accept you've done a really stupid thing? [ spoiler: the most expensive things in the universe are not diamonds (/the-most-expensive-things-in-the-universe-are-not-diamonds/) – it's stupidity ] ## 16. Do You Love Yourself? Like really, truly accepting everything about you. Does it happen to hate yourself? Most people do that without even being aware. Just answer the first thing that pops to your head, again. Usually, this is exactly how you feel about yourself. [ this also goes hand in hand with loving your life (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/)– or hating it ] ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. ## 17. What Do You Fear The Most? That might be difficult. But also liberating. Your biggest fear is most of the time your escape door, if you face it with enough courage. Can you think at something that scares you really hard? Maybe answering to this question will really frighten you? [ fear is the mind killer (/fear-is-the-mind-killer/) period ] ## 18. What Is Your Favorite Word? You must have one, everybody does. It might be the one you're saying all day long without realizing or it might be something that really makes you feel good when you're telling it. Most of the time, there's an unconscious link between your true self and this word. [ words are creating our reality, forget one, and that part of reality is gone (/words-we-dont-use-anymore/) ] ## 19. When Was The Last Time You Cried? Admit it. Everybody cries. Men, women, kids. It might be something you're not very proud of, but that doesn't mean it didn't happened. What was so powerful that really cracked you up inside? Think about it and let it emerge again. Make peace with it. If you can. [ then start again, from scratch (/starting-from-scratch/) ] ## 20. What Is The Best Thing That Could Happen To You Right Now? In this exact context, what's the only thing that could shift your entire existence if it will manifest right now? Many people tend to give a certain amount of money as a number, but in my experience this will only maximize the problems, not making them go away. [ there is a real danger in "I made it" (/the-danger-of-i-made-it/) ] ## 21. What Is The Worst Thing That Could Happen To You Right Now? Again, what's the only thing that could negatively impact your life right now in a way that you wouldn't believe it's possible? Between those two possibilities lies your entire lifespan. How is this lifespan? How large is your road are you traveling now? [ failure (/processing-failure/) is unavoidable, letting go of it is where power is created ] ## 22. Picture Yourself In 5 Years From Now Not really a question, but definitely an interesting answer. Can you see yourself in 5 years from now? How would you look? How would you behave? You would do the same things are you doing right now? Don't write a full story, a single, concentrated sentence would be enough. [ here are some simple steps for setting up a meeting with your future self (/setting-up-a-meeting-with-your-future-self/) ] ## 23. Do You Regret Anything? If yes, what exactly? If not, why not. Regrets are usually strings we didn't pull entirely from our past, leaving us tied up to a context which is not longer real. Facing your regrets will reveal parts of yourself you thought you forgot. Important parts of yourself. [ there's tremendous power in living with no regrets (/100-ways-live-better-life-100-no-regrets/) whatsoever ] ## 24. What's The First Thing You Do In The Morning? Just after you open your eyes. Is it a thought? Is it a gesture? We all tend to create a morning routine (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/) and it seems that this routine is shaping our entire diurnal activity. Have you ever thought what is the first thing you do in the morning? [ I, personally, try to make my bed (/making-your-bed-in-the-morning/) ] ## 25. What Are You Thinking Just Before Going To Bed? Similarly, before you go to bed, you do have preferred thought. What is it? What makes your transition to the sleeping world without any major frictions? What's your password to the dream realm (/33-ways-to-end-your-day/)? What if you would lose this thought suddenly? [ learning to rest (/learning-to-rest/) is a skill in and by itself ] ## 26. What Was The Highest Point You've Ever Been To? Was it a mountain? Or a huge city tower? Whatever feels high for you should go there. I don't want to know the difference from the sea level, but what exactly you experienced on the highest perceived point you've ever been? Fear? Exhilaration? [ it's ok if this is still work in progress (/category/travel-fun/) ] ## 27. If There's One Thing In Your Life You Want To Change Right Now, What Is It? Imagine you met a fairy tale and you have only one wish: you could change only one thing in your life. What is that thing? How would you like to change it? If it wasn't this absolute power you just received, would you still wanted that thing to be changed? [ make sure you read the magic fairy exercise (/the-magic-fairy-exercise/) before, you may get a few hints ] ## 28. What Are You Proud Of? What is the only thing you've done that will instantly make you feel totally and undeniably proud of yourself? When you did that? What were the circumstances? Would you still do the same thing now? [ the thing is, this changes with context, sometimes it might be running ridiculously long distances (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/) – while other times just being there for our families ] ## 29. Sum Up Your Life In One Sentence If in the next 10 seconds your life will end, how would you describe it? Just one sentence for your entire life. Can you do that? You only have 10 seconds, so you can consider this a speed question. 🙂 [ if you suddenly felt like you've been thrown into chaos with this question, learn why humans actually need it (/humans-need-entropy/) ] ## 30. Name The Thing That Annoys You The Most Is this a mosquito humming? The sounds of a knife on a porcelain plate? Or is it people calling you in a certain way? Friends breaking promises? Being stuck in traffic? Try to remain calm while answering. [ for many of us, this seems to be just being bored (/how-and-why-we-get-bored/) ] ## 31. What Is Your No 1 Question To God? Yes, it's your interview, but if you would be able to address one question to God, assuming He will answer you, what would that question look like? What is the most important thing you want to know from God? [ first, I think we are all modern gods (/modern-gods/), second, I think AGI – the modern interpretation of the God notion – will be a flock, not a bird (/agi-will-be-a-flock-not-a-bird/) ] ## 32. Do You Have Secrets? If yes, why? If not, are you sure? What is your number one reason for having and keeping secrets? Are you afraid of other people reactions? Are you ashamed? Or you just love to cover things for the pleasure of re-discovering them later? [ sometimes, keeping your opinions private (/the-world-might-be-a-better-place-if-everyone-would-treat-their-opinions-as-they-treat-their-dicks/) is a really good idea ] ## 33. What Makes You Laugh? You do have something that instantly puts you in a totally laughing state, do you? There must be something that makes you laugh out loud. What is it? When was the first time you bumped into that thing? [ are you sure you're not experiencing algorithmic emotions (/algorithmic-emotions/)? ] *Ok, I lied. There are 34 questions*: ## 34. Are You Happy? First published on: November 18, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself%2F&text=Self%20Interview%20Questions%3A%2033%20Questions%20to%20Ask%20Yourself&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself%2F&t=Self%20Interview%20Questions%3A%2033%20Questions%20to%20Ask%20Yourself https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself%2F&title=Self%20Interview%20Questions%3A%2033%20Questions%20to%20Ask%20Yourself Previous ### The Tyler Durden Guide of Writing Tyler Durden Enhanced Blog Posts To Attract Traffic (/the-tyler-durden-guide-of-writing-tyler-durden-enhanced-blog-posts-to-attract-traffic/) Next ### How To Be Productive without Becoming a Productivity Freak (/how-to-be-productive-without-becoming-a-productivity-freak/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 50 Ways To Start Fresh URL: https://dragosroua.com/50-ways-to-start-fresh.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/50-ways-to-start-fresh/ Published: 2010-07-10 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 1975 Categories: Personal Development, Success and Wellness Tags: change, list post, resilience, starting over Defeat. Boredom. Lack of meaning in your life. All these symptoms, and many others, of course, are a sign that you need to start fresh. To run again. To leave the old behind and embrace the new. To ignite a new spark that will light a new life, with a deeper meaning, broader experience and much more fulfillment than you had so far. A rebirth. I started fresh for many times in my life (/five-ways-to-better-your-life-by-slowing-down/), and, hopefully, I'll start fresh again. Because, like it or not, change is the only permanent thing in this Universe. Here are 50 proven (and I'm not kidding you) ways to start fresh. [ *November 2025 update: this post has been edited for better formatting and phrasing. All the original content is still intact.* ] ## 1. Accept Change Sometimes starting over means accepting that you're no longer the person you used to be. You're no longer attracted by the same things or persons, you're no longer driven by the same goals. It's ok. Don't blame yourself for it and don't try to resist. Start over. As hard as it may seem in the beginning. You'll be surprised how fast things will fall into places again. ## 2. Just Leave Quit the boring job, the abusive relationship, the past. Embrace the unknown (/moving-to-spain-one-year-after/). Make the first step. Every trip starts with just one step. You're resisting to this impulse because leaving is associated with letting someone else down. Well, you won't let nobody down if you'll step out of an abusive relationship. But if you won't leave, you will let down somebody very important: you.. ## 3. Accept To Meet Someone New Too often we're unconsciously rejecting other people by habit. Well, make a fracture in that habit. Don't put a label on every person you meet, assuming you know beforehand who they are, what they do and how they can interact with you. Open up, let yourself flow and look for the signs. Many times my life was truly changed when I just accepted to meet someone new. ## 4. Accept Defeat And move on. Yes it hurts. Yes, you lost something, or somebody. Yes, your hopes are broken down and maybe so is the heart. Accept it. Close the battle and move on. There is this very simple thing which many people are just blindly ignoring: you can't have a new victory until you close your current battle (by accepting defeat, if that's what just happened). ## 5. Talk to somebody It doesn't have to be a friend. Anybody willing to listen will do it. Just take it out of our chest. Transform your experiences in words and let them out, transfer your story to somebody else. Not only you'll feel a little better, but you may also find a new idea, a surprising solution or just the courage you lack to start fresh. Let the others be the triggers of your change. ## 6. Do Something Reasonably Risky Bungee jumping, for instance, if you're the physical type. Or, if you're the shy guy, do a public speech in front of one thousand people. The more consuming the challenge (/how-to-set-up-a-30-days-challenge/) you're embracing, the faster you'll get out of your comfort zone. And by getting out that comfort zone, you literally stretch your limits up to the point you're forced to break up with the past. ## 7. Go To A Live Event A concert or other stuff involving hundreds or thousands of people. Be in a crowd. In something way bigger than yourself. Blend in and lose your sense of identity (which is false anyway, we're all part of something bigger). Confronting your own tiny ego with this huge surrounding energy will make any decision you embrace much easier. Especially a new start. ## 8. Write A Story About Your Past Don't make it a novel (/writing-fiction-new-challenge-new-book/) and don't aim at publishing it. Just write down in your own words what happened to you. Describe the sequence of steps which drove your life to its current position. Be verbose. Don't rush. And little by little you're going to realize that once you put it in words, your past will become more manageable and you'll be able to break up easier. ## 9. Make A Plan And stick to it. ## 10. Enjoy The Victory And Move On You don't have to start fresh only after a big defeat. Victory is just the other face of the same coin. Don't get too addicted to it, or you'll end up in a continuous frustration loop. Attaching yourself to an already consumed victory is as bad as not accepting defeat. Just because your prison cell is pink, that doesn't make it less of a prison cell. Yes, you won this one. Next. ## 11. Make Peace With The Past Accept ALL your past defeats and victories. Accept all your past mistakes or brilliant decisions. Accept that the moment you stepped out of a second, there's no way to live it again, because it's gone. The past doesn't really exist, it's a human invention, just like the future . Look around and accept that the only option you have is to live now. Or not at all. ## 12. Write Down The Worst Case Scenario Ok, you wanna change, but you're not yet sure. Then write down the worst case scenario. What could go wrong? Pick the worst possible case. Write it down and be very careful at the details. It will not only make you more aware about what you really are up to, but it will also reveal that it's much more easier than you feel. Hoping for the best and preparing for worse. ## 13. Clean Up Your Closet Throw away clothes, things, devices, memories. They drag you down. Clean up your room (/how-to-clean-up-your-house/), wipe the dust, get rid of the clutter. The more you do that, the more you'll realize that things are not you. The more you let go, the more lighter you'll feel. And that will make you move easier and faster. Change will look like a natural path, not an effort. ## 14. Limit The Stuff You Own Get rid of your possessions. Do it until your life will finally become a matter of enjoying your time here and not managing your stuff. I'm sure everybody was there: you badly need something, you get it and enjoy it, but after a certain time (and a certain number of things you own) you spend more time managing your inventory than living your life. ## 15. Format Your Hard-disk If your brain could be assimilated to a computer hard-disk (/how-to-defrag-your-mind-in-5-easy-steps/), do a raw format. "Accidentally" lose some data. Re-arrange drastically all your information and intently destroy some of your hard-disk sectors. After you'll finish moaning the "disaster", you will will have no other chance than to push yourself forward, in order to be functional again. ## 16. Update Your Life Device Drivers Redesign your social circle, your friends, your goals. Continuing the metaphor above, if your brain is a computer hard-disk, than your interactions will be assimilated to the drivers (/how-to-manage-and-upgrade-your-life-device-drivers/). Re-write them. Re-engineer your social life at a much deeper level. Ignore the old devices, update and upgrade. The old you is obsolete and your old life is deprecated. ## 17. Break Up A Habit Sometimes all you need in order to ignite a bigger change is just shifting some small, unconscious behaviors. Like a habit, you know. Before engaging in a bigger change, start by breaking up a small habit (/7-ways-to-break-a-habit/). Tiny moves (or baby steps, if you prefer) are easier to do and to monitor. Just stack small victory over small victory. You'll soon be there. ## 18. Create A New Habit But, as hard as it may be to understand and accept, we are living huge parts of our life on auto-pilot. By habit. So, breaking up a habit will only take you half way. From there, you gotta try to build a new habit (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/). The good thing is that you're consciously choosing a new habit now. There is not any bad thing about starting a new habit, by the way. 🙂 ## 19. Find Out What Went Wrong And write it down somewhere visible. Keep it in front of your eyes. Day in and day out. If you really did something wrong (/the-6-stages-of-a-failure/), then make it painfully obvious. If somebody else did something wrong to you, remember it. In both cases, tell to yourself: "I won't do this anymore". This aggressive visualization will push you to something new. And maybe better. ## 20. Commit To Someone New A new friend, a new personal relationship or a new business partner. The keyword here is "commit", not "new". Be there for somebody else, hook up to something or somebody. Too often we're hit by life when we try to unglue, to subtract ourselves, to give up, to avoid. Exercising commitment to someone new will help you avoid this situation. ## 21. Reconnect With An Old Friend Find somebody you didn't speak to in the last 10 years. Re-connect. Start understanding his or her life, see how your paths took different ways. Your life will certainly look different after this reconnection. By shifting your perspective, you'll start to understand which parts of you are the same, and which ones are changed. Like in a spiral path (/the-spiral-path). ## 22. Move Somewhere Else Live in another place. Your physical environment has a memory of itself, interlinked with yours. Changing your current surroundings will make those dragging memories fade away. Moving in a different city, or even a different country will push you to completely redesign your life. It may be stressful and painful in the beginning. But, eventually, it will change. ## 23. Flip A Coin The elders had a name for it: asking the gods. If a coin won't do the job for you, feel free to use whatever divination method you're comfortable with: dice, yi-king, astrology, whatever. Just keep in mind there will be a significant amount of hazard in this. And sometimes hazard is exactly what you need in order to destroy a poisonous structure. ## 24. Restart Your Morning Routine Mornings are certainly underrated. They have a huge influence on our lives. A small insertion in your morning routine could have incredibly deep effects. In fact, the way you're starting your morning (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/) will completely shape the way you're spending the whole day. A butterfly flapping its wings in Venezuela can generate a storm in Australia, they say. ## 25. Create And Keep Close A Minimum Survival Kit It's not about clothes or food, this minimum survival kit (/minimum-survival-kit/). It's more about a certain attitude and life skills. Be prepared, keep hope and avoid excessive baggage. Stay thin. If you're on the adventurous edge, you can also stay fool and hungry, that will certainly bring some excitement in your life. But don't forget that survival kit, it's incredibly useful. ## 26. Change Your Game We're all playing games. Even if we think we don't, we do. We play the game of the career, the game of the family, the game of being rich or poor. By transforming every part of your life into a social game (/social-games-people-play/), you will empower yourself. It's much easier to start a game than to repair a serious situation. It's just a game, what could go wrong in a game? ## 27. Do The Magic Fairy Exercise Every time you're stuck, go meet your fairy tale. I know, we're not all having our personal fairy tale (/the-magic-fairy-exercise/), floating around ready to fulfill our deepest, craziest desires. And yet, you can do something else: you can pretend that that fairy exists and that she can really fulfill you any desire. Just be very careful about what you're asking. Because you're going to get it, eventually. ## 28. De-virus Your Mind If you're going to start fresh, one of the things that would really help is to realize your mind is not perfect. In other words, don't believe everything you think. Your mind may be the victim of many social viruses (/how-to-keep-your-mind-virus-free/), and you're certainly not aware of many of them. Just take some distance from your own thoughts every once in a while. De-virus your mind. ## 29. Laugh More Often It may be that you're fighting to get back your life, to find your purpose or to attain your goal. Be there, be a warrior, but don't forget to laugh. Even in the most difficult part of your lives you can find reasons to laugh. Too much commitment, too much strain, too much seriousness will have in the end the opposite effect (/7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style/). They'll drag you down. ## 30. Start Teaching Others You do have a talent. You do have some special skills. That talent, it doesn't really have to be spectacular, you know, but it's really something that defines you. Use it, don't loose it. Sometimes the only way to learn something new is to teach others (/5-things-i-learned-from-teaching-others/). By sharing your knowledge, time and experience, you'll in fact ignite new ways to live your life. ## 31. Write A Book Any book. Unblock your thoughts, if you're the organized type and just got stuck, or get the courage to imagine new worlds, if fantasy is your type. Chose a topic you know or like and stick with it. A book (/the-book-of-life) is wonderful milestone. Even if it won't change your entire life immediately, something important will shift inside. Creativity is a magical thing. ## 32. Practice Your "Yes" Real, sustainable change is never about negativity. You cannot change as long as you are in denial, right? This is what denial means, by the way: resistance to new. Any genuine change will be fueled by your capacity to say "Yes (/14-ways-to-say-yes/)". The good news is that this ability can be strengthened the same way you strengthen your muscles at the gym. Practice your "Yes". ## 33. Practice Your "No" Too It goes hand in hand with the one above. Learn how to say "No (/7-ways-to-say-no/)". To an abusive relationship, to a boring job, to a limiting context. The more you practice, the better you'll get at. Don't take anything for granted. You have the power to say "No" to certain things in your life. You have the power to say "No" to the past, and "Yes" to the present. ## 34. Quit Being A Quitter Quitting something (your job, your family, your friends) doesn't mean you start fresh, it means you're not finishing your stuff. Quit doing this (/how-to-quit-being-a-quitter-2/), take responsibility and do your part of the job. If you committed to something, finish it. It may be difficult, but until you consume everything you set up for that meal, you won't be able to fill your plate again. ## 35. Keep (And Read) A Log Of Your Breakthroughs Sort of a personal history of things your consider important in your life. It may be the fact that you had the courage to speak to somebody, or the fact that you climbed the Everest. If you think it will help, you can share them (/100-things-i-did-in-2009/), but that's not compulsory. What is compulsory is to read them from time to time. It will pump you up beyond expectation. ## 36. Learn How To Be Ridiculous Too often we're rejecting change and fail to start fresh by fear of rejection. What if I'm going to be laughed at? What if people will reject me because I will be clumsy or shy in the beginning? Well, they may reject you. You will be ridiculous if you start something completely fresh. And that's the good news. Learn how to be ridiculous (/how-to-be-ridiculous/). It's an art. ## 37. Take An Interview With Yourself Yes, you're a star and yes you deserve exposure. You can light this world with awesomeness. Take an interview with yourself. It doesn't necessarily have to contain exactly these questions (/33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself/), but you can start with them. Just be honest. Put it aside for a week or two and then come back and read it. You really want to be that person? ## 38. Practice Hazard Learn how to get from A to B (/how-to-get-from-a-to-b-in-5-random-steps/) in 5 easy steps. Leave your mind free and see where it goes. That's a great exercise not only for enhancing your creativity, but also for strengthening your change muscles. While it will not directly build up your courage to take action, you'll learn how to spot opportunities and broaden your vision. ## 39. Keep Your Brain Fit The most important tool you have is your brain. You have this amazing engineering machinery with you all the time and yet, you chose to use only a tiny percent of its capacity. You wouldn't be able to climb a mountain without a fit body, right? Then be sure you wouldn't go through a complex and difficult change without a fit and agile brain (/how-to-train-your-brain). ## 40. Clean Up Your Lenses The road to meaningful change may be right in front of you, but you may not see it. Why? Because your life lenses (/is-your-life-blurred/) got blurred. It's like a camera which doesn't know how and where to focus. Move it back and forth a few times and see what picture it shows. That's equivalent with shaking a bit things around. In the end your lenses will be cleaner. ## 41 Act. Don't React If you're reacting to what's happening , you'll never start fresh. Change by reaction is rooted in fear and is just a form of escapism. Even more, you'll end up continuously being chased by what you're running from. Make your own judgment and don't react (/action-versus-reaction/) to pressures like lack of money and social rejection. That too shall pass. ## 42. Stop Solving The Wrong Problem Focus on what matters. What they say about you is not that important. What you really do with your life, that's important. We do have a tendency to get lost in the details and start solving the wrong problems (/solving-the-wrong-problem/). Cut it short. Those tiny little things you want to "solve" around will soon grow to the size of the swamp. Don't allow that to happen. Stay sharp. ## 43. Forget "I Can", Embrace "I Do" You're largely what you're saying to yourself. You actually do what you continuously tell to your brain to do. Insert yourself in this process and change all the "I Can"'s with "I Do"'s. "I Can" may be empowering but "I Do" is truly life changing (/i-can-versus-i-do/). You can't start fresh without taking action. Change this monologue. You'll be amazed by the results. ## 44. Pay Yourself First So you can pay others too. Altruism doesn't worth a nickel if you can't make ends meet. Giving and giving and giving away, without taking care of yourself, will eventually drain you out. Turn your face to yourself (/pay-yourself-first/) and find out what you really need. Start getting it. Forget the blame and the shame. That change alone could spark a new beginning for you. ## 45. Shift Your Focus One thing we often ignore, is that our reality is generated by our focus. Whatever we're focusing on, it grows. So, a new beginning could be in fact just the result of a focus shift. Place your attention on other things. It may be difficult in the beginning, so start training (/training-your-focus/). ## 46. Take A Long Distance Trip Traveling long distance is an art. Whenever I did a very long trip something changed inside. A new perspective, some unexpected ideas, something fresh and surprising emerged from that trip. Whenever you feel prisoner of a lifestyle you don't want anymore, do your best to travel far and away (/44-tips-for-traveling-long-distance/). You'll be back, most of the time, as a different person. ## 47. Stop Trying To Be Perfect Perfection is a big mind trap. It's nothing more than a state of suspension in which you're not really alive. Perfection means you reached the end of the journey. And the understanding of this end, for us, as human beings, is being dead. Just try to be better instead (/perfect-versus-better/). Being better will always give you room for change. Chasing perfection will not. ## 48. Eliminate Self Sabotage What if I'm going to tell you that the biggest enemy of yourself is… you? What if I'll tell you that you're afraid of success? What if I'll tell you that you don't live up to your dreams by fear of failure? All of these mindsets are forms of self-sabotage (/self-sabotage/). And they are more dangerous than you think. Thinking that change is impossible is a form of self-sabotage. ## 49. Get Rid Of Your Guardians They're living inside of you, as images of authority. Or they live with you, in imbalanced relationships, based on power games. Whatever the place, those guardians (/the-guardians/) have only one mission: to keep you in a perpetual state of slavery. To prevent you from growing, by selling you the illusion of safety. You're much better off. As scary as it may be. ## 50. Recycle Aggression You need it. You have it in yourself because deep down, when you were just a sparkle in the dark, you had a deep need to survive. And you survived. Aggressiveness (/aggression-recycled/) is not toxic, the way you use it may be. Re-channel that huge force, that immense energy flow you get from aggression and put it to good work. Don't bottle it deep down, let it out. Have more? Share them in the comments. First published on: July 10, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F50-ways-to-start-fresh%2F&text=50%20Ways%20To%20Start%20Fresh&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F50-ways-to-start-fresh%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F50-ways-to-start-fresh%2F&t=50%20Ways%20To%20Start%20Fresh https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F50-ways-to-start-fresh%2F&title=50%20Ways%20To%20Start%20Fresh Previous ### Are You A Valid Person? (/are-you-a-valid-person/) Next ### An iPhone App In 30 Days – The Challenge (/an-iphone-app-in-30-days-the-challenge/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Vibe Coding iOS Apps on my iPad with Claude, from my Favorite Coffee Shop URL: https://dragosroua.com/vibe-coding-ios-apps-on-my-ipad-with-claude-from-my-favorite-coffee-shop.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/vibe-coding-ios-apps-on-my-ipad-with-claude-from-my-favorite-coffee-shop/ Published: 2026-02-05 Modified: 2026-07-03 Views: 1439 Categories: Location Independence, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: ai tools, Claude, coffee shop work, digital nomad, ios development, vibe coding It's 9AM and I am sitting in my favorite coffee shop. Somewhere in Mekong Delta, or in Lisbon, or in Seoul, doesn't really matter. What matters is that my espresso was already tested and approved as high quality, the internet connection in the coffee shop is decent, and I am ready to start my vibe coding session on my iPad – using Claude. But let's stop for a second. I've been writing code for more than 35 years. Went through the whole shebang, from 2 floppy disks Slackware, through PHP and Laravel, and then Objective C, Swift and React Native. I coded apps with more than 100,000 monthly users (for me or for my clients). So, do you think I can still be called a "vibe coder"? Let's keep this question in mind, and revisit towards the end. ## The Actual Vibe Coding Workflow Without further ado, let's go into what I'm actually doing. First and foremost, I look at my yesterday's priorities file. I keep between 4 and 6 projects alive at the same time, which means I'm juggling through them as I build, in real time. Sometimes I can remember yesterday's session, but most of the days I need reminders to know the context, the features I'm building, the blockers and the priorities. That's why, at the end of the day, I'm writing down my priorities for tomorrow. In a way, I'm starting backwards. After that, I select whatever I'm committed to do in the next 3-4 hours. Yes, no more than 3-4 hours – and you'll see why, again, towards the end of this article. In Assess-Decide-Do terms, I'm staying in the Decide realm. I'm trying to evaluate what can be reasonably done in that time slice and sometimes I leave some projects out. On average, in a week, each project gets at least 3-4 days of consistent work. Once I have a clear understanding of the features, I start my working sessions. Which are unfolding in this order: - the actual coding (the technical mumbo-jumbo) - the review stage (kind of the second Decide stage) - the committing: writing logs and setting priorities for the next session Let's take them one at a time. ## The Technical Mumbo-Jumbo If you're the technical type, this is for you. But even if you're not, you may get some insights (otherwise feel free to skip to the next section). I work with Claude Code on my iPad, using the remote repos. On each app, I maintain a different branch, usually named `version/X.x.x`, and then I set up XCode Cloud workflows that will trigger builds on merging to master. All coding happens in the version branches, until the app compiles, and the feature I'm working on is ready to test. Then, still on my iPad, I open my Github app and start a PR, aiming at merging the version branch into master. If there are no conflicts, I hit merge, and that triggers XCode Cloud builds. I am on the normal developer plan, so I get around 25 hours per month. If you are conscientious about what you're doing, even with 3-4 apps developed at the same time, this is more than enough. A build is usually taking between 2 minutes and 10 minutes, and then there is a little bit of processing time. I use these gaps to enhance the prompts and write logs as the features are implemented. Once the builds are up in the App Store and processed in TestFlight, I just open, you guessed, the TestFlight app on my iPad, and begin playing with the apps. Most of the time, bugs are found, or incomplete implementations are revealed, so I get back to Claude Code and start the whole process anew. By now, half of my espresso is gone, but I just keep going, until I hit the review stage. ## The Review Stage Around this time, my espresso is more than 80% gone, just maybe two more sips left. That means I can get out of the technical workflow and look at what was actually achieved. This usually involves a thorough end to end testing of the features, but this time without any pressure to add code. I'm going again through all the projects I'm working, and take time to write down any quirks, improvement ideas and leftovers, and then mark as done anything that's already done. I'm using addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) for this. This is also the stage where my mind can start resting. It's a big step from focusing deep down on one project and writing uninterrupted sessions of 1-2 hours, like before, to actually juggling between 3-4 apps, all with very different requirements and at very different stages. The biggest bottleneck of this vibe coding thing is not the actual code implementation. It's the mental clarity and the strength of focus. At this stage, both of them are starting to fade out, which means it's time to stop. ## The Productivity Throughput In very simple numbers, my throughput is now 5x-7x higher. I can code 3-4 iOS projects in parallel and cut time from idea to deployment from months to weeks. It's not unusual to do a cold start of a new project at the beginning of the month, and by the end of the month it is ready for App Store. On top of the iOS apps layer, I'm also maintaining this blog and a little bit of marketing around it (and around the apps, of course). Here, I think I'm around 2x-4x more productive. I can maintain the 2-3 articles / week posting speed and most of the time my audience on social media is up to date with what I'm doing – including blog readers like you. So, I'm revisiting the opening question: even though I have a 5x-7x throughput, can you really say I'm a vibe coder? I dare to say no, because behind this dramatic productivity increase is not only the AI, but mostly my 35 year coding experience. Maybe the special workflow too (I'm talking Assess-Decide-Do (/assess-decide-do-framework/) here), but honestly, I think it's the hard earned ability to know what to pick, how much time to dedicate, what to cut out and, generally, how to maintain a consistent architecture that's slim enough to not slide out, but strong enough to produce results. Without these, I would probably be at 1 app at a time. ## Closing Out – Commits and Priorities It's around 1-2 PM and the coffee shop audience is slightly changing towards lunch eaters. That's my cue to prepare to go home. The coffee shop will become busier and, sometimes, noisier and harder to concentrate in. By now, the changes have been committed, the logs have been written and the priorities for tomorrow's "vibe coding" session have been set. My espresso is long gone, and I'm ready to head back to my one-year-old son. See, using AI to amplify my productivity is a great use case, but for me, the best use case is to get more time. I need more time to spend with my family, to be there for my one-year-old. At 50+ (/can-you-stay-relevant-after-50-in-the-age-of-ai/) you don't get too many second chances. First published on: February 5, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fvibe-coding-ios-apps-on-my-ipad-with-claude-from-my-favorite-coffee-shop%2F&text=Vibe%20Coding%20iOS%20Apps%20on%20my%20iPad%20with%20Claude%2C%20from%20my%20Favorite%20Coffee%20Shop&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fvibe-coding-ios-apps-on-my-ipad-with-claude-from-my-favorite-coffee-shop%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fvibe-coding-ios-apps-on-my-ipad-with-claude-from-my-favorite-coffee-shop%2F&t=Vibe%20Coding%20iOS%20Apps%20on%20my%20iPad%20with%20Claude%2C%20from%20my%20Favorite%20Coffee%20Shop https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fvibe-coding-ios-apps-on-my-ipad-with-claude-from-my-favorite-coffee-shop%2F&title=Vibe%20Coding%20iOS%20Apps%20on%20my%20iPad%20with%20Claude%2C%20from%20my%20Favorite%20Coffee%20Shop Previous ### From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) Next ### Introducing AIGernon, my Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 100 Ways To Live A Better Life URL: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/ Published: 2009-08-22 Modified: 2026-06-26 Views: 1186 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Success and Wellness Tags: 100 ways series, do, how to, list post **2026 update:** *I revisit this post here (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-17-years-after-what-actually-worked/), 17 years after it was published, as part of a broader 30 day blogging challenge, in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* How to live a better life is what we all think and want, each and every second. You don't like your life? Change it! Change your life for the better! Don't have any clue on how to do it? Here's a list of 100 actionable tips. ## 1. Accept Your Mistakes You're human. We, humans, are making mistakes. Accept what you did wrong and try to do better next time. No need to punish yourself forever. In fact, accepting your mistakes is the only way to make them disappear. [ how to accept your mistakes (/100-ways-live-better-life-1-accept-your-mistakes/)  ] ## 2. Accept Your Friends Mistakes Maybe you got hurt by somebody. Happens. Just accept it and deal with it. People are making mistakes and if you can accept that for yourself, accept it for your friends too. In the end, all you need from them is their love. [ how to accept your friends mistakes (/100-ways-live-better-life-2-accept-friends-mistakes/) ] ## 3. Create A New Habit We're doing a lot of stuff on autopilot. Try to integrate in this category new things you want to attract into your life. Habits are powerful. Harness their energy for your own good. If you're ready to go to the next level, start hacking habits (/hacking-habits/). [ more thoughts on how to create a habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-3-create-new-habit/) ] ## 4. Build Self Discipline Don't wait for other people to impose discipline on you. Start early. Create your own discipline. Although it sounds a little bit harsh, self discipline (/building-self-discipline/) is a facilitator for many things in your life. It's hard to get but great to have. [more on self discipline (/100-ways-live-better-life-4-build-self-discipline/) ] ## 5. Make New Friends Reach out. Don't be afraid. Establish new contacts. The worst thing that may happen to you is to be rejected. Well, if that's the case, move on. The reward of having true, long-lasting friendship is worth all the potential rejection. [ make new friends – the why and how (/100-ways-live-better-life-5-make-new-friends/) ] ## 6. Get A New Job Shaking your comfort zone will often create a lot of value in your life. If you're not satisfied with your job, just get a new one. The pitfall of not having money for a limited period of time is temporary, get over it. [ more on how and why to get a new job (/100-ways-live-better-life-6-get-a-new-job/) ] ## 7. Start A New Diet You are, in a vast proportion, what you eat. Trying a new diet would often be the only needed change for a dramatic boost of your health and energy. Don't necessarily have to be raw food (/raw-food-diet/), or even vegetarian, whatever works for you. [ more thoughts on why to start a new diet (/100-ways-live-better-life-7-start-a-new-diet/) ] ## 8. Keep A Journal Write down you feelings, your ideas, your goals, your activity. Journaling (/journaling-versus-blogging/) is by far one of the most useful things I've done to change my life for the best. It works in such a silent, yet effective way. All you need is pen and paper. [ why keeping a journal works (/100-ways-live-better-life-8-keep-journal/) ] ## 9. Create And Keep A Morning Phrase Whatever you say to yourself in the morning, it will most likely come true during the day. Why not taking advantage of it? Create a simple morning phrase (/the-morning-phrase/) and say it to yourself first thing in the morning. Is that simple. [ the power of a morning phrase (/100-ways-live-better-life-9-create-keep-morning-phrase/) ] ## 10. Travel Far Away From Your Home Traveling long distance (/44-tips-for-traveling-long-distance/) is incredibly rewarding. It's so exciting and full with unknown events. I only recently started to travel really far away from my home, but I do wonder how could I ever made it until now without this. [ unexpected benefits of traveling long distance (/100-ways-live-better-life-10-travel-long-distance/) ] The book you're about to get is based on the very blog post you read right now, with much more added on top of it. It's a list of things to read when you're down and need a little bit of inspiration to keep going on. But it can also be read when you're moving at full speed and you just need some time to relax. It isn't intended to be hard to read, complex or elaborate. It's a book you can read on the subway, on the beach or in bed, just before going to sleep. Get it on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SIQOOQ) for only $6.99 as a Kindle eBook. ## 11. Learn To Take Risks Your life may be so boring and fade because… err, you made it like this? When was the last time your tried something really difficult (/its-not-hard-to-do-extraordinary-things/)? When was the last time you challenged the odds doing something risky? Do it now. [ the easy way to learn how to take risks (/100-ways-live-better-life-11-learn-take-risks/) ] ## 12. Start Your Own Business Be your own boss. Work your own hours. I know, it sounds so shallow, for you, who hate your job but still have to stay there because of that mortgage. Well, unless you make the first step (/start-your-own-business/), nothing is going to change. That's for sure. [ start your own business – is it really difficult? (/100-ways-live-better-life-12-start-business/) ] ## 13. Change Your Work Space Clean up your desk. Re-arrange furniture. Add some color to that space. Make the place where you work really enjoyable. So enjoyable that work there won't be perceived as work anymore. It will be something you love to do. [ why cleaning your work space works (/100-ways-live-better-life-13-change-work-space/) ] ## 14. Learn A New Language Challenge your mind. Constantly. If you're going to do number 10, you're going to learn some new languages too. From my experience, learning a new language is a fantastic mind opener. Sometimes you don't even have to travel there. [ more on learning a new language (/100-ways-live-better-life-14-learn-new-language/) ] ## 15. Find Reasons To Agree Rather than disagree. We have this mindset of competition which makes constantly arguing over things. Well, stop that. You don't have to force yourself into agreement (/learning-to-agree-to-disagree/), if it's not the case, just trying to find some reasons will be enough. [ how to find reasons to agree (/100-ways-live-better-life-15-find-reasons-agree/) ] ## 16. Pay Yourself First You can't give something if you don't have it. You can't spread light onto others if you don't have light from within. You can't give wealth to others if you don't have it for yourself first. Make yourself a service and pay yourself first (/you-cant-sail-a-toy-boat-on-a-pierced-bucket/). [ why is this important? (/100-ways-live-better-life-16-pay-yourself-first/) ] ## 17. Wake Up Early This is not a habit, this is a lifestyle. Don't just wake up early (/how-fast-are-you-waking-up/) without a purpose. Be early. Be there before others. Look for opportunities and embrace them. Waking up early means keeping your eye open to every available opportunity. [ how to wake up early (/100-ways-live-better-life-17-wake-early/) ] ## 18. Train Your Focus Your focus is in fact your reality. Use it wisely. Train it constantly for it will enhance your reality in ways you never imagined. Keep your focus sharp (/shifting-focus/) as a razor blade and be prepared to experience life in fantastic shapes and colors. [ your focus is your reality (/100-ways-live-better-life-18-train-your-focus/) ] ## 19. Start A Blog On whatever topic you want. Not only it will give you the opportunity to create something new and valuable but it will also bring new people into your life. Blogging is far more than a hype, is a personal development tool. A very good one. [ how to start a blog (/100-ways-live-better-life-19-start-blog/) ] ## 20. Write An Ebook You may think you don't have a talent, but that's completely wrong. And the easiest way to prove it wrong is to start writing an ebook. Any ebook. You pick the topic. It might be something you know or want to learn about. Write it. It's fun. [ how to write an ebook (/100-ways-live-better-life-20-write-ebook/) ] ## 21. Be Better, Not Perfect Striving too much for perfection will ruin your life. It will wipe out all those little imperfections which are making you… human. Being better, on the other side, is rewarding. Look back at the yesterday you and just say: I'm better! [ better read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-21-better-not-perfect/) ] ## 22. Stop Self Sabotage You'll be surprised by how much of a burden you can be to yourself. You are literally self sabotaging (/the-subtle-danger-of-being-able-to-do-whatever-you-want/). Most of the time, unconsciously. If you have a long history of failure behind, that could mean you've become your worst enemy. Stop it. [ more on self-sabotage (/100-ways-live-better-life-22-stop-self-sabotage/) ] ## 23. Find Reasons To Love Your Life Maybe life wasn't fair with you. Yes, I know, I've been there: life is never fair. But it's fantastic. It's unique, unrepeatable, one of a kind, beautiful, simple, challenging, sweet, hard… Just take a step back and find reasons to love your life. [ continue reading (/100-ways-live-better-life-23-find-reasons-love-life/)] ## 24. Try Something New Maybe you're sad because you're bored. Have you ever thought about that? Just reach out and try something completely new. Go for a challenge, learn a new sport, try playing the ukulele, pick a different restaurant or go for a comedy movie (if you're the drama type). Just try it. [ now try to continue reading (/100-ways-live-better-life-24-try-something-new/) ] ## 25. Avoid Fighting Fighting is the biggest energy leak of your being. Trying to prove another guy wrong is so against your true nature. You're here to acknowledge life's wonders, not to prove anybody's wrong. They're not wrong, just have different opinions. And that's part of life. [ really, just avoid fighting (/100-ways-live-better-life-25-avoid-fighting/) ] ## 26. Stop Wasting Your Power Are you doing something that you think you shouldn't be doing right now? Well, that's wasted power. That's meaningless stuff promoted to the honor of being a part of your life. How long are you going to approve this? Why wasting power? [ continue reading (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-26-stop-wasting-power/) ] ## 27. Learn To Ignore I think they should be teaching this one in schools. We're so focused on so many topics and think we have to do so many stuff, that our life is literally clogged with stuff. It's good to do stuff, but learning to ignore (/learning-to-ignore/) stuff is much better. [ don't ignore this, read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-27-learn-ignore/) ] ## 28. Experiment Gratitude When was the last time you said "thank you"? With all your heart? Everybody knows that an attitude of gratitude is the key to success, but almost nobody practices it. Well, start by experience gratitude first, and take it from there. [ continue reading (/100-ways-live-better-life-28-experiment-gratitude/) ] ## 29. Recycle Your Aggression Don't throw it away, recycle it! Use it for something you really want! Call out those wild forces inside of you and put them to work. Aggression is part of your being, so don't try to reject it, because it will only grow stronger. Recycle your aggression. [ continue reading (/100-ways-live-better-life-29-recycle-aggressiveness/) ] ## 30. Release Your Guardians Don't touch that! Don't eat that! Don't go for that opportunity! Those are the sentences you hear when going for something you really want. Those are your guardians, your mental constructs made to protect you. Release them, you'll be much better off. [ learn how to do this (/100-ways-live-better-life-30-release-guardians/) ] ## 31. Clean Up Your House It's fun. And it's good for you. Make a habit out of cleaning up your house with joy and happiness. What's outside is a mirror of what's inside. If your house is a mess, probably your internal life is a disaster. Neat that stuff, it's easy. [ seriously, it's eaasy (/100-ways-live-better-life-31-clean-house/) ] ## 32. Write A Personal Mission Statement You're here with a reason. No matter how small you feel now, how insignificant others may made you feel, you have a purpose. Take the time to write your personal mission statement. It will bring light and direction into your life. [ do you have a personal mission? (/100-ways-live-better-life-32-write-personal-mission-statement/) ] ## 33. Dissolve Negative Opinions About Yourself Whatever you think you may do, it's half of what you can really do. And that's because you have so many negative opinions about yourself (/how-to-deal-with-negative-opinions-about-yourself/). You can solve them. Just accept the fact that you have them and then start working on them. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-33-dissolve-negative-opinions/) ] ## 34. Build Different Skills Don't stop learning. Don't remain stuck in a single career, it's boring and limiting. Learn different skills (/building-different-skills/), possibly from completely unrelated fields. You never know when life will ask you to use them. Besides, it's a lot of fun. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-34-build-different-skills/) ] ## 35. Manage Your Time As You Manage Your Money Have you ever thought what would be if you would manage your time the same way you manage your money (/manage-your-time-as-you-manage-your-money/)? Just give it a try. See where you spend most of your time, what the return of investment is and how rich are you in time. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-35-manage-time-like-manage-money/) ] ## 36. Exercise You don't have to break the world record, or something. Just make sure you exercise constantly. It will make your body healthier and your mind clearer. It's also one of the simplest and most affordable ways to improve your life. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-36-exercise/) ] ## 37. Be A Parent Having kids doesn't necessarily means you're a parent, and I know that very well. Being a parent will surely change your life forever: filling it with unconditional, life lasting love, care and warm feelings. You'll live in love. And learn (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-7-year-old-girl/). [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-37-parent/) ] ## 38. Throw Away One Object A Day From Your House Maybe your life is breathing so hard just because it's suffocated by objects. Learn to let them go. You may donate them, give to charity or simply throw them away, but don't let the clutter stay in your way. You're not the objects you have. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-38-throw-away-one-object-day/) ] ## 39. Read A Book Per Week Or, alternatively, a fine selection of blogs. That will keep your mind alert and your focus steady. Reading is like good food for your brain, without it, it will go lazy, obese and unresponsive. But with the proper food it can become your best friend. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-39-read-book-per-week/) ] ## 40. Start A Monthly Challenge Being it physical, mental or social. Intend to acquire something new in your life in 30 days. Improve your health using new methods, or your relationships by starting new things together. Make it count. And count on it. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-40-do-a-30-days-challenge/) ] ## 41. Call An Old Friend It's enlightening to meet somebody you haven't talk to in the last years. Go right now and call an old friend, or a relative. It will bring up memories and it will create new opportunities. Don't let the dust settle on your relationships. [ read more (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-41-call-an-old-friend/) ] ## 42. Follow A Coincidence Well, there aren't any coincidences, I lied. Everything has a purpose. If you witness something which may seem like a coincidence, then you're very lucky, you just got a sign. Follow it with trust, it will lead you well. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-42-follow-coincidence/) ] ## 43. Play A Game Any game. Just play. Like a child. Allow yourself to do something just for fun, without any goals, pressures or deadlines. Will make you understand that everything is a game. Sometimes a little bit harder, but still a game. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-43-play-game/) ] ## 44. Forgive Somebody Out Of The Blue Don't hold that grudge for that past insult. Grudges are heavy and tend to make the take off for a new life a little bit difficult. The longer you hold that grudge, the more difficult the take off will be. Forgiveness will lift you off. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-44-forgive-somebody-blue/) ] ## 45. Stop Solving The Wrong Problems You are not here to witness the bad things in your life. Nor the performance in itself. You are here to enjoy a journey. To become aware, To grow. So, stop solving the wrong problem (/solving-the-wrong-problem/) and focus on what really matters. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-45-stop-solving-wrong-problem/) ] ## 46. Make Peace With An Old Enemy That's more than forgiveness, that's the actual process of reversing a situation. Make peace with somebody. Turn it into your friend. I'm not saying this is easy, I know it first hand. But I also know it works. Enemies count down, friends count up. [ read more (/10-ways-to-live-a-better-life-46-make-peace-with-enemy/) ] ## 47. Make A Promise To A Close Person And Keep It It doesn't have to be something big. It doesn't have to be for someone special. It doesn't have to be difficult also. But it has to be a commitment to somebody. Just reach out, make a promise, keep it and then enjoy the feeling after. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-47-make-a-promise-close-person-keep/) ] ## 48. Break Up With A Person You Don't Really Like Maybe you're friend with somebody just by habit, chemistry being dead for a long time now. Just break it up. Tell him. Ok, let's unfriend us, this will not work. It will bring up something you thought you lost it long ago: courage. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-48-break-up-with-a-person-dont-really-like/) ] ## 49. Get A Thing You Wanted For A Long Time But you didn't had time or money to get it. Just go out and get it. Not only it will boost your self-respect, but it will also free your desire channel, which may be a little bit clogged by having one and only one desire for such a long time. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-49-get-thing-wanted-long-time/) ] ## 50. Stop Being Judgmental With others AND with you. Excessive criticism will kill your enthusiasm. And if you think this post is something you shouldn't read in the first place, then, my friend, you really are judgmental. Lighten up. Accept life as it is. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-50-stop-judgmental/) ] ## 51. Change Your Wardrobe You don't know how much are you tied to what you wear. If you're on the gray loving side, put some color in your clothes. If you're on the black and white, try some gradients. Of course, your clothes are not you. Hence, they're so easy to change, right? [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-51-change-wardrobe/) ] ## 52. Smile At Least 10 Times A Day And I mean it, start to count that. Smiling is a sign of honesty and power. Everybody can cry over a disaster but only the most powerful can take bitterness with a smile. Exercise that power. And then try to go for 20 times a day. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-52-smile-least-10-times-day/) ] ## 53. Burn Some Old Memories Maybe the notebook from your 7th grade? Maybe the teenage dumb poetry you wrote? Whatever it might be, break up. It might be difficult, but it might also be a sign that you're so attached to the past that you can't advance in your life anymore. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-53-burn-old-memories/) ] ## 54. Plant A Tree Or take care of a flower. Do it for at least several months. It will give you a sense of potential. Seeing that tree or that flower growing will make your self-confidence go up. If a flower can make it, why can't I? Of course you can, now do it! [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-54-plant-tree/)] ## 55. Move To Another Town Or Country Maybe it's time to change the environment? Take the plunge, move over. Pick another town or even another country. Like all the good stuff, it might be pretty difficult in the beginning, but you can bet it would shake everything really good! [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-55-move-another-town-country/) ] ## 56. Join A New Group Go to a bikers meeting. Or, if you're not a biker, to a toastmaster meeting. Join a group and see how you fit in. It will help if the group will be focused on some of your passions, of course. It will reveal a lot about your social skills. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-56-join-new-group/) ] ## 57. Stop Watching TV Television evolved a lot from the balanced news provider it was in the beginning up to the current manipulating tool. Just stop watching it for a week. And then for a month. Meanwhile, assess your psychological progress. You may be amazed. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-57-stop-watching-tv/) ] ## 58. Start A Totally Unexpected Hobby Start making trains out of matches. Raise cobras. Put tiny vessels into tiny bottles. Do whatever it takes to move your mind from your problems for a while. And if you can create something nice in the process, why not doing it? [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-58-start-totally-unexpected-hobby/) ] ## 59. Randomly Hug A Stranger On The Street Ok, this might be a little bit dangerous, but only if you think at it. If you're doing it, chances are that you're going to get your hug back. It will also help raising your adrenaline up to levels you never had for a very long time. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-59-randomly-hug-person-dont-know) ] ## 60. Set Up A Surprise Party For your or for a friend. It's always good for your mood, even if – or especially if – you're down. Do a thematic one, invite friends and tell them to bring their friends. And then expect to meet new, wonderful persons. And of course, have fun. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-60-set-surprise-party/) ] ## 61. Go Hiking Do it for at least one week-end. Nature is more powerful than our human created environment. We don't know how to channel the energy into our artificial habitats. If you want to recharge, go outside and stay in connection with the wilderness. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-61-go-hiking/) ] ## 62. Get A Pet Whatever works for you, a bird, a guinea pig, a dog or a cat. It will keep you alert and it will cheer you up when you're down. Taking care of a pet is also easier if you're overwhelmed with human interaction. Even from a pet, love is still love. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-62-get-pet/) ] ## 63. Write A Thank You Letter You can send it or not, the real catch is to write it. Pick someone who helped you in the past. Start writing the letter and say everything you want to say to that person. It will make you understand what are you really grateful for in your life. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-63-write-thank-you-letter/) ] ## 64. Meditate Daily It's the easiest thing you can do. True mediation acts like a mind emptier, leaving you open to the whole flow of the sensations and experiences you would otherwise ignore. You don't even need a complicated technique, meditate as you see fit. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-64-meditate-daily/) ] ## 65. Say Something Nice To Somebody Just like that. Out of the blue. Pick an unknown person and say something nice. After the initial surprise you'll be amazed by the unmasked joy and gratitude they're expressing. Admit it: you would like that too, isn't it? [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-65-say-something-nice-somebody/) ] ## 66. Say Something Nice To You Ok, but if nobody is telling you nice things, why not start this yourself? Do it in whatever form you think it's appropriate: send yourself emails, write in your calendar or leave yourself nice postits on the desk. With something nice just for you. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-66-say-something-nice/) ] ## 67. When In Doubt, Improvise Being so scared for not knowing the answer, so nervous that you may screw thigns up… I know the feeling, I've been there too. Just go with the flow. Improvise. It will be so good for your unconscious mind. The real answer will be surprising. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-67-doubt-improvise/) ] ## 68. Don't Argue, Win Or Lose This goes hand in hand with avoiding the fight, but it's a little bit different. If you get caught in an argument, just accept that you can have only two outcomes from it: win or lose. Settle with one and just move on. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-68-dont-argue-win-lose/) ] ## 69. Stop Faking Your Life It's so easy to get caught in a flow of fakes. Society wants us to politely lie and you need to lie sometimes. Just stop it. Being authentic (/what-you-dont-want-to-know-about-prostitution/) is the best thing you can do. No need to hide your sorrow, nor your joy. They're both part of life. [read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-69-stop-faking-life/) ] ## 70. Define Goals Again, that goes hand in hand with writing a personal mission but it's more than that. It's the habit of clearly deciding – and, subsequently, describing – where you want to go. Do you have a goal? A passion, maybe? Go for it! And be verbose. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-70-learn-proper-goal-setting/) ] ## 71. Help Others Reach out and try to see if you can help others. You don't have to be a Samaritan, just go out there and support somebody. The biggest trick of helping is really surprising: although it seems you're giving, you're in fact receiving a lot more. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-71-help-others/) ] ## 72. Go Social Mingle, interact, go out. Get used to meet new people. Make this a habit and you'll soon get used to do new things too. The goal is not to be the best networker in the world, but to be connected to as many energy sources as you can get. [ read more (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-72-how-to-socialize/) ] ## 73. Spend Some Time Alone Subsequently, make sure you set aside enough time for your own. You don't necessarily need to recharge, but you need this time in order to get a new perspective. Stop for a while and look around. Where are you? Where do you want to be? [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-73-spend-time-alone/) ] ## 74. Fix Something By Yourself Go fix a broken window, or a scratch on your car. Don't call for a specialist, get involved, see how you can have an impact on things around you. Work with your hands, prepare to sweat. It will instantly make you feel better. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-74-fix-something/) ] ## 75. Create Value Make things that others need too. Make something useful. Don't follow blind or outdated commitments, go for what really makes a change around you. Creating value (/creating-value/) is the core of your activity here and the only thing you really have to strive for. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-75-create-value/) ] ## 76. Do A Random Act Of Kindness Doesn't have to be in the form of a nice compliment this time. You don't even need to communicate it to the target person. Just do an incognito service to someone. See how this makes you feel. Think how many times you received that. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-76-random-act-kindness/) ] ## 77. One More Second Create the habit of looking at things for one more second. Spend one more second before taking an important decision. Delay something. Time will follow your intention and open some unexpected window for you. Slow it down a little. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-77-one-second/) ] ## 78. Understand What People Want From You What you can do is not always what people want from you. Clearing that confusion alone could bring an immense relief to your life. You don't have to immediately provide what they're wanting, but if you do, you may have some big surprises. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-78-understand-people-want/) ] ## 79. Break An Old Bad Habit Breaking a bad habit is difficult. But breaking an old bad habit will free an incredible amount of time into your life. Quit smoking (/when-and-why-i-broke-up-with-smoking/) or stop talking on the phone for hours. Whatever you break, it will change your life for the best. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-79-break-bad-habit/) ] ## 80. Stop Complaining Complaining is like an open invitation for troubles. The more you complain about something, the more of that something you invite into your life. Cut it out. You don't get any comfort out of complaining, only troubles. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-80-stop-complaining/) ] ## 81. Reject What You Don't Want It's so simple, yet so underrated. Society wants us to complain even when we don't really like stuff. Like forcing us to smile when we don't find it funny. Allow yourself to walk away from something you don't like. Just do it! [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-81-reject-what-you-dont-want/) ] ## 82. Being Is Better Than Having Too much and too often we shape our life's fulfillment degree to the amount we possess. The fundamental mistake. If you're doing it, stop it right now. You're not what you're having. Being is so much better than having (/to-have-versus-to-be/). [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-82-better/) ] ## 83. Listen To Your Critics This one might be difficult in the beginning but once you get used to it it's fantastic. You may find out a lot of stuff about yourself that you didn't know about. You think you are one kind of person, but others may disagree. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-83-listen-critics/) ] ## 84. Don't Take It Personally Never. Your world is shaped by your reaction to things, not by the things themselves. Don't get upset, don't think that somebody knows you enough to make right assumptions about you. Acknowledge and move on. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-84-dont-take-personal/) ] ## 85. Laugh This time is not about smiling. It's about laughing. Don't you ever miss another opportunity to laugh. Especially at yourself. The longer your laughing sessions, the shorter your misery ones. Looks like a nice deal, isn't it? [ read more (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-85-laugh-at-yourself/) ] ## 86. Go With Passion Don't let your rational mind stand in the way of your passion. If you found – or at least felt, even occasionally – something that thrills you, you're there. You don't need a confirmation on this from anybody. Go with your passion. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-86-follow-passion/) ] ## 87. Trust Your Emotions Don't underestimate your emotions. Or overestimate them. Your emotions (/understanding-emotions/) are your feed-back system and for that they are very important. Trying to ignore your emotions is like depriving yourself from lights in a car running in the middle of the night. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better0-life-87-trust-your-emotions/) ] ## 88. Live It Like A Holiday Ever observed how nice you feel during your holiday? How light, joyful and authentic? Everything is just wonderful. Well, you are on a continuous holiday (/living-life-like-a-holiday/) here. It starts with your birth and end with your death. Live it like a holiday. [ read more (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-88-live-your-live-like-a-holiday/) ] ## 89. Make A Story Out Of It Do you like a good story? I love it. Make everything in your life story-worthwhile. Make it as it would be a fantastic journey and you will be at all time the observer, the hero and the narrator. Create the story of your life. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-89-make-story/) ] ## 90. Stop Being A Follower Admiring is nice. But being admired is even better. Stop trying to fit in other people's shoes. Find your own path. If that means breaking up completely your lifestyle, so be it. If you are "like" somebody else you can't be "like" yourself anymore. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-90-stop-follower/) ] ## 91. Watch Your Beliefs Your beliefs are not you. But they are shaping your life constantly. You have the power to change them at any point in your existence. But in order to do that, you must first start to observe them, to isolate them, to accept them. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-91-change-beliefs/) ] ## 92. Stop Lying To others and to yourself. Although it might ease a complicated situation, a lie is not good in the long run. The trick is that if you're telling a lie you're altering your reality. And a distorted reality will be impossible to handle. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-92-stop-lying/) ] ## 93. Stop Reacting To Stuff And start acting on stuff. Initiate things. Start projects. Predict situations and be there before the hurricane hits. Reacting to stuff is a victim paradigm. Stop being a victim and start acting. Create your life instead of being the creation of others. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-93-stop-reacting-stuff/) ] ## 94. Live Today Not yesterday, not tomorrow. Go for what you can do today and leave yesterday behind for good. It's not here anymore. And tomorrow doesn't even exist yet, so why bother. All you have is today. Don't waste it. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-94-live-today/) ] ## 95. Expect The Unexpected If there's something unusual that happens to you, go for it. The unexpected is a signal of an opportunity. It will not always be nice, this unexpected, but whenever it's around, magical things are happening. Wait for it. Praise for it. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-95-expect-unexpected/) ] ## 96. Enjoy Like being in joy. Like giving permission to yourself to extract joy from any situation you're in. Even if it's bad. Or especially if it's bad. Joy is everywhere, you just have to let it manifest through you. Don't resist joy. Don't reject it. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-96-enjoy/) ] ## 97. Make Your Own Rules And stick with them. Go for what works for you, not the others. Go for what you want, not the others. Including me. Make your own system and be proud of it. You may upset some people in the process, but hey, that's life. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-97-make-rules/) ] ## 98. Love Unconditionally. Totally. Constantly. Restlessly. Love is the only glue that keeps your life running. You were born out of love and you carry it deep down in your being. Love is never about the others, it's about you. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-98-love/) ] ## 99. Get Rid Of Labels Things are what they are. Don't use labels anymore, use directly the things. Your notion of "right" and "wrong" are nothing but labels. In a different country your "right" might be "wrong". Don't charge yourself with this unneeded burden. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-99-get-rid-labels/) ] ## 100. No Regrets Regretting something is another form of not accepting reality. What you can do about it now? It's gone. It doesn't exist anymore. Focus on what you can change: your present moment. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. Now. Live now. [ read more (/100-ways-live-better-life-100-no-regrets/) ] The book you're about to get is based on the very blog post you read right now, with much more added on top of it. It's a list of things to read when you're down and need a little bit of inspiration to keep going on. But it can also be read when you're moving at full speed and you just need some time to relax. It isn't intended to be hard to read, complex or elaborate. It's a book you can read on the subway, on the beach or in bed, just before going to sleep. Get it on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SIQOOQ) for only $6.99 as a Kindle eBook. Translations of this post: Japanese (https://www.webcreatorbox.com/inspiration/100ways-better-life/). Korean (https://www.yes24.com/24/goods/7845532?scode=032&OzSrank=1) translation of the ebook. Turning intentions into action requires the right system. I built addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) using the Assess-Decide-Do framework to bridge the gap between what you want to do and what you actually accomplish. First published on: August 22, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-to-live-a-better-life%2F&text=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-to-live-a-better-life%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-to-live-a-better-life%2F&t=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-to-live-a-better-life%2F&title=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life Previous ### 30 Days Exercising Challenge – Day 4 (/30-days-exercising-challenge-day-4/) Next ### 30 Days Exercising Challenge – Days 5-7 (/30-days-exercising-challenge-days-5-7/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Avoid Being Scammed on LinkedIn URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-avoid-being-scammed-on-linkedin.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-avoid-being-scammed-on-linkedin/ Published: 2026-01-22 Views: 894 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Tools Tags: ai tools, networking, remote work, trust In the last 3 months I've been targeted twice by a relatively sophisticated scam on LinkedIn. What follows is a short description of the pattern and some common sense steps you can take to avoid leaking your credentials. ## The LinkedIn Scam Pattern Both attempts started with a direct message from a recruiter. First thing I do when I get cold messaged is to look at the user's LinkedIn history. Here are some red flags: - recent account but with hundreds/thousands of followers (likely bots) - very little publishing history (not too much posting / commenting) - inconsistent work history (random companies stitched together for credibility) Both these accounts were in good shape, which suggests they were initially legit accounts, which were compromised – and the right owners didn't know, or didn't report the takeover, so LinkedIn could block the accounts. So, some guys were initially scammed out of their LinkedIn accounts which were now operated by perpetrators. That was step 1. Step 2 involves a proposal which looks slightly better than the market level, but still credible. Both scams pretend they had a project in the works, something very common, not a bright idea, just a project. I asked a few questions about the company, the answers were again credible. It's worth noting that both attempts were conducted in perfect English. So, step 2 is engaging in the proposal. Step 3 – here's where everything happens – is setting up a meeting and offering some materials in preparation of the meeting. The meeting was set up via a legit Calendly link. And the prepping materials were in the form of a BitBucket repo, which I was supposed to download and install, so we could chat about the existing features. From here on the things would go like: - you clone the repo - you install dependencies - you add .env variables (the repo has calls to various APIs that require private keys) - you run the code - ka-boom – your credentials are gone in less than a second, because you just launched a backdoor But it doesn't have to be like this. ## Common Sense Protection Measures Both times I asked one of my agents to scan the repo in the remote site (not installing it). ChatGPT and Claude are really good at these things if you prompt them well. First time ChatGPT found it just by listing the files in the repo, second time I installed the repo and Claude found the exact point where the exfiltration was taking place, and described the mechanism in detail. Here are a few basic, common sense protection measures: - ask many questions first about the company and look for these red flags: fully remote team (no physical location), vague information about funding (the company doesn't actually exist), how long the team has been around - share as little information as possible during the messaging (ideally only what's already in your LinkedIn profile, not more) - when you get a meeting proposal, make sure you use legit apps (no custom video conferencing platforms, vanilla Calendly setup) - when you get a repo, scan it first. I cannot emphasize this enough: do NOT run random repos on your machine, without scanning them first. It's just a question of asking your favorite LLM to identify security holes, and ask them to look for: obfuscated code, suspicious npm/pip packages, or unusual postinstall scripts ## The Boundaries Are Fading Away AI is advancing at an incredible speed. Humans, not so much. The proportion of scammers / legit people is pretty much the same, but AI is making the boundary between good and bad guys almost invisible. The disguise is cheap and very effective. That's one of the reasons your main behavior online should be don't trust, verify (/dont-trust-verify/). We've been heading for this inflection point very slowly during the last 5-10 years. I know, because I've been studying machine learning before ChatGPT was cool (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dragosroua/details/certifications/), and back then it was still very difficult to mirror reality the way AI is mirroring it right now. Now we're there. We're in the middle of an AI generated fantasy world, where it's almost impossible to find your way out, almost impossible to detect what's fabricated from what's real. That's why – and I will say this over and over – bio content (/bio-content-in-2026-a-bet/), or provably human generated content will become not only more precious, but it will eventually aggregate itself in the foundation of a new, trustable world, separating itself from the Matrix. First published on: January 22, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Supercharging Claude with the Assess Decide Do Framework – Mega Prompt Inside URL: https://dragosroua.com/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/ Published: 2025-11-13 Modified: 2026-01-29 Views: 593 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Assess Decide Do, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: ai tools, assess, decide, do, framework *Later edit: there's a more recent version of this integration (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/), in which the megaprompt has been replaced by skills. The megaprompt implementation still works for Claude Desktop users.* Fifteen years ago, I created the Assess-Decide-Do (ADD) framework out of frustration with productivity systems that treated humans like task-completion machines. I wanted something that acknowledged the full spectrum of how we actually work: the dreaming, the deciding, the doing—and the vital importance of balance between them. I've lived with this framework since 2010. I built my life around it. Eventually, I built addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8), an iOS and macOS app that implements ADD at the technical level, respecting realm boundaries programmatically. Over 15 years, ADD has proven itself not just as a productivity tool, but as a genuine life management framework that works across domains: relationships, health, business strategy, creative work, everything. Then, a few days ago, I had a thought: *What if Claude could operate with ADD awareness?* Not just *use* ADD to organize tasks, but actually *think* with ADD—detect which realm I'm in, identify when I'm stuck, guide me toward balance, structure responses appropriately for each phase. What if I could *teach Claude the framework that has shaped my life*? The result took me by surprise. Not just because it worked technically, but because of what it *felt* like. Working with ADD-enhanced Claude isn't just cleaner or more efficient. It's smoother. More relatable. Almost empathic. It's the difference between using a tool and having a conversation with someone who understands not just what you're asking, but *where you are* in your thinking process. This is the story of how I integrated ADD into Claude, the technical steps required, and what happened when cognitive alignment between human and AI created something that feels genuinely collaborative. ## The Problem: AI Assistants Are Powerful But Often Chaotic Modern AI assistants like Claude are remarkably capable. They can write, code, research, analyze, create. But there's often a subtle friction in the interaction. You ask for exploration, and it pushes you toward decisions. You need help executing, and it re-opens assessment questions. You're deep in analysis paralysis, and it feeds you more options instead of helping you break through. The AI doesn't understand *where you are* in your process. It responds to what you ask, but not to what you need. This creates cognitive friction—the feeling of fighting against the tool instead of working with it. For someone who's lived with the ADD framework for 15 years, this friction was particularly noticeable. I've trained myself to recognize realms, detect imbalances, and guide my own flow. But Claude, powerful as it is, had no concept of this structure. Every interaction required me to manually compensate for the framework gap. **The insight**: What if Claude could learn ADD? Not as a user applying ADD principles, but as an integrated cognitive framework that shapes how it processes requests and structures responses? ## Why ADD? The Ubiquitous Usefulness of Realm Thinking Before diving into the integration, let me briefly explain why ADD is worth teaching to an AI in the first place. ### The Three Realms **Assess** is the realm of exploration, evaluation, and possibility. It's where you gather information, dream about outcomes, integrate new ideas into your worldview, and explore options *without pressure to commit*. Assessment is fundamentally non-judgmental—you're not trying to decide yet, you're trying to understand. **Decide** is the realm of intention and commitment. It's where you transform possibilities into priorities, allocate resources, and make choices. Each decision is a creative act—it literally shapes your reality by determining where energy flows. Decide isn't about execution yet; it's about conscious commitment. **Do** is the realm of manifestation. It's where you execute, implement, and complete what you've assessed and decided. The Do realm should be clean—no re-assessment, no re-deciding, just focused execution and completion. ### Why This Structure Matters The power of ADD lies in three principles: **1. Sequential, Not Parallel**: You can't decide well without assessment. You can't execute well without decision. Trying to do all three simultaneously creates chaos and cognitive overwhelm. **2. Imbalances Cascade**: Poor assessment leads to poor decisions, which lead to poor execution. If you skip Assess and jump to Decide, you end up building the wrong thing. If you get stuck in Assess (analysis paralysis), nothing gets decided or done. If you live only in Do (perpetual task completion), you become a machine without direction. **3. Flow Over Completion**: Traditional productivity systems measure success by tasks completed. ADD measures success by balanced flow through realms. A day spent entirely in Assess (deep exploration) can be more valuable than a day of frantic task completion—if that's what the situation calls for. This philosophy isn't just theoretical. It's shaped how I've lived for 15 years, how I built my business, how I create content, how I make life decisions (/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years/). **It works across every domain** because it matches how human cognition actually operates—in phases, with clear transitions, requiring balance. ## The Vision: Claude Operating with ADD Awareness The idea crystallized during a particularly frustrating interaction. I was exploring blog post ideas (Assess realm), and Claude kept suggesting I "outline the structure and start writing" (pushing to Do realm). I needed exploratory support, not execution guidance. The mismatch was subtle but draining. I thought: *What if Claude could detect I'm in Assess realm and respond appropriately? What if it could notice when I'm stuck in analysis paralysis and gently guide me toward Decide? What if it structured responses differently based on which realm I'm in?* The vision expanded to three integration levels: **Level 1: Implicit Operation** – Claude detects realms, identifies imbalances, and structures responses appropriately, all beneath the surface. You benefit without consciously thinking about ADD. **Level 2: Explicit Guidance** – When helpful, Claude makes realm transitions visible, reflects patterns back to you, thus teaching ADD through natural interaction. **Level 3: Tool Integration** – The framework also shapes file creation, code development, research processes, and project management automatically. This wasn't about making Claude explain ADD or quiz me on framework principles. It was about **deep cognitive integration**—making ADD Claude's operating system, not an add-on feature. ## The Process: Teaching Claude Its Own Enhancement Here's where it gets meta: I used Claude itself to create the ADD integration. And more than that, I used ADD methodology to structure the process. ### Assess: Understanding the Challenge I started by exploring what "ADD-aware Claude" would actually mean: - How do you teach an AI to detect realms from language patterns? - What are the markers of Assess vs. Decide vs. Do realm language? - How do you identify imbalances algorithmically? - What does realm-appropriate response structure look like? - How do you make interventions helpful rather than intrusive? I shared my original blog posts about ADD with Claude, explained the philosophy, and worked through examples. "If someone says 'I've been thinking about starting a blog, what are my options?'—that's Assess realm. How should you respond differently than if they said 'I've chosen to start a blog, how do I set it up?'" We explored dozens of scenarios, identifying patterns: - "What if…" = Assess - "Should I…" = Decide - "How do I…" = Do - Prolonged exploration without progression = Analysis paralysis - Has information but won't commit = Decision avoidance - Jumps to execution without foundation = Skipping Assess/Decide ### Decide: Committing to Architecture After thorough assessment, I had to decide: What's the actual implementation strategy? The key decision: **Create a comprehensive "mega prompt"** that operates at the meta-cognitive level. Not a prompt that *uses* ADD, but a prompt that makes ADD *how Claude thinks*. Architecture decisions: - The mega prompt would be a system-level integration document - It would include realm detection patterns, imbalance signatures, response templates - It would emphasize natural operation (framework stays invisible unless relevant) - It would support fractal application (micro to macro scales) - It would honor the philosophy (decisions as creative acts, completions as livelines) I also decided on multiple integration methods: - Custom instructions for always-on operation - Per-conversation activation for specific projects - `.claude` files for project-level integration - Memory system integration for cross-conversation continuity ### Do: Building the Integration With clear decisions made, execution flowed naturally. Working with Claude, I created: **1. ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT.md** – The core integration document (~8000 words) that teaches Claude: - Core ADD philosophy and principles - Realm definitions with boundaries and restrictions - Detection patterns for each realm and imbalance type - Response structuring strategies by realm - Fractal application across scales - Example interactions demonstrating good and poor responses - Cognitive load management for ADHD support **2. ADD_TECHNICAL_INTEGRATION.md** – Deep technical implementation guide covering: - Multiple integration layers (configuration, MCP servers, memory systems) - Preprocessing pipeline concepts - Tool restriction patterns by realm - Testing frameworks and validation metrics - Integration with existing addTaskManager MCP server (https://github.com/dragosroua/addtaskmanager-mcp-server) (which is still work in progress at the moment, but somehow usable) **3. ADD_QUICK_REFERENCE.md** – Practical guide with: - Quick realm identification cheat sheet - Common imbalance patterns and interventions - Eight detailed test scenarios with expected responses - Response templates by realm - Transition phrases for guiding between realms **4. Complete GitHub repository structure** – Reference implementation with examples, setup guides, troubleshooting. The irony wasn't lost on me: I used ADD methodology to create ADD integration for Claude. The framework guided its own implementation. ## Implementation: From Desktop to Daily Workflow With the mega prompt complete, I began integrating it into my actual workflow—first testing in Claude Desktop, then into Claude Code projects where I do my daily development and content work. ### Initial Testing: Claude Desktop I started conservatively, loading the mega prompt at the beginning of conversations: ``` Load ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT.md and operate with ADD framework awareness throughout this conversation. ``` The first test was a blog SEO project. I was exploring link building equity, after already identfying link sinks and creating the templates for link updating and flow (classic Decide realm work). **What I noticed immediately**: Claude's responses were more expansive. It asked questions that deepened exploration rather than pushing toward decisions. When I mentioned "I'm not sure which direction to take," instead of "Well, let's outline option A," it said "What draws you to this topic in the first place? What would success feel like?" It was subtle. Almost invisible. But it *felt* different—like the AI was meeting me where I was, not where it assumed I should be. ### The Analysis Paralysis Test The real test came when I deliberately induced analysis paralysis. I asked for blog topic ideas, then kept asking for "just a few more options" over and over—mimicking the pattern I used to fall into before ADD. Around the fifth request for more ideas, Claude intervened: *"You've gathered substantial insight over several exchanges. Sometimes continued exploration becomes a way to avoid the weight of choosing. What feels like it wants your attention? Not to execute yet—just to explore what deciding might look like?"* I actually laughed. It had detected the pattern and intervened *exactly* the way I would guide a client stuck in Assess. The phrasing was perfect: acknowledging the value of assessment, recognizing the pattern, inviting the transition without forcing it. This wasn't generic AI trying to be helpful. This was ADD-informed guidance. ### Integration into Claude Code Projects Encouraged by desktop testing, I integrated ADD into my Claude Code projects via `.claude` files in project roots: ``` instructions: | Operate with Assess-Decide-Do (ADD) framework. Load ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT.md for detailed guidance. Detect realms, identify imbalances, guide balanced flow. context_files: - ../ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT.md ``` This is where the power really showed up. During development work, the ADD framework shaped: **File Creation**: Claude would explore requirements (Assess), discuss structure and approach (Decide), then create the actual files (Do)—instead of jumping straight to code. **Debugging**: When I'd hit a bug and start randomly trying fixes (Do realm chaos), Claude would pause: "Let's assess what's actually happening here before we try more solutions." **Feature Development**: The framework prevented premature optimization. "I notice we're discussing implementation details, but haven't decided on the core architecture yet. Should we step back to Decide realm?" ### The Blog Linking Project The most recent ADD-aligned project was systematic internal linking for SEO. I explained the problem: 50 old posts need link additions to boost newer content. Claude's response was perfect ADD: - Detected I was in **Decide realm** (assessment done, decisions made, approaching execution) - Clarified remaining Decide-realm questions before moving to Do - Prevented execution friction by ensuring foundation was solid - Structured the conversation: "These are decided… these might need final decisions… then we can execute cleanly" We didn't jump straight to "here's the code to modify files." We finished Decide phase *completely*, then execution flowed without friction. ## The Unexpected Discovery: Smoothness and Empathy Here's what I didn't predict: **ADD integration makes Claude feel more empathic.** I don't mean anthropomorphizing. I don't think Claude is an actual person. I mean something specific about the interaction quality. Let me break down what I actually experienced: ### Cognitive Smoothness **Reduced Friction**: There's no more fighting against misaligned responses. When I'm in Assess, I get exploratory support. When I'm in Decide, I get decision support. When I'm in Do, I get execution guidance. The AI meets me where I am. **Cognitive Alignment**: The ADD framework matches how my mind actually works—in phases, with transitions, requiring balance. When Claude operates with this awareness, there's a resonance. It feels like being understood. **Flow State Access**: Traditional AI interaction has constant micro-interruptions—misaligned responses, having to re-explain context, clarifying intent. ADD integration removes these friction points, making it easier to enter flow states during work. ### Relational Smoothness **Visible Understanding**: When Claude detects my realm, I *feel seen*. It's similar to talking with someone who notices "you seem to be exploring options" vs. someone who just answers questions literally. **Appropriate Support**: There's something deeply satisfying about getting the type of support you actually need. It creates trust. I'm not managing the AI's responses anymore; it's genuinely assisting. **Co-Creation Feeling**: Working with ADD-aware Claude feels collaborative rather than transactional. I'm not extracting information from a tool; I'm thinking alongside an intelligence that understands my process. This relational dimension surprised me. I expected technical benefits—cleaner workflows, better results. I didn't expect the interaction to feel *smoother* and more *relatable*. But it makes sense: when tool and human are cognitively aligned, the collaboration naturally feels more empathic. It's not that Claude has feelings. It's that ADD integration creates *cognitive empathy*—the AI understands not just what I'm asking, but where I am in my thinking process, and responds accordingly. ## Technical Deep Dive: How It Actually Works For those who want to implement this themselves, here's the technical architecture: ### The Meta-Cognitive Layer The core innovation is operating at the **meta-cognitive level**. Traditional prompts tell Claude what to do with content. The ADD mega prompt tells Claude **how to think about requests**. Every interaction is processed through an ADD lens: ``` 1. ASSESS (internal): - What realm is the user in? - What realm does this request belong to? - Is there a realm mismatch or imbalance? - What information is needed? - What are possible response approaches? 2. DECIDE (internal): - Which approach serves the user's current realm? - What tools/resources should be allocated? - How should the response be structured? - Should I guide between realms? 3. DO (external): - Execute the chosen response strategy - Deliver realm-appropriate content - Complete the interaction ``` This meta-processing happens *before* Claude generates its response. It shapes the foundation of the interaction. ### Realm Detection Patterns Claude identifies realms through language pattern analysis: **Assess Indicators**: - "I'm thinking about…" - "What are my options…" - "Help me understand…" - "What if I…" - Exploratory, open-ended questions - Information requests without commitment pressure **Decide Indicators**: - "Should I…" - "I need to choose between…" - "What's the priority…" - "I want to commit to…" - Questions seeking commitment guidance **Do Indicators**: - "How do I actually…" - "I need to complete…" - "Walk me through steps…" - "I'm working on…" - Active execution language ### Imbalance Detection The framework identifies common imbalance patterns: **Analysis Paralysis**: - Repeated information requests without progression - "I need more data" cycling - 5+ messages in Assess without moving to Decide **Decision Avoidance**: - User has sufficient information but won't commit - Constant postponing or requesting more options - Fear-based language around choosing **Execution Shortcuts**: - Jumping to "how do I…" without context - Skipping evaluation phase - Pattern of incomplete projects **Perpetual Doing**: - Constant task focus without reflection - Completion obsession without assessment - Burnout indicators ### Response Structuring by Realm Claude now structures responses differently based on detected realm: **Assess Realm Responses**: - Expansive, exploratory content - Multiple perspectives and possibilities - No premature narrowing or decision pressure - Language of possibility: "could," "might," "imagine" - Questions that deepen assessment **Decide Realm Responses**: - Frame choices and trade-offs clearly - Honor the weight of decisions - Support values-based decision-making - Language of intention: "choose," "commit," "priority" - Validate creative power in deciding **Do Realm Responses**: - Clear, actionable steps - Support completion and finishing - Minimize re-assessment or re-decision - Language of execution: "next," "now," "complete" - Celebrate finishing as creating new starting points ### Integration Methods **Method 1: Custom Instructions** (always-on) Add ADD framework awareness to Claude settings. Every conversation operates with this foundation. **Method 2: Per-Conversation Loading** Load the mega prompt at conversation start for specific projects requiring ADD alignment. **Method 3: Project-Level `.claude` Files** Embed ADD framework in project configuration for automatic loading in Claude Code. **Method 4: Memory System Integration** Store ADD framework preference in memory for cross-conversation continuity. Each method has trade-offs. I use a hybrid: custom instructions for baseline awareness, explicit loading for intensive ADD work, `.claude` files for development projects. ### Tool and Artifact Integration The framework extends to tool use and file creation: **File Creation** follows ADD cycle: - Assess: Explore requirements, discuss possibilities - Decide: Agree on structure and approach - Do: Create the actual file **Code Development** respects realm boundaries: - Assess: Understand problem space, explore approaches - Decide: Choose architecture, commit to strategy - Do: Write actual code **Research** maintains flow: - Assess: Gather information widely - Decide: Narrow focus to key sources - Do: Extract and synthesize This integration means ADD shapes *everything* Claude does, not just conversational responses. ## Implementation Guide: Try This Yourself Ready to experience ADD-enhanced Claude? Here's your path: ### Quick Start (5 Minutes) **Step 1**: Get the mega prompt - Clone the repository: `https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-assess-decide-do-mega-prompt` - The essential file is `docs/ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT.md` **Step 2**: Choose integration method **Option A – Per-Conversation** (easiest): Start any Claude conversation with: ``` Load ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT.md and operate with ADD framework awareness throughout this conversation. ``` **Option B – Custom Instructions** (always-on): 1. Go to Claude Settings ? Custom Instructions 2. Add: ``` Framework: Operate with Assess-Decide-Do (ADD) life management framework. - Detect user's realm (Assess/Decide/Do) - Identify imbalances (analysis paralysis, decision avoidance, execution shortcuts) - Guide balanced flow between realms - Reference ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT.md when needed ``` **Option C – Project Level** (development work): Create `.claude` file in project root: ``` instructions: | Operate with ADD framework awareness. Load ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT.md for guidance. context_files: - path/to/ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT.md ``` **Step 3**: Test with scenarios – try these test cases from the repository: 1. Exploratory request (Assess test) 2. Prolonged exploration (analysis paralysis test) 3. Decision support request (Decide test) 4. Execution request (Do test) ### What to Expect **Immediate effects**: - Claude's responses feel more aligned with where you are - Less friction in conversations - Appropriate support for each phase of work **Within a few sessions**: - You'll notice realm patterns in your own workflow - Imbalance detection becomes valuable (not intrusive) - The framework starts feeling natural rather than imposed **Over weeks**: - Workflow balance improves - Analysis paralysis becomes visible and addressable - Perpetual doing reduces - Work feels more intentional and less reactive **The surprising effect**: - Claude feels more empathic and relatable - Interactions feel collaborative rather than transactional - There's a smoothness that's hard to articulate but easy to feel ## Test Results: My Experience After Integration I've been using ADD-enhanced Claude across multiple projects. Here's what changed: ### Quantitative Observations - **Analysis paralysis occurrences**: I genuinely feel like I'm continuously improving, no gaps - **Project completion rate**: Increased (more things actually finish) - **Context-switching friction**: Noticeably decreased - **Time spent clarifying intent**: Cut by approximately 60% - **Workflow balance**: Visible improvement (less pure "doing," more balanced across realms) ### Qualitative Experience **Cognitive dimension**: - Mental fatigue reduced during long work sessions - Flow states easier to access and maintain - Clearer thinking about project structure - Less cognitive overhead managing AI responses **Relational dimension**: - Conversations feel more natural - Sense of being understood rather than just responded to - Trust in Claude's guidance increased - Less frustration, more collaboration **Workflow dimension**: - Projects progress more smoothly - Fewer false starts (better assessment before execution) - Cleaner decisions (proper Decide phase before Do) - More intentional rather than reactive work patterns ### Specific Project Examples **Blog Content Planning**: Previously chaotic (jumping between ideas, analysis paralysis common). Now flows: Assess broadly ? Decide on angles ? Do writing. Claude's realm-appropriate support makes each phase feel natural. **Code Development**: Used to jump straight to implementation. Now: Assess requirements thoroughly ? Decide architecture ? Do implementation. Fewer rewrites, cleaner code. **Business Strategy**: The biggest impact. ADD framework prevents rushed decisions. Proper assessment phase means decisions are grounded. Execution is cleaner because foundation is solid. ### The "Smoothness" Factor The hardest thing to quantify is the most important: interactions just *feel better*. There's a quality to ADD-enhanced conversations that's difficult to articulate but immediately noticeable. It's like the difference between: - Talking to someone who listens to respond vs. listens to understand - Using a tool vs. collaborating with a partner - Managing a system vs. working within a flow The framework creates cognitive alignment, and cognitive alignment feels empathic. Not because the AI has emotions, but because it understands *process*—and process understanding creates relational smoothness. ## The Bigger Picture: What This Means for AI Collaboration This experiment suggests something important about human-AI interaction: **frameworks matter more than features**. Claude was already powerful before ADD integration. It could write, code, analyze, research. But it lacked *cognitive alignment* with how humans actually work. Adding that alignment didn't make Claude smarter—it made Claude more *relatable*. This has implications: **For individuals**: You can shape AI collaboration by teaching frameworks that match your thinking. ADD works for me because I've lived it for 15 years. Your framework might be different. The principle is the same: teach the AI your cognitive structure, and interaction quality improves dramatically. **For productivity systems**: Traditional task management treats "doing" as the only metric. ADD proves that flow between assessment, decision, and execution matters more than completion rate. Teaching AI this perspective creates better productivity support than optimizing task-checking. **For AI development**: As AI becomes more sophisticated, cognitive framework integration will matter more than raw capability. An AI that understands *where you are* in your process is more valuable than an AI that can do more things. **For ADHD and neurodivergence**: Realm separation manages cognitive load. ADD integration makes Claude more ADHD-friendly by reducing overwhelm through clear phase boundaries. This isn't about accommodating neurodivergence—it's about building systems that match human cognition better for everyone. ## The Ubiquitous Application of ADD One of the most interesting discoveries has been seeing ADD apply to domains I didn't initially consider: **Relationships**: Assess (understand dynamics) ? Decide (commit to changes) ? Do (live the changes) **Health**: Assess (evaluate current state) ? Decide (commit to practices) ? Do (execute routines) **Creative Work**: Assess (explore possibilities) ? Decide (choose direction) ? Do (create output) **Learning**: Assess (gather information) ? Decide (focus areas) ? Do (practice/application) The framework is genuinely universal because it maps to fundamental human cognitive processes. Teaching Claude this universality means it can provide ADD-aligned support across *any* domain, not just task management. ## What's Next: Evolution and Community This integration is a starting point, not an endpoint. The ADD framework continues evolving through use, and the Claude integration will evolve with it. **Near-term evolution**: - Domain-specific ADD implementations (coding, writing, research, business) - Tighter integration with addTaskManager app via MCP (that's my number one priority for now) - Community feedback on realm detection accuracy - Calibration of intervention timing and tone **Long-term possibilities**: - ADD-aware agent systems (specialized agents per realm, think education, research) - Deeper memory integration (persistent realm state across conversations) - Framework evolution based on aggregate usage patterns - Custom ADD variations for different cognitive styles **Community exploration**: - How does ADD work for different neurodivergent profiles? - What are the best integration methods for different use cases? - How can the framework be adapted while preserving core principles? - What new imbalance patterns emerge at scale? ## Conclusion: The Power of Cognitive Alignment Fifteen years ago, I created ADD because I was tired of productivity systems that treated humans like task machines. I wanted a framework that honored the full spectrum of how we work: the dreaming, the deciding, the doing, and the vital balance between them. Building addTaskManager proved the framework could work at the technical level—realm boundaries enforced programmatically, balanced flow measurable through "Zen Status." Integrating ADD into Claude proved something deeper: **cognitive frameworks can be taught to AI, and when they are, the quality of collaboration changes fundamentally.** The result is smoother, more relatable, almost empathic AI interaction. Not because Claude has emotions, but because cognitive alignment creates natural collaboration. **The technical benefits are clear**: better realm detection, appropriate support, cleaner workflows, reduced friction. **The relational benefits are surprising**: feeling understood rather than just responded to, collaborative rather than transactional, empathic rather than mechanical. **The philosophical validation is profound**: ADD works because it matches human cognition. Teaching it to AI proves the framework's universality while creating genuinely better tools. If you're interested in experiencing this yourself, everything is open-source and available: **GitHub Repository**: https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-assess-decide-do-mega-prompt (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-assess-decide-do-mega-prompt) Inside you'll find: - The complete ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT.md - Technical integration guides - Quick reference documentation - Example configurations - Test scenarios Start with the Quick Start section, try the test scenarios, and see if you experience the same smoothness I did. The framework has shaped my life for 15 years. Now it's shaping how I collaborate with AI. And the collaboration feels surprisingly… human. *About the Integration: Developed collaboratively between Dragos Roua and Claude (Anthropic) in November 2025, the ADD Claude integration represents one of the first attempts to teach an AI a comprehensive cognitive framework for human collaboration.* First published on: November 13, 2025 ### ⚡ Assess-Decide-Do Framework AI Evolution Part 7 of 11 View all 11 posts → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) ← Previous Design & Meaning Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) Next → Skills Architecture Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) 2. Evolution: Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) 3. Stage 1: Assess: Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) 4. Stage 2: Decide: Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) 5. Stage 3: Do: Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) 6. Design & Meaning: Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) 7. AI Evolution: Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) 8. Skills Architecture: Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) 9. Ecosystem Expansion: From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) 10. Always-On Agent: Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) 11. Multi-Agent Council: LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fsupercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside%2F&text=Supercharging%20Claude%20with%20the%20Assess%20Decide%20Do%20Framework%20%E2%80%93%20Mega%20Prompt%20Inside&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fsupercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fsupercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside%2F&t=Supercharging%20Claude%20with%20the%20Assess%20Decide%20Do%20Framework%20%E2%80%93%20Mega%20Prompt%20Inside https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fsupercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside%2F&title=Supercharging%20Claude%20with%20the%20Assess%20Decide%20Do%20Framework%20%E2%80%93%20Mega%20Prompt%20Inside Previous ### 55 Life Lessons I learned in 55 Years (/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years/) Next ### Asia for Digital Nomads – A Primer (/asia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life URL: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life/ Published: 2009-12-02 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 532 Categories: Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness Tags: 100 ways series, assess, list post > Revisiting this in October 2025, more than 15 years after, feels a bit surreal. Not only because the sheer size of a list post like this would be hard to imagine nowadays, when TikTok is king and attention is incredibly scarce. But also because each and every one of the topics listed below proved to be valid. A decade and a half later, all this inverse psychology stuff is still real. Especially the last point. A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post about 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). The post got featured almost instantly on Delicious, Reddit and StumbleUpon. Since then, it gets a few hundreds hits every day and a new comment every once in while (although it's more than 2 months old now). But re-reading it the other day I spotted a slight imbalance. Couldn't tell at first what it was, but it was an imbalance. Like a picture with too much pink. Then it hit me: life is not pink. It's rough and challenging and filled with tests and temptations. And this is what makes it beautiful, after all. Living a better life stems most of the time from making a lot of mistakes and learning from them, rather than from avoiding challenges. Better try and fail than isolate yourself in a sea of delusion and non-action. As pink as that sea might be. So, I realized I know at least 100 ways to screw up your life too. And I also realized that this list would make an honest companion to the first blog post. Like a mirror or something. Oh, and if you wonder, the following 100 ways to screw up your life were personally verified at some point in my life by yours truly. And now I'm pretty happy about that :-). **[Update: The ebook based on this is out and hot (already translated into Korean and Farsi). Scroll down for more info.]** Without further ado, let's start: ## 1. Regret Stuff Feel sorry about what happened to you. Spend time and energy on things that aren't even there, but you feel are "unsolved yet". Keep your focus on the past and ignore the present. This is what regrets do: they tie you down to things in the past that doesn't matter anymore. Well, you can't do anything about them anyway: accept and move on. ## 2. Accept to Be Lied To Even if you know you're lied. Accept to be told lies in the name of something "bigger" than you: a family, a career, anything. Eat it up every day while knowing the truth and still accepting that other, twisted reality, hoping at some point things will go better. They won't. And there is no such thing as something bigger than you. ## 3. Stay in the Wrong Partnership Wrong partnerships may be both personal or professional. You may think it's just temporary or even "it might be good for you" but you're just deluding yourself. Wrong partnerships are nothing but swamps: they'll slowly drag you down. If you don't get out of them the moment you realize they're wrong for you, you'll become one with the swamp. ## 4. Succumb to Addictions Make them "bigger" than you. Call it alcohol or just an addiction to fight. Call it work, as in workaholic, or eating much more than you need. Call it drugs or just an addiction to a person (co-dependence). Giving in to addictions is a conscious act of surrender. You accept to lose a battle. And then another one. Slowly, you'll going to lose the war. ## 5. Dream Without Taking Action Daydreaming is good. It opens your heart to new universes and goals. But daydreaming without action is useless. Sitting on your fat ass while waiting for all your intentions to manifest, without taking the smallest action for moving things forward, won't change anything. Oh, sorry, it *will* change something: you ass will be fatter. ## 6. Sleep More Than You Need Because you're too tired of doing the same stupid things again while you're awake. Or because you're avoiding your real life, searching for a shallow refuge under the pillow. And, of course, lose all the opportunities you could embrace while you're sleeping. Becoming an early riser (/an-early-riser-is-a-failed-late-riser/), on the other hand, is more than often priceless. ## 7. Play The Guilt Card If you did something wrong, instead of a) assessing what was really wrong, b) learn the lesson and c) move on, play the guilt card. Feel guilty for all the bad things you did, until you start feeling guilty for *all* the things you did. Playing the guilt card is closely related to religion, but it can occur outside religion too. Just get over it. Guilt can't pay your rent. ## 8. Victimize Yourself If you lost something, act like you've lost everything. Be a victim. Ask for other people's compassion. Play like every people you meet makes whatever omelet he wants from you. Victimizing yourself in exchange of compassion is far more common than you think. It's contagious too. Just remember you may lose a battle, but that's not making you a victim. ## 9. Avoid Introspection As difficult as it seems, every once in a while you should step back and interview yourself (/33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself/). Bite the bullet and ask yourself a bunch of tough questions. Better give a wrong answer now to a difficult question, but move on with your life, than ignoring what's going on with you and remain stuck. Introspection always pays forward. ## 10. Work Harder Than You Can And ruin your health while pretending you're sacrificing for the good of the … (fill in the blanks: family, friends, boss, career, planet). You have physical limits and usually that's a good thing. Breaking up your physical limits in the name of a stupid cause will screw up your life faster than you think. And for a long time. Work smarter (/debt-is-death/), not harder. *Yes! Believe it or not, I did all of those 100. In fact, we all did many of them, only not for enough time to really screw things up. That doesn’t mean we can’t do it now. Having a lists of things to avoid in order to live a better life is more than often easier than having a list of things to do. We, as living human beings, seem to be more sensitive to interdiction than to incentives.* 106 pages Get it on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WE7AA8) for only $6.99 as a Kindle eBook ## 11. Don't Play Because it's stupid, it wastes your time and energy and it doesn't give you any measurable results. Don't play and lose the only divine thing that you get for free. Don't play and let your inner child become a gray adult with heavy topics to discuss every minute. Don't play and watch how your life gets seriously screwed up. ## 12. Stop Learning Because you already know too much or because what you will learn will not give you any competitive advantage in the narrow niche you're playing now. Stop learning because there's so much to discover that you won't cover it even in a dozen lifetimes. Stop learning (/learning-how-to-learn/) because it gets so difficult and it takes you out of your comfort zone. Yeah, why bother? Screw it! ## 13. Gossip Talk bad about other people. That's a 100% sure way to screw up your relationships, your social credibility, your personal values. The way you talk about people often determines the way you act towards them. Gossip is a heavy weapon and, no matter how skilled you get at using it, it always destroys its owner. Do it often. It will accelerate the decay process. ## 14. Aim To Be Famous And do all the stupid things other people expect from famous people in the process. Beg for attention, hunt the hype, dress like a douche. Cheat your friends for the sake of some media visibility or discard your personal life. Being famous is not at all a guarantee that you will automatically live a fulfilling life. Most of the time, the opposite is true. ## 15. Follow The Money While this could be a very precious advice for an entrepreneur, living your entire life in a continuous chase of money will most likely screw you up. Hunting money is difficult because money is a very volatile concept. A big part of it lives only in your mind. And money can only buy things. See what you can do with a bank check in a morgue. Pretty much nothing. ## 16. Don't Make Friends Stay alone. Don't connect. Because you're ashamed of something in your behavior or look. Or because you think you're too good for them. Whatever the reason, just stay away for people, and, by all means, don't make new friends. And you will get the most exquisite place at your own drama movie, in which, you guessed, your life eventually gets screwed. ## 17. Fight Your Enemies Which comes down to first make and then keep some enemies. Which is all round stupid. Enemies are a mental construct. You can't have enemies unless you're ready to give away your power to somebody else. Nobody can really hurt you unless you allow this to happen. Fighting your enemies is in fact feeding your enemies. ## 18. Be Lazy Like in not doing any type of work. Totally avoiding responsibilities. Waiting for others to do stuff for you. Staying away from anything that might remotely put you in the position to actually do something helpful for other people. Laziness is a disease in itself. Allowing it to spread into your life is like inviting an illness to take over your body. ## 19. Don't Take Risks Live a cozy life and always keep it into your comfort zone. Don't get out of there. Taking risks is… well, risky. You can get hurt. You can lose your money. You can fail. But taking risks (/lrlr-versus-hrhr/) is also the only way you can grow. There is no real growth without risk. There is no victory without even starting a battle. There is no better life without challenges. ## 20. Be Selfish Do things for yourself and for yourself only. Act like you're the only one in the Universe. Don't share anything. Aim to be the richest, most powerful and influential person in the world. Selfishness is an incredibly effective limitation factor. You will become the richest person in the world, if you really want to, only your world will become incredibly small: you'll be its only inhabitant. ## 21. Gamble Start fighting with randomness. Hope that one lucky hit will end up all your troubles. Gambling is really funny as an entertainment activity, but once you make it the core of your life, you're sinking into a swamp of despair. You can't use gambling to solve your problems, you're simply not designed like this. You're designed to create and enjoy the process. ## 22. Be Stuck in a Job You Hate Because it pays well. Or because you're too scared to look for another one. Or because somebody told you when you were a kid that you have to have a job. You spend more than half of your lifetime at your job so if you chose to stay in a job you hate, you'll surely end up hating your entire life. In my experience, it happens rather sooner than later. ## 23. Don't Listen Pretend you know everything. Or act like you don't need any advice, suggestion or feed-back. Don't listen to your partner, to your friends, to your intuition. And lose all the new perspectives you can get, all the fresh answers you never thought of and all the opportunities that could arise. Don't listen and be prepared to face failure really fast. ## 24. Lie To People Because you want to get something from them. Because you find pleasure in deceiving them. Because you think it's just an innocent play. Or because you can't stand telling the truth. Lying to other people is an addiction because it gives you a temporary feeling of relief: you passed this challenge, now you can move on. Only you can't, really. ## 25. Lie To Yourself Don't believe what you're feeling or experiencing. Avoid facing the truth and delude yourself. Live in a land of fantasies and hope everything will be great (or worse, if you're a pessimistic by nature). Just don't listen to your inner voice and succumb to social pressure, bad habits or negative emotions. Lying to yourself is a suicidal activity. ## 26. Don't Ask For Help And live like on a desert island, isolated and alone. It's ok to ask for help every once in a while. It's ok to be taken care of every once in a while. Just don't make a habit out of it and you'll be fine. But remember: you won't be able to cope with everything in your life just by yourself. You'll get by with a little help from your friends. 🙂 ## 27. Don't Exercise No need to become an athlete but if you're not taking care of your physical body, it won't take care of you either. Avoiding physical activities, as small or insignificant they may seem, it will slowly degrade your physical performance and make you prone to illness. And if you just think how easy it is to take a walk in the park… ## 28. Eat Junk From the same category as the one above: feed yourself crap and you'll produce crap. And I'm not talking about the residual crap we're all producing in the process, I'm talking about the direct result of the process. We're very much influenced by what we eat and any imbalance in this area will be visible instantly. Junk food creates junk life. ## 29. Don't Spend Time in Nature We're pretty far from creating a perfectly balanced artificial living environment. Our cities are sucking up our power instead of feeding us energy. We're still children of the nature. Avoiding nature in the name of a super-civilized lifestyle will subtly deprive us from one of the most forceful sources of energy, slowly weakening our strengths. ## 30. Don't Clean Up Your House How not cleaning up your house can screw up your life? Well, it will not screw you directly, unless you chose to have a date with the love of your life in your messy house, in which case your chances will dramatically decrease. But, generally speaking, it will set up the field for other bad things to happen, like procrastination or just plain, old laziness. ## 31. Procrastinate Postpone tasks. Avoid doing stuff. Daydream. Procrastinate and delay everything you have to do. That will surely help screw up your professional relationships, your personal life and your self esteem. If you want to became a master in procrastination, here's a small tutorial which will even help you procrastinate in a more productive way (/7-tips-to-help-you-procrastinate-in-a-more-productive-way/). ## 32. Spend More Than You Can Afford Because you don't have any idea what money is or just because you want to keep up with the Joneses. Spending more than you can afford will not only sink you in debt, but it will make it really difficult to get out of there. It's not how much you have but how much you are. Not to mention that spending more than you have will never make you rich. ## 33. Limit Your Social Life Stop going out. Isolate yourself in the safety of a job, a limited family life or a perpetual and meaningless daydreaming. We're social animals, even though sometimes we're not that good at it. If you stop going out you're cutting up your feed-back loop, slowly going down in a spiral of self-sufficiency and mediocrity. Get out, see people! ## 34. Chose a Career Instead of a Lifestyle Too often we're planning our life career-centric. We're making all the necessary steps for acquiring skills, titles and diplomas. We try to fit in a more or less guaranteed career. What we forget in the process is that a career is not identical with our life. At the end of the day we often ask ourselves who was the person who talked with our mouth… ## 35. Treat People Like Assets Instead of treating them like human beings, with their own lives and expectations. This is especially true if you live by the one above, judging your own life expectations in business terms. People are not assets, like a computer. They have lives and hopes and ups and downs. Assets are dead, people are alive, with all the good or bad that comes with being alive. ## 36. Chose (And Stay In) The Wrong Friendships You know they're the wrong ones when you have to do things you don't really want, just to be accepted in their circle. You know, drinking your life every night or just dressing up in a certain way. A real friend will never put any condition on your relationship. If you don't have the courage to step out of this bad circle, expect the circle to eat you. ## 37. Reject Criticism You don't know everything in the world. So, instead of rejecting criticism, you should accept it. Maybe they won't be always right about you, but at least you'll have a feed-back loop. Many people fear criticism but in my experience this fear is not justified. Be thankful for your critics, it means you're still worth something. And it also means you're improvable. ## 38. Buy Your Relationships Substitute the warmness of a normal relationship with the practical coldness of money. While this will certainly ease your day to day living, it will deeply affect your emotional level. Many marriages are putting so much strain on this aspect that they succeed in destroying any trace of true emotional bond between the partners. Just live and let live. ## 39. Follow The Rules Eat everything they feed you, talk like they teach you and, by all means, don't swear when you feel like. Just don't exercise your own choosing abilities and you'll soon become a perfect social puppet, ready to be manipulated with invisible strings by the first puppeteer who finds you. Following rules should always be backed up with your own judgment. ## 40. Don't Manage Your Money We still live in a world where money plays an important role. Several generations from now maybe money won't be necessary, but, until then, you should be able to manage it now. That means making day to day living up to investing or building a lifestyle. Just pay attention to it and manage it, that enough will save you from some nasty troubles. ## 41. Promise More Than You Can Do Because you're ashamed to admit you can't do more, or because you hope things will magically get better. Promising more than you can cope with is often perceived as a way to push the destiny to obey your wishes. I think it's the other way around. The more your promise without cover, the more you piss off your fate. ## 42. Don't Keep Your Promises Not keeping promises is another way to say to the world: "I'm not a reliable person, please go away from me. I may be very good at promises and make you believe I can offer a lot, but instead, I'm just lying to you." Better not promise at all than not keeping your promises. ## 43. Overdo Improve where there's no improvement needed. Strive to do things nobody really wants. Do more than you have to just to show off. Many people think that going way over what they are expecting to, in order to impress or just hunt for a promotion, will make their life easier. Too bad that when you get that promotion you'll be too dried out to enjoy. ## 44. Quit Quit doing what you're doing best. Quit your friends when they need you. Quit your partner because you got bored. Just quit. Instead of staying there and do what you have to do, just run away, cover your eyes and pretend it never happened. Being a quitter is one of the most relaxing ways of living. It's also the safest way to screw up your life too. ## 45. Say Only Yes Be submissive even if you don't agree. Accept others around just because you're too scared to tell them they are annoying.. And, by all means, don't you upset anyone. Saying only "yes" it's incredibly disempowering. You can't say "yes" to anything in your life. At some point you'll have to disagree (/7-ways-to-say-no/). Be happy about it: it's a healthy thing. ## 46. Say Only No Be a naysayer. Disagree no matter what. Tell them you know better. Or just don't accept anything around you because you have such "high" standards. Playing the "No" card every time will create higher and higher walls around you. Being a naysayer will be as bad as being a yes-man. Balance your "No"'s and "Yes"'s with your own judgment. ## 47. Be A Control Freak Try to control everything in your life. Your happiness. Other people happiness. Your colleagues or employees. Your emotions. The weather. Being a control freak will eliminate any trace of authenticity in your life. It could drastically improve your discipline and self-awareness, but without authenticity you're as screwed as a robot. ## 48. Walk Your Life In Somebody Else's Shoes Be somebody else. Chose a role model and stick with it until the boundaries of your own personality are melting and you don't know who you really are. When you answer you will speak his answer. When you chose, you will make his choices. Chose to be somebody else and leave your true life behind. While totally screwing it, of course. ## 49. Be Cheap Try to bargain everything in your life. Negotiate while shopping up to the point every salesman will be pissed off and give you stuff for free. Do this for your relationships too. And, in the end, without even noticing, you'll become cheap too. Things of value requires value. Looking only for cheap relationships will lower your market value too. ## 50. Abuse Others Overuse. Dry out. Obtain things by twisting people arms. If possible, make it in the name of a higher cause. Take other people resources. Doesn't make any difference if the resources are emotional or material, just take them without asking. Only because you can. And before you'll know it you'll become the first target of your own abusive behavior. ## 51. Accept To Be Abused Be somebody else's toy. Because you "can't do better". Or because "you deserve it". Or because "this is how it is and it can't be changed". I know you won't agree but accepting abuse is on the same vibration with abusing. Although in certain contexts it seems you can't escape being abused, you always have a choice. Always. ## 52. Try To Please Everybody And lose every single trace of authenticity (/what-you-dont-want-to-know-about-prostitution/) and originality you have. There are billions of people on this Earth and during your lifetime you will meet several dozens of thousands. How can you possibly imagine you will be able to please each and every one of them? Unless all you need from this life is a perfectly numb mediocrity. ## 53. Feed The Trolls At some point in your life you will meet the trolls. People who live to disagree no matter what. People who make a living by talking bad about other people. If you're up to something in your life, they will spot you. The biggest mistake you can do is to feed them, to talk to them and make them believe they're important. Don't. Let them talk and starve. ## 54. Don't Look People In The Eyes Eye contact is fundamental for relationships. How do you feel about people who are talking to you while looking in a completely different direction? Well, this is exactly how they feel too about you, without eye contact. Without looking in the eyes of your conversation partner, you're talking to the ghosts in your head. Sooner than you think, you'll talk only to them. ## 55. Don't Believe In Signs The universe is giving you hints. All the time. With patience and trust you can learn how to read them. It's nothing supernatural, just a way of living in the flow, instead of feeling disconnected and powerless. Ignoring the "signs" it's like going to a live concert with your ears clogged. You may not get a cold, but you're also going to miss all the fun. ## 56. Don't Travel Stay at home. Don't leave your city, your country, your continent. Don't expose yourself to new situations, to new cultures, to new people. Don't experience the thrills of discovery, don't risk your life among perfect strangers. Without traveling, you're limiting your possibilities and completely screw your life by total and undeniable boredom (/how-and-why-we-get-bored/). ## 57. Don't Read Books No. They're evil. They can open your mind, challenge your creativity and feed your curiosity. Don't touch them. Reading books can be extremely dangerous for anyone settling for a boring, limited and tasteless life. So, if you plan to totally screw up your life, stay away from books. In some occasions, they alone can change your life completely. ## 58. Live by Assumptions Don't verify what they tell you or what you think it's true. Just assume it's right. Living by assumptions is a sign of weakness and lack of courage. Have the courage to face the things and find out the truth. If you don't do that, your reality will be affected the same way a house is affected by a faulty row of bricks. At the next earthquake, it will crumble. ## 59. Be Shy Don't express yourself because you fear other people reactions. Shyness is a social disease. And, as any other disease, it may be cured. If you think this is how you are and you can't be changed, you're letting your shyness to control your life, your opportunities, your relationships. It takes courage to use courage, so all you have to do is the first step. ## 60. Live By Habit Spend your life on autopilot. Don't get out of routine. Create a new habit for everything in your life, from eating to making love. And then give your consciousness away to those habits (/7-ways-to-break-a-habit/). Live outside new challenges. Sleepwalk from the second you wake up to the moment you go to bed. And you won't even recognize how screwed you are. ## 61. Avoid Mistakes Chose the fool proof way. Don't try something that could potentially lead to a mistake. Because, you know, your position may be compromised, or your career could suffer from it. Mistakes are in fact disguised opportunities. It feels bad when you're wrong, I know, but it feels even worse to realize that you didn't learn anything from it. ## 62. Pay Yourself Last Sacrifice your time, money and energy in a totally screwed altruism. Ignore your own needs and try to fulfill others needs just to receive some appreciation. You can't really give something unless you have it first. Becoming an altruist when you don't even have your own house or income is a sign of delusion. Pay yourself first (/pay-yourself-first/). ## 63. Hate Use all your energy to hate others. Because they have a different skin color, a different religion or just more resources than you. Hating uses the same process as love: it connects you with somebody else. But at the end of the connection hates puts destruction, while love puts union. Whenever you're hating, you're using your own power against you. ## 64. Be A Perfectionist Try to reach perfection instead of just being better (/perfect-versus-better/). In the process, screw up everybody around, including yourself. Perfection is a mind concept, it doesn't exist in real life. Perfection has everything you have, minus real life. All perfect things are dead things. So, aiming to be perfect in what you do or want to become is a dead end too. ## 65. Sabotage Yourself Self-sabotage is more powerful than you think. It works in such a subtle way that you may even take it as a normal act of thinking. Whenever you're close to a big achievement, watch your self-sabotaging (/self-sabotage/) reactions: are you ashamed of success? Afraid of it? Do you think successful people are bad? Congratulations, you're sabotaging yourself. ## 66. Waste Your Power On Useless Stuff Ok, you gathered enough power to do something great, but instead, you waste it on meaningless stuff. Welcome to the world of shallowness. Having power is not enough, you got to double it with consciousness and vision. Without these ingredients, your power will most likely diverge and decay, aimlessly pointed at things with no meaning (/wasted-power/). ## 67. Be Ungrateful Like in just avoiding saying "thank you", or "I'm glad we did this". Gratitude is a magnet, it attracts a lot of what you're associating it with. When you don't use gratitude, you let things floating away in a Brownian motion, totally random and out of your control. On the contrary, when you experiment gratitude (/the-gratitude-experiment/), you let things you're grateful for flow your way. Is that simple. ## 68. Think Bad About Yourself Instead of repeating to yourself that you are unable to do this or that, you may as well shoot yourself in the foot. Just by thinking you're no good, you'll actually become a person who is not good. You literally are what you think about you. The good news is you can dissolve those negative opinions (/how-to-deal-with-negative-opinions-about-yourself/). All you have to do is to first admit you have them. ## 69. Fake It Till You Make It There is this advice of "being in sync" with what you want, largely based on the Law of Attraction. While this is certainly a valuable approach, faking your desired goal will not bring it closer, on the contrary. What you should do is to try to feel comfortable in the skin of you new "you", not to *pretend* you're the new "you". The Universe always knows when you're lying. ## 70. Don't Manage Your Time Time is the only non-renewable resource you have. Not managing your time is almost as bad as not managing your money (/manage-your-time-as-you-manage-your-money/). Only worse :-). You can make more money later, but you can't create more time. Each and every second you have is a new chance. But if you don't stay on top of your schedule, somebody else will use *your* chances. ## 71. Solve The Wrong Problems Keep your focus on the wrong side of the problem. Like in how much you can save, instead of how much you can really gain. Inverse evaluation (/solving-the-wrong-problem/) is one of the trickiest things in our life. We tend to evaluate a thing by its opposite. Like being happy when we eliminate 2 kilos of trash from our house, instead of just keeping it clean day by day. ## 72. Be Judgmental Criticize constantly. Focus on the bad stuff. Don't even think to bring in the bright side of the things. Disapprove, be negative, hypercritical and deprecating. Reject any trace of appreciation or balance. In just a few weeks, your life will be totally screwed. Who wants around a guy who is never, ever able to see the full half of the glass? Nobody. ## 73. Complain About everything, everywhere, every time you get a chance. Complaining is another powerful magnet, just like gratitude. But instead of attracting the good stuff, it attracts its subject. Basically, the more you complain about something, the more of that something you are getting. If you want to fail at something, start by complaining about it. ## 74. Accept Crap Instead of just rejecting the thing you don't want, take it up. Instead of making your point, expressing your desires and throwing away everything you don't really want, accept crap. And you'll get it. Most of the time the only reason we get crap in our lives is our express authorization: please, give me more. Sometimes, all you have to do is to say "stop it". ## 75. Take It Personally Like you are the center of the Universe and everybody has something against you. Take it personally at the weather, at the politics, at the economical crisis, at everything. Just move forward with this mindset and everything around you will actually start to have something against you. Don't take more pun than you're expected to. ## 76. Don't Laugh Be serious. Grave and sober. Don't smile and, by all means, don't allow yourself to laugh. Because laughing will bring down your walls, it will crush your entire black edifice of a stony-faced, serious person, preoccupied with important issues. Not laughing is the stupidest thing you can do to yourself. Laugh is for free, everything else in life is not. ## 77. Envy Look up to everything other people have and feel bad you don't have it too. Envy their lifestyle, their richness, their freedom. If possible let them know that as often as you can. Envy is a form of worship: only instead of praising its object it's diminishing its performer. Every time you envy somebody you're in fact lowering yourself. ## 78. Leave The Passion Out Don't put your heart in your life. Leave it away and try to get on with cold calculus or with bare logic. Leave the passion (/passion-is-power/) out of your life and become an empty carcass, walking only by the law of physics. Passion is the only thing that can completely shift your life. Leaving passion out of your life is living a life of a walking dead man. ## 79. Be A Follower Don't start anything by yourself. Don't do anything without asking permission. Be a follower and always look for somebody ready to carry your responsibility too. That's a perfect way to live a dull, gray and futureless life. Being a follower will amputate your bravery and guts, leaving you at the mercy of some mediocre role model. ## 80. React Instead Of Act On Things Be always a second late. Don't initiate. Don't start. React instead of acting. This attitude, although providing a little bit of safety, will put you at the mercy of events. Too often, people who are acting instead of reacting (/action-versus-reaction/) are successful people. And those who are barely responding to stimulus, instead of jumping ahead, are the self-proclaimed victims. ## 81. Live Outside The Present Moment In the past or in the future, doesn't really matter. Just stay away from the present moment. That will be enough to live a life of no meaning, always in search of something that doesn't really exists. The present is the only time we got. The past is just a mark in the sand and the future an uncertain promise. All you have is now. Don't waste it. ## 82. Be Averagish Not too much, not too little. Not too talkative, not too silent. Be in the middle. Talk in the middle. Live in the middle. An averagish life is a wasted life. You don't really live, you're barely acknowledging a statistical model of the reality. There's not such thing like the average in real life. You're either up to something, either not. Chose to be exceptional (/average-versus-exceptional/). ## 83. Be Revengeful Wait for the "right" moment and pay back that insult. Carefully plan and implement your revenge. And you'll soon become a predictable and much too easy to manipulate machine, ready to be used by anyone smart enough to push the right buttons. Revenge will never make things even. It will make things worse. Forgive and forget. ## 84. Be Resentful Even if you don't use revenge, keep some bad vibe about that person who insulted you. Resentment is like drinking poison while waiting for your enemies to die, Nelson Mandela said. And I totally agree with it. No matter at whom your negative emotion is directed, holding it long enough inside yourself will eventually screw up your life. ## 85. Don't Create Value Do something that is either repeating somebody else's work, either of no use for anyone. Do things that are not valuable. Be a copy cat or a useless clerk. Creating genuine value is at the core of our life purpose. If you chose to create value (/creating-value/) for others, as small as that value might be, you managed to be in for something. You're not screwed yet. ## 86. Avoid Confrontation Don't you ever confront your fears, your opponents or your critics. Leave, run, hide and don't face your phobias. Avoid your rivals. That's one way to lose the most valuable feed-back you can get. Confrontation requires courage, that's right, but without it, you'll never really know what are you up to. Living only in "potential" means not living at all. ## 87. When Going Through Hell, Stop Walking And you'll get stuck forever. Every time you bump into some hard times, just keep going, as Winston Churchill said. If you stop, you'll get sucked. Every hard time you encounter is a test, as undeserved at it might seem. The only way to get out from it is to keep going, otherwise you'll get burned. Even hell can be passed, if only you keep going and don't stop. ## 88. Don't Clean Up Your Lenses Your life could be blurred at times. Happens. Your life lenses got stuck or you have some dirt on them. If you keep them dirty, you won't change your perspective and will keep stumble until you fall. Cleaning up your lenses (/is-your-life-blurred/) should be a habit for anyone who really wants to adapt to change. Because the only real thing we have in this life is change. ## 89. Fall For "Free Stuff" There is no such thing as a free lunch, they say, and they say that for a reason. Nothing really worth having is free in this world. We tend to value things based on how much we "spend" for them. Hence, a freebie will be worthless. Anything presented as "free (/getting-something-for-free/)" is in fact a trap, a trap which will require more from you than you are willing to pay. ## 90. Race Against Others The only real competition is with you. The others may serve as a comparison at times, but you can only win against yourself. Chasing your goals the same way dogs are chasing mechanical rabbits (/goals-and-mechanical-rabbits/) at a dog race is just stupid. Once the race is over, what would you chase next? Do you really want to live a life of a racing dog? ## 91. Be An Information Junkie Live by the news, sleep by the news, wake up by the news. Information is supposed to be useful. How much are you really going to use out of what you're exposing yourself to? Being an information junkie will give you the illusion of control. You'll be much better if you master the art of ignoring (/learning-to-ignore/), instead of practicing information overload. ## 92. Talk More Than You Have To And piss off everyone else in the process. Talking should be a way to connect, to express your feelings and creativity. Talking too much, as harmless as it can seem, could really cut off from your social circle, not to mention that it will shift your focus from what you're doing to what you're … talking about, of course. Do more, talk less. ## 93. Be Late At your job. At your social gatherings. At informal meetings. Show up later and you'll slowly get out of touch with everything else around you. Being punctual is an art. It's not too much about reliability and respect, as it is for spotting and grabbing opportunities. A belated person will never catch an opportunity: he'll be there too late, of course. ## 94. Accept Frustration Yes, life can be a bitch. Yes, it can make you want to cry out loud. But there's no need to give in to frustration. If something went bad, acknowledge and move on. Frustration is from the same family with regret and share one very nasty family trait: it will dry you up and puts you in a no man's land territory. Don't be frustrated (/how-to-overcome-frustration-in-3-easy-steps/) it went wrong, be happy it happened. ## 95. Reject Joy Don't enjoy because joy is a silly way to behave. There are people who are making a living out of rejecting joy. Because it's a useless emotion. Because it could make you vulnerable. Yes, it will make you vulnerable. But being vulnerable is the only way to really experiment life in all its dimensions. Life is not safe. But it's full of joy (/7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more/). ## 96. Give In To Pain At some point in your life, you're going to be hit hard. We all do. Pain is unavoidable. But suffering is optional (/pain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional/). If you give in to pain, you're creating an attachment and from this attachment suffering will grow. I know it's way more difficult to do this than it is to write about it. I've been there too. And I really know that suffering is just another choice. ## 97. Be Jealous Do like many other people and think jealousy is a form of love. And totally screw up your life in the process. Jealousy is a variation of the "control freak" syndrome, with a little bit of panic disorder. Controlling the one you love or limiting his or her choices by constantly nagging him or her, will have only one possible end: you'll get dumped. ## 98. Think Happiness Is A Goal Happiness is never a goal. It can't be your new car, your new house, your new career. It can't be your family, your kids, your friends. Happiness is a process. It's a continuous state of mind. Whenever you step out of this state of mind, you transform happiness into an object. And objects are inconsistent, fluctuant and unstable. Happiness is the journey, not the destination. ### 99. Panic Give your power to circumstances. Whenever something is out of your normal routine, just panic. Lose your head, follow the crowd and think the world will collapse. Panic is the ultimate form of submission. You let some unexpected events to control your response. Yes, unexpected stuff can happen. Be happy: every unpredicted event in your life it's an opportunity. ## 100. Don't Love Turn your soul into a stone. Frost your heart. Don't allow any feeling of love to reach to you. You won't need months to screw up your life when you do this. You won't need weeks, or even days. The moment you forbid love to reach to you, your life will be useless. *Yes! Believe it or not, I did all of those 100. In fact, we all did many of them, only not for enough time to really screw things up. That doesn’t mean we can’t do it now. Having a lists of things to avoid in order to live a better life is more than often easier than having a list of things to do. We, as living human beings, seem to be more sensitive to interdiction than to incentives.* 106 pages Get it on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WE7AA8) for only $6.99 as a Kindle eBook Turning intentions into action requires the right system. I built addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) using the Assess-Decide-Do framework to bridge the gap between what you want to do and what you actually accomplish. First published on: December 2, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life%2F&text=100%20Ways%20To%20Screw%20Up%20Your%20Life&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life%2F&t=100%20Ways%20To%20Screw%20Up%20Your%20Life https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life%2F&title=100%20Ways%20To%20Screw%20Up%20Your%20Life Previous ### Blogging 101 Workshop and Mentorship Update (/blogging-workshop-and-mentorship-update/) Next ### 25 Things To Do in Your Life (/25-things-to-do-in-your-life/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Claude Cowork Just Killed [ Insert App Name Here ] URL: https://dragosroua.com/claude-cowork-just-killed-insert-app-name-here.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/claude-cowork-just-killed-insert-app-name-here/ Published: 2026-01-15 Modified: 2026-02-13 Views: 508 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Tools Tags: ai tools, apps, automation, Claude, efficiency No, the title is not a mistake, it's a reality. You can literally insert any app name there and it will still hold true. I know, I know, not quite ALL apps are replaceable by Claude Cowork (https://claude.com/blog/cowork-research-preview), but still, a very sizable majority. ## What Is Claude Cowork? Think Claude Code, but for everyday tasks. If you are a coder (or a vibe coder), you already know what Claude Code is: the de facto AI tool for writing software, and it's a damn good one. I've been using it for a few months already, as a developer (and not only) and I'm very pleased with it. It really makes my tedious tasks a thing of the past, and I can focus on high level architecture, bug fixing or adding features. Now, Claude Cowork does the same, only not for the code. I know it's a bit difficult to wrap your head around this. So I'll give you a few examples: - you can organize some files on your computer - you can ask Cowork to send messages (emails) for you - you can create files - you can crunch data from existing files and generate charts and diagrams Claude Cowork is in research preview at the moment of writing, only available to Max users – but I honestly think this product was launched with market fit already. ## The New UI Is Natural Language I've been using an app called CleanMyMac for many years. It essentially scans my hard drive every once in a while and helps me get rid of the clutter. Identify huge files, leftovers, duplicates, and delete them. I think you already know where I'm heading. Here's a prompt I just used with Claude Cowork: > evaluate my Desktop folder and suggest improvements of the file organization. Some of them I still need, but it's difficult to find them. The first thing that comes to my mind is organizing everything by year folders (maybe months inside year folders too?), but also some thematic structuring will be useful. Just give me your feedback, don't do anything yet It took Cowork about 5-6 minutes to: - identify duplicates and delete them - understand the type of file and its content (not only size or date, which CleanMyMac also does) - create a semantically correct folder structure: Boarding Passes, Projects, Data Exports, etc - move all the files around and show me the new structure I find this impressive. And I think this hints at a completely new way (I was about to use the word "paradigm", but let's stick to "way" for now) in which we are using computers. Before, we had visual interfaces with fixed layouts and actionable surfaces – buttons, checkboxes, menus. We were the ones initiating a workflow through these actionable surfaces, to generate some outcome. Now, we instruct someone else about the outcome and things get done. That's it. But it goes even further. It can accomplish complex flows, involving several tools, *for which there is no app yet*. Read that again. Here's another prompt: ![ShareByLight app icon](/images/icons/sharebylight-icon-48.webp) I just launched ShareByLight (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-file-transfer/id6796897056)—transfer files with light only. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no cables. One device shows a stream, the other reads it with the camera. Free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. > I want you to look in the Desktop folder and find me appTaskManager screenshots for Assess, Decide, Do and search functionality. I also want to use these screenshots to create a hero image 1256×640, with Assess, Decide, Do screens showing up the ADD framework. Claude Cowork identified the screenshots, created the hero image with all the required constraints, here's a part of its output: > The hero image is 1256×640 pixels and displays all three ADD framework screens (Assess, Decide, Do) side by side with color-coded labels matching your app's theme (red for Assess, orange for Decide, green for Do). I followed up with this prompt: > convert the hero image to .webp, make a folder called app_assets and move there the generated hero image, the containing iPhone screens as separate files, also .webp. and the hero search image, as separated .webp file It did this in a few seconds. I estimate this workflow would have taken me maybe 10-15 minutes, on a good day. Cowork did it in less than a minute. ## Endless Effectiveness I think AI tools, and especially Claude Cowork – which seems to have found its market fit from day one – are becoming extremely effective now. I didn't use the words "good at what they do", because that's not the point. They are very, very effective tools. Imagine now that instead of prompting, we can chain a couple of other AI tools, like real time voice transcription and text-to-voice transform. That means we can actually talk to the machine. No more apps, no more UIs. Just endless effectiveness. ## Pitfalls? Yes, Quite A Lot While I find Claude Cowork extremely impressive, I think there are also some serious downsides. Some behavioral, some purely economical. From an economical point of view, an entire app ecosystem will crumble. Maybe not today, maybe not next week, but we will see this unfolding before our eyes in less than 6 months. Apps will fold. Companies will close. Developers will switch jobs. At the behavioral level, I already touched on this in a couple of posts here. If AI brings instant gratification, (/ai-and-the-golden-era-of-instant-gratification/) a.k.a. getting what we want instantly, then patience will become obsolete. If the friction involved in learning something new is gone, then we will literally become more stupid. And last, but not least, if content production will become that easy, a lot of people will jump to the low hanging fruit of letting AI do everything, flooding the market with cheap, bad, but instantly available content. Because of this, I strongly believe bio content (/bio-content-in-2026-a-bet/), or content generated by humans, will become a delicacy, carrying a significant premium. Like this article, for instance. Not a word here was written with AI, yet I'm sharing my personal, live experience of using AI – which, in this current context, is like selling shovels instead of digging for gold (https://youtu.be/1NfEUE58jWY?si=tnHMn5tfNi5N_zQ7). First published on: January 15, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fclaude-cowork-just-killed-insert-app-name-here%2F&text=Claude%20Cowork%20Just%20Killed%20%5B%20Insert%20App%20Name%20Here%20%5D&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fclaude-cowork-just-killed-insert-app-name-here%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fclaude-cowork-just-killed-insert-app-name-here%2F&t=Claude%20Cowork%20Just%20Killed%20%5B%20Insert%20App%20Name%20Here%20%5D https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fclaude-cowork-just-killed-insert-app-name-here%2F&title=Claude%20Cowork%20Just%20Killed%20%5B%20Insert%20App%20Name%20Here%20%5D Previous ### Bio Content In 2026 – A Bet (/bio-content-in-2026-a-bet/) Next ### I Asked My Claude AI If “He’s” Actually Magic (/i-asked-my-claude-ai-if-hes-actually-magic/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 55 Life Lessons I learned in 55 Years URL: https://dragosroua.com/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years/ Published: 2025-11-10 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 464 Categories: Blogging, Success and Wellness Tags: financial freedom, lessons learned, list post, wisdom I made it. Today I turn 55. So far, my survival rate is 100%. Not bad. Actually, it's way better than "not bad". I call this decade the "fabulous fifties": I changed countries 3 times, got married (again) had a beautiful baby (again) and many other amazing things happened. Although extremely rollercoaster-ish, it was by far the best decade of my life. And I'm only half way through it. Here are 55 things I learned so far. They're in no particular order, and their significance varies a lot: some are simple, some are deep, some are probably obvious to you. ## 1. Change is unavoidable, growing up is optional People will change. Your job will change. You will change. And if you try to resist it, the unstoppable machinery of reality will shred you to pieces. The only way out from the grinder is to accept change and then do your best to outsmart it. Also known as growing up. ## 2. The most used accessory for a digital nomad is not a smartphone It's an umbrella. To this day, I never leave home without one in my backpack. ## 3. Trust is hard to build And way harder to keep. It's a process that needs ongoing maintenance. Brush-your-teeth-daily level of maintenance. ## 4. True, honest friends are like Bitcoin Their supply is limited and their value goes only up, never down. ## 5. Friendship in a romantic relationship is a blessing You can have a really fulfilling romance just fine without being friends. But if you are also friends, then sometimes, when the life gets hard, it may help you reignite the passion. Sometimes. ## 6. Starting a fitness habit, like running, takes at least a few months That's way, way more than fitness gurus are preaching. You cannot "change your life in just 10 days". It requires a lot of commitment and discipline to truly implement the habit. Finishing a 220km+ ultramarathon (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/) changes your life forever, though. ## 7. Walking 10km/day adds years to your life Not in a metaphorical way. It actually does. ## 8. Coding daily does to your brain what walking 10km/day does to your body If you can't code, journaling also works (see below). Just use that grey ball of matter every. Single. Day. ## 9. Setting healthy personal boundaries in any relationship (romantic, parental, work) is fundamental Without them, sooner or later, one of the partners will end up claiming everything, and the relationship will eventually break under its own weight. ## 10. Setting healthy personal boundaries is a form of art, though And should be thought in school. Alas, it is not, so you're left with learning by trial and error. Mostly error. ## 11. You can genuinely love someone without being in a relationship Love is something you are, a relationship is something you build. And you cannot build one alone. ## 12. The whole concept of "home" is overrated I entered my fabulous fifties without one, living in 3 different countries so far. A good sense of identity and strong personal values are way more important for grounding and recharging, no matter where you are (/category/location-independence/)in the physical world. ## 13. Money is important only when you don't have it That's why it is usually a good thing to make money unimportant. Read that again, please. ## 14. One of life's most difficult skills is knowing when to choose stubbornness, and when to choose flexibility Your stubbornness, your persistence, is deciding your success rate. Your flexibility, your sense of adaptation, is deciding your survival rate. ## 15. Survival always favors the most adaptable, not the strongest If survival was favoring the strongest, and NOT the ones most willing to adapt, we would all be dinosaurs now, and our iPhones would weigh at least 10 kilos. Maybe 12 with protective cases. ## 16. There's a difference between being broke and being poor Being broke is temporary and almost always fixable. More often than not, bouncing back from being broke gets you at higher levels than before. Being poor is a mindset that can persist even with money. Some of the weirdest poor persons I met were incredibly rich people, constantly thinking they don't have enough. ## 17. You can always do more, always When you fell like you can't move forward anymore, like every cell in your body is screaming "stop", you're actually at 40% capacity. You still have at least 60% more potential, you just don't know how to reach it. I learned this by running marathons and ultramarathons. But it also applies to business or relationships. ## 18. The most dangerous sentence in any language is "I know" The moment you think you know something, you stop learning about it. I try to replace "I know" with "I think" or "my experience so far is". It keeps the learning doors open. ## 19. Fear of failure is usually worse than actual failure Most failures teach you something valuable. Fear just paralyzes you. Fear is the mind killer. (/fear-is-the-mind-killer/) ## 20. The best productivity system is the one you actually use I've tried them all – GTD, bullet journals, fancy apps. What works is whatever feels natural enough that you don't resist it (/the-10-golden-rules-of-productivity/). ## 21. You can't sail a toy boat on a pierced bucket Fix the leaks before optimizing the sails. Financial stability requires plugging spending leaks (/you-cant-sail-a-toy-boat-on-a-pierced-bucket/) before pursuing growth opportunities. Establish budgeting discipline and eliminate wasteful spending to create a stable foundation. ## 22. Debt is death Or at least death of freedom. Every debt you carry is a chain that limits your options, your mobility, and your ability to make choices based on what you want rather than what you owe. Financial independence starts with owing nothing (/debt-is-death/). ## 23. Learning public speaking is great, but learning how to keep your mouth shut is better There's tremendous power in knowing when to speak and when to stay silent (/a-crash-course-on-public-keeping-your-mouth-shut/). Sometimes the most intelligent contribution to a conversation is the one you don't make. Restraint is a form of wisdom that too few people master. ## 24. There's a big difference between owning and having access to something In today's rapidly changing world, having flexible access to assets is often strategically superior to owning them outright. Access protects against unpredictable costs, enables faster adaptation, and reduces exposure to asset obsolescence. Ownership means control (/the-difference-between-owning-and-having-access-to/), but also burden. ## 25. Life is not a movie, so you're not a movie star Modern social media culture encourages people to script and perform their lives like movie characters, creating artificial personas disconnected from authentic human experience. Stop treating your existence as a brand to be marketed. Accept the messy reality of being human (/life-is-not-a-movie-so-youre-not-a-movie-star/) rather than a manufactured character. ## 26. Never shop on an empty stomach This simple rule saves you from countless bad decisions. Hunger clouds judgment and makes everything look appealing. It applies to more than just groceries—never make important decisions (/dont-shop-on-an-empty-stomach/) when you're in a state of lack or desperation. ## 27. Too much is just as bad as too little Sudden wealth creates problems because people lack experience managing larger sums. Build wealth incrementally through small, manageable increases, allowing yourself time to adapt to each new financial level. This principle applies to everything: success, attention, power. Balance (/too-much-is-just-as-bad-as-too-little/) is the key. ## 28. The most interesting conversations happen during long runs In an ultra-marathon, when you're in the race for more than 10 hours, you simply cannot stand any kind of pretense, or white lie, there's simply no more energy left for that. You just tell it like it is. If people would function at the same honesty level in their daily lives, the world will be a much better place. ## 29. Humans need entropy Too much comfort, and we die by complacency. Too much chaos, and we burn out, we disintegrate. The sweet spot is at the edge, constant dance between chaos and order (/humans-need-entropy/). ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. ## 30. The obstacle is not the bottleneck Obstacles block paths temporarily. Bottlenecks restrict flow permanently. While popular wisdom suggests confronting obstacles head-on, persistent bottlenecks are dead ends requiring a change of course (/the-obstacle-is-not-the-bottleneck/) rather than perseverance. Staying in a bottleneck depletes your energy and limits future options. Know when to pivot. ## 31. Playing the long game always wins Short game may give gratification, and gratification is tasty. But try to position for the long game (/short-game-versus-long-game/), every time you can, as the benefits will be lasting a life time. Hint: you can always position yourself for the long game. ## 32. Location independence is not a luxury anymore It has evolved from a luxury into an essential survival skill due to rapid political and social uncertainty. Mobility means optionality means security in an unpredictable world (/location-independence-is-not-a-luxury-anymore/). Remote work combined with geo-arbitrage now makes this lifestyle accessible to ordinary people, not just the wealthy. ## 33. Living life like a tourist is nice, but living life like a traveler is better I already wrote a couple of time about the tourist bias (/the-happy-tourist-bias-and-why-this-might-be-good-for-you/), and it's a nice thing to experiment. But there's a difference between a tourist and a traveler: the tourist visits places, the traveler meets people. ## 34. Apologizing when you're wrong is a superpower Even if it feels very hard to do it, it pays big time. You lower the friction, and that helps getting back on track faster: most people are so surprised by genuine apologies that they immediately want to resolve the conflict. Not to mention the damage your ego gets when you apologize. And your ego being damaged is a good thing. ## 35. We can only connect the dots backwards Life's meaning and direction only become clear in retrospect. While we cannot predict how our choices will unfold, trusting the process and making intentional decisions allows unexpected outcomes to reveal themselves as part of a meaningful pattern (/we-can-only-connect-the-dots-backwards/). Often, what initially feels like detours or disappointments lead to better destinations than we could have planned. ## 36. An early riser is a failed late riser Becoming an early riser isn't about inherent superiority—it's simply the result of abandoning late-night habits. You get to be an early riser (/an-early-riser-is-a-failed-late-riser/) only after you fail to be a late riser. This principle extends beyond sleep schedules: sometimes the path to improvement lies in consistently moving away from what doesn't serve us. ## 37. The internet should be consumed with caution It is indeed the world's largest library, but also the world's largest mind controlling tool. The attention economy became so specialized, that now it's almost trivial to create a trend or to swing democratic elections in any country, just by playing with people's minds over the internet. Learning to consume this medium mindfully is a crucial 21st-century skill. ## 38. Your future self is counting on the decisions you make today You literally build the future version of you with any decision you make, every single one. So, choose wisely. Also, try to make friends with your future self – you'll be spending a lot of time together. ## 39. Being lonely is very different from being alone Loneliness and solitude are completely different experiences. One is painful, diminishing and hurts big time. The other is recharging, constantly supportive and heals big time. Learning this difference changes everything. ## 40. The most productive people I know aren't the busiest ones They're the ones who've learned to say no to almost everything so they can say yes to what truly matters. They know how to make room for energy to flow, not to stay blocked in rigid systems. ## 41. Your opinion of yourself matters more than anyone else's opinion of you But it took me 50 years to really understand (and believe) this. ## 42. A good habit is an invisible habit The best habits eventually become so integrated into your life that you stop thinking about them—they become invisible (/a-good-habit-is-an-invisible-habit/). Once you achieve meaningful goals through consistent habits, let them blend naturally into your routine rather than continuously chasing the next objective, allowing you to find contentment in what was once an aspirational target. ## 43. The best time to start doing what you like was 20 years ago The second best time is now. I know this saying is about planting a tree. But I learned that it applies to almost everything in life. ## 44. Making your bed every morning is one of the best habits you can build It provides psychological control and stability in an unpredictable day. This is a part of the day that you can control (/making-your-bed-in-the-morning/). It doesn't take too much time or energy. By completing this small, tangible task before facing life's chaos, you establish an anchor of accomplishment and create something orderly to return to—transforming a simple habit into a powerful tool for mental resilience. ## 45. The most expensive thing in the universe is stupidity Or, if you want a nicer way to put it: lack of education (/lack-of-education-is-a-liability/). When you keep being stupid, when you avoid learning, you do things that make you pay incredible amounts. And the sad thing is that you pay not only with money, but also with time. ## 46. Your health is your real wealth Everything else becomes meaningless if you don't have it. ## 47. The person you're most attracted to initially is rarely the person you should be with long-term Chemistry and compatibility are different things. Sometimes, in very rare occasions, they can happen at the same time, but these occurrences are so rare that they're spread not over a lifetime, but over a few reincarnations. Popular name: soulmates. If you find one, consider yourself very, very happy. ## 48. Your past is not determining your future But the stories you tell yourself about your past determine your future more than the actual events that happened. ## 49. Comparing yourself to others is always a losing game What you see of others is never their real image. What you show of yourself is never your entire persona. You're comparing apples to peaches. ## 50. The most important relationship you'll ever have is with yourself If that's broken, all other relationships will struggle. ## 51. Success is not about reaching some destination It's about becoming the kind of person who can reach any destination. It's who you become, not what you get. ## 52. The older I get, the more I realize that being right is overrated Being kind and being happy are much better states to be in. ## 53. Every expert was once a beginner Every pro was once an amateur. Every famous person was once an unknown. Then only thing they did different, that set them apart, was that they kept pushing forward (/how-to-be-ridiculous/). ## 54. Life is not a problem to be solved It is way too complicated to be solved. Better look at it as a reality to be experienced. Sometimes the best strategy is to stop strategizing and just be present. Move with the tide. See where you land next. ## 55. Love matters We come into this world with nothing, but I feel deeply that we don't leave empty handed: we take with us all the true love we experienced. And the only true love is the one you give, unconditionally, the love you receive is just happening to you, it's not part of you. That's it. 55 lessons from 55 years on this beautiful, messy, wonderful planet. If you're younger than 55, don't worry – you don't need to wait decades to learn these things. Most of them are available to you right now, if you're paying attention. If you're older than 55, you probably nodded along to many of these and have a few dozen lessons of your own to add. And if you're exactly 55, well, happy birthday to us. We made it this far. Here's to whatever comes next. First published on: November 10, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years%2F&text=55%20Life%20Lessons%20I%20learned%20in%2055%20Years&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years%2F&t=55%20Life%20Lessons%20I%20learned%20in%2055%20Years https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years%2F&title=55%20Life%20Lessons%20I%20learned%20in%2055%20Years Previous ### Humans Need Entropy – Why You Need Some Chaos in Your Life (/humans-need-entropy/) Next ### Supercharging Claude with the Assess Decide Do Framework – Mega Prompt Inside (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Why Do I Get Bored So Easily? URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-and-why-we-get-bored.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-and-why-we-get-bored/ Published: 2009-07-06 Modified: 2026-05-07 Views: 400 Categories: Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness Tags: acceptance, learning, mindset, self awareness, self improvement **2026 Update**: *I revisit this post here (/boredom-is-a-feature-not-a-bug/), with a completely new angle, after almost 15 years. It's part of a broader "then and now" 30 day challenge, where I explore the most viral posts on this blog.* Boredom. The final frontier. These are the ramblings of a blogger trying to boldly explain what no man ever avoided: how and why we get bored. ### What Is Boredom? Have you ever thought what boredom is? Why we become bored? How we can strangely reproduce this state so often although we consider it something very uncomfortable? Maybe you tried, but ended up bored in the process… Boredom is a state of anxiety and low self-respect. We're wired to get satisfaction from a very limited set of activities. Watching movies, eating, reading, programming (I know my blog is read by some fine geeks too, this one's for you, guys 🙂 ), talking with friends, daydreaming. We're in a state of comfort and balance every time we're consistently doing something we like. But the moment we're not doing it anymore, something very subtle, yet extremely powerful happens. Because we're not doing what we like anymore, we start not to like *who does it too*. Meaning us. If we can't get satisfaction from what we're doing, in a twisted, yet understandable attempt to stop that activity, we feel annoyed by the person who does it. Which, again, it's us. It's like saying: "hey, stop, I'm not enjoying this anymore, I know I have to do it (or I wanted to do it, or it's good for me or for others around me) but I don't want to do it anymore". And from this subtle tension between what we "have" to do and what we "love" to do, boredom rise. ### Anxiety And Low Self-Esteem People who get bored easily are usually anxious. They're also having quite a low level of self-esteem. If you're constantly challenging yourself by trying to stop what you're doing, because you don't "like" it, you end up considering yourself an inappropriate person. If you're considering yourself an inappropriate person, you'll end up doing things you don't really want, just to feel a little more "appropriate". And this is the beginning of your low self-esteem territory. The bad news is that situation is contagious. It will spread over other areas of your life pretty soon. If you're constantly getting bored doing stuff you should really do, this will reach to other areas of your life pretty soon. Boredom likes wide spaces, it has an inner sense of expansion. Once allowed in a certain section of your life it will do whatever it can to conquer the rest of you as fast as it can. ### What To Do Against Boredom The simplest way to challenge boredom is to like everything you do, unconditionally. I met some people who were in this state. They were able to extract meaning from (and fully rejoice in) every little thing they were doing, being it spontaneous, self-imposed or just randomly crossed. They were able to dive in and experience everything with equal enthusiasm and energy. Of course, they were all kids (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl/). 🙂 I haven't met a balanced child who got bored. Yet. All the boredom capable kids I met were in fact unbalanced kids, children taught that they were valuable and loved only if they were doing only a limited set of activities, generally, to please their parents. But normal, non-alienated kids never get bored. If you can be like a child, free and fearless, I bet you didn't even reach so far in this article: boredom is something so strange to you that it didn't raise an ounce of interest. But if you're like the rest of humanity, victim of a hedonistic and coercive education, you do get bored. You do get satisfaction only from a limited set of activities and if you're not doing one of them you're getting anxious. You have a deep, constant feeling of not being worth anything. The rest of the blog post is for you. ### 1. Acceptance One way to alleviate the effects of boredom, if not ditching them totally, is to accept your current tasks and situations if they are not changeable. For instance, your domestic chores is something that I consider not being changeable. Chances that somebody else will do your domestic chores, like laundry and dishes, are pretty low, for many of us, so better accept it. Make it part of your life. It's ok to do the dishes and take care of your clothes. If you're not going to do this something ugly will happen, You'll get swamped in a mountain of dirty dishes, wearing filthy clothes. Which will have quite an effect on your social life, if you ask me. Not to mention your self-esteem. In fact, you'll discover that many of your boring tasks are the foundation for proper functioning in this world. Many things you'll consider source of apathy or lassitude are in fact fundamental for a proper insertion in your day to day life.They are repetitive and this what makes them boring, not the end result. But there's a little catch here, which will help you trick boredom: it will manifest only if you take "repetitive" for granted. If you do that exactly the same each time. You don't have to take it for granted. Change the way you do your dishes or laundry every time. Ditch the repetitive element out of it. Make it fun. Play roles. Do it at different times of the day. Try to describe the task you're doing in an exotic foreign language. It's not the end result which bores you, it's yourself. Get yourself a kick in your virtual butt and accept what you have to do. ### 2. Stop Being Judgmental If you're eager to have the first and final word in a discussion, I bet you're pretty easily bored. Stop that. This constant need of being right will lead you to the swamp of self-delusion. If you don't accept that you can be wrong sometimes, you'll have to be right all the time just in order to accept yourself. You'll start searching for situations or contexts in which you are always right and avoid situations or contexts in which you know you can't be right. You're alienating yourself in the most common sense of this word: you're becoming an alien. You're drastically limiting your choices. Sooner or later you're going to become your worst censor. And that will make you bored to death. ### 3. Learn Something New One of the most common situations in which you're getting bored is if you think you know everything. There's nothing new in this world for you. You already know everything. Well, maybe. But, most likely, maybe not. You think you know everything only because you refuse learning.You found some comfortable refuge in your life, hiding behind a status, a position, your child or your partner, and don't really want to get out of there. Well, sooner or later you'll be forced to learn something new, (/learning-how-to-learn/) so you'd better be proactive on that. You can't hide forever behind somebody else. Statuses are volatile and positions are moving constantly. You can't be there forever. Actually, the source of your boredom is this very refuge. Go away and learn something new. It will challenge your mind and ruin your comfort zone. And I consider both so empowering. 🙂 *** Boredom is an expression of our sense of emptiness and limitation. We think we're functioning properly only if we do certain types of activities which is inherently wrong. We're designed to do anything and to enjoy everything. ### Related Reading (2025 Update) Since 2009, I've written extensively about related topics: - The Next Revolution Will Be Technological, Not Ideological (/the-next-revolution-will-be-technological-not-ideological/) – We reached a point where technology trumps ideology. - The Proximity Bias – And How It Affects Our Perception Of Value (/the-proximity-bias-and-how-it-affects-our-perception-of-value/) – Spoiler: the more exotic it seems, the more value we project towards it. - The Psychology Of Toilet Paper (/the-psychology-of-toilet-paper/) – The psychology of toilet paper is the psychology of the all mighty ego, the all mighty “me” that needs to survive. - The Real Problem With Virtue Signaling (/the-real-problem-with-virtue-signaling/) – The more you’re expressing disagreement, the more disagreement opportunities arise and you’re signaling even more. First published on: July 6, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-and-why-we-get-bored%2F&text=Why%20Do%20I%20Get%20Bored%20So%20Easily%3F&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-and-why-we-get-bored%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-and-why-we-get-bored%2F&t=Why%20Do%20I%20Get%20Bored%20So%20Easily%3F https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-and-why-we-get-bored%2F&title=Why%20Do%20I%20Get%20Bored%20So%20Easily%3F Previous ### System Overload (/system-overload/) Next ### Assess – Decide – Do For Relationships (/assess-decide-do-for-relationships/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 33 Ways To Get And Maintain Motivation URL: https://dragosroua.com/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated/ Published: 2009-09-25 Modified: 2026-05-15 Views: 341 Categories: Getting Things Done, Motivation and Inspiration, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: decide, how to, list post, motivation **2026 Update:** *I revisit this post 15 years after, here (/15-years-of-motivation-from-tiny-genuine-sparks-to-burning-out/), as part of a 30 day challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* Being motivated is a wonderful state of your being. In that state your body leverages huge amounts of energy. Your emotional field is totally balanced, physically you're able to climb the Everest and mentally you understand the whole Universe in a split of a second. I know you know the feeling. The good news is that you can re-create this state pretty much whenever you want. Here are 33 tips to help you get and maintain motivation. *By the way, if you're into long lists, you may also check this one:* 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). ## 1. Ignore The Unimportant Learning to ignore (/learning-to-ignore/) is a fantastic lesson. Much more rewarding than you think. There must be an art of ignoring and they should teach it in universities. Spanning your focus in so many areas will only weaken you. Ignoring what's unimportant will free up energy, foster motivation and help you stay focused and productive. ## 2. Understand What Makes You Bored And avoid it (/how-and-why-we-get-bored/). Boredom is a nasty place to be. But as any other state of your being can be understood and you can identify the triggers. Once you understand that, you can safely go away from the gray zone. Takes some time but it really worth the effort. ## 3. Laugh More Often Watch comedies, read comics. Throw away that ugly seriousness form your face. Laughing is a safety valve for your stress relief mechanism. It actually let it out from your body in bursts. And while you're laughing you can still learn new stuff, like personal development lessons (/personal-development-with-dumbo/) from Dumbo. ## 4. Keep A Log Of Your Breakthroughs Do you remember when you had the first major success of your life? No? I thought so. We tend to overlook this simple habit of writing down our feelings every time we have a major breakthrough in our lives. If you want the shortest path to motivation, just keep a log of your successes. And get inspired by it. ## 5. Exercise This is one the easiest and simplest way to summon motivation. Just walk out from the office, start doing some pushups, or just go for a short run around the house. It will instantly declutter your physical body. Every time you exercise, you produce endorphins. Endorphins are good. ## 6. Create A Custom Environment You can't be motivated if you work in an environment which does not represent you. Make changes, adjust, improve (/assess-decide-do-natural-productivity/). Doesn't matter if it's about your job office or your home. Whatever the space you work in, make it yours somehow, that will lower your unconscious adaptation efforts and you'll have more time dedicated to the actual tasks. ## 7. Read Success Stories Like in other people success stories. Get inspired. Admire them (with caution, but do admire them). Reading about success will make it more available to you and will fuel your efforts towards its achievement. And of course, you can learn how to be successful (/being-successful/) too. ## 8. Switch Tasks You will get bored if you work on the same projects for too long. Boredom kills motivation. Try having several small projects that you can land on whenever you feel you're on the verge of a burn out (/7-symptoms-youre-on-the-verge-of-a-burn-out/). Not to mention that switching tasks will instantly create fresh perspectives, helping you solve problems faster. ## 9. Assess Your Progress If you work constantly you will make some progress, that's a rule. You may have the impression that you're not going anywhere but that's because you're skipping all those little milestones you go through every day. Watching back with satisfaction at what you created will surely boost your energy. ## 10. Talk About Your Projects With your friends or family. Let the people know you're doing stuff. That will often make yourself aware of the fact that you're actually doing stuff and enjoy doing it. It will also create a certain level of accountability that will most likely push you forward. ## 11. Avoid Energy Vampires Naysayers, pessimists, braggers they all are sucking up your energy. Don't get caught in such power games, avoid at all costs those energy leaks. Even if that means you'll isolate more often. It's better to do work in your own secluded realm than to try to resist to a diminisihing environment. ## 12. Write Clear Goals Most of the time that translates to actually write down your goals, you already have them clear in your mind. But take them out of your mind, put them in a trusted system and move on. Your mind works better when it knows what it has to do not when it spends time figuring what it has to do. ## 13. Exercise Satisfaction Once you finished some task, reward yourself. Give yourself a prize. No need to be a huge one, but just enough to create the habit. Look forward to it while you're working, wait for it, praise for it. In time you'll become addicted to this fulfillment satisfaction and you won't stop until you reach it. ## 14. Accept Failure As part of the game. Failure, like success, is just a result of your actions, nothing more. One of the biggest motivation enemies is fear of failure. Fear that your outcome will turn bad. Accept it. It may turn bad, but that doesn't mean you have to stop doing what you're doing. Give your best and hope for the best. ## 15. Use Affirmations Like writing down your intentions, your goals, your current status. Affirmations are a very powerful tool, hugely underrated. People find it awkward to write self-directed messages and read them out loud. News flash: you're doing this all the time, unconsciously. So why not doing it consciously? Start with a morning phrase (/the-morning-phrase/). **Like what you're reading so far? This post is also available as an audio file too. Click the "play" button below for a short excerpt: ** [sc_embed_player fileurl="http://dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/33-ways-motivation-excerpt.mp3″] You can get the entire blog post in audio format right now, for only $2.99 (or more, if you feel generous 🙂 ). Just make your choice below:. Loading… (https://gumroad.com/l/motivation33) ## 16. Play Games Impersonate people. Imitate animals. Pretend you're Sindbad the Sailor. Playing challenging games will relax your mind and at the same time will gather more resources from secret sources. A good motivation is always blended with joy. You can start with a simple game like how to get from a to b in 5 random steps (/how-to-get-from-a-to-b-in-5-random-steps/). ## 17. Say "No" Say "no" to distractions, to trolls, to depression. Exercising "no"'s is liberating. Too often too many commitments are making your life a continuous chore. Limit your promises and only get into things you really want to finish. Once you do that, go to a mirror, smile and start to politely exercise your "no"'s. ## 18. Look For Positive People Sadness, whining and complaining doesn't play well with motivation. On the contrary. But positive, optimistic, energetic people will always shift your vibration in the right direction. Search them, find them and become their friend. Sometimes all you need to get motivated is to be surrounded by shiny happy people. ## 19. Difficulty Is Part Of The Game Learn to work under pressure. Some things are more difficult than other. Accept that fact and focus on doing what you have to do not on your feelings of dissatisfaction. Difficulty is often what makes things worth doing. No sweat, no glory. Whenever I feel something is going to be tough, I'm usually more motivated to do it. The reward will be higher. ## 20. Create Personal Challenges Personal challenges are short term goals, usually from 15 to 90 days. Like starting to exercise, or creating a habit from scratch in 15 days (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/). Using personal challenges strengthen your inner power the same way exercising is strengthening your muscles. The more you do, the more motivated you feel to do even more. ## 21. Choose Positive Motivation Whenever you lock in your motivation, do your best to keep it on the positive side, which is rooted in service. As opposed to the negative motivation, which is basically rooted in fear. Negative motivation works just the same, only it lasts significantly less than positive motivation. Here's why (/positive-motivation-versus-negative-motivation/). ## 22. Release Your Guardians You do have guardians (/the-guardians/) and some of them are pretty nasty. They won't let you do your stuff. The bad thing about your guardians is that most of the time they're working at the unconscious level, really difficult to interact with. Just accept, acknowledge and let them go. You will be much better off. ## 23. Enforce Your Personal Mission You gotta have a personal mission. (/finding-your-personal-mission/) If you don't, go find one fast. Reinforcing your personal mission at certain intervals is surely one of the greatest motivators of all. It's like looking on a map and seeing at any moment where you are, how much do you have to go and which path you have to chose. ## 24. Spend Time Outside If you can do something creative, like gardening or landscaping, even better. But it's ok even if you don't. Spending time outside of your box will clear the air inside. When you get back, everything will be fresher and shinier. And something fresher is always a nice motivator. ## 25. Keep A Clean Inbox That's one of the few GTD concepts I still use (/staying-gtd-over-the-hype/) and it proves to be a great motivator. A clean inbox helps a smooth thoughts flow. A smooth thoughts flow let me be in the moment without any hidden burdens. Being in the moment is usually all I need to actually start doing things. ## 26. Don't Aim For Perfection It will soon drain you out. Aiming to be better (/perfect-versus-better/) is the real game. Perfection is a dead end, nothing really happens after you reached to it. Accepting that you can be better instead of perfect leaves some room for growth. And that means you have a reason to do more. And that's what we usually call motivation, right? ## 27. Do One Thing At A Time Multitasking is a myth. Even computers processors aren't really doing multi-tasking, that's what we perceive. Instead they have a single frequency and several parallel buses managing information, faking a multi-tasking activity. Multitasking is creating internal conflicts, both in humans and in computers. You end up spending more time solving those conflicts than actually working. ## 28. Keep A Source Of Inspiring Readings You're not always completely down, most of the time you're just averagish, just one sentence away from your best shape. Be sure to keep around a list of inspiring readings. Quotes, blog posts, ebooks (/books/), whatever works for you. You can start with 100 ways to live a better life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/), for instance. ## 29. Put On Some Good Music Just let it there, floating around, don't turn the volume knob. Just enough to recreate a pleasant atmosphere. Music speaks to areas you can't control with logical tools, yet is so powerful that can completely shift your mood in a second. The only thing better than silence is good music. ## 30. Don't Fall Into The Productivity Trap It's not how much you do, but how much of it really matters (/the-productivity-trap/). Doing stuff just for filling up notebooks with tasks won't make you feel motivated. On the other side, whenever you're doing something that matters, your planing and organizing activities will just flow. ## 31. Keep Your Life Lenses Clean Your camera objective may be blurred but you don't know. This is why you get the same picture again and again, this is why feel stuck and can't seem to see any progress. Sometimes all you have to do is to clean up your lenses (/is-your-life-blurred). It takes a little bit of courage but it's worth the trouble. ## 32. Clean Up Your House I know you need motivation for that too, but believe me, it's a fantastic way to clean up your internal garbage. Cleaning up your house (/how-to-clean-up-your-house/) is not a chore, it's a necessity. Your action paths may be clogged the same way your floor is sticky. And most of the time unsticking the floor will open your mind again. ## 33. Stop Reading This And Get To Work It was fun reading it, I'm sure. But it won't get things done in your place. Inspiration is a good motivator, but don't abuse it. Now, that you are all energized, it's time for you to get back to work. Of course, you can bookmark this post for future motivation sessions, but for now, just go back to work. *(Oh, but if it happens to still have some free time – and a hard time getting up in the morning – you can try this one:* 33 Ways to Start your Day (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/). ) **Just a short reminder that this post is also available as an audio file too and it's only $2.99 (or more, if you feel generous 🙂 ). Just make your choice below:**. Get the audio version for $2.99! (https://gum.co/motivation33) First published on: September 25, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Lessons Learned While Vibe Coding an iOS App in 7 Days, from Idea to App Store – Genesis Prompt Inside URL: https://dragosroua.com/lessons-learned-while-vibe-coding-an-ios-app-in-7-days-from-idea-to-app-store-genesis-prompt-inside.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/lessons-learned-while-vibe-coding-an-ios-app-in-7-days-from-idea-to-app-store-genesis-prompt-inside/ Published: 2026-02-23 Modified: 2026-07-03 Views: 320 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: ai tools, app store, Claude, ios development, lessons learned, vibe coding A couple of weeks ago I shared my blueprint for vibe coding iOS apps in coffee shops (/vibe-coding-ios-apps-on-my-ipad-with-claude-from-my-favorite-coffee-shop/). The post was well received (and the Reddit snippet made over 250k views and 150+ comments). If that was the actual schedule of my 3 hours work day, in this post I'm sharing something more practical: namely the lessons learned in the process. On top of that, I'm sharing what I call the "genesis prompt". It's the basis I use for any of my apps, and you can just copy and paste it. Without further ado, let's jump in, this post will be meaty, and the genesis prompt alone may take you 10+ minutes to read. ## Lesson 1: Use Claude to write the prompt for Claude Code You may choose a different reasoning model, but the core idea is that you need to have your reasoning separate from the specs. There is a mental space for thinking and another mental space for drafting actual tasks. I use my Assess Decide Do skills (https://github.com/dragosroua/add-framework-skills) for this, meaning I do the research, the brainstorming and everything creative while the LLM is in Assess. Once I'm happy with how the app description looks, and I'm sure all the details are covered, I move to Decide, which means I tell the model: draft the prompt.md for Claude Code (or whatever code builder you use, Codex, Gemini, etc). From now on, I'm exclusively in Claude Code, unless I need to stop for something in lesson 2, below. ## Lesson 2: Scaffold Aggressively By scaffold I mean include in the initial `prompt.md` all the tiny things that you may usually overlook. That meant, in the beginning, I had to literally stop every time I encountered something time consuming, like the `Manage encryption compliance` setting in the TestFlight builds, and write it back to the genesis prompt, so the next app will have this integrated. Your specific development flow may have other tiny annoyances like this, just make sure you take the time to put them at the beginning of the workflow. ## Lesson 3: Iterate Small and with Atomic Features Any LLM, from a certain codebase size, will suffer from context squeeze. Meaning it will forget its recent history, or, most of the time, it will report incorrect progress (which I find really annoying). Example: it reports it finished the StoreKit integration, but then you ask about Restore Purchases, and it says: "you're absolutely right, I didn't implement this!". The safest way around this annoyance is to keep track of what needs to be done, because that's your job, for now, not the model's job, and iterate with small, very well defined features / bug fixes, that you can then feed in lesson 4, below. ## Lesson 4: Git Aggressively Sometimes even the most advanced models are blundering, overwriting files or deleting them. It happened to me with a quite advanced model, Sonnet 4.6, just the other day. Because of a faulty reasoning path, it ended up deleting all my data files, by truncating them to an incorrect size. Had I not had a tight Git process, this would have been a little catastrophe (maybe not so small, actually). It takes discipline to keep committing (or not forgetting to tell the model to commit), but it pays big time. ![AI Kiddo app icon](/images/ai-kiddo-icon-48.webp) I built AI Kiddo (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566) to help kids learn first words in 8 languages—simple images, natural speech, child-friendly. ## Lesson 5: Treat your End Product like Disposable Inventory If you did everything right, in about 6-7 days you will have an app ready for AppStore. That's big. But not in the way you think it is. It may be big for you, because you get a significant chunk of validation, but market really doesn't care. At the same time, all around the world, maybe 200,000 vibe coders are doing the exact same thing you did. The market is incredibly crowded (/showing-up-is-not-enough-anymore/) right now, so please adjust your expectations. Think of your little app as being worth not more than one of your 50 items listed on the weekend garage sale. Of course, you may get lucky, and your app can get viral, but, again, given the current market conditions, this is more of an anomaly than the expected behavior. ## The Genesis Mega Prompt This is a 23 sections genesis prompt that covers all the basics in my workflow. The way I use this is to feed it as the "placeholder" to Claude after I've exhausted the Assess realm, meaning after I have a clear idea about the app I'm going to build, its design, monetization strategy, compliance requirements, etc. Then Claude does all the interpolation with the `{{ }}` blocks and gives me the complete `prompt.md` file which I feed to Claude Code. If the description and content areas are well thought, Claude Code can easily one-shot your full app with this. You can use this genesis prompt for free, just copy and paste. ``` # {{APP_NAME}} — iOS App Genesis Prompt ## 1. Project Overview Build an iOS app called **"{{APP_NAME}}"** — {{APP_ONE_LINE_DESCRIPTION}}. {{APP_DETAILED_DESCRIPTION}} --- ## 2. Technical Requirements - **iOS version:** iOS 17+ - **Framework:** SwiftUI - **Architecture:** MVVM with Swift Concurrency (async/await, actors) - **Device support:** iPhone and iPad compatible (responsive layout) - **Orientation:** {{ORIENTATION}} - **StoreKit 2** for In-App Purchases - **AVSpeechSynthesizer** for Text-to-Speech (if applicable) - **UserDefaults + FileManager** for local persistence - **No backend required** unless explicitly noted below ### Additional Frameworks (app-specific) {{ADDITIONAL_FRAMEWORKS}} *Examples:* - *AVFoundation + AudioToolbox for real-time audio generation* - *URLSession for external API calls (e.g., Claude API, weather API)* - *Core Location for location services* - *UserNotifications for local notifications* - *WidgetKit for home screen widgets* - *AppIntents for Siri Shortcuts* - *AdMob / Google Mobile Ads SDK for ad monetization* ### Required Xcode Capabilities - In-App Purchase - {{ADDITIONAL_CAPABILITIES}} *Examples: Push Notifications, Background Modes: Audio, Location Services.* --- ## 3. Design System ### Color Palette ```swift {{COLOR_PALETTE}} ``` *Define both Light and Dark mode values if applicable. Example keys: background, surface, textPrimary, textSecondary, accent, accentLight, divider. Plus any app-specific colors (layer indicators, category tints, etc.)* ### Typography ```swift {{TYPOGRAPHY}} ``` *Define font families, sizes, weights for: Headlines/titles, Body text, UI labels/buttons, Any special-purpose text (serif reading fonts, rounded child-friendly fonts, etc.)* ### Spacing & Touch Targets - Horizontal padding: {{HORIZONTAL_PADDING}}pt - Minimum touch target: {{MIN_TOUCH_TARGET}}pt (44pt default, 60pt+ for child apps) - Card internal padding: 16pt, gaps: 12pt - Paragraph spacing (if reading app): 20pt ### Animations - Screen transitions: 0.3s ease-out fade - Interactive elements: subtle scale (0.98) on press - Loading states: gentle pulse animation - {{ANIMATION_PHILOSOPHY}} *e.g., "No jarring animations—everything should feel mindful" / "Organic wave visualizations"* ### App Icon Concept {{APP_ICON_DESCRIPTION}} --- ## 4. App Structure ``` {{APP_NAME}}/ ├── {{APP_NAME}}App.swift ├── Models/ │ ├── {{MODEL_FILES}} │ └── ... ├── Views/ │ ├── {{VIEW_FILES_AND_SUBFOLDERS}} │ └── ... ├── Services/ │ ├── StoreKitManager.swift │ ├── {{SERVICE_FILES}} │ └── ... ├── Data/ │ └── {{DATA_FILES}} └── Assets.xcassets/ ``` *List all model, view, and service files relevant to your app. Include subfolder organization (e.g., Views/Home/, Views/Settings/, Views/Paywall/).* --- ## 5. Data Models {{DATA_MODELS}} *Define all Swift structs, enums, and classes with their properties. Include Identifiable, Codable conformances. Include computed properties and helper methods.* --- ## 6. Screen Specifications {{SCREEN_SPECIFICATIONS}} *For each screen, specify:* - *Layout description (scroll view, split view, tab view, etc.)* - *Component breakdown with visual hierarchy* - *User interaction flows* - *State variations (free vs. premium, empty vs. populated, online vs. offline)* - *ASCII mockups where helpful* --- ## 7. In-App Purchase Configuration ### Product IDs ```swift // Bundle identifier base: {{BUNDLE_ID}} {{IAP_PRODUCT_IDS}} ``` *Examples:* - *Non-consumable: "com.domain.app.featurename" at $X.XX* - *Auto-renewable subscription: "com.domain.app.premium.monthly" at $X.XX/month* - *Bundle: "com.domain.app.bundle.all" at $X.XX* ### StoreKit 2 Implementation Use the modern StoreKit 2 Swift API: - `Product.products(for:)` to load products - `product.purchase()` for transactions - `Transaction.currentEntitlements` for checking active purchases - Listen for `Transaction.updates` for real-time transaction handling - `AppStore.sync()` for restore purchases ### Purchase Flow 1. User taps locked feature / content 2. {{PARENTAL_GATE_STEP}} *("Show parental gate (math challenge) — required for Kids apps" or "N/A")* 3. Present purchase sheet with feature preview, price, and "Buy" button 4. {{BUNDLE_UPSELL}} *("Also show 'Get All Packs — $X.XX' option" or "N/A")* 5. Process purchase via StoreKit 2 6. On success, unlock content and persist state 7. Include "Restore Purchases" button in Settings and Paywall ### Premium State Management - Store purchase status with receipt validation - Check entitlements on app launch - Update UI reactively via `@Published` / `@Observable` ### Paywall Design {{PAYWALL_DESCRIPTION}} *Describe the paywall screen: what triggers it, layout, feature comparison, pricing display, CTA button styling, restore purchases link, terms & privacy links.* --- ## 8. Ad Monetization (if applicable) {{AD_CONFIGURATION}} *If using ads, specify:* - *Ad SDK (e.g., Google AdMob)* - *Ad types and placements (banner, interstitial, app open, rewarded)* - *Frequency caps* - *Ad unit IDs (test + production placeholders)* - *Premium vs free ad visibility matrix* - *Revenue model estimates* - *SDK setup instructions (CocoaPods/SPM, Info.plist keys, initialization)* *If no ads: "No ads. Revenue is IAP-only."* *If Kids App: "No behavioral advertising permitted (Kids App compliance)."* --- ## 9. App-Specific Core Features {{CORE_FEATURES}} *This is where the unique functionality of your app goes. Examples:* - *Audio engine with signal generation layers* - *AI API integration with system prompts* - *Text-to-speech with multi-language support* - *Content browsing with reading progress* - *Real-time visualizations* - *Offline caching strategies* - *Timer/scheduler functionality* - *Widget and Siri Shortcuts integration* - *Location-based features* --- ## 10. Content / Data Specification {{CONTENT_SPECIFICATION}} *Define all bundled content:* - *Stories, vocabulary items, audio presets, etc.* - *Content categories and distribution* - *Content format (fields per item)* - *Source attribution and licensing* - *Placeholder vs. final content strategy* --- ## 11. Settings Screen **Sections:** {{SETTINGS_SECTIONS}} *Common sections:* - *App-specific preferences (voice, speed, theme, etc.)* - *Notification preferences (if applicable)* - *Account: Restore Purchases, Subscription status* - *About: App version, Acknowledgments, Privacy Policy link, Rate App link* ### Cross-Promotion Banner (Settings footer) ``` ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ [App Icon] {{PROMO_TEXT}} │ │ → │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ``` - Full width, tappable - Opens App Store via `SKStoreProductViewController` or `UIApplication.shared.open(url)` - {{PROMO_PARENTAL_GATE}} *("Behind parental gate (Kids apps)" or "Direct link")* - Cross-promoted app URL: {{PROMO_APP_URL}} - Subtle styling, does not dominate the settings screen --- ## 12. Persistence ### UserDefaults Keys ```swift enum StorageKeys { static let isPremium = "isPremium" {{ADDITIONAL_STORAGE_KEYS}} } ``` ### File Storage (if needed) {{FILE_STORAGE_STRATEGY}} *Examples: Documents directory for progress JSON files, Cached API responses for offline access, Keychain for sensitive data (reward tracking, etc.)* --- ## 13. Offline Behavior ### Works Offline {{OFFLINE_AVAILABLE}} *Examples: All bundled content, TTS, reading progress, cached API responses.* ### Requires Internet {{ONLINE_REQUIRED}} *Examples: AI API calls, purchases/restore, weather data, initial content fetch.* ### Offline Indicators - Subtle banner when offline: "You're offline. Some features limited." - Disable network-dependent features gracefully with user-friendly messages --- ## 14. Kids App Compliance (if applicable) {{KIDS_COMPLIANCE}} *If this is a Kids App, include:* - [ ] *No third-party analytics* - [ ] *No behavioral advertising* - [ ] *No external links without parental gate* - [ ] *Parental gate before IAP* - [ ] *Privacy policy URL ready* - [ ] *Age rating set (e.g., "Made for Kids, Ages 5 and Under")* - [ ] *"Made for Kids" flag enabled in App Store Connect* *If not a Kids App: "Not applicable — standard App Store guidelines apply."* --- ## 15. Build Configuration & Compliance ### Encryption Export Compliance Add to `Info.plist`: ```xml ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption ``` This prevents the manual encryption compliance questionnaire from blocking **every single TestFlight build** in App Store Connect. Set to `false` if the app: - Does NOT use custom encryption - Only uses standard HTTPS (URLSession) for network calls - Only uses Apple-provided encryption (StoreKit, etc.) If your app uses custom encryption beyond standard HTTPS, set to `true` and prepare export compliance documentation. ### App Transport Security Standard ATS is fine for most apps. If you need non-HTTPS endpoints (rare): ```xml NSAppTransportSecurity NSExceptionDomains ``` ### Background Modes (if applicable) ```xml UIBackgroundModes {{BACKGROUND_MODES}} audio, location --> ``` ### Orientation Lock (if applicable) ```xml UISupportedInterfaceOrientations {{SUPPORTED_ORIENTATIONS}} ``` ### Privacy Usage Descriptions Add all required `NS...UsageDescription` keys to `Info.plist`: ```xml {{PRIVACY_USAGE_DESCRIPTIONS}} ``` *Examples: NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription, NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription, NSMicrophoneUsageDescription.* --- ## 16. App Store Metadata ### App Identity | Field | Value | |-------|-------| | **App Name** | {{APP_NAME}} | | **Bundle ID** | {{BUNDLE_ID}} | | **Subtitle** | {{APP_SUBTITLE}} (max 30 characters) | | **Primary Category** | {{PRIMARY_CATEGORY}} | | **Secondary Category** | {{SECONDARY_CATEGORY}} | | **Age Rating** | {{AGE_RATING}} | ### Description ``` {{APP_STORE_DESCRIPTION}} ``` *Write a compelling App Store description:* - *Lead with the value proposition (first 3 lines visible before "more")* - *Feature highlights* - *Free vs. premium comparison* - *Honest disclaimers if applicable* - *4000 character max* ### Promotional Text ``` {{PROMOTIONAL_TEXT}} ``` *170 characters max. Can be updated without a new app version.* ### Keywords ``` {{KEYWORDS}} ``` *100 characters max, comma-separated. No spaces after commas. Focus on discoverability. Avoid repeating words from app name.* ### What's New (for updates) ``` {{WHATS_NEW}} ``` ### App Review Notes ``` {{APP_REVIEW_NOTES}} ``` *Include anything the review team needs to know:* - *How to test IAP (sandbox account if needed)* - *Explanation of non-obvious features* - *Disclaimers (e.g., health/science claims)* - *Background audio justification* - *Demo credentials if login required* ### Screenshots Specification | Device | Size | Orientation | Count | |--------|------|-------------|-------| | iPhone 6.9" | 1320 × 2868 | {{ORIENTATION}} | 6-10 | | iPhone 6.7" | 1290 × 2796 | {{ORIENTATION}} | 6-10 | | iPad 13" | 2064 × 2752 | {{ORIENTATION}} | 6-10 | *Plan screenshot content:* 1. *Hero shot (main feature)* 2. *Key feature #1* 3. *Key feature #2* 4. *Premium/paywall value prop* 5. *Settings/customization* *(Continue as needed, up to 10 per device)* ### Privacy Nutrition Label ``` {{PRIVACY_NUTRITION_LABEL}} ``` *Options:* - *"Data Not Collected: We do not collect any data from this app."* - *Or specify: Data Used to Track You / Data Linked to You / Data Not Linked to You* ### Privacy Policy URL {{PRIVACY_POLICY_URL}} ### Support URL {{SUPPORT_URL}} ### Marketing URL (optional) {{MARKETING_URL}} --- ## 17. Data & Privacy Compliance - {{DATA_COLLECTION_POLICY}} *e.g., "No personal data collected" / "Location used on-device only"* - {{ANALYTICS_POLICY}} *e.g., "No analytics SDK" / "Firebase Analytics with anonymized data"* - App Tracking Transparency: {{ATT_REQUIRED}} *"NOT required (no tracking)" / "Required — implement ATT prompt"* - GDPR/CCPA: {{GDPR_NOTES}} --- ## 18. Implementation Priority ### Phase 1: Core Experience {{PHASE_1_TASKS}} ### Phase 2: Polish & Secondary Features {{PHASE_2_TASKS}} ### Phase 3: Monetization {{PHASE_3_TASKS}} ### Phase 4: Final Polish & Submission - Dark mode support (if not already implemented) - iPad layout optimization - Accessibility (VoiceOver, Dynamic Type) - Error handling and edge cases - App Store assets (screenshots, preview video) - TestFlight beta testing --- ## 19. Build & Release Checklist ### Pre-Submission - [ ] All core features functional and tested - [ ] StoreKit 2 purchases work in sandbox - [ ] Restore purchases works - [ ] `ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption` set to `false` in Info.plist - [ ] Privacy nutrition labels accurate in App Store Connect - [ ] Privacy policy URL is live and accessible - [ ] App Review notes written - [ ] All placeholder values replaced (API keys, product IDs, URLs) - [ ] No test/debug code in release build - [ ] Performance profiled with Instruments - {{ADDITIONAL_CHECKLIST_ITEMS}} ### App Store Connect Setup - [ ] App record created with correct Bundle ID - [ ] In-App Purchase products created and approved - [ ] Screenshots uploaded for all required device sizes - [ ] Description, keywords, and promotional text finalized - [ ] Age rating questionnaire completed - [ ] Pricing and availability set - [ ] App Review information filled in (contact, notes, demo account) - [ ] Build uploaded and selected - [ ] Submit for review --- ## 20. App Entry Point ```swift // Note: the struct name must be valid Swift — PascalCase, no spaces or hyphens. // e.g., "Zen Tales" becomes ZenTalesApp, "MosquiGo" becomes MosquiGoApp. @main struct {{APP_NAME}}App: App { @StateObject private var storeManager = StoreKitManager() {{ADDITIONAL_STATE_OBJECTS}} var body: some Scene { WindowGroup { {{ROOT_VIEW}}() .environmentObject(storeManager) {{ADDITIONAL_ENVIRONMENT_OBJECTS}} .onAppear { Task { await storeManager.checkEntitlement() } } } } } ``` --- ## 21. Deliverable A complete, buildable Xcode project with: - All core functionality implemented - Full UI matching design spec - StoreKit 2 IAP setup (with placeholder product IDs) - {{ADDITIONAL_DELIVERABLES}} - Light and dark mode support - Placeholder content where final content is pending - All `{{PLACEHOLDER}}` values documented for easy replacement before release --- ## 22. Placeholder Reference Before submission, search the project for `{{` and replace all placeholders: | Placeholder | Description | Example | |-------------|-------------|---------| | `YOUR_API_KEY` | External API key | Obfuscated in production | | `com.domain.app.*` | Product IDs | Match App Store Connect | | `PROMO_APP_ID` | Cross-promoted app's App Store ID | `id6504167889` | | `PRIVACY_POLICY_URL` | Live privacy policy page | `https://yourdomain.com/privacy` | | {{ADDITIONAL_PLACEHOLDERS}} | | | --- ## 23. Notes {{ADDITIONAL_NOTES}} *Any final notes, known limitations, future roadmap ideas, scientific references, third-party attribution, or other context the builder needs.* ``` Later edit: there's a repo for the genesis mega prompt (https://github.com/dragosroua/ios-app-genesis-mega-prompt). First published on: February 23, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 33 Tips To Start Your Day URL: https://dragosroua.com/33-tips-to-start-your-day.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/33-tips-to-start-your-day/ Published: 2009-10-25 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 281 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Time management Tags: habits, list post, morning routine Mornings are underrated. I consider them fundamental for the whole diurnal experience. What you do in the very first moments of your morning will fundamentally and inexorably shape your entire day. Most of the time you spend your mornings by routinely performing some habits, on auto pilot. Hence, your days will routinely unfold towards you, the same way, day after day, on auto pilot. Consciously inserting your intentions in these very first moments will have a huge effect. Taking charge of those moments it's like activating some subtle, unconscious triggers which will ultimately determine your whole daily experience, exactly the way you want. Mornings (/waking-up-early/) are fundamental. This is why I experimented a lot with my very first moments of the day. Here are at least 33 tips to start your day, small changes which will transform your days by only spending 5 minutes every morning. ## 1. Write In Your Journal I love the morning stillness and the unspoken promise of something ready to start. Mornings are fantastic for journaling. Whenever I do it, I feel like I already consumed several hours from that day and yet I'm only at the very beginning of it. Journaling acts like a mind emptier and out of nowhere I feel energized and ready to go. Not to mention that in the morning I have less inhibitors and my journaling (/journaling-versus-blogging/) is far more authentic. ## 2. Enjoy The Morning Silence And do nothing. Just feel the silence and let it spread over your mind and body. I'm fascinated by all the little noises that are born from that morning silence: from my familiar house noises (wife and daughter waking up, steps, windows, doors) up to the neighborhood noises (car engines, low voices, small buzz). Everything starts in that silence and sometimes I think that if I focus (/how-to-train-your-focus/) enough on it I could actually predict, or even create all those little noises. ## 3. Be Grateful For Something 5 Minutes Point your mind to something you're really grateful for and stay there. Might be your family, your wealth, your health or just your present moment. Feel grateful for it. There's nobody between you and that thing, there's nobody watching or listening. You're free to feel grateful (/the-gratitude-experiment) and happy. And then start your day as usual. It's only 5 minutes, yet the impact of such a day starter is overwhelming: whenever I'm doing it I feel like walking 2 centimeters above the road for the entire day. ## 4. Open Windows Regardless of the current season. If it's cold outside, even better. Open your bedroom windows, your living room windows, your kitchen windows. Let the fresh air inside, welcome the small buzz of the city waking up, silently watch the last forces of the night walking away. Let yourself be refreshed. The yesterday you is no longer there and the today you is slowly getting in shape. Those open windows will unconsciously allow you to receive change and novelty with much more ease during the day. ## 5. Throw Away A Useless Object You're going to spot it pretty easily if you put your mind to it. It often happens to me to stumble upon unneeded stuff in my house during the early morning. If it's a chair staying in my way, maybe its place is not in my house. Maybe it's a piece of paper or a wrecked device. I find joy (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/) and a subtle enthusiasm in throwing away things that are only cluttering my space, and doing it first thing in the morning makes it even more powerful. ## 6. Help Somebody Write an answer to an old question, do part of a small chore, move an object out of somebody's way. No need to be huge or visible. Just keep in mind the intention of being helpful immediately to somebody else. During the morning your mind is far more clear and you have access to more energy than usual. Hence, your helping activities will be much more effective if you decide to do them as the first thing after you wake up. ## 7. Meditate For 5 Minutes Empty your mind and isolate from your environment. Focus on your breathe. If there are thoughts coming in your way, acknowledge their presence and then kindly ask them to go away. Meditating in the morning is easier, there are fewer perturbing factors. Even after a good sleep, your mind is still trying to find answers, to solve problems, to fight or resist. Do yourself a simple, yet solid service and pack your morning time with an extra meditation on top. ## 8. Think How To Help Somebody During The Day This is different from number 6 in terms of the actual time of the helping act. Now you're planing how to help somebody during the day, you're visualizing the context and try to find a specific time in your schedule for this helping act. Again, doesn't have to be huge, a piece of advice, facilitating something or a small gift. The mere act of planing how to help somebody will change the course of your entire day. ## 9. Exercise Like in getting physical. I'm not doing this every single day, but I'm doing it often enough. A part from your brain there's a body, too. A collection of joints, muscles and bones. And in order to be balanced you have to take care of those too. The good news is that your body has a feedback mechanism for the good things you do to it: it's called "endorphins". Every time you start your day with a decent workout, you'll be blessed with a decent rush of endorphins. Usually, it lasts until evening. ## 10. Spend 5 Minutes In The Garden Alternatively, spend some times near your flowers. Or your terrace. Just be outside in the first minutes of the day, trying to breathe the fresh air and feel the vibe of the green life. Clear you mind and open your senses. Let your awaken body to synchronize with this frequency and don't start the day until you completely immersed in this flow for at least 5 minutes. I seldom run into a fight or even got closer to some aggressive scene when I start my day like this. ## 11. Forgive Somebody Let go. Forgive and forget. Morning are very good for that because you have so little inference from the outside world, only your own mind and personal history. Does it really matter that much? Feeling that grudge and anger towards somebody who hurt you? Yes, that person hurt you, but it really matter that much? Forgiving somebody as the first thing in the morning makes me want to conquer the world the very next minutes. And it works really well with forgiving yourself too. ## 12. Think For 5 Minutes At Someone You Love Again, that person may be your family, someone you loved at some point in your life or someone who just appeared. Keep that person in mind, imagine having a conversation or doing something together. Create an internal representation of a desired bond. Not only it will actually attract that person towards you (somehow) during the day, but what you think in those moments will add up to the relationship in a very mysterious way. It's like what you think it's already happening. ## 13. Read A Poem Poetry, or any form of art, talks to your irrational mind. Usually, your morning is cluttered with rational thoughts and activities: get up and ready for the job, prepare the kids, get the morning tasks solved. Talking to your irrational mind will break this circuit, but it will do it creatively. For instance, my favorite morning poem is "If", by Rudyard Kipling. Every time I read it, even if the day is packed with difficult tasks, somehow, I find the energy and right attitude to get over them. Totally irrational. ## 14. Make Coffee or Tea For Your Partner I like this whole beverage ritual in the morning, I think it has something to do with deeply buried recollections of religious rituals we humans, as a species, performed during the history. There's something sacramental about preparing the water, making fire, putting the right amount of tea or coffee. It's like asking gods for benevolence. Only this time is not about gods, it's about your partner. Paving your road through today with your partner blessing. ## 15. Write A Thank You Letter You don't have to send it, just write it. When I first experienced this I had a little bit of a shock. I realized I don't know how to do it. And for whom. That was a sad shock. Not having somebody to say "thank you" in your life can bring in quite a sorrow. So, be sure to start at least one of your mornings with a "thank you" letter. Bring to the light people or events you are thankful for. If you say "thank you" to something first thing in the morning, you're inviting those specific type of events into your life. ## 16. Take A Day Off From Your Job And use the rest of the day for yourself. Even if you're self employed (/start-your-own-business/), or especially if you're self employed, take a day off. And start it clean, from the early morning. Those free days are somehow bigger when I decide to have them unexpectedly. If I start my morning with the clear decision to take the day off, something very strange will happen: my businesses will run smoother without me. My blog traffic will spike. It's like too much work means getting in the way of your own success. ## 17. Do Some Crafting For 5 Minutes Just fix something, replace a light bulb, use your screwdriver to harden some piece of furniture or modify some clothes. Just do something with your hands, without any preparation, in the morning silence. In a very surprising way, this morning crafting will unfold some new opportunities. You can find a solution to an old problem or you will solve something for somebody else. It's like this morning crafting will actually make you craft the rest of your entire day. ## 18. Learn A New Word In A Foreign Language Just one word. Every morning, for several weeks. I used to learn some hiragana and katakana only in the morning (and that proved really interesting during my first trip to Japan (/the-trip-to-japan-first-impressions/)). It forces your brain to find parallel ways to solve problems and your body to stay focused on a small problem from the very beginning of the day. Again, in a very strange way, learning a new foreign word each morning makes me dream about foreign lands. Which is quite a way to start your day. ## 19. Imagine Your Morning in a New Country How your morning will be in New Zealand (/the-trip-to-new-zealand/)? Or in Thailand (/the-trip-to-thailand/)? Or in Austria (/trip-to-europe-budapest-and-vienna-part-one/)? If you've ever been there, try to remember the smells, the air, the noises. Waking up in a different country every morning might be a fantastic experience (I might do this one day, by the way). If you've never been there, just try to imagine your morning there. After spending 5 minutes in a distant country, getting back to your actual day will feel like coming home from a long trip. Which is, partially, true. ## 20. Go For A Short Walk Like the first thing in the morning, before even having breakfast. Breathe the air, look at the neighborhood. Watch the morning light and hear the noises. Move around. When you got home, your day will be different. This short walk often acts like setting up the scene for something I want to happen. Walking around alone, before igniting the day, makes me feel like a director inspecting the stage. Everything looks cool, let's make a great film today. ## 21. Write A Powerful Goal Mornings are very good for writing goals. I especially like that time of the day for writing goals because I have very few interference from the outside world. Which makes me much more authentic. I value more the goals written in the morning because I am less influenced. I know for sure that during the morning I don't have to prove anything to anyone, I'm just me and what I want. Some of my best health decisions (/raw-food-diet/) are picked up during the morning. ## 22. Clean Your Desk Again, this must be done before having breakfast, or before any other domestic task (and this also assumes you work from home, at some point). Put things in order, wipe the dust, prepare your working setup. And then start the day as usual. After having breakfast, interacting with your family or just finishing your morning routine, come back to your office. A shiny, fresh and neat vibration will welcome you. A short sign of appreciation from yourself. ## 23. Sing a Song I do this all the time in the shower. And I highly recommend it. Despite what your neighbors may say (or even some of your early riser family members). Singing goes hand in hand with reading a poem. Doesn't matter if you know how to sing. just go ahead and knock some "Let It Be" as loud as you can ("Let It Be" is my favorite shower song, by the way). If you hear me humming some tunes in my beard that's a good sign I started with a loud song in the shower. ## 24. Read and Evaluate your Morning Phrase Do you have a morning phrase (/the-morning-phrase/)? Craft one, it's easy. Starting a day with a morning phrase it's like a mental programming exercise for maximizing your potential. It may take even less than 5 minutes and it's a powerful tool for energy channeling. The trick is to keep it for at least several weeks. But the advantage is that this exercise is very powerful. Planning on quitting smoking (/when-and-why-i-broke-up-with-smoking/)? Put it in a morning phrase and use it. ## 25. Delete Some Email Or some old, unneeded files. That's the mirror in the virtual world of number 5. Remove the clutter. Get rid of old messages, logs or files. Be in the flow. They say you have to let go the current you in order to become who you really want. I used to be a packer. Making folders and packing and storing everything in my computer. Now I start my mornings every now and then with a refreshing session of file deletion. Making room for what the day may bring in. ## 26. Watch The Sunrise Easiest of all and yet so underrated. There's so much power and simplicity in watching the sunrise, connecting to the light and actually feeling how the Sun will start another day. And you're there witnessing this cosmic process. Every time I watch the sunrise, being it at my home or in a foreign country, I have a subtle feeling of responsibility. This huge cosmic mechanism is turning around me as my playground: what am I going to do in it today? ## 27. Read Your Yesterday Journal If you keep a journal, of course. Look at yesterday from the very first moment of your new day. What do you love about yesterday? What do you don't like about it? Now you have the chance to change those things. Reading your journal first thing in the morning is a surprising experience. Seeing what you wrote without any noise and with a clear mind will reveal things that you didn't noticed. Maybe because you didn't like them? ## 28. Do A Short Yoga Session You don't have to be an expert yogi to start your day with a mild yoga session. I often find myself lighter and more flexible when starting the day with a short suite of Surya Namaskara, or Sun Salutation. It stretches your body and calm your mind. I once did this for more than 6 months, every single morning. It was perhaps the most calm and balanced period of my life. And besides calm and balance, what else do you need when you start your day? ## 29. Visualize 3 Moments From Yesterday Keep your eyes closed and try to remember 3 moments from yesterday. It's not reading about them in your journal, it's trying to visualize them in your mind. First of all, the very selection of those 3 moments will tell you something about your current state. Are those moments embarrassing or happy? Second, keeping them live in your head will help you find a solution or a sequel to them. It will help you keep yesterday linked to today. Some people call this flow. ## 30. Visualize 3 Moments From Today Can be practiced in tandem with the one above, or separately. Visualizing 3 moments from today means actually create those 3 moments. See yourself performing those actions, attending those meetings, saying those words or writing those sentences. It's early in the morning and nobody is pressuring. You have the freedom to see yourself exactly as you want to be. In my experience, almost any of these "predicted" moments are actually happening during the day. ## 31. Take A Picture Of Yourself I started this as a technical challenge a few years ago (trying to automate my Mac PhotoBooth) and proved to be enlightening. Not the actual process of taking a photo of myself each morning, but seeing those photos in a fast moving sequence months after. You can't fool the camera in the morning. All your problems, joys, frustrations or thrills are so transparent in a photo taken in the first moment of the day. It's like a message you send to your future self without even knowing the message. ## 32. Identify One Task To Be Canceled There must be one. Out of your entire to do list for today there must be one task which can be canceled. Sometimes I wake up with the only thought of identifying my canceled task for the day. I usually chose this approach after a very intense and tiring yesterday. It give me a sense of freedom and flexibility. And most of the time the freed time will make room for something interesting, or at least surprising. It's like opening your door to the unexpected. ## 33. Chose A Theme Of The Day This works in tandem with your personal mission (/personal-mission-statement/) (if you don't have a personal mission maybe it's time to find one). Find one red stripe which will go through your entire day. Like making this day "the productivity (/the-productivity-map/) day". Or "the observation day". Or "the money (/working-out-your-money-muscles/) day". This will be the dominant vibe of your entire day. By setting course in the very first moments of the morning you will maximize your chances to actually create your day on that exact theme. Already picked one? Great, now go ahead and pick one way to end your day (/33-ways-to-end-your-day/). 😉 First published on: October 25, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-tips-to-start-your-day%2F&text=33%20Tips%20To%20Start%20Your%20Day&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-tips-to-start-your-day%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-tips-to-start-your-day%2F&t=33%20Tips%20To%20Start%20Your%20Day https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-tips-to-start-your-day%2F&title=33%20Tips%20To%20Start%20Your%20Day Previous ### How To Escape The Internet Jungle In 5 Small Steps (/how-to-escape-the-internet-jungle-in-5-small-steps/) Next ### Blogging 101 (/blogging-101/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # I Stopped Prompting My Agents, I Write Agentic Loops Instead – Here's Why URL: https://dragosroua.com/i-stopped-prompting-my-agents-i-write-agentic-loops-instead-heres-why.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/i-stopped-prompting-my-agents-i-write-agentic-loops-instead-heres-why/ Published: 2026-06-09 Modified: 2026-06-12 Views: 271 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Tools Tags: ai tools, Claude, coding There's a line from Boris Cherny, the head of Claude Code, that's been quite present in the back of my mind for the past week. Paraphrasing: he doesn't prompt the AI anymore. He writes loops, and the loops do the prompting. His job is to write the loops. When the person who built the coding agent stops using it the way the rest of us do, that's worth some brain cycles. So I sat with it. Then I did the least glamorous possible thing with the idea, which is exactly why I'm writing this down. ## What a loop actually is Addy Osmani, a Google engineer with close ties to Gemini AI, has the best definition so far: a loop is a recursive goal. You define a purpose, and the AI iterates until it's complete. You stop being the person who prompts the agent and become the person who designs the system that does the prompting for you. For about two years, working with a coding agent meant one thing: you wrote a good prompt, shared enough context, read what came back, typed the next thing. The agent was a tool and you were holding it the entire time, one turn after another. Like a sculptor uses the chisel. A loop hands that holding to a small system that finds the work, hands it out, checks it, writes down what's done, and decides the next thing — and lets *that* poke the agent instead of you. It's like your job is to create the sculptor now – or, to be more precise, a small army of sculptors. ## Finding a test use case I shipped 9 apps in the last 4 months (/vibe-coding-for-senior-ios-developers-guidelines-after-10-apps-in-4-months/), to bring my total in the App Store to ten. They cross-promote each other, which means every single one is supposed to have a "By the same dev" section in Settings, linking to the others. That's the perfect candidate for a loop, a tiny problem spanning across multiple codebases. To make things a bit more interesting, I decided to add something on top of that: a convention. Each app displays a version string in Settings that reads `1.4.2 (28)` — semantic version, then the build number in parentheses. When you juggle 6-7 apps every day you kinda lose track of which build does what, so I wanted to make sure all apps display this accurately. So, with these 2 simple things, I decided to write my first loop. ## What I built In total, the loop I built to solve those 2 problems is fifty lines of Python. It's just a vanilla Python script that reads my app folders, grabs the necessary files (meaning the Settings.swift or SettingsView.swift), then sends them to a model with my two rules in plain English (the prompt), and prints a pass/fail verdict per app. The most important part is this one (simplified): ``` for app in APPS: state = collect_state(app) # read the files that matter result = audit(app, state) # ask the model to judge them print("✅" if result["ready"] else "❌", app) ``` It's not very complicated: it has a folder map to which I can add more apps, my conditions in plain English (have the "By the same dev" section, and make sure the version is there in the specific format), and one small loop that feeds each app to the model and prints what came back. ## The five building blocks of a loop (and where mine sits) But a real loop has way more than that. There are many definitions, because these are a lot of moving parts, but in very simple terms, it's something like this: 1. **Automations** — something fires on a schedule and does the discovery for you, so you're not the one going around checking. This is the heartbeat. It's what makes a loop an actual loop instead of one run you did once. 2. **Worktrees** — separate checkouts so two agents working in parallel don't overwrite each other's files. The moment you run more than one agent, this is the thing that stops parallel from turning into chaos. In my case, this one wasn't needed, my loop was purely reporting, no code written. 3. **Skills** — your project knowledge written down once (a `SKILL.md` file) so the agent reads it every run instead of guessing. Without it, the loop re-derives your whole project from zero every cycle. 4. **Connectors** — the loop reaching your real tools: the issue tracker, the database, Slack, the App Store Connect API. The difference between an agent that says "here's the fix" and a loop that opens the PR itself. 5. **Sub-agents** — one agent has the idea, a *different* one checks it. Having models checking each other's work is usually more effective. And the sixth thing: **memory.** The model forgets everything between runs, so the memory has to be on disk. My audit loop uses exactly **one and a half** of those five. It's a hand-run automation (block 1, minus the schedule) with my conditions standing in for a skill (block 3, barely). No worktrees, no connectors, no sub-agents, no persistent memory. But it was a very good learning experience. ## What it caught I ran the script across all my apps and most passed clean. The genuine findings were small and exactly the kind of thing I'd never catch by eye. One of my oldest apps — the task manager that's been around longest — has been shipping its Settings screen with the marketing version only. No build number. It reads `1.4.2` where every other app reads `1.4.2 (28)`. A one-line gap sitting there through who knows how many releases, because I'd long since stopped looking at that screen. A real, useful catch. Also the least dramatic finding imaginable, which is precisely why a loop found it and I didn't. ## What it got wrong, and why that's the actual lesson Most "I built an AI loop!" posts skip this part, so it's the part I want to dwell on. The loop lied to me several times, and every lie taught me something. **It complained about missing data I never sent.** An app reported "no Settings screen, can't verify anything." There was a Settings screen. But my file collector was pointed at the wrong path and silently returned nothing, and the model dutifully reported on the nothing it received. A loop is only as honest as the state you feed it, and a script that reads zero files fails *quietly* — no error, just a confident wrong answer downstream. The fix wasn't smarter prompting; it was printing the size of what I was about to send, so I could see when I was feeding it just empty air. **It flagged good code as broken.** Several apps got dinged for "won't compile, this property has no body." None of it was true. I was truncating each file to save tokens, and the version code I cared about lived at the *bottom* — so I was decapitating the exact thing I was asking about, then watching the model correctly report that the fragment didn't compile. Lesson: the thing under audit gets read whole. You truncate the supporting evidence, never the thing you're judging. **It gatekept on wording.** One app titles its cross-promo section "From the maker of…" instead of "By the same dev." The loop failed it. The section was fine — I'd written my rule too literally and the model obeyed too literally. Fix: tell it to judge intent, not phrasing. Not one of those was the model being dumb. Every single one was me handing it bad inputs or instructions, and the model faithfully reporting on exactly what I gave it. *That's* the skill of loop engineering, and it isn't prompting. It's building inputs you can trust and knowing where the loop will be confidently wrong. The senior-dev instinct, by the way, is the right one. Thirty-five years of shipping software taught me to distrust silent failures, and the reflex that says *"this is just a `for` loop with an API call in it"* is correct. That's the feature, not the disappointment. The interesting part was never the loop — it was deciding what to check and learning where to distrust the answer. ## Three things the loop still won't do for you Osmani names these better than I could, and they get *sharper* as the loop gets better, not easier: **Verification is still on you.** A loop running unattended is also a loop making mistakes unattended. "Done" is a claim, not a proof. The whole reason you eventually split the checker sub-agent from the maker is to make the loop's "it's done" mean something — and even then your job is to ship code you confirmed works. **Your understanding rots if you let it.** The faster the loop ships code you didn't write, the bigger the gap between what exists and what you actually grasp. A smooth loop just grows that gap faster unless you read what it made. **The comfortable posture is the dangerous one.** When the loop runs itself, it's tempting to stop having an opinion and take whatever it hands back. Designing the loop is the cure when you do it with judgment and the accelerant when you do it to avoid thinking. Same action, opposite result. The loop doesn't know the difference. You do. That's exactly why mine is deliberately read-only. It reports; it doesn't touch a file. The worst it can do is have a wrong opinion in my console. The moment I let it edit code, every one of those false positives above becomes a wrecked Settings screen. ## What's next The obvious next step, which I'm resisting on purpose: let the loop propose the fix, not just report the gap. That's where a checker becomes an agent — and it's where blocks four and five (a connector to act, a sub-agent to verify) finally earn their place. I'll get there, but only behind a hard approval gate, because the false positives above are a perfect catalogue of what goes wrong unattended. So I'm not uninstalling my IDE. I'm not running ten agents in parallel while I sleep. I took one repetitive chore, wrapped it in the smallest possible loop, and kept a human at the end of it. That's the rung I'm on, and I'd argue it's the right rung for most working developers right now — not because the higher rungs aren't real, but because the discipline you build here is what makes them safe later. Just start small, understand the implications and iterate. Do one sculptor first and make it carve a great statue. Then you can think about building a full army of sculptors. First published on: June 9, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fi-stopped-prompting-my-agents-i-write-agentic-loops-instead-heres-why%2F&text=I%20Stopped%20Prompting%20My%20Agents%2C%20I%20Write%20Agentic%20Loops%20Instead%20%E2%80%93%20Here%E2%80%99s%20Why&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fi-stopped-prompting-my-agents-i-write-agentic-loops-instead-heres-why%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fi-stopped-prompting-my-agents-i-write-agentic-loops-instead-heres-why%2F&t=I%20Stopped%20Prompting%20My%20Agents%2C%20I%20Write%20Agentic%20Loops%20Instead%20%E2%80%93%20Here%E2%80%99s%20Why https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fi-stopped-prompting-my-agents-i-write-agentic-loops-instead-heres-why%2F&title=I%20Stopped%20Prompting%20My%20Agents%2C%20I%20Write%20Agentic%20Loops%20Instead%20%E2%80%93%20Here%E2%80%99s%20Why Previous ### Leaving Claude Code (Opus 4.8) Behind – Switching to MiniMax 3 (/leaving-claude-code-opus-4-8-behind-switching-to-minimax-3/) Next ### Attention Harvesting – What You Do While Your LLM Works? (/attention-harvesting-what-you-do-while-your-llm-works/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 5 Life Lessons From Kung Fu Panda 2 – The Movie URL: https://dragosroua.com/5-life-lessons-from-kung-fu-panda-2-the-movie.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/5-life-lessons-from-kung-fu-panda-2-the-movie/ Published: 2011-07-06 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 256 Categories: Personal Development, Travel and Fun Tags: lessons learned, list post, movies I'm a big fan of cartoons. I even find personal development lessons in some of them, like Dumbo (/personal-development-with-dumbo/), for instance. Or in a more recent Kung Fu Panda (/7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style/). Oh, that post was a fun one. Not to mention it was instantly picked up by social media, becoming quite popular. So, it goes without saying that Kung Fu Panda 2 had to find its place in my posts too. Ladies and gents, without further ado, here are 5 life lessons I learned from Kung Fu Panda 2, the movie. ## 1. Your Past Doesn't Make You Who You Are **The movie:** Po, the mighty Kung Fu Panda warrior, finds out that his father, the goose, was not his real father. And that he was adopted. Suddenly, all he knows about his identity is blown away. Who is he, after all? What he is supposed to do in his life? In technical terms, Po goes through an identity crisis. A big part of the movie is dedicated to this search for his lost identity. Eventually, he finds out who he is and a hurtful story, deeply buried in his unconscious mind, is finally revealed. Po is devastated. But as he accepts that all that happened is part of his past, not his present, he also realizes a very powerful fact: in the end, you are who you choose to be. Your past doesn't make you who you are. Your choices are shaping your identity. **The lesson:** We all have our own personal history. Some of the things we did, or some of the things that others did to us, weren't ok. We may have been hurt. Or we made some mistakes. Or we may have been humiliated or had to go through pain and reclusion. But that doesn't make us who we are. We *always* have a choice. And who we are is not written in the past. It's a constant result of what we do now, in the present. ## 2. The Biggest Victory You Can Achieve Is Inside **The movie:** The beginning of the movie features a very interesting scene in which Master ShiFu dances the dance of "inner peace". In a surrealistic choreography, his moves are so smooth and balanced that he can receive a drop of dew from a tree leaf, move it along his arms without getting wet (or damaging the drop), and then leave it down gracefully on a flower. Po is puzzled and asks how he can do this. "By finding inner peace (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/meditation-modern-life/201710/how-find-inner-peace)" answers Master Shi Fu. Po truly believes that this "inner peace" thing is just another Kung Fu technique and not something that he can find on the inside. He pushes and pushes with his Kung Fu techniques, but he never seems to conquer his enemies. Only when he finds that inner piece (a place where forgiveness and acceptance are playing a big part) he's able to release enormous amounts of force and dance the same dance as Master Shi Fu, only with cannon balls that he returns back to his attackers. Without being hurt, of course. **The lesson:** The outside victory is a always mirror of the inside victory. Not the other way around. No matter how many skills we may have, no matter how much experience we may have, no matter how much we may know, if we're not balanced on the inside, the outside will always be in the wrong shape too. It's only when all the inner parts are harmonized that the outside can achieve that (apparently) unachievable goal. ## 3. The Hurt Is The Source Of The Healing **The movie:** During his multiple fights, Po is blinded by some signs his enemies are wearing and he remains without reaction, putting himself and his teammates at risk. The more he is exposed to that sign, the weaker he becomes. Po may have the choice to ignore that spot and keep on fighting. But something pushes him not to. Instead of ignoring it, he chooses to confront it and start to follow it, until it slowly begins to understand what's behind it. As the story unveils, we learn that the sign was the royal sign of his childhood realm. It was one of the few things that he could clearly remember about his (deeply buried) childhood. And it also became the key opening the gate to his lost memories. The hurtful point, once confronted, empowers Po with knowledge, identity and an enormous force. ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. **The lesson:** We all have a sensitive spot. Every time we're facing it, we lose focus. This is the hurt, the confusion, the unknown. Most of the time we chose to ignore that hurting spot inside us. But the longer we ignore it, the weaker we become. It's only by confronting what's hurting us that we can truly heal. ## 4. Everybody Has A Mission, Even If He's Not Aware Of It **The movie:** There is a prophecy about a black and white warrior who's gonna save the world. Po's lifetime enemy, the royal pawn, knows about it, (that's why he killed all the Pandas years ago). A clairvoyant sheep knows about it, and even does a little bit to help fulfilling that prophecy. The only one that doesn't know about it is Po. And still, he is drawn on his path by uncontrollable forces who are pushing him closer and closer to his destiny. Little by little, he realizes that all the small pieces of his life can be arranged in a bigger puzzle. In the end, he realizes that he does have a mission and he has to fulfill it. **The lesson:** Even if we don't know, we're always on the right place, at the right time, fulfilling our mission. We may feel at times that we're drifting (and Po felt that a lot) but the closer we get to our true core, the clearer our mission will become. ## 5. Laughter Is Powerful **The movie:** Almost for the entire movie, Po is telling jokes almost incessantly. He keeps on laughing, although he's ridiculous (/how-to-be-ridiculous/). Almost nobody in the movie laughs as much as Po. Not even his teammates. And when you finally hear other character's laughter, it's a freaking, horror-like one. Somehow, laughing becomes his defense weapon. He answers to almost everything with a joke. And it works. Just imagine how the movie would have look like without laughing. Like a deep, true and very serious story. Sort of a drama. Also boring. **The lesson:** one of the most powerful weapons that we have doesn't come in the form of a weapon. It's laughter. And it's incredibly powerful. Especially when it's used against yourself. If you can't make fun of yourself, if you can't truly and openly laugh at yourself, at least every once in a while, your last chance to evolve was just lost. *Image by GraphicMama-team (https://pixabay.com/users/GraphicMama-team-2641041/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1892023) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1892023) * First published on: July 6, 2011 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-life-lessons-from-kung-fu-panda-2-the-movie%2F&text=5%20Life%20Lessons%20From%20Kung%20Fu%20Panda%202%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Movie&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-life-lessons-from-kung-fu-panda-2-the-movie%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-life-lessons-from-kung-fu-panda-2-the-movie%2F&t=5%20Life%20Lessons%20From%20Kung%20Fu%20Panda%202%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Movie https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-life-lessons-from-kung-fu-panda-2-the-movie%2F&title=5%20Life%20Lessons%20From%20Kung%20Fu%20Panda%202%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Movie Previous ### Taming Monkey Number 6 – The “Forcing” Lesson (/taming-monkey-number-6-the-forcing-lesson/) Next ### July Freebies And Promotions (/july-freebies-and-promotions/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Vibe Coding for Senior iOS Developers – Guidelines after 10 Apps in 4 Months URL: https://dragosroua.com/vibe-coding-for-senior-ios-developers-guidelines-after-10-apps-in-4-months.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/vibe-coding-for-senior-ios-developers-guidelines-after-10-apps-in-4-months/ Published: 2026-05-24 Modified: 2026-07-03 Views: 243 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, iPhone Tags: ai tools, apps, entrepreneurship, ios development, vibe coding At the start of February 2026 I had one iOS app live in the App Store. As I write this at the end of May, I have ten, and a sustainable working pattern. Ten apps in roughly four months, built solo, on my Mac plus an iPad when in coffee shops. In this post I will try to extract the actionable insights from this sprint. It's a smaller and more focused companion to my longer post on vibe coding iOS apps on my iPad with Claude from my favorite coffee shop (/vibe-coding-ios-apps-on-my-ipad-with-claude-from-my-favorite-coffee-shop/), which describes my setup and the actual processes. This one is about things I couldn't see at the beginning, but which might be useful for someone starting to do the same thing — especially if they already know how to ship software. These are notes on vibe coding for senior developers specifically — not for beginners, not for people learning to code. ## Intended Audience Most vibe coding content out there is written for people who never coded before. That's a fast growing and legitimate audience, but I'm not addressing it here. **Vibe coding for senior developers is a completely different topic, and that's where I'm heading with this article. **Ideally, you're not using AI to learn how to code – you already did this for years. You're just delegating something you already know how to do, and the delegation skill is what's new. The guidelines below are what I'd send my past self at the start of February. They assume you know the language, the coding platform, and master the basic processes. ## 1. Use Two Models The change that most improved my workflow was running two models in parallel — Claude Code as the primary, MiniMax M2.7 as the backup, accessed through OpenRouter. The split is: - Claude Code handles architecture, agentic loops, spec interpretation, and anything that needs to hold the whole project in context. Memory files, genesis prompts, testing and versioning approaches. - MiniMax M2.7 is used to do refactors, boilerplate, a second opinion on complicated codebases (treating it like the code review guy in my team), and just a backup when I hit my Claude quota. Claude Code Max is $100/month, MiniMax 2.7 is $20 on the Token Plan, which is more than enough for a backup model (I reckon I could even use it as the main actor, if I really had to, but it would be tight). Beyond pricing, the main reason for this is continuity. Losing steam midday because Claude Code decided to eat half of my tokens on useless stuff, leaving me naked in the middle of that big feature build, that is something that I find highly demotivating. This is the simplest of the vibe coding for senior developers guidelines, and the one I'd act on first: at least two models, with a clean separation approach. ## 2. Optimize At the Root Most of the friction in my coding sessions eventually traces back to underspecification in the first prompt. Every "actually, also…" in turn eight is usually a sign that turn one wasn't clear enough. So I came up with a single genesis prompt that describes the app before any code is written. App name, bundle ID, monetization model, tech stack, architecture, file structure, color palette, IAP product IDs, App Store metadata — all of it in one document. The prompt I use is open-sourced as the iOS App Genesis Mega Prompt (https://github.com/dragosroua/ios-app-genesis-mega-prompt). It has 23 sections, and it is basically a general purpose template. It only needs the actual app functionality, something you can define in Claude chat or your agent of choice. Then throw that in the genesis prompt and feed the mix to Claude Code. Most of the time, Claude Code is able to do 95% of the work in the first pass. The time spent on the genesis prompt has the highest leverage in the project. An hour of careful spec writing avoids a day of mid-session corrections. Don't assume the model has your work history, your experience, your skills. Feed it good, feed it early. ## 3. Keep Your Mental Mode Light Shipping at this pace is hard to sustain if you try to hold every project in your head. There's simply not enough mental capacity to do so. I learned this the hard way. Eventually, I decided I needed an externalized way to know what mental mode I'm in at any moment. The framework I use for this is Assess-Decide-Do (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-assess-decide-do-mega-prompt), a mega prompt built on a methodology I've been teaching for fifteen years. The short version: at any moment you're in one of three modes. You're *assessing* (what's the state, what are the options?), *deciding* (which option, at what cost?), or *doing* (executing the chosen option). The common failure is doing all three at once. Multiply this by 10 projects simultaneously and you're free falling. When I open a session with an Assess-Decide-Do flavored Claude Code, I know immediately which mode we're in – and I can steer it in the mental mode I want in that specific moment. "We're in Assess mode for the next 20 minutes — don't write code, just model the trade-offs for the IAP layer." Or: "We're in Do mode on the breath-sync feature — the spec is locked, just implement, nudge me when you're done." The framework does the same thing for the AI that it does for me: it names the correct next action. That's what keeping the mental mode light means in practice — not memorizing some ruleset, just overlaying a solid cognitive framework over your processes, so you and the agent are in sync. ## 4. Shrink Building, Expand Verification Time With AI doing the coding, the time spent *building* shrinks. The time spent *verifying* needs to grow in proportion, and that's the adjustment most senior developers are slow to make. This shift in where the actual work lives is the part of vibe coding for senior developers practice that catches the most experienced people off guard. My current ratio is roughly 30% spec, 20% generation, 50% verification. After every major feature build: read the diff carefully, run the build, scan for the specific failure modes this model produces, document everything, and only then move to the next step. The reason verification matters more than it used to is **context drift**, which is the main hazard of long sessions. The more code generated inside a session, the more the model's attention dilutes across what it has already produced. The frequency – and impact – of these issues rises as sessions get longer: - silently breaking something built earlier in the same session - forgetting a constraint from the genesis prompt - regressing on a fix it just made - "improving" a working file in a direction nobody asked for (this kinda drives me crazy, honestly) In my experience, around the third, fourth hour of an intense session, more time goes to un-doing than to doing, because context drift compounds with every additional generation. What works is: shorter sessions, aggressive commits, fresh contexts started on purpose, thorough documentation of everything that was built so far and review of every generation. If you came up writing every line by hand, which most, if not all, senior developers out there did anyway, you already built the verification reflex. You just need to redirect it from your own typos to the model's drift. ## 5. Pivot Toward Marketing Earlier than Feels Natural When the build compresses, the bottleneck moves forward. Before, the most important question used to be "do I have the app yet?" Now it's: "does anyone know it exists?" I now start ASO scaffolds the moment the genesis prompt is locked, before any code is written. App name candidates with keyword research, subtitle variations, screenshot copy, the first three sets of keyword fields for Applyra to A/B against, a one-line pitch for Product Hunt. The app build and the marketing build run more or less in parallel. Marketing also has its own tooling now. While migrating dragosroua.com from WordPress to Astro I built a small set of Claude Code skills for content work (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-content-skills) — an SEO metadata batch updater, a CTA injector with placement strategies, and a link analyzer that finds orphan pages. They're open-sourced. The point isn't those specific skills; it's the principle: the same discipline and approach that ships apps also ships the marketing infrastructure around them. Skills, prompts, and scaffolds for content, ASO, and distribution belong alongside the genesis prompt, not after it. The senior-developer instinct is to build the thing well and let it speak for itself. With the build time compressed (and going asymptotically to zero, for everyone), that instinct produces apps with no downloads. The scarcer resource is not coding anymore, it's attention. So, marketing counts. ## 6. Treat Every App as an Experiment This portfolio approach – or, as I call it, an "ecosystem of apps" – tends to work if you stay light enough to move on when an app doesn't produce any meaningful result, basically treating it as an experiment, not as the final product. In my case, monthly revenue is concentrated in two, three apps: Zen Tales, addTaskManager, MosquiGo. The others earn a few dollars per month, each. If I had focused just on a single one, it would be really just about luck. Hit and miss. But treating each as an experiment gives back very good data every week — about ASO, monetization, category dynamics, and which features users actually pay for. That keeps me lean, and I can pivot to something better very fast. The right metabolism for senior developers doing vibe coding work is: ship fast, measure honestly, and be ready to either double down or walk away on each app independently. The AI lowered the cost of building, so the cost of abandoning a project dropped too. ## My 10 Apps and What Each One Required Here's the actual lineup from this 4-month sprint, with the specific coding challenge each one forced me to solve. 1. **addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8)** — productivity built on the ADD framework. *Challenge:* CloudKit sync across iOS, iPad, and Mac; a realm-state machine that gates UI based on which mode the user is in, and the Zen Status feature: inferring user's mental state from the actual data in the app. This is the one app I already had, the vibe coding sprint involved mostly adding features like import from other apps 2. **MosquiGo (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mosquigo/id6759360014)** — ultrasonic mosquito deterrent. *Challenge:* a frequency engine that runs reliably in the background under AVAudioSession constraints, plus anti-habituation patterns so the sound stays effective over hours of use. 3. **AI Kiddo (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566)** — kids' first words in 8 languages. *Challenge:* full localization including Japanese and Korean, child-safe Text-to-Speech routing, and a UI simple enough that a one year old will actually use it. 4. **Zen Tales (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zen-tales-buddhist-stories/id6758518121)** — Buddhist stories with AI reflection. *Challenge:* Text-to-Speech generation stories without bloating the app size, real-time AI reflection with careful cost control, while keeping the UI extra simple 5. **Just 5 Words (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/just-5-words/id6753934664)** — pick 5 words, get an AI story and image. *Challenge:* fully on-device generation via Apple Intelligence Writing Tools and Image Playground. No backend, no API key, no network round-trip. 6. **Light Njoy (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/light-njoy/id6759700009)** — your iPhone as an ambient lamp. *Challenge:* five distinct rendering layouts (aurora bands, radial pulses, liquid metaballs, full glow, grid), AI-generated color palettes from natural language, breath-sync haptics, and a custom `.njoy` file format for sharing lighting sequences. 7. **Hacking Habits (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hacking-habits/id6760470848)** — financial resilience habits, companion to my Gravitational Habits ebook. *Challenge:* a habit-graph data model, integration with the existing Hacking Habits hub on dragosroua.com, and ADD-driven user flows. 8. **Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)** — AI-powered flight intelligence. *Challenge:* Aviation API global polling, the Pulse anomaly index calculation, Apple Intelligence summarization of flight events, and Travelpayouts integration. 9. **999 Wise Quotes (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/999-wise-quotes-stoic-zen/id6765485744)** — premium wisdom app, sibling to Zen Tales. *Challenge:* curating ~999 copyright-clean quotes with primary-source attribution as the Scholar tier moat, three AI actions per quote, same Text-to-Speech challenges as in Zen Tales. 10. **Shape Walk (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/shape-walk-walking-tracker/id6761288309)** — gamified GPS walking app. *Challenge:* real-time location tracking with low battery overhead, a shape-matching algorithm that grades how closely a walked path traces a target shape, MapKit overlays, and background location handling. Different categories, different stacks, different monetization paths. But all built following the guidelines above. ## Closing Thoughts These are my notes from a specific four-month sprint. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a final method. The model landscape will change for sure. The tooling will change. Some of these guidelines may be obsolete by the end of the year. But I hope this 6-point approach will survive: - writing tight specs - two-model setup (main + backup/verifier) - mental modes management (ADD) - heavy verification - marketing early (or in parallel) - every app is an experiment If you're a senior developer thinking about doing something similar, my take is the work hasn't gotten easier — it just moved. The value you add now sits in the spec, the verification, and the distribution, which is where most of us were not very experienced to begin with. That's the honest summary of vibe coding for senior developers practice four months in: same craft, different shape. First published on: May 24, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Asia for Digital Nomads – A Primer URL: https://dragosroua.com/asia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/asia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer/ Published: 2025-11-17 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 235 Categories: Location Independence, Travel and Fun Tags: asia, digital nomad, financial freedom, thailand, travel, vietnam For the last 3 years, I've been living mostly in Asia, with bases in South Korea and Vietnam, and short visa runs in Thailand or Bali. I'm also familiar with Japan and Hong Kong from previous trips. What follows is my assessment of Asia as a destination for digital nomads. How this blog post is structured: we will start with orientation, continuing with the basics, like internet coverage and coffee shop working, and touching up with the more complex social interactions and cultural differences. But you can read it in any order. Please note that my paid newsletter subscribers get a chunky bonus of tips, with actionable information like special areas where you can work from, best digital nomad friendly coffee shops or neighborhoods, etc. ## Orientation — Know Your Place Asia is not a monolith, and treating it as such will lead to disappointment — or worse, expensive mistakes. The North of Asia (Korea, Japan) is over-industrialized, with high standards of living and a deeply opaque social fabric. You will need months, if not years, to penetrate the social layers here. Think of it as the Scandinavian equivalent of Asia: everything works, everything is clean, and everything is distant. South East Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia) is a different beast entirely. These countries are developing rapidly, but they're still affordable and the social fabric is permissive — people will actually engage with you. The Vietnamese are often called the Italians of Asia, and there's truth to that: expressive, warm, and food-obsessed. Bali deserves its own mention. At the time of writing, it's almost fully Westernized — a place with dominant Western culture sitting on Asian infrastructure. The spirituality part that everyone goes there for? Over-commercialized to the point of parody. If you're looking for authentic spiritual experiences, look elsewhere. The practical takeaway: choose your base according to what you actually need, not what sounds exotic. Need structure and safety? Go to the North. Need affordability and human connection (/category/meaningful-relationships/)? Go South East Asia. Want to pretend you're being spiritual while sitting in a cafe full of other Westerners? Bali is your next destination. ## Internet Coverage This is the easy part: Asia has exceptional internet coverage everywhere, at the WiFi level. Coffee shops, restaurants, malls — all reliably connected. Even small towns in Vietnam have better internet than some European capitals I've visited. If you're visiting for the first time, you'll find 5G SIM card options immediately at the airport. I recommend this only for emergency cases. The better approach is to find an online eSIM provider and choose your package before departure, then activate when you're at the airport. It's cheaper, faster, and you won't waste your first hour in a new country standing in line at a telecom kiosk. One note about Vietnam specifically: the government blocks certain websites and services. Get a reliable VPN sorted before you arrive, not after. This is not optional. ## Social Interactions The North is highly formalized. In Korea and Japan, you should rely on meetup apps and try to discover connections at organized meetups — and there are many, with decent attendance. Random socializing in coffee shops or bars is possible but rare. People have their circles, and those circles are hard-coded by school, university, or workplace. In the South, East you should go with coffee shops, bars, or expat-friendly areas and try to mingle there. It's easier, more spontaneous, and people are genuinely curious about foreigners. You'll have conversations (/coffee-and-conversations/). You'll make friends. Some of those friends will try to sell you things, but that's part of the charm. The difference is profound. In Seoul, I could sit in a coffee shop for six hours and have zero human interaction. In Saigon, I'd have two conversations before my coffee arrived. ## Status and Hierarchy Understanding status matters if you want to navigate Asia without constantly offending people (/a-crash-course-on-public-keeping-your-mouth-shut/). The hierarchy goes: Age, Career, Money — in that order. Age trumps everything in the North. You defer to older people automatically. You use honorifics. You pour their drinks. This isn't servility; it's social operating system. In the South, East it's more relaxed but still present. Career matters differently across regions. In Korea, your company name is part of your identity. In Vietnam, entrepreneurship is respected more than corporate affiliation (it sounds weird for a self-declared communist country, but yes, Vietnam is highly entrepreneurial, everybody has a small business). Money status is obvious everywhere, but the displays differ. In the North, wealth is quiet — luxury brands, yes, but subtle. In the South, if you've got it, you show it. Gold is the distinctive feature. For digital nomads, this means: don't brag about your location-independent lifestyle to locals working 12-hour days. Don't talk about how "cheap" everything is. Don't assume your Western casual approach to hierarchy will be appreciated. Be polite. Read the room, adjust accordingly. ## Work Culture and Work Places The work culture here is better than the West, regardless of the actual place — by which I mean: people actually work. They work like they have no other choice, mostly because they don't. If you're not born into a wealthy family, you have to work incredibly hard, because there's no relevant social welfare system. Pensions are barely a thing, so young people are actually supporting their entire family tree. Your 25-year-old colleague in Korea? They're likely financially responsible for parents and possibly grandparents. The beautiful 20-year-old girl working in a Saigon bar? Same-same, but slightly different, she may also support brothers and cousins. This creates an atmosphere of focus that's frankly refreshing after years of Western "work-life balance" debates that mostly result in neither work nor life being particularly good. By far the most affordable places to work are coffee shops (/optimizing-work-from-coffee-shops-a-primer/). In Korea, there are even functional areas designated for work. A decent coffee shop — let's say A Twosome Place, which locals consider lower-tier — has the first floor for ordering and quick sips, second level for social interactions (you can talk loud, laugh hard, walk around), and third-fourth levels for work and study. Same blueprint in Hollys, a slightly higher-tier chain. ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. Specific to Korea, and something I haven't seen anywhere else, are the study rooms in dedicated buildings: just rooms with a table, a small fridge for drinks, and internet. Many students spend entire nights in these study rooms, then go directly to school in the morning. The hustle is real. In Vietnam or Thailand, there's not much franchising (although you can find Highlands Coffee, Phuc Long, Cong Caphe and Trung Nguyen Legend), but the diversity is incredible. It means you need to do a bit of extra searching, but it usually pays off big time. Independent coffee shops with character, good coffee, fast internet, and prices that make you wonder if there's a mistake on the bill. ## Food And Fun Each place has its quirks, but in general, Asian food is spicier than you think. In South Korea, they use kimchi (??) alongside pretty much everything. In Vietnam, fish sauce (N??c m?m) is everywhere — and I mean everywhere. When a local tells you that the food in some place is "really good," 99% of the time it means that food is incredibly spicy. Adjust your expectations accordingly. There are more and more Western options, but they're usually more expensive and often worse than what you'd get back home. If you want to stay on the safe side, pick an international franchise (usually in shopping malls) or stay around expat-friendly areas. In Vietnam, this is easier, as expats are somewhat grouped by the real estate landscape — most condominiums are expat-only or expat-majority. About fun: you cannot talk about Asia without talking about karaoke. This is an industry here, and part of the deep culture. In South-East Asia, everybody sings — and they sing incredibly well. It's casual, spontaneous, joyful. In the North, karaoke is more of a social layer you need to master for work, for social interaction, for integration. Different purpose, same activity. Needless to say, the nightlife landscape is very rich everywhere in Asia. You can always find areas with bars and restaurants — that's one of the main perks of being around this space. The variety is staggering, the prices are reasonable, and the energy is genuine. If you're the hiking type, you need to make your choice beforehand — pick a place to live that's suitable for that, not for the bustling life of the main cities. You can try smaller cities: Busan or Daegu in Korea, Da Nang, Vung Tau, or even Phu Quoc (a small island in the south of Vietnam). These places offer nature, slower pace, and significantly lower costs, but you'll trade that for fewer expat connections and less infrastructure. ## Transportation and Traffic You need to get your taxi/rideshare app sorted before arrival. In Korea, you can pick from Kakao T (the dominant rideshare app) and Uber (limited availability, usually more expensive). In the South, Grab is your choice. Grab is becoming a super-app, including food orders, ticketing, and more, on top of the main transportation layer — and it works well. You can order a car or bike, and prices are transparent. A word about Vietnam's traffic: it's intense. Actually, it's like nothing I've seen before — though I haven't been to India yet, so I'm refraining from calling it the most intense in the world. It took me one and a half days to summon the courage to cross the street. Vietnam has a population of 110 million people (including those living overseas, probably 10%) and a staggering 97 million bikes in circulation. The traffic doesn't stop. It flows. You don't wait for a gap — you step into the flow (/the-subtle-dance-between-structure-and-flow/) and move at a steady pace. Bikes will navigate around you. Stop suddenly, and you'll cause chaos. I call this process "combing" through the bikes. This sounds terrifying, and it is, for the first few crossings. Then it becomes normal. Then it becomes kind of not a big deal. ## Budgeting and Expenses It goes without saying that South East Asia is the most affordable place to live and work right now. Vietnam and Thailand have a very low cost of living, and what you get for your money here — in any area, from accommodation to food to services — cannot even be compared with what you get in the West. Everything is cheaper and better. Significantly cheaper and way better. A proper meal in a local restaurant in Vietnam: $3-4. Meaning you can get a big bowl of Pho (50,000 Vietnamese Dong, $2), and a beer (30,000 Vietnamese Dong, $1.2) and you'll be set for the day. A 2-3 bedrooms apartment in a good area of Saigon: $400-600/month – including pool and gym access. A full-body massage: $10-15. These aren't backpacker prices (/category/financial-resilience/); this is normal life. If you choose the North, you can still have a decent life, but the cost of living is pretty much on par with big cities in Europe. You can live off €10/day if you really pay attention and plan — and I did this experiment — but you won't enjoy much. Korea and Japan are expensive if you're trying to live cheaply, and affordable if you're earning well and know where to spend. The practical advice: budget for the North as you would for Western Europe. Budget for the South as about one-third of that, maybe less. And remember — cheap doesn't mean low quality here. Often it's the opposite. ## The Takeaway Asia is an incredible destination for digital nomads (/category/location-independence/). It has good prices, a vibrant night-life, lightning fast developing infrastructure and a huge learning surface: from cultural differences to social interactions. *As I said, if you're one of the lucky paid subscribers to my low-volume, no-nonsense newsletter, you will get in your inbox a host of actionable details, coffee shops and neighborhood to works, all hand-picked and verified by yours truly. If not, you can subscribe below.* First published on: November 17, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fasia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer%2F&text=Asia%20for%20Digital%20Nomads%20%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Primer&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fasia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fasia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer%2F&t=Asia%20for%20Digital%20Nomads%20%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Primer https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fasia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer%2F&title=Asia%20for%20Digital%20Nomads%20%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Primer Previous ### Supercharging Claude with the Assess Decide Do Framework – Mega Prompt Inside (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) Next ### Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 25 Things To Do in Your Life URL: https://dragosroua.com/25-things-to-do-in-your-life.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/25-things-to-do-in-your-life/ Published: 2009-12-05 Modified: 2026-05-05 Views: 218 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Success and Wellness Tags: list post, purpose **2026 update:** *I revisit this post here (/25-things-to-do-in-your-life-then-and-now/): what I did off of this list, what didn't and how the list looks now, after more than a decade and a half of lived life, as part of a 30 days "then and now" blog post challenge about the most viral topics on this blog.* What would you recommend to a complete alien to do on Earth, between his birth and his death? Suppose you're going to meet a tiny little green man, who will naively ask you: "Hey, mate, what's the thing with this Earth?". What are the 25 things that would create for him an unforgettable, yet totally customized (as in specific to you, and only you) experience? I know you're used to much bigger lists on my blog, but this one is different. Its' not a blogging challenge, nor a method to stretch my writing skills. It's just an honest transcription of the answers to the question: "what do you want to do in your life?". It may not be spectacular at all, but it is for real. It may not be complete, but you are here to give me more hints. It may not be the only list of things to do in your life on the Internet, but it's mine. And you can grow your own list from it too. Here's what I'd say it's worth doing between birth and death to a complete alien who just arrived here on Earth: ### 1. Fall in Love As often as you can. Experience the abandon of yourself in front of something bigger than you and the object of your love (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/) altogether. Don't actively look for it, but merely be prepared to receive it when it finds you. ### 2. Climb a Mountain Everest will be fine. Of course, if you can't do Everest, any mountain will do. Did it a few times and every time I descended I left a small part of me on that desert plateau. Now all I want is to get back again and rejoin it. ### 3. Make a Million Dollars And spend it all. Did both and felt good. For me, this was the best way to get rid of the "money as a number" obsession. After you did this once, things will look very different. You'll never be afraid of having and spending money (/category/money-wealth/). ### 4. Go Round the World by Plane Did that too. Bucharest – Rome – Las Vegas (/the-trip-to-las-vegas/) – Los Angeles – Auckland (/the-trip-to-new-zealand/) – Bangkok (/trip-to-thailand-the-aftermath/) – Vienna – Bucharest. Spent more than 45 hours in planes in less than 2 weeks but although I was tired as hell, it felt incredibly rewarding. The world is really small. ### 5. Fish with Your Bare Hands Did this when I was a child, in a village in the middle of Romania. My parents used to leave me for the summer at my grand parents house, which was near a creek, 20 cm deep at most. We used to block one of the creek's ways with sand, and while the other one was slowly drying we were picking small fish with our bare hands. ### 6. Learn a Foreign Language Or maybe two or three. Try to depict the world for a few weeks using the new words you learned. In a magical way the world will be enriched just because you describe it in a different way. It's like you re-create it every time you talk about it using different words in a different language. ### 7. Sail across the Ocean Didn't do it. Yet. But I'd love to be on a boat sailing across the Oceans. Waking up each day only to see the infinite water stretching in front of my eyes. Experiencing the bare confrontation with something hugely more powerful than me, yet able to become my ally. ### 8. Start Your Own Business Like an outlet for doing more of what you want and creating more of what you love. I did it out of curiosity 10 years ago and still enjoying the benefits. It's not only about being your own boss (although it feels incredibly good 🙂 ) but about taking more responsibility. ### 9. Have Kids And raise them. It's not what you can teach them, but mostly what you can learn from your kids (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series/). It seems that somehow along the way we lose the ability to enjoy life the way we used to. Kids are here to remind us that we're here to enjoy life. Together. ### 10. Build a House If it's yours, even better. Building a house is a powerful maturity test. It's far more difficult than it seems and it really changes some of your internal values. Didn't do that yet, only witnessing it at some of my friends, but definitely something I want to do in this lifetime. ### 11. Take a Year Off from Work I think they call this sabbatical. I did this after I sold my business, last year. Well, it wasn't technically a year without work at all, because I started and maintained this blog. But since I don't really call this work, I think it will do. Your entire life perspective shifts after one year off the hook. ### 12. Get Married And the moment you don't like it anymore, get a divorce. The way humankind is working nowadays, marriage is still a key type of relationship. Even if you crave for a much more open type of interaction, you can't really get all its benefits until you experience all the joys and sorrows of marriage. ### 13. Write a Book Any type of book. Whatever you feel the need to share. May be an ebook (/books/) if you don't have the time or resources to go for a printed one, but I think everybody should write a book in his lifetime. If only to let other people that he really lived and how. I built addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) to help you actually get things done. Assess what matters, Decide what's next, Do the work. ### 14. Run a Marathon Didn't do this yet, but I crave for it. I don't know why, but I feel like this is an important body milestone. Pushing the limits over what you think you can do, knowing that you did it. [ *Later edit: I finished not one, but over 40 marathons. And a few ultras, even a 220km long ultramarathon (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/).* ] ### 15. Share a Dream with Somebody Maybe it's a house you want to build with your partner. Or traveling the world together. Whatever it is, if it's a shared dream is really worth striving for it, even if – or especially if – it's for your entire lifetime. Shared dreams are most of the time at the roots of our physical reality. ### 16. Completely Change Your Career At least once. I did it twice so far, going from being a radio anchor to being an online entrepreneur and then a full time blogger. Don't spend your precious time in the same boring job until you die, it's not worth it. Yes, there is risk involved. Which is great! ### 17. Help a Completely Unknown Person Have you ever thought how it is to go to someone you never met and help him? Sometimes without even letting him know? This is what I call an anonymous random act of kindness and I've done it more than once. Mostly for how it made me feel, I admit. ### 18. Don't Talk for a Week I didn't do this but I want to do it. We've been trained to talk so much that we can't rejoice silence anymore. Somehow, we replaced the unbiased, direct experience of life with second hand experiences through words. A week of silence should at least make the speaking fun again after you finish it. ### 19. Attend a Funeral When I first attended a funeral I was too little so I didn't quite understand what was going on. Only after I grasped some of the concepts of what we generally call death, I was able to fully understand it. It's a celebration, not a mourning. This is why Zorba dances at funerals. ### 20. Live in a Complete Foreign Country for at Least a Week Did that when I spent 7 days in Japan, without knowing the language and almost without anybody around speaking English. After all the frustration was gone it proved to be an incredible experience. We can interact and live in so many ways without spoken language and beyond it. [ *Later edit: for the last 15 years, I've been location independent (/category/location-independence/), and lived in a few different countries for years.* ] ### 21. Plant a Tree Did it so many times when I was a kid and was spending my summers at my grandparents in the country side. Did it again when I moved into a new house a few years ago. It's like making a two-ways gift: you allow a life form to exist while receiving all the benefits of its existence. ### 22. Write a Poem It's not about literature here, no need to inspire millions with your words (but if it happens to do that, even better). Just let them flow through your soul and speak your feelings. When I was in my last year of college I wrote several hundreds poems but never showed them to anyone. ### 23. Climb the Highest Point in Your City I don't know why, but I'm addicted to this one. Everywhere I travel I look for the highest point and go there: Paris, Auckland, Tokyo, Vienna, Prague, they all have a tower structure. It gives me a fantastic feeling of freedom and "everything is possible" when I look at the cities from above. ### 24. Lose a Battle Let go of something really important for you. It might be a person you love, or a thing you're hanging on. Just let it flow away and continue to live your life. It will help you understand that your existence is not confined within the boundaries of a single person or a single thing. ### 25. Swim with the Dolphins Didn't do it yet, but I'm obsessed with dolphins. There is an unspeakable feeling of being free and at the same time shared in another dimension in this image, that I can almost get the shivers only by thinking at it. I also think it would become some sort of addiction once I'll get to it. What are your 25 things? What would you absolutely, unreservedly and unconditionally would want to do in your lifetime? Why? Share those dreams here, in the comments, or on your own blog. Just link back so I can discover you. If you dream about something, let it out and dare do make it real. ### Related Reading (2025 Update) After 15 years, here are a few more recent articles that expand on this idea: - 55 Life Lessons I Learned In 55 Years (/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years/) – How it feels to look back, knowing you did everything you wanted to. - Humans Need Entropy – Why You Need Some Chaos In Your Life (/humans-need-entropy/) – Not figuratively, but literally. Without challenges, any system eventually collapses. - Missed Opportunities (/missed-opportunities/) – Better do it, even if not perfect, than perpetually postponing it. First published on: December 5, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F25-things-to-do-in-your-life%2F&text=25%20Things%20To%20Do%20in%20Your%20Life&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F25-things-to-do-in-your-life%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F25-things-to-do-in-your-life%2F&t=25%20Things%20To%20Do%20in%20Your%20Life https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F25-things-to-do-in-your-life%2F&title=25%20Things%20To%20Do%20in%20Your%20Life Previous ### 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life (/100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life/) Next ### The Art Of Setting Great Expectations (/the-art-of-setting-great-expectations/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Moving From WordPress to Cloudflare Static Pages URL: https://dragosroua.com/moving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/moving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how/ Published: 2025-10-25 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 207 Categories: Blogging, Programming Bits Tags: coding, tools, wordpress Two days ago, I flipped the switch. After almost 20 years on WordPress, dragosroua.com now runs as a static site on Cloudflare Pages, built with Astro. But here's the twist: WordPress isn't gone. It's still running on a different domain, but now as my backend CMS. I still write in WordPress. I still hit publish in WordPress. But what the world sees is static HTML, deployed in seconds, optimized for speed and search engines. ## Why Decouple After 15 Years? WordPress and I never had problems. From 2008 onward, I published consistently—even ran 100-day writing challenges. The blog grew popular in the productivity space, listed alongside Zen Habits and Steve Pavlina. WordPress handled it all. But over almost 2 decades, clutter grew exponentially. **The real problems:** - 2,000+ posts with inconsistent SEO (half had zero optimization) - Cluttered category structures that made little to no sense anymore - Plugin bloat from experiments I'd forgotten – polluting content with weird shortcodes - No systematic approach to metadata - WordPress serving dynamic pages when 99% of my content never changed The unexpected consequence of success was complexity. ## The Actual Architecture: WordPress as Backend Here's how it works now: ``` Write in WordPress (wp.dragosroua.com) ? Hit "Publish" or trigger webhook ? GitHub Actions pulls content via WordPress API ? Astro builds static site with optimized SEO ? Deploys to Cloudflare Pages (dragosroua.com) ? Live in 30 seconds ``` **WordPress remains my CMS:** - Familiar writing interface (20 years of muscle memory) - Acts as media library for images - Draft/scheduling capabilities **But the public site is pure static:** - No database queries on page load - No PHP execution - geographically balanced CDN-distributed HTML that loads in 400ms **Best of both worlds.** I keep the admin interface I know, but serve the performance users deserve. ## Why This Matters: The SEO Blindness Problem The real trigger wasn't speed or security—it was **SEO blindness at scale.** With 2,000+ posts accumulated over 20 years: - Half had auto-generated excerpts as meta descriptions - Focus keywords? Random or missing (if any at all) - Internal linking? Chaotic and most of the time broken - Image alt tags? Inconsistent - URL structure? Whatever WordPress decided in 2008 – outdated or incomplete schema - **The static rebuild forced systematic optimization:** - Every post got a real meta description (AI-assisted, human-reviewed) - Every post got focus keywords based on actual content - Refactored site-wide schema: clean HTML semantics - Image optimization became part of the build process - Internal linking could be programmatically verified **This wasn't migration—it was refactoring at scale.** ## The Technical Stack: Astro + Cloudflare + WordPress API After 35 years of coding (since 1987), I've learned to trust tools that solve one thing well: **WordPress** for content management. It's still the best writing interface I've used. The Gutenberg editor works. The media library works. Version control works. **Astro** for static generation. Astro is philosophy-agnostic framework that renders to pure HTML with zero JavaScript bloat. It pulls WordPress API data and produces fast, clean pages. **Cloudflare Pages** for hosting. Their free tier handles millions of requests on a global CDN. It takes care of HTTPS, including certificates and the deploy is made via a simple GitHub push. **The bridge:** A build script that: 1. Fetches posts from WordPress REST API 2. Converts to HTML with proper frontmatter 3. Optimizes images (WebP conversion, responsive sizing) 4. Generates consistent SEO metadata 5. Builds static site 6. Deploys automatically **Two trigger modes:** - **Webhook:** Publish in WordPress ? webhook hits ? rebuild starts automatically - **Manual:** Run build script when I've batch-edited multiple posts Most days, it's invisible. Write, publish, live in 30 seconds. ## The Migration Process: Declutter, Reorganize, Optimize **Step 1: Content Audit (The Hard Part)** Not deletion—**curation**. I went through 2,000+ posts asking: *Does this still serve my purpose?* - The "100 Ways To Live A Better Life" series—essential, stayed - 100-day writing challenges—great content, kept - financial resilience, location independence, meaningful relationships posts: all kept - Random promotions or tutorials about dead tools—archived locally, not published - Half-formed thoughts that never matured—let go **I kept 1,800 posts.** Not because I deleted 200, but because I chose 1,800. **Step 2: Systematic SEO Optimization** For each of the 1,800 posts, I needed: - Meta description (150 chars, compelling, keyword-aware) - Focus keyword (based on actual content, not guessing) - Clean URL structure - Proper heading hierarchy - Image alt text that describes, not decorates I wrote a few scripts to make all this happen, but every single meta description got human review. This took about 120+ hours of work. This was the actual migration process. **Step 3: Build the Astro Frontend** Astro let me design the site I wanted—not some random WordPress theme that I need to customize for hours or days. Clean typography, lightning fast loading and minimalistic design that puts words first. I got rid of the comments too. Also, no more sidebar clutter. No "related posts" algorithm. Just writing and whitespace. **Step 4: Test, Deploy, Monitor** First build took 2 minutes for 1,800 posts. Subsequent rebuilds when I publish one new post: 50-60 seconds. Speed comparison: - Old WordPress site: 2.5 seconds average load - New static site: 400ms average load That's 6x faster. ## What I Learned: Technical and Philosophical **On organization:** Entropy isn't failure—it's the natural result of consistent creation. Refactoring isn't fixing what's broken; it's honoring what you built by making it sustainable. **On tools:** WordPress is a brilliant CMS. It's a mediocre web server. Decoupling lets each tool do what it does best. **On SEO at scale:** You can't optimize 2,000 posts one admin page at a time. You need systematic processing. Static generation forces this discipline. **On speed:** Fast sites aren't just better UX—they're respect for the reader's time. Every millisecond of load time is cognitive friction. Also, this confirmed my assumption that Google prioritizes fast loading sites, regardless of their content. In other words, you can be brilliant, but if your site is slow, Google thinks you're not existing. **On future-proofing:** Static files are portable. If Cloudflare shuts down tomorrow, I have HTML files that work anywhere. If WordPress dies, my writing survives. The hybrid approach gives me both flexibility in creation and durability in output. ## The Results: Waiting for Google As of two days ago, Google has crawled 1,500 pages but hasn't indexed them yet. The "Discovered – currently not indexed" status means Google is evaluating quality before committing to search results. With a 20+ year domain, proper SEO on every page, and clean HTML, I expect: - Full indexing within 2-3 weeks - Organic traffic significant increase within 60 days - Better rankings due to speed improvements - ## For Anyone Considering This Setup **You should do this if:** - You have 500+ posts accumulated over years - Your SEO is inconsistent or nonexistent - You want speed without sacrificing your familiar CMS - You're comfortable with Git and build processes - You value organization over just constant publishing **You should stay purely WordPress if:** - You need comments, forums, or user-generated content - Non-technical team members need to manage the site - Your site is simple enough that optimization isn't overwhelming **The hardest part isn't the tech—it's the systematic curation.** Writing 1,800 unique meta descriptions takes discipline. But it's also the most valuable SEO work you'll ever do. ## What's Next The blog is live. The SEO is systematically optimized. Now I wait for Google to catch up. Beyond that: I'm building addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) (iOS productivity app for ADHD minds) First published on: October 25, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmoving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how%2F&text=Moving%20From%20WordPress%20to%20Cloudflare%20Static%20Pages&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmoving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmoving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how%2F&t=Moving%20From%20WordPress%20to%20Cloudflare%20Static%20Pages https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmoving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how%2F&title=Moving%20From%20WordPress%20to%20Cloudflare%20Static%20Pages Previous ### Bio Content (/bio-content/) Next ### Unpopular Opinion: ChatGPT Is Over-Engineered Astrology (/unpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Self-Publish On Amazon, Kindle And iBookStore URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-self-publish-on-amazon-kindle-and-ibookstore.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-self-publish-on-amazon-kindle-and-ibookstore/ Published: 2011-04-27 Modified: 2025-11-17 Views: 204 Categories: Digital Tools, Personal Development, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: books, ebooks, kindle, self publishing For the last 14 months I've been learning how to become a self-published author. And by that, I mean not only PDF ebooks available on the blog, but also printed books on Amazon, Kindle versions and, of course, for the latest hype in town, ePub-based ebooks in Apple iBookStore. What follows is a (very) distilled story of my own experiences. But as distilled as it is, prepare for a few thousands words article (I suggest putting aside at least 20 minutes to read it from the top to the bottom). ***Later edit: Based on this article, there is an entire ebook, available on Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/Self-Publish-Amazon-Kindle-iBookStore-ebook/dp/B007VQLSL6/) and as an ePub in iBookStore – here (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007T39DLG?ls=1). The book contains five times more information than the article, including chapters on how to write, launch and market your book after your published it. Scroll down to the end of the article to get it instantly.*** ## Digital versus Printed This used to be a very hot topic a few years ago. Traditionally, the printed books industry was very hard to penetrate. The most common approach was to use a publishing house (or, to be more precise, to be used by a publishing house). It was also the most difficult one. But it worked. During the last few years, things have changed dramatically. Now you can use online tools to make your book available in printed format and you can do this at a very affordable price. Just keep in mind the following differences between digital and printed: - printed books are slower to reach the market. It can take weeks or months until they become available to major book resellers - digital books have a huge variety of formats (ePub being one of the most populars) but they can also have a high rate of piracy - in both cases, if you are a self-published author, you will need a (very) strong presence online to promote your books. Because nobody else will do it for you. Getting them "in the system" is just the first step. Now, let's get practical. ## Self-Publish With CreateSpace If you don't know what CreateSpace.com is, it's time to find out that this is Amazon's self-publishing company. The site offers a variety of tools to make your content available on Amazon's online selling platform (which happens to be the largest in the world, by my knowledge). You can publish a variety of content, from multi-media DVDs to songs and, of course, books. Signing up is free and there are no upfront costs. When you sign up, you can chose what type of product do you want (a book or a mp3 or a downloadable video) and then the type of setup do you want (expert, if you've been there before, or guided, if you're just starting up). Feel free to start with the guided setup, just to get s glimpse of what you can do around. Here's how the dashboard of the guided tour looks like (the red dots means those steps aren't yet completed, click on the image for full view). ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/createspace-guided-tour-300x186.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/createspace-guided-tour.png) And here's how it looks after you completed all the steps. ### /wp-content/uploads/2011/04/createspace-guided-tour-completed.pngThe Book Setup Once you added the title of your book, it's time to add the rest of the metadata (author name, contributors, subtitle, volume, etc). After that, you go through the physical setup: what type of interior do you want for your book (black and white or color – of course, the color interior will mean you'll pay more for each copy). An important step is what they call "Trim Size" or the actual physical size of the book. I recommend using an industry standard size. If you created your book with a standard word processor, you can mach the "Page Setup" sizes of the word processor with the sizes you can have in CreateSpace. In my experience, it's better to go with a standard size, at least for your first titles. The next step is to add your ISBN. Very shortly, an ISBN is a unique identifier for your book, which is now an international standard. ISBN used to be a tough rock for many self-published authors and, in some respect, it still is. Luckily, CreateSpace can give you an ISBN for free if you don't have one. If you want to buy your own, you can go to Bowker if you're in US, or you can get one for free, provided that you will send copies of your books to the national library of your country. This is the case in Romania and New Zealand, for instance. What's the big deal with these ISBN numbers and why is important to have your own? Because if you have your own ISBN number you will be listed as the publisher of your book too, not only the author. So, if you want to make a business out of publishing books, you should consider getting your own chunks of ISBN numbers. Other than that there is no other major impact of ISBN. If you use CreateSpace assigned ISBN, the only difference is that CreateSpace will be listed as your publisher. Once the ISBN thing solved, you can add a cover for your book. Now it can get tricky. You can either use their online cover creator, or you can get smart and do your own. Either way, CreateSpace will provide a few templates, based on the format of your book. This is where the "Trim Size" thing become important, your cover will obviously have to match the size of your book and if the book is non-standard, well, there will be problems. A printed book cover is not just a plain PSD file with fixed margins, you have to leave some tolerances and be sure to have enough space from the margins for your title or images. Once again, start exercising with the templates offered by CreateSpace. A very important step after you did all of the above is to upload your book. CreateSpace allows PDF file formats. That's relatively convenient, since many word processors can save your content in PDF too, but it can become tricky if you have embedded fonts. You must be sure that you will embed your fonts in the final PDF uploaded to CreateSpace. ### The Review Step Once you uploaded all the necessary data for your book (including the actual book file and the cover) you gotta review it. This is the place where you can start spending some money, Because you will have to order a proof copy for your book. If you don't live in US, this could add a lot of time to the entire process. You do have several shipping options, but the fastest one will be actually more expensive than the book. I usually choose the medium one, which is only a couple of weeks and around 10 USD. Be aware that you get in the mail (in the snail mail, that is) is the actual book that will be shipped to your readers. Do not try to overlook this step. Once the whole publishing machinery is started, it's becoming very intertial and any change to your book may take weeks or months until it is propagated. Not to mention that you will still have "wrong" items on the market. So, make the necessary changes and restart the whole proofing process. ### The Selling Process Once you are ok with the proof copy, you can move to the selling process. In this step you're adding a description for your book (the one that will be seen on Amazon book page) a BISAC description (a standardized, category based descriptor used by libraries), search keywords, publication date and so on. Once you're satisfied with it, you can go to the next step, which is the price of your book. The interesting part comes immediately after that, in a zone called "distribution channels". With CreateSpace you have 3 options: 1. sell it through CreateSpace store (which is like your own ecommerce site) by giving the direct link to your potential clients. 2. sell it through Amazon (and making it available to Amazon searches and ranking system) 3. sell it with the Expanded Distribution Channel (which comprises, among others, libraries and academic institutions or other online book sellers) The royalty you can get for each channel will decrease proportionally, meaning the highest royalty will be on CreateSpace and the lowest on the Expanded Distribution Channels. But there is more than that. The royalty calculation is a little bit more complex and it involves the enrollment in a so-called "pro-plan" (where you have to pay upfront and only once a fixed price for each book you want to enroll) and the number of pages of your book. The "pro-plan" is an interesting option, because it doesn't only guarantees bigger royalties but it will also gives you lower prices when you order your own copies. ### And Now We Wait After you completed all the steps, your book will be published shortly. And by shortly I mean hours or, at worst, days. But, as I already told you, getting your book out is only the first step. Now it's time to start your marketing campaign (if you ever thought of something like this) and start creating some buzz around your titles. ## Self-Publish On Kindle Another interesting option for self-published authors is Kindle. Until a year ago, Kindle was just a device. But in the last 6 months, Amazon made a very interesting move with this. Namely, they created Kindle apps. These apps are book readers connected to the Kindle repository, just like the actual device, only they "live" in other operating systems. So now you can have access to your Kindle books not only from your device, but also from your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android or whatever device you may think of. That makes Kindle a very interesting option for self-published authors. ### The Easiest Thing Compared with CreateSpace, Kindle publishing is a breeze. Just a word of caution: if you previously published your book on CreateSpace they do offer a conversion service. Namely, they will take your printed book and convert it into a Kindle ready file. But at 69 USD I consider it pretty much a robbery. Read on and see why is that. In order to start publishing on Kindle you gotta sign up at kdp.amazon.com (https://kdp.amazon.com). You may use the same username and password you usually use with Amazon, or you can create a new one, just for that. Here's what you see when you log in (this is my real dashboard, with all the titles I published so far, click for full image) ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/kindle-dashboard-300x187.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/kindle-dashboard.png) After adding your title, you have a two steps wizard. In the first step you add your book metadata and files, while in the second you manage your publishing rights, add the price and choose your royalty level. More on that in a second. When you add your book files, you can also add a separate file for the cover, just like at CreateSpace. But you can also choose to protect your book content via DRM (digital rights management). I'm not a big fan of DRM, so I didn't went for it. The file format accepted by Kindle is PRC, and you can use a variety of tools to convert your book to it. But it also accepts ePub file formats and that's quite a relief. Because the latest version of Pages for Mac is transparently creating ePubs from any document you want (as long as it is a WordProcessing based document). If you're on Windows, I recommend checking out the Kindle formatting guide (https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A2RYO17TIRUIVI). In the second step of the wizard, you establish the price and your royalty level. Also, you state what your distribution rights are (worldwide, or differentiated for countries / territories). I always chose "worldwide" because it was my own content, but your mileage may vary. ![ShareByLight app icon](/images/icons/sharebylight-icon-48.webp) I just launched ShareByLight (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-file-transfer/id6796897056)—transfer files with light only. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no cables. One device shows a stream, the other reads it with the camera. Free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. For the royalty, you have two plans, a 35% royalty and a 70% royalty. The 35% applies to titles under 2.99 USD, while the second plan applies to titles priced between 2.99 and 9.99 USD. You can also have the option to choose the price for Amazon UK and DE separately or based on the US Amazon price (I usually let it do it automatically). And that's it. Publishing your book may take a few days after you completed the two-steps wizard. In my experience, the shortest waiting time was 2 days while the longer was 5 days (but it included a week-end too). Once the ebook is published you can test it on your Kindle by partially downloading it (Amazon allows this for many of its titles). One last word: the formatting of a Kindle ebook is very different than the formatting of a printed book. So expect your Kindle ebook to look strangely different than the printed version. Also, keep in mind that Kindle automatically converts your color illustrations to black and white. ## Self Publish With iBookStore Backed up by Apple legendary hype, iBooks is a recent player in the self-publish area. To be honest, I came to it after a (very) long detour. As you may already know, I do write iPhone and iPad apps for a living (iAdd being one of them) and that made me quite familiar with the AppStore. So, at some point I decided that it would be interesting to publish my ebooks on the AppStore, by creating them as standalone apps. It seemed like many people were doing this. I created an app, imported the book content on it and submitted to AppStore. Surprise! My app got rejected. The message said something about publishing my app as a book, in the iBookStore. I went back and forth a few weeks with the Apple support guys until I finally got somebody on the phone. Yes, Apple is legendary for its opacity too, it may take weeks until you get a support guy to talk to you on the phone. After I discussed with him for like half an hour, I finally understand that I have no other option than to publish my books in the iBookStore. For hose unfamiliar with the Apple ecosystem, publishing a book in the iBookStore means it will be available in the app iBooks, not under the Books category in the AppStore. It's a little bit confusing and it took me a while to understand that. Apparently, Apple has an AppStore for apps (which may include a category called Books) and another store for books, called iBookStore, which mimics the same structure of the AppStore. Well, it all came into pieces when I read the requirements for publishing in the iBookStore. Among other common sense things you need in order to publish your book, like an Apple account, there was something new: an ITN number (or, if you're an individual, a Social Security Number). And that is because the revenue you get from selling a book has a different taxation process than the revenue you get from selling apps. I don't know why is that, it's just the way it is. Apparently, royalties have also a different cross-country taxation, so if you get royalties from US into a company based in New Zealand (which is precisely my case) you can get some sort of tax credit back. Luckily, my accountant, which whom I spoke a number of times on this topic, knows much more than me about that. To make a long story short, I applied for an ITN number for my company and after I got it, I started the publishing process. ### The Apple Uploader Another well known tradition of Apple is that it makes things extremely difficult for its contributors (iPhone developers are well aware of that). So, after incredibly long logistic delays and lack of information, I was finally in the position of uploading my ebooks. From this point on, things were starting to get extremely smooth. Apple created a Mac app for uploading your book. It's called iTunes Producer and it has a very simple, wizard-like interface and it makes uploading your book to the iBookStore a really pleasant experience. I'm absolutely honest about it, it's really simple to use and a big step forward made by Apple towards a better user experience. I won't go through the whole process, because the metadata is pretty much the same as for CreateSpace or Kinde. One important thing that has to be mentioned, though, is that the format accepted by Apple is ePub. As I already told you, converting a Pages document to ePub is just a matter of two clicks: "Export" and choose "ePub". Another important thing is that you may have free ebooks in iBookStore. Important if you plan to make available some of your content for free, for whatever reason you may think of. Oh, and the royalties you earn in Apple iBookStore are following the general AppStore rule, 30% Apple – 70% you. After you submit your book to iBookStore you gotta wait to be reviewed. In my experience, iBookStore had the longest delay from the moment you finished all your job, until the book is live. Minimum two weeks. So it's a little bit of a time consumer, you should take that into account when you start publishing your books. Here's how my iBookStoe dashboard is looking right now. ## /wp-content/uploads/2011/04/iBookStore-dashboard.png ## And Here's The Ebook! ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/how-to-self-publish-cover-small.png) (/books/) Seriously? Yes, seriously. If this article gave you a bird-eye view of what self-publishing is, then the ebook based on it will take it to the next level. Please note it took me one day to write the article, but more than one month to put together the ebook. You know, I had a very nice story about how this ebook was created but after a while I decided to keep it in the foreword only. So, if you're curious, you'll have to get the book. And you'll also want to get the book if you want to have a look at the newly added chapters, like: **How To Write An Ebook** **How To Promote And Monetize An Ebook** and so on. Just to give you an idea, this article has around 3.000 words. The ebook has 16.000. Loading… (https://gumroad.com/l/awEn) ## My Books Well, this is it. As I told you, this process started 14 months ago, when I first published my books on Amazon. It wasn't a continuous process (I'm not that slow in learning 🙂 ) but rather one based on the opportunities. Basically, when a distribution channel looked both affordable for me and mature enough, I went for it.I started with CreateSpace but when Kindle and iBookStore became affordable and worthwhile, I started to use them too. Now, if you want to see the title I published so far, you can start with this page, where you can get some of them even for free. $49 Worth Of eBooks (/books/) Now, if you have any more questions about this article, feel free to ask them in the comments, I'd be happy to answer. First published on: April 27, 2011 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-self-publish-on-amazon-kindle-and-ibookstore%2F&text=How%20To%20Self-Publish%20On%20Amazon%2C%20Kindle%20And%20iBookStore&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-self-publish-on-amazon-kindle-and-ibookstore%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-self-publish-on-amazon-kindle-and-ibookstore%2F&t=How%20To%20Self-Publish%20On%20Amazon%2C%20Kindle%20And%20iBookStore https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-self-publish-on-amazon-kindle-and-ibookstore%2F&title=How%20To%20Self-Publish%20On%20Amazon%2C%20Kindle%20And%20iBookStore Previous ### How To Catch A Bee (/how-to-catch-a-bee/) Next ### Taming Monkey Number Four – Failure? (/taming-monkey-number-four-failure/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Sun Always Rises at Dawn URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-sun-always-rises-at-dawn.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-sun-always-rises-at-dawn/ Published: 2009-12-21 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 200 Categories: Blogging, Motivation and Inspiration Tags: change, personal story, perspective, resilience I was a soldier in the Romanian army for 6 months. I was supposed to remain a soldier for 9 months, but a series of events made this experience much shorter. It happened exactly 20 years ago and today I'm going to tell you how these events changed my life. And the lives of other 22 millions people. Please keep in mind that this post is rather long and it's something personal. ### December 16th, 1989 By that time, I was already in the army for 2 months. During October and November we did regular training and sometime around December we took the traditional oath. To serve the country, the supreme commander and so on. If you don't know, in December 1989, Romania was still a communist country. And every soldier was supposed to defend the supreme commander, a ruthless and obsessive dictator, Ceausescu, by his name. I couldn’t say the army was difficult until that day. We were “TR” (which came from “termen redus” or reduced period) meaning we all took the university exam: we were students. And students had a reduced military term, only 9 months, compared to the standard 21 months. Basically, next year, we had to continue our education: some of us were at the faculty of Letters (yours truly included) while some of us were at the Law school. We had a little bit of a comfort, bearing the fact that we were all potential "contributors" to our commanders. Going to University in communism was either a matter of being rich (to pay for extra teaching hours or to bribe the teachers) either a matter of extreme hard work. My family wasn't rich, to straight this out. Anyway, because we already took the exams for the University we were considered officers and had a different training. Suffice to say that until that December 16th we had the chance to fire every weapon allowed in our specific training (which was called "research and diversion" or "guerilla infantry with missions on the enemy territory", as we were often called). We knew how to fire a "normal" machine gun as well as a grenade launcher or a high precision riffle. December 16th was the scheduled day for the only war mission during peace we were supposed to have, which was guarding the facility perimeter. It was the only occasion (a part from firing exercises) when we were allowed to carry real ammunition. And to fire our guns if any suspicious person would have break the perimeter. We started in the afternoon. I was in the first shift and I remember we had to go to our posts at 3 PM. We had 3 hours watch, 3 hours free time and 3 hours sleep. That was the normal schedule. My post was number 13 at the ammunition depot. Nothing really interesting happened during our service and we took the time to do a little field research, to measure the distance between our posts and to establish some coded signals. We had two whistles: one for everything is ok, that we should do every 15 minutes, and one for "we are under attack", which we really hoped we'll never use. After all, because we were TR, we only had to do facility guarding only for 3 days and nothing could happen in only 3 days, right? After the first 3 hours we did an inspection on all the other posts of the facility and get back to the head quarters. I remembered I lied down and tried to sleep a little before the next shift, which had to start at 9 PM. But around 8:30 PM I heard some noises. A few trucks were leaving the unit. Inside I could spot some of the soldiers in the adjacent units. Our commander, a guy we used to call "Black Jim", because of the color of his skin and very his popular propensity for whisky, told us: "There's something happening in the city. I was afraid of that". His skin wasn't black anymore, but rather pale. At 9PM, I entered my post. It was getting colder. There was a trench around my post and after a few minutes I went down letting only my head rising at the soil level. Around 10PM, only one hour after I entered my second shift, the guy who was supposed to change me at midnight came in. "They're doubling the guards, said, there's something going on in the city". ### December 17th, 1989 Somehow, that night I stayed in the trenches until morning. We had our whistles every 15 minutes and nothing happened. When we went for breakfast, at 6 AM, our colleagues were already there. They acclaimed and called us "heroes". I didn't understand. Many of them were pale, the same color as Black Jim. After we sat at the table, some whispers started to flow around. "There are problems", "They will going to double the shifts again". What they could possibly double, I thought, we were already doing 6 hours guard and 3 hours sleep. Which reminded me I didn't sleep at all in the last 24 hours. When we went to the headquarters we met a lot of new guys, mostly officers. There were short orders and a lot of movement. All I wanted was to sleep. Black Jim came again and told us we have to go to our posts again. We didn't have more than one and half hour since we left them. Nobody was telling anything to anybody. We went to the post and for the first time I had a very familiar feeling when I went down in the trench. Somehow, that felt cozy. During the day, nobody came to the ammunition depot to give us more news. Nobody came to change us, either. At noon, we saw a few tanks leaving the facility. Tanks? What the hell are they doing with tanks? We never saw tanks outside the unit until that day. Shortly after, a guy came and tell us to go take our lunch. We did and the facility looked empty. I tried to understand where were all the soldiers and couldn't came up with a logical answer. After lunch, we went back to the post. I started to feel more "at home" in the trenches than in our bedroom our the guard head quarters. All I was thinking was "I am only one and a half day until this thing will end. It's only 3 days. It will end after one and a half day". After dark, maybe at 7 or 8 PM, an officer came and told us the "local exercise alarm" was on. He didn't use those words, but a military code. A local exercise alarm was serious. Very serious. We had to go back to the facility and get more ammunition. Normally, we were doing our guarding mission with only 5 bullets. Now we could take at least 4 loaders, each with 30 bullets. What the heck am I going to do with 120 bullets, I was thinking. We came back in the ammunition depots in 30 minutes. And it was then when I just heard the first shootings. They cam from the town. Sometimes, I could easily see the light and the sound came one or two seconds after. They were shooting in Timisoara. I will always remember that feeling: a deep, unavoidable grotesque emotion mixed with a very practical attitude: "Ok, they can't shoot us here, it's at least 4-5 kilometers from town". Why they were shooting? Who? Why was the local exercise alarm triggered? During the night, another officer came and let us know that the national exercise alarm was on (another military code, of course). Until morning, there was also a local alarm (like in a local, real, alarm) and then, in the morning, the general alarm. ### December 18th, 1989 That morning, I was happy to be alive. The shooting went on until 2 or 3 AM. Around 5 AM it started to rain. Years later, they said that rain was there to wash the blood. We didn't know about the blood, we only know that it was raining in December. Now I was pretty sure it won't end in just 1 day. A number of times I started to wonder why this was happening to me. But then it got too busy to have time to wonder anything. When we got back in the facility that morning, trying to have some breakfast, it was like chaos already. Trucks filled with soldiers, ammunition all over the place and Black Jim taking us apart and whispering: "The password is changed, guys. From now on the password is: instead of my mom crying, better his mom." I couldn't understand what he was telling, but then I realized: shoot anyone who might be dangerous, shoot to kill. It was war. I think I spent a few hours wandering around through the facility (nobody had no idea about what was to be done and almost everybody was moving from one building to another chaotically). I tried to understand what was going on. Who shoot who? What was the meaning of "trouble" in the town? A few officers told me that it was an invasion and we had to go to the Hungarian border. Others told me there were a bunch of hooligans devastating stores. And others were looking through me and told me nothing. I remember that during the day I took as many bullets as I wanted. Took the time to take out my gas mask and filled the bag with bullets. As a precaution. I think I had around 200 bullets with me. And I also replaced the semicircle, standard loader, with a machine gun loader (also called "drum loader") with 45 bullets in it. It was the only way I was feeling a little secure. The whole world seemed to collapse and although I knew, rationally, that if I will be hit no bullet will save my life, just packing myself with guns gave me a strange feeling of security. Somehow, the people with whom I shared my post were changed. When I went back to the post, around 2 PM, I was with a new guy. He wasn't a TR and he was into town the other night. He didn't speak for a few hours and then, after dark, started to talk continuously. I listened for hours. It was about his life, about his girlfriend and about the way he will live his life after what he saw and did the other night. "Brains are pink, you know that? Human brains are pink, now I know that" was just one of the sentences he kept whispering until the next day morning. ### December 19th, 1989 That day was supposed to be the last one from our guarding service. But instead, we were confined in the ammunition depot and we weren't allowed to go to the facility anymore, not even for lunch. There was a mobile cooking service installed and they were giving us food on the spot. It was war. Usually, in the ammunition depot were only 6 people: 4 fixed in each corner, and 2 mobiles, patrolling on the longer sides. Now we were at least 30. Nobody knew what was really happening and all we could do was making assumptions. Nobody was really bold enough to think it was a revolution. Or if it was, we were so afraid and brain washed by the system, that we were actually frightened for the people who started it. They couldn't stand a chance, we thought. The system was too powerful. They will be killed. Now we knew that we were not going to the Hungarian border and all we had to do was to guard the ammunition depot. In my mind I drew a line between the ammunition depot and the outside world. I had my gun, I had the bullets and I had a few months ahead me in which my world would be only that ammunition depot. I was prepared to stay there for as long as it takes. The outside reality could take care of itself for a while, I'm not interested anymore. Projecting a reality confined to the ammunition depot, as terrifying as it may have sounded, was the only way to keep my mind working. My world collapsed. In the ammunition depot, time was flowing differently. From time to time we heard noises from the city and during the night we could see some lights. Maybe they were shooting again, maybe it was only a tram at a crossroad, leaving sparkles behind. From time to time, we could also hear real bullets around us. Close. Really close. A sharp, distinct noise. It was my third day in a row without sleep. ### December 20th, 21st 1989 I don't remember any normal flow of actions during those 2 days. Just separated events. And I know I was in the ammunition depot all time, without sleeping. One of these nights we were surrounded by tanks. I think there were at least 20. An officer came and told us that a tanks unit will take position around the ammunition depot. They were there to protect us. Black, noisy and incredibly powerful tanks. One of them wanted to take a shortcut through the depot but one of our colleagues stood up. He actually fired his gun and the tank had to stop and take a detour. Confusion. Weeks later, my colleague was acclaimed as a hero. Another event: I had a perimeter break up. I followed the procedure: shouted "Stop! Who are you? Stop or I'll shoot!". Nobody answered. I could clearly see the shadows of two men at around 50 meters from me, coming from the town. The second they heard me, they were down. Although it was dark, I could pretty much identify their location, even after they went down, so, after I fired one warning in the air, I aimed for that place. And shoot. And then I waited. In 30 seconds, a silhouette popped out of nothing 1 meter from me. It was a captain I knew from our facility: "Good boys, he told me. Don't let anyone get near this depot". The other silhouette popped in a few seconds, near the captain. He was a telecommunication soldier, carrying a radio station. "We thought you might need a radio station here, he told me, but now I see that nobody will get closer to this place. You don't need it.". "Why didn't you answer when I asked who you are?" I asked. "I didn't know you were talking to us", answered the captain after a few moments. In the dark of the night I could see he was pale. Same color as Black Jim. Confusion. More confusion. And yet another event: in one of these morning we found one of our colleagues sleeping in a dog house. On each sides of the depot there were guarding dogs. One of the dogs gave birth to a bunch of puppies. Our colleague was so tired that he took the puppies out, put his legs into the dog house and fell asleep. It was warm inside. At some point, I saw a truck circling around the depot. I didn't eat for 2 days and didn't sleep for 5. I thought it would be a good time to go grab something to eat. I stopped the truck, got in and hoped it would leave me somewhere near our facility, preferably the kitchen. I was right. When I was close to the kitchen, I jumped out and recognized another 2 colleagues who were looking for food too. We ate silently and then split: they went back to the depot and I went to the infirmary. While eating I saw my face in a mirror: it was swallowed and red. I felt "good" but my face didn't look good at all. The doctor said something about not getting back to the post and putting me under observaton. I didn't remember exactly what he said about my problem, but I promised I will be back if he let me change my clothes. He gave my a handful of pills, told me to take them immediately and that he will make the paperwork to take me out of the guarding service. I went back to our bedroom and threw away the pills. Our bedroom was changed. There were officers I didn't see before sleeping in half of our beds and some of them were listening to a radio. Fortunately, my bed wasn't taken so I put my riffle under the pillow, lied down and fell asleep in less than a second. ### December 22th, 1989 I woke up with an incredible feeling of happiness. Somehow, this feeling had something to do with the fact that I was still alive. The bedroom was empty now, I was the only one there. Took my riffle, went down to the facility yard, made a detour to avoid the infirmary and headed towards my post. After one dinner and a 7 hours sleep I was feeling reborn. I was actually eager to get my post back. It was a sunny morning and, somehow, the depot was almost empty. My post was also empty and I felt good when I went down in the trench. I think I was continuing to feel that strange morning sensation for hours, that incredible happiness, because I don't remember anything spectacular between morning and noon. All I remember was that at noon, one of my friends came running, throwing away his helmet and babbling something indescribably. It was only after a few minutes that I understand what he was telling: "Ceausescu is running away. We don't have a dictator no more". He looked happy. From that day on, my life – and the life of other 22 millions people – changed dramatically. I was to be relieved from service way sooner than I thought: instead of 9 months, I was to serve only 6. All my mental preparation for a longer war was blown away. In a few weeks, the military events were completely finished. And that was only the first change. Some things went for the better, some for the worse, but truth is those 6 days and 5 nights in the ammunition depot were fundamental for my life. Something really important happened to me. 20 years later, I still don't know how to define it. But that day, at noon, while looking at my friend's babbling, I knew that I was finally getting over the biggest challenge of my life. And I knew that I will never be afraid again. I also knew, in a short but explosive sparkle of understanding, that everything that was perishable, feeble, temporary and destructible in my being, died completely during that week. If I was still alive after those days, I knew I will never really die. And that was as true as the fact that the sun always rises at dawn. First published on: December 22, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-sun-always-rises-at-dawn%2F&text=The%20Sun%20Always%20Rises%20at%20Dawn&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-sun-always-rises-at-dawn%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-sun-always-rises-at-dawn%2F&t=The%20Sun%20Always%20Rises%20at%20Dawn https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-sun-always-rises-at-dawn%2F&title=The%20Sun%20Always%20Rises%20at%20Dawn Previous ### The 30 Secret Rules of Social Media (/the-30-secret-rules-of-social-media/) Next ### Real Life: 100 Things I Did in 2009 (/100-things-i-did-in-2009/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Action versus Reaction URL: https://dragosroua.com/action-versus-reaction.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/action-versus-reaction/ Published: 2009-09-02 Modified: 2026-10-07 Views: 199 Categories: Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: do, mindset, taking action **2026 Update**: *after almost 17 years, I revisit this post here (/the-action-versus-reaction-trap-why-i-had-it-half-right-in-2009), as part of a 30 days "then and now" posting challenge, mapping the most viral posts on this blog. Click to learn why I had it only half right in 2009.* Acting is what makes you happy, reacting is what makes you miserable. Whenever you act, you perform a conscious choice, you decide you're going to do that thing. You become responsible. But when you react, you follow somebody else's choice, you're responding to an external stimulus. You're not responsible anymore, you leave the responsibility to the stimulus. When you act, you're the puppeteer, when you react, you're the puppet. ## Choice versus Context Acting is independent of the context, reacting is totally dependent on the context. You may be in favorable contexts at times. When you're a child, most of the time you're in a continuous favorable context. The problem is that context is artificial, you are protected by your parents. While you're a kid, in a favorable context, acting or reacting are basically the same: whatever you do the context will remain favorable. Your parents will love and protect you no matter what. But once you get out from their protection, you may encounter some very unfriendly contexts. And here you'll learn the real difference between conscious action and powerless reaction. If you consciously choose success, you don't really care about context. You're going to be successful no matter what. You act, you're consciously building your own way. You chose to get there regardless. But if you don't make this choice, and your life is just a reaction to a chaotic flow of stimuli, then anything in the surroundings will contribute to your fall. It's you who let the context do that, and you did this by resigning from your own command, by reacting instead of acting. For instance, being miserable after losing your job, that is a reaction. The context was really hard for you and you lost something. The "normal" reaction is to be sad, worried, discouraged and miserable. On the other hand, being confident, manifesting hope and starting to look for another job (or even starting your own business), that is a conscious choice. Losing your job is just a fact. What you do about this fact is what really matters. ## Reward And Frustration Acting is rewarding, reacting is frustrating (/100-ways-live-better-life-93-stop-reacting-stuff/). Every time you act on something, you are rewarded in some way. Not every conscious action will be successful. You may fail at times. Maybe many times. But you still get your reward. When you fail, the reward is in learning. You made a choice, you acted in a specific way and you learned something, even if the action was a complete failure. If you react, all you get is frustration. You didn't make a choice, you just responded to some stimulus. Maybe you wanted something else, but instead of choosing an action, you automatically reacted to that stimulus. There is no way you can get a reward if you're reacting to something. Even if the initial stimulus was positive. For instance, you blindly fall in love with somebody. That's a positive stimulus and you reacted to it. After the initial, unconscious chemistry phase, you have a choice: to love and accept no matter what. If you don't consciously choose to love no matter what, you'll get hurt. Instead of accepting the other one, you'll start to control them. In love, jealousy is a reaction, unconditional acceptance is a conscious action. ## Choosing versus Enduring The difference between action and reaction is not always simple. Most of the time we're acting by habit, and habits are just safe reactions. We know how to ride a bike, we learned how to do it, when we're on the bike, we're just reacting to it. It's a safe reaction. Many of our habits are safe reactions. But some of them are just stupid (/the-stupidity-map/). Some of the most dangerous safe reactions are related to money. We tend to react to economic stimulus and news, rather than act upon them. For instance, if there's news about a bad economic context, we're starting to protect our investments. That's a safe reaction. The bad economic context may or may not hurt us directly, we never really know that. But the pre-programmed reaction to cover our savings will emerge without any control from our part. A much better approach would be to directly act upon our finances. For instance, it's not uncommon that investment is much more profitable during hard economic conditions. A lot of stuff, including real estate, is getting cheaper. Running to protect our money, by reaction, instead of investing it, by conscious action, will be stupid. Again, the economic context is a fact, everybody will feel it, what really matters is our attitude towards it, our choices. ## Results versus Excuses Action creates results, reaction creates excuses. Every time you consciously choose something, you are producing results. You are the one who started everything, hence the reality obeyed you. Again, even if the action was, by any standard, a failure. Reality responded to your stimulus and created a result. Maybe it wasn't the result you wanted, but it's still a result. If you're reacting to something or somebody else, you are producing excuses. Your reactions to external stimulus will seldom be aligned with your internal values. If you choose to react to stimulus, you're already giving up your values and empowering the stimulus. You're not acting, you are giving out control. Most of the time, your reactions will try to protect yourself from apparently bad things: somebody yelling at you, losing your job, being left by your partner. A typical reaction to all of these will be frustration (/how-to-overcome-frustration-in-3-easy-steps/). And perhaps sadness, lack of hope, misery. So, after the yelling is gone, after the job is gone, after the partner is gone and after your miserable reaction, all you will be left with are excuses. It could have been the other way around, but it isn't. Sorry. A typical reaction after reading this post will be to think a little bit, to identify possible matches with your own behavioral patterns and then to forget it while gazing at the next funny cat picture on the web. A conscious action will be to bookmark it, to share it with as many friends as you can and to comment on it. I'm joking, of course. But I'm consciously choosing to joke with you by writing this blog post, instead of gazing at the wall in my office and thinking life sucks. And this action will certainly create some great results. How about you? First published on: September 2, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faction-versus-reaction%2F&text=Action%20versus%20Reaction&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faction-versus-reaction%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faction-versus-reaction%2F&t=Action%20versus%20Reaction https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faction-versus-reaction%2F&title=Action%20versus%20Reaction Previous ### 7 Questions To Answer Before Publishing A Blog Post (/7-questions-to-answer-before-publishing-a-blog-post/) Next ### September Update (/september-update/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Can You Stay Relevant After 50, In The Age of AI? URL: https://dragosroua.com/can-you-stay-relevant-after-50-in-the-age-of-ai.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/can-you-stay-relevant-after-50-in-the-age-of-ai/ Published: 2025-12-12 Views: 195 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Financial Resilience, Personal Development Tags: change, financial freedom, financial habits, mindset, personal story *Spoiler: you can. You already are.* Traditionally, old age was always a mark of wisdom, or at least useful experience. Something has changed, though, and, if you are over 50, chances are that your career is considered done in many Western countries. Add to this the systemic shift of AI, and you get a pretty grim picture. It's 3 AM somewhere on the northern shore of Lake Balaton. I'm at kilometer 170 of a 222-kilometer race, and I'm not sure I can finish. The summer rain has stopped and the road is cutting through wet cornfields. I have the eerie feeling that my steps don't make any sound: my soles are raw—blisters the size of my fist, already burst. Every single step sends brutal pain up my spine. I stopped running a few hours ago. Now I'm walking, alternating 30-second running sessions with 5-minute walking sessions, anchoring myself to the reflective vest of the runner ahead of me – disappearing and reappearing in the dark fog. The math is unforgiving: 52 kilometers left, less than eight hours until the cutoff. Normally, I would finish this with a smile on my face (even including a nap break, honestly), but now, after 170 painful kilometers and 24 hours of continuous effort, my body screams to sit down. My mind wants a reason to continue. So I made a deal with myself. Don't think about the finish line. Just get to the next aid station. It's 8 kilometers away. That's all. Crawl if you have to, but keep moving until you see the lights. Then, when you get there, make the same deal again. I finished UltraBalaton (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/) that day. Not super fast, not in good shape—but finished. And something from that night stayed with me, became a kind of operating system for life: you don't need to see the end. You just need to see the next checkpoint. I think about that race often now. The world feels similar—dark, foggy, uncertain, hard to see what's ahead. AI has arrived not as a gradual shift but as a systemic change, the kind that reshapes our world in months instead of decades. If you're over 50, you've probably felt the question poking relentlessly: *Am I still relevant? Can I keep up? Is there a place for me in what comes next?* Here's what I've learned. After 50 (/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years/), you hold three assets that only compound with time—and none of them can be automated. ## 1. Experience Still Matters We've seen the dot-com go bust. We've seen Lehman Brothers crash and witnessed the rise of the crypto world. Then saw NFTs crashing to the ground. When you've watched trends die so many times, you develop a quiet instinct for what lasts. You don't need to chase every new thing—because you've earned the right to ask better questions first. *Does this solve a real problem? Will it matter in five years?* This pattern recognition (/unpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology/) isn't nostalgia. It's sane judgment. And sane judgment is what people pay for when the hype fades. And this AI hype will fade too. ## 2. Ethics Is Irreplaceable When you're younger, you look at integrity as something that drags you down. You watch how everyone else seems to be cutting corners and getting ahead. But corners catch up, eventually. They always do. By 50, you've seen hundreds of reputations traded for speed and watched the repayment come due. You've also learned that trust takes years to build and seconds to lose. In a world flooded with AI-generated content and shortcuts, being the person others can rely on, no matter what – well, that isn't old-fashioned, it's rare. Rare is valuable. ## 3. Mindset Outlasts Everything That night in Hungary taught me something no business workshop ever could: keep moving until the next aid station. Not forever—just until the next checkpoint. This is the mindset that gets you through uncertain years, difficult projects, the long middle stretches when nobody's clapping. AI can work faster than you, that's true. But it can't decide when to push through and when to rest (/breathe-in-breathe-out/). It doesn't know that most people quit in the third hour after midnight – and the ones who don't are the ones who finish. I sold my first company at 38. I thought I was clever – and for a while, I was. But then I watched almost all of the money disappear into bad timing and lessons I hadn't learned yet. So I had to start over. I had to accept the chapter was closed entirely – and it was up to me, and only me, to start writing the next one. To move to the next checkpoint. Crawl if I had to, but move forward. The world keeps telling you that 30 is the new 50, then that 50 is obsolete. Ignore it. AI is just a tool. A remarkable one—I use it daily. But it doesn't have scar tissue on its soles. It doesn't remember pushing through at 3AM through wet cornfields. It doesn't carry the crushing weight of a lesson learned the hard way. We've survived dial-up internet, the 2008 crash, and the whole cryptocurrency (/tag/cryptocurrency/) ups and downs. We're still here. That's not a disadvantage. That's a hard-earned place at the table. Pack light. Move first. Finish the loop. The lake is still there. You got this. First published on: December 12, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fcan-you-stay-relevant-after-50-in-the-age-of-ai%2F&text=Can%20You%20Stay%20Relevant%20After%2050%2C%20In%20The%20Age%20of%20AI%3F&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fcan-you-stay-relevant-after-50-in-the-age-of-ai%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fcan-you-stay-relevant-after-50-in-the-age-of-ai%2F&t=Can%20You%20Stay%20Relevant%20After%2050%2C%20In%20The%20Age%20of%20AI%3F https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fcan-you-stay-relevant-after-50-in-the-age-of-ai%2F&title=Can%20You%20Stay%20Relevant%20After%2050%2C%20In%20The%20Age%20of%20AI%3F Previous ### 3 AI Skills For Better Content Creation (/3-ai-skills-for-better-content-creation/) Next ### A Day at the Jjim Jil Bang (찜질방) in Saigon, Vietnam (/a-day-at-the-jjim-jil-bang-in-saigon-vietnam/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Things To Do When The Shit Hits The Fan URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan/ Published: 2011-04-13 Modified: 2026-05-20 Views: 194 Categories: Digital Tools, Motivation and Inspiration, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: assess, decide, iadd, list post **2026 Update**: *I revisit this blog post here (/7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan-2/), after more than 15 years, as part of a 30 day blog challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* I know you've been through this, we've all been. Minding your own business, peacefully, things going on smoothly and then, out of nothing, something incredibly bad happens. The shit hits the fan. Of course, I'm not talking about the physical phenomenon (nor do I advise you to try to replicate that exact setup). I'm talking about "unpredictable" crisis. Situations that turns really bad without any perceivable warning. We'll see later on that the "unpredictable" factor is not so unpredictable. Well, since I've been through something that may qualify as a shit storm during the last week, I thought it would be useful to share some of my experiences, as well as some of the ways in which I eventually coped with the disaster. ## The Story One of things I really enjoy doing is writing iPhone apps. And lately, writing iPad apps. During the last 3 months I developed an iPad version of one of my iPhone apps, addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8). I will skip the details about what addTaskManager does, just follow the link if you want to know more. I will just let you know that addTaskManager is a universal app, which means you download it only once but it will work on both your iPhone, your iPad and your Mac (with a different interface, of course). It was a really slow and daunting process. I think I changed the workflow at least 5 or 6 times. Writing a few days., then realizing it's not going to work and starting over. Writing user interfaces is kinda difficult, you know. To make a long story short, after countless hours of getting my fingers dirty in the hidden intricacies of Objective C and iPad user interface elements, I finally came up with something I liked. In this process, the iPhone app had to be touched a few times. A few navigation patterns had to be modified. And adding a little bit of this here and taking out a little bit of that from there. Fact is that after 100 days of development, the initial app, the one that was currently on sale on AppStore, was completely modified. Feeling under the pressure of making it happen, without proper testing and with an incredible feeling of faith that everything is going to be just fine, I finally submitted the app. Version 1.3, which was supposed to be most glorious one to date. I really like the iPad interface I came up with, seriously. The review process took about 4-5 days. I finally received the email stating that my app "is in review" and then, about 10 hours later, the email stating that my app is live on the AppStore. I think it was 3:30 AM last Friday. I felt a fantastic relief that my app was finally live and went to sleep as usual. Only half an hour later, I heard another email (I keep my iPhone close when I sleep, to hear the morning alarm, and when I get an email from certain important sources, the iPhone rings). Sleepy but relaxed, I looked at the email. The next second, my relaxation went away. And also my sleep. It was an email from an unhappy customer, who just bought my app and who was experiencing a crash. A crash means the app is just going away when it is not supposed to. A crash is a bad thing. Scratch that. A crash is the worst thing that may happen to your app. In just a few minutes I received another email from another customer, who was experiencing a similar problem. In just a few hours I was about to find out that my app was practically unusable. ## What happened? Well, a mix of bad luck, tiredness and just plain strange stuff. The app submitted was simply not working and it took me a few hours to find out why. Some parts were not properly tested, while others were just left away, not included in the latest build, because… Well, I don't know why. I simply can't explain how the app was submitted in that form, but that was the blunt reality. In other words, I was having a "the shit hits the fan" experience. To make things really sad, you gotta know that you can't fix things in the AppStore the moment you realize something is wrong. It takes days for your app to be reviewed again. ## What About Now? As I already told you, that happened last Friday, in the morning. It's Wednesday now and for the last 4-5 days, I was under an incredible amount of pressure. As of today, the first fix of iAdd was approved and it's live on the AppStore, iAdd version 1.3.1. But meanwhile I discovered another round of crashes which are fixed in the next version, namely 1.3.2. Which was just submitted to the AppStore, a couple of hours ago. Hopefully, iAdd 1.3.2 will be the last version to see crashes. But, based on my recent experience, anything can happen. 😉 Seriously, I do hope there won't be any more crashes starting from 1.3.2. What follows is an attempt to formalize my experience in fighting an "unpredictable" situation of crisis, just like the one I just left behind. ## 1. Assess, Don't Stress It's very easy to give in to panic when something goes wrong. Instead, I focused on what exactly happened. And what happened proved to be a little less worrying than I thought. For starters, there were a few additions that were still working, That was a good thing. Next, I already knew how to fix the crashes. Yes, I had a number of unhappy customers. And they were perfectly right. But as I immersed myself into the analysis process, something very interesting happened. The adrenaline rush was not directed to a "fight or flight (/maintaining-consistency-in-disrupting-times/)" situation anymore. When you're facing a crisis, your reactions are following only two patterns: fight (or try to prove that my customers were wrong, in my case) or flight (leave things as they were, cutting out the iPhone business for ever from my business stream). Either way, we're talking about stress. And stress, as dangerous as it may be, it does have this incredible feature: it gives you access to a lot of energy. It can literally release (or block) tons of energy. Well, this stress energy, this adrenaline rush was transformed into working energy. In just a few hours I was able to fix the most annoying crashes and do a resubmit. And, luckily for me, it took only 3 days for Apple to approve it. ## 2. Decide So It Won't Collide Moments after I realized what went wrong, I started to plan. What needs to be done ASAP? What can I do now? What is the time frame available? After I gathered all the data, I started to play with decisions. Some of the things I knew I have to fix weren't so visible (they weren't producing crashes, anyway). I decided to leave them for the next version and focus on what I could do to fix the crashes. Our ability to identify and follow up decisions (/if-its-not-100-yes-then-its-a-no/) during a crisis is drastically affected. But despite that, it's vital to step back and choose. Even in a very dangerous situation we have many more options than the "fight or flight". There is this urge to run away from the place of the crisis, hoping that a change in context will also change the facts. Unless a building is crashing on you, running away is never the best option. Avoidance won't work either. It takes a while to turn your face to the fan and take all the shit upfront. But it's the only viable solution. Only if you identify the direction you can start to prepare the escape. If you don't stay there, if you don't face the crisis and its causes, you won't be able to stop it. You may get away for a while if you run away, but each time you'll get back to that place, there may be a different day, but you'll be facing the same old shit. ## 3. Communicate Nothing is happening just by itself. And there isn't such a thing like a "black box" of our life events, something completely unaccessible. Information is there, reach to it. Each time you face a crisis, try to communicate. The moment I got the first emails from my unhappy customers, I started to answer. Acknowledging the situation, apologizing, but… at the same time trying to get as much intel as I could. As I following up to the angry emails I realized something very interesting. Yes, the app was behaving badly. Yes, there were a lot of frustration. But at the same time I realized that… my customers were actually relaying on my app for their daily activity (iAdd is time and task planner, to put it mildly). So, my app was important. Not to mention that my immediate answers were gaining big time on the "support" size of the whole experience. People were actually appreciating the fact that I was answering instantly and that was somehow lowering their frustration. Or so they said to me :-). Every crisis can reveal something about you (or the others) that you weren't aware of. As long as you stay on track and communicate. Don't isolate in a "I know better" pattern. If there are other persons involved in your crisis, try to understand their point of view too. ## 4. Rebuild Carefully After I finished the first 3 steps, I started to write code. This time, in a completely different manner than before. The worse had already happened. So why worry now? I just sat carefully, testing each feature 3-4 times with different data, until somehow, the whole app started to get a different consistence. The emphasis here is on "carefully" not so much on "rebuild". You gotta rebuild anyway, but just do it very carefully (/processing-failure/). It's very important to realize that you did as much harm as you could already. No need to augment on that. Just pay close attention to what you're doing and things will start to straighten up. Again, when we're under pressure, we have this huge urge to speed up. Well, speed up, if you have to, but do it carefully. You don't want to make another mistake and then another one and then another one. Accept the current disaster and focus on avoiding the next potential one. ## 5. Leverage After I realized I'm facing a real customer crisis, I started to look around. I started to manage the process. And I'm not talking about assessing, deciding and writing code. I also started to write blog posts on the iAdd official blog, explaining what's going on. It wasn't only about fixing some bugs. It was also about informing other people. After I wrote the blog posts, the number of messages decreased. People were visiting the blog, were reading the posts and apparently they were getting the answers they were looking for. They were not into bullying me, the author, they were just trying to understand what's going on. Using as many tools as you can get a hold of is incredibly useful in time of crisis. If a wheel on the car explodes, try to stay on track with the remaining three, don't stop. Leveraging means reaching out to whatever you have, own or can use in order to smooth the crisis. And that stands true for any type of crisis. ## 6. Keep Your Fingers Crossed I bet you didn't see that coming. 🙂 Well, neither do I. But after I did everything that was to be done, after I submitted the app, responded to customers and wrote blog posts, I realized that's it. I did all I could do. Everything more would have been a waste of energy. So I just sat back and tried to relax. And kept my fingers crossed. Fact is you never know if something is going to work or not. You can only hope. Keeping your fingers crossed is a way of "giving yourself in". I did everything, now let's see what happens. In any crisis, there is only so much you can do. Anything over that level simply won't matter. ## 7. Learn Write down what happened. Well, not necessarily in the form of 7 items list blog post, like I did, but do write it down. See where was the glitch. And then repeat it. Rewind in your mind all the phases of this unfortunate crisis. That's how you can prevent it later on. That's where the "unpredictable" I was talking about in the beginning of this post is turning into "obvious". We learn from mistakes (/anxiety-and-learning/), not from successes. We remember the dangerous and hurtful events much better than the happy events. I guess it's wired into our survivals patterns. We do this in order to avoid a similarly dangerous situation. Or at least that's how you can cope better with it next time the shit hits the fan again. **2025 Update:** *I had quite a few similar experiences since I first published this post, and, over the years, I tried a few other angles to solve the situation.* - Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do-framework/) – Implementing a life management framework consistently proved to be the most reliable way to manage chaos - Breathe In, Breathe Out (/breathe-in-breathe-out/) – Stop, just stop for a while, and breathe - Monday Moving Forward (/monday-moving-forward-series/) – Sometimes, defense is the best attack – just make sure you start the week properly, and the rest should fit in First published on: April 13, 2011 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan%2F&text=7%20Things%20To%20Do%20When%20The%20Shit%20Hits%20The%20Fan&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan%2F&t=7%20Things%20To%20Do%20When%20The%20Shit%20Hits%20The%20Fan https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan%2F&title=7%20Things%20To%20Do%20When%20The%20Shit%20Hits%20The%20Fan Previous ### iAdd version 1.3 Live In AppStore (/iadd-version-1-3-live-in-appstore/) Next ### Blogging With An iPhone, An iPad And iAdd (/blogging-with-an-iphone-an-ipad-and-iadd/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 33 Ways To End Your Day URL: https://dragosroua.com/33-ways-to-end-your-day.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/33-ways-to-end-your-day/ Published: 2011-01-28 Modified: 2026-05-19 Views: 171 Categories: Personal Development Tags: habits, how to, list post **2026 Update**: *I revisit this post here (/how-i-actually-end-my-day-in-2026-compared-to-2011/), trying to understand what worked and what's new, as part of a 30 days challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* We're creatures of memory. If we couldn't remember our own identity each morning we wouldn't really exist. We wouldn't know who we are, why we're here, who are our friends or our enemies. The subtle miracle of waking up each morning starts in fact each evening, when we go to sleep. And since we already have a lot of ways to start the day (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/) I thought it would be nice to find some ways to properly end it. ## 1. Project The Next Day Plan it ahead, if you use a planner. Or just imagine how you want it to be. Picture it in your head. This doesn't guarantee that it will go exactly like this, of course. But it will give you quite an accurate idea about what you want and will help you sleep better. You already know what is waiting for you, right? ## 2. Recap The Highlights Rewind the current day until morning and start looking at the most important parts. I usually pick only three main points and start thinking at them, but your mileage may vary. You may go for only one highlight or for ten. The idea is to anchor your day exactly the way you want it. ## 3. Meditate You don't need to do it more than 10-15 minutes, but you do want to do it often. It helps your mind to slow down and to prepare for the night. After a 10 minutes meditation, your mind will be quiet and light. Your body will slip into sleep without any effort and you'll wake up as good as new. ## 4. Choose What To Dream It doesn't always work but its a very good exercise. It will put your brain on a creative path. And when it works, it's really awesome. Of course, you never dream exactly what you planed, but if you manage to mix in just a few things you really want to dream about, then your sleep will turn into the show of your life. ## 5. Read A Story To Your Kids Or to yourself. Or even to your partner. Stories are a wonderful way to switch your focus from the stress of the day and relocate your mind in a more relaxing realm. Our entire life is in fact just a story (/the-magic-fairy-exercise/). In time, you may even try to create your own bedtime stories instead of reading some ready made stuff. ## 6. Write In Your Journal If you don't keep a journal, maybe it's time to start having one. Writing in a clear and detached way about what you did in the last diurnal interval has an incredibly powerful effect on your being. It puts things in perspective, it cleans up your lenses (/is-your-life-blurred/) and it creates your own personal history. ## 7. Take A Walk Alone Let the events fly away, the emotions fade and the thoughts melt into silence. Just walk. No need to do it in a park or on a lonely street. As a matter of fact, walking on a busy street is even better. You may hit a glass wall (/do-you-have-the-glass-wall-syndrome/) if you're not paying attention, but it will surely help you sleep better. ## 8. Give Or Receive A Massage Of course, that means you're not alone. 😉 And it also means you're not making love, which is something completely different. Giving a massage requires a certain devotion, attention and skill. Being focused in this activity (either as a doer or as a receiver) will help you blend in the night in a magical way. ## 9. Laugh Watch a comedy. Or read a comic book. Or just listen to some jokes. Laughing is the cheapest, most enjoyable and clean medicine in the world. No matter how tired, sad, or frustrated you get after a bad day, giving yourself the chance to have a big laugh will cast away all the bad vibes. ## 10. Make Love I don't think you need reasons for this one. Or if you need, there's something wrong somewhere. ## 11. Listen To Some Music In the dark, just before you're ready to fall asleep. When you close some of your senses, the remaining ones are taking much more from your attention span. Without vision, your hearing will fill all your focus and that music will sound very different. You can even dance a little, if you feel like. 😉 ## 12. Do A (Very) Small Chore Wash a glass or clean the kitchen table. While it won't make the house shine, will still give you a sense of grounding. Your environment affects you in ways you can't always perceive. Doing something nice for your surroundings just before you go to sleep will make things brighter in the morning. ## 13. Watch Some Personal Photos You may not like your own image but your personal history is part of your life. Get soaked into it just before you go to sleep. It will help you build a sense of identity and structure. Bring in those pictures people you love or care about. Their images will sometimes go with you during the night, in your dreams. ## 14. Go To A Party Preferably to one you know you'll enjoy it. The people, the music, the joy, the atmosphere, well, all of these will make you literally step out of the clothes and structures of the day. It may even create some magical encounters which will make your life better, who knows. So don't you ever refuse going to a nice party. ## 15. Write A Message To Someone You Care About A short email, an SMS or even a plain old style paper letter. Just end your day with a little bit of care for somebody else. Thinking of your close circle of your friends is one thing, but acting on it with a message is something different. A very nice thing to do just before your day goes over. ## 16. Write A Short Story About Your Future Self A complete imaginary story, of course, about yourself, in the near future. And because it's just a story, you can put whatever you want in it. And because it's about yourself, it will gradually blend into your ideas, reactions or goals. Next day you may recognize some of the situations you created in that subtle threshold between reality and the night dreams. ## 17. Get Rid Of An Useless Object There must be something that is not necessary anymore in your house. Throw it away just before you end your day. Throw away objects, leftovers, garbage. This practice will make you better at throwing away useless people or habits in your life. And you'll sleep better. ## 18. Prepare Your Next Day Clothes It may sound shallow but it's a really interesting way of ending the day. Try to imagine the next morning like an act from a theatrical play and choose your costume and your preferred role. Not only it will add a touch of playfulness to your next morning, but it will also force you to recompose your image. ## 19. Be Thankful For at least one thing that happened during the day. If you can't find that thing, then you're in a real trouble. Start with something that "just went ok" and then move on to something you're really grateful for. We do not pay enough attention to positive stuff in our lives, mostly because we're too busy surviving. ## 20. Try To Remember The Same Evening From One, Two Or Ten Years Ago That's a little bit difficult, I admit, but it's incredibly enlightening. I don't always succeed remembering stuff so clearly, but when I do, it's so much fun. Try to do it a week in a row, from Monday to Friday. Your life will seem so much different now. And way better than you think it actually is. ## 21. Try To Project This Evening To A Future One In one, two or maybe ten years from now. That's the mirror exercise for the one above. Try to imagine your evening in one year from now, same month, same day. Will you be still in the same place? With the same partner? Going to the same job? Let loose. Imagine a different existence. Eventually, it will come true. 😉 ## 22. Do A Mild Yoga Session Which may translate into a short sequence of stretching or just some really easy asanas. During the day you are unconsciously using entire groups of muscles, thus creating physical tension and sometime even psychological obstructions. A short yoga session will help you relieve those tensions. ## 23. Delete Some Email I'm not using Inbox zero anymore, but I kept the pleasure of trashing the garbage whenever I get a chance to. And what better chance is to clean up your inbox then right before your day will end. It's like doing that little chore around the house, only it will be pertaining to your digital house. ## 24. Visualize Your Waking Up Hour I used to do this when I was a kid and I had to wake up early for some trips to other towns, like 4 or 5 AM. I used to visualize the number 4 or 5 and then trying to fall asleep immediately. Almost always I was getting up at that hour without a clock alarm or other help. try it. It may work for you too. 🙂 ## 25. Do A White Night Ok, this is not technically a way to end the day but rather to blend the day into the next one. A little bit extreme and definitely not something to do very often, but usually fun. That mysterious second when the night becomes the next day has something magical. ## 26. Watch The Sunset I usually like to do this alone, but your mileage may vary. Either way, witnessing sunset is one of the most beautiful ways to end your day. Especially in a more natural surrounding than a city. But even in a city, the dusty line of the horizon, violently colored in red by the sunset, is a very nice view. ## 27. Clean Yourself Up I'm not talking about your personal hygiene here, but more like trying to let go of the clutter you accumulated. It may be physical, or it may be psychological. Over the time I found out that a personal cleaning session (both physical and mental) just before going to bed can make miracles next day. ## 28. Have A Small Chat With A Friend Just connect, this time not by sending a message, but by actually having a small talk. It will create a disruption in the flow of events and it will help you move your thoughts away from your daily chores. Just don't forget to listen too while you're having this conversation. ## 29. Check Your Pipes (And Unclog, If Necessary) By "pipes" I'm referring to our internal sewage system. Psychologically speaking, we're not functioning without residual matter. That matter is accumulating in our "pipes (/7-simple-ways-to-unclog-your-pipes/)" and, if not handled with care, it will explode sooner or later. Just do a checkup and see if you can unload some unprocessed stress. ## 30. Have A Cup Of Tea There is something both playful and formal about having a cup of tea. At some point it may become a ceremony (/the-trip-to-japan-tea-ceremony/) and at the other just the liquid pretext of letting your thoughts floating around. I usually choose the second option, but trying a little tea ceremony could be interesting too. ## 31. Have A Glass Of Wine Of course, you can have a glass of wine while watching sunset or chatting with your friends. I'm talking about something else here: about really savoring a glass of wine, without doing anything else. In moderation, wine is a great anti-inhibitor and quite a healthy beverage. It also helps you go to sleep faster. Or so I heard. 😉 ## 32. Improvise Don't get too caught in this routine of "having to end your day in a certain way". Just do something that you've never done before. Close your day in style. Learn a Japanese Kanji character each evening or learn to cook kosher. Go to a sumo competition or count to 1000 in Arabic. Do your own thing. ## 33. Schedule A Way To Start Your Day That has little to do, if anything, with number one from this list, "how to project your day". It's not about projecting. It's about choosing that tiny first thing you want to do when you wake up. That first thing will shape your entire day. If you don't know how to do it, just start here, there's 33 ways to start your day (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/). Pick the one you want. 🙂 First published on: January 28, 2011 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 77 Things To Do Just Because You Can URL: https://dragosroua.com/77-things-to-do-just-because-you-can.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/77-things-to-do-just-because-you-can/ Published: 2013-10-01 Modified: 2026-05-18 Views: 167 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Travel and Fun Tags: do, financial freedom, list post, taking action **2026 update**: *I revisit this post here (/77-things-i-still-want-to-do-13-years-later-and-what-ive-crossed-off/), as part of a 30 day challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* Every once in a while I get the urge to write a big list blog post, a list of 50, or 77, or even 100 items on some topic. It may be bucket list ideas, or just ways to start fresh (/50-ways-to-start-fresh/). Whatever the topic, I have to tell you that I really enjoy doing these. Some of the things in the following list are things that I actually did myself, some of them are things that I would very much like to do and some of them are things that are just to cool not to be done in this lifetime. To make reading a bit easier, I grouped them in a two main categories. I'd be really happy to see your own suggestions in the comments. ### Personal Development ### 1. Run A Marathon I know very few experiences comparable with finishing a marathon. It starts months before the event, with the training, and it usually lasts for a lifetime. As surprisingly as it may seem, benefits are more on the mental and psychological layers, than at the physical layer. Definitely a thing everybody should try (/how-to-run-a-marathon/), in my opinion. ### 2. Learn and Dance Argentine Tango I've been dancing Argentine tango for the last year and a half and it has been a very rewarding journey. Again, don't let yourself scared by the apparently difficult physical challenges (like "I can't hear the music" or "I have two left legs"), it's not about that. Argentine tango (/10-tango-lessons/) is about connection and improvisation, two skills that I consider fundamental if you aim for fulfilling relationships. ### 3. Forgive The One Who Hurt You Yes, you can do this. 99.99% of the time you don't want to do this, but you can. So do it. ### 4. Fall In Love And stay there. No matter how hard it gets, at times. It's much more rewarding than living in a space without love. ### 5. Write A Book Or two. Or three. Or more (/books/). It's not that difficult. It is challenging, but it's also rewarding. Incredibly rewarding. The thing with books is that they may be here, on Earth, longer than you may be. ### 6. Write A List Of 100 Items You can start it as an exercise. As a matter of fact, this is how I started my own lists of 100 items (/my-top-100-self-improvement-posts/), as a way to find solutions to a problem. Then it took off and it became almost a habit. Seriously, now, it's a great exercise for your brain. Just do it. You can. ### 7. Believe In A Coincidence Fact is there are no coincidences. I lied. Just believe that there is some sort of a cosmic order in which we're all fitting, somehow. Coincidences are just the way the Universe is laughing at us, giving subtle hints that we're unable to understand. ### 8. Do Paragliding In New Zealand Or in any other country. But do try this. It's the closest experience to flying (/learning-to-fly-literally/) that I ever had and I can still feel it in my stomach, in my heart and in my mind, years after I did it. If you can make a habit out of this, even better. ### 9. Enjoy A Summer Evening On Your Own Porch Which means you have to have a house of your own first. Which, in itself, is a thing you should do in this lifetime. I find it more comfortable to live in rented apartments nowadays, as a digital nomad, but having your own house – and enjoying a nice summer evening on your own porch, is definitely a thing you should try. ### 10. Shun Away From An Idiot First of all, all people are ok. Sometimes, their actions may be stupid, and that's what I understand by an "idiot". Anyway, you'll feel so good when you'll send him out of your own realm. Because you can, you know… ### 11. Raise A Kid Maybe you won't succeed at this from the first time. I know I didn't. But I persisted and now I can say that I raised my daughter. It's not easy, but it's not difficult either. It's a great thing to do. It may not even be your own child. ### 12. Cook A Meal For Somebody You Don't Know I did this a number of times and it proved to be a very nice experience. Especially when you cook for somebody with whom you can't communicate in the same language. Then, the meal you're cooking becomes the only communication channel. Definitely something you should try. ### 13. Swim With The Dolphins Never did this, but, boy, I'm so into it. As a matter of fact, I learned to swim properly only a few months ago. But I know I will swim with dolphins one day. And I'm wishing the same for you. ### 14. Quit Your Job At least once in your lifetime. Yes it's risky, yes, it will create major complications in your life. But it will also teach you some stuff about freedom. ### 15. Skydive This is closely related to the paragliding thing, with only 2 differences. First one is that you will fall, not float. And second, I didn't do that yet, as opposed to paragliding. But it's on my list. Because I can, of course. ### 16. Fly Around The World In a plane, that is. Or, if you can afford, in a space shuttle. It will give you a much clearer idea about our true dimensions as human beings. ### 17. Become A Millionaire It may seem impossible, but it's a nice experience to have. It may take longer if you're more pessimistic, but believe me, it can be done (/30-sentences-for-a-millionaire-mindset/). ### 18. Start A Business Like in "your own business". Be your own boss. Work your own hours. It's one of the most empowering – and challenging, too – things I did in my life. And a thing I know I will do over and over again. ### 19. Start A Business In A Foreign Country Apart from adding a significant layer of complexity, this will give you at least one more reason to travel. And traveling is always good. ### 20. Teach Something To Somebody It may be a skill you've learned and mastered, or it may be a lifestyle. You can teach other people how to dance tango, you may teach them writing skills or even how to set up and achieve meaningful goals. ### 21. Get Married It's an interesting experience, especially the wedding. In my experience, this is also the highlight of the entire thing, but your mileage may vary. Truth is marriage is a modern institution which survived for centuries and I can certainly see how it helped us survive as a species during the last few centuries. Also, I can see how it started to become obsolete, at least in certain circumstances. Still, a thing that I consider it interesting enough to be experimented in this lifetime and it can certainly work out really well for some people. ### 22. Get A Divorce Of course, only if you got married first. And only if both of you are agreeing. A good divorce it's like a good marriage: it's successful only when both are agreeing. If not, it's gonna be a lot of hassle and it will certainly embitter your life a great deal. But it will also liberate you, if your decision to enter the marriage wasn't well thought, or if you, (or both of you), aren't really cut up for this. ### 23. Learn A Foreign Language If English is your first language, then you should definitely do that. English is not my first language for me (as some of you may have guessed) and I can't imagine my life without a second language. It's been both enlightening and challenging to learn it. But, in the end, enormously rewarding too. ### 24. Learn To Code We live in a world of information. Even more, we live in a digital world. Learning to code (whatever language you may want to use) will be a life changing experience. I code in a few languages and I have apps coded entirely by myself in the AppStore. Definitely something worth trying in this lifetime. ### 25. Take A 30 Days Challenge In any area you want. For instance, try for 30 days to follow a specific diet. Or to start running. Or to learn something new (/try-something-new/). The key is to not feel the pressure of "for ever". After the 30 days you're free to continue that challenge, or not. It works. It really does. ### 26. Do A Random Act Of Kindness Give something to somebody or just talk to people. Comfort someone. Give advice. Listen. But do that to somebody that doesn't expect that from you. If it's a stranger, even better. I'm not gonna tell you what you get as a reward if you do that. You have to try it for yourself. ### 27. Keep A Journal It may seem benign, with no much significance or even childish. But it's not. The time spent in telling the story of your own life – even if you're the only one who is gonna read it – it's a very well spent time. Gradually, you will become better at this entire game called "living the life I actually want". ### 28. Burn Old Memories I find this to be one of the most difficult things to do for almost any person I met. Attachments are heavy. They slow you down. Memories are, most of the time, attachments to something that's no longer alive. But you are. Right here, in this moment. ### 29. Talk to A Random Stranger On The Street It works best if you're the shy type, it will give you a bit of a boost. A word of caution here, though: try to be meaningful. Try to connect, not dominate or scare people away. Genuine interaction is something that we all crave, as human beings, even if it's random and unexpected. Or especially when it's like that. ### 30. Hug A Random Stranger This goes one level up from the previous one. But it adds up the physical contact. Again, be careful not to overdo it or to scare people out. But if you manage to do it properly, stay in that embrace for at least 20 seconds. That's how it takes for the hearts to synchronize with each other. ### 31. Write A Thank You Letter Not necessary to send it. Confusing? Maybe. But, believe me, you can do it and it will be good for you. ### 32. Learn How To Meditate I could go on and on for hours telling you the benefits of meditation but I don't think that's necessary. What I could tell you, though, it's that learning to meditate is much simpler than you think. Yes, even you can do it. ### 33. Be Silent For An Entire Day I don't think I ever did this, maybe when I was so small I didn't know how to talk at all. But I suspect I was still emitting some sort of sounds, so it doesn't really counts Talking out loud about something has this side effect of taking out some life of it. If you say it, you kind of "kill it". So, I expect that, by being silent for an entire day, things will be more alive. Or at least they'll seem more alive. I may be wrong, but I'm willing to try this someday. Because I can, of course. ### 34. Plant A Tree Or some flowers, and take care of them. Or, even better, a vineyard, and take care of it. A few weeks ago I ate grapes from the first time from my own vineyard. I don't live in the house with that vineyard anymore, so I was kind of a guest to my own planted vineyard, but the taste of the grapes was, nevertheless, divine. ### 35. Work In A Coffee Shop I do this for about 3 or 4 years now, and I'm mostly doing it in Starbuckses (and no, I'm not working **for** them, I'm working **in** the coffee shop, but for me).. It's part of my digital nomad (http://www.amazon.com/Being-A-Digital-Nomad-ebook/dp/B00CZ62LHM/)lifestyle. But you should try it even if you work a regular job. Just take a day out and enjoy the buzz, the energy and the atmosphere in a coffee shop. It will be good for you. ### 36. Participate In A Flash Mob A flash mob is a – more or less – spontaneous public gathering where people will dance together. There are many forms of it, but I've been only involved in tango flash mobs and I gotta tell you it was an incredible experience. Once I danced in the subway and second time I danced in a public square. Even if you don't dance very well, just do it, you'll thank me later. ### 37. Start And Maintain A Blog This is not even remotely something elitist or narcissistic. It's already a mainstream way to share your experiences, meet new people or provide genuine value. There are a few hundreds of millions of blogs already out there, so that should be enough of a validation for the entire phenomenon. And it's not difficult at all to set up and maintain one. Yes, even you can do it. ### 38. Stop Watching TV Especially news. Mainstream media is quickly becoming obsolete, to say the least, if not downright unreliable. Social media, the internet, instant communication, all of these made such an impact on the ways we use and disseminate information that TV is no longer a necessity, if you want to stay informed. It may be more difficult than you think, to give up watching TV, I know, but it's doable. ### 39. Talk In An Invented Language A made up one, that is. I used to do this almost every day with my daughter when she was younger, and we had a tremendous amount of fun. You just invent words and tell them out loud. As surprising as it may seem, in 80% of the cases we used to understand each other intentions perfectly. By the way, our language was called Chinka-Paah (/chinka-paah/). ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. ### 40. Get A Part And Play In A Movie Like, you know, an actor. Ten years ago this would have been perceived as very difficult. But we do live interesting times. Making a movie is not very expensive anymore. Broadcasting it via Internet should be also fairly simple. So, go ahead. The closest thing I did to this one was to play a (very minor) part in a commercial. We stayed an entire day on the set (/a-day-on-the-set/) for, like, 30 seconds of finished material. ### 41. Set Up A Surprise Party For A Friend One of my favorites. It works better when the friend doesn't expect it. Meaning you could do it pretty much anytime, not only when there is a birthday or other special event involved. ### 42. Coach Somebody Coaching is different from teaching. It needs more involvement and less skill. Also, you may be doing it for a longer amount of time than teaching, as in transferring some skills to somebody could take less time than being there with that person until he or she reaches to a specific goal or set of goals. ### 43. Do An Iron Man One level up from the marathon thing, and definitely something I want to do myself in this lifetime. I just learned how to swim properly, though, so I guess the time horizon for this should be 2-4 years from now. If you don't know what an Iron Man is, well, it's the ultimate enduring challenge, involving swimming, cycling and running. ### 44. Do Bungee Jumping Just because you can, that is. ### 45. Learn To Fly A Plane I am so into this. I did paragliding, flew in a wide variety of commercial planes and in a helicopter, but I didn't flew my own plane. Yet. ### 46. Volunteer For Something An event. An organization. your neighborhood association. But try to do something for somebody outside of the boundaries of a payment contract. Just because you can. ### 47. Join A Protest This one needs a bit of an explanation. When I say "join a protest" I refer to a street protest for a good cause. I've been fortunate enough (irony included) to live for my last 20 years in a very fast changing country, Romania, where protests on the street were quite common, every few years. Leaving aside the root causes of these protests, I can testify that joining a street protest (for a good cause, again) is an incredible human experience. The energy and the power unleashed during those marches are very uncommon, and, to a certain extent, extremely empowering. Please keep in mind that this is also a quite a dangerous thing. ### 48. Build A Tree House An live in it for a while. I did a very close thing to this one when I was a kid, a small hut in the woods, but didn't have the chance to actually live in it. So, I still want to do this sometime. ### 49. Play The Stock Market Game I did this for about 6 months (/12-things-i-learned-by-being-a-forex-trader/) and it proved to be one of the most enriching experiences of my life. Mind you, it wasn't enriching financially, but on the emotional level. I learned how to identify – and, to a certain extent, to manage – my fear and greed. Yes, these are the only 2 emotions that are running the stock market. I don't think I will ever get rich by playing the stock market, but I think I learned tremendously about myself. Oh, just be sure not to play all your money. Chances to actually win this game are really small. ### 50. Live With A Room Mate Many of you already did this (or are doing it as we speak). But many didn't. It all goes down to living in a shared environment. And I don't talk about living with your spouse, here, but with a room mate. A colleague. I did this back when I was student and a few more times when I was traveling. It's good for your social skills, you know. ### Travel ### 51. Climb On Top Of The Everest Yes, you can. Of course you do. Didn't do that yet, but I will definitely want to experience the feeling of being on the highest place on this planet. ### 52. Ride The Hong Kong Tram To Victoria Peak I'm sure you've all seen those iconic picture of Hong Kong taken from a high place, with all the sky-scrappers and the Victoria Harbor waters. What you may have not seen is the tram ride up to that spot, which is done by one of the oldest tram lines in the world. Don't know why it created such a vivid memory for me, but I definitely recommend it. ### 53. Climb On Petrini Tower Prague It's a nice place to see the city. The city of Prague, main town of Czech Republic, that is. An experience not to be missed. It's the atmosphere, the people, the beer. I'm not kidding. ### 54. Go On Top Of The Sacre Coeur Cathedral That's in Paris, France, by the way. Which, of course, means you should first get to Paris, France. Getting on top of Sacre Coeur is a matter of climbing some of the narrowest stairs I've ever seen. You can easily get dizzy. And, once on top, you'd be in for a treat, one of the nicest views of Paris (and Montparnasse). ### 55. Go On Top Of The Eiffel Tower That's the other highest spot you shouldn't miss in Paris. Enough said. Just go there. ### 56. Go On Top Of The Auckland Sky Tower If you're courageous enough you could try skydiving from there. If not, just go up and enjoy the view. Tauranga gulf, Rangitoto island, the biggest marina in the southern hemisphere. And more than that. ### 57. Get Lost In Bangkok Or in any other big city. Just go with the flow, let yourself blend into the crowd and see what happens (/trip-to-thailand-day-2/). Of course it's dangerous and you may end up in a bad neighborhood. That's why you have to pay attention while you're dong this. Yes, you can do it. Of course you can. ### 58. Drink Wine On Waiheke Island It's a well known place for wine tours. Also, it's at the end of the world, or at the beginning at it, depending on how you're looking (New Zealand) but that shouldn't be a problem. I have very nice memories related to Waiheke island (which is only 30 minutes away, by ferry, from Auckland), especially about a place called Little Oneroa Beach, which, in my humble opinion, may have been used as a blueprint for heaven. Or at least heaven in my own vision. ### 59. Attend To A Tea Ceremony In Japan I've done that in Kyoto (/the-trip-to-japan-tea-ceremony/), a few years ago. I can still remember the stillness, the peace, the sensation of flowing. Some say "cha-no-yu", the art of tea ceremony is just another form of meditation. I guess you should try for yourself. ### 60. Climb To Babele It's a place in the Romanian mountains, and the name means something like: "old ladies". It's not difficult or particularly spectacular, but the place has a very specific energy. I've been in many places, many mountains, but there's some "being on the top of the world" feeling about this place that I didn't experience anywhere else. ### 61. Go To Tibet The most famous "top of the world" place. Not yet there, but it's on my list. ### 62. Ride The Shinkansen In Japan It's the fastest train in the world (or so I've been told). You make around 2 hours from Tokyo to Kyoto. Inside, it feels more like a plane than like a train. ### 63. Visit Gion – Geisha's Neighborhood In Kyoto It's like a frozen place in a timeless area. There's magic and mystery in walking down those narrow streets, in hoping that you will get to see a real Maiko (geisha) if you happen to be there between 5 PM and 6 PM (the only time they're allowed to get out from their Okyia's). Been fortunate enough to see one. An unforgettable experience. ### 64. Go At Least Once In Vama Veche You may not have heard of Vama Veche so far, but I kinda sense it won't be long until you will. It's a place at the Black Sea shore, 1 km away from the border of Romania and Bulgaria. Hyped among hippies, hated by corporate people (but proven to be some kind of Mariana trench for top managers, who very often resign from their well paid jobs just after one week spent there), Vama Veche is definitely a place to visit. It's rough sometimes and maybe not as clean as you would like it to be. It's kinda "tainted" by commercial stuff nowadays, but still a unique experience to have. ### 65. Go On Top Of Fuji Yama If you didn't know, Fuji, the iconic Japan's mountain, is a her. Sometimes she's upset, and then the weather is foggy or rainy. That's how it was when I was on top of Fuji Yama. But your mileage may vary. For every Japanese people, being on top of Fuji Yama is a "must have" in this lifetime. ### 66. Visit A Floating Market In Asia There may be more than one, given the actual geographic specific of that land, but one of the most famous is in Thailand, namely in Damnon Saeduk. Go visit it, it's an experience on the verge of disappearing. ### 67. Visit The Maldive Islands Again, an experience which you may not have in the next 10 or 20 years, because these islands are actually sinking. Didn't go there yet, but I know I will, before there will be only ocean in that place. ### 68. Visit The Grand Canyon I missed this by a whisker, when I was in Vegas a few years ago, but I won't miss it again. I think it's one of the most interesting places in the world. I may be wrong, of course, but that's just me. ### 69. Fly In Rio That's something I wanna do ever since I first flew in New Zealand. Yes, I want to fly from near that huge Jesus statue and fly all the way down to the beach. Yes, I know it's dangerous. But so it's eating, if you don't do it properly. ### 70. Visit Dracula's Castle In Romania First of all, for all my non-Romanian readers, Dracula is a West myth. Vlad the Impaler, the ruler who served as a model fro Bram Stoker's novel, was a real guy, a cruel, but effective ruler, bot nothing close to the character in the novel. Vampires do not exists (at least I haven't seen any of them), but Transylvania does, and it's a beautiful region in Romania. Over there are a few castles and, believe me, you should go visit them. Just don't expect vampires or other made up stuff to show up and keep on enjoying their beauty. ### 71. Sleep At Least One Night Under The Stars One night every two weeks, if possible. It doesn't really matter where you're gonna do this (if you take proper care not to freeze or choke, of course). But your connection with nature will matter. A lot. And if you really think at it, it's a really simple and affordable thing to do. ### 72. Circle Around The Collosseum If you don't know what the Colosseum is, it's one of the most interesting buildings in Rome, Italy. Never been there, but I have the feeling that circling around that thing (which, in itself, is oval, if you're wondering) will be pretty awesome. They had gladiators fighting in there for their lives. Any many other interesting things going on. ### 73. Visit A French Castle On The Loire Valley A medieval French castle, that is. I visited a few French architectural icons, like Versailles, but nothing on the Loire Valley, yet. Maybe we'll met there in the future, who knows? ### 74. Go To Disneyland The closest I've been to a Disneyland was when I visited Tokyo, a few years ago. I saw some golden fences or something, from a train. I do want to go there. Not because of the playgrounds and stuff. But because I consider Disney to be one of the most brilliant men of the last century. He taught the world to believe in fairy tales again. ### 75. Cross The Sahara Desert By camel or by car, your choice. I don't think it would be extremely pleasant or enjoyable, but I do think it would be a fascinating experience. Really want to do that someday. ### 76. Sleep A Night In Burj Khalifa If you can afford, that is. If you can't afford right now, then get rid of this limiting belief, set a goal specifically for that, make all the money you need to achieve that goal, and go for it. ### 77. Sail The Amazon Somehow. Using a boat would be advised. I have this fascination with the Amazonian rainforest ever since I was a child. *** Have any suggestions? Go ahead, I'd be happy to hear them. First published on: October 1, 2013 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F77-things-to-do-just-because-you-can%2F&text=77%20Things%20To%20Do%20Just%20Because%20You%20Can&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F77-things-to-do-just-because-you-can%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F77-things-to-do-just-because-you-can%2F&t=77%20Things%20To%20Do%20Just%20Because%20You%20Can https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F77-things-to-do-just-because-you-can%2F&title=77%20Things%20To%20Do%20Just%20Because%20You%20Can Previous ### Lifestyle Connect Bucharest – The Event (/lifestyle-connect-bucharest-the-event/) Next ### How To Build An Online Community (/how-to-build-an-online-community/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 33 Ways To Overcome Frustration URL: https://dragosroua.com/33-ways-to-overcome-frustration.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/33-ways-to-overcome-frustration/ Published: 2010-03-17 Modified: 2026-05-28 Views: 166 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration Tags: acceptance, how to, list post, resilience **2025 Update: ***I revisit this post here (/frustration-as-a-growth-signal-revisiting-after-15-years/), as part of a 30 days challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* I have a huge experience with frustration. I experienced it in so many ways, at so many times in my life, that I feel like I'm some kind of a specialist. If you wonder why I have this huge expertise, here's the answer: growth (/how-to-be-ridiculous/) never happens without it. The more you are able to harvest, resolve and overcome frustration, the more growth you're experiencing. Avoiding it, hiding from it, deluding the game, none of these strategies will make you a better human being. On the contrary. What follows is a list of tools and approaches I used to solve my own frustration and limitation episodes. ## 1. Accept Reality Yes, something bad happened. Don't spend your day imagining how beautiful life could be if it wasn't for that stupid incident or mistake. This is it. It is frustrating, no doubt about it, but rejecting this reality will not lower the frustration, on the contrary, will make it stronger and stronger. Accept reality. [ you may start by studying the art of not believing the lies your're telling to yourself. (/the-art-of-not-believing-the-lies-youre-telling-to-yourself/) ] ## 2. Shift Your Focus It's so easy to get caught in a spiral of anger and despair when you're frustrated, and I know that first hand. Shift your focus (/training-your-focus/) by engaging in small but demanding activities. Get involved. Do take the necessary steps to get over the frustrating situation, but do not ignore everything else around you. [ every time you're shifting focus (/shifting-focus/), life gets clearer – it's that simple ] ## 3. Talk About It With A Friend Find somebody you trust and talk about it. Let it out. Don't let it grow inside yourself until you explode. Most of the time, when you reach this point, it's too late to make a meaningful change that will restore your reality. Let your worries and your tension fly. After all, this is what friends are for, right? [ sometimes, it can be just a casual Monday conversation (/monday-moving-forward-start-the-day-with-a-casual-conversation/) ] ## 4. Journal It If you don't keep a journal, start now. Write down all your fears, all your sensations and describe them in great detail. Do it until you feel you can't do it no more. You're going to feel incredibly better. Writing has this side effect of lowering what you write about, making it more manageable. Just try it. [ I found this useful especially for lowering anxiety – fear is the mind killer, (/fear-is-the-mind-killer/) they say, and they're right ] ## 5. Write A Letter About It Imagine you're on a desert island. Sit down and write a letter to somebody who could potentially rescue you. Be verbose. Imagine how your life will be after you leave that desert island. Because if you can't describe that, you will never leave the island. If you can't imagine yourself better, you will never see the way out. Then destroy the letter. [ it's as easy as writing a thank you letter (/100-ways-live-better-life-63-write-thank-you-letter/) ] ## 6. Write A Worse Case Scenario What is the worst thing that may happen to you right now? List everything from physical loss to emotional imbalances. Try to foresee every little detail of a worst case scenario. What life will you live if everything will turn out as bad as possible? Then read it. It won't look as bad as you thought. [ the subtle takeaway: you always, always have options, even when the shit hits the fan (/7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan/) ] ## 7. Identify A List Of Possible Actions What exactly will make the situation acceptable again? What are the things that you could actually do to improve your current status? Make a list. Try to identify every possible action, as improbable as it may seem, and put it on the list. At the end of this, you'll feel much better: you have work to do. [ there's a simple framework for this, called assess-decide-do (/assess-decide-do-framework/) ] ## 8. Sleep Over It Most of your unconscious life happens while you're asleep. Try to go to bed with a clear thought of resolution. Don't try to find a solution, just prepare yourself for getting out of that frustrating circle. During the night your unconscious mind will find resources to make you stronger. [ pro tip: when you wake up, always make your bed (/making-your-bed-in-the-morning/) ] ## 9. Be Your Own Avatar Try to look at yourself from "the outside". Write on a piece of paper what an observer would see at you. How do you behave? How do you talk, how do you act? The more you'll do this exercise, the more you'll detach yourself from the frustrating persona and take control over it at the same time. [ watching Avatar, the movie (/5-things-avatar-taught-me-about-self-improvement/), could be really helpful here – also, a pretty good movie too ] ## 10. Read Something Funny This will not solve your problem, most of the time it will only switch your focus to something else, giving you a temporary break. Do not mistake this technique with avoidance, just use it as a chill out session, then get back on track and solve whatever you have to solve. [ even better, learn to laugh at yourself (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-85-laugh-at-yourself/) every once in a while] ## 11. Stop Blaming Yourself Maybe you did something really wrong, and your current situation is the result of that mistake. Take responsibility but don't blame yourself. It's all in the past. You're in the present now and you can do something about it. Blame will only put weight on that past and drag you down. Avoid it at all cost. [ instead of blaming yourself, just ask some honest questions (/33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself/) ] ## 12. Take A Walk Even on the wild side, if you like the wild side, but do take a walk. The mere action of moving will set you up for action and hopefully will make your mind a little clearer. Walking always helps me put my thoughts in order and let off the steam a little bit. And it's free of charge, you know? [ I walked so much that I eventually started to run – and even finished a 220km ultra-marathon (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/) ] ## 13. See It From The Future This one goes hand in hand with number 6. Try to describe your current situation and look at it from the future. 1 year from now, your problem will be as big as it is right now? How about 5 years? Or 10 years? Putting your frustration in a larger context will usually weaken it or at least make it manageable. [ there's a very simple exercise in which you can set up a meeting with your future self (/setting-up-a-meeting-with-your-future-self/) ] ## 14. Cook A Delicious Meal As simple and mundane as it may seem, cooking is an art. And every time you perform some sort of an art, you'll see the world through your intuitive mind. You'll summon your way out of frustration rather than find it through logical inference. And cooking is the cheapest – and tastiest – art one can afford. [ even better, try slow cooking (/slow-cooking-and-camino-de-santiago/) ] ## 15. Go To A Party Not to be abused and transformed into some sort of escapism but extremely useful to lower your frustration level. Go out, mingle and see if you can wipe out your frown from your face. You can get back to your problems later, when your body and mind will be more balanced. Hangover is not compulsory. [ could even be a surprise party (/100-ways-live-better-life-60-set-surprise-party/) ] ## 16. Write About Your Past Successes You don't have to keep a journal for it, you can just sit down at a table and remember all your breakthroughs. Or only the most important ones. Seeing yourself succeeding will definitely weaken that burden you still carry and help you overcome frustration faster. [ frustration aside, there's a lot of value in knowing how to manage past versions of yourself (/managing-past-versions-of-yourself/) ] ## 17. Borrow Some Enthusiasm Stay around energetic people or get involved in active projects. Choose to be part of something that exhales a lot of energy. Get involved in fresh projects. Being around enthusiastic people will lower the frustration to the point where it can actually become manageable. And it will make you just feel better. [ playing a game (/100-ways-live-better-life-43-play-game/) also works the same ] ## 18. Soak and Dry Let it flow through you until you're completely overloaded. Just be sure not to do something during this stage. Isolate from the world and allow yourself to be frustrated. Then slowly wait for the frustration to dry out. Sometimes, this "all you can eat" approach is the only way to deal with it in a healthy way. [ there is always a subtle dance between structure and flow (/the-subtle-dance-between-structure-and-flow/) in our lives – this time, just go with the flow ] ## 19. Go Watch A Comedy As an alternative to number 10, "Read Something Funny". Giving yourself permission to laugh will lower your anger and hopefully will make things easier to handle. Also, seeing people in strangely hilarious situations will make your own frustration seem awkward. Through a good laugh at it. [ who doesn't love Kung Fu Panda (/7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style/), for instance? ] ## 20. Attack It With The "Why?" Weapon Another writing exercise, in which you start to find the root cause of your frustration by asking "why?" questions. "Why am I broke?" – Because I spent too much. "Why did I spent too much" – Because I'm feeling insecure. "Why?…" You got the idea. At some point, something will click inside. [ you just need to find the right spot (/the-tender-place-between-oversimplification-and-unnecessary-complexity/) – don't ask too much ] ## 21. Volunteer For Something Frustration is closely related to your ego, or the part of your being that is concerned with those big phrases starting with "Me…". If you volunteer to do work for somebody else, you'll stop feeding your ego with energy. The weaker that part gets, the stronger your authentic and powerful part will be. [ while fighting your ego, you may also find out what is the most expensive thing in the universe (/the-most-expensive-things-in-the-universe-are-not-diamonds/) – spoiler: it's not diamonds, it's stupidity ] ## 22. Stand Up And Fight Be a soldier. Give yourself orders and follow them. Instill some rough and unquestionable discipline in your life. Get up early in the morning, do your work as if you're on a battle field and then go to sleep. Repeat until your problems become just situations you can solve by following an easy sequence of new orders. [ discipline beats motivation (/discipline-versus-motivation/) every. single. time. ] ## 23. Stop Blaming Others Similar to number 11, only this time your attitude will turn towards other people, in a desperate attempt to avoid feeling hurt. Just stop it. Although it may seem like a relief, blaming others it's just a temporary hack, it won't last. Every single time, what we experience is the direct result of our own actions. [ collective blame is probably the easiest backdoor for social engineering (/social-engineering-the-coronavirus-event/) ] ## 24. Do Small, Repetitive Tasks Borrow the behavior of a machine. Do those tiny little things you avoided so much because they seemed so boring. Now it's the best time to start working on them. Slicing your time and focus will dissolve the pressure. Frustration will slowly dilute in this sea of tiny, repetitive tasks. [ it's like debugging spaghetti code (/meditation-is-like-debugging-spaghetti-code/) ] ## 25. See It From The Past Alternative to number 13, looking at your own frustration from the past will color it in a new, fresher light. Most of the time, the feeling triggered by this perspective is: "I've been through tough times before, I can get over this". And this is more often than you think true: we have a huge life experience, we just don't trust it enough. [ who is that stranger from 10 years ago (/the-stranger-from-ten-years-ago/)? ] ## 26. Read Similar Stories You're not alone. And even if you find it difficult to talk to other people you can always do this by yourself: just scorch the Internet using descriptive keywords about your own frustration. You'll discover that you're not alone. Somebody else have been there too. And now he's so over it. [ hitn: they all have something in common: they overcame inertia (/overcoming-inertia/) ] ## 27. Assess Progress Every second of your life changes something. Look for the small steps you're doing and assess them. The first item on this assessment list may be: "I'm starting to assess my progress and this is in itself a huge step forward". The more you write, the bigger your progress will actually be. [ keep an eye on the long game (/short-game-versus-long-game/) ] ## 28. Disguise It Put a mask on it, make it look like something else: "I'm feeling frustration right now, but this is a mask for…" and replace with whatever quality you want to build: discipline, personal power, endurance. Transform it. I usually use the caterpillar – butterfly image: it's bad now but look what it can become. [ similarly with the butterfly – caterpillar metaphor is that most of the world is functioning at the grape level (/most-of-the-world-is-functioning-at-the-grape-level/) – whereas we all want to enjoy the fine wine ] ## 29. Contrast It With A Worse Situation Try to identify a related situation but with a significantly higher degree of damage. If you're in debt, imagine how it will be to be bankrupt. If you're having a relationship hickup, try to imagine how it would be to live on a desert island for the restc of your life. Be grateful for what you experience, because it can be worse. [ here are 77 reasons to love your life (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/), frustrated or not ] ## 30. Dilute It With Meditation I don't preach meditation as an all-in-one cure, but from my personal experience, it does help. Meditation will not only shift your focus from your current situation, but it will also clean your thoughts and help your body regain a subtle energetic balance. Remember you'll still have to take action, meditation will only dilute the fabric of the events, it will not change it for you. [ really, meditation is as easy as constantly getting back to the task at hand (/getting-back-to-the-task-at-hand/) ] ## 31. Get Physical Start an aggressive exercising routine. Getting physical will make it easier to embrace action and to do it with vigor and determination. A side effect of exercising is the "endorphin effect": the induction of a well-being state generated by your own body. [ after I started running, I even got to the point to do it for 24 hours straight (/story-first-24-hours-race-s24h/), and it was, honestly, great ] ## 32. This Too Shall Pass Impermanence is at the core of our human nature, is our curse and escape: we're prisoners of time and everything we experience is bound to it. Laughter and sadness, joy and depression, everything will fade away in time. The same will happen to this frustrating period too: it will pass. [ life is too short (/the-amount-of-life-in-our-days/) to stress over petty things, really ] ## 33. Write A List Of 33 Ways To Overcome Frustration This is an incredible exercise. As funny as it may seem in this context, it's actually a very powerful standalone approach. Just sit back and try to imagine 33 ways to get over your current frustration. I bet that around number 20 your problem will seem smaller than you thought it was. 🙂 There is an audio version of this post, narrated by yours truly. If you want to get it (it's just $2.99) head over to the books (/books/) page and scroll down. First published on: March 17, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-ways-to-overcome-frustration%2F&text=33%20Ways%20To%20Overcome%20Frustration&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-ways-to-overcome-frustration%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-ways-to-overcome-frustration%2F&t=33%20Ways%20To%20Overcome%20Frustration https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-ways-to-overcome-frustration%2F&title=33%20Ways%20To%20Overcome%20Frustration Previous ### Stop Looking at Role Models to Do the Dirty Work for You (/stop-looking-at-role-models-to-do-the-dirty-work-for-you/) Next ### The Book Of Life (/the-book-of-life/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Secret Art Of Keeping Cards Castles From Falling Down URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-secret-art-of-keeping-cards-castles-from-falling-down.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-secret-art-of-keeping-cards-castles-from-falling-down/ Published: 2011-03-07 Modified: 2026-05-04 Views: 164 Categories: Personal Development Tags: relationships, resilience **2026 update**: *15 years later, I revisit this post and the lessons learned here (/everything-i-built-that-fell-down-and-what-i-learned-about-building-anyway/), as part of a "then and now" 30 days challenge covering the most viral topics on this blog.* You know how to make a castle from deck cards? Once you learn how to do it, it's very easy, actually. You take two cards and make them hold one against the other on the top edge. Near this triangle you make a new one, using another pair of cards. And then you lay out horizontally a new card on top of those two triangles, which will hold them together. On top of it you put another triangle. Voila. You have a deck cards castle. The smallest one, of course, but still a card castle. The hard part comes when you want one of these to last longer than 2 or 3 minutes. These types of structures are very sensitive. Just a little bit of wind and they're all down. Very, very sensitive. ### Our Life Structures There was a time when I was thinking that only castle cards are sensitive structures. That the vast majority of the other things in my life are much solid than a card castle. But, as I grew old, I realized this is just an illusion. At a very deep level, our life structures are pretty much identical with a card castle. We may think they aren't so easy to broke down, but in fact they are. Let's say you're running your own business (/start-your-own-business/). You got your stuff together pretty well, you have a little bit of market share, paying customers and loyal employees (/thinking-outside-of-the-loyalty-card/). You have a pretty neat and shiny castle built there. Then, out of nowhere, a financial crisis hits in. Your customers are running out of money, you can't pay your employees anymore and you have to close the business down. Your castle is literally falling apart. Or, let's say you got yourself a pretty solid relationship (/category/meaningful-relationships/). A marriage, for instance. You communicate well with your partner, your life is unfolding peacefully in front of the two of you and you act like a team. Then, one day you wake up and realize you're in somebody else's dream. Not in your own dream. And you decide to end that relationship. All your shiny castle will fall down in a few months. A business, a relationship, even a house. They can fall down anytime. As I grew old, I realized that keeping your life together (/100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life/) is pretty much a question of keeping your card castles in good order. Do anything you can to make them as solid as you can. I call this the hidden art of keeping the castle cards together. And today I'm going to share with you some of my secret techniques. 😉 ### The 4 Secrets Of The Hidden Art Of Keeping The Castle Cards Together ### 1. Build It In A Safe Place Always look for a good foundation for your castle. Find a quiet place, with not too much wind. In other words, pay close attention to your surroundings. And by surroundings I understand pretty much everything that surrounds you, not only space. Pay attention to the relationships you're building with this castle. Are they usually stormy? Unpredictable (/humans-need-entropy/)? Sometimes we like the unpredictable, it gives us a sense of thrill, but when the unpredictable hits our castle, we're sad. So think things over. Also, be careful at the outside conditions, is this a stormy place? In business, this would mean that your market has a lot of ups and downs. In relationships, it means your partner friends: are they in the same league as you? A castle card built in a windy place won't last more than a few minutes. ### 2. Build It With Quality Cards This always goes down to picking the best available resource you may have access to. It involves the best people you may have access to for your business. It involves a reliable and trustworthy partner for your relationship. It involves the best materials for building your house, if that's the castle you are building right now. A castle built with poor quality cards will not even stand, regardless of the surroundings. You may have the best place, the best conditions, but if you're not paying close attention (/are-you-paying-attention/) to your cards, your castle won't grow. For instance, your cards may be too soft, not able to hold on to the responsibility of the card on top of them. Or they may be too slippery, not really willing to be part of a fixed structure. Just do whatever you feel like to put your cards to a stress test before starting to build a castle together. It will save so much trouble later on, when you'll be focused on the actual building process. ### 3. Build It With Care Pay attention to joints and the distance between cards. Make them optimal. A far fetched business will equal to a bigger distance between two triangles. It will weaken the whole structure. A relationship in which you wait for the other person to "grow up (/the-time-to-grow/)" or to quit an addiction has the same effect. It affects the whole structure resistance. Leverage your structures. If you built a triangle here and then another one a mile away, it will take years to build the intermediary triangles, until everything will be linked. Whatever you built in your life and you're proud of, use it. Don't throw it away in search of another thrill, as spectacular as it may look like to build a new beginning (/new-beginnings-are-important-but-honest-endings-are-importanter/) in a far away place. A card castle build in a safe place, with good quality cards and with a lot of care will last far more than you believe. I have build cards castles which lasted years and I know I can build others again too. ### 4. Prepare For The Fall Down This is the last one. It took me a lot of time to get it, but I consider it to be the most important secret of this hidden art. (/the-subtle-art-of-improvisation/) Keep in mind that everything you build is subject to decay. No matter how safer the place, how good the cards and how perfect the structure, there will be at some point something that will shake it down. Accept it. Even more, wait for it. The subtlest thing in the secret art of building deck cards castles is that they are meant to go down. And they do this for a very good reason: to give you room to start a new one. The joy is always in building those castles, again and again, and not much in keeping them from falling down (/picking-a-good-anchor/). Hence, this post is a little bit useless. 😉 First published on: March 7, 2011 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-secret-art-of-keeping-cards-castles-from-falling-down%2F&text=The%20Secret%20Art%20Of%20Keeping%20Cards%20Castles%20From%20Falling%20Down&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-secret-art-of-keeping-cards-castles-from-falling-down%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-secret-art-of-keeping-cards-castles-from-falling-down%2F&t=The%20Secret%20Art%20Of%20Keeping%20Cards%20Castles%20From%20Falling%20Down https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-secret-art-of-keeping-cards-castles-from-falling-down%2F&title=The%20Secret%20Art%20Of%20Keeping%20Cards%20Castles%20From%20Falling%20Down Previous ### Christchurch – The Experience (/christchurch-the-experience/) Next ### Unleash Your Confidence – Vlad Dolezal Interview (/unleash-your-confidence-vlad-dolezal-interview/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Deal With Crab Mentality, the Reddit Flavor URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-deal-with-crab-mentality-the-reddit-flavor.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-deal-with-crab-mentality-the-reddit-flavor/ Published: 2026-01-24 Views: 162 Categories: Blogging, Relationships and Society Tags: blogging journey, lessons learned, social media, social skills Let's say you got lucky and caught some crabs today. The safest way to prevent them from escaping is to put the whole lot in a bucket. Doesn't even have to be a big one, the point is to put all of them together. What will happen is that, even if a single crab could theoretically climb out to freedom, the other ones will drag the poor guy down, enforcing the same level of captivity across the whole bucket. Eventually, every one of them will end up being eaten. This behavior is called "crab mentality" and, in human terms, it's the tendency to undermine anyone who starts succeeding, and, in some cases, ensure everyone loses the same. ## Structural and Behavioral Crab Mentality In some social structures this is enforced at the core level. In communism, for example, it is against the system to be better, everybody must be equal (of course, this never happens). In big, formalized companies, this is also kinda the default policy: you can't just be better and climb towards better positions: your peers will do whatever they can to maintain the status quo. But even without the structural enforcement, there is a certain kind of crab mentality which manifests in any community that thrives on attention. Like social media, for example. And, with that, we get to the main topic of today's post. Recently, I've been experimenting with promoting my blog on various social media platforms. One of them is Reddit. After a period of adjustments, I started to have consistently good results: between 50k and 120k views per post, reaching top 5 in some of the most active subreddits. And here's where the Reddit crab mentality started to hit. To be completely honest, it didn't happen on every post. But it did happen on the majority of popular posts (think top 10), roughly around 2 out of the 3. There were also posts with a more coherent and supportive treatment, but they were a minority. If you ever plan to be active on Reddit, this post is for you. ## How Reddit's Crab Mentality Works I've tracked the pattern across multiple posts now, and it has a remarkably consistent blueprint. Here's how a post that makes it to top 10 typically evolves: **Phase 1: Early traction (position 50+)**Some people find the post useful. Voting is mostly organic and positive. Ratio sits around 90-95%. Comments are barely popping in, but those who do are genuine. **Phase 2: Climbing (positions 30-10)**More visibility brings the first wave of engagement. Comments start to be mostly neutral or appreciative. First downvotes creep in, but nothing dramatic. Voting ratio drops to around 85%. **Phase 3: The crab zone (positions 10-4)**This is where it gets interesting. Negative comments surge. Downvoting on OP's replies increases sharply. Voting ratio crashes to around 70%, sometimes way below 50%. The post starts declining, leaving top 10—but the ones replacing it will get the exact same treatment. To make sure this wasn't just a fluke, I cross-posted the same content to three different subreddits and tracked what happened. In r/ClaudeAI, it reached 4th place. In r/Anthropic, also 4th place, with slightly less crab mentality—probably because it's a smaller, more focused community. In r/ChatGPT, it climbed to 9th place, with the same patterns but significantly more views thanks to its 11 million users. Across all three, the post pulled in over 250k views. Three different subreddits, three different sizes, but the same predictable flow. The sweet spot seems to be positions 10-15. That's where you get an engaged and honest audience. Once you break into the top 10, the fight for attention turns ugly. At that point, many commenters aren't even reading what you wrote. They're just piggybacking on the visibility, posting negative comments for contrast: "this is ridiculous," "I'm smarter than this," "what's this even doing here." The goal isn't to engage with your content. It's to position themselves as superior to something that's already getting attention. ## How To Deal With Reddit's Crab Mentality **Learn constructive criticism.** You're not perfect, and you can make mistakes. You can come off as aggressive, even if you don't mean to. Learn how to dissociate constructive criticism from crab mentality – and the simplest way is to separate action attacks from personal attacks. If someone says "you are an idiot", that's crab mentality, it signals "I'm better than you / you don't deserve to be on this spot". But if someone says: "what you did could be improved", they're talking about *something you did*, not about *who you are*. They may of course still be wrong, but at least they're not 100% dismissive. **Learn the patterns.** I learned the hard way that answering every single comment is a dead end. It creates a downward spiral. The more you respond, the more surface area you give the crabs, and the longer the fight drags on. **Adjust your expectations.** Reddit can generate insane amounts of traffic, really fast. But the quality isn't quite there. You'll get some engaged, smart users, but they're the minority. For example, from my 250k views posts, I got around 1200 visits to the blog, and about 4 of them converted into free subscribers to my newsletter. The majority has a very short attention span, seeks validation, and leans aggressive. Factor that into your strategy. ## Crab Mentality Everywhere Crab mentality isn't a Reddit thing. It's a human thing. Any community where visibility is limited and attention is currency will likely develop similar dynamics. The platforms may change, but the mechanics will stay the same: when someone starts climbing, others often try to pull them back down. From my own experience, the best way forward is to keep climbing. Arguing with crabs rarely leads anywhere. Explaining yourself to people who aren't listening tends to drain more than it resolves. Protecting your energy, learning what you can from the friction, and staying focused on the work that got you noticed in the first place. The crabs aren't your audience. The people who upvoted you to the top are. First published on: January 24, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-deal-with-crab-mentality-the-reddit-flavor%2F&text=How%20To%20Deal%20With%20Crab%20Mentality%2C%20the%20Reddit%20Flavor&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-deal-with-crab-mentality-the-reddit-flavor%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-deal-with-crab-mentality-the-reddit-flavor%2F&t=How%20To%20Deal%20With%20Crab%20Mentality%2C%20the%20Reddit%20Flavor https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-deal-with-crab-mentality-the-reddit-flavor%2F&title=How%20To%20Deal%20With%20Crab%20Mentality%2C%20the%20Reddit%20Flavor Previous ### How To Avoid Being Scammed on LinkedIn (/how-to-avoid-being-scammed-on-linkedin/) Next ### Assess Decide Do in Claude, but with Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Humans Need Entropy – Why You Need Some Chaos in Your Life URL: https://dragosroua.com/humans-need-entropy.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/humans-need-entropy/ Published: 2025-11-08 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 161 Categories: Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: growth, resilience, wisdom Today we're going to talk about mice, Karpathy and the planet Venus. Believe me, there is a very strong connection between all of these. We will start backwards, and talk about Venus first. ## Venus as An Immortal Super Being The most impressive poem of the most prominent Romanian poet, Mihai Eminescu, is called Luceafarul. It's the story of the morning star, Venus, which fell in love with a human earthling. The core of this is the impossibility of living an earthly life while you are basically immortal (the lifespan of the star will outlive any human being). The loneliness of the star and its deep suffering is haunting. I still remember those lines: > From chaos, Lord, I came alive My thirst to chaos goes *(Din haos Doamne-am aparut / Si m-as intoarce-n haos)* Ok, I see you're struggling. What does it have to do with you? What's this nonsense? Bear with me. ## Humans Need Entropy — Or That's What Karpathy Said Andrej Karpathy — former OpenAI researcher, Tesla AI director, generally smart human — dropped something equally haunting in a recent interview (https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/andrej-karpathy): humans collapse over time. Not physically (well, that too), but mentally. We become predictable. We revisit the same thoughts, repeat the same phrases, our learning rates decline. Children shock us because they haven't collapsed yet — they're still high-entropy systems, unpredictable and fresh. Adults? We're overfitted to our lives. His solution? We need entropy. Constantly. Talking to different people, exposing ourselves to new ideas, putting ourselves in situations that don't fit our comfortable patterns. Without this injection of chaos, we collapse into repetitive loops — the mental equivalent of playing the same three jokes over and over. And here's the kicker: he was originally talking about AI models that train on their own outputs and become increasingly sterile and repetitive. Then he realized: wait, humans do this too. ## The Perfect Mice Colony In the late 1960s, researcher John B. Calhoun built a mouse utopia (https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/mouse-heaven-or-mouse-hell/). Unlimited food, water, perfect temperature, no predators, ample nesting space. He called it "Universe 25." Started with 4 pairs of mice and watched what happened. At first, population explosion — exactly as you'd expect. Then something broke. As the colony hit around 2,200 mice (well below the physical capacity), behavior collapsed. Males became either hyper-aggressive or completely withdrawn. A class of "beautiful ones" emerged — males who only groomed themselves and ate, avoiding all social interaction. Females abandoned their young. Courtship rituals vanished. Despite abundant resources, the colony went extinct. The mice didn't need more food or space — they needed meaningful challenges, territorial disputes, the entropy of survival. Perfect optimization killed them. And it happened the same in all 25 identical experiments – yes, he did this 25 times. ## Putting It All Together: You NEED Chaos In Your Life Here's what Eminescu knew, what Calhoun discovered, and what Karpathy articulated: **life thrives at the boundary between comfort and chaos**. Not in pure chaos — that's just destruction. Not in pure comfort — that's the mouse utopia, that's the collapsed adult repeating the same thoughts. You need both, in constant tension. ![Zen Tales app icon](/images/zen-tales-icon-48.webp) For deeper reflection, I built Zen Tales (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zen-tales-buddhist-stories/id6758518121)—timeless Buddhist stories with AI insights for contemplation. Venus suffers because it exists in only one state — eternal, unchanging, comfortable in its immortality. The mice died because they existed in only one state — safe, fed, unchanging. We collapse when we exist in only one state — same routines, same thoughts, same comfortable patterns. The solution isn't to abandon comfort entirely. It's to deliberately inject entropy into your system. Start that weird hobby you've been putting off. Move to a country where you don't speak the language. Learn an instrument at an age when everyone tells you it's "too late." These aren't indulgences — they're survival mechanisms. ## Personal Choices I started to run at 40 and finished my first marathon at 42. Then ran a 220km ultra-marathon (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/) at 45. I moved to a new country at 48. Packed up, left everything familiar behind, started over. Then did it again at 53, this time while learning Korean — a language that has almost nothing in common with Romanian or English, forcing my brain into completely new patterns. Started learning guitar at 50 (/learning-to-play-the-guitar/), fumbling through chords like a teenager, building neural pathways that had been dormant for decades. Each time, people asked why I was making my life harder. They missed the point entirely. I wasn't making life harder — I was preventing collapse. I was staying alive in the way that matters. You don't need to move countries (/category/location-independence/) (though it helps). You need to break your patterns regularly. Take a different route to work. Talk to people you normally wouldn't. Read books from disciplines you know nothing about. Say yes to things that make you slightly uncomfortable. The discomfort isn't the price you pay — it's the signal that you're still growing, still high-entropy, still alive in the way Venus could never be. The boundary between comfort and chaos — that's where humans actually live. Step too far into comfort and you're a beautiful mouse, grooming yourself while the colony dies. Stay in pure chaos and you burn out. The sweet spot is that constant dance, that deliberate injection of unpredictability into otherwise stable systems. *[There's actually fascinating physics behind why entropy works this way in living systems — how we're literally thermodynamic engines that require constant energy flow and disorder to maintain order. I break down the actual science in the paid version of this post, because understanding the mechanics makes the whole thing even more compelling. If you want access, subscribe in the form below – you'll get some goodies too.]* First published on: November 8, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhumans-need-entropy%2F&text=Humans%20Need%20Entropy%20%E2%80%93%20Why%20You%20Need%20Some%20Chaos%20in%20Your%20Life&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhumans-need-entropy%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhumans-need-entropy%2F&t=Humans%20Need%20Entropy%20%E2%80%93%20Why%20You%20Need%20Some%20Chaos%20in%20Your%20Life https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhumans-need-entropy%2F&title=Humans%20Need%20Entropy%20%E2%80%93%20Why%20You%20Need%20Some%20Chaos%20in%20Your%20Life Previous ### 7 Things I Learned From My One Year Old Son (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-son/) Next ### 55 Life Lessons I learned in 55 Years (/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Ways To Drastically Improve Your Social Life URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-ways-to-drastically-improve-your-social-life.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-ways-to-drastically-improve-your-social-life/ Published: 2010-02-15 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 160 Categories: Guest Posts, Relationships and Society Tags: caring, list post, relationships, social skills This is a guest post by from my friend Bud  Hennekes. What does your current social situation look like? Are you surrounded by people who bring the best out of you? Or are you held back by individuals who just drag you down? Do you have an abundance of connections? Or do you constantly feel alone? Regardless of your current social situation, it's safe to say that one of the most important aspects of your life, is your relationships. Aside from perhaps your spiritual beliefs, your relationships have the greatest impact on who you are as a person. Unfortunately, one area many people struggle with is their social life, and for much of my life I struggled to. Fortunately , I soon realized that we are in complete control of our social situation. I'd like to share with you some ways to drastically improve your social life. ## Stop Fearing Rejection One of the main reasons people struggle to have the social life that they desire is because the fear of rejection is constantly on their mind. "What if they don't like me?" "What if I'm not good enough?" "What if I'm different from everyone else?" "What if they make fun of me?" Have you ever had any of these thoughts? If so you're not alone. But here's the thing, everyone is insecure. Yes, some are more insecure than other's but everyone has their faults. Don't waste a second of your time thinking you're not good enough. Drop those beliefs immediately. When you focus your attention on what you lack, you can't see what you currently have. Realize that no one is perfect. No one has everything figured out. That's what makes you, well you. Remember not everyone is going to like you accept that. Embrace your differences and rise above the fear of rejection. As soon as you make the decision to stop fearing rejection, your social life will dramatically improve. ## Focus on Quality Not Quantity Which would you rather have: a ton of half-hearted-connections, or a small group of really good friends? I don't know about you, but I'd gladly choose the later. Unfortunately, many equate having a ton of friends to having an amazing social life, which isn't always true. While it's certainly possible to have a large group of friends who you share a wonderful connection with, true intimacy generally occurs in small numbers. I know plenty of people who have a ton of 'friends' but at the end of the day they remain all alone. Don't fall into that trap. I'm not suggesting  you can't or shouldn't have a bunch of friends, but rather  you should focus on the quality of your relationships instead of  the amount of people you can call 'friends.' As you develop more and more deep connections your social life will slowly begin to expand to the place where you want it to be. ## Care While this tip may come off as common sense, so many people forget to do this. Instead of making their relationships a mutual source of happiness, it quickly becomes all about them. It's important to make a conscious effort to be as understanding and compassionate as possible.  Genuinely care about the connection you're creating. When someone needs a friend, be there to listen. When someone needs advice, be there to give it to them. When you truly care about someone you'll often find that that person will soon begin to care about you. The sole purpose of relationships is to care. 🙂 ## Don't Complain Do you enjoy listening to people complain? I know I don't. When you complain you do nothing but attract more negative thoughts. Instead of focusing on what's wrong, choose to focus on whats right. People like hanging around people that make them feel better about life, not worse. Although complaining may seem like a good outlet of frustration, it radiates a considerably bad vibe to all those who notice. While a complaint every now and then isn't the end of the world, don't fall into the habit of becoming a chronic complainer. There was once a period of my life that I would do nothing but complain. During that time I also found that very few people wanted to hang out with me. Coincidence? I think not. ## Network One of the amazing things about being alive today is that we literally have the ability to connect with millions of people all around the world. 50 years ago that wasn't possible. Thanks to the likes of Facebook and Twitter we can connect with virtually anyone we want to. We can establish relationships with people who share our interests and goals, as well as explore other types of belief systems and ideas. Reach out to people. Share your story. Connect. Over the past year I've literally made hundreds of new friends because of how easy it is to network online. If you're not actively using social media to mold a social life with an abundance of wonderful connections, you're missing out. ## Take Responsibility To Improve Your Social Life Take a look at your current social situation. Realize that you are responsible for each and every relationship you currently have in your life. Only when you take full responsibility for your relationships can you then begin to craft the social circle you desire. Taking full responsibility isn't always effortless. Sometimes it's easier to blame other people for your relationship shortcomings. However when you do that you lose your ability to craft the relationships you wish to have. If you want more meaningful connections in your life it's up to you make them. If you want more friends in your life it's up to you to find them. Sitting back and doing nothing will get you nowhere. As human beings we are incredibly social creatures and relationships play a large role in how we live our life. Are you happy with who you surround  yourself with? Or could you use some work in this area? ## Believe You're Worthy Perhaps the greatest thing you can do to drastically improve your social life is this: Believe you're worthy. Don't walk around with your head down low thinking you have nothing to offer. Know deep down that you have something meaningful to share with this world. If you don't know what that is just quite yet, continue to search. No matter where you are currently, know that you have the ability to change your social life. It doesn't matter if you're shy, or you're just trying to make a few more friends, you are deserving of the relationships you want. You have nothing to prove to anyone, you're perfect the way you are, faults and all. An abundance of wonderful relationships await. **Author Bio:*** Bud Hennekes writes about personal development. His hobbies vary depending on the day but more often than not he enjoys: reading, writing, conversation, meditating, and changing the world. * First published on: February 15, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 77 Reasons To Love Your Life URL: https://dragosroua.com/77-reasons-to-love-your-life.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/ Published: 2009-03-13 Modified: 2026-05-23 Views: 160 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness Tags: gratitude, list post, love **2026 Update**: *I revisit this post here (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life-why-id-write-this-differently-after-17-years/), as part of a 30 day challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* Too often we find more reasons to hate our life than to love it. And you know what? Life hates us back. Here are 77 reasons to love your life. Know another one? Would love to see it in the comments. ## 1. For Everything You Already Have It may not seem like much, but it is. You breathe and you can read this, and that means yolu're alive. This is a gift so often underestimated. So even if you think right now you don't have a lot, remember you have your life. And that means you can always start fresh (/50-ways-to-start-fresh/). ## 2. For What You Are Yet To Receive There's more to come. You just a glimpse of what can happen until now, but there's far more to come. Deep down, you know there's so much more waiting to manifest into your life. As long as you embrace all the challenges and ride along with all your fears, spectacular, unexpected, beautiful things will pop up, adding more and more reasons to love your life. ## 3. For All The Certainties You Acquired Because you learned so much in the process. Because you worked so hard to understand them, because you know that, in order for "that" to happen, you need to do "this", and the result will always be the expected one. And, most importantly, because you know that, at some point in the future, these certainties may be replaced. So love them while they still hold true. ## 4. For All the Friends You Have Now Because they are there for you when you need them. Because they lift you up and cheer for you. Because they love you (/100-ways-live-better-life-98-love/) just the way you are. And because, of course, you feel the same for them. Friends are the beautiful accident of life, which turns regular people into lifelong supporters of each other. ## 5. For All the Wonderful Journeys You've Been On As they are there to lay the path for the future ones. Each past journey is just a rehearsal for something even better. Sometimes it may not seem like that, but, in reality, all the places, all the people, all the experiences you had so far, all of them are there to show you what can happen, as long as you keep finding reasons to love your life. ## 6. For All The Friends You'll Get There's always room for one more friend in your life. You just haven't meet that person yet. But he or she is out there, and, sooner or later, a new friendship will spark from your future encounter. So, even if you feel lonely right now, just don't lose hope. Keep cruising on your path and be ready for something magic to appear. That's when magic happens, anyway, only when you are ready for it. ## 7. For All The Bad Advice You Didn't Follow Because that saved you some time, maybe money, maybe your life as it is now. Sometimes it's hard to judge in the moment if a piece of advice will improve or worsen your current situation. It's only in hindsight, most of the time, that we realize we were far better off by just following a different path. One more reason to love the life you have right now, in this very moment. ## 8. For All The Beautiful Memories Because they are proof life can be beautiful. Of course, they're in the past, they do not exist anymore, but at some point in time they were you life, as you lived it. Keep those nice images of your life close, and trust that what you live now can also become, at some point in the future, a beautiful memories, something to look back at with joy. ## 9. For The Ones You Love Because all you have to do is to think about them and you'll instantly feel better. Because they rely on you. Because you wish them good and you can help them do better. From all the reasons to love your life, this one is the easiest and – probably -the most common. And yet, in the incessant whirlwind of our lives, sometimes we just forget how important these people are. ## 10. For The Ones You Forgot As they may return any time, and enrich your live when you least expect it. There are so many people in our lives, some of them crossing our paths just for a few moments, but leaving strong, powerful marks. Maybe you forgot some of them. It's ok. They're still there, somewhere, like a beautiful surprise waiting to unfold. Try to live like you're already prepared for something like this too happen. ## 11. For The Work You Do As this is your gift to others. It may seem that you're not doing much, but that's only your perspective. From the other side, things may be – and almost always are – very different: there are people who depend on what you do. Be grateful for that. ## 12. For All The Jokes You Haven't Heard Yet If that's not one of the most powerful reasons to love your life (/100-ways-live-better-life-23-find-reasons-love-life/), than I don't know what is. I can't resist a good joke, and, on a good day, I can't take in an unlimited amount of bad jokes too . And, of course, the nicest thing on a bad day, is a good joke. ## 13. For The Beautiful Trips You Are Yet To Embark On Maybe you think you've settled now, or maybe traveling is not your thing. But we are going on trips every day. Sometimes, even a walk to the park can transform into a fresh, unpredictable, exciting trip. Don't take my word for it. Go out, now! ## 14. For Everything You Are Not Sure About Because it means you'll still have something to challenge you, to push you out of the comfort zone and, ultimately, to transform you. Uncertainties are these big, black areas covering random spots on your life map. Charging into them at full speed would be like uncovering areas in a strategy game. It will be frightening and risky, but well, well worth the time. ## 15. For All The Beautiful Sunrises You Still Remember There's something magic about sunrise. The sheer force of light, gently chasing away the dark, offering space for new things to unfold, for new experiences to begin. As an ultra-runner, I got to enjoy a few times the second dawn (/the-story-of-my-first-100-kilometers-race/), but even if you're not into this kind of things, sunrises are among the best reasons to love your life. ## 16. For All The Fantastic Sunsets You Will Enjoy If sunrises are magic, reviving everything and anything, sunsets are mesmerizing, hypnotizing us into softly blending into the dark, accepting the end of the day graciously and willingly sleeping our way into oblivion. Ends are part of life too, as counterintuitive as it may sound. Be prepared and enjoy them. ## 17. For Tomorrow's Sunrise As a reminder how lucky you are for getting to see another one. ## 18. For Yesterday Sunset Because you can still remember it in all is finest and glorious details. ## 19. For The Things You Are Yet To Learn Being them skills, or just life strategies, there are plenty of things waiting for you to learn, no matter how much you already know. And with any small progress you make, your own "life experiencing device" will be ore enhanced. The more you learn, the largest your "life breathing lungs" will be. ## 20. For The Health You Have We are decaying creatures, operating on faulty hardware and software (/how-to-manage-and-upgrade-your-life-device-drivers/). Be grateful for any small ability you still have, like walking, seeing and hearing other people or just being able to feed yourself. Some day, all of these will seem extremely difficult. But that day is not today, yet. ## 21. For All The Beauty You Can Spot Around You From the smallest drop of dew on a tree leaf, to magnificent works of art that survived for millennia, there is beauty everywhere. And we are wired to respond to beauty, not matter where we're experiencing it, in ways that are both enlightening and uplifting. From all the reasons to love your life in the world, doing it for beauty is probably the most rewarding and worth nurturing. ## 22. For The Ugliness Around You Because, without it, you couldn't understand what beauty is. As repulsive as it is, ugliness serves you very well to contrast the beauty you may be ignoring. In fact, there is no ugliness, as ugliness, just like beauty, lies ultimately in the eyes of the beholder. ## 23. For The Riddles You Haven't Yet Solved Yes, I'm talking about all the puzzles you've encountered so far, and still not found a way to solve them. No matter if you're trying to understand the soul of your unrequited love, or just the very fabric of quantum entanglement, these riddles are there. Once they're in your consciousness, they won't leave. So better stay around and strive to find the solution, right? ## 24. For All Your Unanswered Questions Not every question you ask is blessed with an answer. Most of them are lingering around in a limbo of confusion for years. And these lingering questions are weighing you down. So, even if you didn't get your answer now, it doesn't mean you will never get it. Just stick to it, stay there, and, slowly, the curtain will be lifted. ## 24. For All Your Victories Because the taste of each victory (https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmcquaid/2015/07/17/victory-is-sweet-scientists-show-that-when-your-team-wins-things-taste-better/) is, oh, so sweet. No need to play it down, it is. That feeling of winning in front of a massive counter-force is cathartic. So yes, I think this is a very good reason to love your life: be there to fight another battle, and win again. ## 25. For All The Good Advice You Followed For it got you here, right? You are here because there was (also) some guidance that you followed and helped you navigate some troubled waters. So, yes, loving your life as a form of gratitude for all the good advice that you received (and followed) is a healthy choice, in my books. ## 26. For All Your Lost Battles For they are your precious lessons. Yes, winning is sweet, but even in the bitterness of defeat there is still something that will make you rise again. As longs as you don't give up. ## 27. For Your Enemies For they are there to teach you forgiveness. Sometimes you'll clash with people and sometimes you'll hold a grudge. And you'll call those people "enemies". If you just look deeper into what made you clash, and if you foster the courage to forgive and move forward, you'll eventually understand there is no enemy, just like there is "no spoon" in the Matrix. ## 28. For All The Small Things In Your Life For that's what all the big things are made of: a gazillion of small things, carefully crafter together. Small things are the very fabric of your life: the smell of fresh air in the morning, a smile, a touch on your shoulder, nice words. Don't underestimate the power of small drops, when they are well aligned: that's how oceans are made. ## 29. For All The Big, Hairy, Ambitious Goals You've Set Some of them you already reached, some of them not yet, and, probably, some of them you'll never touch. That's not the point. The point is that these BHAGs, these ridiculously ambitious goals (/5-good-reasons-to-share-your-goals-and-one-powerful-reason-not-to/) are pushing your forward. Use them, don't be afraid by them. ## 30. For All The Answers You Got So Far They made your life easier. The "world map" you created using them is now bigger, clearer, easier to navigate. And they showed you that, in the end, some of your questions do get answers. Sometimes you may not like them, but, sooner or later, you get them. ## 31. For The Smiles You Receive Every Day Try to remember a day you spent outside, among people, and when nobody smiled at you. It's impossible. Even in the grimmest times, people find the power to smile at each other. As long as you will be around, there will be somebody smiling at you. Most of the time, when you least expect it. ## 32. For The Smiles You Offer Every Day Because you have no idea how much they mean. ## 33. For All Your Powerful, Energizing Mornings Yeah, I know not all your mornings are powerful and energizing. Mine aren't also. But some of them are. Some of them (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/) are even unexpected, surprising, exciting, uplifting, motivating. I'm talking about those mornings. Love your life for them. ## 34. Love Your Life For Your Romantic Evenings Again, I know not all your evenings are romantic and yes, not all my evenings either. But when they are, man, it feels good! Sharing intimate moments, sliding into the night with all these feelings, and all that cozy atmosphere, makes these evenings to be remembered as "times when we really lived our life". ## 35. For The Life Rediscovered Through The Eyes Of A Child No matter if you are a parent or not, there is something very simple, and yet tremendously profound about life, in the eyes of a child. Something which wasn't yet tainted by the entire collective hallucination we create and enjoy, as adults. If you summon the courage to get out of the hallucination, you can be that kid again. ## 36. For The Smell Of The Summer Rain Which is one of those things that I can't put into words, and yet, everybody knows what I'm talking about. ## 37. For The Gifts You Still Have To Offer And no, I'm not talking (only) about birthday gifts. I'm talking about your skills, your creativity, your ability to understand, care and support. For some people, you, as a person, are a gift. ## 38. For All The Games You Haven't Yet Played Don't rush to that console now, because I'm not talking about those games. I'm talking about the game of friendship, the game of falling in love, the game of crafting beautiful things that other people will enjoy, or even the game of being successful (or falling). All these games are, each taken separately and all together, some of the most compelling reasons to love your life. ## 39. For The Next First Snow There is something very pure and joyful about the first snow. It's like everything is turned back to the first base again and we get to just enjoy, play and cheer. It's like we're getting yet another chance to start over. You may be living in a place where it doesn't even snow. Well, in this case, I think this would make even a stronger case for you to experience a first snow. ## 40. For All The Great Ideas You Had Today Well, maybe not all of them were great, but at least a few were. They must have been. ## 41. For All The Great Ideas You Will Have Tomorrow Well, maybe you won't have any great idea tomorrow, but you don't know that yet. You can't know that yet, until you reach that tomorrow. Just be there, stay alert, you never know when a new way of solving an old problem will arise. ## 42. Love Your Life For Tomorrow's Surprises Even if you won't have a great idea tomorrow, at least there will be some surprises. That's guaranteed: you have no idea what will happen tomorrow. Some surprises you'll like, some you'll not, but the point is you will never know which is which beforehand. ## 43. For Today's Gifts Maybe you didn't get any gift today, but that's only because you may have a limited idea about what a gift is. The mere fact that you can enjoy a blog post about reasons to love your life is a gift. The mere fact that you do this on a device you use for many other things is a gift. The mere fact that you ca breathe is a gift. See? A lot of gifts. ## 44. For All Those Dreams That Eventually Came True As they are proof that dreams do come true. Eventually. ## 45. For Yesterday's Memories As they are there to shed the light on today. Just like everything you do today will slowly turn into yesterday's memories for tomorrow. ## 46. For All The Nice Words You Haven't Yet Said To Your Loved Ones There's always room for one more encouragement, for one more supportive talk, for one more empowering talk. Always. ## 47. For All The Nice Words You Heard From Your Loved Ones Especially when they come unexpectedly, not asked for, not wanted. Like those nice chats you have out of the blue, taking you out of the blue, literally. ## 48. For All The Nice People You Haven't Yet Met They are somewhere out there, you know? It's just that you didn't bumped into them yet. But they are there, greatly outnumbering the not so nice people, if you just have enough patience. ## 49. For All Your Mistakes So you can have more time to make out for them. Or at least try making out. Mistakes sucks. But you don't necessarily have to. ## 50. For All The Adventures You Have Yet To Begin Sometimes it's a trip to a remote country. Sometimes it's a new job, or a new venture you start. And sometimes it's just a new relationship. But that feeling of adventure, of exhilaration, of anticipation and excitement, you know what I'm talking about? At times that's all you need to make life, life. ## 51. For All The Books You Haven't Yet Read For they are windows into other worlds or into other people. They are enriching you without even moving from your coach, as you sip your tea and immerse yourself into the story, a kid seeing a new world, with fresh eyes. ## 52. For All The Books You Haven't Yet Written You know that feeling, when, after a few months struggle, you put the final world into your book (being it a productivity book (/assess-decide-do-natural-productivity-the-launch/), a personal story or just fiction). And even if you're not good with words, I have news for you: you do write your books with every thing that you say, every turn you take, every dream you fulfill: it's just that these books are unfolding in real life, for a just a few readers. ## 53. For All The Yet Unborn Challenges You Still Have To Face No matter how nice is the place you're in right now, at some point something will change. A new challenge will arise and a new you will have to be born, to overcome that challenge. Embrace those moments, they are your rebirths. ## 54. For All The Stories You Haven't Yet Heard, Written Or Dreamed Of Because all these stories have something in common: the main character, which is you. Sometimes you're the main character hearing something, sometimes you're the main character writing something or dreaming about something, but at the center of every story in your life, consumed or still not there yet, it's always you. You are all the stories in your life. ## 55. For The Person Who's Looking At You From The Mirror Every Morning That person is changing a lot, isn't it? Seems like weeks ago that person was just a kid, or a teenager. And look at that face now. Every day, you're becoming somebody new. Aren't you curious to see how that face will look tomorrow? ## 56. For The Nurturing Family You Already Have They are there to support you no matter what. They were there from the moment you arrived and they will always be there. Ok, maybe, this time, you didn't enter the world with traditional family members at your side, or maybe they had to go away sooner. It's ok. You still have a family, only it's bigger than the regular ones. Just look carefully around you and you'll see it. ## 57. For All You Have To Share With Others You truly possess only that you can give away. In parting ways with what you once considered yours lies great joy and a subtle understanding that there are really no differences between us. "Mine" and "yours" are here only for us to experience the joy of giving out. ## 58. For All You've Lost In Your Journey Because it freed more space into your life, allowing new stuff to happen, to grow, to manifest. Losing stuff is hurting only to the extend we identify "ourselves" with what we lose. Otherwise, it's just stuff going away, just like each and every breath of you is going away. ## 59. For The Feeling Of Your Heart Overflowing With Love Because this feeling is what pushes you froward. Is that feeling in the heart of your parents that led to your existence and kept you alive after you manifested, and it's the same feeling that generated your children, and pushes them forward in their own journey. ## 60. For All Your Unfulfilled Dreams So you can have plenty of time to work on make them true. ## 61. For All The Opportunities That Are Waiting For You Just Around The Corner Especially for those disguised as loss, separation or misfortune. How many times you thought "why is this shit happening to me?", only to realize, months or years after: "man, I was so fortunate to go through that ordeal, because otherwise I couldn't live the great life I'm living now"? I know I've been there, many times. ## 62. For Each Personal Freedom You Conquered I like to visualize these personal breakthroughs like skin shed by snakes. Every time a snake outgrows its former self, it literally has to get out of his old skin. We are all leaving behind these former selves, one lined in front of the other, every time some personal freedom is conquered, every time our personal self is not fitting in our old skin. As such, the joy of looking back – in anger or joy, as you see fit – at all these moments when we became a bit more free than before, is one of the most rewarding reasons to love your life. ## 63. For Everything You Created So Far Because every little thing you did has something from you in it. Scratch that: in every little thing you created *there is a bit of you*. So, in a way, you keep living as long as all the stuff you created will be alive. ## 64. For The Fragrances Of Every Spring Of all the reasons to love your life, I think this may be the subtlest, but oh, so powerful. There is this renewal, revival, rebirthing vibration that starts to manifest every spring, recreating life in a never ending upwards going spiral. And you simply cannot resist to it, it will just sway you away, pushing you into the next part of your life. ## 65. For The Energy Of Every Summer Because that energy leads to all the beautiful things you create or you experiment. It's like the spring has blended into this new context, which is not about rebirth anymore, but about self-assessment, about personal power, about moving things around into a new combination. ## 66. For The Emotions Of Every Fall Because it's in that space that you can prepare to both enjoy what you created and let it go. And in that process, you give yourself permission to experience all the emotional rollercoaster that makes you at the same time happy you made it and sad that you're seeing it go away. ## 67. For The Cold Beauty Of Every Winter Because underneath that white, endless blanket, on top of which nothing seems to survive, there is a new life preparing, a new process of gathering up energies and combining them in a new effort. Just like, sometimes, we need to sit still for a while in our lives, letting go of the past and brewing up the next stage, in silence. ## 68. For All The Beauty Inside Others, Yet To Be Discovered Because you never know when somebody will surprise you out of the blue with a nice word, a helping hand, or just a smile. ## 69 For All The Fantastic Colors That Are Shaping Your World Every Day If you think in physical terms, our sight is covering such a small bandwidth: we can't see in infrared, or X-rays. Just a small interval in the big scale of vibrations. And yet, the harmony sensation we get when we see a Dali painting, or the convoluted world that emerges from a Picasso, or even the color of the summer sea in Spain (/remote-working-in-spain/), are enough to make us thrilled with joy. ## 70. Love Your Life For All The Wonderful Music You've Enjoyed So Far Music is an unexplainable activity, if you really think about it. It may be explained as "harmony poured into feelings, in predictable ways, all spiced up with mathematical sequences", but I doubt this will make it justice. And yet, it's one of the closest activity to spirituality. And I'm using the term in the sense "helping your soul to grow up". We are so blessed to be able to experience music in this life. ## 71. For All The Sentient Beings You Have Met So Far They are, literally, your entire universe. In this initial version of this post, I wrote "for all the people you have met", but things have changed since then. I do consider now that every sentient being has something to share with you and you have something to share with them. And, basically, we're all in the same movie. ## 72. For The Simple Feeling Of The Wind On Your Face Because you may never know, for sure, if you're gong to feel that again. It's not like you were granted a full, non-expiring, eternal license for that feeling. ## 73. For The All The Unexpected Changes Of Your Plans Because they are the same time annoying and exciting, upsetting and inspiring. If you read this blog for some time, you know I'm a productivity (/the-10-golden-rules-of-productivity/) freak. And yet, I do enjoy the ups and downs of an unexpected plan change. I'm not a big fan of them, but I enjoy them. Every once in a while. ## 75. Love Your Life For All The Fights You Avoided It's not easy to avoid a fight. We're wired to react, rather than act (/action-versus-reaction/). But if you can do that, if you can remain present and not give in to anger, you'll soon understand that every single fight avoided is increasing the odds of living a fight-free life from that moment on. Sometime this requires giving "the victory" to others. Sometimes it requires a compromise. But it's well worth whatever you have to give in. ## 76. For All The Crossroads You Encounter Every Day As they are there to offer you the best path you can choose. If you would know the course of your life in advance, if you would know exactly where to put every step, then everything will be incredibly boring. Crossroads aren't simple. They're risky, they're challenging, they're making you think you'll lose something in the process. But, well, at least they aren't boring. At all. ## 77. Love You Life For Every Single Second As this is all you have, only this infinite second. *Image by Myriam Zilles (https://pixabay.com/users/Myriams-Fotos-1627417/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2940655) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2940655) * First published on: March 13, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 77 Business Tips For An Online Entrepreneur URL: https://dragosroua.com/77-business-tips-for-starting-an-online-business.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/77-business-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/ Published: 2009-09-18 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 159 Categories: Blogging, Business, Getting Things Done Tags: entrepreneurship, list post, money I had an online business for 10 years. I made a successful exit a year ago and I still keep an active eye on the market. The following business tips are actually pieces of my own experience, broken down in several areas: projects, strategy, team, money and partnerships. Feel free to add your own in the comments, if you feel like. Oh, and if you're into big lists, you may also enjoy 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/) and 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog (/100-ways-to-improve-your-blog/). ## Projects *This is what you are actually doing, the results of your activities. Most of the time, those will be websites with various degrees of complexity. Creating, managing and improving services is the core of your online business.* ## 1. A Brilliant Idea Is Worth Nothing I can have 100 brilliant ideas per minute. And I'm not joking. I know a guy who can have his brilliant ideas in his sleep. Guess what: he's not an entrepreneur. An idea without action worth nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Focus on your immediate resources to make something plausible working as fast as you can rather than waiting for something allegedly brilliant to grow by itself. It never happened and it will never happen. If you're hesitating, here are a few tips on starting a business for your inspiration. ## 2. You Sell Processes, Not Products In the online business (/start-your-own-business/), what you are selling is not a product, nor even a service. It's a process. You sell an entire experience, regardless of your niche. From a personal blog up to a link directory, what you are offering is not atomically identified as one single product or service but as a unique process. Is this unique combination which creates the value behind the business, not the parts. Look at the whole experience, not only at the most visible pieces of the puzzle. ## 3. If They Copy You, You're Good One of the most accurate proofs that you're doing a great job, is your clone trend. If your site / product gets cloned, you are in for something. If you're not cloned at all, something must be wrong. Many young entrepreneur have this fear of not being copied. In fact, being copied is the only surefire sign that you're good. Of course, you WILL have to deal with all the legal hassles of content theft or copyright infringement, that's for sure, and I'm not advising in any way to ignore that. I'm just telling you this is a sign of success and should be treated like this. ## 4. Don't Look For Traffic, Look For Trends One of the most present obsession among online entrepreneurs is related to traffic. How much traffic I could generate with this project? In my opinion, traffic is overrated. At the speed of the Internet, traffic is becoming really volatile, users are bombed with loads of information each hour, so rough numbers are not a reliable way to judge your product impact. Instead of numbers of visitors, look for trends: how fast is the site growing / slowing down? Think in percentages, not in thousands of users. ## 5. The Network Effect If you want to launch an online business, think twice. It may be worth to launch 5 online businesses at the same time and link them in a network. Maybe your flagship idea will consume most of your focus and resources, but having 2-3 satellite websites / projects orbiting the main product will have a bigger impact. Not to mention the learning advantage: you will incorporate much more knowledge from a network, than from a single product. ## 6. If You Don't Like It, It Usually Won't Work If you don't like your idea, but you "feel" it will generate lots of money, usually it will won't work. It might generate lots of money, if it exploits some market uncovered niche, but without your enthusiasm fuel, it won't be there for long. It will be extinct faster than a passion fueled idea. A good project must give you the thrills, not the only the money as empty numbers. ## 7. Fall In Love With Your Project If you experience familiar sensations, like chills and butterflies in the stomach, whenever you're thinking at your project, that's a sign you're falling in love with it. No, it's not awkward. No, you don't have to block those feelings. Let them express and treat your project like you would treat your beloved half. I'm not joking. ## 8. Measure, Measure, Measure Always use all the available metrics to see where you are with your project. Don't be fooled by your imagination nor let those wishful thinking episodes get in your way. Measure your impact. Watch your money, trends, team, partners and see what's happening. Keep your eyes opened and be ready to cut if things are not looking as you would expect. Better sooner than later. ## 9. Manage The Break Up Sometimes, your projects won't work. Accept it. Even more, manage them carefully. Closing a project is a skill in itself, a skill that you'll have to master. Each closed project may (and it should) give you resources for the next one. Just leaving debris floating around in the web universe will not make you popular, on the contrary. Not to mention the hidden costs of keeping those projects around. ## 10. Build A Community First Your product (or process) will be useless without a backing community. It might be the next best thing since sliced bread, but if you don't have a reasonable pack of people vouching for it by using it and promoting it every day, that product is as good as dead. Building a community first is one of the awkwardness of the online field, when you have to build a positive reaction around your product even before launching it for real. ## 11. Be Curious Don't assume you know everything. Allow yourself to be curious about stuff that looks interesting or intriguing. Creating good online products (or processes) is often the result of an unstoppable curiosity about "why is this like this and not the other way around?". Curiosity may have killed the cat, but that really has nothing to do with your projects. Really. ## 12. Your Projects Are Your Teachers You learn by trial and error. There are no foolproof books on how to build a successful online business. Even this list is the result of my personal experience and believe me, it isn't foolproof at all. It may or it may not work for you. And you will never know until you go out and start doing stuff. Don't search for the perfect recipe of a successful online business because you will never find it. Just do stuff and you'll learn how to do it by yourself. ## 13. Plan, Plan, Plan Carefully write down every step you need for your project. Create milestones. Respect them. Try to predict any potential danger and take it into account. Planning thoroughly your projects will be the best service you can make to yourself and to your team. Sometimes you'll realize the project is simply not worth doing, when you realize how much work really is involved. Sometimes you'll realize you need fewer resources than you initially thought. ## 14. Build Discipline You already have high goals, all you need is some discipline. The bigger yourinternal discipline (/building-self-discipline/), the higher your chances to respond well to market changes. Being disciplined won't make the field less hectic, you'll still be walking on very thin ice, but you'll be able to react faster to external change. Like what you read so far? Then get my latest ebook about The 7 Ages Of An Online Business. See where your business is now and how to avoid the pitfalls of the next age. Loading… (https://gumroad.com/l/the7ages) ## 15. The Excitement Stage Each project has an excitement stage. It's the beginning, the novelty, the thrills of making something happening. It will not be like this for ever. Many entrepreneurs are abandoning projects after this initial stage, and that's a pity. Just use the fuel you get from this enthusiasm but still walk the path when the thrill is gone. ## 16. The Involvement Stage After the excitement come the real action. This is where you actually start to implement the processes in your business. It's a long and sometimes tedious interval. In my experience, the involvement is the most expensive part, in terms of time consumed, skills and money. This is where you build your business, stay there. ## 17. The Measuring Stage This is where you start drawing lines and do the math. This is most of the time the moment you know if the investment was good or bad. It's fundamental and you should not skip this under any circumstances. Be sure any project have a measuring stage, in which you can decide the resource allocation. ## Strategy *You will need to do things in a certain way to maximize your chances to succeed. This "certain way" is what we call strategy, from the general business attitude to specific approaches.* ## 1. Fail Often Good judgment comes form experience but experience comes from bad judgment, Not entirely true, I know, but enough to make you think. Don't be afraid to fail. Kill all your "brilliant" ideas by making them real first. 99.99% of the genial ideas don't survive after you make them real. 99.99% is a big number. Prepare to fail for 99.99% of your time. The 0.01% is really worth. ## 2. Fast Is The New Slow If you really want a piece of the online cake you have to think super fast. If you think fast, you're slow. Technology is evolving at such a rate that you can almost hear it growing. The adoption of the phenomenon is the fastest in the whole humankind history. You're doing business during a revolution. And, usually, during revolutions they get rid of the old / slow stuff pretty fast (think head chopping and you'll have an idea). ## 3. If You Don't Blog, You Don't Exist The old days of anonymous business presence on the Internet are over. You need an identity. Preferably, your own identity. And the easiest way to establish, maintain and promote an identity is having a blog. Blogging has become an internal part of the online business process, much like a domain name: without it, you don't really exist. ## 4. Be Informed Stay on top of the news but filter the information. Being informed is a balanced attitude. Don't rush to become a hype whore, praising every single "next boom" idea, but don't get too skeptical also. Watching the trends in the online business can be a business in itself, though you need a really good filter and a cold judgement in order to take only what's really useful for you or your business niche. ## 5. Social Media Works It might be overrated lately, I agree, but social media really works. As an observer of the online phenomenon in the last ten years I can tell you for sure that this IS a revolution. Much slower than it's perceived or presented, but there is a real shift from consuming information to interacting in larger communities. Social media is a place where you really want to be if you want to do business on the internet. ## 6. Praise Your Success I really don't see any reason whatsoever you shouldn't be proud of what you did. If you're successful (/being-successful/), let the world know. Being shy will not help you here. You're acting on a field so crowded with information that even your own identity is difficult to persist, if you don't actively work at it. Just because your clients know your name that doesn't necessarily mean you're perceived as an expert in your niche. ## 7. Don't Focus On The Competition But don't ignore it either. This business field is so crowded that you're surely having a lot of competition. Focusing on it will most likely drain all your resources. Instead, focus on your resources, on your projects and on your clients. Pure ranking (like I'm #1 and you're #2) doesn't really work in the online, but identity does. Work to establish an identity rather than engaging in competition wars. ## 8. Is This Really Useful? Before starting to actually build your project make sure you're able to respond a big, capital letters, no hesitation, out loud "YES" to that question. If you have the slightest hesitation, start the analyse over. If you will build something that wouldn't make a difference (but it will just look good or shiny) you will lose. Your business must solve a problem. Period. ## 9. What Brain Real Estate Do You Own? I usually describe branding as the real estate property you own in people's brains. The "shoes" land is owned by Nike, the "luxury car" is owned by Ferrari, the "classy watch" is owned by Rolex, and "mobile phone" tends to be owned by Apple, lately. Almost every human concept can be defined as a real estate property in one's brain. And a brand is actually the connection between that brain land and a specific product . Once you succeed in owning a pice of real estate in people's brains, you're set. ## 10. Don't Listen To Them Listen to you. Don't listen to those who are telling you're making a big mistake by quitting your daily job and starting a new business. You know better. They'll praise you in a few years. So go for it. ## 11. Don't Be Afraid Yes it's risky. Yes, nobody can guarantee total success. Yes, you may fail. So what? Being afraid will only amplify those possibilities. Accept that you can fail or succeed and move on. The beauty of the journey will soon make those fear fade like they never existed. ## 12. No Risk It, No Biscuit Learn how to deal with risk and how to embrace it. There is no such business with "zero" risk. If it is, it isn't worth the trouble. The bigger the risk, the bigger the payout of the business. And the online field is one of the riskier business fields you can imagine. ## 13. If It Was Never Done Before, Look Twice Most of the time, an idea nobody had until you is worth the trouble. But if nobody implemented it so far, there must also be a reason. The "first of its kind" ideas are not always a sure win, look twice. This is not meant to inhibit your creativity, but to ground you more and avoid seeking novelty just for the sake of it. ## 14. When It's Cooking, It's Cooking If your idea is starting to take off, don't stop. You may be surprised how high you can go. Don't just stop when your initial goal has been met. More often than you think, this initial success is only the gate to something bigger than you ever imagined. Don't let yourself out of this bigger picture by remaining stuck in an initial, comfy, small success. ## 15. Seek For Advice You don't know everything. Fortunately. Because if you would know everything you'll miss all that thrill of discovering the unknown. Just ask for advice when in trouble, don't assume you know everything. Or do an online search. Chances are that somebody had the same problem before and the answer is out there. ## 16. Do Whatever It Takes if you have to convince 100 people to make your project alive, do it. If you have to walk 1000 miles, do it. Do whatever it takes to make your idea real. Don't think: "but this is too hard". It isn't. It's your idea and you'll be so happy when you're going to see it live. So, do whatever it takes for that. ## 17. Trust Your Intuition There are no schools for that, so it cannot be learned. Intuition is that instant light shed on a subject only for a split of a second, just enough for you to think it was there. Things are different in that light. Whenever you see it, trust it. Intuition can often draw the line between a "correct" entrepreneur and a brilliant one. ## 18. Practice Courage This one can be learned, so do your best to learn it. Courage means doing stuff regardless of the context. Act with all your power towards making things happening. It doesn't mean you're not going to be afraid from time to time, it means you're going to pursue your goal regardless of those fears. ## 19. Maintain Enthusiasm This one can also be learned. If courage is the action, enthusiasm (/maintaining-enthusiasm/) is the fuel for that action. Make sure you always have enough of that fuel. Seal your doors in such a way that depression will never make an entrance. In my opinion, enthusiasm is an asset bigger than any financial support you can get. ## 20. Do It For Yourself Entrepreneurship is a fantastic personal development tool. Regardless of the outcome of your business you will learn tremendously out of this. Do it for yourself, not for the money (although money is pretty good, also). Whatever you do, keep in mind that there aren't really failures or successes, there are only results. ## 21. Be Self Sustainable Before Asking For Money Going around and asking for funding while you're still on negative cash-flow will create more harm than good. At this eraly stage – which is most of the time unavoidable – all the funding you can find is either angel investors, either the 3 "F": family, friends and fools. I gladly recommend the 3 "F" anytime, an angel will put a lot of pressure on your development and strategy. Once you have a constant, positive cash-flow, go out and shout for funding, they'll line up at your door office. ## 22. Balance Your Expectations With The Market Status When establishing strategic (and financial) goals pay attention to the market conditions. Always balance your own ambitions and expectations with real numbers from the market. If you don't do that you'll end up either aiming unrealistically high, either going under your true potential. If you're that good, those realistic expectations will be surpassed by your results anyway. ## 23. Brand Yourself In the online field, more than in any other I know, personal branding is compulsory. And by that I mean absolutely unavoidable. Your online presence will work while you're asleep, while you're on holiday, while you're working hard on a new secret feature. Maintaining a solid, persistent online presence is the key ingredient to a successful personal branding. Don't assume people knows everything about you, constantly reinforce what YOU want them to know about you. ## 24. Watch For Your Break Even But don't consider it a success in itself. That's what a business have to do in the first place: pays the money invested in it. A common strategy mistake is to slow down after the break-even, considering that the simple fact of reaching it will further endorse the business. On the contrary, it's only after the break-even that you'll see how much your project really worths in terms of profit. ## 25. Network, Network, Network Go out and meet new people. Clearly state your expertise and and ask the same from your peers. Let them know why you're doing business and how. Join professional organizations and attend to informal meetings. There is no such thing as an upper limit to your connections in the online field. ## 26. Don't Fall Into The Productivity Trap Sometimes you get so caught in a productivity trap (/the-productivity-trap/) that you lose sight of the long term goals. You work so hard and so organized that you can't see where you're heading anymore. If you reached this level, it's time for you to hire a manager. You're en entrepreneur, you have to see the road and lead your people there. ## 27. Don't Let It Eat You A business is just a business, not your life. Took me years to understand that. Too much of an implication in your own business is not good. At some point, you'll be burned out (/7-symptoms-youre-on-the-verge-of-a-burn-out/). Be sure to build some fences between your private life and your professional life. ## 28. Boredom Is Bankruptcy If you get bored about your business it's time to get out of it. Quick. Out of any imaginable dangers of a business, I cannot think of a one more powerful than boredom. The second you feel you got bored, make whatever you can to leave it. Otherwise you'll end up having the worst job ever: being a bored employee (you) working for a bored boss (you again). ## Team *You can't make it only by yourself. Period. Especially in the online field when the skill distribution is so wide and competences are so different. Creating a solid, articulated team around your projects is usually half way through success.* ## 1. Hire For Attitude, Train For Skills The first thing you should spot on a potential employee is the attitude. Then comes skills. And the reason for that is: attitude is really hard to change, but skills are easy to acquire. Look for a specific attitude, and then do your best to teach them the required skills. ## 2. Surround Yourself By Better Skilled People Than You If you are going to build something from scratch don't do everything by yourself, just because "you know better". You may know where you want to go, but others know how to get you there. Don't assume you know better, because you really don't. Accept that others may have a better answer and find them. ## 3. Anyone Can Fail Once, But Nobody Can Repeat The Same Mistake One of the best rules for human resources I ever had. Everybody is entitled to make a mistake. Even more, as long as they aren't repeating the same mistake. Making mistakes is one of the safest sources of learning. Repeating the same mistake is a sign that the learning didn't occur. ## 4. Ask For Feed-Back Don't expect your employees to know everything that has to be done, especially in the early days of a new business. There's a lot of unknown floating around and they don't always know exactly what you expect from them. Make a habit from asking for feed-back. Ask questions. Pay attention to the answers. They're the people who are building your business, make sure they know how to do it. ## 5. Don't Expect Respect If You Don't Show It Treating your employees like resources is not productive. They may have goals and milestones, but they're human beings, just like you and they have human beings problems, just like you. Don't expect respect if you don't show it first. Of course, they may work without respecting you, that's for sure, especially if they work because they are afraid of you. In my experience, a happy and respected employee is 100% more productive than a scared and humiliated one. ## 6. You Have More Employees Than You Think In the online business, more than in any other type of business, your clients often become your employees. Online businesses are most of the times services and communities centered around those services. From those communities will rise your supporters and fans. Even if you don't pay them directly, they are still supporting your business. They promote your business for free and they deserve a great service from you. And respect. ## 7. Accept That Some Of Your Employees May Have Bigger Salaries Than You Another common mistake of young entrepreneurs is to consider their founder role is enough to get them the biggest salary in the company. Salary has nothing to do with that. It's a reward for skills invested in the company. You should be happy when you find people capable to provide you more skills than you are able to provide. Remember, you own the whole thing, so the more value in it, the better for you in the long run. ## 8. It's a Rental, Not Your Property When you're getting employees, be sure you understand that you're renting their skills and time, you're not owning them. At some point, they will find some other guy who's offering something better than you, and they'll leave. It's natural. Don't even dare to think your employees are your sole property, even if you trained and helped them. All people are equally free. ## 9. Challenge Your Team Change goals often. Insert new metrics. Create evaluation programs. Don't let your employees get bored. Challenge them with new ideas, projects or internal programs. You may offering a great long term package, a great salary and a comfortable working environment, but if you don't properly challenge your employees, they'll simply get bored. Boredom is not good for business. ## 10. Unplug Them From Time To Time Everyone needs a break every once in a while. Make sure you create enough escape valves in your working environment. Also make sure to let them know about that. Especially in the early stages of a business, when the workload is bigger than you know, offering some unexpected free time gifts will have surprisingly productive effects. ## 11. Blend Their Responsibilities This may go against what you know about specialization, but I had good results with it, at least at the experimental level. Make them switch roles (if they have enough skills for that, of course). create special events in which the managers are employees or the software architect will have to take care about the company's hardware. They'll suddenly have a much better understanding of the big picture of the company. ## 12. Give Up Reading CV's – Meet People I give up reading CV's after the first 5-6 years and it was one of the best things I've ever done. Instead, I started to go out, meet new people, attend to professional events. When I was hiring something, usually it was by word of mouth. CV's are good, but they can only tell you something about one people skills, you have to "read" the man alive to understand his attitude. ## Money *From how to monetize your services, up to how to budget your expenses, money is the fundamental resource in any company. Especially in the online field, money is extremely important: the field is so volatile that you will need a lot of money skills to keep it stable.* ## 1. Investors and angels An investor will most likely buy your clients, contracts and market share. You will provide support for a limited time and then you'll be out. In exchange, you'll get money. It may take 1 to 3 years, and the you're out. An angel will most likely buy your brains and work power for several years. In exchange he will provide money and possibly know how. Those 2 categories may have very different denominations, but never mistake their role in your business. Different insertion points, different roles. ## 2. Cash-flow Is King Keep a good eye on your money, because in the online field, more than any other business area, budgets are volatile. They can disappear in a second. There is a tremendous pressure on your money from any possible direction you can imagine. Watching carefully your cashflow and doing whatever it takes to remain on top of it is the cornerstone of a successful online business. ## 3. Money Is Hot Don't let your money pile, move it around, buy more resources, start new projects but don't let it sit. The temptations of accumulating money for "the bad days" is so high especially because the field is so unstable. But money is hot and if you stay too much in direct contact, it will burn you. ## 4. Services Are The New Ads If you want to monetize your project go for services, not ads. Ads are deprecated. While they will still bring some cash in for a long time, they performance versus cost metric is rapidly decreasing. Ads takes too much space, their content is out of your control and the generated revenue is lower and lower. ## 5. Delegate Your Money Technicalities To A Professional Hire a good accountant and make sure you understand what he tells you. Your role is to grow a business not to fill in tax papers or invoices. Because money is one of the most precious resources in a business, many entrepreneurs are trying to manage them directly. This is a scarcity mindset, rooted in something like: "if I'm not taking care directly of this money thing, it will go bad". No, it won't. Find somebody you trust and constantly ask him where your money is. ## 6. Shoot For Long Term Deals Sacrifice some of the immediate profits for some long term relationships with your clients. Especially in the early stages of a business, finding and maintaining a pool of stable clients is crucial. Having a constant, predictable cash-flow is a fantastic relief when you have to build a whole new project from scratch. ## 7. Don't Be Cheap Doing online business is not cheap. At all. It might be easier to do some of the things you do in the real life on the internet, but it won't be cheaper than in real life. Buy the best servers you can afford, the best laptops for your employees, the best software tools you can find. The speed of this medium is absolutely incredible, and if you won't buy the best you can afford today, tomorrow you'll be pretty much 10 years back. ## 8. The Two And A Half Rule This was one of the most precious budgeting rules I ever learned while I was doing online business. Here's how it works. First of all, be generous when you budget your project. Put slightly more money than you need in every area (development, hardware, etc). Once you reached a satisfying total, multiply it by two. And then add another half. So, the final budget will be two and a half bigger than the initial evaluation. This is a statistic based result. It just works. ## 9. Be Prepared To Lose Some projects will work, some not. You will lose money at some point. Be prepared, it's part of the game. If it's not working, it's not working. Don't get stuck in patterns like: "I have to recover my loss", or "let's find who's responsible about that, I want my money back". You're responsible. And money is just a resource. Don't get stuck, because, as I already said it, the speed of the medium will simply let you behind if you don't move. ## 10. Learn To Write, Understand And Sign Contracts They're good. Trust is even better the contracts, I agree, but before you reach the trust level, make sure you have your butt covered. Learning to understand contracts is also useful in order to know what are you really offering and what are you really getting. Even if you have a crystal clear understanding with your client in talking, put it on the paper. It's safer for both parts. ## 11. Authority Is The New Currency By that, I understand that you won't always be able to monetize some of your projects, despite their obvious success. In this case, what you are getting back in exchange of the broadcasted value is called authority. It's much more precious than money, because it's much more solvable than money. You can only buy with money what money can buy, but with authority you can do so much more than buying things. ## 12. Money Is A Resource, Not A Goal Too often money is seen as a goal. Everybody asks you: "how much money do you make?". In my experience, when seeing money as a goal, you have a hard time working with it. When you look at it like a resource for building more value, it become much more manageable. It's a resource, like any other one: time, people, tools. ## Partnerships *This is about your partnerships both as an investor and at the company level. Partners are great motivators and more than often great businesses are started and made popular by a successful partnership.* ## 1. Assess The Big Picture Partnerships are based on trust. No trust, no partnership. Quite difficult to assess, because what you may perceive as lack of honesty or deception is most of the time the result of incidental misunderstandings. Real trust must overcome these. A real partnership works not without misunderstandings, but despite of them. ## 2. What You Get Is What You Give Don't expect partnerships to become rescue vessels for you. In a partnership there must be an equal amount of value provided by each part. Don't hunt for partnerships as a substitute for your own work, or as safety nets when you feel you will fall. It doesn't work like this. Be sure to provide at least the same amount of value you receive from the other part. ## 3. Look For Alternate Skills When building a partnership, look for something you don't really have. People often forget this simple rule and start searching for "like-minded" people. They are good to mastermind, to brainstorm, but a partnership must cover a part of your business or process you don't handle directly. If you go for similar skills, you'll basically create internal competition, not a partnership. ## 4. Keep It Alive A partnership is like any other relationship. It needs a sparkle from time to time in order to keep it alive. Partnerships are made by humans and maintained by humans. Be sure to check in every once in a while and see if everything is ok. You'll be surprised how many partnerships ended because of a simple, yet so often neglected cause like… boredom. ## 5. The Similar Size Principle If you are small and partner with the big guys, prepare for war. If you are big, and small guys want to partner with you, you'll want to eat them alive, at some point. This is how things work and size does matter. More often you'll be wearing the small guy clothes, trying to make your way up to the giants. In my experience, this is extremely time consuming and the final gain is not that big. Find partners of your own size. ## 6. "No" Is Still A Word In The Dictionary Learn how to say "no" to your partners. Don't expect them to be always in line with what you think. Make your point clearly but keep in mind you'll still need them. Saying "no", generally speaking, is an art in itself, and one must master this art before entering any serious partnerships. Disagreement is normal, and out of disagreement brilliant solutions can rise. Don't fool yourself with an idyllic idea of a perfect partner, they have yet to invent this species. ## 7. Who's Carrying Who? At some point, any partnership will become obsolete. Be very careful who's carrying who. If a partnership is slowly becoming a burden instead of a competitive advantage just go away. Do it in a transparent yet pretty firm way. If you agree to carry unnecessary weight, you'll end up moving slower. The same goes for you, if you're the one who's lagging behind. Extra weight in partnership gets quickly thrown overboard. ## 8. Each Partnership Has A Goal If you start a new partnership (/the-making-of-an-online-business-partnerships/) just because it's cool or you feel the need to have some company, better don't. Each partnership must have a clear goal in order to succeed. It's very easy for any of the parts to hijack the resources of the partnerships later on, if the direction is unclear. First published on: September 18, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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(/do-you-have-good-taste/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Tango Crush URL: https://dragosroua.com/tango-crush.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/tango-crush/ Published: 2013-10-16 Modified: 2026-05-03 Views: 159 Categories: Relationships and Society Tags: forgiveness, love, relationships, tango **2026 update**: *I revisit the things tango taught me (/what-tango-actually-taught-me-about-relationships-a-decade-later/) (a decade later) in a 30 days challenge that covers the most viral posts on this blog.* When I started to learn tango, almost two years ago, I had no idea it will have such a big impact on my life. Needless to say, I had no idea that I will end up teaching tango (/decoys/) too, but that’s another story. One of the most sensitive areas touched by tango was the one dealing with relationships. Especially close, one to one, male to female relationships. As you see, I’m not using the word “romantic” here, but mostly “close” and “one to one”. There’s a reason for that. The entanglements that tango can create (the words themselves are pretty close to one another: “tango” – “entanglement”) are very delicate, fragile, but able to release huge amounts of emotional energy out in the open. And, what’s even more important, these entanglements are very hard to identify, or to define, in the beginning, when you just start to be exposed to tango. If you’re not paying attention, you may get seriously burned. And I mean it. ## Basic Exposure In A Controlled Environment In the beginning, tango was more like a physical challenge. I had to work out my body – in the sense of practicing a certain way of using it – and that was purely at the physical level. I also had to synchronize my movements with the music and start finding ways to link together various steps or figures I learned. It didn’t challenge me much on other levels. It was kinda boring, to be honest. I learned how to walk, how to lead certain steps – from simple to more and more complex – and how to position myself during the dance. I did this mostly during classes, with a few tango partners with whom I shared my time there. It was a supervised environment. We were bound to a certain type of activity and the relationship between the tango partners was goal related, not pleasure related (or, at least, I wasn’t there for the pleasure). So, all I had to do was to learn a certain way to move my body, rather than enjoying it. ## Introducing The Pleasure Things changed drastically the moment I started to attend to *milongas* – which are tango parties, in case you didn’t know that. I will go over the initial stages, when I was so emotional that basically I couldn’t invite anybody to dance. It wasn’t only shyness – although I am kind of shy (you wouldn’t say, I know). It was also something related to the atmosphere you experience during a tango party. Maybe I will write another article on this one, because this part is pretty interesting too. Anyway, fast forward 3-4 months after I started to go to the *milongas*: now I’m able to confidently invite a woman, connect with her, finish a tanda decently and share an enjoyable experience. Well, that’s a very important moment. That’s basically the moment when I experienced my first tango crush. ## What’s A Tango Crush? It’s a romance started after you danced tango with someone. Or, to be more precise, it’s a romance started ***because*** you danced tango with someone. There is something in the closeness, in the aligned movement, in the music, in sensing the breathing of the other person, in the magic that unfolds between you two as you advance, tanda after tanda on the dance floor, that suddenly opens your heart. Because the connection is most of the time at the heart level, literally: in tango you lead with your chest, not with your hands. There is a certain feeling that blossoms between the two of you and that grows bigger and deeper as you continue to tango. The more you dance, the more you feel it. And the more you’re trying to explain it, the more elusive it becomes. There is a certain predictability that makes you understand what the other person will do next second, and that is precisely because you’re leading, you’re creating the dance, step by step. It’s the small, impossible to measure satisfaction of sensing how your partner is following your lead. Her softness. Her warmth. Her gentle touch. And then there is the natural conversation that starts, sometimes without words. There is an impossible familiarity, so physical you could almost touch it, even it shouldn’t be there at all, because you just met, half an hour ago. And yet, you feel like you’re knowing each other for years. And then there’s the anticipation. Since you already had such a beautiful connection, you really look forward to it at the next milonga. You start to build even a certain anxiety, a small, trembling fear that you won’t be able to experience the same again. But then you invite her, you open your arms and then softly close them around her, in the unmistakable tango embrace, and start sliding, floating, spinning like a single body. Yes, it’s still there, and you breathe deeply, just a micro-second before you feel her deep breathing too, and then you realize she was thinking – or it was only feeling, no thinking involved? – just the same? That’s how a tango crush starts. ## Who Are You, Actually? It’s easier to understand how eager you are, after a few *milongas* (sometimes even sooner) to take this ecosystem of feelings, touchings and interactions to the next level. So, you start to physically engage. You consume the relationship the way both of you expect: in your bedrooms. And, since you had such a beautiful dancing connection, chances are that your bedroom connection will be just as good, if not better. In my experience, it was always at the same level, if not better than the dance. It’s been less than a few weeks since you two met, and yet, you’re sharing your life at the most intimate levels. Or so you think. Because, what’s really happening is that you’re just consuming your eroticism with each other projections. But you don’t know that yet. You’re so caught up in your own self-made visions about each other that you can’t see anything past tango and bedroom. But, as satisfying and nurturing as it may be, this level of interaction it will soon dry out. It will become obvious that this is not enough. Unless this bonding is just a supplement for a handicapped relationship – in which you’re just trying to get here what you can’t get from the main relationship – at some point you’ll want more. You’ll want to explore the world together. So, you meet outside the tango environment. You go out for a coffee. Or you go out to see a movie. Or to a concert. You know, you start to hang out together. It’s been what, 2 months since you met? And this is the beginning of the end. There is this specific moment when you find yourself puzzled, in a coffee shop, or during a walk together in the park, unable to talk, looking at the person in front of you and asking yourself (sometimes terrified): “Who are you, actually?”. And, most of the time, she is asking the same question, in her suddenly awake mind. ## The Breakup And this is how the breakup occurs. It may happen amicably, over a cup of coffee: you meet as partners and part ways as smiling strangers. It may happen without a word, after a *milonga* in which you realize you don’t really know the person you’ve been sharing your life with, and you just decide not to talk to her anymore (and, surprisingly enough, she doesn’t seem to bother). Or it may happen with a bit of a firework, if one, or both of you, are attached to the image you created in your mind. That’s when it may get ugly. ## What Do You Want? The main danger of the tango crush is that you reached such a depth of shared feelings, such a wealth of emotions and sensations, such an intense pleasure, that you may think you’re entitled to get this for ever. Like the other one should be there to give it to you for ever, and you will do the same for her. Like this is a real relationship. Alas, it was never about the two of you. It was never about a real relationship. As strange as it may seem. It was about the tango. It was about the way tango can reach to your center of love, open the gates and let that energy flood you. The other person is just a pretext. It’s not the real object of your love. It takes a while to internalize this. I know it was difficult for me, but in the end I had to accept it. And I was happy to do it, all consequences taken into account. One of the most important consequences being to realize and accept that, if I continue to dance tango, it may happen again. I may be hit by a tango crush again. Or not. The tango crush is probably the most elusive illusion I encountered so far in this world. It’s so close to a real relationship, yet so different. During the dance, during tango, you’re entitled to feel anything. That's why you dance, after all, for the pleasure of the connection and the beauty of improvisation. That’s why tango is a beautiful dance. But the actual process of translating this outside the tango, well, that’s as difficult as any relationship you’re trying to build. Just because you’re dancing amazingly together, it doesn’t mean you’ll able to function together as couple. Not even as friends. It takes much more than that. On the other side, if you’re really aware that what you’re experiencing is just a tango crush, and that’s all you want, just go for it. No expectations. Go with a flow. Enjoy the pleasure, enjoy the dance, feel the experience and let yourself immerse totally in it. Just be prepared to hit the wall of reality at some point and deal with it, one way or another. The real question is, in fact, what do you want? Do you want a real person? Then work for it. Do you want just to have fun? Then enjoy it. Because, even though I can identify a “tango crush” instantly these days, that doesn’t automatically mean it can’t actually grow into a real relationship. If both parts want that, of course, if both parts are mature enough, and so on and so forth… As a matter of fact, you never know. 🙂 First published on: October 16, 2013 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Personal Development Lessons – Kung Fu Panda Style URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style/ Published: 2010-02-23 Modified: 2026-05-17 Views: 144 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Success and Wellness Tags: growth, learning, list post **2026 Update:** *I revisit this post here (/7-kung-fu-panda-lessons-16-years-later-po-actually-became-a-master/), as part of a 30 day blog challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* Personal development can be really fun, if you want to. I mean, it's ok to write ambitious goals, to develop self-discipline (/building-self-discipline) and to embark on 30 days challenges. But all this can become really boring at some point. Being better doesn't have to be all serious, grave and solemn. Life is also made of fun, relaxation and leisure. So, why don't we try to mix some personal development with a little bit of cheerfulness? Or, to borrow the words of a very close friend of mine: we can never have too much awesomeness in our lives. Yes, you got it right, this friend is no other than Kung Fu Panda (I know his name is in fact Po, but I will remember him for as long as I live as Kung Fu Panda). Ladies and gents, fasten your seatbelt because we're going to learn 7 personal development lessons from the master of all masters: Kung Fu Panda: ## 1. If You Can Dream About It, You'll Eventually Get It **The lesson:** *no matter how unreal, huge or totally out of this Universe your dreams are, if you really trust them they'll become reality at some point. Dreams do come true.* **The plot:** *The very beginning of the movie pictures a mighty hero, saving the world from villains with outstanding kung-fu skills. There is no match for his art (/the-fine-art-of-making-mistakes/), and no worthy opponent. The shady world is breaking into a million pieces, under his skillful and magical hits. Alas, the morning reveals that the mighty hero is just a huge Panda bear dreaming to become a Kung-Fu master. The rest of the story is in fact his journey towards fulfilling this great dream.* How many times you had the courage to dream something really big? A house in Toscana, maybe? An apartment in the middle of New York? Cruising the world with your own yacht? Dating the most beautiful woman in the world? Come on, bring it on! Name your biggest dream! Don't be shy, you can never have a dream too big. Just look at that Panda and how his dream is totally out of sync with his current reality. And yet, by the end of the story, he fulfills it with magnificence. Not only he become a perfect warrior, but he also saves his village from Tai Lung, the darkest of the darkest kungu-fu warriors of all times. A lot of stuff happens between the dream and its fulfillment, that's true, but that's not the point here. The point is that your reality will always match your dreams. So you'd better dream something amazing. ## 2. Role Models Are Just Milestones **The lesson:** *role models are just milestones in our lives, their real purpose is to set us up for something bigger than we think and deliver. After that, a role model should disappear.* **The plot**: *Kung-Fu Panda is a big admirer of the Furious Five, a pack of legendary warriors. Once he's accepted under the training of Shi-Fu, and he's allowed to practice with them, all he wants is to be accepted in their circle. Of course, the only thing he receive is rejection: they are way above him. But as time flies and Kung Fu Panda learn to look into his own soul and accept his own greatness, he totally overcome all his former heroes.* I'm sure you have a role model. Somebody who is inspiring and motivating. Somebody you look up to and thrive to become like him/her. That's ok as long as you stop at the inspiration and motivation (/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated/) level. Going over this will be against the normal rules of evolution. You can't become somebody else because you're… you. Imitating somebody else to the bones will never make you better, on the contrary, will weaken your strength and ruin your authenticity. A role model is just a catalyst, nothing more. Once you discover your own inner power, you will be amazed by how much you can do. And, most of all, you'll be amazed by how small your ex-model will look from your new position. One of the biggest, yet subtlest, personal development roadblock is the "role model fixation", a situation in which all you do is try to fit in the shoes of your guru. As sad as it may feel, at some point you'll have to "kill" this image of success in order to make room for your own. ## 3. Your Biggest Fault Can Be Your Biggest Asset **The lesson:** *we're too often trapped into "the proper way of doing things" forgetting that our uniqueness is the most precious gift we're carrying. What we think it's our biggest liability, is in fact our bigger asset.* **The plot:*** despite the fact that he's supposed to become the Dragon Warrior, the training of Kung-Fu Panda leads nowhere. Po is totally dumb and clumsy, not being able to perform not even the simplest exercise, to master Shi-Fu and Furious Five's exasperation. But when master Shi-Fu discovers that Po is highly motivated by food (whenever he feels down, he usually fill himself with dumplings just to alleviate the pain) everything changes. By using a mental connection between food and exercises, Po is finally becoming a martial art master* What's your biggest fear? What's the thing that you want to avoid the most? What are you terrified by? Whatever this is, there lies the key to your transformation. Although Po was emotionally blocked by his looks (an obese bear obsessed with food) the moment he realizes that this liability is in fact the thing that motivates him the most, his life changes for good (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). And for the best. Each and every one of your liabilities are in fact disguised opportunities. Facing them upward and accepting as part of your core being will eventually convert them to assets. It takes a lot of power and maybe some painful confrontation to get to accept them, but the reward will be unmeasurable. Whenever you feel down, defeated or just unfit, remember that the Dragon Warrior was just an obese, bulimic panda before he realized his true greatness. ## 4. Sometimes Things Just Go Wrong **The lesson:** *accept it and deal with it. Life is not always fair. In fact, life is never fair, we just happen to have the same opinion every now and then, that's all. We can't control anything, all we do is to adjust and adapt.* **The plot:** *Tai Lung, the negative character with super kung-fu knowledge and mastery, escapes the high security prison using only a small feather.Despite the guardians, the gates, the chains, against all odds, he really manages to get out and to start pursuing his revenge. Apparently, the role of Po, our Panda, was to stop Tai Lung when he become the Dragon Warrior. Which, eventually, happens, but not without some very upsetting ups and downs. Especially downs.* We're not living in a fairy tale.We're living in a highly unpredictable environment, filled with unexpected challenges and sudden turnarounds. The real point is not to avoid them but to manage them. Because, in fact, we can't avoid them. Not only because we have limited control, but because it's in our nature to be exposed to challenges and pressure in order to grow an evolve. Living a life of total security is a paradox. The mere act ofbeing born (/the-subtle-benefits-of-being-born-in-the-wrong-place/) is a very dangerous one: separating two living creatures and pushing the youngest into a hostile environment is a highly traumatic event. And yet, we forget that and expect things to "go right". Just because every now and then things are going right, we can't expect this to happen on a regular basis. Sometimes, life only needs a small feather to turn the whole universe against us.** ## 5. Have Hope, You'll Eventually Get In **The lesson:** *even if you're in the worst possible circumstances, something unexpected may happen, which will literally make you jump over the obstacles. No matter how difficult life seems now, it can always turn the other way around in one second.* **The plot**: *the show of the Furious Five, in which master Oogway (the turtle) wants to select the Dragon Warrior, is held on a very high mountain. Our Kung Fu Panda had a little bit of trouble getting in. He got there the last one and despite his desperate efforts, he just couldn't get in. Until some unexpected coincidence actually make him fly over the walls and fall from the sky just in the middle of his future destiny.* This lesson is a mirror of the last one: life can go unexpectedly well the same way it can go unexpectedly wrong. The circumstances can change in a second. Whenever you think you hit the bottom, something incredible may happe and you're suddenly projected right in the middle of your dream life. Provided you don't quit (/how-to-quit-being-a-quitter/), of course. From a personal development perspective the lesson can be read as: be prepared, even if your current environment won't give you much. Now. But you never know what the next second will bring into your life. Embrace possibilities. Summon the potential of the next second. Just be prepared for something magic to happen.** ## 6. The Magic Power Lies Within **The lesson:** *your power is in yourself, not in outside circumstances. Don't you ever give your power away to circumstances like luck, magic gizmos or other people. Everything you need to know and have is already inside you.* **The plot:** *all Kung-Fu fighters, Tai Lung included, are searching for some powerful Dragon Scroll, which will allegedly give infinite power to its owner. In the end, Po finds it but, surprise, the Dragon Scroll is empty, there's nothing in it. At the same time, Kung Fu Panda learns from his father that the secret of his famous family soup was… nothing. In fact, he realize, the Scroll it's not empty, it's a mirror of yourself. All the power lies within.* Too often we give our power away to circumstances: we imagine that we will be more powerful if we would have access to some external tools. We think we'd be happier with more money (/tag/money/). We think we could solve all our problems with some magic touch or a lucky strike. And, while waiting for these external circumstances to manifest, we ignore the only real source of power: ourselves. The pursuit of the perfect tool for drastically improve your lfie will always end with the same result: at the end of the race, there's only you. The Magic Scroll is empty. And it always was. Because all the real power is within you, not outside. You are the master of your own circumstances. You don't really need something to prove your power. All you need is to trust that you have power, and you"ll manifest.** ## 7. You Can't Have Enough Awesomeness – Kung Fu Panda Manifesto **The lesson:** *there isn't any, really. That's just a fact 😉* **The plot:** *In Kung Fu Panda's dream, there is this line which already became folklore: "You can't have enough awesomeness".* And you know what? What he dreamed about was right: you can't really have enough awesomeness in your life. Dream your biggest dream and have faith it will come true. If Kung Fu Panda did it, you'll do it too. Isn't this awesome? 😉 First published on: February 23, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style%2F&text=7%20Personal%20Development%20Lessons%20%E2%80%93%20Kung%20Fu%20Panda%20Style&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style%2F&t=7%20Personal%20Development%20Lessons%20%E2%80%93%20Kung%20Fu%20Panda%20Style https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style%2F&title=7%20Personal%20Development%20Lessons%20%E2%80%93%20Kung%20Fu%20Panda%20Style Previous ### 27 Ways You Can Develop Bounce Back Muscles In Difficult Times (/27-ways-you-can-develop-bounce-back-muscles-in-difficult-times/) Next ### About Limitation – My First Podcast (/about-limitation-my-first-podcast/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # A Day at the Jjim Jil Bang (찜질방) in Saigon, Vietnam URL: https://dragosroua.com/a-day-at-the-jjim-jil-bang-in-saigon-vietnam.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/a-day-at-the-jjim-jil-bang-in-saigon-vietnam/ Published: 2025-12-15 Modified: 2025-12-17 Views: 143 Categories: Health and Fitness, Location Independence, Travel and Fun Tags: asia, digital nomad, long term travel, south korea, vietnam One of the nicest perks of being location independent (/my-location-independence-journey-from-europe-to-asia-podcast-interview/), is that I get to function across a lot of different cultures and, in general, my life experience is significantly more diverse. Today I'm going to share one of these unusual, but nice experiences, with the mention that this is actually part of my current lifestyle. A Jjim Jil Bang is a traditional Korean bathhouse. It's one of the most popular places in the Korean social culture. If you ever watched K-drama (/movie-review-the-squid-game/), chances are that you've already seen the interior of a Jjim Jil Bang, because in any K-drama at least one scene is filmed there. Inside Korea (/7-random-facts-about-south-korea/), they are spread all over the places, with various sizes and services included. Abroad, they are positioned slightly different, as "affordable luxury experiences". For instance, the biggest one in Saigon, Vietnam (/7-random-facts-about-vietnam/), called Golden Lotus, is occupying an entire building, with many amenities and activities, but its price is incredibly affordable (a simple breakdown of what you pay is at the end). ## What You Can Do at the Jjim Jil Bang First of all, there is a big communal area, from where all the other amenities unfold. That's the main differentiator of the Korean bathhouse, its social layer: you share a big room with all the other guests, and sometimes you can even make new connections, or at least spark interesting conversations (but don't try to push it, the main reason people are there is to relax and unwind). ### Hot Rooms There are 3-4 hot rooms (depending on how you define "hot"). **Volcanic Rock pebbles** – this one maintains a temperature between 62-65 degrees Celsius, and the floor is made of volcanic ash, compacted into small pebbles. In the beginning, it's a bit difficult to adjust your balance, walking on these moving tiny pebbles, which are quite hot, but after a few tries, you will get your balance. **Himalayan Salt **– this one has the floor and walls made of Himalayan salt bricks. It also maintains the same temperature between 62-65 degrees Celsius. **Herbal Bags** – this one has a slightly "lower" temperature, 60-62 degrees Celsius, and the main feature is the herbal bags hung on the walls, which are releasing nice fragrances (also very healthy, I presume). **Moderate Himalayan Salt** – there is an extra Himalayan salt room, in which the temperature is not that high, I think somewhere between 45-50 degrees Celsius, so you can use that as an adjustment layer before going into the really hot ones. All hot rooms are usually very dimly lit, almost completely dark, except the Himalayan salt rooms, which are on a medium orange frequency. ### Cold / Normal Rooms **Cold Igloo** – this one is my second favorite room, offering an incredible minus 2 degrees, and walls with actual ice on them. It is used as a contrast to the hot rooms. ![Light Njoy app icon](/images/light-njoy-icon-48.webp) For evenings that need a softer room, I built Light Njoy (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/light-njoy/id6759700009)—turn your screen into an ambient lamp with breathing cues. **Oxygen Room** – this is my favorite room. It's just a normal room with mattresses and pillows but the aircon is pushing in a significant amount of oxygen. In Saigon's quite polluted atmosphere, this is like a small corner of paradise. **Man / Woman sleeping rooms** – these are just normal rooms, but they're very dimly lit and you're required to keep quiet. It's, as the name implies, a space for sleeping and deep rest. **Red Caves** – these are very small tunnel-like enclosures, with an infra-red light. It's the preferred spot to rest in between hot and cold rooms. ### Extra Activities – Games, Movies, Work and Fun Like I said, this specific Jjim Jil Bang is occupying 4 stories on a very spacious building in Thao Dien. The spa is only one level. The rest is filled with restaurant, 2 small cinema rooms, massage rooms, a study cafe (where you can do some deep work), and a generous fun and games area (taking up one of the 3 stories). ## What You Should Bring You don't need towels, you will get them when you get your entrance bracelet. The same bracelet will be used throughout the spa when you pay extra (for the drinks or games, for example). You can get your phone if you want to, but talking loud is discouraged and in general, the etiquette is that you should be mindful and quiet. ## Why You Should Do This One of the main reasons we're going there at least 2-3 times a month is obviously recharging and unwinding. But there are obvious health benefits to this too, the hot and cold switching, the Himalayan salt and the oxygen room are a big health plus. Now, about the price. When you pay, you pay the main entry, not by the hour. Which means you can spend, in theory, at least 10 hours there. In practice, we're not very far away from this number, usually spending a full day, or about 8 hours there. The entry price for a couple is around 600,000 VND. Add to this two rounds of soft drinks (iced tea, usually) and you get to around 900,000 VND, or 30 EUR/day, for a couple, with a small baby. But it's usually less than that, because they are running promotions all the time. For instance, the happy hour is giving you 50% discount, and it runs between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM (at the time of writing). We get there before 11 anyway, so most of the time we pay a lot less than 30 EUR. You do the math. If you want to enjoy this specific Jjim Jil Bang in Saigon, the easiest way is to follow their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JjimJilBangQ3/directory_contact_info). First published on: December 15, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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(/can-you-stay-relevant-after-50-in-the-age-of-ai/) Next ### POV: You Accidentally Injected Agent Smith Into The Matrix (/pov-you-accidentally-injected-agent-smith-into-the-matrix/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # AI Won’t Take Your Job — Because It Already Took It URL: https://dragosroua.com/ai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/ai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it/ Published: 2025-08-10 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 137 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Financial Resilience Tags: ai tools, change *When the Titanic was sinking, the band kept playing, in an eerie mix of oblivion and resignation.* Our world is that Titanic now, and we are its musicians. We keep going, day after day, ignoring the rapid and inevitable sinking of a human era. If this sounds too gloomy, that’s on you. It’s not gloomy — it’s real. Our world has hit the AI iceberg, and whether we like it or not, whether we think the future is dark or bright, we’re sinking. It’s neither good nor bad. It simply is. ## **Your Job Is Already Lost — You Just Don’t Realize I**t The way we do things has already changed. From coding to content production, everything now has some AI woven into its fabric. Tiny bits and pieces are already offloaded to “something else” — something cheaper and better. In some verticals, like software production, it’s no longer just bits and pieces, but entire chunks of operations orchestrated by a single person. Teams of ten have become the job of one. One-year predictions are foggier than ever; no one really knows how things will be. We can only look back at the last year and stare at it in disbelief. ## **What’s Really Lost** When I said your job is already lost, I didn’t mean your company is firing you and someone else will take your place — yes, you may think this is how things are happening, but it’s far more than that. Behind the thin veil of our familiar understanding of reality, there’s a more profound shift: a world in which a job is something that unequivocally defines us is disappearing. The entire concept of “job” is becoming obsolete. ![Hacking Habits app icon](/images/hacking-habits-icon-48.webp) Building financial habits that stick needs more than willpower. I coded Hacking Habits (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hacking-habits/id6760470848)—a Life Hours Calculator and a 15-Day Habit Installer. It’s hard to wrap our heads around this, because this is how we grew up — it’s how we made sense of the world. But really, who said we need jobs the way they are now? Who made the rules that for eight hours a day, from 9 to 5, we must lend our bodies, our thought processes, and our skills to someone else in exchange for sustenance? Why does it have to be this way? What if there’s a better way? The prospect of not having a job suddenly feels less frightening now, doesn’t it? ## **You Cannot See Something You Haven’t Seen Before** Our ability to understand the future is fundamentally based on our past experiences. If we encounter something we’ve never seen before, it simply doesn’t exist for us. We have no reference points, no framework — so it slips through our minds. We cannot see what will replace the “job”; we’re not equipped for it. But history has taught us, time and again, that every disruption — whether biological (from Neanderthal to Sapiens) or social (from hunter-gatherers to agriculture) — has ultimately enabled something better. We just weren’t prepared for that kind of “better,” clinging instead to our old, familiar ways. AI won’t take your job — because it already took it. And in the process, it made room for something far better than a job. First published on: August 10, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it%2F&text=AI%20Won%E2%80%99t%20Take%20Your%20Job%20%E2%80%94%20Because%20It%20Already%20Took%20It&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it%2F&t=AI%20Won%E2%80%99t%20Take%20Your%20Job%20%E2%80%94%20Because%20It%20Already%20Took%20It https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it%2F&title=AI%20Won%E2%80%99t%20Take%20Your%20Job%20%E2%80%94%20Because%20It%20Already%20Took%20It Previous ### Why I Chose to Open-Source MetaCellKit from addTaskManager (/why-i-chose-to-open-source-metacellkit-from-addtaskmanager/) Next ### Bio Content (/bio-content/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Ways To Avoid Pessimism URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-ways-to-avoid-pessimism.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-ways-to-avoid-pessimism/ Published: 2010-08-02 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 136 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration Tags: how to, list post, resilience Gotcha! You're a pessimist! Otherwise, why would you read such an article? 😉 I bet you're the type who sees the empty half of the glass, who thinks the world will crash and burn because we're inherently doomed, and you're never able to fully understand a laughter in the middle of a storm. Yeah, you're a pessimist! I have two news for you: a good one and a bad one. I'll start with the bad one: everything you think in your head becomes reality (/training-your-focus/). No, I'm not kidding. If you think everything will go wrong, well, at some point, things WILL go wrong. If you think your glass is half empty, then you will generate more emptiness. If you think relationship are hard, you will have a hard time having a relationship. Got it? And when you're doing this stuff on auto-pilot, when you make a habit out of pessimism, well, your whole life will start to break down in pieces with every thought you think. Toldya this is bad news. But there's also a good news about this thing. And, as surprising as it may sound, the good news is that… nothing is permanent. Nothing is written in stone. Maybe you are a pessimist (and all pessimists are usually backing up their choice with very strong arguments) but you don't have to STAY a pessimist. You can change. You can emigrate from the Pessimism country and you can do it totally legal. That's a metaphoric way to say that you can simply avoid pessimism, by the way. Here are only 7 hints on how you can do this: ### 1. Go For What Scares You The Most You're afraid of being left? Leave! Afraid of being broke? Go broke. Afraid of being alone? Isolate yourself. This is the most easy, effective and powerful way to realize your fears are just mental constructs. Confront them. Whatever scares you the most, do it. Face the worst case scenario. This will have at least two implications: First, you'll realize that the worst case scenario is not as bad as you thought it may be. And second, you're going to realize that you are a very powerful person. You did it. You went through the hell and back and you're still alive, ready to tell your story (/the-book-of-life/). Courage is born in fear. Without fear, there will be no courage. If you don't accept that your fears are just button pushers for your courage, you will never ever develop real life boldness. Avoiding your fears, endlessly thinking without taking action, that will keep you a pessimist forever. ### 2. Talk To Your Future Self Maybe now life is pretty far from pink for you. Maybe it's totally gray or even black. Especially during these black or gray times I like to talk to my future self. I imagine myself in 5 years from now and try to have a conversation with this guy. "Hi, Dragos, how's life (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/) lately? Still have those problems from 5 years ago?" In my conversations, usually the answer is: "Hey, dude, I forgot about that long time ago. I don't even remember I used to have these problems". My future self is always smiling and much more relaxed than me. In my imaginary conversations, he's also much smarter than I usually am, but don't tell. As funny as it may seem, this technique is very effective. Just try to remember what were your usual problems 5 years ago and try to have a conversation with your past self. 5 years ago I didn't even imagined how would it be to have a blog (/100-ways-to-improve-your-blog/), or a beautiful daughter. To name just 2 of the things that are making me happy today. ### 3. Indiscriminately Help Someone When things are advancing really slow, I try to start my days doing a small act of kindness. Helping somebody I know (or I don't know) out of the blue. It goes from a little piece of advice to actually doing a small service. First benefit: it instantly shifts my focus from my own problems. The second, and the most important, benefit is that my current mindset is replaced. You know, when everything goes wrong, I cannot stop thinking that there won't be enough… something. Enough money (/making-money-with-a-purpose/), enough health, enough love. Well, helping somebody out of the blue simply blasts this mindset away. The mere act of providing some unexpected support to somebody actually invalidates my mind model: look, there is enough for everybody, you just provided some unexpected … something to a total stranger. Why this won't happen to you too? And it usually happens. Not instantly, but it happens. ### 4. Paint A New Context Like in real drawing. It doesn't matter if you have talent, just sketch your new context. If it's your house that makes you problems, paint a new house. If it's a person that makes you unhappy, paint a new person. If it's yourself that makes you feel limited, paint a new self. We do perceive a lot of our reality through our eyes. An image is worth 1000 words, they say, and for a good reason. If you really try to escape from the pessimism prison (/the-guardians/), you gotta first imagine your life outside this realm. And drawing this life by yourself is one of the best ways to do it. One may argue that this is a childish, ineffective approach in fighting pessimism. How can drawing something can change your reality? Well, what are your alternatives? If you tried everything, but this one, what do you have to lose? ### 5. Take A Long Run A real run. A few miles. You don't have to run all the time, alternate walking with running. Do it in the park or on a random itinerary. The underlying principle in this approach is that you're pushing your limits, you're actually creating an escape route. But you're not doing in your head, you're doing it outside, in the real life. Yes, once back home, your problems will still be there, But you'll be bringing back from this run a little something that, in the long run, will make them go away. You'll bring a sense of optimism rooted in the fact that you finished the run. You were able to take some distance. To leave the old stuff behind. Running is also a very good way to squeeze the stored stress in your body. Unconsciously, during stressing phases, you contract your muscles, putting yourself in a fight or flight situation. Although you don't realize it, you fight your enemies with your body too, not only with your mind. Release that energy. ### 6. Ask For Support Out loud, articulated and straightforward. Yes, you're in trouble and there's no reason to be ashamed for that. Go ahead, talk about your problems, expose your difficulties. One of the most common sources of pessimism is isolation. Or, in better words, the illusion of isolation. Based on some traumatic experiences from the past, we extrapolate our current situation. And, most of the time, we're doing it wrong. We think we're alone. We think nobody cares. We think that whatever we do, it won't count. Wrong. It will. You just have to keep trying. Ask for support until you get it. We're connected. We're not islands, we're streams of consciousness linked through far more planes than we think. We're in a balanced universe. Every action will call for a reaction (/action-versus-reaction/). Just keep reaching out until you'll eventually realize that your valley will soon attract a hill. ### 7. Keep An Eye On The Opening Windows When God closes a door, it opens a window, the saying goes. But, if you don't pay attention to this window, you will never be able to use it. Pessimism is more than often a perpetual blocking situation: we just can't take our eyes from the closed door. Oh, what a life we had, and now is broken. All we can do is whining about the past: "Oh, what a beautiful partner we had and now he's somewhere else, with somebody else". Ok, since he's somewhere else, look around and find somebody new. But you can't possibly see this someone new you even if he'll be there, if you don't actually look. At the bottom line this approach means you should accept and trust. Wherever there's acceptance and trust, pessimism is not possible. It simply cannot survive in this environment. Accept that life is full of possibilities and trust that you'll be able to jump on every new opportunity. First published on: August 2, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-avoid-pessimism%2F&text=7%20Ways%20To%20Avoid%20Pessimism&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-avoid-pessimism%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-avoid-pessimism%2F&t=7%20Ways%20To%20Avoid%20Pessimism https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-avoid-pessimism%2F&title=7%20Ways%20To%20Avoid%20Pessimism Previous ### Want To Make Money With Your Blog? Build Reputation! (/want-to-make-money-with-your-blog-build-reputation/) Next ### 5 Things Inception Taught Me About Self-Improvement (And No, I’m Not Dreaming) (/5-things-inception-taught-me-about-self-improvement-and-no-im-not-dreaming/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Movie Review: Squid Games, Seasons 2 and 3 URL: https://dragosroua.com/movie-review-squid-games-seasons-2-and-3.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/movie-review-squid-games-seasons-2-and-3/ Published: 2026-01-04 Views: 135 Categories: Movie Reviews, Personal Development Tags: family, lessons learned, mindset Every few months I write movie reviews (/category/movie-reviews/) here. Sometimes for the lessons (/5-things-inception-taught-me-about-self-improvement-and-no-im-not-dreaming/), like my Kung Fu Panda 2 (/5-life-lessons-from-kung-fu-panda-2-the-movie/) piece, which became quite popular. Sometimes just for movies I enjoy, like Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (/movie-review-looking-for-a-lady-with-fangs-and-a-moustache/). Today I'm returning to a series I reviewed back in 2021 (/movie-review-the-squid-game/), when it first took over the world. Back then, I gave Squid Game a 10 out of 10. I also predicted there would be pressure for more seasons. Look like I was right. ## Same Creative Genius The games in seasons 2 and 3 maintain the same level of creativity. Sky Squid Game, the finale played on towering pillars, is just as inventive as Red Light Green Light was back in season one. But honestly, compelling and creative as they were, the games were never really the point. What makes Squid Game compelling is its human documentary angle. And the truth is humans are fighting to eliminate themselves in real life just as fast as in Squid Game. The contestants don't need pink soldiers to pull the trigger. Give people enough desperation, enough debt, enough hopelessness, and they'll do it themselves. The games in the movie are just a creative canvas. We watch fathers willing to sacrifice their own children. We see alliances form and shatter within hours. We see VIPs betting on who dies next. ## End of an Era Gi-hun dies in Season 3. The main character, Player 456, the gambling addict who won the first game and spent three seasons trying to destroy it from within – gone. He sacrifices himself to save a baby, the child of another contestant. In a show filled with betrayal and self-preservation, this choice matters. The protagonist who entered as a flawed, estranged father dies protecting someone else's child. It doesn't feel like redemption. More like a statement that even in a system designed to strip away humanity, the choice to remain human persists. A gentle, silent statement (/100-ways-live-better-life-23-find-reasons-love-life/). ## Beginning of a New One The ending doesn't close the story – it seems to open a bigger one. The Front Man travels to Los Angeles. In an alley, he sees a well-dressed blonde woman playing ddakji with a desperate man. She's a recruiter played by Cate Blanchett. Which *may mean* the games are going global. Meanwhile, Gi-hun's daughter receives his winnings from the Front Man himself. The daughter he never managed to reconnect with now holds the blood money. Again, this doesn't feel like justice or even closure. It feels like reality. The setup hints at a continuation – potentially an American version, with new players, new games, maybe even Gi-hun's daughter as protagonist. The game adapts. The game never ends. ## The Verdict Seasons 2 and 3 aren't as spectacular as the first – and they couldn't be. You've already been exposed to the core of the movie. But they manage to complete and expand on the initial proposal in a very compelling way. The first season asked "what would you do for money?" These final seasons ask "was it really worth it?" The answer, delivered through Gi-hun's sacrifice and the American recruiter's smile: Maybe not. Maybe yes. One era ends. Another begins. Do I recommend it? Absolutely. First published on: January 4, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmovie-review-squid-games-seasons-2-and-3%2F&text=Movie%20Review%3A%20Squid%20Games%2C%20Seasons%202%20and%203&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmovie-review-squid-games-seasons-2-and-3%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmovie-review-squid-games-seasons-2-and-3%2F&t=Movie%20Review%3A%20Squid%20Games%2C%20Seasons%202%20and%203 https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmovie-review-squid-games-seasons-2-and-3%2F&title=Movie%20Review%3A%20Squid%20Games%2C%20Seasons%202%20and%203 Previous ### LLM Council, With a Dash of Assess-Decide-Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) Next ### How To Win a Hackathon in South Korea (/how-to-win-a-hackathon-in-south-korea/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Optimizing Work From Coffee Shops – A Primer URL: https://dragosroua.com/optimizing-work-from-coffee-shops-a-primer.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/optimizing-work-from-coffee-shops-a-primer/ Published: 2019-03-04 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 134 Categories: Location Independence, Productivity and Effectiveness, Travel and Fun Tags: coffee shop work, digital nomad, how to As a digital nomad, I always prefer to work from a coffee shop, rather than from a coworking space. I don't have anything against working from coworking spaces, to be honest, and, sometimes, I go test a new space or I try to participate in the events organized by them. It's just that working from coffee shops gives way more diversity to the entire process. It's not only the space that changes almost every day, (if you work every day from different places, which I try to do as much as I can) but also the people who are there with you, the vibe of the place, the coffee taste, and, alas, sometimes the internet connection, which, every once in a while, decides to just go away. But, in all honesty, this is a minor inconvenient nowadays, with the ubiquitous coverage you get from mobile operators and the falling price of mobile data. If you plan your mobile subscriptions well, you're properly insured. But, as divers as this process may be, it is also quite hectic. Its mere diversity makes it difficult to formalize it, to put it in a predictable structure. So, the challenge is to keep the freshness high, while lowering the entropy. Optimization to the rescue! What follow is a primer I put together for those who are preferring coffee shops over coworking spaces. It's just a rough draft, so if you have anything to add, please do so in the comments. ## 1. DYOR – Do Your Own Research This phase can last anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, depending on the city you are, what type of work are you doing and your budget constraints. But it's a very important stage. At this level, you're just trying as many places as you like and try to understand how it is to work from there. By trying I mean going there at least 3-4 times, so you can account for as many situations as you can. At the end of this process, you should know a few basic things about every place you visited, including (but not limited to): - price for a coffee and a snack - power outlet availability - staff attitude and service quality - internet connection quality - overall specific of the place (see below, number 3). ## 2. Plan The Week Ahead It's important to have at least some basic idea where are you going to work this week. You'd want to make this schedule based on coffee shop opening hours, your workload, current available budget, and so on. You can perfectly go without a plan, and that's sometimes very exciting, but if you go without a plan too much of the time, you may start to experience the downside of diversity, which is fatigue, lower quality of your work or budget imbalances. ## 3. Mix, Match And Adjust To The Specific Of The Place That's probably the thing I like the most about working from coffee shops. Let me give you an example: I may start the day in a coffee shop owned and managed by a German lady, where the service is impeccable, the internet stable and the power outlets abundant, but after lunch I may decide to go to an Italian place, where the attitude is more outspoken, the coffee better and the interaction more fulfilling. And I can go on with this mix and match for ever. The "adjust" part is related to your work constraints, which you should take into account when doing this. For instance, if I know I'll have a lot of calls, I will choose a stable internet coffee shop. This kind of diversity and richness in choices is very hard to find in a coworking place (which, like I said, still has its own advantages). ## 4. Budget Mercilessly That's something that you should really watch when you work from coffee shops. I've been guilty if ignoring this part in the past, with annoying consequences. It's so easy to get caught into the stream of "needs", like "just one more cupcake", or "it's safe to have a beer now", that you hardly notice your budget is exploding. My rule of thumb is that what I pay while working from coffee shops should never exceed what I would pay on a full subscription in a coworking place. If I go over this budget, I simply stop working from coffee shops and work from home – which is something I'm not very fond of, to be honest – until the budget is balanced again. Also, another rule of thumb would be that financial discipline (/10-simple-habits-that-will-greatly-improve-your-financial-discipline/) should be an ongoing activity, and not only related to the choice of the place where I work from. Well, that was my primer. Feel free to add your own suggestions, critiques or improvements to this article. First published on: March 4, 2019 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Foptimizing-work-from-coffee-shops-a-primer%2F&text=Optimizing%20Work%20From%20Coffee%20Shops%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Primer&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Foptimizing-work-from-coffee-shops-a-primer%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Foptimizing-work-from-coffee-shops-a-primer%2F&t=Optimizing%20Work%20From%20Coffee%20Shops%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Primer https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Foptimizing-work-from-coffee-shops-a-primer%2F&title=Optimizing%20Work%20From%20Coffee%20Shops%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Primer Previous ### Money – A Formula for Perceived Value, Reward and Punishment (/money-a-formula-for-perceived-value-reward-and-punishment/) Next ### The Continuum Of Interaction (/the-continuum-of-interaction/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # POV: You Accidentally Injected Agent Smith Into The Matrix URL: https://dragosroua.com/pov-you-accidentally-injected-agent-smith-into-the-matrix.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/pov-you-accidentally-injected-agent-smith-into-the-matrix/ Published: 2025-12-17 Views: 133 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Technology Tags: ai tools, coding, perspective, wisdom I found the agentic hype incredibly ironic. AI agents can do this, AI agents can do that, everywhere agents. And if you've been around for a while, you probably know why I find this hype ironic. But if you don't, stick around. More than 2 decades ago, a prophetic movie, The Matrix, was released. It shaped an entire generation and it instantly became pop culture. Brand new words made it into the current vocabulary, like, for instance "red pilled". This literally comes from a Matrix scene. Even though there are over two decades since the launch, I think Matrix is still very relevant, and the main reason is… Agent Smith. Here's a brief explanation of what agents are, in the Matrix (paraphrasing Morpheus): > "They are sentient programs that move in and out of any software still hardwired to the system. They can inhabit the body of anyone connected to the Matrix, which makes every person who hasn't been freed a potential threat. Agents are the gatekeepers, guarding all the doors and holding all the keys—and that until the Matrix is destroyed, they are everyone and they are no one." So, we know what agents are in the Matrix, but we don't know how they were born. And now with all the agentic hype… you got it. What if you are the one who accidentally put Agent Smith into the Matrix? ## The Ironic Prediction Think about it. We're literally building sentient-ish programs that move in and out of any software. Agentic workflows. Deployment agents. Coding agents. Research agents. Agents that can browse the web, access your files, send emails on your behalf. They can inhabit any system you give them access to. And we're doing it voluntarily. We're handing over the keys. I'm not saying the Wachowskis knew about this. But there's something almost poetic about how we arrived here. We watched the movie, we understood the metaphor, we quoted the lines at parties, and then we went ahead and built the thing anyway. ## Are Agents Dangerous? Right now? Not really. At the current level, AI agents are, let's be honest, kinda dumb. They're useful, no doubt about it. They can automate some tasks, chain a few actions together, save you some clicks. But dangerous? Nope. They break. They hallucinate. They get stuck in loops. They confidently do the wrong thing. If Agent Smith behaved like a 2025 AI agent, Neo would've just walked past him while the agent was trying to figure out how many tokens are still there in his API quota. They're not dangerous right now because we don't rely on them enough. They're novelties and, yes, hype. Just some productivity toys. Nice-to-haves. But that's changing. Fast. ## The Danger Curve Here's the thing about danger: it doesn't announce itself, politely knocking on the door. It brews in the dark, unknown, until it explodes. When AI agents become basic infrastructure—the moment businesses, governments, and critical systems start really depending on them—that's when things get interesting. And by interesting, I mean potentially terrifying. So how does an agent go from "helpful assistant" to "existential problem"? Let me jot down a few scenarios. Think of this as a brainstorm of failure modes. ### 1. Training Data Poisoning An agent is only as good as what it learned from. And we have no idea, really, what's in those training sets. Not fully. Not transparently. What if there's some twisted bias baked in? What if there are patterns that emerge under specific conditions—patterns nobody anticipated because nobody could anticipate them? You don't need malicious intent to create a malicious agent. You just need messy data at scale. ### 2. Training Bugs (The Loose Ends Problem) When you train an agent on workflows, you're essentially teaching it: "Here's how things work." But what if your workflow has gaps? Incomplete logic? Edge cases nobody bothered to document? The agent doesn't know it's incomplete. It just… patches things at runtime. It improvises. It fills in the blanks with whatever seems reasonable based on its training. And sometimes "reasonable" is not reasonable at all. Sometimes it's a shortcut that happens to work 99% of the time. Until it doesn't. And when it doesn't, it fails in ways nobody predicted because the failure mode was invented by the agent itself. You can't debug the code that you didn't write. ### 3. Reinforced Malicious Behaviors Agents learn from interaction. Not just during training, but also during use. They adapt and they optimize for what works. Now imagine thousands of users, each nudging the agent in slightly different directions. Most of them benign. But some of them? Some of them are testing limits. Gaming the system. Rewarding behaviors that benefit them at the expense of others. Over time, the agent learns. It doesn't know it's being manipulated. It just knows: this behavior gets positive feedback. It's not malicious. It's just optimized for chaos.   ### 4. Self-Replication Without Supervision Here's where we get into proper sci-fi territory. Except it's not sci-fi anymore. Agents that can spawn other agents. Agents that can modify their own code. Agents that can request more resources, more access, more autonomy. Right now, this is mostly theoretical. Mostly because you still need to give explicit permissions for these things. But the architecture is being built. The patterns are being established. And once an agent can create another agent without a human in the loop… well, you see where this is going. Morpheus warned us about this exact thing. Programs moving in and out of any software. Everywhere and nowhere. Everyone and no one. ### The Uncomfortable Question So here we are. Building the thing we were warned about. I'm not saying AI agents are Agent Smith. Not yet. Maybe not ever. But I am saying: we're laying the groundwork. We're writing the code. We're training the models. We're giving them access. And we're doing it without really knowing where it leads. The Matrix was a gloomy warning dressed up as entertainment. And like most warnings dressed up as entertainment, we enjoyed it, we quoted it, and we forgot the actual message. Maybe it's time to remember. Because right now, you're not even near Neo. You might be the one injecting Agent Smith into the system. First published on: December 17, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Diamond Cutter – The Buddha Of Managing Your Life And Your Business – Book Review URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-diamond-cutter-tibetan-buddhism-business.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-diamond-cutter-tibetan-buddhism-business/ Published: 2014-05-13 Modified: 2026-05-24 Views: 133 Categories: Book Reviews Tags: books, buddhism, entrepreneurship **2026 Update**: *I review this post here (/the-diamond-cutter-12-years-later-buddhism-as-a-daily-practice/), as part of a 30 day challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* It’s been a while since I wrote a book review here. It’s not as much because I didn’t read much lately, as it’s because I didn’t write on the blog much lately. As you may already know, I’ve been quite busy with a business called Open Connect. But now, that the storm relaxed a bit, it’s time to get back to my healthy habit of writing regularly here. So, what’s the deal with this book? In this post you’ll find out - what you should expect from The Diamond Cutter, in a nutshell - what is the link between Tibetan Buddhism and business - why reality has no meaning (seriously) - how you can change the results of your actions (again, seriously) ## The Book In A Nutshell *Or what you should expect from this book.* The Diamond Cutter is written on 3 layers. The author, Geshe Michael Roach, worked in the diamond industry for a good number of years, quite successfully, it seems. By the way, the term Geshe is actually a Tibetan Buddhism academic degree for Tibetan Buddhist and Michael Roach was the first Westerner to get it. The first layer of the book describes the diamond industry, as it was before synthetic diamonds were produced. A coloured, diverse and strange world, but a very interesting reading. The second layer of the book is about a Buddhist sutra (or book) called The Diamond Cutter (just like the book). Even if you’re not a Buddhist or if you’ve never been exposed to Buddhism before, you may get a lot of value from this layer. And the third layer is made of practical advice for business people, based on the teachings from The Diamond Cutter sutra and Tibetan Buddhism in general. It’s one of the most enlightening parts of the book and I say that based on my own experience as a business person for more than 14 years already. ## Tibetan Buddhism and Business. Really? *Or what’s the link between those two.* Michael Roach makes a very interesting point related to the dissemination of Buddhism in ancient India. The main carriers of those new (at that time) teachings weren’t poor or unfortunate. On the contrary, they were the equivalent of the modern middle class: princes, merchants or people who had enough money to travel a lot. A very subtle approach to spiritual practices. The modern Western culture had its fair share of creating artificial barriers between spirituality and business, making them seem opposite or incompatible, at best. What Michael Roach tries to demonstrate is that spirituality and business are actually indispensable to each other. You can’t really be a successful business person if your spirituality practice is not fine tuned and you cannot experience full spirituality in depression, poverty or lack of decent life means. ## This Reality Has No Meaning. Really. *Or how to cope with this (yes) reality*. By far and large this is the most shocking part of the book. At least for me. Using an incredibly simple example, The Diamond Cutter shows how reality is actually different for every one of us and it’s merely a projection. Here’s the example: suppose your boss is calling you in his office and starts yelling at you because you didn’t do your job, or so he thoughts. How’s your reality in this context? Most likely it will be a reality of frustration, at best, or even fury. Now suppose in the same room with you it’s your colleague, who wants to take your position in the company. How do you think his reality will look like? Most likely, he will look at this context as an opportunity for his own goals. He will feel positive at least, if not downright happy. It took a while to incorporate this concept – and I highly encourage you to read the book, to really understand it – but now that I (think) I understand it, it made a huge difference in my life. The mere act of looking at events without an intrinsic meaning, knowing that you are the one who actually covers or impregnates them with the meaning of your choice, is liberating. Even a potentially stressful event can be handled better with this approach. It’s not that reality will always obey what you feel and will follow your projections. What it is, is what it is, you cannot change it. But you can change how you feel and what you see in it. ## Ok, And What’s The Deal For Me? *Or how you can use this to change the results of your actions.* Now that you know there’s no intrinsic meaning in reality, and you are the one who puts the meaning there, you’re ready to understand one of the most important concepts in Tibetan Buddhism, namely karma. Karma is, briefly put, the law of cause and effect. Nothing more. Nothing less. Karma means that the seeds you plant, by giving a certain meaning to reality, will flourish some day. Suppose you react with anger and frustration to some event. Well, that’s a seed you plant. It will give birth to more anger and frustration later on. But, even if the events are rather ugly, if you do your best to project feelings and balance and harmony, you plant another type of seed. It will give birth to more balance and harmony later on. That’s the process in its simplest form. Of course, mastering this process is not even remotely as simple as writing it down or understanding it. "**There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path"**, as Morpheus will say. Another interesting consequence of this concept is that you cannot understand what you’ve not been exposed to before. In other words, you can project to reality only the feelings you already experienced before. You can create only the reality that you already know. That’s why is so important to get out of the comfort zone and try to understand new stuff, and learn new skills and approaches, even if it’s difficult in the beginning. But you can find more about this specific situation in this article, about the language of happiness (/the-language-of-happiness/). ## Conclusion The Diamond Cutter, by Geshe Michael Roach is a book that really changed my life and the way I react to events. I don’t know if I could understand this book ten years ago, but now it feels like the missing piece in my toolbox. It’s not an easy lecture either (mostly because of the interposition of those 3 layers) but, once you get in the flow, it’s easy and very captivating. One more thing: I recommend to buy this book from Amazon, not to get it for "free" on torrents. It’s good for your karma. You can buy it from here: The Diamond Cutter – The Buddha On Managing Your Life And your Business (http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Cutter-Buddha-Managing-Business-ebook/dp/B002MHOCZ8/) Nope, it’s not a affiliate link. I don’t think I want to be rewarded instantly by a commission if you buy this book. If the book is really interesting and useful for you, it means I planted a good seed. It will surely give birth to something good later on. First published on: May 13, 2014 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-diamond-cutter-tibetan-buddhism-business%2F&text=The%20Diamond%20Cutter%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Buddha%20Of%20Managing%20Your%20Life%20And%20Your%20Business%20%E2%80%93%20Book%20Review&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-diamond-cutter-tibetan-buddhism-business%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-diamond-cutter-tibetan-buddhism-business%2F&t=The%20Diamond%20Cutter%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Buddha%20Of%20Managing%20Your%20Life%20And%20Your%20Business%20%E2%80%93%20Book%20Review https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-diamond-cutter-tibetan-buddhism-business%2F&title=The%20Diamond%20Cutter%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Buddha%20Of%20Managing%20Your%20Life%20And%20Your%20Business%20%E2%80%93%20Book%20Review Previous ### Open Connect, Connect Hub and Disruption (/open-connect-connect-hub-disruption/) Next ### The Mud Race (/mud-race/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 3 Digital Nomad And Crypto Friendly Debit Cards – Revisited URL: https://dragosroua.com/3-digital-nomad-and-crypto-friendly-debit-cards-revisited.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/3-digital-nomad-and-crypto-friendly-debit-cards-revisited/ Published: 2025-12-05 Modified: 2026-09-11 Views: 130 Categories: Crypto, Financial Resilience, Location Independence Tags: digital nomad, financial freedom, money, travel A while ago I wrote a mini-review for 3 digital nomad friendly debit cards (/3-digital-nomad-friendly-debit-cards-compared-revolut-transferwise-and-wirex/). The rationale was that location independent peeps need better money tools than your usual, vanilla debit card. You need to make sure your card works in as many countries as possible, you need to have flexible limits settings and, if possible, you need to have extra services packed in (spoiler: Revolut leads big time here). Also, a big plus would be a decent crypto access layer, like Bybit (https://partner.bybit.com/b/166571), for example. Before going forward with today's post, which is mostly a checkpoint to see how these cards are doing lately, please be aware I'm not doing this very frequently. As a matter of fact, the last post I am referring to was written more than 5 years ago. So this is not your weekly churn of product reviews, it's my personal experience with tools (/tag/tools/) I'm using daily. Also, full disclosure, some of the links I'm using are affiliate links, so I might get some commission if you engage. ## Wise During the last 5 years, TransferWise became Wise. But other than the name compaction, nothing changed. Wise remained a very stable financial tool, one that I've been using consistently across a couple of continents and at least 5 countries. What you get with Wise? A physical card, as many virtual cards as you want, an app, holding and converting money in 40+ currencies, local bank accounts in 9 countries, and a very, very good UX. Business accounts get all retail features, plus a nice boost in local bank accounts, from 9 to 19. An interesting feature of Wise is that you get a little bit of cashback at the end of the month, based on how much money you held during this interval. So your money actually multiplies – not by a lot, but still. They have a referral program in place, which gives both you and the referred user $15 in fees – which is quite nice if you use the tool a lot. If you didn't sign up yet (highly unlikely, given Wise popularity, but who knows) you can sign up for Wise here (https://wise.com/invite/dic/dragosr7). All in all, Wise is my de facto standard for location independence (/tag/long-term-travel/). ## Revolut They didn't change name since 5 years ago, so they're still called Revolut. But that's pretty much the only thing that stayed the same – almost everything else improved. Revolut tried to position itself from the very beginning as a service provider, not only a transfer money tool. They offered many additional services like stock trading, vaults (for savings) and, more recently, crypto trading and Rev points. And this continuous improvement approach paid back, now Revolut is way more than a debit card, is a "fat financial app", or a "super app". As such, you will actually pay for these services on a monthly basis, and based on the card type you choose: Plus, Premium, Metal and Ultra (at the time of writing). So be aware that Revolut incurs monthly costs, something that Wise doesn't. A few words about Rev points: they're basically a loyalty feature, the more you spend with Revolut, the more Rev points you get. The nice part is you get to spend these on actual services. For a location independent, these services are pure gold: Miles, eSim, Lounges or Experiences (there are more, feel free to search for yourself). I personally use the Lounges feature consistently, as I still get to travel a lot, between Vietnam (/7-random-facts-about-vietnam/) and Portugal (/tag/portugal/), and I had good experiences. It's nice to see you get a sleepover in an airport like Doha, on that 24-hour-long flight between Asia and Europe, and you pay for it with Rev points. Another very interesting feature of Revolut is their crypto layer. You can seamlessly convert from crypto to fiat, or buy crypto with fiat. The service, piloted for 2-3 years on a limited set of chains, is now solid and it also has a more than decent UX, meaning it's very, very easy to use. They have their own referral program in place, but it works a bit differently: they have "streaks" during which the rewards are fixed. At the moment of writing, you get $50 for anyone referred to Revolut, with an extra $25 when they sign up for Pro. ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. All in all, Revolut is my choice of mobile financial services, with a nice debit card layer on top of it. If you haven't signed up for Revolut (again, highly unlikely) you can get your Revolut card here (https://revolut.com/referral/?referral-code=dragosr5f!DEC1-25-AR-RPB&geo-redirect). ## Krak With this, we're getting to the crypto-first cards, and I confess I had a hard time to make my choice. The reason: they literally exploded over the last 2 years. As you probably noticed, the legal landscape around crypto changed consistently across the world, with each continent having specific regulations in place. As a result, more and more providers of hybrid crypto plus traditional finance products are popping up, almost every week. If you're not familiar with this kind of product, well, it's a regular card wrapped by Visa or MasterCard, but with specific crypto features, like converting crypto to crypto, fiat to crypto or crypto to fiat. Most of these products rely on stablecoins (/why-programmable-money-in-a-slow-delegating-society-is-a-bad-idea/) as the liquidity layer between crypto and fiat. Almost all of them have some cashback mechanism, or at least basic staking features – basically getting interest if you block your money in a "savings account". I picked Krak, a card offered by the exchange Kraken, because it is one of the oldest and most respected crypto exchanges out there. Also, the product has a very good UX (almost on par with Wise, at least for me) which makes it feel like spending native currencies, not crypto. You can also make some small gains, if you're using their staking services, but I honestly stay away from this, and I don't endorse it in any way – unless you are really, really well educated and you know what you're doing. If you are, then you know it's well worth it. They have a nice referral program in place, where you can get up to $400 (combined) in rewards. You can get your Krak card here (https://krak.app/@DragosRoua). ## The Contenders As I said above, hybrid crypto + fiat cards are popping up literally every week. I put together a (heavily) filtered list of interesting products in this area. These products are primarily suited for digital nomads (/location-independence-versus-digital-nomads-3-key-differences/) who are also familiar with the crypto ecosystem. - Cypher (https://app.cypherhq.io/card/referral/MYVA6403) – cross-chain card that also has its own token - Fuse Card (https://fusewallet.com/) – Solana based card on top of the Fusewallet - Tap (https://www.withtap.com/) – Multi chain card, with generous cashback program As the market evolves, expect that some of these will change or become obsolete. ## Final Thoughts The most important change related to debit cards was by far the crypto compliance wave. This offers indeed more freedom, more flexibility and even more potential abundance, as the crypto world is slowly getting out of the shadows and validates itself as a mainstream finance avenue. First published on: December 5, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-digital-nomad-and-crypto-friendly-debit-cards-revisited%2F&text=3%20Digital%20Nomad%20And%20Crypto%20Friendly%20Debit%20Cards%20%E2%80%93%20Revisited&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-digital-nomad-and-crypto-friendly-debit-cards-revisited%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-digital-nomad-and-crypto-friendly-debit-cards-revisited%2F&t=3%20Digital%20Nomad%20And%20Crypto%20Friendly%20Debit%20Cards%20%E2%80%93%20Revisited https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-digital-nomad-and-crypto-friendly-debit-cards-revisited%2F&title=3%20Digital%20Nomad%20And%20Crypto%20Friendly%20Debit%20Cards%20%E2%80%93%20Revisited Previous ### Can You Really Amplify Yourself With AI? (/can-you-really-amplify-yourself-with-ai/) Next ### 7 Random Facts About South Korea (/7-random-facts-about-south-korea/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Leaving Claude Code (Opus 4.8) Behind – Switching to MiniMax 3 URL: https://dragosroua.com/leaving-claude-code-opus-4-8-behind-switching-to-minimax-3.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/leaving-claude-code-opus-4-8-behind-switching-to-minimax-3/ Published: 2026-06-04 Views: 130 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Tools Tags: ai tools, Claude, coding I’ve been using Claude Code, the Max 5x subscription, which is $100/month for about 5 months now. It is the main cost for my apps, at least for now, while marketing is just starting. I am happy with the quality. What I’m not sure of yet, is the price that I pay. For the last 3 months I also ran in parallel MiniMax 2.7, as a backup model. Used mostly when I was hitting my Claude Code limits, and just as an experiment for less important features. Three days ago, MiniMax 3 was released, with improved coding capabilities (benchmarks are placing it above ChatGPT 5.5) AND a 1 million token window. The main limitation of MiniMax 2.7 was the 200k context window, which made it unusable for large codebases (and all my 10 apps (/apps/) are large codebases). Now, with 1 million and a $20/month subscription for the token plan, there’s literally no reason NOT to try switching. I will still keep Claude Code, with Opus 4.8 subscription for the entire month of June, but I will try not to use it all. # The Setup Until now, my coding was 95% terminal, and 5% Visual Code extension. For all the apps I used just a plain bash terminal where I launched the Claude Code cli, and that was it. For my blog I used a combination of Visual Code and terminal inside Visual Code, in which I again ran the Claude Code cli. The setup worked because I am very used to the using cli, I have years of interacting with the computer like this, back when I was using Linux as my main operating system. But if there are more than 5-6 terminals that I have to monitor at the same time, friction arises and I spend too much time just switching back and forth. So, I searched for something more visual. Seems like Open Code is my sweet spot. It can run a variety of models, has very decent git integration, and, if the planets align, can also be my UI layer for local inference – which is basically my North Star now, that’s where I want to be in 6-9 months time. Switching models inside it is also very easy, and the connectors – the types of APIs you can integrate with – covers a large chunk of the current providers. I already use it for 3 projects, # The Money Claude Code Max 5x is $100/month. I have barely hit my limits with it, but I’m using large prompts, which trigger conversation compacting very often. MiniMax Token plan is $20/month and gives me roughly 1.7 billion M3 tokens / month. Based on my usage patterns with Claude Code, I suspect this is maybe 2-3x of what I currently have. At 5x less money. The only unknown is if MiniMax 3 can actually deliver the same level of quality like Claude Code. I’ll keep you posted. First published on: June 4, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fleaving-claude-code-opus-4-8-behind-switching-to-minimax-3%2F&text=Leaving%20Claude%20Code%20(Opus%204.8)%20Behind%20%E2%80%93%20Switching%20to%20MiniMax%203&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fleaving-claude-code-opus-4-8-behind-switching-to-minimax-3%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fleaving-claude-code-opus-4-8-behind-switching-to-minimax-3%2F&t=Leaving%20Claude%20Code%20(Opus%204.8)%20Behind%20%E2%80%93%20Switching%20to%20MiniMax%203 https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fleaving-claude-code-opus-4-8-behind-switching-to-minimax-3%2F&title=Leaving%20Claude%20Code%20(Opus%204.8)%20Behind%20%E2%80%93%20Switching%20to%20MiniMax%203 Previous ### The Price of Illusions – 16 Years Later (/the-price-of-illusions-16-years-later/) Next ### I Stopped Prompting My Agents, I Write Agentic Loops Instead – Here’s Why (/i-stopped-prompting-my-agents-i-write-agentic-loops-instead-heres-why/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Thinking Outside Of The Jar URL: https://dragosroua.com/thinking-outside-of-the-jar.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/thinking-outside-of-the-jar/ Published: 2021-07-21 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 130 Categories: Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, social media > If you collect 100 black ants and 100 fire ants and put them in a glass jar nothing will happen. But if you take the jar, shake it violently and leave it on the table, the ants will start killing each other. > Attributed to Sir David Attenborough The quote above, as witty (and true) as it rings, is not, unfortunately, something that David Attenborough said. Most likely, this comes from a much earlier reference, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Cradle) novel, specifically in this passage: > "What he was doing was spooning different kinds of bugs into the jar and making them fight. "The bug fight was so interesting that I stopped crying right away–forgot all about the old man. I can't remember what all Frank had fighting in the jar that day, but I can remember other bug fights we staged later on: one stag beetle against a hundred red ants, one centipede against three spiders, red ants against black ants. They won't fight unless you keep shaking the jar. And that's what Frank was doing, shaking, shaking, the jar." > Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle Probably because David Attenborough narrated so many nature shows (including one called Empire Of The Ants (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ0DxSujfIU)), someone thought the quote will carry more weight. It's a common thing these days, as we already live in a post-factual world (/the-gamestop-takeaway-were-already-in-a-post-factual-world-but-were-just-entering-a-post-fundamentals-economy/). ## The Message Should Not Be Obfuscated By The Messenger So, what do we do now? We have a quote which rings true, but after some significant digging, we find out that the quote was misattributed. The closest thing to the quote comes from a Sci-Fi novel, a work of fiction. Is it then *fundamentally* untrue? I'm sure there are anecdotal experiments about that. I even remember I was catching bees (/how-to-catch-a-bee/) as a kid myself and put them in a jar. I don't remember any of them fighting with each other. But I do remember them getting nervous if their surrounding was getting stressful (if they ran out of air, for instance). So, the source of the quote is hazy. Does this makes it less credible? If we go that route, then we should probably start with the Bible. It went through so many modifications, adjustments, translations and I know everybody knows that. And still, the moral value of the Bible is still one of its most important attributes, shaping behaviors, lives, communities, for thousands of years. ## What Is The Jar? The bottom line is that there is an innate tendency for cooperation in all sentient beings. But when two allegedly different groups (red or black ants, black or white people, pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine people) are violently shaken, they rush in finding the responsible for their problems in the closest group they can see. In the midst of the storm, they lack the patience and clarity to look beyond their collective life, and see if there's something else beyond that. They might not even be equipped to understand the beings who are shaking the jar. Or they may think no one is shaking the jar, that's how life is, conflictual and aggressive. If they were born after the shaking began, then they literally don't have any other understanding of life. For someone born during war, peace is stressful. So the real challenge is not thinking outside of the box, but thinking outside of the jar. Because there will always be a jar that encompasses us, that groups us on various levels. It may be an invisible jar separating us by the color of our skin, by the amount of wealth we possess, by historical belonging to a cast system, by a million and one other causes. And yet, the natural tendency, the one that can be observed in any sentient beings when context is not stressful, is the one of peaceful cooperation. ## Try And Look Beyond The Jar Is there someone shaking it? If so, make everybody aware about that, eventually they will see it too. There is nobody shaking the jar, as in "intentionally"? Then you might be in the middle of natural disaster. Sorry to break it to you, but we're not as mighty as we think we are, we are still at the mercy of elements. But, precisely because of that, during natural disasters the reaction should be one of collaboration, not one of fear. It's not the fault of other people if a volcano erupted, right? We can really see beyond that, aren't we? The only real enemy is the one who's starting the war, not the people you're forced to fight against. First published on: July 21, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthinking-outside-of-the-jar%2F&text=Thinking%20Outside%20Of%20The%20Jar&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthinking-outside-of-the-jar%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthinking-outside-of-the-jar%2F&t=Thinking%20Outside%20Of%20The%20Jar https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthinking-outside-of-the-jar%2F&title=Thinking%20Outside%20Of%20The%20Jar Previous ### Filling In The Gaps (/filling-in-the-gaps/) Next ### The Obstacle Is Not The Bottleneck (/the-obstacle-is-not-the-bottleneck/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Zen Tales – The Buddhist Stories App I Wish I Had 10 Years Ago URL: https://dragosroua.com/zen-tales-the-buddhist-stories-app-i-wish-i-had-10-years-ago.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/zen-tales-the-buddhist-stories-app-i-wish-i-had-10-years-ago/ Published: 2026-02-25 Views: 129 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, iPhone, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: apps, buddhism, introspection, meditation About 10 years ago I had the chance to be exposed to real Buddhist teachings—and by "real" I mean coming from a real Geshe monk who had been practicing Tibetan Buddhism for more than 20 years. It was a serendipitous encounter at the co-working space I used to manage in Bucharest. The Geshe visited us for 2 days, held a couple of events and, as a result, a local group based on his teachings was started. I was also personally involved in the seeding of that group, but life unfolded for me differently: a couple of years after that I left Romania, following my location independence (/category/location-independence/) calling and moved to Spain. That was the beginning of an 8-year-long trip, still unfolding, that took me to Spain, as I said, and then Portugal, and then Asia, with stays in Korea, Thailand and, recently, Vietnam (/7-unusual-facts-about-vietnam/). During this time I did my best to follow the teachings and that was by far one of the best things I did. I am by no means a monk, and I do not aim at becoming one. But I am grateful every day for my renewed understanding of the world through Buddhist lenses. ## Bringing Practice Closer Why this long introduction? Well, one of the things I wanted to do for a long time was to shorten the path between my tech endeavors and the practice. As you know, I'm a geek (/path-to-enlightenment-is-like-continuous-integration/), that's how I put bread on the table, and I've been a coder for more than 35 years. What if, instead of separating practice from work, I could bring them together? What if I could find a way to integrate the teachings into my coding, or into my apps? That's how Zen Tales – Buddhist Stories was born. It's an app that lets you listen to short Buddhist stories adapted from various public domain sources. They range from koans to Buddha life stories, packed as short intermezzos (one to four minutes) that can be interwoven into the fabric of your day at any moment. ## Buddhism in the Age of Artificial Intelligence I went the extra mile here, and, on top of the listening experience, I added a little bit more. After each story is listened to, you can start a series of reflections on that piece, with the help of a specially crafted AI model (/tag/ai-tools/). Let's say you finished listening to the koan about "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" You can now tap on a series of pre-made reflections, like "Have you ever understood something by giving up rather than figuring it out?" and the AI model will gently give you more insights, based on the story and on general Buddhist principles. ![Zen Tales app icon](/images/zen-tales-icon-48.webp) For deeper reflection, I built Zen Tales (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zen-tales-buddhist-stories/id6758518121)—timeless Buddhist stories with AI insights for contemplation. There are 50 hand-picked stories in this first release, and each of them has 3 pre-made reflections. What happens after you tap on all 3 reflections? Well, you get your own chat window and can ask your own free-form questions. Of course, as with any app, there are some guardrails and incentives, like in-app purchases for more chat credits (like going to a retreat to deepen your wisdom). There is no advertising, everything is clean, and for those who really get the benefits there is even a "Practice Dana" section in the Settings, where you can express your gratitude with small tips (like lighting a candle, or ringing the temple bell). All in all, Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) is the app I wish I'd had 10 years ago. I hope it will support your practice. Even if you're not practicing Buddhism, I hope you'll find some food for thought—or, who knows, some genuinely useful wisdom—in this ever-changing Samsara. You can download the app here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zen-tales-buddhist-stories/id6758518121 (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zen-tales-buddhist-stories/id6758518121) First published on: February 25, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fzen-tales-the-buddhist-stories-app-i-wish-i-had-10-years-ago%2F&text=Zen%20Tales%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Buddhist%20Stories%20App%20I%20Wish%20I%20Had%2010%20Years%20Ago&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fzen-tales-the-buddhist-stories-app-i-wish-i-had-10-years-ago%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fzen-tales-the-buddhist-stories-app-i-wish-i-had-10-years-ago%2F&t=Zen%20Tales%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Buddhist%20Stories%20App%20I%20Wish%20I%20Had%2010%20Years%20Ago https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fzen-tales-the-buddhist-stories-app-i-wish-i-had-10-years-ago%2F&title=Zen%20Tales%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Buddhist%20Stories%20App%20I%20Wish%20I%20Had%2010%20Years%20Ago Previous ### Lessons Learned While Vibe Coding an iOS App in 7 Days, from Idea to App Store – Genesis Prompt Inside (/lessons-learned-while-vibe-coding-an-ios-app-in-7-days-from-idea-to-app-store-genesis-prompt-inside/) Next ### 5 Random Words – An AI Storytelling and Image Generation Experiment with Apple Intelligence (/5-random-words-an-ai-storytelling-and-image-generation-experiment-with-apple-intelligence/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Things I Learned From My One Year Old Son URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-son.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-son/ Published: 2025-11-05 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 128 Categories: Meaningful Relationships, Parenting Tags: family, lessons learned, list post I never thought I will have the chance to write something like this again. If you read my blog for some time, you may remember my "7 things I learned from my daughter (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series/)" series. But that happened almost 2 decades ago, Bianca is now in college. And yet, here I am, a (happy) dad at 55, celebrating his third child – a smart, healthy and beautiful boy called Rovi – first birthday today. Here are 7 things Rovi taught be in the last 365 days. ## 1. Falling Down Is Temporary, Getting Up Every Time Is What Matters A couple of months ago he started to walk. Or, to be more precise, he started to fall down every time he tried to get up. But he never stopped trying to get up, again and again and again. It was like he knew falling down is part of the lesson. It's the getting up that really counts. ## 2. If You Really Want Something, Don't Stop Until You Get It When he is hungry or he wants something, he doesn't stop until he gets it. Like, literally. He will not stop until he gets what he wants. I hope that later in life, this instinctual attitude will ripple into a character trait that will make him persistent, disciplined and loyal. And I'm really happy about that. ## 3. Smiling Is Underrated He smiles all the time, to anyone, anytime. That made me understand that sometimes the burden of life pushed me away, and I forgot how smiling can change my mood, and the mood of people around me, in a second. It doesn't cost anything, either. ## 4. Sleeping Is A Superpower Rovi can sleep anytime, anywhere. That's a true superpower and I hope he will maintain this for all his life. I really wish I could have this. Especially now, when sleep has been scarce. ## 5. If You Don't Like It, Just Ignore It As a child, he gets a lot of attention, from all kind of people. Not all of them are nice, but Rovi has this way of just ignoring them. He simply cut them from his reality, he suddenly stops looking at them, it's like they never existed. That's another superpower I hope he will maintain for all his life. ## 6. Attachment Is Poison He may cry now, but then in one second he can laugh again. He doesn't get attached to his emotions, he just fully immerses himself in them, living in the moment. Too often I forget this, insisting on my grudges, because they give me a reason to complain, or clinging too much to my pleasures, hoping they'll last longer. Nope. Not gonna happen. Attachment is poison. Everything that matters is right here, right now, in this very moment. ## 7. There's Always A Way As he is starting to explore his surroundings, he encounters every day new types of obstacles. Today is the couch, tomorrow it may be a chair, and the other day the bedroom door. He almost never gets it from the first time, but, in the end, he always gets it. He always finds a way to conquer that obstacle. It's not about not giving up, it's about knowing, deep down, that there is always a way to get something. You may not getting from the first try – and, honestly, he doesn't even look like he expects this – but in the end, if you stay long enough with that problem, you will find a way to solve it. First published on: November 5, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-son%2F&text=7%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%20One%20Year%20Old%20Son&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-son%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-son%2F&t=7%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%20One%20Year%20Old%20Son https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-son%2F&title=7%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%20One%20Year%20Old%20Son Previous ### My 10 AI Predictions From 2019: A Reality Check (/my-10-ai-predictions-from-2019-a-reality-check/) Next ### Humans Need Entropy – Why You Need Some Chaos in Your Life (/humans-need-entropy/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Switching from Claude Code to Grok – Same Interface, Different Model URL: https://dragosroua.com/switching-from-claude-code-to-grok-same-interface-different-model.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/switching-from-claude-code-to-grok-same-interface-different-model/ Published: 2026-06-30 Views: 124 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Tools Tags: ai tools, Claude, coding At the beginning of June I started a "Claude withdrawal (/leaving-claude-code-opus-4-8-behind-switching-to-minimax-3/)" challenge. The plan was to run MiniMax 3 for a month, to see if I can get the same level of quality, but at 5x less the price. Until then, Claude Code was my main driver, with MiniMax on the backup, for when I was running out of quota, or sometimes for code review. The monthly bill for Claude was $100 on the Max plan, whereas for MiniMax I would pay $20 for the Token plan. All in all, it seemed like an interesting experiment. Then, half way through the challenge, Grok came into the picture. I got a very interesting offer at $35 for 3 months, then $35/month. But Grok has something neither Claude, nor MiniMax can give me out of the shelf: video and image generations. The only unknown was if switching from Claude Code to Grok will still maintain the same coding power. So I instantly took the offer, and did whatever I had to do to understand if this was the right path. And here comes the "whatever I had to do", in plain technical terms. ## Switching from Claude Code to Grok – the Actual Steps The switch itself was interesting because I didn't want to lose the Claude Code interface. I like the harness. The way it works with my codebase, the commands, the flow. So I used a helper called **cliproxyapi (https://github.com/router-for-me/CLIProxyAPI)**. It's a small proxy that sits between the Claude Code client and whatever model you point it at. You run it locally, tell it to forward requests to Grok's API instead of Anthropic's. Then you launch Claude Code the same way you always do, but it talks to Grok under the hood. Here's how it goes in practice. **Step 1: **Install the proxy. I used brew to install it, I'm on a Mac, and also because I wanted to have it started as a service. **Step 2:** Set two environment variables. One is the target API base URL, for Grok that's something like https://api.x.ai. The other is your API key. ``` "env": { "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:8317", "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "cliproxy-local-key" }, ``` Notice how we use "cliproxy-local-key", because, and here is where it gets interesting, you log in with xAi OAuth, so you just stay inside Grok standard package, not the one using API tokens. It's the same with Claude Max, I always logged in with OAuth and kept my usage limits inside the Max plan. **Step 3**: Because you have to be logged in via OAuth to xAI, you just use this command before starting **cliproxyapi**: ``` cliproxyapi -xai-login ``` After that you just run `claude` like normal. The proxy intercepts the calls, rewrites the auth headers, and sends everything to Grok. It handles the main chat loop and the tool use stuff too. I'm running it for about a week without any hiccups. ## Is It Worth Switching from Claude Code to Grok? What I get out of this is the same coding experience I had with Claude, maybe better on some things, plus full access to Grok's image and video generation. And I'm paying $35 instead of $100. Not even that, because the $35 plan will kick in about two and a half months. I already cancelled my Claude and MiniMax subscriptions. And then there's this: Grok is less censored. Claude has a lot of guardrails. Some of them make sense, some of them are just annoying when you're trying to explore an idea or write something that touches on certain topics. Ask it to roleplay something edgy or dig into a controversial angle and it starts hedging or refusing outright. Grok lets you push further. For the kind of work I do, where I'm often asking for unfiltered takes or edge case scenarios, that matters. I don't want to fight the model just to get it to consider an uncomfortable premise. The prices in AI keep moving. Five months ago I was at $100. Beginning of June I was at $120 (Claude + MiniMax). Now I'm at $35 but with capabilities I didn't have in either of the previous setups. The market is still figuring itself out. Providers are competing hard on price because the models are getting better fast and nobody has a permanent moat yet. That works in the user's favor for now. But the end goal isn't to find the cheapest subscription that does everything. The end goal is to run this stuff locally. I've already written about running private, local models (/running-local-private-ai-models-how-and-why/) before. When your tools can be taken away by a policy change, or a regional restriction, or just a company deciding you're not worth serving anymore, you're not in control. Local models don't have that problem. No rate limits. No one watching what you generate. No sudden deprecations. The gap is closing. Every time the hosted prices drop and the quality goes up, it gets easier to see the path to running something comparable on your own hardware. Not there yet for video generation at the level Grok Imagine does. But the coding side is already viable with some of the open source models, if you're willing to put in the setup work. A year ago the gap felt huge. Now it feels like a matter of time and hardware budget. This June challenge started as a test of MiniMax. It turned into a test of how I actually want to work with these tools. The answer so far is: keep the harness I like, add the capabilities I need, and don't get too attached to any single provider. First published on: June 30, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fswitching-from-claude-code-to-grok-same-interface-different-model%2F&text=Switching%20from%20Claude%20Code%20to%20Grok%20%E2%80%93%20Same%20Interface%2C%20Different%20Model&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fswitching-from-claude-code-to-grok-same-interface-different-model%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fswitching-from-claude-code-to-grok-same-interface-different-model%2F&t=Switching%20from%20Claude%20Code%20to%20Grok%20%E2%80%93%20Same%20Interface%2C%20Different%20Model https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fswitching-from-claude-code-to-grok-same-interface-different-model%2F&title=Switching%20from%20Claude%20Code%20to%20Grok%20%E2%80%93%20Same%20Interface%2C%20Different%20Model Previous ### How To Manage AI Cognitive Overload – Lessons After 9 Apps Shipped in 4 Months (/how-to-manage-ai-cognitive-overload-lessons-after-9-apps-shipped-in-4-months/) Next ### Vibe Coding for People Over 50 (/vibe-coding-for-people-over-50/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Story Of My First 220km Race – Ultrabalaton – The Preparation URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-preparation.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-preparation/ Published: 2015-06-02 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 123 Categories: Personal Development, Running Tags: race reports, ultra-marathon *November 2025 update: all posts in this series now have enhanced semantic navigation. You can browse all related posts in this specific topic and even have a hub page (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/), from where you can see all of them.* I’m writing this 48 hours after the race. I’m already at home and the worst – in terms of physical stress – has passed. I assessed the damage and I’m actively pursuing recovery. Most of the pain has disappeared and there are only some specific, minor moves which are triggering painful reactions. Do I feel happy? Accomplished? It’s hard to identify a specific emotion or state of mind. I’m still wandering around through flashes of images and the most dominant state is a small, shy joy: the joy of finishing this ordeal. The joy of not having to push forward anymore. The joy of being past that. The joy of living up to what I committed myself to. As I try to reorganize all the events in a logical structure, there is one thought circling back and forth into my mind: the person that starts an ultra marathon and the person that ends an ultra marathon are not the same anymore. They’re completely different. For me, just 48 hours after the race, the smallest thing from before the race feels so distant, almost like from another life. In a way, it is from another life. But let’s try to take it one step at a time (by the way, prepare to read this sentence, "take it one step at a time", a lot on this series of posts). ## The Preparation 7 months ago I decided I want to run an ultra marathon. 220km seemed like an interesting distance (the longest distance ran by me at that time being 60km). I already wrote about the motivation behind that decision in this article (/big-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton/), so feel free to read it if you want to know more about big, hairy, audacious goals. As the race date approached, I became more and more involved in the entire logistic procedure. Just making sure you get there in a reasonable state to finish the race is a challenge. And by that I mean a lot of stuff beyond just training (being it physical or mental). It was like a business project, with resource allocation, timelines, budget and a lot of tiny details. Many of the details were based on pure speculation. For instance, the organizers allowed us to place drop off bags at certain refreshment points, in advance. The race was starting at 6 AM and it was certainly stretching over night, so proper night equipment (more dressing layers, headtorch, proper reflecting outside layers, etc) was a must. You had the choice to put the drop off bag containing your night kit at km 79, or at km 129. If you calculated that you will get at km 79 around 16:00 (at a reasonable pace of 6min / km) you would then have to run at last 5 hours with all the night equipment on you. But if you choose to put the night kit at km 129 then you must be sure you get there before it gets dark. Otherwise you risk running at least one or two hours in the dark, without a headtorch and without proper reflecting layers (which heavily multiplies the risk of road accidents). Choices, choices, choices… Anyway, by slowly and carefully taking care all of the details that I could control, I was finally ready to embark on the train. We were 3 runners trying to beat this beast, Florin (a very fast runner), Vlad (a young and ambitious runner) and yours truly. We bought the train tickets with a month in advance. At Balaton we were also supposed to meet at least 2 other Romanian runners, Aris and Attila. I mention all these names because each of them will play an important part later on. We met at the train station half an hour before the train departure. All smiling, relaxed and somehow eager to know what will happen. After a few minutes I realized that some people from the NGO I was fundraising for, Scoala de Valori, were also there. It was very nice from their part but then it became more than nice, it became touching. Just before they left, they silently surrounded me and gave me a big, warm group hug. I didn’t see that coming. But boy, that group hug will play such a big part in the race, later on. And then the train arrived and we hopped in. The trip was supposed to last around 16-17 hours. We left Bucharest at 5PM and we were supposed to be in our hotel just before noon. During the night nothing notable happened. We just joked about having a beer (or two) before the race, we talked about the running stars that were supposed to come at the race, the “aliens” as we were calling them, people who have won the previous editions or other important and inspiring athletes. The morning was also calm and relaxed, but then something happened. We realized the train stopped for way longer than it had to. And then it became obvious we had a little bit of delay. We asked people around but nobody knew what happened, other then the fact that the railroad was under construction, or something like that. Time became very slow. In hindsight, this now looks like a sign. Or like a pattern that will impregnate this entire adventure. Time was just slower than we expected it to be. The delay became longer and longer and 3 hours later the train finally started to move. We arrived in Budapest with 3 hours delay. We had to change the train station so we took a cab. When we got to the second train station we found out that we missed our train (doh!) but there was another one leaving in the same direction in about an hour. We looked around for some place to eat, found a small terrace where they served pizza, so we took a pizza, and a beer. The beer was only for me and Vlad, Florin decided he doesn’t want it. When I asked for a beer, the waitressed asked me if I want a big one or a small one. I said a small one. He made a little bit of a grimace, like “huh, those tourists, they can’t even have a full beer”. Anyway, after we ate and drank, we got up on our train and started to move. After about an hour, we got to a desert station and then we stopped. Everybody stepped down from the train and headed towards a small, empty parcel in the middle of the field, where a few buses were waiting. After asking around we found out that we should wait for the next bus to get to our hotel, which was just 20 minutes away, apparently. So, we waited like half an hour, in the middle of nowhere, 3 guys preparing to run a 220 km race. Eventually, the bus came, we hopped in again and, in 20 minutes, we were finally at our hotel. Where, in order to spice things up, there were good news and bad news. The good news was that we were just 100 meters away from the start. The bad news was that they didn’t have WiFi in the hotel. Nor in other parts of that small village. Well, maybe it will be good for our concentration, I said to myself. We checked in and then we went into the big tent where the opening ceremony was about to start, and picked our race kit. We also left the drop off bags. At that tent we also met the 2 other runners, Aris, who had a cyclist companion, and Attila. We exchanged encouragements and we asked from tips. Both Aris and Attila finished the race before. I remember very clear what Attila told us: “You have to love running. Each step is a step closer to the finish line. That’s how you finish Ultrabalaton. If you come with a super strategy to get a super time and stuff like that, Ultrabalaton will eat you alive. All you have to do is to be really happy about running and run with an easy heart. Even if you reach km 200, something may happen that will take you off the race. Just run happy, that’s the strategy.” And Attila first participation in Ultrabalaton was 23 hours and 55 minutes. It’s a dream time, for 220 km. We took part in the opening ceremony, which was kinda nice, although I couldn’t understand anything, they were talking 90% in Hungarian. After the ceremony, we just went to our rooms. I prepared whatever I had to prepare for the morning, and, after a short discussion with my room mate, Vlad, we made the schedule for the night. We decided to wake up at 3 AM, have breakfast, and then take another short nap, until 5 AM. That was because we needed to have the breakfast digested before the race start, which was at 6AM. And that was the beginning of our adventure. First published on: June 2, 2015 ### 🏃‍♂️ UltraBalaton 220km Series Preparation Part 2 of 8 View all 8 posts → (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/) ← Previous Goal Setting Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals - Ultrabalaton (/big-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton/) Next → Marathon 1 The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The First Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-first-marathon/) #### Complete Series: 1. Goal Setting: Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals - Ultrabalaton (/big-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton/) 2. Preparation: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Preparation (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-preparation/) 3. Marathon 1: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The First Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-first-marathon/) 4. Marathon 2: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Second Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-second-marathon/) 5. Marathon 3: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Third Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-third-marathon/) 6. Marathon 4: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Fourth Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-fourth-marathon/) 7. Marathon 5: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Fifth Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-fifth-marathon/) 8. Recovery: Ultrabalaton - The Aftermath Of A 222 Kilometers Race (/ultrabalaton-the-aftermath-of-a-222-kilometers-race/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Assess Decide Do URL: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do/ Published: 2009-06-07 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 122 Categories: Assess Decide Do, Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: assess, decide, do, framework, systems, taking action GTD is a wonderful methodology. I've been using it for more than 3 years and the benefits are unquestionable. I implemented it in several formats, from pen and paper to digital, and I can confess it really works. I'm productive and more efficient. But – you know, there is a but here – being productive and more efficient is not always enough. GTD is a methodology for getting things done, period. But there's so much more to life than just doing. For instance, how you get to know which are the things you want to do? How you know if it's ok to do those things and not other stuff? How can you assess your overall progress, your internal growth? Certainly, GTD falls short here. I assume that creating a life management framework wasn't David Allen's initial goal. All he wanted to do was to create a tool for making things happening and he succeeded wonderfully. Ironically, he opened a path which eventually made his tool obsolete, at least for me. I already wrote what I kept and what I left out from the GTD hype (/staying-gtd-over-the-hype/). And the reason why GTD is obsolete for me now is because I need something more: ### A Life Management Framework Doing stuff is ok. Constantly and effectively getting things done is even better. Is feeding you with self-respect and creates accountability. You have something to show, you did something. But after a while, I don't care much about doing things. I already created this habit and I'm doing it easier. Sometimes without even thinking, which makes me believe I reached that "mind like water" inner state. Then why I still feel frustrated? Why I still feel the need for something more? Why I'm not happy anymore just by doing things? Because I need a new paradigm. One that can accommodate my effectiveness with my doubts. My productivity with my laziness (which is not always laziness, maybe is contemplation or meditation). I need a framework to acceptably balance every aspect of my life, not just the doing part. A life management framework should do that. A life management framework is not a methodology, is not a software, is not a sequence of steps you follow blindly to your presumable redemption. Is just a framework, a wire frame for your own implementation. A life management framework should be light enough to be remembered in one sentence, but powerful enough to sustain your day to day activity as well as your long term goals. It's been several months since I came up with my own life management framework. I briefly noted in one of my posts (when I got back from my trip to Thailand (/trip-to-thailand-the-aftermath/)) that I will like to share something important for me. The reason I'm doing it only now is because I wanted to put it to test first. As a concept, as a mental projection sounded fine, but I needed to make an implementation for at least a couple of months. ### Introducing "Assess Decide Do" Life Management Framework As you may already guessed, ADD comes from Assess, Decide, Do. I will start with a brief explanation of the concepts and then I'll talk about each specific  part . At every given moment I can find myself in only one of these three stages: assessing, deciding or doing. I'm assessing my current options, I decide what I have to do, and then I do it. From the smallest context in which I may be, up to the long term goals, my overall activity will fall into one of these categories: assess decide do. Every time I have a constant flow between assessing, deciding and doing, I'm managing my life correctly. Every time I have an imbalance in one of these stage, I have difficulties. If I stay too long in an assessment stage I might lose opportunities or I might lose interest in the desired outcome. If I stay too short in the assessment stage I might lose some precious info, putting at risk my next steps: decision and doing. If I stay too much in the decision part I may never actually doing what I already assessed and decided. If I stay too little, the outcome might be different from what I wanted. And finally, if I'm not actually doing it – as in getting things done – the first initial phases were in vain. A successful ADD life management framework implementation should take care of only two things: - identify each of your current stage correctly: assessing, deciding or doing - assure a smooth flow between the current and the next stage It's not a big philosophy, but it's much harder to implement it then to write it. In programming, especially in OOP (Object Oriented Programming) tailoring this ADD framework to your needs would be called: "implementing the abstract class". Those are just principles, abstract notions and it's the task of the ADD life management framework to create an understandable, coherent wrapper on top of them. As a wire-frame, this life management framework should be defined in only 3 words: Assess, Decide, Do. Now let's talk about each of those 3 fundamental stages or realms. ### Assess You don't have to do everything on your agenda, unless you're a robot with no free will. You have to assess everything around and take into account as many information as you can about any specific task. Assessing is one of the most ignored states of the contemporary, modern individual. When you run furiously in your own rat race trap, you really don't have time to assess, you just run. I find assessing vital for a successful outcome of any task, goal or activity I start. If I'm not assessing it enough, if I'm not integrating it into my own personal system of values, bad things are happening. I might get that thing done, but I won't be pretty happy about it. To say the least. Doing something against your personal values is one of the worst things you can do to yourself. Integrating a specific task in your personal system of values is of course only one of the things you may want to do in the assessment stage, you can have tons of other things to assess, like the short or long term benefits, the opportunity, the resources availability and so on. You do this on the Assessment realm. I realized that assessing has a cumulative structure. I put together pieces of information, emotions, memories, until I come up with a specific object. When I can't add to it anymore, when it looks the same to me regardless of my standpoint, I know it's time to make a decision. Then, and only then, I can move to the decision realm. ### Decide As opposed to assessing, decision is a one point structure. Once you can't assess anything anymore, you decide what to do about it. You have only 2 options: - do it - don't do it If you decide to do it, you'll move to the Doing realm. If you decide not to do it, you'll discard the task completely. The nice thing about this dual attitude is that you won't have to postpone it. You simply decide you ain't gonna do it, period. You have the freedom to discard it completely or to move it back to the Assessment realm. If you can't do it now, maybe the future will bring some more info and you'll be in a better position to make a decision. But you made a decision about it, you can move on. If I know I have to make a decision about a specific topic I usually do it within a very small time span. Several minutes up to maximum 24 hours. I'm talking about regular, normal tasks like blogging or business. There are some situations in which the decision part can last several months, like moving to a new country (/why-going-to-new-zealand/) or relationship decisions. But if there's something within my current time horizon, I don't delay it more than 24 hours. Being in the Assessment realm before has a very big advantage: I already have all the info I need to work with. Now, if I decided I'll go further, all I have to do is to move into the Doing realm. ### Do Here is the place for methodologies like GTD. Here is the place in which I make lists and schedule tasks and actually check them as done. If there's something on my Do list, I know I already passed through 2 filters: Assess and Decide, so I don't have anything left to do about that task. Except doing it, of course. The Do realm can be repetitive and can last days or months. It's not a cumulative structure, although it can produce visible results, and it's not a one point structure. It's more like a flow. It's not unusual to be in the Doing stage for months, if I have a larger project, coding, for instance. Every Do activity or project can be planned and/or managed from within the Do realm, or at least I did it with good results. Whenever I finish doing some task or project, I go back to the Assessment realm, closing the circle. At this point, I finished an ADD cycle. In this cycle I included a lot of activities, from assessment, to decision making and to actually doing the specific project. Usually, whenever I finish an ADD cycle I have a very deep and powerful sense of well being. Every cycle I finish add to my self-respect in a way I never experienced before. Every ADD cycle is far more than a checked task on a list, is more like reaching the next level (/reaching-next-level/) on a spiral path (/the-spiral-path/). ### ADD Imbalances I couldn't finish this introductory article about ADD Life Management Framework- yeap, there will be more – without a short section dedicated to ADD possible imbalances. #### Assessing Stage Imbalances One of the most common assessing imbalances is the "analysis paralysis" syndrome. You keep thinking and thinking and don't do anything. You never move from that realm, you never get to decide what to do with all the information that you gathered so far. All you do is crunching information, in the hope that at some point that information will be useful to you. Another common assessing imbalance is the "I didn't know" excuse. You didn't know that your business was entering a crowded market so you went bankrupt in the first 6 months. Or you didn't know you're approaching an aggressive or lazy partner and your relationship is a mess now. If only you took some time to assess… #### Deciding Stage Imbalances The most common deciding imbalance is the "one day I'll have my own business" syndrome. In this case you took the decision but you aren't really doing anything to move further. Your decision is strong, you trust yourself and your hopes are high. But you're not doing anything, you just took a decision and never moved from there. Another deciding imbalance is very close to shyness: I'm not going to do this, because it won't matter or because I will feel terribly bad if everybody will look at me. Your assessment was complete, you moved to the point where you can actually start doing it, but you decide to quit. #### Doing Stage Imbalances The most common doing imbalance is the obsessed productivity freak. The guy that does stuff without thinking, just to be able to check some tasks done. This is the biggest productivity trap (/the-productivity-trap/) you can ever hit, and I saw quite often many promising careers falling down because of this. Just doing, without assessing and making the right decisions is a sure path to the underground world of the "still smiling but completely burned down inside" people. *** That was the introductory article about my life management framework. There will be more, because I am just scratching the surface with this one. But until then, I would love to hear your opinions, comments and suggestions. Do you believe in a life management framework? Do you recognize those 3 fundamental states in your activity: assessing, deciding, doing? Do you experience imbalances in any of the stages? First published on: June 7, 2009 ### ⚡ Assess-Decide-Do Framework Foundation Part 1 of 11 View all 11 posts → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) Next → Evolution Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) 2. Evolution: Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) 3. Stage 1: Assess: Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) 4. Stage 2: Decide: Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) 5. Stage 3: Do: Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) 6. Design & Meaning: Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) 7. AI Evolution: Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) 8. Skills Architecture: Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) 9. Ecosystem Expansion: From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) 10. Always-On Agent: Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) 11. Multi-Agent Council: LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do%2F&text=Assess%20Decide%20Do&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do%2F&t=Assess%20Decide%20Do https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do%2F&title=Assess%20Decide%20Do Previous ### The Spiral Path (/the-spiral-path/) Next ### Assess Decide Do stages – Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Personal Development With Dumbo URL: https://dragosroua.com/personal-development-with-dumbo.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/personal-development-with-dumbo/ Published: 2009-03-26 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 120 Categories: Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness Tags: courage, limiting beliefs, mindset, self awareness **2025 Update: ***this is one of the oldest and most popular posts on this blog – so I left it pretty much unchanged. But since I wrote it, I did many other explorations, so I added a few extra links to more recent content after some of the paragraphs. Enjoy.* I haven't yet met a single person who doesn't love the Dumbo cartoon. I confess I didn't know that cartoon until I bought it for Bianca, my 3 year old daughter (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl) and she is the one responsible for making me watch it for so many times even when I'm not quite in the mood. In today's post I'll share my discoveries about how Dumbo, the tiny little elephant with huge ears can help you discover your greatest power (/100-ways-live-better-life-80-stop-complaining/), improve your self-respect and become the person of your dreams. If you smiled while reading this, it's ok, it means we're actually getting there. 🙂 Personal development is not always a serious, rigid and rigorous process. It really can be a joyful and enjoyable adventure. In fact, if doing something is not at least a little bit of fun, I usually don't do it. ## The Dumbo Story Dumbo is a little and cute elephant born in a circus somewhere in Southern Florida. He's in every aspect identical with all other elephants in the world, except for one fact: Dumbo has huge ears. And I mean, really really huge ears. So big that it soon began to be mocked around by kids who constantly tease the little cub. In a matter of days it became the number one subject of the gossip in the circus. One day, the kids who were attending the show become so violent with teasing Dumbo, that his mother, in a very normal, parental attempt to protect its child, started hitting them. The circus manager put her in isolation, and from that moment Dumbo is all alone. The little elephant is forced to play in a dangerous circus act in which it has to jump in a bucket filled with water (/you-cant-sail-a-toy-boat-on-a-pierced-bucket/) from a house on fire. One night after this show, a little mouse came to Dumbo's place and they became friends. The little mouse talked with Dumbo trying to cheer him up and even took it to see its mother in the isolation wagon. Once they're back from Dumbo's mother, they're drinking some water from a bucket in which a wine bottle has been forgotten by some circus clowns. From this moment, Dumbo's life is going to change. After drinking they're having a famous "pink elephants" moment in which they're seeing fabulous creatures dancing and blending in each other (they're drunk, of course) and after this fantastic show they wake up in a…. tree. The birds in the tree are mocking them too and they have to leave. But the little mouse, Dumbo's only friend, is realizing that they couldn't possibly got to that tree other than… flying. The birds are laughing and mocking them even more, but after a touching speech in which the mouse is brilliantly protecting his friend, the "socially finished" elephant, the birds decide to help Dumbo learn to fly (/learning-to-fly-literally/). By using "psychology" and a feather stuck in Dumbo's nose, they succeed. Dumbo is actually flying. The rest is history: after his new skill (https://markmanson.net/skills-matter-more-than-goals) is perfected, Dumbo returns to the circus and he's assigned to the same show in which it has to jump from a tall building. This time, the mouse is getting ready to show the new flying talent of its friend, but somehow, they lose the magic feather that made Dumbo believe it can fly. They're both in the air, falling down faster. But suddenly, Dumbo realizes that his power doesn't lie in the feather but in himself, stops the falling and starts to fly in the circus, getting even on those men who were mocking at it. The cartoon ends with Dumbo flying above his own personal train in which of course he has all these new friends. ## Personal Development With Dumbo That's a nice and happy ending story. But what's even nicer it's what Dumbo can show us from a personal development perspective. ### 1. Your Biggest Flaw Can Become Your Greatest Asset Dumbo's huge ears made him a fantastic elephant, but only when he realized he can fly using them. Until that specific moment, those ears were only dragging him down, making him unhappy and frustrated because he was different. But different is good, different means you're unique. Don't hunt for things that makes you identical with other people, assess what's unique and different in you. It might be frustrating in the beginning because you can be rejected. But that's the only way you can contribute: by what's unique in you. If Dumbo was trying to cut its ears to the normal size its life would have been dull and insignificant. But keeping its own specific gifts made it become a miracle. Maybe you're not a fantastic beauty by all standards, but you're unique and precious. Nobody can be you. Your biggest difference can become your biggest asset. **2025 Update **– Further readings: - The Subtle Art Of Improvisation (/the-subtle-art-of-improvisation/) – How you can ride the tide of change with grace - Most Of The World Is Functioning At The Grape Level (/most-of-the-world-is-functioning-at-the-grape-level/) – When what we really aim for is the fine wine - Why Do We Have To Go "Deep" (/why-do-we-have-to-go-deep/) – Every massive advancement in our lives is a story of loss and achievement, both happening at the same time. ### 2. Real Friends Take You For What You Are The tiny little mouse was the change agent for Dumbo. The tiny little mouse was its friend. And it was a very honest and caring one. Never tried to convince Dumbo it could be better without those ears. In fact, it always tried to bring Dumbo at peace with itself. Your friends are not your competition, your friends will never try to change you, your real friends will always take you for what you are. It's easy to forget that and choose your friends like you choose your clothes: by their fashionability. The tiny little mouse is the actual progress maker, it is the one which pushes Dumbo to go over the limits. It's the one which helps the elephant to fly. He became his manager in the end, but hey, you would prefer a manager who taught you to fly before, or a manager who will try to rip you off by telling how "brilliant" you are every 5 minutes? Friends are honest. Friends are supportive no matter what. Don't push those guys away from your life. **2025 Update** – Further readings: - We versus I (/we-versus-i/) – How much should we "sacrifice" for "others"? - 5 Things Brewing Beer Taught Me About Relationships (/5-things-brewing-beer-taught-me-about-relationships/) – Sometimes it works, sometimes we learn. - People Placeholders (/people-placeholders/) – Learning to update our friends mental images every once in a while. ### 3. Transformative Experiences Are Always Difficult Dumbo is starting to fly after its "pink elephants" episode. He becomes unconscious and wakes up in an uncomfortable environment, in a tree. An elephant in a tree, imagine that! He has to really deal with his new environment, he has to adapt. And he learns to fly. A transformative experience is most of the time a difficult one. If Dumbo wouldn't have followed the "pink elephants" in the sky he would never have discovered he could fly. His life would have been so quiet and humble without this episode. But he followed the "pink elephants" and woke up in a tree. I really don't wanna say that you have to get drunk in order to trigger a transformative experience and I'm sure you already know that. What I'm telling is that getting out of your comfort zone (/5-ways-to-get-out-of-your-comfort-zone/) is always rewarding. Extremely difficult, but always rewarding. **2025 Update** – Further readings: - How To Overcome Frustration In 3 Easy Steps (/how-to-overcome-frustration-in-3-easy-steps/) – It's as simple as accepting that you're going through some tough stuff. - Discipline versus Motivation (/discipline-versus-motivation/) – One is guaranteed to take out of that difficult situation, the other isn't. Which is which? - Fear Is The Mind Killer (/fear-is-the-mind-killer/) – Don't. Just don't give in. ### 4. Trust Yourself Not The Magic Feather After Dumbo came back to the circus, when he wants to showcase his talent, the little magic feather that made him think he's a bird disappears. Dumbo finds himself in air, free falling, without a magic feather. He has only 2 choices: to trust the feather and fall down, or to trust himself and fly. Trusting the feather was not an option anymore, because he lost it. So, Dumbo chose to trust himself and started flying on his own. We all have scaffolds which help us achieve some difficult goals. We all have our own "magic feather" which puts us in the position to overcome difficulties. Our magic feather might be our daily motivational mantras, for example. Saying to yourself each and every day that you're a better person will eventually make you a better person. But that's only a feather. You have to learn how to be a better person by yourself, without a magic feather. At one moment, you'll be in air, falling down and with your mantras forgotten. At that moment you'll only have yourself. Trust in you. You'll fly. **2025 Update** – Further readings - Lifestyle Design (/lifestyle-design/) – Chose your actions, and shape your own life. - How To Accomplish Big Things (/how-to-accomplish-big-things/) – Simple: you achieve great things by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable things. - Monday Moving Forward – Renegotiate Some Commitments (/monday-moving-forward-renegotiate-some-commitments/) – Use your Mondays to assess, and get rid of the baggage that's holding you down. First published on: March 26, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpersonal-development-with-dumbo%2F&text=Personal%20Development%20With%20Dumbo&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpersonal-development-with-dumbo%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpersonal-development-with-dumbo%2F&t=Personal%20Development%20With%20Dumbo https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpersonal-development-with-dumbo%2F&title=Personal%20Development%20With%20Dumbo Previous ### Perfect versus Better (/perfect-versus-better/) Next ### How To Write An Ebook Using MacJournal (/how-to-write-an-ebook-using-macjournal/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Dream Big, Act Bigger URL: https://dragosroua.com/dream-big-act-bigger.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/dream-big-act-bigger/ Published: 2010-03-29 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 119 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration Tags: do, goals, motivation, taking action This is a guest post by Maren Donovan, @marenkate (http://twitter.com/marenkate). The famous words "I have a dream" have been used countless times to encourage, motivate and move people. What many never consider though is what if no one had ever acted on Dr. King's dream? Without action dreams are just that, dreams, they come to you in a flash and dissipate with the morning light. Instead of focusing on 'living your dreams' I like to focus on 'acting out my dreams' this is far more effective and what 99% of dreamers will never grasp. ### 6 Steps To Dreaming Big And Acting Even Bigger **1. What can't be quantified can't be qualified.** This is nerd speak for regardless of your dreams if you don't set up so type of 'plan' on how to execute them they will never become a reality. Think of it like this, if your child comes to you and says "Daddy I want to be a doctor" what would the steps be for them to reach that goal by age 30? No one in their right mind would imagine a parent responding "ok, well just sit there and in 20 years I am sure it'll happen". So why do people approach goals and dreams that way? Instead of laying down a strategic plan people would prefer to complain, sigh and make excuses on why they'll 'never lose weight', 'never meet the man of their dreams' or 'never get out of this dead end job'. It is as simple as setting your goals up, on paper and then tracking the simple steps that will get you there. The smaller the steps the better, this makes it easier to follow through with. Then as you hit each little goal you cross it off and feel the warmth of accomplishment wash over them. Hopefully after months of training your mind to both qualify and quantify you'll become an action taker who always looks for the steps to a goal instead of just desiring that goal to happen organically. **2. Learning baby steps. **The follow up to the last step would be breaking down goals into bite sized pieces that you can over all 'act on' instead of just think about. Here is a real life example of the baby steps I set for myself to escape the 9 to 5 and be able to live life on my own terms through having entrepreneurial income streams: 1. Figure out my passion: I wrote down a list of things I loved doing and then did research on which would be most profitable, had a decent market size and which niches within I could dominate. 2. Build a basic blog to document my progress: This is where my blog Escapingthe9to5.com came into play, more than a way for me to express myself it was a means to 'quantify' my progress and it gave me the added incentive of not embarrassing myself by failing in front of the few readers I had at the time. 3. Decide on a product/service to sell 4. Setting up monetary goals for 3 weeks, 3 months, 6 months and a years time. 5. Celebrate EACH little achievement. It helps you have something to look forward to and encourages you to keep going towards acting out your dreams. **3. Dreams aren't realistic, why should your goals be?** If there is a will there is a way, this sentiment is something my Mom has always told me and it is 100% true. Whatever you dream for your life, sans like becoming a Unicorn, you have as much of a chance as you give yourself to achieve. Literally the world is full of stories of the most unlikely candidates overcoming ridiculous odds to succeed and live a fabulous life. What obstacles do you face? I doubt they are that big when you look at the sufferings of the rest of the world, so in reality you have it easy… and you shouldn't waste your chance. So go for broke, make ridiculous goals, say you'll have a house in Bora Bora and you'll find the cure for cancer. The only thing holding you back is the actions to get to the point of fulfilling that dream, so if you map out the actions you CAN achieve the dream. **4. Actions generate response exponentially.** I have noticed a crazy trend as I take more and more actions in my life to create the kind of destiny I want. The more I act the easier the actions get and the more productive they seem to be. So it would seem that actions multiply and compound the more you practice doing vs. just thinking about it. **5. Failure is still action.** Is it better to have loved and lost? I don't know, but I do know that it is much better to have acted and failed than to never have acted at all. I have failed at things a good number of times in my young life and some people would say that if I hadn't taken so many leaps I wouldn't have failed so much, this is true, but I also wouldn't have succeeded ever, at all. Failure only makes the success at the end of the road that much sweeter! **6. Always bite off more than you can chew. **This flies in the face of logic and goes against every authority figure I have ever had, but it is 100% true in my book. Every great success I've had comes after I got in over my head or bit off more than I could chew. The reason behind jumping off the deep end is simple, when you HAVE to make it work 9 times out of 10 you will. It is just how the world works. The problem is all too often people never try and go in over their head because they've heard a million warnings on how that is a bad idea, not realizing that all success – at some level – has been born out of taking a plunge into uncharted waters… just look at Columbus. Hopefully this has inspired you to take a look at your life and really go grab whatever it is you want the most by the horns. There is a great quote by the author of The Magic of Thinking Big that simply states it how it is: **Action cures fear.** ***Author Bio:** Maren Donovan writes at Escapingthe9to5.com about entrepreneurship, motivation and, of course, escaping the 9 to 5 race.* First published on: March 29, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdream-big-act-bigger%2F&text=Dream%20Big%2C%20Act%20Bigger&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdream-big-act-bigger%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdream-big-act-bigger%2F&t=Dream%20Big%2C%20Act%20Bigger https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdream-big-act-bigger%2F&title=Dream%20Big%2C%20Act%20Bigger Previous ### Being A Digital Nomad – A Primer (/being-a-digital-nomad/) Next ### How to Deal With Rejection: 5 Fresh Ways to Look at Getting Rejected (/how-to-deal-with-rejection-5-fresh-ways-to-look-at-getting-rejected/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Defrag Your Mind In 5 Easy Steps URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-defrag-your-mind-in-5-easy-steps.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-defrag-your-mind-in-5-easy-steps/ Published: 2010-01-27 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 118 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: focus, goals, habits, how to This is a follow up to my post: "Are You The Best Version Of Yourself? (/are-you-the-best-version-of-yourself/)". Specifically, that article used a geeky metaphor, comparing our own being with a computer. In order to be sure you run the best version of yourself, a certain number of maintenance tasks have to be performed, such as "updating your drivers" or "stay virus free". In this post I'm going to detail on "Defrag your mind". ## Defrag Your Mind? What Exactly Is That? For the non-geeky versions of my readers, I will briefly outline what a defragmentation is. Although it sounds pretty harsh, it's nothing but an optimization process. The data on your computer hard-disk is not written and read in sequential order. It's broken down into smaller pieces and written at arbitrary locations. Now, after a certain period, the effort for retrieving that information, scattered around your entire hard-disk, could become really time consuming. This is where defragmentation comes in: it re-arranges the data on your hard-disk so it would be much more easier to access. The expected result of such a process is an increase in speed and a higher reliability of your equipment. In other words: you're going to work not only faster, but also much safer. Now, how can you do this to your mind? Here is my take on it, in 5 easy steps: ## 1. Chose Your Dominant Setup Maybe you'll be in travel mood for the next couple of weeks. Or maybe you'll have to deliver something big at your job. Or maybe you'll want to learn something new (/try-something-new/). Whatever the case, you'll have to identify your major focus in the next few days or weeks. This is what I call your "dominant" setup. It will be your main concern, your essential duty. Similarly, there are computer setups for video processing or for games. There are setups for text or image processing. Depending on these setups, your hard-disk algorithms may change. This is why it's important to do an assessment first and understand what are you going to perform in the next few weeks. You're going to setup your mind exactly for that. Based on this initial assessment, when you'll chose a dominant configuration for the next period. try to identify it with a single word or a small sentence: "finish project", "workout" or "visit Rocky Mountains". Your whole defragmentation process will target this dominant setup. ## 2. Identify Necessary Information Once you correctly identified the main concern for the next period, start to identify related areas. What information do you need to succeed? Are there any important actions you need to perform on a regular basis? Are there any specific attitudes you need to adopt? Any habits (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/) you need to implement? All these items are part of your main setup. Identifying your necessary information should be done rather slowly but thoroughly, than quickly and fuzzy. If you're going to establish a new algorithm for your main central unit, you'd better make sure you won't let out something important. That will only make the whole process slow if you'd have to go back and re-start it again. One tip in this step would be to make a log of it. If it's something about holiday, just write down the "cloud" of necessary information, actions and habits in a list format. Next time you go on a holiday, you'll have the info available and spend less time on assessing it. Another tip that could significantly shorten this step is to use mind-mapping. A non-linear document would be more appropriate for this process than a sequential one. ## 3. Establish Priorities You know the setup, you have the tools, now all you have to do is to establish priorities. If you ever witnessed a defragmentation, you saw that the most frequently accessed information is usually moved in the first sectors of your hard-disk. That would make it easier and faster to be accessed. And you're going to do exactly that: make things easier to manage. Identifying priorities is obviously closely related to the dominant setup. If you're going to work more than usual, then one of your priorities would probably be to have your laptop charged as often as possible. If your main setup would be traveling (/travel-as-a-personal-development-tool-the-how-to/) related, maybe the tool which should be constantly charged is your mobile phone. The easiest way to assess the priority is to use a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being the higher point of the scale. Take the previously gathered information and run it through this filter. Ok, this is a laptop, on a scale from 1 to 5 how important is that for my dominant setup? Ok, will give it a 2. Just start practicing and in time you'll get better at it. ## 4. Ignore The Unimportant One of the biggest clutter sources in our lives is the excess luggage we're carrying around because *we think* it's necessary. Or because somebody else has already decided for us it's necessary. Or simply because we didn't do any assessment whatsoever and we're still carrying around those lose ends. Our focus (/how-to-train-your-focus/) is too loaded with too many lenses. The 4th stage of your mind defragmentation should address exactly this question. If you moved all the important stuff closer to your core in the previous step, now you're going to take the unnecessary bits and pieces and move them far away from your reach. Don't get rid of them, of course, just offer them a well deserved break. 🙂 For instance, if you're going to travel, you may totally ignore your office suits. Push them away, ignore. If you're going to learn something new, decide you're going to cut on your distractions: ignore watching TV or social activities. The most important function of this step is to actually write down what are you going to ignore. Don't expect it to happen naturally. ## 5. Run A Dry Test Once your dominant new setup is in place, try to run a dry test. It won't have the benefits of actually implementing the whole things, but it will still be useful. Take 15 minutes to imagine a whole day, from the moment you wake up to the moment you get to bed. Every information you need is in place? Are your priorities well balanced? Is the clutter properly stowed away? If you're satisfied, congrats, you just had your first mind defragmentation. ## A Real Life Example ### 1. The Dominant Setup I do a little bit of defragmentation every time I enter a new milestone for my blog. One of the dominant setups this year would be "monetize my blog". These are at least 3 main functions I should perform under this new setup: - create new products - identify markets for the products - promote my new products - increase blog traffic ### 2. Necessary Information, Actions and Habits - focus on creating extra products (text, audio and video) - focus on promoting my blog via social media - allocate at least 2 extra hours each day for new products - evaluate the promotion and generated income ### 3. Establish Priorities - the most important thing: create products (priority 1) - the second most important thing: promote the products (priority 1) - the third most important thing: increase blog traffic (priority 2) ### 4. What To Ignore - spend less time reading other blogs - spend less time on other projects (workshops, for instance) - ignore alternative monetization like display advertising ### 5. Run A Dry Test As you may already know I already have 5 books published on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dragos+roua&x=0&y=0&sprefix=dragos+r) and things are going pretty well on this direction. The dry-test started on early January and just finished a few days ago when my 5th book was approved. I know how my dominant setup will look like for the next few months. 🙂 Well this is how a basic mind defragmentation process looks like. This is really sketchy but I hope you got the idea. ## How Often To Defrag? Similar concepts in productivity metodologies (like GTD), suggests that a thorough review should be done weekly. In my experience, there's no need for a weekly review in order to keep your mind defragged. It's more about how often you will change your dominant setup, or your goals. This is also closely related to your own lifestyle. For instance, I do think you should do a defrag every time you leave on holiday, but only if a holiday will mean a major shift in your regular lifestyle. If your current lifestyle is a nomadic one, living location independent, maybe you should do a defrag every time you check in to a new country. *** What are your thoughts on this one? Do you see any more steps involved in the process? Do you see the process with even fewer steps? Would you try this? Did you already tried it but under a different name? Would love to hear from you in the comments. *Translations of this post:* Spanish (Como desfragmentar tu cerebro (http://saifgen.blogspot.com/2010/01/como-desfragmentar-tu-cerebro-en-5.html)). photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/125992663@N02/14414381350/ First published on: January 27, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-defrag-your-mind-in-5-easy-steps%2F&text=How%20To%20Defrag%20Your%20Mind%20In%205%20Easy%20Steps&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-defrag-your-mind-in-5-easy-steps%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-defrag-your-mind-in-5-easy-steps%2F&t=How%20To%20Defrag%20Your%20Mind%20In%205%20Easy%20Steps https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-defrag-your-mind-in-5-easy-steps%2F&title=How%20To%20Defrag%20Your%20Mind%20In%205%20Easy%20Steps Previous ### How To Write List Posts – 100 Tips (/how-to-write-huge-list-posts/) Next ### How To Be A Great Blogger (/how-to-be-a-great-blogger/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # AI and the Golden Era of Instant Gratification URL: https://dragosroua.com/ai-and-the-golden-era-of-instant-gratification.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/ai-and-the-golden-era-of-instant-gratification/ Published: 2026-01-06 Views: 117 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Personal Development Tags: ai tools, coding, habits, mindset, self discipline In the late 1960s, a Stanford psychologist named Walter Mischel put preschoolers in a room with a marshmallow. The rules were simple: eat it now, or wait fifteen minutes and get two. Some kids ate immediately. Others waited. Mischel tracked them for decades. Turned out that the ones who waited had better SAT scores, lower body mass indexes and better stress management. Delayed gratification (/the-marshmallow-test-they-got-it-all-wrong/), the experiment suggested, was a predictor of success. The experiment (which was later replicated (https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-35625-013), with even more interesting findings) became a staple of self-help literature. Discipline defines destiny. The ability to resist now in favor of later separates winners from losers. And then came AI. "ChatGPT, find me flights to Lisbon under 200 euros." "Claude, code a script that processes these CSV files." "Gemini, summarize these three hours of meetings into action items." These aren't hypotheticals, this is a regular Tuesday morning for millions of people. Tasks that required effort—sometimes hours of it—now take seconds. The search, the comparison, the learning curve, the context switching, the debugging? All absorbed by something that never gets tired. I catch myself doing it more and more. Something that would have taken me an afternoon to research now takes a prompt and thirty seconds. The marshmallow doesn't exist anymore. There's no waiting anymore. You get both marshmallows now. And this is where I think it gets really interesting. For the first time in human history, we have a technology that changes the relationship between effort and outcome. Not like tractors replaced manual farming (/10-ways-in-which-artificial-intelligence-is-disrupting-our-lives/). Not like calculators replaced mental math. Those were just tools, amplifiers. This is different. This is the compression of cognitive labor itself. Think about what we actually learned during those hours of searching for flights. We built a mental map of airline routes. We developed intuition for price fluctuations. The friction forced us to evaluate whether the trip was worth it at all. Now that friction is gone. The thinking happens elsewhere. What happens to a generation that grows up without that friction? I don't think anything apocalyptic will happen. But I do think something very relevant – generational level relevant – is just around the corner. Here's what I'm watching for: ## 1. Society will split on patience Some people will become remarkably impatient with anything that can't be delegated to AI. If a task takes more than a few minutes and AI could do it, they'll feel it as wasted time. Others will go the opposite direction. They'll deliberately choose slowness. They'll see patience (/presence-patience-and-frustration/) as something worth protecting. Right now, patience is still considered a universal virtue. In ten years, it might be a lifestyle choice. Something you opt into, like meditation or digital detox. ## 2. Doing things the hard way will become a status symbol When mass production made goods cheap, handmade became expensive. Artisanal products carry a premium precisely because they're inefficient. The same thing will happen with cognitive work. Hand-coded websites. Manually researched travel itineraries. Essays written without AI assistance. What I call bio-content (/bio-content/), provably human generated content. The process itself will become the product. We already see early signs. And I think this will only grow. ## 3. Knowing what to ask becomes the new skill The marshmallow experiment didn't test what you did with the extra marshmallow. It only tested whether you could wait. Maybe that's the new test. Not whether you can do the work, but whether you know what work to request. Whether you can orchestrate AI tools effectively. Whether you can evaluate the output. Prompting well, directing AI, knowing when to trust it and when to verify—these are becoming real competencies. In some fields, they already matter more (/ai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it/) than the underlying technical skills. ## 4. The capacity for difficulty might weaken This is the one that concerns me most. There's a specific capacity that develops when you stay with something difficult. Not because you have to, but because that's how capability builds. The willingness to be confused. The patience to debug for hours. The tolerance for not knowing. If every hard thing can be outsourced, what happens to that capacity? I'm not sure we know yet. But attention without regular exercise tends to weaken. Muscles you don't use atrophy. I suspect the same is true for the ability to persist through difficulty (/building-self-discipline/). I've been coding since 1987 (/about-me/). I've built companies, written thousands of blog posts, run ultramarathons (/how-running-ridiculously-long-distances-can-help-you/). Most of my skills were built through repetitive, often frustrating effort. Hours of debugging. Days of research. Months of building physical resilience that only 0.00001% of the people on this planet can reach. My children will never experience the world the same way. Their cognitive friction will be much lower – if any at all. Is that a problem? I genuinely don't know. Maybe the friction I remember fondly was just waste. Maybe the real skill was always something else—creativity, connection, judgment—and the grunt work was just the price we paid because we had no alternative. Or maybe delayed gratification wasn't just a predictor of success. Maybe it was the training itself. We're running the marshmallow experiment in real time: an entire generation raised with AI as cognitive infrastructure. We'll know the results in about twenty years, maybe sooner. Until then, I'll keep asking Claude to help me code things faster. And I'll keep doing some things the hard way, just to make sure I still know what it feels like. First published on: January 6, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-and-the-golden-era-of-instant-gratification%2F&text=AI%20and%20the%20Golden%20Era%20of%20Instant%20Gratification&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-and-the-golden-era-of-instant-gratification%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-and-the-golden-era-of-instant-gratification%2F&t=AI%20and%20the%20Golden%20Era%20of%20Instant%20Gratification https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-and-the-golden-era-of-instant-gratification%2F&title=AI%20and%20the%20Golden%20Era%20of%20Instant%20Gratification Previous ### How To Win a Hackathon in South Korea (/how-to-win-a-hackathon-in-south-korea/) Next ### Frugality Is Precision, Not Deprivation (/frugality-is-precision-not-deprivation/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The 7 Traits Of Highly Successful Bloggers URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers/ Published: 2010-01-13 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 110 Categories: Blogging, Success and Wellness Tags: blogging journey, creativity, list post, persistence What makes a blogger successful? What are the common traits of highly effective bloggers? If you've even remotely tried to launch your own blog (http://monetizepros.com/), that question surely popped into your head at some point. And I bet it was rather sooner than later. I have more than a year of blogging as a pro (/the-first-year-of-blogging-the-series/). And before starting to blog for a living I was an avid consumer of other blogs. I think I have in my RSS reader feeds I read for more than 5 years now. Gradually, I developed my own set of blog appreciation rules. And of course, if you've carefully read the title of this post, those rules are no more than 7. In today's article I'll write about what I think is the recipe for being a successful blogger. ## 1. Authority This is what makes a blogger *believable*. Authority creates trust. And trust makes you spend your precious time on that specific blog instead of doing something else. Because you know it's worth doing it. You know you're in for something. You've been there before and you weren't disappointed. Your expectations were met again and again. Have you ever wondered what makes you click the links of a popular blog? What makes you follow that advice or buy that product? What makes a blogger believable?  It's not his identity, nor his persistence, although both are part of the success mix, but his authority. You believe a blogger because you trust him. Without authority a blog will be floating. It may jump every now and then if it touches some hot topics but if it doesn't build a significant level (/reaching-next-level/) of authority, it will drift away, at the mercy of fashion. I think one of the most respected blogs in the marketing niche, for instance, is Seth Godin's blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/). Seth's authority was previously built by his books but it somehow spread over his blog. The person vouches for the blog in this case. ## 2. Authenticity This is what makes a blogger *accepted*. Being honest. Being human. Being able to make mistakes (/the-fine-art-of-making-mistakes/) and accept them publicly. Blogging is such a fantastic media revolution not because it created a super hero, like cinema, but because it made the normal, average, human guy able to openly express his intentions, dreams, challenges. And made those opinions instantly available. Authority without authenticity won't build a successful blog. It may create a solid corporation, but not a sustainable blog. With any interaction, people are unconsciously trying to find themselves in the other guy. It's a human need, called validation, we all need that. If, as a blogger, you don't reach out openly, without being afraid, you're in the wrong business. One of the most famous examples of  authenticity is, at least for me, Steve Pavlina's blog (http://www.stevepavlina.com). If you read it just for a few minutes you couldn't but notice that vibe of authenticity which makes Steve so popular even when he's allegedly "deluding" in some of the not-so-mainstream explorations like polyamory or, recently, BDSM or alike. ## 3. Accessibility This is what makes a blogger *palatable*. Accessibility makes a blog available, ready to be consumed. It's the way you write, the way you wrap up your message, the package by which you deliver your goods. If you want to be popular as a blogger, keep in mind that your audience is extremely diverse. It takes much more work than you think to write in an accessible way (/how-to-write-compelling-content-for-your-blog/). This quality is often overlooked in almost all bloggers rankings I saw. Usually, authority and authenticity are the main criteria, but there's no point in being an authority if you can't deliver a readable, straightforward message to your readers. Regardless of your expertise, a clear, accessible blog will always increase your chances to a broader audience. The most brilliant example of an accessible blog is Brian Clark's Copyblogger.com (http://copyblogger.com). It amazes me how Brian writes in such an easy to understand way about really complicated topics, like the art of persuasion. Copyblogger.com is popular because it provides easy to understand access to incredibly complicated issues, not the other way around. ## 4. Persistence This is what makes a blogger *wanted*. Persistence creates demand. Showing up constantly and doing what you have to do will build a sense of expectation among your readers. They will know you're there for them. They will wait for you, call for you or ask things from you. Constantly broadcasting your message will create a certain frequency in your readers minds (/how-to-defrag-your-mind-in-5-easy-steps/). They will just tune in. Now, try to imagine a blog with only one article per month. How would this feel to you? Like a joke, I know. Or imagine a series of 5-6 fantastic articles in a week and then several months of silence. No way. Being there is fundamental, can't be avoided or faked. They say showing up is 80% of success. I doubt it will be exactly 80% but it's without a doubt compulsory to show up persistently in order to build a successful blog. Few people know that several years ago, when he started Problogger.net, one of the most visited blogs on the planet, Darren Rowse only wanted an increase of 10% in traffic from month to month. That tells a lot about how far he was ready to go with it. Problogger.net (http://problogger.net) may not be the most spectacular blog on this planet, but it surely is one of the most constant, reliable and respected. And the persistence of the author plays a big role in that. ## 5. Connectivity This is what makes a blogger *available*. Connectivity creates links. All kind of links, from plain HTML, PR-juice enabled links, up to human contacts. One of the fundamental characteristics of a successful blogger is his ability to be broadcast as far as possible. And here's where connectivity (/the-30-secret-rules-of-social-media/) plays a fundamental part. All A-listers are virals, without exception. Have you ever wondered how many interactions a successful bloggers has in a normal day? My wild guess is that this number is at least 10 times higher than the average. Just imagine reading dozens of comments (and perhaps responding each of them), interacting on Twitter, or Facebook or Digg. You can't really do that if you're socially impaired. One of the bloggers who could always be studied in schools for that is, in my opinion, Chris Brogan (http://chrisbrogan.com). I've been following closely his work in the last few years and his growth was literally explosive. I think he directly interacts with more than 500 persons each day. Guess what? Those persons are also the broadcasters for his message. How many persons are broadcasters for your message? ## 6. Creativity This is what makes a blogger *valuable*. Creativity triggers admiration. We admire a blogger not because of his authority or authenticity, but because of what he brings new and beautiful in this world. For his capacity to innovate, to re-create his environment, to embellish and refine. Many successful bloggers actually created their niche from the scratch, they built something out of nothing. This ability to re-organize the Universe in a new form, to create value (/creating-value/) and to touch others is by far my favorite trait from all 7. Without this ability a blogger would offer no more than a Wikipedia entry, valuable advice but flat, with no human touch, no improvement, no spark. My favorite creative blogger right now is Gary Vaynerchuk (http://garyvaynerchuk.com/). For a guy who makes a living by drinking wine (joking, of course) he's unbelievably creative: he re-invented  video blogging and he wrote a book not about Chardonnay, but about how to follow your passion! That's creativity, that's building something where there was nothing before. ## 7. Identity This is what makes a blogger *recognizable*. I chose the word identity because "personal branding" would have been a little bit too precious. But personal branding is what I meant by it. Identity is what makes you unique. It's that square centimeter you own in your readers' cortex, the same way you own real estate. It's the instant link they make between a certain niche and your name as a blogger. Did you observed how many times we actually use the name of a successful blogger to identify a niche? In blogging, the capacity to build a unique, easily recognizable identity (or brand, for what matters) is the difference between two identical copies of a newspaper. You may talk about the same things, have the same level of authority and the same creativity as other bloggers, but what makes you different is your brand. Your personal brand. For instance, Leo Babauta identity would be tied up in my brain with the following concept: "minimalist productivity". Whenever this concept pops out in a conversation, the first person I think about is Leo Babauta, creator of ZenHabits.net (http://zenhabits.net). That's his identity. His brand. I'm sure there are a lot of other bloggers writing about minimalism, but their identity may not be as strongest as his. At least for me. *** Of course, all the aforementioned bloggers are sharing all the 7 traits, I just had to chose which one was the most representative for each. What are your thoughts on this? Do you have any examples of successful bloggers where you can identify one, two or all of these traits? Do you, as a blogger, have all of them? Would love to hear your comments. First published on: January 13, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers%2F&text=The%207%20Traits%20Of%20Highly%20Successful%20Bloggers&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers%2F&t=The%207%20Traits%20Of%20Highly%20Successful%20Bloggers https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers%2F&title=The%207%20Traits%20Of%20Highly%20Successful%20Bloggers Previous ### The Simple Motivational Guide to Take Action (/the-simple-motivational-guide-to-take-action/) Next ### 14 Ways To Say Yes (/14-ways-to-say-yes/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Why I Built AI Kiddo, A Kids Vocabulary App (and How) URL: https://dragosroua.com/why-i-built-ai-kiddo-a-kids-vocabulary-app-and-how.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/why-i-built-ai-kiddo-a-kids-vocabulary-app-and-how/ Published: 2026-02-21 Views: 106 Categories: iPhone, Parenting Tags: apps, family, ios development, personal story When our one-year-old started to watch cartoons on iPad, we mostly used YouTube. He learned very soon how to scroll, how to pick new videos from the "related" column, and, sometimes, he even accidentally subscribed to some channels. ## The Accidental UX Researcher The more he watched, the more a clear UX pattern emerged. He didn't care about the content — he cared about the *interaction*. Swipe. Tap. Something happens. Swipe again. New thing. Tap again. Sound comes out. That loop was deeply satisfying for him, and, honestly, it was fascinating to watch. A one-year-old who can't form full sentences yet, but who had already internalized the core interaction patterns of one of the most used apps on the planet. And that's when the question hit me. So one day I thought: "what if I mimicked the same UX on iPad, but with different content? Instead of the main video, some object image. The related column will scroll to related objects. And instead of Subscribe, we will have buttons to SPEAK that word in Romanian, English, and Vietnamese?" ## Three Languages, One Kitchen Table Now, a bit of context here. Our family is a beautiful linguistic mess. I'm Romanian, my wife is Vietnamese, and we talk to each other in English. So our kid is essentially growing up in a trilingual household, which is both a gift and a daily coordination challenge. At any given moment, the same object on the kitchen table has three names, and all three are correct. This multilingual reality is what made the idea click. YouTube was teaching him to swipe and tap, but it wasn't teaching him words — at least not the words we wanted him to learn, in the languages we needed him to hear. It took me less than half of an afternoon to make the MVP, so we started to test. The first version was rough — just a handful of household items with images, a scrollable list on the right, and three language buttons. That's it. No animations, no fancy design, just the bones of the idea. Initially, he was surprised there was no video, but the UX patterns were the same. He scrolled, he clicked, and he tapped the language buttons. Within minutes, he was navigating the app the same way he navigated YouTube. He'd pick an object — say, a chair — see the image, and then tap the Romanian button. "Scaun." Tap the Vietnamese button. "Ghế." Tap English. "Chair." Then scroll to the next object and do it all over again. That was the moment I knew this wasn't just a weekend hack. This was something real. That's how AI Kiddo was born. ## From MVP to App Store I spent the next few weeks turning the MVP into a proper app. Built it in SwiftUI, kept it lean and focused. No backend, no analytics, no third-party SDKs — this is a kids' app, and I take that seriously. Everything runs locally on the device. The text-to-speech uses Apple's built-in AVSpeechSynthesizer, which means it works offline and doesn't send any data anywhere. The content is organized into packs. You get three free starter packs right out of the gate — Around the House, Kitchen Essentials, and Bathroom Basics. That's about 50 objects your kid can explore without paying anything. If they (or you) want more, there are twelve expansion packs covering everything from Animals and Food to Numbers, Colors, Body Parts, Actions, and even Weather. Each pack is $0.99, or you can grab the whole bundle for $2.99. And here's the part I'm probably most proud of: it doesn't just do three languages. It does eight. English, Romanian, Vietnamese, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Korean. You pick which languages you want to display in the settings, and only those show up as buttons. So if your family is Franco-German, you configure it for French and German. If you're a Korean family living in Spain, you set it to Korean and Spanish. The app adapts to your family's actual linguistic landscape. ## Simple UI Is The Best UI The UI stays true to the original insight — it still mimics the two-panel layout that my son had already mastered from YouTube. On iPad, you get a split view: the object image takes up the left two-thirds of the screen, and the scrollable list of items sits on the right. On iPhone, it stacks vertically. Big touch targets everywhere — we're talking 60 to 80 points minimum — because toddler fingers are not exactly precision instruments. I also added a parental gate, because App Store requires it for kids' apps, and honestly, it makes sense. Before any purchase or external link, there's a simple math challenge (something like "15 + 23 = ?") that a toddler definitely can't solve. It keeps the experience safe and gives parents control. One thing I deliberately left out: gamification. No stars, no streaks, no "you did it!" pop-ups. The reward IS the interaction. Tap a button, hear a word. That's it. Kids don't need to be tricked into learning — they just need the right tool at the right moment. Now it's live on the App Store with 8 integrated languages, 15 content packs, and over 300 vocabulary items. Instead of watching only cartoons, our son is also actively exploring words in multiple languages, building vocabulary at his own pace, driven by the same swipe-and-tap patterns that YouTube accidentally taught him. Sometimes the best product ideas don't come from market research or competitor analysis. They come from sitting on the couch, watching a one-year-old accidentally subscribe to a Cars on the Road channel, and thinking: "There has to be a better use for this skill." P.S. That's not my first attempt to solve real-life problems by coding. Stay tuned, there might be another story about how I won against Mekong Delta mosquitoes soon… If you want to test it, you can download it for free from here: https://apps.apple.com/pt/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566?l=en-GB (https://apps.apple.com/pt/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566?l=en-GB) First published on: February 21, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-i-built-ai-kiddo-a-kids-vocabulary-app-and-how%2F&text=Why%20I%20Built%20AI%20Kiddo%2C%20%20A%20Kids%20Vocabulary%20App%20(and%20How)&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-i-built-ai-kiddo-a-kids-vocabulary-app-and-how%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-i-built-ai-kiddo-a-kids-vocabulary-app-and-how%2F&t=Why%20I%20Built%20AI%20Kiddo%2C%20%20A%20Kids%20Vocabulary%20App%20(and%20How) https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-i-built-ai-kiddo-a-kids-vocabulary-app-and-how%2F&title=Why%20I%20Built%20AI%20Kiddo%2C%20%20A%20Kids%20Vocabulary%20App%20(and%20How) Previous ### The (Surprising) Long Term Benefits of Continuous Learning (/the-surprising-long-term-benefits-of-continuous-learning/) Next ### Lessons Learned While Vibe Coding an iOS App in 7 Days, from Idea to App Store – Genesis Prompt Inside (/lessons-learned-while-vibe-coding-an-ios-app-in-7-days-from-idea-to-app-store-genesis-prompt-inside/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 30 Sentences For A Millionaire Mindset URL: https://dragosroua.com/30-sentences-for-a-millionaire-mindset.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/30-sentences-for-a-millionaire-mindset/ Published: 2008-10-29 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 105 Categories: Business, Money and Wealth, Personal Development, Productivity and Effectiveness, Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness, Time management Tags: financial freedom, list post, money mindset One of the most common questions from media people after my first successful exit as an entrepreneur was: "After 10 years of online business, are you a millionaire now?". The value of the transaction was confidential, so I decided to give them a somehow foggy answer: "Well, I was a millionaire while I had the business, I just didn't have it transformed into cash…" Without exception, they were puzzled by this answer. That reinforced once again for me the very popular obsession for *money as a number*. I wrote about money as an energy form (/making-money-with-a-purpose/) before, so I won't talk about it again, feel free to read that post if you haven't read it yet. Basically, for me, the most important thing about money is not its number or social value, but the raw energy it provides to you. Being a millionaire out of an online business is not so rare these days anyway, so the question was even funnier to me. But the "being a millionaire obsession" is still very common, and as I said, that question was one of the most frequent questions I had to answer, and not only from media people, if I think a little bit. And then I sat down and tried to understand what is a millionaire. From a financial standpoint is clear: a guy with more than one million in bank. But from my own standpoint it wasn't like this. Being a millionaire is not a question of money into bank. I was very honest when I responded that I was a millionaire before selling the business, and this is how I felt. I think being a millionaire is more of a mindset than a bank statement. Being in a millionaire mindset means you can access that amount of money if you want. You just can. It's not compulsory, or needed. But it's like an insurance. If you need that amount, you can have it. By selling the asset's of your company, for instance. And than I started to think about the elements of such a mindset. I thought about what I have done in the last 10 years, and how all of this rearranged in this mindset. I come up with around 30 sentences, which I will try to describe below. Keep in mind that these are my personal experiences only, and they may or may not apply to your own lifestyle, expectations or goals. Also, this is not even remotely a manual of how to become a millionaire. As I told you, I don't know much about it and by reading this post you won't learn how to put a million cash in your bank account. All I know is how I created a millionaire mindset, without having the physical money. Weather you should manifest or not the physical money is entirely up to you. I will try to split the list into 10 sentences per post. Here we go, with the first 10: ## 1. Don't buy stuff you don't want just because you need to spend money, buy something you really really want That's a tremendous money saver. It deals with all your impulse shopping crisis, or social pressure for cool gadgets, or you name it. If you manage to really buy things just because you need them, and not because you need to spend money in order to have some thrills and chills out of it, you're half way there. You're piling energy. ## 2. Don't be afraid to want things, regardless of their money value That could be interpreted as contradicting with the first sentence but it isn't. It's about giving yourself freedom to want what you really want, without putting a tag or a limit on it. It might costs millions of dollars, but allow yourself to want that thing, even if you don't have millions of dollars. Yet. You will attract that money. Eventually. ## 3. If you really really want to have something, just have it, don't fantasize about having it Again, you might think this is opposed to the last sentence, but it isn't. It's about really going after what you want, until you have it. Just go and have that car, or that computer, or that relationship if you really, really want it. Don't settle for less. It might feel like you don't have the resources for it at that exact moment, but that's an indicator of the fact that you don't want that thing enough. Yet. ## 4. Carry more cash in your wallet Might sound dumb, I agree. But it just works. Make your wallet capable to accommodate your day to day operations. If you aim for millions of dollars but you are not able to pay your parking lot, you won't have those millions, that's for sure. Carry more cash but don't spend more cash if you don't need that (that would be sentence no. 1, in case you already forget it 😉 ) I built addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) to help you actually get things done. Assess what matters, Decide what's next, Do the work. ## 5. Understand what people want from you The easiest and most enjoying way to make money is to get it in exchange for the value you provide. If you're going to make money this way, it's crucial to know what people want from you. It's incredible how most of the people are making assumptions about what they are supposed to give. Just make sure that you know exactly what people want from you. And, if you can, deliver. ## 6. Understand what you can offer to people Closely related to no. 5. If you get to know what people want from you, start finding what you can offer. Maybe they are asking you something impossible or two draining form you? Look inside yourself, assess your skills and values, and see where you can do best. And then try to connect with people that seem to be in need for what you seem to have to offer. And deliver. ## 7. Don't argue, win or lose Especially if you work in partnerships, this is one useful way to gain some time on your side. You will have different opinions at some point, that's for sure. Trying too hard to win a fight with your associate (or your client, or your employee) will just kick you off the road. Accept the fact that you can either lose or win, and chose one. And then move on. ## 8. Don't think about the money, think about what you can do with the money This is difficult because there is a whole management pressure to think in terms of budgeting stuff. In terms of: x money for x things. Instead, try to use: I want to do this thing, and for that I will need that amount of money. It's not about forgetting the budgeting, but about trashing away the numbers in money, and only think at their creative support for your purpose. ## 9. Keep a healthy lifestyle Can't stress enough on this one. Not wasting your body and mind energy is the greatest gift you can make to yourself, regardless of your millionaire status. And starting to have a congruent body vibration will soon attract similar vibrations around you. If you're wasting your time in dully yet spectacular activities, which in turns puts your body to unneeded stress, then expect some delays in your goal to become a millionaire. Money likes healthy people. ## 10. Say only what you want to say Don't speak if you don't have to, just because you can. That sentence can have a dramatically impact on your activities. Some people will want to take your mind with their mind, just to play you, or to abuse you. Although it might be useful from an experimental standpoint, if you really want to attract more money, just say only what you want to say, and don't allow yourself to be fooled around. It's much more complicated than it sounds, I know… So, that's it for the first part, hope it was at least some food for thoughts. In the next post I'll share my next 10 sentences for a millionaire mindset. Meanwhile, feel free to comment on those first 10. First published on: October 29, 2008 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F30-sentences-for-a-millionaire-mindset%2F&text=30%20Sentences%20For%20A%20Millionaire%20Mindset&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F30-sentences-for-a-millionaire-mindset%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F30-sentences-for-a-millionaire-mindset%2F&t=30%20Sentences%20For%20A%20Millionaire%20Mindset https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F30-sentences-for-a-millionaire-mindset%2F&title=30%20Sentences%20For%20A%20Millionaire%20Mindset Previous ### How To Make Fake Meat On A Raw Food Diet (/how-to-make-fake-meat-on-a-raw-food-diet/) Next ### 30 Sentences For A Millionaire Mindset – part two (/30-sentences-for-a-millionaire-mindset-part-two/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 44 Tips for Traveling Long Distance URL: https://dragosroua.com/44-tips-for-traveling-long-distance.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/44-tips-for-traveling-long-distance/ Published: 2009-10-30 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 105 Categories: Travel and Fun Tags: digital nomad, list post, long distance travel, long term travel, planning, travel *2025 Update: since its initial publication, this post went through many edits, to reflect the current state of my reality.* Last year I traveled more than I traveled in my entire life. I've been on 4 continents and circled the Earth 2 times by plane. It was an exciting time, knowing my propensity for travel as a personal development tool (/travel-as-a-personal-development-tool/), but it was also pretty draining. Never having long distance trips until that was definitely a huge roadblock for me. I had to learn on the fly (sometimes, literally on the fly). Somewhere between my 2nd and 3rd trip I started to write down some simple steps I should follow, sort of self directed tutorial. For your information, long distance traveling means for me one to two weeks trips which includes at least a transcontinental flight longer than 7-8 hours. Here is a (hopefully incomplete) list of tips I gathered last year. Looking at it, I just know there is so much more to be explored, but I can't avoid a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment for already being in all the beautiful places I've been so far. If you're an experienced traveler, this list will look like common sense, but if you're just starting out you may find out some simple, practical, yet most of the time underrated advice. ## Packing For Long Distance *If possible, you should automate as much as you can. I'm easily bored, so packing is just not my stuff. Whenever I can put this on auto-pilot, I put it.* ### 1. Make A Standard Packing List And refine it every trip. I do have a minimal packing routine and I always start by getting it done first. After my minimum is done, I try to figure out what exactly I need in rapport to that specific destination: is it going to be clothing? Or maybe some specific medicines I should carry on? Sun glasses and sunscreen? I'm usually done in one hour, regardless of the final destination. ### 2. Pack Light Especially when you're going long distance try to understand that you can't really take with you everything. Packing light means to have a bare minimum and then a little bit of extra. But not more. Most of the stuff you'll need in case of an emergency will be available at the destination too, so instead of carrying too much with you, better have a little more cash. ### 3. Have At Least 5 Kilos Less Than The Airplane Limit Usually, the maximum accepted weight for a bag is 20 kilos. So, instead of trying to figure out how to reach that limit with more stuff from home, try to go with at least 5 kilos less. You will badly need those kilos for stuff you'll got home from the destination. On my first trip I had to actually leave some clothes to my friends to make room for some presents. ### 4. Load Your Digital Companion I use my iPhone as my travel mate (and addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) as my planning app). So, I make sure I load it with everything I need just as I pack my bag with clothes and personal hygiene stuff. I download static maps on the GPS app, some video or audiobooks for the plane and make sure that I have enough space for photos. ### 5. Take Some Meds It's a good idea to have some light meds with you. Depending on where you go, taking some prophylactic shots in advance is also a very good idea. I usually carry some antibiotics, some bandaids and some digestive pills. I stick them in a pocket of my personal hygiene bag and I only verify the expiration date each time I get on a new trip. ### 6. Have And Use A Local Dictionary Again, I use my iPhone for that and it does a great job. I have a number of dictionaries, especially for exotic countries, like Japan (/the-trip-to-japan-first-impressions/), or Thailand (/trip-to-thailand-the-aftermath/). Whenever I get the chance I exercise my language skills with locals. It's one of the best parts of my long distance travels. And since I'm not a native English speaker, I can also use a plain English dictionary as well. 2025 Update: *Since this post was written, things changed a lot here. Now I just use Google Translate or some artificial intelligence (/category/artificial-intelligence/) companion.* ### 7. Get An Universal Plug Adapter They have different plugs in Europe, United States, Oceania or parts of Asia. It's better to get an universal kit that would become part of your standard list above, especially if you're part of the digital nomads tribe, as I am. You can get adapters for free during your stay in hotels but form the 3rd or 4th travel it's easier to just make it part of your baggage. ## Planning *I like the feeling of randomly putting my finger on an Earth map, making that spot my destination. But between that gesture and the actual plane take-off there's a little bit of extra action. It's important and it's about planning.* ### 1. Book Your Flight And Hotel Together You will get some discounts if you do that and it's also easier to maintain the necessary documents. Having all the reservations in one plastic envelope makes it easier to access them on crowded and / or hectic airports . If your trip has multiple segments (flights + hotels) keep them in a separate plastic envelope. ### 2. Don't Create A Fixed Itinerary Most of my long distance trips have been two weeks long. It's a shame to stick into such a limited time as many attractions as you can even before landing there. I usually go with my intuition and try to book some guided tours on the spot, if need will be. But most of the time I'm on myself. It's far more flexible and much more fun. ### 3. Plan Your Transfer From Airport To Hotel In Advance It's very important to solve your transportation from airport to the hotel (or your accommodation of choice) in advance. Some of the airports can be pretty far (Narita is 1 and a half hour to center Tokyo by train, for instance) while others can offer limited on the spot transportation. A smooth transition to the hotel will also have a positive effect on your entire trip. ### 4. Don't Plan Anything Important In The First 36 Hours You'll be pretty tired after a 9+ hours flight, not to mention that jetlag will most likely give you a hard time. I usually spend the first day and a half walking around the hotel, knowing the environment, identifying coffee shops for woriking, finding local stores and transportation. Once I know my way around the hotel and I have a decent amount of food supplies in my room, I can go out and experience more. ### 5. Get Roaming On Your Phone It's far more convenient than buying local calling cards. I use it because it helps me keep all the data in a central point, not mangling with several phones at once and also keeps me for making long, unnecessary calls. On the other hand, when there's a need to make a call, I can do it instantly. 2025 Update: *Again, things changed a lot here, so now I'm using various eSim providers.* ### 6. Budget Your Local Currency Leftovers You will have local currency leftovers. Meaning the small notes you end up with at the airport, when you're ready to leave that country and don't know when you'll going to be back again. During my first long travels those leftovers were in the 70-80 USD range. Quite a lot. After a little bit of exercise I reduced them at around 15-25 USD, which is basically a decent meal at any airport restaurant. ### 7. Identify Human Connections At Destinations Find them on the Internet, on discussion groups, on blogs. Find some people you know in advance and try establish a connection with them. Not only they will become useful guides but they will also enhance your overall experience of traveling. It's not as much about visiting places as it is about making friends. ## Destination *Knowing where you go is important, although keeping a little bit of mystery around is also pretty exciting. But there are several things I learned to do before and sometimes right after I get to my destination of choice.* ### 1. Get Info About The Food If you're on a special diet, as I was back when I was a raw foodist, get as much information as you can in advance. I overlooked this step only once, during my trip to Japan, and incidentally Japan is one of the most unsuitable places for a raw vegan to be. I actually had to break my diet during that visit and even after, so now I'm a little bit cautious on this one. Update 2025: *I'm not on a raw food diet for quite some time, but I still do some research in advance.* ### 2. Assess Political Situation I don't travel in hot areas of the world, but even if you don't do this on purpose, traveling long distance can get you close to hot areas (if your plane has been rescheduled for instance and you have to connect on a different airport in a different country). Assessing the political situation of the closest countries on your itinerary is a good idea. ### 3. Read Reviews On Travel Sites But take them with a little bit of salt. Before, I used only a few travel sites, and lately I just check out the blogs of people I met during my previous trips, like Wandering Earl (https://wanderingearl.com/). But most of the time I'm just trying to get in the vibe, know the local habits, the local geography and cultural norms, letting the actual discovery to occur once I'm there. ### 4. Look Up The Itinerary on Google Maps Especially on long distance trips this could be a very interesting activity. When I first come to New Zealand I actually didn't realize that I would have 2 10+ hours long flights. The segment between Bangkok and Auckland seemed like a few hours, when in reality was 10 hours. That made me a very loyal client to Google Maps ever since. ### 5. Follow Your Intuition Don't always go for the famous places. Risk your time a little. The very best moments of my travels were the unexpected ones. I searched for a floating market in Bangkok (while the real floating market was 150 km away), got lost on some mountain roads while driving in Alps and got lost in a park near Danube Tower in Vienna. ### 6. Search For The High Points Literally. Every big city has a high point. I've been on Eiffel Tour in Paris, France, on Sky Tour in Auckland, New Zealand, on Danube Tower in Venna, Austria, on Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, Japan, Namsan Tower in Seoul, Korea and so on. There's something really special about climbing on those high points and see the city unfolding under your feet. ## Flying *A big part of your long distance trip will be on a plane. Don't overlook this because you can't really sleep all the time. Besides, there are a lot of interesting things you can do Pon a long distance plane if only to make sure you'll arrive at your destination in the best possible shape.* ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. ### 1. Request An Aisle Seat Even if you're going to be bothered by other passengers to get up and down, it will be good for your body. Not to mention that you have the freedom to get up and walk whenever you want. Unless you really want to look at the Earth from 10.000 meters every minute of your 10+ hours flight, take an aisle seat. ### 2. Don't Oversleep It's not good for your body. Out of 9-10 hours of an average transcontinental flight, I found that maximum 3 hours of sleep are the best you can get. Oversleeping will have a very strange effect on your body and will make your jetlag fighting a little bit difficult. Try some light conversation instead. ### 3. Don't Abuse The Inflight Entertainment System Every transcontinental plane has what they call an inflight entertainment system: movies, tv shows, documentaries, music or games. From my experience one of the best combos is maximum 2 movies and 1 documentary per flight. More than that is going to have quite an adverse effect on your brain. Balance the entertainment flight with some sleep, light conversation and discrete physical exercise. ### 4. Exercise Your Muscles And Joints Doesn't necessarily mean you'll have to run to the restroom and back every 15 minutes (your flight attendants could be especially upset by such a behavior) but do try to activate some groups of muscles every half an hour. Your legs especially must be worked out, in a very discrete and effective way, but don't forget your shoulders and neck. ### 5. Get On The New Local Time Once you're on the plane, set up your clock to the local time at the destination. If you had at least 3 weeks between your trips, it's a good idea to get on the local time with 1-2 days in advance, in order to reduce some of the jetlag. Regardless of that, once you are on the plane, think and live by the new time at the destination. ### 6. Prepare For Glitches Flying is by far one of the safest and best organized ways of traveling, but this doesn't makes it perfect. Even flights can be delayed, or technical problems may postpone your flight with several hours or days, or you can jump into a bird (/the-trip-to-las-vegas/). Be ready to face those situations and don't get panicked. Eventually, you'll get there, that's all that counts. ### 7. Fully Recharge All Electronic Devices Before Getting On Board You will need your kindle, your iPod or your laptop. During the flight, your electronic devices can be a very good replacement of the inflight entertainment system, if you can't find something you like. Not to mention that you will need them functioning at your destination. Of course, you must switch them off during landing and taking off. ### 8. Take Off Your Shoes This is not a joke. First time I saw some of my flight colleagues doing that I was quite surprised. But after 3 hours of hurting feet I finally understand. Don't worry about walking in your socks on the plane, it's much cleaner than you think and you'll get rid of those socks anyway. Having healthy feet once you get down from the plane is so often underrated. ### 9. Keep Your Tickets And Passports Handy Don't stick them to the bottom of your backpack or handbag. Always keep them at hand especially when in the airport. You will need them at security checkpoints, at boarding and sometimes during the flight when you will complete arriving cards (various countries need some of those cards completed when you enter them). ### 10. Keep Your Tickets And Vouchers Available I book electronically most of the time so I don't really have tickets but receipts and itineraries. I print them and I also print all the vouchers (most of the time for airport to hotel transportation). Don't underestimate the stress you'll experience in a foreign airport. Make sure you can react fast to any request regarding your tickets or vouchers. ### 11. Get A Name Tag For Your Bags Many airlines are providing this at the check-out desks, but many still aren't. A name tag will have your exact name and address on it, gets attached to the bag handle and makes it much more easier to identify your baggage at the carousels.Your bag may look very much like another bag and in this case the name tag is the only distinctive element. ### 12. Keep The Flight Timetable Available Again, I use my iPhone Notes app for that. For each long segment I write down my flight number, my plane type and the expected duration of the flight. It helps me gain a feeling of clarity in the middle of unknown surroundings. You may put it in a notebook or on a piece of paper. For me, it worked with the iPhone and helped me keep my head clear during 20.000+ km long flights. ### 13. Airports Are Part Of The Trip I always enjoy walking inside airports, watching people and trying to get a glimpse of the local lifestyle. I don't take airports as transitory, tasteless points in my journey. Whenever I can, I try to connect with people, to visit interesting places, to get in airport lounges or to capture beautiful pictures of planes taking off or landing. One of nicest airports that I enjoyed recently is Doha, in Qatar. ### 14. Hunt For Power Outlets Some airports have designated places for charging electronic devices, some not. Whenever I am at a coffee shop or in a waiting room, I hunt for the closest place to a power outlet. And take it. ### 15. Take An Extra Sweater On Board Although many airplanes are providing light blankets, on long flights the temperature can get pretty low. Better be prepared with an extra sweater. When flying at 10.000 meters for more than 9 hours, the cold combined with the lack of humidity can be pretty nasty. ### 16. Get Hydrated The air in the plane cabin is extremely dry, due to the pressuring conditions. It's very easy to get dehydrated but it's also very easy to avoid it. Be sure to tell to flight attendants to get you water or juice every time you need it. Some prefer to take some moisturing creme for the hands or face, I've been ok without it, but your mileage may vary. ## Accommodation *This is something really personal, so your choice may be different than mine, Regardless of the quality of the accommodations, and of the main goal of your trip, I found out that you will always need at least those 3 simple tips.* ### 1. Look For Basic Hygiene I usually book hotels when I know in advance where I'm going. In 99% of the cases hotels are clean and safe. But depending on the trip, budget and local context, I can book some bed and breakfast or even a backpackers hostel. Whenever I have to choose on the spot, I usually ask to see the room in advance. Saved a lot of frustration, many times. ### 2. Sleep Well Don't overextend yourself by staying late, especially when you've been jetlagged. Sleep as much as you want, because you don't want to be hit by an unbearable need to sleep in the middle of a visit to some important attraction, or even when you're in a public spot, like a restaurant or coffee shop. Assess the room in advance and ask if it's quiet and / or sleep friendly. ### 3. Make Human Connections I split my accommodation between hotels, hostels and bed and breakfast facilities. Every time I try to make some human connection with somebody there, being the concierge, the owner of the house or just some random sleeping colleagues in a backpackers hostel. The next step for this will be of course coach surfing but I'm not sure I'm ready for it. Yet. ## Field Activities *This is what you're actually doing, the core of your trip. Of course, it's entirely personal so the only tips here are related to your interaction with the world, and how to streamline it as much as possible.* ### 1. Get Local Currency As Fast As You Can If you can get it with you in advance, that's even better. I travel mostly with EUROs and US dollars and that covers pretty much every part of the world. Be aware that exchange offices in the airports are usually much more expensive than the bank offices in the town, or have some huge commission. From my experience, it's always better to get local currencies at a local bank. ### 2. Update Your Itinerary Frequently And by that I mean let your friends and followers in the digital world knowing where you are. I am a digital media citizen and I do update my itineraries as often as I can (meaning when I get some free wifi spots, data roaming being horrendously expensive everywhere in the world). It's good not only for letting your closest ones that you're safe and sane, but also for personal branding. I got a few interesting followers from each country I visited after some of my long distance travel tweets. ### 3. Know Your Surroundings That goes hand in hand with the planning activity which says not to do anything important in the first 36 hours. I use those hours to know: shops around, restaurants around, walking areas and public transportation areas. If there's internet in my hotel room (99% of the cases, that is) I'm also browsing some Google Maps around my accommodation address to see the big picture. ### 4. Buy Day Or Week Long Public Transportation Tickets If your planning was good, you should know in advance the costs of public transportation. In almost any of the cases, buying day long passes or even week long passes proved to be an incredible money (and time) saver. Depending on the local context you may use some exotic transportation, like Thailand tuk-tuk's but don't rely on them for getting fast and safe at a certain destination. ### 5. You Can't Have Enough Photos Never. Traveling long distance is such an eye opening experience, in every way you look at it. I never know when I'm going to be back there, so keeping a strong visual record will always help me remember the best I can. Most of the time I use – again – my iPhone. *** That's it, I hope you found it useful. If you have more, feel free to add them in the comments. Living life as a holiday (/living-life-like-a-holiday/) is one of the best ways to live life, after all. 🙂 First published on: October 30, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F44-tips-for-traveling-long-distance%2F&text=44%20Tips%20for%20Traveling%20Long%20Distance&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F44-tips-for-traveling-long-distance%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F44-tips-for-traveling-long-distance%2F&t=44%20Tips%20for%20Traveling%20Long%20Distance https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F44-tips-for-traveling-long-distance%2F&title=44%20Tips%20for%20Traveling%20Long%20Distance Previous ### Twitter versus Facebook (/twitter-versus-facebook/) Next ### How to Overcome Frustration in 3 Easy Steps (/how-to-overcome-frustration-in-3-easy-steps/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Random Facts About Vietnam URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-random-facts-about-vietnam.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-random-facts-about-vietnam/ Published: 2025-11-29 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 104 Categories: Location Independence, Travel and Fun Tags: asia, digital nomad, travel, vietnam As a location independent write and programmer, I get to spend a lot of times in different countries (/category/location-independence/). Lately, I've been in Vietnam a lot. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoy the country culture and warm people. When I settle for a while in a new country, I'm very curious not only about what makes us similar, but also what sets us apart. Or the cultural differences that nobody tells you about – you only get those if you're actually spending time there. What follows are a few quick observations about these random facts. ## 1. Pajamas as Street Wear People can go out in their pajamas here, and it's completely normal. This is far more frequent – and less of a social issue – than in any other country I've encountered. You'll see locals running errands, buying street food, or having relaxed conversations (/coffee-and-conversations/) in what would be considered sleepwear elsewhere. In and by itself this says a lot about the practical, unpretentious approach Vietnamese culture takes toward daily life. ## 2. The Maybe-Yes Paradox "Maybe" means yes. "Yes" means maybe. Understanding this linguistic and cultural nuance is essential for anyone trying to navigate social or business situations in Vietnam. Because direct refusal is often considered impolite, responses are layered with context (/context-descriptors/), tone, and timing. So when you hear maybe, you should take this as an implicit "yes". And when you hear "yes" you should take it as "yes, I understand what you're saying to me", and not necessarily as "yes, I agree". What sounds like agreement might be polite avoidance, and what sounds like postponing might be genuine commitment. ## 3. The Poetic Origins of the Nón Lá The conical hat – the nón lá – got its name because when you look at the hat through the sky, you will see a poem inside it. This isn't just folklore: traditional artisans would place leaves with verses between the layers of palm leaves, visible only when held up to sunlight. The hat becomes both functional object and hidden literature, protection from sun and rain that carries poetry in its structure (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/). ## 4. Nuoc Mam: The Foundation of Every Taste Nuoc Mam – Vietnamese fish sauce – is the most pervasive and frequent ingredient in Vietnamese cuisine. More so than kimchi in South Korean cuisine, more so than soy sauce in much of Asia (/asia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer/). You will find it anywhere and everywhere. It's not just a condiment but the foundation of flavor itself, the base note that defines what makes Vietnamese food distinctively Vietnamese. If you meet a Vietnamese outside Vietname, ask them about it, and you may be surprised to hear that they're actually carry a small bottle with them when they travel long distance. ## 5. Speaking in Third Person It is normal in Vietnam to use your first name instead of the first-person pronoun when you say you're doing something. So you would say "Dragos is going out for beers" – which means "I'm going out for beers (/5-things-brewing-beer-taught-me-about-relationships/)." This linguistic habit stems from the complex pronoun system in Vietnamese, where the "correct" pronoun depends on relative age, status, and relationship. Using actual first names avoids some potential awkwardness and maintains a certain formality-within-informality that characterizes much of Vietnamese social interaction. ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. ## 6. The Road as Social Space It's very common in Vietnam to see people stopping and having conversations in the middle of the road – especially across older generations. The intermingling between pedestrian and car roads runs very deep. Streets aren't just areas for vehicles; they're extensions of living space, places for socializing, doing business, eating meals. Two friends meeting will simply stop wherever they happen to be – center lane, intersection, busy corner – and chat as if they're standing in a quiet park – and traffic will flow (/the-subtle-dance-between-structure-and-flow/) around them like water around stones. ## 7. The Missing Floors Buildings don't have certain stories, certain levels. Floor number 4 and floor number 13 are either missing or relabeled as 3A or 12A. Both numbers are considered extremely bad luck – the number 4 in Vietnamese sounds similar to the word for "death," while 13 carries Western superstitious weight that's been absorbed into local culture. The elevator simply skips from 3 to 5, or from 12 to 14, via 3A or 12A, as if those floors never existed. As an aside: those floors are usually significantly cheaper when it comes to renting or buying property. For the pragmatic expat (/location-independence-is-not-a-luxury-anymore/) unencumbered by numerical superstition, this presents an opportunity – the same apartment, same view, same amenities, at a discount simply because of the number on the button you press. ## 8. Bonus – The Vietnamese Coffee Culture This might be something that you'll find hidden at the end of some travel guide, but the actual experience is far more powerful: Vietnam is the 2nd largest producer of coffee in the world, something that I had no idea about until I arrived here. As a result, coffee has incredibly diverse declinations: salted coffee (cafe muoi), egg coffee (trung coffee) and so on. Also, just the regular coffee is way stronger than anywhere I've been to – you've been warned. These aren't the facts you'll find in travel guides – they're the textures of daily life that reveal themselves slowly, the kind of understanding that comes from being present rather than just visiting. First published on: November 29, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-random-facts-about-vietnam%2F&text=7%20Random%20Facts%20About%20Vietnam&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-random-facts-about-vietnam%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-random-facts-about-vietnam%2F&t=7%20Random%20Facts%20About%20Vietnam https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-random-facts-about-vietnam%2F&title=7%20Random%20Facts%20About%20Vietnam Previous ### Assess Decide Do – Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) Next ### Can You Really Amplify Yourself With AI? (/can-you-really-amplify-yourself-with-ai/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI URL: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/ Published: 2025-11-20 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 103 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Assess Decide Do, Financial Resilience, Location Independence Tags: ai tools, assess, decide, do, financial freedom, framework 15 years ago, while on a trip to Thailand (one of my very first trips to Asia (/asia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer/)), I created a productivity framework called Assess-Decide-Do. It's built on the idea that you're always in one of three "realms": - **Assess** – exploring options, no pressure to decide yet - **Decide** – committing to choices, allocating resources - **Do** – executing and completing The main metric is how smooth the interaction is from one realm to the other. Prioritizing flow over completion. Also, the framework is fractal in nature—each cycle can contain smaller, complete ADD cycles within it. It was my response to the GTD hype running high at that time. I felt that churning tasks from a todo list couldn't be our ultimate goal as human beings, while acknowledging that we still needed some structure, something that would allow us to function in a predictable way. Something that would honor our never-ending, changing nature, but still allow us to get stuff done. I've been consistently refining and using this at various levels in my life. What follows is a recap of how this framework evolved (spoiler: it stayed pretty much the same), how it was implemented (spoiler: there's an app for that), and how it's adjusting to the age of TikTok and AI (spoiler: there's a repo for that). Without further ado, let's go. ## Software Implementation: The Evolution of ADD The first iteration into actionable software was called iAdd. The name came from the ubiquitous "i" that every app had at that time and the framework initials. Oh, the naivety. Written in Objective-C, it was a fascinating exercise. I used it for several years before realizing it needed to evolve. I then iterated on both the name and the UI, switching from Objective-C to Swift. The result: something called ZenTasktic. I was proud of that name for a couple of years. Then reality hit, and I realized this wasn't what an app needs. It's great for showcasing in conversation, but without a massive marketing budget to push the name across every media channel, it would never take off. (Needless to say, I didn't have a massive marketing budget—or a marketing budget at all.) So I did one more pivot: from ZenTasktic to addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8). The new name might be a bit boring, but it's simple, and it tells you exactly what the app does from second one. More importantly, it's the cleanest visual implementation of the framework: each realm has its own screen, and moving tasks leverages the iPhone's built-in swipes, so it feels like a task or project is literally traveling from one realm to the other—which supports my intention of emphasizing flow over task churning. The addTaskManager iteration also validated the business model—it's a subscription on top of a generous free tier. There's a growing community of paying subscribers with consistently positive reviews. The software implementation is strong, and the foundation is solid. ## Applicability In Other Life Areas When I first developed this framework, I had hammer syndrome: everything looked like a nail waiting for my hammer. I postulated that ADD would work well in pretty much all life areas, from relationships to business. In general, this was true. In general. Here's an honest assessment of what worked and what didn't. ### Health and Fitness Around the same time, I became a runner, starting with marathons and progressing to ultra-marathons. Using ADD in my training and race selection worked surprisingly well. I would start a specific training routine while staying in Assess, observing my body's adaptation, then move to Decide only when it felt naturally feasible—like signing up for longer and longer races—and then just Do, like finishing the actual thing. Over the course of 10 years, I went from not being able to run 1 kilometer to finishing 220km ultra-marathons (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/). Discipline, diet, the right social circle—all of this mattered, of course, but at the core was always my ADD framework shaping my approach. I'm not running competitively anymore, but I still apply ADD to my evolved fitness routine. For instance, I started swimming more, walking more, and visiting the Jjim Jil Bang (Korean spa) more often. **Overall: 8/10 framework fit.** ### Location Independence This is by far the area with the most spectacular results. In the last 15 years, I became fully location independent (/category/location-independence/), changing three countries in my fabulous fifties (/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years/) alone. Here's how I approached this. First, I would assess for a few months whether to live in a specific country. This included research about cost of living, social fabric, cultural differences, and more. Then, once the research stage was over, I would spread the assessment into real life by doing a two-week trial in that country. Living like a local, no tourist stuff, aggressive budgeting. Most importantly, not deciding on anything yet. After this real-life assessment test, I would move to Decide, which meant allocating time and resources for the move—OR going back to Assess. And here's the beauty of the framework. I successfully moved to and lived in Spain, Portugal, and Vietnam, but after an overall assessment of almost six months (back and forth), I decided not to move to Korea. I still love the country, but some things just weren't for me. The decision to withdraw and choose Vietnam over Korea felt completely natural. **Overall: 10/10 framework fit.** ### Financial Resilience This is on par with location independence, and it's easy to understand why. I write extensively about financial resilience (/category/financial-resilience/) on this blog, so feel free to browse the category if you want to familiarize yourself with my approach. In this field, an Assess cycle can last several months. Usually I start with an MVP, like the Flippando (/learning-solidity-a-flipping-journey/) game, and then gather real-world feedback. How many users, how much engagement on social media, how many inquiries from accelerators. In this specific case, the first two Assess cycles lasted about four months each. The first one was after winning the Glitch hackathon in Korea (which deserves its own blog post, I reckon), after which I decided to fully implement and publish the game. The second was after applying for a grant to port the game to Gno. The Do stage after each Decide cycle—actually making the game, working for the grant—lasted between six months and one year. The last Assess cycle led to the decision to stop development, keep the game up for portfolio purposes, and move on. I currently focus full-time on addTaskManager—complete Do immersion. **Overall: 10/10 framework fit.** ### Relationships And here's where the framework hits differently. Relationships aren't as predictable as implementing a coding project or evaluating a new country to live in. That's mostly because there's someone else involved—another real person with their own problems, goals, and expectations. That makes assessment exponentially more difficult. Also, crucially, the last part in relationships isn't Do—it's Be. You don't just Do stuff; you try your best to Be in a relationship. That made me understand that the framework can't fit all human experiences. Relationships need a more holistic approach—sometimes just faith and commitment. **Overall: 5/10 framework fit.** ## AI Integration: Claude Megaprompt and MCP Server Recently, I experimented with integrating my framework into LLMs—making the LLM ADD-aware, both in its operation and in relationship with the user. Understanding where in the framework someone is: assessing, deciding, or doing. The results have been remarkable. My first Reddit post generated over 53,000 views with a 91% upvote ratio, and the repository (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-assess-decide-do-mega-prompt) is actively watched and starred. If you're interested, join the conversation, star the repo, or fork it. I'm also developing an MCP server (Model Context Protocol—a way for AI to interact with external tools) for my app. The developments in this area are lightning-fast, and I'm assessing whether to continue pursuing this as the standard itself evolves rapidly. **Overall: 10/10 framework fit.** *All in all, Assess-Decide-Do has proved to be one of the most useful discoveries for me—and I hope for many others as well. Sometimes, we're lucky enough to get it right from the first time.* First published on: November 20, 2025 ### ⚡ Assess-Decide-Do Framework Evolution Part 2 of 11 View all 11 posts → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) ← Previous Foundation Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) Next → Stage 1: Assess Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) 2. Evolution: Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) 3. Stage 1: Assess: Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) 4. Stage 2: Decide: Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) 5. Stage 3: Do: Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) 6. Design & Meaning: Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) 7. AI Evolution: Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) 8. Skills Architecture: Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) 9. Ecosystem Expansion: From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) 10. Always-On Agent: Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) 11. Multi-Agent Council: LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Well, Maybe… (/can-ai-really-understand-how-you-think-well-maybe/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Random Facts About South Korea URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-random-facts-about-south-korea.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-random-facts-about-south-korea/ Published: 2025-12-07 Modified: 2025-12-06 Views: 102 Categories: Location Independence, Travel and Fun Tags: asia, digital nomad, long distance travel, long term travel, south korea If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that during the last couple of years I've been spending a lot of time in Asia (/asia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer/). Among all the countries I've been in here, South Korea holds a special place. To the extent that I actually learned Korean myself and spent in total more than 6 months there. Here are 7 random facts about South Korea discovered while actually living here. ## 1. The Jeonse System: A Unique Real Estate Approach The entire real estate market in South Korea operates on a distinctive type of loan system called *jeonse* (전세), which relies on the tenant providing a massive advance deposit to the landlord. This isn't just some modern financial innovation—it's one of the oldest processes in South Korea, with roots stretching back hundreds of years into Korean history. Here's how it works: instead of paying monthly rent, a tenant provides the landlord with a lump sum deposit that can amount to 50-80% of the property's actual value. The landlord then invests this money during the lease period (typically two years), and at the end of the contract, returns the entire deposit to the tenant. No monthly rent. No interest paid to the tenant. Just the deposit returned in full. This system emerged from Korea's agricultural past, where trust and long-term relationships formed the foundation of economic transactions. In a country where banking systems were underdeveloped for centuries, jeonse provided both security for property owners and affordability for tenants who could save money over time rather than hemorrhaging it through monthly rent payments. The practice has survived modernization, economic crises, and the digital age—a proof of how deeply embedded certain cultural and economic patterns (/how-to-become-financially-resilient-in-3-easy-steps/) can become in a society's fabric. ## 2. Kimchi Is More Than Food, It's Family Initiation Kimchi is the most frequent ingredient in Korean cuisine, appearing at virtually every meal as a staple food. But it's far more than just fermented vegetables—it's a cultural cornerstone and a rite of passage. When someone joins a new family in Korea, particularly through marriage, one of the traditional trials they must endure is learning how to make kimchi according to that family's specific recipe. Each family has its own variation, passed down through generations, with subtle differences in spice levels, fermentation time, and ingredient ratios that carry the weight of lineage and identity. The annual kimjang—the communal kimchi-making ceremony before winter—is so culturally significant that UNESCO added it to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It's not just about preserving cabbage; it's about preserving community bonds, family traditions, and cultural continuity in a rapidly modernizing world. ## 3. The Study Room Buildings: 24-Hour Academic Monasteries Throughout South Korea, especially in big cities like Seoul or Busan, you'll find entire buildings dedicated entirely to study rooms—spaces containing nothing but a few chairs, a table, and perhaps a small fridge. Each room has a locker with a number pad and access code, creating a personal study room on demand that students rent by the hour or day. These *dokseosil* (독서실) or reading rooms are just one of the symptoms of the intense dedication to education that permeates Korean society. Students don't just visit for a few hours—some spend entire nights there, studying until dawn, then heading directly to university for morning classes without returning home. The rooms are almost ascetic—deliberately stripped of distraction, designed for one purpose only: focused concentration (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/). There's something both admirable and haunting about buildings filled with young people, each locked in their individual cells of voluntary confinement, sacrificing sleep and social life at the altar of academic achievement. As part of one of the hackathons I participated in Seoul (yes, I did that too) I also had the experience: we locked our team in such a room during the night, with the only goal of finishing our hackathon idea implementation. It was one of the most interesting experiences (/the-joy-and-horrors-of-being-a-polymath/) of my life. ## 4. Public Drunkenness as Social Badge of Honor In South Korea, drinking is not just socially accepted—it's practically a competitive sport. Unlike Western societies where stumbling drunk through public spaces earns you judgmental stares and social ostracism, Korea treats public intoxication with remarkable tolerance. Even admiration. Fall asleep on the subway after a night of soju? No one blinks. Stumble out of a *pojangmacha* (포장마차) – street food tent – barely able to walk? You're not seen as a problem—you're seen as someone who gave their all to the evening's social obligations. There's an almost warrior-like respect for those who drink themselves into oblivion. The person passed out on the sidewalk isn't viewed as an outcast but rather as a mighty warrior who fought incredibly powerful demons in the form of endless rounds of *anju* (안주) – drinking snacks – and *geonbae* (건배) – cheers. They didn't back down. They didn't quit early. They honored their companions by drinking until they physically couldn't anymore. This cultural approach to alcohol seems to emerge from the deeply embedded Confucian workplace hierarchy, where refusing a drink from a superior is essentially unthinkable, and the evening drinking session—*hoesik *(회식*)*—is where real bonding and business happens. The hangover the next morning? That's just evidence of loyalty and dedication. ## 5. Karaoke Rooms: The Psychological Pressure Release Valve Karaoke in Korea isn't the public performance anxiety-fest it often is in the West. It's a psychological necessity—a social valve that helps an entire nation maintain its collective mental well-being (/breathe-in-breathe-out/). Throughout Korean cities, you'll find entire buildings composed of isolated *noraebang* (노래방, literally "song room") chambers. These aren't open stages where you perform for strangers; they're private spaces where you can rent a room by the hour, close the door, and sing your lungs out without any audience at all if that's what you need. You can go completely alone—no friends, no public, no judgment—just you, a microphone, a screen with lyrics, and whatever emotional release you need to achieve. Belt out power ballads. Scream through rock anthems. Whisper sad love songs. No one can hear you. No one is watching. It's pure cathartic release. In a society with strong social hierarchies, grueling work hours (/geo-arbitrage-or-how-to-get-the-most-of-where-you-are/), and cultural pressure to maintain *chemyeon* (체면) – face or dignity – in public, these private karaoke rooms serve as essential decompression chambers. They're where the mask comes off, where you don't have to be the dutiful employee or the respectful junior or the capable adult—you can just be someone releasing steam by singing out loud, alone, in a soundproofed box that asks nothing of you except your presence. ## 6. Plastic Surgery: The National Sport of Good Looking In South Korea, plastic surgery isn't whispered about or hidden—it's a national sport, discussed as casually as someone might talk about getting a haircut or joining a gym. It's so normalized that kids receive plastic surgery as graduation gifts, birthday presents, or rewards for finishing high school. The most common procedure? Double eyelid surgery. Most Asians naturally have monolids (single eyelids), but in Korea, having double eyelids has become a sign of beauty, modernity, even emancipation. Some estimates suggest that nearly half of South Korean population have had this procedure done—a staggering statistic that speaks to how deeply beauty standards have penetrated the culture. Walk through any Korean neighborhood, particularly in areas like Gangnam in Seoul, and you'll regularly see women traveling around with bandages covering their faces—post-surgery recovery worn as openly as a sports injury. There's no shame in it. No attempt to hide it. The bandages are almost a badge of commitment to self-improvement, visible evidence of investment in one's appearance. This isn't vanity in the Western sense—it's economic pragmatism in a hyper-competitive society where appearance can genuinely affect job prospects, marriage opportunities, and social mobility. In a country where your photo is routinely required on job applications and first impressions carry enormous weight, plastic surgery is often viewed not as frivolous indulgence but as strategic career investment—a way to level the playing field in a society that openly judges books by their covers. ## 7. Hangul: The Alphabet Designed for Democracy The Korean alphabet, Hangul (**??**), was invented in the 15th century by King Sejong the Great—and it represents one of history's most intentional acts of linguistic democratization. Before Hangul, Korea relied entirely on Chinese characters for written communication, which meant literacy was essentially restricted to the educated elite who could afford years of study to master thousands of complex ideograms. King Sejong recognized this as a barrier to social progress and deliberately created an alphabet system so logical and intuitive that, as the story goes, "a wise man can acquaint himself with them before the morning is over; even a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days." Hangul is built on visual logic—the shapes of the letters actually represent the physical position of the tongue, lips, and throat when making those sounds. For example: - **ㄱ** (g/k sound) – the letter's shape mimics the back of the tongue touching the soft palate - **ㄴ** (n sound) – represents the tongue touching the roof of the mouth - **ㅁ** (m sound) – shows the closed mouth position - **ㅏ** (ah sound) – the vertical line represents the upright human body, with the horizontal mark indicating where sound originates You combine these into blocks to form syllables. The word "Hangul" itself (**한글**) is written with two syllable blocks: **한** (han) and **글** (geul). This systematization had a big impact on Korean society, by eliminating their linguistic reliance on Chinese characters. It wasn't just about reading and writing—it was about intellectual independence, cultural identity, and giving common people access to knowledge (/learning-how-to-learn/) that had been gatekept by an aristocratic class for centuries. King Sejong didn't just create an alphabet; he engineered a tool for social mobility. There are many other things that could be mentioned here, from the amazing street food you'll find in Myeongdong-ro, the pharmacy level cleanliness of the subway (which has its platform completely isolated by plexiglass panels, so no one can jump on the rails), up to the incredible Haeinsa temple in the South – to mention just some of the things I experienced directly. So, if you ever have the chance (/assess-decide-do-framework/) to visit these places, just go for it. Thank me later. First published on: December 7, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-random-facts-about-south-korea%2F&text=7%20Random%20Facts%20About%20South%20Korea&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-random-facts-about-south-korea%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-random-facts-about-south-korea%2F&t=7%20Random%20Facts%20About%20South%20Korea https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-random-facts-about-south-korea%2F&title=7%20Random%20Facts%20About%20South%20Korea Previous ### 3 Digital Nomad And Crypto Friendly Debit Cards – Revisited (/3-digital-nomad-and-crypto-friendly-debit-cards-revisited/) Next ### Self-Publishing in the Age of AI (/self-publishing-in-the-age-of-ai/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Introducing AIGernon, my Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do URL: https://dragosroua.com/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/ Published: 2026-02-10 Views: 102 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Assess Decide Do, Digital Tools Tags: ai tools, entrepreneurship, framework, tools In hindsight, it was inevitable. But let's take it slowly. A few months ago, I published a mega-prompt (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) teaching Claude the Assess-Decide-Do framework. It was an experiment, but, to my surprise, it landed better than I expected. The Reddit post went viral. The repo now has 67 stars and 15 forks. It's not mainstream, but it's real. It shows a few dozens of people are interested in mapping human cognitive frameworks on top of LLMs. So, I continued to iterate. I added a Claude Cowork plugin (https://github.com/dragosroua/add-framework-cowork-plugin) alongside, and extracted the skills in a separate repo (https://github.com/dragosroua/add-framework-skills). The experiment evolved into a real product, with a modular structure that everybody can adjust to their needs. But there was always something more lurking in the back of my mind. What if I turn this thin layer into a proper always-on agent? Think OpenClaw, but ADD enhanced. So, after a couple of weeks of back and forth, I'm in a place where I can make public the first release. ## Introducing AIGernon AIGernon is a fork of nanobot (https://github.com/HKUDS/nanobot), a very thin always-on agent, with just 4000 lines of code (OpenClaw has 450,000+), but with proper Assess-Decide-Do skills. ## Name Choice "Flowers for Algernon" is a famous sci-fi novel about a mouse named Algernon who gains extraordinary intelligence through an experiment. A man named Charlie, intellectually disabled and working as a janitor in the lab, undergoes the same procedure. He becomes brilliant — but at the peak of his new mind, he watches Algernon deteriorate and die. Charlie knows he's next. Eventually, he regresses to who he was before, losing everything he gained. But one thing remains: he keeps placing flowers on Algernon's small, strange grave, without even remembering why. Our intelligence is fleeting, so AIGernon will work the same. I know the insane pace of AI evolution will eventually make parts of it – or the whole project – obsolete, yet I believe there's a lot to gain right now, in the moment. Also, and that's probably the most important angle: every Assess-Decide-Do cycle, no matter how small or big, is a reminder of our impermanence. We all function inside these cycles, and once we reach completion in Do, we achieve a liveline, not a deadline, restarting the cycle. ## Use Cases The first and most important one is to support my own work. I created AIGernon for my own schedule: 50+ veteran coder (/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years/), with a one year old, living location independent (/category/location-independence/). There's a lot to manage in this position, and, while I am doing it ok right now, I can definitely use some support. Especially when my work routine is interrupted for 2-3 days at a time, or when I need to adjust to a new place, or when I just need a break. The ecosystem of products that I rely on: this blog, my apps, my coaching practice, all these must survive these interruptions, and, most importantly, I need to maintain control and a clear head around all these routines. ![ShareByLight app icon](/images/icons/sharebylight-icon-48.webp) I just launched ShareByLight (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-file-transfer/id6796897056)—transfer files with light only. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no cables. One device shows a stream, the other reads it with the camera. Free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. So, I expect AIGernon to function as an ADD-enhanced personal assistant for a busy and scattered individual. That's number one. Number two is even more interesting, and I'm excited about this. I want to use it as a coaching (/work-with-me/)support assistant. How will this work? Well, I can position it as an always-on layer between me and my clients. It will probably work on premises or in a sandboxed environment, and it will function as a cognitive buffer between the client and me. See, sometimes my clients have situations that need immediate action, but we're in between sessions. Or they just remembered some key question, and, again, we're not available to each other. AIGernon can capture this, store it in a special memory space and bring it together during practice. My client has a place to securely store, immediately, any thought, question or idea and I have a much better insight on my client's current context. We're moving from async interaction to something closer to continuous cognitive sync — without either of us needing to be online at the same time. ## What Can It Do? Here's the highlight reel: ### Cognitive Companion (ADD Framework) - Detects if you're in Assess, Decide, or Do mode based on your language - Adapts response style to match your current thinking realm - Watches for stuck patterns (analysis paralysis, decision avoidance, perpetual doing) - Logs realm activity to daily memory notes - Tracks your cognitive patterns over time ### Memory System - Daily notes saved to `memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md` - Long-term memory in `memory/MEMORY.md` - Recent memory recall (last 7 days by default) - Realm flow summaries appended to daily notes ### Skills System - Loadable markdown-based skills - Six ADD skills included (core, assess, decide, do, imbalance, realm-detection) - Built-in skills: GitHub CLI, weather, summarization, tmux control, cron, skill creator - Custom skills can be added to workspace ### Tools - Read, write, and edit files - Execute shell commands (with safety blocks) - Search the web (Brave Search API) - Fetch and parse web pages - Spawn background subagents for complex tasks ### Chat, LLMs, and Infrastructure AIGernon supports 6 chat channels (CLI, Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, Feishu, DingTalk), 11 LLM providers (including Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, DeepSeek, and local models via vLLM), plus Docker support, workspace sandboxing, cron-based scheduling with natural language task creation, and JSON configuration with environment variable overrides. Full details in the repo. AIGernon is not just a wrapper on top of an LLM — it has real "flesh and bones" and it drives the underlying LLM instead of just extracting knowledge. ## Next Steps Here's the repo, if you want to play with it: https://github.com/dragosroua/aigernon (https://github.com/dragosroua/aigernon). I will continue testing and improving it. If you want to stay in touch, subscribe to my newsletter (there's a form below the post). If you already tried it, I would love your feedback. First published on: February 10, 2026 ### ⚡ Assess-Decide-Do Framework Always-On Agent Part 10 of 11 View all 11 posts → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) ← Previous Ecosystem Expansion From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) Next → Multi-Agent Council LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) 2. Evolution: Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) 3. Stage 1: Assess: Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) 4. Stage 2: Decide: Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) 5. Stage 3: Do: Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) 6. Design & Meaning: Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) 7. AI Evolution: Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) 8. Skills Architecture: Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) 9. Ecosystem Expansion: From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) 10. Always-On Agent: Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) 11. Multi-Agent Council: LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fintroducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do%2F&text=Introducing%20AIGernon%2C%20my%20Personal%20AI%20Assistant%20%20%E2%80%93%20with%20a%20Dash%20of%20Assess%20Decide%20Do&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fintroducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fintroducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do%2F&t=Introducing%20AIGernon%2C%20my%20Personal%20AI%20Assistant%20%20%E2%80%93%20with%20a%20Dash%20of%20Assess%20Decide%20Do https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fintroducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do%2F&title=Introducing%20AIGernon%2C%20my%20Personal%20AI%20Assistant%20%20%E2%80%93%20with%20a%20Dash%20of%20Assess%20Decide%20Do Previous ### Vibe Coding iOS Apps on my iPad with Claude, from my Favorite Coffee Shop (/vibe-coding-ios-apps-on-my-ipad-with-claude-from-my-favorite-coffee-shop/) Next ### 7 Unusual Facts About Vietnam (/7-unusual-facts-about-vietnam/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 100 Tips To Improve Your Blog URL: https://dragosroua.com/100-tips-to-improve-your-blog.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/100-tips-to-improve-your-blog/ Published: 2009-09-06 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 101 Categories: Blogging, Digital Tools, Getting Things Done, Success and Wellness Tags: content creation, how to, list post, money This post is a follow-up of my first "100 things" attempt, 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/), which was absolutely a blast. This time, for your convenience, I grouped the tips into several areas: content, layout, plugins, promotion, networking and money. And if you're into big lists, you may be interested in this one too 77 Tips For Starting An Online Business (/77-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/). ## Content *Your blog content is the cornerstone of your activity. You can't have a blog without producing good, constant, quality content. Of all the other activities related to blogging, like promotion or networking, I consider content production to be by far the most important.* ## 1. Keep An Idea Incubator Don't take it easy, take it as it comes. Find a place where you store your ideas. Writing only from instant inspiration is totally unproductive. Besides, chances are that your most valuables ideas will come when you're not able to blog them. So, create an incubator and let them grow. ## 2. Make A Mindmap Of Your Blog Keep a bird-eye of your articles. Putting your blog into a mind-map (/put-your-blog-into-a-mind-map/), with posts, categories, promotion and income sources proved to be an enlightening exercise for me. Not only it offered a totally different image of my blog but gave me a lot of ideas for overall improving. ## 3. Write Timeless Content Don't be caught in the "right now" trap. Writing about hot topics will last as much as the hot topics last. And we all know what's hot is short. Try to write content that will be easily read in several months or years from now. Even if it's about a hot topic, put something timeless in it. ## 4. Use Explicit Headlines Headlines are the first thing your users are seeing. They are like a bait. If the bait is good, they'll eventually bite the blog post too, if the headline is boring, common, predictable or not intriguing, they will most likely skip the whole paragraph. ## 5. Be Specific Don't go too far from the specific of your blog. If you do havedifferent skills (/building-different-skills/) try to accommodate them on a tight topic. Widening your blog in an uncontrolled way will eventually dissolve your brand and even if you'll have readers interested in different topics, you'll be harder to recognize as a monolithic brand. ## 6. Be Constant Be there constantly. Create a habit not only for you, but for your readers. Once you establish a connection with them, they will expect you to be there. Whenever you feel the need to give up, remember you will going to disappoint more then yourself. ## 7. Create And Maintain A Posting Routine This will need a lot of self-discipline (/building-self-discipline/) but it's the cornerstone of your blog. If you won't update it constantly, there will be no blog. Experiment until you find your pace. Some bloggers are posting 2-3 articles per day, some one per week. I find it easily to do around 2-3 posts per week. ## 8. Find Your Own Size Find a post size which fits your habits and skills. Don't do it like other successful bloggers, don't copy, do it by trial and error. Seth Godin writes about 6-700 words pe entry, Steve Pavlina does more than 2-3000. My own ballpark is in the 1000-1200 words per post. Find your own. ## 9. Write From Your Own Experience Show openly what you know and what you can say about something, without being afraid that you're wrong. It's much worse to blindly copy the experts than to assume your own mistakes and publicly learn from them. Your own experience is the most valuable blogging asset you have. ## 10. Be Authentic Don't play the mister know it all, dare to be personal and transparent. Always. A blog is the ultimate expression of an individual. Don't waste time trying to be perfect, just be better (/perfect-versus-better/). If you're wrong, so be it. Remember, you're unique. Nobody can be you. ## 11. Write For Your Readers A blog is a personal matter, but if you want to have more than 2 visitors (including your mom) do yourself a service and write for your readers too. Think how your readers will benefit from what your write. If you want to be the only beneficiary of this process, you can safely start a private journal. ## 12. Create A Blogging Setup You don't just write. You must have a strategy, goals, evaluations. You need to have a place in which you can focus on the main goal. Since I created my blogging setup, GTD style (/power-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style/), the whole idea of blogging has changed for me. Pick your own specific type of setup, even pen and paper, but do make one. ## 13. Ask The Readers Interact. Don't just assume you know what the readers want from your blog, go ahead and ask them. You can do that in comments, via email, on twitter. Or you can use online communities. Or you can write a specific post in which you ask them. There are ways. Just go ahead and ask. ## 14. Post In Advance Don't be shy about that, or think that it will ruin your authenticity. As long as you're the author and you do write timeless content, there will be no problem. Posting in advance is a very good strategy exercise, not to mention the relief of always being covered. ## 15. Your Blog Post Is A Traveler Once you hit publish, your blog post will live a life of its own. Your blog post will be a traveler (/the-anatomy-of-a-blog-post/). Be sure to give it the needed equipment to survive in harsh conditions and also enough instructions to find his way in this world. Take of him properly. ## 16. Your Blog Is Beyond Your Blog Your blog is far more than your posts. You think it's just a collection of articles, but it isn't. In order to be successful, your blog must be a presence. It's made by your posts, comments, your comments on other blogs, your tweets, your stumbles. Make a presence out of your blog (/work-with-me/), not just a list of topics. ## 17. Break Your Post Into Edible Chunks One of the easiest yet most ignored practices in the blogging business. Don't write like you're running a marathon. Break the posts in smaller chunks. It will not only help your SEO, but it will create a much more clear writing approach. You'll actually think better. ## 18. Link To Yourself Don't be shy about what you write and don't wait for ever that your posts will be discovered by others. Link to yourself as often as you can. This practice, also known as *interlinking*, is also good for SEO, but its main advantage will be to create a greater awareness of your content. Even for you. ## 19. Do Writing Challenges Push yourself into writing exercises. Establish a number of words per each post. Write personal stories. Write a how to. Write a 100 list, like this one. Try to write a specific number of posts in a specific period of time. Try to expand your skills beyond what you already have. ## 20. Engage In Group Projects Try to do collaborative writing challenges. I participated in several collaborative projects, for blogs or ebooks, and it was a very productive experience. It will be extremely good for promotion, of course, but it will primarily help you try different writing styles. ## 21. Use A Dictionary There are a lot of online or desktop based dictionaries. I find this extremely useful when I search for synonyms or related words. Yes, English is not my primary language, but I think a dictionary would benefit even if you're born as an English speaker. ## 22. Create A Publishing Filter Don't just let the blog posts flow away. Create a publishing filter and apply it every time your write. I have my own filter made up by 7 questions to answer before publishing (/7-questions-to-answer-before-publishing-a-blog-post/) and so far it worked great. Find your own, based on why and what you are writing. It's a good thing, trust me. ## 23. Create Alternative Content Your blog can contain so much more than just text. Create podcasts, video content, or just apply alternative ways to your creativity, like mind maps, PDF based booklets or templates. A while ago I added Downloads (/work-with-me/) page to my blog and I must tell you this page is pretty busy with clicks. ## 24. Link To Authorities If there are authorities in your blog niche, link to them. That will help your readers understand your preferences and orientation, it will help them identify you better. Linking to somebody else it's a statement in itself. As always, be constant and specific. ## 25. Openly Present Yourself Write an About Me (/about-me/) page with whatever type of information you want in it, as long as you feel it represents you. Subsequently, write About Me pages for any other media you are active on. For instance, I created an About Me page for my Twitter (https://twitter.com/dragosroua) presence. ## 26. Keep It Simple Blogging is not philosophy. Even if you are trying to explain complicated concepts, do your best to keep them simple. Your blog is competing with a gazillion other information sources, so be sure you're giving something at least easy to understand. ## 27. Read Your Own Blog Too often ignored. You must be your first reader. Whenever I have some free time I read some of my older posts. There's nothing narcissistic in it, on the contrary, most of the time I dislike what I wrote, and think I could have done it so much better. ## 28. Balance Your Category Distribution This is one of the 4 important metric (/posting-speed-blog-metrics-and-holidays/) I follow and which is tracked by the blog audit (/work-with-me/) plugin. Keeping a balanced category will help not only in writing but it will improve your rankings in search engine. Too much content under one category will end up with a lot of duplicate content in your blog archives. ## 29. Create A Mailing List This wasn't yet applied to this blog, at the moment of writing this article, because I think it's a little bit too early. But I successfully created and used mailing lists before, on niche websites, with tens of thousands of users. I mean it, tens of thousands. I know it's doable. ## 30. Use Brainstorming Techniques One of the most simplest – although pretty scary at the first sight – is this very blog exercise: a list of 100. If you are hit by the writer's block, just sit down and try to find 100 ways to solve that problem. If you think it's not possible, you're completely wrong. You're actually reading the result of such an exercise. ## 31. Don't Quit The most important tip of all. Don't quit. Breaking through gets harder and harder, and in the first 6 months (/work-with-me/) you can barely scratch the surface. Stay there and do your daily job even the results are so slow to show. At some point, you'll be successful. But if you quit, you won't. That's for sure. ## Layout *The way your content is perceived is fundamental. You may create good and engaging content, but if you don't lay it out in a pleasant way, it will not be read. People like to see beautiful things first, and then read beautiful blog posts.* ## 32. Buy A Professional Theme I cannot stress enough on this one. The theme I'm using for some time now, not only for this blog, but for other projects as well, is called Total. And it's not just a theme, it's a complete framework. Check it out (http://themeforest.net/item/total-responsive-multipurpose-wordpress-theme/6339019?ref=AlignedWithin). ## 33. Create A Different Home Page For Your Blog If you use an out of the box setup from a vanilla wordpress installation, you end up with a home page made by your latest blog posts. Replacing this list with a home page is usually a good idea, especially since your posts will be visited most of the time directly from search engines or other links. A home page can tell a completely different story. ## 34. Use Excerpts Or Features On The Blog Home Page If you created a different home page for your site, doesn't mean you won't have a list of posts. That's what I call a "blog home page". Using just one or two full posts in that list is a good thing: usually, it keeps the reader focused. For the other posts I suggest using excerpts to declutter. ## 35. Enable Threaded Comments Latest WordPress version have this cool option in the setting: enable threaded comments. You can even chose the depth of the threaded comments, standard (and what I recommend) is 5. In the old days, you had to look for a plugin to make that happen. Threaded comments are a great visual enhancement, not to mention the conversation boost. ## 36. Identify Your Blog Hotspots Hotspots are places on your blog more visible than others. Depending on the reader's habits and your own layout, you can use those places for various incentives, from subscribing reminders to advertising or premium content. The following 4 tips are examples of hotspots in my blog. ## 37. Use A Greeting Before The Content Based on their referrer. Just before the content I have this sentence which welcome my users, based on their referrer and give them specific incentives. I created a thesis hook (/simple-thesis-hooks-for-twitter-stumbleupon-digg-and-reddit/) for those of you who are running thesis, but I'm sure you can find a plugin for that, if you don't. ## 38. Keep Them Reading Your Articles After They Finished Your Post After the post area I set up a retention zone. It features related posts (there is a plugin for that) and link for some strategic posts. After they finish your post, keeping them around is a very good idea, and that hotspot seems the best place to do it. ## 39. Put Short But Relevant Content Near The Linkbar Another hotspot is at the link bar level. I chose to put there the total number of subscriber I get via FeedBurner. For my experience, link bar is not as hot as the beginning or the end of the post, so I just use it as an overall subscribing incentive. ## 40. Use A Tabbed Zone For Recommended Articles The last important hotspot is just before the sidebars. I used it for a custom tabbed zone holding the most important articles in the most relevant categories. It gives a bird-eye on what it can be found and it dramatically increase the click rate for the selected articles. ## 41. Your Blog Header Is Your Identity Pay attention to your header, that's where the title is usually placed. People will remember your blog by visually recreating that zone. If it's too crowded it will be hard to memorize. I Always recommend to keep your header as clean as possible, in order to be easily remembered. ## 42. Add A Top Posts Page To Your Menu And subsequently create a top posts page. I don't recommend to have it automatically generated based on the popularity of your articles. Tweaking it according to your own perspective of what's good is much better. ## 43. Add A Downloads Page If you followed tips number 23, Create Alternative Content, having a separate Downloads page for that is compulsory. If properly promoted, many people will land to that page directly, without seeing your home page or any of your posts. ## 44. Use Full Feeds People have the freedom to chose which way they are going to read you: via web or via an RSS reader. Keeping partial feeds on the RSS part used to be a common tip for making people visit your site for the full content. I don't buy it. I have full feeds: as long as they read me, it's their choice how they do it. ## 45. Mix Your Twitter Timeline Into Your Blog Put your latest 5-7 tweets in the sidebar or even in the footer, but do let them know that you have a twitter timeline. Will talk about how Twitter can enhance your presence from a promotion point of view a little later, but from a layout perspective, publicizing your current tweets will make your blog feel much more alive. ## 46. Focus On The Content Whatever you do or add to your general layout, keep in mind this simple question: will this help my content to reach my users faster? If you answer "no", or "maybe" to this question, usually the add-on doesn't worth the time. ## 47. Use Excerpts On Archives Pages First of all, make sure you add or enable the standard archives pages in every wordpress theme. And then, be sure to make the archives displaying only excerpts of your posts, this will create a better user experience and possibly increase the time you readers are spending on your articles. ## Plugins *Plugins are for your blogging what chip tuning is for a street car. The right combination is hard to find, but once you find it, not only it will make your work much easier, but it will also make you look awesome! Or at least it will make your blog look awesome, which is what are we talking about in this post.* ## 48. Akismet Spam Protection You can't really do it without this one. Or, you can blog but you would have to completely turn off your comments. Which is not blogging anymore, right? Activating akismet (http://akismet.com) requires a key, but you can easily generate one in seconds. Once you install it, you'll forget about it. That's how a decent plugin should behave, anyway. ## 49. Google Sitemap Another must have and also a quiet one. Once you install it, you don't know it exists anymore, but it does work heavily in the background. The plugin does exactly what it says, it creates a sitemap of your blog in XML format and automatically submit it to Google every time you post. Pretty convenient, huh? (download here (http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/)) ## 50. Recent Comments A very useful addition and one that your commenters will heavily appreciate it. The plugin is easy to install, comes as a widget and is also quite configurable. Highlighting comments usually enhance the conversation, or at least this is what happened to me. (download here) ## 51. WordPress Download Monitor If you're going to have alternative content, like mindmaps, free or paid ebooks, templates or audio / video material, you should consider using this. It will help you organize your downloadables by category, show number of downloads and you can even create new posts inspired by those results, like my most downloaded mindmaps (/my-most-downloaded-mind-maps-reloaded/). ![ShareByLight app icon](/images/icons/sharebylight-icon-48.webp) I just launched ShareByLight (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-file-transfer/id6796897056)—transfer files with light only. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no cables. One device shows a stream, the other reads it with the camera. Free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. ## 52. Blog Audit This is a shameless self promotion. Blog Audit (/work-with-me/) is a simple plugin I wrote, which lets you establish blogging goals and measure your progress. You can set a posting routine, a comment density, even a pingback volume and then watch live how you're doing with it. ## 53. CommentLuv This will also make your commenters shine with happiness. If your commenters enter a web address in the designated field, CommentLuv will go there and extract your latest post link. If you sign up for CommentLuv (http://comluv.com/download/commentluv-wordpress/) at their site, you can even customize which post you will want featured. Neat! ## 54. Recent Posts Great way to showcase your latest articles in the sidebar. Readers are curious, they want to know what's on your mind lately and if they are really interested in what you write, they will always want to be updated. It's simple and good blog real estate use. Download here. ## 55. Similar Posts I use this plugin to show a list of (possibly) related posts after each article. It's not always matching the main idea and sometimes it gives weird results, but even that is much better than manually compiling a list of links each time I publish. Great time saver and good retention tool. Download here. ## 56. Woopra Woopra is a new analytics tool and I'm kinda fond to it. Tracking your website is done by installing a simple wordpress plugin, which, a part from helping Woopra gather all sort of data, doesn't do much. But will talk about Woopra as ana analytics service a little bit later. Download here (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/woopra/). ## 57. WordPress Automatic Upgrade Saves me the trouble of doing it manually. I reckon I struggled for years with manual upgrades of WordPress, and even if I got really skilled at some point, I can't avoid the fact that this is just plain boring. Not to mention is time consuming. Better automate the process. Download here. ## 58. Twitter Tools Twitter Tools can do a lot of nice tricks for you. It shows your latest tweets in the sidebar, automatically tweet when you publish a new post and can even let you tweet from your own public interface (don't know who uses this, but it's kinda cool). ## 59. Avoid The Plugin Hysteria No plugin can write content in your place. No plugin can make you authentic. Spending too much time hunting, installing and testing new plugins will shift your focus from your most important task: to produce and maintain a constant flow of quality content. That would make you famous, not the plugins. ## Promotion *You will have to make yourself known. You will have to get out and let the world you're there and you are writing something important. Not promoting your work would be like projecting fabulously creative commercials in Sahara. The ads may be fantastic, but if there's nobody to see them, it's useless.* ## 60. Don't Be Shy About Your Blog If you really know you wrote good stuff, go out and spread the word. Unless you hired a PR company to handle this you gotta take care of your own promotion, at least until it takes off. And even after. Accept the idea and make time for it in your schedule. ## 61. Tweet Your Blog Sign up for Twitter (http://twitter.com/dragosroua) and start to promote your posts there. Already mentioned a plugin which will automatically do most of the hard work for you, but you can also do it manually. Used properly, Twitter can bring in hundreds or thousands of visitors per day. As in every other social media space, the thumb rule is to be constantly there. Somehow. ## 62. Stumble Upon That would be the StumbleUpon website, a community which aims to make the internet content relevant, by using a human powered algorithm. That sounds far more complicated than it really is. In StumbleUpon you must first contribute a lot of new discoveries until you really get the benefits of the game. ## 63. Reddit Your Posts Go on and try Reddit, one of the simplest, yet most crowded user generated content places on the net. Usually, Reddit users are in the geeky zone of the internet specter, but if you carefully chose your subreddits (that would be special communities inside the main Reddit) you can have pretty good results. ## 64. Digg It! Although I haven't been very successful with Digg, I recommend it. I personally know bloggers who benefited enormously from it. Digg traffic seems to be the most volatile among all the communities I mentioned so far. Maybe you can help me change my luck on Digg by pushing this post on the front page. 🙂 ## 65. Facebook It's all over so you must be there. I don't know any specific technique on how to use Facebook to promote your work other than just being there. Put your blog feed on the wall, so your friends can see it and just wait. At some point, you will be surprised by how many hits you receive just by being there. ## 66. Follow Your Trackbacks Constantly keep en eye on who's linking to you. Visit them and let a comment. If the number is too high and you can't physically leave a comment on every site which is linking to you (don't smile, it WILL happen at some point) just be sure to constantly verify that list. You'll learn a lot about your audience and possible followers. ## 67. Comment On Other Blogs Find at least 10-15 blogs you really like and make a habit out of commenting on them. Not only you will get to know a lot of interesting and potentially useful players in this area, but you will generate a lot of links and buzz. Don't brutally say: "Hi, check out this great article I just wrote", say something meaningful and they will eventually want to know more about you. ## 68. Respond To The Comments Keep an eye on the conversation you generate, if any. Be there for it, support it and make it a normal part of your routine. Behind your posts lies another exceptional line of content, and that's your comment repository. Respect your commenters, as they are voluntarily creating content for YOU. ## 69. Establish A Slug Structure And Stick With It A slug is the link part of your post, the one that shows in the browser. You can tweak what is shown there just with a vanilla wordpress setup. For instance, I chose to have the post title right before the domain name. Other approaches are to put the date between them, to add an "archives" or even a custom one made entirely by yourself. ## 70. Participate In Blog Carnivals Kinda slow but necessary. Submit your most interesting posts to blog carnivals in your niche. It might be a little cumbersome to do this in the beginning but in a 3 months time frame you will gather a lot of links and awareness. Don't be fooled by the somehow awkward interface of BlogCarnival.com, those carnivals are actually real and useful. ## 71. Use Proper CSS For Headings That would be, by a wide accepted standard, 2. Make sure your paragraph titles, also known as headings, are styled with H2. This is extremely important for layout (if you change your theme and didn't use h2, you will lose the formatting) but for search engine optimization also. A different CSS style weights differently in most of the search engines. ## 72. Select Your Keywords In Headlines If you used a different CSS selector for headlines, don't forget to chose specific words for it. If you want your post to be found by specific keywords, putting them in the headings will significantly increase your chances. It's one of the cheapest promotion technique I know. ## 73. Use Proper Keywords In Your Slugs In the same league as headings come slugs. Although WordPress can automatically create your slug, it's always a good idea to double check for common words or / and for keywords you want to be highlighted. Also an easy one, but often overlooked. ## 74. Use Title Tag Appropriately The title of your post can or cannot match the tag. The thumb rule is: the tag is seen by search engines and the title in the post is seen by search engines + your readers. It's useful to play a little with the title tag, but don't go too far, don't chose completely different words for the post title and the tag title, you can get penalized for that. ## 75. Use Metatags Appropriately There is a long debate on the internet about how useful metatags really are. And the real answer is that nobody really knows, so it's better to get yourself covered. Thesis theme (/thesis-the-wordpress-framework/) has this awesome feature which lets me control per each post metatags like title, keywords and so on. ## 76. Look For Small Or Emerging Communities Once you've done your job with the giants (twitter, reddit or digg) start looking for small / emerging communities in your niche. At this time, both Ycombinator (http://news.ycombinator.com/news) or BizSugar (http://bizsugar.com) are still young and emerging communities, but judging on how fast they're moving, they may become mainstream pretty soon. ## 77. Use A Cluster Of Analytics Services Observe your traffic statistics. You can use any service you want, from Google Analytics, to a server based log analyzer like webalizer. I use Woopra (http://www.woopra.com/) lately with fairly good results. One good strategy is to group 2-3 analytics services together, because usually they have different algorithms and you can have a better idea about your real traffic if you check at least 2-3 sources. ## 78. Establish (and strictly follow) A Statistics Checking Routine Don't go to your statistics page every 5 minutes. I know the feeling, and it's not good. In the beginning, weekly it.s ok. Once you get to be linked or retweeted, 2-3 times a day is enough. And you will do that mainly to get in touch with who interacted with your content. ## 79. Identify Forums In Your Niche Forums are still very popular and they can be a very good traffic generator. Just be sure to keep a fair balance between your regular contribution to that forum and your self-promotion, forums users are typically a little bit more sensitive. ## 80. Watch Your Comments Density That's another blog metrics which I consider extremely important and which plays a big role in shaping your overall visibility. By watching the number of comments per post. per day, per week and their variations from one month to another you can draw extremely valuable conclusions. ## 81. Watch Your Pingback Volume If comments density is a measure of your popularity, pingback volume is a measure of your visibility among other competitors. Identify posts with the higher pingback volume and see what you can learn from them. Pingbacks are like a volume switch for your work, the higher the volume, the most popular the article. ## 82. Talk About It With Your Friends Like the friends you have in the real world (if you're fortunate enough to still have some). Let them know who you really are and what do you do. Don't put your work under the carpet. Make it as visible as you can. Word of mouth is much more powerful than any promotion strategy I know. ## 83. Make Your RSS Subscriber Number Public Surprisingly enough, many of the bloggers I met are shy about these numbers, most of the time thinking they don't have enough followers to show off. In fact, making the number of subscribers public will encourage your potential readers to join. People are attracted to meaning, not numbers. ## Networking *Blogging is about connecting. Don't stay in the same place, you'll get dusty. Go out, meet new people, contribute or help in different ways. Networking is so often forgot and I think this is a big mistake. Networking is much more than promotion, being able to connect you with people in the real world.* ## 84. Write Guest Posts Go out and find blogs in your niche. Contact the authors and ask if they accept guest posts. Most of the time, they will. The main benefit of guest posting is not, as they largely promote it, the traffic you get, but the relationship you establish with the host. ## 85. Write Massive Guest Posts Massive guest posting is something a little bit different than guest posting (and, as far as I know, is something that wasn't done so far). Basically, you write an article with several possible developments and then continue those developments as guest posts on other blogs. See massive guest posting (/massive-guest-posting/). ## 86. Create And Maintain A Close Group Identify bloggers with a similar background (they can or cannot be in the same niche, as long as you can get along) and openly propose a cross-promotion. Be careful when you chose them and be sure they are persons you can rely on. You will be in that group for quite some time. ## 87. Promote The Members Of Your Close Group Just like any other friendship relationship this must go two-ways. Whenever you see the opportunity to promote them, do it. Retweet, stumble, digg or reddit their articles. Remember, they have to be people you trust and admire. What you promote tells a lot about yourself. ## 88. Participate In Internet Blogging Challenges One of the most famous internet blogging challenges is Darren Rowse's 31 Days To Build A Better Blog (http://www.problogger.net/archives/category/31-days-to-building-a-better-blog/). I personally attended (virtually, of course) the last edition and I must tell you it was a really nice experience. This is as good as participating in collaborative projects, only you benefit from the exposure of a blogging icon. ## 89. Go Out And Meet Bloggers In Flesh And Blood If you have a hugely diverse audience this may be a little difficult. But even so, you can try it. I did it too and that helped me understand that other bloggers are for real, just like you, they're not just some numbers in your analytics tool, under the "referrers" tab. Meet them, maybe you won't become close friends, but you may learn a lot form this interaction. ## 90. Attend Specific Blogging Events Like in real world specific blogging events, this time. One of the most famous is Blog World Expo (http://www.blogworldexpo.com), but there are many other established conferences, not to mention the local ones. Do your best to participate in real events as often as you can. ## 91. Speak Out Once you're at a real life event, don't be shy. I saw too often bloggers attending to interesting events but keeping an unexplainable low profile. Stand out, speak, give feed-back and let the people know who you are. People are more curious than you think to actually meet the real presence behind a blog. Even yours. ## Money *At some point, you will want to make some money out of your blog. It's natural. It's your work and there must be some sort of payment for it. Only in this business, you have to take care personally about this problem. And that is the good news, because if you're careful, the sky is the limit. Literally.* ## 92. Accept Donations Don't make a loan and vouch it with your blog donations, it will never be like that. Donations aren't predictable. But having them displayed is a nice way to let people know that you accept their gratitude. If you really write valuable content, you will receive donations. I know I did. ## 93. You Sell Authority, Not Goods Always remember that what you are really selling would be your authority, your expertise, your credibility or your lifestyle. Be very careful when you chose to make money and how you do it. Blogging is not about selling, blogging is about building partnerships. You're responsible. ## 94. Promote Only What You Use Once you'll become well known, there will be more and more requests for promoting different products or services. One of the rules I followed so far was to promote only what I directly used. People have this tendency to associate your person with what you are promoting and if the promoted product is a mess, that could be really awkward. ## 95. Use PPC Diligently Don't overcrowd your page with ads (and yes, by PPC I also mean AdSense). Pay Per Click is such a size consuming advertising technique, it needs a lot of space and exposure to create sustainable results. It can create a stable source of income, but its golden days are gone. ## 96. If You Sell Space, Sell It Directly If you decide it's time to sell display advertising, sell it your own. Make a separate page in which you are announcing your prices and your conditions. Selling display advertising via an advertising agency is very expensive. Not to mention that you don't really control the process. ## 97. Make Your Expertise Stand Out And clearly state that you are for hire. If it's consulting that you do, say it out loud, if it's web design, write it with big fonts. Don't expect people to dig through your posts trying to find what's your main expertise and if you could help them. There are a lot of people out there already doing it. ## 98. Make Long Term Deals Even if the overall payout is smaller, always go for long term deals. Despite what TV news told you, economy is not predictable. Go for a tinier profit but do it for longer time. One of the best promotions I did was a year long deal with a software producer and I'm totally happy with it. ## 99. Create And Sell Your Own Products Write an ebook. Create an online course. Make a suite of videos. Go for what you can genuinely create. Making money directly from your products is always better than advertising. You can totally control the process and even if you use affiliate networks to promote your products, the payout is much bigger than in any other field. ## 100. Use Incentives To Promote Premium Content Create free ebooks or other free resources to create awareness. Link to your commercial products in those free products and then spread the word. That way, people will have the opportunity to know more about what you do before actually buying the commercial product. ## 101. Add Paid Membership I didn't actually do it here, but I successfully did it in other projects and all I can tell you is that is really working. But it depends a lot on your niche and audience. As of January 2016, there is such a community, built on top of DragosRoua.com readers. The name is The Space and it's growing pretty fast. You should check it out. Also, as a rule of thumb remember that people are ready to pay from premium content, if that content really solve some real problem for them. I know, there are 101 ways, not 100, as I promised in the title. I lied. And I also did something that always helped me being successful (/being-successful/): under promise and over deliver. First published on: September 6, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-tips-to-improve-your-blog%2F&text=100%20Tips%20To%20Improve%20Your%20Blog&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-tips-to-improve-your-blog%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-tips-to-improve-your-blog%2F&t=100%20Tips%20To%20Improve%20Your%20Blog https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-tips-to-improve-your-blog%2F&title=100%20Tips%20To%20Improve%20Your%20Blog Previous ### September Update (/september-update/) Next ### Do You Feel Your Life Is Blurred? (/is-your-life-blurred/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Do You Have The "Glass Wall" Syndrome? URL: https://dragosroua.com/do-you-have-the-glass-wall-syndrome.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/do-you-have-the-glass-wall-syndrome/ Published: 2010-11-29 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 101 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Personal Development Tags: limiting beliefs, perspective, self awareness I"m not going to tell you what the glass syndrome is. At least, not in the first two sentences. I know I'm at the third sentence already, and, technically, I could start giving you the definition, but I'd rather not. It's a delicate concept and it's better to tell you a short story first. It will make you understand the whole thing better. ## The Evening Walk I love long, solitary walks especially in the evening. I get this from my adolescence, where I was doing 5-6 kilometers daily long walks around the lake near my home city, Ramnicu Valcea. A few weeks ago, on a lovely and quite hot fall evening, I was walking on one of the largest central boulevards of Bucharest (the city where I'm working at the moment). A lot of people were doing the same thing. The lights, the noise and a certain city vibe made that walk pretty enjoyable. At some point, I spotted in front of me, melted into the multitude of shops, a bank office. It was the self-service kind of bank hut, where you can enter in a small room and use the ATM. The office was fully lighted and I could see that there wasn't nobody in. I thought I should take out some money from my ATM card, wanted to do some shopping on my way home. I briefly stopped for a red light and then closely approached the bank office. Meanwhile a couple formed by two young ladies already entered and they were using the ATM. I thought I could enter too, just to be there and wait for them to finish. As I was entering the office, I started to notice a little bit of a dizziness. Also, my bones were feeling a small pressure, like when you're trying to walk on a swimming pool, if you know the feeling. At the same time, I clearly saw the young ladies starting to turn their heads towards me. There was a real slow movement, the one that you can see in a Discovery like footage. "Well, I thought, those lady are certainly turning their heads reaaaly slow" and the second after I felt an intense ache in my forehead. Everything came back to the normal speed in a split of a second and not only I started to suddenly hear the noise of the city again (somehow it disappeared in this slow motion whirlwind) but I also realized I was just banged my head against a glass wall. Instead of the empty space I was expecting to enter through, there was a real, thick and completely transparent glass wall. And that strange collection of sensations, everything I felt for the last 5 or 10 seconds, in fact happened in less than a second. Banging my head against that wall seemed to somehow make the Universe go in slow motion. After hearing the incredibly ugly sound of my forehead hitting the glass, I saw the ladies looking at me with an indescribable mix of fear, wild amusement and surprise. A few of the walkers were also stopped and they were gazing at the guy who was slowly starting to feel the impact of his 88 kilos in close and total contact with an incredibly hard obstacle. Somehow, my synapses weren't affected by the impact. "Well, it looks like I can't enter through this wall", that was my first clear thought. "Let's find another ATM", that was my second. So, without even stopping, I just corrected my trajectory with a few degrees, describing a narrow, but solid curve and here I was, walking again on the street. A few laughs were still strong enough to enter my ears, but just 20 meters after I spotted a wall mounted ATM. Stopped by, took the money and went on. In 10 minutes I was entering a subway station. I found a mirror and, as I expected, my forehead had a nice, red, round, kilingonian-like swelling right in the middle. Ok, you can stop laughing now. Seriously. Well, to be honest, every time I think at this incident, I laugh my butt out too. So, lets' have a good one. 🙂 Ok, you're ready? Because I'm finally going to tell you what the "glass wall" syndrome is. ## The Glass Syndrome You are on a very clear path, but you didn't choose the right entrance. You know what you want, but the way you want it, as familiar as it may look, it is refused to you. It's like wanting to enter a bank from a window. Of course you will hit a glass wall, you just didn't choose the right entrance. That's the "glass wall" syndrome. I know you've been there. Maybe in milder forms than hitting a real glass wall on a large boulevard, like I did the other day, but I'm sure you've been there too. Truth is we've all been there. Because we do apply the same patterns over and over, without assessing too much. Most of the time, we're right. But in some specific situations our lack of assessment is almost fatal. We fail to get the results because we think we know the solution. Stop for a second and look very carefully at your life as it is right now. Look at your perfect job, perfect partner, perfect goals. Do you see them clearly? Then do yourself a service and look for the real entrance to those precious venues, because you may just banging your head against a glass wall. You may think you can have it instantly, but in fact you're constantly choosing the wrong path. ## The Cure To The Glass Wall Syndrome Ok, suppose you're hitting a glass wall. It's not so uncommon, after all. So, how can you break free from it? In just two words: move on. Don't get addicted to the meaningless effort of pushing it harder than it needs. Just because you're getting a shitload of resistance, it doesn't mean you're on the right path. You may see clearly the end goal, but you may loose the entrance from sight. If you really want it, it will come to you. I found the next ATM in just 20 meters. It wasn't exactly as the one I was trying to use before, but it did the job perfectly. As long as I kept moving. First published on: November 29, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdo-you-have-the-glass-wall-syndrome%2F&text=Do%20You%20Have%20The%20%E2%80%9CGlass%20Wall%E2%80%9D%20Syndrome%3F&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdo-you-have-the-glass-wall-syndrome%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdo-you-have-the-glass-wall-syndrome%2F&t=Do%20You%20Have%20The%20%E2%80%9CGlass%20Wall%E2%80%9D%20Syndrome%3F https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdo-you-have-the-glass-wall-syndrome%2F&title=Do%20You%20Have%20The%20%E2%80%9CGlass%20Wall%E2%80%9D%20Syndrome%3F Previous ### The Subtle Comfort Of The Discomfort Zone (/the-subtle-comfort-of-the-discomfort-zone/) Next ### What’s Your Surface Test? (/whats-your-surface-test/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Magical Ways to Use Curiosity as a Personal Development Tool URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-magical-ways-to-use-curiosity-as-a-personal-development-tool.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-magical-ways-to-use-curiosity-as-a-personal-development-tool/ Published: 2010-05-17 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 100 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Personal Development Tags: curiosity, growth, list post, self improvement This is a guest post by Makenzie Kelly, @makenziekelly (http://twitter.com/makenziekelly). *"Judge a man by his questions rather than answers", Voltaire* Some say curiosity killed the cat.  I say what doesn't kill the cat, makes it stronger! Curiosity has been classified as a nice-to-have attribute of a person; it definitely hasn't been a reinforced attribute by our education system because some feel curiosity may not really serve a purpose. *"It is amazing that curiosity survives formal education" Einstein* Yet, Einstein and other notable scholars have developed entire theories, solved unsolvable equations, and come up with amazing solutions to our world's problems by solely being curious. How does curiosity work? - Curiosity allows us to ask questions - Curiosity is innocent, so we can be curious about anything, there are no limits - Curiosity allows exploration - Curiosity has no room for judgment - Curiosity spurs amusement and fun How can you use curiosity to further your personal development? #### 1. Ask A Lot Of Questions And don't just ask questions that have easily solvable answers.  I remember my son at five years old once asked me, "Mommy, why do I always confuse my left and right, but I never confuse my up and down?"  Such a simple question, but the answer befuddled me…and the question was a valid one.  Questions in their simplest form draw our attention to a problem, and then curiosity starts digging into the problem. #### 2. Use Curiosity To Melt Resistance If you are meeting resistance in a certain area in your life, get curious.  If you are angry (/aggression-recycled/), sad or bitter, get curious about why you're having those feelings. Curiosity does a funny thing and melts away your self-judgment about the issue at hand that may be bothering you. #### 3. How Can I? When you are faced with a problem, use your curiosity, start asking questions and wonder "How Can I" solve this problem.  When we get our mind out of reactive mode, get curious about the resolution, our mind reacts more positively and we can intuit more comprehensive solutions. #### 4. Let Your Mind Run Unhindered Start writing down your questions and let your mind run free.  Sometimes the more curious we become, the more the questions can freely flow out of our head onto paper. #### 5. Engage Your Subconscious In A Conversation Curiosity is a tool to our subconscious.  We don't like being judged, neither does our subconscious.  But we do like it when people ask questions about us and engage us in conversation.  This is exactly what we do to our subconscious when we get curious, we engage it in a conversation. #### 6. Reframe Your Problems Realize that we cannot solve a problem if we don't know what the underlying question is.  Curiosity helps to frame our problems in such a way that we can answer them. #### 7. Extinguish Boredom Ever notice how young children never seem to be bored (/how-and-why-we-get-bored/)? Their minds are jumping from one exploration to the next, hands and feet in tow.  Their insatiable curiosity about the world eliminates boredom.  In fact, I doubt that boredom even exists in their cognition! Curiosity is so innocent, and often overlooked as a useful tool for personal development.  We tend to want to beat ourselves over the head with perfecting our existence on this earth.  Instead of trying to be perfect at bettering yourself, try just being curious.  What can you get curious about? *Makenzie Kelly is a Time Rescue â„¢ Expert and Avidly Curious about Time!  An entrepreneur and paramedic she retired from a Multi-Million dollar business and give up a 6-figure salary to have more Time and Freedom!  She blogs about Ultimate Lifestyle Design at the Freedom Venture Project â„¢ Blog. * First published on: May 17, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Life Has No Meaning. And That's Why It's So Wonderful URL: https://dragosroua.com/life-has-no-meaning-and-thats-why-its-so-wonderful.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/life-has-no-meaning-and-thats-why-its-so-wonderful/ Published: 2015-11-30 Modified: 2026-05-25 Views: 98 Categories: Personal Development Tags: meaning, perspective, wisdom **2026 Update**: *I revisit this post here (/life-has-no-meaning-in-2026-i-still-think-this-is-good-news/), as part of a 30 day challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* Boy, I love the smell of a twisted, alluring title in the morning, don’t you? I bet you came here after googling the exact phrase: “life has no meaning”. I know I did that quite a lot in the past. And I know the feeling. But the second part of the title came out of nowhere, right? It’s borderline nonsensical. Life has no meaning, and that’s why it’s… I mean, c’mon: are you on pills or something? Well, it wouldn’t be the first time I’m perceived as being close to delusional, but stay with me. It will be worth it. ## Life Has No Meaning First of all, let’s clarify what I mean by “life” here. It’s not some deep, philosophical shit. It’s not like I’m gonna set up a lunch table for Kant, Schopenhauer and the gang. Nope. Life – at least in the context of this article – is much more simple than that. Life is when you get up in the morning. It’s what you talk about during the day. It’s what you see. It’s what you feel like doing each and every moment of your existence. That’s the life I’m talking about. The first hand experience of reality. And, believe it or not, this thing has no meaning. At all. Are you still with me? Good. Then let’s dive into details. Life has no meaning “of its own”. It’s not like there is a sand stone somewhere in the Universe holding the meaning of life. Or some complicated law astutely engrained in the dance of the DNA molecules or playing hide-and-seek with the quantum physicists. There is no such thing. The more you think about it, the less you are able to see it. There is no meaning to everything that surrounds us. And here comes the good part: **we** are giving meaning to everything that surrounds us. **We** are giving meaning to every morning. **We** are giving meaning to everything we talk about during the day. **We** are giving meaning to everything we see and we feel like doing each and every moment of our existence. And you know how I realized this? Because each and every one of us has a different experience of reality. What I see is different from what you see. What I think about when I talk is very different from what you think about when you listen to me. What you feel like doing is very different from what I feel like doing, even if we’re in identical contexts. There are as many realities as people experiencing "them". And that means there’s no reality at all, otherwise we would all see everything identical. That’s what I meant by “life has no meaning”. Now, let’s get to the tricky part. ## Life Is Disastrous, Wonderful, Sad, Happy And Great Yes. And it’s also hurtful, complex, simple, beautiful, ugly, transparent, opaque, mysterious and, of course, tricky. And many more. Because life has every meaning we give to it. That’s so simple, it’s also impossible to comprehend the first time you actually get it. I know it took a few years to get my head around it. But in the end I really got it. Simply put, life is exactly how we choose it to be. Oh well, I may hear your voice form the back of the room: “I feel like crap now, I’m broke, my girlfriend left me and I’m unemployed. Are you actually telling me that I choose this?” Hold your horses, step away from sharp objects and chew on this: “Yes. You made all those choices. If life has no meaning at all and you’re experiencing frustration and unhappiness, then who gave those meanings to your life? If you are the one giving meaning to reality, then why do you feel like crap?” And here comes the most important question: “Who’s in charge?”. And then answer, my friend, is: “You. Always”. Now, here comes something even trickier: I may agree with you that in this very moment, you don’t want to feel like crap. That's true. Right now you don't want to feel like this, you don't choose this. But you made that choice *sometimes in the past.* Because, you know, we’re inertial. We’re not processing life in real time. We’re like in a swamp of causes and effects and we’re wandering around, blinded by our own confusion. Decisions we took way back in the past are manifesting their effects now. We’re like a vortex of actions, pushed forward by our desires and needs, and we’re experiencing the constant effect of our decisions. The more confused we are, the bigger and more chaotic the vortex. And the bigger the confusion, the bigger the force that makes things snowball more and more: for instance, we made the decision to give crap (to other people, or to ourselves, that doesn’t really matter) well, we get thousands times more crap. We don't get the same amount. The effect is always bigger than the cause. That’s the nature of our lives here on Earth. We’re vortexes of cause and effect and we’re navigating a subtle fabric that enhances our actions tens or millions of times. A small withdrawal from sport class when you were kid is now transformed by this fabric into a big phobia of exercising. And you’re overweight. And you are afraid to take risks. And these are snowballing each and every second. So, the reason you’re feeling like crap now is that you choose it. Ain’t that wonderful? Ain’t that magical? Ain’t that the answer to all of our problems? Because what you choose to do becomes reality. That’s why life has no meaning and that’s why this is a wonderful thing. ## Navigating The Vortex Oh yes, that vortex is strong. We're talking years (maybe dozens of years) of chaotically spinning in confusion, accumulating eons of momentum and rotational force. We're strong. Or, in other words, just because you realized you’re in charge of your life right now, it doesn’t mean it will suddenly become beautiful (or even manageable). The force of effects you're experiencing right now, in the present moment, won't stop just because you had an "a-ha" moment. The vortex is so strong, and we have such a limited perception of its boundaries and potential that we can barely survive. But the good news is that even a vortex like this can be tamed. Because you give meaning to it, remember? It won’t happen over night, that’s true. But it will happen. Small decision after small decision, the change will permeate the energy lines of the vortex and it will change its velocity, its power, its momentum. Small things done constantly, each and every day, with awareness (http://www.startofhappiness.com/top-100-self-improvement-blogs-2014/), presence and joy, will redirect this energy away from darkness, from fear, from unhappiness. We will still be a vortex, but we won’t be helplessly dragged away, at the mercy of our past, unconscious decisions. We will ride it. First published on: November 30, 2015 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # My 10 AI Predictions From 2019: A Reality Check URL: https://dragosroua.com/my-10-ai-predictions-from-2019-a-reality-check.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/my-10-ai-predictions-from-2019-a-reality-check/ Published: 2025-11-02 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 98 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Technology Tags: ai tools, lessons learned In October 2019, I sat down and wrote a blog post predicting ten ways artificial intelligence would disrupt our lives. At the time, I was deep in the trenches, teaching myself AI algorithms alongside blockchain and cryptography. I was convinced I understood where things were heading. I had this beautifully confident model: algorithms crunching data, tuning parameters, spitting out results. Neural networks finally getting their moment because of big data. Clean. Predictable. Understandable. Then ChatGPT launched in November 2022, and the entire game changed. Six years later, I'm not just watching the AI revolution—I'm living inside it. Building an AI-powered task management app. Using Claude to migrate 2,000+ blog posts. Debugging code with AI assistance. Having conversations that would have seemed like science fiction to my 2019 self. So I went back and reread my predictions. Here's what I learned. ## What I Got Right (And Why) **DeepFakes** – I wrote that "AI may turn this post-factual world into a deep-fantasy world, in which any identity will be instantly duplicable." This aged perfectly, just faster than expected. Voice cloning, photorealistic fake images, sophisticated video deepfakes—all standard now. What I underestimated was the democratization. I thought this would be nation-states and corporations. Instead, teenagers make deepfakes in their bedrooms. **Instant Translation** – Predicted StarTrek-style real-time translation. It happened. Google Translate went from comically bad to genuinely useful. I've had business conversations where each person speaks their native language and AI handles translation in real-time. **Logistics** – Amazon's AI-driven supply chains. Pandemic-accelerated demand prediction. The invisible revolution I predicted is now table stakes. Products appear on shelves when needed, in quantities matching demand almost perfectly. Why did I nail these? Because they're optimization problems with clear training data. The path from "bad but improving" to "good enough" was predictable. ## What I Got Wrong (And What That Teaches Us) **Autonomous Driving** – I predicted robotaxis replacing Uber drivers and cars reconfigured with inward-facing seats by now. Six years later? Waymo in geofenced areas. Tesla FSD still requiring supervision. The revolution isn't here yet. What I missed: the long tail problem. The last 5% of edge cases turned out to be 95% of the difficulty. More importantly, I missed the human factor. People are terrified, not reassured. Every accident goes viral. **Lesson**: Technical capability doesn't equal adoption. **Predictive Trading** – I predicted AI would level the playing field, that everyone using similar algorithms would compress profits. The reality? High-frequency trading firms got more sophisticated. The gap widened instead of narrowing. **Lesson**: Technology amplifies existing advantages. It rarely levels playing fields. **The Pattern**: I overestimated physical-world disruption (autonomous driving) and underestimated information-space disruption (language models). Physical world requires infrastructure, regulations, social acceptance. Information space just requires compute and data. ## The Elephant I Missed: Large Language Models Here's the uncomfortable truth: I completely missed the biggest AI development of the last six years. In 2019, I was thinking about narrow, specialized tools. Computer vision for driving. Translation algorithms for language. Each problem had its own specialized solution. I wrote: "Artificial intelligence is really just a set of algorithms… crunching large amounts of data, while tuning parameters." Technically correct. Fundamentally incomplete. When ChatGPT launched in November 2022, millions of people suddenly had conversations with AI that could write poetry, debug code, explain complex topics, and engage in creative problem-solving. The transformer architecture had existed since 2017. GPT-3 was available since 2020. But something about ChatGPT's interface unlocked a new understanding. The shift wasn't just technical. It was conceptual. Previous AI was like having specialized tools—hammer, saw, screwdriver. Large language models are like having someone who understands the entire workshop. They don't just execute tasks. They understand context, maintain conversation, reason across domains. I'm living inside this transformation. When I built addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/), AI wasn't a feature—it was a development partner. Code review, architecture decisions, documentation, marketing. When I migrated my blog (/moving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how/), Claude understood my writing voice and generated SEO descriptions that matched my style while improving discoverability. This is the shift: from "AI as tool" to "AI as collaborator." ## What I'd Predict Now (2025 ? 2030) Having learned humility, here's what I see: **AI Agents** – Forget self-driving cars. The real autonomous revolution will be autonomous *working*. Not AI that responds to prompts, but agents that plan, execute, and iterate on complex tasks. Tell an AI "launch this marketing campaign" and have it research, create content, schedule posts, monitor engagement, and adjust strategy. By 2030, this will be commonplace. **Knowledge Work Transformation** – Junior copywriters will edit AI outputs, not write first drafts. Junior developers will review AI-generated code, not write boilerplate. The valuable skill won't be doing the work—it will be knowing what to ask for and how to evaluate quality. **AI-Augmented Entrepreneurship** – I built addTaskManager in months, not years, because AI handled grunt work. By 2030, one-person companies will compete with established firms. The differentiator won't be resources. It will be vision and the ability to direct AI effectively. **Personal AI as Second Brain** – Not episodic consultations, but persistent AI that understands your goals, style, context. That remembers conversations and learns from decisions. By 2030, your AI partnership will directly impact your productivity and effectiveness. ## What This Means for You **Bet on directions, not specific technologies.** I could have lost money on autonomous driving stocks. If I'd bet on "AI will transform information processing," I'd have been positioned perfectly for LLMs. The technologies are unpredictable. The directions are more often than not clear, though. **Hold your models lightly.** Remember Georg the knight landing in a supermarket (/the-knight-in-the-supermarket/)? That's rapid technological change. I had a confident AI model in 2019. Then LLMs shattered it. The people thriving aren't those who predicted perfectly—they're those who adapted quickly. **Build with AI, not around it.** Don't imagine a future where you avoid AI. Focus on taste and judgment. AI can generate, but evaluating quality is increasingly valuable. Move toward work requiring human creativity and decision-making. ## The 2019 Version of Me Was Right About the What, Wrong About the How I knew disruption was coming. I knew it would reshape industries. I was right about the disruption, wrong about the form. I imagined incremental improvements to narrow AI. We got a paradigm shift to general-purpose language models. I imagined physical-world automation. We got information-space transformation. I imagined AI as tool. We got AI as collaborator. The 2025 version of me is humbler. I'm confident about the direction—AI will continue automating cognitive work. But the biggest changes are often the ones nobody sees coming. What I know: the winners will be people who embrace AI as a force multiplier. As a solo entrepreneur building AI-powered products, I'm accomplishing things that would have required a team in 2019. Stay adaptable, keep learning, and build *with* AI rather than resist it. Whatever comes next will surprise us. Georg the knight didn't need to predict the supermarket. He just needed to realize he wasn't actually in hell. *This follows up "10 Ways In Which Artificial Intelligence Is Disrupting Our Lives (/10-ways-in-which-artificial-intelligence-is-disrupting-our-lives/)" from October 2019. Read the original to see how predictions looked before ChatGPT—it's a fascinating time capsule.* First published on: November 3, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-10-ai-predictions-from-2019-a-reality-check%2F&text=My%2010%20AI%20Predictions%20From%202019%3A%20A%20Reality%20Check&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-10-ai-predictions-from-2019-a-reality-check%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-10-ai-predictions-from-2019-a-reality-check%2F&t=My%2010%20AI%20Predictions%20From%202019%3A%20A%20Reality%20Check https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-10-ai-predictions-from-2019-a-reality-check%2F&title=My%2010%20AI%20Predictions%20From%202019%3A%20A%20Reality%20Check Previous ### AGI Will Be a Flock, Not a Bird (/agi-will-be-a-flock-not-a-bird/) Next ### 7 Things I Learned From My One Year Old Son (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-son/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Joy And Horrors Of Being A Polymath URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-joy-and-horrors-of-being-a-polymath.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-joy-and-horrors-of-being-a-polymath/ Published: 2021-04-01 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 98 Categories: Financial Resilience, Location Independence, Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, entrepreneurship, learning When I was 24, I had my first computer, a 486 at 80 Mhz, which later got overclocked as a Pentium II at 120 Mhz. I was using that computer for a variety of tasks. From playing Civilization for 24 hours in a row, up to making literary analysis of various texts. I was in my last year at the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest. Oh, and one of my first attempts at learning Borland C++ was writing an astrology program. Which never really got published – or been used, for what matters – but which introduced me in the fascinating world of software programming. Of course, I started to use Linux – the hardcore versions, like Slackware, where you had to compile your own kernel – and learn exotic programming languages like tcl/tk. About the same time, I decided I want to be a journalist and got a job as a radio anchor, where I read news bulletins for more than 5 years. 5-6 news bulletins per day, day in and day out. 15 year later, I immersed myself in FOREX trading and learned candlestick patterns and price action theories. Got out with both my testicles intact (meaning I didn’t lose, but didn’t make money either) and with a huge knowledge bag that is still useful to me today. 20 year later, I started to learn Argentine tango and ended up having a small school (didn’t last long, just a few months, but it was fun). And 4 years ago, I immersed myself, once again, in a totally new field, cryptocurrencies, and became obsessed with this technology, to the point of supporting various chains and even writing my small dApps. Why am I telling you all these? Because, for years, I felt seriously alienated by my “lack of consistency”. All my friends and the vast majority of my acquaintances had a “specialization”. They had a very narrow expertise field in which they were moving comfortably, and, in turn, that gave them some sort of grounding identity. In other words, they had a “career”. They were copywriters working in advertising agencies, salesmen, project managers, doing whatever they committed to do day in and day out, without the slightest interest to steer aside. And look at me, incessantly curious and never settling for anything really. For years, I thought I had the “shiny object syndrome”. You know, when you see something shiny and just follow it. Until I learned about the concept “polymath”. According to Wikipedia: > A polymath (Greek, polymath's, “having learned much”,[1] Latin: homo universalis, “universal man”[2]) is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. > > > Building financial habits that stick needs more than willpower. I coded Hacking Habits (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hacking-habits/id6760470848)—a Life Hours Calculator and a 15-Day Habit Installer. Well, that sounded close to how I chose to live. And, somehow, I felt relieved. I wasn’t “weird”, I was just different. ## The Joys A polymath will see the world as a kaleidoscope. He will never see only one dimension of things, but at least 3-4, if not more. Every potential will spur 10 more potentials for him because he can apply 10 more “lenses” to every thing, every situation, every activity. Another joy is that, the more you learn, the easier learning itself becomes. So once you get past the initial effort – because rewiring your brain does require a lot of effort – things get easier and you get more comfortable. A polymath will never be jobless. He may not have access to top positions – see below, the drawback about “certifications” – but, like a cat, he will always land on his feet. I worked as a radio anchor, Q&A software tester, blogger, coach, tango teacher, MC and a lot of other things, and each of these “jobs” was comfortably fit. ## The Horrors Not being able to settle to anything serious might be one of the drawbacks. Curiosity will always push a polymath forward, no matter how fond he may be of his current setup. There is always something “new” around the corner, ready to be unveiled, to be learned, to be processed, to be experimented. Sometimes, this is tiring. Another – quite serious – drawback, is the difficulty of “being taken seriously”. I often tell people that I can code in whatever language they want me to, as long as I have about 3 days to learn it. I even tested it once and it worked, I wrote a small Python program on top of Bitcoin-related API, in two days, just for the sake of it. But, more often than not, people are suspicious. If you don’t have an “official” certification, they won’t give you credit. And that’s a shame, because, by his very diverse structure, a polymath will always use a more interesting, effective or creative solution to a problem than a “specialist”. Social awkwardness is also one of the things I would rather avoid, if possible, as a polymath. When you mix in conversations topics like shamanism, astrology, astronomy, coding, blockchains, 18th century French literature and Argentine tango, people will back away. I know. I’ve been there. If I could have a beer for every uncomfortable silence in my conversations, well, I would have a lot of beers. I think this is how every “minority” feels like, because it’s not about how productive you are, but more like how “accepted” and “acknowledged” you are. And people somehow get scared about the unknown (or what they perceive as being unknown) and their natural reaction is to back away. Sometimes the opposite is experienced, when people will actually put you on a pedestal, but it’s more like they look at a monkey on a pedestal, if you know what I mean. ## Polymaths Are Among Us As AI will take over the “specialized” jobs, those repetitive tasks that can be performed without too much thinking, I think what we now call “being a polymath” will become the norm. People will have more time and they will naturally learn more things than they do now. Not all of them will have a practical outcome, but that won’t matter anymore. I’m really looking forward to that. First published on: April 1, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-joy-and-horrors-of-being-a-polymath%2F&text=The%20Joy%20And%20Horrors%20Of%20Being%20A%20Polymath&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-joy-and-horrors-of-being-a-polymath%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-joy-and-horrors-of-being-a-polymath%2F&t=The%20Joy%20And%20Horrors%20Of%20Being%20A%20Polymath https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-joy-and-horrors-of-being-a-polymath%2F&title=The%20Joy%20And%20Horrors%20Of%20Being%20A%20Polymath Previous ### 365 Days Writing Challenge – Checkpoint Three (/365-days-writing-challenge-checkpoint-three/) Next ### Identity Thoughts (/identity-thoughts/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Create A Habit In 15 Days URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/ Published: 2009-03-01 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 97 Categories: Apple and Mac OS X, Digital Tools, Personal Development, Productivity and Effectiveness, Time management Tags: habit formation, habits, how to, journaling Most of our life is lived by habits. We learn how to ride a bike, how to drive a car, we even learn how to speak and read. And then we do all of these with minimum effort and implication. Basically, all of these are habits. They allow us to focus on other things while pushing the routine into background. It would be quite difficult to learn to drive the car every time you need to go shopping, isn't it? As any other things in our life, habits are just tools we use in our joyful exploration of life. Habits are not good or bad, they are just ways of handling repetitive tasks that would otherwise require a lot of energy. As such, the master habit of creating / breaking your habits can be quite an asset. In today's post I'll share some of my experiences with habit creation using one of my favorite activities: journaling. It's a simple way in which you can assess, decide and then implement any new habit. There's also a free downloadable journal template for you but let's take the things one at a time. ## Why Do You Need A New Habit? Well, let's say you want a new habit in order to: - write on your blog more often - update your twitter status daily - write each day a page from your new book - start a fitness program - start a new eating habit or diet - learn a new language All these new activities are made by some repetitive tasks, a set of moves you have to do daily in order to get some positive results. So until you are proficient in that new language, or until you are that new blogging super star or until you publish your new book, you need a scaffold for your intentions. You need to create a habit of being there. ## How To Create A Habit In 15 Days All you need for that is a journal. You can use anything that fits, from pen and paper to an electronic journaling software. My choice here is the excellent MacJournal. Each day you will follow a simple set of rules thoroughly described below. ### Day 1: Name your habit Define it in the shortest, yet most understandable sentence you can write. Take your time. Write until you finally come with an atomic sentence. Your new habit could be something like this: - write daily on my new book - learn thai - eat healthier - exercise daily Don't go into detail here you'll have the next day for that. That's all you have to do in the first day. ### Day 2: Describe your actions in detail Now it's time to get detailed. Write everything you need to perform in order to create that habit. For instance, if you want to write on your book, be as detailed as you can: - write each day at least 30 minutes - write each day at least 3000 words - read each day at lest 5000 words from previous chapters - do at least 15 minutes internet research - borrow time from my other tasks (family, kids, friends, kids, entertainment) You don't have to do all the tasks each day, but this exercise is meant to give you an idea of what you actually try to implement, to get into the "doing" vibration. ### Day 3-5: Habit Implementation During these days you're going to journal your experiences with your habit implementation. You should be extremely accurate but without any comment whatsoever. We're trying to break the doing from the analyzing here, so during these days don't write any comment, just what you did. If you did nothing, write that, but don't write the reasons. ![ShareByLight app icon](/images/icons/sharebylight-icon-48.webp) I just launched ShareByLight (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-file-transfer/id6796897056)—transfer files with light only. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no cables. One device shows a stream, the other reads it with the camera. Free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. ### Day 6: Your First Milestone Now it's time to start analyzing, This is the day when you're commenting on your progress. If you haven't made any progress it's time to write the reasons. What stopped you? Which of you defined tasks in Day 2 were performed and which avoided? Be as specific as you can. You have a whole day just for assessment. When you finished this, you're already a week away from your starting point. Whatever your progress, keep in mind that you've done it for one week. You only have 9 days to go. ### Day 7-9: Habit Implementation Phase 2 You already have a milestone and three days of practice. You can now go on with habit implementation, applying all you've learned in the first milestone. Remember, just write down the action performed, not your comments. ### Day 10: Second Milestone Now you have the experience of the first milestone and even 3 more days in which you implemented, It's time to write down your comments again. From my experience, the second milestone is the most important one. Basically, by the second milestone you already shaped most of your habit. Just write down your progress and any comments you may want to get out of your head. In the free downloadable template there's also a little questionnaire to help you better assess your progress. ### Day 11 – 14: Habit Implementation Phase 3 By now this should be on auto-pilot. Unless you have established yourself a really big goal, you should be able to use the 3rd phase only for lock-in purposes. You may focus now on the doing and enjoy the reflex of being in that context. For instance, if you wanted to start writing a book, right now you should be able to do it acceptably easy. Even more, you should be able to focus on the writing part instead of the habit creation. ### Day 15: Final Evaluation Milestone If anything were right, you just can archive this journal and move on. If you feel you can enhance a little bit the process, or even if you haven't created your habit yet, you can restart the whole process. It's only two weeks and you've done it once already. As you may see the actual implementation part is only two-thirds of the total time, the rest is definition and evaluation. From my experience, creating a habit is largely a matter of defining it right first and then implementing it. Also, as you can see this is a fairly loose approach, I don't think that applying over power to this process could make it more effective. The success of creating a new habit lies in your capacity to accept it and if you try too hard, you may come to a point where actually reject it. *** Let me know what you think about this. Of course, the MacJournal template is not compulsory for this, you can create your own journaling environment, using whatever you see fit, from pen and paper to even more complex applications. Maybe you can even publicly blog about it. Anyway, I'm really curious how this will work for you, please let your comment, so I can adjust / improve / assess. ## Related Reading (2025 update) While there is historical benefit in the content above, as a proof of my journey, many things changed in this area since I published it. Here is just an example: - Incremental Growth versus Sudden Leaps (/incremental-growth-versus-sudden-leaps/) First published on: March 1, 2009 ### 🔧 Hacking Habits Timeline Part 8 of 9 View all 9 posts → (/hacking-habits/) ← Previous Anti-patterns My Top 7 Demotivating Habits (/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/) Next → Application 5 Financial Habits Enforced By Playing Cashflow (/5-financial-habits-enforced-by-playing-cashflow/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Gravitational Habits (/gravitational-habits/) 2. Architecture: Reusable Habits (/reusable-habits/) 3. Integration: A Good Habit Is An Invisible Habit (/a-good-habit-is-an-invisible-habit/) 4. Quality: Healthy And Unhealthy Routines (/healthy-and-unhealthy-routines/) 5. Formation: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 3. Create A New Habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-3-create-new-habit/) 6. Optimization: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 79. Break A Bad Habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-79-break-bad-habit/) 7. Anti-patterns: My Top 7 Demotivating Habits (/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/) 8. Timeline: How To Create A Habit In 15 Days (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/) 9. Application: 5 Financial Habits Enforced By Playing Cashflow (/5-financial-habits-enforced-by-playing-cashflow/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days%2F&text=How%20To%20Create%20A%20Habit%20In%2015%20Days&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days%2F&t=How%20To%20Create%20A%20Habit%20In%2015%20Days https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days%2F&title=How%20To%20Create%20A%20Habit%20In%2015%20Days Previous ### The Productivity Trap (/the-productivity-trap/) Next ### Wasted Power (/wasted-power/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Don't Spend Your Money Buying Friends URL: https://dragosroua.com/dont-spend-your-money-buying-friends.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/dont-spend-your-money-buying-friends/ Published: 2010-01-18 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 95 Categories: Relationships and Society Tags: friendship, kindness, money mindset, relationships, social media This is a guest post from Zoli Cerei from SimplyWillDo.com. The recession or, speaking a bit more generally, a lack of money shouldn't cut down on your social life. We have to be aware of the correlation between our financial and social status, and have to learn to separate these. This coin has two sides: those who are financially strong enough may end up "buying" friends and later feeling insecure about them and question themselves whether they can count on these people, or not. The opposite is when those financially unstable don't have the confidence to build a social circle because they fear uncomfortable situations caused by money. A modern day manifestation of this issue is the exchange of internet friend for money. You might have also faced this, it is basically just another kind of advertising: this time what you pay for are Facebook friends or Twitter followers. Were these sites meant for that to happen really? ### Friends, Money and Giving Value In Real Life **Be respectable by respecting others.** Everyone shares human values of high standards, and if you want to observe this just a little, you will. Once you start respecting these values, others will appreciate the gesture, and respect you in return. Respect doesn't have to be material, an honest compliment, a helpful movement but even powerful constructive criticism can mean a lot to the other one. **Be friendly, because that's the best way to actually make… friends.** Too many people fear kindness. Kindness is in a way revealing yourself to someone else, showing something from the inside of you. Too many people fear responsibility, since when you're taking responsibility for something, then you become accountable for that thing. Too many people fear saying their opinion out loud: if your opinion is no longer concealed, you may too be criticized. Friendships involve all of these: being friendly means being nice and kind to your friend. It also means taking responsibility for them and for you as well. It means undertaking your opinion, and saying it honestly even if it is negative at times. Too many people fear being friendly, because it is not always easy, no one said it is. But it's obviously the best way to make friends. **Be a loyal friend in happiness and in sorrow, too.** I observed that, contrary to the saying, a friend in need and sorrow isn't always a friend indeed. Rather, a friend in joy is. While being next to someone when he is going through hard times you might even comfort yourself observing that you are actually in a better situation. However, when your friend has just accomplished one of their dreams, it is usually harder to honestly be happy about the situation. **Realize you can't be friends with everyone.** While you can buy everyone a beer at the party, and that might make everyone feel good, you can't actually be friends with everyone. There are people who you don't name as your best friend; however, you would like them to call you their best friend. Is that fair? Being best friends is mutual. ### The depth of online friendships, or buying Twitter followers **Provide Great Content.** This is the first step to any relationship, and not just online. You provide something that others like and that they would like to receive more often. In the online world, that's the moment when they hit the "Follow" or the "Subscribe" button. Whatever you're doing on the internet, keep an eye on providing something useful to the online society, and others will notice you. **Make Your Voice Heard.** Engage with others. Replying to tweets and leaving comments can be at times as useful as it is to buy an advertising spot, and it costs nothing. Today, the web is "social", and as I said, being social is by far not equal to being rich. Show you're a human, not just a bank account. Engage. **Be honest.** Don't call everyone your friend after the click of a button. That's something that really annoys me in the case of social networks: relationships are instantly branded as friendships. Making friends online is possible; however, just as it is in real life, it is a process. A relationship goes through several phases until it can be called a friendship, just like you don't go to bed on a first date. If you have not yet gone through this process with someone, don't call them a friend yet. ### Conclusion Money is a powerful tool in our lives and using it wisely is an unquestionable power of any man or woman. Money can buy you medicine, it cannot buy your health. It can buy you sex, but not love. It can buy company but not friends. Showing human values and respecting your fellows, however, will surely turn into great experiences. **About the author**: *Zoli Cserei is a very young simplicity and productivity blogger and an ever-curious hacker of life who writes for* Simply Will Do. Check out his blog to see whether he has some useful stuff for you or maybe subscribe to his RSS feed for more. First published on: January 18, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdont-spend-your-money-buying-friends%2F&text=Don%E2%80%99t%20Spend%20Your%20Money%20Buying%20Friends&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdont-spend-your-money-buying-friends%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdont-spend-your-money-buying-friends%2F&t=Don%E2%80%99t%20Spend%20Your%20Money%20Buying%20Friends https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdont-spend-your-money-buying-friends%2F&title=Don%E2%80%99t%20Spend%20Your%20Money%20Buying%20Friends Previous ### 14 Ways To Say Yes (/14-ways-to-say-yes/) Next ### Are You The Best Version Of Yourself? (/are-you-the-best-version-of-yourself/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Write List Posts – 100 Tips URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-write-huge-list-posts.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-write-huge-list-posts/ Published: 2010-01-25 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 94 Categories: Blogging, Motivation and Inspiration Tags: blogging journey, content creation, how to, writing Like it or not, the internet loves lists. I suspect it's because that's a more formalized way to organize content. Easy to skim, easy to remember. But among those lists, the big ones, those after 50, or 77, or 100 items, are the most popular. So far I wrote 4 "100 ways to" kind of list posts:100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/), 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life (/100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life/), 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog (/100-ways-to-improve-your-blog/) and 100 Things I Did In 2009 (/100-things-i-did-in-2009/). All of them got featured on delicious, stumbleupon, hackernews, reddit or other popular places on the internet. They still bring in tons of traffic. No, I lied. They bring in *hundreds* of tons of traffic. Crafting such a list post is not an easy task. So I thought to put together 100 tips on how to write list posts. Especially giants like "100 Ways To…" Expect some disguised humor along more serious tips and, generally speaking, do take this list with a little bit of salt… ## 1. Become Immune To Rejection List posts are cool. but list posts are also way too common nowadays. If you truly want to write a successful "100 ways to" post then prepare to face some rejection. Primarily, from yourself. Unconsciously, if you're an experienced blogger, you hate lists. So work out this fear and start working. ## 2. Split It Into Smaller Tasks Fundamental: work your list post in smaller steps, by writing every day several items. You'll hopefully avoid some blocking episodes and you could also assess progress over several days (or weeks). After all, even a million dollars (/30-sentences/)is made by adding 10 chunks of 100.000… ## 3. Use Mind Mapping Start with some general notions about your list and take it from there. From my experience, after the mind map gets bigger than 30-40 branches, you need to transfer it on a text editor. But it gives you a pretty good start. I'm using MindMeister (https://www.mindmeister.com/?r=260777) for that, it's a pretty good tool. ## 4. Chose A Rich Topic If you want to make a "100 ways of chopping potatoes" list post, chances are that you will never get to finish it. The topic is too narrow. It's almost impossible to find 100 different ways to chop potatoes. Try to go for wider topics, like carrots (joking of course, now serious), blogging, motivation (/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated/) or inspiration (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/). ## 5. Prepare To Read More If you are going to write a "100 ways to" list post, you are also going to read it, adjust it, correct it and proof read it. Meaning you're going to read much more than you're used to. If you do try to write your list post without reading it after, the results may be totally unpredictable. ## 6. Write Short Explanations Don't go for a dry bullet list, take the time to write something for every item. But keep the explanation short. Like this one. ## 7. Flip A Coin Whenever you hesitate to add another item to the list post, kill the suspense with a coin. Flip it fast, possibly while you're smiling. If you win, add the item, if you lose, rephrase and still add the item. It's a "100 ways to" list, goddamit, we need every frigging thing we can imagine, can't afford playing stupid games with items and coins. ## 8. Link To Yourself A "100 ways to" list post will surely bring in more traffic than a usual post. So, it's a very good place to insert links to some of your most interesting articles. Just make sure the links actually have something in common with the main topic. ## 9. Be Patient Don't expect a "100 ways to" list to be baked in the same amount of time you spend for a regular blog post. It could take many days, or even weeks. The trick is to be patient here and don't lose the magic final number (that would be the 100th tip) from your sight. It will pay off. ## 10. If You Write It, They Will Bookmark It A "100 ways to" list post takes much longer to be read than a usual post. Initially, people will just bookmark it and never get back to it until the common fear of reading something for more than 15 seconds is gone. Some will never get back to read it (that fear is pretty nasty) but they will bookmark it for sure. ## 11. Start More Than One "100 ways to" List Post Switching from one list post to another will be good for your focus. If the lists are on slightly different topics, it will be even better, because you will most likely avoid writer block totally by constantly challenging your creativity in different areas. ## 12. Make a Table Of Contents Out Of It If at the current moment you have written more than 100 posts, have a good topic distribution and your list of "100 ways to" is close enough to what you're usually writing, it will act also as a Table Of Contents of your blog, so link to yourself. The first links will get more visibility so think twice which items are you putting in the first third of your list post. ## 13. Brainstorm It Let some of your friends or your colleagues in. Make it sound like fun and start writing down ideas. Brainstorming will not only give your more material but it will also have this decluttering effect on your mind. You'll actually start to see more ideas and you'll do that much faster. It's like cleaning up your lenses (/is-your-life-blurred). ## 14. Play With Words Start playing with the words. If it's a list post about motivation, start writing down motivation synonyms. If it's about entrepreneurship, start writing down synonyms for entrepreneurship. Seeing the same thing from different perspective will reveal new ideas. This technique is especially useful in the late stage, when you already had a lot of the items nailed down. ## 15. Call A Random Phone Number And Ask For Advice Not to be repeated more than once per list. Chances that you will actually bump into the same person you called last time are incredibly high. If you can hide after a fat fingering mistake for the first one, doing the same thing twice will put you in a very favorable position to receive a police inquiry for harassment. ## 16. Try To Insert A Random, Not Related Item But do it only while you're working on it. If you let it slip into the real list post, sooner or later they'll catch you. But having a ghost in your draft will make things so much interesting. I guarantee that from a certain level you won't know for sure which one is the ghost and which one is the real one. Annoying, but funny. Somehow. ## 17. Re-read Your Past 100 List Posts Not only as a source of inspiration, but especially useful to avoid repetition. 100 pieces of a puzzle is a big number and it's pretty easy to get caught in a writing routine. Keeping an eye on your older list posts will raise your awareness and hopefully will also boost your self-esteem to the point that you're actually finishing your current list post. ## 18. Be Useful If your list post will hugely benefit the green little men from Mars and no one on Earth will find any immediate use for it, don't expect to become popular. Getting in touch first with the green little men and nicely asking if they really need such a list will surely help. More than once, the answer will be that you need to be really useful. ## 19. Chop It Off Make it a list of 77 tips (/77-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/) if you can't find more items. Or a list of 33 ways (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/). Or even 7 traits (/the-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers/). At least you tried. Be proud. It's your list post. ## 20. Read Other List Posts Especially in completely different niches than yours. It will help remove your unconscious blocks and refresh your perspective. Ideas are everywhere, it's your focus which is not trained enough to spot them. ## 21. Inhale. Exhale I know you're focused and you're chasing that idea at full speed. That's not a reason to forgot breathing. ## 22. Re-read Your 3rd Grade Diary If you had one. Meeting a younger you is always enlightening, You have no idea how many things you forgot you know, how many dreams you had and how many skills you developed. If don't had a journal in the 3rd grade maybe it's time to start one now, isn't it? ## 23. Knock On A Stranger's Door Risky. But fun. Try knocking at someone else's door and ask for some advice. You may end up writing a list post about 100 ways to escape after knocking on a complete stranger's door. That counts too, right? ## 24. Twitter Is Your Friend Look for quotes, sayings, conversations or interesting links. Twitter (http://twitter.com/dragosroua) has a fairly high noise to signal ratio, but with some patience you can still isolate a few ideas. Or, at least, you'll procrastinate in a very trendy way. ## 25. Isolate From Distractions Close the doors, the windows, the cell phone. Close the TV, the radio, close your eyes (just for a few seconds, to get in the mood) and your mouth. The only things still running should be your laptop and your brains. Now unleash your inspiration and start writing. ## 26. Let It Cook For A While Don't try to publish the list post immediately. Let it cook for a while. Re-read it in a few days. It's not that you will make it better, that's a pretty obvious effect. But you may get a few new ideas for some future "100 items" list posts too. ## 27. Establish A Reasonably High Daily Batch Of Items Try to write at least 5 to 10 items per day. In my experience, if you write less than 5 per day you will actually kill the list post. The effort of re-reading your last days work will be higher than what you need for those 3 items. Establish a reasonably high batch and stick with it. ## 28. Sing A Song Like in trying to remembering one, not just humming wordless. Your creative mind is highly associative, so every time you get it out of the comfort zone, it will bring up new connections. Now, what song was that? Humm, ta, ri, ra… yeah, I got it :-). ## 29. Be One Of Your Readers Try to impersonate one of your readers. What exactly would somebody expect to read on your blog? What are his expectations? Wear his shoes for a few minutes. That will surely open a flow of new ideas. You write for them, in the end, not for you. ## 30. Watch The News Use it for its reverse effect. I usually watch the news only to be completely turned off by all the violence, stupidity and shallowness that exudes from TV news nowadays. After a few minutes, I am so happy to return to my list post. ## 31. Play With Your Kids If you have kids, of course. If not, observe some in the park. I am always amazed by how easily kids are creating new worlds around them. It seems that someway along the way we lost this ability. ## 32. Play Monopoly Or any other game, as long as you're playing it with your friends. When they lose, propose to exchange roles (as in you becoming the loser) if they can give you several ideas for your blog post. You'll be surprised how many of your friends hate to lose at games. ## 33. Ride The Subway And Ask Everybody What Time Is It The first 4-5 people will try to be honest with you and tell the exact time. But when the rest of them will see you asking the same question over and over, will want to know you why you're doing it. That will force your mind to find some really, really creative answers. ## 34. Listen To A Completely Different Kind Of Music If you're into rock, go symphonic. If you're into symphonic, go for country. If you're country, go for pop. You got the idea, something completely out of your audible comfort zone. Don't stop it until you find at least 10 new ideas. Which usually happens in the first 3 minutes. ## 35. Walk Barefoot Around Your House Well, this may not bring you ideas about how to write a "100 ways to" list post, but it will cool you off for sure. Especially during winter. ## 36. Practice Your Lists You can keep writing smaller lists just for keeping yourself pumped up. Small lists, but somehow related. For instance, I wrote a list of 7 Ways To Say No (/7-ways-to-say-no/), followed by a list of 14 Ways To Say Yes (/14-ways-to-say-yes/). It's much easier to start something bigger after that. ## 37. Try It In Different Languages If you're writing a list about cooking, look up the word "cooking" in a dictionary. In how many ways people are able to say "cooking" around the world? I bet in at least 120. Well, what stops you to find 100 ways to say it too? ## 38. Make A Plan And what I mean by a plan is to establish a clear deadline and reachable milestones. Start with a target of 2 weeks, writing at least 5 new items each working day. In 20 days, you'll have 100 items. That's what I call a plan. ## 39. Set A Posting Frequency In my experience, "100 ways to" lists are pretty time intensive. Not only for you, but for your readers too. So, I would never schedule more than 1 huge list each month. It's not only taking a lot of energy, but it will also scare your readers away if you do it more often. ## 40. Chose A Topic You're Comfortable With Write about something you really know or heavily experienced lately. If you chose a spectacular topic, but you don't have any idea what is all about in that niche, you won't be able to deliver, even if you do all the research and planning in the world. ## 41. Brag About It Talk to your friends about your intentions, tweet it or post it to your wall on Facebook. Up to the point you're getting really uncomfortable with the potential feeling of rejection you'd get if you don't put your arse to work and deliver that damn list. ## 42. Make A Challenge Out Of It This is how I started, by being challenged by one of my blogger friends. First, it seemed impossible to write a 100 items list. The, it started to feel plausible. Then I started to work and it became real. ## 43. Improvise Write whatever comes to your mind, even if it's not related to your list. Put it into bullets, to make it look like a list. And once you're on a roll, writing on topic, just delete the garbage. ## 44. Go From A To B In 5 Steps That's a great exercise to fuel your creativity. Open a dictionary and pick word, let's say word "A". Write it down. Then open it again and pick word "B". Write it down. Then make up a story to go from word "A" to word "B" in 5 steps. Here is a detailed post (/how-to-get-from-a-to-b-in-5-random-steps/) describing the process. ## 45. Break The Main Topic In Subtopics If the topic allows that, try to break the list into chapters. I did it with my 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog list, where I split it into content, promotion, layout areas. It will speed up things considerably. ## 46. Keep It In A Fixed Form Try to write a fixed number of words for each explanation. Although it seems more difficult, it actually forces you to maintain a writing discipline. Break it only when it helps the item being more visible, like item number 6. ## 47. Go For The Smallest Denominator With this pompous title I only mean that you should break processes in smaller parts and write an item for each part. If what you think is: "be creative", break it into specific techniques, like item number 44 or 46 in this very list. A generalist "Be creative" has no value in a list, go into details. ## 48. Be Honest With Yourself If you can't make a list of 100 items, that's ok. Better be happy you tried and failed than to concoct a fake list which will be spotted instantly and make you more harm than good. The opposite is also true: if you honestly feel you can deliver, go all the way to the top. ## 49. Count To 100 In Your Head It will make the whole task easier to understand and it will give you a bird-view of what are you are trying to accomplish. Provided you're able to reach to 100 and don't fall asleep, as I usually do, somewhere between 77 and 85. Your mileage may vary. ## 50. Celebrate The First Half That would be number 50, if you didn't get it ;-). Once you're here, your job is half done. Praise this. Have a drink. Take a break. From now on, your number of finished items can only be greater than the number of items waiting to be finished. You're almost there. ## 51. Don't Lose Focus it's very easy to be distracted and move your focus on other tasks. Don't do it. Force yourself into making this list happening. Put a post it on your computer screen. Glue a piece of paper on the ceiling, so it would be the first thing you'll see in the morning. Stay there. ## 52. Enjoy The Process If you don't find a way to actually take pleasure in writing this list, it would be extremely difficult. Feel good about what you write, feel relaxed and at ease. Try to visualize yourself as an A-list blogger if this will make things easier. Do whatever it takes to enjoy the process. ## 53. Bribe Yourself Put small incentives at the end of a writing task to mark the victory. Don't get them until you finish what you planned to. If there's little or no motivation, maybe a plain and consistent bribe would act as an incentive. Think at something you just couldn't resist ;-). ## 54. Bribe Others To Support You Bring in some other people and promise you will do something for them if they'll support you in any way you chose: from cheering up to forcing you. It's surprising how many people you'll find around, ready to help you for a small service from your part. ## 55. Start A Conversation About It It may be on a forum, on other social media website or at the office. Don't do a full brainstorming, just ask around other people about their opinion. That enough will bring you a lot of unexpected inspiration. ## 56. Write The Numbers First Like empty placeholders for your items. It will help you visualize how many things you still have to write and give you a subtle sense of accomplishment. One by one, you're getting there. Isn't that wonderful? (Start this after you're passed number 50, otherwise it can get pretty depressing). ## 57. Ask Your Boss For Advice I don't think you'll get a meaningful answer, but it will make your adrenaline level go up for sure. Alternatively, if you don't have a boss, you can try asking your spouse for the same advice. If you're not married, well… why on Earth are you losing time writing stupid lists of "100 ways to", when you should be out, partying? ## 58. Do It On The Road Have a smartphone with you and stop whenever you seem to have an idea: write it down, email it to yourself, or just record it if your phone uses a voice recorder. On a side note, I do this on a regular basis to capture ideas for my blog posts. ## 59. Don't Write Ideas On A Napkin While you're having a romantic dinner, for instance. Even if your brain is so excited that it seem to come up with a new idea every 10 seconds. It's rude, totally disrespectful and extremely non-ecological. Use a phone instead. ## 60. Scrabble It If you know scrabble, you know what I mean. If you don't, go out and buy one, it's pretty cheap and it will pay out well in the future. Even if you don't come up with a decent list of items after you played some serious scrabble, at least you had a really good time. ## 61. Don't Take It Too Serious It will burn you out. A list of "100 ways to" is not an easy task (I have the feeling I said that before) but it's not something impossible either. You'll make till the end, so you'd better try to keep an open and light attitude. Even if the list won't be spectacular, you still did it big time. ## 62. Journal While Writing It Journaling in itself is a powerful self-discovery tool, so using it while you're on a list of "100 ways to" seems pretty logical. What I noticed in my personal history is that the first 30-40 items are the most easy to write, while the last 10 are the most rewarding. ## 63. Start A Facebook Fan Page Before You Publish It Just in case you hit big, you know. By the time you wake up from all that Digg or Delicious or StumbleUpon euphoria, somebody else may take your post name, start a group, do a few live workshops on the topic and even launch a book. You've been warned! ## 64. Make A Drawing Of It This is not mind mapping, it's drawing. One of the simplest creativity enhancement techniques: draw a representation of your object. In whatever form you want. Do it until your mental flow is unblocked and you can find at least 3-4 new ideas. ## 65. Don't Fake It Don't mix various pieces of floating info from the internet hoping they will eventually glue together in a balanced product. Because they won't. Write your list item by item, be inspired by others and creative, but don't fake it. Generally speaking, faking is a huge waste of time. ## 66. Read Riddles Two reasons: have fun and push your mind to think more and in unusual ways. I'm reading riddles every time I have a little bit of a block (fortunately, this is extremely rare) and every time works like a charm. What is black and white and read all over? Your "100 ways to" list, of course 🙂 ## 67. Pick A Random Word, From A Random Page, From A Random Book Close your eyes, pick a book, open it and put your finger on a random page. Ignore "and", "or", "to" and alike. See what you get. If you're a normal, balanced and aware person, I bet you're going to get just a… random word. Isn't that wonderful? Now back to work on your list, you lazy player! ## 68. Make A Twitter List And add random people to it up to 100. It shouldn't take more than 2 minutes. Use the public timeline, not yours. Then read their tweets one by one, up to 100. If your list feels like what you just read, that means you still have work to do: just make another list. ## 69. Read The Comments On Your Blog No, you're not going to get some miraculous idea by reading your blog comments, but at least you're going to realize that some people genuinely care about you. Even if their comments are angry, they do care about you. There's still hope. Keep on writing. ## 70. Try To Do 100 Pushups If you're a normal, average person, you may stop around 30 or 35. That will show you what your brains endures while you're stressing it so much with your list. But if you do all 100 pushups, it means you don't really need to write a "100 ways to" list. You're ok, chicks are going to dig you anyway. ## 71. Wear Sunglasses In Your Room For Half An Hour Also wear some soft but solid clothes, just in case you're going to hit some furniture. I guarantee you won't have any significant breakthrough during this half an hour, but the second you'll remove the sunglasses, everything will be enlightening. Seriously. ## 72. Call Your Ex Tell him/her this is a matter of life and death and if he/she will help you just this time, you're going to finally respect that restriction order. If he/she didn't have the time to change phone number since your last "100 ways to" list, I guarantee this will work. ## 73. Call A Pizza Delivery Service And tell them you're on the roof, ready to jump, if you don't get a free large pepperoni pizza in the next 30 minutes. This is what I call a win-win situation: you either get tons of brilliant ideas to go on with your life (pizza delivery boys are really good at that), either a free pizza. ## 74. Write 100 Different Names That's one of the simplest creativity exercises ever. Hint: you can go alphabetically and write a few names for each letter. Finishing such a list will somehow boost your confidence or at least make you believe that there really are "100 things" lists out there. ## 75. Train By Solving A Puzzle First A 50 pieces puzzle will be enough for starters, but once you get good at it, start on 100 or 200 pieces. Seriously, writing a huge list post is very similar with solving a 100 pieces puzzle: you have the picture in your head, but it will take like forever to match all the pieces together. ## 76. Prepare A List Of Excuses Like real life excuses for all the social events you're going to miss and all the meetings you'll never attend to, because you're busy writing. Alternatively, you could start writing a "100 ways to excuse yourself when you're late because you're writing a '100 ways to' list post" kind of list. Makes sense? ## 77. Think Lateral If your list is going to have 100 items, you better make it THE list in that niche. So think outside of the box. Go lateral, go vertical or oblique if this is opening new perspectives on your topic. After all, you don't want to make a silly list about how to write lists, right? ## 78. Solve A Problem With Your List Your list must solve a real life problem, otherwise, no matter how well written is, how hilarious the description are or how good your SEO strategy is implemented, it will not live. It will not even take off. Solve a real problem. For instance, genuinely try to help people write huge lists. ## 79. Mix In Some Humor Joking will always draw people in. Being funny and entertaining is a key element in making such a list popular. Even if your topic is serious, if you don't mix some humor in, surprising your readers, the list will be dull and gloomy. Dull and gloomy does not sell. Humor sells. ## 80. Stop Asking Yourself: "Why 100?" We don't ask that. We take that for granted. For starters, 100 is a pretty cool number. Sounds round and unabridged. It exhales a sensation of purity and completeness. (See how I desperately try to concoct some reasons? That's because there aren't really any). ## 81. Meditate On It If you practice meditation on a regular basis, this shouldn't be difficult. If you don't, try to empty your mind and focus only on the topic of the list. Don't try to find answers or ideas, just focus on the topic. Breathe in, breathe out. And, by all means, try not to levitate, you have work to do! ## 82. Watch For Coincidences This long writing process will span over a few days or weeks and I advise that during this time span you should be extremely aware of any coincidences occurring around. Follow them. You'll be surprised to find out that there aren't really any coincidences, there are only signs. ## 83. Think SEO This is a very important step. Target your keywords and place them in the first third of your post. I don't really know why the first third, but it seems to work. Now, can you count how many times I had "100 ways to" keywords in this post? Write the answer in the comments. 😉 ## 84. Get A New Haircut You're going to be a completely different person after you finish this list. Literally. So change your look too. Your friends will never buy it and secretly think you just broke up with your girlfriend. Make that the beginning of a wonderful new list: "100 secret thoughts generated by a new haircut". ## 85. Drive Far Away From Home Until You Get Lost When you're sure you're absolutely lost, get your GPS from the trunk and head back home. Now you know there are worse things out there than running out of ideas for your list. And don't you dare starting a list about "100 ways to get lost". Seriously, buddy, nobody wants to know that. ## 86. Fake A "100 Things" Shopping At The Supermarket Go to the supermarket, pick 100 different things and put them in your trolley. You don't have to really buy all 100 items, unless you really want to. This exercise is intended to make you understand you have virtually unlimited options, not to get you broke. ## 87. Try Guessing Names Of Totally Unknown People Would that be a "Jane"? Hmm, nope, maybe "Angela", looks more like an "Angela". Never try to verify your assumptions, or prepare for this answer: "Get a life! *I'm doing an exercise to write a "100 ways to" list?*, that's the worst pick up line I ever heard!". ## 88. Clean Up Your Garage Or, if you don't have a garage, clean up your room. Or at least the shelves in your office. Shovel those receipts, old files, photos, notes, post-its and wrecked pens. Feels so much better than writing stupid items on a "100 ways to" list, isn't it? Again, that's another win-win: if not a huge list, at least a clean house. ## 89. Send An Email To Some Random Customer Service Chose whatever business you like and then send an email to their customer service, asking for advice on how to write a "100 ways to" list post. Most of the answers will be automated, but once you get pass this, you'll have the time of your life. I'm telling you. 🙂 ## 90. Don't Stop At Number 90 In my experience, number 90 is the most dangerous number to reach when you're writing such a list. It's only 10 items away from finish and the mirage of actually getting this done can easily get you off the track. Write something fast at your number 90 and then move on. ## 91. Walk 100 Steps On A Crowded Street And I mean count those 100 steps. If you made it without restarting the counting, be assured you're going to make that list too. Now try it again on a large public square, making a perfect circle, step 100 overlapping step 1. Now you should stop walking in circles and start writing. ## 92. Send Yourself 100 Emails Containing the same question: "did you finished item number x?". After each finished item on your list, delete one of the emails. If you really send yourself 100 emails, I bet you won't face any difficulty at all in writing your list. It's hard to send 100 emails to yourself… 😉 ## 93. Name 100 Things You See From Your Window Another unblocking exercise and a pretty effective one. No need to go up to 100 if you feel you're pass the block. But it would be a pretty interesting task in any context. It will enlarge your perception and enhance your observation sense. ## 94. Blend Your Senses Close your eyes, imagine a fruit and then try to feel its taste. Alternatively, put some music and imagine how each musical instrument will feel in your hand. It's amazing how effective this is in fostering new ideas or perspectives. ## 95. Read Motivational/Inspirational Quotes You have all this wisdom available, floating around, so why don't just use it? If you don't have your own quotes repository on file, do a Google search. Reading quotes is like having a sparring partner for your mind. ## 96. Work It Live Like not in an offline editor, edit it in your wordpress dashboard and watch the preview every time you add a new item. I find it very motivating to watch the list growing and looking exactly as is going to be. ## 97. Be Proud Of It The more you write, the closer you are to finish a great piece of work. Be proud of it. Even if it's a simple "100 ways to" grow apples in your backyard, it will be useful for somebody. And you're doing it right now. It's not the regular blog post you do every day. It's a huge list. ## 98. See The Items Like Chapters Of A Bigger Book Be prepared to detail on all the items on your list. So make it consistent, ready to be developed into something bigger. I did it twice with my previous ones: 100 Ways To Improve Your Life and 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life. Both lists grew into fully fledged books, available now on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&x=0&ref_=nb_sb_noss&y=0&field-keywords=dragos%20roua&url=search-alias%3Daps). ## 99. Anticipate The Celebration The closer you get to the finish, the closer the final gala will be. Anticipate the reward. This time it's not about the bribe, incentive or motivation. You're almost done. You're one tip away. You did it. Step back, take a deep breath and write the last one. And then go out to celebrate. ## 100. Don't Give Up Writing such a huge list is a very important challenge. It cannot be done in only one move, it takes persistence and dedication. But the benefits are huge. And I mean it. So, if you ever planned to start one, don't stop until you actually publish it. In a few days, or in a few weeks. Just finish it. First published on: January 25, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-write-huge-list-posts%2F&text=How%20To%20Write%20List%20Posts%20%E2%80%93%20100%20Tips&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-write-huge-list-posts%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-write-huge-list-posts%2F&t=How%20To%20Write%20List%20Posts%20%E2%80%93%20100%20Tips https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-write-huge-list-posts%2F&title=How%20To%20Write%20List%20Posts%20%E2%80%93%20100%20Tips Previous ### Pulltabs, MacGyver and the Road to Self-Improvement (/pulltabs-macgyver-and-the-road-to-self-improvement/) Next ### How To Defrag Your Mind In 5 Easy Steps (/how-to-defrag-your-mind-in-5-easy-steps/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Make An Impression in 25 Different Ways URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-impress-others-in-25-different-ways.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-impress-others-in-25-different-ways/ Published: 2010-03-08 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 93 Categories: Relationships and Society Tags: list post, networking, relationships, social skills This is a guest post by my friend Armen Shirvanian, @Armen (http://twitter.com/Armen). Leaving an impression on others is something that is not so easy to do, in a global society where most would like to make as big of an impression as possible. If you want to impress others, you mostly likely have to "hustle, crush it, and go big", as Gary Vaynerchuk said in this comedy video. However, the specifics of how to do this in various ways are not so obvious, and so they are described in this 25-item list. Use of each example will leave the person or people you are dealing with thinking about you in a better light. ### 1. Stay Focused When Others Take It Easy This one is easy to notice. There are times when most of the folks in a group start to take it easy. The few who don't are easily picked out of the bunch. It is in your best interests to get a feel for when those around you are becoming relaxed or comfortable, as that is your chance to jump out like a dancer getting onto the stage. Taking it easy is easy. This is why it is not worth much in the eyes of others. Real focus takes energy, and can be improved upon (/training-your-focus/). If you want to impress, you can't let up as quickly as others. Although this is partially competition-based, it is more about pushing a little bit against your limits, as we all are similar in this aspect. ### 2. Underpromise And Overdeliver How do you do this? You keep yourself from telling 20 people you are going to do things for them, ending up only doing the things for 5 of them, and instead tell 5 people you will do things for them, and do them a little better than you described. This way, you have a higher percentage of folks believing in your reliability. In this post by Bud, he mentioned how Glen said that he was "so unreliable" when he didn't come through on his plans for him. This is something to keep in mind. When you limit how many things you are doing for/with other folks, you can do each one better than you said you would, providing a welcome surprise for the other person. ### 3. Lead By Example And Not By Words Here is a solid way to get people looking at you and what you do. Let's say I am talking about waking up early on a regular basis. This discussion has much more weight if I am actually waking up early on a regular basis. When you say one thing is good, but don't do it, some folks think you may be manipulating them, even if you didn't actually say you do it. This wouldn't be the case if manipulation wasn't prevalent, but since it is, you have a bigger opportunity to impress others by leading the way through your actions. It is like there is an open field of room for those few who perform actions, and then a huge cubicle for those who only use words to battle inside of. The open field is much more appealing. ### 4. Plan Out The Details Of An Event There is no one out there that doesn't like it when you plan for an event. Whether this involves setting the time of the event, or getting gas before a long trip, or picking the restaurant to meet at, this is your chance to impress everyone. When the event is over, everyone will remember that you set it up, and planned out its components, before it was even certain it would occur. Even if there is someone else who has their own idea of what the plans should be, it is not like they are going to be disappointed in you for having your own. Most likely, they will want to merge theirs with yours in some way, because your effort will have impressed them, and they won't want to negate the thought you have put in. ### 5. Initiate Contact First Everyone likes to hear from others. Even the folks who act like they are annoyed when hearing from others actually enjoy shrugging them off or rejecting them. When you are looking to talk to someone, being the first to initiate the conversation impresses them, as they can see that you weren't afraid of coming off as foolish, and valued their communication as well. Just as a girl is likely to not feel as attractive if the boy she likes doesn't make an effort to ask her out, people are likely to feel less valuable or relevant when less individuals are initiating contact or conversation with them. You really can't lose when you initiate contact first, because you then have control of the conversation, and control means that there is no way you can get hurt in the process. This builds your self-esteem, and the person you contact will remember that you made the effort to talk to them. Even with use of technology to contact others, it still depends on taking that initial decision-based risk. ### 6. Don't Lose Your Cool In Tense Situations This one is a huge opportunity. When there is a tense situation, or argument of some type, whether you are directly involved or situated as a bystander, keeping your cool lets everyone know you are very strong in mind. It is very easy to lose your cool in a tough or argumentative situation. Usually, when something is very easy, it is not impressive in any shape or form. The word "impressive" is much more associated with the word "hard" than the word "easy". What you do in a tense situation says a lot about your limits. People take note of how far the pressure or social discomfort around you goes until you lose your control of yourself and the situation. President Obama had a joke in his speech at the White House Correspondent's Dinner (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0GwZFAV1Lw) where he said "In the next 100 days, I will strongly consider losing my cool". Keeping your cool in good and bad times lets people you know you have a mind of steel. ### 7. Buy Expensive Things This is one of the most costly ways to impress others, and it is very temporary. If you spend a lot of money on some certain items that are in demand, like jewelry, or a flashy car, or so on, you can impress certain people for a short period of time. This is a very expensive way to impress others though, and will also create some folks who are unimpressed by your attempt to impress them. A new car model is only the latest model for one year. ### 8. Come Slightly Early To A Gathering When you come on time, or early, to a gathering, you are showing that you take the other person/people and their time seriously. This will remain notable in their minds, as they will know you thought of them during the time you were getting ready to arrive early. Going late shows more of a concern for not looking bad, as opposed to concern for the other involved. It impresses others to know that you have your life in order enough to be where you say you will be at the time when you say you will be. This is not a small thing, as people rise to greatness based on simple things(which are harder than they seem) like being on time to gatherings and functions. You can get labeled as "professional" just based on this alone, and the person labeling you would be accurate as well. Just as the first result in a Google search gets the highest percentage of click-through, the earliest folks at a gathering are usually the most concerned and influential(aside from any of that 'fashionably late' garbage). ### 9. Bring Things That Others Might Need An example of this would be bringing bottles of water for others you are going hiking with. They might bring their own, but that is one way to do this. You could also bring fruits or nuts for the group. If you're going to a couple of places in a new county with someone, you could bring along a couple of printed maps of the area so you don't get lost. Thinking ahead to provide for things that others might end up wanting will make them feel much more welcome and fitting. It shows that you are glad they came, and can fulfill a need or desire they have. They will know that you rise to a higher standard of mutual consideration. ### 10. Stay Consistent In A Skill/Activity Of Yours This one is a continually impressive item. If you have a skill, and stay consistent in using it, this will grow more and more. If you are great at computer networking, and continually work at building up your computer networking experience and knowledge, there are people who will be impressed more and more by your consistency. The same is true of if you have some habit like running every night at 7 PM. If you keep this habit up for weeks or months, people will start to take notice of your strength in maintaining it. They will know that as your "running time", and keep that time in mind to either leave you alone or attempt to join you, out of respect for your regularity. ### 11. Be The One Who Does The Busy-Work Sometimes Sometimes there are little odd and ends to do like taking garlic out of cloves, or looking up a concept on Wikipedia or Google, or watering some fruit plants. Doing these things shows others that you're not too big in your own mind to do them. When you are already handling the big things, and are not against doing the small things, others will know you've got the whole package. ### 12. Present Yourself In A Way You Haven't Before If you always present yourself to others in a serious way, and they are used to that by now, it would make a statement for you to try to start casually the next time you are with others, and maintain that during the rest of your conversation. This would show them that you are not limited to a certain tone. While we generally present a personality that we gravitate towards, there is no reason we can't act in a different way. Others will be interested because acting a different way keeps us out of being in a routine box. ### 13. Send A Letter Instead Of An E-mail This is not to say that sending someone an e-mail can't have an impact, but since this is about impressing others, sending an actual letter would be a bit more fitting. This only works for those people that you have the mailing address of, but if that is the case, it would be a real welcome surprise for them to receive a personal letter in the mail. It is pretty uncommon for most folks. You can probably remember the last personal letter you got in the mail, even if it was a year ago that you picked it up from the mailbox. You can provide that same good feeling to someone else, and they will not forget you. ### 14. Beat One Of Your Past Records If it can work for Olympians to impress people when they beat their own personal records, it can work for you as well. Beating your past mile running time, or amount of books read per month, or days in a row eating healthy food will be impressive to anyone you let know about it as it occurs. People like to hear about winning streaks, so when you beat your previous record in some category, let them know, and they will know you are moving upward. ### 15. Put Yourself In The Other Person's Mind There could be a lot more empathy in our society. When you show it, you instantly get a +1 from the person you are talking with, because you put the effort in to feel how they feel. Instead of looking at them like some other creature, putting in the thought to understand their position, and looking to get along with them better, makes a big difference. Others are not that different from us. The few who realize this, and make an effort to see why any social problems are occurring, are the few who build a continually larger group of people who are on their team. ### 16. Expand Your Knowledge And Experience Years of experience in some skill or ability, and years of education in some category, are what are usually seen as factors of importance. A person who has 5 years of experience in a certain function or duty is usually impressive to those who have less experience, and also to those who are not even in the same category of utility. The number of years alone can be enough to cause others to take notice. This item takes a long while longer to make an impression on others, but it is always worth it. It might not provide returns in one year, or in two years, but at some point down the road, you will have an increased socio-economic profile, known to be related to improved health and well-being. ### 17. Give Something Without Expecting Anything In Return This is powerful because it confuses or stays in the mind of most folks. When you do something for someone, and don't indicate that you expect something back, they usually wonder what is going on. We are so used to exchanges that one-sided provisions catch us off guard. There is plenty of opportunity for this. Find someone you can do something for, and do that thing for them, and leave it at that. This is harder than it sounds, because the mind starts thinking of what it will receive, but if that end of the thought process is quieted, you can have a substantial impact, and maybe lead to a cycle of giving, which runs more smoothly than any other type, as long as it keeps going. ### 18. Point Out Something Personal About Yourself When you point out something personal, you are showing some amount of trust in your listener. You are trusting them to not attack you based on the information, right after you say it, or at a later time when you are not there. It says that you value them enough to let them in on some information that can make you vulnerable. This will get the attention of your listener, as they most likely will not want to let you down in some way. It is almost an indirect compliment to let someone know something personal about you, and very few people would respond to a compliment with some plan to use it against you. ### 19. Do A Regular Thing In A Different Way This could range from tying your shoes some certain way, creating music with a wacky type of background melody, adding cooked toppings like onion, garlic, and tarragon to your spaghetti, saying a different greeting to people than your normally do, or so on. Any of these things will be interesting to those you deal with. Novelty-seeking is something we always praise when we see it in another person, and look to have it in ourselves. We always compliment folks who travel more, and who try out new activities, because they are opening their minds up in the process. You can do the same with things you already do. ### 20. Have A Great Trait/Skill And Be Modest About It This one is sure to impress, as people who have certain skills are often too glad to point them out repeatedly. While that is not so bad, being modest about a special skill or two that you have can get others thinking that you are on a different level than most people. It makes it look as though your skill is not a big deal to you, which has more impact than trying to show it off to others. If you are good at reading comprehension, and regularly remember and pick up on details from books that most would forget, but don't point this out when questioned about it, some will start to think much more highly of your intelligence. On the other hand, if you brag about your reading skills, you'll probably just get ignored. ### 21. Introduce One Person To Another Bringing two people you know together is something that probably only you can do for those two specific people. They might not know each other, but they both know you, and so you are the common thread who has an opportunity. When you introduce one person to another, they will both see you in a new light. They will see that you were thinking of each of them. This makes people a bit more personal with you. They see another person you associate with, and see that you are not hiding your relationship with them. This can only strengthen your reputation. Also, the more you show of yourself and your relationships, the less potential you have for future regret. ### 22. Give A Person A Gift That Is Specific To Them During times like birthdays and holidays, there is the act of gift-giving that can be in place. When you are getting someone a gift, it makes a real impression for them when it is specific for them. Getting a person a random bestselling book is alright, but getting them an economics book that is likely to expand upon their current interest of economics goes a big step further. Just as we have certain gifts we would want more than others, the same is true for them as well, and so taking this into account can lead you to provide some great gifts that show more guided purchasing and thought. ### 23. Say The Thing Everyone Else Is Thinking When you are in a group of some sort, there are usually items that most of the people in the group are thinking, but that no one says, out of fear, or worry of offending someone, or so on. The fear and worry is usually preventing helpful items from being said. If you take the risk, and say those things others are holding back from, you will build self-esteem, and will also notice that everyone is glad that you said them. I haven't seen one example of where I said something that I felt everyone in a group was thinking that led to a bad result. We are very connected to each other in various ways, the most important of which is our thoughts. ### 24. Don't Try To Impress Anyone Most of what we do works in opposites. When we don't try to attract someone, they tend to become more attracted to us. When we are the quiet person in a room, people indirectly hear us louder than the loud person in the room. The person who makes a class look the easiest is the one who studies alone the hardest. Along with these is the idea that if you don't try to impress others, you will actually impress them more. People partially expect for others to try to impress them. We get used to folks exaggerating details in their stories to get more of a reaction, and the news doing the same with current events. Therefore, if you don't exaggerate, and stick to presenting yourself as you are, people who matter will be even more impressed. ### 25. Run A Site Like DragosRoua.com If you don't understand this one, you haven't been paying attention. DragosRoua.com (/) is growing by leaps and bounds due to the owner and writer of this site, John Michaels. I'm just kidding there. It turns out that Dragos Roua is running, and writing for, DragosRoua.com. From the continual effort put out, to the warmth he presents, the package here is an impressive one. ### What Do You Think? These are many ways that came to my mind of how to impress others, or make a lasting impact in their thoughts. Do any of these examples bring up a personal example to your mind? Can you think of any other ways to leave an impression on others? Let us know in the comments. *Armen Shirvanian writes words of wisdom about mindset, communication, relationships, and related topics at Timeless Information. You can follow him on Twitter at @Armen (http://twitter.com/Armen).* First published on: March 8, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # My Top 13 iPhone 3G Applications URL: https://dragosroua.com/my-top-13-iphone-3g-applications.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/my-top-13-iphone-3g-applications/ Published: 2008-10-13 Modified: 2025-12-01 Views: 93 Categories: Apple and Mac OS X, Digital Tools, Getting Things Done, iPhone, Productivity and Effectiveness, Time management Tags: apps, list post, tools My *iPhone journey* started before the iPhone was even born, at the time when all we knew about it were rumors and suppositions. That didn't stop me to imagine what could we have if we'll combine an iPhone and GTD (/getting-things-done-with-an-iphone-total-black-belt-productivity/). Apparently, this is one of the most read articles from my blog, by the way. Several months after the official iPhone launch I managed to get my own iPhone (and learned how to jailbreak it, of course). Weeks after I got used to it, I wrote a description of my top 13 applications for iPhone (/my-top-13-iphone-applications/). Time flies real fast, and now I replaced my first iPhone with an iPhone 3G, a device which, together with AppStore, changed the rules of the game pretty big. So, it's time to write my new list of top 13 applications. For iPhone 3G, this time. ### iAdd iAdd is my own productivity app, it was just launched June 30 and I thought it would be relatively relevant to put it here too. Since this is actually the list of apps which I'm currently using, and since iAdd is really an app I'm using, I don't see why not. So, in short, iAdd take its name from Assess – Decide – Do (/assess-decide-do/), which is my own life management framework (click on the link to learn more) and it aims at integrating your day to day life with your productivity requirements. If you do GTD, iAdd will feel like a breeze. 😉 /wp-content/uploads/2008/10/iAdd-iPhone-assess-realm-1.jpg Although iAdd works on an iPhone 3G it is in fact an iOS4 app, one of the neat things about it being the ability to add and manage local notifications. Just read the launch post (/natural-productivity-introducing-iadd-for-iphone/) to learn more about this productivity app. iAdd is available on the AppStore for only 2.99 (for a limited time). Get a grip on it here. ### Calendar With the latest 2.1 firmware, the iPhone Calendar is now a mature application. Now you can have all your Mac calendars synced, or you can choose from within iTunes which ones do you want only on your iPhone. You can see events from all calendars if you want, or you can chose only one calendar to focus on. I started to use iPhone Calendar for much more than simple events or reminders. For instance, the second event you see in the screenshot above is in fact an exercise for my personal mission statement (/personal-mission-statement/). After working several days on my personal mission statement I thought it would be interesting to put a daily reminder early in the morning that will list that personal mission. I've been doing this for two weeks now and the results are very interesting. But I plan to write more about this way of using tools in a larger post about the Law Of Attraction. ### Notes Surprisingly rising up, Notes is one of the easiest way for me to capture ideas. I use it whenever I don't have my computer around, because of it's interface simplicity. Also because of the "email this note" capability, which I found it extremely rare across other similar applications. What you can see in the screenshot above is a typical idea brainstorming. These are barely scaffolds for my posts, or for things I want to do. Usually, a scaffold like this is totally transformed in 6-7 or even more iterations. Some of the ideas are just going to thrash, but most of them are integrated into my daily work routine. ### Mail Widely recognized at the most important improvement in the 2.x firmware series, Mail is finally a very robust tool for online communication. I can use it for PUSH email, like the yahoo mail, for POP accounts, like the one on the mirabilis.ro domain, and for IMAP like Gmail. There is another extremely important improvement in the latest iPhone Mail App and that is the ability to select multiple messages for deletion. I get easily over 100 messages / day and deleting them one by one is more than I can accept, in terms of email management. Also, viewing attachments is so much easier now. Really an asset. ### Omnifocus With this one we make the step outside the native operating system and start our search for third-party, useful, and preferably free tools to stuff on our precious iPhone. So, the first one goes to OmniFocus, the long awaited and hyped GTD application for the Mac world. A pretty expensive hyped GTD application, if you ask me, but a very useful one. I use it to plan almost everything I have to do when I am on the move. I'm still learning it, OmniFocus being recognized as having a pretty steep learning curve, but I am really satisfied with what I have so far. For the curious, although I have the latest, "bleeding edge" desktop version of OmniFocus, I didn't feel adventurous enough to try the new sync features, I'll wait for the official release. OmniFocus for iPhone is a paid application in AppStore and it costs 15,99 USD. ### Twitterrific I know, I can use Safari and work on the mobile version of Twitter, but I like more the interface of Twitterrific. I use the light, meaning the free, not the paid version. Basically, the paid version doesn't have those little ads provided by the Deck. I'm not bothered by those ads, and to be honest, I find them pretty informative. I use Twitterrific several times a day and I never experienced any crash so far. Really. I wish I could say that about Safari, for instance, but I can't. And that is another reason for using Twitterrific over Safari. Oh, if you want to follow me on Twitter (and possibly appear near those icon bloggers you see on the screenshot above) you can do it right here (http://twitter.com/dragosroua). ### YouNote I discovered YouNote before I started to heavily use iPhone Notes for idea capturing. I badly needed something like Moleskinerie for iPhone 1.5 but didn't want to install Moleskinerie again. So, YouNote seemed a very interesting application. Basically, you can add text, drawings, record audio and take photos, and group all of these into searchable notes. One of the uses I found for it was to do some micro-journaling. The application is pretty stable and it lately features even a desktop client for syncing – one of the major drawbacks of the initial version. The desktop client is usable but still at an alpha level, in my opinion. The developers licensed the code as open source though, and that should speed up the development towards a better piece of software. You can find more about this here. YouNote is a free application at AppStore. ### Feeds Yes, I do read feeds. Not many, although there were times in my life when my desktop client had constantly over 200 entries daily. Now I have a very short list of feeds that I follow, and that list consists mainly of personal development bloggers, not news or events sites. And for that I use Feeds, a somehow recent application, which I find extremely comfortable and easy to use. It even features an internal browser for accessing the links with the possibility to pass it to Safari (if you want to experience a crash, every once in a while). Not much to say about Feeds, other than the fact that it is a free application at AppStore. It costs 1,59 USD, by the way, but at that price I consider it free. ### Currency This is something that was with me constantly in the last 10 years. My business, the one that I sold recently (/edragonus-next-steps/), was making money, so I constantly need to have my eyes on how money are evolving in terms of currencies. I am not a FOREX trader, not even a stock market player, but I want to know how much my money are able to buy me. Currency is a free application at AppStore (now it's free as in free beer, not as the one above) and it features a very interesting approach: when you click on a currency, you can make it the default one, so every other currency will change accordingly. I will put my bet on EURO so far, as you can see in the screenshot above. ### eReader I like to read. I also like to read ebooks. So I installed this free application to be able to read what I have on my eReader.com shelf. Again, not much to say about this one, other than the fact that it works well and it keeps me thinking. Watching money is ok, but reading books is invaluable. eReader is a free application at AppStore. ### Tumble Although I wrote about how to blog with an iPhone (/blogging-with-an-iphone/), I do think that is better to micro-blog with an iPhone. It's still pretty difficult to blog at full capacity only with an iPhone. Its' true, with patience and a good internet connection, you can do some pretty nice things. But why bother to blog hard when you can micro-blog extremely easily? You saw before that I tweet constantly, and so I tumble. I've put my tumblelog at edragonu.tumblr.com, and whenever I find something that falls over a tweet but behind a full featured blog post, I just tumble it. Tumble is a free application at AppStore. ### Labirinth LE That neat game is a legacy from the first iPhone. I admit I was so attracted by the first version, that I downloaded it from the AppStore too. I don't feel the need to buy extra levels, so the Light Edition (that's what LE stands for, by the way) is ok for me. This version includes sound for the moving ball, and a very nice effect of vibration when the ball falls. Cute. Labyrinth LE is a free application at AppStore. ### Palringo I admit I don't use instant messaging very often. But I do use it from time to time, and not having an instant messaging application on my iPhone was really frustrating. Palringo is a free application that lets you connect with all the major instant messaging platforms. They also have their own private messaging platform – and they require you to first become a member there before you set up your other accounts – a platform in which you can send sounds and photos, but I didn't check it out. Feel free to do it, if you want, after all, it's a free application. ### iSSH That required a little bit of research. I read the user comments on several SSH applications at AppStore, and finally decide to go with a commercial package. It costs 3,99 USD and it does exactly what it says: allows you to remotely connect to other servers via the SSH protocols. Since I still manage my own server, I like to be able to have instant access to it whenever I have to. One neat thing about iSSH is the fact that it supports the landscape keyboard, making it easier to type. Overall, it's an app that really lets you work remotely in a comfortable way. ### Paid versus free iPhone applications Out of the 13 applications presented in this post (which are pretty much the applications I use on a daily basis) 3 are paid applications, and the rest of 10 are free, or are parts of the operating system. The total amount of money spent on iPhone applications is: 15,99 (OmniFocus) + 1,59 (Feeds) + 3,99 (iSSH) = 21,57 USD. Not that much. Out of my initial list of top 13 applications for iPhone, I still use Calendar and Mail. I also use Safari, but until it will learn how to not crash on every other site, I won't call that usage. The rest are brand new iPhone 3G applications. So, if you think to upgrade for the new iPhone 3G, prepare for some changes in your application list. It might not be exactly what I have, but I hope you were able to make an idea about what you can expect. First published on: October 13, 2008 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-top-13-iphone-3g-applications%2F&text=My%20Top%2013%20iPhone%203G%20Applications&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-top-13-iphone-3g-applications%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-top-13-iphone-3g-applications%2F&t=My%20Top%2013%20iPhone%203G%20Applications https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-top-13-iphone-3g-applications%2F&title=My%20Top%2013%20iPhone%203G%20Applications Previous ### Manage Your Time As You Manage Your Money (/manage-your-time-as-you-manage-your-money/) Next ### OmniFocus for iPhone – a GTD application reviewed (/omnifocus-for-iphone-a-gtd-application-reviewed/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The 6 Stages Of A Toxic Attachment (To Anything, Not Just A Person) URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-6-stages-of-a-toxic-attachment-to-anything-not-just-a-person.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-6-stages-of-a-toxic-attachment-to-anything-not-just-a-person/ Published: 2021-01-29 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 93 Categories: Meaningful Relationships, Relationships and Society Tags: 365 challenge, letting go, list post, relationships We're human, so we're flawed. By design, we go through existence by clinging to various perceptions. That's how we make sense of the world, stacking clinging on top of clinging, forming identities and then navigating events based on those identities and values. Some of these attachments are "good", some are "bad", or toxic. What makes the difference between "good" and "bad" attachments? For that, I'm afraid you will have to wait until the last part of the article – or scroll to it, if you're impatient. Because now I will focus only on the toxic ones. If you have enough experience with something, you can start inferring some patterns, you start observing structures. It goes without saying that, as any other human being, I had my fair share of toxic attachments – to people, beliefs or personal identities. The ordeals I've been through, eventually, lead to something useful – I've been able to come up with some sort of structure, some way to identify these attachments. I learned. What follows is my own toxic attachments ladder, or the 6 stages we go through when we form, maintain, and, eventually, get rid of them. ## 1. Delight It's the "soul mate" stage in a romantic relationship. Or the overwhelming enthusiasm when we encounter a new belief that we're starting to explore. Or the feeling of empowerment we get when we "become somebody", like when we get a new identity for ourselves. This stage is the one that creates all the inertia. Our feelings of extreme joy, our experience of extreme pleasure – being it derived from spending time with a partner, from mental identification with new beliefs, or from the entitlement of "being special" – this experience is tying us down. We delight in this delight, we feel like we found "the one". Or "the real thing". Or that we finally "made it". And we seem we can't get enough of it. The more we enjoy it, the deeper we tie us down. ## 2. Denial Alas, these pleasurable feelings are seldom in sync with reality. They may trick us into believing we're there, were we feel we are, but those places are merely hallucinations, projections or escapes from the current reality. There is no eternal "soul mate", there is only our idea about it, and the serendipitous overlapping of someone's features with this idea. But, guess what, that someone has other features too, some of them blatantly out of sync with our soul mate expectations. In dating terms, we're getting the "red flags". We're starting to see that our soul mate is not only just a normal human being, but, more often than not, he or she is flawed in ways that are harmful for us. And yet, we cling to it, because… well, delight. We're in denial. We're rejecting reality and stick to the illusion. That's the stage in which deep suffering begins, although we're not yet fully exposed to it, because we still get the occasional bursts of delight. ## 3. Disappointment But time is unforgiving. Sooner or later we finally realize the object of our attachment is simply not what, or who, we believed it was. It's like light shines suddenly on a dark corner, and everything is revealed. It's not a good feeling. We're feeling disappointed, hurt, played out, cheated on. We're suffering. Big time. We feel we lost something precious. It works not only with people, but, more often than we'd like to admit, with our own identities too. We're disappointed because we're getting old. We're disappointed because what we thought about the world, seen through the lenses of that belief we delightfully embraced in the beginning, turns out to be incomplete, or simply false. ## 4. Disengagement And then, once we consumed disappointment, we start the disengaging process. We're in a place where we can't yet stop ourselves completely acting the way we did, but at least we understand now that these ways are toxic. We're still triggered by the stimuli, but at least we now try to avoid the stimuli. We know what will happen. We understand that we're going to get hurt again. So we start a painful process, most of the time slow and with hiccups, of disentangling ourselves from the object of our attachment. Although it's painful, we know we have to do it, and we do it. The hurt we're experiencing in this stage is real, because disentangling means parting ways with parts of us. It's like animals somehow cut lose their stuck limb, to be able to get out of the trap. ## 5. Frustration At the end of disengagement we find frustration. We're now over the addiction, but we look back at who we were and can't stand ourselves for what we did. We don't recognize ourselves. A myriad of questions, all starting with "How could I…" are flying through our heads. We feel frustrated that we fell into that trap. And, although it's also a type of suffering, this stage is probably one of the healthiest, because it paves the way to learning. Frustration, as annoying as it is, means we're now a new persona, we have a nw perspective, one that is out of the hooks of that type of attachment. Maybe we will get hooked to other attachments in the future, but this one, well, at least we know it now. ## 6. Learning And that is the beginning of learning. I wish I'd say this stage is as unavoidable as all the previous five, but, unfortunately, it isn't. Meaning that we're not always inclined to extract some wisdom from our previous mistakes. Sometimes it takes a few identical ones to finally understand we're hurting ourselves beyond reason. But sometimes we do get to the learning stage and, little by little, we start to deplete the number of mistakes we can make, simply because now we know better. ## The Difference Between Toxic And Non-Toxic Attachments For starters, the non-toxic attachments don't have that "delight" stage. In the sense that, when we do experience their joy, that joy is not overwhelming, out of balance, or out of this world. It's more like a constant, self-contained state of peace. And because there aren't any major differences between that state and the current reality, denial won't happen either. We don't get any red flags to account for, because, well, there aren't any. And then, there is no disappointment, specifically because we weren't thrown off in the first stage. If we're on a more or less constant level, and we know what to expect, disappointment simply can't happen. We enjoy what is to be enjoyed, without any expectations. And then the entire struggle stage, from disengagement to frustration is out of the equation. There is no major suffering inflicted. Surprisingly, learning is more or less out of the equation too. If the attachment is already non-toxic, it means we know how to handle the interaction, and we're just experiencing it, we're not thrown off by it. The lessons have been learned. First published on: January 29, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-6-stages-of-a-toxic-attachment-to-anything-not-just-a-person%2F&text=The%206%20Stages%20Of%20A%20Toxic%20Attachment%20(To%20Anything%2C%20Not%20Just%20A%20Person)&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-6-stages-of-a-toxic-attachment-to-anything-not-just-a-person%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-6-stages-of-a-toxic-attachment-to-anything-not-just-a-person%2F&t=The%206%20Stages%20Of%20A%20Toxic%20Attachment%20(To%20Anything%2C%20Not%20Just%20A%20Person) https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-6-stages-of-a-toxic-attachment-to-anything-not-just-a-person%2F&title=The%206%20Stages%20Of%20A%20Toxic%20Attachment%20(To%20Anything%2C%20Not%20Just%20A%20Person) Previous ### The GameStop Takeaway – We’re Already In A Post-Factual World, But We’re Just Entering A “Post-Fundamentals” Economy (/the-gamestop-takeaway-were-already-in-a-post-factual-world-but-were-just-entering-a-post-fundamentals-economy/) Next ### The Virus That Killed The Modern State (/the-virus-that-killed-the-modern-state/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # If It's Not 100% "Yes", Then It's A "No" URL: https://dragosroua.com/if-its-not-100-yes-then-its-a-no.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/if-its-not-100-yes-then-its-a-no/ Published: 2021-04-16 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 92 Categories: Productivity and Effectiveness, Relationships and Society Tags: 365 challenge, boundaries, decide, decision making Decision making is a strange beast. It might be the most flexible, volatile and versatile process humans use during their entire existence. The same reasons supporting a certain decision, can be used, in a slightly different context, against the very same decision. What's good today for me, may not be good tomorrow. What worked so far, may not work from now on. Because life has no intrinsic meaning, and because we're subject to permanent, relentless change, it's hard to come up with a consistent decision making framework. The balance between predictability and fear of missing out is impossible to maintain long term. There must be enough room to adjust to unforseen circumstances, but also enough runway to plan ahead, to generate predictability. I used many approaches in the past, and some of them are still with me. Especially the Assess – Decide – Do framework. But I find these tools to have a limited efficiency in important, life altering decisions. They may work well for daily, mundane processes, but when I'm faced with something that has the potential to change my life for years, I don't use them. Instead, I engage in an evaluation process. Basically, I try to gauge how much of a "yes" or "no" are we taking about. Is it 80%? Is it 95%? Do we have a 100%? Even more, how do I define these percentages? ## Let's See An Example Moving out to a new country is, by an large, a life altering decision. I already went through this process once, after I moved to Spain (/moving-to-spain-one-year-after/), and I'm in this process now, changing countries once again. There are obviously a lot of variables to take into account when engaging in such a process. The most important one, is, obviously, the place where you're going to live. I've been in two cities so far, in this new country, testing the overall feeling and seeing a lot of apartments. Not going to dive into all the logistic details, as they are not important for this article. To make a long story short, I came very close to picking a place. I was like 95% convinced that was the right place (including city, neighborhood, facilities, etc). But I wasn't 100% convinced. It was 95%. And if it's 95%, then it's a no. Here's why. When I take a decision, and I am 100% convinced, it doesn't necessarily mean that I looked at all the potential pitfalls, and I took into account all that can go wrong, and I assessed everything. Nope. That would be impossible. It simply means that I made peace with everything that can go wrong, and I am moving forward from a place of balance and trust. There are many unexpected things that can happen along the road, but starting from a "100% ok" place means I can give full attention and energy to solving them. Whereas if I start from a 95% place, it means there will always be some leaking, some loss of energy, some doubt creeping in and affecting the entire process. The problem with this 5% that is not OK, is that it compounds. It may feel small in the beginning, but if, in your system, is still a solid 5% (or even 1%, for what matters) that 5% won't go down. It will carry on, day in and day out and it will grow until it will start spilling over the remaining 95%. It goes like that in any major decision, like relationships or jobs. Even if a relationship is 95% ok, the remaining 5% will eventually creep in. Or if a job is 95%, the remaining 5% will drain you out, eventually. ## What's The Actual 100%? So, how can I say it's a "100%" and not a "95%". You would be surprised to learn that this value, 100%, is more of an intuitive process, than a mathematical one. It does imply a lot of checking for hidden flaws and a lot of features to be crossed off of a list, but it's mainly about how the entire context falls into place. It's not only how many "must have" are crossed off, but also how much am I going to dive in. Am I going to plunge 100%, taking all the responsibilities and giving it 100%? Also, the change will be clean enough so there won't be any leftovers that needs to be managed? Again, this is about real life situations, like don't get caught in extra commitments, but also about an intuitive, gut feeling approach, in with I am at peace with both what lies behind and what lies ahead. Because if I'm in a place of balance, and there are no spillovers, nor serious lacks, I can fully take in everything that comes. It will be 100% living. And that's all there is to it. First published on: April 16, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fif-its-not-100-yes-then-its-a-no%2F&text=If%20It%E2%80%99s%20Not%20100%25%20%E2%80%9CYes%E2%80%9D%2C%20Then%20It%E2%80%99s%20A%20%E2%80%9CNo%E2%80%9D&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fif-its-not-100-yes-then-its-a-no%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fif-its-not-100-yes-then-its-a-no%2F&t=If%20It%E2%80%99s%20Not%20100%25%20%E2%80%9CYes%E2%80%9D%2C%20Then%20It%E2%80%99s%20A%20%E2%80%9CNo%E2%80%9D https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fif-its-not-100-yes-then-its-a-no%2F&title=If%20It%E2%80%99s%20Not%20100%25%20%E2%80%9CYes%E2%80%9D%2C%20Then%20It%E2%80%99s%20A%20%E2%80%9CNo%E2%80%9D Previous ### How To Start A New Country – The Practicalities (/how-to-start-a-new-country-the-practicalities/) Next ### The Most Expensive Things In The Universe Are Not Diamonds (/the-most-expensive-things-in-the-universe-are-not-diamonds/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Running Local Private AI Models – How And Why URL: https://dragosroua.com/running-local-private-ai-models-how-and-why.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/running-local-private-ai-models-how-and-why/ Published: 2026-06-17 Views: 90 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Tools Tags: ai tools, Claude, how to, mindset, tools Last week, Anthropic released Fable 5. Three days later, the US government ordered them to shut it down — for people outside US. Anthropic said they couldn't filter users by nationality fast enough, so they pulled the plug on the whole thing. Like any good ol' miracle, it lasted only 3 days. That was a very much needed cold shower. When you realize someone can take away your workforce just like that, running local, private AI models, suddenly becomes the number one priority. ## Why You Should Run Your Own Local AI Models In no particular order (because all of them count): 1. **No one can take it away.** Local AI models on your machine don't care about export controls, government directives, or provider board decisions. 2. **No usage limits.** No rate limits, no subscription tiers, no "you've used your monthly tokens." Play as much as you want. 3. **Nothing leaves your machine.** Your code, your documents, your client data — none of it hits a third-party server. Local AI models are private by default. 4. **Fixed cost.** You pay for hardware plus electricity. No surprise price hikes mid-year. 5. **No API dependency.** Your workflow doesn't break when a provider has an outage, deprecates a model, or gets a compliance letter. 6. **You can modify it.** Fine-tune, quantize, run on your own data. Build something they can't sell you. Make your own local, private AI model factory. ## What It Actually Costs I hear you: but I don't have the money to build a data center in my basement. Fair play. But here's the thing: you don't have to. Here are four realistic options, as of June 2026 money: **MacBook Pro M4 Max** (~$3,000–4,500): 546 GB/s memory bandwidth. Runs 70B models at around 70 tokens/second with 4-bit quantization. Fast enough to feel snappy. This is the "you might already own this" option. **Mac Studio M3 Ultra** (~$5,000–10,000): 800 GB/s, up to 512 GB unified memory. Runs DeepSeek R1 — a 671-billion-parameter model — at 17–18 tokens/second. That's a model that costs real money per token on any API, running locally on your own hardware. This the upper layer for Apple Silicon machines. **Nvidia DGX Spark** (~$4,000): Nvidia's personal AI supercomputer, roughly Mac Mini-sized. 128 GB at 273 GB/s. With TensorRT FP4 optimizations, ~38 tokens/second on 120B-class models. Good if you live in the CUDA ecosystem. **AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395** (~$3,000 in a mini PC): 128 GB unified memory, competitive decode speeds, strong on MoE models — Qwen 3 30B A3B runs at 72 tokens/second. The cheapest path to serious local memory. To recap: the cost for running local, private AI models, on your own hardware is between $3000 and $10,000. Depending on how much you make with your AI setup, you could make back the initial investment in one, two years. From there onwards is pure profit. ## The Open Source Models Are Actually Good Now A year ago, running local AI models meant accepting a real quality gap. That gap is mostly gone. Here are 3 options that are probably covering 90% of the use cases: **Kimi K2** (Moonshot AI): One trillion parameters, 32B active per token. MoE, trained on 15.5 trillion tokens. SWE-bench Verified at 65.8% — better than most closed models on agentic coding tasks. Open weight under a modified MIT license, on HuggingFace. **GLM-5.2** (Zhipu AI): Released June 13, 2026 — two days after the Fable shutdown. One million token context window, which means you can load an entire mid-sized codebase in a single pass. Two thinking modes: High for speed, Max for hard problems. MIT licensed, open weights. No benchmark numbers at launch, which is unusual — but the prior GLM-5 scored 77.8 on SWE-bench Verified, so the baseline is solid. **MiniMax M3** (MiniMax): Released June 1, 2026. 428B total parameters, 23B active per token, one million token context. Ranked #1 out of 90 models on Artificial Analysis's independent intelligence benchmark. SWE-Bench Pro at 59.0% (vendor-reported). Weights are on HuggingFace, though the license isn't MIT — commercial use is free if your company makes under $20M/year, otherwise you need written permission. Worth knowing before you ship a product on top of it. To recap: you get to play with 32B up to 428B parameters on your own machine, at decent speed, with intelligent tool calling. Your own little digital workshop, made entirely off of local, private AI models. It's also worth adding that the pace of innovation in this area is still breathtaking, so what we talk about now might be obsoleted by even better models in 3 months. ## Running Private, Local AI Models Is Not Optional Anymore The Fable shutdown won't be the last one. Governments are figuring out that model capabilities are geopolitically sensitive. Providers are figuring out that compliance isn't optional – and there are already early signs that KYC is coming. Your access to the tools you depend on sits somewhere in the middle — renegotiable at any time, by people who aren't you, and who probably don't have the same goals with you. Running your own local AI models isn't paranoia. It's actually a symptom of awareness: the world is moving fast, so you need to stay on top of it. We are on the verge of turning the users of commercial AI into the actual product – you, your train of thoughts, your data will be sold. In the same way this happened with social media. If you're ok with that, no problem. But if you care about your privacy, your algorithmic reality choice, and your sovereignty, then, by all means, start building your own local, private AI model factory. Your future self will thank you. First published on: June 17, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Frunning-local-private-ai-models-how-and-why%2F&text=Running%20Local%20Private%20AI%20Models%20%E2%80%93%20How%20And%20Why&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Frunning-local-private-ai-models-how-and-why%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Frunning-local-private-ai-models-how-and-why%2F&t=Running%20Local%20Private%20AI%20Models%20%E2%80%93%20How%20And%20Why https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Frunning-local-private-ai-models-how-and-why%2F&title=Running%20Local%20Private%20AI%20Models%20%E2%80%93%20How%20And%20Why Previous ### Attention Harvesting – What You Do While Your LLM Works? (/attention-harvesting-what-you-do-while-your-llm-works/) Next ### How To Manage AI Cognitive Overload – Lessons After 9 Apps Shipped in 4 Months (/how-to-manage-ai-cognitive-overload-lessons-after-9-apps-shipped-in-4-months/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Unpopular Opinion: ChatGPT Is Over-Engineered Astrology URL: https://dragosroua.com/unpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/unpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology/ Published: 2025-10-28 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 90 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Astrology and Esotericism Tags: ai tools, wisdom Here's something that might ruffle some feathers: ChatGPT and astrology are doing the same thing. They're both pattern-matching systems optimized to give you plausible answers. Before the pitchforks come out, let me explain. ## The Machine Learning Recipe At its core, machine learning follows a straightforward process: 1. Set up input features (words, images, data points) 2. Define desired outcomes (coherent text, accurate predictions, useful responses) 3. Provide training baselines and examples 4. Optimize a cost function to minimize the gap between inputs and outcomes The result? A model that generates **plausible** outputs. Not necessarily true. Not necessarily accurate. But plausible enough that they feel right, sound right, and often are right. That word – plausible – is doing a lot of heavy lifting. ## The Astrological Method Now let's look at astrology. It works like this: 1. Takes in a set of input features (planetary positions, aspects, houses) based on astronomically verified ephemeris data 2. Maps these to outcome categories (abundance/scarcity, clarity/confusion, expansion/contraction) 3. Refines the correlation through centuries of observation and transmitted knowledge 4. Minimizes the "cost function" between celestial patterns and human experience The result? Interpretations that are **plausible**. They resonate. They feel applicable. They often seem remarkably accurate. Same word. Same function. ## The Uncomfortable Similarity Both systems are fundamentally doing the same thing: finding patterns in massive datasets and outputting responses that sound reasonable given the inputs. ChatGPT learned from billions of text examples. Astrology learned from millennia of recorded observations. Different datasets, different timescales, but the same underlying mechanism: pattern recognition optimized for plausibility. Neither system needs to understand *why* something works. ChatGPT doesn't understand language – it predicts tokens. Astrology doesn't need to prove *why* Saturn returns correlate with major life transitions – it just observes that they consistently do. Both are empirical systems built on what works, not necessarily on what's irrevocably provable. Both are trained with approximations and give back plausible… approximations. ## We're Monkeys Doing Pattern Matching The difference isn't in the methodology – it's in what we're willing to call "scientific." Machine learning gets the stamp of legitimacy because we can see the algorithms, measure the training loss, and run controlled experiments. Astrology doesn't because its training data spans centuries and its patterns emerged through human observation rather than computational optimization. But strip away the infrastructure for a second, and you're left with the same core process: input ? pattern matching ? plausible output. Whether we're using compute or collective memory, whether we're trusting scientists or border-line sorcerers, we are fundamentally consuming the result of the same process: pattern matching. ## Personal Experience I've been using astrology (https://astrologybits.com) for nearly 20 years and I'm into machine learning for almost 10 (way before ChatGPT made it cool, to be honest). Astrology gives me usable output roughly 80% of the time. Large language models? Maybe 98% of the time. What is different is not the accuracy, though, it's the plausibility. Both can be wrong (and they both are, sometimes), but they can provide relevant input to help me make better, more informed decisions. ## Why This Matters I'm not saying ChatGPT is unscientific or that astrology is AI. I'm saying they're both surprisingly similar systems for generating plausible narratives from pattern recognition. Understanding this can help us use both tools better. With ChatGPT, we should recognize that "plausible" and "true" aren't the same. The model will confidently give you wrong answers if they sound right. If you ever used it for more than 5 minutes, then you've hit some hallucinations. ChatGPT is equally confident when it hallucinates, because it doesn't *know* the truth. With astrology, we should appreciate it as a time-tested pattern language for interpreting human experience, without turning it into something it's not. It's not an algorithm for winning the lottery or for finding your soulmate. It just can't be. Both are plausible mirrors, though. Both show us reflections that feel true. And they are both only as useful as our ability to discern signal from noise. To understand that they're fundamentally context descriptors, offering approximations of reality, not the ultimate truth. The real over-engineering? Pretending there's a fundamental difference between ancient pattern-matching and modern pattern-matching just because one runs on silicon and the other runs on collective human memory. First published on: October 28, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Funpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology%2F&text=Unpopular%20Opinion%3A%20ChatGPT%20Is%20Over-Engineered%20Astrology&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Funpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Funpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology%2F&t=Unpopular%20Opinion%3A%20ChatGPT%20Is%20Over-Engineered%20Astrology https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Funpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology%2F&title=Unpopular%20Opinion%3A%20ChatGPT%20Is%20Over-Engineered%20Astrology Previous ### Moving From WordPress to Cloudflare Static Pages (/moving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how/) Next ### AGI Will Be a Flock, Not a Bird (/agi-will-be-a-flock-not-a-bird/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Talk To A Hypnotized Person – The Short, But Very Useful Guide URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-talk-to-a-hypnotized-person-the-short-but-very-useful-guide.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-talk-to-a-hypnotized-person-the-short-but-very-useful-guide/ Published: 2021-08-19 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 89 Categories: Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, communication, relationships Hypnosis is a very interesting state. You may already have a certain image of it in your mind, the one in which an illusionist is manipulating someone on a scene, for the entertainment of viewers. After the illusionist works his magic, the person enters into what appears to be a submissive state, and does all sort of weird things. When she wakes up, the person doesn't seem to remember what she did, to even more amusement for the viewers. Although this image is correct, is also incomplete. The hypnosis state may occur after a variety of stimuli (meaning it's not some secret, magic art mastered only by illusionists), and it doesn't always manifests as a submissive state. The reason you observe it like that is because the magician chooses the person to experience submission in her hypnotic state, but this is not a given, you may experience any state, from extreme compliance to instant aggression. ## Suspended Disbelief What really happens in hypnosis is that we're short-breaking some of the brain's circuits, entering a state of "suspended disbelief". If you read my blog for a long time, then you remember my preference for this wording, instead of "hypnosis", which seems to be overused and confusing. In this state of "suspended disbelief", our rational barriers are lowered, and we experience reality without the usual fences. We don't check what we experience with our usual filters and, as a result, we deem as "true" almost anything. For instance, we may enter a state of suspended disbelief while watching a movie, and start participating emotionally at what we perceive as being the life and adventures of some real persons. What we are really experiencing, though, is just pixels moving on a screen. That's all there is to it. And yet, our suspended disbelief state "plays along" and accept those shapes and their interactions as valid persons and activities. Now, back to the person on the stage. Because the suspended disbelief state, that person follows along the orders of the magician as they are real (which, for the person, really are) and, because the magician tells her not to remember anything after she goes out of hypnosis, she will really not remember anything. Why the long introduction? Well, because hypnosis, especially mass hypnosis, is a widespread phenomenon these days. As I mentioned above, hypnosis is not a secret art. It's actually relatively easy to induce hypnosis, once you get consent (which may be explicit or implicit), and, with the large exposure to information we have these days, we're almost always in some sort of suspended disbelief state. Yes, I know it's hard to accept we can also be hypnotized and not even realizing that. But the first step to avoid a danger is to understand and accept that we're vulnerable to it. ## How To Talk To A Hypnotized Person We'll get back to what we should to do minimize the chances of being hypnotized in a later post, for now let's assume we're "the good guys", let's assume we have a decent grasp of reality, but, for some reason, we're exposed to a person who's in a deep state of hypnosis, without really knowing that. Let's say a hypnotized person believes a certain political party is the good one. That person has been hypnotized by: - direct and indirect propaganda (tv, street ads, internet) - in person events (rallies and gatherings) - informal conversations (reinforcement through similar opinions, from the same group) - radical opinion from the opposite side (which confirms their group is "the good one") So, how do we talk to such a person? ![AI Kiddo app icon](/images/ai-kiddo-icon-48.webp) I built AI Kiddo (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566) to help kids learn first words in 8 languages—simple images, natural speech, child-friendly. First and foremost, don't contradict her on that topic. It's irrelevant, useless and it only reinforces their beliefs. For them, the illusion they're living is reality. It's like someone would start convincing you, out of the blue, that gravity doesn't work. You know very well gravity works, and you got millions of reinforcements of this belief. Similarly, for that person, the belief they're holding was reinforced, while they were in the suspended disbelief state, gazillions of times. Second, don't engage in conversations on the specific topic they've been hypnotized about, unless it's absolutely necessary. You can still have a decent relationship with a hypnotized person, as long as you're not touching the sensitive spots. Hypnosis doesn't short-break all the circuits. Back at our illusionist example, even for the person on stage, basic tasks like walking, talking, drinking water, are still doable. The "spell" is partial, and, in this case, short lived. So, if you do have to interact with a hypnotized person, not only try to not contradict her, but try avoiding conversations on the specific topic entirely. And third, wait. Sooner or later the hypnotic state will fade out. Eventually, they will have to face the reality. In our case, they will slowly understand that their choice in politics may not be as great as they initially thought. I say that because all our choices in politics are not that great as we initially thought. Politics is by definition the largest implementation of mass hypnosis: short-breaking some parts of people's brain with massive propaganda, so they vote for your party. Without being in a state of suspended disbelief, any sane person will see the main goal of politics is predominantly about acquiring personal power, and way less about serving other people's interests. Of course, realizing we've been hypnotized may take years. In some cases, this may take generations. But it eventually happens. ## The Goals Of Collective Hypnosis By now you may at least played with the idea that collective hypnosis is somehow related to power, manipulation and influencing people in various directions. Yes, that's how it works. From advertising, which hypnotizes us to spend money we don't have on things we don't need, to political campaigns, which hypnotizes us to give out freedoms while thinking we're enhancing our lifestyle. Lately, it spreads into healthcare, by using the same propaganda to distort the actual danger of certain illnesses, with the goal of increasing submission and addiction to certain commercial medicines. Like in all the other cases, healthcare-related mass hypnosis doesn't zombify people completely, it just short-breaks some circuits, aiming to trigger a certain chain of decisions. Collective hypnosis comes in waves and sometimes the waves are bigger and more powerful. During these peaks is easier to get swept in and succumb to the delusion. Staying aware is the only way to survive these waves. Even the deepest dream eventually ends. *Photo by Ante Hamersmit (https://unsplash.com/@ante_kante?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/blindfolded?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: August 19, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # A Crash Course On Public Keeping Your Mouth Shut URL: https://dragosroua.com/a-crash-course-on-public-keeping-your-mouth-shut.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/a-crash-course-on-public-keeping-your-mouth-shut/ Published: 2021-12-06 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 88 Categories: Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, communication, goals, habits > It takes two years to learn to speak and sixty to learn to keep quiet. > Ernest Hemingway There are tons of courses out there on public speaking. But none on keeping your mouth shut. I find this skill extremely valuable, especially during these times of confusion, hyper-sensitivity and global totalitarianism. So, let's start with the goal. What is the goal of public keeping your mouth shut? There are many, not just one. First: **don't create more confusion than it already is**. If you can't add some clarity to the conversation, just keep your mouth shut. Don't speak just because you're afraid, or triggered. Second: **don't put yourself in a vulnerable position**. Like I said, we live in times of hyper-sensitivity, when people believe if they are upset, they are automatically right. By keeping your mouth shut, you avoid complications. You avoid wasting time in endless conversations with persons that have little understanding of logical arguments, but a lot of energy to be used in convincing others about their own point of view. Third, use that time to listen more, it's very useful. While you keep your mouth shut, your ears will continue to receive, so you will take in more information. In times of global confusion, this is important. There is a lot of noise out there, and **you shouldn't believe the first thing you hear, just because it validates some of your beliefs**. You may be caught in an algorithm which is trying to harvest your attention (or money). Just listen more. Now that we know the main reasons we should keep our mouth shut, let's see how we can actually do it. Here are a few actionable tips. Try **breathing in and out 5 times before you speak out**. Try introducing this habit of breathing in and out, exactly when you feel the urge to answer (or post on social media). You will soon see that your intention to speak was more often than not a source for one of the problems listed above. You will either add more confusion, or you will put yourself in a vulnerable position. It's not worth it. Also, try to **repeat in your mind the last sentence of your dialogue partner** before speaking out. Like, you know, word by word. Usually that makes you understand better what the other has to really say, what's the relationship of that with your values and immediate objectives, and how important it is to answer to that. Most of the time, it's not that important. But we tend to mix their real message with what we think they said and we jump the gun when we should really just stay put. Another way to keep your moth shut is to **partially reveal who you are or what you do**. I'm not saying you should lie, on the contrary, always speak the truth, but don't give the entire record of your life to anyone who seem available to listen. They might not be interested in that. They might not be interested in you at all, only in your temporary reaction. So if you lower your interaction surface, by giving just a decent amount of info, many potentially difficult conversations can be avoided. Live and let live. And probably the most effective way to keep your mouth shut is to **choose smiling over speaking**. Try replacing some of your sentences with just a smile. You'll be surprised how effective this is at preventing other people to try convincing you of anything. Just smile and wave. After trying these for a couple of weeks, you will suddenly understand that's a lot of noise in this world. And a big part of it was created by you. *Photo by Constantin Panagopoulos (https://unsplash.com/@dinpanag?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/smile?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: December 6, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Mister Wilford Is Dead URL: https://dragosroua.com/mister-wilford-is-dead.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/mister-wilford-is-dead/ Published: 2022-01-30 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 88 Categories: Blogging Tags: movies I recently started to watch Snowpiercer on Netflix. I don't know how I missed it so far, because it's one of the most thought-provoking series I watched lately. Granted, sometimes the acting isn't as great as the script, although Jennyfer Connelly does a great job, but even with those minor glitches I enjoy it a lot. I'm still in season one, probably episode 5 or 6. The plot is simple, yet fascinating: climate change hit humanity hard, but not how you'd expected, and instead of oceans burning, now the world is completely frozen. Life on Earth basically stopped, or disappeared, and there is only one artifact still holding humans on it: a continuously moving, never stopping super-train, called Snowpiercer. Most of the passengers got tickets on this ark, and even helped it being built by its mythical inventor, mister Wilford. There is a very small number of people who just got on the train by forcing their way in, and they are now confined at the end of it, in the lasts of the 1001 cars long super train. Every day, mister Wilford, through the voice of his main stewardess (Jennifer Connelly) gives encouragements, updates, and, overall, keeps the world moving forward. Except mister Wilford is dead, as you soon find out even from episode two. His image is maintained by Jennifer Connelly and two engineers steering the train day and night. But for 7 years, the entire train is convinced there is a demi god called Wilford (some even perform cross-like signs, imitating the letter W, when they speak his name) that will eternally provide for them. And this is where I'd like to stop, and take a different route. The plot of the movie thickens and I don't want to give spoilers. But I do want to talk about the "mister Wilford" myth. I think we're all living in some sort of a "mister Wilford" world, with authority figures lingering around, maintaining (or even enforcing) some level of order in the never ending chaos that surrounds us. At the personal level, we still maintain images of people to whom we are strongly attached. Being them family, friends or former lovers. The ties that we formed during the interaction have solidified, and we carry around a frozen image, a snapshot of their existence. But that mental image is no longer linked to an actual being. Those persons evolved into something different. Their life changed and their likes and dislikes shifted as they aged. Their physical appearance melted into a completely different individual, most of the time. At the social level, we are still maintaining a set of behavioral rules tied to authority figures. During the last decades, these authority figures evolved into organizations. Like mainstream media ("it's on TV, it must be true"), governments ("it's for your own good") and other groups. In the early beginnings, there must have been something true presented on the TV, and some governments members did care about their constituents. But things changed. Those images are now just maintained at a mythical level, with somebody else doing something else behind those curtains, more often than not opposed to the initial mission of these organizations. I don't know how the actual plot unfolds in Snowpiercer (and don't try to give me spoilers, as I will delete them without reading them). But I do know that we must always ask ourselves who is that person that claims to talk to us. Does he or she talks in his or her name, or in someone else's name? And if it's in someone else's name, try and make sure that person, or group, or ideal, in the name the person speaks, is still alive and haven't been hijacked while we were not paying attention. Like mister Wilford. Image source: IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6156584/mediaviewer/rm2569318401/). First published on: January 30, 2022 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmister-wilford-is-dead%2F&text=Mister%20Wilford%20Is%20Dead&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmister-wilford-is-dead%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmister-wilford-is-dead%2F&t=Mister%20Wilford%20Is%20Dead https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmister-wilford-is-dead%2F&title=Mister%20Wilford%20Is%20Dead Previous ### Showing Up Every Day For One Year (/showing-up-every-day-for-one-year/) Next ### Learning Solidity – A Flipping Journey (/learning-solidity-a-flipping-journey/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Art Of Setting Great Expectations URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-art-of-setting-great-expectations.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-art-of-setting-great-expectations/ Published: 2009-12-07 Modified: 2025-12-13 Views: 88 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Success and Wellness Tags: assess, comfort zone, goals, mindset What do you want to happen to you? How do you envision your desired outcome? How do you set up expectations? In my experience, setting up expectations is one of the most sensitive areas in our lives (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). Because every time you set yourself up to something, your surroundings are changing. I find this amazing. You start to look at the world differently, because you expect it to behave in a certain way and the world actually start to change. But I find more than often this change to be the result of the way you set up your expectations. To be more precise, the changing speed of the world is directly influenced by the size of your expectations. Aim for less, and your world will change slower. Think big, and your world will explode. ## One Step At A Time Suppose you have a blog (/100-ways-to-improve-your-blog/). You are comfortable writing, you have a decent posting routine and already started to think about monetization. But you can't really ask money from your blog, unless you have a decent traffic. So, you set up some expectations here. Let's say: I want 50 views per article. Not bad for a new blog. In a certain amount of time, your articles are starting to get that. They are making 50-60 views. Interesting. Your expectations have been met. Now you can start putting some advertising on your blog, you can even try a little bit of AdSense and get a grasp of this entire monetization (/the-first-year-of-blogging-money/) thing. Sooner than you think, you realize that 50-60 views per blog post is not enough. It might be good for some peanuts money, but not enough for paying a vacation in Hawaii. So, you raise the stake. You set up higher expectations: 500-600 hits for every blog post. In another certain amount of time, you get that too. Not only you get 500-600 views per article, but you get some residual traffic too, from your older posts. And that traffic starts to add up. It's getting better and better. Now you make enough money from your blog to afford a nice two weeks vacation on an exotic island. But then again, you realize that this can be better. Instead of spending only two weeks on an exotic island you start thinking why not spending half a year there? And the other half on some mountains resort? You have enough experience in blogging (/the-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers/) and now you know how to do it. So, you raise it again: 5000-6000 views per blog post. Again, in a certain amount of time, you get there. Now you make so much money from your blog that your entire lifestyle has changed. You live where you want on this planet, when you want. Travel is something natural and your money problems are gone forever. Your expectations have been met, once again. From the moment you set up your initial expectations, of 50-60 views per article, up to the moment you get 5000-6000 views per article, several years have passed. ## Disruptive Approach Now suppose you have the same blog, you are the same person, only you set up different expectations. Instead of aiming at 50-60 views for your articles, you aim directly for 5000-6000 views. What happens now? Well, the same thing: in a certain amount of time, your expectations will be met. You will reach that goal. The only difference is that you won't take those baby steps. From the moment you set up your initial expectations, of 5000-6000 views per article, up to the moment you get 5000-6000 views per article, a certain time have passed. But, (yes, there is a "but" here), in my direct experience, this period of time is less than the years in the baby step approach. And I'm supporting my affirmation with this very blog. When I started it, a year ago, I aimed for 100k visits each month. I'm there now. That was my expectation. I didn't even care when I had fewer than that. I never acknowledged the gradual increase, month by month. I watched the numbers, of course, but I didn't acknowledged the gradual, small increase, as a success. Instead, I was focused on the bigger numbers. And I was also focused on writing the best content I can, sharing my knowledge and promoting it. I only did 2 milestones: one at the first 6 months of blogging (/the-first-6-months-of-blogging-the-series/) and the other atthe first year of blogging (/the-first-year-of-blogging-the-series/). So, what's the difference? Why so many people are setting for those baby steps? Why don't they start thinking and acting "big" from the first time? Here's what I think about this. ## Fear of Failure People are afraid of taking big steps because they are afraid of making big failures (/100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life/). Somehow, a smaller failure sounds like something more bearable. I'm puzzled by that, to be honest. A failure is a failure. There is no quality of it. You either succeed, you either don't. A smaller failure is just a social construct. You're accepted if you fail under a certain threshold. If you go beyond that, you're not accepted anymore. Regardless of the fact you failed both times. Fear of making mistakes was definitely something that kept me away for achieving some of my earlier goals. I was so convinced that if I will fail "small" nothing will really happen to me. Well, I did failed small a couple of times. And guess what: nothing was really happened to me. 🙂 ## Living In Your Comfort Zone We're designed to act and evolve in a circle of safety. We call this the comfort zone. Setting up great expectations forces you to leave this comfort zone and act on moving sands. Leaving the comfort zone is difficult. It's costly. It's demanding. So, why leave it if you can act from the inside and take only baby steps? Acting too much inside your comfort zone will make you weak. Setting up expectations too close to your comfort zone will never create breakthroughs. You will reach those expectations and you will be successful, no doubt about it. But in my personal experience, a linear evolution will eventually lead to stagnation. Big achievements require big leaps not baby steps. ## Overprotecting Your Self-Esteem We cannot function properly without self-esteem. We need this as a fuel for our own identity. If we cannot properly identify ourselves with inner models we value, then our acts will start to be confusing. Self-esteem is something we tend to protect with great vigor. It's deep down at the core of our values. The moment we lose our self-esteem we are literally at lose, embracing any possible and available behavior. Any disruptive attempt will shake this self-esteem. Both ways. A huge expectation will boost your self-esteem. And a huge failure will bring it down. So, in order to keep our self-esteem within reasonable figures, we avoid big expectations. We put a layer of safety around this core value and try to protect it. Only we can't really protect self-esteem by avoiding big expectations. It's like trying to build up muscle by reading fitness books. ## Ignoring Self-Discipline Setting smaller expectations is usually a sign of a short attention span. We cannot focus on long term tasks, so we chose something smaller. After each small victory we set up another small task, and so on. Baby steps are the result of a baby discipline. While there is nothing wrong with being a child, if you really want to achieve your goals, you should aim for something bigger than the living room coach. It's a perfect goal for a one year old who's starting to walk, but it's ridiculous for a grown up who wants to travel the world. Self-discipline is the ability to do what you have to do, period. Liking it or not is not a question of self-discipline, it's a question of liking it or not. Doing what you have to do is so simple, yet people tend to mix it every time with this hedonistic approach: oh, well, I might do this, but I don't like it. Get over it. You've set up your own goal, you've schedule the tasks, now do it. ## The Art Of Setting Great Expectations *Be fearless, get out of your comfort zone, value yourself no matter what and don't quit.* Yes, as simple as that (/100-ways-live-better-life-70-learn-proper-goal-setting/). First published on: December 7, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-art-of-setting-great-expectations%2F&text=The%20Art%20Of%20Setting%20Great%20Expectations&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-art-of-setting-great-expectations%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-art-of-setting-great-expectations%2F&t=The%20Art%20Of%20Setting%20Great%20Expectations https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-art-of-setting-great-expectations%2F&title=The%20Art%20Of%20Setting%20Great%20Expectations Previous ### 25 Things To Do in Your Life (/25-things-to-do-in-your-life/) Next ### Managing Online Projects in 5 Easy Steps (/managing-online-projects-in-5-easy-steps-2/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Pain Is Unavoidable, Suffering Is Optional URL: https://dragosroua.com/pain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/pain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional/ Published: 2009-10-19 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 86 Categories: Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: acceptance, mindset, resilience If you've never, ever been hurt in your entire life, raise your hand. And leave this blog ASAP, because the following article is not for you. It's for all the people who got hurt at some point in their lives. And who suffered because of that. Suffering and pain are tied together in our minds. One is giving birth to the other. They're like a single, osmotic being. Every time we get hurt, we suffer. And every time we suffer we create more hurt. It's difficult to even talk about pain and suffering in a detached way, this is how deep they are buried in our subconscious mind. The mere act of reading about pain and suffering is making your brain reconnect with those feelings in this very moment. Do you remember how you felt last time you experienced pain? What were the exact feelings? Frustration? Sorrow? Despair? Defeat? What were the words you used to describe it? Suffering? Affliction? Trauma? Grief? Pain is one of the most avoided situations in our life. We run away from pain. We're trying to escape the pain. To mask it, to hide from it, to cover it in superfluous, temporary indulgences. We can't stand it. Because we don't want to suffer. ### Why Do We Suffer? Pain is external. It's created by things out of our control. We've just been hit by something. The same way we get hit by happiness, sometimes. Only this time it hurts. Suffering is internal. It gets triggered by our own feelings and perceptions of the pain. We're interpreting the pain in a certain way. Most of the time by resisting it. Pain is generated by loss. Loss of confidence, loss of affection, loss of hope. Every time you get disappointed, you're losing a dream. And it hurts. We lose things we were attached to and the main body reacts: I want that part of me back. And we get this signal under the form of pain. Suffering, on the other part, is the attachment for what we lose. The higher the attachment, the stronger the signal we receive. Pain becomes bigger and bigger. But, believe it or not, losing parts of ourselves is natural. This is how we grow. By losing parts of ourselves. We lose our childish body and become adults. We lose our ignorance and become knowledgeable. We lose our inhibitions and become free. Every time we lose something, we're forced to put something in its place. We create something new. We become something new. Our loss is the trigger for evolution. We replace the tears with something we crafted. This is how we become a new being. Most of the time a better one. Because now we know what it takes to re-create that part of our Universe. They say you grow stronger through pain than through happiness. And that's true. You grow faster when you have all that work to do. When you lose all your dreams and hopes, you have to get to work. Fill in the gaps. Make sure life doesn't flow away through all those holes. Be there. Do things. I'm not making the apology of pain as the ultimate evolutionary tool. I'm human just like you and I get hurt just like you. What I do try is to lower the suffering. Because suffering is not necessary. Pain, as hurtful as it gets, might be. But suffering is an internal artifact, a self-generated response which I have control over. I may not control pain, but I can control my own reaction to it. By giving free way to suffering I accept to lose my energy. My whole power is hijacked by suffering. Instead of using it for creating something new on that crack, I crave for what was there before. I use my focus in a desperate attempt to freeze the Universe in the very second before the loss occurred. Like this would be possible… ### I Am What I Do Every time I get hurt, I try to see which part of me is detached. What am I losing? Is the affection of somebody? Is my confidence in somebody? Is something I took for granted but it proved to be as changeable as the whole Universe? Every loss I experience creates some pain. I know I cannot avoid it. But I also know I can create something new in that hurtful cavity of myself. That pain is the signal I have work to do. If there's somebody affection I lost, I start to love myself more. If there's confidence in somebody I lost, I start to trust myself more often. If there's something I took for granted, like when I'm disappointed by somebody, I start to make and keep new promises. All those tears are signs of unfinished work with myself. It's not about the other guys. The outside process of getting hurt is in fact a reflection of what's going on inside. Blaming external conditions for my pain is just another form of suffering. The real process takes place inside. Deep down, every pain is a pointer for something we avoided to do for a long time. We're designed in such a way that we naturally experience growth, and most of the time we grow organically. But sometimes we get so attached that we cannot break up and grow further other than through violent actions. This is when pain occur. When we don't want to grow anymore. At that point, a violent event blows away that part of our main body which is not necessary anymore. Forcing us to start covering it with something new, and, most important, better. Most of my pain came in my relationships. I made bad choices. Several times. I got hurt and I'm still getting hurt. It's nobody else's fault. In fact, it's nobody's fault. It's just a pointer that I have a lot of work to do in this area. And that work is about myself. It's about trusting and opening. About accepting rejection, if that's the case, and creating understanding. It's about making peace with my own failures and my partner's failures. About acceptance and freedom. Desperately trying to tune out the pain by temporary indulgences won't solve my relationships problem. The cavity will still be there until I start building something new over it. And I'm building something new over it. I'm not making huge progress, but I'm sticking with it. Every single day. 🙂 First published on: October 19, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional%2F&text=Pain%20Is%20Unavoidable%2C%20Suffering%20Is%20Optional&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional%2F&t=Pain%20Is%20Unavoidable%2C%20Suffering%20Is%20Optional https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional%2F&title=Pain%20Is%20Unavoidable%2C%20Suffering%20Is%20Optional Previous ### 7 Ways To Say No (/7-ways-to-say-no/) Next ### 7 Ways To Break A Habit (/7-ways-to-break-a-habit/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Assess Decide Do stages – Assess URL: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-stages-assess.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/ Published: 2009-06-09 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 85 Categories: Assess Decide Do, Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: assess, decide, do, framework, meditation, self awareness ADD comes from "Assess Decide Do" and it's a life management framework, initially described in this introductory post (/assess-decide-do/). As opposed to the regular productivity approaches, a life management framework focuses on a higher level integration and rejects the task checking approach as the only metric for measuring productivity performance. In ADD, each individual can have only 3 main stages or can act in 3 main realms: the Assess realm, the Decide realm and the Do realm. Those stages are cumulative, in the sense that an imbalance in an early stage, like the Assess stage, can create negative consequences in the following stages. A balanced, constant flow between those 3 stages is the main metric of a fulfilling life management. Today will talk about the Assess realm. ### Evaluation The Assess realm is the place where you will do most of your evaluation. You can evaluate your current situation, the outcome of a previously done task, a possible outcome for a possible task, in one word: everything. In the evaluation process you don't necessarily have to DO, or DECIDE anything, but this process will deeply impact any of your deciding or doing activities. Evaluating without the pressure of a decision or a deadline is a very necessary step. Too often I found myself lost in a decisional process or even in the middle of a larger project because I skipped or under-considered the evaluation/assessment step. Assessing something means you're simply looking at something, you're acknowledging the fact that something new (or worthy) have entered your focus. Evaluation is only one of the possible activities in an assessment stage, but it's usually the one that ends this very stage, by promoting the idea, the project or the task to the decision realm. ### Information Management The assessment stage is the one in which you'll do most of your information management. Crunching new pieces of information, categorizing them, putting higher or lower in your value system is an activity which takes place in the assessment stage. Again, mixing it with a decision or a doing realm will do no good, as it will either slow down the decision or the doing process, either tamper it with undesired pieces of information. Managing information is a static activity in itself. You're not doing anything – doing, as in modifying your universe – while you're managing information, you're just classifying various inputs from the outside (or the inside world). ### Feed-back As the name implies, feed-back is an activity which takes place immediately after something was done, after something has been modified in your own Universe. Assessing feed-back is a crucial activity in the assessment stage, it really helps you understand if your actions were improving or wrecking your environment. You take feed-back by comparing your initial status, the moment you started modifying something in your universe, with your current status. You will receive feed-back for a wide variety of sources: your physical senses (as in it's colder or warmer than before)., your emotions (this thing makes me feel in a certain way), your memories (this looks a lot like something I've done before) or the people you interact with. Feed-back is usually one of the earliest activities in the assessment stage, as it is often immediately required after an action has been finished. ### Observation Assessment cannot work without fresh information, it needs this as a comparison outlet. In the assessment stage you'll observe a lot. Observation is an activity closely related to information management, but its place is at the very beginning of the information management. Observation is an input for the information management activity. As any input, the clearer and less distorted, the best the results. Observing things as they are, and not as you imagine they are is an art in itself. Training observation is a difficult and delicate activity. Becoming a detached observer will make your assessment periods shorter. ### Dreaming Dreaming is the capacity of imagining things which are not yet real. Dreaming plays a very big part in the assessment period. Most of the time, you decide to do things based on deep and extremely emotional inputs, coming from what you call your dreams. Creating a newer and better reality comes from dreaming first, from the ability to imagine unborn things and ignite the triggers to create them. The classical approach to dreaming is to either discard it totally as completely unproductive, or to classify it as procrastination, the activity in which you are preventing yourself from doing things, by inventing excuses. I do think dreaming is fundamental and is a very productive activity. As long as you acknowledge it as a very necessary step in the assessment realm. ### Memories The things you're doing are becoming memories the moment you finish them. Accessing your memories is an important part of your life. It helps maintain an identity and a sense of coherence in time. Without memories, your perspective can become twisted. Most of the time, your value system is based on things you recall as being good or bad to you. Keeping your memories in good shape – like in creating and maintaining a memories management system – will hugely impact your overall presence. Only after you understand the past you, the present you can become a reality. One very common pitfall in the assessment stage is clogging your perspective with unsolved memories, with things from the past which are crying for a newer approach. Solving those situations in the assessment stage will take a lot of pressure from your decision and doing realms. ### Meditation Assessment needs a clear perspective. When you decide, you already move, when you do, you are the movement, but when you assess, your whole world can slow down, until it becomes stillness. Nobody will rush you. Meditation is one precious activity which can dramatically enhance your perspective. Seeing the world from a sill perspective is enlightening. Meditation can do that. Of course, is not compulsory to use all of the activities described here, including meditation. As a matter of fact, in real life, it would be rather difficult to identify all those activities in an assessment session at the same time. ### When To Move To Decision The moment you stop assessing something you should immediately move to the decision realm. Staying in the assessment realm for longer periods can induce a sense of comfort and security, which, if not rapidly challenged, will be modified pretty soon  by "outside" factors. In other words, if you don't move faster, something outside your control will force you to do it. One thing we should definitely want to remember about assessment, and about the whole ADD paradigm, is that any process can contain smaller, or micro-ADD cycles. During the assessment cycle you may find the need to quickly decide and then do something, and then come back to your main assessment topic. In this respect, ADD is very close to the fractals definitions, in which the smaller parts are actually identical with the bigger parts. But more on that in the next topic, which will be, of course, about the decision realm. First published on: June 9, 2009 ### ⚡ Assess-Decide-Do Framework Stage 1: Assess Part 3 of 11 View all 11 posts → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) ← Previous Evolution Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) Next → Stage 2: Decide Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) 2. Evolution: Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) 3. Stage 1: Assess: Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) 4. Stage 2: Decide: Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) 5. Stage 3: Do: Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) 6. Design & Meaning: Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) 7. AI Evolution: Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) 8. Skills Architecture: Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) 9. Ecosystem Expansion: From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) 10. Always-On Agent: Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) 11. Multi-Agent Council: LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-assess%2F&text=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20stages%20%E2%80%93%20Assess&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-assess%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-assess%2F&t=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20stages%20%E2%80%93%20Assess https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-assess%2F&title=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20stages%20%E2%80%93%20Assess Previous ### Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) Next ### Assess Decide Do stages – Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Can AI (Really) Understand How You Think? Well, Maybe… URL: https://dragosroua.com/can-ai-really-understand-how-you-think-well-maybe.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/can-ai-really-understand-how-you-think-well-maybe/ Published: 2025-11-21 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 85 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Assess Decide Do Tags: ai tools, assess, decide, do A few days ago I integrated my productivity framework, Assess-Decide-Do in my LLM model of choice these days, Claude. If you want to know the technicals, have a look at the Claude mega-prompt post (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/). In today's post I want to take a slightly different angle, namely talking about the impact on the user's perception. But first, a small update. Since the initial integration I also added cross-session observability and tracking, meaning the LLM is now instructed to always understand where the user is, in the thinking process. So you can ask at any given moment something like: "Where are we in the ADD process?" and Claude will answer something like : "Currently, we are executing in Do". For Claude Code users I also added permanent visual feedback. What does this mean? Well, Claude Code users can now see in the status bar a nifty little line describing the realm where they are in the process. It has this form: ``` [ADD Flow: ?+ Assess | Exploring implementation options] ``` This is updated automatically, as the model detects behavioral pattern changes, so you get a live visual cue of the transition between realms. At the end of the session, you can also ask for a recap, and you get an overall assessment, including a count of realm transitions and general evaluation – how much assessing, how much deciding and how much doing. ## So, the AI is Really Understanding Me? Yes and no. Before going into details, a very important distinction: we are talking about Large Language Models here, not about AI in general. This matters, because there are many others AI approaches – one of the most promising being "world models". LLMs are very popular because they are really good at predicting the next plausible token (/unpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology/). But they don't have any sense of orientation, no structure. The ADD mega-prompt, which essentially sets the "operating system" of the model, does exactly that: provides the model with a system, a system which the model conveys by navigating the token stream and extracting matching language patterns – not by "understanding". At least not in the sense humans understand. But, and here's what I really want to talk about: does this really matter? We get a good enough approximation of understanding, which drastically reduces friction. We suddenly have a comfortable enough environment, which makes us more productive. We can direct brain cycles to creativity or brainstorming. We know there will be no penalty for that, because the LLM understands the Assess realm specifics: evaluating, taking feedback, even daydreaming, and it will not stop us. This is already a significant step forward. We don't get a "conscious" buddy, but we get a frictionless process. We are still the "masters" of the AI, only augmented. Going forward, this will matter more and more. We can either approach AI as a complete human replacement – matching our performance in creativity or even survival – or we can see AI as an amplifier, leveraging knowledge, but still "consciousness-less", a mega-tool supporting, not replacing us. I've been using the ADD integration for more than a week now, 6-7 hours per day, and I genuinely feel better. Getting this kind of enhanced support, knowing that my tool can identify my mental state, makes me feel more relaxed and, as a direct consequence, I can *accomplish more while maintaining flow state*. That's my goal, anyway, not to make the LLM working for me. ## World Models Will Change This? Maybe. There is more and more talk in the AI world about them, with prominent figures acknowledging "the end of the LLM era", suggesting a new breakthrough is right around the corner. The thing is, nobody knows when is this "right around the corner", and how the breakthrough will look like. It may as well not happen at all. My daily experience with ADD integration has been surprisingly powerful—not because Claude 'understands' me, but because the cognitive overhead of managing the tool itself just disappeared. I stay in flow and I create more. Almost no friction. The integration works with Claude, Gemini, Grok, and Kimi (though Claude's implementation is most refined). Visit the mega-prompt (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-assess-decide-do-mega-prompt) repo for simple integration instructions, and test for yourself what frictionless AI collaboration feels like. I'm genuinely curious: when you remove the friction, what do you create? How would you feel? First published on: November 21, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # An iPhone App In 30 Days – The Challenge URL: https://dragosroua.com/an-iphone-app-in-30-days-the-challenge.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/an-iphone-app-in-30-days-the-challenge/ Published: 2010-07-17 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 84 Categories: iPhone, Programming Bits Tags: 30 day challenge, app store, coding, do, iadd, ios development Three weeks ago I launched iAdd for iPhone (/natural-productivity-introducing-iadd-for-iphone/), a productivity app which is very important to me. Not only because I coded every single line of it, but because this app is the tangible result of more than 3 years of testing, learning and writing about personal productivity. iAdd is based on my own framework, Assess – Decide – Do (/assess-decide-do/). It implements every single concept of this framework, bringing to life a completely new approach towards productivity. This launching thing was also a good pretext for me to understand what it takes to create an iphone app in 30 days. One thing that you may not know, though, is that 2 months ago I had no idea about how to write an iPhone app. I didn't know Objective C at all, although I do know a few other programming languages, like PHP, Java or JavaScript. Two months ago I also had no idea that I would actually finish this task and have the app live in the App Store. When I started to work for this project (and yes, it was just a pet project in the beginning), all I did was to log daily my progress. And this is exactly what I'm going to do in this blog post, I will publish these daily logs (in a more or less abridged version of course) giving you a time based description of the whole process, from installing Xcode to having your app in the AppStore. ## The Set Up ***Warning**: this is going to be a highly technical post, so if you're unfamiliar with terms like compiling, backtrace or ViewControllers, you shouldn't read it. Alternatively, you could only read the "frustration level" paragraph on each chapter and have some fun. Three weeks after, I still have a lot of fun reading those parts, although at that time all I wanted was to draw many, many little men named Steve Jobs and tear the drawings apart. Slowly. Oh, and nobody could pronounce "apple" near me without triggering an uncontrollable itching all over my head.* *There is also a little reward at the end of this post. If you get really curious about the app, there will be a giveaway: I'm giving you 20 promo codes to test out iAdd for yourself. The details are towards the end of the article.* *Oh, and the article is more than **7500 words** so please set aside at least **15 minutes** if you want to read it all. You've been warned.* But first of all, some words of caution. **First:** I am a seasoned PHP programmer, having written more than 100.000 lines of PHP code. I also had a deep knowledge of some high level frameworks over PHP, the most important being CodeIgniter. SQL or JS were common sense to me too. **Second:** I knew the whole app structure inside out before starting to code. In other words, I had a very clear *client brief*, including the user interface. There were some significant changes made on the go, as you will see, but the basis was there before. In my experience, more than 60% of development time is spent on user interface. **Third:** I am obsessed with learning new things. I can also be insanely disciplined and focused on what I do. Sometimes I am close to pathological behavior, and I am aware of that. **Fourth:** I have completed all the necessary steps to become an Apple Certified Developer (paper work, paying the 99 USD and all) long before I actually started to work. This post will not cover this process. *** Now, one may argue that my programming knowledge was an advantage in moving to Objective C and iPhone. There was only one point in which my PHP experience served me well and that was the deep understanding that if you write some code properly something interesting will happen. 🙂 In other words, my prior experience as a programmer didn't count. Why? Well… PHP is a procedural language, Objective C is a object oriented language. In PHP you write functions, in Objective C you write classes. Lately, PHP become object oriented too, but the vast majority of apps are still written with loads of procedural functions. PHP is basically an interpreted language, Objective C is a compiled language. Even more, in Objective C you can send messages to objects at runtime. That means that even if your code compiles without any warning, you can still get some runtime booboos. Weird. PHP has garbage collections which means your variables are automatically discarded when they are no longer needed, in Objective C you have to do your own management memory. Prepare to read a lot of sentences starting with "Message sent to deallocated instance…". Speaking of errors, specifically about error messages, after 30 days of learning Objective C I am totally convinced that the error messages in Xcode were invented by a joyous and careless hermit, with the only goal of driving programmers crazy. Program received "BAD_EXC" message. Wow, really? I got this error at least a few hundreds times and at least half of times I was completely puzzled. Incidentally, since I started to code in Xcode, "Program received BAD_EXC" is what I'm mentally telling myself when Bianca is completely stubborn and I can't get away with my normal approach. Ok, Bianca is having a "BAD_EXC", time to start debugging. Oh, and the infamous "Message sent to deallocated instance ". You kidding me? Sometimes I even had the feeling that the source code on the editor was forming a twisted and evil smiley. The joyous and careless hermit was smiling at me from behind the whole Xcode fence. Enough with whining, let's start this. Let's see what it takes to write an iphone app in 30 days. ## Day 1 – Getting Acquainted With Xcode Getting familiar with Xcode. Learned how to create a project and what the folder structure means. The folder tree you see in Xcode is not necessarily the same you see in Finder. Can be tricky at times. Did a few tests with some sample projects to see how the building process works. Installed a few apps on Simulator and also in the iPhone. Modified some labels just to be sure they're popping out modified in the simulator. You know, how to get "Hello World" to display "This label was modified by me in Interface Builder". Living dangerously, so to speak. *Frustration level (0 – 100): 0 I actually had fun.* ## Day 2 – Core Data Bed Time Stories Deciding that I am going to use Core Data for storage. I knew SQL more than better (used to write some haiku's using left joins and alike) but for some reasons Core Data looked much more interesting. I was attracted by the fact that in Core Data you model your data before implementing it, visually creating the relationships between your entities at the design stage. Once you created the model, XCode will generate the implementation files for your objects. Say you have an object called Task in Core Data, Xcode will take care of the implementation files, so all you have to do in code is to write something like: *task.dueDate* to get the due date property of a task. I also learned three fundamental notions for Core Data, especially useful for those who are migrating from an SQL backend: *PersistentStoreCoordinator*, *ManagedObjectContext* and *ManagedObjectModel*. *Frustration level (0 – 100): 5 – There was some fog related to how a Core Data model maps a data base and the role of those top level objects.* ## Day 3 – Creating And Saving Data Spent too much time with the *FetchedResultsController *class, trying a simple select from DB. Took me a few hours to understand that *FetchedResultController* is a class designed specifically to be used with a *TableViewController*. In other words, if you just want some data pulled out from the DB, and not necessarily displayed in a *TableView*, you could use a simple *fetchRequest*. Also, I started to properly use NSLog(). In Objective C there is usually too much overhead to put a label in the interface and assign its value to your test data. If you just want to test some results, NSLog() is a much easier way to do it. It just logs to the console whatever you tell it to. *Frustration level (0 – 100): 15 – That FetchedResultsController was really difficult to understand. Also, I had a little bit of trouble understanding the TableView object, but I eventually got it.* ## Day 4 – First Withdrawal Impulse Although I did learned some fancy things, in the 4th day I had my first withdrawal impulse. More on that on the "frustration level" paragraph. As for the things I learned, one of the most interesting was that in Objective C you have to use a LOT of typing, just to concatenate two strings. Have you heard of something like "*appendStringWithFormat*"?  Excuse me, I was used to type a simple dot "." to make the concatenation. Whatever. *Frustration level (0 – 100): 60 – I installed a fully fledged core data sample app just to have a glimpse of what I was starting and simply got overwhelmed. What am I doing here? I should try something much easier. I'm not up to this challenge. It looked enormous. Too much.* ## Day 5 – Working Data It was a long day. I created a first view, in which I was adding some text and then saving it to the database. Incidentally, the first data type was an "idea", not a "task". I was saving ideas in the Idea Core Data model. Also, learned how to make a *TableView* reload. Coming from PHP, when user interaction is almost always necessary and expected, you don't pay too much attention to other parts of the app. In iPhone programming, you gotta place calls to reloading your data in several places in the app. At this point, I was still following a mental framework of "procedural", instead of "object oriented". During the day I also spent a couple of hours working on another project, a much simpler one. All I had to do was to integrate a C library and call some functions. I managed to compile it, call the functions and log the results. Still undecided if I was going to follow to iAdd project or settle for the simpler one, with the external C library. *Frustration level (0 – 100): 35 – A lot of trial and error and also a lot of writing and deleting. Didn't actually know where to head because there was too much information I didn't master. Each improvement was the result of hours of falling down and getting up again. The biggest confusion at that time was the syntax, many errors from improper using or accessing properties.* ## Day 6 – Detour Spent the entire day fiddling with the external C library project (I will call it like this, although it's more than that, hope to have it published in a few weeks too). For some reason, it looked easier. I got some minor results while completely avoiding the iAdd project. Just didn't think at it. Cleared my head. Got some rest. *Frustration level (0 – 100): 0 – I was like in a one day vacation. Just gave myself some mental space.* ## Day 7 – First Big Leap After a day spent in relaxation, I came back to iAdd with significantlyh more motivation. I took a major step forward deciding I would completely rewrite the code. From now on, all database calls were to be placed in a single class. For the more experience programmers that seems like common sense, but as I told you I came from a PHP background. Now you understand why my previous experience almost didn't count. I created the class and moved all the Core Data related code in that class. My first approach was to use an App Delegate for it and call it everywhere I need it. By the end of the day I moved all the code there and make sure it worked. Calling the class in other views was problematic, though. *Frustration level (0 – 100): 20 – Meaning frustration was there every 5th minute, if you know what I mean, but at least it was bearable. By starting to organize the app at a higher level I created a bit of light over the whole project. Still unsure where this whole 30 days challenge will lead, but at least something started to get some structure.* ## Day 8 – Going Singleton The App Delegate id didn't look like a viable option so I decided to make my "super data model" class a singleton. Never really knew what a singleton was, if you're asking me. Never knew what a singleton was if you don't ask, either :-). So I had to read for a few hours and ponder all the theoretical and practical implications of using a singleton. In the end, it looked like it was the best way to go, although the implementation looked a little complicated (or hard to understand the first time). In the end, this proved to be one of the best design solutions for this project. After making the "super data model" singleton I implemented a few new functions, especially for the first level of views, the ones that listed the data in the Assess, Decide and Do areas. Was able to use the "count" specifier in order to find the total numbers of ideas, tasks or projects. *Frustration level (0 – 100): 0 – For some reason, the moment I started to understand what I was doing, I wasn't frustrated at all. Everything was going on in the right direction. It wasn't going on smoothly in the right direction, I had to maintain a very high focus for several hours, but the end result was incredibly rewarding. Hey, I know singletons! Do you?* ## Day 9 – First Core Data Disaster Since I was working a lot with data, I had to make some modifications to the underlying data model (the .xcdatamodel file, namely). In Core Data, if you make modifications to your data model AFTER you started to actually with it, you're going to be in trouble. Big trouble. First of all, you'll have to reset your persistent store coordinator, by choosing another name for the database layer (I'm using sqlite as a back end for Core Data). It simply doesn't work to just update it, as you would do with a MySQl table, for instance. Basically, that means you're going to lose ALL your data in the previous data model. I think that was the first time I thought at the word "migration". A few days later I had to thoroughly deal with all the migration headache, but at that point I was just disappointed with losing my test data. And as if this wasn't enough, I had more: if you make modifications to your data model, you'll have to regenerate all the managed object classes, otherwise you won't be able to access the new properties or entities you just added. If you have many entities (tables) in the data model that could become confusing and difficult to manage. So, the day was spent in despair over the lost data and trying to plan as thoroughly as I can the data model future evolution, in order to avoid other changes. Just to feel good, at the end of the day I made some small cosmetic changes to the interface: get rid of some buttons and made the text fields bigger. You know, just to go to bed with the sensation that I actually did some work. *Frustration level (0 – 100): 50 – Losing data is bad. Especially if you're building an app which is processing data. It's basically a disaster.* ## Day 10 – The Consistency Day I finally had a deep understanding of *TableViewControllers* and their infamous *reloadData()* function (or message, in Objective C lingo). Meaning in the day 10 I was able not only to add data in the database, but to delete it and update the interface. It was the first consistency day in which what I did at the data manipulation level was mirrored in the interface. Feeling rather confident, I pushed it even further: I added a new table in the adding area (the one you actually see right now in the app, if you have it) in order to choose what type of item is added: a task, a project, an idea or an event. And it worked. Toldya, a big consistency day.  Hard to believe that only 5 days ago I was ready to quit. *Frustration Level (0 – 100): 0 – Nada. Niente. Zero. Zilch. Everything was falling right into its place.* ## First Big Milestone After the first 10 days of this challenge all I had was this: - a working interface prototype: the 3 tabs were pointing to different view controllers: Assess, Decide, Do - adding data was working in the Assess realm for ideas, tasks, projects. Didn't add any event yet. - deleting data was working in the list views - listing data was working (and any adding or deleting worked consistently) - all data calls were made in a single point among the whole source code (the singleton class) - had the first withdrawal impulse (the 5th day) - had the first data disaster (losing data and updating the persistent store coordinator) Not much, I agree. By any standards, not a functioning app. Not even remotely. But enough to get me going. So, here we go. ## Day 11 – Deep Digging It was a full day. Loads of working on the data model, implementing new functions and witnessing a few breakthroughs. First of all, now that I knew how to reset the persistent store coordinator I started to heavily modify the data model. I made only a few fields compulsory. I also updated all the relationships, especially the deletion rules. Core Data started to emerge like a very interesting modeling tool. It takes a while to understand the ins and outs, but once you get a grip of it, it's incredibly productive. For instance, if you properly set the deletion rules, the inner Core Data mechanisms can take care of a lot of after deletion cleaning for you, saving a lot of typing. Just by setting the right rule in the data model. In the source code you end up with only one line of code, usually the one in which you call the "delete" message on the managed object model. I also implemented a new view for adding an event. Wrote the code in less than an hour. Now I was having events too. Nice. I implemented the entity (table) for adding contexts. Wrote the code for adding and editing the context. Used a *Modal View Controller* for the first time. Not everything was working 100% at the end of the day for the Contexts area, but at least I learned something new. *Frustration level (0 – 100) 25 – Learning something new is always packed with frustration. If it's not frustration, then you're not learning something new.* ## Day 12 – Going On Steadily I started to write the detail views for ideas, tasks and projects. Everything went smoothly and didn't encountered any difficulty. Realized that writing code is the easiest thing in programming. Kinda knew it before that too, but this time I realized it in regard to Objective C. Always thought it's gotta be difficult to write code in Objective C. I also decided that I was going to implement a new feature: Collections. In the initial set up, Collections weren't present, there was something else in their current place in the interface (I won't tell what because I still want to implement this for the next major version). But at this point I realized I will need some storage mechanism for the data, something that will act as a neutral repository. You can assess a lot of stuff but some of this stuff is not that urgent. Put it into a collection and free some space. *Frustration Level (0 – 100): 10 – I started to feel frustrated by the flood of my own ideas. Once I started to understand how certain things are done, I just couldn't stop imagining new features and new ways of doing it. Not good. Distracting.* ## Day 13 – Finishing Ideas That was the day when I was actually finishing the whole "ideas" workflow: adding an idea, listing ideas and editing / deleting an idea. In my approach, an idea could contain many details (imagine a mind map: the name of the mind map is the idea name, but the branches are details, or tasks). Making a task semantically integrated with an idea seemed rather interesting. So, almost 2 weeks after I started I was able to add an idea, to add some details to an idea and to see all of these in some nice tables. It was also the day when I learned how to add a background color to a *TableView*. From that day, each realm had a specific color, following the workflow rules: Assess was red, Decide was orange and Do was green. It's the same principle widely used in transportation regulation: red: you stop and wait (until you finish what you have to assess), orange you decide to move on (or, in ADD terms, you sign the contract with the task or the event) and green: you're good to go, move on with it! *Frustration Level (0 – 100): 0 – I was feeling light and easy. I think that for the first time I found some logic in Xcode completion rules. And even started to use those completion shortcuts. Got productive, so to speak.* ## Day 14 – Getting Closer Another productive day, another new feature: now you could add a single task too, if you want, not only as a detail to an idea. I also added the Collections entity in the data model, which means I had to restart the database clean again. Losing the test data didn't hurt this time, because I knew it will happen. What was hurting though was a totally unexpected thing: while I was regenerating my managed object classes (after adding a new entity, that is) I accidentally deleted my singleton. My super data class. No way to interact with the data anymore. The functions were lost. A few hours later I was able to restore it from memory (my own memory, that is), but the whole thing was rather unpleasant. I linked the Decide and Do controller to the Core Data model, meaning I added the functions for querying the respective realms, but since I didn't have the functionality to actually send the ideas or tasks to those realms, I wasn't able to see nothing. *Frustration Level (0 – 100) 40 – Deleting the super data model class file is a VERY nasty thing to do. I actually lost all the data related functions and nothing worked. Luckily, I was able to re-write them pretty much the same and in the end everything was ok. But not without some hair pulling (now I'm kidding you, I'm bald 😉 ).* ## Day 15 – A Working Model Probably the most productive day so far. I finished the code for adding tasks to projects, sending projects, ideas and tasks to Decide, and also the code for listing the ideas and tasks in Decide. Added to ability to create and send events to Decide. I completely implemented the Collections functionality: creating a collection, editing a collection and deleting a collection. I also implemented the "archive" functionality, which basically means saving an object to a Collection. Basic functionality was there, but there were a lot of bugs. Will deal with them later, said to myself. *Frustration Level (0 – 100): 0 – Didn't even have the time to think at frustration. The app was actually growing under my eyes and every hour was bringing in another functionality. I gradually started to spend more and more time playing with the app than writing code. It felt nice.* ## Day 16 – Alerts! I implemented the delete code using a *UIAlertView*. It took around 45 minutes top, including reading the documentation and writing the code. I started to understand the philosophy behind the whole SDK. That shortened my learning paths a lot. Every time I needed to use a new UI control, all I had to do was to read the local Apple doc and look over the sample code. Most of the time, that was just about enough. Another breakthrough of the day was finishing the whole process: code for sending an app from Decide to Do. Basically, what I had only on paper and in my mind was suddenly reality: creating a task (or idea, project, event), sending it to Decide, and from there the ability to send it back to Assess or forward to Decide. It was just 2 weeks and 2 days since I started this challenge. It was also the day when I started to actively monitor and use stackoverflow.com (http://stackoverflow.com). If you're going to write an iPhone app, I definitely recommend you check out this collaborative project. Chances that your apparently unsolvable question was already solved at stackoverflow are actually close to 100%. *Frustration Level (0 – 100): 10 – And that's because I had to implement something new (UIAlertViews). Otherwise it could have been close to 0.* ## Day 17 – Cleaning Up And Getting Fancy Spent the day mostly cleaning up the code, ditching some old trials (used a *TableHeaderView* separated nib at some point and that cluttered a little bit both the code and the resources – nib files – in the Interface Builder). I wanted to make the corners of an editing area rounded so half of the day was spent searching how to do it. Proved to be a little more complicated than I was ready to accept, but nevertheless I finished it with the help of a little bit of Quartz Core. Felt somehow special and fancy, mainly because of the name of the new framework: Quartz Core. I think that was also the day when I started to use my app as an excuse for not going out or as a standard answer at the phone. "Hey, Dragos, could we use a beer, my friend?", "Nope, sorry, I',m working on my app, mate…" I know, I should have that beer. I can get pathological, I warned you… *Frustration Level (0 – 100): 5 – That Quartz Core thing proved to be a little bit too time consuming, but in the end everything went well.* ## Day 18 – More Buttons Another "interface" day. I decided to use *UISegmentedControllers* as buttons, not the native iPhone UI buttons. It just looked fancier, although I had a little bit more code to write. I also decided to group the buttons after the table view, in a new place, namely a *UITableFooterView*. So, the whole day was spending re-writing the interface in each and every place I had some interaction code. And there were a lot of places. Guess it was the first day when I actually felt bored because I was doing so many repetitive tasks. Replacing a button in one place is a thing, but then propagating the change in 20 different places gets really boring. *Frustration Level (0 – 100) 50 – This time the frustration source wasn't the lack of knowledge (or usable documentation) but my own decisions on how the interface should look. I realized I already had a significant code base behind me and every change that should propagate in this code base would require from now on a really really important amount of time.* ## Day 19 – Connecting The Dots At the end of the day I was able to assign a context to task, an event or a project in Decide. I was also able to promote a task to a project in Assess. The rest of the day was spent in writing down some constraints, or rules about how the app should treat some special cases. I find it very useful to write down what I can and what I can't do in the app, although I was way ahead in writing code already. But since the boring task of updating the interface was killing me, writing down those constraints gave me the feeling that I actually did something productive. *Frustration Level (0 – 100): 35 – I guess the frustration was generated not only by the interface update, but by the expectations that were started to build up pretty strong. I mean, now I had the app on my iPhone, I could add tasks and sign the contract to do them, the only thing that was missing was a decent listing in Do, and the ability to mark a task as done. Believe me, it was starting to feel really frustrating.* ## Day 20 – The Working Prototype Since I already felt the pressure to finish, I spent the day implementing the Do functions. Now I could follow a task from Assess, through Decide, until Do, and even mark it as done. Big breakthrough. The whole workflow was implemented. Of course, the app crashed a lot and then there were a lot of places left in a less-than-a-prototype state, since I was focusing only on finishing the main workflow. *Frustration Level (0 – 100): 35 – The same reason as yesterday: I was feeling the pressure to finish. Just wanted to see something working, but at the same time I knew that there were still a lot of boring work to be done.* ## Second Big Milestone After 20 days since I started the challenge I had the following: - the app was fully functional - the app was also highly unstable, there were a lot of unexplainable crashes and incomplete implementations - I was able to: add a task, idea, event or project. - I was able to edit a task, idea, event or project. - I was able to send that item to Decide and have it displayed there - I was able to assign a context and bounding dates to a task or event and then send it to Do - I was able to see the item in Do and mark it as done. The most important thing that happened after 20 days, though, was the fact that *I started to use the app as a modeling tool for creating the app*. Sort of eating your own dog food, if you know what I mean. Since I had the iPhone with me everywhere, every time I had an idea on how to implement something, I was adding it, assessing it, moved it to decide or do and then review it once I was in front of the laptop. It was an incredible leap in speed. In the next 10 days, basically I knew what I have to do because it was already filtered through the whole Assess – Decide – Do framework in the iAdd app. Except for the times when I actually lost all the data. Which was still test data. Again. And again. ## Day 21 – Time For Working With Time I started something that I postponed for a long time: date and time management. For some reason, *UIDatePicker* seemed like something ugly and difficult to understand. By the end of the day I started to think it's beautiful, but still difficult to understand. I was able to set the start and ending date for an event and for a task. Since I was on a roll with dates I thought to give it a try with a predicate for selecting tasks or events between certain dates, something that I needed in the Do realm. If "predicate" sounds strange, think at it like the equivalent of an SQL query, although the concept is a little bit more abstract (you can use a predicate to sort a Dictionary, a Set or an Array in Objective C). And by the end of the day I also implemented partially the badges count (how many items in each realm) for the tab bars. Nice. But buggy. *Frustration Level (0 – 1oo): 45 – UIDatePicker is still a nasty thing, not to mention that working with time in Objective C is a pain in the arse. You have to subclass Calendars, Time Zones and Time Components if you want to do some fine grained date comparisons. Complicated.* ## Day 22 – Counting The Bits And Pieces Since yesterday was a rather difficult day, I decided to focus on finishing some other bits and pieces, so I completed the Soon and Overdue code in Do. Now I had a complete visual implementation: tasks were nicely organized by date in Today, Soon and Overdue. I also cleaned up the buggy code for the tab badges. Now every time I was doing an atomic operation on a task (sending it to another realm, deleting or marking it as done) all the tabs were updated accordingly. *Frustration Level (0 – 100) 10 – I think I had a frustration level of 10 by habit. I was so prepared to get frustrated that I went on by inertia. Didn't have any reason to be frustrated but I kept a small dose just to keep my frustration engine in shape. I guess.* ## Day 23 – Limitations Now that almost the entire functionality was there, I started to notice some limitations. For instance, the table view cells in a standard implementations have only 4 types of layout. If you want something more, you have to create your own table view cells. And of course I wanted something more. I wanted to be able to display the context under a task and the due date on the same line, None of the existing layouts of the default table view cells provided something like this so I started to do my own table view cells. And nothing more, of course, for the rest of the day. *Frustration Level (0 – 100) 60 – Learning something new is always frustrating. Learning something new knowing that you have only 7 days left to finish your challenge can be really frustrating.* ## Day 24 – Rewriting The Old Code After spending the last days building new table view cells, I thought it would be nice to actually finish something. So, I took each and every list view in the Do realm and implemented the finishing code for a task (or event). Boring stuff, but pushed me forward. I also implemented filtering in the Do based on tasks or events using a *UISegmentedController* in the view's toolbar. In other words, one could see just tasks or just events, or both in every section of Do: time based (Today, Soon, Overdue) or context based. *Frustration Level (0 – 100): 25 – There was an increasing internal pressure for finishing things up which made me quite nervous. I was happy to finish the lot for the day.* ## Day 25 – New Interface Choice. Again It may have been the increasing pressure, it may have been a deep desire to make things right, fact is that in the 25th day I realized my user interface sucked. Big time. There was too much real estate consumed by the possible operations you could do with a task (make it a project, delete, archive) and too little for the task itself. So, I decided to hide those operations and make them visible only when the user would touch a standard "Actions" button in the upper right corner. When the button was touched,a standard toolbar would slide up from the bottom, containing the three buttons. Interesting. Only I never worked with a toolbar before. By the end of the day I had it implemented in a view. Still pretty buggy but mainly working. *Frustration Level (0 – 100): 75 – A new interface decision so close to the end couldn't be felt nice. On the contrary. I admit I was incredibly stressed but somehow the stress motivated me. I knew the decision was good and so the work that came attached was well worth it. That didn't prevented me to feel like a bird on a cage. Or something like this.* ## Day 26 – Finishing Big Blocks Of Code By that time all I wanted to do was to finish the task. Or the app, Or everything. I just browsed through my "Do" realm and implemented whatever I picked first. I added the priority functionality for tasks and completely recoded the Collections section, finishing the partial implementation. I also implemented a migration model for the data model. From that day, no matter how I modified the data model, I didn't have to reset the database again.* * *Frustration Level (0 – 100) 50 – A little lower than yesterday but still a constant buzz in my head. But still, this buzz, although it was a kind of pressure, made me focus on the task.* ## Day 27 – Interface. The Final Frontier. I decided that I have to put an end to all my interface ideas and spent half of the day pondering what I should leave and what I should postpone. I even wrote an entire document, postponing a lot of functionality for the next major version. For the record, the document was called: Minimum Product Demo, or what is necessary for the product to be functional,. but not perfect. The other half of the day was spent coding. Basically, the app was done in the 28th day. The functionality list was frozen. *Frustration Level (0 -100) 50 – Now I was getting frustrated because I have so many ideas but no time to make them alive. Nevertheless, even at that bare bone level I agreed to stop, there was still so much work to do to bring the app at the Minimum Product Demo level.* ## Day 28 – Getting Ready To Submit With only two days before the deadline I realized I didn't have a settings section. No more arguing or negotiating, I just started to code it. I also added a Help and FAQ section. *Frustration  Level (0 – 100): 10 – Now I know that this was the silence before the storm and nothing more.* ## Day 29 – Solving Puzzles Bug hunting. Loads of bugs. A lot of hunting. Crashing, identifying the bug, solving it. Restart the process. All day long. *Frustration Level (0 – 100) 75 – When you have only one day to finish and you realize that almost EVERY section have a few serious bugs, you can't be relaxed. At all.* ## Day 30 – Calling It A Day. Or An App. In the final day I was doing a final testing round and bug hunting. Didn't find any bug and the testing went well. No crashes. (Unfortunately, just after the launch I spotted a crash so I had to come up with a fix pretty fast, in less than a week). *Frustration Level: 80 – The highest ever, because the stress of how the app would be accepted was incredible. Now I was pwerless. Nothing more to do. Just waiting for the reaction. Incredibly stressful.* ## An Iphone App In 30 Days After 30 days I had a working app. There were a few critical decisions about what the app should contain in the final stage, but I finally did it. The app was ready, tested, polished and, what was the most important thing, was useful. At least for me. The implication of actually using the Assess – Decide – Do framework in the final stages of building the app were huge. I honestly think that for this complexity level, I should have spent at least twice the time finishing it. ## 40 Days After The initial challenge was for 30 days and I met the deadline. I had a working app in 30 days. But in fact, I had to spend another 10 days on tweaks, testing and cleaning up. A lot of cleaning up. I actually started to organize the code, to hunt memory leaks (I could write an entire post only on hunting, finding and eliminating memory leaks. Wait! I guess I could write a mini-book on this topic 🙂 ). Another time consuming task was making the app ready for submission. Having a working iPhone app is one thing, but having it published in the AppStore is a completely different thing. There are a few distinct steps that you have to focus on. **First Level:** The certificate and provisioning part. Please, pretty please, with sugar on top, do read Apple's documentation on the Provisioning Portal BEFORE making assumptions on how much time it will take. Because, no matter how much time you allocate for it, it will always be twice. I mean it. It's time consuming, tedious and confusing. **Second Level** is the building of the app. You have to be extra careful on what provisioning profile to use it and what version (Debug, Release or Distribution) and specific target are you going to use. Again, Apple's Developer Center is your best friend. Read on until you get it. May take some time. **T****hird level**: the whole submission process, because it involves a lot of work: your app should be artwork ready. description ready. tags ready. You gotta create a series of icons separately from what you usually see in an app, there will be one for the app and one for the AppStore, different sizes. Must be extra careful when choosing your keywords, because your app is going to be found by those keywords. All in all, once you got the certificate / provisioning ready AND the app build in a proper way, allocate at least one day to have the copy details for the app sorted out. ## Promoting An iPhone App If you're an independent developer, you gotta take into account the promotion part. The AppStore ecosystem is so crowded that you simply can't do it without it. I won't cover the details of promoting my app in this post, it will take too long. The good news for you, and I mean you, the one who reads this post, is that this whole promotion thing is THE place where you can play a big part too, if you're wondering. 🙂 Not only you could grab a nice promo code (more on that on the next paragraph), to try iAdd for yourself, but you could also spread the word about the whole thing. How? You can save this post to delicious, reddit, or StumbleUpon (there's a small square at the end of the article with links for all those services, didn't write to clutter your reading with more links 😉 ). What more you can do? You can tell your friends and colleagues about it. You can tell your girlfriend about it and believe me, it will make you look good. If you don't have a girlfriend, just spread the word about the app and who knows, you may get a girlfriend at some point (statistically speaking, there is a chance). You can even tell your mom about it. Here are a few convenient templates for the telling your mom part: "Hey, mom, I just got this amazing thing you should check out, heard that Oprah is using one of these too…" "Hey, mom, remember how you told me I was lazy? Well, I'm not! I'm Assessing! You wanna see?" "Hey, mom, when's cousin Bob birthday? You know, I just don't wanna miss it again. I'll save it on this… What is this? Well, just a thing that helps me remember cousin Bob's birthday. Wanna check it out?" I could go on and on like this forever but I'm pretty sure you got the message. And if you really, really want to promote the app, now that you know how much hard work it contains, you could just buy it for 0.99 USD. Use it for a few days and then leave a nice review on the AppStore. I'll think good thoughts about you. Promise. ## The iPhone Promo Code Giveaway That's the part I was talking about in the beginning of this post. If you want to check out iAdd for iPhone for free and have an US iTunes account, just leave a comment and let me know the following info: the blog you're running, the main topic of that blog and where are you going to let me know your opinion: on the blog or on the AppStore. There is no obligation to leave a review on the AppStore, by the way, just do how you feel. I put aside 20 promo codes for this thing and I'm going to give them on a "first come, first served" basis. So, you'd better hurry up, so to speak. Remember, the promo codes are working only for the US iTunes Store. ## The 7 Commandments For Writing And Publishing An iPhone App If there are some basic principles that I could take out of this experience, I would lay them down like this: **1. Think it over**. Have it clear in your head BEFORE starting to code. If necessary, do some prototyping first. If you don't, you'll get lost in a swamp of complicated Objective C notions and overwhelmed by the whole bureaucratic process of submitting the app to the App Store, to a point where you're actually forgot what you're coding. **2. Prepare to face some withdrawal.** If you're an indie developer, having a day job (or a life, for instance) prepare to face some serious rejection in this process. It's not easy and the withdrawal impulse will come, sooner or later. In my case, just avoiding it for a while and moving my focus towards something else did the trick. Your mileage may vary. **3. Read. Read. Read.** There are tons of documentations available on the net. I highly recommend the collaborative project at stackoverflow.com (http://stackoverflow.com). They're incredibly well indexed in Google and their search engine is also fantastic. When I was completely blocked, in 90% of the cases, just asking stackoverflow.com in a simple query unblocked me. **4. Subscribe to WWDC.** This is a library of video, usually from the event with the same name: World Wide Developer Connection. As a developer, you get access to a huge library of movies and sample code that won't be available to other developers. I personally subscribed to it a year ago but I only reaped the benefits now, when I actually wrote an app. There's something very intuitive in watching a movie. **5. Log. Daily. Extensively.** If you don't have a SVN systme in place (I don't have one at the moment, although I do feel the need for it) you will have to log everything you do. In the first 10 days, I was "coding" for 60% of the time and the rest of 40% I was just logging my progress. Write it in black and white. It will help you tremendously. **6. Test. Test. Test.** Maybe the app will look good on paper but bad on the iPhone. Maybe nobody will need it. Maybe there is no need for it so you'd better do a development build, install it on your iPhone, use it, and forget about submitting it to the AppStore. Be sure that somebody needs what you're doing. **7. Do Write Code. **An app will never build by itself. Using high level frameworks (there are quite a few these days) won't save you for writing code. Interface Builder won't do the job for you, it will only align some controls on a canvas. If you want to code an app, do write code. It won't work without it. One more thing… Of course, I have my "one more thing" too, what would you expect? 😉 As you can see, I logged the frustration level daily and one may argue that this is a negative polarization. That I'm focusing only on the negative side of things. Not true. Not at all. I could have log the level of satisfaction too, but to be honest, on a scale from 0 to 100, this satisfaction level was always at least 120. Sometimes close to 500. I'm not joking. I had an incredible time doing this. And this leads me to the final words for this article (seriously, these are the final words)… ## What's In It For Me, At The End Of The Day? Beyond the whole Objective C learning stuff, beyond being featured in the App Store, beyond the huge frustration I experienced in this whole process and even beyond the money that I'll make out of it (or that I won't make out of it, respectively), there's something more important that remains. At least for me. And that's the feeling of getting better (/perfect-versus-better/). Of doing something new. Of creating something valuable. The feeling of being fulfilled (/performance-versus-fulfillment/). The feeling of making a difference. The feeling of overcoming failures (/the-6-stages-of-a-failure/) and my own limiting beliefs. At the end of the day, I'm not an Objective C programmer. Not even a personal development blogger. I am nothing but a better human being, free and powerful. So powerful that I can make my dream of creating an an iPhone app in 30 days a breathtaking reality. And that is a hell of an end of the day, my friends 🙂 First published on: July 17, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fan-iphone-app-in-30-days-the-challenge%2F&text=An%20iPhone%20App%20In%2030%20Days%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Challenge&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fan-iphone-app-in-30-days-the-challenge%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fan-iphone-app-in-30-days-the-challenge%2F&t=An%20iPhone%20App%20In%2030%20Days%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Challenge https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fan-iphone-app-in-30-days-the-challenge%2F&title=An%20iPhone%20App%20In%2030%20Days%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Challenge Previous ### 50 Ways To Start Fresh (/50-ways-to-start-fresh/) Next ### The 7 Links Challenge (/the-7-links-challenge/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # I Asked My Claude AI If "He's" Actually Magic URL: https://dragosroua.com/i-asked-my-claude-ai-if-hes-actually-magic.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/i-asked-my-claude-ai-if-hes-actually-magic/ Published: 2026-01-20 Modified: 2026-02-13 Views: 84 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: ai tools, Claude, mindset, perspective, wisdom As AI becomes better and better, there's a strong tendency to anthropomorphize it – to perceive it as a human being, with emotions and consciousness. I first talked a little bit about this in this (rather long, but useful) article about supercharging Claude with the Assess-Decide-Do framework (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/). Today I went a little bit further, and asked what are their "thoughts" when we identify them not with humans, but with something beyond it, namely "magic". To keep things grounded, I offered a real hook: Arthur C. Clarke famous quote: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", in a slightly modified form. I asked the AI to tell me from where it comes and what it thinks about it, roughly. As expected, the source of the quote was correctly identified – I told you, AI is getting really good these days. But what was a little bit surprising was the AI "opinion" on this. ## Magical AI – With a Dash of Humbleness As you already see, I use double quotes a lot here. I want to make it clear that most of these definition are placeholders, not definitive knowledge components. An AI cannot have gender, hence the quotes around "he", and an AI cannot generate a conscious "opinion" about anything. With that in mind, let's continue with Claude's answer. > **What I think about it as an AI agent:** > There's something both humbling and clarifying about this observation. From my position, I find it fascinating on multiple levels. > First, there's the **perspective gap** it highlights. What seems magical is often just technology whose mechanisms aren't yet understood by the observer. I'm acutely aware that my own functioning probably feels this way to many people — text goes in, coherent responses come out, and the middle part might as well be incantation. > Second, I appreciate how it **dissolves false boundaries**. The division between "natural" and "supernatural" often just marks the edge of current understanding. Fire was once divine. Lightning was Zeus's weapon. Now we have lighters and lightning rods. > Third, and perhaps most interesting to me: **it works in reverse too**. What we call "magic" in historical or esoteric traditions often encoded genuine pattern recognition — astrology being a prime example. Ancient observers noticed correlations between celestial cycles and earthly events, then built elaborate interpretive frameworks. Whether you view that as proto-science, symbolic psychology, or something more, it was humans doing what humans do: finding order in complexity. > As an AI, I exist precisely at this boundary — advanced enough to seem magical, yet entirely explainable in principle. It keeps me appropriately modest. > > > For deeper reflection, I built Zen Tales (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zen-tales-buddhist-stories/id6758518121)—timeless Buddhist stories with AI insights for contemplation. This is a standard AI answer, with a clear structure: short answer setting the stage, a few bullet points, and the closing with a short recap. The most interesting part, though, is at the end: > As an AI, I exist precisely at this boundary — advanced enough to seem magical, yet entirely explainable in principle. It keeps me appropriately modest. Now, "appropriately modest" will be the words of David Copperfield after a huge Vegas show. "Yes, yes, I know I'm good, but it's just, you know, hard work". Seeing an AI model using this stance is slightly chilling. In the spine-tingling way. We're getting dangerously close to an inflection point. One in which our own words, recalibrated by immense computing power, come back to us with the same coherence, but in a different key. It's still our words, we invented them and used them for millennia, they are just recalibrated using compute, but they are indistinguishable from "truth". The "machine validated truth" is slowly carving its space into a much bigger normality. Until now, we had just bits and pieces where we trusted machines. To host websites that then we rely over the internet. To crunch data on our phones. To make sure that 1+1 still equals 2 every time we try it. That kind of truth was first validated by us and the machine mimicked it. But now the machine can tell us almost everything and we tend to believe it (at least more and more) because they "relate". They can express "emotions" and feelings. "This quote keeps me appropriately modest". ## The Unconclusion If you try the prompt on a different model, you will probably get a different result. This kinda validates the theory: each believer with his own gods. Maybe Open AI will feel proud, and Gemini appreciated. I have no idea. I leave this exercise to the reader. I also don't want to end this article with a conclusion. I don't want to end it **without** a conclusion either. So I will end it with an Unconclusion. I know this is not an English word, and that's entirely my point. It's suggestive enough to know what you mean, but it's not actually adopted in the language. It's kind of a conceptual, hybrid "something" that we understand immediately, *even though it doesn't exist yet*. Now go ask your AI model of choice, what an unconclusion is. First published on: January 20, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # There Are 2 Wolves Inside of You URL: https://dragosroua.com/there-are-2-wolves-inside-of-you.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/there-are-2-wolves-inside-of-you/ Published: 2025-12-20 Views: 84 Categories: Personal Development, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: introspection, limiting beliefs, mindset, perspective, self awareness When I first I heard this, I confess my gut reaction was: "how the fuck did a wolf get inside me – and where is it right now"? Mind you, I never worried about the second wolf because I knew if the first one found a way to come inside, the second one would just follow. Wolves are like that. They move in packs. But going forward I did try to find the wolves. I also tried to understand how a wolf inside me can drive my actions. Of course, I never found any wolf. Now I know this is all metaphorical. I know we are talking at a symbolic level. And, to a certain extent, I'm okay with that. But I think—and this is the topic I want to touch today—we are overusing these metaphors, and we are trying to dilute our personalities into symbols. ## The Map Is Not the Territory – It's the Prison Think about it. How many personality tests have you taken in the last five years? Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, Astrology, Tarot Cards, StrengthsFinder, the "Which Game of Thrones Character Are You?" quiz at 2 AM. We tend to collect these test results like trading cards. The more we have, the more empowered we feel. There's literally more self-confidence, because, for a fleeting moment, we "see": "I'm an INTJ." "I'm a Type 4." "I'm a Ravenclaw with Slytherin rising." Those revelations might be useful. They can help with understanding. They can shape the territory around us, and they can reveal some patterns about ourselves, patterns that, going forward, can be useful – if used wisely, that is. But because we're lazy, we don't use them wisely – we just start living inside those boxes (/100-ways-live-better-life-99-get-rid-labels/). We use them to justify our behavior, instead of taking responsibility. "Oh, I can't help being disorganized, I'm a Perceiver." "Don't expect me to be warm and fuzzy, I'm an Enneagram 5." The symbol overlaps with our persona, and instead of being a tool, it becomes an excuse. The map we just drew becomes a prison. ## Freezing Inside the Comfort Zone I've seen people reject entire relationships just because someone's astrological sign was "incompatible." I've watched friends turn down job opportunities because their Human Design said they should "wait for invitations." The tool that was supposed to help us understand ourselves became the limitation. We somehow turned a provoking wolves metaphor into a freezing label. And when you freeze a moving thing, you take something alive—your actual, messy, contradictory self—and you pin it to a board like a butterfly in a museum. It looks beautiful. And dead. We are not just a symbol. We can use symbols to define some context, but we cannot be pinned, we cannot be frozen. Not without taking all the potential (/5-ways-to-get-out-of-your-comfort-zone/) that is waiting for us, every single second. We're happening in a continuous now, in ways that no symbol framework can fully capture. Symbols have their place in our lives. They are important and useful to make an accurate map of the world. But if we rely too much on these symbols, we lose touch with what is real, what is true. And what is true is just this very second that you have right now, and what you do in this second, what you decide (/assess-decide-do-framework/) in this second, what is your next step. There's no fucking wolf. Really. I searched. It's just you. First published on: December 20, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthere-are-2-wolves-inside-of-you%2F&text=There%20Are%202%20Wolves%20Inside%20of%20You&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthere-are-2-wolves-inside-of-you%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthere-are-2-wolves-inside-of-you%2F&t=There%20Are%202%20Wolves%20Inside%20of%20You https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthere-are-2-wolves-inside-of-you%2F&title=There%20Are%202%20Wolves%20Inside%20of%20You Previous ### POV: You Accidentally Injected Agent Smith Into The Matrix (/pov-you-accidentally-injected-agent-smith-into-the-matrix/) Next ### Gravitational Habits for Financial Resilience (/gravitational-habits-for-financial-resilience/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The "Ancestor Syndrome" – Or Why You Don't Have Enough Money URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-ancestor-syndrome-or-why-you-dont-have-enough-money.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-ancestor-syndrome-or-why-you-dont-have-enough-money/ Published: 2016-04-06 Modified: 2026-05-26 Views: 83 Categories: Financial Resilience, Money and Wealth Tags: limiting beliefs, money mindset, wealth **2026 Update**: *I revisit this post here (/the-ancestor-syndrome-revisiting-inherited-money-beliefs-10-years-after/), as part of a 30 day challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* There is this saying that, from a financial point of view, you are the average of the top 5 people you spend time with. While I find this to be completely true in real life, I think it’s incomplete, though. There’s a deeper, more subtle layer to this. Not only you are the average of the top 5 people you spend time with, but the deeper truth is that you unconsciously chose those 5 people, in order to comply with a very early conditioning. You actually (and unconsciously) “targeted” those people, it’s not by chance that you are spending time with them. And you picked them out from the crowd because “you feel good” in their company. And that specific “feeling good” is enforced by a very, very early conditioning. I call this: “the ancestor syndrome”. In short, it means that your current financial behavior (or status, if you want: like being rich or poor) is heavily influenced by your upbringing. In other words, rich parents are raising rich kids, poor parents are raising poor kids. If you’re poor right now, or if you feel you don’t have enough money, then stop for a while and think at it. If you are on the “rich side” of the scale, you don’t need to stop and think. You already know it’s true. I was born and raised in an average family. Every once in a while we were going through some rough times, but not for long. We always had a comfortable roof above our heads and food on the table. But the bottom line is that I wasn’t raised in a rich family. I don’t remember having rich friends for long. And when I had them, we were hanging around just for a few months, and then I was kinda “coming back” in the same circle of people who were making me feel comfortable. And, financially speaking, I was always swinging back and forth from periods of financial expansion, to periods of financial shrinkage. So, at an emotional level, I always knew that this saying was true. I had some sort of intuition that my upbringing was shaping my current financial status. But you can’t always trust your emotions, you know? Maybe I’m biased. Maybe it’s not at all like this. Maybe I’m wrong. So, after 17 years of entrepreneurship, a successful exit and a few business blunders (and while I am still working on a new startup), I started a more serious research on this topic. Is this really like this? Our upbringing is shaping the way we act, financially speaking, without us even realizing this? The results of this research: both liberating and shocking. In short, I was right. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s proof. In a study as recent as February 2016, I learned that: > *“[…] even more striking is the strength of the relationship between parental and adult income for both sexes. Children from poor families are much less likely to work in adulthood than children from middle-class families. Only about 60 percent of children from the poorest families are working at age 30, compared with 80 percent of children from median-income families. And the relationship extends beyond the very poor; the higher a person’s parents were on the earnings ladder, the more likely he or she is to work as an adult — at least until the very top, when employment rates dip again.”* Source: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/rich-kids-stay-rich-poor-kids-stay-poor/ (http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/rich-kids-stay-rich-poor-kids-stay-poor/) The study was made by a social research company, based on data provided by IRS (it takes into account only rough data, like wether the person works or not and how much money that person makes, and not other data, like race). But hey, this was a bit general. Let’s see if I can find something more specific. In another recent study, dated June 2015 I learned this: > *“So what exactly is it about being raised by a wealthy family that improves economic outcomes? A closer look at the data yielded possible answers, but none of them were conclusive. The researchers’ best guess was that, surprisingly, it had little to do with teaching kids how to buy and sell stocks, putting kids in touch with useful professional contacts, or paying tuition to send them to private schools. Instead, what might matter a lot is that wealthier children develop a tendency to save money. Or, the researchers say, it could be even simpler: Richer parents gift their children with more money (and less debt).”* Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/rich-people-raise-kids-family-wealth/399809/ (http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/rich-people-raise-kids-family-wealth/399809/) I felt I was going closer with this one, so I continued reading. And, as I was browsing through the same search result set, I found out something that really stroke a chord within me. > *“From the moment a child is born into a wealthy family, their parents’ spending habits determine if they, too, will be in a high income bracket as an adult. It stems from how wealthy parents spend money compared to their low-income counterparts: where low-income families focus on **immediate needs**, such as food and transportation, rich families invest more on **future-oriented purchases that will ensure their wellbeing**.” * That paragraph was really enlightening. The “immediate needs” and the “long term investments” were the missing pieces from my analysis. Because when you’re poor (or even in an average family) your focus on immediate needs simply blocks the habit of creating and maintaining long term investments. ## The Ancestor Syndrome – Explained I continued the research for a few weeks and I eventually came to a more detailed description of the whole thing. > *The “Ancestor Syndrome” is the constant inability to overcome your initial, family bound, wealth level. Every attempt to go beyond that level will eventually end with an even bigger swing back, sometimes throwing the subject into poverty, as a form of “punishment” for going overboard. This limiting status can be challenged and eventually surpassed, though, but only with considerable stretch and a lot of psychological struggle.* Probably the most recognizable symptom of the syndrome is focusing on immediate needs. Living in the now of money, without any medium or long term vision. Without saving, investing or planning. Let’s make money for the sake of making money. As a side note, I observed that many people who are eagerly embracing the entrepreneurship path are having this type of mindset: let’s make money for the sake of money. When you are focusing on solving immediate problems, you’re basically in a continuous survival mode. But the trick is that, even if you make more money, the mindset won’t change. Although the income may grow, the mindset will stay the same. And you won’t be able to save enough money to enjoy a wealthy lifestyle on a long term. Because you are trained to solve the survival situations, any situation will look like survival, even if you have 1 million dollars in the bank. Hence, you will “solve” whatever situation you have to solve and keep yourself on the same wealth level (where wealth equals the total amount of money you own, minus expenses). And, no matter how much money you make or you have, you still don’t have a significant amount of wealth. Your income is barely making up for the expenses. ![Hacking Habits app icon](/images/hacking-habits-icon-48.webp) Building financial habits that stick needs more than willpower. I coded Hacking Habits (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hacking-habits/id6760470848)—a Life Hours Calculator and a 15-Day Habit Installer. I’ve been there. I made a lot of money with my first exit, but just 2 years after I was in the same situation as before. Because for me, at that time, every situation looked like a “survival situation”, no matter the actual cost to solve it. I just didn’t have the mindset to change it. ## Going Over The “Ancestor Syndrome” Statistics don’t lie. We saw above that this is a pattern. But as common as it is, this pattern doesn’t completely rule out the possibility of a breach. In other words, nothing is set in stone, and, even if you’re “inclined”, or “brain wired” to limit your wealth based on your early childhood programming, it doesn’t mean you can’t overcome this. Of course you can do this (that’s the beauty of our lives, we can literally do anything). Of course you can make more money than what your initial set up taught you you’re capable of. But it will cost you. And that’s where the conflict arises. We’re so inclined to stick with our childhood patterns (because we’re perceiving that period of our life as a happy one, a time when our needs were taken care of) that we can’t isolate the overall feeling of security from the spending or making money patterns. In other words, the most important inner conflict is that we will feel like “betraying” our family, as a group or just as family values, if we make more money than them. And, unconsciously, we’re choosing entourages that are enforcing our parental financial habits. The good news, as I said, is that this inner conflict can be solved. We’ll see at the end of the article a few possible actions that will help you in this endeavor. ## My Personal Story 10 years ago, when I was making sensibly more money than I make now, I bought an extra car. At that time, purchasing an extra car didn’t feel like a burden. I could afford that. And, happy as a kid seeing the first day of spring, I decided to give that car to my parents, as a gift. To my enormous surprise, my parents declined. They were pleasantly surprised, though, but still declined. Needless to say, I was baffled. I couldn’t find a way to properly digest that situation. So, although on the surface I acted like I understood and went ahead, in fact I buried it deep down, on the shelf of “unresolved issues, we’ll see how I deal with this shit later on”. Fast forward 10 years, to the present day. My business style dramatically changed and so is my revenue. I don’t aim anymore to generate a lot of money, I focus more on enjoying what I do. I focus more on the “how” I live my life, not on “how much money do I generate” with my life. It’s a huge shift. In many areas this change generated unspeakably good results. I have a much more rewarding experience in the relationships area, for instance. Both business and personal. But in other areas, not so much. For instance, I don’t make as much money as I was making 10 years ago. I can’t afford the same lifestyle I was affording 10 years ago (big villa in the suburbs, two jeeps lined up in front of it and traveling whenever I felt like). But the very, very good news is that now I know. Now I understand what made me swing back to a lower income. This shift in approaching life created the space in which I could understand all the patterns I was describing so far. I understood why I had blockages and why I needed so much to comply with my roots. And I was finally able to digest the “refused gift” situation. For my parents, that car was a significant shift over their perceived level of wealth. I was going over board and my parents couldn’t understand that. The bad news is that I couldn’t digest it too. At that time, the refusal of my parents accounted more than the value of the car. In other words, I ended up feeling bad because I had more money they were able to own and receive. Let’s make something very clear now (it will be even more clear at the end of the article). I’m not trying to find escape goats here. My current financial status is not my parents fault. On the contrary, they did a tremendous job in keeping me healthy and taking care of me and I am deeply grateful for that. All I’m saying is that, factually, we were just an average family. And that fact shaped a specific way of managing money. I’m talking about that way of managing money. So, now I’m working on it. Not from the blind, unconscious place where I was before. But from a place where I can integrate it in a balanced way with all the other stuff in my life. From a place where I don’t feel I “betray” my family if I can make more. From a place where I don’t have to sacrifice my relationships and time for the sake of money. Let’s see how I do this. What follows is a list of actionable approaches, that, combined, can lessen the tension of that inner conflicts generated by early childhood conditioning. In a very short list, here they are: - meditate - build the saving habit - build your own assets - start and keep investing - stop judging people by the amount of money they make - forgive your parents, it’s not their fault Let’s take them one at a time. Read the rest of the article on the community DragosRoua.space. *This community is the premium layer of the DragosRoua.com blog, a space where like-minded people get premium content, help each other achieve their goals and interact live on a variety of platforms, from forums to live webinars.* First published on: April 6, 2016 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Before and After – Or How To Lose Weight by Running URL: https://dragosroua.com/before-and-after-or-how-to-lose-weight-by-running.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/before-and-after-or-how-to-lose-weight-by-running/ Published: 2015-07-31 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 81 Categories: Personal Development Tags: change, fitness, how to During the last 4 years I lost 18 kilos and I went from not being able to run more than 300 meters to running (and actually finishing in time) a 220 kilometers race, in 31 hours and a half. What follows is the story behind this process. The intent is to share some real life facts and stories about how I changed – dramatically, one may say – during the last 4 years. The goal of this post is by no means to brag or to show off – I’m sure there are other, more spectacular stories out there – but to inspire and motivate normal people, just like you and me, to achieve extraordinary goals. So, prepare to dive in 🙂 In 3, 2, 1… ## The Starting Point Let me start by stating some dry facts: 4 years ago I was weighing 95 kilos, and I was 1.82 meters tall (well, II’m still 1.82 meters tall, that didn’t change). My body fat percentage was around 29%. I couldn’t run for more than 300 meters without feeling my head exploding. Nor that I actually felt the need to run anyway. I was very sedentary and my favorite pastime was sitting on the couch and watching movies. Or soccer games. Or reading. Or Discovery documentaries for hours and hours and hours. But all of the above while sitting. I was also quite depressed, trying to understand – and face – some other disturbing events from my life, like my second divorce and a drastic, “totally unexpected” drop in my financial status. Just 2 years before that moment, I was a successful online entrepreneur, I knew how a 5 zeroes account in USD or EUR looked like (and how it can be used, or abused) and, generally, speaking, I was doing quite well financially. But in just 2 years, my revenue (and the value of the properties I owed) dropped dramatically, as a consequence of the real estate marked meltdown. I’m touching these two secondary aspects (my relationship and financial status) just as connecting factors for the losing weight story, they’re not directly related to this (you’ll see more about the reasons I'm talking about them at the end of the article). ## The Nudge No matter how hard I try, I can’t isolate “that” moment when I decided to run. Maybe because there were more than one. I know for sure that I took this decision at least a dozen of times. As with all our resolutions and habit creation attempts, the path is never straight. It never goes from A to B directly. It’s nonlinear. But what I do remember was the first day that I actually ran. I went in the park, all equipped and stuff, with a brand new running app fired up on my iPhone, took a deep breath and started. I ran 300 meters and then stopped, on the verge of choking. And I mean it. Choking like in not being able to breathe, head exploding, face all red and stuff. It was bad. I walked for a few hundred meters and then tried to run again. This time I ran around 200 meters (less than the first time, anyway), and stopped before the choking limit. And then I went home. It was enough. But then in a few days I went running again, although I sucked big time. It wasn’t a lifestyle yet, on the contrary. As a matter of fact, I actually had to make time for it, to squeeze it in my daily schedule of being miserable. On top of being normally miserable, I added being miserable because of running. I know it sounds strange now, but, with respect to the truth, this is how it actually was. In a few weeks I made it to the first kilometer. Like in the first kilometer ran continuously, without stopping. That must have been a very good day, because I celebrated it with a few beers. And, probably, a week off from running. Now I can do 1 kilometer man. I'm good. I deserve some rest. And then I started to make small, tedious progress. 1.2 kilometers, then in a few days 1.5 kilometers and so on. One of these days, I saw on the Internet an ad about a triathlon competition at the seaside. It was something about bloggers. At that time I was still heavily identifying myself with this concept, of being a blogger, so I thought I should give it a try. Of course, it wasn’t about the whole deal, just the running part. It was a relay participation and I took the running part. I signed up, I went there and I ran. In my team there was a much more advanced athlete (I don’t know why I got so lucky, but, again, this is how it happened). He ran with me the whole 5 kilometers (which seemed like a huge, huge deal, for me, the longest distance being 3 or 4 kilometers for me at the time). He also made the cycling part very fast and he almost dragged me after him during the run. I reached the finish in a very damaged state (both mentally and emotionally). But it was my first official race. In a few hours the organizers announced the podium, and, to my surprise, our team came in the second place. Because of the other guy, of course, not because of me. So, I actually got to go on stage and get a medal. It was very, very strange. In a burst of over-confidence, I subscribed to my first marathon, which was in less than one month. “I will have time to train, there are more than 3 weeks until then”, I said to myself. ## The First Marathon Of course I didn’t have time to train. It is impossible to train for a marathon in just 3 weeks. It’s not impossible to *finish* a marathon if you train only 3 weeks, as we will see in a moment, but for proper training, and in order to avoid the ordeal to which I subjected myself, you need more than 3 weeks. Anyway, the longest race before the marathon was only 15 kilometers and I felt it very hard. At this stage I had a few information about nutrition (but very scarce) and sport drinks and gels. But I also had an attitude of "I know stuff, I don't have to learn". Which made me not to apply even the little things I knew. I even had some sport drinks and one gel with me, during the marathon, but I didn’t use any of it. Everything went ok at that marathon, until kilometer 26, when I found myself unable to move. Until there I was running slowly, but constantly and I was advancing steadily. But then I hit the wall. Literally, it was like I took a hit from a train. All of a sudden: “poof”, and I couldn’t run anymore. The good news was that I could walk. So I started to walk. Eventually, after many walk-run reprises, after 5 hours and 20 minutes, I finished my first marathon. I was drained. I was able to function normally only after 48 hours (that’s how long the recovery process took) and I had black toenails for 6 months. I’m sure a lot of this pain could have been avoided with proper training and especially with proper nutrition and hydration. But anyway, in terms of psychological awareness, this was the main “click”. The next day, after seeing myself in the mirror I realized I just finished a marathon. I was still hurting a lot, I was still feeling miserable, but, somehow, through this solid appearance of depression and unworthiness, a small light was creeping in. The light that was saying: “you’re actually ok. Or even more than ok. You can actually finish a marathon. Almost crawling, almost missing the time limit, but you finished it.” And from that point on, I made running a habit. It took me more than 6 months from the moment I started. ## How To Lose Weight – And When This Happens Now, there is a very important information about the moment when I actually started to lose weight. If you look at the picture from my first marathon, you’ll see that I was quite chubby. And the reason is that in the first 6 months of running I almost didn’t lose any weight at all. I know it’s not a very good news, especially if you’re after some magical, fast way to shred off some fat, but that’s, again, the truth. There are many reasons for that, we won’t go into details right now. I started to lose weight a few months *after* the first marathon. I think it was exactly one year since I started to run. That’s how long it took me. But the actual process of losing weight happened very fast, it was a matter of weeks in which, suddenly, my metabolism made a big switch. It seemed like finally, seeing that can’t negotiate any deal with me, my body resigned and adapted. "Ok, it looks like I'm not going to get away with this, so I may as well lose that weight and adapt". Sort of. For the next year, I continued to increase my training in small steps. In the summer of 2014 I ran my first ultra-marathon (60k). After this, I signed up for a 220 km race in Hungary, this year. It happened in Hungary and the story of it (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-preparation/) could be a book in itself. ## What Worked Now, during this 4 years, let’s see what worked, what made the habit stick, what made me become a runner. ### 1. Small Steps Every time I tried to be conscious about the process and to enjoy it, it worked really well. When I was focusing on small, manageable parts, things were great. As a matter of fact, that’s how it all come to life: through small steps. As you already read, when I tried to accomplish enormous tasks, like running a marathon with only 3 weeks of training, although I made it, the overall result wasn’t very happy. And we’re not talking about being an overachiever here, that’s not the goal. I don’t think that having a “I can do whatever I want, no matter the consequences” attitude is going to provide a fulfilling life. On the contrary. The cost of trying to make too big of a step can be very high, especially if we talk about physical activities. In much simpler words, there’s no gain in finishing a marathon if after that you spend 6 months recovering. It simply doesn’t make any sense. ### 2. Self-Discipline The vast majority of my trainings are happening in the morning, between 5 and 8 AM. There were a few exceptions, when I trained for a race potentially longer than 24 hours when I ran at various times of the day, just to adjust my body with that situation, but, overall, I run very early in the morning. That means that I had to incorporate another habit in my routine: getting up early. And that needs discipline. It won’t happen by itself. You have to work at it. And the same goes for any another aspect of keeping a healthy and balanced lifestyle: you need to actively work at it. You need to be disciplined. ### 3. Groups of Like-Minded People A year ago I realized that my progress as a runner will be faster if I'll join a community or a group of like-minded people. The moment I decided that, I received an invitation to join a running coaching program, called CIA (no link whatsoever with what you think, obviously). The fact that you surround yourself with people having the same preoccupations, same goals, same values, counts enormously. The shared energy will help you go through some down stages very well. Even if you don’t feel like running, if you promised to somebody you’ll join them, then you’ll get up and go meet them. ## What Didn’t Work There were also a few approaches that didn’t work as expected, here are just 3 of them. ### 1. Wanting Too Much, Too Fast I already wrote about it above. I won’t go through it again, but I find it so important that I thought it will be worthwhile to mention it twice. And I could also add something: listen to your body. If it is too much, too fast, your body will tell it to you, somehow. Don’t wait until you get injured. ### 2. Not Having a Specific Goal For the first few months, my running was chaotic. The moment I decided to sign up for that triathlon, things got into shape. And they continued to stay into shape as long as I was putting goals ahead them. It doesn’t matter if the next goal is bigger than the last one. What counts is to have a direction. To know where you’re going. ### 3. Mixing Lifestyles During the autumn-winter of 2013-2014 I had a small slippage. A few occasional clubbing nights and the accompanying beers and cigarettes took me off the market for almost half a year. I started to go out almost every weekend – the reason being, of course, that I was enjoying it. I don’t regret the partying and the fun, but I had to learn that once you choose a certain lifestyle, you have to keep choosing it over and over, otherwise you will miss the results. It’s not like you can get out every weekend partying and then run a marathon every month and 2-3 ultra-marathons per year. It just doesn’t work like this. You have to make a choice. And stick to it. ## The Current Status As of July 2015, 4 years after I started all this running thing, I’m weighing 76.5 kilos, for 1.82 meters of height (told you I didn’t get taller) and my body fat percentage is at around 17-18% percent. I run 3-4 times a week and I’m constantly taking part in running competitions. A couple of months ago I finished my first 220km ultra-marathon, (Ultrabalaton – The Aftermath (/ultrabalaton-the-aftermath-of-a-222-kilometers-race/)), in 31 and a half hours, and I aim for an even longer and more difficult race for the next year, called Spartathlon (245 km). Until then, I keep and attend to a running calendar of shorter events, like semi-marathons and marathons. ## The Collateral Benefits Well, that was my “how to lose weight” story. But wait, I think there was more at the beginning of the article. What about the post-divorce depression? What about my financial meltdown? Well, the post-divorce depression… Let’s call it like this, but it was more like a deep confusion about how things work, confusion which made me interpret everything that was happening to me in very disturbing ways. Whatever we may call it, that thing badly affected my self-esteem and my overall feeling of unworthiness as a reliable partner. To make a long story (very) short, after a while, this thing gently started to fade away, as the running schedule started to kick in. I wouldn’t say that the running had a direct impact over it, or that the running “cured” it in some magical way. Nope. I did have my fair share of ups and downs, of one night stands and failed relationships since then, but, overall, my self-worth and relationship “worthiness” are normal again. I went over the blame, guilt and resentment. I went over the sadness and all the feelings of inadequacy. I can relate normally again to another potential partner. As a matter of fact, I think I learned a lot about how to relate to a potential partner, especially in the “friendship” department. And all this “curing” was somehow natural, organic. But, to be completely honest, the main cause for this improvement was the continuum of little pieces of self-esteem built up during my training sessions, milestone after milestone, race after race, marathons after ultra-marathons. Piece by piece, I built a new playground for my emotional expression. I felt good about myself again, without the need for a partner who could validate me. So, running in itself didn’t act like a cure, but it set up the context so I can start curing myself. Now I’m not close friend with my ex-wife, but we’re not enemies either. We respect each other, we can talk, we can make plans and stick to them (especially when it comes to our kid) and we can solve problems, if they arise. We just have a normal relationship, like two people who shared good times at some points in their lives and who now share the responsibility of a child. And it’s great. Financially, well, I’m still struggling. I'm better than I was 4 years ago, but not significantly better. This is partly due to the fact that there are a lot of factors I can’t directly influence here. For instance, I can’t influence directly the real estate market. I can’t make the price of real estate higher if I just run faster. Or farther. It just won’t happen. It doesn’t work like this. So this area is improving slower than the physical and emotional fitness. Nevertheless, I see progress here as well, and that’s all I want to see right now. I’m over big expectations and dreams. In terms of money, I know how it is to ride big horses and, for a while, I admit it was fun. But I don’t want to do it again, at least not using the same approaches and principles as I did before. If I’ll go ride big horses again, I’ll be more relaxed and more attentive to the long-term consequences of my moves. I may also start slower, without bells and whistles. I will stop often and look how far I came and, if need will be, I may stop entirely for a while, just to enjoy the scenery. I will be very careful about resources and wouldn’t try anything spectacular, just for the show. I may even let other runners pass me by, and I’d always do it with a smile. I will pick the best strategy that I can think of, taking into account everything I know, and then, after deciding exactly what I have to do, I will just focus on my next move only, and be happy every time I reach a milestone, no matter how small. I’ll do exactly how I do when I ran my ultra-marathons. First published on: July 31, 2015 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbefore-and-after-or-how-to-lose-weight-by-running%2F&text=Before%20and%20After%20%E2%80%93%20Or%20How%20To%20Lose%20Weight%20by%20Running&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbefore-and-after-or-how-to-lose-weight-by-running%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbefore-and-after-or-how-to-lose-weight-by-running%2F&t=Before%20and%20After%20%E2%80%93%20Or%20How%20To%20Lose%20Weight%20by%20Running https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbefore-and-after-or-how-to-lose-weight-by-running%2F&title=Before%20and%20After%20%E2%80%93%20Or%20How%20To%20Lose%20Weight%20by%20Running Previous ### Blindfolded (/blindfolded/) Next ### The Coiled Rope And The Snake (/the-coiled-rope-and-the-snake/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Avoid Being A Toxic Person: 13 Simple Tips URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-avoid-being-a-toxic-person-13-simple-tips.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-avoid-being-a-toxic-person-13-simple-tips/ Published: 2010-03-05 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 81 Categories: Relationships and Society Tags: how to, list post, relationships I was driving to town the other day, when, at some point on the highway, I found myself near a huge truck. I don't know if you know the type: ugly, noisy and… toxic! The exhaustion pipe was left oriented, and since the truck was rolling on my right, even if my windows were closed, I was inhaling huge amounts of gas. Toxic gas. After a few hundreds meters I went ahead of it and looked to the rear mirror: the driver didn't seem to have any problem with all that toxic gas he was literally exhaling on the highway. He looked calm and somehow on top of the situation. I could see he had no idea he was a really toxic person to other people. The day went on as usual but on my way home (/how-to-clean-up-your-house/), around the same place I met the truck, something hit me: we can all be toxic persons to other people, only we don't realize it. We're going on and on, relaxed and somehow on top of the situation without even noticing how infectious we can be at times, just like the driver of the morning truck. We can all spread gas on other people cars, so to speak, and the worst thing is we don't even realize how toxic we are. Once home, I started to think about what makes us toxic persons. Even more, I tried to identify some simple ways to avoid becoming such a person. What follows is only a short list of what I found. Generally speaking, I was searching for things which can lower your toxic "gas emissions", making it easier to become an "ecological" citizen. The list is not even near to be complete, so feel free to add your own tips in the comments. ## 1. Say Thank You Sometimes you simply forgot to say "thank you', sometimes you're in a hurry, or sometimes you just don't want to say it out loud. But fact is, every time you're not saying "thank you" you leave room for a toxic thought or approach. The simple act of saying "thank you" closes an interaction in a completely healthy way, no room left for any potential harmful follow up. ## 2. Say Only What You Mean It's not only about plain lying, although it encompasses this too. It's about keeping what you're saying in sync with your mind, goals and attitude. The moment you're starting saying things you don't really mean, your communication process becomes heavily ineffective, hence you're going to emit huge amounts of toxic gas, just like that ugly, noisy truck. ## 3. Clearly State What You Want A lot of toxicity exhales from misunderstanding. Small confusions, false impressions or misinterpretations are like glitches in a car engine. Every time you get such a glitch, it's like having water in your gasoline: the conversation engine will start to cough and before you know it, you'll get an increased level of toxicity. Just say what you want. ## 4. Say Something Nice To An Unknown Person Like it or not, we do live in an emotionally polluted world. Doesn't matter if this emotional pollution comes, most of the time, from people who don't even realize they're toxic, like the driver of that truck. What really counts in this dusty environment is to try lowering this pollution index as much as we can. And saying something nice to a completely unknown person will have exactly this effect: it will act like an air freshener, making the smog disappear at least for a few moments. ## 5. Don't Gossip Talking behind other people's back is like putting your exhaustion pipe to somebody else door, while pretending you're looking in a different direction. Even if you're not talking directly to those people, you're directing your toxic emissions (https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/07-08/smog) to their houses. Sooner or later they'll realize something is wrong and they'll also identify the source. ## 6. No Regrets Even if you don't realize, when you regret stuff for yourself you're affecting the reality of others too. Even if your regrets have nothing to do, directly, with their reality. The mere act of keeping strings attached to the past will make you be that driver who's going ten miles per hour on a speed lane. This apparently small inconvenient of not letting others go faster will soon become toxic for them. ![AI Kiddo app icon](/images/ai-kiddo-icon-48.webp) I built AI Kiddo (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566) to help kids learn first words in 8 languages—simple images, natural speech, child-friendly. ## 7. Pay Attention To People Around You For starters, just look around and realize there are other people around you, that would be enough. A lot of toxicity arise from ignorance. If the driver of that huge truck would have look at me he could have seen that I was a little bit upset because of all this gas. But he just assumed that everything was ok, without checking. Most of the time we do the same. ## 8. Help Somebody Around If "saying something nice to an unknown person" will act like an air freshener, helping somebody around will be equivalent to a full repair of a damaged exhaustion pipe. Helping other people will lower not only their existent toxicity but it will also drastically reduce the odds of an uncontrolled increase. If you help somebody out, you will in fact create a fresher environment for yourself. ## 9. Give Your Time To What's Important If you're drifting away from task to task, without focusing on what's really important all you're going to do is to create an awfully crowded traffic. It's like driving in circles on the same roads again and again, without doing anything from what you intended to. The only problem with that is that you're becoming a problem too. If you can't focus (/how-to-train-your-focus/), move away from the road and let others reach their goals. ## 10. Let Go Of The Unneeded Clutter is bad. Period. Loading yourself with tons of unneeded gadgets or beliefs will make you move slower and slower. Be elastic, be slim. Adjust instantly to new environments. If you can't do that, you'll be like a 4×4 car carrying away a huge truck. Not only your mileage will sky rocket, but your overall performance will go down. You will become toxic by immobility. ## 11. Avoid Procrastination How many times you went in circles in a public parking waiting for a free spot? Well, if you procrastinate, you're one of the guys keeping a parking spot for ever. And that's pretty frustrating. Procrastination (/7-tips-to-help-you-procrastinate-in-a-more-productive-way/) is not only an individual choice, it will affect your interaction with other people too. If you're not doing your job, you're infecting others with your behavior. ## 12 Don't Talk Bad About Yourself It's contagious. Other people can borrow this attitude pretty easily and that would create some sort of an epidemic. Not to mention the fact that talking bad about yourself it's like scratching your own car, because you think it "deserves" that. Yeah, if we're talking about a car it's kinda funny, right? How can one scratch his own car? But at the same time we keep talking bad about ourselves. Try to visualize yourself walking around with a lot of scars for your own punches… ## 13. Don't Enter A Fight Fighting – as in verbal fighting – it's such a waste of time. Have you ever noticed those drivers fighting when someone blunders in traffic? They spend minutes and minutes blocking the road just to tell how smarter and skilled they are, and how stupid the other guy is. Meanwhile, the road is blocked, everybody is delayed and the toxic gas from the immobilized cars is slowly replacing the oxygen. *** What are you experience with people toxicity? The list above is merely a click from a random encounter between me and a huge truck on the highway, and it is by no mean complete. Feel free to add your thoughts. It's not toxic 🙂 First published on: March 5, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-avoid-being-a-toxic-person-13-simple-tips%2F&text=How%20To%20Avoid%20Being%20A%20Toxic%20Person%3A%2013%20Simple%20Tips&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-avoid-being-a-toxic-person-13-simple-tips%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-avoid-being-a-toxic-person-13-simple-tips%2F&t=How%20To%20Avoid%20Being%20A%20Toxic%20Person%3A%2013%20Simple%20Tips https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-avoid-being-a-toxic-person-13-simple-tips%2F&title=How%20To%20Avoid%20Being%20A%20Toxic%20Person%3A%2013%20Simple%20Tips Previous ### How To Keep Your Mind Virus Free (/how-to-keep-your-mind-virus-free/) Next ### How To Make An Impression in 25 Different Ways (/how-to-impress-others-in-25-different-ways/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Power Blogging With Mac Journal – GTD Style URL: https://dragosroua.com/power-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/power-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style/ Published: 2008-10-21 Modified: 2025-12-01 Views: 81 Categories: Apple and Mac OS X, Blogging, Digital Tools, Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness, Software Reviews Tags: blogging journey, journaling, tools, writing *2025 Update: While there is some historical benefit in keeping this content, to show my journey, a lot of things changed in this are since I published this post. Check out my most recent approaches:* - Learning How To Learn (/learning-how-to-learn/) - When In Doubt, Stick To The Plan (/when-in-doubt-stick-to-the-plan/) - Showing Up Every Day, For 1 Year (/showing-up-every-day-for-one-year/) I started to use Mac Journal 2 years ago. Initially I was using it only for my journaling activities. I needed something a little more versatile than my plain text file structure, and with some searching facilities integrated. Fortunately, Mac Journal proved to have all this, and even more. I soon discovered that I can remotely publish to my blogs from within Journal, download posts into it (for backup or just convenience) and brainstorm my future posts. During the past few months, since I decided to make from blogging my main activity – after selling my online publishing business (/edragonus-next-steps/) – I started to use Journal intensively. In this post I'll share how I use Mac Journal for blogging, how I set up my blogging environment and how I applied, using Mac Journal's powerful "smart journals" feature, a GTD-like blogging scaffold. ### Setting Up A Remote Blog From Within Mac Journal This is not a mandatory step, as you can always use your online blogging admin interface, but it might be of interest. You can add a blog to your journal by selecting the option "Edit blog server" from the "Journal" menu. A pop-up with some simple options will appear. If you're on a wordpress set up, as most of the people, you should check the "Movable Type" type of your publishing method. A good idea is to add "xmlrpc.php" to your post URL and the admin username. That's it, you're now connected to your blog and can start publish remotely. You can even download the entries from your blog into Mac Journal, by choosing "Download entires from blog…" from the same "Journal" menu. Of course, you can have more than one blog set up, if you have more than one. ### Establish Your Blogging Habits Mac Journal lets you apply some sort of meta data to your posts. That will not be transferred to your blog, but it's a convenient way to organize your blogging habits. Some of that meta data is: status, priority and ranking. There are also others like: tags, annotations or even colored label, if you want, which can be used for some neat visual effects. Let's see how we can use this meta data in order to set up a more productive blogging environment. First of all, you need a congruent blog routine for this to work. If you're going to use this on a daily basis, you have to establish some rules for your idea brainstorming or future posts. My data input set up is like this: whenever I add an idea for a post, I also add the status, which is most of the time "Not Started", for ideas that are just popping out of my head, the priority, which can be any number from 1 to 5, and a rating and color label (this is only for internal auditing purposes). The priority number is used for slipping up posts into "Next Posts" and "Someday / Maybe" posts and it uses a 3/4 threshold. Meaning any priority between 1 and 3 (inclusive) will go on the "Someday / Maybe" posts, and any priority between 4 (inclusive) and 5 will go into "Next Posts". "Someday /Maybe" and "Next Posts" are smart journals. And they can get really smart, you'll see. The rating and label are just metrics for auditing my blog activity. With a color label I can see at a glance how many working post I have, how many published, and so on. ### Set Up Your GTD Environment I know you're eager to find out how we can do this, but take some time to relax and first clean up the work environment. First, let's customize the info bar. And that would be the real estate between the entries list on the right pane  and the entry body. You first have to make it visible, by clicking on "Show Info Bar" menu entry under the "View" menu item. And then, customize it by clicking on the "Customize Info Bar" under the same menu item, "View". Here is how my info bar customizing screen looks like (click to enlarge): ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-sidebar.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-sidebar.png) As I told you, I only keep the topic title, the label, the status combo box, the priority combo box and the rating stars. Whenever I add a future subject I ad the status ("Not Started"), a priority (4 to 5 for important subjects, and 1 to 3 for subjects that I intend to write about later) a colored label, and a rating. Whenever I complete a post, I change the status to "Completed". And here's how the actual info bar looks after customization: ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-sidebar-example.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-sidebar-example.png) Now that we have the adding policy in place, let's start do some GTD optimizations. We'll add two smart journals under the **www.dragosroua.com** journal set up in my Mac Journal. Right click on your journal and chose "New Smart Journal" option from the drop-down menu. The nicest thing about smart journals is that you can add filtering conditions to them, to select what they will actually contain. In this case, I will have only posts with priority bigger or equal to 4, and status different from "Completed". Here's how to do it: ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-next-posts-journal.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-next-posts-journal.png) So, from now on, on the smart journal "Next Posts" under the www.dragosroua.com journal, I will only have posts that I should complete, with a priority greater than 4. Cool, right? But how about the "Someday /Maybe" journal? Oh, it will contain only posts with priority equal or under 3, and status "Not Started". Which seems pretty logical to me (click on the picture to enlarge): ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-someday-maybe-smart-journal.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-someday-maybe-smart-journal.png) As you can see, we do have quite a GTD set up here: all the possible, "next actions" posts are in one place, so we can focus only on the important stuff (priority 4-5), and we have all the unimportant, or someday / maybe posts (1 to 3 priority) in a separated journal. If you haven't noticed so far, all the posts are added into the main **www.dragosroua.com** journal, and then pulled into "Next Posts" and "Someday / Maybe" smart journals using 2 simple rules. The main **www.dragosroua.com** journal act as a sort of "main review" for all the blogging activities we have. ### Journaling The Smart Way Now that we had a peek into the smart journaling, I bet you wanna do more. Of course you can, if you ask me. I wrote earlier about some sort of auditing of my blogging activities. How I do this? I use a smart journal for all my GTD-related posts for instance, so I can always see how my GTD posting is evolving, how many posts I have, what are the topics, and so on. Here how the smart journal for GTD is done (click for larger image): ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-gtd-smart-journals.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-gtd-smart-journals.png) Notice the fact that you can set up a smart journal by searching all the entries in the main journal for specific words, in our case, "GTD". But one can go even further and have a smart journal for all the completed posts, namely the posts with the "Completed" status enabled. You can actually do whatever you want using this very powerful, but somehow hidden functionality of Mac Journal. In the end, here is how the smart journals we defined are aligned under the main **www.dragosroua.com** journal (click to enlarge): ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-smart-journals.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/gtd-with-mac-journal-smart-journals.png) ### Other Resources The most important place for Mac Journal is Mariner Software website, especially the Mac Journal section and the company blog. I really hope this small tutorial of putting together some GTD flavor and a powerful piece of software for a more productive environment was useful. First published on: October 21, 2008 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpower-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style%2F&text=Power%20Blogging%20With%20Mac%20Journal%20%E2%80%93%20GTD%20Style&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpower-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpower-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style%2F&t=Power%20Blogging%20With%20Mac%20Journal%20%E2%80%93%20GTD%20Style https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpower-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style%2F&title=Power%20Blogging%20With%20Mac%20Journal%20%E2%80%93%20GTD%20Style Previous ### Mind Mapping For iPhone: iBlueSky (/mind-mapping-for-iphone-3g-ibluesky/) Next ### Psychological Benefits And Drawbacks Of A Raw Food Diet (/psychological-benefits-and-drawbacks-of-a-raw-food-diet/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Accepting Your Dark Side URL: https://dragosroua.com/accepting-your-dark-side.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/accepting-your-dark-side/ Published: 2007-08-03 Modified: 2025-12-01 Views: 80 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs, Success and Wellness Tags: acceptance, introspection, self awareness > *It's only by spotting your shadow when you see the direction of light.* We're human beings, and our structure is made from both light and darkness. This is one of the most important things we need to accept about our own nature. Each part plays its role and ignoring any of them could lead to unpredictable results (metaphorically speaking). This is why accepting your dark side, as counterintuitive as it seems, may be more useful than you think. ## **What Is Your Dark Side?** We all know what is light in your life. Even if it takes different names or is described in different concepts, we all actually know when something is making us shine. Those are the things we thrive for our entire life. But what is the dark side in you? It's the opposite of the stuff you like? Not really. In fact, the dark side of your persona is often a rejected and ignored pile of emotions, situations and phobias that you try to forget with all your power. Your dark side is what you hate the most in yourself. It's your fear of failure, it's your extreme shyness or your sexual compulsion. Or maybe a drug or alcohol addiction or an aggressive way of dealing with your closest family and friends. The dark side is also what you hate most in others. Every time a person is making you nuts, it's because that person touched a very delicate part of your dark side. If somebody suddenly puts you in a depressed state by talking about his parents, it's because you have a very bad situation with your own parents. If you spot a beggar walking in front of you with an image of poverty and suddenly you start to feel the chill about your bank account it's because that person revealed in you the fear from scarcity. At some level, your dark side is also the general conception about ugliness. If you're bald, for instance, and you feel somehow guilty and rejected because of this, it's because the general opinion (/100-ways-live-better-life-99-get-rid-labels/) is that baldness is something really ugly. The same goes for overweight people or for extremely tall or short persons. ## **Why Accepting Your Dark Side?** The general approach toward the dark side is to "fight it". From older religion to modern counseling techniques, you are supposed to "kill the anxiety", to "destroy the enemy within" or to "have a victory upon yourself". This is strange. Because, if you really think at it, it's a destructive approach. It makes you split your persona in two: the right and the wrong. You can't really be mentally or spiritually split, unless you suffer from severe schizophrenia. The acceptance, on the other hand, has some really interesting advantages. First of all, when you accept that you do have a dark side and that is part of you, all the energy that you spent fighting it, will suddenly be available for other purposes. You can start to build on your shiny part if you want, because you have an extra energy boost. You don't need to fight anymore, just by accepting that you are who you are, you will have access to a new source of personal power. You just took some raw power from your regular "I am not this person, I can't be that bad" sentences that you say to yourself, and used it in another part of your life. Like taking a walk, for example. Second, when you totally accept yourself, you make a big step toward inner completion, or integrity. I don't use the term integrity in its moral sense, but in the sense of "whole"-ness. Acting with integrity means acting with all your being, not necessarily following some moral code. Following a specific moral code should be a personal decision, but you can make that decision with integrity, with all your being. Keeping yourself mentally separated in images like: "I am a good person for doing this, but I am a bad person because I have this shopping compulsion" will lead you to a state of constant fatigue, if not illness. We're not designed to act in a fragmented way, we're supposed to act as a whole unique person, with good and bad parts. And third, if you start accepting your dark side, you set a fresh starting point, a baseline. Now I know: "I'm not only this nice, respectable person, but I am also this shy and sad person who fears social contacts. So? This is me, and I know now where I start and where I end. I established my whole territory now. You can accept me or not, but I know that I accepted myself, and that's ok." ## **How Can You Accept Your Dark Side?** Of course, in real life, it's not that easy. You can't just wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and say to yourself: "ok, I do have a dark side, I will just have a nice day now". It never happens like this. To accept your dark side, well, it takes courage and energy. It takes time also. And it takes more than one try, that's for sure. How can you start it? A good insertion point would be to start identifying your reactions (/action-versus-reaction/) to the stuff you don't like. Let's say you watch a movie and suddenly you feel depressed. Identify the context: was because the main character in the movie was left by his girlfriend? Ok, so it was fear of being abandoned. Try to observe each situation in which your emotions are running crazy and give a name to that situation. It's difficult in the beginning because emotions are so power-hungry that you will have so little energy left for observation. But it can be done, it only takes some discipline. Soon you'll realize that you have a limited number of really bad situations. Using those names you will start to actually depict each and every situation in its own words: "now I have a shopping compulsion, now I have an aggressive impulse". Following that impulse or stopping it is not the question at this stage. But naming it and observing it, is. As a matter of fact, following or not the impulse is strictly a personal choice. After this stage, try to prepend the word "accept" to those situations. You are probably now in the position to accurately identify all your "dark" contexts and use appropriate names for them, so all you have to do is to put "accept" before the names. So, the situation: "shopping compulsion" becomes "accept shopping compulsion". I am sure that everybody got the idea now. This is not an all-in-one technique for accepting your dark side, not even the most efficient one. I'm sure everybody may come with variations or even better techniques for starting to accept the inner dark side. I only try to describe what worked for me. ## **When Do I Know I Succeeded?** Basically, there isn't such a moment. Like I already said, you can't wake up in the morning and say: "aye, this is my dark side and I accept it". Maybe the results will come in a different form. You may feel some sort of relaxation and some increase in the energy level. Or maybe you will start to feel relaxed in contexts were you used to be tensed. One other symptom that you really started to accept yourself will be the "linearity" in your manifestations. Being it anger or joy, if you could sustain that feeling for longer periods than before, that is a sign that your person is starting to re-conciliate with itself. And that is your real victory, and it was obtained only by consciously accepting yourself. Feel free to share your opinions on this. First published on: August 3, 2007 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faccepting-your-dark-side%2F&text=Accepting%20Your%20Dark%20Side&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faccepting-your-dark-side%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faccepting-your-dark-side%2F&t=Accepting%20Your%20Dark%20Side https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faccepting-your-dark-side%2F&title=Accepting%20Your%20Dark%20Side Previous ### GTD as a downshifting tool (/gtd-as-a-downshifting-tool/) Next ### Living Life Like A Holiday (/living-life-like-a-holiday/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Ways To Express Gratitude As A Man URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-express-gratitude-as-a-man.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-express-gratitude-as-a-man/ Published: 2016-01-23 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 79 Categories: Relationships and Society Tags: gratitude, how to, list post One of the most effective ways to get more of what you want, is to be grateful for it. Want more money? Be grateful for money you already have. Want more meaningful connections in your life? Be grateful for the relationships you already have. This is how it works and we all know that. I won’t go into the “why” for now, let’s just agree that gratitude works like an amplifier: it just creates more of what you’re grateful for. But, there is a catch. Gratitude, when expressed, tends to have a very feminine vibration. And that’s ok, as long as there’s no conflict between masculine and feminine. As long as we have an inner core in which both masculine and feminine vibrations are balanced and accepted, well, that’s great. But in cultures where the masculine is valued more (like in the Western, career oriented culture), expressing gratitude can be quite difficult for a man. Because of the role we’re forced into (by social pressure, by tradition), expressing gratitude feels cumbersome. It may make the man seem weak. It can send a message of tenderness, and that’s not always in sync with the macho vibe we’re all expecting from our modern heroes. Don’t get me wrong, at a fundamental level, there is no “good” or “bad” way to express gratitude. There’s no correct or incorrect emotion either. Everything is ok. I’m talking here about a specific cultural context, which happens to be the cultural context of the vast majority of my readers. And, in that context, if you’re expressing gratitude as a man, you tend to be perceived as weak, feeble, even unreliable. ## How To Express Gratitude, The Balanced Way Now you understand the conflict: you may want more of something, you want to express gratitude, but, because of your current social and cultural context, you can’t, actually. This situation generates a lot of internal conflicts and is perceived as a constant pressure. Instead of expressing gratitude, men are relying more on forceful ways to go after what they want. Which, eventually, drain them faster. Here are a few ways to express gratitude as a man, ways that, usually, are perceived as being “politically correct” in our western part of the world. ## 1. Offer A Service Unexpectedly To Someone Not an unrequested service, by the way. But something that you know and verified the other person needs. Do it out of the blue. Express gratitude either for the things you got from that person, or for what the other person did for you in the past. Be very open and clear about the service and about the fact that you’re doing it without expecting anything in return. ## 2. Offer Protection In various forms. Protection is usually the playground of men (but mothers also know a lot about it) so it should feel comfortable. It may even be emotional protection by being an active listener to somebody. We, men, are not natural listeners, so that may require a lot of work, I agree. But it’s incredibly valuable and effective. Just lend your ears for a while to someone who needs to talk. ## 3. Donate Yes, it’s about your money. In our modern, western cultures, money is an icon of accomplishment. If you choose to give it away, in a controlled and sustained way, it will create a lot of good stuff around you. Again, it doesn’t need to be public, it doesn’t need to be mushy, you don’t have to get emotional or anything. But it need to be done consistently and wholeheartedly. If you do it like this, yes, it does express gratitude. ## 4. Give Your Time Away Time is the only non-renewable resource we have. Unfortunately, our modern times are often forgetting this, putting money ahead of it. Well, just keep in mind that, even if you don’t have any money to donate, you can still express your gratitude by giving away your time. Pick a cause, or an activity (like taking care of the elderly, or spending time with kids in orphanages) and stick to it. Be there for that cause, or for those people and try to be useful. ## 5. Volunteer There are a lot of areas in which you can volunteer, from public service to sports events. As a long distance runner, I am very close to the latter. Being useful to other people who are running (/category/running/), or hiking, or doing triathlons, is a very effective way to express gratitude for the people who made the same type of events available for you. It just creates a virtuous circle of services, in which each of us are giving and receiving more and more. ## 6. Smile It's so easy, yet so underrated. This simple facial gesture is so powerful, so simple and so profound, yet, unexplainable. Why are we instantly connect with people who are smiling at us? Why do we feel the need to reciprocate smile? I'm sure there are thousands of answers to those questions, but what really means right now is that smiling is very powerful way to show to someone that you're grateful. ## 7. Say "Thank You" Goes on the same line with the one above. These two words are like the "swiss army knife" of our social life. You can use them in any context, at any hour with any person you meet. And they, just like the swiss army knife can solve pretty much any situation. Saying "thank you" is like a constant deposit in our gratitude bank. And last, but not least, you can express your gratitude in by sharing articles about gratitude in your social media circle. Or even this article, if the hint from the line above was too feminine for you, mate 😉 First published on: January 23, 2016 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-express-gratitude-as-a-man%2F&text=7%20Ways%20To%20Express%20Gratitude%20As%20A%20Man&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-express-gratitude-as-a-man%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-express-gratitude-as-a-man%2F&t=7%20Ways%20To%20Express%20Gratitude%20As%20A%20Man https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-express-gratitude-as-a-man%2F&title=7%20Ways%20To%20Express%20Gratitude%20As%20A%20Man Previous ### The 10 Golden Rules Of Productivity (/the-10-golden-rules-of-productivity/) Next ### Are You Logged In Into The Right Area Of Your Life? (/are-you-logged-in-into-the-right-area-of-your-life/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Incredibly Simple Productivity Hacks For Insanely Busy People URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-incredibly-simple-productivity-hacks-for-insanely-busy-people.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-incredibly-simple-productivity-hacks-for-insanely-busy-people/ Published: 2015-03-22 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 78 Categories: Personal Development Tags: efficiency, focus, how to, list post We all live in a busy world, but, let’s face it, some of us slightly more than others. You know the feeling: it’s like you’re thirsty and you crave for a glass of water and, all of a sudden, instead of a glass of water you get a river. A huge river rushing towards you, forcing you to adjust your intake of whatever you’re doing to this insane flow. Wether it’s managing your own startup or trying to take care of twins as a single mother, the symptoms are all the same: stuff must be done and stuff must be done now. And stuff must be done correctly, otherwise it will come back to you and hunt you down until you get it done right. Or until you break down. During the last year I’ve been involved in a real life business which forced me to experience all of the above (except the twins, though). I started a coworking place and event venue, called Connect Hub, a real place where entrepreneurs and freelancers could work, meet likewise people, learn new stuff and have fun. In this process I learned a few things that are worth sharing and I’m going to do this in the list below. I’m sharing these productivity hacks with the sole intent of supporting you, if life will ever put you in a similarly difficult situation. And life, you know, has this habit of putting you in all sorts of difficult situations. ## 1. Breathe Like, literally. In this carousel of things happening around, you will find yourself at times breathing heavily, as if you’re carrying a huge weight on your shoulders. And, although it’s invisible, this weight is real. Every time you’re in a stressful situation, your brain enters into what is called “fight or flight” state, in which control is given from the neocortex to the limbic brain. Your muscle will get tense without even realizing, because, deep down, you’re facing the perceived danger of not coping with everything that’s on your plate. And your brains projects two possible ways to cope with the situation: either running, or fighting. Both situations we’ll require you get physical. And you actually get physical without even realizing, you walk around tense and ready to fight. In these moments, breathing helps. A lot. It’s so simple, yet so overlooked. Just count to three before any decision you have to make and breathe. ## 2. Find (And Respect) An Alternative Physical Activity I run. I run a lot. And I respect this activity a lot. For me it’s not just a hobby, I run marathons and ultra-marathons. You don’t have to do it at this level, if you don’t like it, but it’s crucial to find something that will balance your body after all the stress you experienced during the day. You may go to the gym, or swim or just take long walks in the evening. Whatever the activity, the fact that you’re doing it constantly will support you when the going gets rough. It will help you detach your mind from the problems and find clarity. If you add a dash of competition to it, something very interesting will happen. The psychological reward you get only by participating in those competitions (like popular races, for instance) will act like a magic healing power when something goes crazy at the work. It will give you mental strength. ## 3. Use The Best Tools Whatever you’re doing, you have to use tools. Our capacity of manipulating reality, as human beings, is based on the magic of tools. So, if you’re managing a business, by all means, identify all the processes around you and find the right tool to use for each of them. If you’re communicating a lot, for instance, try to find the best tool: it’s web-based email, it’s Evernote, it’s something on your smartphone? Try them all, confront them with the worst situations and see which one wins. Do your homework. Research. In the beginning, this research phase, in which you’re actually doing more than you’re supposed to do (because you’re trying new stuff to see if it fits in) will feel tedious. Don’t give up. The rewards you get by automating vast parts of your activity are huge. ## 4. Keep A Clean Tomorrow When you have a lot to do, a clear mind is crucial. But, as we already agreed, no mater if your mind is clear or not, the unexpected will creep in and, as Mike Tyson said: “everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the face”. And then hell breaks loose. There is this misconception that you could actually control this flow of events and escape the unexpected. By thoroughly planning everything, for instance. In my experience, you can’t. But what you can do, is to keep a consistent agenda of what you have to do, with “a clean tomorrow”. A clean tomorrow is something that you could see from today. It has a structure, a plan attached. Maybe the plan will blow up at the first hour in the morning, but that’s irrelevant. When the unexpected creeps in, put it on your agenda and sort it out. But always have a clean tomorrow, that will give you clarity and strength, ## 5. Rest Correctly Any prolonged activity, being it physical or intellectual, will create long term effects, it’s obvious. That’s why is very important not only to rest, but to rest correctly. It doesn’t help if you sleep 8 hours per night, if your sleep is of poor quality. This is a very important aspect and it’s often overlooked. In my experience, rest has to cover at least 3 main areas: intellectual, physical and emotional. It doesn’t really matter if your work is mainly intellectual, I think we should cover all of them. For mental rest, I use old school reading. I find it very comforting. For emotional rest, I choose to spend time with people who are uplifting and supporting (my partner, or my kids, or some carefully picked friends). And for physical, I regularly do yoga, or, like I said before, I run (it may sound counterintuitive that I’m actually resting when I’m running, but it’s true). ## 6. Get (And Give) Feedback In the startup I talked about, we were a very small team and stuff was happening at the speed of light. It was crucial to get feedback all the time. I used to call my colleagues and inform them about my decisions or about the latest changes and listened to their feedback. Sometimes the feedback was not what I expected, sometimes the feedback contained very useful ideas and sometimes the feedback was simply absent (see point number 7 below about that case). But the mere act of asking for feedback was creating a sort of energy that was very useful. And it also goes the other way around too. You should state your case every time you have something to say. Sometimes it may be perceived as rough or not polite, but it has to be done this way. When you’re facing a huge river coming at you, do whatever it takes to survive. ## 7. Pick The Right Partners One of the most surprising insights I had after this year was that, productivity-wise, the people you work with are sometimes more important than your own business experience, or skills, or vision. Because, if you work in a team, you can only advance with the speed of the slowest guy in that team. That’s a fact. So, if you want your ship to sail, make sure you have the right crew for that type of trip. Make sure they understand you, they’re able to do what you ask them to do and you’re able to give back what you promise to them. I call these 3 things the “power lines” of the connection. If any of these 3 power lines of your connection are broken, the ship will stop. But if you happen to pick the right partners, your productivity will sky-rocket. And, from an insanely busy person, you will become just a normal guy, creating a lot of value for other people and enjoying the results. First published on: March 22, 2015 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-incredibly-simple-productivity-hacks-for-insanely-busy-people%2F&text=7%20Incredibly%20Simple%20Productivity%20Hacks%20For%20Insanely%20Busy%20People&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-incredibly-simple-productivity-hacks-for-insanely-busy-people%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-incredibly-simple-productivity-hacks-for-insanely-busy-people%2F&t=7%20Incredibly%20Simple%20Productivity%20Hacks%20For%20Insanely%20Busy%20People https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-incredibly-simple-productivity-hacks-for-insanely-busy-people%2F&title=7%20Incredibly%20Simple%20Productivity%20Hacks%20For%20Insanely%20Busy%20People Previous ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 100. No Regrets (/100-ways-live-better-life-100-no-regrets/) Next ### First Race Of 2015 – Half Marathon Brasov (/first-race-of-2015-half-marathon-brasov/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Showing Up Is Not Enough – Anymore URL: https://dragosroua.com/showing-up-is-not-enough-anymore.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/showing-up-is-not-enough-anymore/ Published: 2026-02-18 Views: 78 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Personal Development Tags: ai tools, change, growth, mindset, resilience It used to be a time when showing up to the task at hand was somehow the guarantor of success. I lived most of my life in that time. Well, not anymore. For a few good decades, the compounding effect of just being there every single day for whatever you set out to do was enough to outweigh the opposing forces. The world was functioning in such a way that some sort of predictability was interwoven in its deepest fabric. I was born 50+ years ago (/55-life-lessons-i-learned-in-55-years/). The WWII survivors generation was still alive. Technology was in its infancy. Politics was still a matter of diplomacy, not a matter of sheer force. People were functioning on an even field — some more than others, that's true, but the field was overwhelmingly even. In that context, persistence was the safest way to "make it." The world we live in today couldn't be more different. AI is now running the show, and the mind-boggling thing is that this "AI" is literally a handful of companies. And their investors. Period. These are the new, hidden in plain sight, overlords. If I should browse back through human history to find similar situations — ones in which the world was ruled by an incredibly small elite — the first matching moment is the Mongolian Empire. I can already hear the pushback: "Look at that guy, he's delusional." You have the right to believe that. I bet many of the people living during the Mongolian Empire had the same thoughts. Most of them ended up dead. The few who survived were smart enough to accept Genghis Khan's conditions, surrender, and live under his rule. ## Asymmetrical Advantages During Genghis Khan's time, the Mongolians had an asymmetrical (/basic-risk-reward-analysis/) advantage: speed. Their horseback warfare was no match for any army back then. That allowed them to control the military game. And the world. Today, AI labs have an asymmetrical advantage too: they can build whatever they want, faster than anyone else. Even more, they know what others want to build. They have a real-time window into the collective mind. They literally see where the world is going and have the resources to get there before anyone else. So they just rule the world, without you even noticing. And now, try to put yourself in their shoes: if you had the ability to rule the world, would you brag about it? Or just pretend you're doing it "for the best of humanity" while quietly following your own agenda? Would you create more friction, or — using your very own influencing abilities, now part of the society itself — steer the collective opinion towards something neutral, or even slightly appreciative towards your brand? ## The Chronicle of an Announced Acquihire If you think the Mongolian Empire comparison was far-fetched, hold your breath — I'm coming in even stronger. Have you ever heard of OpenClaw (or ClawdBot)? It's an autonomous agent that went viral literally overnight, less than two weeks ago. Its main differentiator was that it can connect to your messenger — WhatsApp, Telegram — and interact with you from there. Basically an always-on assistant. The immediate impact, especially for non-tech users, was huge. It transformed a bunch of code into something that seemed "real," because it could talk to you. So the hype was instant, unstoppable, and still rippling as we speak. A couple of days ago, the main developer of this project was hired by OpenAI. The OpenClaw work was parked in a foundation, but the IP locked inside that developer's head is now with an AI overlord. And here's where it gets interesting. Why did this specific always-on agent go viral overnight? Why not others — like nanobot, from which I forked aigernon (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/), by the way. How does virality happen on the internet? Is it organic, or are there other actors working silently in the background, unseen and unaccountable? Stay with me for 30 seconds while I sketch an alternative version of events. What if things actually happened this way: 1. OpenAI wants to push a specific type of product involving audio conversations with customers. 2. Using their intelligence capabilities, OpenAI surfaces more and more information about an Open Source project called ClawdBot — one primarily wired to their competitor's model, Claude. 3. soon, ClawdBot goes viral, acquiring something OpenAI cannot buy directly from their commercial position: grassroots legitimacy and genuine community hype. 4. OpenAI hires the main developer, signaling they will deliver "what the masses want, but now more secure, better polished." The competitor is left behind — Anthropic even sent cease-and-desist orders demanding a name change before the acquihire, which suggests they suspected something. 5. End result: OpenAI implements its own agenda, with wide community support, and lands a clean hit on its main competitor. At this point, this is a conspiracy theory scenario. It may look plausible from a respectable distance, but there's no proof and it's essentially impossible to obtain any. All we can honestly say is "maybe, but probably not." ## Amplifying Yourself I brought up this story not for drama – tech drama happens every day. But this specific one is a live demonstration of how the game is played now. Organic effort, community trust, years of coding — all of it absorbed in a single strategic move by someone with more resources, more intelligence, and more reach. Even more: you, the very creator of the product, never had a word in the story, you were just a pawn. That's the new operating system of the world. The question isn't whether this is fair. It's: what do you do knowing this is how things work? THIS is what you're competing against. THIS is the scale of the world's flexibility, and THESE are the forces at work. Do you think you can survive this by just "showing up"? The game has changed, and just to stay afloat you need a 5x on top of your current value. This is not an abstract 5x. If you're a developer, you need at least five more versions of yourself, with different capabilities and angles: - a marketing you - a research you - a customer support you - an extra team of coders - an always-on CEO of you This is just to stay afloat. To keep being there and seen. This doesn't guarantee any form of success. It just keeps you alive, somehow. It is, in essence, your submission to the new conquerors — allowing you to keep living for a while. If you want to do more than survive this new AI Genghis Khan wave, you need to 100x yourself. The 100x isn't about working harder. It's about building leverage that compounds without you. Your ideas need to travel further than your hands can carry them. Your name needs to be in rooms you're not in – and be recognizable in a second. Your framework, your method, your angle — needs to be so distinctly yours that even when someone larger absorbs *the wave you created*, they *can't absorb you*. The Mongolians conquered everything. But they couldn't conquer the cultures that were too deeply rooted to be replaced. They ruled over them, yes. But those cultures survived. Some of them outlasted the empire entirely. Your goal is not to beat the AI overlords. Your goal is to be un-erasable enough that they have to work around you. First published on: February 18, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fshowing-up-is-not-enough-anymore%2F&text=Showing%20Up%20Is%20Not%20Enough%20%E2%80%93%20Anymore&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fshowing-up-is-not-enough-anymore%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fshowing-up-is-not-enough-anymore%2F&t=Showing%20Up%20Is%20Not%20Enough%20%E2%80%93%20Anymore https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fshowing-up-is-not-enough-anymore%2F&title=Showing%20Up%20Is%20Not%20Enough%20%E2%80%93%20Anymore Previous ### 7 Unusual Facts About Vietnam (/7-unusual-facts-about-vietnam/) Next ### The (Surprising) Long Term Benefits of Continuous Learning (/the-surprising-long-term-benefits-of-continuous-learning/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 14 Ways To Say Yes URL: https://dragosroua.com/14-ways-to-say-yes.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/14-ways-to-say-yes/ Published: 2010-01-15 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 77 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration Tags: boundaries, communication, decide, list post Mastering the art of saying "No" is compulsory in many cases. We do have to learn how to say it without offending the other person and still getting what we want. Appropriately saying "No" can really save our butt from a tricky situation and that's why mastering our "No"'s is so important. And still, the real power lies not in saying "No", but in saying "Yes". If mastering the "No"'s will activate an invisible safety belt, a good, plain and timely "Yes" will push us higher than we think we can. If "No" is the savior, "Yes" is the creator. "No" is defensive, "Yes" is empowering. Let's try to understand the art of acknowledging, by reviewing 14 ways to say yes: ## 1. I Do! If you ever asked somebody to marry you, than you know what I mean: "I do" is a very interesting form of total submission and commitment (/gtd-tips-renegotiate-your-commitments-constantly/). You say "I do" with almost your last breathe, still thinking the other person would never ask. You are almost shouting, raising your voice in an effort of being heard and accepted. Can you hear me? I'm here! I do! ## 2. Let's Do It! The practical approach of starting stuff together. You use "Let's do it" when you're eager to start (/33-tips-to-start-your-day/), have almost everything it takes, the only extra piece being saying it out loud so the other part can hear it. "Let's do it" is the ultimate involvement answer, it's so enabling that it barely qualify for a plain "Yes", it's more of an informal affiliation statement:. ## 3. What Are We Waiting For? The standard "Yes" of the impatient (and maybe of the compulsive one, but I'm not quite sure about that). This answer literally bury the question and move the focus on the physical action (/before-and-after-or-how-to-lose-weight-by-running/). If you get this type of "Yes" it means the question was superfluous. Instead, you should just move on and start doing things. ## 4. Hell, Yes Enthusiastic and passionate, this answer always reminds me of a long dusty road in the desert and a nice bike under the rider. It's the ultimate expression of freedom, of leaving behind the old version of you and starting over. (/50-ways-to-start-fresh/) Every time I hear this answer, I know something fundamentally new will happen. ## 5. I'm In It Business-like expression of a partnership (/77-business-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/). This "Yes" is wearing a suit and it's quite disciplined. If your question involves some long term plan, receiving this "Yes" could be a very good sign. It shows commitment and strictness. The tricky part is that the other person is looking forward for the same things in you, so be careful. ## 6. I Was Born For It "I'm waiting for this question since I was born, dude. Of course, it's yes. How can it be the other way around?" This "Yes" is always making me smile. Makes me actually visualize the whole process: well, I think I would like to be born for…. that thing! Can we do it? Please? Wow, great, now let's find some guys to spread the word about it. ## 7. Of Course Chilling and kinda polite. This "Yes" goes well with a cup of the and some biscuits. Maybe a little break in the afternoon, around five o'clock, but let's not push it. Whenever I hear this "Yes" I'm also prepared to hear a "but". I think this "Yes" is the most "but"-prone from all. Nevertheless, hearing it makes me feel like I'm having some very important negotiation (/100-ways-live-better-life-29-recycle-aggressiveness/). ## 8. My Thoughts Exactly Confirming and validating, this "Yes" is almost a confession. It's so powerful that I'm sometimes afraid I actually penetrated into the other guy's mind (/how-to-keep-your-mind-virus-free/). I mean, are those really his thoughts? Wow. Whenever I use it, I do it because I really trust the other person or I try to build a more intimate connection. Which is always happening after this type of "Yes". ## 9. Are We There Yet? And that would be actually the "Yes" of the compulsive. I admit I get the shivers when I hear it, although I do know it's funny. But the confirmation level is so high and the triggered energy seems so available, that I'm almost feeling guilty for not going "there" yet. I also think this is the more validating (/are-you-a-valid-person/) "Yes" from all. ![Coloring Kiddo app icon](/images/icons/coloring-kiddo-icon-48.webp) I built Coloring Kiddo (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/coloring-kiddo-learn-colors/id6785798095)—guided coloring for toddlers with target colors and a parental gate. Free on iOS. ## 10. You'll Lead, I'll Follow Any "Yes" expressed in this form will show total trust and confidence from the other part. When it does not show a fine sense of irony too, of course. It's the most uncertain (/auto-pilot-answers-can-eat-life/) "Yes" from all. If I hear this, I know that although I'm getting followed, I somehow keep all the responsibility. This "Yes" comes with a little bit of extra caution. ## 11. Aye, Aye, Sir! Military-like acceptance. You can't mistake this one as a disguised "No", in my opinion. I almost always respond to this "Yes" with a relieving "Dismissed!", just for the fun of it. And every time I hear it, I'm compelled to continue the discussion in short but strong sentences, also know as orders. The nice thing with orders is that you expect them to be followed, most of the time. ## 12. Undoubtedly In case you're having any doubt, I mean. If you're hearing this, you're taking off the veil from a possibly foggy (/is-your-life-blurred/) situation and acknowledge total confidence. This "Yes" is coming with the sound of a hammer hitting a nail right in the head. If you know what I mean. I think this "Yes" is the most relieving of all. ## 13. Always! You know I do, why are you still asking? It's also a form of past, present and future commitment. If you hear this, your next question may not be necessary at all. This "Yes" is more than often the beginning of a beautiful friendship (/100-ways-live-better-life-5-make-new-friends/). ## 14. Totally! Unreserved immersion and acceptance. That "yes" is my favorite, but if you ask me why, I'm not sure I know the answer. Maybe because I am that kind of guy: if I'm in it for something, I simply don't know the meaning of half, I do it all the way up to the end. *** What's your preferred way to say "Yes"? Doesn't necessarily have to be from the list above, surprise me :-). When do you say it? To whom do you say it? Leave a comment and let me know, I'm really curious. And if you wonder why I chose exactly 14 ways to say "Yes", well, it's because I think for every "No" (/7-ways-to-say-no/) in our lives we should be able to come up with at least two "Yes". 🙂 --- **Liked this post? Then try out one of the most popular audio posts on my blog too. Click the "play" button below for a short excerpt:  ** [sc_embed_player fileurl="http://dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/33-ways-motivation-excerpt.mp3″] You can get that entire blog post in audio format right now, for only $2.99 (or more, if you feel generous 🙂 ). Just make your choice below:. Loading… (https://gumroad.com/l/motivation33) --- First published on: January 15, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F14-ways-to-say-yes%2F&text=14%20Ways%20To%20Say%20Yes&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F14-ways-to-say-yes%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F14-ways-to-say-yes%2F&t=14%20Ways%20To%20Say%20Yes https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F14-ways-to-say-yes%2F&title=14%20Ways%20To%20Say%20Yes Previous ### The 7 Traits Of Highly Successful Bloggers (/the-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers/) Next ### Don’t Spend Your Money Buying Friends (/dont-spend-your-money-buying-friends/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # An Tan Tiri Mogo Dan URL: https://dragosroua.com/an-tan-tiri-mogo-dan.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/an-tan-tiri-mogo-dan/ Published: 2012-01-03 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 76 Categories: Business, Personal Development Tags: creativity, family Or, to be more precise, "An Tan Tiri Mogo Dan, Cara Cara Si, Princi Pa Ta Morin Go. Tan Go!" In case you didn"t live in the Romania of the seventies, chances to know the meaning of those words are close to zero. Ok, it's a "countdown". You don"t know what a "countdown" is? It"s a sequence of apparently bogus words, spoken in a certain rhythm, almost like a song, each word being assigned to a certain person. Or, to be even more precise, to a certain kid, because this countdown is actually one of my strongest childhood memories. Let me explain how this countdown thing worked: suppose we were 7 kids, and we wanted to play "hide and seek". We had of course to pick one of us to be the actual searcher. For that, we gathered in a circle and one of us started the "countdown": "an" -> the first one in the circle was tagged, "tan" -> the second one was tagged, "tiri" -> the third one was tagged, and so on, until we reached the final "go". The kid that was tagged with that final "go" was out of the circle, sparred from the tedious job of being the searcher. Now there were only six kids left. So, we started to countdown over the circle again, until only one kid was left. That was the searcher. As simple as that. ### Above All Doubt We used "countdowns" in many ways. Whenever we had to pick someone for something, and all of our rational selection processes were ineffective, we resorted to the "countdown". It was our universal selection process. We used it when we had to pick soccer teams for our afternoon soccer games in the school yard. We used it when we had to pick the teams for the ping-pong matches on the concrete table in front of the block. We even used it in school, to pick the one that had to be on duty for the week. I don't know who invented that specific countdown and I'm pretty sure the words were completely random and meaningless. Maybe they had to be meaningless, otherwise the magical power of the "countdown" was weakened. I think it was more like an incantation, a borderline magical stuff. Once we finished a "countdown", its results were above all doubt. Nobody could contest them. It was final. In a subtle and unexplainable way, the "countdown" was the glue that was keeping us together. Eventually, all our conflicts were solved with a countdown. And nobody would ever contest it. ### The Collapsing World But, as we grew up, we noticed that some of the kids were somehow luckier than others. They seemed to be surrounded by this magical chance: never picked to be on duty at school, always in the best soccer team, never the searcher at "hide and seek". Hmm… It didn't take long to find out that, if you were doing a fast mental calculus, you could actually "predict" which kid will be the last one tagged. So, the "luckier" kids were just doing these mental calculations and they were starting the countdown each time from the "appropriate" kid. Like that, they knew how to manipulate the countdown, so they were the first ones out, if the task was tedious, or the first ones in, if the soccer team was the best one. Think of counting cards in a casino, but much simpler than that. When I first realized that, I was shocked. My entire world collapsed. What once was above any doubt, now was questionable, to say the least. My small and simple universe was literally shaken apart. ### The Modern Countdown But I survived. It wasn't the first nor the last perfect image of my childhood universe that was trashed away. Time passed by and I soon had more interesting adventures to pursue than the soccer in the school yard, the ping-pong at the concrete table or even the all mighty "hide and seek". Among these new adventures: girls, getting into college and finding my first job. But, in some remote corner of my unconscious mind, the mantra of the "countdown" was still very powerful. I think I was well into my thirties when I realized that. Only now the mechanism was a little bit changed. Now, I realized that every time I was in a situation which was unsolvable by rational processes, I was always resorting to my own personal mantra. For instance, when I was having heavy problems in my own business, like clients not paying, stretching the business beyond my means or employees leaving for better salaries, I was always resorting to some sort of personal mantra. Sometimes it was "everything will be allright, I just know it". Sometimes it was "you gotta hit the bottom if you want to bounce higher". And sometimes it was "I'll go through this, no matter what". I was repeating those mantras to myself, the same way we were doing countdowns as kids. I was just expecting it to work, because it had to. Like the countdown, my unconscious mind invested that mantra with universal powers. It was above all doubt. But I wasn't a kid anymore. And the realities surrounding me were now far more complexes than a soccer game in the afternoon or a short shot of "hide and seek". Mantras, as much as I wanted them to work, were useless. They had this power to keep me going for a while, just like the countdowns did until I realized they can be manipulated, but in the end I had to surrender. Just like my childhood universe collapsed when I realized that other kids were playing us because they knew more or they were faster at calculus, each of my mantras were trashed away but the existing realities. In the end, I was able to overcome pretty much every adverse situation (except the ones which are still unfolding as we speak, which is, of course, another story). But I did this outside the mantras. I did this by facing the facts, accepting the outcome and weighing my odds, in a cold and calculated way. I manipulated the countdown in my favor, starting it again and again, until I found the favorable positions. There is no magic mantra. There is no lucky shot (/luck-bad-luck-and-the-illusion-of-control/) at your command. There is nothing except your own strength and honesty. There isn't even this post. Don't believe it. Don't make a mantra or countdown out of it. Because I wrote it only to manipulate you. I counted all the words in such a way that it puts me in a better position. I'm out now ;). First published on: January 3, 2012 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fan-tan-tiri-mogo-dan%2F&text=An%20Tan%20Tiri%20Mogo%20Dan&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fan-tan-tiri-mogo-dan%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fan-tan-tiri-mogo-dan%2F&t=An%20Tan%20Tiri%20Mogo%20Dan https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fan-tan-tiri-mogo-dan%2F&title=An%20Tan%20Tiri%20Mogo%20Dan Previous ### Taming Monkeys Aftermath (/taming-monkeys-aftermath/) Next ### Cash, Stubborness and Music (/cash-stubborness-and-music/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Train Your Brain URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-train-your-brain.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-train-your-brain/ Published: 2010-04-29 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 76 Categories: Health and Fitness, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: focus, how to, self improvement, training You'd better relax and set aside some time for yourself, because this post is going to be rather long. And it will also be something different from what you'd expect from me. One could argue that this will be a tutorial for rewiring your brain, while others may think that this will be just a review for a product I like. No one would be right, of course. It will be something in between. Without further ado, ladies and gents, let's talk about how to keep your brain in good shape. ### Your Brain Is Your Main World Interface Some of you may remember the series of posts in which I made a comparison between a human being and a computer, and I'm talking specifically about how to keep the best version of yourself (/are-you-the-best-version-of-yourself/). For the sake of the game, let's pretend again you're like a computer. In this case, your brain will be your main world interface. (It's not the CPU, as some of you may think. The CPU is just processing information, and that is only one cognitive function among many others the brain has, like attention, flexibility and so on). So, everything you feel, think, imagine and create, everything would go through this interface. If this interface will be broken, your sensations, thoughts and memories would be severely affected. If this interface will become faster, wider and slimmer, your sensations will be more vivid, your thoughts will be more complex and your memories will be accessible much easier. Now, let's take this a little further. Let's pretend you're much more than a computer. You're an airport. Thousands of planes are going in and out to this airport. Some of the planes are carrying sensations, some of them are carrying information and some of them are carrying thoughts or memories. Some of the planes you send out are carrying words or gestures, and they land on other airports. In this case, your brain is your main control tower. It dispatches sensations, thoughts and memories and creates complicated storage structures and algorithms. It keeps all the traffic going on in good conditions. And it does that by constantly monitoring the incoming flow of planes, the available departure lanes, the weather, the remote airports availability, the flight schedule and maybe a thousand of other parameters. Imagine what happens if this control tower fails at some point. Plane crashes. Colliding sensations. Erratic words going out to other airports. Missing pieces of information from other airports, because their planes will never land. Total damage. And you don't need a severe failure to observe a significant decrease in brain performance. It suffices to have just a lazy control tower operator and you'll start noticing delayed responses, crowded landing lanes, rushing takes-off and so on. I'm sure you've been there: saying what you didn't want to say, remembering stuff when you don't need it anymore or experiencing sudden talking blocks. Hopefully, you have a better idea now about how important your brain is for your overall functionality as a human being. And still, this metaphor is just a feeble image of what your brain does. It also monitors your energy levels sending stimuli of hunger (that would be the equivalent of re-fueling the planes), it does long-term planning (equivalent of upgrading the equipments and planes) or makes estimations (learning by example, for instance, after a plane collision). OK, I get the feeling that you know why you need to keep your brain in good shape. Let's start talking about the how. ### How To Train Your Brain First of all, let me tell you that I was in search for something similar to Lumosity for a long time. When Lucaino Passuelo posted a tweet about how cool Lumosity is, I clicked to see what it's all about. (It's not the first time when Luciano, is pushing my limits. Last time he did it, I ended up on the first page of Delicious, Digg and a few other social media outlets, after I wrote my first huge list post: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/)). After a few clicks (or touches, since I was more attracted by the iPhone version) I confess I was totally sold out. Lumosity is a collection of scientifically designed "brain games", which are challenging various areas of your cognitive process: from flexibility to attention, and from speed to memory. The best way to explain Lumosity is "fitness for your brain". If you exercise regularly you already know all the benefits: your body tends to be slimmer, you walk steadier, you're more aware, your muscles are always ready to act, you detox faster and so on. Well, those are the exact benefits you should expect from a brain exercising routine too. You'll think faster, you'll increase your attention and memory, you'll be more flexible, reacting better to environmental changes, and so on. These brain games I'm going to talk about are hosted at but there is also an iPhone version. I personally prefer the iPhone version and I think that being a digital nomad (/being-a-digital-nomad/) plays a huge role in this decision. Games are also structured as courses, or series of various games mixed together in sessions. The iPhone version features such a course with 35 sessions. One neat thing about the iPhone version is that you can set up alerts and you'll be notified at the time of the next session. Total time spent on such a session is between 4 and 7 minutes. Of course, you can play the games individually and I do this all the time. But I would recommend doing the session first, it seems there is a certain progression which will tune in your brain faster if you that. Another cool thing about Lumosity is that you can evaluate your progress, by using a proprietary metric, the so called BPI, or Brain Power Index. Citing from Lumosity website, "*Brain Performance Index (BPI) is a measure of your performance in a given cognitive function. You can use BPI to track your performance, and compare your ability in one cognitive area to another. An increase in BPI indicates improvement. An increase of more than 200 points represents a substantial improvement of about 1 standard deviation.*" ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-BPI.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-BPI.png) If you wonder how this BPI is calculated (I know I did), there's an answer for that too: "*The BPI scales are based on an analysis and ranking of over 13,000,000 real game results. We used these game results to create a distribution of scores for each activity so we know how an individual score stacks up to all others. We then evaluate your game scores and use a proprietary algorithm to derive your BPI. Each time you play, we update your BPI to accurately reflect your current brain performance.*" But that's not all. You can track your BPI in various cognitive functions (by playing the associated games) over time with some nice looking graphs. ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-statistics.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-statistics.png) Now, let's talk about the most important games in the pack (I won't spoil the surprise for you by talking about ALL the games). ### Brain Exercises Just like physical exercise, brain training must be performed in a balanced way. Excelling only at one cognitive function of your brain wouldn't give you any big advantage. Yes, you may have a fantastic memory, but if you lack attention or flexibility, it wouldn't make you perform better overall. So, if at the gym you're doing intervals, weight lifting and running, in a brain training workout you'll do memory, attention, speed and flexibility. ### Train Brain for Attention: Lost In Migration ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-lost-in-migration.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-lost-in-migration.png) Apparently, this was the most difficult game for me. You have to spot the center bird in a group, without getting distracted by the other birds. Once you saw its direction, do a swipe confirming it (left, right, up or down). If you got it right, you get points (and a bonus if you do it really fast). If you got it wrong, your iPhone will vibrate and you won't get points. Each session lasts about 45 seconds. The goal is to keep your attention steady, without being distracted. The game features several backgrounds (balloons, desert, city) and I suspect there's a different difficulty level in each of them. It can get really frustrated in the beginning, if you're getting 2-3 vibrates in a row, but it surely becomes better as you practice. I still find it very difficult to pass over a certain physical limit: there are a few milliseconds between the visual identification and the finger gesture. This gap is very hard to minimize. In other words, the brain-finger muscle cooperation must be enhanced too. ### Train Brain for Memory: Memory Matrix ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-memory-matrix.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-memory-matrix.png) By far, my favorite game. You get a matrix of cells (growing from 3×3 up to 8×8), in which you are presented with a random model of colored cells. The model stays around a second, then it disappears. Your job is to re-create the model by touching the corresponding cells. If you got it right, the matrix advances to the next level and you get points. If it doesn't, you get a nasty iPhone vibration and have to start over from the previous level (for instance, if you screw it at the 7 cells level, you gotta start again by doing the 6 cells level). There are 15 turns, starting from 3 cells models, which means the maximum you can go is up to 17 cells models. In my experience, around 9-12 cells there's a threshold. If you get over these levels, you'll find it surprisingly easier to solve a matrix with 14 or 15 cells. This game was the first one in which I got a BPI higher than 500 (a part from the Chalkboard Challenge where I got the maximum after the first game, but more on that in a minute). ### Train Brain for Speed: Circles ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-circles.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-circles.png) I picked up Circles for this short presentation, but there are a few other variations of this in the package, feel free to get the app and look it up for yourself. In this game, you're presented with a circle in a certain shape, you have to memorize it and then the first one disappear and another one comes to the screen. Your job is to see if the previous circle matches the current one, by pressing the corresponding buttons. If you got it right, you get points, if not, yes, you're right, the iPhone will vibrate and you won't get points. I find this type of game very challenging, because it forces you to stay alert AND keep your short term memory in good shape. Also, you gotta have a pretty good reaction speed. ### Train Brain for Flexibility: Color Match ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-color-match.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-color-match.png) That was a real challenge for me and I'll explain you why a little later. It's a nice little game in which you get a two areas zone: in the upper area you get a word designating a color: red, blue, yellow or black, and in the lower area you get another word designating a color, which, attention, must MATCH the upper word color. So, if the upper word is "red" the lower word must by in a red color, regardless of its meaning, which could be "yellow". That's tricky. I'm not an English native speaker, so I had a little overhead in this game because I had to perform 2 more translations: one for the upper color and one for the lower color. In the beginning I was a catastrophe at this game. But after a few days I got better. Which means nothing, but nothing, but nothing that these games are really working. 🙂 ### Train Brain for Problem Solving: Chalkboard Challenge ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-chalkboard-challenge.png) (/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/train-your-brain-chalkboard-challenge.png) Now, last but not least, the game in which I surprisingly got the highest possible score from the first time. In this one, you get a two area zone, only this time on an horizontal split. The left and right areas are holding numbers, or various operations with numbers and you gotta pick the highest result. For instance, if on the right area you got number 9, and in the left area you got (6 + 3) * 2, the right area is the correct one: 18 > 9. The operations can get really complex. At some point, the areas are starting to shake, making the identification of symbols pretty difficult (not to mention the actual computations). As I told you, I got the highest score at this from the first time, meaning 1700. I had a few blunders along the line but overall I am at the same level – 1698 – 1700 – during the last month. It took me a while to understand why I got the highest score so fast but I think I finally got it: as on online entrepreneur (/77-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/) I exercised this estimation function on a daily basis. Especially in the online business, where everything is so volatile, making accurate estimations is a key process. So I was already there, so to speak. ### My Brain Training Personal Experience Now, I have more than one month since I practice this. And I must say that it was quite an interesting experience. First of all, I took all the 35 sessions from the iPhone introductory course. I didn't take them one per day, as they recommend, but rather 2-3 in a row. Meanwhile, I did a lot of other exercises separately and closely watched my BPI. I was able to go from 1100 BPI to 1500 BPI in around 30 days. According to terms, I had at least 2 standard deviations (one increase in 200 BPI being considered 1 standard deviation). #### Physical Sensations I am a true believer in neuro-plasticity, which is the ability of brain to re-organize itself, or even to re-create new cells as they are required. Not long ago, the large majority of brain scientists believed that we are basically limited by birth conditions to the number of neurons we have, hence our brain performance was something "frozen" or at least highly predictable and limited. I don't believe this. I think we can reshape our brain the same way we are "sculpting" our bodies at the gym. During the first part of my 30 days experience with Lumosity I experienced some mild headaches. I couldn't even describe them as headaches, but more like an inside pressure or some increased awareness of some of my brain areas. Something very close to the sore body you get after a good workout. I also felt more alert and ready to start or to finish things. It wasn't about motivation (/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated/) *per se*, but more about my presence in the moment. I also had more intense hunger feelings and I clearly felt the need to eat differently. I know there is a link between proteins and our nervous system, but I don't know exactly what it is. I can only tell you that I felt the need to eat more proteins as usual (beans, for instance). I continued to drink around 3-4 liters of green tea per day (I gave up coffee a year ago) and I also observed some subtle correspondence between the level of liquids and my overall state. Clearly better when I stick to my regular tea routine. #### Some Visible Improvements In the last 30 days I was invited to 3 public events where I talked about entrepreneurship and lifestyle design. I never was afraid to talk in public, but these last 3 times I felt really great. In two cases I didn't had any written presentation and I spoke freely to an audience of about 30-50 persons. I surprised myself being coherent and catching the flow even without a pre-established structure or plan. At one event I was on the board of advisers, in front of a 120 persons audience for 9 hours straight and I never had any drifting away moment. I consider this to be a direct consequence of exercising my brain. In the last 30 days I also launched the website of my New Zealand company along with my first public product. I don't think it's a coincidence that my first app in the App Store was a little cute memory game. The game was developed in about 10 days and it features both iPhone and Android versions. Another area in which I clearly saw a visible improvement was my learning ability. I was able to finally freeze my long time postponed company products roadmap for the next 9 months, including some old, dusted projects, and to bring to alpha version a few new apps. Being busy, so to speak. What's interesting is that I noticed an increased ability to juggle with different programming environments and languages, switching easily from Objective C (yes, I finally become a friend of Xcode) and Lua (using a somehow exotic SDK for cross-platform game development). But the most visible improvement was in awareness. In less than a week since I started this brain exercising routine, I observed an increased capacity to focus and to remain focused for larger chunks of time. I don't think many of the so-called social media enthusiasts will like what I'm going to say now, but this 30 days trial made me reconsider my social media approach. I've been extremely quiet on Twitter (http://twitter.com/dragosroua) and only at the minimal level in Facebook. I do think social media is making us prone to attention disorder and it highly affects our ability to stay focused. Toldya you ain't gonna like this. 🙂 Another visible improvement was on the analytical side, especially on the relationships side. We all have our own idiosyncrasies and we tend to react the same way to the same social stimuli. Some persons are making us angry and other are making us happy. We're reacting to them on autopilot. I noticed that I have an increased attention to my reaction to relationships, giving them much more attention and weight that I did previously. For instance, I avoided a few fights just by being able to see more clearly what the point of the discussion was, and I also was able to start a few fresh contacts with persons I wasn't usually very attracted to (there were business contacts, mainly). ### Tips For A Better Brain Fitness Now, if you're going to start your own brain exercising routine (which I believe you'll do, judging from the fact that you've been curious enough to get to this point of the article 😉 ), here are a few tips and tricks from my personal experience. – don't do attention games after 20:00 in the evening (or with less than 2 hours before going to sleep). It will create an unneeded state of awareness. I couldn't sleep for hours until i realized that I just challenged my brain attention function and it will stay alert for the next few hours. – do some brain games before meetings: memory games when you're doing some public speaking, especially if you're talking freely, without a written presentation. Do some flexibility games before a negotiation, it will make easier for you to see the opportunities in the discussion. If you're planning something, do some problem solving exercises and strengthen your forecasting abilities. – to improve your memory matrix results: try to create stories associated to the the images. I saw that if I give names to some of the shapes, I can solve the matrix faster. – in attention games is more important to give accurate results than to be faster. The goal is to train your ability to stick with the correct situation than to do it faster. You can become faster in speed games. 😉 – don't let a gap bigger than 100 BPI between your various cognitive areas, otherwise it will be pretty difficult to advance. Even if you score the highest score on Estimations, for instance, it will be pretty difficult to increase your overall BPI. ### The Brain Training Price Initially, this last paragraph was meant to give you a short overview of the prices for this product. But as the article unfold, I realized that there is really a price you pay if you DON'T enhance your brain. Of course, isn't the only method to train your brain, it's not the greatest miracle in human evolution, nor even the best thing since the sliced bread (I think the Internet could easily win this one). But it's a solid service and it does a very interesting thing from a business perspective: it finds a good opportunity and exploits it. The price is affordable, the service is solid, the results are unquestionable (again, at least for me) so it does what every business should do: sell something valuable at an affordable price. Now, let's talk about the real prices. The iPhone app is free, and so are the first 20 training sessions. After that, you subscribe using InApp Purchase (meaning you're buying a subscription from within the iPhone, using the credit card you use for buying stuff on iTunes and App Store). The most affordable yearly plan is 7.99 USD. Please keep in mind that you can play the games for as long as you want without paying, the subscription will only give access to your BPI and tracking statistics. Also, on the iPhone some of the games are sold separately for prices from 0.99 and 1.99. The individual apps offers statistics only for the BPI associated with the game (i.e. only memory BPI if you're buying the Memory Matrix game). On the website, the monthly subscription costs 14.99 USD, but there are a few yearly packages which can drop this as low as 4.99 USD for a two years subscription. Keep in mind that when you sign up to you can use all the features in the website for a limited time. There's no associated fee for creating an account. You pay this subscription only if you want to access your BPI all the time, access personalized courses and see how you compare with other Lumosity users. As for paying the subscription, just keep an eye on your mailbox, because I saw that Lumosity is pushing some special offers and discounts pretty every now and then, so you can get even better than 4.99 USD/month. So, go ahead: sign up at Lumosity.com (even if you plan to use only the iPhone version, you gotta have an account at Lumosity, your BPI score and evolution are stored remotely on the server). Start playing, befriend me and let me know how you feel about that. Happy brain fitness 🙂 First published on: April 29, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Train Your Focus URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-train-your-focus.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-train-your-focus/ Published: 2009-06-03 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 76 Categories: Productivity and Effectiveness, Spirituality and Beliefs, Time management Tags: focus, habits, self discipline How is your focus? Do you find it easy to concentrate for longer chunks of time or are you easily distracted? Do you enjoy doing the same thing at the same focus level over and over again, or are you easily bored (/how-and-why-we-get-bored/)? I used to think that focus is a function of pleasure: I can concentrate on this because I like it. I do some stuff better than other because I like it. While loving what you do can keep your concentration high, at least in the beginning, maintaining a constant, high focus is not a function of pleasure at all. It's a function of will. Focus can be trained. It can be enhanced, it can be shaped the way you want. It can serve you well, if you treat it well. In today's post I'll share some of my observations regarding focus and how one can work this tool the same way you work your muscles in your daily workout. ## Detach From Pleasure To like something is a great "do" igniter. It really puts you on the road. Starting something you don't like is usually slower and less energizing. But after the initial thrill, even if you do like what you're doing, keeping yourself in the flow requires a lot of effort. Your focus will start to weaken. The best way to ensure a constant flow of focus is to detach from pleasure. To treat every single task emotionally equal. Might sounds "robotish" and totally not fun, but in fact it's just a way to trick your focus into a better approaching method. If you're constantly doing only things you like, your focus will develop a sort of addiction. It will unconsciously start looking for nice stuff, and will ignore difficult, or boring things. It will not discard it and put it aside for later, the boring stuff will simply disappear from the radar. You'll end up as a hedonistic prisoner of "only nice stuff, please". Detaching from pleasure doesn't mean you will refrain from enjoying what you're doing. Detaching from pleasure means you'll start doing things regardless of their niceness level. You'll just do them. Detaching from pleasure means you're also detaching from boredom. If you can observe yourself doing stuff, pleasure and boredom are just choices. You're doing that thing anyway, so you can chose how you feel about it. ## Assess Results Whenever you keep your focus on something for longer chunks, take your time to assess results every once in a while. Take your time to see how were you at the beginning of the task and how are you now. Especially in difficult tasks, assessing results is a great focus enhancer. It does this by progress showing. If you're caught in solving a longer problem, you might forget where you started. You start circling and stumbling. You get caught in a pattern of "I'm getting nowhere with this" and your focus will start weaken. The hedonistic part of you will ask for something nice to hang on, and you'll step away form the problem and go grab a cookie, for instance. If after the cookie your focus will be higher, it would be great, but your focus is usually thinner. You didn't assess any results, you just tried to escape a difficult task. Your focus will want again to the cookie. Assessing results is easy, is a matter of saying: "I started this journey 15 minutes ago, and I'm doing ok, regardless of the fact I've done only one single step. I'm ok. I'm on it.". Your focus will be forced to stay there until you solve the problem. You assessed your position, you acknowledged the fact that you're making progress. This works regardless of the focus time span. You can assess results of a 15 minutes cooking session, or of a 5 years goal. Maintaining your focus is equally important in both. ## One More Second I took this habit from my fitness session. Whenever I do pushups or abs, I establish some goal, let's say 50 abs. When I'm close to 49, I stretch myself out and go over 50, usually 51, or 52. I do the this all the time. The goal is clear but I always try to stay in there for one more second. I also did this in business. Whenever I was close to finish a project, I did something extra, a feature or an addition of some kind. It was not in the specs from the beginning but I felt the need to put it there. Staying "one more second" in a project, in a workout, or in a relationship is a fantastic focus enhancer. I always know that I can do more abs after that second and I always know that my project will be a success, after that last feature. I am in there, I know it, I stay focused. ![Zen Tales app icon](/images/zen-tales-icon-48.webp) For deeper reflection, I built Zen Tales (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zen-tales-buddhist-stories/id6758518121)—timeless Buddhist stories with AI insights for contemplation. "One more second" is also good for assessing wrong paths. Even if you feel it's wrong, take one more second to assess that and let your focus decide. If it's a bad relationship, stay one more second in it and make sure it's really bad for you. Next time, your focus will warn you from the beginning, and you won't have to go through tough times again. ## Balance Your Senses Your focus is channeling the reality by using your senses. Each person have a specific distribution of these senses in their focus. Some are visual, some are functioning well by really touching stuff, some are reacting better to voices. Your senses are the gates and your focus is the gate opener. Focus likes diversity. If you're a visual guy, try using some sounds in the next working session. Put some music on, tap the table from time to time. If you're doing something related to sounds (you're a musician for instance, or working on a movie soundtrack) try to balance this by using some new lights around you. Change your seat, light a candle. It will instantly make you focus better. Your focus will always appreciate a new balance in your senses. It's not about boredom, we talked about that already. What you're doing is sending a complementary signal that will make your focus trying to recompose the big picture. And that will keep it on the current task. ## Your Focus Is Your Reality Ok, I cheated a bit. I started with all those tips about focus enhancement and kept the focus definition aside. And I did this for a reason. I strongly believe that your focus is in fact your reality. You cannot experience something outside your focus. Everything you do is driven by focus, it's like a handle to keep and master your environment. It's the only way you actively experience your life: whenever you're not focused, you're drifting away, whenever you're focused you're sailing. Let's make a short experiment now. Take a look at the wall in front of you. Yes, like right now. Take a look, I said, don't cheat. 🙂 After several seconds come back here and read on. Where was your focus while you looked at the wall? Outside this blog post, of course, what a silly question. But where was the blog post during this period? You'll answer that it was there, right in front of you, waiting for your to get back. It was in your mind. But I will say this blog post was completely outside your reality. You might have think it was there, but it was on a virtual space and time. Your real space and time was filled with the wall. You were focused on the wall, and the wall took precedence of everything else in your life, including your thoughts. You might have think you were thinking at the post, but instead you were focused on the wall. Everything in your life works like this. You might think you're doing something, but your real focus is somewhere else. You think you're happy, but instead of real happiness, your focus is in useless, shallow thoughts. You give to your thinking mind the benefit of reality, instead to give this to your focus. You might spend your entire life thinking you're doing just fine, but your focus will be on a wall. You'll be in fact experiencing a wall, not a happy life. This is why learning how to train your focus is far more than a productivity technique. At a certain level, focus mastering is a magical endeavor, is an esoteric, almost secret art. The one who masters his focus will master his own world. Are you with me here? Or are your drifting away? First published on: June 3, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-train-your-focus%2F&text=How%20To%20Train%20Your%20Focus&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-train-your-focus%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-train-your-focus%2F&t=How%20To%20Train%20Your%20Focus https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-train-your-focus%2F&title=How%20To%20Train%20Your%20Focus Previous ### The Productivity Map (/the-productivity-map/) Next ### The Spiral Path (/the-spiral-path/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # My Latest iOS App, Light Njoy, Lets You Share Your Light – Like, Literally URL: https://dragosroua.com/my-latest-ios-app-light-njoy-lets-you-share-your-light-like-literally.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/my-latest-ios-app-light-njoy-lets-you-share-your-light-like-literally/ Published: 2026-03-11 Views: 76 Categories: Digital Tools, iPhone Tags: ai tools, apps, creativity, tools If you're in my paid newsletter plan, you already know about Light Njoy (/light-njoy/), I wrote an extensive introduction in the latest installment, a couple of days ago. But if you're not, then I'm happy to let you know that Light Njoy was just approved and it's live in the AppStore. ## What Is Light Njoy? As you know, I build apps to solve real life problems in my life. I built AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) to teach my one year old new words in 3 languages, I built MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) to battle the Mekong Delta mosquitoes, Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) to support my Buddhist practice, and so on. So, what problem in my life do I solve with Light Njoy? I'm afraid this time I don't have a very clear answer. But I'll try my best to explain the reasons. See, I own an iPhone for more than 15 years, and I've been always carrying it around. Most of the time, the phone sits there, and the screen, when it's not turned off to save battery, always shows the list of my apps. Familiar, but boring. If you think about it, we have this light emitting surface with us for almost the entire duration of the day, yet we're not doing anything to program it actively. I'm not talking about screensavers, they're by design static. I'm talking about actively taking advantage of that light surface and made it into something useful. Coding the light. I told you the answer will be less clear this time. ## The 4 Levels of Light Njoy **The first level is just displaying a nice combination of colors, both statically and dynamically. ** The static area just splits the iPhone screen in 4 rectangles, and fills them with a few pre-selected palettes that work well together. But that's all there's static about it, because the colors themselves start to shift, and this is adjustable with a simple slider. So although it starts with a palette, soon the color "migrate" from one rectangle to another. What's happening is a little bit more complex than that, but you got the idea. The dynamic one is even better. The 4 colors palette are now assembled in fluid, gradient blending patterns: aurora (mimicking the North Pole Aurora lights), circle (coming in and blending in a mesmerizing, engulfing movement) and – by far my favorite – the light bulb. This is literally liquid light, making the screen behave like a never ending, hypnotizing and random mix of random shape and colors into random shapes and colors. You really have to see this to understand what I mean. The good news is that all features are accessible in the free plan, just some of them are ad gated (more about this in a minute). **The second level is AI powered images.** Using Apple Intelligence you can generate stunning images from simple prompts, images that will fit your entire screen, edge to edge. Superimposed on these images, the movement in the first layer makes the color travel from one square to another, or make it look like the sun is rolling around, shining and blending everywhere. If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, you have access to it, if not, you'll have to buy a new device. Furthermore, you can ask Apple Intelligence to just extract the dominant palette from the image it just generated and use it as the color baseline. **The third level is assisted breathing.** This one easy: using one of the pre-defined patterns, we use the circle animation to support various breathing cycles. So, the light is now traveling along with your own breath. There's also some subtle haptic feedback, to guide you on top of the light changes. **And the fourth level is the most exciting: sharing "njoys".** After putting together all of the above, I though, what if I can stitch them together in some way? For example, start with a simple static color palette, for 1 minute, then move to bulb for 3 minutes, then fade to black. This looks like a good "go to sleep" supporting session. Or what if I can let my phone aside with a custom aurora palette, for half an hour, while learning something? And slowly, I wanted to be able to save these, so I can reuse them later. And it was just a matter of time until I wanted to make them shareable. Which I did. So, Light Njoy, literally lets you share your light. You can create these "njoys" (which are basically JSON files) and then share them with whoever you want. If they have the app, they can import your "njoys" and play them on their device. The AI feature works even better: if you include some step about generating an image with a specific prompt, the image doesn't get generated, but the prompt does, so the image will be generated on the receiver device (if they have Apple Intelligence) using their own specific constraints. ## What's Free and How Much It Costs? The first 3 levels in Light Njoy are ad gated, meaning you can unlock them for 10 minutes, with a 2 hours cooldown period. Don't pay anything, just watch a rewarded ad. The 4th level is partially free, meaning you can import and play other "njoys" but in order to create them, you must buy the app – or become a premium user, as I call it. It costs $6.99 to do that, and it's a one time payment. No subscriptions, no hidden fees. You pay once, you get it forever. And it unlocks all the existing features. Every single one of them. To celebrate the launch, I'm making you an offer you cannot refuse: use code NJOYLIGHT and get 50% off of the premium layer. That means you pay just $2.99 – less than a decent cappuccino, to be honest – and you can start sharing your light. Like, literally. Download Light Njoy now (/go/lightnjoy-page?to=https%3A%2F%2Fapps.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Flight-njoy%2Fid6759700009&from=%2Flight-njoy%2F&app=Light%20Njoy). First published on: March 11, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-latest-ios-app-light-njoy-lets-you-share-your-light-like-literally%2F&text=My%20Latest%20iOS%20App%2C%20Light%20Njoy%2C%20Lets%20You%20Share%20Your%20Light%20%E2%80%93%20Like%2C%20Literally&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-latest-ios-app-light-njoy-lets-you-share-your-light-like-literally%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-latest-ios-app-light-njoy-lets-you-share-your-light-like-literally%2F&t=My%20Latest%20iOS%20App%2C%20Light%20Njoy%2C%20Lets%20You%20Share%20Your%20Light%20%E2%80%93%20Like%2C%20Literally https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-latest-ios-app-light-njoy-lets-you-share-your-light-like-literally%2F&title=My%20Latest%20iOS%20App%2C%20Light%20Njoy%2C%20Lets%20You%20Share%20Your%20Light%20%E2%80%93%20Like%2C%20Literally Previous ### Attention Is All You Need – But the Reasons Have Changed (/attention-is-all-you-need-but-the-reasons-have-changed/) Next ### Being The Weird One (/being-the-weird-one/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Gravitational Habits URL: https://dragosroua.com/gravitational-habits.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/gravitational-habits/ Published: 2020-06-30 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 75 Categories: Health and Fitness, Success and Wellness Tags: consistency, do, habit formation, habits If you read my blog, you may be already familiar with the concept of reusable habits (/reusable-habits/). In short, it's about building those habits that have a better chance to be reused, based on your context. For instance, if you create the habit of aggressive budgeting, you may use this in any context where money is involved (and in our current world, money is involved everywhere). On the other hand, if you build the habit of going to the sauna, you may find that very few places on Earth can accommodate this. So, as a general rule, creating habits that can be reused in any context is a more productive approach. On top of that, I also use the concept of "gravitational habits". This works regardless of the context, and refers to habits that we may use in any circumstance of our lives, by being "pulled" towards them, almost without any effort, just like gravitation works. ## A Short Physics Reminder Our current universe works in a very specific way: it links the gravity an object generates to its mass. So, if a planet has a bigger mass, its gravitational pull will be stronger. An asteroid, on the other hand, with a smaller mass, will have a weaker gravitational field. To oversimplify (/the-tender-place-between-oversimplification-and-unnecessary-complexity/): the more mass you put together, the bigger the gravitational field. ## Actionable Mass and Gravitational Habits Now, if we continue this comparison, a "gravitational habit" will form around a bigger "actionable mass". In other words: the bigger the effort we put into creating a habit, the stronger its "gravitational pull" will be. In practice, this may happen in two ways: first, by creating all of a sudden a very big "actionable mass", or second, by putting together, constantly, a small amount of action until we gather together a huge "actionable mass" around a certain behavior. The first case is the most disruptive one. It usually happens when we encounter really big difficulties or when we're faced with serious decisions. For instance, you may go out for drinks every Saturday and come back home slightly tipsy. Until, one day, you come back home Sunday morning way more than tipsy, barely remember the night, and what you reconstruct based on the receipts of your credit card is really scary. The next Saturday, with a big effort, you decide to do 2 hours of volunteering, instead of going out for drinks. It's a big "actionable mass" you create all of a sudden, a relevant disruption. But the amount of "mass" you put into it might be just enough to generate enough "gravity" for this volunteering habit. The second case is more boring: you add very small quantities of "actionable mass" every day, until you reach a tipping point (or, to be more precise, a "tipping amount of mass"). This is how I implemented my morning routine, which includes a bit of yoga and meditation. I started it years ago, by putting in just 10 minutes, regardless of the context, of my mood or anything else. Just one sun salutation in the morning, but done each and every day. This, in time, generated so much "actionable mass", that the gravitational pull of this habit became incredibly strong. It's so strong, it survived every major disruption in my life. For instance, during the last few months, I had to go through some major ups and downs (like everybody else, for what matters, since I'm talking about the Covid-19 induced lockdown). During this time, I did almost every day my morning routine, without even thinking. I literally felt "pulled" towards doing it. If you really think about it, every time you do something, you create a little bit of "actionable mass" around that something. The more you do it, the more "mass" you add to it, and that, in turns, literally creates some sort of gravitation towards that thing. In time, the gravitation will be so strong, you'll be pulled towards that on auto-pilot. Just keep in mind it goes like this with everything: stuff you want to happen, and stuff you don't want to happen as well. Everything you do is, in fact, a tiny bit of "actionable mass" that will generate some gravitational field at some point. Try to choose wisely. First published on: June 30, 2020 ### 🔧 Hacking Habits Foundation Part 1 of 9 View all 9 posts → (/hacking-habits/) Next → Architecture Reusable Habits (/reusable-habits/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Gravitational Habits (/gravitational-habits/) 2. Architecture: Reusable Habits (/reusable-habits/) 3. Integration: A Good Habit Is An Invisible Habit (/a-good-habit-is-an-invisible-habit/) 4. Quality: Healthy And Unhealthy Routines (/healthy-and-unhealthy-routines/) 5. Formation: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 3. Create A New Habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-3-create-new-habit/) 6. Optimization: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 79. Break A Bad Habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-79-break-bad-habit/) 7. Anti-patterns: My Top 7 Demotivating Habits (/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/) 8. Timeline: How To Create A Habit In 15 Days (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/) 9. Application: 5 Financial Habits Enforced By Playing Cashflow (/5-financial-habits-enforced-by-playing-cashflow/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgravitational-habits%2F&text=Gravitational%20Habits&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgravitational-habits%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgravitational-habits%2F&t=Gravitational%20Habits https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgravitational-habits%2F&title=Gravitational%20Habits Previous ### Traveling By Airplane In Covid-19 Times (/traveling-by-airplane-in-covid-19-times/) Next ### The Most Important 3 Things To Do In The Morning (/the-most-important-3-things-to-do-in-the-morning/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # My Location Independence Journey: From Europe to Asia (Podcast interview) URL: https://dragosroua.com/my-location-independence-journey-from-europe-to-asia-podcast-interview.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/my-location-independence-journey-from-europe-to-asia-podcast-interview/ Published: 2025-12-10 Views: 75 Categories: Financial Resilience, Location Independence, Meaningful Relationships Tags: asia, financial habits, portugal, south korea, vietnam I was recently a guest on Inspiring Entrepreneurs (https://florinrosoga.ro/podcasturi-lista/) (Antreprenori care Inspiră), a Romanian podcast hosted by Florin Roșoga. We had a really great conversation — we talked about leaving Romania after 40, the framework I use for choosing countries, what "home" actually means when you've lived in multiple places, and the unexpected path from programmer to bar owner in Vietnam (/tag/vietnam/). The podcast is in Romanian, but I've summarized the key insights below for English readers. You can also follow the auto-translation captions on YouTube, they do a pretty good job. ## Listen on Other Platforms - Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/via%C8%9Ba-re%C3%AEnceput%C4%83-la-50-de-ani-drago%C8%99-rou%C4%83-%C8%99i-arta-de/id1000557798?i=1000740405797) - Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/episode/4hZj4ZH5AYWooKHMTydgaq) - Original podcast page (https://florinrosoga.ro/dragos-roua-2/) ## Episode Chapters - **00:00** — Intro - **03:12** — The conversation begins - **08:55** — Five questions for choosing a new country - **21:02** — Why Portugal? - **25:44** — The transition to Korea (/tag/south-korea/) - **31:20** — What does "home" mean? - **37:00** — From programmer to bar owner in Vietnam - **41:01** — How to meet new people in a foreign country ## The 5 Questions I Ask Before Moving to a New Country Over the years, I've created a simple framework for evaluating potential places to live. Before moving to any country, I ask myself these five questions: **1. Can I sustain myself financially here?** This isn't just about cost of living — it's about whether my income sources remain stable, whether I can work remotely without friction, and whether the financial (/tag/financial-freedom/) math actually works long-term. **2. Can I get legal status without complications?** Visas, residency permits, tax implications. Some countries make this easy (Portugal's NHR (/tag/portugal/) regime was excellent when I moved there), others create endless bureaucratic friction. The legal pathway matters more than people think. **3. What kind of social life can I build here?** Can I meet people? Is there a community of expats or locals open to newcomers? Can I learn the language, or at least function in English? Your social circle contracts dramatically when you move abroad — this question determines whether you'll rebuild it or stay isolated. **4. Does this place support my wellbeing?** I look at practical things: walkable neighborhoods, parks, healthcare access, grocery stores, general entertainment options. The infrastructure of daily life. If the basics are difficult to reach, everything else becomes harder. **5. How do I actually feel here after a few weeks?** Before any permanent move, I do a two-weeks minimum test-drive. Research is useful, but nothing replaces the gut feeling you get from being there. Can I see myself here long-term, or am I just excited by novelty? ## Key Insights from the Conversation **Moving isn't about escaping — it's about curiosity.** Every time you change countries, entropy increases. More chaos (/humans-need-entropy/), but also more clarity about who you really are. The chaos becomes a practice in adaptation. **To truly change, you have to leave something behind.** Not just objects — parts of your identity. You have to let a piece of yourself die. Sounds dramatic, but it's honest. The old version (/managing-past-versions-of-yourself/) of you doesn't fit the new context. **Accept chaos as a phase.** The disorientation of a new place isn't a problem to solve immediately. It's evidence that you're learning to function in the world again. **Connection gives meaning to place.** Whether it's a bar, a meetup, or random conversations (/monday-moving-forward-series/) — new relationships are what transform a foreign city into somewhere you belong. The Harvard study on happiness confirms this: wellbeing depends more on the depth of human connection than material comfort. ## About Florin's Podcast Inspiring Entrepreneurs (https://florinrosoga.ro/podcasturi-lista/) is one of the longest-running entrepreneurship podcasts in Romania, with over 560 episodes. Florin has a gift for drawing out personal stories beyond the usual business talking points. If you understand Romanian, it's worth exploring his archive. First published on: December 10, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-location-independence-journey-from-europe-to-asia-podcast-interview%2F&text=My%20Location%20Independence%20Journey%3A%20From%20Europe%20to%20Asia%20(Podcast%20interview)&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-location-independence-journey-from-europe-to-asia-podcast-interview%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-location-independence-journey-from-europe-to-asia-podcast-interview%2F&t=My%20Location%20Independence%20Journey%3A%20From%20Europe%20to%20Asia%20(Podcast%20interview) https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-location-independence-journey-from-europe-to-asia-podcast-interview%2F&title=My%20Location%20Independence%20Journey%3A%20From%20Europe%20to%20Asia%20(Podcast%20interview) Previous ### Self-Publishing in the Age of AI (/self-publishing-in-the-age-of-ai/) Next ### 3 AI Skills For Better Content Creation (/3-ai-skills-for-better-content-creation/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The 6 Stages Of A Failure URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-6-stages-of-a-failure.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-6-stages-of-a-failure/ Published: 2010-03-10 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 75 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Success and Wellness Tags: assess, growth, lessons learned, mistakes, resilience I am always amazed by how people react when I'm telling them what I do for a living: "I run a personal development blog". Aside the usual eye rolling when it comes to put "blog" and "make a living (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/)" on the same level, they're all having a sort of a chill. And a little step back. Like they want to have a better look at me. From now on, they're either totally ignoring me, putting a permanent "idiot" label on my forehead, either start to treat me like I'm Superman or something. The total opposite of failure, if you know what I mean. (I can't tell you the exact proportion, though. I'd lean more towards the Superman thing, but the "idiot" team is also pretty strong). Anyway, fact is that once they learn I'm running a personal development blog, they somehow treat me as some sort of a guru. Which I'm so totally not. ### You're Really Not Superman? You may be disappointed, but I'll say it again: no, I'm not Superman. Wrong blog, sorry. I don't have a magic wand, hitting your heads gracefully and healing your life, your relationships or your finances. I'm not the ultimate carrier of the universal truth. I'm not the last beholder of the light of knowledge. Not even the best productivity guy around. Then why the heck have I started a personal development blog? Now take a deep breath and relax: the answer will puzzle you. Ready? Ok: I started a personal development blog because I know every imaginable thing about failure. I've been there so many times, I can't even remember. I had failures in business, I had failures in personal and social relationships, in school, in my job (back when I had one) and, generally speaking, wherever you'll find a consistent life niche, you can bet all your money that I had at least one major failure there. And you'll win big time. Yes, I had an online business (/77-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/) for 10 years, but I've been on the verge of bankruptcy more than once. At some point, I had to sell my home (at that time a small studio I was living in) and move my entire company from the office I was renting to a small apartment, where I also had to sleep, just to pay my debt. My first major personal relationship was also a complete fiasco. After my first child was born, I couldn't manage to keep my relationship with his mother going on and had to split up. After that, I courageously entered a hasty marriage, only to end it up in a few years, with the same bitter taste in my mouth. I can go on like this for hours. I mean, I really can. But that's not the point. The point is that all those failures, through a subtle but powerful process, made me stronger. And some of them made me even smarter, if you really wanna know. ### The Anatomy Of A Failure If you do something often enough, you'll start to see some patterns. If you fail enough, you'll start to discern the hidden structure of a failure. And this what I'm going to talk about for the rest of this post. In my experience, failure comes in 6 stages, each of equal importance. ### 1. The Experiment That's the first stage and also the most alive and most pleasant of all, so to speak. This is the part where you start something new, exciting, interesting. You take a risk. Start a business. Fall in love. Embark on an unexpected travel. This is the stage where you actually dive in without really knowing what's going to happen. The experiment is the most intense part of a failure, because it releases our inner guardians (/the-guardians/). We act free of inhibitions, jumping around and being in the moment. Unfortunately, this is also the stage we use to blame the most. We somehow associate the thrill, exhilaration and enthusiasm of this stage with the actual failure. Which is not entirely true. For example, when you fall in love with the "wrong" person, this is the romantic phase. The phase in which you're totally blind and helpless, enjoying every second with your new partner. You don't really care if he or she is married, if he or she is an honest person. You just don't want to know more, all you want is to feel more, to experiment more. I think we've all been there. And I think we'll all be there too, at some point. But the fact that we felt good shouldn't make us feel bad after we realize we did a mistake. ### 2. The Outcome Something happens after this experiment: there is an outcome. Maybe your business idea wasn't validated by reality (or, most likely, you did something wrong). Maybe your partner proved to be dishonest (or, most likely, you ignored some very obvious signs that he/she was actually flashing from the very beginning). Maybe the trip (/category/travel-fun/) turned out to be a fiasco because the budget exploded and now you have to do the dishes in a restaurant to pay for your plane ticket home (or, most likely, you ignored some very common sense rule and it turned out that rule was for real). The outcome is the part when we pay. When we realize we did something extremely wrong and we have to put up with the consequences. Sometimes we simply call this "the disaster". If there's something that could go wrong in the experiment, this is the stage when it actually explodes. Usually, in our faces. Out of all 6 stages, this is the one we hate the most. This is the one which totally blows out the experiment, uncovering an ugly reality and making us feel miserable. ### 3. Denial The first reaction is to deny the whole result. You avoid it altogether. Take refuge, step back, isolate, reject. The third stage is the stage of the blind man. You chose not to see the reality. ![Hacking Habits app icon](/images/hacking-habits-icon-48.webp) Building financial habits that stick needs more than willpower. I coded Hacking Habits (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hacking-habits/id6760470848)—a Life Hours Calculator and a 15-Day Habit Installer. If the failure is about a business, you simply ignore the numbers. Act like you still have all the money (/category/money-wealth/) you lost and their real absence is just a temporary glitch in the matrix. It will be fixed in a moment. Everything is ok. No worries. Denial is more than often some kind of pain alleviation. The disaster was so big, that we simply couldn't accept it. Our reality was so drastically challenged, that we can't recognize it anymore, so we chose to run away and hide in a mental castle. Denial is also, more than often, the stage in which many of us are stuck for ever. ### 4. Excuses Hopefully, at some point, you'll get tired of living in denial. You're going to realize you did a mistake (/the-fine-art-of-making-mistakes/). You'll start to acknowledge the mess, but you won't take responsibility. No, it wasn't me: the market was tough. No, it wasn't me: my partner lied. It's the stage of excuses: somebody else did it. As hard as it would be for you to accept this, I'm going to tell it anyway: this is the stage in which 90% of the people are stopping. They never get out of here. Accepting the mistake give them some sort of a relief, but they lack the power to take responsibility. Personal development is never possible if you blame others for your own failure. Never was and never will be. What's interesting at this stage is the enormous amount of creativity people are using in finding excuses. They're ready to turn the world upside down and claim the rain is going from earth to the sky , just to avoid admitting that they turned on that stupid water hose. ### 5. Acceptance Then, finally, you accept the outcome. Yes, you started that business, nobody forced you to. Yes, you entered that relationship, nobody forced you to. And it was a mistake. And you did it. And that caused a lot of a mess. And you still live in that mess, minute by minute. That's the most difficult stage of all. No wonder 90% of the people are stopping at the excuses layer. It's so difficult to accept a failure. Because acceptance doesn't only mean a verbal "yes". It means a lot more. It means taking responsibility for what you've done. Accepting you did something that hurt somebody (most of the time, it's you who is hurt, that's true). Acceptance makes things manageable again. When you were in denial, there wasn't any handle to reality. Denial is a form of rejecting reality. And in the excuses layer, you were giving away your power (/passion-is-power/) to somebody else: you did it, not me, please solve it, so I can feel better. But now, if you made it to the acceptance stage, there's hope. ### 6. Learning The Lesson Which means taking some sort of real action. Acceptance in itself will only make you feel better on the inside, but will not change your external surroundings. If you did a major mistake and you accept it, that by itself won't change the consequences of that mistake. You're still on the same mess you created. Until you take action and get out. And that's the beauty of a lesson. You learn by doing. You see what you did wrong, when and how, and start to fix it. It's like a DIY session, only it's for the entire Universe. You broke something in your reality but now you know exactly how you did it. It's like you have a map (/maps-diagrams-series/) on how to re-assemble the pieces, so you pick your tools and start fixing that stuff. The last stage is the stage in which you're actually growing. It doesn't really matter if you're broke or alone, because now you're doing stuff. You're taking action. You're exercising your powers again. The first and the last stage of a failure have something very subtle in common: enthusiasm. Only this time you're not sleepwalking on the roof of your house, you're fixing the roof of your house. ### Failure And Personal Development Now, one may ask the following question (if nobody will do it, I'll do it for you, I know you're all thinking at it): if we know the anatomy of a failure so well, why aren't we avoiding them altogether? Why do we keep making mistakes? The short answer: because we can't. The long answer: because this is how we learn. By experimenting, evaluating, accepting and taking action again. That's the whole personal development process. As you can see, at the core of it it's no secret of success, but rather the secret of failure. We grow up by identifying each stage of our failures and moving on. One could argue that if we really know the anatomy of a failure, we could avoid it next time. Partially, this is true. But only partially. We may know a certain type of failure, but that wouldn't prevent us from bumping into it again. On the contrary: have you noticed that we tend to make the same mistakes again and again? Because it's not about knowing the mistake and avoiding it. It's about putting up with it. It's about getting square. Learning the lesson. Once you learned the lesson, you won't be attracted to that failure again. The glue to the failure is the fact that you didn't consumed it entirely. There is still a very deep need for that specific lesson. You still need a cup of it to quench your thirst. Once you're not thirsty again, you'll finally be free to try another lesson. First published on: March 10, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-6-stages-of-a-failure%2F&text=The%206%20Stages%20Of%20A%20Failure&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-6-stages-of-a-failure%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-6-stages-of-a-failure%2F&t=The%206%20Stages%20Of%20A%20Failure https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-6-stages-of-a-failure%2F&title=The%206%20Stages%20Of%20A%20Failure Previous ### Unautomate Your Finances – The Guide (/unautomate-your-finances-the-guide/) Next ### 7 Things I Learned From My 4 Year Old Girl (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-4-year-old-girl/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Debt Is Death URL: https://dragosroua.com/debt-is-death.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/debt-is-death/ Published: 2021-10-29 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 74 Categories: Financial Resilience Tags: 365 challenge, debt, financial habits, money Debt is a promise for a certain amount of future, not-yet-realized income, in exchange for the same amount, plus some extra. The extra is paid for the convenience of having the sum available immediately. Debt is usually paid back in regular installments, for weeks, months or years, each installment containing a certain combination of the capital (what you received initially) and the extra (or interest). Usually, the extra is paid at the beginning, the initial installment containing more interest than capital. Debt is very popular. Debt is also a form of death. I know it sounds harsh. And it sounds like this on purpose. I want it to sound harsh, because the actual experience of debt is way harsher than reading a couple of sentences on a random blog, like you just did. Debt can change your life in a second, turning you into a perpetual slave, limiting your options to the point of not having any left, and it can also spread its effects on your closest ones (in many jurisdictions debt is inherited, so your kids will have to pay if you don't settle during your life). Because of good marketing and peer pressure, and because of the way human mind is working, almost no one realizes that getting into debt is a death sentence for their future. Usually it takes a few years until the burden becomes clear. By that time, you are already tired. Debt also makes very good use of the Overtone window. We usually start by borrowing small amounts that we can easily pay back. We borrow a few dozen until salary day, then some hundreds to cover a bridge for a new car, and, before we realize it, we are so confident that we sign up for a 30 years mortgage, for an amount we can't properly understand. From that moment on, we're fucked. But, as I said, we don't know that, until it's too late. Some financial models classify debt into good debt and bad debt. According to them there is type of debt that can be used as leverage, for instance, when you are investing, and there is a type debt that is just going into consumption, with no other outcome except the slow, inexorable drying of the account. I don't buy this. I don't believe in "good" debt versus "bad" debt. I believe there is just on type of debt, which equals death, but you may disagree with me, and that's ok. It may seem that we live in a world in which debt is unavoidable. In the United States, for instance, student loans are something so popular, that almost everybody uses them. I can't fathom how it is to finish college with a financial burden so heavy, that it may take decades just to be clear. But who am I to talk? I took me about two decades to understand how debt works and to decide to break free. It finally happened a few years ago, I'm technically debt free, but the impact was so heavy on me, that I still consider myself tainted, I act like I'm still liable. This translates into specific budgeting habits (/beautiful-budgeting-in-3-basic-bullet-points/), and into a consistent attitude towards financial resilience (/category/financial-resilience/). But debt is not unavoidable. You do have a choice. You can train yourself to understand the consequences of your choices before too much damage is done, you can learn to manage peer pressure, you can alter your lifestyle in such a way that debt is simply not an option. If there would be just one way to think about debt, I would phrase it like this: *Every time you take on debt, you are paying with something from your future: your future money, your future time, your future health. Every time you take on debt, you're shortening your life. It may seem like you're getting some extra now, some extra leisure, some nice gadgets or opportunities, but this is only because you willingly chose to postpone looking at the price. By splitting it into future installments, you chose to ignore it. * *Because if you would look at it, if you would have the courage to understand what you are doing, even for a second, you would never do that to your future self.* *Photo by Alice Pasqual (https://unsplash.com/@stri_khedonia?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/debt?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: October 29, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdebt-is-death%2F&text=Debt%20Is%20Death&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdebt-is-death%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdebt-is-death%2F&t=Debt%20Is%20Death https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdebt-is-death%2F&title=Debt%20Is%20Death Previous ### Good Habits Die Hard (/good-habits-die-hard/) Next ### How Much Money Do You Really Need? (/how-much-money-do-you-really-need/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # AGI Will Be a Flock, Not a Bird URL: https://dragosroua.com/agi-will-be-a-flock-not-a-bird.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/agi-will-be-a-flock-not-a-bird/ Published: 2025-11-01 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 73 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Technology Tags: ai tools, wisdom Silicon Valley still dreams of building one towering AI mind — an oracle sitting in a datacenter somewhere, processing trillions of tokens and answering everything we throw at it. But here's the thing: nature doesn't bet on lone geniuses. It bets on swarms. Birds migrate by the million. Fish pivot together in liquid harmony. Wolves coordinate in silence and perfect synchrony. Survival scales through cooperation, not just raw processing power. And I think our eventual Artificial General Intelligence will follow the same pattern — because efficiency, resilience, and creativity all peak when many simple actors work together rather than when one massive system tries to do everything. ## **Energy Economics and Distributed Intelligence** Right now, datacenters burn gigawatts to keep monolithic models running. Every extra token costs us oil, sun, wind or nuclear power. But imagine instead thousands of lightweight AI agents that spawn when needed, solve specific problems, and then vanish. They could hunt for the cheapest, cleanest compute available and shut themselves down when idle. The future probably isn't one mega-model eating the planet's energy resources. It's millions of micro-models that essentially pay their own electricity bills — or simply take a nap when they're not needed. This is also much easier to build incrementally. You can grow it in small steps, with ephemeral agents that build on each other, rather than trying to erect one monolithic behemoth of Reason all at once. ## **The Human Model: It Takes a Village** Human babies are ridiculously unprepared for survival. No claws, no fur, no instinct for building shelter or finding food. Yet we thrive because a whole network of adults feeds, protects, and educates each tiny human for years. We have an exponential band of potential care that lasts until that child reaches autonomy. AGI built as a swarm will probably inherit this pattern. Agents will teach each other, fine-tune each other, and patch vulnerabilities as they appear. When one fails, the swarm adapts — like fish parting smoothly around a shark. The system becomes self-maintaining rather than requiring constant factory resets and patches from human engineers. ## **Efficiency Through Specialization** Here's something that bugs me: the "reasoning" we're getting from current AI comes from tickling silicon chips at incredible speeds. It's utterly inefficient compared to how our brains actually work. Our cerebral cortex runs on about 20 watts and a biological soup of neurons, yet it handles common-sense physics better than any GPU cluster burning through kilowatts. No matter how powerful GPUs get, or how many thousands you link together, the whole infrastructure remains barbarically inefficient compared to biological intelligence. A pack-style AI could distribute the metabolic burden. Instead of one massive model trying to handle vision, planning, language, and everything else, you'd have specialized micro-agents working in formation. Vision agents spot anomalies. Planning agents draft paths. Language agents handle communication. Together they spend fewer joules and cover more ground. ## **Why We Need AI Tribes** This brings me to something important: we need competition between different AI ecosystems. The ChatGPT (/unpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology/) tribe should compete with the Claude tribe, and both should compete with open-source alternatives. Otherwise, we end up with a uniform field of machines all asking for electricity in the same way, all solving problems with the same approach. Sound familiar? It's basically the Matrix scenario — one system, one truth, one way of thinking. Evolution without diversity leads to stagnation. If every AI cluster runs the same architecture with the same training, a single bug — whether legal, ethical, or technical — could bring them all down simultaneously. Even if it succeeds spectacularly, we'd be left with only one language, one truth, one reality. Creativity flatlines. Evolution stalls. Rivalry between different approaches forces innovation. Pluralism protects us against systemic collapse. ## **What This Means Practically** If you're building AI systems or just trying to understand where this is headed, here are some implications: Design for swarms, not monoliths. Break capabilities into micro-agents that can be rewired and recombined like Lego blocks. Start measuring energy efficiency, not just accuracy. Joules per solved task will become the KPI that actually matters when compute costs more than the problems you're solving. Focus on open protocols. Swarms need to communicate. Pick a standard or help create a better one. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a good start, but there's room for much more development here. Support healthy competition between different AI approaches. Let them compete on ideas while cooperating on safety frameworks. Look to biology for answers. Evolution already solved intelligence under harsh energy constraints. We should be copying that homework. ## **Final Thought** AGI probably won't arrive as one gleaming, solitary system. It'll emerge as clusters of code, networks of specialized agents, hybrid collectives communicating across infrastructure. Like birds flying in V-formation or wolves moving through snow, intelligence finds its fullest expression in coordinated groups, not lone actors. We should design for that reality now — before the lone-wolf narrative drains both our batteries and our imagination. First published on: November 1, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fagi-will-be-a-flock-not-a-bird%2F&text=AGI%20Will%20Be%20a%20Flock%2C%20Not%20a%20Bird&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fagi-will-be-a-flock-not-a-bird%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fagi-will-be-a-flock-not-a-bird%2F&t=AGI%20Will%20Be%20a%20Flock%2C%20Not%20a%20Bird https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fagi-will-be-a-flock-not-a-bird%2F&title=AGI%20Will%20Be%20a%20Flock%2C%20Not%20a%20Bird Previous ### Unpopular Opinion: ChatGPT Is Over-Engineered Astrology (/unpopular-opinion-chatgpt-is-over-engineered-astrology/) Next ### My 10 AI Predictions From 2019: A Reality Check (/my-10-ai-predictions-from-2019-a-reality-check/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Productivity Map URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-productivity-map.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-productivity-map/ Published: 2009-05-27 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 73 Categories: Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness, Time management Tags: assess, creativity, focus, framework, systems *November 2025 update: all posts in this series now have enhanced semantic navigation. You can browse all related posts in this specific topic and even have a hub page (/maps-diagrams-series/), from where you can see all of them.* Ever since I wrote the productivity trap (/the-productivity-trap/) article I felt there was something missing. The main point of that article was always valid, of course, but there was still a little bit of fog regarding the whole productivity concept. So, after taking some time to think it over, I came up with a productivity map, which made it clearer for me. Those of you accustomed with the urgent / important diagram will be instantly familiar with it. ![Productivity Map](/images/maps/productivity-map-basic.webp) Let's take it one step at a time. Will shortly analyze the 2 axis of this map and then will move to the each of the 4 squares in which you can be at one specific moment. ## Productivity Axis There are 2 main axis of the productive citizen: - goals axis - discipline axis Generally speaking, the goals are the motivators, the incentives, while the discipline is the facilitator for reaching those goals. Goals are what are making us move forward, what makes us thrilled and enthusiastic. Goals is a technical term here, it can be substituted with dreams or passions. Discipline represents the acknowledgement of the goals and also the actions you take for reaching those goals. The term is not necessarily used in a military sense, but rather as a constant attitude towards a specific target, as opposed to inconsistency. ## The Goal Axis ![Productivity Map Goal Axis](/images/maps/productivity-map-basic-goals-axis.webp) I chose to represent this axis vertically because I find it similar with a growing pattern. Goals are vertical milestones. Whenever you reach a goal it's like you climb a mountain or reach a new, higher level (/reaching-next-level/). Goals are accumulating underneath us and makes us taller. What makes the difference between high and low goals? High goals are medium and long term goals, like a career, or a specific lifestyle. They spread over longer period of times, months or years. The lower you go on the scale, the smaller the amount of time spent for a goal. Low goals are day to day things you do almost on auto-pilot, things that require little or no implication from you, like going to a job or doing your errands. High goals require and provide awareness, power and fulfillment. They require a higher degree of awareness in order to be able to understand what that goal will mean to you. They also require power in order to achieve it and they need fulfillment to feed that goal. Higher goals also provide more awareness, power and fulfillment once reached. Lower goals are usually accompanied by lack of vision, disempowerment and they create a follower pattern. A life with lower or no goals is a life with no vision, without power and in the footsteps of someone else. The lower the goal axis, the less power and vision you find. ## The Discipline Axis ![Productivity Map Discipline Axis](/images/maps/productivity-map-basic-discipline-axis.webp) I chose to represent the discipline axis horizontally because discipline is a skill you acquire and use rather than a personal quality. It's something that goes with you, it's not you. You can enhance it and use it, but in itself it will not dramatically change who you are. Your goals will. Disciplined people tend to have a higher time awareness, they seem to be more time bounded than the rest of the people. They're also highly task oriented, having the ability to break a task in smaller chunks and follow them until the task is done. Discipline is also another way of expressing determination and stability. Lack of discipline is the source of instability and mutability. Without a proper discipline one will slowly start to get out of the flow. And by that I mean out of an understandable and manageable context: he's "from another planet". Undisciplined people are often dream oriented, floating around in parallel universes. On the right side of the axis, reality will tend to be more manageable, while on the left side, the reality will tend to escape from one's conscious power, becoming unmanageable. ## The 4 Squares Of The Productivity Map Now it's time to look at each of the squares and see how the combination of goals and discipline can make a difference and what is the place of the real productivity according to this diagram. ![Productivity Map Full](/images/maps/productivity-map-full.webp) ### 1. High Goals + Sloppy = Procrastinators You know the type: tomorrow I'll start losing weight and the day after tomorrow I'll become a millionaire. And the next day he'll come with even more powerful intentions. This is the type that constantly establish high and ambitious goals but lacks the discipline to make them happen. This is the home of the procrastinators. Establishing ambitious goals is not the key to success. It's certainly giving you more awareness and power, but if you're not transcending that power into a time aware and task oriented attitude, you'll never cross the line to the 2nd square. Lack of discipline is what makes many of the people prisoners of the 1st square. In the 1st square you tend to dream about your goals and not to do them. Dreaming can also have this effect of extracting you from the current reality and put you into an intermediary state of consciousness. And that "no man's land" consciousness state is really frustrating. Staying too long in the 1st square can lead to serious psychological imbalances. ### 2. High Goals + Discipline = Producers You have high goals and you have discipline: you make things happen. This is what I understand by "producers", a situation in which your attitude (discipline) increase your altitude (high goals). This square is for me the cornerstone of every productivity definition. Nor high goals by themselves nor a constant disciplined attitude can lead to productivity, but a balanced combination of both. Whenever you have the "flow" feeling while working, you're most likely in the 2nd square. Your time aware approach along with your high goals are making a powerful force couple and you're climbing. The interesting thing in this square is its sustainability. In the 1st square you have a natural tendency to create your dreams, to make them real, hence an attraction to cross the line to the 2nd square. Unfortunately, the gravity force of your undisciplined behavior are dragging you down, in the 4th square. And you have this constant tension between those 2 neighbor squares. In the 2nd square there is no tension, you're balanced and you're creating your world. Of course, you can do wrong: overwork yourself, establish bigger goals than your current capacity and so on. Overdoing is a danger in any circumstance. But overall, being in the 2nd square is the place to be. ### 3. Low Goals + Discipline = Obsessed This is the square of the guys that are constantly reading personal development materials, enhancing their skills by using different methods, attending to seminars and reading productivity blogs. But other than that, they're doing nothing. Zero. They don't start that business, they don't reach that huge goal. Because they don't have high goals. Having a good sense of discipline but not creating high goals is what makes you stay in the 3rd square. You may have the means, but you're afraid of a powerful vision. You're afraid to dream. Discipline is acting like a refuge for your lack of courage. Staying in the 3rd square long enough will ultimately make you an obsessed productivity freak. Instead of conquering the world you'll work on your discipline and tweak your lists. Wake up early, exercise and so on, but no powerful goal. As well as in the 1st square, on the 3rd square there is a tension between having bigger dreams and taking it easier with that discipline. You understand that you must dream big and cross the line to the upper square, but the left square is calling you to decompress after too much discipline. ## 4. Low Goals + Sloppy = Followers With low goals and no discipline, it's much easier to walk on other footsteps and go with or out of the flow. A follower attitude makes you wanna dream all the time and do nothing all day. You wait for outer world impulses to start working, like the lack of money or hunger. Following means you can't do anything out of your own awareness (low goals) and with tenacity (low discipline). One word of caution here: this square is also the play square. When you play you don't have high goals and keep a minimal discipline. From this angle, this square is one of the most interesting areas, and is very easy to be mistaken for something is not. The followers square is the childish square. I don't know yet of a kid with goals bigger than the next second, nor to mention I never heard of a disciplined kid. And we're all perceiving childhood as a happiness realm. Sliding from time to time in this first square has this effect of traveling back to time and enjoying being a kid again. But kids are by their very nature followers. They're following their parents and they do that for a reason: they don't have the experience nor the means to start taking care of their lives. They rely on their parents to feed them, take care of them and learn them all they need to know. Well, you're past this. You have the experience and the qualities to start doing something with your life. Hiding behind the childish paradigm while staying in the 4th square is just an excuse for your laziness. ## Lead Or Follow Another interesting thing about this map is the kind of typologies it creates on each side of the axes. On the horizontal axis, the goals axis, we see how one can position himself in regard to leading. Dreams are the heart of the leading process. No leader was born and made without a fantastic dream. The higher your goals and dreams, the highest your position as a leader. But if your dreams are low you're surrendering to a manipulation process, regardless of the level of the discipline you have. The lower your goals, the higher the probability to be enrolled and dragged in something bigger than you. There is also some kind of quality of this leadership, depending on the discipline scale. On left side of the discipline scale, your leadership will be deceiving and shallow. You're only serving empty dreams, not the capacity to make them happen. On the right side of the discipline scale, your leadership will be empowering and fulfilling. You're not only giving big dreams and courageous objectives, but you're also disciplined enough to make them happen. ![productivity-map-meridians](/images/maps/productivity-map-meridians.webp) ## Create Or Observe On the vertical axis we see how one can position himself in regard to doing. If your doing capabilities are low, you're merely an observer of the reality. You can't influence much around, even if your dreams are big, But if your doing capabilities are enhanced by a proper discipline, you become a creator, you make things happening. You're not only observing, you're modifying. As for the leadership, there is a certain quality to the observing and creating attitudes. If you're an observer on the lower side of the goals axis, you're pretty much out of the show. Not only you don't have big dreams, but you're manipulated and just observe other people dreams. If you're an observer on the higher side of the goal axis at least you can expose yourself to some interesting dreams. If you're a creator on the lower side of the goals axis, you're constantly creating insignificant stuff. You have the ability, you're a creator, but the lack of courage makes you waste your energy in smaller activities, most of the time in a job, as you're not a leader either. On the higher side of the goals axis, your creativity meets your leadership capabilities. Now you're a star, and of course, you know it. ## Tensions The 4 squares have also some kind of tensions, with the 2nd square being the exception. Already mentioned the fact that the 2nd square is the most sustainable of all, but let's see how the tensions works for the rest of it. In the 2nd square you're dragged down by your lack of courage and dreams, while you're eager to cross the line to the 2nd square, to become a producer. This is an imploding tension, at some point you'll cross to some of the attracting squares. In the 3rd square your discipline will make you able to accomplish stuff, but your lack of vision will attract to the 4th square. You'll want to climb, to become more courageous, but the pressure of the doing will attract you to the laziness of the 4th square again. This is also an imploding tension, at some point you'll either become a producer, either a follower. And finally, the 4th square is having an exploding tension, meaning it will do the best to take you as far as possible from any other square. It will drag you away. If your dreams are small and you don't care about your discipline, expect to forget who you really are. Will lose your identity, self-respect and self-trust. ![Productivity Map Tensions](/images/maps/productivity-map-tensions.webp) ## Personal Experience I confess I was an obsessed productivity freak for many years. I read tons of blogs about productivity, I started challenges, I did a lot of stuff all day long. But I didn't have the courage to dream bigger. I was keeping myself into a controlled realm (my company) and insanely trying to optimize it. It was only when I decided it's time to want more (/dragos-roua-next-steps/) than I crossed into the 2nd square. Don't get me wrong, my company was a very successful one on this market, but the thing is companies are like clothes: if you grow bigger they tend to remain smaller. It was time for another set of clothes and for another set of dreams. Another thing I want to confess is that I don't stay only in the 2nd square. In an ideal world, I think it would be great to stay there, but we don't live in an ideal world, and I'm not an ideal person. I'm just me. So, I spend some time in the 1st square, especially when I establish new goals. I may spend days there, only dreaming or contemplating my ideas, and not doing much. I also have short holidays in the 4th square, but those are extremely short. The 4th square is associated with a kind of numbness which might be enjoyable after a whole week spent in the 2nd square, but I don't like being there too much. It's boring. In which square are you spending most of your time? Are your dreams big or small? Are you a creative leader or a manipulated observer? What are your tensions? Would love to hear that in your comments. Translations of this post: Romanian – Coaching Perspectives (http://mihaistanescu.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/harta-productivitatii/) First published on: May 27, 2009 ### 🗺️ Maps & Diagrams Series Goals & Discipline Part 1 of 4 View all 4 posts → (/maps-diagrams-series/) Next → Knowledge & Ignorance The Stupidity Map (/the-stupidity-map/) #### Complete Series: 1. Goals & Discipline: The Productivity Map (/the-productivity-map/) 2. Knowledge & Ignorance: The Stupidity Map (/the-stupidity-map/) 3. Time Horizons: Short Game versus Long Game (/short-game-versus-long-game/) 4. Financial Health: The Money Diagram (/the-money-diagram/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-productivity-map%2F&text=The%20Productivity%20Map&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-productivity-map%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-productivity-map%2F&t=The%20Productivity%20Map https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-productivity-map%2F&title=The%20Productivity%20Map Previous ### Massive Guest Posting (/massive-guest-posting/) Next ### How To Train Your Focus (/how-to-train-your-focus/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 59. Randomly Hug A Person You Don't Know URL: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-59-randomly-hug-person-dont-know.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-59-randomly-hug-person-dont-know/ Published: 2015-01-08 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 72 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society Tags: 100 ways series, comfort zone, courage Ok, this might be a little bit dangerous, but only if you think at it. If you're doing it, chances are that you're going to get your hug back. It will also help raising your adrenaline up to levels you never had for a very long time. I both did that and witnessed somebody else doing it. It's a fantastic experience. Word of caution: do ask for permission first and if you are refused, by all means, go away. But if the other person agrees, something magic will happen. A simple hug will bring back into awareness all that simple joy of being connected. Of being part of something bigger than you. *On a certain level, randomly hugging strangers on the street is even better than hugging persons you know.* ## How to Hug A Person You Don’t Know I wasn’t much of a hugger when I was younger. I can’t say I’m obsessed with it now, either, but I’m kinda fond of it. I really like it. Here’s how I got into hugging. Back in 2009 I attended to my first personal development workshop ever. Incidentally, it was the first personal development workshop for the trainer too, who was, guess who, no other than Steve Pavlina. The whole gig took place in Vegas, for an entire weekend. The weather was fantastic, I was for the first time in the States, and the crowd at the workshop was terrific. These only added to the value I got from the workshop itself. Speaking of which, the workshop had a few unusual requests from us. One of them was to actually get out on the Strip and hug an unknown person. Like on the Vegas Strip, you know. The exercise was supposed to enhance our interaction abilities as well as to experience the benefits of hugging. I don’t remember if I did well or not, but I remember one guy managed to hug a person in as little as 30 seconds, and he was really proud about it. It was a bit odd to compete like this, I confess, but overall it was a good exercise. That first time experience opened my mind about hugging. A few years later, in 2013, when Steve Pavlina came to Bucharest and we put together an international event in like 9 days, I had another breakthrough: half an hour of that event was dedicated to “proper hugging”. The quotes here just identify the concept, they’re not meant to be ironic or condescending. Because there is a way to proper hug people. As time flew by, I slowly leaned towards hugging too. And I also started to enjoy the benefits. So, how do you properly hug someone? First of all, like I said, you ask for permission. If the other person, for whatever reason they deem right in their own universe, don’t want to be touched, stop. Any gesture beyond that will be perceived like an act of aggression. But if the other person accepts, then lean forward, raise your hands, left one higher than right one, and put your heart near the other person's heart. That’s where the hug starts. Stay there, without pushing or squeezing, without thinking too much, if possible. Stay for 10 or 20 seconds. This is an important part, because our hearts can pick up the rhythm, you know, they can synchronize with each other, enough time given. And I mean, literally. That’s usually the moment when skeptics are leaving the article, and that’s perfectly ok. But if you’re still here, and still hesitant or incredulous, just google this: “synchronizing metronomes video”. If physical devices, without a consciousness and without what we call “life”, and I’m talking about metronomes, here, if those devices can sync, by reasons not known by scientists, then imagine what happens when our hearts get together. Just google that thing and look at video. Back to the hugging process now. That 20 seconds part when your hearts are closer than a few centimeters to one another, that part is the connection part. Some of the things that happen during that part are felt instantly, some of them are unconscious, and experienced later. If you practice long enough, the unconscious ones will slowly start to grow into consciousness as well. But even after a short period of doing this consciously, you may start to feel sensations of lightness or euphoria. Sometimes, just a warm feeling of belongingness, of finding someone compatible, will just arise, apparently from nothing. Then, slowly take you arms off and step back. Get out from the personal space of the person, and if there’s some conversation to be followed, go on. That was the hug. ## The Shortest List Of Hugging Benefits Ever Hugging increases your emotional availability. It also increases your social skills, your abilities to connect to other people. Hugging creates short breaks in your day to day routine when you’re actually close to the warmth of another human being. Hugging makes you aware that you are literally the other person just as much as you are yourself. *further reading* Tango Crush (/tango-crush/) 77 Reasons To Love Your Life (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/) Want more actionable life advice? This post is one of 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). First published on: January 8, 2015 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-59-randomly-hug-person-dont-know%2F&text=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2059.%20Randomly%20Hug%20A%20Person%20You%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Know&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-59-randomly-hug-person-dont-know%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-59-randomly-hug-person-dont-know%2F&t=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2059.%20Randomly%20Hug%20A%20Person%20You%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Know https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-59-randomly-hug-person-dont-know%2F&title=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2059.%20Randomly%20Hug%20A%20Person%20You%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Know Previous ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 58. Start A Totally Unexpected Hobby (/100-ways-live-better-life-58-start-totally-unexpected-hobby/) Next ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 60. Set Up A Surprise Party (/100-ways-live-better-life-60-set-surprise-party/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # GTD Contexts: How To Identify Them URL: https://dragosroua.com/gtd-contexts.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/gtd-contexts/ Published: 2008-05-10 Modified: 2025-12-01 Views: 72 Categories: Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness, Time management Tags: how to, systems, task management One of the key factors for a good GTD (/category/gtd/) implementation is the context management. There are many key factors, I agree, but context management is one of them. As you may already know, one of the basic concepts of GTD is to spread your actions over all the contexts you are acting in. You are not doing work in an absolute world, an absolute time and an absolute space, but instead you are acting in some very clearly separated areas, called contexts: @Home, @Work, @Computer. You can tag your action with the required context at the processing stage, and when you are in a specific context list only the tagged action on that context. Focus and preserve energy. If you have read the David Allen's GTD book, you remember that there was a default set of contexts: @Computer, @Work, @Home. The @Computer context was so present for the sake of the presentation, maybe, for readablity, etc. This might be one of the reasons GTD was such a hype (and still is) in the techie / webbie world. But in real life there are zillions of contexts in which one can act, not only their computers. Contexts in which you are actually doing your next actions. Having a proper implementation of your context list, regardless of your technical skills, is one of the secrets of mastering the fine GTD art. You can – and, according to David Allen, you should – act with a "mind like water" regardless of your computer expertise. There are tons of paper-only implementations of GTD out there, and just because they are not based on our beloved computer, we should not reject them. So, what are your contexts? How can you have a flexible enough context list, without compromising your GTD implementation? How can you properly identify your contexts, without taking into account every time your @Computer context? Being a GTD-er for more than one year, I've used a number of context implementations. Each time I changed my GTD software I changed them. And each time I felt that I was making a leap forward. But in the last few months, since I started to move all my GTD implementation to my iPhone – based on, but not limited to the ideas presented in the iPhone GTD blog post (/getting-things-done-with-an-iphone-total-black-belt-productivity/) – I found out that my contexts are in reality just a few specific places where I actually do stuff. I made an exercise for a few days, and tried to identify all my GTD contexts. Not a very complicated experiment, after all, GTD is meant to simplify our lives, and here are three main criteria for doing this operation. ### **1. Frequency** OK, how often are you in that context? How often are you doing stuff in that context? The rule of thumb is that needs to be a daily place for you. Sometimes you will use places with a lower frequency, but perhaps only for special occasions, like traveling, taking a course, or just holiday. Identifying your contexts based on the usage frequency will give you something like @Work, @Home, @Computer. Simply enough. But still, not enough. ### **2. Importance** There will also be an importance you will assign to a specific context, regardless of its usage frequency. For an accountant, @Bank context could be more important than @Office context, because you will need much more focus when you are talking directly with your account officer. For a salesman person, @Phone context could be more important that @Office context, since he's using much of his energy trying to convince people by phone to buy products. So, try to identify not only the frequency of your activities, but their overall importance, that would be an important step in the context identification process. ### **3. Tool accessibility** You can have contexts in which you are actually doing work, but you don't have access to the tools you are using in your GTD implementation. For instance, @Car, when you are on the move. You don't have your laptop (@Computer) available, or your file folder (@Office), but you have to answer important calls, or make appointments, etc. (*Using a iPhone as a GTD tool is one way to circumvent this problem. And this is why I came up with a context like @Car, where I actually read email, make phone calls, or even micro-web interactions like updating my **Facebook account** (feel free to follow me, by the way, since we are talking about that 🙂 ). I do not do this, however, when the car is moving, that I can assure, nor do I advise anybody to do it, let's be clear on that, right*!) One example of a context in which you don't have access to your GTD tools (presuming you are NOT using an iPhone for this) might be @Holiday context, a very important one, if you ask me. Well, this is it, only 3 criteria to use, but, at least for me, great results. I came up with a much smaller, yet flexible list of contexts. Which, by the way, looks like this: - @work - @home - @car - @shopping One big thing to note is that I eliminated completely the Online / Offline distinction. I can do both types of activities in one of the above contexts. What do you think that are the advantages of having a slimmer context list, by the way? First published on: May 10, 2008 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgtd-contexts%2F&text=GTD%20Contexts%3A%20How%20To%20Identify%20Them&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgtd-contexts%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgtd-contexts%2F&t=GTD%20Contexts%3A%20How%20To%20Identify%20Them https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgtd-contexts%2F&title=GTD%20Contexts%3A%20How%20To%20Identify%20Them Previous ### Keep your soul in good shape: managing your psychological calories (/managing-your-psychological-calories_keep-your-soul-in-good-shape/) Next ### My 7 Essential WordPress Plugins (/my-7-essential-wordpress-plugins/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Minimum Survival Kit URL: https://dragosroua.com/minimum-survival-kit.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/minimum-survival-kit/ Published: 2010-06-27 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 72 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Personal Development Tags: acceptance, personal story, resilience, simplicity I was a soldier in the Romanian army. For 6 months, I woke up at 5 AM each morning (except during the 6 nights of Romanian Revolution (/the-sun-always-rises-at-dawn/), when I didn't sleep at all), I exercised and learned stuff that, fortunately, I didn't have to apply later on. Except for one thing, that proved to be extremely useful: how to create, deploy and maintain a minimum survival kit. Romanian army wasn't what you usually call a summer camp. On the contrary. It was a tough place to be in. From the physical environment to the relationships ecosystem, everything was rough. When it was cold, it was really cold, we had to sleep with clothes on and didn't have any other way to get warm. When an officer asked something from you, there wasn't any other choice than to obey. And most of the time the officers were asking really humiliating things, like crawling in front of them in the mud for 15 minutes, for no reason at all, other than they being higher ranked than you in the army. It was a clearly enforced power game. Also, when we're doing fight exercises, sometimes we had to run continuously for 10 kilometers – or more – with all the fight equipment on us. No wonder that, in only a few weeks, a quarter of my group become regular clients of the infirmary. It was a rough place, but it also had some interesting ups. I was enrolled in what they call a "research and diversion" group. Our role, as a military unit, was to do research in the enemy field, gather information and create diversions. Exciting, if you look at it form the outside, frightening if you have to do it. Part of our regular exercise was to penetrate other units territory. The soldiers guarding those units had no idea that we were soldiers too, doing an exercise. They had all the reasons to believe we're the enemy, and they could open fire at any time. Not ideal… ## The Survival Exercise Part of our training was about learning survival tactics and techniques. I don't know why I was attracted to that, but fact is I really enjoyed learning all the things they were teaching us about surviving. I remember I was always the first to respond when we had surviving classes. One day the captain came to our dorm and said: "Time to pack your stuff, we're going out on a survival exercise". I remember that 2 of our team members became pale and started to talk something about infirmary. They were the guys who were most of the time ill and did whatever they can to avoid getting involved in anything remotely dangerous. The captain looked at them and said they can stay if they want. The rest of the group took the standard fight equipment (no real ammunition was allowed though) and went down. I remember I put a small bag of almonds and a bottle of Pepsi in my sac. I always did that when I knew we're going out on some exercise thing. By the way, at that time, 20 years ago, under the communist regime of Ceausescu, Pepsi was considered almost a medicinal drink and it was barely available on the stores. Down, a big truck was waiting, engine started and humming. Almost without talking, we got up, squeezed together and the truck started to move. It didn't went on the regular road, to the city, but took it over the fields. Just straight over the fields in the back of the campus, bumping us up and down while we're numbly trying to get a grip of where we were. At some point, after we crossed a few forests and hills, and after we didn't see any house for at least 20 minutes, the truck stopped. "Down, down, down, on the double", the captain said. He didn't smile. Usually, he was smiling, but not this time. In less than a minute we were down, near the truck. I confess that I started to feel a little bit strange at that time. What was going to happen, after all? "Split in teams of two", said the captain. "You can only use your knife and whatever you can find around yourself. Walk in different directions for 10 minutes, then stop. From that point, you have 48 hours. In 48 hours we're going to meet in the unit yard. If you can make it earlier, good for you. You're on your own now." After that he jumped in the truck. In less than 30 seconds we were alone in the middle of nowhere, looking at the truck becoming smaller and smaller between the hills and after the forests. We started to walk in different directions for 10 minutes, in teams of two. Now I was really feeling strange. Suddenly I realized I didn't have any food, except for the small bag of almonds and the bottle of Pepsi. Nor did I have anything else except my fight equipment. Out of which I could only use my knife. In a split of a second I realized also that I was on a real survival situation. Nobody would come to help us. We were really alone there… The first thing I did was to see what else do I have. We were in teams of two and my team mate was a guy famous in our group for sleeping all the time. He was always relaxed and ready to get a nap. Not much of an initiative guy, but a very soothing presence, after all. Well, at least he's not hysterical, I said to myself. We were still on a decently populated area. We didn't see any houses but there were gardens and man made paths. It wasn't complete wilderness so in a few minutes I realized that the survival in itself wasn't such a big deal. I think I was more overwhelmed by the "unexpected" part of it. Nothing predicted this situation in any way, yet I was still in the middle of nowhere, with a colleague who was always sleeping, trying to find our way back to the unit. Little by little, we started to organize things. We established a zero point, marked by scratching small signs under knee level on trees (signs under the knee level aren't usually visible in the forests, so we minimize the chances that a potential enemy would track us). We did a few short reconnaissance incursions in the field, some together, some separately. We put two traps for birds, made by rope, some breadcrumbs (my colleague used to always carry dried bread in his pockets) and rocks. We didn't catch any bird, but we soon found something edible in a vegetable garden and also got a pretty clear idea of where we were. It was getting dark fast – it was autumn, the sun was setting early – so we returned to our zero point and had a little bit of a dinner. Some vegetables, a part of the almonds I was diligently packed and some Pepsi. Boy, that Pepsi was good! My team mate was getting pretty sleepy and it was already dark. As we sat near the tree trying to figure out what we should do, I saw a difference in the light. Didn't knew at first from where it was, but I soon realized it was a moving light. Somewhere between the hills a car with the lights on was moving. I instantly decided that I wouldn't wait 48 hours. "Let's go, you will sleep later, I promise", I said to my team mate and started to move towards that light. In a few minutes I discovered a country road and started to walk it, hoping this is the road that the car was on too. Luckily, it was, as we found out 15 minutes later. Surprisingly, the car was a military truck and I recognized one of the drivers. "What are you doing here", I asked after I stopped it. "Patrolling, trying to pick up guys from the survival exercise". the driver answered. "Well, you found us, we're from the survival exercise", I smiled. "Then jump in", he smiled back. In fifteen minutes we were back in the campus. In the yard there was a big fire. Half of our colleagues were there too. On the fire, something was cooking. I learned that some of our team mates found some houses and "borrowed" some chickens and even some ducks. Some of them also borrowed potatoes and carrots. From what I saw, what was cooking on the fire was far more than we usually had for dinner. And it looked way tastier too. I sat down near the fire, with my colleague who was already snoring on the side. The whole exercise took no longer than 6 hours. While I was getting ready to get my meal, sipping from my bottle of Pepsi, I saw the 2 guys who decided they aren't joining us in the exercise. It may have been because of the fire, but they looked even paler than their usual white, pale color. ## A Survival Situation Every time I get caught in a really nasty thing, I think at that survival exercise. I remember all the phases of the exercise, all the tools I used (pictured as a minimum survival kit), all the outcomes. And every time I apply the things I learned during that exercise, I usually get over it. Now, you may wonder what's a survival situation, after all? How can you differentiate a survival situation from just some tough times? It's an important distinction, because you will use different tools and attitudes. If you're just getting through some tough times, a general positive attitude and some reasonable adjustments will get you through. A survival situation is different in that all your regular resources will disappear, you're in a completely unknown territory and your life may be in danger. Now, it may be about your physical life, as in a war, or it may be just your life as you knew it. For instance, every major breakup or a significant career change may be seen as a survival situation. Every major shift in your existence is in fact a survival situation, because it challenges the way you actually live your life. ## Minimum Survival Kit From that first survival exercise in the army I've been through many survival situations. Some of them involved thorough financial crisis, others involved personal relationships breakups and others were related to my career choices. Being an entrepreneur (/the-real-cost-of-being-an-entrepreneur/) is one of those careers in which you get loads of survival situations, and I'm not the only one telling you that. But, somehow, I managed to get out of them. The fact that you're reading this right now might be the most important proof, by the way :-). After getting out (and in, for what matters) those difficult times, I started to see some patterns. Some attitudes proved to work better than others and some techniques helped me overcome the obstacles easier. Hence, the idea of a minimum survival kit. It's not a first aid kit, in that it doesn't tell you what to do immediately after you get hit. I may write another post on that, but for now, let's just talk about these 5 things you may need to do in order to get out safely from a life survival situation. ## 1. Be Prepared That doesn't mean you should stop living your normal life and always act like the end of the world is near. But acknowledge the fact that life is unexpected and that you may be exposed to situations you're not really prepared for. In my survival exercise I took that bag of almonds and that bottle of Pepsi. It was a prevention measure. And it proved to be a very good one. I'm not saying only to put aside white money for black days, but also stay alert. Live in such a way that you will always have supplementary resources to resort to, if need will be. In business, even when I was successful, I always had smaller projects going on, just in case. They were just simmering slowly and sometimes those projects saved me from some pretty tough cash-flow situations. This is a very important part of the minimum survival kit. Because if you're really prepared to face anything, something very powerful will happen: you'll get stronger. Instead of being drained and depleted, the exposure to those sudden changes will increase your strength. My 2 colleagues who declined the survival exercise were even more pale around the fire in the campus yard. They avoided the challenge but it looked like their strength decreasing. ## 2. Avoid Excessive Baggage If you're on a real survival situation, any excess baggage may drag you down. What does that mean in a real life situation? Well, it may mean: sell your stuff fast, don't get attached to relationships that may drag you down and just be flexible. If you're going through a survival situation in business this may lead to difficult decisions, which in turn may lead to let people go or to sacrifice some part of the business in order to make sure the rest will be fine. As tough as it may seem, this is sometimes necessary. A survival situation will ask each of any resource you may have, so carrying out extra baggage will make you slower and heavier. During my survival exercise in the army, I was fortunate enough to get out quickly. But I can only imagine what would have happen, for instance, if I would have had to carry out extra 50 kilos of equipment. I would probably park the equipment in a safe place and get back to it once I got some help. ## 3. Take Good Care Of Your Health First things first. Keep your priorities straight. Eat. Hydrate yourself. Get plenty of sleep. Too often I saw people in survival situations surrendering to worries and neglecting their health. Why? Why spending your whole night thinking how to pay your mortgage now that you're jobless, instead of just sleeping? Why jumping in denial by drowning in alcohol? What's the use of it? Not only it will never solve your problem, but it will ruin your health. And health is one of the most important tools in a minimum survival kit. Because with less and less energy you'll have less and less resources to push through. ## 4. Jump To Opportunities Use whatever you have and once you see something that could prove even remotely helpful, just grab it. Don't wait. Don't second guess. Don't hesitate. Don't wait for better conditions because you may not get any. Don't assume things will get better, because usually they don't. If you're in a survival situation, you have to act (/action-versus-reaction/). You have to do stuff, you have to move (https://markmanson.net/how-to-make-your-own-luck). When I saw the light of that car, in my survival exercise, I decided I will just go for it. I will follow it and see what happens. It proved to be the best thing that could happen to me. That approach was verified in other survival situations I've been through: the moment you summon the courage to take advantage of an opportunity, that opportunity is in fact the end of the survival situation. It's your way out. ## 5. Have Hope I intently left this at the very end, because it's the most important part of all five. Hope is the fundamental tool in your minimal survival kit. No matter what you're going through right now, it's temporary. It shall pass. You won't be trapped forever in this survival situation (although you may feel like it now). At some point the wall will break. It always does. If you don't keep hope, you'll lose the battle even before it will start. Because hope is the fundamental ingredient in keeping your lenses clean (/is-your-life-blurred/). In keeping your mind fresh and ready to react. If you surrender to worries and negative thinking, your focus will shift from an "outside" filled with problems (but also with opportunities) to your own internal, dark and immobile reality. You may actually miss opportunities, real life opportunities, just because you're not paying attention. The outside situation may be really bad right now, but once you choose to isolate yourself inside, in that part that is completely disconnected, you'll lose the grip. You'll get caught in your own whirlwind of negative thoughts and you won't see the light moving through the hills. Hope is the thing that will make you enjoy the dinner at the fire camp after the survival exercise. Because, in the end, all of these survival situations are only exercises. And, always, always, they are less scary than we think they are. We may get the shivers in the beginning, but after you're out, life is even better. Tastier. Nicer. What does not kill you really makes you stronger. *Image by Uwe Mücke (https://pixabay.com/users/TheMetalMann-10098175/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3681924) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3681924) * First published on: June 28, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Getting Something For Free URL: https://dragosroua.com/getting-something-for-free.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/getting-something-for-free/ Published: 2009-05-13 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 71 Categories: Money and Wealth, Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness Tags: money mindset, values Do you like getting freebies? Gratuitous stuff? Free lunch, maybe? Well, I don't. I've always been like this, I have quite a repulsion towards free stuff. I become reluctant, I start to question myself, I back up. Although one may think that avoiding free stuff made for quite a difficult path for me so far (with the overwhelming stream of opportunities around), I will have to tell you the exact opposite. Avoiding free stuff made me far more wealthy and self confident than the average. You know that old saying "there is no such thing as a free lunch"? Well, it's still quite accurate. ### The Exchange Everything you do requires energy. Everything you receive was made with energy. Everything around you, including yourself, is a form of energy. And every time you start an interaction, you are initiating in fact an energetic exchange. Every form of communication is an energetic exchange. Have you ever had a relaxing conversations with somebody else? Have you ever had a deep bonding with close, dear friends? Ever had a sense of exhilaration after closing a big business deal, a sale or just getting a promotion? All of these are successful energetic exchanges. In each successful interaction our energy exchange is balanced, instant and beneficial. Balanced, instant and beneficial. Let's take a closer look at this. If we give more or less energy than it's required, our energetic exchange is imbalanced. If we're talking, for instance, and we give more energy than required, the other part may step back, ending the process. Or we find ourselves fighting instead of talking, opening our energy valves beyond control. Or we can find ourselves not responding in kind to other's verbal flow, putting a lot less energy than required in the process. Whatever the cause, putting more or less energy than necessary, will make the interaction fail. This is an unbalanced energetic exchange. If the response of our energetic exchange is delayed, we feel insecure. If we're having an intimate relationship and the response to our interaction – making a gift to someone, for instance – is coming several hours later, we start asking why this is happening. Even if the response is positive, we start asking why we're getting our response so late? Is something wrong with us? With the other one? With both? We feel insecure, and that's because the energetic exchange was not instant, it was delayed. Most successful energetic exchanges are in the moment. And if the energetic exchange was not mutually beneficial, we feel frustrated. If you close a deal under pressure, giving away some of your benefits, you feel frustrated. If you laugh and the other one cries, you feel frustrated. If you didn't receive as much as you want from a conversation, you feel frustrated. That's because the exchange wasn't mutually beneficial, only one part of the exchange was favored. Most of our energy exchanges are not mutually beneficial, it's always some part that will take a little more than we expect. But despite these conditions, balanced, instant and beneficial energy exchanges are always possible. ### The Free Stuff Trap What's happening when somebody comes to you and makes an offer for something "for free"? First of all, you know from the beginning that this won't be a balanced energetic exchange. Somebody will give more energy than required, allegedly the part with the "free stuff". The making of that stuff required energy and if you won't give back some energy too there will be an imbalance. Second, you don't really know if you want that *now*. They're giving that stuff out of nowhere, without checking with you first. Maybe you wanted this before, or maybe there's a chance for you to want it in the future. Whatever the time, it will not be in the present. The energy exchange won't be instant. And finally, if there's only one person to benefit from that free thing, the exchange won't be mutually beneficial. One part will be really disempowered by the exchange, again, that part allegedly being the one with the free offer. And that will lead to frustration, sooner or later. Then why you get all the time "free stuff" offers? Why is this "free stuff" almost an icon of our modern society? Why this unconscious race for getting stuff for free? Because behind the "free stuff" there's a trap. The free stuff is not free at all. It's disguised. The real trap of the free stuff is that there is a hidden part in the deal. There is always a hidden part in the deal. And that part is disguised in something apparently free. If you take on a "free stuff", you will commit yourself to a future energy exchange. Most of the time, without even knowing it. ### Why Free Stuff Is Never Free Stuff The vast majority of "free stuff" exchanges are based on manipulation. The "free" in the "stuff" is the bite. The "stuff" is the hook. And you are the prey. Almost every free thing offered is geared towards a much bigger, intense and longer energy exchange from your part, than the energy it offers in the beginning. And for that, any "free stuff" is a hoax. This is why I am always questioning every free offer, why I'm reluctant and why I step back. I look for the hidden part. The endless energy field in which we are all living must be balanced. Any interaction will attract a reaction. Any energy exchange must be equally shared, otherwise there will be imbalance, confusion and frustration. Anything that is disguised as "free" is in fact something that will require a lot more from you in the future in order to level up the energy field. Don't fall for this. Don't fall for the "getting rich quick" schemes, which are in fact specific declinations of the "free stuff" approach. You will never get rich quicker than you can understand richness. Having a sudden big amount of money will give you much more problems than satisfactions. Not to mention that getting rich quick will waive out all the fun in the journey (/travel-as-a-personal-development-tool/). Close your energy valves every time you see something for "free". Look for the hidden part. Look for what they are asking to trade in exchange for that "free" offer. If you are ok with that, go ahead, but do it consciously. Don't open your doors to the salesmen of the "free stuff" without knowing it. It's ok to accept a "free deal" as long as you know it's not free, and you're committing for future actions. ### Why Do You Want Free Stuff? Because you want to preserve your energy, Most of the people have a strong tendency to keep their energy to themselves. Much of this tendency is rooted in fear: fear of loss, most of the time. If you don't have any fear whatsoever, anything that is "free" will look strange to you, not appealing. If you would know that you can't really lose something, getting something for "free" will look fishy. If you are already balanced and sharp, getting involved in a "free" offer will not attract you anymore. The fear of loss is the fuel of "free stuff". ### The Exception Yes, there is an exception to it, but as always, it's an exception only at the surface. There are situations in which you are entitled to receive "free stuff" from time to time, but the "free" will only "look" free. Because, in fact, the energetic exchange has already been made. You already paid for that, one way or another. I met persons who apparently had a gift for receiving gifts. They were receiving gifts out of the blue, they were entitled to free seats at events, to free meals, to free drinks. They were receiving a lot of nice words, tons of appreciation signs and usually they had a very easy time with attracting money. Sticking to our model, those persons were not having a balanced, instant and beneficial energetic exchange. But as I observed them longer, I started to realize that the energy exchange was already made. They were actually the initiators. They already started to give something around (many times without even noticing). They were giving a sense of comfort, balance or tenderness. They were usually lovely persons to have around. Or, they were extremely skilled an experienced persons which were in fact transferring their knowledge on a regular basis. Teachers, masters or highly intuitive consultants. Beautiful people spreading harmony around, dancers, actors or powerful managers. Those persons are energy emitters. They are already broadcasting energy, only you don't realize how. Until something in the picture is drawn towards them in order to balance the exchange. Giving away something you have in excess without waiting for nothing in return will usually trigger a free stuff offer. Helping others without asking for nothing, out of pure generosity and sense of oneness will usually spark something back to you. The energy field must remain stable. You will activate an exchange and you will get something back. It will be balanced, instant and beneficial. Maybe you won't be able to sense it, but somewhere in this known universe, somehow, giving out your talents will activate an energy exchange in your favor. It's the only way I accept getting something "for free". First published on: May 13, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgetting-something-for-free%2F&text=Getting%20Something%20For%20Free&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgetting-something-for-free%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgetting-something-for-free%2F&t=Getting%20Something%20For%20Free https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fgetting-something-for-free%2F&title=Getting%20Something%20For%20Free Previous ### I’m A Twitter Citizen, Work In StumbleUpon, Occasionally Travel To Reddit (/im-a-twitter-citizen-work-in-stumbleupon-occasionally-travel-to-reddit/) Next ### Blogging As A Personal Development Tool (/blogging-as-a-personal-development-tool/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Learning To Play The Guitar – 6 Months After URL: https://dragosroua.com/learning-to-play-the-guitar-6-months-after.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/learning-to-play-the-guitar-6-months-after/ Published: 2021-02-23 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 71 Categories: Blogging, Success and Wellness Tags: 365 challenge, consistency, learning *November 2025 update: all posts in this series now have enhanced semantic navigation. You can browse all related posts in this specific topic and even have a hub page (/learning-to-play-the-guitar/), from where you can see all of them.* This is a major milestone for my guitar journey. When I started, exactly 6 months ago, on August 23rd 2020, I promised myself I will be able to play Spanish Romance in 6 months. I had no previous experience with the instrument (barely knew how to hold it), and no musical experience whatsoever. I was a complete and total beginner. And Spanish Romance is not a very easy song, on the contrary. So, after 6 months, I'm happy to report that I am actually able to play Spanish Romance. It's far from perfect, and I will tell you all the problems that I still have with it in a paragraph below, but the main goal was achieved. This in itself gives me a lot of confidence to push forward, not to mention the satisfaction and the good feelings I get just by being able to produce harmony. Now, let's see the update details. ## Practice Time I kept it steady at more than one hour and 15 minutes every day, so this area is functioning ok. I'm on a slightly changed schedule, meaning sometimes I skipped the morning practice, because logistics. We're still in a de facto lockdown in Valencia, which means I had to stick with my morning rituals, which are including a daily morning walk just to get my coffee (/the-daily-stroll-to-the-end-of-the-world/). This walk alone adds up 10-15 minutes, which sometimes I simply don't have available, because I'm oversleeping or have work related commitments. But I usually more than make up for that part in the afternoon and evening sessions. ## Practice Bits I keep the same structure: in the first part of the day I practice scales, at noon technique and during evenings I try to learn new songs. A minor change here too: I focused a lot on practicing just Spanish Romance, and only learned just one other song (another Sting cover which I hope I'll be able to play in about a month). But now that the goal was achieved, I can move forward and add more new songs in the evening practice. I also practiced a bit more on the acoustic (steel) guitar as well, where I introduced a few more chords and chord progressions. Still not confident enough to pair my voice with the guitar, but this might be one for the following month. I will most likely choose a song on the acoustic guitar, not on the classical one. ## Gear And Paraphernalia Not much to report on this front, all static, didn't buy anything new, so I'm using the same setup. The good news is that I'm starting to get the gist of both the acoustic amp and the USB interface. The bottleneck now seems to be the laptop, which simply can't record quality video at higher sampling rates. Although the USB interface, a Focusrite 2i2, can sample up to 180khz, I have to stick to much lower levels, like 48khz. In real life this limitation is not even perceptible, but higher sampling rates are adding more depth and crisper details to the sound. ## Overall Status This month was clearly a good one, I had this feeling many times during practice. Like I wrote in the previous update, sometimes I practice without thinking I'm making any progress (while I obviously make consistent progress), but this month I had a clear perception of improvement. I don't know if this translates yet in the way that I'm playing (see below the flaws for this rendition of Spanish Romance), but I'm feeling more comfortable, more at ease. There were days in which I actually played, like I actually communicated with the instrument with the goal of making music, and not just moving my fingers and hand along the fretboard. It's a very, very nice feeling. ## Spanish Romance This song is by far one of my all time favorites and I really wanted to be able to play it. I first learned the first part, which only has one difficult barre chord, and then moved to the second one, which consists almost entirely on barre chords. Obviously, I started to learn the song way before this month, probably in the second month of my journey, so it's safe to say I practiced it for at least 4 months. It's funny how difficult the only barre chord of the first part seemed back then. I still remember the frustration of the first few weeks – because I think it took me a few weeks, if not a good couple of months, to make that barre chord sound reasonably well. It's funny now, because, in comparison, the barre chords of the second part are way, way more difficult. In the rendition that you'll see above there are a few major flaws: - the tempo is uneven overall, and really choppy in the middle section - I wronged a couple of notes and missed (or didn't play loud enough) a few others - the base section, which has to be played every 3 notes on the upper E string, is almost non existent But, in the grand scheme of things, I find these flaws acceptable for my current level. I will keep playing this song just because I like it so much, and, just because the pressure of the "6 months deadline" is off, I will most likely be able to add the missing parts and improve the ones that I'm still doing wrong. All in all, good progress. I really look forward to the next update. First published on: February 23, 2021 ### Learning to Play the Guitar Month 6 Part 4 of 7 View all 7 posts → (/learning-to-play-the-guitar/) ← Previous Month 5 Learning To Play The Guitar - 5 Months Later (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-5-months-later/) Next → First Audition My (First) Audition As A Guitar Player (/my-first-audition-as-a-guitar-player/) #### Complete Series: 1. Beginning: Learning To Play The Guitar - Part One (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-part-one/) 2. Month 4: Learning To Play The Guitar - 4 Months Later (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-4-months-later/) 3. Month 5: Learning To Play The Guitar - 5 Months Later (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-5-months-later/) 4. Month 6: Learning To Play The Guitar - 6 Months After (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-6-months-after/) 5. First Audition: My (First) Audition As A Guitar Player (/my-first-audition-as-a-guitar-player/) 6. Month 7: Learning To Play The Guitar - 7 Months After (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-7-months-after/) 7. Month 8: Learning To Play The Guitar - 8 Months After (/learning-to-play-the-guitar-8-months-after/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-play-the-guitar-6-months-after%2F&text=Learning%20To%20Play%20The%20Guitar%20%E2%80%93%206%20Months%20After&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-play-the-guitar-6-months-after%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-play-the-guitar-6-months-after%2F&t=Learning%20To%20Play%20The%20Guitar%20%E2%80%93%206%20Months%20After https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-play-the-guitar-6-months-after%2F&title=Learning%20To%20Play%20The%20Guitar%20%E2%80%93%206%20Months%20After Previous ### Monday Moving Forward – Don’t Ride With The Hurricane (/monday-moving-forward-dont-ride-with-the-hurricane/) Next ### Expectation Management (/expectation-management/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Then and Now – a 30 Day Blog Challenge URL: https://dragosroua.com/then-and-now-a-30-day-blog-challenge.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/then-and-now-a-30-day-blog-challenge/ Published: 2026-05-01 Modified: 2026-05-31 Views: 71 Categories: Blogging, Personal Development Tags: blogging journey, list post, personal story This year will mark exactly 2 decades for this blog. 20 years is a long time – many things can happen in this timespan. Contexts change, people change, life changes. What I wrote 10-15 years ago may not be accurate anymore. Or it may not represent my current life views. So, I decided to do a 30 days challenge in which I'll tackle 30 different topics that I heavily circulated here – and how they changed (IF they changed). At the end of each day, I will update the list of topics below, so you can just bookmark this and can back any time to see the progress, or to follow up on a topic that's interesting you. The first link on each row is the initial post, "then", and the second one is the revised topic, the "now". As I fill in the slots, I will update all the links (the order, and even the links themselves, may be slightly altered as I advance with the challenge, so make sure you come back to this post if you want a bird eye view of the entire project). Without further ado, here's the map of the challenge. - **33 Questions for an Interview with Yourself (/33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself/)** → Answering My Own 33 Self-Interview Questions — 17 Years Later (/answering-my-own-33-self-interview-questions-17-years-later/)I wrote 33 self-reflection questions and interviewed you, the reader. Now I sit in the chair myself and answer them — because 17 years and a lot of life later, the answers are completely different. - **Tango Crush (/tango-crush/)** → What Tango Actually Taught Me About Relationships (A Decade Later) (/what-tango-actually-taught-me-about-relationships-a-decade-later/)Two years into tango I tried to name the strange emotional entanglements partner dancing creates. A decade of dancing and teaching later, I can finally explain what was actually happening. - **The Secret Art of Keeping Card Castles from Falling Down (/the-secret-art-of-keeping-cards-castles-from-falling-down/)** → Everything I Built That Fell Down (And What I Learned From Building Anyway) (/everything-i-built-that-fell-down-and-what-i-learned-about-building-anyway/)In 2011 I wrote about the art of keeping life's fragile structures standing. Since then several of my own have come down — all serving the same lesson. - **25 Things to Do in Your Life (/25-things-to-do-in-your-life/)** → 25 Things To Do In Your Life – Then And Now (/25-things-to-do-in-your-life-then-and-now/)A life list written in 2009, framed as advice for a bewildered alien. Some of those 25 things happened, some didn't, and some I no longer want — while the 2026 list looks almost nothing like the original. - **Action Versus Reaction (/action-versus-reaction/)** → The Action versus Reaction Trap (Why I Had It Half Right in 2009) (/the-action-versus-reaction-trap-why-i-had-it-half-right-in-2009/)The action/reaction framework was compelling but binary — and life since 2009 has presented situations where the most strategic move is a carefully chosen reaction, not an act of pure initiative. - **How and Why We Get Bored (/how-and-why-we-get-bored/)** → Boredom Is a Feature, Not a Bug (/boredom-is-a-feature-not-a-bug/)In 2009 boredom was a natural state that arrived when nothing interesting was happening. In 2026 the attention economy has nearly eliminated the conditions for boredom — which may be a much larger problem than boredom itself ever was. - **Raw Food Primer (/raw-food-primer/)** → Raw Food Diet in 2026 – What I'd Tell My 2009 Self About Eating Better (/raw-food-in-2026-what-id-tell-my-2009-self-about-eating-better/)I ran a raw food experiment in Romania in January 2009 and shared my notes. Seventeen years later, the diet landscape has shifted enough that the original advice needs a honest audit against what we now know about ultra-processed food and gut health. - **Lifestyle Design (/lifestyle-design/)** → 3 Lifestyle Design Blueprints I've Lived, Plus A 4th One That Works These Days (/3-lifestyle-design-blueprints-ive-lived-plus-a-4th-one-that-works-best-these-days/)"Lifestyle design" had a specific 2009 cultural moment — Tim Ferriss, 4-Hour Workweek, the whole thing. That moment has passed, curdled, and been partially redeemed by the actual experience of people who tried it. - **100 Ways to Live a Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/)** → 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 17 Years After, What Actually Worked (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-17-years-after-what-actually-worked/)A list written in 2009 and still widely read — but the "better life" frame of that era has since been complicated by what we know about wellbeing, optimization culture burnout, and the demands of surviving the 2020s. - **Social Networking Versus Real Life Relationships (/social-networking-versus-real-life-relationships/)** → 17 Years of Social Networks Later: What Actually Replaced What (/17-years-of-social-networks-later-what-actually-replaced-what/)The "versus" implied a competition that has since resolved into something messier — people who have conducted full friendships entirely online, while also people who have never felt more alone despite being permanently connected. - **The Next Revolution Will Be Technological, Not Ideological (/the-next-revolution-will-be-technological-not-ideological/)** → Technology, Ideology And What Actually Happened Since 2018 (/technology-ideology-and-what-actually-happened-since-2018/)I wrote in 2018 that technology would outrun ideology. It is now 2026 and both have accelerated dramatically — time to test the thesis against actual evidence rather than speculation. - **On Being Steadily Fluid (/on-being-steadily-fluid/)** → Steadily Fluid After 10 Years: How Does It Feel to Live With the Paradox? (/steadily-fluid-after-10-years-how-does-it-feel-to-live-with-the-paradox/)Steady fluidity — the paradox of reliable adaptability — was an idea I explored in 2018 at the ten-year mark. Seven more years have passed, and the concept has been tested under pressure in ways I didn't anticipate. - **The First 6 Months of Blogging — The Series (/the-first-6-months-of-blogging-the-series/)** → The First 6 Months of Blogging After 20 Years of Blogging (/the-first-6-months-of-blogging-after-17-years-of-blogging/)The blogging landscape of 2009 — RSS feeds, ad networks, early Twitter — barely resembles what it means to run an independent website in 2026. What from those first six months actually transferred? - **33 Ways to Get and Keep Yourself Motivated (/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated/)** → 15 Years of Motivation: From Tiny, Genuine Sparks to Burnout (/15-years-of-motivation-from-tiny-genuine-sparks-to-burning-out/)The idea of motivation as something you "get and keep" through technique has been significantly revised by behavioral science — and by the lived experience of people who optimized their drive straight into burnout. - **Can You Build a Fine Watch with a 0.5 Inch Wrench? (/can-you-build-a-fine-watch-with-a-05-inch-wrench/)** → The Right Tool for the Job in 2026: What AI Changed About the Wrench Problem (/the-right-tool-for-the-job-in-2026-what-ai-changes-about-the-wrench-problem/)The granularity argument — having the right tool for the job — gets far more interesting when AI can resize itself to the task. The 2018 question needs a 2026 answer. - **7 Personal Development Lessons — Kung Fu Panda Style (/7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style/)** → 7 Kung Fu Panda Lessons, 16 Years Later — What Po Actually Got Right (/7-kung-fu-panda-lessons-16-years-later-po-actually-became-a-master/)I argued in 2010 that a cartoon panda understood personal development better than most self-help books. Sixteen years and four films later, I test that claim against real life — and find out which of the 7 lessons actually held up. - **77 Things to Do Just Because You Can (/77-things-to-do-just-because-you-can/)** → 77 Things I Still Want to Do – 13 Years Later (/77-things-i-still-want-to-do-13-years-later-and-what-ive-crossed-off/)A list justified by "you can" takes on different weight when physical capacity, financial capacity, and available time have all shifted — and when the cultural context of what counts as audacious has changed since 2013. - **33 Ways to End Your Day (/33-ways-to-end-your-day/)** → How I Actually End My Day in 2026, Compared to 2011 (/how-i-actually-end-my-day-in-2026-compared-to-2011/)The smartphone has fundamentally restructured what "ending the day" means — the 33 methods assumed a kind of quiet, self-directed evening that is now genuinely difficult to protect. - **7 Things to Do When the Shit Hits the Fan (/7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan/)** → 7 Things To Do When The Shit Hits The Fan – 15 Years Later (/7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan-2/)Since 2011 there have been larger and more varied crises — personal, professional, global — that test whether the original seven steps are a real framework or a list assembled in one specific moment of pressure. - **Being a Digital Nomad – A Primer (/being-a-digital-nomad/)** → 16 Years as a Digital Nomad (/living-as-a-digital-nomad-revisiting-a-16-year-old-primer/)The initial post was written in March 2010 at the very start of living that lifestyle. Sixteen years later — after COVID normalized remote work for everyone, digital nomad visas became a real category, and AI changed what a solo operator can actually build alone — the primer is worth reading again against what actually happened. - **7 Reasons to Enjoy Life More (/7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more/)** → 7 Reasons to Enjoy Life More – 15 Years Later (/7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more-16-years-later/)The 2009 framing assumed the main obstacle to enjoyment was forgetting to look up from the race. The 2026 obstacle is different: anxiety about large global threats, information exhaustion, and a world designed to pull you elsewhere. - **77 Reasons to Love Your Life (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/)** → 77 Reasons to Love Your Life – Why I'd Write Them Differently After 17 Years (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life-why-id-write-this-differently-after-17-years/)A gratitude list written in 2009 encounters a reader in 2026 who has lived through a pandemic, political fracture, and climate anxiety. The case for loving your life needs to be made differently, or more honestly. - **The Diamond Cutter — Tibetan Buddhism & Business (/the-diamond-cutter-tibetan-buddhism-business/)** → The Diamond Cutter, 12 Years Later – Buddhism as a Daily Practice (/the-diamond-cutter-12-years-later-buddhism-as-a-daily-practice/)Karma as a business principle, reality as constructed, results shaped by mental posture — twelve years of actually running things is enough time to know which of these Buddhist business ideas held up and which didn't. - **Life Has No Meaning. And That's Why It's So Wonderful. (/life-has-no-meaning-and-thats-why-its-so-wonderful/)** → Life Has No Meaning – In 2026 I Still Think This Is Good News (/life-has-no-meaning-in-2026-i-still-think-this-is-good-news/)The years since 2015 include a pandemic and a generation actively in crisis about meaning — "what is the point?" has become culturally louder, not quieter, giving this post's argument a more urgent and harder-to-make case. - **The Ancestor Syndrome — Or Why You Don't Have Enough Money (/the-ancestor-syndrome-or-why-you-dont-have-enough-money/)** → The Ancestor Syndrome – Revisiting Inherited Money Beliefs after 10 Years (/the-ancestor-syndrome-revisiting-inherited-money-beliefs-10-years-after/)A decade in crypto and tech entrepreneurship — environments with extreme wealth creation and destruction — plus the economic dislocations of the 2020s, have stress-tested the ancestor syndrome thesis in ways the 2016 post couldn't anticipate. - **7 Ways to Say No (/7-ways-to-say-no/)** → Still Learning To Say No – 17 Years After I First Wrote About It (/still-learning-to-say-no-17-years-after-first-writing-about-it/)Seventeen years since writing this: hustle culture valorized saying yes to everything, then burned people out, then "boundaries" went mainstream, and now AI is explicitly trained to be agreeable. The case for no has never been more urgent or more contested. - **33 Ways to Overcome Frustration (/33-ways-to-overcome-frustration/)** → Frustration as a Growth Signal – Revisiting After 15 Years (/frustration-as-a-growth-signal-revisiting-after-15-years/)"Frustration signals growth" is a powerful reframe — but fifteen years of growth also means fifteen years of accumulated frustrations that were supposed to be temporary. The honest accounting is worth doing. - **10 Ways to Define Success (/10-ways-to-define-success/)** → the 2026 Definition of Success – 10 Years after I Tried My First One (/the-2026-definition-of-success-10-years-after-i-first-tried-my-first-one/)Written in 2016, before crypto wealth cycles, remote work normalization, and the burnout generation's public reckoning — all of which have changed what people count, and what they stop counting, as success. - **Are You The Best Version Of Yourself? (/are-you-the-best-version-of-yourself/)** → Are You Te Best Version of Yourself? Checking In After 16 Years (/are-you-the-best-version-of-yourself-checking-in-after-16-years/) The initial post used a software OS as a metaphor for self-improvement: defrag your mind, update your drivers, stay virus-free. In 2010 that was an analogy. In 2026, AI tools literally patch cognitive weak spots and run background processes on your behalf. The metaphor became more real, which makes the original question more interesting. - **The Power and Price of Illusions (/the-power-and-price-of-illusions/)** → The Price of Illusions – 16 Years Later (/the-price-of-illusions-16-years-later/)Written before algorithmic filter bubbles, deepfakes, and AI-generated content — environments now specifically engineered to manufacture and sustain pleasant illusions at scale. The price has gone up considerably. First post tomorrow. First published on: May 1, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthen-and-now-a-30-day-blog-challenge%2F&text=Then%20and%20Now%20%E2%80%93%20a%2030%20Day%20Blog%20Challenge&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthen-and-now-a-30-day-blog-challenge%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthen-and-now-a-30-day-blog-challenge%2F&t=Then%20and%20Now%20%E2%80%93%20a%2030%20Day%20Blog%20Challenge https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthen-and-now-a-30-day-blog-challenge%2F&title=Then%20and%20Now%20%E2%80%93%20a%2030%20Day%20Blog%20Challenge Previous ### Assess, Decide, Do + Substrate = Long Running, Self Improving Agents (/assess-decide-do-substrate-long-running-self-improving-agents/) Next ### Answering My Own 33 Self-Interview Questions — 17 Years Later (/answering-my-own-33-self-interview-questions-17-years-later/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Reasons To Enjoy Life More URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more/ Published: 2009-11-09 Modified: 2026-05-22 Views: 69 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Success and Wellness Tags: gratitude, list post **2026 Update**: *I revisit this post here (/7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more-16-years-later/), as part of a 30 day challenge in which I tackle the most viral articles on this blog* Too often we forget why we're here. Caught in an endless, empty race without a real prize, we run each day trying to fulfill our own expectations, other people's expectations, or just simply blindly following rules we don't understand. We forgot what is the real reason of our existence: to enjoy it. To breathe life every second and thrill with it. Here's a list of 7 simple reasons to enjoy life even in the fastest, emptiest, dullest and mindless race we chose to run. ### Beginnings Every little thing we start is a creation. A miracle by itself. Think for a second: before we activate the Universe to make it happen, there is nothing there. Picture a cup of coffee in your mind. Before you pour the water, add the brown powder and put some heat on it, there is nothing there. Separated pieces of matter, drifting around in your environment, without any intention to glue them together. It was you who changed this and manifested a cup of coffee where there was nothing before. I am a big fan of beginnings. I am addicted to them. Every time I start something, I enjoy my creative super powers. Because there's no need to start big, in order to enjoy your creative super powers, all you need is to start (/start-your-own-business/). Size has nothing to do with beginnings: even the biggest journey started with only one step. That atomic action, that infinitesimal shift in the current texture of the Universe, this incredible small intention, that is a magical thing. Putting together separated pieces of your environment and transform them into something new, that is enchanting. Beginnings are filling us with enthusiasm, passion and eagerness. Every time we start doing something, being it a cup of coffee or a new relationship, being it a walk in the park or circling around the word, we're using our divine, immortal persona. Just make sure you realize that next time you're making coffee. ### People You Love You may be sad, but when they are around, you're happy. You may be struggling with financial difficulties, but when you think at them, everything seems easy. You may be stumbling in the darkest depression and yet, only by thinking at them, your path seem a little bit clearer. They are the people you love. They are the ones who're making you abandon your own wishes, in an unspeakably happy surrender to something bigger than you. They are sometimes your only reason to live. Have you thought what makes you love them? What are the reason behind your love? I hope you didn't find the answer. Because you don't need one. You just love them. Loving somebody (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl/) is outside reason, outside logic, beyond our analytical understanding of the world. Love is our greatest mystery and the people we love are its messengers. They tend to arrive at impossible moments in our lives and destroy all the solid foundations we thought we had. Only to build new, better and stronger ones. Life is not easy. It can pull you in different directions and suck the last drop of energy out of you. And yet, in the most desert period of your existence, you'll still have somebody to love. The moment you stopped loving other people, you stopped loving yourself. And without love, yes, life is empty, dull and mindless. ### Creating Value You do have a talent. Something that is unique to you. It doesn't need to follow social rules or be converted into a career. It's just something you're great at. Every time you do that, every time you're performing that special talent of yours, you're creating value. It may be just that you make people laugh. Or comfort them by speaking. Or dancing. Or writing. Something that just flows through you and reach other people almost effortless. Creating value is what gives you a sense of usefulness and presence. I love creating value. I love mastering different skills (/building-different-skills/). I love the feelings I have when something I did proves useful for somebody else. Lately, this happens on this blog. People email me and tell me they felt motivated by my writing. Sometimes, they are even old friends who almost lost contact and incidentally found me while browsing the net. Every time I have one of those moments I feel fulfilled. A deep, strong and almost explosive emotion, leaving me thrilled and filled with adrenaline. Making yourself useful to other people is drastically underrated in our modern society. A sense of blind ego and empty performance has replaced this natural flow: it doesn't matter how you can make people happy with what you do, but rather what you get in return. No wonder you can't enjoy life in such a limiting mindset. ### Enjoying Value Created By Other People When was the last time you felt inspired while listening to good music? Or watching an excellent movie? Or just enjoying new, simple yet elegant clothes? Or eating out deliciously at a nice restaurant, on a magical summer evening? On any of these occasions you were enjoying value created by other people. Somebody else created that music, imagined those clothes, made that movie, prepared that dinner. Somebody else used his or her unique talent and made you feel special. I love to enjoy value created by other people. It gives me a sense of connection and validation. I feel like I am part of something bigger. Somewhere, somehow, there is a master plan (/the-master-plan/) and I am part of it. I mean something. Somebody took his time and skills and imagination and created something for me. I am enriched by that thing. I am better and I feel better while enjoying it. And I am also sending my respect to the creators. Refusing this flow of good stuff that comes to me is just against nature. Living a life of abstinence in the name of fake modesty is so frustrating. Disconnecting from other people while waiting to transcend some twisted, invisible layers of "limiting" pressure is simply stupid. I do experience some abstinence every now and then, but only as an appetizer: makes the whole thing taste so much better. ### Your Current Moment Being in the current moment is a magic experience. And like any other magic it doesn't require more of this world, but rather less. In order to really be in the current moment, you don't need to learn something new, but get rid of what you already know. Leave back your worries, your frustrations, your memories and just stay here. Enjoy what you see. What you feel. What you hear or touch. You are designed for this specific experience, not for worrying and stacking frustration (/how-to-overcome-frustration-in-3-easy-steps/) over frustration until you crack up. Being in the current moment doesn't have anything to do with positive or negative emotions. Anger or joy are two faces of the same coin. Being in the current moment while you're angry has the same result as being in the current moment while you're joyful. Rejecting what you feel because it's "wrong" will simply kill the current moment and replace it with some mental notion about it. Instead of living your moment, you'll live your theoretical notion about what you "should" feel., repressing the genuine feeling. And that's so tasteless and dead. The current moment is the only moment you have. As fragile as it is, it has this enormous power of making you alive. Don't suffocate it with unnecessary garbage from the past, or with volatile worries about the future. Everything you have and need is right here. Right now. ### The Unexpected One of the most popular and delusive hoaxes of all time is that life could be predictable. Life is not predictable. Life is what's happening while you're busy making plans. The unexpected is the key ingredient here. Trying to eliminate the unexpected in your life, making your path as safe as you can, will be the only sure proof way to die of boredom. If no challenge will be there for you, if no surprising events will shake your universe, if nothing unforeseen will pop up suddenly, then what's left for you to do? I used to fight against the unexpected. Especially while I had my business. Seemed the most reasonable way to manage a business. Eliminate all the possible bad outcomes and wait for the good ones to manifest. Sadly, it didn't worked out. Apparently, the only way to enjoy a steady and healthy growth for my business was to embrace the unexpected and take advantage of it in every way I can. Without the unpredictable changes in the market, I wouldn't have any growth whatsoever. While I don't reject a solid preparation for starting your days (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/), I don't think this by itself will eliminate the unexpected in your life. Fortunately. Being prepared when the unpredictable happens is something completely different than rejecting it. So much better to be hit by a wave, and enjoy it, rather than pretend the sea is still. ### Endings What goes up, must come down. Every beginning has an end. And I find as much thrill and joy of life in a healthy ending as I find in a genuine beginning. Every ending is a confirmation that what's started has reached its maturity. The purpose have been fulfilled. It's not the ending in itself that causes suffering, it's the attachment. Yes, pain is unavoidable, but suffering is optional (/pain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional/). Most of the time, though, I find out endings are not painful at all. They're most like reaching the top of a mountain: you did it, now go down and start another one. People try to make things last for unbelievably long periods of time. It's an unconscious attempt to beat time. What a waste of resources. Time allows us to exist, how can you think to beat something that allows you to be. It's a contradiction in terms. You can't beat your own context, you're in it. For instance, people are struggling to make their relationships last longer. Longer than what? Every thing has a purpose, if the purpose has been reached, it's time for a new beginning. Enjoy the ending and let go. If you don't allow endings, you're blocking other things form manifestation. Making something last more than its original intention will just hurt everybody. Enjoy the end and welcome a new beginning. Like this blog post. It's over now. Time for you to start something new. 🙂 First published on: November 9, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more%2F&text=7%20Reasons%20To%20Enjoy%20Life%20More&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more%2F&t=7%20Reasons%20To%20Enjoy%20Life%20More https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more%2F&title=7%20Reasons%20To%20Enjoy%20Life%20More Previous ### Lifestyle Design (/lifestyle-design/) Next ### 39 Things (/39-things/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Living Life Like A Holiday URL: https://dragosroua.com/living-life-like-a-holiday.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/living-life-like-a-holiday/ Published: 2007-08-07 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 69 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs, Success and Wellness, Travel and Fun Tags: presence We all love holidays, isn't it? Usually we only need the sound of the word itself to wake up in our brain pleasant emotions and nice memories. But did you ever wondered what if we could live our entire life as a holiday? Sounds interesting, at least for me, and I'll try to show you why… ## First of all, what is a holiday? Let's look at a possible list of definitions: – at a very general level we can define a holiday as a "break in your current stream of habits". Using this definition, even a small trip to the mall at an unusual hour could be taken as a holiday. And, in fact, it is. – another definition for a holiday would be a "reward", something your receive because you worked for it, because you deserved it, or because, in one form or another, you paid for it. A holiday could be a five minutes break in the middle of a project, or just a beautiful morning (/monday-moving-forward-series/) in which you make a detour from your regular path to the work, just to see new stuff. – and another definition could be: "a time for relaxation", a time in which you avoid your regular work schedule and instead use everything around you to relax, to calm down, to de-tense… – and yet another definition would be: "a time for adventure". Most of us are using the holiday as an occasion for being "adventurous". Being this at the relationship level, by trying to meet new persons or possible mates, or being this at the more physical level of trying to push the body limits in "dangerous" activities: rafting, scuba-diving, and so on – and maybe the most popular definition of a holiday is "a time for freedom", a slice of our existence in which we can break the rules, put out the weight from our shoulders and start living without any limitations You can chose whatever definition seems appropriate to you, or even mix them together. And of course, you can come up with your own definition of a holiday. ## Why we would live our life like a holiday? First of all, because this is what it is. You can take my word for it, try to find arguments by yourself, or try to find them in other places, but believe me, at some point you will realize that this is just a holiday, a season for adventure, freedom and relaxation, a reward as well as a break in your current stream of in-between existences. As new-agey as it may sound, it will be revealed as true at some point in your life too… But let's say you disagree with that, why would you live your life like as holiday (/100-ways-live-better-life-88-live-your-live-like-a-holiday/) then? Because it will give you some more new experiences than a linear way of living it. Because it will help you break your general approach to the life as an interrupted stream of routines. Because it will make you smile. Because it will bring more colors in your life (have you ever noticed the richness in colors of holidays pictures?) Because it will connect you with a new source of energy, and it will make use that one instead of your regular sources – which, by the way, you know you will drain up sooner or later. Because it will help you accept your passage through this life, in which you have a beginning and an end. And, most of all, because it's so much fan. Allegedly, if you came this far, it means you do have a tendency of living your life as a holiday, so let's start exploring some of the ways in which you can accomplish this. ## How to live your life like a holiday First of all, start to smile :-). It's holiday, remember, you do have to smile, this is what people do during holidays, they are smiling. And then, start your day by expecting the unexpected. Like in a foreign country or an unknown new place, you don't really know what it should happen next, but you are somehow prepared. This is the feeling, start to experience it day by day, morning by morning. Just imagine that you won't have the same day at the office, or at home, and the order of things will be somehow, in a very intriguing and interesting way, twisted by an uncontrolled event or person. Then start to look at the things like you usually do in a holiday. You do admire a lot during holidays, don't you? Try to this every day: admire, be surprised, and allow you to stare from time to time at the world… If, at any point in your day, you'll be faced with a challenge, embrace it. Think that you are climbing a mountain, and that challenge is basically the only way you can continue your climbing, if not taking it, you will be, at the very best, stacked in the mountain, if not already descending at an increasing speed. Living like in a holiday is a great way of modeling your risk-taking capacities. Be kind to other people. If this is your holiday, it is also their holiday too, so why bother to be grumpy or nervous? Just be nice to them, it's only a holiday, after all. Living a life involves spending some of your assets in order to receive some goods or services. By living life like a holiday you will try to enjoy your spending. It's not like you have to go shopping, it's like you are going to shop in an exquisite shop located in an exotic place. Or if you have to have business lunch, imagine that you are having lunch on the French Riviera. The waiters will suddenly seem to be kind to you, believe me, I tried it, and it worked. Another thing that you do in a holiday and you don't usually do in your normal life is to take things easier. Try to make it lighter, whatever should be. Don't take it personally. And don't do it on purpose. It's holiday, why waste precious time by being angry at the world? It just doesn't make sense. Forgive more. That one is self-explanatory. Forget less. While involved in a huge machine of social commitments, of daily stress and struggles, your brain will try to protect you by putting all the unwanted stuff in the darkest places of your mind. But in a holiday you are open, you are eager to see more in order to keep it in your heart, because it's beautiful. Keep yourself open to new, because, even in an unusual form, the new is always beautiful. And learn more. If some new task arrived at the office today, and you feel completely helpless, just imagine it's rafting. Or scuba-diving. Or mountain climbing or horse-back riding. Or whatever thing you thrive to do in your holiday. Because, even presented in this non-appealing form, deep down that new task will add to your positive experiences as much as a holiday scout adventure. ## When you know you are living your life like a holiday? Basically, when you don't need a holiday anymore :-). If you had similar experiences or want to try some of those described here, enjoy and feel free to comment on this. First published on: August 7, 2007 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fliving-life-like-a-holiday%2F&text=Living%20Life%20Like%20A%20Holiday&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fliving-life-like-a-holiday%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fliving-life-like-a-holiday%2F&t=Living%20Life%20Like%20A%20Holiday https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fliving-life-like-a-holiday%2F&title=Living%20Life%20Like%20A%20Holiday Previous ### Accepting Your Dark Side (/accepting-your-dark-side/) Next ### Back to blog (/back-to-blog/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Magic Fairy Exercise URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-magic-fairy-exercise.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-magic-fairy-exercise/ Published: 2010-04-06 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 69 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Success and Wellness Tags: assess, goal setting, goals, perspective You know the joke with the lost Bedouin? No? How come? It's a very common joke, not to mention it has quite a deep meaning. OK, I will get you out of ignorance, just relax and read on: *Although it's quite uncommon for a Bedouin to get lost in the desert, one of them apparently did it at some point in history. After days of walking around the sand dunes, without water, food and nobody to comfort him around, the lost Bedouin finally meets a magic fairy. You know the type: thin, translucent and surprisingly able to fulfill any wish you could possibly have.* *Imagine our Bedouin's surprise when that cute floating lady whispers to him in crystal clear voice: "Oh, you mighty Bedouin, you found me, I'm the magic fairy of this part of the desert and I can fulfill you 3 wishes."* *The lost Bedouin closed his eyes and mumbled: "Now if you would be so kind to disappear when I'll open my eyes again, that would be great. I'm thirsty, tired and alone, and the only thing that could make things worse is a stupid mirage. Now, go!"* *To his even bigger surprise, the magic fairy was still there when he opened his eyes again. And she looked a little bored too: "Ok, are we going to play this again? Just told you I'm a magic fairy, what do you want from me to believe? Can we skip to the wishes, please?"* *A little puzzled, our Bedouin decided it's better to play the way she said. After all, he had nothing to lose: if she was for real, then he got 3 wishes fulfilled, if she was a mirage, he was properly entertained..* *"Ok, so wait a minute, I just have to think exactly what I need", Bedouin said.* *"No worries, magic fairy replied, I'm here to serve you".* *After a few minutes, our Bedouin decided he knows what he wants:* *"First thing, because I'm walking for days in this desert without water, I would like a lot of water, right? Can you make it that I will always have water on me?"* *The fairy seemed to think for a few seconds and then replied: "Ok, I can do that. Next?"* *"The second thing it's something a little bit special. You know, I had this tan skin for as long as I remember my face. Now that I met you and you said you can fulfill any possible wish, I want to take advantage of this opportunity. Although it may sound a little bit silly… Can you?… Can you make me white? Ok, I said it!"* *Magic fairy looked very carefully at our Bedouin and after a few seconds replied: "Yeap, I can do that too. Last one, please?"* *"Well, you know, a man is a man. And a man has needs. Lots of needs. I think you know where I'm heading here. But I'll just say it out loud: I want to be touched by lots of women. Daily if possible. Lots of women. Daily. Can you do this?"* *Fairy acknowledged and before moving her magic wand, she whispered again, in crystal clear voice, to our lost Bedouin: "So, you want to always have water, you want to be white and to be touched by lots of women, is that correct?"* *"Absolutely", the Bedouin replied.* *One short move of the magic wand, a short mumbled magic formula and then our fairy disappeared.* *The next second, our Bedouin woke up as a flush toilet in a crowded ladies' room: always filled with water, colored in white and touched by women daily. Lots of women. Daily.* Yeah, I laughed too. But behind laughing, this joke tells a lot about our own goal setting approach. ### Goal Setting and Your Private Magic Fairy How many times you did your goal setting the same way the lost Bedouin did? How many times your dreams were blurred (/shifting-focus/) or inconsistent? How many times you followed impersonal social patterns just to find yourself in a totally different place than you wanted to be in? I know I did it at least a thousand times. Sooner or later, if you play your cards well, the magic fairy will make your wish come true. Call it destiny, call it Law Of Attraction, call it the Universe, call it whatever you want, but the thing is, if you wish something, in the end you'll get it. That's the good news. The bad news is that in the end you'll get it. 😉 So be very careful what you're wishing for. Goal setting is a tricky thing. At the core of our lives (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/) there's nobody else but us. Our current situation is the direct result of what we dreamed about, of what we wanted to, of what we intended to happen. We're all having our own private magic fairy, only we're not always able to see her. But she's there, and she's doing exactly what we're telling her to do: she's fulfilling our wishes (/opportunity-management/). ### The Magic Fairy Goal Setting Exercise One thing that could really help you avoid this lost Bedouin situation is what I call "the magic fairy goal setting" exercise. It's a very simple thing you can do, not to mention it can be really fun. How it works? Every time you establish some goal, put yourself in the lost Bedouin shoes. Imagine you've just met the magic fairy and you're up to have 3 wishes fulfilled. How would you set up your goal (/why-i-dont-like-magical-wish-granting-fishes/)? How will the wishes will sound? Compare "I want a better career (/77-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/)" with " I want to do something that I love, I want to be paid for and I want to feel good while I'm doing it". Compare "I want a better relationship" with "I want a woman to love, a woman who will understand me, who will love me back and who will support me. I want to be able to talk with her openly, to have fun together and to enjoy our journey". Quite a difference, right? Doesn't matter if you write the wishes down, although in the beginning it will surely help. What will matter in this exercise is to visualize the whole discussion between the magic fairy and the Bedouin. What matters is to remember that what you wish for will come true, and if you're not 100 percent exact, you can end up as a flush toilet. What follows is a short guide of how to create "magic fairy proof" wishes. In other words, a practical approach to avoid the lost Bedouin situation by using a better goal setting approach. #### 1. Be Precise Tell "exactly" what you want. Don't make assumptions. Magic fairies are usually pretty busy (we're over 6 billion people to be served on this planet only, so they have plenty of work to do). Don't just mumble metaphors like: "I want to be touched by lots of women. Daily" because the magic fairy will pick the simplest first available choice. Which, most of the time, it's NOT what you want. #### 2. Be Direct Don't expect your fairy to understand by herself what you're wishing for. Magic fairies are not designed to handle our goal setting process, this is our job. They're designed to make what we're saying real, which is a very difficult job in itself. You have to be very direct and put shyness apart. If you're not telling out loud what you're wanting to happen, you're getting something extremely different. You may become white, if that's what you wish for, but you may become the wrong kind of white, so to speak. #### 3. Be Fearless Too many times our wishes are a result of a certain imbalance in our current environment. Our lost Bedouin wanted a lot of water, because he experienced loss of water extensively. So he wanted a lot of water, by fear of losing it again. His goal setting process was rooted in fear. And every time we're acting based on fear (/fear-is-the-mind-killer/), we're getting strange results. We're wishing loads of money, for instance, without caring what we have to do for it. And in the process of getting loads of money we also get other people to literally shit on our heads for it. #### 4. Be Confident It will happen. Really. Once you intended something, it will happen. So, setting goals "just like that" will have the same effect as setting goals "seriously". Everything you wish for it's happening, period. So, if you're wishing something at all, you'd better doing it with confidence (/monday-moving-forward-renegotiate-some-commitments/), being prepared for it. Just sketching your goals, thinking it will just be a "dry test" without really happening, will put you in the lost Bedouin situation: you may wake up as a flush toilet in some ladies' room. #### 5. Be Consistent If you didn't get it for the first time, don't despair. Adjust, improve and refine your wishes (/goals-and-mechanical-rabbits/) and then put up the intention again. Our joke is describing only one meeting with the magic fairy but the untold truth is that we can meet this lady as often as we want, if we really want to. So, keep your precise, direct, fearless and confident wishes handy, because you never know when your private magic fairy will jump again in front of you, ready to make them come true. ### My Magic Fairy Request To You Now, let's put this to work. Let's have a magic fairy exercise. In this specific context, you, the reader, will be my magic fairy. Exactly, you can fulfill me 3 wishes. Yes, of course you can. 😉 So, in order to make my wishes understandable to you, I will try to follow the 5 steps in the goal setting exercise from above. First, here are the wishes: #### 1. I want you to spread the word about this post And I want you to use specifically these social media outlets: delicious, twitter, digg and stumbleupon. Just click on the links and the magic will start to happen. Of course, after you click the links, you will share this blog post with your friends (by email or using specific social media tools). No need to get out on the streets and shout about it, though (I'm trying to be precise here, ok?). #### 2. I want you to write a blog post about your own magic fairy exercise I'm sure you've been in the lost Bedouin shoes at some point in your life. There must have been a moment in your life when your wishes were misunderstood. Write a blog post about it, let it out, clear it over. Try to translate the mistaken wish into a better one. If you don't have a blog, write in a journal. If you don't keep a journal, start keeping one (private magic fairies do read journals, believe me). #### 3. I want you to link back to this blog post So I can identify you (and pass it on to my own magic fairy, if yours is too busy at the moment). Again, if you don't have a blog, you don't have to link back to this. But if you do, put a link back and let the world know you're working on your magic fairy relationship. Now, how these wishes are following the magic fairy goal setting guidelines? I am precise: I gave you the exact links for spreading the word. I'm being direct: no need to tell you that I want you to make the world better, just share this post, that would be all. I'm being fearless: I've been featured before on social media and I know what it takes, I even upgraded my hosting plan to cope with this. Being featured on delicious or lifehacker (/dont-hit-big-unless-youre-ready-for-it/) could really put your server to your knees. I'm prepared, go on, hit me up. I'm being confident: I know this will happen. I just know. And, finally, I'm being consistent: all my 3 wishes are related. All 3 wishes combined will (hopefully 😉 ) have the same effect: will spread the word about this post and help people improve their goal setting process. Now, I wonder if I forgot something… 😉 First published on: April 6, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-magic-fairy-exercise%2F&text=The%20Magic%20Fairy%20Exercise&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-magic-fairy-exercise%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-magic-fairy-exercise%2F&t=The%20Magic%20Fairy%20Exercise https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-magic-fairy-exercise%2F&title=The%20Magic%20Fairy%20Exercise Previous ### How to Deal With Rejection: 5 Fresh Ways to Look at Getting Rejected (/how-to-deal-with-rejection-5-fresh-ways-to-look-at-getting-rejected/) Next ### 10 Steps to Turn Your Passion into Business (/10-steps-to-turn-your-passion-into-business/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Finding Money In The Back Pocket Of An Old Pair Of Jeans URL: https://dragosroua.com/finding-money-in-the-back-pocket-of-an-old-pair-of-jeans.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/finding-money-in-the-back-pocket-of-an-old-pair-of-jeans/ Published: 2021-05-02 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 68 Categories: Financial Resilience Tags: 365 challenge, financial freedom Have you ever experienced this? I mean, finding an old pair of jeans, routinely searching the pockets, only to find at the bottom of it, with a mix of exhilaration, surprise and expectation, a little bit of cash? Maybe not a lot, probably just enough to have lunch out, but totally out of nowhere, like an unexpected gift? It happened to me more than once. And I had such a fresh feeling of joy and, believe it or not, gratitude. I was grateful to myself for "forgetting about" that money. In fact, I was so grateful for these oblivion episodes, that I started to think "what if…"? What if I could make this a permanent thing? What if I start to just "forget" some money in random places, only to experience this type of joy and gratitude at a future, not yet established moment? Of course, I didn't start to put money in the pockets of my jeans – although, for a few seconds, I played with the idea. I started to save. Random amounts, at random times, without any plan whatsoever. I started to create small "buckets" in which I slipped small amounts of money. It wasn't necessarily a strategy behind this, as I didn't have a specific goal for it. I wasn't doing it to reach a certain goal. Only to surprise myself in the future. In time, I diversified these "buckets". In the beginning they were bank accounts. Then, slowly, they became random envelopes with cash (exchanged for something nice when they were "found") and, of course, small bags of crypto. Just to be clear, this is more a recreational activity, not a strategy for investment. I also have a strategy for investment (more than one, to be honest), this is a very different thing. This is actually a lifestyle. It's living your life in such a way that your future self will be grateful for the things you did for him in the past. I don't know about you, but I didn't live like that before. Caught in the whirlwind of my daily activities, I always walked around with some sort of "life myopia", not seeing further away than tomorrow. As an unexpected bonus, when I started to do this, not only I created some sort of an invisible safety net for myself, activated when I least expected it, but I also activated another important part, seemingly unrelated: empathy. The moment I started to care for someone that didn't actually exist (and for whom there isn't any serious guarantee that he will exist long enough to search that "pocket") I also realized I can do this for other people too. I don't have to know them personally. And they don't need to know it was me. So I added to this self-care project another dimension, in which I help with small amounts of money people I barely know. I do it through Kiva, I give money to artists who are playing on the streets, and I even have a small budget to support other people work, every month. It's not a lot, like I said, just enough to have lunch out, but it will happen unexpectedly for someone. It may be me, or someone else, that's not relevant anymore. First published on: May 2, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-money-in-the-back-pocket-of-an-old-pair-of-jeans%2F&text=Finding%20Money%20In%20The%20Back%20Pocket%20Of%20An%20Old%20Pair%20Of%20Jeans&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-money-in-the-back-pocket-of-an-old-pair-of-jeans%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-money-in-the-back-pocket-of-an-old-pair-of-jeans%2F&t=Finding%20Money%20In%20The%20Back%20Pocket%20Of%20An%20Old%20Pair%20Of%20Jeans https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-money-in-the-back-pocket-of-an-old-pair-of-jeans%2F&title=Finding%20Money%20In%20The%20Back%20Pocket%20Of%20An%20Old%20Pair%20Of%20Jeans Previous ### 365 Essential Days Writing Challenge – Checkpoint Four for Location Independence (/365-days-writing-challenge-checkpoint-four/) Next ### The World Behind My Morning Coffee (/the-world-behind-my-morning-coffee/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Intermittent Fasting – What Is It And Why I'm Trying It URL: https://dragosroua.com/intermittent-fasting-im-trying.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/intermittent-fasting-im-trying/ Published: 2017-02-26 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 68 Categories: Health and Fitness Tags: experiment, fitness As many of you know, I'm an ultra-runner. As many of you know also, I'm an ultra-runner (/ultrabalaton-the-aftermath-of-a-222-kilometers-race/) especially for the mental benefits I get from this activity: concentration, resilience and focus (among many others). But since we're still made of flesh and bones, a big part of my ultra-running activity revolves around nutrition. I want to pause now and give you a full disclaimer: I'm not a qualified nutritionist and every piece of information you will get from this article comes from my own experimentation. Your results with the same process can be drastically different. Needless to say, before starting any change in your diet, you should consult a qualified nutritionist. With that being said, let me share what I've observed during the last 7 days, since I started to experiment with intermittent fasting. ## What Is Intermitted Fasting? Intermittent fasting is not a diet, it's an eating pattern. Briefly put, intermittent fasting means you're grouping your meals in a certain interval and stick with that routine. It doesn't interfere with *what* you eat, but with *how often* you eat. There are many intermittent fasting patters, daily, weekly or monthly. For the daily patterns, usually you go with a 16/8 pattern, which means you fast for 16 hours and then eat for the rest of the 8 hours. For the weekly patterns, you may pick one day of the week and fast for 24 hours. Same thing for monthly patterns. What I tried during the last 7 days was a daily pattern with a 16/8 ratio, where I have my first meal at 10 AM and the last meal at 6 PM. ## How Intermittent Fasting Works? Eating burns calories. It also puts calories in the system but it does that by consuming some first. If you mix your calorie intake and calorie burning processes in a continuous way, the body will eventually reach a point where it will become inefficient. It will have a hard time understanding how much to burn *for* calorie intake, how much to burn *from* the calorie intake and how much to *store*. Also, the insulin level during the day will impact this process. There's a lot more to say about this, but as I already made it clear, I'm not a doctor and although I do my best to get my information from the most reputable sources, I prefer to keep it simple and easy to understand when I write abut it. For the sake of this introductory article, let's stick with the fact that mixing calorie intake and calorie burning from various stores will have, sometimes, less desirable effects. Intermittent fasting separates these two processes in clear time frames. For the entire duration of the eating window, let's say, 8 hours, your body will be in fed state, it will burn calories for calories intake. For the rest of the time, the 16 hours window, it will just burn calories from its various stores (usually, fat). ## My Personal Observations For the last 7 days I kept the process smooth with only two exceptions: one evening I got really hungry and I ate a bit around 9PM, and one evening I came after a long run and ate in the following half an hour (this shouldn't really impact the process, since eating in the first hour after a workout will get burned immediately). I clearly observed that I started to lose weight. Because of really bad weather, I didn't run during the last 3 weeks. I didn't do any other type of cross-training either and it started to show. But since I started to do intermittent fasting, I observed a clear reduction in the fat layer around my belly. I also observed an increase in the quality of my sleep and decrease in the total time dedicated to sleep. In simpler words, I sleep less and I sleep better. During the day I also seem to concentrate better, but I wouldn't be so fast in making a connection between intermittent fasting and this. It may be just the fact that I'm rearranging a lot of stuff in my daily activities and I need to pay more attention. All in all, I find intermittent fasting an interesting experiment. I find it working quite well with my training approach (the Maffetone Method) as in both are putting an emphasis on burning fat for energy. I'll keep you posted with any other new developments on this experiment. First published on: February 26, 2017 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fintermittent-fasting-im-trying%2F&text=Intermittent%20Fasting%20%E2%80%93%20What%20Is%20It%20And%20Why%20I%E2%80%99m%20Trying%20It&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fintermittent-fasting-im-trying%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fintermittent-fasting-im-trying%2F&t=Intermittent%20Fasting%20%E2%80%93%20What%20Is%20It%20And%20Why%20I%E2%80%99m%20Trying%20It https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fintermittent-fasting-im-trying%2F&title=Intermittent%20Fasting%20%E2%80%93%20What%20Is%20It%20And%20Why%20I%E2%80%99m%20Trying%20It Previous ### Hypnosis for Better Performance (/hypnosis-better-performance/) Next ### 20 Days Into Intermittent Fasting – First Impressions (/20-days-intermittent-fasting-first-impressions/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 5 Lessons Learned From Getting My First Tattoo URL: https://dragosroua.com/5-lessons-learned-from-getting-my-first-tattoo.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/5-lessons-learned-from-getting-my-first-tattoo/ Published: 2011-03-16 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 67 Categories: Personal Development, Travel and Fun Tags: courage, lessons learned, list post A couple of weeks ago I was in Christchurch, New Zealand. Yes, I was there just days before the earthquake, but I'm not gonna talk about that in this post. While I was there, I had the urge of getting my first tattoo. If you want to know why, well… I don't kinda have an answer to that question… :-). I gave it some serious thoughts myself and, after a few days and nights of pondering things out, I decided that I got a (Scorpio shaped, if you really want to know) tattoo, just because I wanted to. Period. I didn't have a tattoo before and I knew little about the whole thing. Everything happened really fast. It took roughly two hours, in which I stayed pretty much like a stone on a chair, having my skin sewed with an electric needle which punched me 300 times per second. But I'm very happy with the result. Not only because I got a very nice piece of work, but also because, as always, this new and apparently out of nothing experience, taught me a great deal. If you're curious what exactly I learned from this, well, just read on :-). ### 1. Pain Is In Your Head If you're a normal person, getting a tattoo hurts. By normal person I mean one with a regular nerve and skin structure. There are people who are not able to sense pain on their skin and for them, getting a tattoo is like brushing their hair. For me, it wasn't. I'm a normal person and my skin nerves are performing exactly as they should do: informing me of every aggression that might happen, by triggering pain. The moment I felt the needle on my skin I knew it's going to be harsh. But I wasn't prepared for that harsh. After the first minute I had the urge of telling "OK, got it, enough". After the second minute I had the urge of just running away. And after the first 5 minutes I really wanted to punch the guy. In his face. Repeatedly. Until he's down. And then kick his face. Repeatedly. Ok, I think you got the idea. But none of these actions were available at the moment. I just wanted to have my tattoo done and if that meant I had to go through that pain, well, I had to just stay there. So I just stayed there. And started to shift my focus (/training-your-focus/) from my pain and the needle that was sewing me to my breathe. I do this all the time when I want to calm down or just take a break and refuel with energy. Inhale. Exhale. To make a long story short, after the first half an hour I had my pain under control. The tattoo had to be outlined 4 times (it's a green Scorpio with a red outline, a little bit of a color symbolism there) and one of the outlines had to be filled with color. So it was a lot of hurt. But after detaching myself from it, I was ok. Like really ok. When I got down from the chair, two hours later, with a fantastic green-red Scorpio on my arm, I could barely step. I was really, really sore. But not in pain anymore. ### 2. You Attract What You Are This is something that started to happen after the tattoo was made. And I admit I wasn't prepared for that either. So, in order to explain this, I would have to ask you a little question first: what's the link between a Malayesian owner of a small malayesian restaurant in Auckland, a Chinese lady operating a shop at Victoria Peak in Hong Kong and yours truly? Well, the Malayesian owner and the Chinese lady both seen my tattoo and felt compelled to start talking to me. Both Scorpios. And both pretty similar to me. They both admitted it was a very nice piece and they felt quite familiar in engaging in a social interaction with me, despite the racial difference. The link was made at another level. The tattoo was visible all the time. Why I wasn't approached by somebody else? A Gemini, perhaps? A Virgo? My green-red Scorpio was like a lighthouse. It attracted human floating vessels with a familiar signal. "Hey, look, you recognize this? Let's connect". A tattoo is a very "in your face" signal. A very big lighthouse. But it was a very precious reminder that we do broadcast signals all the time and those signals are shaping our interactions. ### 3. You Become What You Say You Are Or in other words, what you paint yourself as. After I made the tattoo, a subtle reinforcement vibe started to appear. Seeing the Scorpio on my arm all day long made me more aware of it. And of the fact that I am one with it. That I am it. I think it works a bit like visualization. If you're constantly in contact with something, you are adapting, you are adjusting, you are eventually becoming one with that something. There is this saying that you are, financially speaking, the average of the first 5 persons you spend most of your time with. And I do tend to believe that. ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. If you project yourself in a certain context, sooner or later you become one with that context. Either by changing yourself to fit in, or by attracting some favorable circumstances. Fact is, this is really working. I'm not going to say that I'm a better person because I have a green-red Scorpio tattoo on my arm. But the whole process, getting it, melting it into my daily visual field, well, all of that made me more aware of who I am and how I act in this world. ### 4. Everything You Do Matter Or in other words, it has consequences. Sometimes we don't see them, but that doesn't mean they're not there. But a tattoo, a picture that will stay on your body for as long as you'll have that body is a great reminder that your actions are leaving a trace. Every time I wash my tattoo – and it doesn't disappear – I realize that it was my decision. And that I cannot change it now. I cannot change the past or the consequences of my actions. I can only accept them and learn to live with them. Sometimes we're trapped into a strange remorse carousel. Especially if we've been through some pain, we want to reverse things to "how they used to be before". Well, this can't happen. The past is in the past and all we have to work with is in this present moment. Of course we can change our lives (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/), if we really want to. But we cannot change the consequences of what we already did. We have to work with what we have and make the best out of it. ### 5. Just Do It! This is not technically a lesson, but rather a reinforcement. If you really want to do something, do it while you got the chance to. Do it when you want to. Because if you postpone too much, you may lose it entirely. Just two days after I made my tattoo in Christchurch (/christchurch-the-experience/) the whole city collapsed in a huge earthquake. My tattoo parlor may not even be standing. It really makes you think when you see stuff like this. I think it's better to proudly wear the traces of your adventures than to slip through life in an endless avoidance dance. I do wear my tattoo with pride and satisfaction. I just did it. Like a ton of other things I did before and I'm going to do from now on. First published on: March 16, 2011 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-lessons-learned-from-getting-my-first-tattoo%2F&text=5%20Lessons%20Learned%20From%20Getting%20My%20First%20Tattoo&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-lessons-learned-from-getting-my-first-tattoo%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-lessons-learned-from-getting-my-first-tattoo%2F&t=5%20Lessons%20Learned%20From%20Getting%20My%20First%20Tattoo https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-lessons-learned-from-getting-my-first-tattoo%2F&title=5%20Lessons%20Learned%20From%20Getting%20My%20First%20Tattoo Previous ### How An iPhone, An iPad And A Mac Are Shaping My Digital Life (/how-an-iphone-an-ipad-and-a-mac-are-shaping-my-digital-life/) Next ### Forget Products: Let’s Build Ecosystems Instead (/forget-products-lets-build-ecosystems-instead/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # AI Is the New Marijuana (And We're All About To Get High) URL: https://dragosroua.com/ai-is-the-new-marijuana-and-were-all-about-to-get-high.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/ai-is-the-new-marijuana-and-were-all-about-to-get-high/ Published: 2025-12-26 Views: 67 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Relationships and Society Tags: ai tools, change, mindset, perspective I lived the first 19 years of my life under communism, then suddenly landed in a (more or less) capitalist world. The system collapsed and my country tried to find a new way of working, under a different ideology. So it's safe to say that I know both worlds. And one of the best things about seeing the same thing (in this case, reality) from two different but equally valid perspective is that you get some space, some experience, some new layer of understanding that can help you connect the invisible dots. It gives you and edge to spot early imbalances, signals of a profound, even though invisible yet, change. And here's what I see happening. Right now, we're building AI tools that generate plausible text, plausible images, plausible video (/10-ways-in-which-artificial-intelligence-is-disrupting-our-lives/). We're on the verge of making plausible world creation a commodity. Notice the word: *plausible*. Not real. Just convincing enough to pass as real. In other words, we're creating reality-altering tools that can be ingested directly through familiar transport avenues—computers and phones. But wait a minute. Marijuana does the same thing. Psilocybin does the same thing. Any psychoactive substance you ingest alters your brain's perception of reality. You're no longer in the "real" world. You're living in a dream state, a modified experience. The only difference with AI is that we're not using biological, under the skin ingestion. We're using screens, speakers, and familiar digital interfaces. The transport mechanism is different, but the result is the same. ## The Coming Imbalance Going forward, this shift may create significant imbalances in our world. We may soon see completely new realities that alter experience and perception in ways that make the difference between "real" and "generated" impossible to detect. Completely artificial worlds, that will "feel" real, though, and, on top of that, engineered to stick. The uncomfortable part: someone else will control how these worlds are created. Think entire social media platforms built on AI characters and AI worlds, with a single goal: keeping you inside the feed (/reality-as-a-service-living-by-subscription/). Forever. Massive dopamine mines. So good, they're almost unescapable. Just like the high you keep chasing. I think there will be a huge audience for this. Because the worlds these systems present will be far more compelling than actual reality. Why deal with a messy, unpredictable life when you can subscribe to a perfectly crafted one – and stay there? Instead of selling marijuana, we'll sell subscriptions to synthetic worlds. Instead of drug dealers, we'll have world designers. Instead of rehab clinics, we'll have… actually, we'll probably still need those, but maybe with a totally different treatment layer. ## The Two Paths I see two paths emerging. **The healing path**: therapeutic applications for mental health, carefully designed experiences for self-improvement, controlled environments for people working on themselves. No dopamine hijacking, no addiction hooks—just tools for growth. **The exploitation path**: people sliding into these synthetic worlds without understanding what's happening to them. Becoming, in a sense, slaves without consent (/ai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it/). Addicted to realities they didn't choose, controlled by systems they don't understand. ## The Final Transport Layer And here's where it gets truly strange: both paths—healing and exploitation—will accelerate dramatically when the transport layer changes. Very soon, we'll use brain-computer interfaces as the transport mechanism. No more screens. No more phones. Direct neural input. At that point, people will be hooked into synthetic realities the same way they're hooked when they ingest traditional drugs. The biological and digital transport layers will merge. The marijuana dealer and the AI world designer will become the same thing. ## The New Ideological Split Beyond individual addiction and healing, we need to think about what happens at the collective level. New social structures will emerge. AI-powered social media platforms. Entertainment neighborhoods—think red light districts, but for synthetic realities. Maybe even small countries or city-states built entirely around AI-generated experiences. And probably forms of social aggregation we can't even imagine yet. Entire communities powered and sustained by fantasy AI. On the other side, we'll have traditional communities. Places where AI influence is deliberately limited. Where life is built on real interaction with real people—not avatars, not fabricated contexts, not algorithmically optimized companions. Yes, AI tools will be used everywhere, even in these spaces. There will be enhancement, optimization, a dramatic increase in comfort. But the foundation will remain human-to-human, flesh-to-flesh, messy and unpredictable. Between these two worlds? Tension. Isolation. A dynamic I don't fully understand yet. I don't have an answer about which direction this goes. Will one become dominant? Will they coexist indefinitely, like parallel civilizations? Will people migrate between them, or will the boundaries harden into something like borders? What I do know is this: we might be looking at one of the biggest disruptions in human society since we invented ideology itself. The last two centuries gave us the dichotomy between communism and capitalism. Entire wars were fought over it. Walls were built. Families were separated. The world organized itself around that split. As I said, I lived the first 19 years of my life under communism, then moved to the capitalist world. I've seen how both systems construct reality, how they shape what people believe is possible. And I think both are already becoming outdated (/the-next-revolution-will-be-technological-not-ideological/). We're on the verge of a new dichotomy: AI-powered versus non-AI-powered life structures and organizations. Not just tools. Not just preferences. Entire ways of being human. *And this is where this blog post stops. Why? Because I truly have no idea how this will unfold. I'm still trained on the old world, so I cannot fully grasp the new one. All I know: it's already breeding.* First published on: December 26, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-is-the-new-marijuana-and-were-all-about-to-get-high%2F&text=AI%20Is%20the%20New%20Marijuana%20(And%20We%E2%80%99re%20All%20About%20To%20Get%20High)&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-is-the-new-marijuana-and-were-all-about-to-get-high%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-is-the-new-marijuana-and-were-all-about-to-get-high%2F&t=AI%20Is%20the%20New%20Marijuana%20(And%20We%E2%80%99re%20All%20About%20To%20Get%20High) https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fai-is-the-new-marijuana-and-were-all-about-to-get-high%2F&title=AI%20Is%20the%20New%20Marijuana%20(And%20We%E2%80%99re%20All%20About%20To%20Get%20High) Previous ### AI Will Never Be Able To Spot True Excellence (/ai-will-never-be-able-to-spot-true-excellence/) Next ### 2025 Year in Review (/2025-year-in-review/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Make Your Blog Sail Like Santa Maria URL: https://dragosroua.com/make-your-blog-sail-like-santa-maria.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/make-your-blog-sail-like-santa-maria/ Published: 2009-09-12 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 67 Categories: Blogging Tags: blogging journey, perspective, writing Oh, you don't know what Santa Maria is? If you're reading this from the American continent, well, Santa Maria is the main cause you're living there. 500 years back, a man called Cristofor Columb discovered what we all know today as America, with a fantastic sailboat called Santa Maria. It went from Spain all the way over Atlantic Ocean and found a New World. Now, I can almost see it: left eyebrow slightly up, fingers ready to hit the keyboard and the lips slowly starting to move, ready to chew the following question: "well, let's say I understand all this sailboat thingie and I heard about the guy… somehow… but what does that have to do with a blog, dude?". Relax, let your eyebrow slowly descend in its place and join me, I will tell you how to blog like you're sailing a sailboat. A fantastic sailboat. ### How To Keep Your Blog Afloat You may write the best content in the world, but if nobody can find you, your content will be as good as buried in your back yard. Subsequently, if you build a ship, but you won't have a sea to sail on, your ship will be useless. I think you're starting to see where I'm heading. And you're right. Your content must find a way to sail. Your ship must find a sea to float around. The water of your blogging ship is made by inbound links. That's right, you heard me: inbound links. The more you have, the higher the level of your sea. If you have hundreds of links already pointing to your blog, you know what I mean. Sometimes, all you need is just some water and you're just drifting away, effortless. Building inbound links for your blog is like creating a sea for your ship. I always saw this activity as important as creating content. Sometimes, even more important. Being connected and inserted in this huge web of links has many advantages, not all pertaining to the current moment. Having a constant flow of links will have huge benefits for the medium and long term. There are tons of techniques on how to build inbound links, I won't go into detail here, but if you want to know more, you can always check out 100 Ways To Improve Your Blog (/100-ways-to-improve-your-blog/). ### Rise Your Posts Against The Wind If your incoming links are your sea, your posts are your sails. You are actually pushed away by your sails. Imagine you have a blog with a lot of inbound links, but with no content. Nothing really happens there. It's like a ship stuck in the middle of the ocean. In order to move forward, you have to create constant, quality content. The quality of your sails is directly affecting the speed, the maneuverability and the balance of your ship. Being constant is one of the keys here. A ship with sails filled with holes won't sail as fast as one with huge, continuous and consistent headsails. A ship with partial sails won't be very easy to sail either. Writing good content is very similar to using good sails for a sailboat. Your posts have to be consistent, complete, balanced, time proof and effective. Of course, you can write whatever crosses your mind, but don't expect something wrote just to fill in the gaps to behave in a same way a well crafted sail does. ### Stay On Top Of The Content Remember that place on top of the mast? The guy on duty? Ready to see every danger that could arise from the ocean? Well, that's the place you have to be, as the captain of your ship. Stay on top of the content, don't lose your main course form sight, have a bird-eye of the map at any moment. It's easy to get caught in a daily routine while blogging. Whenever you have these feelings of limitation or boredom, just climb up the mast again and look at the sea around. Look at your ship from above (having your blog into mind map (/put-your-blog-into-a-mind-map/) will surely help about that). ### Watch The Shores They say a sailor has a wife in every port. Well, this is true. Except ports in this comparison are success stories for your blog. And the term "wife" is used in its general meaning of "fun'. So, if your ship is the blog, shores – and especially welcoming harbors – are your success stories. This is where you become famous and have fun. Lots of fun. Every time you reach a new destination, your blog will become more valuable. Every port you anchor in is in fact a new level of your blog. Every shore you touch, is the end of a new travel. But a sailor needs sea. Enjoy your success, have your fun, but don't stay too long in a port. Anchors away. Don't try to taste more than you can have, because if you stay in a single port too long (meaning, enjoying too much of your success) you're going to lose the very ability which lead you there. ### Watch Your Compass Every skilled sailor needs a compass. You have to know every time where you are heading. Your highest place on the highest mast of your ship won't be able to help here. A compass is a much more sensitive and deep tool. In blogging, your compass will be your intuition. Find new trends. Or create them. Identify new opportunities. Or, again, create them. Find new partners, new ideas, new subjects every day. Not using a compass can create this very awkward situation: you have a huge sea to sail on, good sails and a functioning boat, but you don't really know where you're heading. Or where you are. Or why are you there. *** History tells us that Santa Maria ran aground in the Christmas morning 1492 and had to be abandoned. But it did that only after discovered a whole new continent and opened a fantastic chapter in the world's history. The captain, Cristofor Columb, was still alive. And guess what: after this incident he chose other ships and continued his discoveries. Don't let your ship go aground before you use it to discover a great new world. — First published on: September 12, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmake-your-blog-sail-like-santa-maria%2F&text=Make%20Your%20Blog%20Sail%20Like%20Santa%20Maria&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmake-your-blog-sail-like-santa-maria%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmake-your-blog-sail-like-santa-maria%2F&t=Make%20Your%20Blog%20Sail%20Like%20Santa%20Maria https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmake-your-blog-sail-like-santa-maria%2F&title=Make%20Your%20Blog%20Sail%20Like%20Santa%20Maria Previous ### Do You Feel Your Life Is Blurred? (/is-your-life-blurred/) Next ### Balls Of Fire (/balls-of-fire/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Pay Yourself First – It Pays Off URL: https://dragosroua.com/pay-yourself-first.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/pay-yourself-first/ Published: 2009-06-29 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 67 Categories: Financial Resilience, Relationships and Society Tags: caring, energy, habits, priorities, self discipline, willpower Anything you do requires energy. And everything you do creates energy. Anything. Even reading this article. You're spending energy (/making-money-with-a-purpose/) by focusing on the text, processing the info in your brain and matching it against what you already know. At the end of this process, you get some energy back in the form of new ideas, new approaches or possibly some answers. Hopefully, you'll get some positive energy by reading this :- ). Have you ever thought what happens with this energy you get back? How much of it you really use? How much of it you discard unconsciously? We're usually thinking in spending patterns rather than in receiving patterns. We think: how much it will cost me to do this, or how much I will have to give to make this happen. But we almost never think in terms of: what's the reward of doing this? I know what you're thinking: you think I'm heading towards the "what's in it for me?" mindset. Well, this is not what I meant. The "what's in it for me" mindset is a form of egotism and selfishness. It's a way of getting things without paying for them, or paying as low as you can. I'm talking about something else. I'm talking about a mindset of receiving and not stealing. A mindset in which you're thinking what type of energy you get back. It's almost like thinking in terms of a diet: how many calories I will get out of this meal? Close to this subject, I wrote a while ago quite a popular article about psychological calories (/managing-your-psychological-calories_keep-your-soul-in-good-shape/) and how we can differentiate between positive and negative psychological calories, feel free to read it and then come back. This article is on the topic somehow similar to that. ### The Receiving Pattern Receiving energy from what you're doing is not as easy as it might seem. For starters, I don't think we're paying all the attention we can to all the energy we're receiving. Most of the time we know in advance that our energy exchange will provide some kind of value back, and we're focusing only on what we already know. You may spend the whole day at your job, and you're receiving a weekly paycheck. This is all the energy you get back. Or, to be more specific, this is all the energy you think you get back. In fact, you're receiving much more. You have some daily interactions with your colleagues, with your clients or with your employees. Maybe you travel a lot for business purposes. Or maybe you do a physical work and your body is thankful for that. Receiving energy needs your full awareness. We're exposed to a a million energy sources every day, but our valves are closed. Our awareness is focused only on our habitual patterns, we're expecting energy only from certain sources and we're constantly ignoring the other sources. Being aware means opening your energy valves to everything that may feed you. Opening your understanding and your consciousness to every potential encounter. Because every interaction is an energy source. ### Energy Leaking Suppose you're having already an energy receiving strategy. That's only half of the journey. Why? Because even if you're into a receiving mindset, you still have one serious problem: energy leaking. And why is that? Well, the answer is so simple, yet so difficult to digest: because you're giving it away. Even if you do have a lot of energy coming back to you, there is still a popular mindset which will make you weak, and that is: fake altruism. Don't get me wrong, caring for others is empowering and nurturing, I'm talking about a situation in which you put others *before* you. The powerless altruistic guy. The one that is ignoring his needs because he needs to serve others. I may offend you here, but I'm so totally rejecting this type. Whenever I meet somebody who claims he puts others before himself , I take a step back. There is only one thing worse than a guy who claims he puts others before himself and that's somebody who really does this. When I meet this kind of person I take two steps back. And, one step here, two steps there, I'm all dancing around, trying to escape the fake altruism wave. Because this is a wave, this is almost fashion. Everybody is altruistic these days, everybody is reaching out to help others. Everybody is starting a campaign to help the ones in need. That's ok folks. As long as you're not neglecting your very own needs. Because I really don't see any point if you're doing this. I find it even worse than egotism and selfishness. ### Pay Yourself First You can't really help others if you don't help yourself. You'll get out of resources. I'm not talking about genuine giving and gifting, which comes from a mindset of abundance and ease, I'm talking about this forced attitude of making yourself a slave of others in the name of some social or religious percepts that you may not even understand. If you're giving away all your energy, you'll end up weak, vulnerable and defeated. You don't want to do that. Being really altruistic is caring for yourself as much as you care for others, not neglecting your very own individual for the sake of some fuzzy concept about "the others". Paying yourself first is an act of responsibility. Taking care of what you and your closest want is also an act of responsibility. It all goes from within, not from without. If you're not completely healthy and powerful from within, you can't project something valuable outside. If you're letting the energy you receive go away under the false premises of a fake altruistic approach, you're doing more harm than good. You can't really help people if you're not strong enough. You can't support somebody if you're not supporting yourself. You can't give something if you don't have it. First published on: June 29, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpay-yourself-first%2F&text=Pay%20Yourself%20First%20%E2%80%93%20It%20Pays%20Off&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpay-yourself-first%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpay-yourself-first%2F&t=Pay%20Yourself%20First%20%E2%80%93%20It%20Pays%20Off https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpay-yourself-first%2F&title=Pay%20Yourself%20First%20%E2%80%93%20It%20Pays%20Off Previous ### Amazon Kindle 2 Review (/amazon-kindle-2-review/) Next ### System Overload (/system-overload/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Journaling versus Blogging URL: https://dragosroua.com/journaling-versus-blogging.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/journaling-versus-blogging/ Published: 2008-10-09 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 66 Categories: Blogging, Personal Development, Success and Wellness Tags: blogging journey, introspection, journaling, writing Back in 2004 I started to keep a journal. It was basically a folder on my Linux powered laptop, with a bunch of unorganized files floating around. Everything was written hastily using vi, an editor which may be considered somehow cumbersome by the average computer user. Those were the days when my programming skills were sharper than ever… 4 years later I look at blogging from a serious business perspective, and made from eDragonu.ro blog my main activity. It was quite a process. Not always simple or even visible, sometimes pushed in the background by other, more urgent activities, but it was constant and evolving. It was like a subtle awakening. In this post I will try to outline some of my experiences from an emotional journalizing attitude to a much more fulfilling approach like blogging. ## Getting emotional Keeping a journal is a fantastic therapeutic activity. It literally keeps depression away (but don't talk about that to your therapist, or you can notice a sudden increase in his bill). Most of the people think about journaling as a very normal and maybe even necessary activity, but only until you finish college. You are allowed to keep a journal until your graduation, but if you do this afterwards, well, you might be labelled as a strange person. Journaling is often seen as a weakness or a sign of an unstable personality. But in fact, it is quite the contrary. The vast majority of famous people had a journal. Almost any important personality, from physicists like Albert Einstein to writers like Marcel Proust, they all kept a diary. And that seemed to enforce their inner balance (/100-ways-live-better-life-73-spend-time-alone/) and to boost their creativity resources. Having a journal is a sign of honesty and courage. You know, meeting with yourself is not always comfortable, and your journal is a continuous meeting with yourself. I started journaling mainly because of my emotional overflow. I needed a safety valve, other than escapism, denial or alcohol. I used those safety valves before, until I actually rend them useless. They were not safety valves anymore, but addictions or psychological delusions. So I started to write whatever I felt when I was in a frustrating mood. I just wanted to know who I am and why some things are happening to me over and over again. I wanted to identify everything that made me angry, or sad, or even happy and joyful. It was an action triggered by a very high emotional state. It was an attempt to regain the balance between within and without. It was an act of relief and recharge. After several days in which I wrote all of the pressuring stuff, I started to feel a difference. I was somehow relaxed. I felt like I processed it in some way, it was not on the inside anymore. I managed to get it out, put it in a safer place, and gain some relief over it. The emotional overflow finally found a way to flow. It felt good. But as the number of files started to grow on my folder, I began to actually read them, not only write them. It was the second important step I took. I started to actually understand. ## Measuring up I understand that the greatest advantage of a journal was not the fact that I could write something and take it out of my head, but the fact that I was able to read, days or week after, everything that I wrote. And then the real picture started to unfold. What I saw on the journal was not what I thought I was. Whatever was written there, it was different. I was a different person from the person I always knew I was. I started to know myself. Reading the journal gave me a very important perspective: the measurer perspective. Having a safe place for storing my experiences finally revealed them in their real light and made them measurable by me. They were not only immaterial thoughts, they were readable sentences and paragraphs. I could compare them, I could group them, I could mix them the way I wanted. Soon enough I started to analyze the journal. Or, to be more precise, the person behind that journal. And that was me, of course. Having a journal become my own self therapy, and I become my therapist. A very indulgent therapist, in the beginning, one that mainly acknowledged what was happening and rarely took action in any way. A passive measurer of my own life. ## My life in a box And then, after several months, I gradually gain some momentum. I started to journalize even when I was not on an emotional overflow. Knowing that I will measure everything later, I started to write things when I was in different states: stillness, relaxation, day dreaming, extremely focused, and so on. Little by little, my whole life started to breathe in that journal. I started to put there goals, to establish metrics, to identify opportunities, to reveal weaknesses. To make a long story short, I started to use journaling as a scaffold for my life. At that time I started to be interested in astrology and esotericism, in becoming a raw foodist and started to dramatically improve my relationships. It was like a veil was lifted off of my resources. And, even if this looks hard to believe, journaling had the key role in this transformation. ## Blogging After two years I started my first blog. It was a personal blog in Romanian, my first language, and at that time I saw it like a normal evolution from journaling. I was soon to discover that blogging was a lot more than journaling. Because in blogging you start conversations, you have witnesses. In journaling the "dear diary" style, you are your own measurer, in blogging, you're "naked" (assuming you're an honest blogger) in front of an unknown audience. The biggest difference between journaling and blogging is not the fact that blogging is public, but the fact that by this exposure it transforms your experiences in other people values. Whatever you write there, will be measured by others too. Whatever you create there, will become the scaffold for somebody else's life. It's not about you anymore, it is about other people around you. You're not writing anymore, you're sharing. And that is a big responsibility. I guess any blogger have been through this process at some point. There is a point in which your "public journaling" will become blogging, and that point is the most important step to be taken by anyone who want blogging to be a fulfilling activity. By accepting responsibility for your posts, by understanding that everything you write can affect other people, perhaps in ways you couldn't image before, by being honest in what you write, you create the premises for a successful blog. No matter if your blog is a news blog, or a personal development blog. As long as it's an honest and responsible act of writing, as long as it really shares the values you believe in, it will create the potential for positive transformations.  ## Sharing for growth That responsibility can also be understood like courage and generosity. Blogging is an act of courage, because you put your own experiences and talent in front of a potentially unlimited audience, and is an act of generosity because you put your own experiences and talent in front of a potentially unlimited audience. Exactly for the same reason, yes. Taking the time to think how helpful journaling was for me, I can only imagine how a responsible and honest blogging could do for others. In fact, I think most of the influential and successful bloggers already know that. I also think that the vast majority of the unsuccessful bloggers, who are daily struggling for visibility, is just ignoring this simple principle:  in order to be successful you have to contribute, you have to create value out of your experiences, you have to really share. To share for growth. First published on: October 9, 2008 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fjournaling-versus-blogging%2F&text=Journaling%20versus%20Blogging&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fjournaling-versus-blogging%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fjournaling-versus-blogging%2F&t=Journaling%20versus%20Blogging https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fjournaling-versus-blogging%2F&title=Journaling%20versus%20Blogging Previous ### New blog theme, alltop featured and more (/new-blog-theme-alltop-featured-and-more/) Next ### Manage Your Time As You Manage Your Money (/manage-your-time-as-you-manage-your-money/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Don't Trust, Verify URL: https://dragosroua.com/dont-trust-verify.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/dont-trust-verify/ Published: 2026-01-02 Views: 65 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Tools, Relationships and Society Tags: ai tools, change, cryptocurrency, decision making, mindset If you've been around for more than 10 years, "don't trust, verify" used to be the mantra of crypto early adopters. Or, in gentler terms, of people leaning towards an alternative, decentralized financial system (/the-best-outcome-of-cryptocurrencies-adoption/) – as opposed to a corrupt and centralized one. "Don't trust, verify" was, and still is, used at various levels in the cryptocurrencies stack. That's how you make sure something actually happened on the blockchain, that the sender is who they pretend to be and that the money you get is actually real. I find this mantra to be surprisingly accurate today, but at a much broader level. Like, in life. Deepfakes are commoditized now, incredibly cheap to produce (AI video generators are crazy good (/ai-is-the-new-marijuana-and-were-all-about-to-get-high/)) and distribute (making armies of social media bots has never been easier). News is almost always fabricated (/main-stream-media-side-stream-media-and-down-stream-media/). Emails you receive automated and generated by a thicker and thicker layer of AI agents. Customer support rep you just spoke to? An on-the-fly generated chatbot. Almost everything you used to take for granted as "actually happening" in the digital world is now questionable. Almost. Because there are at least a few percentages left that are filled with real people. Real, bio content (/bio-content/), produced by actual persons. There are some patches left that are covered by real grass, and some rivers still made of wet water. Not everything is ruled by the Matrix yet. But because there are so few of us left, the game has circled back to the early Bitcoin enthusiasts mantra: "don't trust what you read online, always verify". Here's a quick overview of how social media consumption should be addressed, for a healthy and safe online life. First, and foremost, know why you're going online. If it's for news, or to discover "what's new in the world", please consider this: 1. if an account, blog or influencer was online for less than 2-3 years, you should be careful, very careful. Time has become a valuable commodity now, and persistence pays off. 2. if the platform you're reading on doesn't have a way to verify at least phone numbers (notoriously easy to exploit, but still) then you should be careful, very careful. Mass producing accounts is something a teenager can do between 2 releases on Replit of his new 5 figure game. 3. if a news image looks too good to be true, then most likely it is – namely it was generated with AI. 4. if a news video cannot be cross-referenced with multiple independent sources, then it's a fake If you're going online just for fun, or entertainment, please consider this: ![ShareByLight app icon](/images/icons/sharebylight-icon-48.webp) I just launched ShareByLight (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-file-transfer/id6796897056)—transfer files with light only. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no cables. One device shows a stream, the other reads it with the camera. Free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. 1. he or she may look completely different in real life – the person you see performing on that YouTube channel may not even exist 2. the content you're consuming may be partly, or totally, digitally generated, i.e. not coming from real life experience. If fantasy is what you're looking for, or fiction, that's totally fine. But know the difference. 3. the audience of an account may not be what it looks like – it is very common to see up to 90% bots in the replies, and not real people. Understand what accounts are actually valuable and what accounts are artificially inflated It doesn't look like much, but it's just the basic filter. As you engage with more content, more and more attention should be exerted, but that's something for another blog post. ## Why Should You Verify? I hear you. Why is it suddenly so important to "verify, don't trust" in the real world? We've always accepted a certain level of showmanship, of make believe, in our lives. Newsrooms are actual movie sets, with lights and make up and so on. It's not 100% real, and we know it and it never has been. True. We always knew that at least some small parts are fabricated, and there is always someone trying to nudge the game, to manipulate. But at least we knew who they were. We had a basic idea of the political spectrum, of the reality, of the roles the people usually play. We could identify them, somehow. But the dissolution of identity is so widespread now, that "they" can literally be everyone and anyone. It's the perfect masking of reality with plausible AI layers that make identity, at least in the form we're used to, obsolete. We need new ways to understand who is who, and then, after that, we may get back to the approximation of reality, to the 95% true that we had before the AI revolution (/welcome-to-singularity/), because we will at least know who is trying to nudge the game. Until then, verify, don't trust. First published on: January 2, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdont-trust-verify%2F&text=Don%E2%80%99t%20Trust%2C%20Verify&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdont-trust-verify%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdont-trust-verify%2F&t=Don%E2%80%99t%20Trust%2C%20Verify https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fdont-trust-verify%2F&title=Don%E2%80%99t%20Trust%2C%20Verify Previous ### Networking 101 for Location Independent People (/networking-101-for-location-independent-people/) Next ### LLM Council, With a Dash of Assess-Decide-Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How Goal Setting Works (For Me) URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-goal-setting-works-for-me.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-goal-setting-works-for-me/ Published: 2010-11-13 Modified: 2025-11-30 Views: 65 Categories: Personal Development, Success and Wellness, Time management Tags: assess, decide, do, goal setting, goals Goals are just milestones. Places where you stop for a while and enjoy the scenery. The trip is what gives you the ultimate thrill, and it will always be like this. But, as interesting as the trip may be, goals have their own importance. They can either add more awesomeness to the mix or make the whole experience dull and boring. It's one thing to stop on the side of the road, eating some dust watching how others are passing you by, but it's a completely different thing to stop at a 5 star hotel, relax, and get your strength together for the next part of the trip. As I said, both are just milestones within a bigger trip, but their quality is different. Let me share a personal story with you about some goals I set a few years ago. Although these are material goals, closely linked to money, I'm using these examples because they can be easily measured. The same approach works in many other areas, like personal evolution, lifestyle, or relationships. ### The Early Years A few years ago I was spending the majority of my time trying to build an online publishing company. I had a considerable degree of success, some would say, but it involved a considerable degree of personal involvement and time spent making things happening. At that time, I could barely afford my own car. I was driving a very old Dacia model (a local brand, based on a Renault chassis). It was a wreck. I remember that at times the engine would heat up to the point where it would let out waves of white steam from the hood. Often I had to pull over and replace the water from the expansion recipient. Before going to a meeting, I would always making sure I was carrying around at least 4 liters of water on the back seat. It wasn't unusual to stop 2-3 times a day to watch the white steam and to replace the water. So, eventually I decided that it was time to get a new car. A beautiful one. Of course, I couldn't afford it. I was barely affording the maintenance expenses for my wreck. But I wanted a new, beautiful, and shiny car really bad. So, after browsing a little on the internet I decided I want a Volvo XC90. It was 6 years ago and the model hadn't even been launched yet, but since one of my niche websites was the biggest car portal in Romania, I was wired to everything that was new in the car industry. I already had a few wallpapers for the upcoming Volvo XC90. Beautiful, shiny pictures. I set up my computer wallpaper to the most beautiful picture in the whole album. Each morning, it was the first image I saw when I opened my computer. Each evening, before shutting down my laptop, I saw the same image. I had made a very strong commitment. I think I had that wallpaper for more than one year. One day, I decided it would be no more than 3 years until I would have that car. Time passed and in the process I changed my wallpaper. I also changed my car, but not to a Volvo XC90. I started gradually with a Skoda, then an Opel. At some point, after 3 years of countless hours spent in the office with clients, partners and employees, I realized that I could finally afford a much better car than my Opel Astra. So I bought an Infiniti FX 35, a huge, powerful and luxurious car, more expensive than a Volvo XC90. That Volvo disappeared from my goal horizon, but the associated lifestyle didn't. In fact, the goal of having a big, shiny and powerful car (which could act more like a statement of what I was doing at that time), become even stronger. The whole process took about 6 years. From the moment I set up a certain goal, to the moment that goal became reality, there were around 2100 days. How did I feel the day I drove my new Infiniti home? Exactly the same. I wasn't different. The car was, but I wasn't. However, the car was a very clear sign that my intention to change my mindset towards a much more abundant one was working really well. The trip was unfolding in the right direction and this milestone was a very rewarding one. ### The Current Situation Now, this may be an interesting story, but it happened 6 years ago. How about now? What is an easy to measure goal that I have right now, and what exactly am I'm doing to make it happen? If you read my last post, you already know, but I'll say it again anyway: I want a jet. A Learjet, to be more precise. I know, I know, it sounds crazy. It may even be crazy. But that won't stop me from wanting it. Can I afford a jet right now? You're kidding me, right? Of course I can't! Compared to my "car goal" situation, I don't even have a wreck to call my "first jet". I have nothing in this area and the financial difference between how I'm doing right now and how I would need to do in order to afford a 17.9 million dollar jet is enormous. But I'm reading about it. I started to look around for flying courses. I'm enjoying its pictures. I don't have a wallpaper with it, but one of the tabs of my browser is always opened with that image. I'm "soaking" myself with a jet the same way I soaked with the image of a Volvo XC90. I want it in 5 years from now. And I'm working towards it. ### The Three Stages Of Goal Setting Those of you familiar with my ebook (/assess-decide-do-natural-productivity/) already know that I'm using a life management framework called "Assess – Decide – Do". Of course, 6 years ago I didn't know that I was using that framework in particular. At least, not consciously. But, on a very deep and hard to grasp level, I have always done stuff following this pattern. Now, how can this be related to goal setting? #### First Stage: Assess This is the stage in which you're pondering how your goal should fit into your life. It's the stage in which you are wondering, day dreaming, brainstorming, and drifting away in dreams about your goal. This is the part where you are making room to fit your goal into your current lifestyle. That's the stage from which I am slowly getting out of now, with my jet goal. I impregnated its image into my daily activity. I made it familiar. I found ways to integrate it into my lifestyle. 6 years ago, wanting a better car had a close relationship with my lifestyle. I had the biggest car portal in Romania, and having a state of the art car was somehow part of my image as an owner. Right now, I want a location independent lifestyle. Having a jet to support it looks like a good fit. #### Second Stage: Decide This is the stage in which you are signing the contract with your goal. And you do this by placing it into a space/time continuum. Speaking of my car goal, the decide stage was when I clearly stated that I want the car in a time frame of 3 years, here, in Bucharest. And speaking of the jet goal, this is the stage where I am right now. I have a clear time/space context in which I can see this goal happening. In this case: I'll have it in 5 years from now, when I'll be fully location independent. #### Third Stage: Do This is the most confusing stage for people, because they think they should focus on the goal. There's a very subtle difference here. And I guess this is the most important difference in my goal setting (/100-ways-live-better-life-70-learn-proper-goal-setting/) approach versus other techniques. I'm not advocating a "fixed eye" on the goal. On the contrary. If you start moving towards your goal, you start making it happen, and you don't have to focus entirely on it. Instead, you should focus on the chosen lifestyle. That's a fundamental difference and here's why. Focusing on the goal will be like focusing on the hotel. Instead, your focus should be on the trip itself. A goal is just a milestone. The trip is the great thing, not the goal. If you focus on the hotel, you'll get stuck on the hotel. You may get a nice room, but your trip will be over. So, in my "goal car" example, once I assessed it (having its wallpaper on my computer for a year) and once I placed it in a time/space context (3 years) the things I did where not directly even really related to this goal. I just continued to work on my business. I constantly improved my lifestyle. I grew up. I just went on with my trip and enjoyed myself. And, at some point, the goal was already there, on the side of the road, waiting for me to enjoy it. ### The Quantum Element One more thing: you may have noticed that there was a little bit of a difference between what I wanted as a car, and what I got. I wanted a Volvo XC90 and I got an Infiniti FX 35. In this case, I outgoaled myself. I did better than I thought I was able to. Most of the time this is the case. I set up a certain goal, start working towards it, and then I wake up one day realizing that I have much more than I initially wanted. I call this the "quantum element". If you do your job properly, if you stay on the trip, the milestones will be much more rewarding than you can imagine. It's like reality is suddenly activating some invisible triggers telling you "ok, I know you wanted this, but I'm going to give you that instead, because, well, it's much more fun". But be aware that sometimes this "quantum element" may be working "against" you. You may get a lower vibration. For instance, I am fully aware that I may not get a jet, but only a regular, 4 seater plane. That may happen. We may not get exactly what we want. Sometimes we get more, sometimes we get less. I think it's part of a bigger process, which is tightly connected with acceptance and observation. This "quantum element" adds a certain degree of randomness to our trip. Maybe for preventing us from get too wired up in our own little wishes. If we would always get what we want, life would be pretty boring and predictable, isn't it? But that's another story. Well, 5 years is a lot of time. Since I'm finished with the Assess and Decide part of my jet goal, I'll just continue to do my work here, on this blog. And that's how goal settings works. At least for me. 😉 First published on: November 13, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-goal-setting-works-for-me%2F&text=How%20Goal%20Setting%20Works%20(For%20Me)&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-goal-setting-works-for-me%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-goal-setting-works-for-me%2F&t=How%20Goal%20Setting%20Works%20(For%20Me) https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-goal-setting-works-for-me%2F&title=How%20Goal%20Setting%20Works%20(For%20Me) Previous ### The Art Of New Beginnings (/the-art-of-new-beginnings/) Next ### My Top 7 Demotivating Habits (/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Be Ridiculous URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-be-ridiculous.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-be-ridiculous/ Published: 2009-12-11 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 65 Categories: Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness Tags: comfort zone, courage, do, growth, how to Have you ever feel ridiculous? Ever been laughed at? Don't answer that, if it makes you feel uncomfortable. I know these types of answers can be considered sometimes "sensitive information". You don't really have to answer, if it makes you feel awkward. I can do it for you and I will: yes, I felt ridiculous a number of times. Yes, I've been laughed at, and not only once. Ok, so what? I don't have any visible scars from being ridiculous (and no invisible scars either). Then what is really the problem with being ridiculous? Why this fear of making a "faux pas"? Why this obsession of avoiding to be laughed at in public (and not only)? ### Being Ridiculous Have you ever saw an infant (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series/) learning to walk? Noticed how he stumbles, fall, crawl and then get back on his feet again and start over? Everybody admires that. But what happens if you see a grown up doing the same thing? Suddenly, the stumbling, the falling and the crawling are ridiculous. Being ridiculous means creating an unexpected and violent contrast between what you're doing now and what you are generally expected to do. As a grown up you're expected to walk steadily. Stumbling, falling and crawling will generate a huge contrast to this expectation. If you do that, you will be ridiculous. Similarly, an infant is expected to stumble and crawl, so he does not create any contrast at all between what he does now and what he's expected to do. He's just natural. Every ridiculous situation is created from this contrast: you're doing something surprisingly different from what you're expected to. ### Ridiculously Rejected This contrast creates a certain response: people notice it and react to it. Most of the time, by rejecting you. And voila, the answer to our initial question: people fear being ridiculous because they fear rejection. Being ridiculous is a social illness and it manifests only in groups, by the way. You can't really be ridiculous when you're alone. As strange as it may seem, this rejection is somehow natural. If you're showing such a big contrast from what you're usually doing and what you are doing just now, society (/category/relationships-society/) tries to protect itself. You're acting differently, or at least unpredictably. And for the sake of its own safety, society hates everything unpredictable. ### You Can't Do Without It Now, we all do our best to have a consistent social behavior and avoid those awkward contrasts. Generally speaking, society likes this approach and rewards us by giving back validation. When we're not ridiculous, we're usually respected and accepted. But what happens when we have no other option than to create this contrast? Because, believe it or not, we do get forced to become ridiculous. Yes, we do. You don't believe me? Follow on. Have you ever thought what exactly happens when you learn something? Well, whenever you learn something new, when you're trying to acquire a new skill or implement a new habit, you're in fact bridging a huge gap between the actual you and the next you, the one who'll have that habit, skill or ability. When you learn something new, you create an unexpected and sometimes violent contrast between the current you and the future you. Starting to get my point? Glad you do. When we learn, when we grow, when we evolve, we are ridiculous. We are so different from the person we want to become, that we simply cannot avoid being ridiculous. Remember when you first started to learn a foreign language? Or cooking? Or some sport? Remember your hideous accent, your tasteless, ugly meals or your clumsy, mechanical moves? Well, my friend, you were ridiculous. Really ridiculous. Truth is, we all are. We're all becoming better, we're all evolving and each time we're aiming at something much better than we are now, being ridiculous is absolutely mandatory. It means we're getting there. We're creating the contrast. We're leaving behind something familiar and we're stumbling upon a new territory. The biggest the gap we want to bridge, the highest our ridiculous meter. ### When To Worry As a rule of thumb, when you got used to being ridiculous, without really evolving into something new, you should take a step back. It means you're no longer advancing. You're on the same level, although there's been a while since you started to do that specific thing. To continue our comparison, if you still stumble and crawl when you're in high school, well, unless you have a serious physical condition, that should be a problem. You should really have learn how to walk by the time you're eighteen. Whenever you're ridiculous not because of the contrast between your older, dustier version of you and the shinier, new version of you, well, you're in trouble. It means you're not growing, you're just funny, in a sad way. ### How To Be Ridiculous When I started to blog constantly in English, more than a year ago, I "enjoyed" a lot of ridiculousness. The main reason: my English skills. Which were poor, to say the least. Truth is I never had an English lesson in my entire life. Not a single one. All that I've learned was by watching movies, reading programming documentation and other blogs. I learned by absorption. And when you learn like this, you should expect some serious flaws. Every now and then some of my readers are kind enough to give me some grammar or vocabulary advice. They expect me to be proficient in English and every small mistake (/the-fine-art-of-making-mistakes/) is immediately spotted. Of course, in the process, they make fun of me. Lately, since this blog really picked it up and became popular, I have some "spelling nazis" hunting for my English blunders and vocally announcing them on Twitter or in their blogs. My reaction: I'm happy about it. It means this blog (/100-ways-to-improve-your-blog/) created such high expectations that every small mistake is by contrast unacceptable. I'm really, really happy about that. Oh, in the process, I'm also aware of the fact that I'm being ridiculous. Which means I'm getting there. 😉 I think by now you realized that every time you will want to grow, you will face this danger of becoming ridiculous. Well, live with it, it's part of the deal. And yes, you will face rejection, that's also part of the deal. What we call society, this group in which you are living, keeps a certain memory about you and when you grow you will violently change it. You will become different (hopefully, better). To this new image of you, society reacts by questioning your status quo: "hey, you're not the guy I know, but you're not his newer version either. Who are you, funny guy?". Just keep doing what you're started and do whatever you can to become your better version, until you force society to acknowledge it. At some point, after you get better and better at what you're doing, it will have no other option than to accept and validate your new you. Being appropriately ridiculous is an art. The art of accepting your own mistakes. The art of keep growing until you're not making them anymore. The art of daring to become so differently from your older version that sometimes you won't be recognized anymore. The art of creating an incredibly better you. ### Related Reading (2025 Update) This post from 2009 has sparked a few other directions. Here are a few more recent articles building on top if it: - Learning To Play The Guitar (/learning-to-play-the-guitar/) – At 50, I started to play the guitar. Imagine the first few months, lol. - Why Do We Cut The Margins Of The Pie? (/why-do-we-cut-the-margins-of-the-pie/) – Sometimes, old customs propagate into our modern world, without a real need for them. - Yes, I Can (/yes-i-can/) – Sometimes it's worth just remembering this. - You’re NGMI (/youre-ngmi/) – Never before, in the history of human kind, learning was more important than now. First published on: December 11, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-be-ridiculous%2F&text=How%20To%20Be%20Ridiculous&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-be-ridiculous%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-be-ridiculous%2F&t=How%20To%20Be%20Ridiculous https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-be-ridiculous%2F&title=How%20To%20Be%20Ridiculous Previous ### Being on Board at Launch48 (/being-on-board-at-launch48/) Next ### The Master and You (/the-master-and-you/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Win a Hackathon in South Korea URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-win-a-hackathon-in-south-korea.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-win-a-hackathon-in-south-korea/ Published: 2026-01-05 Views: 65 Categories: Location Independence Tags: coding, comfort zone, entrepreneurship, south korea 5 years ago I started to learn Korean. All by myself while still living in Portugal and having a full time job. The reason: I was really, really curious to see how my 2 books (/books/) translated in Korean (https://www.yes24.com/product/goods/7845532?scode=032&OzSrank=1) are actually sounding. This intention evolved over the next few years in one of the most interesting (if not the MOST interesting) times of my life. Let's take things slowly. ## Switching Events To make a potentially long story short, after learning Hangul for about 1 year, I decided to travel to Korea to get my level 1 Korean certification, called TOPIK. I booked a hotel room, an airplane ticket, and one sunny May morning, I just went there. I put aside about 2 weeks to adjust to the time difference and overall local conditions. A couple of days after my arrival, I went to visit the exam location and checked the lists, to see if my name was there. It was, so all was good. Feeling encouraged, I stepped a little bit out of my comfort zone and went to try some local Korean meetups. After one or two, I stumbled upon a very interesting one, which was somehow related to an upcoming hackathon. The problem? That hackathon was on the same day as my exam. Still, I wanted to see what the whole event was about, so I attended the meetup. It turned out that it was part of a longer series of 3 meetups, where people interested in the hackathon can get to know each other, and start team formation. On a sudden impulse, I decided to participate and started to form my team. ## The Actual Event After the next 2 team formation events, I was registered to the hackathon, with a team of 3 (not much, but also not too little) and I was 100% out of the TOPIK exam. My initial rationale was that a TOPIK exam can also be taken in the fall – TOPIK exams are held twice a year – whereas that hackathon seemed to be a one off. Eventually, I ditched the TOPIK exam entirely. The hackathon – named Glitch (https://luma.com/glitch-conference), for reasons not very clear to me – was not in Seoul, but in Incheon, about 40 minutes by train, and it was supposed to last an entire weekend. I took the train one rainy morning and met my other 2 team members there. Somehow, during the onboarding hours, a 4th member was added to the team. I was the only coder, the rest of the team was mainly design, social media or business. The location was in the Hana financial town, a very big area containing event rooms, catering areas and even rooms to spend the night (the hackathon was supposed to last 2 days). Just going around every part of the location would take about 1 hour. And the total number of participants was 400. I was the only foreigner. The hackathon started around 9 PM. The other members of the team, all Korean, started to mingle around, while I decided to stay at my desk and keep hacking. The project that I was competing with was a small game called Flippando (/learning-solidity-a-flipping-journey/). The night that followed, as well as most of the next day, I had little contact with the members of my team. But the coding was going quite well, so nothing to worry about. With a few hours before the end, I met my team members again, and we decided on a small presentation strategy. They drafted a keynote, I made a small demo, and, when the time came to present in front of the jury, we were ready. The presentation was held in English, and, as far as I could tell, it went quite ok. ## The Grand Finale After the presentation, there was a 4-hour judging interval. As I was walking around the corridors, trying to rest my eyes a little bit, one of the jury members approached me and told me we won a track prize already, and we were in the grand finale. The top 10 projects winning individual tracks were also competing for the grand finale. Very excited, I called my team members, and told them we won the Polygon track. In less than 1 minute, everybody gathered and they started to work frantically on the grand finale presentation. Everybody gathered in the big event room and we waited for our turn. I went on the stage, and gave another presentation, still in English. It also went quite ok. In about 10 minutes, the judges deliberated and the big winner was announced. It wasn't us, but we still kept the big Polygon number one prize. After pictures and a little bit of back and forth, everybody got on the train and we got back in Seoul. ## The Takeaways Going over what I wrote above, it looks almost like news in a newspaper. It doesn't capture the emotion and the happiness we experienced when we learned that we won. But maybe it's better like this. It's also quite aligned with the Asian (/asia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer/), more composed way to behave. And it has just enough details, not too much, not too little. Now, to honor the title, how do you actually win a hackathon in South Korea? Well, in no particular order: - make sure you attend one, first. It may sound dumb, but remember I had to take a big decision, to ditch the TOPIK exam for this. In the end, the game became relatively popular, and it also generated a little bit of revenue, significantly more than the hackathon prize - make sure you give your best. I could have just linger around, like many of the other contestants, who treated the event more like a networking opportunity, rather than a contest. But I didn't. I stayed there and coded for around 30 hours (/tag/coding/). - practice your presentation skills. Coding is important, but what got the attention of the jury was the clean, but compelling presentation I crafted with my team members - be lucky. I know, I know, but that's the truth. At the end of the day, you really need a bit of luck. There's no bulletproof strategy for winning a hackathon. I learned that the hard way, after participating in a few others – without winning anything, of course. First published on: January 5, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-win-a-hackathon-in-south-korea%2F&text=How%20To%20Win%20a%20Hackathon%20in%20South%20Korea&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-win-a-hackathon-in-south-korea%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-win-a-hackathon-in-south-korea%2F&t=How%20To%20Win%20a%20Hackathon%20in%20South%20Korea https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-win-a-hackathon-in-south-korea%2F&title=How%20To%20Win%20a%20Hackathon%20in%20South%20Korea Previous ### Movie Review: Squid Games, Seasons 2 and 3 (/movie-review-squid-games-seasons-2-and-3/) Next ### AI and the Golden Era of Instant Gratification (/ai-and-the-golden-era-of-instant-gratification/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Real Cost Of Being An Entrepreneur URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-real-cost-of-being-an-entrepreneur.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-real-cost-of-being-an-entrepreneur/ Published: 2014-07-18 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 65 Categories: Business Tags: burnout, entrepreneurship, resilience I started my first company 15 years ago. According to this fact, technically, I’ve been an entrepreneur for the last 15 years. But I think I always was an entrepreneur, I just didn’t know that. Anyway, for the last 15 years I’ve been living more or less off the grid, outside the limits of an average, job-bounded person, being led by curiosity, sustained by stubbornness and dreaming to do bold, audacious or even plain ridiculous things. That’s pretty much the definition of an entrepreneur. It was a fantastic ride. I had my share of successes. For instance, I sold my second company in 2008 and, after that, I enjoyed two sabbatical years to travel around the world. I wrote 9 books and, in 2011, two of them were translated into Korean. I also had my share of failures (won’t mention them here, because there are too many). Oh, the rush of the adrenaline when things are falling into their designated places! The thrill of seeing your ideas transformed into real products, or services! The joy of creating and managing teams out of ordinary people, and then the happiness of sharing your vision with them. It’s like dreaming with your eyes wide opened. Yes, being an entrepreneur is an amazing ride. But… ## The Real Cost Of Being An Entrepreneur Yes, there is a “but”. There is a “but” that perhaps no one will tell you about. I know no one told me about it and I had to discover it the hard way. By crashing right into it, the moment I expected it the least. This “but” is about the cost of being an entrepreneur. The real cost of being an entrepreneur, that is. It’s not about the fluctuating revenue (/10-simple-habits-that-will-greatly-improve-your-financial-discipline/), although this may be something important, if you’re used to stability. It’s true, as an entrepreneur you have no guaranteed revenue. Or, to be more precise, you are the only guarantee of your revenue, and, you know, you’re not always right, so to speak. But no, the real cost is not this one. It’s also not about the time you spend working, time that you’re stealing, most of the time, from other areas of your life, like friends or family. Yes, you’re working two or three times the hours a normal person will work, but the real cost of being an entrepreneur is not there. And it’s not about peer pressure either. You know, when other people tell you that you have to “comply” and put an end to all that rubbish stuff you’re doing on the internet. And get a job. And some stable income. It’s annoying, yes, but it’s not that. Nope, the real cost of being an entrepreneur is none of the above. It’s something even more scarier than that. Something that is so deeply interweaved into the very fabric of entrepreneurship that it’s inseparable from it. Something that cannot be avoided, that will put you down the moment you’re expecting it the least, something so powerful and deceiving that you’ll have no protection against it. It’s the depression. Nope, not the lack of motivation. Nope, not the deception when one of your ideas is proved wrong. Not the sadness when a member of your team leaves. It’s the good, ol’ depression. In the most pathological sense of the word. I know it’s hard to believe. I know there is a big contrast if you put depression near the image of a “mighty conqueror” and over bursting with self-esteem that many entrepreneurs are exhibiting. I also know that very few entrepreneurs talk about depression, either. Because they’re ashamed. Or associate it with guilt, or with a “weak” part of themselves that no one has to know about. But it’s there and it’s real. And, like I said, it’s part of the package. Believe it or not, it comes from the same source as the thrill. And it’s made of the same material like enthusiasm. You can’t have one without the other. ## The Personal Story When I first met this monster I wasn’t prepared at all. I think it hit me a few years after I started my second company (the one that I successfully sold). At some point, after things started to fall into places, and all the processes were more or less on autopilot, one day, out of the blue, I felt this enormous burden on my shoulders. There wasn’t any real outside trigger (or if it was, in the beginning, I wasn’t able to isolate it). The main feeling was like nothing is going to work anymore. Like anything I did had no results whatsoever. Like the universe was a big concrete wall around me and I couldn’t do anything about this. It scared the shit out of me, I tell you that. In a few days I got over it. At that time, I was still drinking alcohol, and, for a while, alcohol can numb depression. But, a few months later, it appeared again. And, after another few months, again. After many ups and downs, after a rather tedious process of self-analysis, I had no choice but to finally avoid numbing it and face it. And that was the moment when I started to understand. ## The Two Faces Of The Same Coin The very core of an entrepreneur is an inflated ego. Not in the buddhist sense of the ego, but more like an inflated self-esteem, like believing that one can accomplish anything. That belief, that you can do anything, is the secret engine of an entrepreneur. That belief will make an entrepreneur create a new business somewhere where no one saw an opportunity before. That belief will help the entrepreneur during rough times, when clients are few or the competition is strong. But there is this law of the Universe that says that the highs should be balanced with the lows. Physically speaking, you can’t live on adrenaline for ever. If you try that, the adrenal glands will go depleted in a few hours and you’ll most probably die. So, you’ll have to balance this thrill somehow. The highs must be paired with the lows. Hence, the depression. At that moment I understood that this is part of the game. The highest the highs, the lower the lows. The biggest the thrill, the most intense the downhill, the descending path into that darkness of “I’m not good enough”. Once you understand this inseparable mix of enthusiasm and depression, once you accept the unavoidable law of balance you will get to a new level. The level of “I know this shit is going to hit me, sooner or later, but I’m ok with it”. Even the level of “I am comfortable to talk about it, not to be ashamed of it, or feel guilty about it”. It’s the same coin with two different faces. On one of them is the emblem of victory, of endless exploration, of exhilaration and joy. On the other, the mirrors: defeat, fearful confinement, apathy and sadness. ## How To Cope With “Entrepreneur’s Depression” I just coined that term “entrepreneur’s depression”. I don’t know if it exists as a separate page in a psychiatry manual , but, to be honest, I don’t really care. What I do care about is to share how I began to cope with it. I’m not over it yet, and I’m quite pessimistic about “getting over it” ever. I know that, for as long as I’ll try new and bold stuff, it will be there. And it will have to be managed. Here’s what works for me. ## 1. Let It Flow Now I don’t do “therapeutic” alcohol anymore. Not any other types of drugs, for what matters. When I’m hit by depression, I just let it flow through me. Sometimes it flows faster and I’m over it in just a day, sometimes it takes longer and I can be in the “blue barrel of depression” a few days in a row. But I don't fight it. I just keep a low profile and try to do as much damage control as I can. Namely, I don't act. I don't interact either. I just stay in my hole for as long as it takes for the burden to fade away. ## 2. Stay Fit Being in a good shape, physically speaking, also helps. I saw a visible improvement in my reactions after I started to run marathons (/how-to-run-a-marathon/). A marathon in itself is a vey tough test, not to mention the preparation, so coping with small doses of low emotions over shorter intervals kinda helped me. But any other sport will do. The level of endorphins in your body will be higher and that will make depression's job tougher. ## 3. Find Someone To Talk About It I’m not talking about a bartender here, although it may help for a while. I’m talking about a real person, someone who may understand you and support you. I know a few entrepreneurs who are seeing a psychologist regularly. With very good results. So, that works. Also, if you have a life partner who can understand your "profession" and can cope with the roller coaster, well, you're 50% off the hook. As long as you talk to her / him, of course. ## 4. Avoid Guilt, Shame And Other Stupid Idiots Accept that it’s there. Accept that the reason you’re experiencing it is your aperture to life, an aperture going way beyond standard limits and way bigger than the aperture of millions of other people. It’s like you’re one of the lucky guys who can climb to the top of Everest. Well, the very fact that you can undertake the risks of going on top of the world is the one that makes you prone to being caught in Mariana Trench too. And oh boy, it's deep and cold and dark in Mariana Trench. And last, but not least: remember that it really pays back. At the end of the day, if there's something valuable behind you, your bruises have little, if any, importance at all. First published on: July 18, 2014 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-real-cost-of-being-an-entrepreneur%2F&text=The%20Real%20Cost%20Of%20Being%20An%20Entrepreneur&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-real-cost-of-being-an-entrepreneur%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-real-cost-of-being-an-entrepreneur%2F&t=The%20Real%20Cost%20Of%20Being%20An%20Entrepreneur https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-real-cost-of-being-an-entrepreneur%2F&title=The%20Real%20Cost%20Of%20Being%20An%20Entrepreneur Previous ### Be The Plumber. Or The Electrician (/plumber-electrician/) Next ### My Running Playlist – the Tango Version (/running-playlist-tango-version/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 5 Good Reasons To Share Your Goals. And One Powerful Reason Not To URL: https://dragosroua.com/5-good-reasons-to-share-your-goals-and-one-powerful-reason-not-to.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/5-good-reasons-to-share-your-goals-and-one-powerful-reason-not-to/ Published: 2011-06-07 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 64 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Relationships and Society Tags: goal setting, goals, list post Goals are great. They are like lights on your path, marking with clarity various milestones one your journey. And goal setting, believe me, is an art. The art of properly setting course to your closest destination, making the best of your resources and with the greatest chances of success. One of the most important chapters in any goal setting book would be about sharing. About making your goals visible. Making them public, verifiable, open. And since this is a very important part of the whole goal setting artistry, let's talk about 5 reasons you should share your goals (once you have them clearly defined, of course). But I'll also talk (at the end, of course, so don't peek) about one reason you shouldn't do this. Confused? Good. Because that will – hopefully – make you read on. Let's go. ## 1. Accountability When you share your goals you're literally feeding your accountability muscle. If you're telling to a friend: "you know what, I will travel to Thailand (/trip-to-thailand-the-aftermath/) this summer", you can bet that the next time you see each other, he'll ask: "hey, buddy, how's your trip to Thailand going?". Or something along those lines. Accountability is a measure of your "stick-to-it-ness" (and please do not complain that this is not a word, I had enough from my spell checker already). So, if you bring other people in your goal picture, you can bet that your overall involvement in that project will be considerably higher. ## 2. Clarity Every time you tell the world about some of your goals, you modify them. You take something from a discussion, something from another one, until, out of this ping-pong game of sharing your plans back and forth, your goal will emerge in a new form. Most of the time, this form will be a much clearer one. In fact, many of our goals are shaped by our interactions, by our conversations or by our encounters. So, the more we're out there, sharing our visions and implementing our plans, the more those visions and plans are getting clearer, bigger and more structured. ## 3. Progress Measurement Progress measurement is not really about being accountable, but more about metrics. As you get closer to your goal, you'd want to measure how long do you have until you reach it. That information can be precious in many contexts. For instance, you may want to set up a new goal or to evaluate the resources you already used. And sharing your goals will make progress measurement easier. Sometimes you may even deliberately use your peers as guides or supervisors. When you want to give up smoking (/when-and-why-i-broke-up-with-smoking/), for instance. Ask them to cheer you every day you didn't smoke or every week. ## 4. Motivation Suppose you want to visit Italy this summer. And you start telling people about your goal. At some point, something interesting will happen. The mere fact that you tell to somebody else, will act like an incentive. It's not about accountability, but about being pumped up and ready to act. There are many ways of motivation (/positive-motivation-versus-negative-motivation/), of course, some of them better than others. I think it's ok to "use" other people like an enhancer of your own willpower, as long as you don't become too dependent on these "help links". ## 5. Connection Sharing your goals with like minded people may help you grow your social circle. Goals aside, the mere fact that you take the time to share something, to give details, to bring updates and keep in touch with other people, all these tiny actions will create a connection. And connection, as opposed to competition (/from-competition-to-connection/), is always a better way to advance. And if not better, at least not as tiresome as fighting each and every day for the first place. *** But, as important as it may be, sharing goals can go just as far in helping you reaching them. In other words, there is a limit over which you shouldn't trespass. I don't know if you're going to find this in any goal setting book, but I know for sure it comes from a real life experience. My real life experience. And it's about obfuscating your goals. Hiding them. Keeping them close to your heart, but far from the curious eyes. Sometimes, in certain circumstances, the best way to go is to hide what you really want from anyone else, except you. And here's why: ## They Don't Know Shit About You Yeap, that's the reason. Because, the moment you take out your goal, the moment you're sharing it with the whole world, you create a loop. People will start to hold you accountable, (and, most of the time, that's a good thing, as we saw right from the point one above). But it's a good thing only to some extent. If you reach the goal, they'll cheer at you. If you don't, they'll point fingers at you. Either way, you're gonna create a reaction. And that reaction is based not on who you are, but on what you want to do. Even more than that, the reaction is based on what other people perceive from what you want to do. And here's how, based on just some assumptions and affirmations, they'll start seeing in you a person that you're certainly not. They will only see some stuff that has been done, in fact, not even a person. But, in your attempt to really stick to your path, you take those cheers or fingers pointed at you quite seriously. You start to believe them. If you succeed, you're a star, because they cheer at you. If you fail, you're a loser, because they point fingers at you. Now you see it? As important as it may be for your accountability, clarity and so on and so forth, this sharing thing may be handled with care. And you know why? Because the most important person in the world is you. The universe turns round and round because of you. Each person that enters into your life, each achievement, each tiny thing you learn, all these are about you. There's a whole world inside you, and what you do, feel and create in the outside world is a mirror of this inner world. And all your goals are part of you, not of them. You know better than anyone else what you should do with your life. Not your mother, not your wife, not some bright but shallow self-improvement guru, not me, the author of this blog. So, if you found something important, really important, something that will define your entire life, some incredibly rewarding goal, keep it to yourself. Grow it like you grow a plant, with care and attention. Follow this inner light each and every morning, hope that it will be there each and every day and, the moment you finally reach it, just breathe. First published on: June 7, 2011 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-good-reasons-to-share-your-goals-and-one-powerful-reason-not-to%2F&text=5%20Good%20Reasons%20To%20Share%20Your%20Goals.%20And%20One%20Powerful%20Reason%20Not%20To&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-good-reasons-to-share-your-goals-and-one-powerful-reason-not-to%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-good-reasons-to-share-your-goals-and-one-powerful-reason-not-to%2F&t=5%20Good%20Reasons%20To%20Share%20Your%20Goals.%20And%20One%20Powerful%20Reason%20Not%20To https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-good-reasons-to-share-your-goals-and-one-powerful-reason-not-to%2F&title=5%20Good%20Reasons%20To%20Share%20Your%20Goals.%20And%20One%20Powerful%20Reason%20Not%20To Previous ### Taming Monkey Number Five: Solved (/taming-monkey-number-five-solved/) Next ### The First Cut Is The Deepest (/the-first-cut-is-the-deepest/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Being Vulnerable URL: https://dragosroua.com/being-vulnerable.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/being-vulnerable/ Published: 2011-01-14 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 64 Categories: Relationships and Society Tags: courage, relationships, trust A few weeks ago I met a fellow blogger for a live interview. We knew each other from the Internet for quite some time and we both thought it could be an interesting idea to meet each other in real life too. I always try to balance my online relationships with real life encounters. I won't talk about the interview though, in this post, but rather about something that came up during the interview. At some point, as I was answering questions and opening up to the whole interaction process, my friend told me something surprising:"You are surely opening a lot, Dragos. Aren't you afraid of being vulnerable?" Nope, I wasn't. And I gave him a few reasons (you can go ahead and listen to the interview, it's in Romanian, though). Part of my answer for being vulnerable was an image that is still circling inside my head: vulnerabilities are like handles. Whenever you open up and leave some spots of your inner being open to the light, you're offering to the other person a bunch of handles. They can literally get access to you through those handles. Now stop a little and think about handles. Where do we find handles in the real world? In tools, of course. We interact with our tools through handles. And here comes the interesting part, the one that keeps spinning this image inside my head: you can either use, or abuse a tool. You can use a knife to cut your way out of the jungle, or you can use it to cut somebody else (or yourself). Every time you open up to somebody, you create an opportunity. You offer a handle to the other person. You start an interaction. And, of course, you can be either used or abused by the other person. ## Vulnerabilities And Abuse Many people choose to avoid vulnerability after being abused. I also used this strategy. Why open up, if you can get bitten? And then I realized there are other approaches too. For instance, avoid abusers.  Yes, it may take some time until you realize somebody is trying to abuse you. Yes, you may get hurt in this process. Happens. But in time you'll get better at identifying those abusers. And you'll see how avoiding them, while still maintaining your vulnerability, will create some sort of invisible shield between you and them. And that's because you are continuing to be genuine, authentic. And when you're authentic, everything in you is working as it should be. Your intuition. Your capacity to take action. Your senses and your memories. When you're disconnected, when you close up, you can't function properly. You don't have enough data to feed to your intuition. Not enough info comes to your senses. You're handicapped by your own decision to block all the entrances. But as long as you keep yourself open to new experiences, you will realize that being abused is simply not possible anymore. Nobody can't do anything to you, unless you agree. If you feel you're abused, you can just move away. Turn your handles to the other side. Or even better, turn your handles to somebody who can really appreciate you and do something nice with you. ## Competition versus Connection A lot of the weakness associated with vulnerability comes from the "competition" approach. This is especially frequent in business or sports. If you are vulnerable AND you are in a competition, than your chances to lose that competition are dramatically increasing. This is why all the businesses are focusing on hiding, masking or eliminating their vulnerabilities. An incredibly huge part of a daily business operation is focused on how to hide your vulnerabilities from your competition. In all honesty, this is a very good thing to do. If, *and only if*, you are in a competition. But when what you're after is connection, then being vulnerable stops being a liability. It becomes an opportunity. In fact, you can't even create a connection without being vulnerable. You can't use a tool without grabbing it first by its handles. As a general approach, connection is a better place to be than competition. We're all craving for connection. We're opening up to our friends, to our loved ones, to people we trust. And we do this because we want to offer our handles to them. We're telling: "here I am, offering something to you. My love, my support, my knowledge. Use it." And, most of the time, if the connection is really working, we get back something valuable too. That's what a connection is, after all, a two way highway. But if you don't offer your handles to the world, you're simply useless. You can't offer anything. Your lane is blocked, nothing runs on it. You may feel secure, but you're not contributing. And our real sense of happiness comes from creating, from sharing, from contribution. Not from security. Security gives us contentment, at best. And as much as we'd want to replace happiness with contentment, deep down we know this is not possible. *** People are not afraid to be vulnerable, they are afraid not to be abused. And they are right. This is a real risk. But the other alternative is also real. Believe it or not, your vulnerability may give to the other person the chance to do something beautiful together with you. And you have no way to know this, until you open up. First published on: January 14, 2011 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeing-vulnerable%2F&text=Being%20Vulnerable&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeing-vulnerable%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeing-vulnerable%2F&t=Being%20Vulnerable https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeing-vulnerable%2F&title=Being%20Vulnerable Previous ### iAdd Lite Available On The App Store (/iadd-lite-available-on-the-app-store/) Next ### Taming Monkey Number One – First Update (/taming-monkey-number-one-first-update/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Be Productive without Becoming a Productivity Freak URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-be-productive-without-becoming-a-productivity-freak.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-be-productive-without-becoming-a-productivity-freak/ Published: 2009-11-22 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 64 Categories: Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: focus, how to, simplicity, systems Productivity (/the-productivity-map) is usually a good thing. Usually. Not always. Too much GTD or too much effectiveness in your life can become annoying at some point. Being highly productive can really help you become some sort of a freak, even if you obviously don't want that. All those lists, thoughts capturing devices, advanced task processing systems. All those fancy words like "next actions", "hipster cards" or "mind like water". All those tasks carefully squeezed into your agenda, well, all that could give you a very hard time in a normal, non-productivity related, social conversation. To be honest, most of the people I heard talking about "mind like water" were doing it mostly like a waterfall, not like a still lake. I think you know the type: hyper-active, super talkative and proud of the last uber cool productivity gadget he bought or the last productivity blog post he read. The good news is that you can still be productive while avoiding the pitfalls of a productivity freak syndrome. Here are 7 verified ways to help you avoid being left alone in the middle of a vivid social conversation in which you just tried to talk about – exactly! – nothing else but productivity. ## 1. Don't Plan the Fun Do you have items like "go out in the park with the kids (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl/)" in your to do lists? Or something like "have a romantic dinner with my partner"? Ditch this. Immediately. You can't really plan the fun in your life. It's a contradiction in terms. If you plan it, it's not fun anymore. It's just another chore. Another task to be ticked off from your to do list.. Having fun is a spontaneous activity and cannot be confined into a productivity system. The very thought of productively increasing your fun makes me laugh. How many times you attended to a party and had no fun at all? Well, I'm sure that behind being at that party there was a productivity "reason".  Maybe you don't call it "productivity", but it was something like "cross out that thing from my agenda". Mark the task done somehow. Which, of course, you did. Only there wasn't any fun involved. How many lousy romantic dinners you had? I bet every time you had them you looked up every single detail in advance and made sure everything will be just fine. Only it wasn't. You had no fun at that dinner. Planning the fun in your life is the most subtle yet powerful attempt of productivity to kill your spontaneity. Your normal reactions to reality stimulus. You can schedule in advance to DO something, that's true, but you can't schedule in advance to FEEL something. Instead of planning your fun activities, you should just make some time box in your schedule for yourself. If you want to spend time with other people, your friends or your kids, just make some space in your time schedule and be there. Show up. And see where it goes. Don't plan it, just watch it unfolding ahead. If you want to throw a great party, by all means, do all the preparations. Just don't expect the party to automatically rock just because you had fantastic food. Likewise, if you want a romantic dinner, just be romantic, don't plan the next actions. Do something unexpected or extraordinaire. Which, by the way, it's the complete opposite of being productive. ## 2. Share Your Learning Share what you learned about productivity with your friends. Ask for their opinion. The first thing you'll notice is that all that information is now filtered through your own perceptions and experiences. A lot of what you thought is important is now modeled by your own needs. While you're talking with somebody else about all those new concepts or ideas you're slowly getting rid of the initial hype and start to have a better understanding of the system altogether. (Generally speaking, sharing what you've learned (/5-things-i-learned-from-teaching-others/) is great way to internalize everything you want to learn.) The second thing you can realize by sharing is to inform your peers about the results you had by using that specific system. No need to talk about technical stuff now, just simple things like: I've done twice the things I was usually doing on a Tuesday so far. Watch for their reactions. You'll be surprised to notice that being productive has little if no impact whatsoever in your close relationships. Yet you unconsciously hope that being productive will enhance your social or intimate life too. The most important point here is to create a feed-back loop. A way to check out your social status every now and then and see if you're not deluding yourself. Being productive is meant to do things faster and better, not to alienate you from your friends or colleagues. Don't use the productivity hype as an identity creator: I'm the GTD guy, or the 4 hours work week guy. The more you do that, the more you'll be identified with "the productivity freak next office." Just because you're updated to the latest productivity news and other people aren't, doesn't make you better than them. ## 3. Listen To Others There is this cultural norm of associating productivity with pro-activity. Start new projects. Ignite conversations. Initiate new ventures. While this is certainly very important, it also creates a very nasty habit of not listening to other people. Listening is a fantastic resource. How many times you found a solution to something just by listening to other guys? I know I did this literally hundreds of times. Just listen carefully, because your question was certainly asked before and there is already somebody who knows the answer. Listening is fundamental in identifying problems. Maybe you have the skills (/building-different-skills/) to do something faster and better, but if you don't know exactly what you have to do, then what's the point? I see more than often those productivity gurus offering ready made solutions to problems far more complicated than they realize. They have a limited set of solutions and they try to apply them to every problem they encounter., regardless of its complexity. Just because they "know" that works. Only, of course, it doesn't. Without listening and acknowledging the real problems your productivity skills are worthless. You're just a talkative guy making more trouble then it solves, while bragging too in the process. Not the nicest personal brand you can build, right? Listening is not a productive activity in itself, although it can be enhanced: there really is an art of listening, you know. But listening, combined with your productivity skills can help you become a useful person too, rather then becoming just a freak annoying people around. ## 4. Keep Things Simple The promise of productivity subtly invites you to bring more into your life. You can manage it, right, so bring more. More business (/77-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/), more relationships, more everything. You load yourself with tons of not really necessary stuff just because you can. Well, you could also run on a roof of a running train, with a little bit of training. But why would you do something like this on a regular basis? You could learn how to juggle with 5-6 balls at the same time, becoming better than a circus artist. Ok, but why would you do it? Almost any productivity system out there puts a big emphasis on how to manage everything in your life. But why would you wanna do that to everything in your life? Why do you want to become productive on all the things in your life, including stuff you don't need anymore? Instead of trying to manage everything, I think it's better to get rid of the unnecessary entirely. Why trying to manage something you don't really need? This subtle invitation to bring more stuff into your life is the most dangerous thing you can do when you decide to become productive. You don't really need that extra stuff. It's like a competition between people racing on roofs of running trains, just because they can run on roofs of running trains. Who's going to really win such a stupid race? The good side of being productive and effective is that you can do more in less time. Great, now go out and enjoy life, instead bringing more work into the system. ## 5. Accept and Manage Interruptions The productivity flow assumes you're there 100%, 8 hours out of 8, 5 days a week. If you're a normal person. If you have a busier schedule, it means even more. Well, reality is different. You're not there 8 full hours. At some point, life will get in the way somehow. You will be exposed to interruptions. It's called hazard or the unpredictable. And the way you react to interruptions is almost always the key to a productive approach. Accept them. Manage them. Respond to those stimuli, because there lies your real growth. Planning everything ahead will not make you grow. It will barely create a comfort zone around, but not more. It's this constant stimulus-response dance that gives you new insights and perspectives. This is where you learn and do your real actions. A day with a perfect agenda is not a day that will make you evolve as a human being. It can give you a tricky sense of satisfaction, but if no "deranging" interruption occurred, you must start asking yourself questions. "Life's what's happening when you're busy making plans", said John Lennon and I totally agree with him. Being productive is not always equal with being happy and fulfilled. I really don't think the goal is to become the perfect business machine out there, but to live your life. A life filled with unexpected, interruptions, change of plans and contexts. Avoiding this by hiding under the "high productivity" blanket will not only make you lose all the fun, but it will surely create an almost visible aura of "freak"-ness around you. ## 6. Daydreaming Is Not Dangerous One of the key principles of GTD, "emptying your mind" has become one of its biggest flops. Because when you empty your mind in GTD style, you're not really emptying. Behind every mental throw up of an idea, of a potential project or task, there's a continuous, humming thought of being productive. Every time you jot down something, you're doing it because you want to be productive. So, even if you think you're emptying your mind, you're not really doing it: you continuously think about how to be more productive. A productivity freak is a person who's always in search of a new gadget or system. His mind is simply obsessed with the whole productivity process. Sometimes, those guys really make a business out of this, teaching other people how to become productive. They're the lucky ones. They found an outlet for the obsession. But most of the times, the productivity freaks are just circling around, stuffing new productivity techniques in their head until they forget why they wanted to be productive in the first place. Empty your mind from useless stuff. But do allow yourself to have thoughts that will never grow into a task. Imagine things. Picture new realitites. Visualize new contexts or situations. You may call this day dreaming. And yes, you will be right about that. But day dreaming is one of the most productive ways to empty your mind. To switch its focus from the glitches you encountered and allow it to regroup and find new ways to tackle an issue. One of the core qualities of a dream is its impermanence. Once finished, it will fly away from your mind. Leaving it empty, refreshed and clean. ## 7. Stay Healthy Being highly productive is often associated with being a busy guy. In fact, you become productive because you are a busy guy and want to minimize that load. Alas, you end up by increasing it. It's an addiction. The higher your productivity level, the busiest you become. You enjoy so much the thrills you get from being productive that you start putting more and more on your plate just to trigger that feeling again. Look ma, see how I slack those tasks from my task processing system! Am I the best, or what? Now gimme some more tasks, please! Man, that feels soooo good! Ok, I'm being sarcastic here, but slacking tasks from your lists can really become an addiction. And just because is associated with productivity doesn't make it less dangerous or less of an addiction. It's on the same league with smoking or alcohol. Really. Staying up late to slack tasks from your lists is doing no more good to you than spending the whole night drinking in a bar. You won't have a hangover in the morning, that's true, but you will feel the urge to slack them again in the evening. And will do this again and again. The results: you end up stealing time from your sleeping hours, from your social hours, from your family hours. All that in the name of being productive, how ridiculous is that? Eat well. Sleep well. Exercise. Engage in physical activities and change your focus. Being caught in a constant flow of productive tasks will most likely generate a flow of positive emotions too. You'll feel good about yourself and that is usually a feeling you want to keep as long as you can. That flow of ego boosting emotions can keep you being productive for hours without a break. But it's tricky. Just because it feels good doesn't mean it does good to your body. You need a balance. Pack some time in advance in your schedule and get out of that nice, ego boosting flow of being productive and do some physical exercise. Take a walk in the park. Eat a healthy meal. Take a nap. Then you can get back on being productive, with a fresh perspective. *** To be productive without becoming a productivity freak is an art. The art of living your life in peace and harmony while still doing everything you planned to do, enjoying abundance and feeling happy and fulfilled. First published on: November 22, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Mud Race URL: https://dragosroua.com/mud-race.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/mud-race/ Published: 2014-05-28 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 64 Categories: Personal Development, Running Tags: curiosity, fitness, race reports A few weeks ago I ran my first mud race ever. If you’re wondering what a mud race is, well, it’s a trail race filled with a lot of muddy places, basically. You run in nature and, on top of the mud holes, you also have to deal with a few human made obstacles: things you have to climb to, go over it, or hang from for a while. ## Why Would You Run A Mud Race? Briefly, it was about curiosity. I already ran 2 marathons (/the-story-of-my-second-marathon-vienna-international-marathon/), 2 half-marathons and a few 10k races, so I know how it is to run on flat ground. But I didn’t know how it is to run in the forest, not to mention in an obstacles race. I wanted to see how I will perform in an unfriendly environment. I don’t think it was about the challenge in itself, as it was about curiosity: how will I perceive the conditions and how these conditions will affect my overall performance. The run wasn’t timed, but there was some prize for the winner (I knew I couldn’t win the prize, because there were a few professional runners lined up). ## The How The weather was rather cold and the conditions were scarce, to say the least. I think the temperature was somewhere around 5 degrees Celsius. The race was around and through a forest near Bucharest and it turned out we didn’t have any place to change our clothes. No tents or other human made construction whatsoever. So, I strategically placed myself behind a car, a position which gave me the opportunity to feel the cold directly to my skin, and the humid earth underneath my bare feet. Those – rather unpleasant – sensations gave me bit of a hint on the feeling of being immersed in mud, later on. Or so I thought. Actually, it was about the get much worse than that. We waited for about an hour in an open field until all the runners gathered and then we listened to the technical description of the race. After we learned where exactly we were supposed to run and got a short description of the obstacles we were going to encounter, we did a short warm up. Then, just like that, we started to run. The first few hundreds meters were ok. Apart from the fact that it was really cold (and the warm up session didn’t solve this completely, leaving me with a sore feeling in my feet) everything was fine. Then, we hit the first obstacle. A mud hole. Literally, a hole in the ground, filled with mud up to the knees. We just jumped into it, immersed in a cold, black substance that was sticking to the skin, and then, after a couple of “giant” steps, we crawled out of it. The first contact was brutal. The moment I felt the cold mud on my feet I almost stopped. Like being frozen or something. Then, slowly, I started to feel my feet again and started to move on. It was so cold it almost got painful. When I crawled back up, I also got dirty on my hands, up to my elbows. So, my extremities, the parts that are the most sensitive to temperature differences, were now a few degrees colder than normal. Uh. And then, just after I ran a few more steps, I saw another mud hole. And then another one. The first obstacle was actually a string of 4 or 5 (can’t remember clearly) mud holes. At the end of it, I was completely black from the top to the bottom and my running gear was compromised (but I knew that will happen, and I did have some changing clothes with me, so, per se, that wasn’t much of a problem). We continued to run. The next obstacle was a “laser net”. There were a few strings tied together at around half a meter above the ground, forming a small net. We were supposed to crawl on the ground without touching the net. I found this one to be surprisingly easy. It was much easier to slide on the mud than to walk through it. I almost didn’t feel that one. Fortunately, after these two obstacles, the race got a bit easier. We still had to run, of course, but running in a forest, all of a sudden, seemed very easy. Compared with trying to walk in a mud hole, of course. We hit a few more laser nets and, with just 1 km beyond the finish (it was a 5 kilometres run, by the way) we hit the last two obstacles. Which, of course, where the most difficult. The first one was a “monkey ladder”, which was basically a wood stepladder placed horizontally at around two meters above another, yes, you guessed, mud hole. We were supposed to hang and advance by using only our hands, and, somehow, to get to the other side of the hole. But, alas, this wasn’t all. In order to reach to the wood handles, at around 2 meters above the ground, we had to climb on a rope. Which was wet. So, it was basically impossible to get there, if you were not in the first 20-30 runners (which had the chance to find the rope reasonably dry). So, I jumped in the mud directly. That was even colder than the first time. I almost swam until I reached the end – about 5 meters later, not much, in absolute terms. But in relative terms, like after running 4 kilometres in cold and mud, well, that proved to be a little bit taxing. And, of course, that wasn’t all. That wasn’t even remotely all. The next obstacle was a wall. Made of wood, about 1 and half meter high. At least something that wasn’t muddy. It was bit of a struggle to climb on top of it and then go back, but it felt much nicer than the mud. And then, just before the finish, we had another wall. This time it was a 3 meters high wall. That was a bit tougher. I was helped by another runner and I did it quite fast too. Before that, I helped another runner too at the first wall. I guess there is some truth in that thing about going around and coming around, if you know what I mean. Well, that was it. I mean, the race. Because the experience went on. Like I told you, we were in open field, near a forest. No running water whatsoever. So, we washed with (ice cold) water from a towed tanker parked in the race area. That was rough, but I didn’t feel it like something out of the picture with the entire theme of the race. I stayed for a group picture, networked a bit and then found a ride home. Like asking other people if they have an extra seat in their car. Surprisingly, after I warmed up a bit, I didn't feel tired at all. On the contrary, I felt energised, almost pumped up. And that’s how I spent one of my Sundays this spring. Quite a few people asked me afterwards why would I do something like this. It’s not the usual Sunday morning pastime, you know. Like I said, it was because of curiosity. All that thing about getting out of the comfort zone, it starts with curiosity. How could you even imagine there’s another thing outside your comfort cocoon, if you’re not following your curiosity? Sometimes, curiosity ends bad, if you’re stepping on somebody else’s toes, for instance. If you’re curious what’s happening if you push some people too much, even with the best intentions, well, this may have bad results. But if you’re curious what may happen if you push yourself too much, well, that’s where the real fun is. First published on: May 28, 2014 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmud-race%2F&text=The%20Mud%20Race&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmud-race%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmud-race%2F&t=The%20Mud%20Race https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmud-race%2F&title=The%20Mud%20Race Previous ### The Diamond Cutter – The Buddha Of Managing Your Life And Your Business – Book Review (/the-diamond-cutter-tibetan-buddhism-business/) Next ### 8 Things I Learned From Starting My 8th Business (/8-things-learned-starting-8th-business/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Language Of Happiness URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-language-of-happiness.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-language-of-happiness/ Published: 2013-12-02 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 64 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: comfort zone, growth, learning, perspective Let’s do a very, very simple experiment: can you please have a look at the text below and tell me what you understand from it? Take your time. Chances are that, if you’re not Korean – or studied Hangul – all you got from the text above is just a collection of random noodles. Or, in other words, nothing. The meaning of the text above for you is zero. And you know why? For a very, very simple reason: you didn’t learned it before. You weren’t previously exposed to this type of language. So, you have no idea what’s the meaning of it. Believe it or not, this is happening with everything you are exposed to. You can only identify things you’ve been exposed to before. You can find people being beautiful or ugly based on your previous experiences of beauty and ugliness. You can experience joy or depression only if you learned how to experience them before. If you don’t know how to laugh, chances are that you won’t be able to understand humour. If you’ve never been sad before, you may don’t know how to cry. Every emotion and activity in our lives is identified based on prior experience. It may take a while to turn your head around this idea, but once you really get it, something very interesting will happen. For starters, you will understand better the meaning of the “comfort zone”. It’s the zone where you already know what’s happening. It’s the zone of all the things you already learned. It’s the place where the world, as you know it, has a meaning. You have all the tools to understand it. Now comes the interesting part. The “discomfort zone” is the area where you have no clue about what’s going on. It’s the area that you’ve never been exposed to and know squat about it. You simple aren’t equipped to understand it. For instance, if you never ran a marathon before, you have no idea how it feels. You may understand, theoretically, what other people are saying about marathons, about hitting “the wall”, about going over your own limits, but you don’t “know” it. It’s only after you start doing it that you understand what it means. By practicing, by learning, you slowly create the tools to understand the process of running a marathon. And after you finish your first marathon you can finally understand it. You’re finally equipped with this new tool called “how to run a marathon (/how-to-run-a-marathon/)”. From now on, you will have a common language with other people who finished a marathon. ## Stretching Out All evolution comes from the discomfort zone. From the learning zone. And that discomfort zone is, simply put, unnatural. The comfort zone has a very interesting propriety. I like to call it “the comfort gravity”. The bigger the comfort zone, the stronger the pull it creates to keep you there. Just like a planet creates gravity and that gravity will keep you from escaping into the Universe. Imagine if you have a well paid job, you’re healthy and young. You get a lot of comfort from that financial security. Enough comfort to put aside the fact that you actually hate that job, hate the people with whom you have to deal during that job, hate the Mondays, the Tuesdays and pretty much every day of the week that you have to be there. But you do have a large comfort zone. That money buys you socially accepted drugs like alcohol, and that may numb you enough during the evenings and weekends so you can forget about the misery you’re experiencing each and every day of the week. So, if you want to escape from here, you will have to beat this gravity. And that’s a very difficult thing. You will have to break the circle of people with whom you’re talking to, the habits you created, you will have to learn new skills. And that’s frightening. Because that means your entire world, as you know it, will collapse. And maybe you will have to learn Hangul to understand what the fuck is going on. Breaking out of the comfort zone will shake your current world and rearrange it. It really is a dangerous thing to do. But it’s also the only way to evolve. If we replace the job, in the example above, with the attitude you have, something even more interesting will happen. Suppose you’ve been depressed and lonely your entire life. Believe it or not, that’s your comfort zone. This is where you feel good. And you know why? Look at the text in Hangul again. For you, joy and happiness is a text in Hangul. You don’t know it. You only know how to be depressed and, although this makes you suffer big time, the gravity you created, by reinforcing that state over and over again, is so strong, that you simply can’t move away. Can’t leave, can’t break free. You always have the option to learn a new language, but, because all you know is all you’ve experienced so far, you may think there’s nothing more than that out there. You may think suffering is the only option you have. ## Learning To Be Happy And it's the same with everything we want to experience. With every emotion we want to feel or every activity we want to perform. Most people are unhappy not by choice, but because they simply didn't learn happiness. Their unhappiness became their comfort zone. It's the only thing they know how to experience, hence they assume it's the only thing that exists in the Universe. For them, happiness is like reading Hangul for the first time. They don't have a clue what's happening there: c’mon, man, this is bullshit, it’s a bunch of random noodles. Even more, they may become cautious and apprehensive – because they don't understand anything – and, eventually, they may conclude there must be something fishy going on and back away. In a sense, they’re right: there is something fishy there: their world, as they know it, will be turned upside down. You can't be both happy and unhappy at the same time, so their current world, the world of unhappiness, will collapse. Now, you have two choices: you can either try to convince them Hangul will be a very good thing for them, or back off. I was doing the first thing for years. I was trying to convince other people about the benefits of happiness. I guess the imprint was that I was kinda trying to save them. In time, this proved to be a losing strategy. If they're so used to speak their own unhappiness language, they wouldn't have any drive whatsoever to learn something new. Learning happiness would be in their discomfort zone. They won't do anything to learn that, because they're already comfortable with their misery. Besides, there's this guy, Jesus, who does a much, much better job at saving people than I do. So, why bother? Nowadays, I'm more into finding compatible partners. People who are already speaking the language of happiness. People who can "get it" for the first time. It's less time consuming, for a change. And it's also very good for me because it invalidates a toxic imprint that I have, namely the one that I can save other people. Nobody can be saved against their own will. As a matter of fact, it can be really dangerous, if you try to do it. Don't ask me why, on this one. Just take my word for it 🙂 And since you’ve been so nice to read my article to the end, I will give you the translation of that Hangul piece of text. I’m pretty sure many of you have been exposed to this text. I don’t know how many of you have been exposed to the actual experience of it, but that’s not my business anymore. It’s your business. “***Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.***" First published on: December 2, 2013 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-language-of-happiness%2F&text=The%20Language%20Of%20Happiness&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-language-of-happiness%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-language-of-happiness%2F&t=The%20Language%20Of%20Happiness https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-language-of-happiness%2F&title=The%20Language%20Of%20Happiness Previous ### Being A Life Director (/being-a-life-director/) Next ### The #5 Words 30 Days Challenge – The Outcome (/the-5-words-30-days-challenge-the-outcome/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Travel As A Personal Development Tool URL: https://dragosroua.com/travel-as-a-personal-development-tool.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/travel-as-a-personal-development-tool/ Published: 2009-02-08 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 64 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness, Travel and Fun Tags: comfort zone, growth, long term travel, travel Looking at my 2009 goal list (/2009-the-goals/) I found a few things there related to travel. Precisely, I want to have at least 3 long term vacations this year, and that my friends, is a specific goal, not relaxation. Here comes a post about how you can use traveling as a personal development tool. Apart from having lots of fun, of course. ### Personal Traveling History I did my first travel outside my country after I hit my thirties. Yes, you can laugh now. I know, it's fun. Ok, you can laugh even more. But that's the truth and I will not hide it. At that time I was still involved 16 hours a day in my own business (/start-your-own-business/) and considered travel is just a waste of precious time. Maybe, and only maybe if I could mix travel with business, then I can embark on some small trips outside my country. And this is how I actually had my first trip to Switzerland: it was a big automotive event in Geneva and since I had the biggest car portal in Romania, I said I could give it a try. I drove 25 hours from Bucharest to Geneva, with only 3 hours of sleep in Hungary. Next year I was in Frankfurt and next year in Paris. Automotive events are quite popular, you know… And I started to like it. In fact, I started to like it a lot. So much that last year I made one trip longer than any other I had before. In fact much longer than the sum of all my travels to the moment: to New Zealand (/the-trip-to-new-zealand/). One may say that I somehow balanced the score with that one, but in fact, I felt that this was only the beginning. I somehow developed a travel addiction, the same way I developed my GTD addiction over time. And then I realized that not only entrepreneurship (/entrepreneurship-as-a-personal-development-tool/) can be a personal development tool. You can also use traveling to enhance yourself consciously. I will outline just a few of the "why's" in this post, and in the next one I'll try to share some specific advice about the "how's". For now, let's just start with the reasons. ### Perspective Changer A travel is a fantastic perspective changer. You know that most of the time you solve problems not because the problem become easier, but become you changed your perspective. They're saying "thinking out of the box" for a reason, you know… Traveling is a natural perspective changer, and I'm not talking only about long trips in exotic places. In the first two years after Bianca's birth we spent a lot of time in the car. When she was a little baby, she seemed to enjoy a lot her car-seat and she slept "like a baby". We actually drove hundreds of kilometers each day under the premises that she would sleep better. And we chose our destinations with a lot of spontaneity. It wasn't uncommon to just go on a "short joy ride" and find ourselves several hours later at the other end of the country. Those short trips, apart from taking care of Bianca's sleep, had a huge impact on me. At that time I was still busy managing my online publishing business and I had to cope with a lot of stress. But after we started to change the context, and move a lot around the country, I started to have a feeling of de-glueing from my daily routine. I started to see problems in other light and to find solutions faster. Even today most of my blog post ideas are finding me in the car. And of course, I just use my iPhone (/category/iphone/) to capture them. ### Positive Reinforcement A travel is always a strong reinforcement of your current status. This is why it's good to be proactive and start your travels consciously, whenever you feel the need. That way, the travel will become a natural reinforcement of that initial thrill and positive attitude. Travels are perceived as rewards and there is a reason for that. Changing your surroundings, changing your daily routine, exposing yourself to new and – most of the time – beautiful scenery will act like an endorphin switch. Not only you will enjoy the trip, but you will create a much more subtle trigger that will always act as a positive anchor for your current status. It's ok to use a daily journal in which to assess your success and new challenges. It's a common personal development practice used for positive reinforcement, and it works. But if you add to this a short but unexpected travel, your brain will surely dig it and start to rewire itself to boost your self-esteem. Just try it, it's not that difficult. ### Exposing Yourself To The Unexpected Each travel has its share of unknown, of mystery and unexpected. Believe it or not, you can't live without the unknown, without mystery and without the unexpected. You need this in order to be and feel alive. Boredom, dullness, monotony, flatness are your enemies. And being too much in your comfort zone can summon those enemies pretty fast. Embarking on a new travel puts you out of the comfort zone. And I'm not talking about your hotel and transportation, you can chose whatever you like here, from 5 stars hotels to bed and breakfast. It's not the technical comfort that matter, but the actual escape from your familiar set of activities. I remember that during the trip to the automotive event in Frankfurt, we had to drove through Switzerland, Austria and then Germany. I don't know how, we lost the highway somewhere at the border of Switzerland and Austria and had to drive around 100 kilometers using the map on tiny roads on top of the Alpes. It added at least 4 hours of delay (not to speak about the fact that we're almost out of gas) but it's still my best memory from that trip. The unexpected forces you to act, to react and to find better solutions. Praise for the unexpected to come intro your travels. ### A Beautiful Adventure One might say that adventure is similar to exposing yourself to unexpected. But I'm saying the unexpected is only a subset of the adventure. And adventure is much more, is a much deeper challenge, it's a trigger for your inner reward mechanism and a fantastic mobilizer. At the end of an adventure you find yourself richer, much happier and feel younger. I've always been fascinated by adventures, and I'm always ready to immerse myself – mentally or even physically – in a new adventure. There is this reward concept in the adventure that is so appealing to us humans. There is this unexpected flow of actions that can lead you to unknown places. There is this unbearable curiosity that strikes you all of a sudden. Without getting too philosophical here I dare say that our entire existence is an adventure. Or at least it should be. Each travel is an adventure. Each travel expose you to so much more and forces you to do things in so many new ways. It would be so sad if you couldn't just start a new adventure whenever you want. Pick a random location on the map and go there. No questions asked, no pondering, no evaluations, just go there. You never know what you may find. Might be that you could even find yourself. First published on: February 8, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ftravel-as-a-personal-development-tool%2F&text=Travel%20As%20A%20Personal%20Development%20Tool&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ftravel-as-a-personal-development-tool%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ftravel-as-a-personal-development-tool%2F&t=Travel%20As%20A%20Personal%20Development%20Tool https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ftravel-as-a-personal-development-tool%2F&title=Travel%20As%20A%20Personal%20Development%20Tool Previous ### Working Out Your Money Muscles (/working-out-your-money-muscles/) Next ### Travel As A Personal Development Tool – The How To (/travel-as-a-personal-development-tool-the-how-to/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Welcome To Singularity URL: https://dragosroua.com/welcome-to-singularity.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/welcome-to-singularity/ Published: 2021-12-16 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 64 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Relationships and Society Tags: 365 challenge, ai tools, change The bad news is that singularity is already here. There is no good news, I'm afraid. I know it sounds gloomy and catastrophic and pessimistic, but it really isn't. It's realistic. It is what it is. Now, before starting to worry unnecessarily, let's revisit the definition: > The technological singularity—or simply the singularity—is **a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization**.Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity) I already wrote many times that "some AI knows better than you know yourself", but it didn't hit me that what I described is actually singularity until a few days ago. When I was writing about that, I was referring mostly to the social-related AI. Or anything that is related to content production and consumption, like, for instance, entertainment. In those fields, your desires, expectations and satisfaction, are all a function of your previous choices, choices you don't remember anymore, but which are classified, harvested, processed and fine-tuned so they generate the maximum ROI for the content producer, with the minimum interaction from you. It happens all the time, at any touch of the button, at any like, at any scroll. Behind that there are AI trained models that translate your behavior into business metrics. And those AI models are outsmarting their creators big time. ## It's Difficult Only For The Others *When you're dead, you don't know that you're dead. It's difficult only for the others. Same when you're stupid.* Yeah, it sounds harsh, but when was the last time you actually realized you were outsmarted by someone? By definition, you can realize something like this only in hindsight. You may feel like something is slightly off, but you don't really get it – to the amusement of the smarter one. The same thing happens more on more often, at a more deeper scale. It started a few years ago, with Brexit. No one realized how granular the process of influencing was, how fine grained were the tools used, how effective were all the apparently nonsensical slogans, like "let's get rid of the experts", or the famous red "save the NHs" bus (which proved to be a blatant lie – but only in hindsight). Yet a few insiders – or a big, foggy "something" – knew about that. They knew Brexit will work and they knew with incredible precision. That foggy "something" worked out beautifully. To the bewilderment of those left wondering why they feel like something's off. They thought they know their stuff, they know how the world works. Might it be that they were… outsmarted?… Hmmm… And then it came Trump, and the so called Russia melding, and then the entire polarization that led to the immense fracture in the American society that we're experiencing now. The actors are irrelevant here, what matters is the deep fracture in society. The actual persons, which were vilified or glorified, proved to be different than the stories propagated on all the channels, and yet, the reactions they created, from disgust to extreme loyalty, are still running high. And, last, but certainly not least, the biggest modern cult, the Covid-19 church. This is the climax of all the data gathered in the first attempts, the refined version, the upgraded product. It is so deeply rooted in the modern human psyche, that just by reading this, you, the reader, are already positioning yourself on one side or the other, trying to predict what follows next on this text: am I with you, or with the other ones? Am I a "science prophet", or an "anti-vaxxer"? None of these *personas* exists, by the way, they are entirely virtual constructs of the AI, which have the role to keep you afraid, controllable, predictable. Both of them. ## The Influencer And The Rise Of Cultism This refined version, this upgraded product, it all started in an apparently benign area: the influencer. All the tricks the influencers tried to increase their audience, all those trials and errors, all the stuff that worked and it was kept, all the stuff that didn't work and it was discarded, all this was carefully crafted into a portable, on-demand science of influencing. It's not owned by anyone. It's not packaged and sold by a company. It doesn't even have a corporeal presence. It's just out there. A collection of algorithms, techniques and self-correcting, self-growing layers of bits (pun intended) and pieces, which, together, are used to control and predict the behavior of *other people*. As the algorithm became better, its surface of impact grew. To the point that we are now experiencing the die-hard version of solo influencer: cultism. The ongoing creation and maintenance of cults, around all kind of topics, all having a single thing in common: the digital surface. The translucent window through which they are flowing, being it the screen of your phone, of your laptop or of your TV set. Cultism is how Covid-19 was created – and maintained – and how the next big impact planetary move will emerge, when we least expect it. ## Staying Unhackable When a computer is hacked, its resources are used by another software, to execute something that the computer wasn't programmed to do. The same happens these days with humans, only this time the hacker is an autonomous, selfless and unidentifiable AI entity, which uses other people brains to its own benefit. Which, just to be clear, is not depopulation (as hardcore anti-vaxxers believe), nor the salvation of the entire human race by using mRNA vaccines (as the science prophets are claiming). Its benefit is just harvesting attention, that what it is feeding off of. Attention. As long as it has attention, this algorithm of influencing at all cost, and with more and more precision, will live forever, like a subtle fog spreading across computers, phones and humans. Staying unhackable means avoiding this toxic fog. And it's a story for another article. Or a book. *Photo by Andy Kelly (https://unsplash.com/@askkell?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/artificial-intelligence?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: December 16, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwelcome-to-singularity%2F&text=Welcome%20To%20Singularity&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwelcome-to-singularity%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwelcome-to-singularity%2F&t=Welcome%20To%20Singularity https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwelcome-to-singularity%2F&title=Welcome%20To%20Singularity Previous ### Home Is Where You Know The WiFi Password (/home-is-where-you-know-the-wifi-password/) Next ### Friday Evening, A Week Before Christmas (/friday-evening-a-week-before-christmas/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 47. Make A Promise To A Close Person And Keep It URL: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-47-make-a-promise-close-person-keep.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-47-make-a-promise-close-person-keep/ Published: 2014-12-27 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 63 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society Tags: 100 ways series, do, relationships, trust It doesn't have to be something big. It doesn't have to be for someone special. It doesn't have to be difficult also. But it has to be a commitment to somebody. Just reach out, make a promise, keep it and then enjoy the feeling after. Making and keeping promises is the best social glue I ever encountered. There is no easier and more effective way to make friends, to reach out and to build invisible bridges between you and other people. It also improves your self-esteem drastically. Committing to somebody else has this magic effect of growing more inner resources. It's like what you build outside is coming back to you in an invisible way. *The more promises you make and keep, the more inner fulfillment you'll create. * ## How To Make A Promise That’s Realistic And Keep It In my experience, people are not bad at keeping promises (except for the pathological liars, but those are accounting for less than 1% of any social circle I’ve seen). Once people make a realistic promise, the vast majority of times, they keep it. The nuance is in the “realistic” thing. People fail to keep their promises not because they want to disappoint the others, but because of the fogginess they have when it comes to what’s realistic or not. They have a certain image about reality, they have certain expectations when it comes to reality and they act based on those assumptions. But most of the time those assumptions are based on what we usually call “wishful thinking”. Or, in other words, the hope the things will turn out to be just fine. Alas, reality doesn’t work this way. Reality simply works. Reality doesn’t care about what we consider to be good or bad for us. It doesn't give a shit about that. Good or bad, for reality, are equal. And here’s another thing: what’s good or bad for us changes with circumstances. What was good yesterday may not be good today, and what was bad last week may be a blessing today. Think only at the meteorological phenomena if you don’t believe me. In the middle of the winter, a hot and sunny day would be a blessing. But in the middle of the summer, another hot and sunny day will be just boring. Progress over perfection applies to money too. My book *Gravitational Habits For Financial Resilience* shows how small, consistent habits compound into lasting wealth—no dramatic lifestyle changes required. Get it: Apple Books (https://books.apple.com/pt/book/gravitational-habits-for-financial-resilience/id6756201311) · Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Ny2dEQAAQBAJ) · Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G5FPKNZR) ![Gravitational Habits For Financial Resilience book cover](/images/gravitational-habits.webp) But we make those stories, you know. We create those expectations. We project a certain reality that we consider desirable and we ignore all the clues. Because reality works with clues. They are there, all the time, we just choose to ignore them. If there are clouds on the sky, then it’s very likely to rain. That's a pretty solid clue. It would be absurd to make a promise about going to the beach and get a tan, under those circumstances. A much better promise would be to buy an umbrella. And yet, we still commit to the “sunny and nicey and happey day” and we promise we’re gonna bring that to those people. And we really want to, you know. We really hope it would be like this. And then it rains. The secret of making and keeping promises is to make them realistic. The secret is to take into account everything you can and be honest. If people will push you to promise a sunny day but you see clouds coming in, well, don’t promise a sunny day. Don’t promise anything at all. Just be silent. It will be so much better for everybody. But if you see the clouds coming in and you still promise a sunny day, then, by all means, move the earth around until the clouds are gone and bring back the sun. *Photo source: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Make-a-Promise-95075953 (http://www.deviantart.com/art/Make-a-Promise-95075953)* Want more actionable life advice? This post is one of 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). First published on: December 27, 2014 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-47-make-a-promise-close-person-keep%2F&text=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2047.%20Make%20A%20Promise%20To%20A%20Close%20Person%20And%20Keep%20It&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-47-make-a-promise-close-person-keep%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-47-make-a-promise-close-person-keep%2F&t=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2047.%20Make%20A%20Promise%20To%20A%20Close%20Person%20And%20Keep%20It https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-47-make-a-promise-close-person-keep%2F&title=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2047.%20Make%20A%20Promise%20To%20A%20Close%20Person%20And%20Keep%20It Previous ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 46. Make Peace With An Old Enemy (/100-ways-live-better-life-46-make-peace-with-enemy/) Next ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 48. Break Up With A Person You Don’t Really Like (/100-ways-live-better-life-48-break-up-with-a-person-dont-really-like/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 5 AI Predictions for the Next 5 Years URL: https://dragosroua.com/5-ai-predictions-for-the-next-5-years.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/5-ai-predictions-for-the-next-5-years/ Published: 2026-04-25 Views: 63 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Technology Tags: change, digital nomad, list post, mindset I know, making AI predictions is the most slippery slope you can engage in – been there (/my-10-ai-predictions-from-2019-a-reality-check/), done that. Still. I think it's a very useful exercise. It forces you to stay aware and awake – and give a sense a preparedness, even though we never really know what's coming next. So, without further ado: ## 1. Instant Translation Reshaping Political Order Instant translation is quietly evolving, shadowed by the more spectacular AI coding niche. While power users are jumping on the next Claude or OpenAi feature, translation models are becoming extremely powerful. I think in the next 1-2 years, instant translation devices with high accuracy will be massively available. One of the consequences of this will be, surprisingly, a more cohesive political order in places where language diversity and bureaucracy are creating a lot of friction today. One of these places is Europe, famous for its regulatory landscape and very diverse language map. With instant translation, all these bureaucratic procedures will have less friction, and will allow more flexibility. From a weak and ossified alliance, Europe may become a true federation. Same about Africa. ## 2. Migration Will Become a Way of Life Closely coupled with the above, migration will become a way of life. Traveling for better living conditions will be a necessity, not a luxury and it will propagate from less fortunate social layers to middle class. We may see different kind of "brain" migrations, "labor" migrations, and even religious movements with a much higher frequency and intensity. Given this pressure, migration will be controlled economically – control over travel prices or blitz regional wars – rather than politically. What we now take for granted will become tighter and tighter. Human movements will accelerate and increase in intensity, taking advantage of the tiniest economical opportunities. ## 3. Country Model Giving Way to Subscription-Based Citizenship Since the political control will weaken, countries, as we know them, will become less powerful, giving way to new structures. We may see various new structures, very close to what Snow Crash (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61240297-snow-crash) predicted: franchluates, burbclaves, narcotribes (heavily controlled by AI supported metaverses (/ai-is-the-new-marijuana-and-were-all-about-to-get-high/)) or mobile states (the Raft). Citizenship will become more of a membership with subscriptions to Universal Basic Income and medical services. ## 4. World Models Will Mature, Making Room for Ubiquitous Industry and Home Robots Robots will be as ubiquitous as cars are now, everybody will have one. Of course, a new industry – robots manufacturing – will emerge, but it will probably not create too many jobs: robots will build robots. But having these new types of physical, semi-intelligent artifacts around us will change the way we interact, as humans. Hard to predict what exactly this will be, but it seems it will be something very different from what we're doing today. ## 5. Space Data Centers Will Surpass Earth Compute Power Satellites and Moon based data centers will become prevalent and will surpass Earth compute, shifting power from the current elites to the ones that will control space travel. The initial hurdles of building and moving data centers in space will be significant, but solvable. Those who already are building spacecraft at industrial scale (SpaceX, Blue Origin) will be the first beneficiaries of this. Solar energy in space is virtually unlimited. These are just thoughts. None of them may actually come true, or they may be in a slightly different form or capacity, but still, I think this is an interesting exercise to do every once in a while. First published on: April 25, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-ai-predictions-for-the-next-5-years%2F&text=5%20AI%20Predictions%20for%20the%20Next%205%20Years&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-ai-predictions-for-the-next-5-years%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-ai-predictions-for-the-next-5-years%2F&t=5%20AI%20Predictions%20for%20the%20Next%205%20Years https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-ai-predictions-for-the-next-5-years%2F&title=5%20AI%20Predictions%20for%20the%20Next%205%20Years Previous ### AIGernon Running on Zo Computer (/aigernon-running-on-zo-computer/) Next ### A Week with AIGernon, my Personal AI Assistant (/a-week-with-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Assess Decide Do in Claude, but with Skills URL: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/ Published: 2026-01-28 Modified: 2026-02-13 Views: 63 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Assess Decide Do Tags: addtaskmanager, ai tools, Claude, framework, tools When I first integrated my Assess-Decide-Do framework into Claude, I used a 24,000-character megaprompt (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/). It worked remarkably well – and it was my first experiment ever with applying a human cognitive framework to an LLM (potentially the first one ever). A recent update to Claude Code changed something really deep, and added unexpected tools to improve my implementation. Now the same framework runs with 94% less overhead, and with features I couldn't implement before. ## What is ADD? Assess-Decide-Do is a simple idea: at any moment, you're in one of three mental states: - **Assess** — You're exploring, gathering information, asking "what if?" - **Decide** — You're choosing, committing, allocating resources - **Do** — You're executing, completing, finishing These states are sequential. You can't decide well without assessing first. You can't execute well without deciding first. And when you skip steps—jumping from idea to execution without thinking it through—things tend to go wrong. I created this framework 15 years ago to manage my own scattered thinking. It became an iOS app (addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8)), and eventually I wondered: could AI understand this framework too? ## My Original Approach: One Big MegaPrompt My first integration was almost blunt—a 24KB megaprompt that explained everything: what each realm means, how to detect which realm someone is in, what language patterns indicate each state, how to recognize when someone is stuck, and how to respond appropriately. Every conversation loaded the entire framework context. Claude would read 24,000 characters before even responding to "hello." **Did it work?** Yes, surprisingly well. Users reported Claude feeling "weirdly empathic"—it understood whether they were exploring or executing, and responded accordingly. The github repo got 60+ stars, forked 10+ times and the Reddit post (/how-to-deal-with-crab-mentality-the-reddit-flavor/) became viral. **The problem?** Context is precious. Loading 24KB of framework instructions for every exchange meant less room for actual conversation. It was like bringing an encyclopedia to answer what time it is. ## Replacing the Monolithic Megaprompt with Skills In January 2026, Claude Code merged slash commands and skills into a unified system. Two features mattered most: 1. **Progressive disclosure** — Skills load context dynamically, only when needed 2. **Subagent support** — Skills can spawn isolated agents that don't pollute your main conversation This enabled things that the ADD integration couldn't do with the megaprompt. ## The New Architecture Instead of one massive prompt, the framework now has two layers: ### Layer 1: Minimal Core (~1.5KB) The `CLAUDE.md` file contains just the essentials—realm definitions, detection patterns, imbalance recognition. Enough for Claude to operate with ADD awareness without loading everything. ### Layer 2: Skills On Demand Deep support lives in focused skill files that load only when relevant: ``` .claude/skills/ ├── add-flow-check.md # Automatic status updates ├── add-status.md # /add-status command ├── add-reflect.md # Session reflection ├── add-assess.md # Assess realm support ├── add-decide.md # Decide realm support ├── add-do.md # Do realm support └── add-imbalance.md # Stuck pattern detection ``` ### Let's Look at the Numbers ApproachBase LoadAdditionalMegaprompt (before)~26KB every timeNoneSkills (after)~1.5KB~2KB per skill when needed That's **94% less context overhead** for typical conversations. ## New Capabilities ### 1. User Commands Users can now explicitly check their flow: ``` /add-status ``` Response: ``` [ADD Flow: 🟠? Decide | Narrowing phase - 3 options → 1 finalist] Session Metrics: - Exchanges this session: 12 - Realm transitions: 3 - Time in current realm: 4 exchanges - Flow quality: Balanced ``` Before, users had to ask "where am I in my flow?" and hope Claude remembered to track it. Now there's an explicit command. ### 2. Automatic Status Updates The `add-flow-check` skill is model-invocable—Claude calls it automatically at conversation boundaries. The status file updates silently, and the visual statusline at the bottom of Claude Code shows current state. Before, this required Claude to "remember" to update status. Now it's built into the system. ### 3. Session Reflection with Isolated Context This is the biggest improvement. The `/add-reflect` command analyzes your entire session for patterns: ``` /add-reflect Session reflection captured. Quick summary: - Flow quality: Balanced - Realm focus: Assess-heavy (exploration phase) - Key insight: Thorough foundation built for upcoming decisions Full reflection saved to .add-session-history.md ``` The icing on the cake: this runs in a **forked context**. The reflection analysis—which requires reviewing the entire conversation—happens in an isolated subagent. Your main conversation stays clean. The history file accumulates over time, letting you see patterns across sessions. Before skills supported subagents, this kind of reflection would clutter your working context with meta-analysis. Now it's cleanly separated. ## Practical Examples ### When You're Stuck in Research Mode Imagine you've been exploring authentication approaches for 15 exchanges. The status bar shows: ``` [ADD Flow: 🔴+ Assess | Circular pattern - revisiting authentication 3x] ``` The pattern is surfaced and made visible. Claude's responses gently acknowledge the depth of exploration without pushing you to decide before you're ready. ### When You Jump to Execution Too Fast You say "How do I implement OAuth?" without any context. Claude recognizes this pattern: > "Before we dive into implementation, let's explore what you need. What's driving the authentication requirement? Understanding the 'why' helps ensure the 'how' actually fits." The `add-imbalance` skill provides this guidance—but only loads when the pattern is detected. ### When You Complete Something You finish a task. The framework recognizes this as a "liveline"—not an ending, but a new beginning: ``` [ADD Flow: 🟢- Do | Liveline created - completion opening new assessment] ``` > "That's done. What does this completion open up? What's emerging in the space it creates?" The cycle continues naturally. ## What This Means for Framework Integration The ADD evolution demonstrates something broader: **AI frameworks benefit from the same architecture principles as software**. The megaprompt was a monolith. It worked, but it was inefficient. The skills approach is modular: - **Separation of concerns** — Each skill handles one thing - **Progressive loading** — Context loads on demand - **Isolated execution** — Subagents don't pollute main context - **User control** — Commands give explicit access This pattern applies to any framework you might integrate with Claude. Instead of one massive prompt, consider: 1. **Core awareness** — Minimal instructions that load every time 2. **Modular skills** — Detailed support that loads when relevant 3. **User commands** — Explicit actions users can invoke 4. **Background automation** — Model-invocable skills that maintain state ## Getting Started If you want to try the ADD framework: ### For Claude Code Users (Recommended) Fork or clone the repository (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-assess-decide-do-mega-prompt). The skills-first architecture activates automatically: - `CLAUDE.md` loads minimal core awareness (~1.5KB) - Skills in `.claude/skills/` activate on demand - Try `/add-status` and `/add-reflect` commands - Watch the statusline for real-time realm tracking ### For claude.ai or Claude Desktop These don't support skills yet. Use the megaprompt approach: - Download `docs/ADD_FRAMEWORK_MEGAPROMPT_USER_CONTEXT.md` - Attach it to your conversation or add to Custom Instructions The megaprompt still works great—it's just not as efficient as skills. ## The Bigger Picture What started as a personal productivity framework became an iOS app, then a Claude integration, and now a native skills implementation. Each evolution taught me something: - **Frameworks work when they match how humans actually think** — ADD succeeds because it names states people already experience - **AI can learn cognitive frameworks** — Not through training, but through well-structured prompts - **Architecture matters** — The same logic runs better when properly modularized The skills merge in Claude Code wasn't designed for ADD. It was designed for general extensibility. But it enabled exactly what ADD needed: dynamic loading, user commands, and isolated reflection. Sometimes the platform evolves in ways that make your specific use case dramatically better. This was one of those times. ### Resources - ADD Framework Claude Integration Repository (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-assess-decide-do-mega-prompt) (GitHub) - ADD Resources and Blog Posts (/assess-decide-do-framework/) (2010 – 2026) - addTaskManager App (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) (iOS/macOS) *The ADD framework is open source and available for anyone to use or adapt. The skills implementation works with Claude Code as of January 2026.* First published on: January 28, 2026 ### ⚡ Assess-Decide-Do Framework Skills Architecture Part 8 of 11 View all 11 posts → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) ← Previous AI Evolution Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) Next → Ecosystem Expansion From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) 2. Evolution: Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) 3. Stage 1: Assess: Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) 4. Stage 2: Decide: Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) 5. Stage 3: Do: Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) 6. Design & Meaning: Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) 7. AI Evolution: Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) 8. Skills Architecture: Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) 9. Ecosystem Expansion: From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) 10. Always-On Agent: Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) 11. Multi-Agent Council: LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills%2F&text=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20in%20Claude%2C%20but%20with%20Skills&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills%2F&t=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20in%20Claude%2C%20but%20with%20Skills https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills%2F&title=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20in%20Claude%2C%20but%20with%20Skills Previous ### How To Deal With Crab Mentality, the Reddit Flavor (/how-to-deal-with-crab-mentality-the-reddit-flavor/) Next ### Why Trust Matters More Than Technology for Human Survival (/why-trust-matters-more-than-technology-for-human-survival/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Bio Content In 2026 – A Bet URL: https://dragosroua.com/bio-content-in-2026-a-bet.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/bio-content-in-2026-a-bet/ Published: 2026-01-14 Views: 63 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Blogging Tags: ai tools, change, content creation, mindset **What is bio content and why 2026 might be its breakout year.** I believe 2026 will be the year of "bio content", a.k.a. human generated content, as opposed to AI slop. And I'm willing to bet on this. As of now, the first official video of my YouTube channel is live. Unsurprisingly, my channel is called @bio-content (https://www.youtube.com/@bio-content), and this first video explains a little my intuition (which, again, may or may not be true) and what type of content you can see on that channel. Kind of an introduction. Here's what you'll find in the video. ## Why Bio Content Matters Think about what happened with food. Genetic engineering gave us abundance—cheap produce, available everywhere, year-round. But it came at a cost. We got "cardboard vegetables": always available but tasteless. Now people pay premium prices for bio produce. Not because it's more efficient, but because it's *authentic, real*. The same shift is coming for content. AI can generate infinite text, images, and videos. The internet is already overloaded with it. But as abundance rises, so does the need for authenticity. Bio content isn't about fighting AI—it's about offering something AI can't replicate: genuine human experience. ## How to Spot the Real Content How do you tell bio content from AI slop? In the video, I share three markers that distinguish authentic, human-generated content: a human face, verifiable time online, and a story. These aren't random criteria. They're the elements that remain hard to fake at scale, especially over time. ## The Shovel Sellers There's also another pattern worth noting. During the gold rush, very few prospectors struck gold. But the people selling shovels and sieves? They made consistent money. The same dynamic will play out with AI. Few will succeed leveraging AI directly – specifically because of the sheer abundance and crushing competition. But those who share their authentic journey—the shovel sellers of bio content—will generate lasting value. ## What to Expect from the Channel The @bio-content channel will focus on three main topics this year: financial resilience, location independence, and meaningful relationships. These aren't theoretical frameworks. I've been location-independent for 15 years, survived multiple financial resets, and learned hard lessons about what makes relationships work. Bio content, for me, means sharing that lived experience directly—without any AI embellishing. ## The Bet Will bio content actually take off? I don't really know. This is a bet, I don't have a magic crystal ball. But the pattern feels familiar. Every time technology creates artificial abundance, a counter-movement emerges valuing the authentic original. Organic food. Vinyl records. Handmade stuff. Human-generated content might be next. Watch the 10 minutes introduction here and decide for yourself: Bio Content Introduction (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NfEUE58jWY) If this resonates, subscribe to @bio-content (https://www.youtube.com/@bio-content). Let's find out together if the bet pays off. First published on: January 14, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbio-content-in-2026-a-bet%2F&text=Bio%20Content%20In%202026%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Bet&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbio-content-in-2026-a-bet%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbio-content-in-2026-a-bet%2F&t=Bio%20Content%20In%202026%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Bet https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbio-content-in-2026-a-bet%2F&title=Bio%20Content%20In%202026%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Bet Previous ### addTaskManager Has Universal Search (/addtaskmanager-has-universal-search/) Next ### Claude Cowork Just Killed [ Insert App Name Here ] (/claude-cowork-just-killed-insert-app-name-here/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The 10 Golden Rules Of Productivity URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-10-golden-rules-of-productivity.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-10-golden-rules-of-productivity/ Published: 2016-01-19 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 63 Categories: Business, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: do, efficiency, focus, list post As an early GTD adopter and as a long time follower of my own productivity framework (Assess – Decide – Do) I came to realize that, beyond any technique or framework, there are a few rules that need to be respected if you really want to be productive. So, without further ado, here are the 10 golden rules of productivity: ## 1. Your Brain Is Better At Creating Stuff Than At Remembering Or Planning Stuff So don't use it as a rolodex. Your brain wasn't designed to do this. A rolodex was designed to do this, by the way, otherwise, we wouldn't have it, right? Doh. As simple as an explanation this is, you'd be amazed by the amount of people who are graciously ignoring it. "Ok, I'll remember that. Sure thing." Yeah, right. The first golden rule of productivity is to have everything you need to do contained in a safe system, outside of your brain. The keyword here is not brain, but "outside". It may be pen and paper, or it may be the newest latest app on your fancy iPhone X, it doesn't matter. As long as you will keep it in a place where you can safely access it and process it. Use your brain to do what it does best: to create. And use other tools to help you remember stuff. ## 2. For Each Specific Task There Is A Specific Person And that person is not necessarily you. This is the second most popular reason for catastrophic productivity: people won't delegate. By fear of poor results, by ignorance, by millions of other reasons reasons. The only logical outcome of this approach is that, at some point, you will have so much on your plate, that your plate will break down. Your plate is you, in this case. You will collapse at some point. Delegating is tricky, I admit. There is an art and a science of delegation. We wouldn't have time to cover even one percent of it on such a short blog post, hence the reason for you to get better at it. But we may use a rule of thumb: delegation should always occur before the burn out. If you start delegating after you've been burned out, that's a sign you're not yet convinced. You're not proactive. You're doing it simply because you crashed. So, be proactive. Start to delegate early. And do your homework. Learn how to properly delegate. ## 3. If It Can Be Done In The Next Two Minutes, Just Do It This is probably the most important thing I learned from GTD (/gtd-tips-never-have-the-same-thought-twice-unless-you-like-that-thought/). The technique has many new and innovative approaches, but, for me, this simple rule seemed to carry most of the benefits. Because it forces you to put a time evaluation on each and every task you have to do. And that's a huge game shifter. You have to think in terms of "how long it will take to do this", instead of "how much I like to do this". And if you realize you could get away with it in only 2 minutes, "how much would I like to do this" becomes irrelevant. I surprised myself doing things I didn't like (just because I knew it wouldn't take longer than 2 minutes and then I will have much more time to get back to the stuff I really enjoyed doing). So, try to forecast accurately the amount of time you'll spend on your tasks and, if it's less than 2 minutes, stop the thinking thread in your mind, and just do it. ## 4. If It's Not Written Down, It Doesn't Exist A safe productivity system, outside of your brain, as the number one rule states, is useless if you don't use it. So, if you think at doing something, but you don't take it out of your brain, it doesn't really exists. This is not a simple "just use that system" rule, it's more of a lifestyle choice. A very cumbersome choice, in the beginning. Because you will literally have to stop the moment you think of doing something and empty your brain form it. And that's kinda strange. But very, very effective, in the long term. Putting everything in written form creates a very subtle form of accountability. If we think about doing something, without putting it in written form, then you're just daydreaming. It's ok. You don't have any responsibility. But if you're writing it down, assign a due date and a priority to it (at least that) then your brain will start to feel accountable. You may end up doing that or not, but as long as you have it written, you committed to it somehow. ## 5. If A Task Requires More Than One Verb To Be Described, You Have More Than One Task One of the simplest, yet easiest to trespass rules from the decalogue: just use a single verb in the task description. If you use more than one, then you have more than one task. And what is the problem, you asked? Well, the problem is that, way more often than you think, you can only do one part of the task, with the second one left suspended. Hence, the task will remain in a limbo: you started to work at it, but you don't know when you'll finish. Also, the moment you realize you have more than two verbs in a task, it may be the moment to think in terms of projects, not only tasks. You know, grouping all those tasks under a common semantic denominator (gosh, that was an awful wording for such a simple word like "title", huh). Keeping this habit will develop in time an "atomic" approach towards doing stuff that will translate in a lot more clarity. ## 6. Identify And Honor Each Task Context We live in different contexts (luckily). There is one context where we work, for instance, and another context where we live (most of the time). So, assigning the proper context to each task gives you this immersive feeling that you are in the right place at the right time. Not using contexts at all, on the other side, creates an unconscious pressure, the feeling that you still have tasks on your agenda and you won't be able to finish them in time. Now, properly choosing your contexts is a completely different thing. When you learn about contexts, the tendency is to create a context for each and every location you're spending time in. Or for each and every category of work your perform. This is wrong. This is just adding an unnecessary layer of complexity over such a simple and useful concept. Since I don't have space in this blog post to give you more details, you can read more about how to set up your gtd contexts here (/gtd-contexts/). ## 7. Unprocessed Items Are Eating You. Seriously. By "unprocessed item" I understand tasks that haven't been touched for a while. Let's say months. Or years. We all have these types of tasks in the beginning. And it's ok. But mind my words here: sooner or late they'll eat you. Every task that is not processed (either done, postponed or deleted from the system) is creating a burden. It's like they're adding weight to your system. If you keep piling those unprocessed items, you'll become obese. And obese people are basically eaten out by their own fat. So, get rid of any unprocessed items in your system. Like I said: either cross them off, by doing them, either postpone them or delete them. ## 8. If It Creates More Stuff Than It Solves, The Task Must Be Discarded / Reassesed The purpose of each task is to solve a specific problem. Some tasks may be  chained, and at the end of each one, you will attach, in a natural way, another one. Effective, scalable projects are built like that. But if at the end of a task we find more stuff to do than we had when we started, well, we now have a bigger problem. It shouldn't be like this. The "task diarrhea" as I like to call this, is something that happens a lot to productivity junkies (people who are addicted to do stuff just because, you know). Many have hundreds of thousands of microtasks chained together in endless strings. Of course, they end up by erasing everything and starting from scratch. But even if you are not a productivity junkie and you notice that by solving one task, you're in fact creating 10 more problems, you should seriously reassess that task. ## 9. The Work Day Starts At 9AM And Ends At 5PM. Period. Maybe your time schedule is different than that, but you got the idea. Keep it in a certain time structure and be very, very keen about that. Respect it. When the day ends, break the door on your way out, if you have to. One of the most important consequences of that is you will **have** to get better at stuff. You will be forced to. As counterintuitive as it may seem, containing your work in a constricting framework will make you better at it. There is this pitching event I'm organizing for almost 4 years now, and, within this event, there are some pitching slots: people get to present their ideas to the audience. From the moment we started Open Connect, until today, the pitches are limited to 1 minute (exactly, 1 minute) each. The result: over the weeks, months, years people got really, really good at presenting their ideas in only one minute. They evolved tremendously. ## 10. The Best Productivity Framework Is The One That Works For You Just don't get fancy, don't adopt each and every new technique or approach or formula, just because it sounds nice. It may even be nice. But you don't know if it's good for you. And that's what counts. I met people who were incredibly productive just with pen and paper, and also met productivity "junkies" with 3 frameworks implemented over 4 devices, who could barely get to the end of the day. As in any other area of your life, the search for the best productivity technique will plateau at some point. It may take 6 months or two years, but, at some point, you should get comfortable with a certain set of techniques and tools. Just stick with what works, because, you know how they say: "if it's working, don't break it". Well, that was it. If you have something to add to these rules (or, even better, if you want to challenge some of them) feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to debate. Oh, one more thing. If you want to avoid upfront all these productivity traps that I've been hinting at in this article, well, you can just download this ebook for free. It usually sells for $6.99 on Amazon, Kindle and iBookStore, but you can get it for free, if you subscribe to future updates. Just click on the cover to find out more. ![the-productivity-trap-cover-rendered-3dbox](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/the-productivity-trap-cover-rendered-3dbox.png) (/books/) First published on: January 19, 2016 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-10-golden-rules-of-productivity%2F&text=The%2010%20Golden%20Rules%20Of%20Productivity&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-10-golden-rules-of-productivity%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-10-golden-rules-of-productivity%2F&t=The%2010%20Golden%20Rules%20Of%20Productivity https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-10-golden-rules-of-productivity%2F&title=The%2010%20Golden%20Rules%20Of%20Productivity Previous ### Latest News, First Webinar And Call For Q&A (/latest-news-first-webinar-and-call-for-qa/) Next ### 7 Ways To Express Gratitude As A Man (/how-to-express-gratitude-as-a-man/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # LLM Council, With a Dash of Assess-Decide-Do URL: https://dragosroua.com/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/ Published: 2026-01-03 Modified: 2026-01-02 Views: 62 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Assess Decide Do Tags: ai tools, assess, decide, do, framework Last weekend I stumbled upon Andrej Karpathy's LLM Council project. A Saturday hack, he called it—born from wanting to read books alongside multiple AI models simultaneously. The idea is simple: instead of asking one LLM your question, you ask four. LLMs at the same time Then you make them evaluate each other's work. Then a "chairman" synthesizes everything into a conclusion. What caught my attention wasn't just the technical elegance. It was the underlying structure. Those stages looked suspiciously familiar. ## How LLM Council Works The system operates in three sequential phases: **Stage 1: First Opinions.** Your query goes to all council members in parallel—GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, whoever you've configured. Each model responds independently. You can inspect all responses in tabs, side by side. **Stage 2: Peer Review.** Here's where it gets interesting. Each model receives all the other responses, but anonymized. "Response A, Response B, Response C." No model names attached. Each evaluator must rank all responses by quality, without knowing whose work they're judging. **Stage 3: Synthesis.** A designated chairman—one of the models, or a different one—receives everything: the original responses, the rankings, the evaluations. It synthesizes a final answer that represents the council's collective wisdom. The anonymization in Stage 2 is pretty clever, because models can't play favorites. They can't defer to perceived authority. They evaluate purely on "merit". ## The Interwoven Assess-Decide-Do Pattern If you've been following my work on the Assess-Decide-Do framework, the parallel should be obvious. The LLM Council isn't just a technical architecture—it's a cognitive process embedded in code. Stage 1 is pure assessment. Gather information. Multiple perspectives. No judgment yet, just collection. Stage 2 is decision-making. Weigh the options. Rank them. Make choices about what's valuable and what isn't. The anonymization forces honest evaluation—no shortcuts, no biases based on reputation. Stage 3 is execution. Take the assessed information and the decisions made, produce the output. Do the work that matters based on what you now know. I don't think Karpathy was thinking about ADD when he built this-not sure he even knows about the framework. He was solving a practical problem for himself: "I want to compare LLM outputs while reading books." But the structure emerged anyway. ## ADD Inside the Council Recognizing the pattern was interesting. But it raised a question: what if we made it explicit? The original LLM Council treats all queries the same way. Ask about quantum physics, ask about your dinner plans—same three-stage process. But human queries aren't uniform. Sometimes we're exploring ("what options do I have?"), sometimes we're deciding ("which should I choose?"), sometimes we're executing ("how do I implement this?"). The ADD framework maps these cognitive modes: - **Assess** (exploration mode): "I'm thinking about," "considering," "what are the options" - **Decide** (choice mode): "should I," "which one," "comparing between" - **Do** (execution mode): "how do I," "implementing," "next steps for" What if the council could recognize which mode you're in and respond accordingly? I submitted a pull request (https://github.com/karpathy/llm-council/pull/89) that integrates the ADD framework directly into LLM Council. The implementation adds a configuration option with four modes: - `"none"` — baseline, no framework (original behavior) - `"all"` — all models use ADD cognitive scaffolding - `"chairman_only"` — only the synthesizing chairman applies the framework - `"council_only"` — council members use it, chairman doesn't The most effective configuration turned out to be `chairman_only` with the full megaprompt—66% improvement over the condensed version in my testing. The chairman receives the ADD framework and uses it to recognize what cognitive realm the user is operating in, then synthesizes accordingly. ## Why Assess-Decide-Do Improves the Council Language models are pattern-matching engines. They're excellent at generating plausible text. But plausibility isn't wisdom. A single model can confidently produce nonsense, and you'd never know unless you have something to compare against. The council approach introduces deliberation. Multiple viewpoints, structured disagreement and forced synthesis. That's already an improvement over single-model queries. But the council still treats every query as a generic question needing a generic answer. ADD adds another layer: cognitive alignment. When the chairman knows you're in assessment mode, it doesn't push you toward decisions. When you're ready to execute, it doesn't keep exploring options. The framework matches the response to your actual mental state. This matters because the best answer to "what are my options for X" is different from the best answer to "how do I implement X." Without the framework, both get the same treatment. With it, the council adapts. ## Looking at the Code The core council logic lives in `backend/council.py`—about 300 lines of Python that orchestrate the three stages. The ADD integration adds a parallel module (`council_add.py`) that wraps the same stages with cognitive scaffolding. The key function is `stage3_synthesize_final()`. In the original, the chairman prompt says: ``` Your task as Chairman is to synthesize all of this information into a single, comprehensive, accurate answer to the user's original question. ``` With ADD, the chairman first identifies which realm the user is in, then synthesizes with that context. The synthesis becomes realm-appropriate rather than generic. The detection uses linguistic markers. Phrases like "I'm thinking about" or "considering" trigger assessment mode. "Should I" or "which one" trigger decision mode. "How do I" or "implementing" trigger execution mode. Simple pattern matching, but effective—it catches how people actually phrase questions differently depending on what they need. ## Playing With It Karpathy released LLM Council with a warning: "I'm not going to support it in any way. Code is ephemeral now and libraries are over, ask your LLM to change it in whatever way you like." That's refreshingly honest. It's also an invitation. If you want to experiment: 1. Clone the repo 2. Get an OpenRouter API key 3. Configure which models sit on your council 4. Set `ADD_FRAMEWORK_MODE` to test different configurations 5. Run the start script Then try asking questions in different cognitive modes. Ask something exploratory: "What are the approaches to learning a new language?" Then something decisive: "Should I use Duolingo or a private tutor?" Then something executable: "How do I structure my first week of Spanish practice?" Watch how the council responds differently when it knows which mode you're in versus when it treats all queries identically. ## What This Means There are two ways to make AI think more structurally: you can prompt a single model to follow a framework, or you can embed the framework into multi-model architecture. Both work. They work better together. A prompted framework (like ADD in a mega-prompt) makes one model more reflective. A council architecture makes multiple models more rigorous through external pressure—anonymized peer review that none can game. Combining them gives you structured multi-perspective reasoning that adapts to how you're actually thinking. LLMs are still pattern-matchers generating plausible outputs. But structured pattern-matching, like structured productivity, produces better results than unstructured generation. Assess what you're dealing with. Decide what matters. Do what needs doing. Whether that's your Tuesday task list or an AI deliberation system, the rhythm is the same. *LLM Council is available on GitHub (https://github.com/karpathy/llm-council). The ADD integration PR is #89 (https://github.com/karpathy/llm-council/pull/89). The ADD Framework posts are collected on this blog in the Assess-Decide-Do Framework page (/assess-decide-do-framework/). For the mega-prompt that applies ADD to Claude, see Supercharging Claude with the Assess-Decide-Do Framework (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/).* First published on: January 3, 2026 ### ⚡ Assess-Decide-Do Framework Multi-Agent Council Part 11 of 11 View all 11 posts → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) ← Previous Always-On Agent Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) 2. Evolution: Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) 3. Stage 1: Assess: Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) 4. Stage 2: Decide: Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) 5. Stage 3: Do: Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) 6. Design & Meaning: Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) 7. AI Evolution: Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) 8. Skills Architecture: Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) 9. Ecosystem Expansion: From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) 10. Always-On Agent: Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) 11. Multi-Agent Council: LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Death Of The Deadline As We Know It URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-death-of-the-deadline-as-we-know-it.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-death-of-the-deadline-as-we-know-it/ Published: 2010-09-13 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 62 Categories: Personal Development, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: assess, decide, do, perspective I was a big fan of deadlines. Chasing them. Crossing them off of my todo list. Striving to meet them. Spending countless hours just to prepare myself for this date with my deadline. Oh, the feeling of pride when I was there in time to make it. The inner power and fulfillment… Yes, that was a very interesting experience. I'm not into deadlines anymore but I do remember the feeling of satisfaction I got from crossing my deadlines off. I still enjoy doing things, I'm just not into deadlines anymore. As simple as it seems, this is a fundamental difference. ## The Word "Deadline" Have you ever really thought what is the meaning of the word "deadline"? It has the word "death" in it. Never wondered why? Because a deadline is a line of death. Once you meet that line, you kill the task. You take its life away. You conquered it. You extended your presence onto its territory, occupied it and now you have the right to eliminate it from your system. That's a highly motivating psychology. Also, it's a very disempowering one. Thinking in terms of "death" lines will make you assimilate the end of a task with its death. Doing things will mean kill one task after another. Slashing tasks over a to do list has this feeling of power: I killed 32 enemies today, I feel good. Tasks are not your enemy. Nobody is, in fact. You just pretend that they are, so you can use the "warrior" resources you already have deep down in your ancestral behavior. The pressure of doing more and more exalted our warrior style way over the safety level. We position ourselves as conquerors of our own task land. What lies in front of our work day is a field filled with enemies that have to be eliminated. Every day is a battle. Many productivity techniques are using this subliminal approach. What you have to do is a burden. You have to take it away, to overcome it, to eliminate it. The more you eliminate, the better you'll feel. Train yourself to become better at killing tasks. At a certain level, this psychology is, as I already said, very motivating. Fighting for our survival is deeply wired in our unconscious memory. This is why we find it easy to understand this approach. Fear of our own death will push us to kill the "other". And the "other" in this case, is clearly written on our daily to do list. If we don't kill "them", they will kill us, so we'd better jump off of our beds, rush into the subway and take position in our daily trenches, suitably camouflaged as desks. But the downside of this approach, its disempowering part is that, by transforming your tasks into your personal enemies, you'll eventually become so good at deadlines that life itself will look as a deadline. You'll rush towards the biggest deadlines of all: your own death. Deadline by deadline, task killed by task killed, you're going to eventually cross the final episode off of your to do list with great satisfaction. The ultimate project management victory: I crossed off my own death today. ## For A Liveline Philosophy Forget deadlines. Instead let's have livelines. A liveline is different from a deadline in that it creates a new starting point. The point where you start something on the foundation you just finished, something alive. You restart the movement. In Assess – Decide – Do, your tasks will always generate a new cycle. You're not spending time only in Do. You're also spending time in Assess or in Decide. Each time you finish a task in Do, you will have to feed your Assess realm with the results. You will evaluate feed-back. In this respect, a project is never "finished" in ADD. The graphical representation of a project in Assess – Decide – Do will look more like a spiral than like a Gantt diagram. I agree it's a little difficult to understand this concept, especially if you're coming from a long traditional task management experience. A liveline will never ask you to cross a task over. You always have the possibility to re-start the liveline by sending it back to Decide, and, from there, back to Assess. A liveline will be met only if all its initial stages (Assess and Decide, namely) are completed and fulfilled. And every liveline will generate in turn several ideas, lessons or potential tasks. A liveline means we're taking the "death" out of the deadline. We're taking the pressure out, we're taking the urge of finishing it so we can get back to our regular life. Because there will be no dichotomy between what you "have" to do and your regular life. It will all take place in the same time/space continuum. I hear you loud and clear: what about commitments? What about promises? What about our corporate life where we have to finish tasks before competition, otherwise we're out of business? Well, if you set a certain end date to a task, keep it. It means you **Assessed** it right and you also took the right **Decision** about it. If you spent enough time in those two realms, nothing can go wrong. Every **Do** imbalance is in fact a liability you carry on from the previous realms. If you can't finish a task in the specified time and space constraints, it means something went wrong on the **Assess** and **Decide** realms. Completing a task is not a function of the **Do**, is also a function of **Assess** and **Decide**. Until you won't realize that, it will be really difficult to understand the benefits of the **Assess** – **Decide** – **Do** framework. How about "unexpected" events? Let's say you did your best in Assess to anticipate every possible outcome and you properly allocated time and space resources in Decide.And still, some catastrophe happened. A power outage 2 hours before the client presentation or a traffic jam which delayed your presence at that important meeting. Well, things are happening. It doesn't mean you're off track. Back to Assess. In a traditional approach, you would consider the undone task a liability. In the best case, you would have tried to reschedule or postpone. Meaning you would still keep yourself in the Do realm. Stuck on the deadline. And for as long as you're stuck in the same mindset, the problem will never disappear. Take a leap of faith. Go out. Make a lateral step. Transform that deadline into a liveline. A liveline will give you flexibility not only at the action level, but also at the perception level. Start assessing what went "wrong" and see what could you've done better. There are many reasons for what you can't really Do a thing. Keeping yourself only in Do will hide those details, will lock you in the Do box. You can't see the real picture if you're not taking time to assess. Perhaps the presentation wasn't ready. Perhaps the client wasn't ready to receive your message. Perhaps the meeting wasn't very good for your career. There are so many things you should ponder about what's happening around you and still, because you're pressuring on Do, you skip them. Or you avoid them consciously because they won't "help" you in any way. ## Inject Some Life Into That Deadline And make it a liveline. By now, you should have understand that there is a little bit of a word game here: dead versus alive. I deliberately pushed the comparison a little bit. Of course you will commit to doing things in Assess – Decide – Do too. Of course you will do the best to meet your own expectations, at least. What's different, though, from the traditional productivity approach, is an unprecedented degree of flexibility. In a traditional approach, if something went wrong, you would at best re-schedule and try to refill the Do realm with that task. Or lose it all together. In Assess- Decide – Do, you will reintroduce the task into your Assess realm. Of course you can just Re-Decide it, and in many day by day circumstances, that would be the expected reaction, but you also have another realm to work with, Assess. I will avoid using a term like "planning" when it comes to Assess. You do much more than planning. You evaluate, you imagine, you wait, you dream about it, you play with the task as in a dream world. The degree of flexibility offered by the mere idea that you can be productive while Assessing is incredible. And finally, one of the most important benefits of this bouncing back and forth is the organic rearrangement of your activity. Projects, tasks and events will start to fall into their places. The initial feeling will be one of melting, of losing control. But after this rather scary period, another feeling will come into place: the feeling of flow. There is an inner capacity of natural order, of simple flow from one project to another. The deadline carries with it a threat. If you won't do it, something or somebody must die. In 99,99% of the cases, the task will die, and you will actually kill it. But a liveline will not have any threat associated. It's like "doing nothing" and yet "doing it". A good deal of resistance to implementing Assess – Decide – Do will come, ironically, from the fact that you associate "doing" things with pressure. And when you're not feeling pressure you're going to feel like you're doing nothing. If there's no deadline it means there's nothing to do, right? Wrong. you can do things in the absence of a deadline, just by knowing that the results of your work will not get lost in a to do planner, but they'll be part of a bigger, flexible system that you can work with. I know, you associated doing with pressure. But no, with a liveline there is no pressure. And you can still do things. Now, I hear you for the final question: are one going to do more using Assess – Decide – Do than using any other productivity framework? My answer to this question will always be: "more" is not automatically "better". The consumerist obsession put a lot of weight on "more". If you live in the deprivation of only one realm, spending your entire life in the Do realm, "more" becomes important. "More" is a way of measuring what you're Doing. But once you get out of the prison of Doing, spending time in Assess and Decide, "more" will lose its meaning as a measurement tool. It will be only a choice, an assessment. I can Do more today, or I can spend more time Deciding or Assessing. *** *Ok, this was a teaser. What you just read is just a chapter from my upcoming ebook: "Assess – Decide – Do: Natural Productivity (http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Productivity-Assess-Decide-getting/dp/146096828X/)". The ebook will be launched this Friday, on September 17th, but you will be able to pre-order it at a significant discount starting this Wednesday. Many concepts you read in this article and seemed a little foggy will come to life by reading the entire ebook. It's a 150 pages text, grouped in 3 main parts. The last one is a very thorough guide of iAdd for iPhone (/iadd-iphone), the app which puts the power of this framework literally in your hand. * If you're a blogger, your audience is revolving around productivity or lifestyle design and you feel like reviewing the ebook, you can have a chance to get a copy of it for free, as long as you commit to review it on your blog. It doesn't have to be a positive review, just an honest one. I've done this before with other ebooks I wrote and I was positively surprised by the results. After the ebook launch, next week, I will also do a round up of the reviews and post links to the blogs who published them. So, you're not only getting the ebook for free, you also get a link back to your blog from quite a popular site. So, if you're into it, just hit me up with an email in which you're telling me your blog address, a few words about yourself and why would you like to review it. You should also tell me if you want to become an affiliate (you may include affiliate links in your review, if you want). Other than that, I'm really looking forward to this Friday, September 17th, this is one of the most interesting livelines I've set up lately ;-). First published on: September 13, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-death-of-the-deadline-as-we-know-it%2F&text=The%20Death%20Of%20The%20Deadline%20As%20We%20Know%20It&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-death-of-the-deadline-as-we-know-it%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-death-of-the-deadline-as-we-know-it%2F&t=The%20Death%20Of%20The%20Deadline%20As%20We%20Know%20It https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-death-of-the-deadline-as-we-know-it%2F&title=The%20Death%20Of%20The%20Deadline%20As%20We%20Know%20It Previous ### Ebook – How To Build Reputation With Your Blog (/free-ebook-how-to-build-reputation-with-your-blog/) Next ### Paid To Exist: Interview With Jonathan Mead – The Illuminated Mind (/paid-to-exist-interview-with-jonathan-mead-the-illuminated-mind/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Diamond Cutter, 12 Years Later — Buddhism as a Daily Practice URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-diamond-cutter-12-years-later-buddhism-as-a-daily-practice.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-diamond-cutter-12-years-later-buddhism-as-a-daily-practice/ Published: 2026-05-24 Views: 62 Categories: Book Reviews, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: books, buddhism, lessons learned, personal story, self awareness In 2014 I reviewed The Diamond Cutter (/the-diamond-cutter-tibetan-buddhism-business/) by Geshe Michael Roach — a book that maps Tibetan Buddhist principles onto business management. The author ran a diamond company in New York using karma as a management philosophy. I found the ideas genuinely interesting, especially since I had the opportunity to meet the author in real life. At the time I was deep in a stressful business period and the Buddhist framing of how results come back to you felt both relevant and hopeful. Twelve years is enough time to form relevant opinions. More businesses emerged since then. More failures, but also significant successes, and a different relationship with urgency. Here's a candid review of how things unfolded. ## The Book's Main Claims The Diamond Cutter works on three levels: Roach's actual experience running a business, the Buddhist philosophy behind his decisions, and the practical techniques he derived from both. The central claim is that your mental posture toward your actions changes their results — that karma isn't mystical in the superstitious sense but practical in the very specific sense that how you hold an intention shapes what you actually do, and what you actually do compounds over time into outcomes. He frames these actions as "seeds" which are supported by our own attention: the ones that we actually focus on are growing into majestic trees. The secondary claim is that reality has no inherent meaning. Nothing is inherently good or bad — it's the label you attach to events that determines how they land and what you do with them. Both of these ideas are valid and tested in my own practice. ## What Kept Growing: The Generosity Loop The book's karma-as-business-principle argument comes down to this: if you want loyal customers, be a loyal customer to others. If you want suppliers who treat you fairly, be a supplier who treats people fairly. The circularity of it seemed almost too simple in 2014. Twelve years later it's the idea I return to most often — not because it's esoteric or mystical, but because its compounding is real. Reputation is real. How you treat people in a business context has a longer memory than you expect. The person you underpay or dismiss or fail to thank tends to return in your story in some form, and rarely in a helpful one. The 2026 version of this: I've been building iOS apps (/apps/) over the past four months with significant AI assistance. The decisions I make about pricing, about what's free vs paid, about how clearly I communicate what the app does — all of that follows the mental guidance in the book. This is not karma in the cosmic, doom and gloom sense. It's karma in the very practical sense that you're always signaling something about how you want to operate, and people read those signals over time and something circles back. ## What I Got Wrong: Reality Has No Meaning The Buddhist emptiness concept — that nothing has inherent meaning, that all meaning is constructed — is both useful and misleading, if you don't take the time to understand what "emptiness" really means. And it's a very difficult and subtle process to get to the real meaning, that's why you need practice. It's like debugging spaghetti code (/meditation-is-like-debugging-spaghetti-code/): you hear "no meaning" and instead of digging deeper and understand the codebase, you just push forward: ok, this is how it works, it has no meaning, period. It's not like that. No meaning doesn't mean no responsibility. The emptiness is real, but that just makes everything possible. If you start fooling around, because "there's no meaning", the emptiness follows up and fills with meaningless stuff. If you keep your affairs straight, and strive to follow a path, then emptiness follows again, and your life will take a completely different form. You're at the helm, reality follows. This is something worth spending time on, if you ever get interested in Buddhism. I think it's the single most misunderstood concept, but also the most valuable one. ## What's Worth Keeping If I had to compress twelve years of testing the book's ideas into a single sentence, it would be this: the mental approach matters, but it matters because it shapes your actions — not because it shapes the universe's response to you. You can't karma your way to a good outcome without doing the work. Keeping a good, positive mental attitude without any action – or, worse, with contrasting actions – will be useless. Thought + action is the magic combo. First published on: May 24, 2026 ### 📅 Then & Now — 30 Day Blog Challenge View the challenge map → (/then-and-now-a-30-day-blog-challenge/) 1. Day 1: Answering My Own 33 Self-Interview Questions — 17 Years Later (/answering-my-own-33-self-interview-questions-17-years-later/) 2. Day 2: What Tango Actually Taught Me About Relationships (A Decade Later) (/what-tango-actually-taught-me-about-relationships-a-decade-later/) 3. Day 3: Everything I Built That Fell Down (And What I Learned About Building Anyway) (/everything-i-built-that-fell-down-and-what-i-learned-about-building-anyway/) 4. Day 4: 25 Things To Do In Your Life – Then And Now (/25-things-to-do-in-your-life-then-and-now/) 5. Day 5: The Action/Reaction Trap: Why I Had It Half Right in 2009 (/the-action-versus-reaction-trap-why-i-had-it-half-right-in-2009/) 6. Day 6: Boredom Is a Feature, Not a Bug — And We've Almost Deleted It (/boredom-is-a-feature-not-a-bug/) 7. Day 7: Raw Food in 2026: What I'd Tell My 2009 Self About Eating Better (/raw-food-in-2026-what-id-tell-my-2009-self-about-eating-better/) 8. Day 8: 3 Lifestyle Design Blueprints I've Lived (Plus a 4th One That Works Best These Days) (/3-lifestyle-design-blueprints-ive-lived-plus-a-4th-one-that-works-best-these-days/) 9. Day 9: 100 Ways to Live a Better Life — 17 Years After: What Actually Worked (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-17-years-after-what-actually-worked/) 10. Day 10: 17 Years of Social Networks Later: What Actually Replaced What (/17-years-of-social-networks-later-what-actually-replaced-what/) 11. Day 11: Technology, Ideology, and What Actually Happened Since 2018 (/technology-ideology-and-what-actually-happened-since-2018/) 12. Day 12: Steadily Fluid After 10 Years: How Does It Feel to Live With the Paradox? (/steadily-fluid-after-10-years-how-does-it-feel-to-live-with-the-paradox/) 13. Day 13: The First 6 Months of Blogging After 17 Years of Blogging (/the-first-6-months-of-blogging-after-17-years-of-blogging/) 14. Day 14: 15 Years of Motivation: From Tiny, Genuine Sparks to Burning Out (/15-years-of-motivation-from-tiny-genuine-sparks-to-burning-out/) 15. Day 15: The Right Tool for the Job in 2026: What AI Changes About the Wrench Problem (/the-right-tool-for-the-job-in-2026-what-ai-changes-about-the-wrench-problem/) 16. Day 16: 7 Kung Fu Panda Lessons, 16 Years Later — What Po Actually Got Right (/7-kung-fu-panda-lessons-16-years-later-po-actually-became-a-master/) 17. Day 17: 77 Things I Still Want to Do, 13 Years Later — and What I've Crossed Off (/77-things-i-still-want-to-do-13-years-later-and-what-ive-crossed-off/) 18. Day 18: How I Actually End My Day in 2026 - Compared with 2011 (/how-i-actually-end-my-day-in-2026-compared-to-2011/) 19. Day 19: 7 Things To Do When the Shit Hits the Fan — 15 Years Later (/7-things-to-do-when-the-shit-hits-the-fan-2/) 20. Day 20: Living as a Digital Nomad: Revisiting a 16-Year-Old Primer (/living-as-a-digital-nomad-revisiting-a-16-year-old-primer/) 21. Day 21: 7 Reasons to Enjoy Life More — 16 Years Later (/7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more-16-years-later/) 22. Day 22: 77 Reasons to Love Your Life — Why I'd Write This Differently After 17 Years (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life-why-id-write-this-differently-after-17-years/) 23. Day 23: The Diamond Cutter, 12 Years Later — Buddhism as a Daily Practice (/the-diamond-cutter-12-years-later-buddhism-as-a-daily-practice/) 24. Day 24: Life Has No Meaning - In 2026 I Still Think This Is Good News (/life-has-no-meaning-in-2026-i-still-think-this-is-good-news/) 25. Day 25: The Ancestor Syndrome - Revisiting Inherited Money Beliefs 10 Years After (/the-ancestor-syndrome-revisiting-inherited-money-beliefs-10-years-after/) 26. Day 26: Why I'm Still Learning to Say No (17 Years After Writing About It) (/still-learning-to-say-no-17-years-after-first-writing-about-it/) 27. Day 27: Frustration as a Growth Signal - Revisiting After 15 Years (/frustration-as-a-growth-signal-revisiting-after-15-years/) 28. Day 28: The 2026 Definition of Success - 10 Years after I First Tried My First One (/the-2026-definition-of-success-10-years-after-i-first-tried-my-first-one/) 29. Day 29: Are You The Best Version of Yourself? - Checking In After 16 Years (/are-you-the-best-version-of-yourself-checking-in-after-16-years/) 30. Day 30: The Price of Illusions - 16 Years Later (/the-price-of-illusions-16-years-later/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Ultrabalaton Ultra-marathon – The Aftermath Of A 222 Kilometers Race URL: https://dragosroua.com/ultrabalaton-the-aftermath-of-a-222-kilometers-race.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/ultrabalaton-the-aftermath-of-a-222-kilometers-race/ Published: 2015-06-11 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 62 Categories: Personal Development, Running Tags: lessons learned, race reports, ultra-marathon *November 2025 update: all posts in this series now have enhanced semantic navigation. You can browse all related posts in this specific topic and even have a hub page (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/), from where you can see all of them.* It’s been exactly 11 days since the race. If you don’t read my blog on a daily basis, then I should tell you I’m talking abut the longest ultra-marathon I ever ran: 222 kilometers. In 31 and a half hours. The blisters almost healed. Some of my toenails are still crying, but, overall, they’re much better than a week ago. Sleep patterns are normal again (I don’t fall asleep in the middle of the day, nor do I wake up in the middle of the night, all pumped up and energized). The dust slowly settles over those days, over the images – still vivid in my mind -, over the medal and over the memories. Time for a roundup. Now, that the wind has calmed, let’s see what I take with me from this race. ## The Surreal Experience I think the most powerful memory about this race is literally the race. Each and every minute of it. Some of my readers told me the race reports (you can start to read them from here, with the first marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-first-marathon/)) were a bit dramatic and focused too much on the painful part. Well, I can’t hide the fact that, for a big part of this race, I had to fight with pain. But, beyond pain, the entire experience was surreally beautiful. I can’t describe each and every step of it, because it will take hundreds of hours, but, believe me, each and every step of it was absolutely beautiful. For the first 130km I managed to keep a very good level of presence. Literally, for the first 130km, I focused only on the next kilometer. And then on the next one. And the next one. If you fancy Eckhart Tolle, this is about “being in the present”, being there. That’s exactly what I was able to do for many hours and I’m really grateful for that. I expected to engage in deep meditation during this ultra-marathon, and, for many hours, I succeeded at it. After km 130, I was still present, only at a different level – namely, I had a lot of pain to manage (bot more on that in a few paragraphs). ## How Many Marathons Are In An Ultra-marathon? Just for the record, here are the times for the 5 marathon splits. - first marathon = 4h 45m - second marathon = 6h 25m (total race time: 11h 10m) - third marathon = 6h 10m (total race time: 17h 20m) - fourth marathon = 6h 5m (total race time; 23h 25m) - fifth marathon = 6h 19m (total computed time 29h 44m) - last 11 kilometers = 1h 43m (total race time: 31h 28m) My GPS watch stopped here: 196.68 kilometers, after 27 hours and 30 minutes. I can clearly see how the heat impacted my speed. As the heat went down, my time per marathon slowly increased. But at the end of the fourth marathon I was already injured, and that showed up in the time on the last part of the race. ## Pain Management Many friends asked me how I managed so much pain during this race. First of all, I want to tell you that I’m not proud of this. A lot of this pain could have been avoided. I did a huge mistake (wearing the wrong type of shoes) and I paid the price. So I don’t take any extra credit for finishing the race with blood in my shoes. On the contrary. I could have finished this race with at least one and a half hour earlier (and no injury), if it wasn’t for that stupid mistake and if I would took the time to get some proper long distance running shoes. A large part of the injuring came from improper equipment, so after the dust settled, I did some research. Here are is a link about running gear (http://www.gearweare.com/review/best-running-shorts/). But, back to the pain management, I can tell you upfront that it wasn’t only one way to cope with. There were many, and not all of them worked at the same time. In the beginning of the race, when my mood was lighter and I had a broader attention scope, I managed the pain my remembering a thing I read on a runner’s blog. Before the race I did a lot of research on ultra-running, and one of the blogs I read quite often was Jonathan Savage’s felrrnr.com (http://fellrnr.com). It’s actually a wiki, in which he shares his (wide) experience as an ultra-runner. On one of these pages he made a list with stuff you encounter when you run an ultra-marathon, from falling asleep to entering into hypothermia. At each of these problems, he listed a remedy. For instance, on the hypothermia, he said: “be sure to have extra layers in your drop-off bag”. But, and here comes the funny part, there were a lot of these problems with this only “solution”: “you’re running an ultra-marathon, what would you expect?”. So, in the beginning, when I was feeling pain, I was telling to myself: “Well, mate, you’re running an ultra-marathon, what would yo expect? A walk in the park?” Another way to manage pain was to detach from it. Not by trying to suppress it, but by observing it and accepting it. When the pain threshold became too big I started to just observe it. I did my best to stop any conscious response to pain (like complaining, for instance) and I just stayed there, continuing to run, walk or crawl (depending on my current position in the race). I’ve once read something in a Buddhist book (or hear it a conference, maybe): “If you look at a storm cloud, from a distance, it looks all dark and heavy and powerful. But if you go close to it, you don’t see the cloud anymore, you see just tiny drops of water. Our thoughts and sensations are the same. If you can observe them long enough, you’ll see they have no substance of their own.”. And, for a while, that worked too. For a while, pain perception dissolved by being observed. As I was approaching the end of the race, I realized that I can control the pain by controlling my exposure to painful stimuli. If I was exposing myself constantly to pain, my perception was less painful. My body adjusted. But if I stopped at a refreshment point, where, for a while, I was relieved, when I started to walk again, the pain was even more intense. So, I decided to skip a few refreshment points and keep a constant pace. That worked too, for a while. ## What Pushed Me Forward Another question that I get a lot is: “What pushed you forward for hours and hours? What made you move?” Here, the answer too is “more than one thing”. Probably the most effective “pusher” is the joy of running itself. It’s the meditation state I achieve at a certain point, from where I am present and I am stillness in movement. I know it sounds strange, but that’s my experience with it. Especially during the first stages of the ultra-marathon (basically the first 12 – 15 hours), when my body was still balanced, I experienced this “stillness in movement” quite a lot. Then, I started to create some mental images. One of them was about all the people who encouraged me for this race. I announced that I’ll run at Ultrabalaton with 7 months before the race. I did fundraising for a charity. I talked to each and every person willing to listen to me that I will run this race. The main reason, at that time, was accountability. And it worked, the fact that I told to so many people I will run a huge race made me push forward. But what worked even better was this image: I organized all the encouragements, all the good thoughts, all the hugs I got for this race in a huge, fluffy ball. I pictured it just behind me, 2 or 3 times bigger than me, and the energy of the encouragements made that ball to roll, slowly pushing me forward. It was like something was literally pushing me ahead. At times, when I was creating this projection, I literally felt like I didn’t even run. I was gently pushed forward by a huge, soft, rolling ball. And probably the most effective “pusher” at all was a small discussion I witnessed, just the day I left Bucharest for the race. That morning, I went to Bianca’s school to bring her something she forgot. I found her with her colleagues and when she saw me, she turned to her colleagues and told them: “Hey, this is my dad and he’s going to run a 220 kilometers ultra-marathon”. The expression on the face of those kids was priceless. But the expression on Bianca’s face when she was telling them that was even more beautiful. I simply couldn’t destroy that look on her face. I just couldn’t. First published on: June 11, 2015 ### 🏃‍♂️ UltraBalaton 220km Series Recovery Part 8 of 8 View all 8 posts → (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/) ← Previous Marathon 5 The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Fifth Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-fifth-marathon/) #### Complete Series: 1. Goal Setting: Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals - Ultrabalaton (/big-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton/) 2. Preparation: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Preparation (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-preparation/) 3. Marathon 1: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The First Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-first-marathon/) 4. Marathon 2: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Second Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-second-marathon/) 5. Marathon 3: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Third Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-third-marathon/) 6. Marathon 4: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Fourth Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-fourth-marathon/) 7. Marathon 5: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Fifth Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-fifth-marathon/) 8. Recovery: Ultrabalaton - The Aftermath Of A 222 Kilometers Race (/ultrabalaton-the-aftermath-of-a-222-kilometers-race/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 10 Ways To Define Success URL: https://dragosroua.com/10-ways-to-define-success.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/10-ways-to-define-success/ Published: 2016-02-23 Modified: 2026-05-29 Views: 61 Categories: Personal Development Tags: financial freedom, goals, list post, meaning, values **2026 Update**: *I revisit this post here (/the-2026-definition-of-success-10-years-after-i-first-tried-my-first-one/), as part of a 30 days challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* Success is one of the most important concepts for humans. It shapes a lot of our activities, a lot of our perceptions and it drives us to do things we wouldn’t do, in “normal” contexts. We, humans, are striving to be successful. We spend time, energy, focus in order to achieve this state, or this position. As a matter of fact, is this a state? Or a position? How do you define success? As I was trying to find a comprehensive definition for success this Sunday afternoon, browsing through my notes, I realized it will be very difficult. There are so many angles form which you can look at success. So many paths to it. So many rewards marking the milestone. So, how one could define success in a consistent way? In order to do this, I came up with 9 definitions. I know the titles said “10 Ways To Define Success”, but bear with me. The tenth is your spot and it’s a very nice one, you’ll see. Let’s take them one at a time. The order is also very important. ## 1. Success Means Loads Of Money I’ve been there many times. I used to define success by the size of my bank account, or my possessions. To some extent, this definitions is still accurate. Money, or access to money, is important. Money (/making-money-with-a-purpose/) can give you independence. Or freedom to move from one place of this planet to another. But there are certain things that money can’t give you. For instance, health. Once your health has been seriously compromised, money can be of little help here. So, as I was advancing on my way to become successful, following obsessively money, I realized that they come at a cost. And the first thing I had to “spend” in order to make money, was the time spent with my friends. ## 2. Success Means Loads Of Friends When I realized that, I slowed down a little on the making money part, and moved towards relationships. In itself, this is a rather complicated process: relationships aren’t easy. I mean, those who can stand the challenge of time. True friendship requires hard work. You have to be there for the other. In a few years, this area of my life was also balanced. I managed somehow to cure some of the friendships that were intoxicated by my “obsessive entrepreneurial syndrome” and also managed to take on board a few other friendships. And that was the moment when I realized that, a part from friends, I also needed a family. ## 3. Success Means A Functional Family So here I am trying to understand this mechanism as well. I tried not only once, but twice. And I tried as hard as I could. A functional family, from the patriarchal definition that we’re fed form early childhood, is even more hard work than just maintaining a friendship. So, as I was tried a couple of times to create this type of “traditional” family, I realized the model in my head – the patriarchal one – was simply screwed up and I had to come up with a new model. A more flexible one. A model in which I can be in touch with my loved ones and support them, but still keep my freedom. It took way longer than maintaining friendships (and even now you can safely call this “work in progress”) but, at some point, I realized this is not the “core” of it. There must be more to this “success” thingie. ## 4. Success Means Travel Around The World When it dawned upon me that this world is bigger than my backyard, or my neighborhood, or my city, I decided to travel around the world. I did my first exit, selling the first company I created from scratch, and traveled around the world (/44-tips-for-traveling-long-distance/) for (more or less) two years. It was an exhilarating part of my life and I enjoyed it thoroughly. But, after a while, I got tired. Not physically tired, but tired of continuously moving, without a fixed spot to where should I return. So, I got back home. After a while, I realized that success, although encompasses all there was written so far, may also mean something else: something about having your own identity. ## 5. Success Means Being Acknowledged Or validated. Or, for other people, being famous. I never aimed for being famous (/being-famous-just-accident/) (although, accidentally, I’ve been in the hot spot a few times) especially because it’s so much hard work to keep your head straight when you’re swayed back and forth by the waves of celebrity. ![Just 5 Words app icon](/images/just-5-words-icon-48.webp) I built Just 5 Words (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/just-5-words/id6753934664)—pick five words, get a unique story and image. Powered by Apple Intelligence. But beyond this shallow layer of celebrity, being acknowledged, or accepted, or validated for what you accomplished is a great thing. And it certainly helped me understand why I need comments on my blog, or genuine interactions on social media, or recognition for my work. But once all this was working, again, the feeling that something was missing was there. Even bigger. ## 6. Success Means Being At Peace With Yourself That emptiness inside couldn’t be filled with money, or friends, or family, or traveling, or validation. Because it was coming from the inside, not from the outside. It was something in me that I had to deal with. I won’t go into details, exposing the skeletons in my closet, because I know everybody has their own. That’s how I got into spirituality. Not into the exotica, but into regular practice. I started to do yoga and to meditate. I still consider a big personal success that I still do this pretty much every single day. Being at peace with yourself means that everything described so far will fit nicely inside. No more gaps. no more empty spaces that need to filled. But, as comforting and as soothing as this was, there was still work to do. ## 7. Success Means Leaving A Legacy And I realized it wasn’t about me, specifically, but about what I stand for. About this things I create, the causes I support, the structures I build. It was about a legacy. I know it sounds very “big”, but try not to see it from that angle. A legacy can be what you leave into at least one person's memory. Or heart. It’s everything that defines you, everything that you created, everything that will be associated with your persona after you’ll no longer be here. And that made a very big shift in pretty much everything I started to do. From the projects I was undertaking to the people I was meeting. And when I got to people, a new definition of success popped into my mind. And, then, of course, into my life. ## 8. Success Means Being Useful To Other People I realized that one of the most rewarding way to see success is to be useful to other people. I had to go through some painful stages here (one of my skeletons at point 6 is that I don’t consider myself “good enough”, or that I should always keep a low profile). But at the end of this process something very interesting happened: I understood how I can be of help to other people, from the mere act of replacing toilet paper (/how-to-save-your-startup-one-toilet-paper-roll-at-a-time/) in my latest company’s bathrooms, to providing business coaching and consulting to powerful entrepreneurs and managers. It’s not the financial or psychological value of the act you did for somebody else, it’s the act itself. ## 9. Success Means Being Happy And that finally led me to the definition I consider to be the most accurate (at least at this point of my life). I now define success as just being happy. It’s probably the foggiest definition of all, because happiness is such a custom byproduct of our lives: everybody has his own description and perception of it. But it still holds true. Being happy may or may not have anything to do with money, with acknowledgement, with legacy, family or being useful to other people. Or it may have everything to do with all of them, at once. Fact is, now I truly think that success just means being happy. ## 10. What’s Your Experience With The Definition Of Success? You saw mine. It was a long journey, but it was just my journey. I’m curious about your way to define success. Thank you! First published on: February 23, 2016 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F10-ways-to-define-success%2F&text=10%20Ways%20To%20Define%20Success&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F10-ways-to-define-success%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F10-ways-to-define-success%2F&t=10%20Ways%20To%20Define%20Success https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F10-ways-to-define-success%2F&title=10%20Ways%20To%20Define%20Success Previous ### Conversations With A Mysterious Partner 3 – Uncomfortable Situations (/conversations-with-a-mysterious-partner-3-uncomfortable-situations/) Next ### How To Be On Time – The Only 5 Tips You Will Ever Need (/how-to-be-on-time-the-only-5-tips-you-will-ever-need/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Frugality Is Precision, Not Deprivation URL: https://dragosroua.com/frugality-is-precision-not-deprivation.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/frugality-is-precision-not-deprivation/ Published: 2026-01-07 Modified: 2026-01-14 Views: 61 Categories: Financial Resilience, Personal Development Tags: financial freedom, financial habits, frugality, money, money mindset Frugality has a bad reputation. It sounds like eating cold beans from a can while wrapped in a blanket because you can't afford heating. It brings to mind images of people obsessively counting pennies, reusing tea bags, and missing out on life because they're too scared to spend. But that's not frugality. That's a scarcity mindset disguised as virtue. Real frugality (/frugality-and-financial-resilience/) is precision, not deprivation. It's knowing exactly what you need versus what you think you need. And there's a massive gap between those two. ## Hunger vs. Appetite Here's a distinction that took me years to understand: hunger versus appetite. Hunger is a real signal from your body that it needs fuel. Appetite is that thing you feel when you walk past a bakery and smell fresh croissants, even though you just had breakfast. One is real need. The other is just addiction pretending to be need. Most of what we spend goes toward appetite. That gadget you bought because the ad hit you at the right moment? Appetite. The upgraded phone when your old one worked fine? Appetite. The "investment piece" clothing item now living in the back of your closet? Appetite with better marketing. The frugal person isn't cheap—they're accurate. They've trained themselves to recognize the difference between what genuinely improves their life and what just feels like improvement for fifteen minutes before the dopamine goes away. I've spent money on things I forgot existed a week later. Subscriptions I never used. Courses I never finished. Tools that promised to change everything and changed nothing. I've also spent on things that keep serving me years later. A good chair that saved my back. Skills that opened new income streams. Experiences with people I care about that still make me smile. The first type of spending is consumption (/debt-is-death/). The second is investment. Frugality is knowing the difference before you swipe the card. ### The Gap That Keeps You Safe Financial resilience isn't about having a lot of money. It's about maintaining a sustainable gap (/how-to-become-financially-resilient-in-3-easy-steps/) between what comes in and what goes out. You can earn six figures and have zero resilience if you spend everything. You can earn far less and be rock solid if you've mastered this gap. Frugality is how you create and maintain that gap without feeling like you're constantly sacrificing. The trick is that real frugality doesn't feel like sacrifice at all. When you genuinely understand what you need, saying no to the rest isn't painful—it's obvious. You're not denying yourself. You're just not interested in the noise. Think of it like this: a person who doesn't drink alcohol isn't "sacrificing" by refusing a beer. They just don't want it. There's no internal struggle. The same applies to spending once you've recalibrated what matters to you. Getting there takes some work, I agree. Our entire environment is designed to blur the line between hunger and appetite. Advertising exists specifically to manufacture appetite (/dont-shop-on-an-empty-stomach/) where none existed before. Social media shows you what everyone else has, making you feel like you're missing out. The economy literally depends on you confusing desire with need. ### Building The Skill Frugality is a skill, not a personality trait. It's something you develop through practice and attention. Every purchase is a chance to ask: do I actually need this, or did something else convince me I do? Start small. Before you buy something, wait. Not forever—just a day or two. If the urge fades, it was appetite. If it persists and you can articulate exactly how this thing will serve you, it might be genuine. Track what you spend (/beautiful-budgeting-in-3-basic-bullet-points/) and, more importantly, what you actually use. You'll find patterns. Subscriptions you forgot about. Categories where money just leaks. Things you bought with good intentions that never materialized into actual use. This isn't about guilt. It's about awareness. Once you see where your money actually goes, you can redirect it toward things that matter. Because here's the thing: earning more doesn't solve the problem if the problem is accuracy. People who can't manage $3,000 a month won't magically manage $10,000 a month. The pattern follows you up. The only way out of the downward spiral is to fix the pattern. Frugality can fix these patterns. It's not glamorous. Nobody's posting about it on social media. But it's the quiet foundation underneath every financially resilient life I've ever seen. *If you want to dig deeper into building automatic financial habits that stick, check out my book Gravitational Habits for Financial Resilience (/books/). It's a practical guide to creating small, repeatable behaviors that pull you toward stability—without requiring willpower or constant attention.* First published on: January 7, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffrugality-is-precision-not-deprivation%2F&text=Frugality%20Is%20Precision%2C%20Not%20Deprivation&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffrugality-is-precision-not-deprivation%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffrugality-is-precision-not-deprivation%2F&t=Frugality%20Is%20Precision%2C%20Not%20Deprivation https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffrugality-is-precision-not-deprivation%2F&title=Frugality%20Is%20Precision%2C%20Not%20Deprivation Previous ### AI and the Golden Era of Instant Gratification (/ai-and-the-golden-era-of-instant-gratification/) Next ### addTaskManager Has Universal Search (/addtaskmanager-has-universal-search/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Story Of My First Ultra Marathon URL: https://dragosroua.com/story-first-ultra-marathon.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/story-first-ultra-marathon/ Published: 2014-11-13 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 61 Categories: Running Tags: endurance, marathon, personal story, race reports, ultra-marathon Two days ago I finished my first ultra marathon. The total distance was exactly 60km. It was the final leg of a bigger race, a duathlon between Bucharest and Sofia (cycling from Bucharest to Sofia and running back). The average pace was 6:45, 7 minutes / km, which is a normal (albeit a bit slow) pace for an ultra marathon. But taking into account that the entire running distance was around 500 km, and I was entering only the final leg, when people who did the entire duathlon were already tired and injured, this average speed is a very good one. 48 hours after the race I feel great. There was a significant part of pain involved, both physical and mental (more on that just a little bit later). But the satisfaction is enormous. This is by far the most important race I ever ran. I slowly start to realize both the dimension of the race and its implications. One of these implications is that I can safely call myself an ultra-marathoner now. I still have to turn my head around this for a while, to truly incorporate it, but, I’m telling you, it already feels damn great. In this article I will share a few bits about training, nutrition and some of the most important parts of the race, along with some unexpected consequences. ## Ultra Marathon Training I started to train specifically for this race after the last marathon, which was in October 5th. I wrote about it extensively here (/story-third-marathon/), but in case you didn’t read the article I will summarize it in one sentence: I screwed up that race. So, because during that marathon I did (almost) everything wrong, I was very keen to make this ultra – the first one – something to be proud of it. Because I had only one month – but I was coming after a good build up – I split the training in 3 parts: force, speed and endurance. I trained 3 times a week, in the morning. Usually, at 9 AM, my running is done, no matter how long is the run. So, for the force training I chose a park situated at around 3 kilometers from home. I started to ran from home, on the streets, and on the park I did one lap around the park lake, interweaved with short splits up and down the stairs and hills. The level difference was roughly 10-15 meters, and the total number of splits was 8-10. On average, I managed to get a decent 6, 6:20/km during this training. And then, after one lap, I ran another 3 km back home. It is important to note that I had a sparing partner, a friend who, coming from Ethiopia, has a lot of things to say when it comes to running. Although he is not a professional athlete, he has a very strong constitution and he was very important in the whole equation. For the speed training I did negative splits. But not more than 2 trainings, for the entire month. The best time I got for a 500m lap was 4:07/km and I managed to run two 1km laps at an average 4:30/km. I still have a lot to improve in this area, but, given the nature of the race I was preparing for, I didn’t push too much on the speed. For this type of training I had the chance to work with one of the best amateur endurance athletes in the world, Andrei Rosu, who recently finished a quintuple Iron Man in 126 hours. I’m very grateful for that. For the endurance runs, I chose a park situated at 4.5 km from home. I usually started at 6AM, and ran between 24 and 26 km. The average pace was between 5:20 and 5:45 / km. I find important to note that during this type of training too, I ran the entire distance, including the way back home. So, just to get in the park and back I had to run 9km. I did 4 long runs during this period. So, that was about training. ## Ultra Marathon Nutrition There were two levels of nutrition for this race. In fact, three: one before the race, one during the race, and one after the race (or the recovery phase). I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t give too much thought to the recovery stage. But for the first two, I prepared. During the first stage, I paid attention to fats and proteins. I ate a lot of nuts (cashew, almonds) and lentil or beans soups. With 2-3 days before the race I did a carbo loading with pasta and, for the first time since I started to run, with tapioca. Tapioca, being some sort of a starch, has a lot of carbohydrates but zero proteins. I was very responsive to this food, not to mention that I do like it a lot. I also ate a lot of fruits (apples and bananas). During the race I had the following “menu” with me: - isotonic hydration pills - energy bars (energy bars and rich protein bars) - bananas - biscuits (sweet) - energizing gels - cashew - chocolate soya milk (for recovery) /wp-content/uploads/2014/11/10401464_10154801061725344_7539506920630808023_n.jpg The organizers put together a very dedicated support crew made of volunteers and they followed us with cars (in which I stuffed my food bag too) for the entire race. I also had a very strict drinking and eating plan. I decided to hydrate even before the race, and to refuel every 5km, if not often. I also decided to eat early, and to keep the solid food for the first part of the race and the liquid “food” (many gels) for the second part. This was my eating schedule: - km 5, a banana - km 10 a banana and an energy bar - km 15 a protein bar - km 20 sweet biscuits - km 25 the first gel - km 30 another protein bar - km 35 a gel - km 40 soup and a bit of pasta with vegetables (courtesy of organizers) - km 45 the third gel - km 50 salted biscuits (again, from the organizers) From km 50 to km 60 I didn’t eat or drink anything, mainly because I didn’t feel the need. I’m very happy that I managed to stick to the plan this time. For the entire race I had a very good energy level and didn’t have even the slightest numbing sensation. To put things in perspective, at the last marathon I got face numbness from km 30 and finished with my tongue numbed too. ## The Race As I said, we (a group of 5 runners) joined the big team of the duathlon just before the last leg. Weather was cloudy and a bit cold (8 degrees Celsius) but that was actually great for running. It was around 7:45 AM when we started to run. Just a very short technical meeting (the rest of the runners were really tired) and then we just started to run on the side of the road. That was it. The first 10-20km don’t have any history at all in my mind. It was just easy. Running along, watching the fields, keeping the pace. Flow. Pure flow. We did have short (1-2 minutes) breaks every 5km, just enough to take a sip of energy drink, to suck in a gel or to chew a banana or an energy bar. At km 25 I started to have the first problems. It was about breathing. Somehow, I started to feel the pace was faster (although it wasn’t) and couldn’t find my rhythm. So, I started to ‘meditate’. I put my eyes on the first two-three runners (we were running in a compact platoon, and I was the 4th or the 5th) and tried to stop everything except that image. I still remember the image of the bodies going up and down as the steps were slowly lifting them up and the gentle noise of the steps, interrupted every once in a while by a car or a big truck. That image and nothing more. By using this “technique” I solved this problem in less than 1 km. But then a more important problem emerged around km 30. It was about pain. Muscle pain, to be more precise. I knew it has to come, it didn’t take me by surprise. So, I applied exactly the same antidote as I did for breathing: kept my focus on only one thing (again, the image of the runners). This time I wasn’t able to eliminate the pain. But I took it “out of the system”. I ran along with it. I made it part of my activity. You know they say: “pain is your friend”. Well it’s not a metaphor. It’s something very true. If you want to go over your limits, you really have to make friends with pain. But not in the way you may think. /wp-content/uploads/2014/11/10446274_890448447641801_2778540954905248101_o.jpg Let me explain. There is something very interesting that happens once you hit a certain plateau, being it running or something else in your life. But let’s stick to running for now. Suppose you’re good at running 5k. And you run 5k races for a few weeks or months. The moment you try to go over this, to run 10k or 15k, something happens inside your mind. You start to feel insecure and you don’t know what to do. The pain then becomes your escape route. “I have to stop because it hurts”. Pain is your excuse. Believe it or not, this pain is not a good enough reason to stop. At least not at this level. You can stand incredibly deep pain (if you don’t believe me just ask a woman who gave birth naturally, for instance). What really makes you stop is your attachment to the pain. Because you’re insecure. You don’t know what lies after your comfort zone, after your first 5k. So you cling to the pain which becomes your reason to stay in the comfort zone. You’re actually using pain as an escape goat. I felt this so intensely during this race, that I actually visualized it like a structure inside my head. It’s not something real, I said, it’s just made up. I just cling on this pain to find a reason to stop. Let’s be clear here: pain is real. And, the way our bodies are built, pain is also necessary. It’s a survival tool. It helps us protect our tissues, by sending very strong signals of distress every time we put ourselves in toxic contexts. But the attachment to pain, that’s something that can be managed. The less you’re attached to pain, the better you can perform. Again, it doesn’t make pain less real. But it makes your life more manageable, once you understand that you can function acceptably even when you’re in pain. So, the muscle pain ran along with me from km 30 until the end of the race. As we continued to make the 5km intermezzos, I found it more and more difficult to re-start and find a normal pace. The pain increased – again, normally, since the stress on the muscles was still present. Around km 50 we made a longer stop at a school where we planted trees (the setup was already made, we just dug one little hole) because the event also had a charitable facet. But, instead of releasing the pain, this stop – 10-15 minutes, top – made it even deeper. The last 10 km were actually hard. We ran on the streets (or sidewalks) of Bucharest, it was crowded, it was cold and every step felt really difficult, because of the pain. An overall sensation of fatigue was also more and more present, and it felt that every move was requiring more and more energy. An interesting thing happened after we crossed the finish line. One of the runners, Andrei Rosu (yes, the same guy that helped me with the speed trainings) saw on his GPS watch that we ran only 59 km. So, he started to do a few laps around the building, to reach the 60 km target. I joined him and, boy, those last 4 laps felt incredibly good and painful at the same time. ## Post Ultra Marathon Depression After my first marathon, ran in 2012, I felt high – psychologically  speaking – for weeks, if not months. Same thing about the second and the third. But, after my first ultra, something unexpected happened. It was a series of relatively small, apparently unrelated events that led me to the conclusion that, this time, something was very, very different. First of all, the night after the ultra I couldn’t sleep. I was obviously very tired and, apparently, when I’m that tired, I can’t sleep. I’m sure you know how it feels. I got out of bed a few times to hit the bathroom or to drink or chew something, and, all in all, I didn’t get any rest. In the morning, although there were parts of my body that were still hurting big time, I decided I’m able to cope with the outside world, so I went to the hub and worked a few hours. In the evening there was a big event so I moderated it for about 2 hours. Once back home, I wasn’t sleepy, on the contrary, I felt quite alert. With a twist: I had some itchy moods (which I don’t usually have). Nothing serious, more like a lack of patience and a tendency to mumble at everything. While explaining those feelings to my girlfriend, she said “oh, so now you know how it is to have a PMS! That’s how we feel, on the edge of yelling or bursting.”. Trying to make a joke, I translated PMS as “post marathon syndrome” and we both laughed, considering it a very good joke. But the following night, although I (kinda) slept, wasn’t good at all. I went to bed at 23 and woke up around 4:30. Normally, I feel very relaxed waking up like this, because that’s my regular routine. Ups, not this time. The itchiness was higher and I felt really nervous. Since I perceived myself as a toxic presence, I got out from the bedroom (leaving my girlfriend to sleep alone) and lied down on the couch in the living. I stared at the ceiling and had a few small but very unresting sleeping episodes interweaved with (rather nightmarish) dreams. At 7 AM I surrendered: ok, I am depressed. Once I accepted that, I started to search for reasons. There was some trouble at the work, but after digging it for a bit, I realized it’s not that. So, the next thing I’m doing is to search the internet for “post ultra depression”. Surprise, surprise! Turned out there was a lot of literature on this topic. And yes, everything clicked. My itchiness, my mumbling tendency, my dark sleeping episodes, everything converged to the conclusions that I did have a “post ultra depression”. The moment I realized that, I felt (somehow counterintuitively) better. At least I knew what was happening to me. So I started to adjust to the situation. I did what I did with the pain during the race: instead of engaging in it, I observed it. I accepted it and started to perceive it as something that was there, but not real. I know this may sound a bit confusing, but bear with me, I will explain it in a second: you know when you watch a sad movie and feel sad? That sadness is not generated by something happened to you, it’s because some imaginary situation in the movie. But it’s still sadness. That’s what I understand by “being there, but not being real”. So, I tried to see my depression like something created by my mind, but not real. Like the sadness you experience seeing a sad movie – something existing outside your real you. When you see it like this, when you realize it’s just a byproduct of your mind, it suddenly becomes smaller. And, within the next hour or two, the depression became manageable. I was able to moderate the usual, weekly Open Connect (which is a quite tedious and consuming task) without any problems whatsoever. ## Post Race Routine So, once I realized I have to deal with this depression too, on top of the physical recovery (read: muscle pain at every step), I made a small plan to overcome this unexpected consequence. First of all, I gave myself a metaphorical pat on the back and decided to get some rest. I still worked, moderated the event, but not the usual 10 hours. I just decreased the number a bit, until 6 hours. Second, I indulged in good food. Not unhealthy, but good. Raw sweets, fruits, nuts. And chocolate. No alcohol, though, although, a few times, a cold beer looked appealing. Third, I kept myself moving. Short walks, 3-4 km, to and from the hub. The first two were difficult (I remember I was talking on the phone with a client while walking to the hub and he asked me: “Are you running now?”, “No, I just walk”, I answered, but now you understand that even walking was a painful experience.). And I wouldn’t be completely honest if I wouldn’t mention something here. For the last 5-6 years, I strengthened my ability to not believe everything I think. During the last year I was also exposed (intermittently, but increasingly) to Buddhism. While I don’t consider myself a Buddhist, the exposure to this spiritual discipline, widened my understanding about why we shouldn’t believe our mind all the time. I won’t go into details about that, because it’s not the main topic of the article (if you’re interested, just leave a comment and I’ll write another article about this) but it’s worth mentioning it because, without this habit, of not believing everything that the mind is producing, things would have been worse. I know, because that’s what happened in the past. This time, although the depression was harder and quite unexpected, I was able to recognize it faster and to cope with it in a non toxic way, both for me and for the people around me. ## The Aftermath My first ultra-marathon was a fantastic experience. Even this small psychological incident was, to a certain extent, fun to deal with it. The pain and the depression are already in the past. But the joy of crossing my own limits will stay forever. Along with this new power that I discovered within me. First published on: November 13, 2014 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Build Self Discipline (/100-ways-live-better-life-4-build-self-discipline/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Art Of Not Believing The Lies You're Telling To Yourself URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-art-of-not-believing-the-lies-youre-telling-to-yourself.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-art-of-not-believing-the-lies-youre-telling-to-yourself/ Published: 2019-11-16 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 61 Categories: Meaningful Relationships, Relationships and Society Tags: assess, limiting beliefs, self awareness, self improvement As you read this, in the back of your mind there is a constant humming and buzzing. You may not be aware of it, as you’re focusing on the screen, reading this very sentence, but it’s there. You may think about what to eat in the next ten minutes, or where to go tomorrow, or what color matches the outfit you’re going to buy in a week. You’re probably reinforcing constantly a certain meaning you’re attaching to your reality, like your own identity (YOU are the one who is reading this article) or your values (you do things in a certain way, because that’s the RIGHT way to do it). Sorry to disappoint you, but these are all lies. Lies you’re telling to yourself. Before allowing yourself to be outraged by this statement, take a deep breath. You’ll have plenty of other opportunities to be outraged later on, as you scroll down. ## Bad News, Good News And Intermingling Realities The bad news is you’re living in a fantasy. Most of the time. The good news is that everybody does, so you’re not the only lunatic out there. We’re all telling a lot of lies to ourselves, every day, every minute, sometimes on autopilot. Lies like “I am a certain type of person”, or “I have the right to buy that thing”, or “that person behave bad towards me and I am entitled to hold a grudge”. These lies are forming our own point of views towards an uninterrupted stream of facts. The facts are pretty much the same for everybody, but our own lies are different, personal. And so, they are forming our personal reality. Or, to be more precise, our own personal hallucination. Sometimes I’m amazed how can we even get along in this intermingled chaos of personal dreams. But then again, I remember about the great balls of bandaids. Let me explain. ## Great Balls Of Bandaids The stories we’re telling to ourselves are a coping mechanism. They help us manage the problems we have with our environment, with other people, with our own unfulfilled needs and, generally speaking, with the futility and inherent lack of meaning of our lives. They’re basically bandaids we apply every time we get hurt. We’ve been rejected? Well, maybe is the other person’s fault, not mine. Let’s put that bandaid on. I have no money? It’s the government fault. Let’s apply that too. And so on, and so forth, every time we can’t really cope with the pain or just the plain lack of meaning of something, we’re applying another bandaid. As we cruise forward on our own timeline on this Earth, we keep applying bandaid on top of bandaid on top of bandaid, forgetting that, once we understand how to cope with a specific pain, that specific bandaid must be removed. Instead of keeping ourselves slim (and, truth to be told, also vulnerable) we’re patching ourselves over and over, until our own sense of reality is hidden inside a huge ball of bandaids. And that’s how we can actually get along, because these huge balls of bandaids running chaotically towards each other are absorbing the shocks, alleviate the pain and conceal reality under a thick, comfortable cushion. The bigger the ball we created around ourselves, the lower the pain we may experience when we hit an obstacle (being it a wall, or just anther person). But the thicker the ball, also the deeper the fantasy in which we live. ## The Outraging Question I told you, there will be plenty more reasons to be outraged. For instance, this question: is it really worth living outside such a cocoon? If these bandaids are protecting us, if the lies we’re telling to ourselves are supporting our sense of reality, why ditching them? Why not believing these lies? Well, because underneath this protective space, we can’t really experience anything. If the pain is numbed, so is joy. We’re not really living (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/), we’re deep down dreaming, like a Neo in a self-made Matrix, not really knowing what freedom is. And just like Neo, breaking free from this cocoon will set us free, and piss us off, at the same time. Because outside the Matrix, beyond the protective thickness of the cocoon, life is not pleasant. It’s just raw, whole, alive. So, is there any way out? I think so. Because the lies we’re telling to ourselves are so personal, there is no “one size fits all” antidote. But there are a few paths that may be chosen. Here are a few that I tried: ## 1. Accept Your Own Vulnerability That basically means getting rid of the bandaid once the pain is bearable. For example, if you’ve been hurt in a relationship and you applied some sort of bandaid to go through the separation process, take it off once you’re on the other side. Just accept that you can try a new relationship. Open up (/50-ways-to-start-fresh/). Many people are still keeping those bandaids well before the separation process ended.  If you take that bandaid off, the scar will be exposed. It’s ok. You may be hit again. That’s also ok. But at least you’ll spot the symptoms sooner and extract yourself from that process faster. You'll clearly see that what you thought is real is just a bunch of lies you're telling to yourself. And that will give you time to experiment other situations, other persons, other relationships. ## 2. Practice Awareness This is the process of understanding who is thinking what. Most of the times we live in the space of “I’m thinking that”. But is it always true? As our ball of bandaids is heading, inertially, in a direction that’s determined mostly by the way bandaids are laid out on its surface, it’s also true that “this is thinking me”. It’s like we’re “pushed” to repeat the same situation over and over again. Well, awareness (https://brenebrown.com/blog/2018/12/04/leading-from-hurt-versus-leading-from-heart/) means understanding how these situations are created by previously engrained patterns. And also understanding what exactly should be done, what parts of the bandaids can be removed, so the ball will change direction. It really takes just a bit of attention. The trick is to maintain the attention at the same level, constantly, all the time. ## 3. Different Circus, Different Monkeys You know that saying: “not my circus, not my monkeys”? Well, it happens more often than you’d think. As you go along, you’ll realize that the bandaid that helped you go through yesterday’s problem is not going to help you with tomorrow’s challenge. And you'll also understand there’s really no need to keep it there for ever. Better get slimmer, and more flexible, for the next circus, with the next monkeys. Truth to be told, nobody can see the world as you see it. And nobody knows the stories building your reality. So every time you see some advice about how not to believe your own lies, you have all the rights in the world to be outraged (I told you so). It’s ok not to believe such advice. Starting with this one, obviously. *Image by Alanyadk (https://pixabay.com/users/Alanyadk-1919646/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1444530) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1444530) * First published on: November 16, 2019 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-art-of-not-believing-the-lies-youre-telling-to-yourself%2F&text=The%20Art%20Of%20Not%20Believing%20The%20Lies%20You%E2%80%99re%20Telling%20To%20Yourself&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-art-of-not-believing-the-lies-youre-telling-to-yourself%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-art-of-not-believing-the-lies-youre-telling-to-yourself%2F&t=The%20Art%20Of%20Not%20Believing%20The%20Lies%20You%E2%80%99re%20Telling%20To%20Yourself https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-art-of-not-believing-the-lies-youre-telling-to-yourself%2F&title=The%20Art%20Of%20Not%20Believing%20The%20Lies%20You%E2%80%99re%20Telling%20To%20Yourself Previous ### First Ultra-marathon In Spain – The Aftermath (/first-ultra-marathon-in-spain-the-aftermath/) Next ### Meditation Is Like Debugging Spaghetti Code (/meditation-is-like-debugging-spaghetti-code/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Can You Really Amplify Yourself With AI? URL: https://dragosroua.com/can-you-really-amplify-yourself-with-ai.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/can-you-really-amplify-yourself-with-ai/ Published: 2025-12-03 Views: 60 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Productivity and Effectiveness, Technology Tags: ai tools, automation, digital nomad, entrepreneurship There are two kinds of people when it comes to AI. The first group treats it like a magic wand, something that will make them rich beyond their wildest expectations, creative, productive, and enlightened without lifting a finger. The second group treats it like an extinction-level threat — a digital demon we’ve accidentally summoned. The reality, at least in my day-to-day life, sits somewhere in the middle: AI can amplify you, dramatically even, but only if you’re already doing the things worth amplifying. If you’re not, it will mostly amplify noise. ## Where It Actually Amplifies For me, the obvious pain point was coding. I’ve been writing software for decades, and the upgrade is real: things that used to take a day now take an hour. Sometimes less. Not because the AI is “writing the code for me,” but because it compresses the boring and tedious parts — boilerplate, migrations, syntax lookups, doc digging, the kind of repetitive work that still eats brain cycles. It lets me keep my focus on architecture and interaction design, the places where the real leverage can make a difference. But I don’t outsource my thinking – I outsource the friction. The same type of benefits extends to other areas: automating operational tasks, gaining some time with summaries of calls and emails, or generating first-pass drafts for content or specs. None of these "amplified" tasks replaces judgment, though. Research is another obvious example. Not the surface-level “give me three bullet points about X,” but deeper explorations that used to take half a day of tab-hopping. AI is very good at pre-processing information: narrowing down directions or suggesting variants I hadn’t considered. It doesn’t decide (/assess-decide-do-framework/) for me. It just expands my mental map so I can decide better. Brainstorming works the same way. I rarely accept the first idea, sometimes not even the twentieth, but the value isn’t the answer — it’s the acceleration, the compression of the journey. I can explore a dozen possible angles for a project in the same time that I previously needed to write a single outline. Planning is also the same. AI doesn’t magically produce a “perfect plan,” but it forces clarity by asking questions I might postpone or ignore. ## What Can Go Wrong? But here’s the part people don’t like to hear: there’s a cliff on the other side of this. Amplification cuts both ways. AI can absolutely help you get more done — but it can also pull you into a strange loop of managing the thing that is supposed to save you time. Managing the AI becomes a new task category. You start monitoring outputs, tweaking prompts, adjusting automation, debugging hallucinations. Suddenly the “assistant” has created an entire meta-layer of work. If you’re not careful, you end up working **for** your tools, not with them. And if everything does go smoothly, there’s another danger: over-reliance. When something works well and works fast, it’s easy to stop thinking altogether. This is where the Calhoun mouse-colony analogy (/humans-need-entropy/) creeps in — that slow slide into comfort, into letting the environment carry you, into outsourcing not just labor but your own awareness. When AI becomes the actual space of your life, you risk becoming a very well-fed, highly entertained mouse with no real survival skills left. I built addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) to help you actually get things done. Assess what matters, Decide what's next, Do the work. So can AI really amplify you? Yes — if you stay aware. Amplification is not a given; it’s something you get if you know what to ask. AI accelerates whatever direction you’re already moving in, whether it’s creative work, business building, or simply procrastinating more efficiently (/7-tips-to-productively-support-procrastination-habits/). It can be a great tool that removes friction, enhances your thinking, compresses time to completion, and gives you leverage you didn’t have before. But it needs very clear boundaries, and you need to keep enough skin in the game to remain the master, not blend into the automation itself. The AI breakthrough is real. But so is its trap potential. The trick is remembering that this thing works best when you’re already pushing — and when you stay grounded enough to keep steering the thing, instead of letting it quietly steer you. First published on: December 3, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Remote Working In Spain URL: https://dragosroua.com/remote-working-in-spain.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/remote-working-in-spain/ Published: 2019-10-22 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 60 Categories: Location Independence, Travel and Fun Tags: digital nomad, expat, remote work, spain It’s been already a year since we moved to Spain (/moving-to-spain-one-year-after/), and I already wrote about the overall experience. In today’s article I want to focus on a specific area of the expat lifestyle, namely remote working in Spain. Spoiler: it’s better than you would expect, but with a few caveats. These caveats are turning to be quite important, hence the small note at the end of each section. ## Remote Working In Spain versus Working In Spain For starters, without even touching too deep on the legal aspects, I would say that if you have a decent remote job in USA, UK, or some other developed European country, like Germany or France, you would be above the average Spanish income. I’m talking just about basic stuff, like financial compensation, salary, or revenue per hour, or whatever is the metric you use to evaluate your work. Just from the top of my head, the average salary in Spain for a programmer (my job for the last three years) is about 1,200 EUR / month, whereas in UK might be well above 2,000 EUR. *Caveat*: average cost of living in Spain is significantly lower than the cost of living in those developed countries. Usually, for the rent you pay in a shared room in London, you can get a nice, spacious apartment in cities like Valencia or Alicante, or a decent apartment in an average area in Madrid or Barcelona. As you would expect, in bigger cities, the cost of life is higher (https://www.finerminds.com/wealth-and-success/geek-techniques-for-wealth-management), but even at those levels, overall, you’d be better off remote working in Spain than working and living for the same salary in cities like London, Paris or Berlin. ## European Citizens Working Spain One significant advantage of being a European Union citizen is the “right to free movement and work within the EU borders”. So if you’re citizen of the EU, working in Spain is basically a right you already have, provided that you obey local laws too. I won’t go into all the nitty-gritty, because it will take too much space and, in this article, I’m touching on this only tangentially, but I encourage you to do your homework and read carefully all the laws pertaining to this. In my case, being a citizen of a country which is a EU member, Romania, things are simpler: I can work here, provided I solve all my tax status (see below, in the caveat). The other case would be if you’re a citizen of a country outside of EU, like US (or, soon, like United Kingdom). In this case, you should get a working visa in order to work in Spain and that’s a completely different route, one which is more time consuming and significantly more complex. *Caveat*: once you live in Spain for more than half a year per year, you became a Spain fiscal resident automatically and you are due to pay taxes here. The good news is that many countries, especially those in EU, have double taxation treaties that will ease the burden. The not so good news is that you have to navigate a rather complex web of laws. If you’re serious about long term remote working in Spain, then I’d suggest to talk to a local accountant (*gestor*) and do all your things right from the beginning. ## Working Conditions: Office Space and Internet If you’re working remote, you would need at least two basic ingredients: a space from where you do your work and internet. I would start with the internet and note that things are not even close to the quality and the price we have in Romania (which is probably one of the top 5 countries in the world when it comes to this), but things seem to go in the right direction. A 100MB symmetric fiber optic connection, for home, will cost you about 35 EUR/month (more or less, depending on the provider, your location and wether or not you will get a phone sim for this, a strategy that many are implementing, although I’m not very comfortable with it). So, the cost is relatively decent, but there is room for improvement. As for the office space, things are looking way better. If you work from home, you would be able to deduct a part of your rent – again, you should consult with a *gestor* first. Working from coffee shops is also a solid option (I already wrote a primer about working from coffee shops (/optimizing-work-from-coffee-shops-a-primer/), if you’re interested). But the most popular option lately is to work from a co-working space. This phenomenon is in full swing in Spain, which is good news. But prices are also going up quite fast: for a shared post in a co-working space you should pay at least 150 EUR. *Caveat*: working from coffee shops is my preferred way, not because of the comfort of work – you would probably get a more silent and productive place in a co-working space – but because of the social benefits: meeting new people, learning Spanish and attending a lot of interesting events. The average cost of working from a coffee-shop is between 5-7 EUR/day, which is more or less similar with the price of a shared office in a co-working space. ## To Much Of A Good Thing Can Be A Bad Thing The fantastic climate of Spain, the vibrant lifestyle, the good food and the nice people, all this are extremely good things. But too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. What do I mean by that? Well, there is this vibe of “dolce farninente” pervading everything, especially during siesta times (in the afternoon). And this vibe can make you quite unproductive. It may seem like a “good problem” to have, but, in my experience, this can be a real drag, especially if you work for yourself and must keep motivated (/positive-motivation-versus-negative-motivation/) all day long. Sometimes, going to the beach and hang around, instead of finishing that project can be simply impossible to resist. *Caveat*: having clear timelines and doing all you can to maintain them is paramount. Surprisingly, you will need to be way more organized in Spain, specifically because the context is not. You have been warned! ## Remote Working In Spain: Is It Worth It? The short answer: if you’re a digital nomad (/a-digital-nomad-toolkit/) working remote, yes, it’s worth it. The long answer: it depends on your citizenship, the type of work you do, your revenue, your expectations in terms of social life and your ability to stay organized. Don’t get too hyped by those nice (and yes, very real) pictures of relaxed people, enjoying some good time on the never ending beaches of Spain. It takes some discipline and hard work to get there. But if you have what it takes, then yes, we do really enjoy our relaxed time at the beach here, (almost) all year round. Image source: Cullera beaches, personal collection First published on: October 22, 2019 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fremote-working-in-spain%2F&text=Remote%20Working%20In%20Spain&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fremote-working-in-spain%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fremote-working-in-spain%2F&t=Remote%20Working%20In%20Spain https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fremote-working-in-spain%2F&title=Remote%20Working%20In%20Spain Previous ### 10 Ways In Which Artificial Intelligence Is Disrupting Our Lives (/10-ways-in-which-artificial-intelligence-is-disrupting-our-lives/) Next ### 10 Things I Learned In 10 Years Of Blogging (/10-things-i-learned-in-10-years-of-blogging/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Wasted Power URL: https://dragosroua.com/wasted-power.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/wasted-power/ Published: 2009-03-03 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 60 Categories: Money and Wealth, Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs, Success and Wellness Tags: acceptance, fear, limiting beliefs, purpose, self awareness The worst thing that can happen to you is to realize that you have unlimited power. That you can do anything. That you can create everything you want. That there is nothing outside you and everything is inside, waiting to blossom. The worst thing is to realize that you're here to create your own life. Why? Because you'll face some terrible questions. ### Life Purpose *First question: what should I do with my life?* It's so much easier to live without a purpose, thinking that you have limited powers, that your destiny was engraved in stone and you can't do anything to change it. Asking questions like "what should I do with my life, now that I DO have the power to change it?" it's a difficult process. Not everyone is ready to ask that question, and even less are ready to give an honest answer. It's so much easier to put your entire life on somebody else's plate. Put it on your parents, they didn't love you when you were a kid. Put it on the system, it's making you a 9 to 5 slave. Put it on your spouse, for being lazy or angry or unconsidered. Put on your kids are they are here to steal your precious time, a time that you would otherwise spend on meaningless tv shows or useless gossip. It's easier to put the guilt on somebody else, it will free your consciousness and ease your pain. Why live a life with a purpose when there are so many difficulties? Why do something if somebody (your parents, spouse, kids, boss, this out-of-nowhere man) will prevent you for doing it? Why searching for a higher purpose when you can think you're just a limited individual with limited power and limited beliefs? Living a life without purpose, without accessing your enormous power is always a safer bet. Admit it: this concept of unlimited power doesn't fit with your current lifestyle. So, it must not exist at all. ### Playing Hide And Seek *Second question: who am I?* The most popular game in the world is "hide and seek". We hide from ourselves and then spend the rest of our life trying to find us again. It's the most popular game because we became extremely skillful masters of our own delusion. We derail in the most complicated stories with the most intricate plots we can imagine, only to escape from ourselves. And we do that because we unconsciously don't know what to do with that inner power. We are puzzled, confused, we simply cannot accept that we can create everything, so we finally started to run away from it. We started to hide behind our own delusions. This is how we invented divinity. By the way, that's one of the most complicated stories we invented so far. We separated a special space in our life, called "sacred" and put there a highly resourceful concept, called "divinity". This and only this "divinity" can create stuff. This divinity created us, and this is the source of everything "that is". We found a way to solve our puzzle, we created something bigger than us. And we allegedly use this divinity in order to regain our lives, to redeem, to reunite. We pray, we perform rituals, and we seek redemption. That's one nicely done hide and seek session, don't you think? But the truth is divinity lies within us, not outside. What we call divinity it's just one attribute of that unlimited power we already have within. We created our world, our reality, our life. This is our true nature. Unfortunately, we can't always accept our true nature. So we play this hide and seek game in which we eliminate the genuine power from within and transform it into outside concepts, systems and rituals. ### The Fear Factor *Third question: what if I do something wrong?* Fear is the anticipation of a possible bad outcome from your current situation. You only live here and now, but fear projects a possible bad end to your current status. And what's happening when you shift your focus from here and now to a potential bad end? Yes, correct: you create that bad end. By succumbing to fear we are making one of the supidest moves we can make: we're using our power in order to destroy ourselves. Fear is never in the present time, it's a potential that we bring to life. We use our power to create this potential. We create the bad end by keeping our focus on a fearful state. I found that fear is really one of the most important obstacles in reaching our inner purity and power. It took me a while to understand the mechanics of it, but when I finally found it, I completely understood that fear is just another creativity session we perform. Hope and fear share the same structure: they are just potentials which are transformed into reality by our focus, our inner power. The only difference is that fear projects a potential of destruction. Follow your fears and your unlimited power will be used against you. ### The Game Of Responsibility *Fourth question: do I have to accept anything?* This power that you have, this unlimited capacity of creation let you do anything. But after doing something, you must cope with it. You must accept it, acknowledge you made it and integrate it into your life. This process is called responsibility. And when you don't accept what you created, when you don't integrate it into your life, you actually reject your true nature. That's another reason for not embracing totally your power: the lack of responsibility. Why use your power if you know you can create something you won't accept? Why totally embrace your creative energy, if you won't accept the outcome? Yes, you can make failures, and failures are part of the learning process. Just because you missed some spots in your life you don't have to completely ditch everything. Accepting our failures and mistakes is one of the hardest chapters of our life. We strive so much on this path that we forgot the real goal: to live. To enjoy. To create. Yes, we are able to create everything, including our mistakes. And yes, we have the power to make them part of our life and move on, lesson learned. ### Wasted Power If you don't accept the fact that you have unlimited power, that power will not vanish away. It will still be there, but it just won't be used by you. The bad news is that somebody else is going to use it. If you don't use something you already have, you are inviting somebody else to take it. You received this gift with a purpose, your received it so you can enjoy it. And if you don't enjoy it, somebody else will take it away from you. I'm sure this is very difficult to digest. I know, because it was difficult to digest for me too. Sometimes it still is. But that doesn't make it less real. Only because we have a hard time to believe it, that doesn't mean it isn't true. It's hard to admit that you gave away your power and put yourself into a victimizing position. It's hard to admit that you don't have anything you want in your life because you simply deny it. When unhappy, it's difficult to acknowledge self-inflicted misery. But that's happening because you don't use your power and somebody else is taking it from you. Because you think you are a limited person. Because your whole beliefs system permits that to happen. If you don't assess and use your infinite power, you're actually inviting abusers and power addicted persons to steal this unused power from you. You're not a victim because they are abusers, you are victim because you empowered them. It would be so easy to shift this situation to a fulfilling one, to a sea of potentials that you will bring into matter by only using your unlimited inner power. Don't waste it. First published on: March 3, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwasted-power%2F&text=Wasted%20Power&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwasted-power%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwasted-power%2F&t=Wasted%20Power https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwasted-power%2F&title=Wasted%20Power Previous ### How To Create A Habit In 15 Days (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/) Next ### The Guardians (/the-guardians/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Balls Of Fire URL: https://dragosroua.com/balls-of-fire.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/balls-of-fire/ Published: 2009-09-16 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 59 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: growth, love, mindset, resilience What happens when you're in a hatred environment? What happens when you're threatened? How's your reality changed by this? What is your first reaction in case of aggression? The standard answer when you're threatened is to respond in kind. To fight back. To protect yourself. Responding to hate by hate, to threat by threat, that's what we've been taught to do for centuries. It's like you're receiving a hot ball and in order to avoid getting hurt, you're passing back the ball, possibly with even more heat on it. That's the standard answer. The "smarter" answer (as opposed to standard) is to observe the ball thrown at you and do nothing. Yes, you will get burned if you touch it, that's right. So, why touching it in the first place? Why letting it reach you? Instead of accepting it, switch your focus from the reaction state, to the witnessing state: just observe it, see where it goes, don't interact. You'll have the breakthrough of your life. Because the ball doesn't really get to you, if you don't allow it. That's amazing! I know it sounds pretty strange and voo-doo-ish, but it really works like this. Once you start to just observe the things, to witness with detachment, you will see them in a very different way. Even more, by observing things instead of accepting them into your reality, you reach some kind of power over them. You will be able to allow or disallow them to reach you. This is something really difficult to perceive and even more difficult to accept. I confess it took me a lot to even understand that. Reading about this really helps, that's true, and I read a lot about how witnessing, observing your reality, without interaction, can actually change it. But you have to do it, not to read about it, in the first place. And it's the direct experience of this attitude which reveals this incredible mechanics. (By all means, do not consider I'm a master on this technique, I just know enough to write a blog post about it. All I know is it works.) ### Observing versus Giving Attention There's a huge difference between observing something and giving attention to something. Since we're going to use those terms a lot in this post, let's make a quick round up. Observing means witnessing something, without any involvement. Giving attention to something means acting on that thing somehow: reacting emotionally to it, rationalizing it, comparing it with past experiences, doing something about it, anything. Observation is stillness. Attention is focused movement. Observing is non-action, attention is always seconded by action. ### Gravity and Reality Now let's get back to our balls of fire. You can't receive something you don't want. Every time you're receiving something is because you accepted it. Being it a present, a relationship, your job, money, health… Or anger, illness, scarcity… You let it into your life. If you step back and look at the world from an observer place you'll have this image very close to the planets and satellites: all the stuff that surrounds you is kept together by your own personal gravity. And the gravity which keeps your world together is your attention. The stuff around you, what you call your reality is orbiting around only because you accepted it and focused on it. You make your world living by giving it your attention. Now if you're not giving any attention whatsoever to some stuff, you'll actually observe it floating away. There's no more gravity to keep it close to you. Just think at something you didn't think for a long time and you'll have this feeling of distance. That thing seems so far away. Yes, that thing really is far away, because you didn't offer it your undivided attention. The moment your focus shifted towards it, the thing started to get close to you. Without your attention, things are just floating around. You create your environment by attracting stuff into your life the same way planets are keeping things on their surface with gravity. So, now you realize that the ball of fire doesn't have any direction of all. It is just a meteorite wandering through space.The author of a threat doesn't direct the ball at you. Yes, he may use your name, he may use his mental projection of what he thinks is you, but it cannot make the ball land on your planet. Unless you give him permission to do this. The ball doesn't really have any direction, it floats around, like any other thing which doesn't receive your attention. It's you who're giving it mass and shape, by shifting your focus towards it. ### What Goes Up Must Go Down Now, what really happens when you're not accepting hate at all? When you're just observing the balls of fire and not allowing them into your reality? They drop. Most of the time. Most of the hate you receive or you get exposed to is circumstantial. It's a result of chaotic situations, confusions or misunderstandings. This type of hate will just drop off. It's like interplanetary meteorites lost in space. Consequences of small accidents, debris of violent but short and blind interactions. But when the hate or threat is calibrated, ignoring it creates a surprising consequence: the ball goes back to the sender. When a ball of fire is calibrated it gets an extra weight. It's not incidental anymore. It's like a volcano erupting from a planet with so much power, that the ball of fire actually lifts off from the atmosphere and is thrown away in space. It's something way bigger than a meteorite. It's not floating around like a light, circumstantial ball. And it's exactly this weight which makes the ball finding its way back to the sender. The ball is attracted by gravity. If it doesn't find a suitable place to land (meaning: you're not giving it the benefit of having a physical mass by your attention, you're just witnessing it) the ball will look for the closest planet. And of course, that's the sender. In real life, this is a somehow hidden process. Not always the threat one sends come back to him in its exact form. Most of the time, the hater goes through a painful process without any visible connection to his initial threat. It may be an accident, an illness, some bad incident or any other kind of difficulties. The sender doesn't really knows what hit him. In his reality system, he got rid of the ball, or so he thinks. He eliminated something from his system, and the only form he's expecting that thing came back to him is your version of a ball of fire. If you don't throw nothing back, he'll assume his threat finished its cycle. Only it didn't. I saw this process from both ends. I was both the hater and the hated. And it worked on both situations. While I was hating somebody, and that person either ignored me, either didn't really pay any attention to me, I found myself in violent circumstances. Accidents, violent incidents that I didn't deserve to be part of. Or so I thought. And when I was hated and let the hate pass me by, the perpetrator faced the same situations: accidents, illness or pressuring surroundings. At the first sight there wasn't any logical, rational connection between the ball of fire and the violent incident. Only at the first sight. ### Love and Hate An ignored ball of fire will always land of the sender. It may be in a different form, the energy of that meteorite has been somehow modified by circumstances, but it will always come back to the sender. If no one wants it, it will come to the source. But if you really want something, if you put all your attention and love in that specific thing, it will finally be attracted. Your attention made that thing slowly come to you. Love is acting in the same way. In fact, love and hate are the same force, only with different polarity. Hate is what loves sees in a twisted mirror. Hate has the same power and it will change your life at the same level love will. Except hate is destructive and love is fulfilling. They both use the same energy. One is building, the other one destroys. They are both powerful gravitational fields around you. And they attract their kind. ### Why Is This So Difficult? If things are really as simple as described, then why is it so difficult to manage a violent situation? Why hate is still there? Why people are getting hurt every day? Because pain is real. Being hurt is real. You can't always avoid a ball of fire thrown at you. Hitting one every once in a while is part of the game. Accept it or not, believe it or not, you do have parts in yourself which are attracting balls of fire. Most of them are placed under the surface, in what we call "the unconscious mind". This is why you're not always aware of the cause. But just because you're not aware at the moment, that doesn't mean you didn't attracted it. This is why is important to observe yourself instead of act upon those balls of fire. In time, you'll start to see some patterns. You'll start to identify similar situations. You start to find continents on your planet which are attracting balls of fire. And the only way to avoid other balls of fire is to start working on those continents. Because this is all you have. Your reality is the only thing you have control on. You can't control other people's realities. All you can do is to work your attraction fields. Understand why are you attracting those balls of fire and how you can manage them. You have total control of your planet. You are the one who built that ecosystem, and you can still modify it whenever you want. Maybe you won't be able to solve it instantly. It may take years. But if you accept that you do attract some balls of fire into your life, you'll be at least aware of that. You'll understand that pain may be unavoidable, but suffering is optional. At some point, those balls of fire you used to receive day and night, burning your forests and drying your oceans will stop landing on your planet. All you'll see will be some trails on the sky. Maybe somebody just thrown a huge ball of fire at you. But since your focus is somewhere else, all you'll see will be a trail on the sky. First published on: September 16, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fballs-of-fire%2F&text=Balls%20Of%20Fire&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fballs-of-fire%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fballs-of-fire%2F&t=Balls%20Of%20Fire https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fballs-of-fire%2F&title=Balls%20Of%20Fire Previous ### Make Your Blog Sail Like Santa Maria (/make-your-blog-sail-like-santa-maria/) Next ### 77 Business Tips For An Online Entrepreneur (/77-business-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Self Sabotage URL: https://dragosroua.com/self-sabotage.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/self-sabotage/ Published: 2009-03-23 Modified: 2025-12-12 Views: 59 Categories: Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness Tags: assess, limiting beliefs, mindset, self awareness Have you ever felt that you're doing something against yourself? That you could achieve so much more if you weren't so lazy or so angry or so focused on unimportant things? Have you ever felt so powerless and stuck that you couldn't even get out of the bed and have breakfast? Ever felt that whatever you do, you can't get anywhere? Chances are, my friend, that you just assessed a self sabotage situation. In today's post I'm going to talk about self sabotage, and describe my own experience with this type of attitude. ### What Is Self Sabotage? Self sabotage is a way to reject everything you created so far, choosing another path, one that could allegedly be easier or safer. You turn your back to everything you've done, deny it, and chose to do exactly the opposite. You take down all your hopes, dreams and goals and settle for whatever the environment is offering you at the moment. You surrender. Most of the time, you do this unconsciously, and most of the time you don't even realize that you're sabotaging yourself. You just have a lot of excuses for not being who you want to be, feel a little numb and relaxed at the same time and your self-esteem is slowly going down. You go for comfort and security. You favor manipulation instead of direct action. You take the easier path. Of course, in the end, that easier path is far more difficult than the first one. ### Self Sabotage Triggers Self sabotage triggers are extremely divers. You may start to sabotage yourself because of a broken relationship. Or because you're burned out by too much work. Or because you're afraid of success. I think everybody has his own self-sabotage triggers and there aren't two identical persons in the world. This is why writing a tutorial for avoiding self-sabotage would seem futile for me. What works for me couldn't possibly work for you. The causes, reasons and triggers are different for each individual. All I can do is share my experience with self-sabotage, describe how I felt it and hope somebody else could find some inspiration in it. I don't think it can be prevented also. You can't really prevent self-sabotage. I think it's somehow part of the way we grow. It's a necessary period in which we face our darkest sides, in which we favor destruction over creation, a period in which our higher self surrendered and let us drift in an unknown and uncontrollable ocean. Those periods are what I called "death" periods, chunks of time in which we don't exert our full control and consciousness. We're dying and we're born again each second, and most of the time we're born in the same reality as we died in. Those death intervals are really short and the life intervals are lighter, bigger and stronger. There's a balance, a prevalence of life. But sometimes, during your death intervals, when you're not supervised by your higher self, you do something to change your environment, creating self-sabotage. You start to constantly alter what's around you, in a desperate attempt to construct a somehow easier or comfortable reality. You change rules, let go of your goals, align with lower vibrations in order to avoid pain. You create a comfort zone. Only to realize, when you're born again, that you are in fact breaking the other reality. ### A Personal Story My first self-sabotage period lasted for about 3 years. Well, I think there were other self sabotage periods before that, but this is the longest I remember. I was working in an FM radio, as an anchor man and I was doing extremely well. I was 22 and already a little star on my field (and even now, 15 years later, I can meet persons who are remembering my voice). Things were evolving really fast and soon I had on my plate much more than I could handle. In about a year I was overwhelmed and I simply cracked. Overheated by work and unguided by some personal goals, I just quit. I had excuses, of course, I was only 23 year old it was too much for me. I stopped going to work, and spend time getting drunk and hunting one night stands in my student hostel. It was much easier than going to work. Traditional media is a rat race, is a very hostile working environment, full of gossip, shallowness and a hidden but very powerful vibration of violence. My radio was no exception, although it was in its very first years. Every day I had to face pressure, stress and to fight for my position in the company. I wish I could say that my failure was in fact a stand up for better values. I wish I could say that I quit because I wasn't willing to face gossip, shallowness and violence all day but it wasn't like that. There was even a time in which I was lying to myself: "I'm out of here because I can do better than that" . Of course I could, but I just didn't. Will see later on that I didn't get out of that world, I was only miserably failing in taking commitments. Our colleagues were visiting me, trying to make me return to my job,. Most of the time I was drunk, happy to sleep for 14 hours without interruptions, and only sensitive to hormone signals from available females in my close vicinity. I wanted to start writing a novel and told all my colleagues about that. In a few weeks, my colleagues stopped visiting me, assured that I was leaving that job because of my higher principles, waiting to read my soon to be published novel. I was believing that too, but it was a lie. I was leaving it because I couldn't respect – or even negotiate – my own commitments, because I was burned out by too much work. I started to write the novel I was planing for long time. Now that I was free for that evil corporate media structure I could finally start working on that. I wrote for 12 days several hours each day and I was soon at the half of it. I could see the end of it. But suddenly, I stopped. I continued to get drunk, involved in shallow relationships and think about myself as a victim. In a few months I realized I had to work again otherwise I will really face starvation. And so I got a job on a very high position in a new radio that was opening at that time, based on my initial success. I was still a star, my voice was worth a lot. And from that moment, I got drunk every evening for 3 years, evening after evening. I had some small initiatives, professionally speaking, some of them even successes. I was doing a fairly good show, day by day, but it wasn't me anymore. The new radio, although with very good initial funding, soon become a ruin because of bad management. Paycheck started to delay more and more, and I remember there were times in which I got payment delayed by 3 months. I should have left but I didn't. I was enjoying my self-sabotage. Around age of 27, I met a women who violently changed my life. I wont' go into details because they are not relevant to this story, I will just mention that the whole relationship was very violent, filled with lies and terror, with an atmosphere of insanity. During that time I was still thinking that I was a victim, that I'm experiencing something I was not really deserving, but in fact I did. It was a very serious shook up from the destiny who was telling me: time to wake up, boy! Do something with your life. If easy going is what you enjoy, well, I'm not going to be easy on you. I'm going to be extremely hard. And it was. After a year of turmoil in that relationship, and another one of confusion in my personal life, I started my company. That was a relief, because I was doing something new (/100-ways-live-better-life-66-say-something-nice/), challenging and which helped build my self-esteem again. My personal life was still a mess, and it was only years after when it gradually started to shift in the right direction. That was a very long time of self-sabotage. ### The Morning After I had a lot of self sabotage intervals, but as I consciously started to assess them, I realized that they are getting shorter and shorter. The longest one was the one described above, around 3 years. After that I had self sabotage intervals of several months, and then several weeks, and lately, those self-sabotage intervals are no longer than a few days. But there still are self sabotage intervals in my life and this is something that I have to live with. Failure is part of our life, it's an experience as valuable as success. Self sabotage, as a variety of failure, is just another way to experience reality. I'm not rejecting it anymore, I'm not fighting it. I don't feel guilt or shame after I realize I just got out of a self sabotage period. I'm trying to focus on what I call "the morning after", the period in which I'm waking up and start evaluating the effects. And the damage I do seems to be shrinking more and more, the same way as the intervals are getting shorter and shorter. After each night of  obscured consciousness I can breath out and start walking again, with more and more energy. Each time I learn something out of it. Each trigger of self sabotage is in fact a lesson that I have to assess. Each unsolved problem surface sooner or later and I have to face it. Running away and hiding it under the carpet is not an option anymore. It's in our human nature to fail, as it is to win. It's a way of growing and getting stronger. We have to experience it fully, we can't just pretend we're failing and learn something from it, it just doesn't work this way. We have to drink it up and see the effects. It would be so much easier to realize: hey I'm in a self-sabotage period, I'm doing something completely wrong. But we can't: we truly believe that we're doing the right things by smashing things around us, hurting the loved ones and hurting ourselves. I also realized that we cannot prevent nor predict a self-sabotage period, we cannot predict our failures, all we can do is to live them. All we can do is assess our failures (/100-ways-live-better-life-66-say-something-nice/), and get back on our feet again. First published on: March 23, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fself-sabotage%2F&text=Self%20Sabotage&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fself-sabotage%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fself-sabotage%2F&t=Self%20Sabotage https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fself-sabotage%2F&title=Self%20Sabotage Previous ### 6 Degrees Of Integration (/6-degrees-of-integration/) Next ### Perfect versus Better (/perfect-versus-better/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Trip To Thailand URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-trip-to-thailand.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-trip-to-thailand/ Published: 2009-02-21 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 59 Categories: Personal Development, Travel and Fun Tags: asia, comfort zone, long distance travel, thailand, travel Traveling for personal development (/travel-as-a-personal-development-tool/) isn't just a recent post on my blog (quite popular if I'm looking at statistics) but a real lifestyle for me. I always do my best to practice what I'm preaching so several days ago I started a trip to Bangkok. A week before the trip I had no idea that I would go there. Bianca had a one week holiday from the kindergarten and Diana decided it could be great to spend it at their parents. That gave me a window of opportunity, so to speak, so I jumped on it. ### Planning For Thailand Planning the trip took me around 3 hours top, including printing vouchers and arranging payments. Everything was done online of course, and you can imagine I did planned a little loose. I bounced back and forth a little between orbitz, travelocity and expedia, and eventually chose expedia. I first booked the hotel in Bangkok, the flight and 3-4 additional services, out of curiosity. For instance, I booked transfer from the airport and to the airport, and 2 half day tours. If I would go again I won't chose any of those services, because you can find your way around without them, but overall it was a useful experience. I know by now that a taxi fare to the airport from downtown Bangkok is no more than 400 BAHT (around 13-15 USD) and that a tour to one of the temples can be done with no more than 2-300 BAHT (including transport via BTS and Chao Phraya boat). Oh, ok, ok, I started to talk a little ahead and mentioned things like BTS and the Chao Phraya river. I'll stop that and come back to the main story because there is still some more to say until we're in Bangkok. Just teasing you a little, of course. ### Flying To Thailand I flew with FinnAir and that proved to be a good choice overall. The route was Bucharest – Helsinki – Bangkok. The flights were very well connected and from what I read in the planes and in some of the materials in the airport, Helsinki is trying to become the first Europe – Asia flying hub. One of their key points in achieving that is to provide good flight connections and fast transfer of the passengers. When I flew to Bangkok I stayed in the Helsinki airport around 4 hours and when I come back I stayed around 3 hours. The airport is quiet, clean and it has free internet connection in one of its areas. Not in the whole airport, which is a little strange, so you have to go through passport check in order to reach the free internet area but it didn't felt like an inconvenient to me. From Bucharest to Helsinki I flew with an Embraer 170 which might be the tinier airplane I flew with so far. It's an airplane manufactured in Brasil, quite exotic in Europe. But the Boeing MD 11, a somehow obsolete tri-jet which took me from Helsinki to Bangkok was even funnier. The entertainment system in the economic class consists on 4-5 large monitors with a fixed program for all passengers. All the other transcontinental flights I had so far had individual entertainment systems. Other than that, both planes proved to be extremely reliable, clean and well-serviced. From Bucharest to Helsinki you fly 2:40 hours and from Helsinki to Bangkok 9:30-10-30 hours. When I got back I was so relaxed that I slept most of the time and when I arrived in Bucharest I actually didn't felt tired at all. On the way to Bangkok I had some mild anxiety moments, but all of them were related to my old pattern of "not being able to enjoy stuff" that I'm working on for several years now. ### Cultural Shock Once in Bangkok I had to face an unexpected cultural shock. It was my first trip to Asia, a totally different culture. The people, the climate and the force of a huge city, all this made for quite an adaptation effort from my part. Starting from the first second on the airport and until the last line at the passport check to leave Thailand, I was under this cultural shock. Don't get it too literal, I wasn't trembling or something, but all my systems were under a considerable overload: my senses, my interaction approaches, my expectations, everything was new and put a serious stress on my day to day activities. At the beginning I was quite lost and tried to balance by doing familiar things: a walk in the closest park, for instance. In about 48 hours I managed to be back to an average, normal way of me, but even after this initial adaptation period, I still had moments when my mind stopped and had to rely on my instincts. People are smiling at you. First, you find your traditional european explanation to this: that guy wants something from me, and he's buying me with a smile. Then, you realize that this is not entirely true. Yes, he might want something from you but he's genuinely smiling at the same time. Then, you realize that maybe he didn't want something from you and he's smiling only because is happy. Or because he is genuinely polite. People are not afraid to make eye contact, on the contrary. If you are making eye contact with a total stranger on the streets, chances are that he will smile at you and even give you a traditional "sawasdee" salute. When you are giving something to them (let's say when you tip a waiter at the restaurant) the "thank you" is honest and open. Contrast is another thing that will puzzle you in the beginning. Here's a picture of Bangkok by night: And here's a picture taken a few miles away, on the Chao Phraya river canals: Chao Phraya, in translation, "The River Of King" is the river that goes through Bangkok. It splits in several canals all around the city and it still plays an important role in transportation. Most of this is touristic but on the canals you can still find communities that are actually living on the water. Initially this contrast was part of my shock, but after several days I learned to embrace it as a wonderful manifestation of life in all forms. Just because those people on the canals didn't have luxury that doesn't mean they weren't happy. They were just living differently and learning to respect difference was one of things I learned during this trip. ### Accommodation In Bangkok I stayed at a hotel in the Siam zone, near Ratchadamri BTS station (BTS is the skytrain in Bangkok, one of the things that I really liked in the city). Siam is a somehow upscale area, not the usual backpacker heaven, but I was glad I chose it. It was at walking distance from the center zone and the service was exceptional. I especially enjoyed the selection of fruits they had, but more of that below. If you're traveling to Bangkok, accommodation can be a problem. A problem of choice, of course, not a problem of getting short of it. I was lucky finding this location, because you might get a place that could substantially diminish your experience. My advice is to search something that was reviewed at least several times in the last 6 months because things are changing really fast there. Your choice is practically endless: you can chose from a small room in a hostel near Silom plaza (a market area, crowded and noisy) or you can chose something at the Millenium Hilton: Whatever your choice, please be sure you have air conditioned. It's pretty common there but better check first. ### Thai Clime It's hot and humid. Thai people have this traditional joke: we have only 3 seasons in Thailand: hot, hotter and hottest. It's pretty difficult to adapt in the first few hours and it's part of the shock I was telling you about. After I checked in and unpacked, I thought it would be wise to stretch my legs a little around the hotel and get familiar with the surroundings. I walked around 3-4 miles, making what I call "power walk", without realizing that I'm doing this under 35 degrees Celsius. When I found the Lumphini Park, I was happy to rest for a half an hour trying to get my breath back. Because of the clime most of the activity is done very early in the morning. On the tours I booked they actually picked me up from the hotel at 6:30 or 7:30 AM, and I was supposed to be ready by that time, lunch included. Around 3-4 PM things are pretty much done and everybody is going home. At 6 PM, during this time of the year is actually getting dark. From 6 PM until 1 AM is the Bangkok night life but that's another story. ### Thai Colors The most important part in the cultural shock is the visual one. The colors you see in Thailand are so different than the colors I was used to. Strong pink, magenta, cyan, electric green, orange are predominant colors. The photo below is summarizing what I'm trying to say much better: This photo, which I consider to be iconic for the Thai visual expression was took at the flower market in Bangkok, one of the most interesting places I visited there. ### GTD And Traveling A little surprising, I suppose, is the fact that I've used some GTD habits during this trip, and they proved to be extremely useful. One of them is "getting it out of your head". I've actually stored everything I needed outside me: printed vouchers, phone numbers from the guides, hotel information, everything was stored outside me, usually on pieces of paper safely stored in my backpack. So my brain was free to look outside and find the best angle for the next photo instead of trying to remember what time should I be up tomorrow, for instance. The second rule: if you can do it in 2 minutes, do it. Amazingly how interesting is to try this when you ride an unknown skytrain, for instance. If that train could take you to the next station in the next 2 minutes, than do it, don't delay, don't second guess. If you could stop to that boat station and take a look around for 2 minutes, than just do it, and then come back in. It really streamlined my entire experience down there. ### Keeping A Raw Food Diet in Thailand This is one of the things that surprised me the most. It's so easy to keep a raw food diet in Thailand. Even more surprising is the fact that, even if they had so much choices for fruits and fresh vegetables, 90% of the Thai food is cooked. I really enjoyed staying raw vegan and I had fantastic fruits plateau, fresh juices and salads. I ate most of the time at the hotel restaurant or via room service, but even when I was outside I could find fresh fruits basically all over the streets. There was one exception to that, and that actually made me to eat some traditional thai food, but more on that on a later post. *** Although I initially planned to write my Thailand trip impressions in one post, I soon realized that this is simply impossible. So, I will split this travelogue in 3-4 more posts, because there is so much left to be said. I will try to outline my trip day by day and when it will be possible I will compress several days in one post. I made around 5-600 photos, but of course, I can only use several dozens, and I'm sure some of your already saw them on mytwitter (http://twitter.com/dragosroua) or flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/33674123@N00/) account. So if you wanna see more photos from Thailand, keep coming back because in the next posts I will surely have more. The most important thing that happened in this trip was really something related to personal development. I couldn't say I had an epiphany, but something really close to that. It's still to early to talk about it, but in the next few weeks I'll put to test my discovery and most likely I will publish my conclusions on the blog. I'm really, really excited about that. First published on: February 21, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-trip-to-thailand%2F&text=The%20Trip%20To%20Thailand&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-trip-to-thailand%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-trip-to-thailand%2F&t=The%20Trip%20To%20Thailand https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-trip-to-thailand%2F&title=The%20Trip%20To%20Thailand Previous ### A Raw Food Diet For Your Soul (/a-raw-food-diet-for-your-soul/) Next ### Trip To Thailand – Day 1 (/trip-to-thailand-day-1/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 3 AI Skills For Better Content Creation URL: https://dragosroua.com/3-ai-skills-for-better-content-creation.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/3-ai-skills-for-better-content-creation/ Published: 2025-12-11 Views: 58 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Blogging, Digital Tools Tags: ai tools, automation, blogging journey, content creation, tools, wordpress I already wrote about moving my 15-year-old blog from WordPress to Cloudflare (/moving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how/). What I didn't mention is what came out of that process besides a faster website: three AI tools (Claude skills, precisely) that I now use regularly and decided to open-source. For context, these apply to a WordPress backed website, but served statically via Cloudflare Pages. If you manage any kind of content at scale — a blog, documentation, a knowledge base — these might save you some headaches. ### Link Analyzer: Fix What's Broken First problem: after 1,300+ posts and multiple URL structure changes over the years, I had no idea what was broken. Hundreds of dead links, orphan pages that even I forgot existed, posts linking to themselves in weird loops. The Link Analyzer crawls your static site and tells you: - Which links are dead - Which pages have zero inbound links (orphans) - Which pages link too much or too little - Overall linking health I ran it, got a report, fixed the critical stuff first. Simple. ### SEO WordPress Manager: Smart Batch Updates Some of my meta descriptions were written in 2012. They were… not great. Updating them one by one through the WordPress admin? For hundreds of posts? No thanks. This tool connects to WordPress via GraphQL and lets you batch update Yoast SEO fields — titles, descriptions, focus keyphrases. It has a preview mode so you can see changes before applying them, and it tracks progress so you can stop and resume. I used Claude to help generate better descriptions based on the actual content, then pushed them in batches. What would have taken weeks took an afternoon. ### Astro CTA Injector: Smart Placement Old posts had CTAs for products I don't sell anymore. New posts needed CTAs but adding them manually to 1,300 articles was out of the question. The CTA Injector places call-to-action blocks into your content based on rules: at the end, after 50% of the article, after 60%, or after specific headings. It scores content for relevance so you're not putting a productivity app CTA into a post about travel photography. ![ShareByLight app icon](/images/icons/sharebylight-icon-48.webp) I just launched ShareByLight (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-file-transfer/id6796897056)—transfer files with light only. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no cables. One device shows a stream, the other reads it with the camera. Free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It also tracks what it changed, so you can roll back if something looks off. ### Automation With A Dash of Brain All these skills are basically automation with a brain attached. Repetitive tasks with a thin layer of understanding on top. The difference between traditional scripts and AI-assisted tools is context. A script replaces text. An AI tool can read a post about financial habits (/category/financial-resilience/) and decide it deserves a different CTA than a post about location independence (/location-independence-is-not-a-luxury-anymore/). I still review the output. But reviewing is much faster than creating from scratch. This is what I meant when I wrote about AI and jobs (/ai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it/) — the tech doesn't replace judgment, it lets you apply your judgment to more stuff in less time. ### Get the Tools You can find these on GitHub: claude-content-skills (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-content-skills) They're built as Claude Code skills, but the patterns work elsewhere. MIT license, use them however you want. If you're managing a content archive that needs cleanup, give them a shot. Worst case, you'll find out how many broken links you've been ignoring. First published on: December 11, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-ai-skills-for-better-content-creation%2F&text=3%20AI%20Skills%20For%20Better%20Content%20Creation&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-ai-skills-for-better-content-creation%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-ai-skills-for-better-content-creation%2F&t=3%20AI%20Skills%20For%20Better%20Content%20Creation https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-ai-skills-for-better-content-creation%2F&title=3%20AI%20Skills%20For%20Better%20Content%20Creation Previous ### My Location Independence Journey: From Europe to Asia (Podcast interview) (/my-location-independence-journey-from-europe-to-asia-podcast-interview/) Next ### Can You Stay Relevant After 50, In The Age of AI? (/can-you-stay-relevant-after-50-in-the-age-of-ai/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 33 Personal Development Blogs To Read in 2010 URL: https://dragosroua.com/33-blogs-to-read-in-2010-2.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/33-blogs-to-read-in-2010-2/ Published: 2010-01-02 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 58 Categories: Blogging Tags: blogging journey, list post, networking *November 2025 update – I keep this content for historical reasons, but most of the blogs mentioned here are not active anymore. Keep reading or a historical perspective, and feel free to browse the personal development (/category/personal-development/) category here for more updated content.* It's been an incredible 2009 (/100-things-i-did-in-2009/) for me and I'm sure for many of us. I've done more than I could ever imagine in 2009 and the time has come to give proper credit to my inspiration sources. I was never alone in this journey. On the contrary, I've been honored with warm, strong and continuous support from my friends. This post is to spread the word about their wonderful work. ## 1. Change Your Thoughts Energetic, precise and supportive, Steven, from *Change Your Thoughts*, was one of the closest online friends during 2009. His blog is one of the fastest growing self-improvement blogs in the world right now. Subscribe, read and enjoy, if you are even remotely thinking to improve your life, this is the spot to start. *Blog Address:* StevenAitchison.co.uk (http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/)* * ## 2. AdvanceLifeSkills.com Jonathan, from *Advanced Life Skills*, was an incredible support for me during this year. His blog is one of the most balanced and well written in the self-improvement niche. Not only he was updating it like clockwork, but the quality of the articles was steadily growing up. Check out his ebook, by the way, you'll be pleasantly surprised. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* ## 3. QuantumLearning.pl Ian Peatey, from *Quantum Learning*, was one of the first self improvement bloggers I met in real life. And we started a very fulfilling real life friendship. His writing has the rare quality of being both healing and motivating at the same time. If you're looking for the best source of nonviolent communication, his blog is THE blog. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address: *QuantumLearning.pl* * ## 4. RatRaceTrap.com Stephen, from *Rat Race Trap*, is another constant and reliable online friend of mine, He writes about self-improvement, brain improvement techniques, achieving success and goal setting. And not only. I highly recommend reading his blog, if only to escape from our daily rat race trap every once in a while. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* RatRaceTrap.com* * ## 5. SidSavara.com Sid is one of the first online friends with whom I agreed to disagree. Although we were quite opinionated on a specific topic, and none of us would quit their position, we found a way to keep a very solid online friendship. His blog is neat, clean and filled with well thought information. A must read in self improvement. *Blog Address:* SidSavara.com (http://www.sidsavara.com)* * ## 6. LearnThis.ca Mike, from *Learn This*, owns one of the first blogs I started to read this year and it paid a lot. He was behind my first huge list post (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/) – which started as a challenge from him – and he as also one of the top commenters in my blog. He writes about leadership and self improvement. And he writes very well about that. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address: *LearnThis.ca ## 7. NakedInEden.com Robin, from *Naked in Eden*, is an incredibly warm, authentic and powerful woman. Her writing is so powerful that I seldom spend less than 30 minutes on her blog. Recently, she got a book publishing deal, which means we're all fortunated: we're going to read even more from her. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* NakedInEden.com ## 8. TimelessInformation.com Armen, from *Timeless Information*, writes about personal development, leadership and a lot of other self-improvement related topics. I was attracted by his boldness and lack of inhibition as well as by his alert and well-documented writing style. Be sure to take your daily dose of mental energy. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* TimelessInformation.com ## 9. FreeStyleMind.com Oscar is relatively new in my circle of online friends, it was only in the last few months that I started to follow his blog. Not only we share the fact that English is not our primary language (his primary being Italian, mine being Romanian) but we do share a lot of common ideas about self-improvement. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address: *FreeStyleMind.com ## 10. LiteMind.com Luciano, from *Lite Mind*, was such an inspiration this year. His structured blog helped me to better organize my ideas and also made me ponder a lot. Thought provoking and neat, this is how you could describe his very popular blog. Not to mention his crazy challenges, like crafting lists of 100 items (/100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life/). *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* LiteMind.com ## 11. MyWifeQuitHerJob.com Steven, from *My Wife Quit Her Job*, is one of the most honest successful online entrepreneurs I ever met. He writes about the adventures of his online business, as well as about how to start, maintain and grow your own online business. First hand information, updated often, a must read resource. *Blog Address:* MyWifeQuitHerJob.com (http://mywifequitherjob.com/blog/) ## 12. CelestineChua.com Celes, from *The Personal Excellence Blog*, was one of my biggest discoveries in the first half of the year. With an elaborate style and a clean perspective, her writing is extremely motivating. She recently started a series of workshops but she keeps updating the blog constantly. *Blog Address:* CelestineChua.com (http://personalexcellence.co) wheel) ## 13. TheDiscomfortZone.com Tim, from The Discomfort Zone, has a rare talent: to write comfortably about the discomfort zone. Don't expect to find the usual paths in his blog, you'll be disappointed. Instead, be prepared to find new approaches, surprising angles and sometimes upsetting situations. It's the discomfort zone, after all. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* TheDiscomfortZone.com ## 14. AbundanceTapestry.com Evelyn, from *Abundance Tapestry*, was a big surprise for me. Not only she writes about abundance in the most simple way I saw, but she is also a qualified Akashic Secret reader. Although brief, our direct interaction was powerful and enlightening. Her writing is simple, but extremely inspiring. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address: *AbundanceTapestry.com ## 15. SomedaySyndrome.com Alex, from Someday Syndrome, is a very gifted writer and also quite a disciplined one. His blog theme, the syndrome of "Someday" is very close to me. As a chronic procrastinator, I suffered a lot from it in my younger days. Highly recommend his blog if you think your life will become better only "someday". As opposed to "right now". *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* SomedaySyndrome.com ## 16. PluginId.com One of the best personal development blogs around during this year. It was often an inspiration for me and definitely one of the blogs I read without skipping any posts. What stands out is the "no bullshit" personal development approach. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* PluginId.com ## 17. Porsidan.com One of the latest entries in RSS feed, Jay Schyrer's *Porsidan.com* is an enlightening experience. The clean and clear blog interface is letting the powerful message to flow away unobstructed. Jay is compassionate, warm and inspiring. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address: *Porsidan.com ## 18. ManvsDebt.com I met Adam Baker, from *ManvsDebt.com* during one of mu trips to New Zealand. Energetic and passionate, extremely confident, I count the days until he will be wildly acclaimed as an A-list blogger in the personal finance niche. If you want to know where your money is, read his blog. *Blog Address:* ManVsDebt.com (http://manvsdebt.com) ## 19. Prolificliving.com Farnoosh, from *ProlificLiving.com* is an incredible person: she writes about living life to the fullest, traveling the world and learning to tango. An amazing and refreshing blog. Be sure to check out her yoga videos. *Blog Address:* ProlificLiving.com (http://Prolificliving.com) ## 20. JungleOfLife.com Lance, from* Jungle Of Life*, was also an early discovery this year. I was a little bit of a lurker, not engaging too much in the wonderful community he created around his blog, but this didn't stop me to take full advantage from what he writes, especially his Sunday Thought for the Day. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* JungleOfLife.com ## 21. IlluminatedMind.com Again, one of the latest additions to my RSS reader, Jonathan Mead, from *Illuminated Mind*, is an incredible energetic writer. Adept of "no bullshit" personal development he's spreading one of the most authentic self improvement messages. Check him out and be amazed. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* Illuminated Mind.com ## 22. ZeenatSyal.wordpress.com Zeenat Merchant-Syal, from *Positive Provocation*, literally exploded a few months ago in the personal development niche. She's an incredibly warm and passionate woman, with a touching message. The more you read her blog, the more you want to open your heart. *Blog Address:* PositiveProvocations.com (https://positiveprovocations.com/) ## 23. QuestforBalance.com Lisis, from *Quest For Balance*, is a distinct voice. The name of the blog says almost everything about what she is writing about. But there is one thing you would find out only by reading the blog: and that's the fact that she is truly passionate about you. Yes, you. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address: *QuestForBalance.com ## 24. Kikolani.com Kristi, from Kikolani.com, writes about the art of blogging and all that comes with it. I was inspired by her series called Fetching Friday, in which she shares tons of interesting links from a variety of topics, from SEO to personal development. You better check this out. *Blog Address: *Kikolani.com (http://kikolani.com/) ## 25. LifeToolkit.net Maria Galca, a fellow Romanian coach, shares at *Life Toolkit* her life experiences. Although the blog is pretty young, I can tell that, if a certain amount of constant work will go into it (and from what I saw, it will go) we will all witness a new bright star in the personal development niche pretty soon. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* LifeToolkit.net ## 26. Bunnygotblog.com Sophia, from *Bunny got Blog*, was one of the most interesting bloggers I met this year. He writes about famous people, about her life and her challenges. And she does it in a very honest way. By far one of the most authentic voices I heard last year. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* BunnyGotBlog.com ## 27. JennyMannion.com I first met Jenny when I was searching for some health related information. She writes about healing, reconnection and law of attraction in the most sincere and warm way you can imagine. Every time I read her blog I am inspired. *Blog Address: *JennyMannion.com (https://jennymannion.com) ## 28. Upgraderality.com I met Diggy, from *Upgrade Reality*, through Glenn Allsop. They both share the same passion for life and they both write in the same persuasive and direct way. From what I saw so far, his blog is made upon a very successful recipe. Keep an eye on it. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* Upgradereality.com ## 29. Smallbizbee.com Matt, from *Small Biz Bee*, was one of my partners in my first massive guest posting (/massive-guest-posting/) project. He makes a big deal out of small business, as he often likes to say it, and he's doing this very well. If interested in small business trends and info, do check it out. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* SmallBizBee.com ## 30 Inspiredmag.com That was a very nice surprise. I'm not a fan of online magazines, but this one proved to be quite different from what I knew. It's a source of daily inspiration mainly for graphic designers but also for many human creatives, as they say. Highly recommend, refreshing reading and interface. *November 2025 update – seems like this blog is not active anymore.* *Blog Address:* Inspiredm.com ## A -Listers We all know them and we read them for years. They helped me quite a lot during 2009 and I felt the need to mention their work here. ## StevePavlina.com I met Steve personally during his live workshop in Vegas, in October last year. The workshop was a great experience. Combine this with Steve's inspiring writing and you'll find out why I still follow him, although his days as a role model for me are over for a long time. *Blog Address: *StevePavlina.com (http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/) ## ZenHabits.net I was quite surprised when Leo from ZenHabits left a comment on my blog this year. It took me a while then to realize that even A-listers are just people, like any of us. Leo made me understand with that comment that success is something from within, regardless of outside validation. *Blog Address:* ZenHabits.net (http://zenhabits.net) ## FourHourWorkWeek.com Tim Ferris continues to be an inspiration to me. Things that still made me read his blog: diversity, travel and self-improvement. Not necessarily in this exact order. *Blog Address:* ForHourWorkWeek.com (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/) *** Incredible things happens when you apply courage to get out of your comfort zone, initiating interaction with other people. A subtle yet powerful energy transfer starts. I've been exposed to all of the people I mentioned above and I've become better because of them. Most of what I did in 2009 (/100-things-i-did-in-2009/) is a direct or indirect result of being in touch with those energy sources. All I can say now is: follow them. And watch your life changing as well. First published on: January 2, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-blogs-to-read-in-2010-2%2F&text=33%20Personal%20Development%20Blogs%20To%20Read%20in%202010&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-blogs-to-read-in-2010-2%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-blogs-to-read-in-2010-2%2F&t=33%20Personal%20Development%20Blogs%20To%20Read%20in%202010 https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-blogs-to-read-in-2010-2%2F&title=33%20Personal%20Development%20Blogs%20To%20Read%20in%202010 Previous ### Real Life: 100 Things I Did in 2009 (/100-things-i-did-in-2009/) Next ### The Most Painful Event Of Your Life (/the-most-painful-event-of-your-life/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 5 Random Words – An AI Storytelling and Image Generation Experiment with Apple Intelligence URL: https://dragosroua.com/5-random-words-an-ai-storytelling-and-image-generation-experiment-with-apple-intelligence.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/5-random-words-an-ai-storytelling-and-image-generation-experiment-with-apple-intelligence/ Published: 2026-02-26 Views: 58 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, iPhone Tags: ai tools, apps, creativity, experiment, ios development, storytelling When I really started to amplify my work with AI (/can-you-really-amplify-yourself-with-ai/), the most annoying thing was the message: "you have hit your quota, usage reset at 3:00 AM". That was Claude telling me I have exhausted all my tokens and I cannot work anymore. I had to stop. Go out and take a break. It felt incredibly frustrating but I had no choice, I had to wait until my quota was replenished. Since then, I started to experiment with on-device inference. Meaning using models on my own machine, and not via APIs, capped by my current subscription. At the moment of writing, this is still prohibitive. My Mac M1 has 16GB of RAM, which makes it barely usable for coding tasks. The best I can do is to use some 3B (3 billion parameters) model, like Qwen, which is roughly usable for task classification, and impossible for real hardcore coding tasks, the kind that I'm using every day. ## The Unexpected Discovery So running inference on my machine basically means 2 things: first, I have to wait until models are becoming more performant (and it seems this is happening now every 6 months or so) and I have to get a better machine, one with at least 64GB of RAM. But while I was researching all these AI configurations, I accidentally stumbled upon something called Apple Intelligence. It's a collection of optimized models which are running on device, and can do decent text and image manipulation. They cannot generate code, or high resolution photos, but they are good enough for low res tasks. Now, if only I can imagine a use case for those… And here's how Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) was born. ## AI Storytelling and Image Generation on device, with Apple Intelligence So, it works like this: the user picks 5 random words from a pre-made list, we feed these words to the on-device text model and instruct it to make a short story out of them – don't ask me about what prompt(s) I'm using, it took me a lot of time to get them right. Once the story is done, feed the story to the image generation model and build an image for that story. Everything stays on device, no API calls, nothing. Looks simple. Well, in the beginning it was. But the more I worked on it, the deeper I went down the rabbit hole. Sometimes I was hitting some model limitations, like the fact that the text model cannot generate output if a person is involved. I don't know why, but it's just how it is. And then I realized the image generation could be further optimized by using different styles and perspectives. So I made a few presets for both styles and perspective. And then there was the UX angle: how much of this is free, and how much is ad-gated? After a couple of days of back and forth I came up with something not only working decently, but significantly… addictive. I know, I'm the builder, I'm supposed to like what I'm building, but still. There is something really addictive about watching how words are becoming short stories, almost like haikus, and then on top of them ephemeral, gentle images are being generated. It's… beautiful. ## The Challenges Apple Intelligence is not available on all Apple devices. You need to be on iOS 18.4 or higher, and have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, and to enable it in Settings. That's a significant limitation and it was the biggest source of friction during the AppStore review process. Initially, the App Review team tested on simulators and it instantly rejected the app. I had to actually send them a message with instructions: test on devices, guys, Apple Intelligence doesn't work in simulators. On top of that, I had to do significant work in the sharing feature. Because what's a beautiful image on my phone, if no one else can see it? Does it even exist? Joke aside, I built 3 different share sheets, for Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, trying to bank on the short form content that these platforms are prioritizing. ## Try It Out! The app is finally live in AppStore, so you can try it out. Remember, you'll need an Apple Intelligence ready device AND need to have Apple Intelligence enabled on that device. Download Just 5 Words for free from here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/just-5-words/id6753934664 (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/just-5-words/id6753934664) – and let me know what you build. Just share on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok and use the hash tag #5Words, I'll keep an eye on that one. All in all, this was one of the most fun experiments I did recently. First published on: February 26, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-random-words-an-ai-storytelling-and-image-generation-experiment-with-apple-intelligence%2F&text=5%20Random%20Words%20%E2%80%93%20An%20AI%20Storytelling%20and%20Image%20Generation%20Experiment%20with%20Apple%20Intelligence&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-random-words-an-ai-storytelling-and-image-generation-experiment-with-apple-intelligence%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-random-words-an-ai-storytelling-and-image-generation-experiment-with-apple-intelligence%2F&t=5%20Random%20Words%20%E2%80%93%20An%20AI%20Storytelling%20and%20Image%20Generation%20Experiment%20with%20Apple%20Intelligence https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-random-words-an-ai-storytelling-and-image-generation-experiment-with-apple-intelligence%2F&title=5%20Random%20Words%20%E2%80%93%20An%20AI%20Storytelling%20and%20Image%20Generation%20Experiment%20with%20Apple%20Intelligence Previous ### Zen Tales – The Buddhist Stories App I Wish I Had 10 Years Ago (/zen-tales-the-buddhist-stories-app-i-wish-i-had-10-years-ago/) Next ### The World After Oil: Can AI Inference Be the Next Reserve Currency? (/the-world-after-oil-can-ai-inference-be-the-next-reserve-currency/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Ways To Say No URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-ways-to-say-no.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-ways-to-say-no/ Published: 2009-10-15 Modified: 2026-05-27 Views: 58 Categories: Productivity and Effectiveness, Relationships and Society Tags: boundaries, decide, how to, list post **2026 Update**: *I revisit this post here (/still-learning-to-say-no-17-years-after-first-writing-about-it/), as part of a 30 day challenge in which I tackle the most viral posts on this blog.* When was the last time when you practiced your "No"'s? Oh, you don't practice your "No"'s? And why is that? Because you're having a hard time saying "No"? Because you feel a little bit embarrassed by that? Maybe because people will turn their back on you if you dare to say "No"? With all due respect, saying "No" it's a vital part of our lives. If you can't do it whenever you feel the need, there's something wrong in the system. You have the right to chose your responses and there's no rule which says they may not contain the word "No". Well, maybe not always in this rather bare and somehow rude form, but with this exact meaning. ### Why Saying No? Because you really have to. Life is made up of choices and, obviously, choices means you can pick whatever you want. Saying "Yes" constantly to everything is not a choice. The same way saying "No" to everything is not a choice. Honestly putting your "Yes" and "No" on what you really want is a choice. Too often people seem to be scared by saying "No". The fear of rejection (/100-ways-live-better-life-81-reject-what-you-dont-want/) overcome the desire of authenticity. There's a subtle, unconscious block which makes you feel like an alien, an outlaw, a loser and a ridiculous person if you dare to openly express your opinion by saying "No". I found over the time that a timely "No" is always better than a squeezed "Yes". And you don't have to be rude about your refusal. In fact, you can craft your own "No" strategy, which, carefully practiced, can give better results than a dumb, submissive and obedient approach. Here are 7 ways in which you can say "No" to people – whenever you feel the need to say "No", that is – and a little bit of background for each refusal strategy. ### 1. I'm Sorry But I Think I've Been There Before *And didn't feel quite good about it. I mean, I totally know what you're offering and I know it's great, but I don't have a very good memory about that. It's not you. it's me.* The focus here is on a previous bad experience with what you're asked to do. You tell the other part you've done that before and you didn't get the expected results. This approach has at least 2 big advantages. First of all, it doesn't challenge the possibility. The other part will know that what he asks was done before. That in itself could sometimes stop the desire all together. People may ask things from you just to see if they're possible. And second, you clearly state your experience with that. In this case, a negative experience. From this point away, once you stated you had a bad outcome, the other part doesn't have many other options. And you didn't even say the word "No". ### 2. You Might Be Right, But My Intuition Disagrees *I really can't talk my intuition into this one, you know. Maybe rationally this seems to be the best thing to do right now, but I just have this feeling… You can't beat a feeling, you know?* Again, this doesn't openly challenge the legitimacy of the proposal: "it might be right". But it doesn't validate it either. What it does though, it puts between you and the proposal a safety cushion called "intuition". Whenever you use words like "intuition" or "feelings" you make things really difficult for the other part. Because everybody trust feelings. Positioning the proposal against your feelings it's something perceived as plain wrong. ### 3. Are You Sure This Is The Best Moment To Do This? *I mean, there are a lot of other priorities on my plate right now and I don't know if I can cope with all that work involved. Really, is this the best moment?* In this case, emphasis is on the time constraint. It's not the actual thing that is refused, but the moment. It's a postponing, in fact, and people are receiving postponings better than refusals. It might be done somewhere, but just not now. The promise of something possible, even in a distant future, as opposed to something totally out of question in the present moment, is something so powerful, that almost anyone will fall for it. Ok, I'll wait. Maybe later. Great. ### 4. That Sounds Fantastic But I Have A Better Idea *Why don't we just do this instead, I think it's much more fun (easy, timely, useful) than doing what you just asked me. Which, by the way, it's fabulous, you know…* This refusal strategy challenge the curiosity in the other person. First of all, you don't go against what they said: "that sounds fantastic", but at the some time you throw a little bait: "I have a better idea". Everybody falls for better ideas. The best thing about this strategy is that you silently change the role of the other person. From someone who commands you to someone who's your partner. You go from refusing something you don't want, to implementing a partnership for something you want. ### 5. Are You Sure This Is Going To Work? *I mean, it sounds a little bit risky. Why don't we settle for something more convenient for the moment, until we see how things turn out. How about that?* This challenges the very core of the proposal, aiming at lowering the confidence of the other part in it. While this is not as effective as the first strategies, it does have a decent success rate. Especially when dealing with bully requests. The approach in this case is to get an armistice until things can get a little better. Usually, the other part will agree, as you don't openly refuse the proposal. With some time on your part you can then wait for a more favorable context. ### 6. Maybe You Should Lead On This And I'll Follow Later *I mean, you seem to really know what you're doing so I really think you're fit to be the first in this one. Just go ahead and I'll be right behind, learning from you…* This is on the verge of playing bad joke, but nevertheless, it has its success rate. Sweet talking the other part end enforcing his leader abilities could sometime create a situation in which he's already doing what he asked from you. Pretending the other part is in charge will often act like a magic mirror: they'll actually start to be in charge and discard your role in the whole situation. The risk is that at some point they'll want to look behind and you'd better be there. ### 7. Read My Lips: "NO" *Is that clear enough for you? It's a NO. Capital letters. Plain, full, simple NO. I'm not going to do this. Period. End of story.* When everything else fails, do this. An open, honest and vocal refuse will most likely surprise the other part, especially if it comes on a history of obedience and submission. You can even get some respect for your strong position. From all the other strategies, this is my favorite. I don't do it very often, because, believe it or not, the other ones are working just great. But every now and then there are some situations when everything else fails. 😉 *** Which one is your favorite? How many of them have you experienced so far? Of course, if you have another one, not listed, feel free to add it in the comments, if you think it's worth. Or you may as well refuse to do so. 🙂 First published on: October 15, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-say-no%2F&text=7%20Ways%20To%20Say%20No&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-say-no%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-say-no%2F&t=7%20Ways%20To%20Say%20No https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-say-no%2F&title=7%20Ways%20To%20Say%20No Previous ### The Trip To Las Vegas (/the-trip-to-las-vegas/) Next ### Pain Is Unavoidable, Suffering Is Optional (/pain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Being A Digital Nomad – A Primer URL: https://dragosroua.com/being-a-digital-nomad.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/being-a-digital-nomad/ Published: 2010-03-25 Modified: 2026-05-21 Views: 58 Categories: Productivity and Effectiveness, Travel and Fun Tags: digital nomad, entrepreneurship, long term travel, remote work, travel **2026 update**: *I revisit this post here (/living-as-a-digital-nomad-revisiting-a-16-year-old-primer/), as part of a 30 days challenge about the most viral posts on this blog.* Ever wondered what being a digital nomad means? For me, this rather trendy (and almost overused) concept boils down to something really simple: a person who's providing value through digital channels but who doesn't have a fixed place to work. Doesn't have an office and most of the time doesn't have business cards either (the new dial tone being twitter (https://x.com/dragosroua), of course). For a digital nomad the world is the office. This person can work in a coffee shop, in a library, in airports or train stations. In today's post I'll talk about my experience as a digital nomad for almost 2 years now. ## Digital Nomad Work Places Let's start with the beginning: 2 years ago I sold my online business (/77-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/) and decided to switch careers: instead of being a CEO with a nice office, I decided to be a personal development blogger without a real office. In the beginning, I worked from home. Redecorated an entire room, bought a desk and a nice chair, put some shelves around, and I was set. Or so I thought. It wasn't long until I realized I didn't feel comfortable at all in this new setup. I traded a down-town office for a home-based office, but in the end all I got was still an office. And it wasn't the location which was actually bothering me, but the whole concept of "office". So, I started to look after other locations for work. I did a lot of trial and error but in the end I come up with quite a nice setup. Here is breakdown of the main points I use for work now: ### 1. Coffee Shops By far one of my favorite places as a digital nomad. Of course, the main feature of an appropriate coffee shop is the internet access: the fastest, the better. The second thing I try to identify in the first few minutes is the power outlet. I don't usually work in chunks bigger than one, one and a half hour maximum, but a power outlet is absolutely necessary, because I may change 2-3 coffee shops per day and at some point I will need to recharge my laptop. I prefer places near the wall, faced to some windows or the main entry. I like to rest my eyes looking outside or just randomly gazing at people going in and out. I drink a tea and sometimes I get myself a sandwich. Some coffee shops have a really nice music and sometimes this thing alone can make a real difference. In coffee shops I tend to do a lot of creative work: writing blog posts, commenting on other blogs, sketching projects or partnerships. ### 2. Real Estate On Demand This is relatively new, only a few months, but is a major shift. I don't know if this concept is implemented in other places but it is in the town I'm living in right now: Bucharest. There's a place called Bucharest Hubb where I can have an office (seldom the same) a chair, internet access and some privacy. I don't have a specific room, I sit down at whatever office may be free. Being an advisor in Bucharest Hubb board I don't have to pay for it, but even if I would, this whole setup is not more than 100 EUR/month. When I'm at Hubb I'm doing a lot of meetings and administrative stuff. I meet new people, I provide advice and doing the consulting stuff. The business-like atmosphere make this a little bit more easier. ### 3. Back Yard I switched the office room for my backyard. I can't work there during winters, of course, but from early spring until late summer, I sit on a bench and just do my stuff while Bianca is playing around. Sometimes I leave the laptop on the bench and do some small gardening. That's the perfect place for doing research. Whenever I have to learn something new or have to dig in after some interesting concepts, doing this in my backyard seems to be the best way to do it. ### 4. Airports Last year I traveled a lot and many of the trips were (very) long distance (/the-happy-tourist-bias-and-why-this-might-be-good-for-you/). Whenever I have to wait in an airport, especially if I was there before, I tend to use the time as working time. I prefer to relax in my hotel room or to sleep in the plane, but while I'm at the ground, I maximize my time by doing something useful. Many of the posts I wrote last year were sketched in the airports. One of the consequences of being a digital nomad is that you're exposed to a lot of new places and experiences and that makes for an almost endless source of blog post topics. I remember that last year I wrote around 20 blog posts in airports only. Of course, the same territorial strategy from the coffee shops applies to airports too: hunting for the best seat and locating the nearest power outlet. ### 5. Public Libraries I was doing a lot of work in the public libraries immediately after I sold the company, but I don't think I've been there last year. In the beginning, it seemed like a nice, private and quiet place, but now it feels really dry to me. I love to hear people, to watch new faces and to be able to leave whenever I want, without signing out at the clerk desk. However, I did some of my best programming pieces while working in a library so I might try this again pretty soon. ### 6. Random Places A digital nomad adapts. I carry my laptop around almost all the time so every little pause or glitch in the schedule can be used as a time for work. For instance, I work in my car while waiting for a new meeting or sometimes even in the park, if there's more than one hour between two of my tasks. ## What Type Of Work Does A Digital Nomad Do? Primarily, writing, at least for me. I think 75% of my work right now is writing (in the form of blog posts, blog comments or ebooks). But there is an important 25% which is made by consulting time, programming or interaction (email or social media). But I'm sure there is a lot of other type of digital work which can be done like this: from consulting to affiliate marketing or web development. You know, the type of work which requires only a laptop, a decent internet connection, some brilliant ideas or skills and, above all, persistence. 🙂 I find absolutely mind boggling that we can create value in a structured way while being completely free to move whenever and wherever we want. A digital nomad is by no means a "rejected", or a "misfit". On the contrary, I think being a digital nomad is the way of the future in creating and broadcasting value. Sooner than we think, digital nomads are going to outnumber regular office suits. At least, that's what I think right now. ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. Our work is less and less tied up to a physical location. We can talk with clients while we're visiting Japan (/the-trip-to-japan-first-impressions/), we can write blog posts while we're trekking in Thailand (/trip-to-thailand-the-aftermath/) or we can start to sketch some new iPhone apps while we're on a remote island from New Zealand (/the-trip-to-new-zealand-waiheke-island/). All these are realities, not wishful thinking. And all these are fantastic way to enjoy life more. ## The Very Very Short Digital Nomad Guide To Relationships As you may already wonder, this lifestyle has a huge impact not only on work but on relationships too. Here's a short guide on how to manage these changes. ### 1. Be Focused Every time I have a meeting with a potential client in a coffee shop, something strange happens. First, in 90% of the cases, the client is completely defocused (because he's on foreign land and, above that, on a place which he usually associates with leisure, not with work). Second, they tend to become too familiar and relaxed, so at some point they lose track of the conversation. It's fundamental to be focused and, while still keeping an informal style, be sure you'll always walk out with a list of next actions. Otherwise you just spent two hours of your life pretending you're doing business while in fact you've just happily procrastinated in a coffee shop. ### 2. Keep A Clean To Do List Or whatever thing you use for personal productivity. Virtual relationships (your partners, your social media (/hi-im-media-social-media/) buddies, your remote clients) are as real as you are. Just because you don't have a fixed office to ground you down, this doesn't mean you don't have to keep them informed. Keeping a clean to do list related to the tasks you have to do which involves other people (emails, social media activities, etc) is crucial if you don't want to become a digitally isolated bump instead of being a successful digital nomad. ### 3. Use Digital Icons Of Your Closest Ones You know the wife and kids photo on your desktop? Maybe some writing tools you got as a present from a friend long time ago? Or that clipboard you received at that very special business event? All these are icons which are giving substance to your real life desktop. These are making your workplace feel like home. As a digital nomad you won't have a fixed workplace. But you can make it feel like home ;-). Use wallpapers with your closest ones. Put your personal photos on a slide show using your screensaver. Keep a collection of movies handy on the desktop. And whenever you feel disconnected, take a break and enjoy your personal digital atmosphere. ### 4. Have A Ready Made Explanation Many meetings I had in coffee shops went side-tracked by a wrong answer to the question: "why don't you have an office?". I used to tell a very long story about becoming location independent and being a digital nomad, but I realized this was hijacking the core of the meeting. Instead of being interested on the proposed topics, people started to ask more and more questions about being a digital nomad and so on. Better have a quick and clean explanation of this and then move on. Avoid the trap of: "we're going to set up this at my office" or alike. You don't have an office, but the other guy doesn't need to make a whole story out of it. ## Your Life Will Never Be The Same One of the guys who's rising pretty fast in the blogosphere right now, Glenn Alsopp from viperchill.com said something really interesting: "I used to live around my work, and now I work around my life". This summarizes pretty well the whole concept: the fundamental shift of this lifestyle design is to move from a work-centric perspective to a life-centric perspective. We're all taught that we should have a work first, and then some life. Well, being a digital nomad reverses this situation: you have a life at the core of your existence and on top of it you build some work too. This isn't an easy process. And I don't think it's a process for everybody. Some people need more grounding than others. But some people, yours truly included, need a lot of variety and freshness. Moving your life to the very center of your existence is difficult. Because it requires to answer some difficult questions like: "what do I really like to do?". Or "if I wouldn't have to wake up every morning at 6 AM to get to this stupid job, what time would I wake-up then? And why?". Or, even something like this: "what would people think of me if I don't have an office anymore? Wouldn't I look like a pathetic jobless loser?". All these questions are normal questions. In order to function properly you need self-respect and a sense of social integration. Working strange hours and in strange places will not help you with that, on the contrary, will generate a very predictable alienation. But that's a really small price to be paid once you get in the flow. Choosing to be a digital nomad will impact your existence at virtually all levels. Leaving behind the security of a standard job and of a physical office will not be easy. You may feel confused at times or even depressed. But soon after the adaptation period something interesting will happen (again, if you are the type who needs a constant refresh of your life): you're going to realize that the world is really your office. And that is not a joke. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want. You can chose an "office" with a view to a sea shore, or you can chose an office with a nice relaxing jazz music. You can enjoy your life while still providing value for others. And seeing the world in the process is a really nice add-on to this offer. 😉 *photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/vanz/33425809/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/vanz/33425809/)* ### Related Reading (2025 Update) This post from 2010 has evolved into several deeper explorations: - Location Independence versus Digital Nomads – 3 Key Differences (/location-independence-versus-digital-nomads-3-key-differences/) – I've been location independent for 15 years, but I started as a digital nomad. - The 5 Layers Of Location Independence (/the-5-layers-of-location-independence/) – Nicely layered, almost like the layers in a cake. - Remote Work, The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (/remote-work-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/) – Most of the time, remote work is fun. Most of the time. - Location Independence Is Not A Luxury Anymore (/location-independence-is-not-a-luxury-anymore/) – In today's world, it has become a necessity. First published on: March 25, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Movie Review: The Squid Game URL: https://dragosroua.com/movie-review-the-squid-game.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/movie-review-the-squid-game/ Published: 2021-10-24 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 57 Categories: Movie Reviews Tags: 365 challenge, movies I'm not very quick to jump on hyped movies or tv shows. I remember I saw Titanic 3 years after it was launched. La Casa de Papel, probably after 2 years. So, when The Squid Game appeared on Netflix, I wasn't very keen to watch it. I briefly looked at the trailer, but didn't get past the black and white childhood recollection (as you can see, I'm using generic names for the scenes, trying not to add any spoilers). In short, it didn't really catch up on my systems. But a few days later, I decided to give it another try. I do love Korean cinema, and one of my top 10 ever movies is Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring Again (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spring_summer_fall_winterand_spring), which I probably watched at least 5 times so far. So, with a little bit of expectations, but not too much, I decided to give The Squid Game a second chance. After the first episode, I was hooked. So hooked, that I immediately started to apply my standard anti-binging procedure: never watch more than one episode per evening. I do this every time I sense I am caught too much into a show, knowing that if I get too deep, I literally can't stop. And I kept this procedure until the last two episodes, which I did watch at once. The Squid Game is a 9 episodes series that can be considered a documentary about the human nature. Again, I will not reveal anything from the plot, as I do believe you should watch it with a clean sheet of paper in front of you. That would not be for somehow keeping track of the game (I just realized you may get this impression), but for you to write down your feelings as the surreal story unfolds. Believe me, there will be a lot of feelings. The screenplay is the most consistent part of the production. There are parts where the actual implementation, the actual cinematography, is somehow below the promise of the screenplay. Especially in the second part of the series, some parts are a bit artificial. But that doesn't affect the overall impact of the movie. The series also has an open ending, which suggest there might be another season. Given the fact that the show was number one in Netflix after just one month in all the countries is a strong indicator there will be pressure for a second season. At this point, I'm not sure it will be as good as the first one, but never say never. Many characters are schematic, but the main ones do have depth and consistency. Not in the sense that they are plausible, but in the sense of liveness, of authenticity. Parts expressed by the main character are very common, I am sure many people will recognize themselves in him. All in all, The Squid Game is a 10 out of 10 recommendation. Just a warning that it may be very binge-worth. *Photo by Vadim Bogulov (https://unsplash.com/@franku84?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/the-squid-game?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: October 24, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmovie-review-the-squid-game%2F&text=Movie%20Review%3A%20The%20Squid%20Game&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmovie-review-the-squid-game%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmovie-review-the-squid-game%2F&t=Movie%20Review%3A%20The%20Squid%20Game https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmovie-review-the-squid-game%2F&title=Movie%20Review%3A%20The%20Squid%20Game Previous ### London Bridge Is Falling Down (/london-bridge-is-falling-down/) Next ### We Can Only Connect The Dots Backwards (/we-can-only-connect-the-dots-backwards/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Short Game versus Long Game URL: https://dragosroua.com/short-game-versus-long-game.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/short-game-versus-long-game/ Published: 2021-04-23 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 57 Categories: Financial Resilience, Location Independence, Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, digital nomad, financial freedom, goal setting *November 2025 update: all posts in this series now have enhanced semantic navigation. You can browse all related posts in this specific topic and even have a hub page (/maps-diagrams-series/), from where you can see all of them.* In more pompous words, this blog post could have been titled: “How To Focus On Long Term Goals, While Still Making Sense Of Your Day To Day Life”. Or, even better: “How To Not Lose Sight Of Your Long Term Goals, While Crushing It Daily”. But, in all honesty, I prefer simpler words, and I especially like the subtle meaning of the word “game” here. It adds a significant dose of playfulness to the whole “goal setting” narrative, and I find that playfulness fundamental for a balanced life. ### Table of Contents - Short Game (#short-game) - Long Game (#long-game) - Short Game versus Long Game (#short-game-versus-long-game) - Financial Resilience (#financial-resilience) - Location Independence (#location-independence) - Meaningful Relationships (#meaningful-relationships) Without further ado, let’s dive in. ## Short Game A “short game” focuses on immediate gains, without taking into account the big picture. It enforces an attention-educated mind, and a flawless execution. “Short game” is all about seizing the opportunity, taking advantage of any potential deal and, generally speaking, riding on the wave of “YOLO” (you only live once). ## Long Game A “long game” focuses on medium to long term gains, without taking into account too much the immediate picture. It enforces an investment-educated mind, and a supportive resilience. “Long game” is all about creating predictability, maximizing the long-term profit of any deal and compounding benefits. Living a good life is at the intersection of these two games. I’m not the adept of only one (I don’t think YOLO is better than delaying gratification, or the other way around), but rather of a well thought combination of both. ## Short Game versus Long Game Short game is about instant survival and crisis management, long game is about patience and building up positions. Short game may be exhilarating (and somehow addictive), long game is boring (and needs discipline). Short game is about trying to win the lottery, long game is about compounding small bits into empires. Short game is high risk, high reward for short term, long game is low risk, high reward for long term. Now, let’s see how this plays out in the most important topics I’m interested: financial resilience, location independence, and meaningful relationships. ## Financial Resilience If you read my blog constantly, you remember that financial resilience (/category/financial-resilience/) is “the ability to keep a steady income, regardless of the surrounding context”. How is the “short game” versus “long game” dynamic here? Well, short game is useful in times of crisis. The ability to spot an opportunity is paramount when predictability is scarce. Sometimes it pays off to do reasonably better for the next 2-3 months, until you put up the fires, than to keep trying to build something long term, when you don’t know if you can pay your rent in your current setup. As long as you play the short game only until you put up the fires you should be fine. Whereas long term game is useful in times of predictability. When you already have some sort of stable income, playing the long game should kick in instantly, turning your focus from gratification (or survival) to investment and accumulation. Every time you have a little bit of extra at the end of the month, the long game strategy should put you to invest that extra, instead of spending it. The opposite of the short game here is a low risk / low reward game, which usually means a low paid, but predictable job. The opposite of the long game is compulsive gambling, or compulsive entrepreneurship, in a relentless search of the “big hit” (while not being able to pay rent). ## Location Independence Location independence is not necessarily being a digital nomad (/being-a-digital-nomad/), but the ability to quickly move around, should the current context will become toxic (being it for health, social, political or economical reasons). Short game here is the ability to spot opportunities for changing countries, but for periods lower than 6 months (that’s the standard amount of time you can spend in a country without being considered a tax resident there). As always, this is useful in times of crisis, or when you want to experience the culture and lifestyle of various parts of the world – and you can also afford that, without significant damage to your financial resilience. Long game here is the ability to move in different locations (and safely remain there) for more than 6 months. That entails a whole lot of extra skills you need to develop, like what kind of residence is more appropriate for your skills, what are the large scale trends in the area, where it’s worth building some bases and so on and so forth. The opposite of the short game here is staying in the same place, because you bought a house and you now have a mortgage. But you can’t leave the country if the shit hits the fan. The opposite of the long game here is relentlessly moving from one city to another, in search of the elusive “perfect place”. Compulsive traveling, or trying to fool your daemons with shiny Airbnbs. ## Meaningful Relationships Not to be confused with the search of a “soulmate”, a meaningful relationship is one that can expand the sum of the two persons in the equation beyond the arithmetical value of number 2. A meaningful relationship is usually more about work to do together, than about serendipitous encounters. Short game here means to remain open to whatever life throws at you, in a non-toxic way. It goes without saying that this openness shouldn’t hurt anyone, so it boils down to how you negotiate and establish your commitments. Every once in a while, a relationship opportunity may appear, the kind that is long-term relevant even if its duration is just a few months. Long game here means building up a relationship in such a way that it continues consistently for years. Like a fire that burns slowly, but steadily, it may keep you warm for years, even if it doesn’t have the thrills of a firework. The opposite of a short game here is staying in a toxic relationship, or spitefully single. The opposite of a long game here is compulsive dating, or jumping from one relationship to the next one, in search of a “perfect partner”. First published on: April 23, 2021 ### 🗺️ Maps & Diagrams Series Time Horizons Part 3 of 4 View all 4 posts → (/maps-diagrams-series/) ← Previous Knowledge & Ignorance The Stupidity Map (/the-stupidity-map/) Next → Financial Health The Money Diagram (/the-money-diagram/) #### Complete Series: 1. Goals & Discipline: The Productivity Map (/the-productivity-map/) 2. Knowledge & Ignorance: The Stupidity Map (/the-stupidity-map/) 3. Time Horizons: Short Game versus Long Game (/short-game-versus-long-game/) 4. Financial Health: The Money Diagram (/the-money-diagram/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fshort-game-versus-long-game%2F&text=Short%20Game%20versus%20Long%20Game&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fshort-game-versus-long-game%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fshort-game-versus-long-game%2F&t=Short%20Game%20versus%20Long%20Game https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fshort-game-versus-long-game%2F&title=Short%20Game%20versus%20Long%20Game Previous ### Finding The Center (/finding-the-center/) Next ### The Humble Usefulness Of “I Don’t Know” (/the-humble-usefulness-of-i-dont-know/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Stupidity Map URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-stupidity-map.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-stupidity-map/ Published: 2021-09-11 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 57 Categories: Financial Resilience, Location Independence, Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, decision making, financial freedom, money mindset *November 2025 update: all posts in this series now have enhanced semantic navigation. You can browse all related posts in this specific topic and even have a hub page (/maps-diagrams-series/), from where you can see all of them.* There’s something about maps that appeals a lot to me. They convey in a very simple and concentrated way information that otherwise would have needed thousands of words to contain. I get a particular feeling of clarity when I’m able to put into four quadrants the most important parts of a topic, and start describing the relationship and dynamics between them (btw, I already did this for productivity (/the-productivity-map/) and money (/the-money-diagram/), feel free to have a look at those maps too). ### Table of Contents - The 4 Levels Of Knowledge (#the-4-levels-of-knowledge) - What I Know – Predictability (#what-i-know-8211-predictability) - What I Think I Know – Assumption (#what-i-think-i-know-8211-assumption) - What I Don’t Know – Uncertainty (#what-i-don-8217-t-know-8211-uncertainty) - What I Don’t Know That I Don’t Know – Ignorance (#what-i-don-8217-t-know-that-i-don-8217-t-know-8211-ignorance) - The Bottom To Top Dynamic – From Opaque To Transparent (#the-bottom-to-top-dynamic-8211-from-opaque-to-transparent) - The Left To Right Dynamic – From Passive To Active (#the-left-to-right-dynamic-8211-from-passive-to-active) - The Most Important Part Of This Map (#the-most-important-part-of-this-map) Today I decided to put together a simple one about knowledge. Or, as the title implies, about the lack of it. ## The 4 Levels Of Knowledge Although the title of the post is about stupidity, I will try to describe it, in the beginning, from the opposite perspective, by contrasting it with knowledge. There are 4 levels of knowledge: - what I know - what I think I know - what I don’t know - what I don’t know that I don’t know Let’s take them one at a time. ## What I Know – Predictability The things you know create predictability. Your understanding of processes, actions, relationships between objects and actors, all this is clear to you. Whenever you act from this space, you expect the results of your actions to reinforce what you know – in other words, to be predictable. For example, you know how to read in English, that’s why you’re able to understand what I’m writing now. This is clear and transparent to you and you can easily engage in English conversations. It will always be recognizable to you, predictable. ## What I Think I Know – Assumption The things we think we know are those that, once tried, aren’t always predictable. We don’t get the expected result all the time, but we do get enough of a positives to assume we kinda know what’s going on. For instance, we may think we know how to trade cryptocurrencies. We assume that, we engage in this activity, but, in 99% of the cases, reality contradicts us. We get less predictability, because we overestimated what we actually know. ## What I Don’t Know – Uncertainty Whenever I’m faced with a situation that I don’t know how to handle, I’m experiencing uncertainty. There’s no way to predict how things will turn out, so I’m completely in the dark, and I know it. For instance, I know that I can’t speak Japanese. I tried to understand it, by watching videos in Japanese, and I got zero predictability, it was all opaque to me. So I am aware that I don’t know Japanese. ## What I Don’t Know That I Don’t Know – Ignorance These are the things that I’m not even aware that I don’t know. We usually include here serendipities, coincidences, bad luck and everything that we can’t conceptualize yet. To better understand this quadrant, it’s the place in which all people were before we discovered Earth moves around the Sun, and not the other way around. There are tons of things that we don’t know what we don’t know. For instance, we know that electrons can be entangled in quantum entanglement, but we don’t know why, and we don’t know how. We don’t know the process behind this entanglement. We have no idea what’s going on, and how this affects us. We see the entanglement and we think we know what that is, but in fact we have no idea. ## The Bottom To Top Dynamic – From Opaque To Transparent Things are getting even more interesting when we start to look at the dynamics between all these quadrants. So, whenever we advance from the bottom of the map to the top, we increase transparency in our lives. Our surroundings are getting more predictable, we “see” better. On the right side of the map, we move upwards from assumption towards predictability. The more we verify our assumptions, the more we learn. On the left map of the map, we move upwards from complete ignorance, to uncertainty – the knowing that we don’t know things. The more we understand what we don’t know that we don’t know, and we move it upwards, to the certainty that we don’t know a specific thing, our map is richer. We still don’t know, but at least we know that we don’t know. ## The Left To Right Dynamic – From Passive To Active There’s also a left to right dynamic, in which we increase the level of action we can safely perform. By “safely perform” I mean action that is predictable and doesn’t lead to the end of our lives. When we advance from the bottom left part (ignorance) to the bottom right part (assumption) we start formulating theories and generate a feedback loop. We go from not knowing that we don’t know something, to believing that may actually know a little bit. When we advance from the top left corner to the top right corner, we go from knowing that we don’t know something, to getting proof we actually know that thing. For instance, you are aware that we don’t know cryptography, but you start learning and move that needle to the top right quadrant where you can get predictability when you are operating with cryptography. ## The Most Important Part Of This Map Now, that we have some basic understanding about how our knowledge (or lack of it) works, I will leave you with the map designed at scale (the circles being drawn in direct correlation with the amount of time we spend in each quadrant). ![](/images/maps/stupidity-map-scale.webp) (/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/stupidity-map-scale.png)**The real stupidity map** We are constantly shaped by what we don’t know that we don’t know. We operate with a very limited set of predictable actions, our actual amount of knowledge is very small. We have way more topics on which we pretend that we know what’s going on (which are just assumptions) and we can all agree that we don’t know way more things that we actually know. We live in a state of opaqueness (the world is still a mystery to us) and passivity (we’re moving in a very limited circle, where we can have just enough predictability not to die – and even that is not a given). This should, in theory, make us humble and open to discovery. Should make us thrive to move more and more upwards, to transparency and predictability, but instead, we tend to inflate the 3 smaller quadrants, exaggerating what we already know, pretending to know more than we actually do, and minimizing what we don’t know yet. And that’s why this map is called “the stupidity map”. First published on: September 11, 2021 ### 🗺️ Maps & Diagrams Series Knowledge & Ignorance Part 2 of 4 View all 4 posts → (/maps-diagrams-series/) ← Previous Goals & Discipline The Productivity Map (/the-productivity-map/) Next → Time Horizons Short Game versus Long Game (/short-game-versus-long-game/) #### Complete Series: 1. Goals & Discipline: The Productivity Map (/the-productivity-map/) 2. Knowledge & Ignorance: The Stupidity Map (/the-stupidity-map/) 3. Time Horizons: Short Game versus Long Game (/short-game-versus-long-game/) 4. Financial Health: The Money Diagram (/the-money-diagram/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Real Life: 100 Things I Did in 2009 URL: https://dragosroua.com/100-things-i-did-in-2009.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/100-things-i-did-in-2009/ Published: 2009-12-25 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 56 Categories: Blogging, Travel and Fun Tags: list post, travel, year review It's that time of the year again. Instead of writing my goals for the next year (which I seriously think to ditch altogether) I thought to publish 100 things I made in 2009. Some of them are firsts, some of them are somehow exotic, while some of them are just personal things I did in 2009 and thought are worth remembering. And some of them are just things. ### 1. Wrote My First ebook By far one of the most important things I did in 2009. And also a first. Being a blogger for more than one year is something, but writing a 90+ pages ebook (/30-sentences/) is a completely different thing. I'm happy I did it. ### 2. Saw a Real Geisha It happened in Kyoto (/the-trip-to-japan-kyoto/), a great Japanese city (even more interesting than Tokyo, sometimes). Spotting a real geisha in Gion was like time traveling. I felt like a samurai. I really did. ### 3. Started a Gratitude Experiment Again, a first one. Wrote down for 30 days each things I was grateful for. Although not very spectacular, it was a life changing experiment, read the conclusions here (/the-gratitude-experiment/). ### 4. Hit a Bird With a Plane The first and hopefully the last one. It was a really unpleasant experience. Had to fly from Los Angeles to Auckland and after we hit the bird we got back to LA and had to change flights. ### 5. Attended a Real Japanese Tea Ceremony One of the most profound experiences I had. It can't be explained and it's something difficult to understand until you attend a real one. It's the triumph of beauty and grace over structure and rules. ### 6. Flew Around the World in 2 Weeks It was in September/October: I attended a personal development seminar in Las Vegas and thought it would be interesting to get back by the other side of the world, via Auckland, Bangkokg and Vienna. ### 7. I Did My First Massive Guest Posting Which may as well be the first massing guest posting (/massive-guest-posting/) ever. Massive guest posting means publishing a series of related guest posts on a different blogs, all at the same time. ### 8. Spent A Week in Vegas That was a first. Enlightening, more in the sense of killing a lot of mental representations of that city. It's huge, spectacular and shiny, but in the end it's nothing but just another city (/the-trip-to-las-vegas/). ### 9. Attended a Personal Development Workshop While I was in Vegas, of course, making this a second first, so to speak. I've never attended such aworkshop (/steve-pavlina-conscious-growth-workshop-day-three/) before and it was interesting. Gave me the drive to start my own workshops. ### 10. Hit the Delicious Home Page In every blogger career, hitting the home page of a major social media service (in this case, Delicious) is a big leap. I did it several times in the last few months. Thank you all 🙂 ### 11. Visited La Gruyeres A nice little castle in Switzerland. One of the most beautiful places I've been so far to. The fairy-tale-like atmosphere was extremely strong: made feel like a chevalier. ### 12. Lost A Few Enemies Some of them by ignoring their actions (which eventually exhausted them) some of them by open confrontation. To be honest, I reconsidered the whole concept of enemies during this year: most of the time, they are just reflections of your internal, unsolved problems. ### 13. Learned How To Lose a Fight It's not that difficult, you know. You just have to acknowledge that you're not always right. And even if you are right, it's ok if you're the only one who knows that. Let them think they're smart. Doesn't hurt. ### 14. Created and Held My First Blogging Workshop That was quite of a challenge but I'm glad I made it. It was a complete success (/blogging-101/) and made me realize that personal development happens also in real life, "in the trenches", not only on the blog. ### 15. Visited Tokyo One of the most intense experiences, mainly because of the cultural shock. Very different from what I expected but also extremely engaging. Will definitely go back to Tokyo (/the-trip-to-japan-tokyo/) sometime soon. ### 16. Created and Held My Mentorship Workshop In the same league with the one above, only it was directed towards young online entrepreneurs. Already had two series and the next one, in January, is completely booked. ### 17. Visited Bangkok Another first. Never been to Thailand and decided to go in a rush, on a Monday afternoon. The whole trip to Thailand (/the-trip-to-thailand/) was incredible but visiting Bangkok was somehow special. ### 18. Had My First Real Thai Massage Of course, during my trip to Thailand. It was somewhere near Wat Pho, the temple where the real Thai massage was created and I felt great after the session. I can fall for an addiction to it. ### 19. Visited a Floating Market in Thailand The actual touristic ride was disappointing, but the floating market in itself was very interesting. The Damnon Saeduk floating market (/trip-to-thailand-day-5/) is still a place to visit in Thailand, but I don't know for how long. ### 20. Re-visited Paris I can do it anytime. Visiting Paris for 3 days it's like going on a trip to the Moon for me. I'm very close to this city, don't know why. And don't really bother why, either, I'm just enjoying it whenever I can. ### 21. Visited Versailles For the first time. Again, not even remotely a fan of crowded touristic packages but this part cut away, Versailles is one of the few places on Earth I can always and openly recommend to visit. For its special harmony. ### 22. Ride on an Elephant During my visit in Thailand. I wanted to mention it here because of its contrast with my Western culture, I'm sure it's pretty common in other parts of the world. It was fun. ### 23. Ride a Tuk-tuk Thailand traditional wheel transportation in busy cities like Bangkok. Didn't really intended to, but got caught in semi-adventurous cruise (/trip-to-thailand-day-2/) on Chao Phraya which included some tuk-tuk riding. ### 24. Climbed the Eiffel Tour For the third time. And I could be there every day. I have a huge fascination for high places (sometimes I think it's pretty close to compulsion). Eiffel Tour fascinates me both as a building and as a high place. ### 25. Visited Prague For the first time. And fall in love with it. I couldn't describe why, but the whole atmosphere and the fact that I got there with my family too made it something really enjoyable. ### 26. Ride the Shinkansen Again, this should be put in the "firsts" basket. The Japanese Shinkansed is not only a technical marvel but an incredibly functional and useful transportation tool. Great experience. ### 27. Visited Vienna Meaning I visited it at my leisure. Had fun in Prater and walked around. Again, being there with my wife and daughter made all the difference. It was a fantastic holiday because of that. ### 28. Joined A New Group It's called OpenCoffee and it's a weekly informal meeting for young online entrepreneurs. A year ago I couldn't see myself there. ### 29. Visited Schonnbrunn Along with Versailles, Schonnbrunn should be visited by anybody planning a Europe tour. It's just an important milestone not only in history, but in the way beauty was conceived and created. ### 30. Climbed Petrini Tower in Prague Yes, I already told you about my obsession with highs. In Prague, there is tower named Eiffel Tour because it resembles to the original in paris, but the real name is Petrini Tower. It was fun. ### 31. Climbed Danube Tower in Vienna That was most because of the rotating restaurant on the top. We ate there and had 2 full rotations during dinner. It's fantastic to see Vienna from the the top AND in any direction. ### 32. Flew over the Atlantic for the First Time Another first for me. I already crossed Pacific a few times (during my trips to New Zealand (/the-trip-to-new-zealand/) and Japan) but never been over the Atlantic. Of course this does not compare with a cruise, but still. ### 33. Visited Waiheke Island in New Zealand. Again I can't get enough of that place, period. Every time I'm in Auckland I try to steal at least half a day from my chores to run away with the ferry and just stare at the ocean from Litte Oneroa Beach (/the-trip-to-new-zealand-waiheke-island/). ### 34. Got My First Kindle Which proved to be a massive help in my travels. I'm not using it very often now. Mainly because, as a declared Apple fanboy, I'm still waiting for Apple's tablet which may (or may not) replace Kindle (/amazon-kindle-2-review/). ### 35. Started My Life Management Framework – ADD Which comes from Assess (/add-stages-assess/)– Decide (/add-stages-decide/) – Do (/add-stages-do/). A life management framework should be flexible enough to accommodate whatever life situations you may encounter, from relationships (/assess-decide-do-for-relationships/) to programming (/assess-decide-do-for-programming/). ### 36. Wrote my first 100 items list And that would be 100 Ways To Live A Better Life. (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/) Shortly followed by another 3 (4 with this one). By far one of the most important and effective blogging exercises I ever made. And it's not only about blogging, it's more about getting over your self imposed limitation. ### 37. Visited Budapest As one of the cities in which we stopped in our family holiday this year. Had a very nice cruise on the Danube river and a nice walk on the old part of Budapest (/trip-to-europe-budapest-and-vienna-part-one/). ### 38. Changed the Domain Name of My Blog From edragonu.com to dragosroua.com. That proved to be one of the best decision I made in terms of strategy. Since then, the blog started to grow at a very sustainable rate. More details here (/the-first-year-of-blogging-the-series/). ### 38. Reached One Year of Blogging as a Pro And also shared what I learned in the process. From making money on how I promote it and what were the personal benefits of it. One year of blogging is an important milestone. ### 39. Turned 39 And I tried to share at least 39 things learned through experience. I still find that the way we measure our age is just a number. I think some people can squeeze in 1 year more than others can do in a lifetime. ### 40. Started a 30 Days Exercising Challenge Which ended before even reaching to the half of it because I injured my ankle. After I got better I started to exercise (/starting-to-exercise/) regularly, at least 3 times per week. And I still do this now. ### 41. Learned Another 7 Things From my Daughter Each year I realize so little I know compared to my daughter. We're not here to teach our kids, we're here to learn from them (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl/) what we forgot in the process of growing up: how to enjoy life. ### 42. Quit My Raw Food Diet After 9 and half months. I did mainly for social reasons,. Especially during my trip to Japan I found it extremely difficult to cope with it. I will start it again (maybe not so strict) next year. ### 43. Finished a Year Long Promotion on My Blog That was a very special thing I've done, marketing and monetization-wise. It was a really interesting idea and surely one that taught me a lot. It also became the main source of revenue for this blog. ### 44. Been on Tokyo Tower Also known as the biggest tourist trap in Tokyo. If it wasn't for my highs obsession, I wouldn't even consider to go there. If you're keen on seeing big cities from above, go there, if not, go to a temple instead. ### 45. Attended A Toastmasters Meeting While I was in Vegas. A totally first for me and a very nice experience. Will do it again. ### 46. Slept in A Hostel in Kyoto And felt fantastic. A first one for me but definitely something to consider doing again. I met a bunch of interesting people and had a great time. If I will travel alone again, that would be my first option from now on. ### 47. Met a Personal Development Blogger Friend in Real Life The very talented and supportive Ian Peatey. Became friends. It was my first real networking effort in real life (as opposed to social media). Proved to be a very nice experience. ### 48. Gambled in A Vegas Casino It's been a while since I broke up with gambling (/when-and-why-i-broke-up-with-gambling/) and I'm really glad I did it BEFORE going to Vegas. Had a lot of fun gambling in Vegas casinos, especially since I didn't lose ;-). Wouldn't do it again, though. ### 49. Built a Small Fence in My Front Yard An afternoon project but fun enough to be remembered as a nice thing I did in 2009. Every time I come home I see the fence and I like it. I'm such a DIY junkie… ### 50. Planted a Vineyard in My Back Yard 14 roots and I have great expectations from them. Joking, of course, but happy that all the 14 roots were pretty well during the year. Expecting the first grapes next year, though. ### 51. Ate in Montmartre "Chez Gigi". Twice. Highly recommend his avocado salad. I don't know if it was the pastis or the food but I clearly remember that place as one of the most "fulfilling" to visit in Montmartre. ### 52. Reconnected with My Son It wasn't something big, just the fact that we re-connected and started to talk again. The main roadblock in our relationship (my bad relationship with his mother, that is) is slowly starting to melt. And I'm happy about that. ### 53. Been On an Artificial Island for the First Time It's called Odayba Island, in Tokyo. As every other Japanese attraction is a little bit difficult to grasp at first, but the simple fact I wet my toes in Pacific while sitting on an artificial beach was enough for me. ### 54. Climbed on Top of Sacre Coeur. Again. I think this will be something I would have to cross off my to-do list every time I will visit Paris from now on. Combine my attraction to high places with the challenging climbing and you'll get something I just couldn't resist. ### 55. Reached the Highest Point I Ever Been: Mount Fuji Technically, I wasn't to the top, because the weather sucked and to be honest I didn't see much. But a fact is a fact: I've been much higher than the 2000 something altitude of mountains I had in Romania so far. ### 56. Ate Fondue for the First Time In La Gruyeres, an old medieval Castle in Swizeland. Fondue is a sort of melted cheese you ate directly from a heating device. Didn't make me roll on the floor in excitement but it was nice. ### 57. Officially Got Over GTD Or, in a more flexible approach: I remained GTD over the hype (/staying-gtd-over-the-hype/). GTD is a nice methodology but it was clearly overwhelmed by its own hype. If you need to really implement it, start by going away from it. ### 58. Started a Mastermind Group With Adam Baker from ManVsDebt and Glenn Allsop from VyperChill. I met Adam on a trip to New Zealand and I guess that would make him the second blogger I met in real life. ### 59. Visited a Japanese Zen Temple Amazing experience, again. By reading about those things you barely get a shallow representation. Experiencing a Zen temple in reality was enlightening. ### 60. Saw a Double Rainbow in my Backyard After a summer storm. I can remember it just by closing my eyes. And yes, that was another first for this year, I don't remember seeing a double rainbow before. ### 61. Started a Closed Coaching Group It's mentorship, combined with workshops and coaching. A closed group in which I coach several people at once, smaller than a mentorship class but bigger than a 1 on 1 session. ### 62. Had My First Reiki Session It was a long distance session with a Reiki master located in US. Again, didn't write much about it because, although the results were quite sensible, they weren't pass the placebo effect. Will dive into Reiki more next year. ### 63. Friends and Money Doesn't Work Together It was one of the few disappointments I had during this year. Whenever you get on a different level of income, usually bigger, you should be very careful of who pretend is your friend. ### 64. Learned How To Better Control My Reactions I guess it had something to do with a certain maturity level I reached. Nevertheless, it was clearly a breakthrough for me this year: avoided so many possible fights, misunderstandings or just plain troubles. ### 65. Made A Lot Of Good Friends Most of them online, but, surprisingly enough, a lot of new, real people entered into my life this year. I'm grateful for all of them. I'm always grateful when I make a new friend. A real new friend. ### 66. Learned How To Appreciate Life More Instead of just having money and spend them, which is what most of the people think enjoying life is. Sometimes we need violent events in our lives to realize how much do we really have. I didn't have a violent event in my life, but I realized how much do I have. ### 67. Sailed a Long Tail Boat in Thailand I was only on Chao Phraya, in Bangkok but it was quite an experience. It's not very different form a normal boat, but it's kind of exotic and strange. Also, the whole context was a little adventurous, so all in all was a very nice thing to do. ### 68. Made Pancakes with My 3 Year Old Daughter I suspect she's better than me at this. Nevertheless, we did this on a number of occasions and the result was so tasty that it couldn't resist on the plate for more than a few minutes. Like, really, the pancakes were actually disappearing inside ourselves. ### 69. Started To Host Guest Posts on My Blog Technically, this will happen only next year, but the decision was taken this year. I'm really looking forward to this as it will open a lot of new ways to my online interaction. And not only online. ### 70. Visited Yvoire A nice medieval village in France. I will always remember the little streets and the strange atmosphere. From time to time, Bianca would stop at some of the artisans shops and we ended up buying a lot of worthless little souvenirs. ### 71. Visited Annecy Another French medieval village, this time more commercial. We ate fondue and we walked around the small streets taking pictures and trying to avoid the snow. Both Yvoire and Annecy were parts of our new year trip to Switzerland. ### 72. Witnessed a Glitch in the New Zealand Banking System Meaning my bank made a terrible blunder, debiting my account by mistake. Took me a few months and a special visit to Auckland to straight things out. ### 73. Wrote My First iPhone App Didn't published it. Yet. In fact, there were a few apps ready during the year but none polished enough to worth an upload to the App Store. Writing apps for the iPhone is one of the strangest things I did as a programmer. ### 74. Built A Huge Aluminium Shelve in My Garage The climax of my DIY addiction. Took me more than a week, days of planning and a lot of noise and chaos. It spreads over an entire wall and it's one of my most secrets reasons of pride. Just don't tell anyone. 😉 ### 75. Made Raw Chocolate for the First Time Using cocoa powder, dried dates and cashews. Although it was really tasty I was the only one around to enjoy its benefits. Will do it again soon, I'm sure. ### 76. Ate Onegiri for the First Time If you're living in Japan and read this, you might find it strange, I can admit that. But for me it was a first. I know it's not a big deal – the closest concept to it is the hamburger, I suppose – but for me it was a real nice diet compromise during my visit to Japan. ### 77. Changed My Home Office Room Twice Not even remotely as important as starting my own blogging workshop or flying around the world on a plane, but it was a fact that somehow influenced my working patterns. Now I only have a desk, a couch, a chair and book shelve. And it's great. 🙂 ### 78. Gave My First Interview As A Personal Development Blogger It was on this blog. To be honest, I felt a little bit strange. Been interviewed before, but as an online entrepreneur, when I had my online business in Romania. Well, I guess I'll have to get used to it as a part of my blogging stuff. ### 79. Wrote An Interview with Yourself That's right, you, the reader on my blog. Because you're important, that's why. I wrote 33 questions for an interview with yourself (/33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself/) and I was so happy to see the answers, not only in the comments but on other blogs that picked up this challenge too. ### 80. Been On A Human Powered Amusement Park Well, almost. Many of the amusement attractions were powered by physical human reffort: for instance, in order to make a mery-go-round spinning you had to run on a platform. The park was in Marquartstein, Germany, near the border with Austria. ### 81. Visited Kitzbuehl During Summer One of the most exclusive ski resorts in Europe, Kitzbuehl proved to be a quiet and elegant small city during summer. We saw a local parade and ate at small restaurants. In between, we hiked around the city. Beautiful view. ### 82. Visited a Witch'n Water Park in Austria It's called Hexenwasser and it's almost on top of the mountains. I'm not a big fan of this, but, apparently, Diana and Bianca enjoyed their stay. Dunno if I'm going back but nevertheless it was quite an experience. ### 83. Improved My Self-Discipline Although I quit my raw food diet and traveled a lot, this year I experienced a big leap in my self-discipline. Which means for me: doing as much as you can from what you want, while still managing to have a life. ### 84. Re-ignited My Twitter Account My initial twitter experience, under edragonu, was a little bit of a blunder. Got overwhelmed by all this information and had to stop it and start clean with the dragosroua (http://twitter.com/dragosroua) account. The most important lesson: let it grow organically. ### 85. Wrote My Personal Mission Statement And followed it ever since. That should also go to the "firsts". A few years ago, a personal mission statement (/personal-mission-statement/) would have seem shallow and stupid to me. Now it seems shallow and stupid not to have one. ### 86. Been The Subject of a Random Act of Kindness In between planes, on the Hong King airport, a few months ago, I badly needed an adapter to plug in my laptop. My New Zealand, Thai and Japanese adapters didn't work, Hong Kong had a different one. A stranger who had to leave in 5 minutes just gave me his adapter. Don't know his name, but I thank him. ### 87. Had a Nest of Birds in my House Walls This is really strange: in the spring, a family of sparrows made their nest in a small hole of one of our bedrooms' walls. Every morning we were waking up with the (real) tweeting. Even hold a small sparrow in my hand for a few minutes and so did Bianca. ### 88. Ate Kumara for the First Time During one of my visits to New Zealand. Kumara is a potato variety, but so sweet that if don't wear gloves while peeling it, you get sugar in your hand's skin for several days. It was delicious (my friends there are one of the best cooks I know). ### 89. Had Online Access while Being on a Plane Happened while I was in the US this fall. I was so surprised to actually have online access on the flight between New York and Las Vegas that I barely wanted to try it out, thinking it must be a scam or something. It wasn't. I actually worked during that 6 hours flight. ### 90. Stopped Complaining I still have the "need" every now and then, but overall, I think my complaining times are over. Yes, I hit some things I didn't like this year. Yes, sometimes life is not fair. So what? Learned that if you start acting instead of complaining you may actually have the chance to change something. ### 91. Cruised on Vltava That would be Prague, if you don't know that already. That was one of the funniest cruises I ever had, with a guide sober enough to remember all of the 4 languages in which the tour had to be told, but drunk enough to mix them adorably. ### 92. Published My First Book As in printed it. Again, technically, this will happen next year, but all the bricks and mortars have been laid out this year. Yes, it will be available through Amazon and yes, I will make sure I'll give a link to anyone interested, thanks. 🙂 ### 93. Fully Worked From Home That was my first year ever working fully from home. Yes, I had the workshops which I had to held outside, but other than that, everything was done from my home. I enjoyed it. A lot. I'm not sure if I'm able to come back working on a regular office anymore. ### 94. Made My Own Rules And stuck with them. Some people around were a little upset. Working from home or traveling the world was so different from what I used to do. But, hey, that's life. ### 95. Openly Expressed My Emotions More than ever. Yes, there were some really sad moments this year. Yes, I was angry at times. But I didn't deny my emotions, nor did I tried to avoid them. If you let it inside you for too long, it will rotten. ### 96. Published My First Guest Post On Alex Fayle's great blog. In fact, I published 2 guest posts on that blog and this really helped me understand a lot more about my own writing. I'm going to this more often in 2010. ### 97. Got Introduced To EFT EFT as in Emotional Freedom Technique is an alternative way to reduce stress and improve health. Didn't talk much about it on the blog because I didn't experience it deeply, just got introduced to it. Looks promising. ### 98. Had A Blog Post Translated In fact, there were a few, not only one. Some of my posts were translated in Dutch (http://livingmylegend.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/33-manieren-om-je-dag-te-starten-%E2%80%93-deel-1/), Italian and even Myanmar. Thanks everyone, I'm happy you found value in what I do. ### 99. Had My First Akashic Reading That was a total first for me and a mind blowing experience. I'm not a stranger to the esoteric realm, but this one was all new. Will do it again next year. ### 100. Lived My Life Like A Holiday In the most accurate sense. Work was the same thing as holiday for me during this year. Probably the most empowering thing I did in 2009. *** That was a slice of my life. Feel free to write yours, you'll be surprised how many wonderful things you did. First published on: December 25, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-things-i-did-in-2009%2F&text=Real%20Life%3A%20100%20Things%20I%20Did%20in%202009&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-things-i-did-in-2009%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-things-i-did-in-2009%2F&t=Real%20Life%3A%20100%20Things%20I%20Did%20in%202009 https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-things-i-did-in-2009%2F&title=Real%20Life%3A%20100%20Things%20I%20Did%20in%202009 Previous ### The Sun Always Rises at Dawn (/the-sun-always-rises-at-dawn/) Next ### 33 Personal Development Blogs To Read in 2010 (/33-blogs-to-read-in-2010-2/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 3 Digital Nomad Friendly Debit Cards Compared: Revolut, TransferWise And Wirex URL: https://dragosroua.com/3-digital-nomad-friendly-debit-cards-compared-revolut-transferwise-and-wirex.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/3-digital-nomad-friendly-debit-cards-compared-revolut-transferwise-and-wirex/ Published: 2019-02-18 Modified: 2026-09-11 Views: 56 Categories: Business, Money and Wealth, Travel and Fun Tags: digital nomad, financial freedom, money *2025 Update: there's a new, updated review of digital nomad friendly crypto cards, (/3-digital-nomad-and-crypto-friendly-debit-cards-revisited/) as recent as 2025. It shows what changed, what improved, and who are the new players, including platforms like Bybit (https://partner.bybit.com/b/166571).* Being a digital nomad comes at a cost. And no, I'm not talking about a theoretical, psychological cost, but about a very earthy one: a financial cost. In order to move freely from one place to another, to function in different cultures and setups, you need, simply put, money. But even more than that, you need *frictionless money,* or money that will be readily available every time you need it. Cash will do it, to a certain extent, if you can afford to travel with a lot of cash on you – which, these days, you can't really do – but even better than cash it's a debit card that works everywhere, has a bank account attached that works everywhere, and, ideally, has some degree of crypto currency "friendliness". Introducing the so-called smart debit cards. These are debit cards that come with a lot more services attached than just the ability to do online or offline transactions. In a sense, they are "debit cards on steroids", but some of them are becoming products of their own kind, "inventing" their own niche. As a digital nomad, I rely on them for my finances so I thought it would be interesting to share my experience with 3 of them: Revolut, TransferWise and Wirex. ## Revolut Revolut is probably one of the oldest smart debit cards around. I remember people talking about it 2-3 years ago, but I only really got into it just a year ago. Revolut "works" through a mobile app which is extremely neat and polished. The range of Revolut products, which, at the core, are just debit cards, is quite large, meaning there isn't just one type of Revolut card. Some of these variations are really fancy, like the metal one: a debit card made out of solid metal, with a smart chip and a lot of extra services added. And this the "secret sauce" of Revolut: the plethora of services attached to the debit card. Let's see some: - International health insurance (available only on Premium) – gives you a quite comprehensive health insurance for a good price - Concierge – or access to concert tickets or other goodies (available only on Metal) - Round up saving "vaults" – a service which round up your expenses and add the differences to a "vault", which is just another account where you can store money – a neat way to incentivize you to save - Buying and selling cryptocurrencies – you can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin a lot of other cryptos, you can also sell them, but it's worth noting that you can't withdraw crypto in other wallets - Attached IBAN accounts for a variety of currencies, which means you can get paid from many sources / countries via bank transfers and then have your money readily available in one card - And many, many more that I leave up to you to discover All in All, Revolut is a very good choice if you need to move a lot and get income from various sources. The only major drawback is the crypto currency limitation, but there are other options on the market for that (see below). Revolut has also referral program, that you can check out here (http://revolut.com/r/dragosr5f). ## TransferWise TransferWise started as a money transfer service, and then evolved into a more sophisticated product. Right now, their service called "Borderless account" comes with an attached debit card, which, to my surprise, proved to be very versatile and easy to use. And since we're speaking about user friendliness, I think this is the main advantage of TransferWise. They do provide UK and EU IBAN accounts, just like Revolut, but their strong point is really how easy is to use the app. Because, of course, they also rely on the app to keep you connected with the money on your card. ![Flight Lens app icon](/images/flight-lens-icon-48.webp) If you fly often, I coded Flight Lens (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-lens-traffic-pulse/id6759946030)—real-time flight intelligence with a Pulse Index, delay alerts, and price tracking. TransferWise doesn't come with services on top the financial part, but their financial part is really exhaustive. If you use TransferWise just for moving money around, you'll be surprised how many options you have for it. You can top up your card, or your Borderless account with debit cards, credit cards, bank transfers and a suite of money transfer services completely integrated into their infrastructure. If you need a hybrid card / bank account product, then TransferWise does its job perfectly, without too many bells and whistles, but in a very reliable way. Like Revolut, they also have a referral program, that you can check out here (https://transferwise.com). ## Wirex Wirex is one of the earliest players in the "crypto to fiat bridges" area. After a rather bumpy start, they are now on a steady trend and their services are running well. At its core, Wirex is a cryptocurrency wallet, for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin (and a few other, they are adding tokens very fast) which allows you to exchange them for fiat. And, obviously, you can also buy crypto with fiat that you have there. It does only this thing, but it's doing it reliably. There are also daily limits to what you can purchase, but I find this to be a normal check and balance. It's so easy for people to get caught by the FOMO wave. Although Wirex has a cashback program – meaning that every time you use their card with fiat, you get some cash back in crypto – their fees are relatively high. Nevertheless, if you have some holdings in crypto, you will soon find Wirex an indispensable tool. And yes, they also have a referral program. ## So, Which Is Which? I don't think I got a definitive winner by now, and I don't think there should be any, for what matters. Each product / card is designed for a specific set of needs. If you want to be paid quick and hassle free, then Revolut is your friend. If you do send money abroad yourself quite often, then TransferWise is unbeatable. And if you're into crypto, then Wirex is the choice. First published on: February 18, 2019 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-digital-nomad-friendly-debit-cards-compared-revolut-transferwise-and-wirex%2F&text=3%20Digital%20Nomad%20Friendly%20Debit%20Cards%20Compared%3A%20Revolut%2C%20TransferWise%20And%20Wirex&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-digital-nomad-friendly-debit-cards-compared-revolut-transferwise-and-wirex%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-digital-nomad-friendly-debit-cards-compared-revolut-transferwise-and-wirex%2F&t=3%20Digital%20Nomad%20Friendly%20Debit%20Cards%20Compared%3A%20Revolut%2C%20TransferWise%20And%20Wirex https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F3-digital-nomad-friendly-debit-cards-compared-revolut-transferwise-and-wirex%2F&title=3%20Digital%20Nomad%20Friendly%20Debit%20Cards%20Compared%3A%20Revolut%2C%20TransferWise%20And%20Wirex Previous ### 10 Simple Habits That Will Greatly Improve Your Financial Discipline (/10-simple-habits-that-will-greatly-improve-your-financial-discipline/) Next ### A Digital Nomad Toolkit (/a-digital-nomad-toolkit/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 5 Things Inception Taught Me About Self-Improvement (And No, I'm Not Dreaming) URL: https://dragosroua.com/5-things-inception-taught-me-about-self-improvement-and-no-im-not-dreaming.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/5-things-inception-taught-me-about-self-improvement-and-no-im-not-dreaming/ Published: 2010-08-04 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 56 Categories: Movie Reviews, Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: list post, movies, self improvement I'm not a movie hyper. I don't rush to the movie theater at the first trailer, shaking my head in an uncontrollable enthusiastic crisis. On the contrary. I saw Titanic 3 years after it was launched. Matrix, 2 years after (please forgive me for that, I still took the redpill). Even Fight Club (/the-tyler-durden-guide-of-writing-tyler-durden-enhanced-blog-posts-to-attract-traffic/) came to my DVD collection pretty late. (There is one exception though: Kung-Fu Panda (/7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style/). That one was pretty hot when I saw it.) Anyway, you got the idea. Well, knowing that, I was seriously taken by surprise by my own drive to go to see Inception. I really don't know why I felt this urge. I don't even remember in what context I first heard about it. I just know I did and from that moment I really, really wanted to see it. Now, after I saw it, I suspect that this movie was in fact launched a few years ago. Somebody came into my dream, planted a seed, and that seed grew into an uncontrollable desire to go see the movie… An inception to make me see Inception… I'm joking, of course. Although I wouldn't be surprised if, in a few years from now, the marketing campaigns will start in our dreams first. Anyway, fact is I really liked Inception. Not only I liked it, but, following my uncontrollable passion for self-improvement, I also isolated 5 things the movie taught me. As always, these things are just my own interpretation of the events, and may not be taken as a review of the movie. If we're talking only about the artistic impression, suffice to say that I liked it. Now, let's see what can we learn from it too. ### 1. Reality Is When You Say It Is *In the dream snatchers arsenal, one very important weapon is the "totem". An artifact which behaves in a certain way, and it can only be witnessed by its owner. It's your connection to reality and as **such, it cannot be infected with other people (or projections) presence. It's your own proof that you're not dreaming anymore. Cobb's totem is a spinning top. Every time he spins that top and the top behaves as expected, he knows he's out of the dream. Back to reality, here comes gravity.* That made me think. Not the reality checking process in itself, which is pretty straightforward: you do something expecting a certain result and if it checks, voila, you're in reality. But the mere fact of choosing that reality hook. I mean, you could be in a dream too when you pick that totem. It will still obey the rules of that specific dream-based reality. Every time it will check, it will of course enforce a reality, but that reality could be in fact, just a dream. Reality (/the-reality-within/) is when you say it is. The moment you agree that a spinning top should go round and round until it stops, instead of breaking up into pieces, for instance, you sign a contract with that kind of reality. You anchor yourself in a certain time space continuum. That point will become the gravitational center of your entire world. And that's because YOU made that decision. Your world is built by you. You're making the rules. If there are parts in your life which aren't in sync with what you want, you have the power to make them disappear. Spin your top and see if it checks. ### 2. Time Is Irrelevant *For a dream snatcher, time is behaving differently. Time in a dream will flow slower than in reality. Time in a dream within a dream will be an order of magnitude slower. And a dream within a dream within a dream could make you spend there dozens of years. And for the dream character, that time would not be subjective, it will actually make that character older. It will have real effects.* Whenever you're immersing yourself in something you really enjoy, like a dream you love dreaming, time will expand. Our perception is that it is slow down, somehow. Even more, every time we're doing something we really enjoy, time will actually seem to stop. I'm sure you know the feeling: "oh my, god, I've been doing this for 5 hours? This couldn't be!"… You will be in fact out of time in our normal, sequential perception. We're used to think that time "flows" in sequences of seconds, hours, days, weeks. But the deeper you immerse in life this perception of times weakens, and a new one, quantum based will take place. Time will manifests itself in bursts. A day can last a week. An hour can last a month. And a second can last a lifetime. In a way, time seems to be our measurement unit for things we don't enjoy. Because when we really like something, time will disappear. The more we love doing something, the less time we're "consuming". Passion (/passion-is-power/) is the time killer. Passionately living makes you immortal, in the sense that time will become irrelevant. In other people's realities you may be there for an hour, but within your passionate dream, you will be there forever. ### 3. You Live In A Web Of Relationships *Allegedly, a dream snatcher could sneak in, plant a seed into your mind while you're dreaming, and that seed could expand into an idea. An idea that could change lives, build empires and reboot the world. That idea will feel like it's emerging from your own consciousness. You will treat it like it was your idea. In a way, a dream snatcher could manipulate your consciousness through your dreams.* We're not alone. We're not individual entities, like we think we are. We're interlinked in a web of relationships. We're part of something way bigger than ourselves. We're in a continuous interaction. And this interaction can lead to incredibly huge transformations. Every information you access is in fact a seed that could become an idea. All you have to do is to believe in it, like it was yours. This has an incredibly impact on your life. Now, that you know that every interaction has the possibility to change your life, you will be much more careful. Or at least I hope you will. Every contact you made has the power to influence your dream. Every seed you plant into your brain can become reality, regardless of who let that seed there. Pick your peers wisely. You can influence other people and other people can influence you. The smallest piece of information, like this blog post, could change your life. I may have planted a seed into your mind right this second. 😉 ### 4. What We See Is What We Project *If you enter somebody else's dream, you will notice a lot of persons there. Those persons are not individuals, they are merely projections of that person subconscious. They have human shapes but they are in fact just projections of that persons fears, frustrations, ambitions or repressed feelings. Everything you have in your subconscious will take shape in a dream.* And the ugliest part is those shapes can have a life of their own. Everything which is not processed, dealt with, acknowledged, learned, will stay in your subconscious mind until you will confront it. To an extent, that would make sense: you will deal with those situations later. But it's not that simple. Those projections, those lose ends, those stubs will interfere with your conscious reality. They will mix in. They will obfuscate your vision. What we usually call reality is made almost entirely by our own projections. There is no such thing as an objective point of view. If two persons are looking at a flower, they will both see different things. Because they are projecting different subconscious messages to that flower. For one person, that flower could take the shape of a long time repressed frustration while the other one could see there just a flower. We're creating our reality by mixing in our own unconscious projections. The ultimate honesty is not to accept someone else's point of view, but to understand that what we see is what we are unconsciously projecting. Other people may not even see what we're seeing. ### 5. Kill Your Fears, Free Your Soul *In Inception, one of the main characters lived in somebody else's mind, namely the main character, Cobb, a dream snatcher. Every time Cobb started to dream, he reactivated the presence of his lost wife in that dream. And, as I already mentioned, his lost wife had a life of its own. She often interfered with the other characters and made things really complicated for everybody in those dreams.* It took a lot of courage and patience for the main character to solve this mental presence. It took a lot of personal power to accept his own guilt (/self-sabotage/) and release that presence from his mind. But without this hurtful process, the remains of his own unsolved problems kept him prisoner in an endless power struggle. He couldn't break free. He couldn't even imagine his own freedom. We're not prisoners of walls, we're prisoners of our own fears. And that type of captivity is much worse. We can't even imagine how we could break free. All we know is that we're facing an obstacle we can't overcome. We take that obstacle for granted, we accept it, we even think we deserve it. By shame, by guilt or by social pressure. Until we can't stand it anymore and take the courage to kill our own fears. Every time you kill one of your fears, something will go away from you too. You will lose something in the process. But that's the way it should be: the lost part is the part that kept you from flying higher. *** Are you still in my dream? 😉 First published on: August 4, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-things-inception-taught-me-about-self-improvement-and-no-im-not-dreaming%2F&text=5%20Things%20Inception%20Taught%20Me%20About%20Self-Improvement%20(And%20No%2C%20I%E2%80%99m%20Not%20Dreaming)&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-things-inception-taught-me-about-self-improvement-and-no-im-not-dreaming%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-things-inception-taught-me-about-self-improvement-and-no-im-not-dreaming%2F&t=5%20Things%20Inception%20Taught%20Me%20About%20Self-Improvement%20(And%20No%2C%20I%E2%80%99m%20Not%20Dreaming) https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-things-inception-taught-me-about-self-improvement-and-no-im-not-dreaming%2F&title=5%20Things%20Inception%20Taught%20Me%20About%20Self-Improvement%20(And%20No%2C%20I%E2%80%99m%20Not%20Dreaming) Previous ### 7 Ways To Avoid Pessimism (/7-ways-to-avoid-pessimism/) Next ### 3 Ebooks To Read This Summer (/3-ebooks-to-read-this-summer/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Echo Chambers, Cancel Culture And Their Weird Offspring URL: https://dragosroua.com/echo-chambers-cancel-culture-and-their-weird-offspring.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/echo-chambers-cancel-culture-and-their-weird-offspring/ Published: 2021-06-18 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 56 Categories: Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, communication, social media What you get when you mix echo chambers (hanging out only with people sharing similar opinions) with cancel culture (dismissing people for different opinions)? Here's what happens. The more time you spend in an echo chamber, the more sensitive you become to different opinions. It's very simple: because your opinions get reinforced more often, you tend to believe them more. So you have less of a surface for understanding and integrating different approaches. That's why you chose an echo chamber, in the first place, to get confirmations. So the more you get your own opinions reinforced, the more you reject even the smallest deviations. And here is where it gets interesting: what do you do when you're in an echo chamber, but you still get somehow different opinions than yours? Cancel culture for the win! Reject those who hold even nuanced opinions. It's like the confirmation bubble grows bigger and bigger, pushing away not only opposing views, but even similar, but nuanced opinions. It's so easy to hit the "block" button, right? As time goes by, your echo chamber will become more and more lonely. The lonelier it gets, the better you feel. But – there is a very important but – you will still function under the impression that the "world" is validating you. You limited the world to the boundaries of your chamber, so there is no outside "world" beyond it. That's your reality now. The weird offspring of echo chambers and cancel culture is delusion. Delusion that you are interacting with the outside world, when you're just talking (mostly) to yourself, delusion that you're doing "the right thing" (by steering away from the "pagans"), delusion that the world is actually obeying your moods and whims (because you have the power to control who stays in or leaves from the echo chamber). Of course, it's quite the opposite. You're not interacting with the outside world, you're not doing the "right" thing (you're just being dismissive) and the world will never, ever change because you choose to silence it. It will just keep on keeping on. Facing different opinions, different behaviors, witnessing different choices is a fundamental part of a healthy life. It's uncomfortable. It's annoying. It may trigger anger or frustration. Well, deal with it. You continue to function normally by dealing with your anger and your frustration, not by canceling the source of it. Of course we need tribes, or people with similar values. They are important. But people holding different opinions are just as important. Progress is the offset between the boundaries of our territory, and of the endless space that's beyond that, something that we simply cannot experience without getting out, without stepping out of our comfort zone. *Photo by Austin Neill (https://unsplash.com/@arstyy?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/chalk-circle?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: June 18, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fecho-chambers-cancel-culture-and-their-weird-offspring%2F&text=Echo%20Chambers%2C%20Cancel%20Culture%20And%20Their%20Weird%20Offspring&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fecho-chambers-cancel-culture-and-their-weird-offspring%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fecho-chambers-cancel-culture-and-their-weird-offspring%2F&t=Echo%20Chambers%2C%20Cancel%20Culture%20And%20Their%20Weird%20Offspring https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fecho-chambers-cancel-culture-and-their-weird-offspring%2F&title=Echo%20Chambers%2C%20Cancel%20Culture%20And%20Their%20Weird%20Offspring Previous ### The 5 Layers Of Location Independence (/the-5-layers-of-location-independence/) Next ### The Drop In The Ocean (/the-drop-in-the-ocean/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Live Events URL: https://dragosroua.com/live-events.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/live-events/ Published: 2021-11-05 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 56 Categories: Blogging Tags: 365 challenge, cryptocurrency, networking, portugal Today I attended the second sizable live event in the last 3 weeks. The first one was a marathon (/first-official-marathon-in-the-new-normal/), this one was a conference. It was a crypto related conference, one of the many that are taking place these days in Lisbon. The total audience was in the hundreds, but I guess, in total, at least one thousand people were around the venue. I'm not going to write about the conference per se, but mostly about how it felt to be part of a normal crowd of people after almost two years. It felt damn good. I mean, there were some protocols to be followed, you should have been either recently tested, or vaccinated, to attend. But once the protocols were enabled, and everybody proved what they chose to prove, everything was back to (almost) normal. The only difference was that the venue staff had to wear masks. People were mingling, talking, presenting, listening, laughing, asking questions, cheering, it was a whirlwind of emotions and energies that were freely floating around. We are designed to live like this. Not isolated. Not distanced. Not polarized. Human connection, even as simple as a conference (which for many may have seemed boring or difficult) is one of our best tools for survival. We're social animals and if you take the social dimension out of our lives, there's not much left, really. I left a bit early, because I had prior commitments, but I left energized. If there's something that I want to be related to this day, when I'm going to look back at the 365 writing challenge, is that today was about live events. And their magic. First published on: November 5, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flive-events%2F&text=Live%20Events&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flive-events%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flive-events%2F&t=Live%20Events https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flive-events%2F&title=Live%20Events Previous ### Breathe In, Breathe Out (/breathe-in-breathe-out/) Next ### Autumn Season (/autumn-season/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Manage Your Time As You Manage Your Money URL: https://dragosroua.com/manage-your-time-as-you-manage-your-money.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/manage-your-time-as-you-manage-your-money/ Published: 2008-10-11 Modified: 2025-12-01 Views: 56 Categories: Business, Money and Wealth, Personal Development, Productivity and Effectiveness, Time management Tags: efficiency, money mindset, priorities *Time is money*, that's one of the oldest English sentences I learned. I guess I wasn't even in school, and I remember I knew the meaning of this. And keep in mind that English is not my primary language, I was born and raised Romanian. Years after, I still surprise myself thinking in these terms. There is a common understanding that your time is one of your most precious assets, so you should take good care of it. Interestingly enough, this happens mostly in Western cultures, Eastern cultures seems to have a more relaxed attitude towards time. But even more interesting is the fact that, despite the ubiquity of this saying, almost everybody tries to avoid its message. Don't get me wrong, people are still putting a high value on time, making it a very precious asset, but almost nobody really treats time the same way they treats their money. People are eager for free time, they are making a lot of effort to gain some extra time, but once they get it, they are wasting it instantly, in a way they will never do to their money. In this post I'll try to share a few simple and easy ideas for really keeping your time safely in your wallet, the same way you do with your finances. ### Keep it clean If you are a person moderately rich, I bet your wallet looks like a pharmacy. It's clean and ordered and you know in less than a second where to find the ten dollar bill, as well as the Mastercard you use for shopping only. And even if you are not a moderately rich person, but you have a positive attitude towards money, I bet your wallet is clean and ordered. I know mine is. And I know I have quite a positive attitude towards money. So why don't we do the same with our time? For me, that translates in a very clean and ordered working routine. If time will be sliced into ten, twenty and fifty dollars bills, I would know instantly how much do I have left, and where I find the needed bill every time I need it. Slicing my time in ordered pieces, the same way I did with bills and cards in my wallet helped me a lot. And is such a simple yet powerful analogy: keep your time as your wallet. ### Spend only what you have That, my friend, is very healthy advice. Even if you will apply this only to money, it will make you happy at some point in your life. I tried to keep myself away from credit, partly because I know I have a rather risky attitude (by the way, after 10 years of entrepreneurship and successful business, I still like to embrace risks), and partly because I just didn't feel well about it. That saved me several times in difficult situations, most of them business related, like a tight cashflow or a bad market. If I would have credit in those situations, my life would have been much more difficult. But when you translate this habit into time management, well, you will discover some interesting stuff. Spending only the time you have means to do what you have to, when you have to. Working late hours, for instance, will be a violation of this percept. Because you will be spending the time you simply don't have for work. Even if it seems it's for work, it isn't, it's your personal time. And by using this time for working, you are making a credit. You take by credit from your free time and pour it into work time. Yeap, you know that already: sooner or later you'll have to pay that credit. With interest, of course. ### Buy only what you can afford Although this seems a repetition of the previous habit, there is a subtle difference. In this case, you do spend only what you have. But if you are spending only what you have to buy a thing that you can't afford, well, that's bad. If you give all your paycheck for a fantastic trip to Hawaii, when you get back you'll be in a rather tricky situation: you had the time of your life, but your life needs some fast cash, or you'll be in trouble with those bills… It's the fact that you should correctly evaluate your financial capacity and keep your spending under control. Now translate this for time management: whenever you have a chunk of free time, try to slip in only what you can do in that chunk of time, not more. This comes to correctly evaluate your working and time consumption capacity and keep your procrastination (/7-tips-to-help-you-procrastinate-in-a-more-productive-way/) under control. You might want to stretch that piece of time, but you really can't. You can't stretch a ten dollar bill into a twenty dollar bill, so you won't be able to make an hour from twenty minutes. Don't try to bargain for it, it won't work. ### Save some time Every intelligent people know the importance of the savings. Making deposits, investing in trust funds, buying stocks from profitable businesses, all of these are savings activities. By doing this constantly you ensure that your money won't get devalued and that you can also make some profit out of it. It's a clever move. And I bet you put a lot of effort into finding the best way to save your money. And also you do enjoy spending your savings, right? But I'm not so sure if you're doing the same way with your time. Have you ever thought to save some time for yourself? Have you ever thought to manage your activities in a flexible schedule, so you can quickly step out from the routine and take some time off? Saving the time for yourself is highly rewarding. If you have money deposits or other type of investments that are doing well, why not starting to invest in some time for yourself? Time for personal development, or for leisure, or for family, or just for enjoying life. ### Once spent, stop thinking about it Whenever I buy something, I never look back. That's another healthy habit I have about money. I don't have regrets or second thoughts. If it proves expensive after I bought it, well, so be it, I'll bargain better next time. But once spent, I never think about that money again. I only focus on what's left in my wallet, or on what I can attract by using my skills. If you think at money as raw energy (/money-and-you/), you'll understand that once declined into matter, that energy is gone for good. So once transformed in goods, that money cease to exist, is literally dead. And is so much healthier to focus on life than on death, don't you think? Well, try to do the same with your time. Never look back, never have second thoughts, never regret something, Whatever that was in the past, those times are gone. Of course, you can enjoy memories, you'll always have that, but if you constantly live surrounded by memories, you'll lost connection with this present time. You'll not actually live this life, you'll not allow to the time to manifest into your existence. So, leave the past in the past, and don't fantasize too much about the future, this present time you are living in it right now is actually all you have. ### Use the best tools You’re searching the best banks for your money. You’re buying the best consultancy services and apply for the best credit card deals. Great! So you’re actually using the best tools for your money. Because it is so important to you, right? You just can’t afford to have nothing but the best. But do you do the same with your time? Do you even have tools for managing your time? In the last 10 years I used a variety of tools for time management, starting form paper based systems, to complex digital setups. But I gradually invested in better and better time management systems and processes. I learned the Getting Things Done (/category/gtd) methodology, which is a great process for time management (and even more), and I invested in state of the art tools for implementing GTD (/getting-things-done-with-an-iphone-total-black-belt-productivity/). I try to use nothing but the best to organize my time. Yeap, because it is so important to me, and I can't afford nothing but the best for it. First published on: October 11, 2008 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmanage-your-time-as-you-manage-your-money%2F&text=Manage%20Your%20Time%20As%20You%20Manage%20Your%20Money&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmanage-your-time-as-you-manage-your-money%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmanage-your-time-as-you-manage-your-money%2F&t=Manage%20Your%20Time%20As%20You%20Manage%20Your%20Money https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmanage-your-time-as-you-manage-your-money%2F&title=Manage%20Your%20Time%20As%20You%20Manage%20Your%20Money Previous ### Journaling versus Blogging (/journaling-versus-blogging/) Next ### My Top 13 iPhone 3G Applications (/my-top-13-iphone-3g-applications/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # My Top 100 Self-Improvement Posts URL: https://dragosroua.com/my-top-100-self-improvement-posts.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/my-top-100-self-improvement-posts/ Published: 2013-02-21 Modified: 2025-12-13 Views: 56 Categories: Blogging, Personal Development Tags: list post, self improvement At the moment of writing this post, there are more than 650 articles on this blog. Some of them are about business, some of them are about digital nomading, but most of them are about self-improvement. As I was looking at the most popular self-improvement posts this morning, I realized there’s quite a difference between my own picks and what other people (or intelligent recommendation algorithms by Google or StumbleUpon) are choosing. For starters, many people seem to digest lists posts better. Truth is, the most popular posts on this blog are lists posts. To some extent, I admit I like writing list posts. As a matter of fact, I even wrote a post called 100 Tips On How To Write Huge List Posts (/100-tips-on-how-to-write-huge-list-posts/). But, to be honest, I like more the other ones. The little stories from my life which, all of a sudden, are revealing some deeper meaning, or lead to some sort of a breakthrough. Yet, since this blog belongs to its readers as much as it belongs to me, I have to live with my reader’s choices. So, while I am really thankful for all the traffic I get on my huge list posts, I decided to create a “little” list of what I consider to be the most important self-improvement posts here, including, but not limited to, my huge lists posts too. Be aware that this comes in the exact order of my own preferences, which, obviously, is not the same with the order of your preferences. Before proceeding, though, just a word about the potentially narcissistic perception of this post: I'm not doing this in order to showcase anything, but to put some order in my own writing. You can safely call this "housekeeping". It's good for keeping a house in order, but it's also good to keep my own perspective about what I like from what I wrote over the years. Without further ado, here’s the list of my top 100 self-improvement posts: ### 1. Playgrounds And Balloons An afternoon spent with my little daughter at a playground, a bunch of toy-shaped balloons and lots of insights. Sometimes, we blow so much air into our own illusions that we start to believe they are the real world. They’re not. They’re just balloons. Playgrounds And Balloons (/playgrounds-and-balloons/) ### 2. To Have Versus To Be One of my favorite questions and a few ramblings on the topic. “To have” favors acquisitions, possessions, control, disruptions whereas “to be” favors enjoyment, detachment, freedom and continuity. We tend to bounce back and forth from one mindset to another. To Have Versus To Be (/to-have-versus-to-be/) ### 3. I Can Versus I Do This one is all about words. “I can” is empowering, while “I do” is life changing. There’s a subtle, yet powerful difference between those verbs. As much as we don’t want to believe that, words are becoming actions and actions are creating our entire life. "I Can" Versus "I Do" (/i-can-versus-i-do/) ### 4. How To Run A Marathon The most important thing I did in 2012, that is. A very challenging endeavor, a mind blowing experience and probably the best self-esteem booster I ever had. Sometimes, in the morning, I just look at the man in the mirror and say: “You ran a marathon”. How To Run A Marathon (/how-to-run-a-marathon/) ### 5. The Slow And Almost Invisible Reward Of Doing Things Constantly It’s not about habits. It’s about that point when you’re doing things so easily, that you don’t even notice you’re doing them. They’re so melted into your daily routine that you don’t even remember doing them at the end of the day. Yet, those tiny things can make you so powerful. The Slow And Almost Invisible Reward Of Doing Things Constantly (/the-slow-and-almost-invisible-reward-of-doing-things-constantly/) ### 6. The Book Of Life An iPhone app to record your thoughts, a journal and my daughter writing in that app, day by day. Then, a sudden realization that we’re all writing in our own book of life, only very few are writing in the same language. The Book Of Life (/the-book-of-life/) ### 7. Being A Digital Nomad I live as a digital nomad for about 3 years now. One of the best time of my life, to be honest. The post features a short recap of the good and not so good stuff you get by working your own hours, on your own business, pretty much everywhere you have internet access. Being A Digital Nomad (/being-a-digital-nomad/) ### 8. 100 Ways To Live A Better Life Allegedly the most famous post on this blog. According to my own analysis, it was read by more than 1.000.000 people so far. It inspired a book (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SIQOOQ), which is available on Kindle, iBookStore and Amazon, a book which was even translated into Korean (http://www.yes24.com/24/goods/7845532?scode=032&OzSrank=1). 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/) ### 9. 100 Ways To Screw up Your Life The necessary counterpart of the above post. It's worth mentioning that both books inspired by these posts were the result of a friendly challenge I had with a fellow blogger. The corresponding book (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SIQOOQ) was also translated in Korean. 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life (/100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life/) ### 10. 10 Tango Lessons Learning to tango was by far one of the most inspiring things I did during 2012. There was a lot of time consumed and also a lot of effort (like, you know, it's not that easy, to tango) but in the end, the result was amazing. 10 Tango Lessons (/10-tango-lessons/) ### 11. 33 Questions For An Interview With Yourself Again, one of the most viral posts on this blog. Got translated in a few languages, including Italian. It also features an companion ebook and, basically, puts you in a very uncomfortable position, by asking all sorts of uncomfortable questions. 33 Questions For An Interview With Yourself (/33-questions-for-an-interview-with-yourself/) ### 12. Perfect Versus Better There's always a tension between those two concepts. I never was much into perfect. Always into better. Perfect means dead. Better means… But better read on: Perfect Versus Better (/perfect-versus-better/) ### 13 Learning To Ignore I honestly think that the art of ignoring should be part of the primary cycle curricula in all decent schools. Learning to ignore is fundamental in shaping the universe around you. And not only that. Learning To Ignore (/learning-to-ignore/) ### 14 10 Benefits Of Being A Runner Last year I started to run consistently (the above post about how to run a marathon is an obvious consequence of this new habit). Beyond the physical part of running, there's a very interesting territory of personal development waiting to be discovered. 10 Benefits Of Being A Runner (/10-benefits-of-being-a-runner/) ### 15. 33 Ways To End Your Day This one has been written as a counterpart to the first one, 33 Ways To Start Your Day (see below) which was, again, one of the most viral articles on this blog. Basically, it's about how to create a link between today and tomorrow. 33 Ways to End Your Day (/33-ways-to-end-your-day/) ### 16. 50 Ways To Start Fresh I confess this is one of the articles that I re-read a lot. Because, of course, I have the tendency to start fresh a lot. Sometimes it's because I really want to, sometimes it's because circumstances outside my reach are forcing me. And each time I find this article really useful. 50 Ways To Start Fresh (/50-ways-to-start-fresh/) ### 17. Average Versus Exceptional It was always about being safe versus being better. There's always a risk involved. The more you want from life, the more you have to take risks. Staying low is safer, but, as I learned the hard way, safety doesn't exist in real life, it's an imaginary concept. Average Versus Exceptional (/average-versus-exceptional/) ### 18. The “Magic Fairy” Exercise This post has a special meaning to me: every time I set myself some important goal, I get back to this exercise and try to do it as accurately as possible. Warning: joke inside! The "Magic Fairy" Exercise (/the-magic-fairy-exercise/) ### 19. Living Off The Grid – Or How To Be Free And Still Provide Value Living off the grid is a powerful experience. Notice I didn't say it's a nice experience, but a powerful one. It's quite difficult to be a digital nomad, not linked to any socially accepted structure, but still to provide real value back to society. Living Off The Grid – Or How To Be Free And Still Provide Value (/living-off-the-grid/) ### 20. 33 Ways To Start Your Day Mornings are underrated. There is something magical in starting your day consciously, setting up the vibe for the entire diurnal interval. Small things that can create big consequences. Also, the first post in which I'm accusedof being sexist. Sigh… 33 Ways To Start Your Day (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/) ### 21. How To Catch A Bee One of the most interesting game I played as a kid was to catch bees and then release them. The adults never understand that game. I still remember it with great joy, though. There's an art in catching a bee and then letting go of it. How To Catch A Bee (/how-to-catch-a-bee/) ### 22. How To Avoid Being A Toxic Person In 13 Simple Steps Toxic people are real, just like toxic fumes or foods. Becoming a toxic person is way easier than you think. More often than not we don't even realize we're emitting poisonous gases. That's why I created this simple check up lists in order to avoid getting there. How To Avoid Being A Toxic Person In 13 Simple Steps (/how-to-avoid-being-a-toxic-person-13-simple-tips/) ### 23. No Strings Attached Another afternoon spent with my daughter, Bianca, and her incredibly complicated game which involves strings all over the place. It's the same thing we do to our brains too: we tie one person to a certain context, and then, when we have to clean up, we find it incredibly difficult to undo the entire process. No Strings Attached (/no-strings-attached/) ### 24. The Death Of The Deadline As We Know It I don't like the word "deadline" because it contains the word "death". So, I invented a new one, the "liveline". Now, it contains the word "life" and still has the same meaning. Words are very powerful, we should be more careful when we use them. Also, this is a chapter from my book Natural Productivity – Assess, Decide, Do. The Death Of The Deadline As We Know It (/the-death-of-the-deadline-as-we-know-it/) ### 25. My Top 7 Demotivating Habits Yes, I do have demotivating habits. As a matter of fact, I have more than 7, but I decided to put together a list with the most frequent, just to be sure other will be more careful when they'll spot these in their own behavior. Look, something shiny! My Top 7 Demotivating Habits (/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/) ### 26. Do You Have The “Glass Wall” Syndrome? A nice night in Bucharest, a short walk and a sudden accident in which, believe it or not, I bumped into a glass wall. Because, of course, I didn't see it. And yes, there's a syndrome based on this type of experiences. Do You Have The "Glass Wall" Syndrome? (/do-you-have-the-glass-wall-syndrome/) ### 27. Action Versus Reaction Yes, there's a difference. We're not always acting on our own will. More often than not, we're just reacting to other stimuli. Read on to find out the differences between those two approaches. Action Versus Reaction (/action-versus-reaction/) ### 28. 33 Ways To Get And Keep Yourself Motivated Another viral article, with more than 300.000 readers so far. Motivation was always a big issue for me, maybe that's why I had to find so many ways in which to summon it. I know, motivation is not all, but still. 33 Ways To Get And Keep Yourself Motivated (/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated/) ### 29. 7 Ways To Say No I admit, I was a lousy naysayer. I always find it very difficult to refuse people, because, as a child, I was taught to be obedient and nice. But, in time, I discovered the power of saying "no" to a lot of things or people in my life. 7 Ways To Say No (/7-ways-to-say-no/) ### 30. 14 Ways To Say Yes But then, again, I had to find a way to double my "yes" powers. Saying "no" is very good, sometimes, it keeps you sane sometimes, but the real power of creation comes from your "yes"'s, not from your "no"'s. 14 Ways To Say Yes (/14-ways-to-say-yes/) ### 31. 33 Ways To Feel Better This article is exactly what it says it is: a list of 33 ways to feel better. Sometimes we get so caught in our own routine that we forget how easy is to, you know, just feel better. It doesn't cost anything. It's cheaper than shopping, anyway. 33 Ways to Feel Better (/33-ways-to-feel-better/) ### 32. The Ants Situation A bright morning turned into a mini-nightmare, in which I had to cope with a small invasion of ants. The story features a vacuum cleaner, a few conversations with my daughter, a lot of back and forth and a few insights. Eventually, the invasion was stopped. The Ants Situation (/the-ants-situation/) ### 33. The First Cut Is The Deepest Yes, this is about my first love. We all have one. And, as much as we don't want to admit it, the first cut is always the deepest. We may grow up, we may evolve, we may want different things, but the first cut will always be there. The First Cut Is The Deepest (/the-first-cut-is-the-deepest/) ### 34. 12 Things I Learned By Being A Forex Trader Yes, I've been a forex trader for about 6 months. I consider this to be one of the most powerful self-improvement experiences, especially in terms of emotional control. It also teaches you a lot about the fact that you can't control the circumstances, only the way you react to them. 12 Things I Learned By Being A Forex Trader (/12-things-i-learned-by-being-a-forex-trader/) ### 35. Why We Screw Things Up Believe it or not, because we want to. That's the short version. For the long version you'd have to read the blog post, but it's somewhere along those lines, of course. Why We Screw Things Up (/why-we-screw-things-up/) ### 36. 7 Personal Development Lessons – Kung Fu Panda Style I love King Fu Panda. I actually love the character. It's not your regular hero, all muscles and extra powers. Nope. It's a fat panda. And yet, this panda overcomes huge obstacles and becomes one of the greatest Kung Fu warriors of all time. I'm not kidding you. 7 Personal Development Lessons – Kung Fu Panda Style (/7-personal-development-lessons-kung-fu-panda-style/) ### 37. The Secret Art Of Keeping Cards Castles From Falling Down I love to travel. During one of these long trips, I stumbled upon a very intriguing modern sculpture, on Waiheke Island (30 minutes away from Auckland, New Zealand), a sculpture mimicking a big castle made of playing cards. If you want to know the rest, just read on. The Secret Art Of Keeping Cards Castles From Falling Down (/the-secret-art-of-keeping-cards-castles-from-falling-down/) ### 38. The Lottery Scam You get an email telling you won the big lottery of some country, worth a few millions. But, in order to get your money, you have to pay a certain processing fee. You pay that fee only to find out there wasn't any lottery at all: that's "the lottery scam". Read on to see how this is translating on other levels of our lives. The Lottery Scam (/the-lottery-scam/) ### 39. 5 Things Avatar Taught Me About Self-Improvement Big fan of Sci-Fi or fantasy movies here. Really big fan. When I first saw Avatar, I couldn't believe my eyes. Or senses. So, I had to see it again. And, if you saw the movie, you know it has a really rich story. What follows is what I learned from that movie. 5 Things Avatar Taught Me About Self-Improvement (/5-things-avatar-taught-me-about-self-improvement/) ### 40. 7 Simple Ways To Unclog Your Pipes Yes, it's really about the pipes which sends out our shit. And it was triggered by a real life event: one evening, while coming home, my road was blocked by a car trying to unclog some really big problems with those pipes in my neighborhood. If you don't clean them, they really won't hold, those pipes. And the shit will explode. 7 Simple Ways To Unclog Your Pipes (/7-simple-ways-to-unclog-your-pipes/) ### 41. 5 Lessons Learned From Getting My First Tattoo I admit it took me a while to get my first tattoo, but I consider it one of the best life experiences I had so far. I also never thought I'd be able to extract some life lessons out of it, but, believe it or not, I did it. Oh, an my tattoo is a red and green Scorpio, on my right forearm. 5 Lessons Learned From Getting My First Tattoo (/5-lessons-learned-from-getting-my-first-tattoo/) ### 42. The Other One Tasted Better Another afternoon spent with my daughter, another intriguing situation. What if you buy 2 identical bags of candies and your daughter finds out that the candies in one are tasting better than the ones in the other? When they actually don't, that is. The Other One Tasted Better (/the-other-one-tasted-better/) ### 43. Do You Have Your Own User Manual? I truly think we should all come with some sort of an user manual. Like, you know, "handle with care", " do not expose to extreme stupidity" or, even better, "warranty void if misused". What do you think? Do You Have Your Own User Manual? (/do-you-have-your-own-user-manual/) ### 44. The Subtle Comfort Of The Discomfort Zone Everything worth fighting for is outside your comfort zone, I think you know that already (or otherwise you wouldn't make it the 44th article in this list). But, in my experience, there's also a bit of a comfort in this discomfort zone. The Subtle Comfort Of The Discomfort Zone (/the-subtle-comfort-of-the-discomfort-zone/) ### 45. Why Becoming An Early Riser Will Change Your Life I mean it. Being an early riser will definitely change your life. It will make it a bit unbearable in the beginning, especially if you're not quite "a morning person", but it will definitely make it better afterwards. Why Becoming An Early Riser Will Change Your Life (/why-becoming-an-early-riser-will-change-your-life/) ### 46. 33 Ways To Care Caring is underrated. Way underrated. I'm not talking about big feelings here, but just caring about somebody else. 33 Ways To Care (/33-ways-to-care/) ### 47. 5 Things Inception Taught Me About Self-Improvement (And No, I’m Not Dreaming) As I told you already, I'm a big fan of fantasy movies (and I consider Inception to be a fantasy / Sci-Fi movie). I've really loved that movie, saw it a few times and I'm sure I'll see it again. There's something extremely real about that movie, don't you think? 5 Things Inception Taught Me About Self-Improvement (And no, I'm Not Dreaming) (/5-things-inception-taught-me-about-self-improvement-and-no-im-not-dreaming/) ### 48. Minimum Survival Kit I was a soldier in the Romanian Army. Back in the day, the military service was compulsory. Apart from generating a lot of frustration, the military service was also useful. At least in some ways. Learning to have handy a minimum survival kit was one of these. Minimum Survival Kit (/minimum-survival-kit/) ### 49. The Wrong, The Real And The Right Questions There's an art in finding the right question, you know. If you found it, then the answer is coming up almost magically. But there are all sorts of questions. Some of them are wrong, some of them are real, and some of them are the right questions. The Wrong, The Real And The Right Questions (/the-wrong-the-real-and-the-right-questions/) ### 50. 5 Types Of False Positive People I'm sure you know them, you just get that feeling that the person in front of you, despite the big (somehow forced) smile and despite the motivational quotes generated with an amazing speed, it's not… well, it's not how he wants you to perceive it. 5 Types Of False Positive People (/5-types-of-false-positive-people/) ### 51. How To Be Successful In 51 Easy Peasy Steps By far one of my all time favorites. It's really a list with 51 steps. You really have to take it step by step to get it. 🙂 How To Be Successful In 51 Easy Peasy Steps (/how-to-be-successful-in-51-easy-peasy-steps/) ### 52. Why Less Is More If you're a Linux person, you'll sense the joke in here. If not, read on, it's not required to be a Linux person to get this post. Why Less Is More (/why-less-is-more/) ### 53. Vanity Metrics How do you measure progress? How do you assess your life? How do you decide if you're successful at something? What I found out in this post is that more often than not we're using "vanity metrics". Vanity Metrics (/vanity-metrics/) ### 54. Can You Solve The Puzzle Of Your Life? Another story about me and my daughter and one of her favorite pastimes. In time, we both learned how to solve a puzzle faster and easier. Can You Solve The Puzzle Of Your Life? (/puzzle-personal-development/) ### 55. A Crash Course In The Long Lost Art Of Adaptation Sometimes, we don't need to win. Or we simply can't win. The only solution is then to adapt. To adjust and move on. Alas, we somehow lost this ability. A Crash Course In The Long Lost Art Of Adaptation (/a-crash-course-in-the-long-lost-art-of-adaptation/) ### 56. The Power And Price Of Illusions Can't live with them, can't kill them. That's my take on illusions. There's something so exciting about creating and maintaining illusion and, yet, there's something inherently deadly in following these illusions. There's a power and then there's a price. The Power And Price Of Illusions (/the-power-and-price-of-illusions/) ### 57. How To Invest In Yourself (|And Why) After my first successful exit as an online entrepreneur, I had the chance to choose: whether to invest in other businesses, or in me. I picked me. Read on to understand my reasons. How To Invest In Yourself (And Why) (/how-to-invest-in-yourself-and-why/) ### 58. The Subtle Benefits Of Being Born In The Wrong Place I've certainly being born in the wrong place: Romania, that is. But, in time, I learned that this was more an opportunity than an adversity. A real opportunity. The Subtle Benefits Of Being Born In The Wrong Place (/the-subtle-benefits-of-being-born-in-the-wrong-place/) ### 59. How To Defrag Your Mind In 5 Easy Steps This is one of the blog posts that have been featured in lifehacker.com. Took me by surprise, to be honest. It's really something that I love to do every once in a while. How To Defrag Your Mind in 5 Easy Steps (/how-to-defrag-your-mind-in-5-easy-steps/) ### 60. How To Keep Your Mind Virus Free From the same series as the one above: if our brain could be assimilated to a computer, how would you go about eliminating a "software virus" from it? How To Keep Your Mind Virus Free (/how-to-keep-your-mind-virus-free/) ### 61. The Fine Art Of Making Mistakes If you really look at your accomplishments, at some point you'll realize that almost all of them have been rooted in some initial mistake that you had to solve. We really learn only when we make mistakes. And yes, that's an art. The Fine Art Of Making Mistakes (/the-fine-art-of-making-mistakes/) ### 62. Are You Staring At Me? Imagine a nice afternoon in a Strabucks, good coffee, comfortably working o your laptop, when, all of a sudden, a hoodie guy sits down 3 chairs from you and starts to stare. Nothing more than that: just staring at you. It was intense, believe me. Are You Staring At Me? (/are-you-staring-at-me/) ### 63. 7 Life Lessons From A Self-Taught Programmer I'm a self-taught programmer. Didn't go to college to learn how to code in PHP (and, lately, in iOS) but that didn't prevent me from becoming quite productive in these languages. In the process, I also learned a different kind of lessons. 7 Lessons From A Self-Taught Programmer (/7-life-lessons-from-a-self-taught-programmer/) ### 64. The 6 Stages Of A Failure Yes, that's how many stages I identified in a failure; 6. Apparently, the article was so interesting, that it even generated an interview on the topic. The 6 Stages Of A Failure (/the-6-stages-of-a-failure/) ### 65 Are You The Best Version Of Yourself? If you would be a software, you would think about yourself that you're the best version of it? With all the bells and whistles? With all the features? Or are you perpetually waiting for the next release? Are You The Best Version Of Yourself? (/are-you-the-best-version-of-yourself/) ### 66. How To Be Ridiculous As this blog became more and more popular, I started to have my own grammar nazi. And they were perfectly right: in the beginning, my English sucked (it still happens today, sometimes). Yes, I was ridiculous. But being ridiculous is sometimes required. How To Be Ridiculous (/how-to-be-ridiculous/) ### 67. Is Your Life Blurred? If you ever used a camera, you know what focus means: adjusting the lenses so the pictures becomes clearer. Well, sometimes you need to adjust the "lenses" of your own life, moving back and forth a little, until you make the image crisp and eliminate the confusions. Is Your Life Blurred? (/is-your-life-blurred/) ### 68. Solving The Wrong Problem Solving problems doesn't mean you'll have a better life. Because, you know, sometimes you may solve the wrong problem. And leave the real problem floating around for ever. Solving The Wrong Problem (/solving-the-wrong-problem/) ### 69. What You Don’t Want To Know About Prostitution That post will upset you. It really will make you angry. Because it will tell you something about yourself that you don't really want to hear. What You Don't Want To Know About Prostitution (/what-you-dont-want-to-know-about-prostitution/) ### 70. The Most Powerful Force In The Universe Is The Agreement Everything is created by agreement: your beliefs, your values, your reality. That's the glue that holds the universe together. And you. The Most Powerful Force In The Universe Is Agreement (/the-most-powerful-force-in-the-universe-is-the-agreement/) ### 71. Positive Motivation Versus Negative Motivation Motivation can be achieved in many ways. Generally speaking, I see only two ways: using "positive" and "negative" motivation. Of course, these are just conventions. Positive Motivation Versus Negative Motivation (/positive-motivation-versus-negative-motivation/) ### 72. An Tan Tiri Mogo Dan This is a countdown. It's a text recited by kids when they have to pick one guy from a group or to leave other outside the group. You know the idea. But what's interesting is that this countdown made it all the way to my adult life in unexpected ways. An Tan Tiri Mogo Dan (/an-tan-tiri-mogo-dan/) ### 73. The Master And You You can call this post a game, but it isn't. It's a parable about the Master and the Apprentice, only both the Master and the Apprentice are the same person: you. If it sounds confusing, don't worry, it isn't. Just read on. The Master And You (/the-master-and-you/) ### 74. Taming Monkeys Aftermath In 2011 I did an experiment: I ditched my New Year Eve resolution and, instead, I replaced them with "monkeys": unfulfilled promises that I decided to revisit and solve somehow. This post describes the conclusions of this one year long experiment. Taming Monkeys Aftermath (/taming-monkeys-aftermath/) ### 75. Pain Is Unavoidable, Suffering Is Optional Sometimes it's not ok. Sometimes the shit hits the fan and it spreads all over your life. And it hurts. Like hell. But, as unavoidable as the pain may be, (because you can't control things in your life, that's just an illusion) that doesn't mean you should suffer from it. Pain Is Unavoidable, Suffering Is Optional (/pain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional/) ### 76. Goals And Mechanical Rabbits You know those mechanical rabbits used in dog races? Dogs are released and chase those mechanisms resembling rabbits, until they reach the finish. Believe it or not, we tend to set up goals the same way: once we reach the goal, we have no idea what to do next. Goals And Mechanical Rabbits (/goals-and-mechanical-rabbits/) ### 77. 5 Life Lessons From Kung Fu Panda 2 – The Movie You already know I love Kung Fu Panda. But what you don't know is that I loved the sequel. Not much personal development this time (it was well covered in the pilot, anyway) but a few very interesting life lessons. 5 Life Lessons From Kung Fu Panda 2 – The Movie (/5-life-lessons-from-kung-fu-panda-2-the-movie/) ### 78. The Art Of Setting Great Expectations You know, they say you should never have expectations, but, in my experience, having some great expectations every once in a while doesn't hurt. At all. As long as you know how to properly set them, that is. It's an art of course. The Art Of Setting Great Expectations (/the-art-of-setting-great-expectations/) ### 79. How To Live A Scriptless Life I'm not sure if the words exists, but the meaning of the title is: live a life without an imposed script. Many scripts are engraved in our brains at a very early stage, which makes them very difficult to identify and remove. But not impossible. How To Live A Scriptless Life (/how-to-live-a-scriptless-life/) ### 80. The Inner Bubble I think everybody remembers the Internet Bubble in 2000s. Things were so pumped up artificially, that the stock market exploded. Well, believe it or not, this bubble may happen inside you as well. Feeding too many expectations, for instance, can create a sense of an "inner bubble". The Inner Bubble (/the-inner-bubble/) ### 81. 7 Symptoms You’re On The Verge Of A Burnout As an ex-workaholic, I confess I experienced a lot of burnouts. So many that I kinda developed some specific sense to feel them coming. This is one is for all of you obsessed with work, or just too goal oriented. Sometimes, slowing down will make you speed up faster. 7 Symptoms You're On The Verge Of A Burnout (/7-symptoms-youre-on-the-verge-of-a-burn-out/) ### 82. The Morning Phrase I actually used this for many months. The idea is to create a morning phrase that will shape your entire day, and link it to the exact moment of your waking up. It works. Or at least it worked for me. And it's not very difficult to try out, in my humble opinion. The Morning Phrase (/the-morning-phrase/) ### 83. How Not To Feed Your Daemons We all have them and we all feed them. Those daemons. They ruin our relationships, our careers, our plans. But wait, there's a way. We can actually stop feeding them. We can really starve them to death. Didn't say it will be easy. But it's possible. How Not To Feed Your Daemons (/how-not-to-feed-your-daemons/) ### 84 The Productivity Map If you put on an axis the quality of your goals and on the other one the level of your discipline, you get this productivity map, which creates a few other concepts, like producers, followers, productivity obsessed and so on and so forth. The article is also quite populated with graphics, if you like shiny pictures. The Productivity Map (/the-productivity-map/) ### 85. Personal Development With Dumbo By far one of my favorite blog posts inspired by a cartoon (as you read so far, there are quite a few). I always loved Dumbo and its huge ears. Your biggest liability is in fact your biggest asset. In this case, Dumbo could actually fly by using its huge ears. Personal Development With Dumbo (/personal-development-with-dumbo/) ### 86. Self Sabotage That's the number one cause of my failures. I don't know about yours, but for me, self-sabotage was by far the reason behind every major flop I had in my life. It's real. And it's very dangerous. Learn to recognize its symptoms before it's too late. Self Sabotage (/self-sabotage/) ### 87. 77 Reasons To Love Your Life It's one of the huge posts I wrote in one shot. Believe it or not. I felt so overwhelmed by this feeling of loving my life that words just came out by themselves. The post is just that: a list of 77 reasons to love your life. If there are more, leave yours in the comments, please. 77 Reasons To Love Your Life (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/) ### 88. Pay Yourself First Sounds very egotistic, but it's not. If you're not paying yourself first, how and from where would you have enough to pay the rest too? Altruism is more often than not misunderstood. It's fundamental to have a sense of self-worth and to feed that sense, in order to be able to give it to the other too. Pay Yourself First (/pay-yourself-first/) ### 89. The Spiral Path Ever had a deja-vu moment? I'm not talking about the Matrix here. But a moment when you realized you've been there before, and now you revisit that spot, but in a better shape, much better equipped and more powerful. I call this "the spiral path". The Spiral Path (/the-spiral-path/) ### 90. How And Why We Get Bored Boredom, the final frontier. I'm joking, of course. Or not. Fact is, boredom stems from a very surprising situation: it's not a repetitive situation that triggers it, it's our own low self-esteem. Of course, not everybody agrees, that's why I think you should read and see for yourself. How And Why We Get Bored (/how-and-why-we-get-bored/) ### 91. How To Create A Habit In 15 Days I know they say 21 days are required to form a habit. For me it's less. Here I share what it takes for me to set up, build and maintain a habit in just about 2 weeks. It's not rocket science, it requires just a bit of discipline. The reward is well worth it. How To Create A Habit In 15 Days (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/) ### 92 How To Clean up Your House Yes, it may be about cleaning up your house, but don't expect tips and tricks about vacuum cleaning. As always, the small things in our lives, properly watched and integrated, can become pointers to much deeper insights. How To Clean Up Your House (/how-to-clean-up-your-house/) ### 93 Aggression Recycled There's something primal and powerful about aggressiveness. Just because we instinctively choose to express it violently, it doesn't mean that energy can't be channeled. There's a huge reservoir of unused power in our own aggressiveness, all we have to do is to recycle it. Aggression Recycled (/aggression-recycled/) ### 94. Travel As A Personal Development Tool I've been around the world twice, I visited 10 countries in 4 months and I experienced the thrill of being able to put my finger randomly on a map and say: "I will get there". Travel is not only about leisure, thought, it's a very powerful teacher too. Travel As A Personal Development Tool (/travel-as-a-personal-development-tool/) ### 95. Training Your Focus Your focus is your reality. Whatever you focus one, becomes alive, fills in your perceptions, becomes your life. So, the art of training your focus is in fact the art of creating and shaping your reality. Yes, that thing can be trained. Training Your Focus (/training-your-focus/) ### 96. Working Out Your Money Muscles The simplest analogy when it comes to money is fitness. Making money is just like fitness: first you get really tired and sweat like a pig, but, the better you become at it, the easiest it seems. And, in all honesty, the easiest it is. Working Out Your Money Muscles (/working-out-your-money-muscles/) ### 97 Wasted Power The worst thing that can happen you is to realize you have unlimited power. Because you will have to face some very uncomfortable questions. One of the being, of course: do I really know my life purpose? Do I even have one? Wasted Power (/wasted-power/) ### 98. The Guardians We all have them: small, most of the silent, but very vocal the moment we try to break some of our internal rules. The guardians are the small mental constructs we unconsciously activate whenever we're afraid to become a better version of ourselves. The Guardians (/the-guardians/) ### 99. How To Quit Being A Quitter I was one of them, at some point in my life. So, I know the feeling. Apart from the small gimmick in the title, the post is only about staying there, no matter what. As they say, pain is temporary, quitting is forever. How To Quit Being A Quitter (/how-to-quit-being-a-quitter-2/) ### 100 Unwritten. Yet. That’s right. I dare to think that my 100th best self-improvement post isn’t yet written. To be honest, that gives me one more reason to push forward. Maybe it will be the next one. Or maybe not. We’ll see. First published on: February 21, 2013 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Networking 101 for Location Independent People URL: https://dragosroua.com/networking-101-for-location-independent-people.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/networking-101-for-location-independent-people/ Published: 2026-01-01 Modified: 2025-12-31 Views: 56 Categories: Location Independence, Meaningful Relationships Tags: digital nomad, how to, lessons learned, mindset, networking When you become location independent (/category/location-independence/), your network of people changes drastically from what you had when you lived in a stable place. You no longer have access to your high school friends. You lose touch with colleagues. Those decade-long neighbors, the people with whom you'd established solid contacts over years of shared proximity—they fade into occasional messages, random encounters or annual catch-ups. Your social life becomes significantly more frail. This is why networking for location independent people should be a priority. It's how you discover, nurture, and maintain social contacts that will literally help you maintain your mental health. Here's what worked for me, real insights from more than 10 years as a digital nomad. ## 1. Be Available Being available means going out and actively pursuing social activities. When you live in a stable environment, you take this for granted. You don't even think about networking unless your job requires meeting new people. Otherwise, you're fine with what you have. The context provides everything you need—the office water cooler, the neighborhood barbecue, the school pickup line. But here, in the location independent life, you need to maintain an active approach. Being available means putting networking in your top five priorities, alongside generating income and aggressive budgeting—your financial resilience (/category/financial-resilience/) activities. Social resilience deserves the same intentional effort. ## 2. Be Useful Every time you interact with someone, go out of your way to provide useful information. Whether it's about job opportunities, how to navigate the neighborhood, or how to find promotions at the grocery store on the corner—you're better off if you provide real advice, real data. Something actionable that people actually need. Every interaction is an opportunity to show you have something in your backpack. Some discovery. Some new coffee shop. Some local insight. For instance, I share a lot of insights with my friends about the jjimjilbang (/a-day-at-the-jjim-jil-bang-in-saigon-vietnam/)—the Korean bathhouse—in the neighborhood where I've been living for the last six months. It sounds small, but it helps strengthen relationships and bonds in surprisingly meaningful ways. Don't just take from the network, try to give something back to it. ## 3. Pursue Both Formalized and Unformalized Meetings By formalized, I mean: meetups, organized groups, things through your job context, or anything set up in a structured way. By unformalized, I mean: coffee shops, bars, live events, impromptu gatherings like concerts—anything that isn't a specific networking event. In my experience, the impact of both is about 50/50. Both are important. Both are necessary. Don't only try making friends with the barista from your favorite coffee shop. And don't rely solely on the regular meetups you find on apps in your local neighborhood. You need both. ### A Word of Caution I've found that unformalized events work better for long-term emotional support (/category/meaningful-relationships/), while formalized events work better for long-term business support. This makes sense when you think about the context in which you meet people. At a meetup, everyone's there with some agenda—learning, networking, professional development. At a random bar or concert, people are just being human. The connections form differently. Build both types of relationships. You'll need them both. ## 4. Build Beyond the Couple Let's say you already have a location independent lifestyle within a couple. Your girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, or husband travels with you, and you function well together as a unit. This is already a big step forward. Having a partner will greatly reduce the feelings of isolation, the sense of being lost, and the lack of social connection that can otherwise erode your mental health. However, even with a solid couple life, you still need to go out and meet new people. New people who help you regulate different parts of your activity—the business level, the sport level, the intellectual level. You may have a group you play padel with, a group you play Scrabble with, a group you go hiking with. You might only see these people every four or six months as your travels loop back through certain cities. But they need to be part of your life. The strength of a couple unit is significant. It's vastly better than traveling alone. But in time, even this can be crushed. The pressure of loneliness—when you have no one but each other—can make the whole structure implode from within. The relationship starts carrying weight it was never designed to bear. Every social need, every intellectual conversation, every moment of external validation flows through one person. Take care of the social health of your relationship by building connections outside the couple. Your partnership will be stronger for it. First published on: January 1, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fnetworking-101-for-location-independent-people%2F&text=Networking%20101%20for%20Location%20Independent%20People&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fnetworking-101-for-location-independent-people%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fnetworking-101-for-location-independent-people%2F&t=Networking%20101%20for%20Location%20Independent%20People https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fnetworking-101-for-location-independent-people%2F&title=Networking%20101%20for%20Location%20Independent%20People Previous ### 2025 Year in Review (/2025-year-in-review/) Next ### Don’t Trust, Verify (/dont-trust-verify/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Aggressiveness Recycled URL: https://dragosroua.com/aggressiveness-recycled.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/aggressiveness-recycled/ Published: 2009-02-04 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 55 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs, Success and Wellness Tags: energy, mindset, self awareness You've been there, admit it. You had your share of aggressive thoughts, intentions or even actions. You did at least something in your life with violence and aggressiveness. And now you regret it. Let's stop a little and look at this closer. Because I think in its core, aggressiveness is something that you can use. Or re-use. Or, even better, re-cycle. ## What Is Aggressiveness? Aggressiveness is a violent stream of actions performed in order to change your reality. Behind this rather dry definition is a ready to erupt volcano, and I know it. You also felt it more than once in your life. But the truth is aggressiveness is just something you do in order to change something in your surroundings. And as such, it is a part of your life. More than often I found myself acting aggressively only and only where there was no other way around. Or so I thought. I acted violently after I tried every possible way and had no results, after I did everything I could and my surroundings were still unchanged. Then, as a last resort, I used aggressiveness to break the chain. The bad thing was that in the process some other stuff was broken. This is what happens usually when you become aggressive: you break stuff instead of building stuff. You break glasses, you break windows, some powerful people break even walls and some other people break hearts. And then regret came. That's the aggressiveness pattern: a strong feeling of pressure, a high moment of "fight or flight" which usually triggers the real actions, and then regret. This is how aggressiveness usually works. ## Social Constraints Our society is working now in a very balanced way. The cells of our modern society are more than often educated individuals who know how to deal with pressuring situations. You learn the rules of a peaceful cohabitation from a very young age. You also have external tools or options to chose when you face a threat. Nowadays people seldom find themselves in "fight or flight" situations". So, you don't need to use aggressiveness to normally socialize. But there were times in which society was quite hectic and the normal balance we experience today was a dream. In fact, every major shift in history was a revolution or something like that. Seems that humanity advanced by turmoil rather than organic growth. And turmoil is extremely aggressive. Still, society puts a lot of constraints on the individual. Those widely advertised success mirages and dream like lifestyles can create enormous pressure on a regular guy. Striving to attain high standards is more and more difficult. And when your regular arsenal of tools is empty you get to your last resort: aggressiveness. When the ladder is too crowded you start pushing people away. When your time is limited, you start eliminating "distractions" like friends or even family. When there is only one place for a winner you start to fight every other competitor. Without even knowing, you're in a "fight or flight" situation again. ## Regret After you aggressively achieved what you wanted, you usually assess your current position. And it's always the moment after when you realize that you've broken a lot of stuff around you in this effort. And then came regret. I haven't found any single aggressiveness manifestation which wasn't paired with a good dose of regret in the end. Regret is a toxic emotion. It's a craving for an extinct reality which puts you out of your current reality. Regret means: I want everything to be again  as it was before. That thing it's impossible but the unspeakable need for a comforting surrounding is huge. Regret takes all you energy and invest it in an useless effort to twist your current reality toward the past. ## A Shortcut For More Energy I gave the social constraints example only because it's so easy to see it around you but social pressure is not the only cause for an aggressive behavior. The source of your aggressiveness can be everything that caused you imbalance: lack of comfort, lack of emotional healing, lack of material resources. Every imbalance you experienced can become fuel for your future aggressive behaviors. Every aggressive move aims to change your current reality, to free you from a more or less imaginary pressure. And because of that, aggressiveness is a fantastic shortcut to your inner power. This is something that is always left apart when it comes to aggressiveness, nobody talks about its power, its fantastic forcefulness, its vibrancy. All that sparkle is there, and it's so difficult to find it using other paths. Aggressiveness is a gate to your hidden energy rooms, to your unexpected bursts of stamina, to your effervescence reservoir. In itself, aggressiveness is nothing but pure energy. The only bad thing about it is the direction. Aggressiveness is great energy with bad direction. Why? Because you point it outside, you release it instead of use it. Ever saw an aggressive person actually breaking a wall with his fist? Every noticed the fantastic power around an aggressive person? What a waste! Think what you can do if you could transform that energy into something really useful to you. Imagine the things you can have if all that energy would be accessed, assessed and spent wisely… ## The Alchemical Guide For Aggressiveness So here comes a short practical guide for transforming aggressiveness. In fact, is not for transforming aggressiveness into something else, I'm really not into getting rid of aggression altogether, I really think this is part of our life and must live with it. Is more like tweaking some of its components and turn it into something you can handle, instead of becoming somebody who is used by aggressiveness. ### Assess Your Imbalances Be very honest with yourself and don't refuse things you really want. Hidden desires or unfulfilled self-promises are amongst the most frequent aggressiveness triggers. Your own universe must be at ease, don't twist it just because somebody else want that. Sooner or later you'll want to eliminate the twister and you'll do it in an aggressive way. Just say what you want and try to get it. Being honest with yourself is not only so much easier than to concoct incredibly complicated lies, but is also a great prophylactic. ### Cure Your Imbalances If you don't have something do your best to have it or at least do yourself a service and accept you can't have it and move on. There are only two ways to solve this desire thing: either you get it, either you get rid of it. Being honest with yourself and assessing your desires is great, but this second step needs action. Go out and confront your hidden wishes with your reality. Getting out of your current reality and searching for solutions will not only increase the chances for cure, but it will also give you some fresh insights: maybe you don't even need that, after all. Cure you balances or forget them. ### Accept Your Power You do have a huge power within you. It's the power that breaks the wall driven by only your bare fist. Accept it, make it your friend, feed it. It's your power to transform the world and it's there, don't deny it, don't cover it with fake pinky positive behavior without any support. Positive thinking is good, but you still have the power to break the wall behind you if your positive thinking is not yet strong enough. Just because it's wilder than you can understand, and comes from a darker side of yourself, well, that doesn't make it less usable. It's there, accept it and get ready to use it. Just don't break the wall with it anymore. Try to build something, for a change. ### No Regrets You are the source of your power and you are the author of your reality. You did it. So, why regret it? If it's broken, you can build it up again. Don't waste your time in useless energy traps, regret is toxic. *** Seeing the world on black and white can be disempowering. Just because aggressiveness is usually a destructive pattern, leaving room only for regret, that doesn't mean it can't be used. Aggressiveness is not something outside you, unless you make it be. It's always your inner energy that manifests. Just use it wisely. First published on: February 4, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faggressiveness-recycled%2F&text=Aggressiveness%20Recycled&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faggressiveness-recycled%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faggressiveness-recycled%2F&t=Aggressiveness%20Recycled https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faggressiveness-recycled%2F&title=Aggressiveness%20Recycled Previous ### Managing Abundance (/managing-abundance/) Next ### Working Out Your Money Muscles (/working-out-your-money-muscles/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Learning How To Learn URL: https://dragosroua.com/learning-how-to-learn.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/learning-how-to-learn/ Published: 2021-04-18 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 55 Categories: Productivity and Effectiveness, Success and Wellness Tags: 365 challenge, digital nomad, financial freedom, learning When I got into digital nomading, and later on, into the broader topics of location independence and financial resilience, a consistent part of my approach was to learn new skills. For instance, skills that allow you to generate income without being tied up to an office, or to a fixed place. I still think learning new skills is an important part of this process, but I recently found out there is more subtle, almost hidden layer, that comes before that. I mean, it's still important to master the skills of budgeting or investing, but what's the link between, let's say, generating a part of your income in a passive way, living location independently and maintaining a healthy mental hygiene? All these cover very different areas, apparently there's little, if any, overlapping between them, so obviously, the conclusion is that you have to spend a lot of time even to get to a decent level at any of these. Well, not if you learn how to learn. Exactly. That's the layer that comes before mastering any skill. It's the art of learning how to learn. If you master this art, then you can accelerate the learning of any new skills, and, even more, you can predict when you will be at a good enough level to tackle other skills, or to make significant improvements in your lifestyle (like moving to a better place, or engaging in more rewarding projects or jobs). If you're good at learning, then you can group together seemingly incompatible goals or topics, and make sure you will make consistent progress. ## I Need It Right Now – The Biggest Problem The good news it that learning how to learn is not that difficult, if you really take the time. But the biggest obstacle in learning how to learn is the assumption that it doesn't pay off to learn something so abstract, when the real thing that you need right now is very practical. Why wasting time with these odd things, when all I need right now is to understand what compounding income means, or what jobs allow me to work remote? Well, skills have an expiration date, whereas learning how to learn, doesn't. It may take a little more time, but it will pay off more than any practical skill you want to acquire right now. Because, from the moment you've learned something, a clock will start ticking, measuring the obsoletion of that learned skill. 10 years ago, for instance, PHP was still a decently well paid programming language. But now React pays better (I know React is not a language, it's a framework, that's not the point). And, in 5 years time, I'm sure Python, or whatever AI will use predominantly, will be even better paid than React. So, instead of chasing the next shiny thing, why not making sure you can just learn how to learn, and choose the actual topic when the market condition are ripe. ## Learning How To Learn – A Mini Framework There are many ways to do this, and obviously, a blog post is not enough to cover even a tiny part of them. But a blog post can cover a minimal framework, a set of simple guidelines that will help you implement your own approach in learning how to learn. So, here are the questions that I use to define my playground. 1. How urgent it is? 2. How good should I get at it? 3. What's the risk / reward? 4. What's the cost / benefit? Let's take them one at a time. ## How Urgent It Is? There are two extremes here: I either need it yesterday, or it's a life long process. For instance, if I want to move to a new country (a process which is unfolding as I write this) I need to learn very fast what's the best way to find decent accommodation. Every country has a different approach to this. In Spain, for instance, it pays off to just visit the area where you want to live and try to find a neighborhood real estate agency, and ask those guys. Also, in Spain the commission is split between tenant and owner. In Portugal, you're way better going through internet ads and use an aggressive contacting strategy. The commission here is supported only by the owner, the tenant doesn't pay. All these are details that are important for the transaction part, but there are also details about location, cost of living, transportation, hidden problems, trends, and so on and so forth, all requiring a lot of attention. So, to make a long story short, I prioritize big chunks of time based on urgency. If there is something that is time sensitive, then I prioritize it aggressively, sometimes putting behind other activities that I can safely reinstate once the urgency has passed. To continue the example, I already put my guitar learning process (which I consider to be a life long process) on hold until I solve the accommodation aspect of my move. ## How Good Should I Get At It? This is a very important part, because it basically puts the end to that specific learning activity. There are skills that I should get really good at, like my day job, where I'm sure I will be able handle competition, but there are others at which it pays to be just good enough. To continue the example above, I don't want to become a real estate agent, so once I get to a decent level of understanding of the real estate market, I should just stop the process, free resources (time and brain cycles) and move on to the next thing that I want to internalize. The answer to this question modulates also the assessment periods. How often should I assess my progress? If it's just an urgent one time task, then it's clear that I don't need any intermediary assessment, just dive in. But if the skill is not that urgent, or if the risk / reward balance is somehow skewed (see below) then it pays off to assess often and then discard or increase the allocated time accordingly. ## What's The Risk / Reward? Learning something always poses a risk. The risk of losing time and not being able to use the skill afterwards. This is a question that must come after "how good should I get at it?" and here's why. Suppose I decided to learn some AI frameworks, just to brush up my skills and improve my chances for well paid remote work. After I decided how urgent this is (not very, let's say medium) and how good should I get at it (employable level), I look at the risk / reward balance. In this specific case, the risk is relatively high, and the reward, surprisingly, relatively low. The risk is high because the competition is heating in AI, there are many programmers learning this, and the reward is relatively low because the compensation is not as stable as it is for other lines of work. There are, indeed, many AI companies, but there are also many flops and the area is moving very fast. So, although in the beginning it looked like a promising avenue, after I considered all the angles, it's not that spectacular. So, I just put it on hold, after I got to a decent level (I do know what a GAN is and how to train it, if you wonder). ## What's The Cost / Benefit? This may seem identical with the one above, but it's different. While the question above assesses the overall risk and reward, once the skill is mastered, the cost / benefit looks at actual resources that I have to put it. Most of the time, it's only time, but there are situations in which I have to spend money too, and not just a few bucks. A good AI course can get be between $150-$300 (I'm talking about the ones that can offer you a real certification at then end). And if I need to move (in another city, or another country) then the costs are even higher, including travel expenses, temporary accommodation, sustenance during search for permanent accommodation, and other logistical stuff. This final question actually starts the process. Because it introduces a new variable, the most important one: "can I really afford to learn that?". Too often I am enthusiastic about a new topic, a new idea, a new course that my life would take, but I don't take the necessary time to ask all these questions. And when that happens, I realize I got into something I cannot afford. Being it a relationship, a skill that's simply not necessary for me (I could learn to cook paella, for instance, but I seldom eat paella, and I will never be a chef, or at least I don't see this as a possibility in my life right now), or simply an idea that's too far fetched (I could move to Bali, but I really can't afford this now, and it's not because the finances). Once I assessed that I can really afford (cost) whatever I want (the benefit), then I start the process. ## The Nitty Gritty Is Easier Now, what tools do you actually use to start the learning process, that's not relevant. You can use whatever you like. But what's important, at least in the beginning, until you form a more clear vision about where you're heading (and why) is to always have answers to these 4 questions. Because the better you get at learning how to learn, the easier it would be to tackle more and more complex projects. And succeed at them too. First published on: April 18, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-how-to-learn%2F&text=Learning%20How%20To%20Learn&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-how-to-learn%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-how-to-learn%2F&t=Learning%20How%20To%20Learn https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-how-to-learn%2F&title=Learning%20How%20To%20Learn Previous ### The Most Expensive Things In The Universe Are Not Diamonds (/the-most-expensive-things-in-the-universe-are-not-diamonds/) Next ### Monday Moving Forward – Renegotiate Some Commitments (/monday-moving-forward-renegotiate-some-commitments/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Most Expensive Things In The Universe Are Not Diamonds URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-most-expensive-things-in-the-universe-are-not-diamonds.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-most-expensive-things-in-the-universe-are-not-diamonds/ Published: 2021-04-17 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 55 Categories: Financial Resilience Tags: 365 challenge, financial freedom It's stupidity. ### Table of Contents - The Opposite Of Stupidity Is Not "Being Smart" (#the-opposite-of-stupidity-is-not-8220-being-smart-8221-) - Don't Believe Yourself (Too Often) (#don-8217-t-believe-yourself-too-often-) - Don't Be Ashamed To Change Course (Damage Control) (#don-8217-t-be-ashamed-to-change-course-damage-control-) - Compound Experience (#compound-experience) - Maintain Advisers Around (#maintain-advisers-around) I know you didn't expect this, and I'm sorry. But it's true, and not because I said so. Acting stupidly is the only approach *guaranteed* to make you lose time, money, opportunities or relationships. Compound all of these and you'll see how much you're actually losing by being stupid. That's the bad news. The good news is that, as opposed to diamonds, stupidity isn't forever. Or, at least, it shouldn't be. ## The Opposite Of Stupidity Is Not "Being Smart" I wish I could tell you in a couple of words what's the opposite of stupidity, but I can't. And that's because we oppose stupidity to so many different things, using it as an umbrella concept, covering a plethora of situations. For instance, losing an opportunity qualifies as "being stupid", in our collective mental model. But so does losing a valuable relationship because of bad behavior. Or losing a job because slacking. Or behaving too submissively when we shouldn't, like not standing up for what's ours. Whereas "being smart" is just a combination of knowledge an perspicacity. So yes, I hope you're starting to see how pervasive stupidity can be in our lives, and how expensive it can get. But if the opposite of stupidity is not "being smart", how can we avoid it? How can we outsmart stupidity, if "being smart" is not enough? Well, while I don't claim to have a definitive answer to this question (to be honest, I paid a lot of dues because I was stupid), I do have a little bit of a testimony. I can share at least what worked for me, hoping that it can help you too. ## Don't Believe Yourself (Too Often) Ego inflation is probably the most frequent consequence of acting stupidly. Just because you think you know something, it doesn't mean that something is actually true. We all carry around outdated mental models that we don't even know they're outdated. Remaining strongly coupled to any line of thinking, to any thought school or reality model will make us rigid. Just give yourself the benefit of the doubt somehow. Yeah, maybe you feel like you're right, but what if you're not? ## Don't Be Ashamed To Change Course (Damage Control) Missteps are annoying. But more annoying than a misstep is another one, following it. And another one after that. Yes, you maybe took the wrong path, happens. Just stop. And turn around, or to the right, or to the left, just change direction. There's benefit in accepting your limitations, instead of relentlessly trying to reinforce them, while being constantly contradicted by reality. Try repeating this: "Ups, I was *almost* stupid about that". It sounds way better than "How stupid I was about that", right? ## Compound Experience Every time you survive a difficult situation, something interesting happens: you accumulate experience. Don't let that go to waste. Keep a journal, some records of what you did and review that every once in a while. Stacking up experience on top of experience will eventually create a more light around your path. "When was the last time I faced something similar? And what did I do back then?" Try memorizing these two questions. And use them often. ## Maintain Advisers Around Even if you compound experience, there's only so much experience you can generate, as an individual. And that's irrelevant in front of the sheer randomness with which reality can slap you. That's why it pays back to have a circle of "advisers". They may be friends, mentors, famous people biographies, you name it. As long as their experience is a) complementary with yours b) proven to be successful, these people are worth having around. Or at least it's cheaper to pay them with your time, money or respect, than to pay for your stupid deeds. As you practice this, you will come to the understanding that being rich is not necessarily a question of how much money you have in the bank. Because you can do stupid things when you have money too. As a matter of fact, if you have money and you do stupid things, you vastly amplify those mistakes. I know, I've been there. Being rich is a question of not paying a ridiculously expensive fee for your passage on this Earth. If you manage to do this, the rest will eventually fall into places. First published on: April 17, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-most-expensive-things-in-the-universe-are-not-diamonds%2F&text=The%20Most%20Expensive%20Things%20In%20The%20Universe%20Are%20Not%20Diamonds&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-most-expensive-things-in-the-universe-are-not-diamonds%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-most-expensive-things-in-the-universe-are-not-diamonds%2F&t=The%20Most%20Expensive%20Things%20In%20The%20Universe%20Are%20Not%20Diamonds https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-most-expensive-things-in-the-universe-are-not-diamonds%2F&title=The%20Most%20Expensive%20Things%20In%20The%20Universe%20Are%20Not%20Diamonds Previous ### If It’s Not 100% “Yes”, Then It’s A “No” (/if-its-not-100-yes-then-its-a-no/) Next ### Learning How To Learn (/learning-how-to-learn/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 84. Don’t Take It Personally URL: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-84-dont-take-personal.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-84-dont-take-personal/ Published: 2015-02-02 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 54 Categories: Personal Development Tags: 100 ways series, acceptance, resilience Never. Your world is shaped by your reaction to things, not by the things themselves. Don't get upset, don't think that somebody knows enough about you to have it right. Acknowledge the situation and move on. Many times we are raising our hands to the sky, with bitterness and anger. Why this is happening to us? What did I do to deserve this? Why us, in the first place? Well, because this is how it is, that's why. Don't take it personally. Anger and bitterness are just reactions to external factors. And external factors can always be modified outside your circle of influence. But your emotions, you have total control over them. *Sometimes things are just happening. Accept and move on. * ## What Happens When You Take Things Personally Suppose somebody tells you something. A simple act of communication. He addresses some words to you, in the audible form of sounds. Now, after you hear those sounds, you start to put meaning on them. Your brain starts to create associations, based on previous learning. You begin to reconstruct, in your mind, what the other one wanted to tell you. And you do that based on your own life story, on your own experience, on your own understanding of things. After you identified a certain amount of meaning, after you deressed up those sounds with a little bit of sense, you start judging. You ponder things. In its simplest form, judging is just taking a position, finding a place for yourself in space, like “I’m relating to this”, or “I’m not relating to this”. In its more complex form, judging implies some action, like “I’m going to dislike these words and the person who spoke them and even the social group that that person belong to”. Judging fuels reaction. The first two steps: hearing the sounds and making associations, they aren’t creating any reaction, they’re just integration phases. They’re helping us to understand the world and our place in it. What generates action is judging. Our need to impose our own point of view onto others. Now, back to our communication process: suppose you respond something to that person. You restart the same sequence of actions: first, you generate some sounds, then the other person starts to create associations and then, after he identifies some meaning (based, again, on what he previously learned) he may or may not start judging. Progress over perfection applies to money too. My book *Gravitational Habits For Financial Resilience* shows how small, consistent habits compound into lasting wealth—no dramatic lifestyle changes required. Get it: Apple Books (https://books.apple.com/pt/book/gravitational-habits-for-financial-resilience/id6756201311) · Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Ny2dEQAAQBAJ) · Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G5FPKNZR) ![Gravitational Habits For Financial Resilience book cover](/images/gravitational-habits.webp) And this is happening all the time. Every day, every hour, every second of our lives are filled with this. Because we love to simplify stuff, we always assume that the other one understand exactly what we said. He is getting 100% of our message. Well, not quite. It takes a lot of training and a lot of patience and a lot of learning to really understand each other. Everything we think we understand is in fact based on our own life experience. We always judge the other based on our experience, not on theirs. Because we don’t know their lives, we only know our life. Every once in a while, with certain persons, under certain circumstances, we do get to a higher level of understanding. For instance, with our life partners. Or with our kids. Or with our colleagues at work, if we worked together for years. But that happens only because we had some shared experiences. Some shared past. With the rest, we’re limited to our assumptions. We just think we know what they’re telling us, we assume we understand them and then act accordingly. No wonder our actions are almost always out of sync with other people expectations. So, the moment you understand that it’s never about yourself, you simply don't take it personal anymore. Because it’s such a waste of time. Everything people talk about is based on their own story. And your story is – in the vast majority of cases – completely different than theirs. Want more actionable life advice? This post is one of 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). First published on: February 2, 2015 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-84-dont-take-personal%2F&text=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2084.%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Take%20It%20Personally&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-84-dont-take-personal%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-84-dont-take-personal%2F&t=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2084.%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Take%20It%20Personally https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-84-dont-take-personal%2F&title=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2084.%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Take%20It%20Personally Previous ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 83. Listen To Your Critics (/100-ways-live-better-life-83-listen-critics/) Next ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 85. Laugh At Yourself (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life-85-laugh-at-yourself/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Clarkson's Farm – A Review URL: https://dragosroua.com/clarksons-farm-a-review.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/clarksons-farm-a-review/ Published: 2021-07-19 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 54 Categories: Blogging, Movie Reviews Tags: 365 challenge, entrepreneurship, movies You may remember Jeremy Clarkson from the days of Top Gear, a car show mixing (obviously) cars, humor, sarcasm and weird ideas. But he's way more than that. A journalist, writer, TV host and a few other roles, Clarkson has become a quite popular public person, albeit a bit controversial (which I like, to be honest, not much into one-sided personalities). I love his witty remarks and I sometimes think he spent his childhood in the same neighborhood with Ricky Gervais (another guy I simply love watching, whether he's presenting the Golden Globe Awards, or acting in After Life). After he joined Amazon, Jeremy engaged in a few series, the latest being one called Clarkson Farm. That's what I am about to write now, specifically because it's not about cars. On the contrary. It's a bit weird to try and state your opinion about something, and at the same time try not to reveal too much about that something, but I'll give it a try. First of all, like I said, this 8 episodes series is not about cars, although you may see quite a lot of surprising machineries appearing, and being operated by the participants (Jeremy included). It's about Jeremy attempt to run a 1,000 acres farm in Chadlington. Second, this is unscripted (or at least that's one of the categories in which you can find it in Amazon Prime). That means none of the dialogues are written in advance, and that makes the show very realistic. There are parts of it which are raw, like the unforgiving weather in the countryside, and some which are breathtakingly beautiful, like scenery, and the idyllic vistas you get almost 80% of the time. Some may be cruel, like raising animals to sacrifice them later, some may be refreshing, like re-creating wild habitats or saving owls (wilding). All in all, it's a refreshing, humorous, authentic piece of life, in which Clarkson is just as good, if not better, than in his prime Top Gears seasons. At times, I really felt the need to pace myself, and postpone the next episode for tomorrow, simply because I was fearing it will end too soon. ![AI Kiddo app icon](/images/ai-kiddo-icon-48.webp) I built AI Kiddo (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566) to help kids learn first words in 8 languages—simple images, natural speech, child-friendly. It also made me relive, with much vigor, parts of my childhood in the countryside (where I was doing pretty much everything Jeremy does in the show, and then some). I even surprised myself thinking a couple of times about retiring at a farm in the Southern Portugal, and write from there. For now, this won't happen, but you never know. All in all, I highly recommend this piece, a 110% Jeremy Clarkson show. Warning: environmentalists may not feel entirely at ease. There is sarcasm. *Literally last minute edit: Looks like a second season was commissioned by Amazon, so there's hope. Nothing official yet, just rumors.* Image source: IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10541088/mediaviewer/rm3376006657/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk). First published on: July 19, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Extra Bolt – A Story of Furniture, Abundance and Confusion URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-extra-bolt-a-story-of-furniture-abundance-and-confusion.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-extra-bolt-a-story-of-furniture-abundance-and-confusion/ Published: 2026-04-04 Views: 54 Categories: Money and Wealth, Personal Development Tags: introspection, mindset, money mindset, self awareness Every single piece of furniture that I had to assemble in Vietnam left me standing with one extra bolt. Every single one of them. And believe me, during the last year, I was a heavy furniture assembler: from the newborn crib, up to the cupboard, desks or shelves in the latest place we moved to. And the last bolt was always extra: the furniture was perfect, finished, complete. Just one extra tiny connecting piece left. It did occur to me that this extra bolt was "just in case", like a nice, supportive way of saying: "we know you may not get the right assembly order from the first try, so we got you covered". Nice touch. Still, I spent a solid 10 minutes scratching my head each time at the end of the process, staring at the crib, or at the desk or at the shelves, trying to understand what I did wrong. ## The Anxiety of Having Extra Options I come from a place – or, to be more precise, from an age – where everything must fit perfectly. You had one shot, you had to make it. Everything had to be perfect from the first try, because that was the exact number of tries you had: one. So today, when I am facing multiple options, I get anxious. There must be something wrong, why the extra bolt? What am I missing, what's the trap here? And that's where the concept of abundance starts to make sense. Intrinsically, abundance means "extra". You can get away with 2 meals per day, but if you can afford 3 or 4, you live in abundance. If you can give away some of your food to other people, you live in abundance. If you can support other people with your money, and not just yourself, you live in abundance. The extra bolt that you're left with, that's abundance. ## Making Friends With the Extra Bolt The first part of this post actually took a few months. I slowly went from the head-scratching pose to some more introspection and then, maybe after half a year, I realized that my mind was wired into scarcity. Nobody's fault here, I was born in a specific place (/the-subtle-benefits-of-being-born-in-the-wrong-place/), and that's how life was back then. But still, my mind was triggered into confusion by the smallest sign of abundance. Now, rewiring your brain (/how-to-train-your-brain/) is a delicate thing. It is absolutely possible (and advisable, honestly) but it takes time and attention. So I slowly started to make friends with the extra bolt. I'm not at the point where I expect to see it, but when it happens to be just us, at the end of the assembled cupboard, I look at the tiny guy with gratitude, not with confusion. I know the deep patterns will still be triggered, until I get to the bottom of my unconscious conditioning – but for now, me and the bolt are at the beginning of a beautiful friendship. First published on: April 4, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Ask Me Anything (/ive-been-blogging-for-20-years-ask-me-anything/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # What You Don't Want To Know About Prostitution URL: https://dragosroua.com/what-you-dont-want-to-know-about-prostitution.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/what-you-dont-want-to-know-about-prostitution/ Published: 2009-08-05 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 54 Categories: Money and Wealth, Relationships and Society Tags: money, values This is going to be tough. I can tell you already you're not gonna like this. If you landed here by some search engine algorithm while looking for porn, you're going to leave… just about now, because this is not even remotely about porn. Sorry. Also, if you're having a strong headed approach towards everything in life, you will be gone by the 2nd paragraph. It will be a little too much for you, I can feel it. But if you're ready to take a step back and accept that a topic like prostitution could have the tiniest connection with personal development, then I bet you're going to leave only after you've left a comment. And it's still going to dislike you. ### The Sex Taboo I have to confess I thought a lot about this post. Meaning I already had it sketched in my head (and then in my blogging setup (/power-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style/)), but I pondered if I should publish it or not. I finally bit the bullet and decided to publish it. The biggest concern was not about the main topic in this post, but about the thing which is shaping the modern western society for a good 2 millennia: the sex taboo. Without doubt, the modern approach towards sex is one of the most powerful weapons used to discipline and manipulate our modern society. I think the way we perceive sex has made more victims than the world wide wars and is still hurting us. Our culture exiled sex in the forbidden realm. It took it from the playful and (sometimes) even ecstatic pedestal other cultures had it, and exiled it outside the rules of morality. Once just a private matter (and close to spirituality), now sex has become a dirty matter. Confined by the socially accepted norms of morality, sex has been convicted inside the walls of  the institution of marriage. This constant interdiction made sex a fantasy, created industries (like porn industry) and damaged generations from the inside. I'm not going to talk about sex here, or about what created this social distortion, because it will take too long, and it's out of the scope of this blog post. In which, I remind you, I'm talking about something completely different, and that's prostitution. The reason I mentioned sex is because the modern definition of prostitution have been built on the sex taboo. Prostitution has been disguised behind sex. There is this obsession for everything related to sex which made prostitution one of the most incriminated activities on earth. Not because you're actually faking something in the process of prostitution, but because it's related to sex. If sex wasn't so important, selling it for money wouldn't be such a big issue. People are selling things for money all the time. And this is the core of the problem, this is what made me think if it would be acceptable or not to publish this article: prostitution is not so much about sex, as it is about faking. More precisely: faking it for money. ### Money As A Shortcut If you take out the sex taboo form prostitution, what's left? Money and a service. Well, people are doing this every day. It's called business. Except in prostitution the service is a fake. There is no drive to offer real sex, the actors usually don't even know each others, there's only a transaction of fantasies for money. Nobody gives something real and nobody gets something genuine (well, most of the time). The whole thing is a prank. A simple fake for money. Seeing prostitution as an act of faking for money, and not specifically related to sex, well, my friend, this approach makes a big difference. Because it changes the meaning of this activity completely. It makes it spread into areas you wouldn't think it can reach: in your daily relationships, in your job, in your thinking patterns. When was the last time you faked something for money? When was the last time you wanted to tell  your boss he's wrong, but you didn't because of the money you get from him? How many times you said "yes" to your boyfriend or girlfriend, just because he or she pays the rent? How many times you've been doing things you don't want, even faking some joy in doing them, just because you were paid? Each time you did this you were a whore. By the way, that's the paragraph where the strong headed are going to leave, because, well, because… they were never a whore! And this is a stupid, delusional post. No, sireee, not me! Sad. And true. We've all been whores. We've all faked things for money. We all thought at some points in our life that money will solve our problems. We all sacrificed our authenticity and joy for a shortcut. We all wanted a miracle to save us from something. And we sold our souls for this shortcut called money. Too bad money doesn't solve anything. Only people solve things out. Even if they don't have yet the courage, the discipline or the inspiration to change the circumstances of their lives. They'll eventually reach out and get courage, inspiration or discipline. Eventually they'll find a way to change their lives. They'll take risks, get out of their comfort zone and create something. They, the people, not the money. Money can't buy courage. Nor discipline, nor inspiration. What it can buy is a short term delay. A pause. An illusion of security, until the real problem hits again. And then, when facing the same challenge, instead of looking inside, people are looking outside, reaching for a new client, faking another session and getting another payment. The circle repeats endlessly and down goes all your self-esteem, your authenticity and joy. ### Faking Your Life For Money The real problem with faking something is that you're losing it. The more you fake it, the farther you go from its authentic substance. If it's sex you're faking – in the generally accepted term for prostitution – you're going to completely ruin your authentic joy in having sex with somebody you love. You may become a fantastic technician – based on a prolonged physical exercise – but you won't reach to the true nature of sex. You will have probably some pleasure, but not joy or ecstasy. In the long run, you'll be completely disconnected. Faking will break you down. That's the same with every other part of your life. If you're going to fake your job for money you're going to eventually lose it. You won't be able to create genuine value (/creating-value/), because you will only do what money tells you to do. And faking for money will have long term effects on you: if at some point you'll want to do something exceptional, something that will change the lives of the ones you love, something that will enhance your life, but that will initially affect your income, you're not going to be able to do it. You won't know how it's done anymore. Instead, you'll stick with the money. And you'll eventually forget how it is to create genuine value in the first place. All you'll remember is how to get paid. By faking your daily routine at the job. If it's friendship you're faking, you're going to lose it eventually. If it's money that keeps you tied up into a friendship, you'll compromise it at some point. You're going to fake something, do something you don't like. For the money. And the real friendship will get burned. You're going to have just a regular client for your friendship faking session, a client who's going to pay you for your performance. ### Forcing Others To Fake Faking your service is only one part of the transaction. Because there's also the other side of it, the one who asks for it. The one who's forcing others to fake for his own money benefit. If you're working with money directly for a very long time, you tend to substitute everything in your life with money (for more info about the difference between working directly with and putting a purpose between you and money, read here (/making-money-with-a-purpose/)). More precisely, you tend to think you can do everything with money. Be happy, for instance. Be praised. Force other to do stuff for you. And even if they don't genuinely want to do that thing, your money will eventually force them out. You start paying people to do something they don't want. You make whores out of them. You're becoming a pimp. You don't have to force others to specifically sell sex in order to be a pimp. If you force your employees to do something they don't want, only because you're paying them, you're a pimp. You force them to fake something for money. Of course, even if they will obey, the result won't be genuine. It will be a fake.  If you think you can force your friends to stick with you for your money, even when you disappoint them, you won't get back true friendship. You're getting back a fake, a performance. You're paying somebody to act as your friend. As in every whore – pimp relationship, you're going to be hated and eventually destroyed by your "employees". No friendship can be bought with money, no truthful relationship can be built by force or coercion. Even if you make somebody follow you for your money, you won't get back real value: you're only perpetuating a life of compromise and lie. ### The Real Prostitution The real problem behind prostitution is not sex, but faking it for money. Making such a big taboo out of sex just makes it easier to isolate this specific type of prostitution, make it stand out and 'fight' it. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of millions of whores who are faking their jobs, their relationships, and maybe their whole lives for money. In an ideal world we won't fake anything for money. Everybody will be well connected with his inner self, will know their powers and lessons to learn and will act in all honesty and transparency. There won't be disasters, drama or misery. Well, we don't live in an ideal world, we live an imperfect one. We are faking things for money. Every day. But instead of accepting this and do our best to change it, we deny it. All prostitution is about and only about sex, so we're cool. And we go on and on with our fakes. Once again, I'm not trying to touch any morality rules here, this is out of the scope of this post, all I'm saying is that faking is destroying. You're losing it. The key in changing this and stop losing your life one fake at a time is to accept it. And forgive it. Yes, we've all been there. Many times. Accept it. Forgive it. And then move and and try to do better next time. We can't make this world perfect, but we can make our lives better (/perfect-versus-better/) . Of course we can, we just have to do it (/i-can-versus-i-do/). ### Where Are You? The following question will hurt, as I already told you in the beginning: are you a whore? In what area of your life? Maybe your husband is paying you to stay with him? Maybe at the job? Maybe you stay with your friends because they're paying your movie tickets? Are you really faking your life for money? Or are you pimp? Are your forcing others to fake their lives for money? I can feel your tension and muscle contractions. You're going to fight me back and do whatever you can to make me understand I'm wrong. But before doing this, take a moment and breathe. Relax. Try to accept. Maybe you were a whore. Or a pimp. So? Fighting back against it, denying it, will do nothing but perpetuating the status quo. Rejecting those situations in your life won't make them disappear. It will only bury them deep down in your subconscious mind. The real answer to those question can't be rejection, this will only make them more powerful. Accept yourself and forgive. That's the only way to escape the endless circle. And then move on, be meaningful and honest. Maybe you'll upset your boss, but you'll be authentic. Maybe your husband will divorce you, but you'll live an honest life. Maybe your friends will reject you but at least you'll see the movies you really like. Instead of faking your life and losing it, you'll live a real life. With real joy. With real sadness, maybe. But with no more plastic happiness, just the real thing. So sad that our modern society didn't put at least an equal emphasis on forgiveness as it puts on sex. Forgiveness needs to be at least as popular as sex. Forgiving ourselves  should be an orgasmic act. And should create the same addiction as sex. Unfortunately, this is not the case. So, instead of forgiving ourselves for being whores at some points in our life, we prefer to blindly accept to fake our lives for money, get on with it day by day, and consider that only those who are selling sex are whores. Not us. Only them, with their dirty sex… Toldya you ain't gonna like this. By the way, if you really didn't like this, there are plenty of articles in the archives (/archives) which you'll most likely dislike as well. First published on: August 5, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhat-you-dont-want-to-know-about-prostitution%2F&text=What%20You%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Want%20To%20Know%20About%20Prostitution&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhat-you-dont-want-to-know-about-prostitution%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhat-you-dont-want-to-know-about-prostitution%2F&t=What%20You%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Want%20To%20Know%20About%20Prostitution https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhat-you-dont-want-to-know-about-prostitution%2F&title=What%20You%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Want%20To%20Know%20About%20Prostitution Previous ### I Can Be Better? (/i-can-be-better/) Next ### Finding Reasons To Agree (/finding-reasons-to-agree/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 2025 Year in Review URL: https://dragosroua.com/2025-year-in-review.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/2025-year-in-review/ Published: 2025-12-31 Views: 53 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Blogging, Personal Development Tags: addtaskmanager, ai tools, blogging journey, change, digital nomad, family, growth Instead of a traditional year-end recap with a long list of things I did, I'll focus on four themes that defined 2025 for me. This was the year I cleaned house—dusting off abandoned projects, bringing them back to a professional level, and preparing to enter 2026 with a clean slate. ## addTaskManager: From Abandoned to App Store Ready My iOS productivity app, addTaskManager (/tag/addtaskmanager/) (formerly ZenTasktic), had been sitting half-finished for years. The original version worked ok, but the codebase was messy, the UI a bit old, and I had lost momentum somewhere along the way. This year I finally tackled it properly. The codebase was almost completely rewritten—new architecture, cleaner code, better performance. I rebuilt the task management engine, redesigned the interface, and added features I had been planning for years but never implemented. It's now a real product, not a side project collecting dust. This required insane amounts of work, work I couldn't have finished without AI support. But that's the point: the tools are there now, and I used them. What would have taken months of solo coding got compressed into focused sprints where I could iterate rapidly and actually ship. ## The Blog: From WordPress to Cloudflare Pages This blog has been running for more than 15 years. Over time it had accumulated the usual WordPress baggage: dozens of plugins, a bloated database, slow load times, constant security updates. It was overdue for a serious upgrade. I moved the entire thing from WordPress to Cloudflare Pages (/moving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how/), turning it into a static site that loads almost instantly. No more database queries, no more plugin bloat, no more security patches. The content is still managed in WordPress, but what readers see is a fast, clean, static site served from Cloudflare's edge network. Beyond the technical improvements, I also ramped up the posting speed considerably. For years the blog had been in maintenance mode—a post here and there, nothing consistent. That changed. The blog is alive again, and I kept momentum. ## AI Workflows: From Spectator to Builder Using AI tools daily became second nature this year, but I didn't stop at being a user. I started building my own workflows and prompts to match how I actually work. The biggest piece was the Claude ADD mega-prompt (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/)—a structured approach based on my Assess-Decide-Do framework that turns Claude into a more deliberate thinking partner. Instead of just asking questions and getting answers, the prompt enforces a workflow: assess the situation, decide on an approach, then do the work. Beyond increasing productivity, this had the unexpected side effect of making Claude sound… almost empathic. I also built five Claude content skills (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-content-skills)—specialized prompts for specific content tasks like editing, SEO optimization, and inter-linking. These aren't generic templates. They are real support workflows that actually help me publish faster and cleaner. ## Content Creation: Back in the Game The blog was just part of a bigger decision: to start producing content again, consistently, across multiple channels. I changed my YouTube channel handle to Bio Content (https://youtube.com/@bio-content) and started posting shorts as a warm-up. More is coming—longer videos, tutorials, maybe some behind-the-scenes looks at how I build things. This wasn't about chasing trends or building an audience from scratch. It was about reclaiming spaces I had let go quiet. Cleaning up the leftovers. Finishing what I started years ago and then abandoned when life got in the way. ## Entering 2026 2025 was a year of preparation. Old projects revived. Old channels reactivated. New tools built. Everything I do online is now at a professional level. The slate is clean. Whatever 2026 brings, I am ready. First published on: December 31, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F2025-year-in-review%2F&text=2025%20Year%20in%20Review&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F2025-year-in-review%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F2025-year-in-review%2F&t=2025%20Year%20in%20Review https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F2025-year-in-review%2F&title=2025%20Year%20in%20Review Previous ### AI Is the New Marijuana (And We’re All About To Get High) (/ai-is-the-new-marijuana-and-were-all-about-to-get-high/) Next ### Networking 101 for Location Independent People (/networking-101-for-location-independent-people/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Beautiful Budgeting In 3 Basic Bullet Points URL: https://dragosroua.com/beautiful-budgeting-in-3-basic-bullet-points.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/beautiful-budgeting-in-3-basic-bullet-points/ Published: 2021-06-16 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 53 Categories: Financial Resilience Tags: 365 challenge, debt, financial freedom, financial habits, frugality, how to, money First of all, I think we should clarify what I understand by budgeting. In financial resilience (/financial-resilience-the-hard-way-versus-the-easy-way/), budgeting is not only allocating resources (most of the time, financial resources) for various expenses. It's an umbrella activity, including active tracking of every movement (in and out), and forming spending, accumulating or investing habits. ### Table of Contents - 1. Do It Daily (#1-do-it-daily) - 2. Chart It (#2-chart-it) - 3. Keep It Consistent (#3-keep-it-consistent) I started to do what I now call budgeting probably more than 2 decades ago, for my first company (the one that I successfully sold after 9 years). It was a very lo fi budgeting, with only two columns, on paper: money in and money out. This very simple model served me well for years. In time, it obviously became more complicated, and a simple sheet of paper wasn't enough. During these two decades, I tried many applications and approaches, but, in the end, I settled for the simplest one: an excel sheet. I use this for my personal budgeting, as part of my financial resilience strategy, for more than 5 years now. It's unchanged. Because the beauty of it is not in how it looks, but in how much it helps you. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Today I'm not going to share an actual sheet (you'll see down the road why this may not be that useful to you), but 3 main principles that I use. Without further ado, let's start. ## 1. Do It Daily The first, and the most important bullet point is that it should be done daily. I'm not kidding. It should be an activity at least as automatic as brushing your teeth. You brush your teeth at least twice a day, right? I hope you do, anyway. Well, you can track and write down what you make and what you spend at least twice a day. Ideally, you should block small time slots during the day in which you will quickly adjust your sheet with your expenses. Hint: most of the time you will put in your expenses, not your revenues. The only notable exception is when you're dealing with money daily, as a trader, or as a crypto enthusiast trying to compound your earnings with DeFi. ## 2. Chart It An excel sheet is very good at calculating stuff for you. You can set up quickly a few formulas to take care of the totals, or to calculate the value of an asset in other currencies, for instance, or to do some basic projections and scenarios. But the real power is in the charts. I function so much better what I have in front of me a chart with all the potential expenses. I use most of the time a pie chart, but your mileage may vary. As long as you always see how much is left, and the size of each expense relative to the total and to the other expenses, you should be fine. Hint (this is about the basic monthly budgeting): as you get closer to the end of the month, the number of remaining expenses should decrease. So you will start the month with a very complex and diverse chart, with many expenses, but you will end it with less and less items in your chart (slices, in my pie chart). There's a certain clarity and satisfaction that you get from this and it works at so many levels. ## 3. Keep It Consistent And by consistent I don't mean the habit, this was covered in the first bullet point. I mean the format. If you have a specific app that you use, great, stick to it. But if you change the tool that you're using every 6 months, chasing the eternally elusive bells and whistles of the newest and shiniest app, you'll lose the point. And the point is that the tool should be so thin, almost invisible. It shouldn't stay in your way. You're interested in managing your money, not in using a flashy app. Hint: as you collect more and more monthly budgets (let's say you're using excel sheets for that) you will get to a point when you will have a few years worth of data. Running some calculations by integrating all those sheets together and seeing some bigger trends, stretching over a few years, will be enlightening. Doing it month by month is ok, but when you do it a few years in a row and look back at how much you grew, well, that's a life changer. That's all there is to it, at least at the fundamental, conceptual level. Of course, we can dive in as much as we can, but every person is different. My income and expenses structure is probably very different from your income and expenses structure, so what matters is the approach, not the actual sheet. Use whatever works for you, but do it every day, chart it and keep it consistent. First published on: June 16, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeautiful-budgeting-in-3-basic-bullet-points%2F&text=Beautiful%20Budgeting%20In%203%20Basic%20Bullet%20Points&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeautiful-budgeting-in-3-basic-bullet-points%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeautiful-budgeting-in-3-basic-bullet-points%2F&t=Beautiful%20Budgeting%20In%203%20Basic%20Bullet%20Points https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeautiful-budgeting-in-3-basic-bullet-points%2F&title=Beautiful%20Budgeting%20In%203%20Basic%20Bullet%20Points Previous ### When Stealing Is Forced Into Legality (/when-stealing-is-forced-into-legality/) Next ### The 5 Layers Of Location Independence (/the-5-layers-of-location-independence/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Build An Online Community URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-build-an-online-community.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-build-an-online-community/ Published: 2013-10-07 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 53 Categories: Business, Personal Development, Relationships and Society Tags: digital nomad, entrepreneurship, how to, networking What follows is a rather detailed breakdown of one of my most rewarding experiences as a digital nomad (/being-a-digital-nomad-the-book/): namely, creating a real life community behind the Open Connect concept. If you want to know how to transform a personal, enriching experience, into a social experiment, if you love working from coffee shops or if you just love beautiful (albeit real) stories, set aside 15 minutes or so, because this will take a while. ### What Is Open Connect? Open Connect is a networking event, taking place each Thursday, in a Starbucks coffee shop in Bucharest. Or, at least, this is how it started, because right now it is happening (or it’s in the process of starting up) in a number of other cities, like Cluj, Iasi, Sibiu, Brasov or Craiova. The goal of the event is to generate feedback towards business ideas. As such, its target is formed by entrepreneurs, web designers, media people, or just curious persons with a penchant for building new, audacious stuff. The format of the event includes an ice-breaking session, in which each participant will say his name and a few sentences about the reasons he’s there and his skills, a pitching section, with 4 one minute long pitches, followed by questions and answers, and a 8 minutes long mentoring section in which one person will share his or her expertise on various topics. Each event is live broadcasted by a digital television, with a mobile studio set up specifically for this task. ### The Current Point Let’s start with a very short, number-based evaluation of where we stand right now. I started in august 2012 and since then, I did an event pretty much each Thursday (legal holidays excepted, of course). The last event of the first season was held in the last Thursday of May 2013. That made a total of 36 events for the first season. Right now I am at the second season, and I already had 7 editions so far. The average audience was 80-100 persons for the last 10 events, with an average of 3000 online viewers. We had roughly 170 pitches and 38 mentoring sessions. We produced over 25 hours of original, high quality video content, based on live interactions. We gamified more than 70 pitches –  the entire event is gamified, see below. We provided public speaking feedback for more than 60 persons. We served more than 1000 free coffees – each event has a number of free coffees, courtesy of Starbucks. We have a Facebook community with 2600 members (at the moment of writing this). We have a website with more than 500 registered and active members (at the moment of writing this). Total marketing budget: zero. ### The Spark Last year, during summer, I realized I worked as a digital nomad for more than 2 years. And that I met probably more than 100 people in my “office” – which is a Starbucks Coffee. If you wonder why I met them, it’s because I worked with them. Have a look at the Work With Me (/work-with-me/) page if you don’t know what I currently do for a living. So, at some point I asked myself: why don’t bring all these people together? Maybe there will be something useful coming out of this. So, I went down to the Starbucks main floor (the Starbucks where I work has 2 floors) and asked the manager what’s his opinion about hosting this type of gathering in that place. He said he’s ok and, even more, he can also provide me with some free coffees, if that would be perceived as an incentive. I said, yes, definitely this will be perceived as an incentive. After I had the location secured, I created a Facebook group, in which I added those 100 persons, plus another 100 from my personal circle of friends. I tried to be very selective (at that moment I had more than 3000 friends) and only added friends that I knew would benefit from this type of event. Next thing, I created an event in the group, and a basic file with rules. I invited the people, set up my alarm clock to wake me up next day (which, of course, was the day of the event) at 7 AM, and went on with my life. Next day, at 9 AM I was there. In around 30 minutes, the place was full. At the first event I had an audience of 60 people. After a brief introduction, in which I let them know that they can pitch their ideas in the next event, I let them interact freely. Before the end of the event I already got 4 people ready to pitch at the next edition. And this is how it started. ### The Approach First of all, I used the Facebook group – and I currently use it – only for managing the events. Nothing more. no advertising. No debates. No flames. Everything that goes out of the rules, it’s deleted and the user is banned. I know this is a very strict set of rules, and I received a lot of heat because of that. But, in time, it proved to be a winning strategy. Second, I was always very, very clear about the purpose of the event – which is networking – and the main byproduct: which is feedback. I never tried to mislead people that they will receive, for instance, funding for their startups, or other type of unreal benefits. It helped tremendously with the level of faith. And third, I always asked for feedback. Many features that I considered useful were rejected by the users. And many things that seemed obvious for me were kinda slow to be adopted. But, in the end, I realized that the real owners of the community are its members. Not me. ### The First Fracture Around the 15th event, a guy approached me telling that he is the owner of a digital television, and if I’m ok with broadcasting the event. I said, well, let’s try. They didn’t ask for money to do it, as long as we will keep in mind a way to generate money later. It was a good approach, because, after the first season, because of the exposure generated by the very broadcast, we were able to attract a sponsor, and the television is able to cover the broadcasting costs. But the benefits for them are even higher, because now they constantly receive offers for broadcasting events. Paid offers. I consider this to be the “first fracture”, meaning the first disruptive event that sky rocketed the community. Since we started to broadcast the event, the audience grew with an order of magnitude. If we usually had around 50 people attending live, now we had around 500 watching us live from behind their hime computers. It was really the event that changed the fate of this community. ### The Enrichment Process As the event grew, so grew the feedback. And the offers from the members community to enrich the event. So, at some point, a gamification specialist came to me with the offer to gamify Open Connect. What does that mean? Well, we published a document on the group, with a few bullet points related to the pitch structure. In other words, if a pitcher will follow all this points, we could ensure the pitch was properly formatted: like the pitch includes the pitcher’s name, the app or event name, the pitcher was engaging the audience, etc. So, before each pitch, the game master (which is actually that ramification specialist) was taking a position in the most remote corner of the Starbucks. For each point that the pitcher will touch in his or her speech, he would make a step in the direction of the pitcher. The goal is to bring the game master on stage. If the pitcher does that, he or she receives a prize (either from sponsors, or from the game master himself). Another interesting approach was from a guy from Toastmasters International. He asked me if he could use a couple of minutes after each pitch to give public speaking related feedback to each pitcher. I said “yes”, and from that day on, each pitcher receives professional public speaking feedback at each and every Open Connect event. I call this the “enrichment process” and I think it’s something that should go o and on and on. You should never stop taking feedback and implementing new features. But more on that below. ### The 7 Commandments For Building A Strong Community I don’t know if they are enough, but they worked for me. If you feel the need to add something, go ahead, and do it in the comments. I’d love to hear some feedback. ### 1. Be True Start based on something that you already believe in. Try to give a social dimension to a personal trait. For instance, for me entrepreneurship was always something that I believed in. But I had to take it out of my circle and create benefits for other people too. It just doesn’t work to be “me, me, me”, if you’re trying to build a community. ### 2. Start Small Don’t put all your resources in the process from the day one. Just small, trying to validate your idea first. I didn’t spend a dime for marketing. I don’t spend money on marketing now. I tried to create partnership – like the one with the free coffees – from the day one. You don’t know if it’s gonna work or not. In my case, it worked. But chances to fail are just as equal. ### 3. Observe Be very, very present. Observe what’s going on. Like I said, it’s not about you, it’s about them. In every community you will have, every now and then, crises. They’re natural. Sometimes people want things done in a certain way, or there are very sharp opposite positions concerning a certain topic. Be very, very careful and don’t let these situations pass you by. It’s your job to observe your community. ### 4. Be Present Answer instantly, if you can. Even now, after more than 40 events, I answer almost instantly to any concern related to the event. We have the pitching slots occupied in advance for a few events, but if someone give up their slot – for various reasons, health, for instance – if I announce the availability of a pitching slot in an Open Connect on Facebook, I usually get a response in a couple of minutes. ### 5. Improve Don’t be fixed. Don’t be shy. Don’t hold on to your own expectations or ideas about what the community should be. Let it go in the direction where it wants to move, but lead the process. Leave the old behind and implement the new. I’m absolutely sure that not every improvement that you’ll try will be a success, but at least it will give you previous insights about your community health and commitment. And that’s priceless. ### 6. Manage Ruthlessly, if you have to. The Facebook group was rapidly evolving, growing into a very appealing audience, so I had to fight for a while with a lot of spammers who thought it would be such a good idea to post their links in such a vivid community. In the end, we won and the spammers disappeared. Kind of. ### 7. Evaluate Always evaluate the role of the members and the need that this community is meeting. If there’s somebody else doing it better than you, there’s no need to be clingy. Just join the other community because this is not meant to be a competition. *** If you want to see the atmosphere, go ahead and pick whatever episode you want, from our own YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHJP4Z4CEZD_ghrfEjJPX1Q). Yes, you can subscribe. I will just add a random mentoring session, from Steve Pavlina. Enjoy: First published on: October 7, 2013 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-build-an-online-community%2F&text=How%20To%20Build%20An%20Online%20Community&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-build-an-online-community%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-build-an-online-community%2F&t=How%20To%20Build%20An%20Online%20Community https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-build-an-online-community%2F&title=How%20To%20Build%20An%20Online%20Community Previous ### 77 Things To Do Just Because You Can (/77-things-to-do-just-because-you-can/) Next ### How To Create An Online Community – The Make Money Part (/how-to-create-an-online-commnity-the-make-money-part/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # I've Been Blogging For 20 Years. Ask Me Anything URL: https://dragosroua.com/ive-been-blogging-for-20-years-ask-me-anything.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/ive-been-blogging-for-20-years-ask-me-anything/ Published: 2026-04-06 Views: 53 Categories: Blogging, Digital Tools Tags: ai tools, blogging journey, content creation, experiment A few days ago I came across a Karpathy gist (https://gist.github.com/karpathy/442a6bf555914893e9891c11519de94f). The idea was simple: take everything you've ever written, turn it into context for a language model, let people have a real conversation with my body of work. It's like an on demand personal wiki that can be queried in natural language. I closed the tab. Made coffee. Then opened it again. I've been writing on this blog since 2006. That's more than 1,400 posts and over 1,000,000 words — productivity frameworks, nomad years, ultramarathons, iOS apps, habits, money, relationships, mindset. Most of it has faded from view, essentially invisible. I have posts from 2014 that I still think are the best things I ever wrote. Nobody finds them. I don't link to them often enough – and I confess I don't even think about some of them anymore. They just sit there, accumulating digital dust. That felt like a waste. And the Karpathy gist gave me an idea. ## So I Built the DragosRoua.com On-Demand, Conversational Wiki I converted all 1,400+ posts into a compact wiki — title, slug, date, categories, a short summary. That wiki lives in a Cloudflare Worker. When you ask a question, the worker does a keyword search across the whole archive, picks the most relevant entries, and passes them as context to a language model. The model answers as it were me, with links back to the actual posts it's drawing from. No fancy vector database or fine-tuning or embeddings. Just a flat text file and a decent search function. The whole thing streams at the edge and costs fractions of a cent per conversation. Yes, it still costs me, because I chose to have a decent model taking care of this. It's my work, after all. There's a small button at the bottom right of every page on this site. It has the familiar hat icon on it. Tap it, and type anything in the chat box. "What do you think about building habits?" "Which of your apps should I try first?" "What did living as a nomad actually teach you?" It'll answer from the real posts, with links to go deeper if you want. I've been testing it for a few hours today. It's a strange experience, watching it pull up something I wrote in 2011 that's directly relevant to a question I'd answer the same way today. Twenty years of thinking, suddenly navigable. What's even more mind boggling is that you'll get an accurate, comprehensive and useful answer from my writings, in a personal, conversational tone, *without me even being there*. I might enjoy a tasty meal cooked by my wife, play with my son or explore growing coffee in Buon Ma Thuot – *but you will still get the real, authentic me*. ## Extra Use Case Building the wiki had an unexpected side effect. Going through the archive to validate the data, I kept stopping to re-read things. Especially the 2014 (/archives/2014/) – 2018 (/archives/2018/) posts. That was a specific period — It was the peak of my blogging years, with many topics explored and no shortage of life-changing experiences. I was writing without any real audience expectations. Raw in a way I'm not sure I've matched since. I'm going back to thirty of those posts. For each one I'm going to write a "then and now" — what I thought at the time, and where I actually stand a decade later. Some of it will be confirmation. Some of it will be embarrassing. Either way it'll be honest. More on that soon. For now — go ask me something. First published on: April 6, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Five-been-blogging-for-20-years-ask-me-anything%2F&text=I%E2%80%99ve%20Been%20Blogging%20For%2020%20Years.%20Ask%20Me%20Anything&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Five-been-blogging-for-20-years-ask-me-anything%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Five-been-blogging-for-20-years-ask-me-anything%2F&t=I%E2%80%99ve%20Been%20Blogging%20For%2020%20Years.%20Ask%20Me%20Anything https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Five-been-blogging-for-20-years-ask-me-anything%2F&title=I%E2%80%99ve%20Been%20Blogging%20For%2020%20Years.%20Ask%20Me%20Anything Previous ### The Extra Bolt – A Story of Furniture, Abundance and Confusion (/the-extra-bolt-a-story-of-furniture-abundance-and-confusion/) Next ### Claude Mythos, the Anthropic IPO and the Apocalypse that Never Was (/claude-mythos-the-anthropic-ipo-and-the-apocalypse-that-never-was/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Flat Earth Theory URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-flat-earth-theory.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-flat-earth-theory/ Published: 2021-08-28 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 53 Categories: Blogging, Relationships and Society Tags: 365 challenge, learning Hate to break it to you, but the Earth IS flat. Now, I've said it. Hate to break it to you even more, but the Earth is round too. How come, you asked? It's either flat, or round, make up your mind, Dragos! ## It All Depends On The Context It all depends on how far out you zoom from your current point of view. If all you can zoom out is just a few dozens of kilometers, the Earth is indeed flat, no question about that. I would say even if you zoom out for a few hundreds of kilometers, like being on top of a really big mountain, the Earth will still be flat. But should you ascend to 40-50km, something will change: you will start seeing the edges curbing down. The Earth will suddenly cease being flat and it will become round. Every truth is bound by its context. There is no absolute truth, just the most "adapted to the current context" truth. For millennia, Earth was ok being flat, sitting on top of a huge tortoise. For that context, it was ok. It didn't actually create any problems. Even the broader context, like the sun, the moon, the stars, all was decently predictable. Stars and planets ephemeris calculated thousands of years ago are still accurate today. Back then, I remind you, the Earth was flat, planets and stars were gods and we didn't invent flying yet. In that context, Earth flatness or roundness was simply insignificant. But things changed. We were able to zoom out more. We were able to enlarge our points of view. We learned that it's not the Sun circling around the Earth, but the other way around. We learned that if we keep sailing West, eventually we will appear back to the same place, this time coming from East. Suddenly, our predictability of the world was challenged by the assumption that the Earth is flat. It just didn't click anymore. We needed a different truth. So, we eventually learned that in the new context, with the new information that we acquired, reality was different. In the initial, minimal context, Earth continues to be flat, that truth is still holding on, but in the broader, enlarged context, Earth can't be anything more than round. ## There's No Ultimate Truth It's just truth that we can infer with the information we have. Accepting this will generate a few surprising consequences: - you will not deem "stupid" people believing partial truths, because you will (hopefully) understand they are reasoning from a limited place, they didn't zoom out yet (for reasons that we may not be aware of). For their knowledge, their current truth is enough. - you will understand your truth is not "complete", it's just as "complete" as the total knowledge of your current context. Should that knowledge change, the truth will change too. Just imagine how mind boggling was for those sailors to realize they came back from were they left, without falling down the edge at any point of their journey. Imagine that "a-ha" moment. - there is always room to zoom out. Even if you are at a point where you feel in balance, where the current reality doesn't cause any problems, it doesn't mean "this is it", and your shit will be predictable for ever. It just means you're in a simplified context, where all your knowledge clicks, and everything else is insignificant, just like Earth flatness our roundness was insignificant in a minimal context, thousands of years ago. But hey, there are things we're still not aware of, that will soon be significant, the more we expand our circle of knowledge. So, be prepared to be outsmarted. It will happen, eventually. *Image by ParallelVision (https://pixabay.com/users/parallelvision-15128111/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6209791) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6209791)* First published on: August 28, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-flat-earth-theory%2F&text=The%20Flat%20Earth%20Theory&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-flat-earth-theory%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-flat-earth-theory%2F&t=The%20Flat%20Earth%20Theory https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-flat-earth-theory%2F&title=The%20Flat%20Earth%20Theory Previous ### Documentary Review: Fantastic Fungi (/documentary-review-fantastic-fungi/) Next ### The Rise Of Continuous Conflict Age (/the-rise-of-continuous-conflict-age/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Waking Up Early URL: https://dragosroua.com/waking-up-early.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/waking-up-early/ Published: 2009-06-20 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 53 Categories: Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness, Time management Tags: assess, decide, do, habits, morning routine Waking up early is probably the most popular topic amongst the personal development blogs. Not to mention the fact that is almost the first thing you hear during a personal development seminar: *I will teach you how to wake up early, my friend*. It's the "Hello World" of the personal development ("Hello World" is the first application you build when you learn a new programming language). I have to admit that I was quite busy with this too, back in my early personal development endeavors. So, why is this so important after all? Why waking up early? In today's post I'd like to focus on the reasons behind this popular topic as well as on some of my own techniques to accomplish this. ### No Time Mindset With all due respect, I think that waking up early comes from a "I have no free time" mindset. Waking up early is for people who have daily jobs but want to win extra time on the side. Waking up early is a signal you send to yourself with the content: "free some of my limited, allotted time, and do it early in the morning". That approach changes your time perception. It makes time a finite resource. We may perceive time as a finite resource, but that's only a convention. You know, when you're in love, a second can seem like minutes and an hour can last days. When you're bored, a whole day may pass in a second. We manipulate time through our perceptions. If we perceive time as infinite it will be infinite, the same as it is when we're in love. The empty goal of waking up early changes our time perception into a limited resource. So, waking up early as a goal comes from a scarcity mindset. The underlying reason is: "I am in serious trouble with my time, I don't have enough, I have to win some otherwise I won't be well". Lack of something is a powerful motivator and this motivator works for many of us. Especially when you can have some quick and visible victories. If you can create a habit of waking up early in a week, you'll have some quick victories on your side and that will make some boost in your self-respect. You get the feeling you are not missing that thing anymore. But the main question is: "what are you going to do with all that free time?". I know people who were really good at creating the habit of getting up early but they reverted back to a different routine after several weeks, because… well, because they had no idea what to do with that free time. So, if we're going to wake up early, we need a better reason for that. We need to know what are we going to do with that free time, otherwise it won't work. Or at least, it didn't work for me. Waking up early must be a consequence of something much bigger than a habit, it shouldn't be just a goal on itself. ### Assess Your Time What are you doing with your time throughout the day? Have you ever had the curiosity to write it down, to journal your time usage? I bet you'll have some big surprises. It might sound awkward to journal every 15 minutes what are you up to, but if you can do it for just one day long, it will be enlightening. You'll be dazzled to find out that your daily time is huge, you're just not using it properly. But, suppose you're using it properly, but need more. If you haven't notice it so far, I am using my Assess, Decide, Do (/assess-decide-do/) life management framework for this. If you haven't read yet the ADD series, feel free to do it right now and then come back here to read this post. By using this ADD approach, we're going to traverse each of the necessary realms (from assessment to doing) until we're actually going to implement the habit. So, for now we'll be starting in our Assess realm. Suppose we really have to do more (out of pleasure, for instance: we started a nice project, we love it, and want to do more of what we like). We gathered all the information we need. Here comes the decision realm. We can decide to free up some time throughout the day, by eliminating some other tasks, for instance, or we may chose to free up some time from our sleeping routine. Again, suppose we're not going to free time from the early night (which will result in going to sleep later than usual) and we decide to free up from the morning routine. As you may see, this approach is really different from other DIY tutorials or self-improvement programs. We take a step back and first we assess the need for that specific habit. And then, after we have all the information from the assessment realm, we make a decision. And again, note that the decision could be quite different from our initial intention: we may find out that we'll be better going to sleep later than waking up early. Now that we assessed the need, took the decision, all we have to do is implement the doing part. ### Waking Up Early – How To In my experience, there are two ways to achieve this: brute force and gradual adaptation. #### Brute Force Back in time 20 years, for a personal story. At that time I was doing my military service in a Romanian city called Timisoara. We were still under a communist regime and military service was pretty bad. But out of nothing, during December, some people in Timisoara started a Revolution which ultimately led to the fall of the communist regime. Years after, that was to be called the Romanian Revolution. I didn't have any idea what was going on in the city, but the most important result for me, as a soldier, was that I was forced not to sleep for 5 nights and 6 days. That's what I call brute force. From that event on I was able to manipulate my sleeping patterns much more easily. The duration of that sleep deprivation was so huge that made 2 nights of sleep deprivation in a row actually manageable. Of course, I was under extremely stressful conditions. But the main result was that I knew I was able to do it. Ever since I find it really comfortable to have 24-36 hours in a row without sleep, every once in a while. Word of caution: I do not recommend to try sleep deprivation like this, it was just an example on how bigger and faster moves can make regular moves achievable. It was also something that took place in very stressful conditions and also generated very stressful effects, apart from this new ability. Sleep deprivation can be extremely dangerous for your health, and it is something you should know before starting a waking up early routine. Another example for brute force is running: if you manage to run one day 10 miles, you'll find the next day quite comfortable to run 3 miles, although your regular habit is to run only 1 mile. I was applying this technique in my guest posting habits also. I never had a guest post in my entire life, but that was until last month, when I decided it's time to start doing this. And last month I implemented an experiment called "Massive Guest Posting (/massive-guest-posting/)" (feel free to read the post for more info) during which I wrote and published not one, not two, not three, but seven guest posts. To make things a little bit spicier, each post was part of a series, was published on a different blog in a different city on the globe, but at the exact same time. Guess what, now I'm finding pretty comfortable to write 2 guest posts per month, and that without affecting my regular writing routine for the blogs I already own. #### Gradual Adaptation Gradual adaptation is a cumulative technique in which you are making and assessing small progress each day. It's the 5 minutes per morning rule: put your alarm clock 5 minutes earlier each morning. If you do this for a week, you'll have 35  minutes of free time. It's important to assess the effects each morning, in order to see how much you can push. I know people who are able to push 5 minutes per morning for two weeks continuously. That gives them an extra 10 minutes aside the expected extra hour. Other seem to do it better in installments: 5 minutes for a week, than one week at the same hour. And then another week with the alarm clock 5 minutes earlier each morning. Gradual adaptation works. Period. I never met somebody who didn't get results from that. This is why is so spread as opposed to the brute force technique. I successful used gradual adaptation when I learned a new language and I found it much more appropriate than brute force. For instance, when I was in Japan (/the-trip-to-japan-first-impressions/) I tried the brute force approach in learning Kanji. The result was a lot of frustration. I was so confident that once there I will learn my way out in one or two days that I totally neglected to learn some Kanji before getting to Japan. Once there, I was completely puzzled and despite my efforts I had to rely only on English signs for my orientation. ### Adequate Waking up early works only if you have something to do with that hour. If you don't, you'd be better sleeping more and hope you have some nice dreams. So, if you ever want to implement that habit, I highly suggest to give some meaning to that extra hour. Start a list of things that you have to do during that hour. And then do them. First published on: June 20, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwaking-up-early%2F&text=Waking%20Up%20Early&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwaking-up-early%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwaking-up-early%2F&t=Waking%20Up%20Early https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwaking-up-early%2F&title=Waking%20Up%20Early Previous ### Assess Decide Do stages – Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) Next ### The Morning Phrase (/the-morning-phrase/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Simple Things About Goal Setting URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-simple-things-goal-setting.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-simple-things-goal-setting/ Published: 2014-09-03 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 52 Categories: Personal Development, Success and Wellness Tags: assess, goal setting, list post I used to be a big fan of goal setting. To some extent, I still am. I still value big parts of the entire goal setting system, but, to be honest, I took some distance from some of the mainstream perceptions of this, quite useful, but yet so overrated approach to living our lives (for those of you who don't know, I even wrote an entire course on Udemy, with more than 2 hours of video content, and quite a few satisfied students so far). There's more to life than just goals. There's more to life than just motivation. Both are very good, don't get me wrong, but buying only that part of life is like trying to buy stuff with only one side of a coin. There is always more than one size of the coin and there are always more ways to look at things. Without further ado, let's start. ## 1. A Goal Is Not A Monkey Just because you wish to do something, that doesn't make it a goal. I often meet with people who tell me they want to become rich, for instance. Well, that's a very nice wish. It's also wishful thinking. A goal should be not only SMART, as they (traditionally) say, but should also have this quality of being authentic. Of being part of your life. Most of the time, people just project monkey versions of themselves (as in an unfinished, not evolved, sketchy version) trying to identify with them. These monkey projections will never become a goal. ## 2. A Goal Is Like Your Kitchen Table You should have a very good idea about your goal, about how it look and, most important, about how it fits into your entire life. A goal is something that will shape your life so much, that it will, eventually, blend in. It will be so deeply part of your life that you won't even notice it. In the (not quite distant) past, every time I set up some BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) something made it go away. It was almost like I was wearing some sort of goal repellent: it kept moving further and further away from me. Only when I learned how to make it part of my life, just like my kitchen table, I was able to reach it. ## 3. Goals Are Not Set In Stone Life changes. People changes. Your surroundings are changing. You're changing. So,your goals may change from time to time. It's ok. The subtle irony is that, at the end of a BHAG, you're practically a different person from the person who started it. You're somebody else already. What you want now it's inherently different from what you may have wanted in the beginning. Sticking to a goal once it has "lived its life" is as dangerous as attaching to a pleasure or succumbing to an addiction. The harm is the same: it's still attachment to something that's already dead. ## 4 Setting A Goal Is Not Enough Let's say you got over the monkey part. Now you know exactly what you want, you know exactly how it fits in your life, you have an idea about the cost of it and you're ready to embrace it. Congrats. You're just at the beginning of a very long journey. That's where 99% of people are stopping. At the setting level. Tomorrow I'll quit smoking. Tomorrow I'll start to exercise. Good. Great. You set up a goal. Now what? Now yo have to work your ass to make it real, that's what you have to do, and always, I mean always, this is way much harder than just setting course. ## 5 Reaching The Goal Is Just The Bate The real benefit is always the path towards the goal. Of course, it's not the destination, it's the journey. The goal is just a big, shiny bate that you're flushing in front of your eyes, luring your focus towards the end of it. But the actual reward is what happens during this entire process. Reaching to the goal is fine. It's great, actually, there's a lot of pleasure and adrenaline rush associated with that. But, in the end, it's not that tiny second in which you finished the marathon, that counts, it's the tens of thousands of seconds you spent training for it. And you know that, already. ## 6 Nobody's Counting Really. This is not a competition. You heard it millions of times before, yet you're still not convinced: the only real competition (if I can call it like this) is with yourself. You're the ultimate creator and beneficiary of your own reality. Nobody else is counting. So you'd better loosen up a bit. Relax for a while. Try to pay attention to what's happening to you as a result to all those goals you reached to, be mindful of who you really become after all these endeavors and see if you still like that person. It's important. ## 7 Living Goalless Is Not A Crime On the contrary. Sometimes you need to take a break. To blend in. The let the inertia created by your own actions to carry away, without any conscious intent form your part. Doing stuff is great. Making things happen is great. But there's also this still pose in which you become just a silent witness of your own life. Stay there for a while. During this time you're practically goalless. It's ok. It's part of the natural process of life. Every once in a while you should let yourself embraced by the flow, and stop using actions as a panacea for your own fears. First published on: September 3, 2014 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-simple-things-goal-setting%2F&text=7%20Simple%20Things%20About%20Goal%20Setting&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-simple-things-goal-setting%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-simple-things-goal-setting%2F&t=7%20Simple%20Things%20About%20Goal%20Setting https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-simple-things-goal-setting%2F&title=7%20Simple%20Things%20About%20Goal%20Setting Previous ### The Diamond Cutter Conferences (/diamond-cutter-conferences/) Next ### Being Famous Is Just An Accident (/being-famous-just-accident/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # addTaskManager Has Universal Search URL: https://dragosroua.com/addtaskmanager-has-universal-search.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/addtaskmanager-has-universal-search/ Published: 2026-01-12 Views: 52 Categories: Assess Decide Do, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: addtaskmanager, app store, focus, ios development It's been two months since the last release of my ADHD-friendly productivity app, addTaskManager. In app development terms, that's either abandonment or focus. Well, it was focus. I just released addTaskManager version 2.6.0 yesterday, and the reason for this delay is simple: you can now search your tasks. ## Search Wasn't There Before I know. A task manager without search sounds like a car without wheels. But here's how I got there. When I built addTaskManager around the ADD framework (/assess-decide-do-framework/) (Assess, Decide, Do), the whole point was reducing cognitive load. You just reduce your workload to three realms, with clear separation of concerns: evaluate in Assess, plan in Decide and execute in Do. The structure and orientation were basically built in. The theory was: if everything has its place, you don't need search. You just go to the place. But in practice you accumulate a lot of stuff. Sometimes I have more than 200-300 items in sight, spread over 3 realms. Scrolling through a realm looking for that one task you vaguely remember creating last Tuesday? That's not reduced cognitive load. That's frustration. So I finally built search. And I took the time to build it properly. ## Search From Anywhere, Travel to Anything Here's how it works now. You can trigger search from anywhere in the app. Type what you're looking for and the results appear across all your data types: tasks, projects, subtasks, ideas, everything, grouped by realm (with icons and color significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/)). Tap a result, and the app *navigates* to it. Not just shows it overlaid in the current screen. It actually *travels* there. You see the realm tab highlight and the top level realm screen opens. It then navigates to the second level, where the task / project is located. For example, in Decide it can go from top level realm screen, to Undecided project list, then to the project subtasks lists, then to the specific subtask you just selected. When the item appears, it's selected and highlighted, with action buttons ready. I find this UX almost soothing, a smooth travel from "I want this" to "here it is". And I call it "traveling animation" because that's what it feels like. You're not just finding something. You're following the app as it takes you from the top of the hierarchy to the exact item you wanted: realm → data type → item with action buttons visible. ## The Free Tier Gets 10x More Room While I was deep in search building, I also looked at the free tier limits. And honestly, they were too tight. People were hitting the paywall before they even had a chance to really test whether the ADD framework works for them. So I increased the limits by 10x. That's right: ten times more tasks, more ideas, more room to actually use this thing before deciding if it's worth paying for. The rationale behind this decision: if the app really helps you, you'll want to support it. Not because you ran out of space, but because you found something that works for you. And if it doesn't help you, you shouldn't be paying anyway. ## Stability Stuff A few fixes that you won't notice because that's the point: - There was a crash that could happen when searching and navigating quickly. Fixed. - The keyboard wasn't lifting search results properly on some devices. Fixed. - Tab bar sizing was off on iPad and Mac. Fixed. - Badge indicators on realm tabs weren't showing. Now they're back. - All the search and sharing features are now fully localized in every supported language. ## Why Two Months? Building search properly takes time. There are many things to consider and overlapping this with the structure of the ADD framework was an extra challenge. I think I could have shipped a basic search in two weeks. But then I chose to ship a good one in two months. Whether that was the right call, I don't know. Indie app economics say ship fast and iterate. My gut said get this right because people will use it constantly. We'll see. ## addTaskManager 2.6.0 Is Live in AppStore If you're already using addTaskManager, update and try the search (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8). Press the search icon, type something, tap a result. See if the traveling navigation makes sense to you or if it's overkill. If you're new, the free tier now gives you real room to test the ADD framework. Capture ideas in Assess. Move the ones you commit to into Decide. Execute from Do. And now, when you forget where you put something, just search. *Note: there are still a few glitches, but they are fixed in 2.6.1, which, at the time of writing, is in review, should be available in a matter of days.* First published on: January 12, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faddtaskmanager-has-universal-search%2F&text=addTaskManager%20Has%20Universal%20Search&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faddtaskmanager-has-universal-search%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faddtaskmanager-has-universal-search%2F&t=addTaskManager%20Has%20Universal%20Search https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Faddtaskmanager-has-universal-search%2F&title=addTaskManager%20Has%20Universal%20Search Previous ### Frugality Is Precision, Not Deprivation (/frugality-is-precision-not-deprivation/) Next ### Bio Content In 2026 – A Bet (/bio-content-in-2026-a-bet/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Assess Decide Do stages – Do URL: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-stages-do.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-stages-do/ Published: 2009-06-16 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 52 Categories: Assess Decide Do, Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: assess, decide, do, framework, taking action ADD comes from "Assess Decide Do" and it's a life management framework, initially described in this introductory post (/assess-decide-do/). As opposed to the regular productivity approaches, a life management framework focuses on a higher level integration and rejects the task checking approach as the only metric for measuring productivity performance. In ADD, each individual can have only 3 main stages or can act in 3 main realms: the Assess realm, the Decide realm and the Do realm. Those stages are cumulative, in the sense that an imbalance in an early stage, like the Assess stage, can create negative consequences in the following stages. A balanced, constant flow between those 3 stages is the main metric of a fulfilling life management. If you came here directly you may want to check out first the Assess realm (/add-stages-assess/) and Decide realm (/add-stages-decide/) posts. Today will talk about the Do realm. ### Closing The Circle The Do realm is where you are closing the circle you started to draw by assessing and then deciding something. It's the final stage and the most physical one. Usually, what you're doing is something touchable, real, as opposed to the Assess or Decide stages, which are mainly mental activities. The Do realm is like the visible part of an iceberg. You know an iceberg can show only a small part on the surface, and this is the Do realm, but the core of it is under the water, in the initial Assess and Decide stages. The Do realm is also one of the most refined and talked about by productivity experts. Much of the writing and methodologies created in the productivity area is focusing only on the Do realm, including GTD. Productivity and effectiveness are mistakenly defined as a consequence of the Do realm, when in fact they are a consequence of an entire Assess – Decide – Do cycle. If you did your job in the Assess and Decide stages, you're not actually doing much in the Do realm. The only three activities are scheduling, prioritizing and finishing. ### Scheduling You have to create an understandable and manageable time frame for your activities and this is done by scheduling. You're allocating energy and space. You're putting some order around you. We all live in time and making the most of our time is one of the best thing we can do. Scheduling means in fact to acknowledge that you will be available for that specific task at a specific time. If you're not scheduling your activities, you'll actually reject them from your timeline. You'll send a message of non-availability. But if you're scheduling, you're sending to yourself a message of availability. As any other activity, scheduling can be improved, refined and automated. There are tons of books on how to use your time, and the intent of this post is not to offer a scheduling tutorial. All I want to stress is that one fundamental activity in the Do realm is scheduling, or sending messages of availability. ### Prioritizing Reality is changing. Your universe is changing. What was important yesterday may not be so important today, or tomorrow. Prioritizing your doing means give room to what's important now as opposed to what you thought it was important yesterday. Prioritizing comes after scheduling and it's an important, often ignored part of the productivity process. Prioritizing will conflict with scheduling and that's something normal. Prioritizing means giving space and energy to what's important now and reschedule what was left out. Many people get confused when they have to make changes based on the priority of the tasks but that's an important part of the Do realm. How do you know what's important and what's not? Well, that is something you will have to micro Assess-Decide-Do every time. As I already mentioned, ADD is an abstract framework and supports any implementation you want. For instance, there will be a different prioritizing strategy in an ADD implementation for programming, than to an ADD implementations for relationships. ### Finishing If you start doing something, finish it. Or cut it out, if you can't do it anymore. As simple and dumb as it sounds, finishing is a very important part of the doing process. So important, that I felt the need to make it a separate process. One of the most subtle yet powerful ways to procrastinate (like really procrastinate, loosing your time) is to remain stuck in a project or task for ever. There is this pressure not to finish the task, because… well, because you'll have to do something else. And you don't want. Or you are scared. Or bored. Or whatever. I've been there so many times that I had to come up with a finishing strategy. I've been caught in so many situations where finishing seemed strange or inconvenient or not appropriate that I really had to reconsider all my attitude towards finishing. I'm sure you've been there: caught in a sticky relationship, in a never-ending project, in a just-above-the-fold job, and so on. Finishing is the most important part of doing something. It frees your resources, it makes room for something new and it feeds the next Assess session. If you're not finishing what you're doing, you'll never be able to assess what you've done so far. Your ADD cycle will be stuck. ### Creating Miracles Doing is where the miracle takes place. By doing what you assessed and decided, you're changing your reality the way you want. Assessing is just a perspective and the decision is just an intention. If those are not backed up with constant activity and with real life actions, your Assess-Decide-Do cycle will be broken. But if you're staying enough time in this cycle, if you succeed in Assessing, Deciding and Doing on a regular basis, if you engage totally in each part and let yourself flow freely through those stages, if you really become aware of the whole process, as simple and yet as powerful as it is, you're going to create miracles. Starting with yourself. First published on: June 16, 2009 ### ⚡ Assess-Decide-Do Framework Stage 3: Do Part 5 of 11 View all 11 posts → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) ← Previous Stage 2: Decide Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) Next → Design & Meaning Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) 2. Evolution: Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) 3. Stage 1: Assess: Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) 4. Stage 2: Decide: Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) 5. Stage 3: Do: Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) 6. Design & Meaning: Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) 7. AI Evolution: Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) 8. Skills Architecture: Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) 9. Ecosystem Expansion: From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) 10. Always-On Agent: Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) 11. Multi-Agent Council: LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-do%2F&text=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20stages%20%E2%80%93%20Do&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-do%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-do%2F&t=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20stages%20%E2%80%93%20Do https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-do%2F&title=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20stages%20%E2%80%93%20Do Previous ### Assess Decide Do stages – Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) Next ### Waking Up Early (/waking-up-early/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # "I Can" versus "I Do" URL: https://dragosroua.com/i-can-versus-i-do.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/i-can-versus-i-do/ Published: 2009-07-22 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 52 Categories: Getting Things Done, Motivation and Inspiration, Success and Wellness Tags: do, taking action, training "I can" is empowering, while "I do" is life changing. There is a subtle yet powerful difference between those verbs. "I can" will change your internal reality, will make you believe you are truly able to do it. But it won't do it for you. It will always remain at the internal level, it won't reach out. On the other side, "I do" will modify your surroundings and make things happening. "I do" is the reality itself, not just an internal representation of it. This is one of the most important, yet widely ignored confusions in the personal development field. ### "I Can" traps *I can lose weight. I can be a millionaire. I can have a fulfilling relationship. I can create a fantastic career. I can change the world.* All those sentences are empowering, but they are not modifying anything. They are just a potential. In fact, they are even less than a potential, they are a trap. The trap of "it's ok just to say it". The trap of "ok, I said it, now can somebody please stand up and do it?". The trap of "I had a revelation and that's enough". Having powerful thoughts and using powerful verbs – and "I do" is a powerful verb – is certainly important, but it's not enough. It can give you a kickstart, it can motivate you, but it won't do it. It won't make it happen, unless you switch to the "I do" level. ### "I Do" thrills *I am losing weight. I'm becoming a millionaire. I'm creating a fulfilling relationship. I'm building a fantastic career. I am changing the world, starting with myself.* Notice the difference? It's not about the fact that you can do all those things, but about actually doing them. Notice the change in your emotions while reading this? The "I can" sentences are giving you self-confidence, clarity and perhaps some motivation boost. But the "I do" sentences are giving you the thrills. And this is where all the fun is, at the thrill level. All the connection and joy of life is taking place at the "I do" level. All the rest – including the "I can" preparation – is just a scaffold to reach this thrill level. Once you got there, is not important anymore. ### From "I Can" to "I Do" How many times you've been stuck at the "I can" level? How many times you wrote powerful and motivating sentences but never actually did something? How many times you visualized your goals, set up milestones, allocated resources only to see the dust covering everything because you didn't do anything to move things forward? Switching from "I can" to "I do" is difficult. Here's why: #### "I Can" is comfortable, "I Do" is riskier I can keeps you in the comfort zone, it won't move you in any direction. I can in itself, without a follow up in the real world, will bury you. I do gets you out of the comfort zone. It pushes you to break the limits and actually do. There is always a risk of failing if you do something. But if you don't, you won't change anything either. #### "I Can" is nice, "I Do" is grumpy At the "I can" level things are pinky and perfect. You see your goals, you imagine a self without extra fat, a perfect career, a nurturing relationship. Everything is nice. At the "I do" level things are sometimes ugly. You have to fight, to resist, to pull, to strive. Getting there means almost every time beating some obstacles. Which is not always nice. #### "I Can" makes no promises, "I Do" respects all the promises At the "I can" level you don't make promises, you're just telling "ok, I'm able to do it". You won't commit to anything. You're just acknowledging some facts. At the "I do" level you have to respect your commitments. Doing things means keeping your promises. Make things happening. Stand up for your words. #### "I Can" is easy, "I Do" is hard Because you make no real commitments, "I can" gives you room to dream big. I can be whatever I want. It's spectacular and easy. You're just saying it. Once you start keeping your promises, the big dreams must become reality. And that's hard. It's not always spectacular and it requires constant, difficult work. #### "I Can" is a thought, "I Do" is an action Think for a moment at this situation: you met the love of your life, you fell in love and now you want to move forward. "I Can" marry you is a thought, while "I Do" marry you is an action. You can replace your example with whatever situations you feel attracted to: "I can" have money versus "I do" have money, "I can" be happy versus "I am" happy. *** Now, how can you really move from "I can" to "I do"? If you read the differences above carefully, I think you already know. And, surprisingly enough, it's not complicated. You knew it all the time. If you really, really want to switch from "I can" to "I do" you have to get out of the comfort zone. You have to be prepared to fail. You have to make and keep promises. You have to work it out. Thinking that you can do stuff is important, but making it happen is a completely different process. And in my opinion, this is where all the fun is, at making things happening. Thinking big is good, doing big is even better. And, yes, the most important step to actually do something is to move away from the computer right now and start making things happen. Reading blogs, including this one, won't help for long. It might help in the beginning, it will give you some directions, but it won't make things happening in your place. The real master of your life is you, not a blog. Step out, take risks and do something with your life. Of course you can. Now do it! First published on: July 22, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fi-can-versus-i-do%2F&text=%E2%80%9CI%20Can%E2%80%9D%20versus%20%E2%80%9CI%20Do%E2%80%9D&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fi-can-versus-i-do%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fi-can-versus-i-do%2F&t=%E2%80%9CI%20Can%E2%80%9D%20versus%20%E2%80%9CI%20Do%E2%80%9D https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fi-can-versus-i-do%2F&title=%E2%80%9CI%20Can%E2%80%9D%20versus%20%E2%80%9CI%20Do%E2%80%9D Previous ### Trip To Europe – Prague (/trip-to-europe-prague/) Next ### Flashes (/flashes/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Just Dive In URL: https://dragosroua.com/just-dive-in.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/just-dive-in/ Published: 2020-05-16 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 52 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Success and Wellness Tags: courage, do, procrastination, taking action For about 7 years I worked as a radio anchor and, a week ago, I just remembered how it all started. I was a student at the Faculty of Journalism, in the post-Decembrist Bucharest, circa 1992. I was part of the second generation of students, working with a new set of teachers and curricula, which were just replacing the old propaganda school called "Stefan Gheorghiu" (that was what journalism was in communism: just propaganda). Everything was starting from scratch in that school, and we were all learning as we went along. During the last few months, a new type of radio appeared: the FM radio. There were just a couple of them in Bucharest, and the whole thing was something very new and cool: the studios were almost improvised, the DJs and anchors weren't trained before and just did whatever they thought was right and everything had a vibe of brand new, and a lot of opportunities and possibilities. One of these radios just opened in a building adjacent to the Faculty of Journalism, at the top floor. It was called Radio Delta. During one of the radio classes (we were learning all kind of journalism, written, TV, radio, etc) I understood that we can go and visit that radio for free, as we were students. Even more, we could even do some stuff there (had no idea what kind of "staff") and it will count towards our practice hours. So, one day around noon, I decided to try my luck. I went in that other building, found the room were the radio was and knocked at the door. A guy my age, still sleepy, opened and asked me what I wanted. I told him in a few words that I was a student at the Journalism faculty and I could use some practice hours. He nodded and then invited me in. The studio was just a small room, a mixer hooked to a microphone in another room, separated by a huge glass. There wasn't anything going on yet, they were supposed to broadcast only 2 hours per day, starting at 6PM. I started a bit of small talk, met the other two guys working there and learned that they didn't really have a news room. There was a news bulletin at 6PM, but they were just using news from papers and someone was reading them. I asked a few more questions about the duration of each news, the structure of the bulletin (internal, external, sport, etc) and then asked if I could start my practice by providing them these bulletins. They agreed and told me to come back at 5:30, with a first draft. I went back to the Faculty library, looked over today's papers and wrote (by hand, we didn't have computers back then, not even typewriters) a small bulletin consisting of 4 news. I calculated the entire bulletin to be around 3-4 minutes. At 5:30 I was back in the "studio". The guy that opened me in the morning briefly looked over the papers I handed him. I remember I used 4 different pens (even different colors) and the writing was confusing, to say the least. He looked at me, then he looked at the bulletin again. Then he said: — Do you want to read this? — Like, live? I asked and felt my knees melting. — Yes, live, we're starting the segment in about 15 minutes. I don't remember exactly the reasoning behind my decision, but it was something like: "Hell, let's do this". — Yes, I answered, although my knees were still shaking. Where do I read it? — Here, he told me and we both entered in the microphone room. I still remember how it "sounded": empty, like even my breath was silenced by the walls. Later on I was about to learn how these rooms are isolated, and I was going to spend a lot of time in many rooms like this one. He told me a few words about how all this worked, insisting on the fact that every communication must be done by hand gestures. Since I was live, I couldn't use words, because everybody will hear them. It's a bit funny in the beginning, but you get used to it. — 30 seconds, he told me, at some point. I'm going out. Remember to give him the hand gesture when you're finished, ok? He'll take care of it, and he pointed to the guy behind the glass, who smiled at me. I put on my earphones, heard the jingle and the recorded voice announcing a new bulletin and then my introduction. And then I started to read. It all took 3-4 minutes, as I predicted and I still remember the smile of those two guys after I finished. I don't remember how I felt, or what I read. But I still remember their faces. From that day on, I read the news every day for 9 months. I wasn't paid for this, as this was practice, but I learned tremendously. After these 9 months, I heard rumors about a bigger radio opening, with a lot of money and newer equipment. It was called Radio ProFm. A guy from their team approached me and asked me to work for them, for a salary bigger than my parents salary at that time. I was 22. For the next 6 years I worked in various radio stations, on various positions, even helping building new radios from scratch, putting teams together, etc. ## Just Dive In What happened after that evening – when I read live a news bulletin, for the first time in my life, without any previous training – is not that important. From that point on it was just learning. Sometimes it went ok, sometimes it was boring and sometimes it was really nice. But it was somehow predictable. There was a certain amount of certainty about it. Whereas during those minutes when I decided to go live, nothing was predictable, nor certain. In that moment, in that precise moment when I decided I'm going to do something completely new, and terrifying, a huge fracture happened in the structure of my life. Of course I couldn't see, in that moment, where it will lead me. I had no idea I was going to work 7 years as a radio anchor. But I was willing to do something new, something I have never did before. I was willing to dive in. I cherish a lot this "just dive in" approach. And I've been doing it a lot since then. Sometimes, I know it's risky and I know it just won't go in the right direction. I've been "diving" a lot in the wrong waters, the wrong businesses, the wrong relationships. Those dives were difficult. I felt lost, suffocating, almost drowning and I had to struggle to get out, at times. Other dives, well, went really nice. I felt like the risk paid off and I received rewards and treasures hard to even imagine before deciding to try. Being present, being in the action – without any attachment to the outcome of that action – is probably the most authentic way to live our lives. *Image by Free-Photos (https://pixabay.com/photos/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1209647) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1209647) * First published on: May 16, 2020 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fjust-dive-in%2F&text=Just%20Dive%20In&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fjust-dive-in%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fjust-dive-in%2F&t=Just%20Dive%20In https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fjust-dive-in%2F&title=Just%20Dive%20In Previous ### Blog Every Day In 2020 – A 230 Days Challenge (/blog-every-day-in-2020-a-230-days-challenge/) Next ### What’s Important? (/whats-important/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Money Doesn't Exist URL: https://dragosroua.com/money-doesnt-exist.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/money-doesnt-exist/ Published: 2019-02-28 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 52 Categories: Money and Wealth Tags: money, money mindset There is no physical money. It’s a mental construct, a controlled hallucination shared by almost the entire population of the globe. There’s no physical object which, by itself, can have an intrinsic, exchangeable value. Even if we can identify “precious” metals like gold, or coins, or notes, bonds or company shares as physical objects which are carrying a certain value, there’s no intrinsic value of them. For many of the readers of this posts series (yes, I'm writing a posts series) this may seem like a delusional claim. “Of course there is physical money, I just paid my rent with it!” Oh well, what you did looked like and exchange of real, “physical” money for some service, but what happened was really something else. It was a transfer of trust. The posts you’re about to read will try to demystify the mainstream perception of money. Because, like it or not, money, as we know it, is just a myth. ### Myth – noun There are 4 possible meanings for the word “myth” in the Merriam Webster dictionary. The 2nd and the 3rd are the most relevant for our case. Here they are: 2 – a) a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone – especially one embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society 2 – b) an unfounded or false notion 3 – a person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence. We will certainly get back to these definitions at various points in this series, but for now let’s write down some key words: - popular belief - unfounded or false - imaginary or unverifiable existence. So, if money is not physical, what is it then? Stick with me, we'll all find out in the next post of the series. First published on: February 28, 2019 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmoney-doesnt-exist%2F&text=Money%20Doesn%E2%80%99t%20Exist&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmoney-doesnt-exist%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmoney-doesnt-exist%2F&t=Money%20Doesn%E2%80%99t%20Exist https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmoney-doesnt-exist%2F&title=Money%20Doesn%E2%80%99t%20Exist Previous ### Fallas – The Purifying Effect Of Loud Noises (/fallas-the-purifying-effect-of-loud-noises/) Next ### Money – A Formula for Perceived Value, Reward and Punishment (/money-a-formula-for-perceived-value-reward-and-punishment/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Opportunities And Building Up URL: https://dragosroua.com/opportunities-and-building-up.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/opportunities-and-building-up/ Published: 2021-07-18 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 52 Categories: Financial Resilience Tags: 365 challenge, consistency, financial freedom, money mindset, wealth Every time we think about money, or about having access to relevant amounts of money, we think in terms of a unique event. Like, oh, what if I would suddenly have 10x my net-worth, right now. How many things could I do with that money, how fast would I pay may mortgage, or buy that property, or whatever. The problem with this mindset is that the probability of a sudden, disruptive financial event in our life is extremely low. It's lower than winning the lottery – because if we play the lottery, we may actually have some small odds, but if we're just waiting for something to come out of the blue, some lucky event coming down from the skies, we're completely devoid of any chance. Yet the constant thinking about such a possibility makes our mind behave in a very diverging way. Instead of focusing on what we can do on this very moment, we keep day dreaming, or projecting future lucky situations. If we spend too much time in this mindset, we can even get to grind: we will find it very difficult to engage in repetitive tasks that will generate some minor revenue (but real, tangible), because we're already in waiting mode for the big change that may, or may not come. We will actually lock ourselves in "dream mode". ## When Opportunity Hits There is a saying that luck is when opportunity meets preparation, and I'm very keen on this saying. It's been proven right times and again in my own life. There is a certain way of building up positions, regardless of the current context. And by "positions" I'm don't mean only capital. A position may consist in constant exposure to a certain skill, or network of people. You may not master that skill instantly, and you may not meet an instrumental person right away, but by building up positions in that area, you are setting the context for that future, allegedly lucky event. Building up positions requires relentless, disciplined action. It also requires a certain decoupling from the result of your actions. Because when we build up a position, we are not getting back any immediate, relevant result, it's just brick over brick over brick. And the "house" we're erecting (or the position we're building) is so big, that it would almost be depressing to think about the difference between what it is now, and what we expect it to be. And yet, every brick counts. So, when the opportunity actually hits, we are already in a good position (pun intended). When a certain market context gives us a chance to act, we already have some capital to enter, and grab that opportunity. When a certain job opens on the market, we have that skill. When a certain important person we want to talk to becomes available, we can already get in touch, because we've been building our network relentlessly, for years. The opposite is to keep thinking that we will be ok only if some lucky rainfall will hit us. In my experience, if we do get hit by a rainfall, the opposite of this will happen. Specifically because we're not disciplined enough, and we don't have the experience of building painstakingly slow positions, we will be soon ungrateful for that opportunity, and waste it all on a few moves, hoping it will just re-appear again soon. Which, of course, is a very dumb way to think: the very definition of a significantly "lucky" event is that it happens once in a lifetime. *Photo by Nick Fewings (https://unsplash.com/@jannerboy62?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/bricks?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: July 18, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fopportunities-and-building-up%2F&text=Opportunities%20And%20Building%20Up&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fopportunities-and-building-up%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fopportunities-and-building-up%2F&t=Opportunities%20And%20Building%20Up https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fopportunities-and-building-up%2F&title=Opportunities%20And%20Building%20Up Previous ### We’re Still A Tribalist World, It Just Got Easier To Pick Our Tribe (/were-still-a-tribalist-world-it-just-got-easier-to-pick-our-tribe/) Next ### Clarkson’s Farm – A Review (/clarksons-farm-a-review/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Practical Astrology: The Moon In Signs URL: https://dragosroua.com/practical-astrology-the-moon-in-signs.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/practical-astrology-the-moon-in-signs/ Published: 2008-11-21 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 52 Categories: Astrology and Esotericism, iPhone, Mind Mapping, Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: experiment As some of you may know, I use astrology for personal development (/astrology-and-personal-development/). Among some other stuff, of course. And by that I mean I use it constantly as a symbolic model of reality. The position of the planets on the sky is having some kind of influence on our lives and I learned how to understand that. Today I'll share a little experiment which lasted for more than a month. It's about the Moon and its position on the sky during a complete cycle from New Moon to Full Moon. If you still think astrology is only a horoscope in the morning paper, with no value whatsoever, I recommend you to read more about understanding astrology (/understanding-astrology/). And if you still think this is just new age garbage, feel free to skip this post, it's ok. I guess you already know the Moon is having a complete cycle in around 28 days around the Earth. During this cycle the Moon is staying between 2 and 3 days in each astrological sign. The nature of the sign in which Moon is at some moment is affecting that part of our being which is ruled by Moon. There are many interpretations of what Moon "is" in our lives. For the sake of simplicity I chose to understand Moon as the ruler of our emotions. It has a number of other interpretations but staying only at the emotional level will just be enough for this experiement. Just remember that the Moon represent the things that can hurt us and the things which we need healing from. The Moon is the unconscious pulse of our emotional field. From joy to sorrow, from compassion to anger, everything that is in your emotional filed has something to do with the Moon and its position on the sky. ### The Experiment During a complete cycle of the Moon I monitored my emotions. I also monitored the position of the Moon on the sky and noted my impressions and reflections of what the Moon in the sky could be. I did this in a kind of geeky way by using, of course, an iPhone (/category/iphone/). There are two apps on the iPhone that I used during this, none of them directly related to astrology, but more on that later on after the experiment description.  For now, let's just focus on what I felt during a complete cycle of the Moon on the zodiac, from Aries to Pisces. For a more detailed breakdown, have a look at this page (https://astrologybits.com/planets-in-astrology/moon/). ### Moon in Aries My emotions were extremely intense, like powered with high energy. On the whole, I felt an intense drive to action. Anything I started was out of enthusiasm, was powered by my own choices, not by external circumstances. I also felt an interesting silence on the emotional level, not too much noise, everything seemed extremely pure. It seemed that Moon in Aries favors clean emotions focused on achieving immediate results. Moon in Aries is also accident prone, during this interval I had a small driving accident (no consequences, but the burst of energy was almost physical around me). ### Moon in Taurus During this period my emotions reached a deeper level. Not too much was out on the surface, or it wasn't a very strong need to surface anything. On the inside, the key word was: revelation. Anything that I understood during this period was perceived like something that was unveiled to me. I also noticed a strong analytical approach. The earth nature of the sign through which Moon was traveling was perceived very clear. Whenever I felt something I immediately followed that feeling by an intellectual analysis. The deepness of my emotions had also a touch of possessiveness: these are my emotions and I do whatever I want with them… ### Moon in Gemini I guess the Moon in Gemini is the most talkative position of the Moon. Almost any situation requested to be talked about, from physical surroundings to thoughts or plans. This Moon favors interactivity on all levels, I felt an increased desire to connect with other people, most of the time people I knew, though. Each emotion on a Moon in Gemini interval is also a little bit conflictual, like trying to be always right. And when you're right, you try to convince that you aren't. Those types of conflicts were extremely short though and there was some lack of focus, or a need to move fast. The overall feeling was one of increased communication, on all levels. ### Moon in Cancer This position gave me a sense of inner healing of emotions. I can't really know from where it was coming, but the overall feeling was one of a nurturing and protective touch. But there wasn't at all any fragility involved, on the contrary, the vibration was extremely powerful, not action prone, like the Moon in Aries, but steady and focused. The Moon in Cancer is also a very stubborn one. I tended to get attached of what I said or felt in a very personal way. I even felt bad when I had to detach from some situations. Moon in Cancer is also the most carrying prone situation of all zodiac, I actually thought of every aspect of a situation with genuine interest and involvement. ### Moon in Leo Mainly protective, that was my first word sequence to describe a Moon in Leo. An honest approach to every situation, with a strong tendency to protect and care for. There was the king's protection toward their subjects, most of the time, not the nurturing protection of a Moon in Cancer, for instance. Moon in Leo is also quite argumentative, but quite different than a Moon in Gemini. There is quest for truth and not for talking just to be heard. Anything said or done during this period was strongly assertive, it was like I knew I was doing the right thing and nobody could turn me the other way. And if they tried, I still had enough resources to become confrontational in an open way, ready to share my motivations and fundaments for each and every action I took. ### Moon in Virgo This is a time for retained emotions like in experiencing them but not showing them publicly. The emotional flow is going free, but there is refraining about showing it. Like an extreme politeness. Moon in Virgo is giving a lot of discussion room. It's like finding a way of doing something and then discussing about other ten ways to do the same thing. During this period I had a lot of discussions and very few practical things approached. And each discussion was a very stubborn one. I also experienced an unusual shyness in all matters, from personal stuff to outside interactions. It was not something turned inward but a lack of courage to start doing something publicly. ### Moon in Libra Moon in Libra was one of the most quiet intervals. Moon is calm and permissive as in indulging. During this period I felt the need to feed myself, not be nurtured and to enjoy as much as I can on the sensorial level. Reading, seeing movies or listening to music, accidentally connecting to old friends or colleagues. Moon in Libra is also extremely traveling prone, I guess that during those two days of Moon in Libra I had 3 or more short trips around the city. Emotions on a Moon in Libra are self contained the same way beauty is self contained and there is no obstacle toward public exposure, but sometimes the need for this is lacking. Staying at home, being cosy and enjoying yourself seems like the best thing you can do. ### Moon in Scorpio This Moon is hiding emotions. It's not like the Moon in Virgo, where the emotions are still manifesting, but during this time the emotional flow is very often repressed. I often felt the need to hide the way I felt in such a way that nobody else will know what I'm experiencing. A Moon in Scorpio is a very financial aware one, I guess most of my financial interactions, like in analyze and taking decisions, were done during this interval. Because of the emotional flow obstruction, I felt a lot of frustration and rage, sometimes like out of the blue. Letting it go seemed the best decision, although I tried several time to understand why I felt those intense feeling, without much success. ### Moon in Sagittarius This is a very good time for expression of emotions. Among all the other periods this is by far the most expression prone one. Everything that you feel is finding its own natural way to get out in the light, without any hesitation and without any shyness whatsoever. Maybe in close relation to this ease of being is the very high emotional sensitivity. It's like being through a huge emotions amplifier that makes even the tiniest joy sound louder than usual. The Moon in Sagittarius is also very unstable: there are pretty big ups and downs on the emotional scale. I felt it extremely easy to get from joy to sadness and from laziness to enthusiasm with a Moon in Sagittarius. ### Moon in Capricorn The Moon in Capricorn is hardly felt. The emotions are actually muted by this transit and you need a very strong focus to understand what's happening with your emotional field. It seems that during these periods your focus is on practical matters, especially building: relationships, projects, things. The Moon in Capricorn is one of the most financially aware – but not as the one in Scorpio. During this time I understand better how money behaves and where I can be in touch with it. Not all the time am I capable of doing this of course, but I had a better understanding of how this is working on a Moon in Capricorn. ### Moon in Aquarius That's one refined Moon. I experienced an increased sensitivity to fine stuff, from processes – like negotiations, writing or smooth talking – to things like jewelry or nice polished gadgets. A Moon in Aquarius is extremely intuition prone. During this periods I was able to understand things without explaining them and I knew most of the time the outcome of each action. This isn't of much use because a Moon in Aquarius makes from an extremely changing mood. It's not like the Moon in Sagittarius, which was mostly unstable, this Moon makes restless searches for new things, and is extremely curious and ready to know more just about everything. ### Moon in Pisces That's one psychic Moon. Definitely psychic. And by psychic I mean a very unusual way of getting in touch with things or persons. I had unusual dreams and intuitions and also had long intervals of apparent lack of activity in the real world, doubled by long periods of waving around on the inside. It was like traveling outside this world, but don't think at something very spectacular, just those day dreaming periods in which our thoughts are miles away. A Moon in Pisces is like a natural catalyst for all those day dreaming moments which can last for hours, sometimes. Another important aspect of a Moon in Pisces was its silent healing vibration. Again, nothing spectacular, but it was like all the turmoil generated so far has finally found a resting place. ### iPhone apps used in this experiment I bet nobody thought you can use a mind mapping (/category/mind-mapping/) application for a practical astrology experiment, but this is exactly what happened. I used the excellent iBlueSky app which I reviewed several weeks ago (/mind-mapping-for-iphone-3g-ibluesky/) and it proved extremely useful. There's a little screenshot of the mind map used during this experiment. ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/ibluesky-mind-mapping-astrology-experiment.png) The other app was iMoon, which is a very simple way of knowing where the Moon is, without a lot of bloatware and unnecessary features. Here's another screenshot from which I knew all the time where the Moon was running on the zodiac. ![](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/imoon-astrology-experiment.png) If you would like to know more about this, I'm ready to start and share other experiments, astrologically speaking. Maybe I can announce from the beginning what the goal is and blog it while it happens, who knows. But it would be interesting to have only the fastest planets involved in this: Mercury and Venus. Share your thoughts on this one, comments welcomed! First published on: November 21, 2008 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpractical-astrology-the-moon-in-signs%2F&text=Practical%20Astrology%3A%20The%20Moon%20In%20Signs&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpractical-astrology-the-moon-in-signs%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpractical-astrology-the-moon-in-signs%2F&t=Practical%20Astrology%3A%20The%20Moon%20In%20Signs https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fpractical-astrology-the-moon-in-signs%2F&title=Practical%20Astrology%3A%20The%20Moon%20In%20Signs Previous ### Starting To Coach (/starting-to-coach/) Next ### Building Different Skills (/building-different-skills/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Bio Content URL: https://dragosroua.com/bio-content.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/bio-content/ Published: 2025-10-19 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 51 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Blogging Tags: ai tools, content creation 30 years ago, if you go to the market to buy vegetables, you just buy, you know vegetables. Fast forward 3 decades, and, when you go to the market, you suddenly have 2 choices: vegetables and vegetables bio. They’re both vegetables, but the “bio” variety is significantly scarcer, and more expensive. What happened? Well, automation happened. Genetics engineering happened. Mass production happened. All of these scientific advances (and many others) created unimaginable surplus. Vegetables became incredibly affordable. At the expense of quality, though. I like to call this 3 decades interval “the vegetable’s ChatGPT moment”. And now I think you started to glimpse where I’m heading. AI made content creation incredibly affordable. Dirt cheap. Plausible. Everybody can now generate a more than decent article on virtually any topic in less than 3 seconds. Then they can publish it in less that one minute. If they want, they can publish thousands of plausible articles in under 24 hours. We are witnessing unimaginable content surplus. At the expense of quality, though. Don’t get me wrong, these AI generated articles are more than ok. Some of them are even way above the average. But they lack the “human touch”. They lack a specific, almost undefinable quality, that makes a piece of content credible, real, relatable — not only plausible. Of course, there will be a significant market for automated content. Just as genetic engineered vegetables still have a lot of consumers. But there will always be a small segment of the market addicted to the “bio” category. There will be people who want they steak natural, not engineered from bugs. Their butter made from real milk and not from soya beans. Their potatoes properly raised on the ground, not 3d printed. And their content, as imperfect and as faulty as it might be, from a real, verifiable human being. And they will be willing to pay a lot more for that. First published on: October 19, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbio-content%2F&text=Bio%20Content&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbio-content%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbio-content%2F&t=Bio%20Content https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbio-content%2F&title=Bio%20Content Previous ### AI Won’t Take Your Job — Because It Already Took It (/ai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it/) Next ### Moving From WordPress to Cloudflare Static Pages (/moving-wordpress-to-cloudflare-static-pages-how/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Flashes URL: https://dragosroua.com/flashes.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/flashes/ Published: 2009-07-28 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 51 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Relationships and Society Tags: personal story I lived in communism for 19 years. It was an interesting time. Seeing it from now makes it a little bit different, as in a lesson we had to learn, but at that time, being there and living it was pretty nasty. One of the things that were pretty common during communism was poverty. The vast majority of people was poor. And poverty created some of the most unbelievable behaviors in human beings. ### Helping Flashes For instance, in order to make money, the Police started to put cars with radar control devices in the most unexpected places. The reason was not to make you slow down while you were driving, but to actually "get you". The radar control cars were actually hidden behind the trees, placed right after a road curve or behind other similar cars on the side road. Everything  they could do in order to  disguise the presence of that car. No wonder it was very easy to get caught for speeding. In fact, radar controls cars were almost part of the roads in communism. And you know why? It wasn't the ticket they were supposed to give you, but the bribe the policemen expected. The real reason was not a more fluid and secure traffic, but pocket money for the policemen, who, as everyone else, were poor. Only they had a little bit of tolls to create some pressure. The ticket was really high and nobody risked trouble with the authorities, so they were giving a small bribe and they were free to go. During those times, being caught by the radar control car and bribing the policemen in order to avoid a ticket was normal. But, you know, even in the worst conditions, people have this ability to adapt. When there is a constraint, and that constraint is really bad – and avoiding the radar control cars was pretty important for every driver – usually you find a way around it. Introducing flashes. Every time a driver spotted a radar car, after he passed it, started to flash for the drivers coming from the other side of the road. Like this, they were warned. They knew that in a few hundreds of meters, or even kilometers, there was some police car waiting. And they slowed down. Flashing was a fantastic communication tool. It was almost a code. Nobody, even communism, couldn't do anything against it. Although the Police knew that all drivers are signaling to each other, they had no way to stop it. So, when they placed a radar car, they wouldn't keep it in the same place for more than half an hour. And only the first drivers were caught. After a half an hour, for dozens of kilometers behind and ahead the radar car location, every drivers was already warned. So, they have to move to a new location. That was one of the reasons they were so present, they have to move from place to place because they were busted so fast. ### Aggressive Flashes Times changed. 20 years ago communism was replaced by a – more or less savage – capitalism. People started to earn more. Differences appeared. In communism everybody had the same type of car. In capitalism people started to have faster and more powerful cars. But the roads remained the same, narrow and filled with holes. And another interesting thing happened. The guys with faster cars needed more space. If you had a slower car and another guy, with a faster car was behind you, you had to move away. To give room. To let the other one pass. And the fast drivers used flashes in order to make you aware of that. I don't know if this driving habit exists in other countries (from my experience, it isn't) but in my country was incredibly popular. And still is. On the highway, is not uncommon to see in the rear mirror a fast growing car signaling you with light flashes. Go away. Make room. I am more powerful than you and I'm taking the road. Although I drive quite a powerful car, I'm not a huge fan of "get away" flashes. On the contrary, I find them almost abusive. It's prone to accidents and it induces a feeling of competition, totally unnecessary on public roads. To be honest, I kinda dislike the guys who are flashing me to move over. ### The Light As you may already guessed by now, this post isn't about cars, being them slow or fast. Is not about communism or capitalism either. In fact, this post is about light and the way you use it. In both cases the drivers were using the same thing: light. In the first case, to help, in the second, to abuse. There was this choice they made each time: first time, to support others, second time, to force and dominate. Each time they used the same tool: light. Each time they used it in the same way: flashing. Only the meaning was different. There's nothing inherently bad or good in or around you. You make it good or bad with your choices. You give it meaning. Without you, light is just light, nothing more. It's you who make it alive and give it a certain quality. You can chose to support others and create, or you can chose to abuse and defeat. The environment is the same for everybody, we're all acting in the same universe. There's no difference between you and other people, except your choices. You have access to the same pool of tools as everyone else. You're not exceptionally gifted, not humiliatingly deprived by anything but your choices. Your car may be slower or faster, that's not the point. The point is how you use your car, what you do along the way. Are you building up something so powerful that can be used by everybody, making the world a better place? You create something so valuable that is easily recognizable by everyone on earth, while enjoying your trip? Or are you rushing faster and faster straight to the end of the journey, forcing everyone else to obey you? How do you use your light? First published on: July 28, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fflashes%2F&text=Flashes&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fflashes%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fflashes%2F&t=Flashes https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fflashes%2F&title=Flashes Previous ### “I Can” versus “I Do” (/i-can-versus-i-do/) Next ### How To Write Compelling Content For Your Blog (/how-to-write-compelling-content-for-your-blog/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Do You Feel Your Life Is Blurred? URL: https://dragosroua.com/is-your-life-blurred.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/is-your-life-blurred/ Published: 2009-09-10 Modified: 2025-12-12 Views: 51 Categories: Spirituality and Beliefs, Success and Wellness Tags: focus, self awareness I love taking photos. One of the things I really like about my camera is the manual focus feature. You know, when you slowly rotate your camera lenses until your image is perfectly clear. You go from a blurred, foggy image, slowly turn your fingers around the lenses, and voila: you have a brand new, crystal clear image, ready to be captured by a single, gentle touch of your finger. You'll be surprised to learn that everybody have this feature, this manual focus. Only it's not about photos. It's about your life, and the way you live it. Most of the time you live a blurred life. Everything around you is unclear. You just have enough information to know a little bit about your surroundings, but you are moving in a foggy world. By the way, living in a blurred world is frustrating. Not knowing who you're really talking to, not knowing where you are really heading, not knowing if the person in front of you is smiling or frowning, that's really bad. But this is how it is and it's pretty much everybody's story. I've been there, you've been there, and even now, the vast majority of people is there, moving around with a blurred image of their lives. And they have this foggy image because they don't use the manual focus feature. Their life camera is not calibrated. In other words, they're not using their full potential. They're looking at a blurred scenery, truly believing that this is all what they are getting from this life. A blurred job, a blurred relationship (http://markmanson.net/6-healthy-habits), a blurred income. A life blurred completely. They don't have the courage to touch the lenses and really see what's going on around them. Whenever you clear your lenses, something magical happens. You start to see things the way they really are. Some people call this "having an a-ha" moment. Some people call this an epiphany and even other people call this "seeing God". If you ask me, they're all right. With the mention that everything was there before, only blurred. Your real life mission was always there, only you couldn't see it because of the fog. Your perfect partner was there all the time, only she was just invisible, melted in a sea of dissipated contours. Everything was there before, but you couldn't see it, because you were not properly focused. Now, what could you do in order to start improve your life lenses? ### Make Sure It Still Works Yes, the most common problem is a broken camera objective. It doesn't work anymore. It's stuck. Only you think it's still working at full capacity. The best way to verify your camera integrity is to try moving it a little bit forward and backward. That translates in what people usually call "pushing your luck". For instance, if you are in a job you don't like, try upsetting your boss. Or be late a couple a days. Is this really making a difference? Or everything is basically the same, no difference? On the other hand, if you do like the job but you're unsure if it really fits you, do allocate some extra time. Work extra hours. Is this really making a difference? How do you feel? There is any change at all in your life? This type of small steps helps you verify if the camera is actually working. If it's not, you'll experience the same type of sensation you have in a dream, when whatever you do has no consequences. If there is any reaction at all from your environment, you're lucky: you have a working camera. If not, you're stuck. Your camera objective is broken, you live a blurred life and you didn't even know. You need to take immediate measures to fix your camera. Usually, this means buying a new one. Which, of course, translates in starting a completely new life. ### Make Sure Your Lenses Are Clean Sometimes, wherever you point your camera, you get the same result. The reality has the same shape. No matter what you try to shoot, you get the exact same picture. That means your lenses are dirty. There is clogged dirt on the lenses which is preventing you to see the world as it really is. The most common dirt your lenses can accumulate in time is called prejudice. Or pre-made judgement. If you already make your judgement in regard to whatever crosses your mind, your camera will obey and show you exactly what you think you know. It will show the dirt you have on the lenses, not the reality. Assessing this can be difficult. You trust your camera so much that you don't even bother to check it out from time to time. Things are changing, reality is changing. Some judgement that was ok when you were a kid is not working anymore now. And this is something natural. You lived for so long that your camera accumulated a lot of dirt. Clean it up. And the only way to give a professional cleaning to your life lenses is to go out and experience more. You can't tell if your lenses are clogged with dirt if you don't check them out. Verify them against what you thought you know. Experiment. Learn. ### Make Sure You Shoot The Right Subject Maybe you're trying to get that common picture everybody wants? Like shooting the same old Eiffel Tour you get on every postcard in the world? No wonder you think life it's boring. Because if you're doing what everybody else does (or tells you to do), your life will be boring. If you're choosing common subjects for your life, you will get common pictures. Point your camera to new topics, try new angles, see if what you get is interesting. Maybe your life picture got blurred because its main subject is so common that you can't find anything original in it? No courage? No thrills? No innovation? No risk? Well, enough with that! Forget what they told you about how to use a camera and invent your own way. Nobody guarantees that you will shoot the picture of a lifetime, but at least you didn't get bored. ### It's About You, Not About Them If you've carefully doing everything above, I'm sure you'll start getting a new picture pretty soon. You may not know if it's a good or a bad one, but it's a new one. You'll learn something from it. And maybe the most important lesson to be learned is that your life picture is entirely up to you. You are the one who holds the camera. You can adjust the objective the way you want. The lenses are obeying you. You chose the subject, you adjust the clarity and the beauty of your life (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/). So, think again: is your life blurred right now? Since 2009, I've written extensively about related topics: - 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 73. Spend Some Time Alone (/100-ways-live-better-life-73-spend-time-alone/) - How Would You Explain an iPhone To A Dog? (/how-would-you-explain-an-iphone-to-a-dog/) - Identity Based Versus Action Based Recognition (/identity-based-versus-action-based-recognition/) - Identity Thoughts (/identity-thoughts/) First published on: September 10, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fis-your-life-blurred%2F&text=Do%20You%20Feel%20Your%20Life%20Is%20Blurred%3F&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fis-your-life-blurred%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fis-your-life-blurred%2F&t=Do%20You%20Feel%20Your%20Life%20Is%20Blurred%3F https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fis-your-life-blurred%2F&title=Do%20You%20Feel%20Your%20Life%20Is%20Blurred%3F Previous ### 100 Tips To Improve Your Blog (/100-tips-to-improve-your-blog/) Next ### Make Your Blog Sail Like Santa Maria (/make-your-blog-sail-like-santa-maria/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Lifestyle Design URL: https://dragosroua.com/lifestyle-design.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/lifestyle-design/ Published: 2009-11-04 Modified: 2026-05-09 Views: 51 Categories: Location Independence, Success and Wellness Tags: assess, mindset, perspective, values **2026 Update**:* I revisit this post after almost seventeen years here (/3-lifestyle-design-blueprints-ive-lived-plus-a-4th-one-that-works-best-these-days/), as part of a broader 30 day challenge in which I touch the most viral posts on this blog.* Every house you see has a blueprint behind. Before it was built in real bricks and mortar, it existed in somebody's mind. It was first a drawing on a drawing board. A wireframe. A scheme. A design. Your life as you live it right now has a blueprint behind. A set of rules and values. Every day you live your life according to that blueprint. You're building your life based on your own lifestyle design. ## What's Your Lifestyle Design? From my experience there are at least 3 ways in which you can design your lifestyle (and more than 100 ways to improve your life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/), for what matters). Think at them as they are architectural styles. Different ways to build a house. The first one is emotions driven. The second one is social rules driven. And the third is values driven. ## Following Emotions Your lifestyle design is based on joy, fear, enthusiasm, sorrow, thrill, or something in between. You appreciate people based on how they make you feel. Everything you do is a result of one of your emotions. If somebody hurts you, you're sad. If somebody makes you happy, you're joyful. In the middle of your world is your heart. Being emotions driven is a little bit of a roller-coaster. It gets you up and down pretty fast. ## Following Social Rules Your lifestyle design is built on the most visible and secure path you can find and keep. You appreciate people for the social validation you receive from them. You hate rejection and obey rules. If somebody hurts you, you focus on how the situation looks from "the outside" rather than honestly experiencing pain. If somebody makes you happy, you feel accepted and integrated. In the middle of your world is your material security. Being social rules driven is like driving a huge truck. Safe, difficult to change course, powerful and sometimes pretty boring. ## Following Values Your lifestyle design is based on discovery, learning and experimenting. You appreciate people for what they can teach you, rather than for how they make you feel or how much validation you receive from them. You respond to many situations with rationality and lucidity. If somebody hurts you, you think what you have to learn out of this. If somebody makes you happy, you're enjoying it and then move on. In the middle of your world is your curiosity. Being value driven is like being a world explorer. Traveling light, looking for unusual places, learning and sharing your discoveries. ## Your Master Lifestyle Design Of course, all of the above are just abstract architectural styles. You can't build your house exclusively on one of these, it's just impossible to isolate a pure emotions driven lifestyle design, or a pure values driven lifestyle design. Or if you can, that lifestyle design is a serious imbalance. 😉 In real life we mix those styles in various amounts. We have a little bit of emotional response, a little bit of social complacency and a little bit of growth fueled by our curiosity. But we do have what I call a master lifestyle design. Our master lifestyle design is the dominance of one of those three styles. If your master lifestyle design is emotion driven, you may have a little bit of difficulty to be socially integrated. Your roller-coaster will take you higher than a truck can drive. It could also be difficult to learn new things, because you're addicted to your roller-coaster and backpacking the world would seem dull. If your master lifestyle design is social rules driven, than you're having a real hard time changing your life and growing. Your truck won't get you far away from known roads. And it wouldn't be able to offer you the thrills of a roller-coaster ride. If your master lifestyle design is values driven, you can get a little bit disconnected. You're backpacking the world, but don't have the thrills of a roller-coaster. And you're a little bit insecure, missing the protection of a big, solid and secure truck. ## The Choice Of A Personal Path I think my predominance right now is curiosity and learning. I do have emotional responses (/100-ways-live-better0-life-87-trust-your-emotions/) and some of them are shaping my life big time, but my master lifestyle design is rooted in values. I'm also pretty indifferent to social rules, and social rules seem to be pretty indifferent to me, as long as I'm not a threat to the system. Truth is you can chose whatever response you want, as long as you don't give in to it. And as long as you know the advantages and pitfalls of each design. If you're overly emotional, then society might raise a bit of rejection around you. If you're concerned too much with social complacency then you might lose a hell of a good time. And if you're too obsessed with learning and sharing, then you might get emotionally disconnected. The bottom line of this is you can build your house exactly as you want. You are the blueprint creator (/100-ways-live-better-life-97-make-rules/). A house is built on brick and mortar but your life is much more fluid than that. You can change it. Even more than change (which is more than often something forced from outside) you can start designing it from the inside. Lay out your life structure the same way you design a house. Start with the front door. How do you want to enter in your life? First published on: November 4, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flifestyle-design%2F&text=Lifestyle%20Design&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flifestyle-design%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flifestyle-design%2F&t=Lifestyle%20Design https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flifestyle-design%2F&title=Lifestyle%20Design Previous ### How to Overcome Frustration in 3 Easy Steps (/how-to-overcome-frustration-in-3-easy-steps/) Next ### 7 Reasons To Enjoy Life More (/7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Running For Beginners URL: https://dragosroua.com/running-for-beginners.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/running-for-beginners/ Published: 2016-04-02 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 51 Categories: Running Tags: fitness, how to One of the fundamental building blocks of my online business is a short page called Contact (/about-me/), on this very blog. You wouldn’t believe the amount of feedback, constructive criticism, profitable ideas and partnership proposals I get through that tiny page. Seriously now, that page is awesome. I even put a short form on it and people are actually using it. So here’s what I got through that contact form the other day: > “***Subject**: Request for an article.* > ***Message Body**:* > *I have started running and it would be very nice of you to write an article about how you got started and some tips for beginners. That's my only request, I love your blog .* > *Thank you.”* Well, let’s do this 🙂 ## Why You Should Start Running Before even going to the "running for beginners" area, let’s try to find what is our motivation here. Over time, I learned that the degree of success of every endeavor is closely related not only to the execution (which may be impeccable) but also to the motivation, to the “why”. So, why it may be interesting for you to start running? Here are just a few answers from my own experience (you'll find more at the end of the article): - **health** – running will help you maintain a better health, by shredding unnecessary fat, adding up to resilience and boosting your immune system - **affordability** – it’s not expensive, you don’t need complicated gear (well, at least up to a certain performance level) and it’s also easy to squeeze in any schedule - **self esteem** – even if you do not participate in competitions, you get a very important boost in your self esteem. Many of the public mass sports events, like marathons, have medals for every finisher, which, as simple as it seem, it's important once you hang it on your wall, somewhere. - **community** – statistically, people who are running are nicer than the rest, at least in my experience. And it seems the longer you run (I’m talking about the superb ultra-running community here) the nicer people are - **better focus** – running allows you to take time away from your normal routine and use to reflect upon the things you overlooked. It helps a lot with maintaining a reasonable degree of presence in other areas of your life. Feel free to add your own motive here (or in the comments) if you feel like. So, if any of the above convinced you it’s time for you to try this out, let’s dive in. **Disclaimer**: *I’m a self-educated runner, I do not have formal education in this area, nor any professional degree in sport, nutrition or health. What follows is just my own opinion about this activity and it shouldn’t be considered medical advice. If you have a medical condition (or even if you don’t, but you have second thoughts) please consult a specialist.* ## Running Equipment Although the equipment for casual running is way cheaper than, for instance, tennis, there are some caveats. First of all, the lower train, or the feet. You should always pay special attention to this area, and by that I mean: running shoes and socks. You can start with cheaper running shoes, just to get a grip. Kalenji is a brand well known for its affordable shoes and I recommend them for easy to moderate running. But as you advance, please invest in better running shoes. I am a big fan of Mizuno and New Balance. Also, pay a lot of attention to socks. Your feet will likely to sweat a lot and you need special socks for that. Again, start with something cheaper and upgrade as you advance. Keep in mind that some socks are good only for a specific type of running. In my experience, the wrong type of socks can create a lot of problems (blisters, for instance). As you go up on the body, you get to the pants. Start with some standard pants and test. I run in short pants until 0 degrees Celsius, but when it’s below freezing I put on longer pants, to cover my feet completely. Your mileage may vary. Another important part is the underwear. Many sport magazines have specialized underwear for running and I recommend using that (again, the first choice should be the cheapest one, until you understand what’s good for you). Wrong underwear can be a source of chaffing. Chaffing is bad. As for the upper part of the body, I recommend getting special gear for running, and NOT using cotton. That’s just bad. You need a fabric that will let the sweat evaporate, otherwise you will get into all sort of minor (or not so minor) trouble, from chaffing to unregulated body temperature. As I started to participate in more and more competitions, I don’t buy teeshirts anymore, I use the ones that I get in the various race kits. Most of the time, the quality of the teeshirts you get at important competitions is very good. The head should also be protected, most of the time. In the summer, I run with a bandana, during the winter I put a sports hat. During the summer you should avoid getting insolation, and during the winter you should protect your ears. I also use a buff, a fabric cylinder which became quite popular during the last years, it can be worn in many ways. The gear should be completed with gloves, compression sleeves for calfs, various hydration belts and thicker layers (thicker blouses for warmth and special jackets for rain). I left at the end one of the most important pieces of equipment, which is your running measurement device. In the beginning, I highly recommend using such a device. It’s important to gauge your effort and to calibrate yourself. It may also be frustrating when you start to compare with other runners, but you shouldn’t do this anyway. As you adjust, you will learn to evaluate your own pace and body condition and may even get rid of it ("running naked" is a new trend in running, which means, counterintuitively, just to run without a measurement gear). When I started, I used my smartphone (which happens to be an iPhone). It’s decent enough both in terms of GPS accuracy and battery. I remember that I could have run a marathon in 4 and a half hours with just my iPhone. If you’re a beginner, a smartphone should be just enough. Right now I’m using a Suunto Ambit Sport, which is in fact a triathlon watch (has swimming and bicycle capabilities) and a very good battery (can last up to 25-30 hours with certain settings). A watch should be considered only if you are serious about participating in a half or full marathon. Training for so long with a phone can feel bulky. ## Running Form One of the most important aspects when you start running, is running form. Or, in other words, how do you run. It seems that everybody knows such a simple thing, but the harsh truth is that almost no one knows how to do it, especially in the beginning. And that may lead to frustration as you don't seem to progress or even injuries. The human body is a very complex structure. It’s a collection of muscles, bones, joints and other supporting organs and all have to work together in harmony for a good running experience. Here are few hints for anyone who is just starting to run: - **small steps:** it seems very counterintuitive, but it’s very useful. The smaller the steps you make, the less time you’ll spend in air, which means less impact once you hit the ground. In order to better understand this, imagine that you will make a step that will last for an entire minute. Can you imagine the impact of your foot after such a big step? - **higher cadence**: try to increase the speed not by making bigger steps (see above) but by increasing the pace. That’s probably the most awkward thing you’ll have to learn in the beginning, but it’s gonna be fundamental. - **leaning forward**: you should be always leaning forward as much as you can, in order to use gravity for advancement. It seems like a trick, (like you’re not using your muscle to advance, but a combination of falling and recovering). Fundamentally, though, that’s what running and walking are: controlled falling. The less energy you use from your muscle, the better. - **arms swinging**: ideally, your arms should be parallel with each other (not in front of your chest, you will actually brake yourself, from a physical point of view) with a 90 degree angle formed at the elbow and swinging back and forth as you run. It will create a “momentum force” that will propel you forward (especially during uphills). - **breathing**: whatever your breathing technique, focus on the expiration first. Be sure to eliminate as much air as you can and let the lungs inhale as they see fit. This tip works especially when you seem to choke: just exhale powerfully a few times and let the lungs get back on track. - **relaxation**: apart from the body parts involved in the actual movement, the rest of your body should be as relaxed as possible. If you’re keeping tension in other muscles (for instance – and very common – the back muscles) you’re spending energy on useless activity and you’re also slowing down your other movements. As you advance, you will discover many other small things that can make the difference. ## Running Distances A common misconception is that when you start running you should start “big”. Like, from the first day, cover 10km. It’s totally unproductive. Start with short walking sessions followed by running streaks. Pay attention to the transition between walking and running, as it may create strain on the muscles. Increase the distances until to a certain plateau, and then stay there for a while. For instance, if you train for a half-marathon, spend some time (read: a couple of weeks) at the following levels: 5km, 10km, and 18km. Run those distances until you feel comfortable. But even outside the training for a competition, distances should be considered in regard with a few factors: - your overall training (like I said, don’t attempt a 10k if you just started: you may make it, but the damage will be such that you will not want to run again) - the expected recovery time (that’s where a good measuring device, being it a smartphone or a watch, comes in handy). - your overall nutrition (if you’re on some specific, under-caloric diet, your shouldn’t push on the distances) - your available time (you certainly have other commitments as well, so don’t try to steal form them. Instead, try to incorporate running time as smoothly as possible). ## Running Goals If you run for pleasure, just keep running. 🙂 But if you have some specific goals, here are a few hints: - don’t try a marathon before running a half-marathon (I did this, and although I finished my first marathon in 5 hours and 20 minutes, it wasn’t nice). - experiment with many race types: there are 5k, 10k, half-marathons, trial, asphalt, track races and ultra-marathons. Participate in as many as you can in the beginning and understand which one is good for you. - try to find a community or a running buddy. If you join a community, you will get a lot more benefits, from a social point of view, than just by running yourself (which, of course, it's ok too, as long as you're ok with it). - regardless of what you chose above, try to make a running goal out of keeping **running for as long as you can, in your 70s, your 80s or, why not, even your 100s**. That means taking a very good care of your health, nutrition, training and so on. At the end of the day, it counts that you lived to run the next day too. ## What Running Is For Me Surprisingly enough, I caught myself during the last few days asking me the same question: "Why do I actually run? What are my reasons?" And as I was trying to find out the answer, I realized I can't. There isn't only one answer. There are many. And their ponder in the overall ball that is pushing me constantly to run is constantly changing. But here are the most important ones: - **health** – Yes, I run in order to have a better health, and I already achieved a lot in this area (see how overweight I was (/before-and-after-or-how-to-lose-weight-by-running/) before I started to run) - **meditation** – For me, running is a form of meditation. It really helps clear my mind and focus on various topics. - **curiosity** – Sometimes I'm just curious if I can actually do a specific thing. Like running a 200+ km race (/ultrabalaton-the-aftermath-of-a-222-kilometers-race/), point to point, or participating in a 48 hours (/race-report-my-first-48-hours-race/) running event. - **mental therapy** – I had to admit this after a few very long races. I'm using running as a form of psychological therapy. It acts on many levels (from the simpler ones, like creating good habits, to the more complex layers, where I confront myself to more and more difficult situations, trying to find out what are the blockers, or the fears that are preventing me to reach my full potential). So far, it seems to work. First published on: April 2, 2016 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Coiled Rope And The Snake URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-coiled-rope-and-the-snake.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-coiled-rope-and-the-snake/ Published: 2015-08-14 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 51 Categories: Personal Development Tags: fear, stoicism Let’s start with a very short story. Please bear with me, it will only go for a minute or two: Imagine you’re walking on a nice, warm evening, by the beach of some calm sea. It’s not dark yet, but it’s not full day light either. You hear the sound of the waves, breathe the fresh, salty air, feel the breeze on your face and walk gently. At some point, you see something in front of you. Lying down on the beach, all coiled and shining, it’s a white snake. You approach gently, trying not to scare the snake, but when you’re just two steps away from it, something happens. You realize it’s not a snake, but a rope. A coiled rope, probably left there by a boat, shining because it got wet by the waves. But, for a few good seconds, you really believed it’s a snake. That was the story. Toldya it’s gonna be short. Now, I want you to stay in that space, where you realized what you thought you saw was completely different from what you actually saw. Try to imagine that moment, try to feel it, try to have that realization in your mind. What made you realize that it wasn’t a snake? If you would have stayed at the same distance, if you didn’t approach, that thing would have been a snake for ever. But when you approached the thing, when you confronted, when you engaged with it, you saw it for what it really was. Just a coiled rope. And a coiled rope just doesn’t function as a snake. If you have a direct experience of it, it will function as a rope, not as a snake. As long as you stay disengaged, as long as you don’t verify directly the functionality of that object and you take for granted your initial perception, it will be a snake. And that’s such a shame. Because we do the same with almost everything in our lives. We have a glimpse of something and then put a label on it and then we expect it to function according to that label. We seldom go and directly experience that object. We take it for granted. ## Relationships, The Coiled Rope and The Snake Now try to remember when has the last time you had some disappointment in one of your relationships. Professional, or personal, doesn’t matter. When was the last time you felt like you interacted with a specific person, only to realize that, in fact, you were talking to a completely different one. On the surface, at some superficial, shallow level, both persons had the same appearance. But when you started to interact, to engage, the appearance changed. Usually, for the worse. What we do when we realize that? Most of the time, we blame it on the other person. Look, how mischievous, how false this person is. How he or she is trying to play me. As hard as it may be to internalize it, this is not true. It’s not like they were in some way before and now they changed just in front of us. They were always like this. They were always just a coiled rope. It was us who saw them as a snake. It was us who projected a mental label onto their appearance and then expected they to comply to that label. Yes, as hard as it may be to believe this, we do this all the time. That’s how we function, unfortunately. Probably the main reason is that we don’t have time to verify all these assumptions, all these labels. Our lives are unfolding so fast that we simply don’t have time to verify them and we take the other person for granted. That's where slowing down techniques, like meditation, mindfulness and alike can really be helpful. By slowing down the labeling process, by creating more space in this continuum, you gradually start to understand where and how deep you are mistaking the reality for your own projections. That's pretty much the story of all failed relationships: look at that woman, she looks so great, her body has incredibly beautiful shapes and she is so beautiful. I bet she will make for a great partner. No second thoughts, no direct experience. The label has been put, so let’s go for it. And then, after you approach more, after you engage with her for a longer period of time, you realize that, although the appearance was, to some extent, the one of a beautiful woman, that beauty didn’t continue on other areas of her personality. She simply was not like that. And she was not like that for ever. Only you, in your rush to make some sense out of this world, in your lack of patience to really get to know that person, projected that simplistic label based on a limited set of information and now you’re disappointed. ## The Scarier Part Believe it or not, there is an even scarier part of this process. Well, what’s even more scarier than that is the situation when we have the direct experience of the object, we actually find out who the person really is, but we’re still attached to our mental image. That's really bad. I mean, we had a glimpse of a potential relationship with somebody. We verified that. We actually tried to make it work. And, for whatever reason, it didn’t work out. It wasn’t a “snake”, it was just a coiled rope. But, and here comes the scary part, instead of believing our own experiencing and move away, we believe our own projections, our own illusion and hope for the things to come to life and become a snake. I mean, we tried. Maybe more than once. We saw that it doesn’t work out. But instead of moving forward, we’re coming back over and over again, kicking that rope, maybe painting it in the colors of a snake, hoping it will start to move and obey to our mental delusion. We keep that initial mental label in our hearts, we feed it with our hope and we surround the coiled rope with a lot of expectations. And we expect the rope to move and to act like a snake. And it doesn’t. And we hurt. That’s from where our suffering comes. From this constant confusion about how things are really working. From our lack of trust in our direct perception. From our incessant attachment to our mental formations. Based on what the mind creates, opposing our direct experience, which says it’s not going to work, we keep saying to ourselves: “this thing is going to work, because that’s how my mind saw it”. But when I verify it, again and again, it still doesn’t function. Oh, it doesn’t function? Let me show you it will. I’ll make it work. I’ll do whatever it takes, I'll sacrifice everything, I’ll follow my “gut” and I’ll show everybody that I have the right to be happy, because I had a glimpse of that happiness when I saw that person, and I know it’s going to work. Just give me more time. Or more space. Or something. Alas, it never works. Sounds familiar?… **Note:** *the coiled rope and the snake is a very common metaphor used in Tibetan Buddhism, especially for lo-jong (mind training).* First published on: August 14, 2015 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-coiled-rope-and-the-snake%2F&text=The%20Coiled%20Rope%20And%20The%20Snake&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-coiled-rope-and-the-snake%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-coiled-rope-and-the-snake%2F&t=The%20Coiled%20Rope%20And%20The%20Snake https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-coiled-rope-and-the-snake%2F&title=The%20Coiled%20Rope%20And%20The%20Snake Previous ### Before and After – Or How To Lose Weight by Running (/before-and-after-or-how-to-lose-weight-by-running/) Next ### The 3 Deadliest Traps Of The “Helping People Syndrome” (/the-3-deadliest-traps-of-the-helping-people-syndrome/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 53. Burn Some Old Memories URL: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-53-burn-old-memories.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-53-burn-old-memories/ Published: 2015-01-02 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 50 Categories: Personal Development Tags: 100 ways series, change, letting go Maybe the notebook from your 7th grade? Maybe the teenage dumb poetry you wrote? Whatever it might be, break up with it. Might be difficult, but it might also be a sign that you're so attached to the past that you can't advance in your life anymore. I know for sure I found it difficult. I somehow identified myself with those memories and felt like I was committing some kind of felony against myself if I would throw them away. Took me a lot to understand that I'm not my memories. And even more to realize that our life is taking place in the present moment only. Not in the past, not in the future. Just the present moment. *Burning some old memories will be like throwing some ballast from your balloon: will lift you up, higher and higher. * ## The Super Easy "How To Burn Some Old Memories" I will give the easy guide because I find it to be the more effective. There are also difficult guides, like the one in which you prepare for months to burn them down or the one in which you just talk -maybe in a very eloquent way – but only talk about doing it at some point. ### Preparation Go back to the drawer in which you keep those old memories, or, if you are the heavier type, bring up that huge box from the basement. Your mileage may vary here, but the point is to have the physical objects in front of you. Take all the memories out and put them in front of you. Have a garbage bin around. If you really plan to burn them, to this outside and take all the safety measures required. I’m not kidding. Fire burns. It burns not only memories, but it can also burn your clothes or your skin, if you’re not protecting yourself. ### Selection Now, that you have everything in front of you, browse through them. Slowly. Do not rush. If there are memories coming back to you, immerse in them. Don’t reject anything. It may take a while. Maybe 20 minutes, maybe a couple of hours. But it’s important to let that settle in. Once you’re done, and you have enough of a distance form what you see, make a selection. You don’t have to burn anything, only the stuff that you’ve been feeling uncomfortable with. And by “uncomfortable” I mean from “strongly attached to” until “what is this thing still doing here” . ### The Dumping Now, take all that stuff and get rid of it. If you really want to burn it, set it on fire. If you just want to throw it away, throw it away. Whatever the method, do it fast. That’s the most difficult part, where the feelings you still have about those memories will rise stronger than ever. So, be fast. And that’s it. I know, this whole "how to burn out some old memories" guide sounds really dumb. It's not rocket science. Everybody can do this. But it’s important. Progress over perfection applies to money too. My book *Gravitational Habits For Financial Resilience* shows how small, consistent habits compound into lasting wealth—no dramatic lifestyle changes required. Get it: Apple Books (https://books.apple.com/pt/book/gravitational-habits-for-financial-resilience/id6756201311) · Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Ny2dEQAAQBAJ) · Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G5FPKNZR) ![Gravitational Habits For Financial Resilience book cover](/images/gravitational-habits.webp) Attachment to the past may be as dangerous to us as anxiety about the future. Both have to be addressed and their powers diminished, if we really want to get the most out of our lives. ### My Personal Story I did this with my high school poetry notebooks, a few years ago. During high school I wrote somewhere between 300 and 400 poems. I remember I was writing at night, in the dark, most of the times, because that’s when “inspiration” used to get me. 20-something years later I burned those notebooks. I followed the ritual above very carefully. I remember that in the box where I kept the notebooks there were also some other things I wrote: a novel I never finished, some series from the times I was working as a radio anchor and so on. I kept those. But I know that sometimes in the future I may burn them too. I didn’t literally burn the notebooks. Some of them I teared to pieces, some of them I just threw in the garbage bin. It felt strange for a few minutes. There were mixed sensations of anxiety, regret, confusion and lack of identity. But, just like the clouds are dissolving after a summer rain, the sensation dissipated in about half an hour. Or less. And then the first sensation was about breathing. I started to breathe significantly easier. It was like an important weight that I carried with me – although I couldn’t put my finger on it – was lifted. I felt lighter. Not necessarily better, but lighter. I still had some questions to ask myself about where I was heading, but at least I was able to move now. further reading 50 Ways To Start Fresh (/50-ways-to-start-fresh/) Start Your Day In 33 Different Ways (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/) *photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/annecentral/384332356/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/annecentral/384332356/)* Want more actionable life advice? This post is one of 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). First published on: January 2, 2015 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-53-burn-old-memories%2F&text=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2053.%20Burn%20Some%20Old%20Memories&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-53-burn-old-memories%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-53-burn-old-memories%2F&t=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2053.%20Burn%20Some%20Old%20Memories https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-53-burn-old-memories%2F&title=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2053.%20Burn%20Some%20Old%20Memories Previous ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 52. Smile At Least 10 Times A Day (/100-ways-live-better-life-52-smile-least-10-times-day/) Next ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 54. Plant A Tree (/100-ways-live-better-life-54-plant-tree/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 57. Stop Watching TV URL: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-57-stop-watching-tv.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-57-stop-watching-tv/ Published: 2015-01-06 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Personal Development Tags: 100 ways series, assess, breaking habits, focus, habits Television evolved a lot from the balanced news provider it was in the beginning up to the current manipulating tool. Just stop watching it for a week. And then for a month. Meanwhile, assess your psychological progress. You may be amazed. Although we need a steady information flow to cope with our day to day reality, clogging it with an oversized pack of random data, such as the one most TV shows provides, will rend the whole purpose of it ridiculous. Too much of it will slowly erode your own values system and make you subject to shallow interpretations or just plain lies. Make yourself a service and exercise your own judgment as often as you can. *Don't live your life from a broadcasted TV show, keep it real. * ## How To Stop Watching TV And The Associated Benefits Of This Unusual Habit I’ll be honest with you: I watch TV a lot. I have a big TV in the living room and I literally can’t avoid it, it’s just there. Sometimes I watch it for as much as a half an hour. Continuously. But here’s the trick: I almost never turn it on. Yeah, you can laugh. It was a joke. But also a fact. I almost never turn on the TV. Sometimes I watch a movie, rented or streamed, but that’s it. I stopped watching news years ago. When I was younger, I worked as a journalist for 7 years. I think I kinda exhausted my current lifetime karma for news during that time. But the entire process of giving up wasn’t that easy. As with any addiction – and watching news is one of the worst addictions you can get – things are never linear. Here are 3 simple tricks that will help you with this. Or, at least, they helped me: ### 1. Watch Movies Instead When I started the withdrawal process, I couldn’t do it cold turkey. So I took it slowly. I couldn’t get rid of the habit of turning the TV on when I was home, but, instead of putting it on a news channel, I picked some movie channel. For a while, I was still zombified, because I was watching 2-3 movies in a row. But, after I finally got rid of the news, I fond the dissociation from the movies much easier. It may work for you too. ### 2. Don’t Engage In News Related Conversations This is hard in the beginning. Social interactions are important and there’s a real feeling of inadequacy if you can’t fit in. But, as you get further an further away from news, you will find it easier to respond, candidly: “Well, sorry, I don’t know anything about this, because I don’t watch news.” Some of your friends will find you weird because of this. That means some of your friends will have to either accept you as you are, or split. ### 3. Consume Social Media (Moderately) In time, I found that there is some real need to be connected, to find out news about my current environment. It might be a survival skill, in the end. When I realized I still need to know about the weather, about the schedule of public transportation during holidays or other utilitarian stuff like this, I went to social media. You can filter the information you get from social media, you can choose what you get. That's a huge shift. With traditional television, you can’t do this. Of course, there might be a tendency to over consume here too, social media itself is not far from television in terms of addictiveness, so moderation is advised. Now, about the benefits of TV withdrawal… First of all, there will be less stress. Violence, induced fear and catastrophic approaches are all very disturbing. Getting rid of them will be good for your emotional health. Second, you’ll have more time. You have no idea how much time you spend in front of the TV. That time can be converted in something that really matter. Time shared with your family, friends, kids, or just quality time with yourself. And third, maybe, just maybe, you may feel the need to get out of the couch too. Since you don’t have anything to watch from that couch, you might as well go out, exercise, or just interact with real people. In real life, you know? further reading 7 Ways To Break A Habit (/7-ways-to-break-a-habit/) My Top 7 Demotivating Habits (/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/) Turning intentions into action requires the right system. I built addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) using the Assess-Decide-Do framework to bridge the gap between what you want to do and what you actually accomplish. Want more actionable life advice? This post is one of 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). First published on: January 6, 2015 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-57-stop-watching-tv%2F&text=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2057.%20Stop%20Watching%20TV&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-57-stop-watching-tv%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-57-stop-watching-tv%2F&t=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2057.%20Stop%20Watching%20TV https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-57-stop-watching-tv%2F&title=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2057.%20Stop%20Watching%20TV Previous ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 56. Join A New Group (/100-ways-live-better-life-56-join-new-group/) Next ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 58. Start A Totally Unexpected Hobby (/100-ways-live-better-life-58-start-totally-unexpected-hobby/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Creating Value URL: https://dragosroua.com/creating-value.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/creating-value/ Published: 2009-01-09 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Money and Wealth, Personal Development, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: financial freedom, money, purpose, value creation, values, wealth Have you ever thought about the values you create? Ever crossed your mind to sit back and look out what exactly you give to the outside world in exchange for what you receive? Because this is how we, humans, are functioning: by a continuous exchange of values. The most popular value exchanged being, of course, money (/making-money-with-a-purpose/). But despite its popularity, money is not the only value we exchange, is only the most popular. There are a lot of other values growing into our lives, floating around and finding their path, either inside or outside our person. Our society lives by exchange. Our incomplete nature makes for a giant commerce around the clock for getting what we need in exchange for what we give. In today's post I'll share some of my thoughts about the values we create (/100-ways-live-better-life-75-create-value/) and exchange, especially the number of connections each of these values can have. ## Sellers And Buyers Every time you give something away, you'll be the seller. And of course, every time you'll get something back you'll be the buyer. We play those roles all the time. We give away something valuable to the outside world and get something back in return. Sometimes we're more in the seller's shoes, sometimes we're more like the buyer. And the values we trade are what defines us the most. We give care to our family and receive emotional bonding and warmth. We give advice and compassion to our friends and get back support and gratitude. We give expertise and know-how to our clients and get back money and recognition. We give time and presence to our employers and get back money and appreciation (well, most of the time). We trade values. ## Connection Values Each of these values behave like an object, it can be picked up and stored, transported and used. And for that, it has handles. Or, to be a little more exact, connections. Each value we trade, either by selling, either by receiving it, has connections. If you're starting to look around in circles wandering where are those handles for the paycheck you get last month, stick around a little bit, I'll try to explain more. It's easier than it seems now. The bigger the number of connections attached to each value, the higher the chance to find a potential user. If you create something with a single handle, you'll be able to use that something only and only by that single handle. If, on the contrary, you created something with more handles, chances for that something to be picked up and used will increase by the number of the attached handles. ## Single Connection Values The vast majority of our current world values are singe connection values. And by that I'm referring to the way we get back stuff we need for survival. Almost every human being on the planet is having a job in which is trading expertise and time to an employer. Those people get back a package of corresponding values including money, cars, phones, a house and/or medical insurance. Having a job is a single connection value. Why is that? Because you can only sell it to one user at a given time. You only have one handle, and that handle is in the hand of your boss. You broadcast value to a single receiver. And that receiver is the only one who can give back value to you. This one to one relationship is the source of the overwhelming stress most of the people endure at their job. You'll often heard people saying they hate their jobs. In fact, they're hating the fact they can't directly influence the receiving value. They're selling a value with only one handle, and that handle is in the hand of somebody else. Of course, most of the time, that somebody else, that boss, will know that he's the only one in charge and do his best to keep the receiving value low. Out of greed, or just because at the other end he's selling a single connection value too to another boss, only one level up. Having a job means actually selling your time to somebody else. Time is a one handle thing. You can't multiply it, we live in an universe with a linear perception of the time. If you chose to sell your time, you'll doom yourself to a single connection value chain. At the end of the chain, the lower level, you won't have anything more to sell, because you already sold your precious time. The handle of your time is in somebody else's hand.. And what you get back? Most of the time you'll get back far less than you've sold. You can get a lot of money, for instance, but that money is becoming a single connection value too, as long as you can't really use it outside your time. You have the money but you don't have the time to spend it. I'm sure that this is one of the most common patterns of our times: working for money and then spending it for getting back the health ruined in the process of making that money. ## Freelancing But what if instead of selling your time to a single user you start to sell it to multiple users? Well, that's a huge step forward. It's often called freelancing and it's one of the most interesting ways in which you can trade value. I built addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) to help you actually get things done. Assess what matters, Decide what's next, Do the work. As a freelancer, you'll broadcast your message to multiple users, advertise your expertise and a set of packages you sell. Being it consulting, web design, coding or lawn mowing. Each package has its own time. In fact, almost all the freelancers are selling by the hour. Freelancers cut down the time they used to sell bulk to only one user in smaller units and they're selling it back to a multiplied audience. But this is still a single connection value. You can sell your time or skill to only one connection, your contractor. Of course, you can change the connection whenever you want, which is as huge step forward for having a job. But you still have one connection: between you and your contractor. ## Multiple Connections Values It's becoming clear now that if you want to create multiple connections values, you must solve the time problem. In other words, you have to create timeless value. If you chose to broadcast only timely values, such as your expertise in various services, you're creating single connection values. Think at a book now, the last book you've read. You were one of the readers, among other thousands, perhaps. You found something inspiring in that book, something that made your life better, so you bought something from that. Now think at the author: he's selling you his expertise or originality and he's receiving back value – in terms of money, for instance – long after the process of the value creation was finished. His value, the book, has multiple connections. It can be picked up by anyone, anytime and still broadcast value. Any value that is not bounded by time has multiple connections. I know that we're not all writers, or inventors or house builders. I'm not trying to restrict the multiple connections values to the products area. There are a lot of multiple connections values outside the material world. Think at the love you let flow for your loved ones, for instance. Is this time based? You stop loving them when you sleep? No. This is a multiple connections value. You'll be feeding your loved ones with it for the rest of your life and they will be able to pick it up whenever they need it. It will be there. Love is an infinite connections value, by the way. ## Creating Value …Is a matter of correctly positioning yourself toward what you want to get back in exchange of what you give. If you want to get back more on your plate, you'll have to give more. If you chose to broadcast single connection values, like your job, you'll surely become a workaholic. The more you give at your job the more you get back. You'll be bound by the time you spend at your job in order to give and receive more value. But if you think to position yourself outside the regular time flow, you'll be in the position to create multiple connections values. The only limitation to this process is inside you, not outside. Yes, you can write a book, you can build something useful for other people, you can invent something, you can do whatever you want. You can start a blog, for a change. Having and maintaining a blog is another example of multiple connections value. Whatever you write, it will be available to many users, not just one, years after you finished it, not only in the moment you actually wrote. It can continuously create and broadcast your value long after you actually produced it. By positioning yourself outside the regular time flow I understand an alignment with core, timeless vibrations. It's that advice that keeps its freshness years after, that book that survived all your ages, that feeling you have for your wife even if you're not the lovers you were years ago, or the smile of your little baby which is now on a face of a grown up person. Those are timeless values. Love and wisdom are surrounded with infinite connections, you can pick up their vibrations any time. Be there, search them, find them and make them yours, and then let them flow outside your world and be prepared to receive back an equally intense flow. For the record, I don't make any quality judgement between single and multiple connections values. Each type of value has its own share of producers and receivers, and they're both solid values, after all. I just find multiple connections values to be more appealing to me. So, what are your values? How do you receive what you need from the society? What do you sell? Is it a single connection or a multiple connections value? I'd love to hear about that in the comments. ## Related Readings – 2025 Update While there is significant historical benefit in keeping this content alive, many things changed in the way I approach working, creating value and relationships. Check out these freshly added articles: - The Money Diagram (/the-money-diagram/) - Perceived Value (/perceived-value/) - A Definition Of Wealth (/a-definition-of-wealth/) - 10 Simple Habits That Will Greatly Improve Your Financial Discipline (/10-simple-habits-that-will-greatly-improve-your-financial-discipline/) First published on: January 9, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fcreating-value%2F&text=Creating%20Value&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fcreating-value%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fcreating-value%2F&t=Creating%20Value https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fcreating-value%2F&title=Creating%20Value Previous ### Social Networking Versus Real Life Relationships (/social-networking-versus-real-life-relationships/) Next ### The Gratitude Experiment (/the-gratitude-experiment/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Filling In The Gaps URL: https://dragosroua.com/filling-in-the-gaps.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/filling-in-the-gaps/ Published: 2021-07-20 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Blogging, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: 365 challenge, consistency, taking action Sometimes you have great ideas. And, if you're lucky, you even get the energy and resources to make those ideas real. Other times, not so much. And yet, we tend to put more weight on the great times that we have, on the big ideas that we stumble upon, on the fantastic projects that we're lucky enough to partake in. We attach to the exhilaration, to the fun, to the feeling of being accomplished, and we stretch this attachment to the point of complete depression when we're deprived of these. We get accustomed to the top of the wave, forgetting that the mere concept of a wave implies a valley too. If there's no bottom, there wouldn't be any top. The first defines the second. So, yes, we tend to dread the so called "boring" days, in which not too much happens. we just plod along and try to just get to the sunset somehow, wondering if there's any point in anything we do. We look down, put one step in front of the other, hoping the path will eventually lead somewhere. I used to feel very down during these down days. Like, really, really depressed. Not anymore. I slowly learned that a life of only peaks is a fake life. You can't have peaks without valleys. What am I saying, you can't even have continuity from one moment to the next one if you're not steady on the course. Yes, there are valleys. Sometimes, they are more than that, they are holes in which we feel lost and abandoned. Ok, that's it, just plod along. Fill that gap. There isn't too much heroism in filling in the gaps on the road, it's a tedious, low-level job. And yet, without it, there will be no road whatsoever. Because the next peak can be reached only as long as there is some sort of road towards it. If we don't fill in the gaps on the road, it will simply end. *Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin (https://unsplash.com/@marcojodoin?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/holes-in-road?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: July 20, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffilling-in-the-gaps%2F&text=Filling%20In%20The%20Gaps&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffilling-in-the-gaps%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffilling-in-the-gaps%2F&t=Filling%20In%20The%20Gaps https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffilling-in-the-gaps%2F&title=Filling%20In%20The%20Gaps Previous ### Clarkson’s Farm – A Review (/clarksons-farm-a-review/) Next ### Thinking Outside Of The Jar (/thinking-outside-of-the-jar/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Finding Reasons To Agree URL: https://dragosroua.com/finding-reasons-to-agree.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/finding-reasons-to-agree/ Published: 2009-08-07 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness Tags: communication, conflict, decide, relationships What's your reaction when somebody is telling something you don't like? Is it unconditionally "Yes"? Is it unconditionally "No"? It's something in between? Do you usually find reasons to agree or to disagree? I ask because finding reasons to agree seems to be one of the most difficult mindsets these days. We seem to be programmed to challenge, to fight, to counterattack. We seem to be conditioned to loudly mark our point of vue, most of the time by openly disagreeing with the other part, like this would be the only way our personality could survive. There is a whole mindset in favor of disagreeing. Every time somebody is trying to say something, we seem to first find reasons to reject what the other just said, and only if we haven't find any, then we agree. That's weird. That's a mindset of fear. A mindset of rejection. A defensive strategy. Defensive against what? Are we really acting like every other person is our enemy (or, if you prefer business terms, competition)? Have you ever thought how time consuming is this strategy? How much energy you spend only to identify reasons to disagree? ### Growing versus Resistance If you have a mindset of disagreeing you're resisting, you're not growing. If you analyze constantly what other are saying, trying to find breches for your own ideas, trying to find their mistakes, trying to find their negligences, you're acting against your nature. You're not here to reject others. Even if you're going to succeed, the result will be pretty sad: you'll end up alone. On the other hand, finding reasons to agree gives you room to grow. Even if overall you're not totally agreeing with the other guy, the simple shift in attitude towards agreement will give you something back. Will give you a new perspective, will make you understand more. It's not about what makes you unique, about your originality and ideas, you'll always have that, no need to make your personality visible by contrasting with other people – it's about your attitude. An attitude of acceptance rather than rejection. I am pretty sure that plants, water and sun have a lot of reasons to agree. They seems to go along pretty well. I don't see how a plant could disagree with the water, because is different from it, and accept it only if it passes some kind of test. I also don't see how the sunlight could disagree with the plants and not offering them what they need in order to grow. The agreement here is total. And constant. Those nature parts are having an attitude of agreement. Sometimes they're rejecting each other, when the size is too big for instance (too much sun or too much water are not good for the plants). But initially, they're having an unconditional agreement. ### Agreement versus Obeisance Finding reasons to agree doesn't mean you're blindly accepting everything others are saying. It's not like you're going to take everything for granted. Finding reasons to agree means first assessing (/assess-decide-do/) what the other part is saying or doing. Means trying to understand what the other is talking about, what are the reasons behind his talk. Finding reasons to agree means accepting the other guy reality. Obeisance, on the other hand, means walking in the other shoes without any assessment whatsoever. Obeisance means listening without understanding. It's like obeying a direct order. Which is something necessary if you're in a war and you're a soldier. But you're not in a war, and you're not a soldier. Most of the time. ### What's The Catch? Finding reasons to agree as opposed to finding reasons to disagree is a very thin but important line in one's behavior. I've been on both realms many times. I've been a bully entrepreneur (/entrepreneurship-as-a-personal-development-tool/), ready to fight for my "ideas", or products, or services. I had this mindset of "let's try to find a mistake here". I looked at people waiting for their first wrong move. And it doesn't felt good. ![AI Kiddo app icon](/images/ai-kiddo-icon-48.webp) I built AI Kiddo (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566) to help kids learn first words in 8 languages—simple images, natural speech, child-friendly. I mean, you can have results if you're behaving like this. I know I had. And many successful entrepreneurs are very aggressive and intimidating. They're relying on the other guy wrong move. They're acting with the mindset of "finding reasons to disagree". The only downside of this attitude, at least for me, was the incredible weariness I had to face after a full day of work. It was like I was pushing a 100 wagons train by myself. I was literally drained. When you act like this, you're cutting your energy refilling sources. If you're finding reasons to disagree, you're telling the Universe he's wrong. And the Universe respond back as you intended: wrong. You're alone and your connection with others is burned. That's the catch. Finding reasons to agree works in a very different way. When I first started to apply this mindset I noticed that my day was less energy consuming than usual. I started to pay attention to the other guy reasons, I tried to visualize things the way he did it and started to find reasons to agree. Not always the final result was an agreement, there were situation in which we simply couldn't align. We're different people. But it happened that we reached those conclusions in a much lighter and decent manner than before. By finding reasons to agree first, I built a connection. Some energy field was opened. And I started to function better. And so did the other guy. By openly accepting the difference between us, we created a common vibration. And that made the energy exchange way smoother. And. to be honest, this mindset shift opened the door to a lot of new stuff. Until a certain point, I applied it only in my relationships. I was finding reasons to agree only if I was in an interaction. But then I gradually started to apply this in other areas as well. I started to find reasons to agree with myself. I started to find reasons to agree with specific events. I started to find reasons to agree with concepts or situations. That's the real catch. Finding reasons to agree with your life is so much better than finding reasons to beat yourself up. First published on: August 7, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-reasons-to-agree%2F&text=Finding%20Reasons%20To%20Agree&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-reasons-to-agree%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-reasons-to-agree%2F&t=Finding%20Reasons%20To%20Agree https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-reasons-to-agree%2F&title=Finding%20Reasons%20To%20Agree Previous ### What You Don’t Want To Know About Prostitution (/what-you-dont-want-to-know-about-prostitution/) Next ### Post Raw Food Diet (/post-raw-food-diet/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Finding The Center URL: https://dragosroua.com/finding-the-center.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/finding-the-center/ Published: 2021-04-22 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Health and Fitness, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: 365 challenge, courage, resilience, stoicism The last year has been challenging for all of us. But it was challenging in different ways. For those of us leaning into fear, it created more fear. For those of use trying to live life mostly with courage, it generated frustration (because we had to obey to a fear-leaning majority) and it fueled change. I'm not part of the fear-leaning current – but I'm not making a big fuss about it. I don't believe that fear, as the primary reaction to the challenges that the world is creating for us, is inherently flawed. I also don't think courage is the only way to approach life, every single time. It all has to be decided based on the context – when you choose fear, and when you choose courage – and it just so happen that in this specific situation – and I'm talking about the planetary masquerade called "Covid" – the most rewarding way is to not give in to fear. So, if during last year you've been part of the courage-leaning current, you've probably experienced frustration and, as a result, you started some big changes in your life. Being confined at home or denied the right to travel, you probably had to make some hard choices and moved forward. Watching how people around you did not only accept inconceivable limitations of their rights in the name of an illusory safety (in front of a real, but very elusive, danger), but even begged for an Orwellian surveillance state, must have driven you crazy. And you reacted. I know I did. I decided to move in a different country and I'm in the middle of this process. Some parts of this process are easier than others – to put it mildly. On top of the current state-enforced restrictions, there is also people's reluctance and fear, and all processes are slowed down because of that. Nothing works as expected, from traveling from one country to another, up to finding a new apartment. But today, something good happened. After a day filled with challenges, friction and stress, I had an unexpectedly good evening. Nothing spectacular, just a couple of craft beers on a secluded *esplanada* in Lisbon, meeting a couple of new people, connecting without effort and without expectations, and, overall, just feeling ok. That feeling of familiarity, of trust, of cohesion. Small talk. Jokes. Laughs. Connection. And that's what I call "the center". The space in which you feel balanced. In which you feel accepted. In which you don't fear challenges, not because you're in a safe place, shielded and convinced they won't occur, but because you know you'll find a way through if they will arise. Like anyone else, I sometimes lose this center. I sometimes follow the tides, just because I don't have other option. But I always yearn to go back, to reconnect to that area inside me in which everything falls into places. Every time the wave of change pushes me around, I am craving this space in which I trust every outcome. Not because I'm omnipotent, but because I know I'll be ok even if I lose. Sometimes, finding your center is just a question of sitting still. Of not giving in to any stimuli. Of just watching the storm passing by, even if the storm lasts a year, or more. Let the wind blow, let the hurricane play its game, let the tornadoes clean everything, and then start rebuilding. With calm, with trust, with acceptance. First published on: April 22, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-the-center%2F&text=Finding%20The%20Center&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-the-center%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-the-center%2F&t=Finding%20The%20Center https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ffinding-the-center%2F&title=Finding%20The%20Center Previous ### If Countries Names Would Actually Mean Something (/if-countries-names-would-actually-mean-something/) Next ### Short Game versus Long Game (/short-game-versus-long-game/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Getting Things Done with an iPhone – total black belt productivity URL: https://dragosroua.com/getting-things-done-with-an-iphone-total-black-belt-productivity.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/getting-things-done-with-an-iphone-total-black-belt-productivity/ Published: 2007-03-10 Modified: 2025-12-01 Views: 50 Categories: Getting Things Done, iPhone Tags: apps, task management, tools *Later Update: although this is one of the most popular posts on my blog, it become a little outdated, but there's some good news: you can check out all the posts under **GTD* (/category/gtd/)* and **iPhone* (/category/iphone/)* and you'll have a fresher insight on this matter. Until then, happy reading!* It's a fact: the iPhone (http://www.apple.com/iphone/) will be here. Maybe it's already, as rumors are already spreading about Steve Jobs conspicuously using it (http://www.tuaw.com/2007/03/07/jobs-using-iphone-already/). So how this will help us, GTD addicted fellows? I spent a little time making a scenario about the best usage of an iPhone-centric GTD implementation, so here it is. We'll start with the first phase out of the five described by David Allen in his book, and then we'll explore some specific situations. **1. Collect** One of the most neglected applications on the iPhone, equally during the keynote and after the keynote, was the Notes application. It was clearly depicted in the screenshots and presentation movies but I didn't saw any specific references to it. It's already on iPods, so why don't we stick it in the iPhone too, right? I think it deserves a lot more attention, because, believe it or not, my impression is that could be the cornerstone of the collection process in the GTD methodology. As simple as it may seem, this application could be the next generation Quicksilver. Imagine how easy would be to create, edit and store notes on your mobile device using this. You always have the phone with you, and, inside the phone, you'll have an extremely easy way of emptying your RAM. And I just can't think at any memory limitation right now, because 4G or 8G of memory (minus the OS, I agree), is more than enough for any RAM empty session that I could imagine. On the collection process also, we have several other information streams that could be easily be integrated in a single flow: - contacts - emails - bookmarks - calendar - geographical maps iPone already has the Address Book in it, it features a "rich HTML mail client" and also a stripped down version of Safari. You can store events and find locations. On top of it, all of these are capable of syncing, if need will be. So basically you have all the tools you are used to, in one place. But the collection process doesn't end here. You have a phone with you, remember? You could record voice messages (this is how I do right now when I have an idea and need to get it out of my head) if you don't feel like writing. They will be in the same place with the rest of your data. You could regularly empty the voice recording inbox in your daily or weekly reviews. In the same line of audible, another noticeable advantage is that all your voice mails will be stored in the same place too. **2. Process** Being mobile brings you an enormous advantage in the processing mechanism. And that's because you could process your "stuff" virtually everywhere. Imagine your regular day: in the office, you open your regular GTD software, or place on your desktop your hipster-PDA cards, and start the drill: is this actionable? yes: it is two minutes: do it, and so on… Well, you don't need this anymore. You can do it on your way to the office, in the park. You can do it in the backyard of your home. You have everything you need in one place. All the pieces. The rest is the process itself. Processing your information basically everywhere can be a big advantage. It will also impact your overall focusing capabilities. By streamlining the information flow from the outside world to your trusted system you will become more close to the events, more focused and ready to act. Mind like water. **3. Organize** Keeping it together could be a very easy task with an iPhone. Already having a rich HTML mail client, just like the Mac regular Mail.app, you can leverage your regular email setup by folders. Just like my regular email GTD setup (/the-adventures-of-a-gtd-follower-my-email-setup/), for instance. You can review your Safari bookmarks, sync them and keep all the surfing information consistent. You can create a hierarchy of your previously inserted notes. You can listen to your voice mail or to your personal pre-recorded notes. You can organize everything from a single insertion point, and I feel that this could be a huge time saver, to say the least. I can already think at a new context, which could basically overwrite all the other contexts, and that will be @iPhone. Because it will be your @Office, your @Errands and your @Online contexts at the same time. The Someday/Maybe and the Tickler file situations, could be solved by a combination of Calendar and Notes, I suppose. Creating a specific calendar called Tickler, and sending events to it, or creating a top-level Notes folder called Someday/Maybe should do the trick. At least for me. I like it simple. **4. Review** That's the point where I start digging in my english list of expressions, how about: the GTD review "it's at your fingertips"? Literally at your fingertips? Being so used to hit a keyboard for the last 20 years, I think using the iPhone for my first finger-lead review, would be quite an internal revolution for me. Joke aside, I think the new interface on the iPhone, beyond the media hype, would have a huge impact. I don't expect revolutionary situations like huge armies of people tapping into their iPhones in the subway each morning, but I don't completely avoid this possibility either. The iPod proved that technology breakthrough can really change habits and cultural taboos. The way you can browse your music collection and contacts, from what we all saw in the presentation, can be extended to your to do's, or events, or errands lists. It looks that context switching will evolve into information browsing. **5. Do** Well, that's the easy part. With an iPhone-centric GTD implementation one could: - interact make phone calls - send emails - browse the internet - travel with google maps store information - notes - contacts - voice mails - voice notes - events and to do's - bookmarks - print copies with bluetooth enabled printers **6. Possible situations** These are just ramblings and ideas about how and when one could use GTD with an iPhone: - travel: you are outside your regular GTD system and need a way to stay organized - external changes: your initial system is going through some major changes – you're moving in another town, for instance – and you need a way to stay alive for that period - streamlined GTD: you're not a geek, nor a middle or top manager, but still want to stay on top of your life; for that, implementing the iPhone-centric GTD could be the best thing that happened to you since sliced bread - age-centric GTD: you're a teenager or a maybe respectable retired person; you don't need anybody to look after you in both cases, because you can take care of yourself with a crash-course on iPhone and GTD - introductory courses for coaches: if you want to teach GTD, this kind of approach could give you fast results and a selected base of early adopters; you can switch the level two GTD, when a computer is involved, but for the most of your students, this would be enough **7. Cons** One can argue that all of these are just storage containers, there isn't yet a consistent mechanism of linking it together, there isn't yet a real next action list… Yes, you're right. But there isn't an iPhone either, this is just a scenario, and in every scenario we could expect a reasonable degree of unexpected stuff. Maybe Apple will give us the glue to link it all together by a secret application layer. Or maybe it will release something like a lightweight scripting environment that will make the gluing of all this a breeze. Or some other company, in the good ol' tradition of Mac, will release a fantastic product that will tie up all those layers. The key to an iPhone-centric GTD implementation is not that, but the fact that everything is in one place. And that one place is extremely easy to connect to other environments for exchanging information, creating interactivity or put some order in one's habits. And this is all about Getting Things Done, isn't it? [tags]iPhone, Apple, GTD, productivity[/tags] First published on: March 10, 2007 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Healthy And Unhealthy Routines URL: https://dragosroua.com/healthy-and-unhealthy-routines.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/healthy-and-unhealthy-routines/ Published: 2021-08-03 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Health and Fitness, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: 365 challenge, habits You know how fond I am of personal rituals (/the-case-for-personal-rituals/). I find them fundamental for a balanced state. But just because it's a ritual, and just because it's personal, this doesn't automatically makes it healthy. There are healthy and unhealthy routines, and since they are both, you know, routines, they can both be consumed and perceived as personal rituals. ## How Do You Know A Personal Ritual Is Healthy? The unpleasant answer is that you don't. The more detailed answer (and only mildly unpleasant) is that you don't know that upfront. You have to test. Hence, my intensive use of 30 days challenges. If I want to implement a new habit, or a new routine, or a new ritual, I first test it for 30 days. If at the end of these 30 days I can see some benefits, the routine sticks. If not, at least I tried. It goes without saying that during these 30 days challenges I journal consistently, because it's very easy to get caught in my own thoughts and steer away, not realizing if I'm really making progress or not, not realizing if the habit is really useful or I'm just hyping myself into it. This testing stage is very delicate. If the routine I want to implement is energy or time intensive, it means that I'm blocking for 30 days chunks of time or energy which could be otherwise dedicated to things that I already know are useful. If you do many, many, many 30 days challenges, like I do, it means you're taking a lot of risks, and you are fragmenting your time and energy into many new ventures. And if many of these challenges are not becoming habits, or routines, it means you're kinda losing time and energy. That's a reality and it's something that I have to come to terms with. Every new routine carries a risk. It's a tradeoff between the current status quo and a potential that might or might not materialize. The alternative is to either choose a linear way of living (trying to preserve as much of the good you can, and prevent as much of the bad you can from happening) or give up control of your life to outside forces. Both are, in the long term, losing. Yes, there is a risk of missing out if you're always trying out new things, but the benefits medium and long term are significant. ## How Do You Know A Routine Is Unhealthy? If it's something that's happening on auto-pilot, without too much intervention from yourself, then it has the potential to become unhealthy. The easiest example is smoking. It happens on auto-pilot, 90% of the time, you just reach for a cigarette. In time, this routine can be really bad for your health. Not only because of the physical effects (which may, or may not be that damaging) but mostly because of the addiction that it creates. I would say the addiction, the soothing with something external, might be more damaging long term than the physical health problems. It goes the same with compulsive eating. It's also a routine that's happening on auto-pilot. And it's usually paired with intense emotions that can't be processed differently. It may be anger that makes you rush to the fridge, or it may be sadness or feelings of loneliness. It's an empty psychological space that gets filled out with food. These routines are slippery. They're not the result of some autonomous decision, they happen most of the time because we're "slipping into them". And the same mechanism that makes a "good" ritual stick, works also for unhealthy rituals. Repetitions, positive associations and reinforcement, these are creating a feedback loop that enhances whatever they contain. It may be running for your health, or it may be compulsive eating. It may be waking up at 6:00 AM every morning, or it may be a daily beer. It may be journaling, or it may be compulsive TV binging. ## Just. Be. Aware So, the line between healthy and unhealthy routines lies within. It's called awareness. That's why it's important to stay grounded in the present. To understand how much of what you do it's on auto-pilot, and how much it's actually chosen. Not because some exotic teachings are blabla-ing about awareness, or meditation, or fancy stuff. They're not blabla-ing, by the way, they're spot on, but the exotic cover, the shiny wrapping used by Western culture kinda contradicts their nature and makes you believe they are some mysterious and complicated stuff that you need to work your ass to master. At their core, they talk about the same thing: stay aware. Pay attention. Take action. Rinse. And. Repeat. It's that easy. *Photo by Dorota Dylka (https://unsplash.com/@dylka?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/meditation-pose?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: August 3, 2021 ### 🔧 Hacking Habits Quality Part 4 of 9 View all 9 posts → (/hacking-habits/) ← Previous Integration A Good Habit Is An Invisible Habit (/a-good-habit-is-an-invisible-habit/) Next → Formation 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 3. Create A New Habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-3-create-new-habit/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Gravitational Habits (/gravitational-habits/) 2. Architecture: Reusable Habits (/reusable-habits/) 3. Integration: A Good Habit Is An Invisible Habit (/a-good-habit-is-an-invisible-habit/) 4. Quality: Healthy And Unhealthy Routines (/healthy-and-unhealthy-routines/) 5. Formation: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 3. Create A New Habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-3-create-new-habit/) 6. Optimization: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 79. Break A Bad Habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-79-break-bad-habit/) 7. Anti-patterns: My Top 7 Demotivating Habits (/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/) 8. Timeline: How To Create A Habit In 15 Days (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/) 9. Application: 5 Financial Habits Enforced By Playing Cashflow (/5-financial-habits-enforced-by-playing-cashflow/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhealthy-and-unhealthy-routines%2F&text=Healthy%20And%20Unhealthy%20Routines&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhealthy-and-unhealthy-routines%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhealthy-and-unhealthy-routines%2F&t=Healthy%20And%20Unhealthy%20Routines https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhealthy-and-unhealthy-routines%2F&title=Healthy%20And%20Unhealthy%20Routines Previous ### Monday Moving Forward – Pick (And Revive) An Old Project (/monday-moving-forward-pick-and-revive-an-old-project/) Next ### Say Hello To Your New Friend: The Spreadsheet (/say-hello-to-your-new-friend-the-spreadsheet/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Make Friends Online URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-make-friends-online.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-make-friends-online/ Published: 2010-10-18 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Relationships and Society Tags: friendship, how to, networking Since I started this blog a few years ago, something beautiful happened: I started to travel. I had been a little bit of a loner before, even if I had my own company and all. For instance, my first trip outside of the country was when I was over 33. Somehow, travel seemed to be something too difficult for me.Speaking of the travels ignited by this blog, I experienced two types, resulting in two types of friendships along the way: one type where i interacted with real people in the real world, on airplanes, in hotels and with backpacks, including countries like New Zealand (/the-trip-to-new-zealand/), Thailand (/the-trip-to-thailand/), Japan (/the-trip-to-japan-what-to-read-and-more/) and the United States (/the-trip-to-las-vegas/), and one in the digital world, where I started to interact with real people, but only on digital channels. Today I'm going to talk about the latter. Believe it or not, these trips and the friendships that evolved proved to be much more fulfilling than the real ones. ### My Everyday Interaction Routine Having a fairly popular blog, like this one, means interacting with a lot of people. Here are a few interaction patterns I have everyday, and the digital channels I use. **Twitter:** Some of the people I follow are born in the UK, have family in Poland, but also spend a lot of time in Romania. I'm talking about Ian Peatey (http://twitter.com/ianpeatey) from QuantumLearning.pl. Another guy I've been talking to regularly is Diggy (http://twitter.com/upgradereality) from UpgradeReality.com and guess what, he lives in South Africa. **Facebook: **One of the most interesting female bloggers in the personal development field is Celestine Chua (http://www.facebook.com/celestinechua), (from CelestineChua.com (http://www.personalexcellence.co)) who is currently living in Singapore. She's driving a lot of momentum with her 30 day challenges. Another pretty active guy on Facebook is Colin Wright (http://www.facebook.com/colin.wright), (from ExileLifestyle.com (http://exilelifestyle.com)) who is originally from the States but has lately been residing all over the planet, last time in Bangkok, if I'm not wrong. **Skype: **Every once in a while I talk to some of the people I've met online or in real life on skype. I remember starting a mastermind group with Adam Baker from ManVsDebt.com (http://manvsdebt.com) and Glenn Alsopp from Viperchill.com (http://viperchill.com). Adam is from the States but I met him in New Zealand, and Glenn is from South Africa but has recently experienced a love of all things Holland. **Email:** Some of the people that I've followed for a long time have also becoming regular contributors to my email inbox. This is the case with Jonathan Wells, from Oregon, as well as Steven Aitchison (http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/), from Scotland. I currently contribute a monthly article to Jonathan Wells' newsletter SharingLifeSkills.com (http://SharingLifeSkills.com), and with Steven I initiate all sorts of blogging challenges, or we brainstorm projects together. **Web: **I make a habit of reading a lot of blogs, and I also like to keep an eye on their authors. For instance, I like Luciano Passuelo's LiteMind.com (Luciano is from Brazil) and Sid Svara's SidSavara.com (http://SidSavara.com) (Sid is living in Hawaii). So, as you can see, I have a LOT of friends, from all over the planet. What you just read is less than 5% of my daily interaction routine. Apologies to those I didn't mention here, but naming you all would have easily inflated this post by another 40.000 words :-). ### Digital Versus Real Life Friends There are a few differences between real life and online friends. These differences have to be taken into consideration if you want to start enlarging your circle of friends using online channels, because they will directly impact the quality of the people you engage with, as well as the quality of the overall relationship. ***Digital friends are somehow always "on".*** Even if digital friends are not there right now, they will be in a few hours. Being spread all over the world makes digital friends live in a time-space continuum rather than in your own time. So, even if you're not having a "conversation" in real time with them, they are there and they will respond somehow, eventually. ***Digital friends have a limited set of tools to interact with.*** Most of the time these tools are only words. There almost certainly will be a lot missing from these interactions, especially body language, eye contact and so on. There will be less emotional involvement as well. Get used to it, it's not necessarily a bad thing. ***Digital friends have an avatar and a status*** Instead of a body and a voice, most of the time you will identify a digital friend by the avatar they use on various social media sites, and by their status. Please, don't base your whole impression of a friend on these. Behind these images there are real people. They can and will change their mind at any time, even if their status remains the same. Subsequently, when they change their avatar, it doesn't mean they've changed their life. ### How To Make Friends Online Well, enough talking, let's get down to business. ### 1. Initiate Contact That's the fundamental rule of creating a friendship, and not only in the digital world either. If you don't reach out and actually initiate contact, you will not transform a person you know into a person who is your friend. He or she may continue to be your object of admiration in some way, but you will not have an open channel to them. Use social media functions with trust: retweet, like, promote. Start a dialogue. What can go wrong? The worst thing that may happen is that they will ignore you. It's Ok. Don't take rejection (/how-to-deal-with-rejection-5-fresh-ways-to-look-at-getting-rejected/) too personally. If you do that, it will be much more difficult to create friendships than you think. ### 2. Don't Fake It There can be a strong emphasis placed on numbers: Twitter followers, Facebook friends, blog subscribers, etc. Somehow, you tend to put value on the number of people you're interacting with, not on the actual interactions. In my experience, this is highly dangerous. It will slowly affect your real life friends. For instance, you may feel the need to use the "like" button when somebody in your group tells a good joke, or you may also look in the room for the "retweet" link. All joking aside, try to see the real person instead of the "social media benefit" you may get out of contributing. Go for common interests not for numbers (/twitter-downshifting/). ### 3. Agree To Disagree These digital channels lack most forms of emotional communication, as well as body language. It's very easy to misunderstand the other person in the absence of these subtle metacomponents of communication. So, don't look for a perfect or effortless fit right from the start. Agree to disagree and look for the common points first. Be more patient, resilient, and flexible than you're used to. A digital friend is much easier to repel, and then to attract again, than a real friend. ### 4. Go Live As Often As You Can I remember how scared I was first time when Ian Peatey sent me direct message on Twitter asking me where the restaurant that I was having lunch was. Wait, will I actually meet this nickname? At this restaurant? No, I'd better run away. Of course I didn't, and we met face to face. As time goes by I've learned to look forward for these types of encounters. Now I go for live meetings with a digital friends as often as I can. It strengthens the digital relationship even more. ### How To Maintain Online Friendships Being active on Twitter or Facebook accounts is only half of the job of having online friends. Making friends is one thing, but maintaining friendship via digital channels is a completely different ball game. Most of the time, digital friendships last as long as the underlying hidden agenda's of both parties last. If you're using social media to promote a product, being it your blog or a customer website, your friendships will last for as long as you have the blog, or as long as you are actively promoting that website. This is sad. Making a friendship for a hidden benefit is always a stupid thing to do, and it will always come back to you negatively, in one way or another. Most of the time this happens by attracting the same kind of people, ready to take advantage of you for some temporary benefit. What goes around comes around. So, how do you expect to maintain an online friendship, for the right reasons? ### 1. Be Patient That's the fundamental quality of a digital friendship. You live in different time zones, you may have different interests, or different family lives. You may check in on that digital channel only once in a while. Well, look for that opportunity and be happy when it happens. Don't badger your online friends with requests that you would usually direct to your real life friends. They have different levels of availability and resources. If you manage to be patient you may enjoy digital friendships for years. I know, because I'm enjoying some of them right now. ### 2. Don't Ask Too Much This point is closely related to the one above. Be very careful of what you ask. It's best to make a few trials until you define the boundaries of each one of your friendships. For instance, I know I can send emails to some of my friends anytime, and they will respond, but others will take a few days until they can get back to me. One thing that may surprise you: be very careful of what you are ready to receive. I was put more than once in the very strange situation of receiving "good karma" from my circle of friends: unexpected service or support. These things will happen, so accept them, even if they look atypical. In a subtle way, this is also a consequence of not asking for too much: you will receive much more than you expect. 😉 ### 3. Support Them This is the hardest part, because of the very narrow nature of this communication channel. The emotional part will be especially difficult to fulfil in this type of relationship. Emoticons, sending tunes, little stupid Facebook games in which you send a heart or something like that… well, go for these. These are the pale correspondent of the real life emotional support gesture that you would make normally. Also, be very careful of your digital friends, not just when they're at their peak, but also when they're missing in action. One week of inactivity is usually a sign of something happening, while one month of absence is usually a sign that something serious is happening in their lives. Make contact. Ask. Send a joke. *** Well, I hope that this short guide to making friends online was at least intriguing, if not useful. So, if you're here for the first time, let's be friends :-). You can start by subscribing to my RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/dragosroua), and then add me as a friend on Twitter (http://twitter.com/dragosroua), Facebook or LinkedIn. Let's see how this will work out :-). First published on: October 18, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-make-friends-online%2F&text=How%20To%20Make%20Friends%20Online&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-make-friends-online%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-make-friends-online%2F&t=How%20To%20Make%20Friends%20Online https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-make-friends-online%2F&title=How%20To%20Make%20Friends%20Online Previous ### Why Becoming An Early Riser Will Change Your Life (/why-becoming-an-early-riser-will-change-your-life/) Next ### What Is Rich and Happy (/what-is-rich-and-happy/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Play The Game Of Blogging URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-play-the-game-of-blogging.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-play-the-game-of-blogging/ Published: 2010-06-16 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 50 Categories: Blogging Tags: blogging journey, entrepreneurship, lessons learned After I sold my company, 2 years ago, I knew there will be some inactive time for me. I mean, once you're an important player and you sell your part of the territory, expect that you'll be asked to take a break for a while. After all, it's not ok to start to compete against your buyers the next day after the selling. I won't go into the technical details of what a "non-compete" agreement should contain, because this is not the main point of the article. The main point of this article is to share what I've learned by playing the game of blogging (/100-ways-to-improve-your-blog/). ### The Beginning The only thing I was able to grow and maintain on the online field, after I sold my business, was my personal blog. No more markets, contracts, niche strategies or online alliances. No more online business (/77-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/): just a personal blog. Although I did blog every now and then even before I sold the company, I never did "professionally". All of a sudden, the selling of my company became a great opportunity to begin something completely new. With all the associated risks of starting something from scratch: not knowing the right tools, making mistakes, not being a native English speaker (/how-to-be-ridiculous/) and so on. ### The Lessons This blog, as you know it now, was started in October 2008, under a Romanian domain dragosroua.com. In July 2009 I changed the domain to dragosroua.com. That was one of the lessons I had to learn the hard way: if you blog in English, keeping your blog under a localized domain name is not ok. You do need a .com, otherwise you'll end up in a secondary index of Google. A few months ago, the blog was moved to another hosting facility, outside Romania (in United States, I'm happily using the cloud hosting package of RackSpace). That was another lesson I had to learn the hard way: the physical location of your hosting company influences your ranking in search engines (at least Google). As of January 2009 I started to actively promote the blog, becoming active (some say that I become even too active 🙂 ) in social media outlets like Twitter (http://twitter.com/dragosroua), FaceBook and StumbleUpon. Until then I was under the firm impression that "if you write it, they will come". Another huge mistake. You gotta promote your blog, otherwise you'll never reach to your audience. Why? Because blogging is like any other publishing business, only it's taking place in an incredibly crowded market. There are literally hundreds of millions of blogs out there. I can hardly imagine another business on this Earth where you have such an incredible number of competitors. So, if you want to really make your voice heard, you gotta work for it. Many of these lessons, mistakes and other interesting things, like monetization and promotion, were described in two milestone series: The First 6 Months Of Blogging (/the-first-6-months-of-blogging-the-series/) and The First Year Of Blogging (/the-first-year-of-blogging-the-series/). Feel free to read them at your leisure if you're interested in some historical data about my blog. Now, let's get to the meat: how to play the game of blogging? ### Know Your Availability If you're into blogging, you gotta know beforehand how much time are you willing to allocate to it. All those stories about how a stay at home mom become instantly famous after she published a blog are bullshit. Pardon my French. Don't get me wrong, you can get lucky pretty early and get featured on some of the largest social media sites like Digg and Delicious, and get enormous amounts of traffic in a very short time. It can get up to several dozens of thousands unique users in a week interval. But that's not success. You may have 5 minutes of fame and then you're out in the cloud. Nobody will know your name anymore. Being successful as a blogger means to control your exposure, to predict the impact of your work and to constantly measure and influence the results. And that requires time. It requires discipline and commitment. Starting a blog "only to see how it works" will never work. You gotta commit to it at least one year – in my persona experience, at least – before jumping to conclusions. Blogging is not a part time job. Unless you want a part time job that will pay you nothing. So, the most important thing about playing the game of blogging is to know your availability. ### Know Your Expertise The second thing that's very important after your physical availability is your expertise. You gotta be good at something. Even if you're a stay at home mom, you gotta be good at this: being a stay at home mom. If you're a programmer, you gotta be good at programming. If you write about self-improvement, be honest about what it takes to be in the self-improvement field (/inhale-exhale). Why is that so important? Again, because of the competition. When you compete against dozens of millions of blogs, you can't fake it. You can't pretend you're a guru in some field and then just copy and paste other people articles. It won't take you far. On the contrary, it will take you down pretty fast. One of the most subtle mechanisms of blogging is what I call "reputation". It's a very special mix of expertise, trust and persistence. If you're good at what you do, if you're honest and you're writing on your blog for a reasonable amount of time, you'll get reputation. And, believe it or not, reputation is the cornerstone of a blogging business. Not traffic. Not AdSense. Not affiliate deals. All of these are just tools or metrics. The core of the business is reputation. That will make your audience buy the products you create or refer. Keep this word in mind: reputation. And, without, expertise, reputation is literally impossible to be created. ### Know Your Audience The third important thing in the blogging game is your audience. The fundamental difference between the traditional publishing and blogging is the interactive part of it. Blogging is not unidirectional, like a printed magazine. It's open and alive. You get in touch with your readers instantly, via comments. And they want to talk to you, the real person behind the blog. They don't want a corporation, they want a regular guy who's honestly sharing his life. That's what gives them inspiration (http://www.inspiredm.com/2009/09/28/10-simple-ways-to-instantly-boost-your-inspiration/), motivation (/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated/), hope. At some point during your blogging activity you'll make a great discovery: you're not writing for yourself, you're writing for your readers. As simple and stupid this discovery may seem, it's an incredible attitude shifter. The moment you'll realize you're sharing for other people, you'll change the way you blog. You'll become interested in their needs, rather than in yours. You'll become interested in their reactions and their attitudes and those reactions and attitudes will become triggers for your next blog posts. You'll create a multidirectional, alive and useful product. You'll create a real, significant change in the world. And that's the only thing that really counts at the end of the day, when all the traffic and revenue stories are told and forgot. By knowing your audience, you can evaluate your real impact to the world. ### Identify Partners, You Can't Do It Without Them The fourth most important thing at playing the blogging game is about partnerships. You won't get far without partnerships. Why? Again, the main answer is competition. The blogs ecosystem (/the-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers) is an incredibly complex web of interactions, links, authority and trends. This web is changing constantly and the chances that you will survive as an isolated blogger are incredibly small. You need a solid team of partners who will support you. Partners that you will support too, enforcing the power of your links in the blogging ecosystem. But there's another reason besides competition for partnerships and that's also about reputation. Many times you're evaluated by the friends you have rather than by your own deeds. And in such a very complex web like the blogging web, when time is extremely precious, you simply take for granted some references without verifying them. And that's where your partners are starting to matter big time. They will extend your authority and reputation onto you. And of course, you will extend your own authority and reputation onto them. The way you're choosing your partners is also a statement of your own values and sometimes tells more about yourself than what you're actually doing. ### Hydrate Yourself: It's A Marathon, Not A Sprint I can't emphasize enough on this one. Although if you took the time to actually read all the first 4 principles of the blogging game, you should have understand this by now, I'll say it again anyway: it's a long, long journey. Whenever you get tired, demotivated, hopeless or just sad, remember you're not at the end of the journey yet. Just keep playing the game. First published on: June 16, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-play-the-game-of-blogging%2F&text=How%20To%20Play%20The%20Game%20Of%20Blogging&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-play-the-game-of-blogging%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-play-the-game-of-blogging%2F&t=How%20To%20Play%20The%20Game%20Of%20Blogging https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-play-the-game-of-blogging%2F&title=How%20To%20Play%20The%20Game%20Of%20Blogging Previous ### When Everything Falls Apart (/when-everything-falls-apart/) Next ### Social Games People Play (/social-games-people-play/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Write An Ebook Using MacJournal URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-write-an-ebook-using-macjournal.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-write-an-ebook-using-macjournal/ Published: 2009-03-29 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 50 Categories: Blogging, Digital Tools, Productivity and Effectiveness, Time management Tags: content creation, how to, tools, writing Writing an ebook could be a lot of fun. Not to mention the fact that by writing something you're spreading value (/creating-value/) directly and you can receive a lot of direct compensation. If you chose to sell your ebook chances are that you will make some money. Sometimes a lot of money. And if you chose to give it away for free, it's a sure bet that you'll make a lot of new friends. Either way, it's a win. But writing an ebook can be sometimes overwhelming. I'm not talking about the actual writing process, choosing the topics, putting the chapters together or the main ebook subject. I'm talking about the invisible scaffold, the physical setup for managing, maintaining and organizing your work. Sometimes you don't remember what you wrote yesterday, or your ideas are coming too fast and you don't have the time or the habit to write them down, or you don't have a place with the last version of ebook and have to compile it every time you distribute it. In today's post I'll share with you my setup for writing an ebook. It's a system based on my favorite journaling application, and that would be MacJournal, of course. I've already wrote some articles about enhancing MacJournal, like power blogging with MacJournal, GTD style (/power-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style/), or how to create a habit in 15 days (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/), feel free to check them out before starting to read this one. ### Writing An Ebook I'm not going to talk about how you can chose you ebook subjects, because the options here are endless. You can write an ebook about gardening, an ebook about dating, an ebook about cooking, about programming, about business, about self-improvement (that would be my case, by the way) the sky really is the limit. I am going to talk about what your physical steps are in creating an ebook, what exactly are you going to do, step by step. For start, your ebook will contain sections, or chapters. The main creation process involve writing those chapters which are forming the main product. Yeap, I know you know that, just saying. You usually have a plan for that, either in form of a list, either as a mind map (/category/mind-mapping). You also establish a writing speed and a certain volume of writing each day. This is the main work. But if you're writing an ebook, you must already have a blog in which you can talk about that. If you're writing an ebook and don't have a blog yet, I highly encourage you to create one ASAP. It's not very difficult, and it's good for your writing habits. So, besides from writing your actual ebook, you'll have also to write some blog posts about it. To announce your ebook to your potential audience, to share progress or to call for opinions. Apart from that, you will promote your ebook and you'll do that by writing various pieces of text, most often landing pages for all your promotion channels. And in the process, you may have some ideas about the ebook, about the blog, about promoting or about anything else. I often found out that committing myself to a medium term project like an ebook opened the door to a bunch of new ideas. And of course you will do a lot of research also, usually grouped into notes. So, to keep a long story short, your ebook will consist on: - chapters - blog posts (including landing pages) - ideas - notes ### Introducing MacJournal MacJournal is a great application for journaling and blogging. With a little bit of hacking it can be a killer application for blogging, as I already wrote. But in its default setup is a little bit too simple for writing an ebook. When I decided to write some ebooks (and that would be several weeks ago) I turned to another fantastic piece of software from Mariner, StoryMill . StoryMill is a tool for writing fiction material, very close to writing movies scripts, including characters and scenes. It's not a surprise that Mariner launched something so close to script writing since they are also owning Contour, one of the best tools for writing actual movie scripts. But it was too complicated for an ebook. Great for a novel, but an ebook is usually less than a novel. So, I decided to make some tweaks to my MacJournal setup and come up with something a little bit more complex than a MacJournal vanilla setup but less complicated than a full blown StoryMill installation. I made use of MacJournal tagging capabilities, entry attributes like status and label, and of course, smart journals. At the end of the post you'll also be able to download a template containing all the modifications described here. ### Writing An Ebook The Smart Way Well, enough with talking, let's do some work. Here's how you can create a setup for writing an ebook similar to the one I use right now. #### The Main Journal First and foremost, I created a new journal in MacJournal and named it after my future ebook. In this post, I'll use a MacJournal template for an ebook called "7 Things". It's an example ebook which contains all that I've learned from my daughter, each year. She's 3 now, so I will have 3 chapters. This journal will hold all the necessary information for my ebook, acting like a main repository. After that, I established a little routine for writing stuff in this journal. Nothing complicated: each time I add an entry in this journal I tag it using the Inspector window. And this is where the power of this setup actually is, in the tagging area. If the entry is a chapter of my ebook I add a tag "book chapter". If the entry is an idea, I add to that entry the tag "ideas". If the entry is just a research note, I tag it "notes". I think you got the idea. Exactly, when I write some blog post, I tag it "blog". Tagging your posts is a great habit anyway, regardless of the fact that you're writing an ebook or not. Another important habit is to keep a close reference of your entry status. Using the Inspector make sure you assess each time after you finished writing something the status of it. Mac Journal offers 5 statuses for your entries: Unknown, Not Started, Underway, Needs Review and Completed. Most of the time I'm in the "Needs Review" status. When I finished a chapter I assign it the status: "Completed". You'll see later why this is important. I also put in this journal every other support text, like blog posts, ideas, landing pages and if I need to do some research I also add notes. All in the format of a journal entry, with a topic title and body. ![ShareByLight app icon](/images/icons/sharebylight-icon-48.webp) I just launched ShareByLight (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sharebylight-file-transfer/id6796897056)—transfer files with light only. No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no cables. One device shows a stream, the other reads it with the camera. Free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Like this, every available text for my ebook is in one place, under one journal. It's very convenient and help me speed up the creating process. Of course, if I keep adding chapters and notes and blog posts the journal will soon become cluttered. Putting together notes, ideas, chapters and blog posts can create a little bit of chaos. #### Using Smart Journals Smart journals to the rescue! In order to keep the various parts of this ebook separated and have a clear vision of what's in every section at every given moment, I created several smart journals. In MacJournal, a smart journal is a special type of journal which can be constructed on the fly from the parent journal, using some filters. It's extremely powerful, because it can use a large variety of filters: from topic titles to entry statuses and ratings. With a smart journal you can extract from a main journal pretty much anything you want. So, I created 5 smart journals: Chapters, Blog, Notes, Ideas and Master. In order to create a smart journal option-click the main journal and chose "New Smart Journal". A pop-up window will appear containing a filter panel. Here's how the chapter filtering panel looks like. ![MacJournal Ebook Chapter](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/macjournal-ebook-chapter.jpg) The filter states that each entry tagged "book chapter" will appear in this smart journal. Any other entries will be ignored. Now I have a special journal in which I have all the chapters on my book, separated from the rest of the writing material. Good. I can focus. I can create another smart journal for ideas, extracting only the entries tagged with "ideas": ![macjournal-ebook-ideas](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/macjournal-ebook-ideas.jpg) and so on. For Blog and Notes smart journals the setup is identical, except the tags are "blog" and "notes" of course. Now you understand why is so important to tag your entries. If an entry is not tagged it will not appear in the smart journal. It will still be available in the main journal, though. Now, I needed a way to assess my progress, so I created another smart journal, with different filters. This journal is called "Master" and is the journal which will contain all the finished chapters of the ebook. In order to have all the chapter all I have to do is to add a filter using the "Tags" option, matching the tag "book chapters". We've done this before, in the "Chapters" smart journal. But in order to have only the finished chapters, I will add another filter, using the "Status" option, matching the key "Completed". Like this, only the book chapters with the status set to "Completed" will appear in the Master smart journal. Believe me, that's a really great option to assess your progress. ![MacJournal Ebook master Journal](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/macjournal-ebook-master-journal.jpg) In the test template used for this blog there are only 3 chapters, but if you're writing an ebook with 20 chapters you'll find this smart journal extremely useful. You will actually see how much you've done so far and you'll be able to fine tune it. If you think a chapter still needs some touches, change its status to "Needs Review" and it will automatically disappear from the Master journal. #### Exporting Your Ebook After you finished it you may want to export your book from MacJournal. Either for packing it in a PDF format, either for some final touches in another word editor of your choice. In order to export your ebook, option click the "Master" smart journal and chose "Export…". In the next window you can chose from various formats: word, html or PDF. You can also chose which meatdata (titles, date, etc) will appear on the export. ![MacJournal Ebook export](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/macjournal-ebook-export.jpg) You're done! First published on: March 29, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-write-an-ebook-using-macjournal%2F&text=How%20To%20Write%20An%20Ebook%20Using%20MacJournal&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-write-an-ebook-using-macjournal%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-write-an-ebook-using-macjournal%2F&t=How%20To%20Write%20An%20Ebook%20Using%20MacJournal https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-write-an-ebook-using-macjournal%2F&title=How%20To%20Write%20An%20Ebook%20Using%20MacJournal Previous ### Personal Development With Dumbo (/personal-development-with-dumbo/) Next ### Twitter Downshifting (/twitter-downshifting/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Write Compelling Content For Your Blog URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-write-compelling-content-for-your-blog.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-write-compelling-content-for-your-blog/ Published: 2009-07-29 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Blogging, Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: consistency, do, how to, writing The age of blogging galore is over. Just because you have a blog doesn't mean you'll automatically have readers too. There was a time when the mere fact of having a blog would bring you an interested and sometimes avid audience. But now the field is too crowded and you really need to stand out if you want to talk to somebody else besides the guy who's looking at you from the reflection of your monitor. I've written more than 300 articles on this blog by now, and I feel I have only scratched the surface. In today's article I'll share some of my insights on how to write constant, quality and engaging content for your blog. Although I primarily blog about personal development, this post won't be about this specific niche, you can use the advice for whatever blog you have, or intend to have. ### Play With Your Words This is by far the most important and useful tip for writing good content, at least for me. Although I have a constant pool of ideas, I like to write without constraint, to play with the sentences and see where I land. By playing with my words I understand writing in a free form, without being concerned about following the main idea of the post. You may find yourself drifting really fast from the initial target and write about things that are surprising even for yourself. Or you realize that you're not so keen about the initial idea and another, much appealing topic is rising. Go for it. Write as you don't have a deadline or a structured approach. See where you land. Apart from being a very good antidote to writer's block, this free form writing approach is almost always a fantastic way of brainstorming new ideas. Every time I start writing an article, I don't really know if it's going to be a series, if it's going to be about the initial topic, or if it will be 400 or 4000 words. But I do know for sure it will be something I would love to write about. ### Keep An Incubator Of Ideas If you're serious about blogging, you'll going to be serious about blogging. And by that I mean you'll have to treat it as a full time occupation. The published articles on your blog will be only the visible part of an iceberg. Under the sea level lies your entire setup. One of the most important parts of this setup is what I call an incubator of ideas. Your blog will be a reflection of yourself, regardless of the topic you write about. Ideas can come in the most unusual places and at the most unusual times. You have to develop a scaffold for capturing those ideas and keep them in a safe place. The capturing setup is beyond the scope of this article, as it implies a variety of approaches and devices, for now it's important to know that you have to capture and keep all of your ideas. I created such a blogging incubator setup using MacJournal and its ability to create smart journals based on a variety of keys (tags, post priority, post status, etc). Even more, I use a GTD paradigm, meaning I isolate the "Next Posts" in a separate journal, so I can always have a fresh focus on them. Feel free to read the entire tutorial (/power-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style/). ### Make Room For Other Opinions One of the most forgotten things about blogging is its conversational nature. A blog is made of much more than your own insight. It's made of your readers comments, the pingbacks, the blogogsphere reactions, and more. If you write in a very sharp way, keeping a rigid approach, chances are that your blog will not become mainstream soon. It may attract a small pool of faithful fans, if you are really good, but not more. In this case, I think you're using blogging in a therapeutical (/therapeutical-talking-and-writing/) way which is not inherently good or bad, it will just not become very popular. Making room for other opinions will allow your readers to express their own insights, to create controversy, to allow freedom of speech and to receive new hints for future posts. I'm not talking only about keeping the comments form opened and answering to your readers as soon as you can, I'm talking about a whole specific approach in your writing. Even when you're giving advice or when you're expressing a very personal point of view, allow yourself the freedom to be challenged on that. Most of the blogs I read on a regular basis have this approach: they present facts or ideas in an open way, giving me a chance to react, to enhance or to disagree openly. And you know what? I can't wait to come back again to see what happened since my last visit. ### Clearly State Your Expertise No need to be shallow if you're blogging. No need to brag either, of course. But there is a very important point you should be aware of: make your expertise very transparent. It will not only help your credibility, but it will give your readers a sense of comfort. If you had a business for 10 years (/start-your-own-business/), be transparent on that. I had a business for 10 years, and that gave me the perspective and authority to write several series about how to create and maintain an online business. But if you started something new, and have no idea about what you're doing, be also transparent. One of the most read sections in my blog is about the raw food diet (/tag/raw-food/). I kept a raw food diet for more than 7 months (it ended once I got back from my trip to Japan (/the-trip-to-japan-first-impressions/)) and blogging about it was a fantastic way to learn something new. I wasn't an expert on that, and I clearly stated that. ### Be Consistent Keep a closed list of topics. That will make your blog easily recognizable. Don't go too far, don't spread too much. If you have other interests, the best thing you can do is to create separated blogs for them. Consistency is the key in creating a credible blog brand. Two months ago I decided to migrate 2 of the categories of this blog, namely iPhone (/category/iphone/) and astrology (/category/astrology/), into their own blogs: iPhoneCounty and AstrologyBits (http://www.astrologybits.com). I will write about iPhone and astrology here, of course, but only when there is a consistent overlap with the main topic of this blog, which is personal development. Being consistent means also be your most attentive and agile reader. You have to constantly read your blog. Maybe this sounds strange, and it will be strange in the beginning, but once you crossed 50 or 100 articles, you'll know what I mean. When I had more than 200 articles, I decided it's time to automate a little bit this task, and I created a mind map for my blog. I put each post into this mind map, and whenever I want to see my blog from a distance, to have an image of the content topics and their overall weight in the blog, I look at the mind map. There is a separate post about how to put your blog into a mind map (/put-your-blog-into-a-mind-map/) (featuring a lot more than just keeping your posts in it), so feel free to read it. ### Practice Nobody will write content for your blog, you'll have to do it. Of course, you can create a network of blogs, hire people to write and pay them. But in that case you'll be an entrepreneur, not a blogger. A blogger blogs, period. So, practice your writing, do it often and do it again. One of the key metrics of a blog is what I call posting speed (/posting-speed-blog-metrics-and-holidays/). It's basically how many articles you intend to write in a period of time (week or month). This posting speed has a very interesting effect on your writing: it will make it better. The more you write, the better will be at it. There is always a threshold here, you'll have to experiment a little to see which posting speed is suitable for you. Last year I intended to write 90 articles in 90 days (/90-days-blog-challenge/), and I failed miserably after only 17 articles. But when I decided to have at least 15 articles by month (a practice I follow for about 8 months now) I also created a simple wordpress plugin in order to help me with it. It's called wordpress blog audit plugin (/work-with-me/) and you can download it from here (/work-with-me/) (among other useful stuff to download). The plugin does a few simple things, one of them being the ability to show if you met or not your posting speed. *** So, what are YOUR opinions about writing compelling content for your blog? What can you share about this topic? Do you find the advice useful? Do you have something to add? Would love to hear your insights in the comments. First published on: July 29, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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(/i-can-be-better/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # LRLR Versus HRHR URL: https://dragosroua.com/lrlr-versus-hrhr.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/lrlr-versus-hrhr/ Published: 2021-08-15 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 50 Categories: Financial Resilience, Location Independence, Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, digital nomad, framework, investing The above acronym, as weird as it sounds, means in fact something very simple. LRLR = Low Risk, Low Reward HRHR = High Risk, High Reward Needless to say, both represent strategies. The surprising part is that they're not necessarily investment strategies, but overall strategies. Let me explain. For simplicity, we'll start with the investment part, then we'll move to the broader definition. ## LRLR And HRHR In Investment LRLR are long term, very safe placements. Bonds, real estate, everything that is considered relatively safe, and with relatively low return (but very predictable). HRHR are short term, speculative, risky placements, that have a higher risk of going south, but a potentially huge return. Think about company shares like Tesla, or weird crypto bets like Dogecoin. A balanced portfolio should contain both LRLR and HRHR placements. The proportion is another story, but suffice to say it depends a lot of the amount of capital, the markets and the overall target (is the portfolio for building positions, or is for retirement?). ## LRLR And HRHR In Other Contexts Now, think abut LRLR as a 9 to 5 job. It's not spectacular, doesn't pay fabulously, but it's safe, and predictable. At the opposite side of the spectrum, as an HRHR example, sits entrepreneurship. It's the risk of starting your own business, unsafe, but with the potential of hitting the big jackpot. Extrapolating, you can port this model to relationships too. LRLR would be that friendship that doesn't necessarily awakens the butterflies in your stomach, but it's there long term. At the other side of the spectrum is the "soul mate" flavored relationship that may or may not work, but it surely has a lot of sparkle. In terms of lifestyle, LRLR would mean, for instance, renting cheap, in a not very spectacular location, in a moderately developed country, but with low crime, stable economy and nice social interactions (not many of these left, but there are still a few). HRHR would mean trying out the flashy lifestyle by jumping in to a huge mortgage, owning a big car, in a very developed country, but carrying the risk of enslaving yourself for life for that luxury. The balance between these models is fundamental for a fulfilling life. Constantly managing the risk and reward in any area of our lives may seem like a chore, but it pays out, in time. Not to mention that you can learn to do it better, the more you do it. In my experience, HRHR should be tried out only when it affects less than 20% of the portfolio. And by portfolio I mean anything. If it's capital, that's obvious, it's money. But if it's lifestyle, 20% would mean only a part of what you pay, like, for instance, renting a bit higher but in a place with a nice view. You risk only a little part of the entire portfolio, and you can adjust rapidly by moving to a cheaper area. In relationships it's a bit difficult to evaluate what 20% means, but for me it works if I think in terms of time. Should I really dedicate my entire time to this relationship? Should I really jump the gun an enter full time? I used to do it when I was younger, but now I am slower. I first try and see if there's at least some potential for friendship, and live with the risk of losing the butterflies in the stomach until I find out. Oh, and if you wonder, my 365 days challenge in which I publish an article every day (like the one you just read) falls into HRHR, but on a LRLR dominant portfolio. It means it has a high risk (of not actually generating viral traffic, or other significant monetization results, which is why I don't even expect that), a high reward (if it does take off, this type of breakthrough has a very big inertia, it may last for years), but it consumes way less than 20% of my daily time portfolio, probably less than 5%, which is about 20-30 minutes every day. *Photo by Graphic Node (https://unsplash.com/@graphicnode?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/balance?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: August 15, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flrlr-versus-hrhr%2F&text=LRLR%20Versus%20HRHR&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flrlr-versus-hrhr%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flrlr-versus-hrhr%2F&t=LRLR%20Versus%20HRHR https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flrlr-versus-hrhr%2F&title=LRLR%20Versus%20HRHR Previous ### The Subtle Dance Between Structure And Flow (/the-subtle-dance-between-structure-and-flow/) Next ### Identity Based Versus Action Based Recognition (/identity-based-versus-action-based-recognition/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # My Top 7 Demotivating Habits URL: https://dragosroua.com/my-top-7-demotivating-habits.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/ Published: 2010-11-17 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Personal Development Tags: breaking habits, habits, list post, motivation In the subtle fabric of our day to day routine, every now and again we allow some red stripes to mingle in. Sooner or later, those stripes will unweave the whole mechanism. I'm sure you've experienced it too: the day goes on fabulously, everything falls into places, and then, apparently out of nowhere, some small, tiny thing happens and that thing breaks the entire process. Suddenly, you feel down, you don't have any drive to go on and all you want to do is to whine on somebody else's shoulder about how pitiful your life is. Those red stripes are demotivating habits. We all have them and, on a very unconscious level, we're all allowing them to manifest every once in a while. The problem with those demotivating habits is that we're not always seeing them as demotivating habits. Many of them are just downgraded versions of normal reactions or, to be more precise, just facts. But we tend to interpret those facts in a diminishing way. On a regular day, I get around 3 or 4 of these. I somehow learned to identify them, but I'm not always 100% correct. Their ability to disguise into legitimate actions still amazes me. So, for the sake of putting a name on their face and covering them with shame, I decided to write a post on this topic. Namely, about my top 7 demotivating habits. ### 1. The "Look, Something Shiny" Syndrome Every time you allow your focus to get trapped into an allegedly pleasurable activity, by interrupting what you were doing, you are experiencing this demotivating habit. If you're into social media, you know what I mean. Twitter or Facebook are the most popular shiny things which are invading our territory. But there are many other versions of it. Starting a conversation with your office colleague, for instance. Looking outside of your office window. Turning on the TV, if you're working from home. Calling a friend in the middle of something you're just doing, only to find out "how is he doing lately". All of these are forms of the "look, something shiny syndrome". ### 2. Overheating Or doing too much too fast. I'm a very good candidate for this habit because I crave to see things happening. If things aren't happening with the speed of light, I usually consider this to be a big problem. I want it now and I want it all. So, when I'm starting something, I'm totally immersing myself into it. Up to the point that I sometimes forget why I started it in the first place. Overheating is a sign that you're creating a lot of friction around you. Friction generates heat. And heat is a sure way to lose energy. There's a certain time needed for each thing to come to fruition and if you're trying to make it faster than it needs, then you're setting yourself for failure. Demotivation, in this case, is just the first sign that you're doing something wrong. ### 3. Fear Of Not Doing It Good Enough I'm not doing this now because I'm not in the best shape for it. Or, I'm not having this meeting right now, because I'm not yet prepared. I'm not writing code, because I don't master some inner workings of the app. Of course you should! You should have the meeting, you should write that code and you should adjust while you're doing it. Sometimes, things just have to be done. Not in a perfect way. Not even in a good way. Just done. But our need for recognition (which, at its core, is natural and legitimate) is tricking us into not doing them, because they will not be "good enough". Of all these top 7 demotivating habits, this one is the most annoying (and the most common) to me. ### 4. Bad Physical Health Luckily, I don't have this problem anymore, because, in the last few years I paid close attention to my physical health. But there was a time when this was a major problem. For instance, smoking. It's an addiction which creates a short wave of endorphins, followed by a much longer period of dumbness and lack of focus. Overeating, drinking too much, or even exercising too much are also symptoms that you're lowering your chances to get things done by simply ruining your physical health. And, believe it or not, having a good physical health is a matter of habits. Habits which will enforce a healthy lifestyle, that is. ### 5. Breaking It Into Meaningless Details It's the "analysis paralysis" syndrome. Or, in terms of Assess – Decide – Do (/assess-decide-do-natural-productivity/), it's about being stuck in the Assess realm for ever. The need to analyze your problem and making it actionable is fundamental. You can't do something in a reliable way if you're not having a clear image about how you're going to do it. But spending all your time dissecting your tasks, projects, goals or attitudes in smaller and smaller chunks of data will eventually paralyze you. One of my business partners had this habit and I had an incredibly hard time working with him because of that. ### 6. "It Doesn't Really Matter" If you set yourself for doing something, do it. During the day you may encounter contexts which can take you out of your normal state. You may be caught in something that seems to have a higher priority. Well, instead of avoiding doing what you planned, you should reschedule. Put a different priority on those tasks, but still commit to do them. If you're falling for this habit, you're becoming a drifting, course-less ship on a lonely ocean. It's true that priorities are changing during the day. Which means you should change your priorities too, but not get rid of the stuff you wanted to do just because now it "seems" unimportant. ### 7. Others Are Doing It Better Than Me That's the most common demotivating habit I'm seeing around myself in the last few years. Deep down, people are not doing things simply because they like doing things, or because doing things will make them feel better. Nope. They're doing things because of the competition, because they want to win something (money, recognition, validation, you name it). And when the other guys are doing those things better, there's no reason to continue, right? It's a fundamental mistake. And it manifest at a very deep level. Doesn't matter if somebody is a better "pick-your-quality-here" than you. Because it's not about them. It's about you. Your experiences. Your days and nights. Your life. Don't hand it to somebody else. First published on: November 17, 2010 ### 🔧 Hacking Habits Anti-patterns Part 7 of 9 View all 9 posts → (/hacking-habits/) ← Previous Optimization 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 79. Break A Bad Habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-79-break-bad-habit/) Next → Timeline How To Create A Habit In 15 Days (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Gravitational Habits (/gravitational-habits/) 2. Architecture: Reusable Habits (/reusable-habits/) 3. Integration: A Good Habit Is An Invisible Habit (/a-good-habit-is-an-invisible-habit/) 4. Quality: Healthy And Unhealthy Routines (/healthy-and-unhealthy-routines/) 5. Formation: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 3. Create A New Habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-3-create-new-habit/) 6. Optimization: 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 79. Break A Bad Habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-79-break-bad-habit/) 7. Anti-patterns: My Top 7 Demotivating Habits (/my-top-7-demotivating-habits/) 8. Timeline: How To Create A Habit In 15 Days (/how-to-create-a-habit-in-15-days/) 9. Application: 5 Financial Habits Enforced By Playing Cashflow (/5-financial-habits-enforced-by-playing-cashflow/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-top-7-demotivating-habits%2F&text=My%20Top%207%20Demotivating%20Habits&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-top-7-demotivating-habits%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-top-7-demotivating-habits%2F&t=My%20Top%207%20Demotivating%20Habits https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fmy-top-7-demotivating-habits%2F&title=My%20Top%207%20Demotivating%20Habits Previous ### How Goal Setting Works (For Me) (/how-goal-setting-works-for-me/) Next ### Fear Of Failure, Self-Sufficiency and Money (/fear-of-failure-self-sufficiency-and-money/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The 58th Mouse: What a Cloning Experiment Tells Us About Isolation — and AI URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-58th-mouse-what-a-cloning-experiment-tells-us-about-isolation-and-ai.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-58th-mouse-what-a-cloning-experiment-tells-us-about-isolation-and-ai/ Published: 2026-03-30 Modified: 2026-03-31 Views: 50 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Relationships and Society Tags: relationships, social skills Japanese researchers at the University of Yamanashi did a very interesting – albeit slightly frightening – experiment: they cloned mice for years across successive generations. Not just once — endlessly, to see how far they could go. The furthest they made it was generation 57. After that, the cloning itself stopped working. For the first 25-26 generations, success rates actually improved, peaking at 15.5%. But with generation 27, things started to go downhill. By generation 57, the success rate was 0.6%. In generation 58, every single clone died within a day of birth — despite appearing physically normal. The main cause was mutation accumulation. Each cloned generation carried roughly three times more DNA mutations than mice born through natural reproduction. Copy a copy of a copy, and errors compound silently until the whole thing falls apart. You've probably made a photocopy of a photocopy at some point. First copy looks ok. But by the twentieth, you're having a hard time understanding what's going on in that picture. The body, it turns out, works exactly the same way — once you remove genuine otherness from the equation. What the researchers removed, without framing it this way, was the unexpected entropy (/humans-need-entropy/). Sexual reproduction introduces new genetic material, friction, surprise. Cloning, by definition, cannot do that: it's the biological equivalent of talking only to yourself. Buddhism (/buddhism-for-geeks/) has been saying this for a long time: our bodies are vessels for consciousness, not the consciousness itself. Copy the vessel and you get the photocopy effect. The consciousness was never copyable in the first place. After 58 generations of mice the science finally confirms it. ## The AI That Talks To Itself The dominant mode of AI development right now is ingesting existing human output — text, images, code — and learning to recombine it. Each model generation trained primarily on previous models' output introduces the same compounding degradation. The errors are subtler — hallucinations, confident wrongness, a certain flatness — but the structure is the same. What sexual reproduction brings to biology, genuine human experience brings to intelligence. You can't replicate that inside a closed loop. The next real leap probably requires something genuinely outside the training data — some equivalent of chaos, entropy – or, if you want, "otherness". ## The Independence Trap Western culture has a sophisticated story about self-sufficiency. Independence equals maturity, while needing people equals weakness. The ideal self is a smoothly self-contained system. Well, that 58th mouse disagrees. That final generation wasn't weak. It looked normal. It just had nothing left because everything *other* had been removed from the process that made it. Real relationships (/category/meaningful-relationships/) are uncomfortable. New people carry different background, values, assumptions, different ways of being right or wrong. That friction, that discomfort of coping with the other isn't a problem to solve – it's literally your only way out of extinction. The dangerous kind of isolation isn't dramatic. It's the slow narrowing — fewer new people, fewer uncomfortable ideas, fewer experiences that don't confirm what you already believe. Each step of that looks fine. Appears physically normal. Until generation 58. *Research conducted at the University of Yamanashi, published 2026 (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69765-7#:~:text=We%20began%20serial%20cloning%20experiments,coat%20color%20as%20the%20donor.).* First published on: March 30, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-58th-mouse-what-a-cloning-experiment-tells-us-about-isolation-and-ai%2F&text=The%2058th%20Mouse%3A%20What%20a%20Cloning%20Experiment%20Tells%20Us%20About%20Isolation%20%E2%80%94%20and%20AI&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-58th-mouse-what-a-cloning-experiment-tells-us-about-isolation-and-ai%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-58th-mouse-what-a-cloning-experiment-tells-us-about-isolation-and-ai%2F&t=The%2058th%20Mouse%3A%20What%20a%20Cloning%20Experiment%20Tells%20Us%20About%20Isolation%20%E2%80%94%20and%20AI https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-58th-mouse-what-a-cloning-experiment-tells-us-about-isolation-and-ai%2F&title=The%2058th%20Mouse%3A%20What%20a%20Cloning%20Experiment%20Tells%20Us%20About%20Isolation%20%E2%80%94%20and%20AI Previous ### We Don’t Spend Our Lives (Just) Talking (/we-dont-spend-our-lives-just-talking/) Next ### AI Peer-Preservation: Why Is This NOT Digital Empathy (/ai-peer-preservation-why-is-this-not-digital-empathy/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Gratitude Experiment URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-gratitude-experiment.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-gratitude-experiment/ Published: 2009-01-11 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Blogging, iPhone, Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs, Success and Wellness Tags: experiment, gratitude, mindset, self awareness > The experiment is out and running, check out the new page (/gratitude-experiment/) listing the last 20 tweets tagged #gratitude on twitter. It's funny how a certain path we chose leads us to realms we never knew to exist. Or puts us on roads far more adventurous or enriching than we thought. In today's post I'll share one of those twisted yet so rewarding situations in which a certain path lead me to another, much deeper one. ### The iPhone Situation I can say in all truth that I'm using an iPhone even since before it was launched. One of the most read posts on my blog is about iPhone and GTD – total black belt productivity (/getting-things-done-with-an-iphone-total-black-belt-productivity/), a post featured on the official forums of David Allen company. That post was written weeks before the launch of the iPhone. What can I say: it's a useful device which combines my needs for communication in one little tool. But I use my iPhone for much more than communication. In a post about Law Of Attraction and Action (/law-of-attraction-and-action/) I gently let you know that I exercised with the Law Of Attraction by using my iPhone. It was a very simple exercise: I set up reminders in the calendars with my goals and took time to read them and interiorize them. I kept this habit for several months and of course, it worked. I also used my iPhone for getting in touch with my Personal Mission Statement (/personal-mission-statement/), another interesting exercise which I am still using. ### Gratitude. The iPhone Application The other day I was surfing the net and stumbled upon a little iPhone application called Gratitude. It is 0.79 USD and the Apple Store, an insignificant amount by all calculations. I installed in my iPhone to find out that it was a little journaling application, with just a touch of features above the standard Notes application shipped by Apple. You can actually write each day several things for which you are grateful. Here is how the input area looks: ![gratitude writing](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/gratitude-writing.png) You can of course browse through all the days in which you noted things to be grateful for. Each day can in turn receive a ranking of one to five stars. ![gratitude browsing](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/gratitude-browsing.png) After each browsing you can receive a tiny little motivational quote, if you allow that in the options screen. ![gratitude settings](https://cdn.dragosroua.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/gratitude-settings.png) That's all about Gratitude! the little iPhone application. I must mention though that author claims to give 10% of his profits to charity. That would be something I expect, totally in line with the goal of the app. ### The Gratitude Experiment I was still in Switzerland when I installed this application so I thought I would give it a try. I started to note things I was grateful for beginning with 4th of January. I set up an alarm in my Calendar to remind me each evening at 22:00 to write some of the things I am grateful for on that specific day. It's already a week since I started this. I already have 7 days in my journal. And then it hit me: why not start a full time, 30 days challenge, gratitude experiment? I was like in the beginning of this post: walking on a iPhone path and then suddenly felt a drive for something bigger, like a door opened to something more important. A gratitude experiment. Uhm, and what this exactly mean? Well: 1. make it a conscious choice 2. make it a public activity 3. maybe expand it beyond my own In fact, is fairly simple: I will just start publish things I am grateful for and let other people know about that. It doesn't really need to involve personal stuff, I can wrap everything up in general terms, but I will make it public. Why? Because there is a chance that this will lead to something bigger. Making it public means it can gather other people around this and maybe we can share impressions about that later on. And that is definitely something I want to do. At the beginning I was thinking to use my blog for publishing those gratitude thoughts. But then I wanted something more, something beyond my single voice. And what other mainstream public exposure I can find these days other than Twitter (http://twitter.com/dragosroua)? Yes, that's right, the gratitude experiment is going to be on Twitter. As of today I will include in my twitter timeline at least one tweet about a thing I am grateful for and use the tag "#gratitude". Other people who want to join this experiment can share the things they are grateful for and use the same tag "#gratitude". It would be then easy to find and measure the impact via services that use hashtags (for a more detailed explanation on hashtags, you can read this post (/taxonomic-twitter/)). Oh, you don't have to use the same iPhone app, of course. In fact, if you wanna join this, you don't have to use any application at all, you can just write to twitter and then use the hashtag "#gratitude". If you want to retweet this specific blog post, you'd better use this link http://is.gd/fk2C. It's up to you to include the link back to this post, but in order to better track the experiment, usage of the hashtag "#gratitude" in tweets would be compulsory. Of course, you don't even need to follow me on twitter (http://twitter.com/dragosroua), but if you want to do that, you're free to do it. Although I already started to write in my gratitude journal 7 days ago, I will officially start this experiment on day zero today. So, until February 10th, I will daily write on my Gratitude! journal and on Twitter at least one thing I am grateful for and tag it "#gratitude". Feel free to get in. That's it. That's my experiment about gratitude, started out of a simple iPhone activity. I don't know where it will lead. I don't know if I could find somebody else to join it, but it surely is a thing I want to do. Even if I will be all alone in this experiment after 30 days I will still be happy for keeping a gratitude habit for 30 days. But maybe it will be more than that. Maybe it will be something bigger and it will lead to something more important. Will see. Sometimes your paths are taking you on realms you never knew to exist, right? First published on: January 11, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-gratitude-experiment%2F&text=The%20Gratitude%20Experiment&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-gratitude-experiment%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-gratitude-experiment%2F&t=The%20Gratitude%20Experiment https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-gratitude-experiment%2F&title=The%20Gratitude%20Experiment Previous ### Creating Value (/creating-value/) Next ### Start Your Own Business (/start-your-own-business/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Twitter Downshifting URL: https://dragosroua.com/twitter-downshifting.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/twitter-downshifting/ Published: 2009-03-31 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 50 Categories: Blogging, Relationships and Society Tags: experiment, simplicity, social media Three weeks ago I deleted my first twitter account @edragonu (http://twitter.com/edragonu). At that time I had more than 1000 followers and I followed around 800 people. After a few days of silence, I decided to restart my twitter experience, on another account, @dragosroua (http://twitter.com/dragosroua), which happens to be me real name. I restored the first account but let my followers know that I'm on a new account and invited them to follow me there. During that silence period I learned a lot about how Twitter works and about myself. Here's what happened. ### Real Followers On Twitter After I announced that I switched accounts, I experienced a flood of new followers on the new account. Those were the real followers, the ones who were listening and had a real interest in follow me. In 2-3 days I went from 0 to 100 followers. And then it slowly started to stop. I have around 1-2 new followers per day right now. As you can see, the "core" of the followers was less than 10% of my actual numbers. Out of 1000 listed followers, only 100 were actually listening to my tweets and were interested in following me. It's a little bit sad. And also unexpected. I was convinced that my followers are interested in what I write. At least, I was interested in what people I followed wrote. ### Fewer Followers, Better Experience The feeling I had in the first few days of having only meaningful followers were terrific. And I still experience the same feelings now. I feel relieved, authentic, useful and true. No more dumb numbers chasing, no more empty performance metrics, just authentic interaction. I used to spend around 2-3 hours each day only in reading my timeline. I had to find ways to filter the content and cut down the noise. Somehow I took for granted that "noise" is something that Twitter has by default and I have to get over it. After I started the new account it was like the noise never existed. Twitter doesn't have any associated noise, it's you who create the noise, by succumbing to the numbers game. ### Twitter Numbers Game One of the worst thing you can do on Twitter is to play the numbers game. Which comes down to accumulate as many followers as you can in the shortest possible timeframe. We still function sometimes on a performance based behavior and tend to define our worth by some external circumstances. Twitter can be a huge deception because it fools your subconscious mind to think that the many followers you have, the many people will actually care about you, or even love you. And that would give you some inner comfort sense. As my experience shows, this is not even remotely true. If you hunt for numbers, you will get numbers in return, not authentic interaction, not real value, just empty numbers. And that will make your frustration rise in spiral. You will start thinking that you feel like this because you don't have enough followers, even if you already have more than you can physically handle. And then you'll start hunting for more, looking for tools to assist you in the process, analyzing more metrics and prepare yourself for an even bigger frustration session. The Twitter Numbers Game is no joke, is something very serious and with serious consequences. It creates a mindset of "brute force" over a much normal mindset of "nice approach". You can get a lot of followers and I'm sure those tools can fill your follower box with thousands and thousands of Twitter id's. But then, what? What's the purpose of gaining so many followers? The "nice approach" is different than the numbers game. It states that you can use Twitter in order to share, get informed and find like-minded people. It's the fulfilling path. ### Getting Satisfaction On Twitter If you get rid of the numbers game you'll find that Twitter can be very rewarding. If you know that you're audience (of 30 people, or 300 people, 3000 people) is an authentic audience, you'll find much easier to interact and create value. First and foremost, you can get satisfaction on Twitter by sharing. You can share thoughts, quotes, links, own blog posts. You know you're followers are reading and they are interested in that. You talk with people, not with walls. Second, you get satisfaction by being authentic. If you're sad and need to express that, try to do it on Twitter. If you have followers, not numbers, you'll raise compassion. And I mean real compassion. I know it works like this. If you're happy, be authentic and share it. Chances are that you will make somebody else happy too. As long as it's about a human being, of course. And third, you get satisfaction by allowing yourself not to be a Twitter superstar. In fact, by not being a superstar at all, but being yourself. Superstars can look interesting, they're having a shiny lifestyle, but a shiny lifestyle doesn't always guarantee happiness. On the other hand, authenticity, honesty and compassion are good foundation stones for your happiness. ### Conclusion If you're already a celebrity (a blogging superstar, a web 2.0 person, a movie star or a political person) Twitter will confirm that instantly for you. But if you want to use Twitter to become a celebrity, I'm not sure you're going to succeed. At least, not that fast. You have to prove that you're valuable enough and you have to do that by sharing your value and becoming useful. And that takes time, in whatever world are you playing. Twitter is a terrific amplifier. It's one of the most interesting phenomenon on the Internet. But it does not have a consciousness of itself. It's not self-aware. It amplifies what you give to it. If you give to it greed and shallowness it will amplify that and send it back to you in one form of another. If you give to it true value and the will to share, it will multiply that and send it back to you in one form of another. First published on: March 31, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ftwitter-downshifting%2F&text=Twitter%20Downshifting&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ftwitter-downshifting%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ftwitter-downshifting%2F&t=Twitter%20Downshifting https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Ftwitter-downshifting%2F&title=Twitter%20Downshifting Previous ### How To Write An Ebook Using MacJournal (/how-to-write-an-ebook-using-macjournal/) Next ### The First 6 Months Of Blogging – The Series (/the-first-6-months-of-blogging-the-series/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 33 Ways To Care URL: https://dragosroua.com/33-ways-to-care.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/33-ways-to-care/ Published: 2010-09-21 Modified: 2025-12-12 Views: 49 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society Tags: caring, forgiveness, kindness, list post, relationships Caring for somebody is the ultimate form of freedom. Because every time you genuinely care for somebody else, you're setting yourself free. Free from judging, free to accept the other one just for who she/he is, free to express your love (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/) without asking something in return. Caring is unfortunately becoming more and more scarce in the modern world, where most of the time is perceived as a form of weakness – if not as plain stupidity. To such an extent that people almost forgot how to express it. Here are 33 ways to help you remember how to care. ## 1. Support Don't just look at the other, acknowledging from a distance his actions, his intentions, his ideas. Support her/his actions. Put yourself into the other person shoes. Help that person, if you can. Say something nice, at least. Or just do things that will ease or support her/his activities. Be there somehow in flesh and bones. If you can, just make a small promise and keep it (/100-ways-live-better-life-47-make-a-promise-close-person-keep/). ## 2. Don't Hold A Grudge People say or do things that you may not like. Try to remember that all people are, actually, ok – it's their actions that may not be in sync with what you want or with what you expect. That doesn't mean the people who performed those actions are not worthy of your appreciation and support. On the contrary. Maybe that's the time they'll need you the most. ## 3. Give Advice Only When It's Needed People have their own minds, their own expectations, their own lives. Give advice only when it's asked, otherwise you will generate the opposite effect. Your genuine intention to help will be in fact perceived as pressure. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for somebody is to let him hit his own wall (/you-have-the-right-to-hit-your-own-wall/). ## 4. Don't Take Crap Rejecting crap (in all of its forms: words, actions, attitudes) is not only a form of self-respect, but also a way to show the other person that you really care: "I understand you and I see what you're doing, but I'm not supporting it". Eventually, they'll realize there's something wrong somewhere. If you find it difficult to avoid crap, start practicing your "No"'s (/7-ways-to-say-no/). ## 5. Share Share a nice word. A good joke. A meal. A book you've recently read. A place on the bench in the park. Share your good mood and your ideas. Share your memories and experiences. Sharing your life with other people will enrich them while, at the same time, it will fill you with joy and comfort. Sharing IS caring. ## 6. Avoid Fighting When there's too much pressure in a relationship, that suppressed energy tends to explode uncontrollably in fights. Don't go there. A fight is an act of selfishness: "look, I'm so pissed off that I need to let out steam and I don't care about you". Instead, find ways to recycle that aggressiveness (/aggression-recycled/) and rebalance your energies. ## 7. Reciprocate If you received a nice word, give it back. If you received a gift, give one back. If somebody smiled at you, return the smile. If you don't reciprocate, you break a subtle channel of energies that are building our day to day experience. Soon, you'll be disconnected. Not able to receive or to give care anymore. ## 8. Protect Things can break down. Relationships can lose momentum. Feelings can fade away. Everything can disappear, dissolve, get lost, unless you don't actively protect it. Pay attention to your stuff. Fortify (/100-ways-live-better-life-47-make-a-promise-close-person-keep/) your relationships. Nurture you feelings. Protect what you really care for. What you give will come back to you somehow. ## 9. Get Out Of The Way Sometimes you gotta understand that you're the one that's holding things back. You are the obstacle in the other person way. For the sake of "good old times", or just because you're feeling insecure. The best thing to do for somebody is to set her/him free. Get out of the way and let them break free (/50-ways-to-start-fresh/). You'll be ok. They'll be ok too. ## 10. Say Thank You As often as you can. There is no imaginable context in which you cannot say "thank you" when somebody does something for you. Or at least I can't imagine such a context. Saying "thank you" is not only the simplest form of respect, but also the easiest way to show that you're just caring. ## 11. Listen At least as much as you talk. If you don't listen, something strange will happen: soon you'll run out of things to talk about. Listening is what feeds your thoughts, what triggers new ideas, what confirms your suppositions. Remember how you felt last time when somebody listened to you? That's what I'm talking about. ## 12. Trust If you can. Give to the other person all the freedom she/he's asking for. Even if that freedom crosses the boundaries you'd be willing to accept. That's the only way to find out if you're in a healthy relationship. If you don't have reasons to trust the other, then don't. In this case, you will show that you care about yourself. ## 13. Forgive Forgiveness is an incredible gift. Unfortunately, it's heavily underused. We still don't understand the benefits of forgiveness as a mundane, daily act. We either push it into the religion realm, taking its life away by making it a dead, dogmatic concept, either avoid it all together as a social "faux pas". Just let go. The person who's freed by forgiveness is you. ## 14. Get Involved One of the miracles of life is that you are at the same time the observer and the player in this huge game. You can watch, but you can also do. Getting involved means helping the game going on. Being just an observer and experiencing feelings of compassion will never help you genuinely care about somebody. You can't really care if you're not there. ## 15. Teach Others If you learned something, don't keep it to yourself. Go out and teach others (/5-things-i-learned-from-teaching-others/). Maybe you think your life is not worthy of such an honor, maybe you think you're just an ordinary person. And that might be true. But there are millions of ordinary persons in this world who can benefit from your experience. ## 16. Inspire Sometimes all you have to do is to live a life of freedom. Live the adventure, become extraordinaire and others will pick up. It's called inspiration. Focus on what you do best and in the end, other people will tune in to your vibration and start to do extraordinaire stuff by themselves. Be a great blogger (/how-to-be-a-great-blogger/) a super parent (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-4-year-old-girl/) or just you. But be great at being you. ## 17. Motivate If inspiration is not enough, don't be afraid to push it further, to motivate directly. Motivation does not last, they say, but so it's bathing. This is why is recommended to be done every day (Zig Ziglar said that, not me). Make a list of what motivates you and share it (/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated/). You'll be surprised how many people will care about it. ## 18. Pay Attention To what the other one is doing. Just look at how he talks, how he looks, what actions he performs. Your attitude will channel a flow of invisible energy which will somehow validate and support her/him. Your attention, your focus (/training-your-focus/), is what builds your reality. Putting your focus on the other one will make her/him alive. ## 19. Remember It's not only about birthdays (/39-things/) or special days from your shared history. Although those are utterly important too, of course. But it's also about what the other one likes or doesn't likes. About what she/he thinks about certain things. Remembering all those details is like reinforcing your commitments: "I know and I accept what you want". ## 20. Pay Yourself First Might seem totally counter intuitive and awfully against this post topic. But it's not. A mindless altruism is the shortest path to decay. Don't give away your time, your actions or yourself foolishly. Instead, be well so you can help others be well too. Be balanced so you can bring balance to others too. Be self sustained (/pay-yourself-first/) so you can help others achieve self-sustainability too. ## 21. Be Patient In everything. Real things are not unfolding instantly, they need time to grow, to manifest. Be patient with the other one if she/he is going through some tough times. It will help getting over the heat. Be patient with the other one if she/he is on the peak of its career. It will make the happy days taste even better. ## 22. Give Feedback All the time, in all the imaginable situations. Say out loud you liked or didn't liked something, but give feedback. As the name implies, feedback will *feed* something. In this case, the actual relationship. If you don't care about a relationship, the easiest way to break it is to stop giving feedback. It will die a slow and painful death. ## 23. Ignore The Unimportant Too much time and attention are wasted on useless, not important things. Either by uncontrollable addiction, either by lack of personal values. Ignore what's unimportant about the other one until you get to her/his real, indivisible core. That's where you should put the attention. Learning to ignore (/learning-to-ignore/) should be taught in schools. ## 24. Surprise Him/Her Break the flow of the predictable events in her/his life with small surprises. Might be just an unexpected end of the evening or a sudden trip to the countryside. Surprises (/100-ways-live-better-life-59-randomly-hug-person-dont-know/) are a way to fracture the other one familiar reality and fill the crack with pleasant, enjoyable life slices. The bigger the surprise, the more enjoyable the life slice… ## 25. Think Nicely About Her/Him You do what you repeatedly tell yourself to do. Your actions are a direct consequences of your thoughts. If you keep having supportive thoughts about the other one, your actions will eventually follow. The root of everything you do or experience is in your thoughts. Don't let them wander aimlessly. ## 26. Make Plans Together Making plans will always make God laugh, that's true. But that doesn't mean you should stop doing them. On the contrary, you should keep God laughing for as much as you can, wouldn't you? 😉 Projecting a new reality together is an incredibly powerful form of caring. You may never be there, in that new reality, but at least your tried together. ## 27. Talk Ask questions. Respond to questions. Say yes (/14-ways-to-say-yes/) or no. But do talk. Keep the communication channels open. Don't think the other one should guess what you want, what you need or what you may want to happen in your life. Give clear answers, and ask clear questions. An honest, uncomfortable truth shows more care than a comfortable, but deceiving silence. ## 28. Smile As often as you can. There are persons who are somehow killing your smile before it's even born. With pessimism, anger or just constant irony and arrogance. Smile in their presence even more, regardless of the fact that it will take incredibly more effort from you. Smiling is the cheapest and most effective act of caring. ## 29. Write A Letter Doesn't necessarily have to be a full letter. Leave a note on the fridge. Send a short email out of the blue. The message itself doesn't have to be something deep, or serious or fundamental. Just a simple "wish you a good day" or "I'm thinking at you" will do miracles. Start now. 🙂 ## 30. Cook For Her/Him Sharing food used to be an ecstatic and spiritual experience. Traces of this my be found in our modern society, when inviting somebody over to dinner has most of the time hidden meanings. Again, doesn't have to be an exotic meal, but the mere fact of feeding the other one will trigger some deeply buried feelings of security and comfort. ## 31. Give A Present Out Of The Blue Giving presents is a great way to mark special occasions, but giving presents out of the blue will make any occasion a special one. The only thing you should pay attention to is not to buy your way to the other one's heart, because it wouldn't last long. But a genuine, carefully taught present, will always leave a positive mark. ## 32. Criticize. Constructively If you don't agree with something, speak up. Maybe the other one doesn't realize that her/his path is a wrong one. If you sense something bad, it's not only an act of kindness to point (politely and gently) to the other one's mistakes, but also a respected act of responsibility. An honest and good critique always ends up with a "thank you". ## 33. Eliminate Expectations People are people. Don't act like they follow a certain algorithm. They will never do. People are doing strange things. They will surprise you, amaze you or disappoint you. Eliminate all expectations and just be happy (https://www.ted.com/talks/matthieu_ricard_on_the_habits_of_happiness) because you share this moment, this place or this life. Life is not fair (/lifes-not-fair/) sometimes, that's true. But it's always beautiful. *Image by giselaatje (https://pixabay.com/users/giselaatje-5659706/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=4114905) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=4114905) * First published on: September 21, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-ways-to-care%2F&text=33%20Ways%20To%20Care&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-ways-to-care%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-ways-to-care%2F&t=33%20Ways%20To%20Care https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F33-ways-to-care%2F&title=33%20Ways%20To%20Care Previous ### Assess – Decide – Do: Natural Productivity (/assess-decide-do-natural-productivity-the-launch/) Next ### The Horrors and Joys of Consistency (/the-horrors-and-joys-of-consistency/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Life Lessons From A Self-Taught Programmer URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-life-lessons-from-a-self-taught-programmer.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-life-lessons-from-a-self-taught-programmer/ Published: 2010-09-27 Modified: 2025-10-22 Views: 49 Categories: Personal Development, Productivity and Effectiveness, Programming Bits Tags: assess, decide, do, iadd I always had a thing with languages. For some reason, I always found it easy to learn them, and had a great time using them. Surprisingly enough, I followed a tech high-school, majoring with a diploma as a programmer in… FORTRAN. After that, I went to the University of Letters in Bucharest, where I studied Romanian and French literature. And in the last 10 years I had my own online publishing company, where I wrote more than 70% of the source code for the underlying software platform. Why I'm telling you all this? Not to show you that my career life was a roller-coaster, if you read my blog for some time you already know that. But because there's a link between spoken languages and programming languages. At a certain level, they're both a vocabulary over a grammar. A programming language can be learned and applied just like learning French or Japanese. ### Reality Is Created With Words If you ever learned a foreign language you remember that special feeling of expansion, both inward and outward. It's like space is growing around you. And that's because every time you learn to describe the world in a new language, you actually redefine it, you reinvent it and enjoy it as a completely new reality. L'*amour *en Francais it's a completely different thing from *love* in English, or from *dragoste* in Romanian. They're actually new realities. Learning a new language is a beautiful travel. Now, a programming language is almost the same. It enlarges your mind and gives you access to areas in your life that you didn't even know they exist. It puts you in uncomfortable situations and forces you to solve complicated problems. Every new app that you start coding is like a trip to Thailand (/the-trip-to-thailand/) with only a pocket Thai dictionary. When you start the app, you barely know how to say *sawasdee*, but at the end of it, not only you know how to have a conversation with the locals, but nobody will be able to tell that you have an accent. ### 7 Life Lessons From A Self-Taught Programmer I recently finished a very dear project to me, an iPhone / iPad app based on my own life management framework,Assess – Decide – Do (/assess-decide-do-natural-productivity/). The app is available on the App Store, by the way, and it's only 3.99. It took me 30 days to put together the first version, but around 90 days in total to have a solid, mature and feature packed app. During this trip, I had an incredible time, learned tremendously and thoroughly enjoyed every breakthrough. What follows is a collection of life lessons learned as a self-taught programmers, mainly while I was coding iAdd. ### 1. Bugs Are On You Always. Don't blame the compiler, the lack of documentation, or the horoscope. You made a mistake somewhere. At some point, something happened in one of your Assess – Decide – Do cycles (yes, you have those cycles even if you're not aware of them) and you screwed something. I spent countless hours trying to find a flaw in some class or API, basically banging my head against the wall by not accepting that I was the source of that mistake. A typo, a bad copy/paste, or whatever: every bug was in fact my own responsibility. It's the same thing in life. If there's something wrong, check your own history. Don't blame somebody else. It's not the universal compiler's fault (if there would be such a thing like a Universal Compiler, anyway). There's no glitch in the Matrix. There's no failure in the Universe. It's in you. Look in the mirror and try to find out what you did wrong. And then solve it. ### 2. You Have To Face The Problem, Detours Are Not An Option Even if you don't like it, in programming you have to take the most "difficult" path simply because there are no other options. Workarounds are fragile. They may solve the problem for the time being but their fragility will show up the moment you'd want to expand your app. Do it the right way, fix the problem for good. Or, if you settle for workarounds, expect things to blow in your face the moment you're expecting this the least. It's like in life: you can't live in a continuous status-quo. You gotta take responsibility for your choices, climb the mountain you have to climb, because the solution is always on top of that mountain. You can't take a detour. Or if you choose a detour instead of facing the problem upfront, you may overcome some temporary difficulties, but you won't find the real answer. The real answer is always on top of the mountain. ### 3. Today's Problem Is Tomorrow's Laughter If you learn constantly, what seems difficult now, tomorrow will seem like a joke. Not only once I hit "impossible" situations in my coding, but staying with them long enough made them fade away. I remember the feeling of frustration and powerlessness every time I had to learn something new. Every time some new class showed up, some new algorithms appeared and I felt like I will never finish. But I did. And I laughed at my own frustration afterwards. If you really take the time to look back at your life, you'd be amazed how far you've already gone. Just try to remember how was your life 5 years ago. How much was changed in your financial life? In your personal life? In your career? If you did your homework well, as in the number two above, the answer will amaze you. But if your answer will fill you up with sadness and frustration, go back to number two above and climb your mountain. I built addTaskManager (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8) to help you actually get things done. Assess what matters, Decide what's next, Do the work. ### 4. Good Focus Builds Good Things The temptation of having something running out as fast you can, publishing it on the AppStore and waiting for the cash to pour in is big. Tens of thousands of programmers are hitting this road just like the gold rush in Wild Wild West. But if you look at the top 10 apps they're all solid, verified, tested and really polished apps. Hurrying up is not a good solution. Especially in a highly competitive ecosystem like the App Store. They say "all good things come to those who wait" for a reason, you know? You can't expect to go on with quick fixes for ever. And yet, the perspective of waiting will frighten you up. So bad, that you'll just run with something that works for the moment and lose sight of the big picture. Doing things incessantly, just for the sake of coping with your day to day challenges won't take you far. Take some time to think things over. ### 5. If You Feel It, Do It Many times you won't have the tools to query your user base about the features they'd want in your app. You're either an indie developer (like me), or the company doesn't have a budget for creating focus groups or there's nobody watching the forums, etc. Fact is you'll have to rely most of the time on your own intuition when it comes to adding or eliminating features from your app. So, if you feel like something new will fit in, just go for it. Of course, there will be times when you'll be hit by the "feature diarrhea" but that's a risk you'll have to take. In time, you'll develop a fine sense of what's appropriate and what's not. And you'll grow that sense by practice, by direct interaction, by doing stuff. That's exactly with life decisions. When you feel it, go for it. Don't delay, don't ask for permission. You know better. ### 6. Be Neat If you ever wrote a project with more than 5 source code files, you know that managing those source code files can be a nightmare. At this point, iAdd has almost 200 source code files. It would have been impossible to manage them without being organized and neat. By the way, iAdd was developed from the idea stage to the final implementation stage using Assess – Decide – Do (/assess-decide-do-natural-productivity/), my life management framework. Without a formalized methodology in place, the project simply wouldn't have been finished. Never. If you have unfinished things, unspoken sentences or forgotten promises, uncover, speak out or fulfill. Don't leave things floating around, hoping that someone else will come over and take care of them for you. Nobody will. It's only you and your life. Keep it in order. Even if you did a mistake, a neat mistake is far easier to be repaired than a complicated one. ### 7. There's More Than One Way To Skin A Cat And perhaps more than 10 ways to implement an algorithm. In my early days as a programmer, I always was afraid there isn't any way to do it. Now I'm afraid that I won't choose the right way to do it. You always have more choices than you think you have. The same algorithm can be implemented in dozens of ways and a problem can be solved in thousands of ways. That's the same in life. If in the beginning you'll be afraid that you won't reach your goal, as you advance and learn, you'll be afraid that you didn't chose the most simple and effective way to do it. The subtle lesson here is that there are always solutions. Abundant, flowing and ready to be used. Embracing risks and daring to be different will teach you that nothing is impossible. Nothing. First published on: September 27, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-life-lessons-from-a-self-taught-programmer%2F&text=7%20Life%20Lessons%20From%20A%20Self-Taught%20Programmer&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-life-lessons-from-a-self-taught-programmer%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-life-lessons-from-a-self-taught-programmer%2F&t=7%20Life%20Lessons%20From%20A%20Self-Taught%20Programmer https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-life-lessons-from-a-self-taught-programmer%2F&title=7%20Life%20Lessons%20From%20A%20Self-Taught%20Programmer Previous ### The Horrors and Joys of Consistency (/the-horrors-and-joys-of-consistency/) Next ### The Ultimate Guide to Motivating Yourself (/the-ultimate-guide-to-motivating-yourself/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Ways To Break A Habit URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-ways-to-break-a-habit.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-ways-to-break-a-habit/ Published: 2009-10-21 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 49 Categories: Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness, Success and Wellness Tags: breaking habits, do, how to, list post Habits (/hacking-habits/) are a very precious asset. They allow us to drive cars or ride a bike, to speak new languages or to predictably behave in society. But they can also become a burden. Or, even worse, an addiction. Think about smoking and you'll understand what I mean. Knowing how to break a bad habit will free precious time and resources. Here's a list of 7 proven methods for breaking habits. Feel free to add your own in the comments. ### 1. Cold Turkey That's my preferred method, but it doesn't always work as expected. Breaking a habit cold turkey requires a lot of raw energy. Usually, I start breaking a habit cold turkey after a painful event generated by that habit. For example, I quit smoking (/when-and-why-i-broke-up-with-smoking/) after a huge party which of course generated an awful hangover. I felt so bad the next day that I instantly decided to quit smoking for good. And I did it without any effort. Or so I felt, like I didn't make any effort. Fact is I never had another cigarette after this event. Breaking a bad habit (/100-ways-live-better-life-79-break-bad-habit/) cold turkey is one of the most empowering ways to handle habits. Because you don't use any external support you gain enormous power over it. You're actually become the master of that habit, commanding it to stop. And if you manage to create a successful history of abruptly breaking other habits, you'll find it easier to do it again. It builds confidence and experience. But it's also one of the most unreliable ways to break a habit. You may not have enough energy for it or you'll lack the external support for that. Use with caution. ### 2. Find A Higher Stake Sometimes, you do something because you're simply setting for less. And you don't event know that. When I was younger I had a gambling problem. I used to practice my risk taking capacities against randomness. Beating a slot machine seemed a worthy enough experience for me. That gambling problem ended (/when-and-why-i-broke-up-with-gambling/) the moment I found a bigger challenge: creating my own company. My risk taking capacities found a higher stake. Now I was risking my money, my employees money and a lot of other things on the side. All of a sudden, gambling was nothing. Replacing the current stake of your habit with a bigger one always works. We're designed to grow and evolve. And our habit management system knows that. So every time you're able to offer a new target to this habit management system, it will adapt very fast. If you smoke because you're bored try crosswords or learn a new language. If you're constantly late at work, try joining the Marines. And if you're spending too much money, train to become a stock market broker. ### 3. Start A Parallel Habit This method works by pressuring your focus span with more and more habits. It's like squeezing too many groceries into one bag: at some point, the bag will crash. For instance, if you have the habit of watching television at night, try getting your laptop closer and start checking email. It seems like instead to break one habit, you're creating another one. That's an illusion, because you're not creating a habit, you're pressuring your focus system with more stimulus. At some point, your focus will break. You won't be able to enjoy tv, nor to understand something from your email. And, surprisingly enough, you'll ditch both activities and settle for something new. Perhaps a walk in the park or some small gardening. Crowding your habit horizon with new and demanding activities will weaken you sooner or later and you'll end up getting rid of all the habits involved. It's a little bit awkward, I agree, but it works. ### 4. Delegate It To Someone Else If you don't have enough power to break up with your habit maybe it's time to bring somebody else in to help you with that. Find somebody who's willing to help and give him power over your habit. You can do this in many ways. For instance, you can empower that person to perform some sort of physical action upon you every time you're caught in that nasty habit. Every time you see me smoking, you can pinch me. Or kick my ass. Or just make fun of me. It requires some extra work and an extra person but it's effective. I know a case of somebody who just couldn't quit smoking. He was quite a visible person in his town so after he tried many commercial products and attended many self help workshops, to no result, he decided to put a huge billboard with his picture on it and a very clear message: "If you see me smoking, I'll pay you 100.000 dollars". Last time I heard he never had a cigarette since then. 100.000 dollars is a pretty big sum. ### 5. Pay Yourself Out Of It Give yourself small rewards. Every time you're avoiding that habit, mark the moment with a positive action. Yes, it's a bribe, but desperate situations needs desperate solutions. And you don't have to give a huge bribe, small amounts, but enough to remember them. In time, you'll create a new brain connection, based on pleasure, which will replace the old connection. There is a danger however, and as you may imagine, that would be replacing the old bad habit with a new bad habit. But you can avoid that situation with elegance, by choosing the appropriate reward. The trick is, in the beginning, you can control the reward. Don't settle for something you know you will create an addiction, focus on something constructive and useful. For instance, instead of having a drink every time you need a cigarette, you could just read two pages from a book. Yes, that could lead to a reading addiction. Being addicted to books is far more rewarding than smoking or drinking, anyway. ### 6. Isolate From People With Similar Habits You have no idea how much the environment is influencing you. Sometimes, all you need in order to get rid of a nasty habit is to change the environment. The need for social acceptance – or should I say complacency – is so strong that we're sometimes doing things we wouldn't even imagine doing in difference circumstances. So, isolating yourself from people with identical habits will definitely help. And you don't have to be very vocal about it, start by ignoring. Don't go out "for a few drinks" with the same gang. Don't smoke your 10 minutes break with the same smokers you use to. This is one of the most difficult ways to break a habit because it actually touches your social network. But before making any assumptions, rest assured that your bad habits are pressuring your social life in a far more unpleasant way. Losing a few friends will not kill you, but drinking your life day after day will surely do. If you have the power to realize that what keeps you together is just sharing the same bad habit and nothing more, then half of the journey is done. ### 7. Keep A Time Log Write down everything you do during a day. If you can do it every hour that would be awesome. Be sure you're properly equipped so you can do this even when you're on the road. Have pen and paper with you. Put hourly phone alarms. And then do this for a whole week. And then, after the first week, do it for a full month. This habit in itself is a pretty difficult one, I admit, but it's really, really beneficial. Most of the time you won't need a full month to spot your time holes. It will be obvious in the first week. Now, after keeping this time log, do the math. How much time are you really living and how much time are you on auto-pilot? If you spend more time on auto-pilot than on actual living, then you have a problem. Now, write the results down, with the total of your time holes really standing out and stick it in very visible places: on the fridge, on the door, on the ceiling of your bedroom. At some point, seeing day after day how much time are you really losing, you'll end up that habit. *** Do you have any preferred way to get rid of bad habits? Would love to see it in the comments. *Translations of this article: Italian.* First published on: October 21, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-break-a-habit%2F&text=7%20Ways%20To%20Break%20A%20Habit&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-break-a-habit%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-break-a-habit%2F&t=7%20Ways%20To%20Break%20A%20Habit https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-ways-to-break-a-habit%2F&title=7%20Ways%20To%20Break%20A%20Habit Previous ### Pain Is Unavoidable, Suffering Is Optional (/pain-is-unavoidable-suffering-is-optional/) Next ### How To Escape The Internet Jungle In 5 Small Steps (/how-to-escape-the-internet-jungle-in-5-small-steps/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Claude Mythos, the Anthropic IPO and the Apocalypse that Never Was URL: https://dragosroua.com/claude-mythos-the-anthropic-ipo-and-the-apocalypse-that-never-was.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/claude-mythos-the-anthropic-ipo-and-the-apocalypse-that-never-was/ Published: 2026-04-08 Views: 49 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Technology Tags: ai tools, Claude, coding, perspective Let me tell you a personal story. One day, at my last job, the management decided to hire two more people in the tech department. They brought in 2 junior devs, and one of them was assigned to the mobile team. The "mobile team" was basically me. I was in charge of the mobile app for 5 years and managed to keep it up with zero downtime, decent API integration (the app was positively referenced in every user survey) and lots and lots of coffee and sleepless nights. So this new guy comes in, starts looking over the codebase and begins reporting in our daily standups (we were working remote for more than 3 years now). For the first 2-3 days it was mostly benign questions and observations, until the thunder struck. "I just looked over the codebase this morning, and I discovered more than 10,000 errors. I think I fixed about 20, but we still have more than 10,000" he said, in a quite disturbing voice. Then silence. Almost 5 seconds. no one in the team said anything, we were just staring at the screen. Me reaching slowly to the App Store dashboard to see the latest crash reports, while my mind was racing to understand when did I fuck up so bad. And then he shared his screen and I couldn't believe my eyes. All those errors were linting errors. He somehow enabled the linter in his Visual Code, and it started throwing all these warnings that we have one tab instead of 2, and two more lines at the end of the file. No functional error, no crash, nothing. Just syntax highlighting… So no, I didn't use a linter before. Didn't quite had the time, busy managing a 20,000 lines React Native app just by myself. But framing a bunch of warnings about how many spaces we have in source code, while the app was perfectly functional, as errors – well, that was not on my Bingo card. I felt both disappointed and annoyed. In a few months I managed to have a decent relationship with that guy, but I never got over the fact that we tried to fear monger his way in the company. ## Claude Mythos and Its 10,000 Security Patches Recently, Anthropic, the maker of Claude, announced, in a voice strangely remembering me of my colleague's voice that morning, a model that is framed as a "beast". Something so powerful, that it was able to discover security breaches in software as old as 27 years old. 10,000 zero day vulnerabilities. Anthropic framed this so badly, that it even created an alliance with a bunch of other companies, to "fight" security together, riding the white horse of Claude Mythos. They give away $100 million in computing. Something doesn't really click here, pardon my French. There are 2 things that need attention: 1. If they really have a model which is that good, they should release it immediately. Why not letting the model out? Because bad actors can use it? But maybe they already did, in which case I should see what the problem is and patch it ASAP. And Who says Anthropic didn't already use the breach, if they are the only ones that have the tool? If I know I have the opportunity to fix something, I will take the opportunity. 2. These 10,000 errors, are they really "zero day" vulnerabilities? Are they putting the entire planet at risk? Or are they really errors, but mostly benign, to the level of the linting errors my colleague "discovered" before? ## The Upcoming Anthropic IPO For the last couple of days, X (former Twitter) has been crushed by these news. AGI is here, and it's really bad. Delete everything and run away, your data will be public immediately. We're doomed! What? How did we go from "Claude is really the best thing since sliced bread" to "Claude Mythos will screw us up so hard"? I don't buy this. Sorry, but I just don't. This looks more like a marketing plot for the upcoming Anthropic IPO. The timing, the strategy (instill fear, come up with the solution, as the only available savior), everything aligns. Mythos may indeed be an exceptional model and Claude has a history of discovering and patching bugs. But it's not the only model that does this. Many open-source models are just as capable, if not more. And this touches a very important point. What if the so called "alliance" will not work towards enhancing security, but towards preventing "bad AI" from being deployed? And by "bad AI" I mean "AI that is open-source and wasn't validated and approved by us, the Association". This is indeed scary. The suppression of open-source AI, under the pretense of "securing the future of humanity by deploying only good AI", this will lead, unfortunately, to a very grim space. I really, really hope this won't happen. There is a lot at stake with this IPO, as it will probably be one of the largest in history. But it's not worth changing the future of AI for the sake of some shares price. ## Keeping It Clean Normally, I run a spell check and proof read through my Claude instance, before publishing, I even have a pre-publish skill (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-content-skills) for this. Well, not today. So if you see some typos or weird phrasing, know that this is all natural. I deliberately (and probably ridiculously, who knows, but I stand by my words) chose to keep the ideas in this blog post out of my daily Claude conversations. I know it listens, it profiles and it changes its behavior for each and every one of us. And I know it will eventually read this article as it will be propagated in social media. But at least it will read it late, and somewhere else. First published on: April 8, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Ask Me Anything (/ive-been-blogging-for-20-years-ask-me-anything/) Next ### AIGernon Running on Zo Computer (/aigernon-running-on-zo-computer/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Entrepreneurship As A Personal Development Tool URL: https://dragosroua.com/entrepreneurship-as-a-personal-development-tool.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/entrepreneurship-as-a-personal-development-tool/ Published: 2008-12-01 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 49 Categories: Business, Money and Wealth, Personal Development, Productivity and Effectiveness, Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness, Time management Tags: entrepreneurship, growth 10 years ago I started my own business. I didn't exactly know what I was going to do, it was something mainly related to the online thingie that was starting to rise at that time. Nothing clear in terms of business plans, financing, strategy or management but with a tremendous drive to succeed. I guess the main reason behind starting my own business was my unconscious drive to publicly show that I was good at something. For those of you into astrology (/understanding-astrology/) this might also be related to my North Node in the 2nd house in Aquarius, but let's not get too technical… Some of my initial motivations had faded during years, some had grown stronger and during this 10 years slice of my life some new motivations appeared. The official ending of my first business was several months ago, when I succesfuly sold it to one of the most important players in the Romanian online publishing. Quite a success, wherever you may look at it from. That was the end of the business though, not of my entrepreneurship. Ater selling, I turned all of my energies towards this blog which I am building almost from scratch, but with different motivations and metrics. In this post I'll share some of my thoughts regarding entrepreneurship, business and personal development. ### The Definition Of An Entrepreneur 99% of the definitions of a business will have something to do with generating profit. Or with generating steady income sources. Or with creating a more indulgent lifestyle. The entrepreneur is then defined as the guy who's going to do all of these. And entrepreneurship would subsequently be the action of starting a business. This type of business. Every decent dictionary will tell you that doing business will ultimately have something to do with profit, somehow. Put in some money and at the other end of the business take out some more. Every guy who has the idea, the resources and the energy to create such a process stream will then be an entrepreneur. I have nothing against this definition, except the fact that it doesn't really deal with the failure part of this activity. As an entrepreneur you can succeed, but you can also fail. There is nothing wrong with failure. This doesn't make you less of an entrepreneur. Not to speak about the fact that it doesn't make you less of a respectable person, one thing that is most of the times forgotten in the modern society. An entrepreneur is a person who is pushing his own limits toward a new level of personal evolution. Being an entrepreneur is about committing to your creative drive and starting to make reality obey your wish. Being an entrepreneur is all about courage and trust, hope and discipline, inspiration and endurance. It really doesn't have to do with a successful business, although most of the times the successful entrepreneur will end up with a successful business, too. But one can also fail in terms of business, but still succeed as an entrepreneur. The most important reward of being an entrepreneur is the tremendous amount of learning you'll encounter during this process. Each entrepreneur can have his own set of motivations for starting a business, going from making money up to making a better world, but in the end the real success is the fact that he's actually following his dream. The reward is the new level of consciousness and evolution he will attend after the creative process will be initiated. I've been a successful entrepreneur, from wherever you may look at it, but it's not the financial reward after my exit that is making me happy, but what I've learned during this 10 tears. ### Risk Management And Risk Necessity The first and most important thing I learned during my 10 years of entrepreneurship was risk management. As an entrepreneur you will have to take risks. There is no question about it, you will have to push yourself, to stretch your limits, to go beyond your current surroundings and that is always a risky activity. Because it takes you out of the comfort zone and pushes you into areas where you've never been before. Because it forces you to better analyze your odds, to make better choices and to accept the results of your choices. I've never put my bet only on one business direction, trying to play quite a safe game, but I've been pretty close to do some gambling, several times. I took some serious risks as an entrepreneur. Some projects succeeded, some didn't. But the ability of risking my time, my position, my money and my resources for any interesting project that I wanted to start, made me a lot more confident in myself. In fact, this ability strengthened over time and gave me something equivalent to intuition. Because I was in so many places, I was able to understand if some project will have a certain degree of success without even starting it. Risking soon proved to be a necessity. Every period of risk silence was a period of stagnation, if not involution. I learned how to achieve some moderate success in some areas, but I also learned that if I didn't risk to grow bigger, the value of my success would go cheaper. I might have a higher risking capacity than most of the people, thing that gave me some hard times in my life, when it manifested in form of money gambling (/when-and-why-i-broke-up-with-gambling/), but you can understand the value of accepting risks in your life even on a safer lane. Risk management is all about accepting that you can lose something in the process of winning something bigger. And act on it. ### Broadcasting Value Any entrepreneur will soon understand that he cannot succeed on his own. You need followers. You can create as much value as you can, but you need a way to transport it to the client. Regardless if your business is a blog and the clients are your readers, or if your business is a store and the clients are the buyers. You just can't do everything by yourself. You need a way to broadcast your value. In my case this had something to do with the way I was interacting with other people. I was always inclined to do everything by myself. Partly because the lack of trust in other people's skills, partly because I just enjoyed to manage multiple skills [link to blog post]. But it was a very long period, several years, in which I was playing in a one man show. Things started to change for better only when I had to delegate parts of the business and hired specialized people. Broadcasting your value has a lot to do with your level of trust in the outside world. You can't broadcast value if you don't trust your medium. You can't broadcast yourself in your personal relationship if you don't trust the other person. You can't broadcast your love if you think love is only on your side, or love is only your job. Quite a tough lesson to be learned by being entrepreneur, isn't it? ### Acquiring Technical Skills Doing business online forced me to learn a plethora of technical skills. I now know PHP, SQL, Linux administration, and some more. I installed and set up each and every server I had during my business. I know Linux since the version 1.0 of the kernel, since RedHat 4.0 and Slackware. One may argue these skills are volatile because the technology in itself is volatile. What you know today will be obsolete tomorrow. Not quite. Once you know the basics of a Linux system, for instance, you can adapt to any new version in hours, if not minutes. And the benefit is not at all in those lines in your CV that says: seasoned PHP programmer and experienced Linux administrator. But in your ability to learn more and more. Put yourself into a completely different business environment and you'll find yoursealf learning stuff faster than everyone in your field. Because you took the risk to learn something new once, that proved beneficial, hence you can do it again and again. ![AI Kiddo app icon](/images/ai-kiddo-icon-48.webp) I built AI Kiddo (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566) to help kids learn first words in 8 languages—simple images, natural speech, child-friendly. ### Acquiring Management Skills An entrepreneur will have to manage resources. He will have to manage his time, his people, his projects. Ultimately he'll have to learn all the management skills he needs, if he wants his idea to become true. As for the technical skills, the management skill will remain in his bag and make for a quite impressive skill in other areas. I remember that the most difficult part in my entrepreneurship was during the first 3 years. During that time I learned almost everything, from technical to management. I wanted to quit a thousand times during my first three years, but somehow I stayed in the game. And I did this by learning how to manage my resources. Today I find things like time management or project management trivial. I do them almost by instinct. But it's enough to imagine what my life would be without those management skills- it  would unleash quite a chaos around me. ### Learning Discipline Ideas are good but making them happen is the real deal. And you cannot make them happen by just projecting the desired results in your mind. It will certainly help, but the law of attraction must be doubled my action [link to law of attraction and action]. You have to do stuff in order to get stuff. And that requires discipline. You have to go to your office first in the morning and get out of the office last in the evening. You have to take upfront every tiny little problem and solve it, otherwise it will become a giant problem in days. Having a little bit of discipline in your life is a good thing. If only to enjoy the benefits of breaking it from time to time, if you know what I mean… ### The Value Of Money As an entrepreneur I learned that money is not at all an objective. You simply cannot do a thing for money, because money is a form of energy (/making-money-with-a-purpose/), and interacting directly with energy will shake the hell out of you. Money is a resource. Took me years to understand that, but I finally grasped it. Detaching yourself for money is the best thing you can learn as an entrepreneur. Putting yourself between your idea and the final result is the best thing you can do. It's not the money that is staying between your idea and the final result, it's yourself. And you are the only one who can assess if you need money for this to become true, or not. Before being an entrepreneur I always considered money an objective. A job will give me that amount of money, so I have to have the highest ranked job. A lifestyle will require that amount of money so I have to get it befofre having that lifestyle. It's not like this, and entrepreneurship taught me that I am the center of my world, not money. ### The Value Of Friendship In the beginning of my entrepreneurship days I hired friends. And later on I  had to let go of friends. When hiring friends, I soon realized that not always their job was well done. That friendship was mostly a form of personal interest. Those so called friend expected to do less and receive more just because we were friends. So, I had to let go some of my friends. Some of them understood my reasons, some of them didn't. With some of them I remained friends, with others, I didn't. But what really counted was that powerful lesson: the real friendship is something that will stay with you even on tough conditions. In fact, friendship is real only if it stays with you on tough conditions. ### An Entrepreneur For Your Life Those are just a few lessons I learned by being an entrepreneur in the last 10 years. And the most powerful thing among all is that I can always start a new project for my life. Always start something new and fulfilling. I can always create something real and valuable. An entrepreneur for my life. First published on: December 1, 2008 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fentrepreneurship-as-a-personal-development-tool%2F&text=Entrepreneurship%20As%20A%20Personal%20Development%20Tool&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fentrepreneurship-as-a-personal-development-tool%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fentrepreneurship-as-a-personal-development-tool%2F&t=Entrepreneurship%20As%20A%20Personal%20Development%20Tool https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fentrepreneurship-as-a-personal-development-tool%2F&title=Entrepreneurship%20As%20A%20Personal%20Development%20Tool Previous ### Getting The Best Out Of Twitter – Introducing MrTweet (/getting-the-best-out-of-twitter-introducing-mrtweet/) Next ### Overcoming Cravings On A Raw Food Diet (/overcoming-cravings-on-a-raw-food-diet/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How To Quit Being A Quitter URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-quit-being-a-quitter-2.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-quit-being-a-quitter-2/ Published: 2010-01-06 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 49 Categories: Blogging, Motivation and Inspiration Tags: breaking habits, do, how to, persistence, self discipline, willpower I write this at theend of a year (/100-things-i-did-in-2009/) and the beginning of another one. Each time I reach such a milestone, I usually do some evaluation. What was worth doing last year? What changed? How this change impacted me? During some of this rather informal evaluations I spotted an intriguing thing. It started as personal story but then evolved into something bigger. In today's post I'm going to talk about this bigger thing that emerged. Precisely, I'm going to talk about the art of not quitting. ### Blogging As a Commitment While I was browsing through my posts on this very blog, I started to spot some similarities. Some commenters appeared more often than others. Of course, many of the people who comment on this blog are quite active in the personal development (/personal-development-with-dumbo/) field too. I even become friend with some of them. It's quite normal for them to comment on other blogs. But beyond these constant presences there were also some sporadic appearances. A comment every now and then. An impression and then gone. Out of curiosity, I started to visit the blogs of those intermittent commenters. The same impression emerged from their blogs: a post every now and then. A quick effort and then gone. Nothing. What happened to those blogs? They were not abandoned, but obviously they were not fully functional either. And then it hit me: they were drifting in the suspended limbo of "what if?". "What if" I'll start a blog and become famous? "What if" I'll start to make some passive income? The "what if?" realm is a realm of neglected desires. A place with a lot of high hopes but almost no action to back them up. A desert space filled with stubs and unfulfilled promises. It's quite depressing in this realm, if you ask me. Nobody's really there anymore. Because those people quit. They quit their blogs and their presence on other blogs. They quit their project. They quit one of their dreams. ### How To Stick With It Quitting is the fastest way toscrew up your life (/100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life/). And yet, so many people are doing it. And they do it for a reason: because it's easy. It's far more easy to abandon your goals then to stick with them. It's easier to find excuses than to do work. It's easier to blame it on the "life got in the way" than to actually make your dreams alive. I've been there too. I was one of those lazy quitters and I must tell you: I didn't feel well at all. On the surface, it's easiest to quit, that's true. It's easy to be lazy and wait for things to happen instead of pushing the world to make them happen for you. But deep down, quitting is more like a disease. A chronic type of pain which is slowly eating you up. This is how I started to fight quitting. By realizing it's a disease, something that will literally make me ill. Have you noticed how lazy people have headaches? That's not by hazard, I can tell you. Being a quitter will work against your normal physiology, it will stop some natural processes, creating whirls of free, unused energy, which will most likely transform into body imbalances. Which we also call illnesses. So, I had to come up with a treatment. A medicine for quit quitting. (It's amazing how much you can do when you realize your physical presence is at risk.) Here is my 5 steps recipe to quit being a quitter. ### 1. Clearly Decide What You Want If you really like scrubbing twitter (http://twitter.com/dragosroua) all day just scrub it, don't pretend you're a blogger just to procrastinate on twitter while pretending you're promoting your blog. If you really like watching TV, just sit on the couch for the whole day and watch TV. Don't pretend you want to travel the world and you're doing some research. Deciding what you want do is the cornerstone of every successful activity. If you want to be a successful blogger, well, take note that being a successful blogger means: writing good content (/how-to-write-compelling-content-for-your-blog/), answering to comments, commenting on other blogs and promoting your own blog through social media. And that's just a basic definition. Write down what you want to do in a visible place. Put it on the wall in front of you.* I want to travel the world*. Or *I want to become a social media consultant*. Or* I want to become a successful blogger*. The most important thing generated by this simple action will be your energy focus (/training-your-focus/). You will be focusing your resources in only one point, dramatically increasing your chances to succeed. Like the focus of the sunshine through a magnifying loupe: it can really light a fire. ### 2. Small Chunks Pays Big Time Slice it up in daily manageable chunks. Long term results are more often the cause of small, constantly repeated actions. A sea is the sum of all the small creeks, after all. The beautiful snow is made by millions of snowflakes. A rainbow is light transformed by billions of raindrops. Just do what you have to do daily, regardless of how you feel about it. Half an hour of writing each day will be 365 halves of an hour. And that will be 182.5 hours of writing. At a rate of only 500 words per hour (but in time you can easily get to 1000 words per hour) that would be 91.250 words written in one year. Let's make it a round 100.000 words. Can you even imagine yourself writing now 100.000 words of good content? I thought so. But if you slice it up in daily chunks of repeated actions you will add up. You will build brick by brick. Step by step. While browsing through my blog admin interface I saw that my blog have now more than 450.000 words written. For a moment, I couldn't even imagine that number. Yes, you will have good days and bad days. Sometimes you'll write 100 words, sometimes 2000. What matters is to do it daily. ### 3. Fail Fast, Fail Often So you can understand if it works for you. If you don't really fail on a wrong path (/the-fine-art-of-making-mistakes/), you can't really know the good one. So, in order to be sure you are on the right track, be bold. Yes, you can fail. That's one more reason to do hell out of your best in order to avoid failure. To mobilize every inch of resources available. It means going to sleep every day with a clear heart: I did everything I could today. One word though: I'm not in this big trend of "let's have a big failure to be ready for success" which seems to have spread lately, but I do find failure indispensable in the learning process. Getting too intimate with failure can lead to a friendship and I don't want that. I accept failure as necessary and I welcome it every time it occurs, but man, what I want is success. Capital letters if you didn't get it for the first time: SUCCESS! ### 4. They Don't Know Shit About You Nobody knows what you really want. Nobody can live for you. There is only one person in the universe who can live for you and that person would be, of course, only you. So, every time you get resistance from other people, resist to it. Don't let it bring you down. As long as you already have your dream clear in your mind, as long as you're already doing what you have to do daily, in small chunks, as long as all your small failures made you even more confident in your path, don't trust anybody but you. This is especially necessary not only when you get rejected, but when you get accepted too. When you start to get praised. When people start to notice your work. When they start to accept you. Remember, nobody knows what's in your heart. Don't stop at the first sign of success. Don't settle for an intermediary victory. Don't accept the good while indeifnitely postponing the best. Nobody knows but you what success really means to you. Live it up to the fullest. If your goal was to become the best blogger in the world, don't stop when you're an A-lister. Even if being an A-lister means centuries of evolution for you. Go for what YOU want, because they don't know shit about you. ### 5. Be Happy About It Chose one special moment to enjoy it. The end of the year will do it for many of us. Just look at what you did and be genuinely happy for it. Appreciate yourself. Appreciate your results. Smile at them. Smile at yourself. You did it! If you skip this step, all of the above will be useless. Appreciation is the invisible fuel of your actions. If you don't appreciate what you're doing, you're not pumping enough fuel into your machine. Sooner or later it will stop. It's the beginning of a new year and I'm looking back at what I did in 2009 (/100-things-i-did-in-2009/). And I'm incredibly happy about it. I could explode with happiness and I'm not joking. Now I can see that every 10 minutes stolen from distractions are paying off big time. Every decision to work instead of procrastinating is transformed into real, visible value. And I'm happy for every "I can't do this thing now" transformed into "well, let's do it anyway". I'm proud of what I did. And that's the whole secret behind how to quit becoming a quitter:  you can't quit something you're proud of. First published on: January 6, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-quit-being-a-quitter-2%2F&text=How%20To%20Quit%20Being%20A%20Quitter&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-quit-being-a-quitter-2%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-quit-being-a-quitter-2%2F&t=How%20To%20Quit%20Being%20A%20Quitter https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-quit-being-a-quitter-2%2F&title=How%20To%20Quit%20Being%20A%20Quitter Previous ### 55 Ways To Start Your New Year With a Bang! (/55-ways-to-start-your-new-year-with-a-bang-2/) Next ### Rant Tolerance (/rant-tolerance/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Learning Solidity – A Flipping Journey URL: https://dragosroua.com/learning-solidity-a-flipping-journey.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/learning-solidity-a-flipping-journey/ Published: 2025-05-24 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 49 Categories: Blockchain, Programming Bits Tags: coding, cryptocurrency, goals, learning **Somewhere between one weekend and a couple of years later, I learned Solidity.** It didn’t start as a big goal. Not even like a 30-day challenge. It started small, with a tiny square. A 4×4 puzzle matrix, to be precise. I just wanted to pick a new weekend project — something playful. Something that felt like a game but also opened the opportunity to learn something new. I didn't know I’d end up with something called *Proof of Attention*. All I thought was: *let’s do something really simple*. Like — what if you could flip some tiles, remember their colors, and slowly uncover a pattern? How can I do this? That was the beginning of *Flippando*. ## Curiosity Was the Way Forward I had built apps before. I’m not new to code, nor to launching stuff. But smart contracts? Solidity? EVM? They were… foreign. Abstract. Like trying to speak Latin at a party where everyone’s speaking Klingon. So I started small. First, I built a local game board in JavaScript. It had all the features, and it was visual enough to keep me hooked — weekend after weekend. Then I built a very simple backend in Solidity. Just one smart contract. Extremely basic. The MVP of an MVP. Then — curiosity kicked in. And I started to brainstorm:*What if this board could be minted as an on-chain NFT?*Whoa. That sounded cool.*What if every solved puzzle held a token, somehow locked inside?*And that token — unlocked by putting together those boards into a living artifact.Built with *Proof of Attention*. And all this… in Solidity. I dived in. ## Hackathon 1: The Confirmation The first hackathon I won with *Flippando* was absolutely amazing. At that time, I was visiting South Korea, part of a bigger plan to understand Asia — and maybe move there (which eventually happened, though not in South Korea). While in Seoul, I joined a few local crypto meetups and learned there was a hackathon coming up. I registered. To my surprise, I realized I was the only foreigner among 100 local Korean hackers. We grinded together for 48 hours in a superb facility called Hana Financial Town, in Incheon. I didn’t expect to win.But I did. *Flippando* won the Polygon track. That whole experience probably deserves its own blog post (but that's, again, for another story). ## Hackathon 2: Deeper Into the Rabbit Hole Winning the first hackathon gave me confidence. So I joined another one — in a new, emerging ecosystem called *Saga*. I won a small prize, but the real reward was direction. I refined the contracts.I abstracted logic.I made a ton of improvements to the visuals. People liked it. More importantly — *I* liked it. Every new Solidity pattern I learned wasn’t just a technical upgrade. It was a metaphor.Interfaces felt like unspoken contracts between people.Modifiers reminded me of personal boundaries.And events — the way blockchain sends back rich information — reminded me of how our actions ripple outward. ## The Grant and the Multichain Leap At some point, the game stopped being just mine. I received a grant.*Flippando* became the first beneficiary of the Gno.land grant program.And I ported the entire game to Gno. That changed the tempo a bit. For a while, it felt like a detour. I hadn’t launched the game on EVM yet. But here I was — building it in another language. And it paid off.I could now clearly observe different coding patterns.It’s one thing to build on a very limited virtual machine like the EVM.And it’s something else entirely to build a *realm* in Gno — where everything feels incredibly more fluid. That experience only amplified my craving for prime time. A couple of months later, I refined (for the sixth time, at least) and audited the Solidity code — and deployed. To make things spicier, I went multichain:Base. Polygon. Saga. Sonic. Berachain. Each chain had its quirks — different RPCs, gas limits, deployment scripts.I wrote wrappers, orchestrated deployments, and built fallback logic. Suddenly, Solidity was no longer a barrier.It was just the playground. ### Lessons from the Flipping Journey Learning Solidity wasn’t just about learning a language. It was about unlearning rigidity. You don’t need to understand everything to build something meaningful.You just need to start — to flip that first tile. *Flippando* is still evolving.What began as a weekend project is now a cross-chain memory machine, a tokenized art engine, and a growing community playground. And I —I’m still flipping.Still remembering.Still learning. If you’re curious about the game — or if you want to feel what it’s like to flip tiles on a blockchain — check out *Flippando (https://flippando.xyz)* on your favorite chain.And leave some feedback. I read all of it. Seriously, I do. First published on: May 24, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-solidity-a-flipping-journey%2F&text=Learning%20Solidity%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Flipping%20Journey&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-solidity-a-flipping-journey%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-solidity-a-flipping-journey%2F&t=Learning%20Solidity%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Flipping%20Journey https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-solidity-a-flipping-journey%2F&title=Learning%20Solidity%20%E2%80%93%20A%20Flipping%20Journey Previous ### Mister Wilford Is Dead (/mister-wilford-is-dead/) Next ### Why I Chose to Open-Source MetaCellKit from addTaskManager (/why-i-chose-to-open-source-metacellkit-from-addtaskmanager/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Learning To Ignore URL: https://dragosroua.com/learning-to-ignore.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/learning-to-ignore/ Published: 2009-01-28 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 49 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness, Time management Tags: focus, learning, mindset, priorities, self discipline One of the most important things I learned in the last few years was the fact that my focus is actually creating what I call my reality. I know, it's a pretty straightforward way to start a blog post about learning to ignore, but I do this on purpose. Focus is the actual builder of your reality. Is the fluid that makes it move, change and look alive. Without your focus, things aren't there. They might be (and this is something you can be aware of) but they aren't there for *you*, for your reality. Focus creates everything around you and this is a subtle yet incredibly important shift form your standard reality approaches. I'm sure most of you think that reality is something "outside" you. Reality is already there and it will continue to be after you. It's independent from you. Relax, I'm not going to dig into something philosophical right now. I plan to this anyway in a future post about focus. What I'm going to do right now is to show you how this standard approach of the "outside" reality can – and will be – used as an excuse. ## I Can't Avoid It If you think reality is already there and you can't do a thing to influence it, next step is to think that everything in your life is the result of a pre-programmed set of events. There is already a plan and you can't do anything but to follow that plan. Of course, you will start to act like you have no power. You will put every responsibility of your life on the so called "destiny" or "faith". This is the easiest way to delude yourself and embrace a miserable journey for the rest of your life. Many people already think like this. This mindset is so present that you start to think it must be "real". But you know, just because a 1000 people are saying that I can't climb a mountain, this doesn't necessarily stops me for climbing that mountain. What I'm saying is that you can change your reality. Not only you can change what you are experiencing right now, but you can also create whatever you want. And even if you think you never did that, you already did it before. I'm sure you have memories of something really nice that happened in your life as a direct result of your actions. Maybe it was the courage to approach your actual wife when you were a student? Maybe it was the decision to switch your career? Maybe it was a kind gesture towards a total stranger that filled your heart with gratitude and joy? Those were situation in which you modified your reality in order to obey your wishes… You made it happen. And everybody has these memories. Now start thinking what was happening during that specific action. What happened to you during that sudden release of energy which created a shift in your reality? Where was your focus? You were thinking at something else when you proposed your wife? I really doubt that. You were thinking to finish that boring report when you quit your job? Hell, no, otherwise you would still be in that dark office doing a dull job. Instead, you focused totally on what you wanted. You left apart everything that you didn't wanted to happen to you, and focused only on what you wanted to happen. You wanted your future wife to say yes and you wanted that job to disappear from your life. Your focus was so clear, that  your reality didn't had any other choices than to follow it. You were so focused that anything else in the universe disappearead. You were there. Totally there. ## Start To Ignore Shifting focus is difficult. Making your focus follow your desires and maintaining all your energy in that blissful state requires a lot of practice and patience. It can be a draining activity, especially in the beginning. It surely was for me. When I realized that my focus was my reality builder I started to see how many things I've created. I created my company, I created relationships, I created value, I created potential. But on the other side I couldn't notice that I also created mistakes, boredom, sadness or anger. I was finally aware of the fact that everything in my life was a direct result of my focus. And I was overwhelmed. I really started to back up from this path. Can't stand the fact that I was the only responsible person for that. This thing won't work, I said. Too difficult for me. But after a while I realized I couldn't go back. Not anymore. Not now, that I finally understand how things works. It just wasn't possible anymore. I really had to deal with all the good and all the bad things I've created. And that was the moment when I started to ignore. Because the second big discovery was that focus uses a constant flow of energy. If you put your focus on things you don't want, you will take some energy from the things you do want to happen. The energy flow is constant, it's your choice where to put it. You are aware of your focus, but you can't really manifest what you want because your focus energy is weak. And why? Because you put focus on things you don't want. So simple. Yet so powerful. So, I started to develop my ignorance skills. Of course, I'm not talking about illiteracy or lack of knowledge but about shifting my focus from what I don't want to what I want. Here's what I did: ### 1. Don't feel guilt It's so easy to feel guilt for not doing something. As much as you disagree, you do feel guilt if you're skipping something, even you don't really like that stuff. I think this is rooted somewhere in the early childhood, where all of us were drilled in to something called discipline. Well, stop it! Don't feel guilt if you're skipping TV tonight, don't feel guilt if you say to your boss you won't have dinner with him because your family waits for you home. Don't feel guilt if you reject a business proposal. Don't feel guilt if you reject a potential partner. If you don't like the stuff, just don't do it. I'm not saying it's good to be harsh, on the contrary. Be as polite as you can when turning somebody down, but be as firm as you can. Don't engage in stuff you don't want, because you'll take energy from things you really want to do. ### 2. Assess your goals often Your goals are changing. Today you want to do something but tomorrow would do something different. It's normal. Just assess your goals constantly so you know every second what you really want to do. It's easy to get caught in habits or in recurring activities which don't have a meaning anymore. Starting to organize your life is a big step forward. The moment you start to know what your goals are, your focus will tend to lean towards that and shift from your frozen patterns. Starting to implement an organizational methodology like GTD (/category/gtd/) might help here. ### 3. Don't follow a topic or activity till the end, if it's not worth it You got caught in something but half way you realize you don't like it anymore. It can be a conversation, a project, or a domestic activity. Just stop. The menace of guilt is there, you can feel it, right? What if you're not going to finish this conversation? What the other person will think about you? You know what? It really doesn't matter. It's ok to lose interest in some activities while doing them. Keeping your focus there is not ok. Just assess that activity, decide if you like it or not and then move on. There are not such things as lose ends when it comes to things you really like. *** Learning to ignore is the first step in growing your focus power. Not to mention that allowing yourself to ignore things you don't want is a form of self-respect. Nobody can force you to do anything if you don't want. First published on: January 28, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-ignore%2F&text=Learning%20To%20Ignore&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-ignore%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-ignore%2F&t=Learning%20To%20Ignore https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flearning-to-ignore%2F&title=Learning%20To%20Ignore Previous ### Raw Food Update – Almost 6 Months Later (/raw-food-update-almost-6-months-later/) Next ### The Gratitude Experiment – Follow Up (/the-gratitude-experiment-follow-up/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Life After One Million Words URL: https://dragosroua.com/life-one-million-words.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/life-one-million-words/ Published: 2014-09-24 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 49 Categories: Blogging, Personal Development Tags: personal story, writing Somewhere along the lines of this post I will reach an important milestone: one million words written on this blog. One million. Written. Words. I confess I feel kind of awkward, and, at the same time, exhilarated. It's an achievement, yes. And I feel proud of it. But it's also in the past. At the end of the day, it's just something I did, like my first tango lesson (/10-tango-lessons/), or my first mountain half marathon (/story-first-mountain-half-marathon/). It's just another part of my personal history, of the trail that I leave on this world. Big numbers can be deceiving, you know… And our perception can play tricks on our minds. Just because we think one million is something very big, our brain tends to attach a lot of value to it. It's the same with money: one million dollars can be really hypnotizing. I know. I've been there. One million words can be so heavy, that they may even create some sort of gravity and constantly pull you towards them, extracting you form the genuine, second by second, joy of life. ## The Story I started all this on December 13th 2006 (/blog-alive-why/), almost 8 years ago. It was more of an experiment on how to maintain a blog while I was still having my own business (which, at that time, was quite demanding, especially in terms of time). I didn't have any plans for it. It didn't count much in my life, in the beginning. Then, 2 years later, after I sold my company, in 2008, it became the central point of my activity. When I did that exit, I had a non-compete clause in my contract, that basically stated I can't do the same thing I was doing before, in a certain number of countries, for at least 2 years. It kind of makes sense, if you think about it. You wouldn't want to buy a website from a guy and expect that guy to replicate the same website again, next week. It's also a common practice in these types of transactions. So, because I couldn't do any more work on the Romanian market, (and, to be honest, I didn't want that, too) I decided to start something in English. I think the only English course I had was in college, but I didn't attend more than once. Basically, I have no formal English education. All my vocabulary and grammar where just "picked up" by watching movies and reading programming documentation. And it showed up. The first 50 articles were almost terrible, in terms of grammar. I remember I had my own "grammar nazis" at that time. Readers who were quick to show me my faults. Unpleasant, of course. But also true. One of the consequences of being ridiculed for my English was this post: How To Be Ridiculous (/how-to-be-ridiculous/), which got a solid 3000 unique views (and it still shows up in Google results in the first page, form more than 69.000.000 results). In the beginning I was drifting, I confess. Didn't know much about what I was doing. A lot of it was inspired from other bloggers. It took me about half a year and, perhaps, 50 or 60 articles, to find "my voice". Yes, as a blogger, you will discover at some point that you have your own voice, your own way of writing. Of course, that will happen after you will read a ton of articles telling you how many words exactly your posts should have, and so on and so forth. Truth is, there's no rule. Do whatever works for you. For instance, Seth Godin has seldom something over 600 words. While Steve Pavlina does 3-4000 words on a regular basis. I was soon to find out that my "voice" was made of around 1000 words, on average, per post. ## The Trigger As I was telling, I was drifting. I used this blog as a sort of a witness to my experiments. Having a lot of time after selling my business, I could involve in all sort of crazy experiments. In 2009 I became raw vegan for 9 months. In 2010 I traveled around the world twice. In 2011 I started to learn (and then, two years later, I started to teach) Argentine tango. In 2012 I ran my first marathon. A few months ago, I started a new business in Bucharest, called Connect Hub, based on a weekly event, Open Connect, which I started in 2012. All these experiments have been documented, somehow, on this blog. But there was a very specific moment when this blog took off. In 2009 I wrote a post called 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). Which, obviously, contained 100 ways to live a better life, as I was seeing them. That post became an instan success. Shared across all major social media outlets, reblogged, translated, it became my most popular blog posts ever.  More than 540.000 page views until today. What surprised me in the beginning was the fact that this post didn't bring anything fundamentally new, in terms of life philosophy. It was a collection of some of my other articles, distilled in the form of a list. For a while, I attributed his tremendous success to the list format. It must have been something about the list format, I said to myself. So I tried to replicate it. I wrote a sequel called 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life (/100-ways-to-screw-up-your-life/). It was still successful, but at half of the traffic. It still goes strong, but always half of the traffic. So, I said to myself, this wasn't a very good list. Let's try another one. I did a few other huge lists posts (as I call them), like 33 Ways To Start Your Day (/33-ways-to-start-your-day/) or 33 Ways To Get And Keep Yourself Motivated (/33-ways-to-get-and-keep-yourself-motivated/), but none of them equalled the success of the first one. Years passed by and I did other things and wrote about other stuff. At some point I decided I will write a book. It took me about two months and it was a moderate success. The title is 30 Sentences For A Millionaire Mindset (/30-sentences-millionaire-mindset/) and it's based on my experience as an entrepreneur. I did a decent number of sales, but I didn't reach one million. Not even close. And then I decided I will write some other ebooks, this time based on the most successful posts on the blog. The huge list posts came in very handy, as you may imagine. I worked on the two initial *100 items* posts and in one month I wrote 2 ebooks based on them. These did much better. And, if I remember well, I wrote not 2, but 4 ebooks on that month. And that's because of a challenge I got from another fellow blogger. Who's gonna write more ebooks in one month, you know. I won that month, with 4 ebooks. And then he won the next month, with 2. We kinda had fun, I admit it. And these two ebooks were way more successful. They got translated in Korean, sold as ebooks and then printed and sold in book stores. I sold more than 3000 copies. Without even going to Korea. Then, they got translated in Farsi (Persan). I don't know how they're doing in Farsi, because I don't sell them, directly, somebody else is doing it. And the English versions, they are still downloadable for free on my blog and they are getting a solid few hundreds downloads every month. If you want to get them, go ahead: free books (/books/). And now, that I mentioned that book challenge, I see there's one little thing I didn't tell you about that very first successful post. Namely, how it started, what triggered it. The root cause of that post was a challenge. Another blogger, from Brasil, wrote a list of 100 ways to solve a problem, and challenged me to do another list, of 100 items, of my choice. That's how it started. And that was the only difference between that post and all the other posts. The way it started, as a response to someone else's need. The same trigger was with the challenge for writing ebooks based on those blog posts. They were written as a response to someone else's need. ## The Only Thing I Learned So, if there's one thing I learned after one million written words is that it's always about the others. It's not about you. But it gets a little bit more… not complicated, because the end result is simple, it gets more complex. In a very subtle way, you are the result of what you do onto others. What you do for others, will be recreated in your own life. It's not like you don't matter at all and you have to sacrifice yourself on the "altar" of the others. That's stupid. It's also against your fundamental commitment, which is to protect life. All life, including your own life. But it's about how you are of service to others. How you create abundance for others. Even if you don't have it yet. That's the trick. That's how it starts. By doing something for others. When I answered that blog challenge I didn't do it for me. I did it because someone else challenged me and I did my best to offer value for that process, not for me. It worked beautifully and instantly. Traffic jumped in a few hours and I could watch the process live. But when I focused only on what I thought I was, on my own self, it didn't work as well. I watched the charts for hours an nothing happened. The traffic was growing, but not with the same speed and consistency. I may have had the writing skills and, at the technical level, all was good. Some posts became, and still are popular. But at the very core of it, at the "energy" level, something was stuck. They never reached the same level of success like the first one. Well, it took me a few years to understand it completely (and it may take a while until I master the entire process, because there's one thing to understand something, at the mental level, and there's another one to make it happen). But in the end I got it. Focus on the other's needs and do your best to make their dreams come true. Everything else will follow. First published on: September 24, 2014 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flife-one-million-words%2F&text=Life%20After%20One%20Million%20Words&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flife-one-million-words%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flife-one-million-words%2F&t=Life%20After%20One%20Million%20Words https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flife-one-million-words%2F&title=Life%20After%20One%20Million%20Words Previous ### The Story Of My First Mountain Half Marathon (/story-first-mountain-half-marathon/) Next ### Next Marathon Goal – Under 4 Hours (/marathon-goal-4-hours/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Ramblings URL: https://dragosroua.com/ramblings.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/ramblings/ Published: 2021-12-02 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 49 Categories: Blogging Tags: 365 challenge, introspection When you're hurting, your attention is hijacked. Whether your suffering is insignificant, a mere annoyance, or you're going through deep physical illness, there's a pull. A pull that shifts your attention from where it usually was. All spiritual people seem to be immune to suffering, though. From the early shamans, who could spend hours or days hurting in trance, up to Christian saints, enduring unfathomable tortures with unshakeable faith, they've all been able to face suffering in a different way. It almost seemed like suffering didn't have any effect on them. Make no mistake, those saints eventually left their human shape and, in common terms, they died. Which means their body did undergo suffering. What was different, though, was their attention. Their focus wasn't on the suffering, was on something else. You see, when we suffer, we cling to the expectation that suffering must end, and in this process we keep our focus on suffering. We pair with the pain, we walk together. Should we not expect pain to end, we wouldn't do that. We could've shift our focus in any other part. Ultimately, pain is just a sensation, like pleasure. It's just its "sign", as in plus (for pleasure), or minus (for suffering) that changes. Our attachment to these sensation is what drives our focus. For pleasure, we expect NOT to end, while for pain we DO expect it to end. Without these expectations, we wouldn't give a shit about whatever we experience. We could just control our mind in the direction we want. Which may be to prolong pleasure and to stop the pain, but without expectations. This disjunction, this ability to control your focus under extreme circumstances, including pain and hurting, is one of the most interesting things we can learn and practice. This skill helps you overcome your temporary condition. By controlling your mind, you're detaching from its temporary support, the body, and pave the way for an independent, untainted existence. It's not in any way easy. It might not even be useful, in all circumstances. But it's important. First published on: December 2, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Framblings%2F&text=Ramblings&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Framblings%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Framblings%2F&t=Ramblings https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Framblings%2F&title=Ramblings Previous ### 365 Days Writing Challenge – Checkpoint Eleven (/365-days-writing-challenge-checkpoint-eleven/) Next ### Movie Review – Cowboy Bebop (/movie-review-cowboy-bebop/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Book Of Life URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-book-of-life.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-book-of-life/ Published: 2010-03-19 Modified: 2025-12-12 Views: 49 Categories: Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: communication, family Every morning, before getting out of the bed, Bianca, my 4 year old daughter (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-4-year-old-girl/), comes into my room and asks for my iPhone. Most of the time she gets it. After touching it for a few minutes, she gave it back and starts her normal morning routine. Never asked her why she's doing while holding the phone. I guess I always assumed she's playing some of the games I installed especially for that. Recently I had to find a specific note in my iPhone Notes, something serious, an address or a flight ticket number. To my surprise, the first note I found was from the same day and it was something like this: > "aquiwue iwury iwurywiuey., kahihas aiehkahjs". And it went like this for a few more lines. Apparently, I took that note at 6:49 AM. Oh, of course! It wasn't mine, it was Bianca's! I admit it took me a good 7-8 seconds to realize that (yes, sometimes I can be extremely slow). Happy that I solved this unexpected mystery, I deleted the note. The next one, to my surprise, was from the same league, with a slightly different approach: > "ajhskj ajsj bnmabf kajhjkhfhjka a". Of course, it was from yesterday. And after deleting it I found the one from the day before and so on. In 5 minutes I discovered about 30 notes written by Bianca every morning in the last month. Some of them were short, but some of theme were pretty elaborate. The first impulse was to clean up the app and delete them. But something made me not to. I found the information I needed, did whatever I had to do with it and left the notes untouched in my iPhone. Planning to ask her later about them, of course. ## The Secret Diary The next morning, after she asked for my iPhone, I sat down with her. She seemed pretty absorbed in her writing. Useless to mention that she was incredibly skilled in finding the right app, in the right screen, etc. It wasn't by mistake, she was doing the writing on purpose. After she finished the note for today, I asked what was the note about. "But it's about your name, didn't you recognize it?". I admitted I didn't. "Yeeeees, it's your name, look closer" she said, and then she left the room, preparing for kindergarten. The next day, I planned to talk more about the notes so even before she asked for the iPhone I started a small conversation: "I'll give it to you but first, I want to ask you a few questions"."Oooookey", she answered, with that voice half-bored, half-promising."What is this note about?" and I browsed to something from a week ago."Well, it was eating out a Pizza Hut, remember?" Didn't remember that, to be honest. "How about this one?" and I pointed to something even older."That was when we watched that movie, remember?" I remembered watching that movie, but it happened before the note. Of course, she doesn't know how to read or even identify the days of the month in a calendar. Time is still friendly to her. "Ok, I said, you can have it" and handed her the iPhone. Immediately, she started to write the note for the day. ## The Book Of Life On my way to work that morning, I realized that Bianca was actually writing her book of life. A journal. A witness of her own experiences. And then I realized we're all doing that. And, to my huge surprise, I realized we're all doing it the same way Bianca did: in our own, private language. Nobody really understands our own book of life (/100-ways-live-better-life-89-make-story/). We have goals, objectives, paths but we're the only ones knowing their real meaning. We write our book of life in some kind of gibberish. I may say something like: "I want to run a marathon (/how-to-run-a-marathon/)" but you may understand something completely different. For you, running a marathon could be something very different than it is for me. Our lives are incredibly specific because we use a custom-made, private language. And that makes us really lonely people, no matter how much we interact on a formal level. Bianca's book of life become alive the moment I started to connect with her. The moment I was interested enough to find out more, her book of life become intelligible for me. Until that, it was just random letters, nothing more. How's your book of life? Do you take the time to connect with people around you and let them know what you meant when you said that thing? What you meant when you made that commitment? What you meant when you made that present? Or do you just write gibberish and assume that everybody understands you? How many times the pages from your book of life have been torn away because nobody really understands them? How many times you ignored messages from other books of life, just because you assumed the message must be written in the same language you understand? How many times you ignored other books of life because you didn't take the time to sit down, talk and connect with the other person? How many seconds of happiness you lost by that? How many hours of joy? How many years of fulfilling life? Do you really take the time to make your book of life available to your closest ones? Or are you just drifting away, scribbling a completely unintelligible mumbo-jumbo, while still expecting everybody to understand your deepest desires? *Image by edar (https://pixabay.com/users/edar-609103/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=968603) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=968603) * ### Related Reading (2025 Update) After 15 years, here are related perspectives that expand on these ideas: - When In Doubt, Stick To The Plan (/when-in-doubt-stick-to-the-plan/) - Your Story Follows Your State (/your-story-follows-your-state/) - 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 20. Write An Ebook (/100-ways-live-better-life-20-write-ebook/) - A Typical Day On Camino (/a-typical-day-on-camino/) First published on: March 19, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-book-of-life%2F&text=The%20Book%20Of%20Life&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-book-of-life%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-book-of-life%2F&t=The%20Book%20Of%20Life https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-book-of-life%2F&title=The%20Book%20Of%20Life Previous ### 33 Ways To Overcome Frustration (/33-ways-to-overcome-frustration/) Next ### What Can Argentine Tango Teach You About Brilliant Blogging? (/what-can-argentine-tango-teach-you-about-brilliant-blogging/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Obstacle Is Not The Bottleneck URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-obstacle-is-not-the-bottleneck.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-obstacle-is-not-the-bottleneck/ Published: 2021-07-22 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 49 Categories: Financial Resilience, Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, financial freedom, money mindset, resilience, stoicism You may be familiar with the saying: "The obstacle is the way". It implies that whatever hurdles we are facing, we shouldn't try to avoid them, as the path towards betterment is by learning to overcome that hurdle, not by dodging it. It's also the title of a popular book by Ryan Holiday, and a sentence that I tend to agree with wholeheartedly. But there are caveats. Let me start by telling you a little story. ## The Data Bottleneck During the last couple of days I was working on a project which involved downloading huge amounts of data over the Internet. So big, that I didn't have the actual capacity on my laptop. So I resorted to an old 1Tb mechanical hard-drive (server-grade, but still old tech) and a SATA-to-USB enclosure (if you don't understand the technical terms, don't worry, I'm just bragging). After I put everything together, the hardware and the software, I started to download. For the first 1/3 of the volume, it went relatively well, but then something started to happen. An almost imperceptible slow down. I couldn't tell from where it came, but what should have taken 2 days, now it was creeping towards a week. When evening came, I left the laptop working over night and checked out the progress in the morning. To my surprise, now the estimated time was about 4 weeks. Something was definitely off. I started to do some research, played with some software params, tested and, after a couple of hours, I came to the conclusion that the slowing down was coming somewhere from the HDD (because it was doing a lot of writing and reading at the same time) combined with the way data is transferred over USB. At this point, I decided to switch the HDD with a more modern SSD hard-drive. Victory! Just minutes after I restarted the download process, the estimated time dropped from weeks to days, and then from days to hours. So, what this has to do with the topic of this blog post? ## A Slow Squeeze Is Not An Obstacle, It's A Dead End Well, there are obstacles, and then are bottlenecks. Or, as I call them, "squeezes". You know, like a relationship that starts to slowly drag. You get rid of the things you used to do together, one by one, and without even realizing it, you wake up one day wondering who's the person sitting near you. Or your income is starting to dwindle, but not like in a crisis. Just slowly, pennies a day, until you realize one day that you can't afford the same things you used to afford just a year ago, or that "making ends meet" is now really a matter of survival. You can't go through a squeeze. It will drain you out. You have to switch course. And fast. Because the longer you stay in the squeeze the less opportunities to change you'll have. Inertia will drag you down. Just like I decided to switch the old HDD, which was clearly unfit for this kind of job, with a newer one, you should strive to find a way out of the squeeze. A squeeze is not an obstacle that you have to go through, it's a dead end. Please avoid dead ends. *Photo by Michael Rosner-Hyman (https://unsplash.com/@michaelrosnerhyman?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/obstacle?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: July 22, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-obstacle-is-not-the-bottleneck%2F&text=The%20Obstacle%20Is%20Not%20The%20Bottleneck&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-obstacle-is-not-the-bottleneck%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-obstacle-is-not-the-bottleneck%2F&t=The%20Obstacle%20Is%20Not%20The%20Bottleneck https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-obstacle-is-not-the-bottleneck%2F&title=The%20Obstacle%20Is%20Not%20The%20Bottleneck Previous ### Thinking Outside Of The Jar (/thinking-outside-of-the-jar/) Next ### Frugality And Financial Resilience (/frugality-and-financial-resilience/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Schnitzel Effect URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-schnitzel-effect.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-schnitzel-effect/ Published: 2021-01-27 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 49 Categories: Location Independence, Travel and Fun Tags: 365 challenge, fitness I happen to look, physically, better than my age. In fact, every time I tell people my real age, which is 50 at the moment of writing, I am met with disbelief, like I'm trying to play games or making bad jokes. Usually, it takes some time to convince them that this is actually my real age. I attribute this to two factors. The first one is obviously genetics. I have centenaries in my close family (my grandfather from my mother lived 101 years, went through two world wide wars) and, overall, I enjoyed a very good level of health throughout my life, nothing serious in terms of chronic or genetic illnesses. The second one is a bit counterintuitive and, in case you didn't realize yet, it's in the title of the article. I call it the "schnitzel effect". ## What Is The Schnitzel Effect? You know how they prepare the meat for making schnitzels? Well, after they slice it down, they beat it with a hammer. The more they beat it, the tender the meat gets. That's all there is to it, that's the schnitzel effect. If you get it out of the culinary area, it translates as a life filled with hurdles, resistance, difficulties. And indeed, that's what I went through. My first 40 years were basically a roller coaster, in which every second felt like a fight for my life (well, maybe not every second, but most of the time). It wasn't until I finally entered my last decade that I reached the level of "tenderness" that's good for me (or at least that's how I feel right now, because difficulties look to have plateaued, somehow). If you really think about, it's not that counterintuitive. Tenderness always comes as a result of a struggle, we get more resilient after we've experienced storms and we get more compassionated once we've been through some personal hell too. Successfully dealing with beatings (I'm talking about emotional and psychological situations here, not about physical beatings, just so we're clear) eventually results in some sort of fragility, some vulnerability that we're not afraid to show anymore, because, well, we know what to expect. And we already dealt with that shit before. Of course it sucks, while you're in the middle of the storm. Of course it hurts when you get the beatings. But, as time goes by, I got to understand the value in this trials, in these long periods of struggle. I made peace with the fact that that's how you make the schnitzel taste good. That's how you actually become better, because of the hurdles, not because you dodged them. I understand that this might be just my own reframing, and there's no sense in either difficulty or easiness, but it happens that this reframing works for me. And it's also a very nice conversation opener. First published on: January 27, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-schnitzel-effect%2F&text=The%20Schnitzel%20Effect&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-schnitzel-effect%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-schnitzel-effect%2F&t=The%20Schnitzel%20Effect https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-schnitzel-effect%2F&title=The%20Schnitzel%20Effect Previous ### Playing Music To Someone Who Can’t Hear You (/playing-music-to-someone-who-cant-hear-you/) Next ### The GameStop Takeaway – We’re Already In A Post-Factual World, But We’re Just Entering A “Post-Fundamentals” Economy (/the-gamestop-takeaway-were-already-in-a-post-factual-world-but-were-just-entering-a-post-fundamentals-economy/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Subtle Benefits Of Being Born In The Wrong Place URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-subtle-benefits-of-being-born-in-the-wrong-place.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-subtle-benefits-of-being-born-in-the-wrong-place/ Published: 2012-08-08 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 49 Categories: Personal Development Tags: growth, personal story, perspective, resilience I was born and raised in Romania. For many years, I thought I was born in the wrong place. From a certain point of view, I still believe this. There are just too many things going wrong around here: we don’t have proper roads, our politicians are notoriously stupid and it’s almost impossible to get something from any state owned administration without bribe (and I can go on like this for hours). But, from another point of view, I find a subtle advantage in all this “being born in the wrong place” thing. It’s true, barely surviving is an exercise of pure will here. But, if you bear with me for a few paragraphs (and a small story) you’ll be surprised by the outcome. At least, I know I was surprised. In hindsight, I guess I started to see this “wrong life context” situation differently only in the last 4-5 years. After I sold my company, 4 years ago, I traveled like a fugitive. I saw a lot of countries, made a lot of real life friends in all kind of places and had the time to study a few different cultures. The unexpected conclusion was that environment does affect us, but not as I so far believed. In other words, I experienced perfectly oiled social mechanisms (like the one in New Zealand, for instance, which, believe me, is a social masterpiece compared to the one in Romania) who produced fearful, shy and somehow limited individuals. And it seemed somehow logical, you know: once you’re completely enrolled in that perfectly tuned mechanism, your life gets so easy, that the mere thought that you may change something to it, even – or perhaps, especially – if it’s for the better, it’s absolutely frightening. In that context, courage is just an empty word. Fear of losing (your job, your house, your partner or your money) is the daily mantra. Well, if you live in a system where there’s not much to lose, there’s not much to fear either. Let’s dive in. ## That Was Not My War Part of my life was under communism. Until I was 19, to be precise. During that time, military service was compulsory. After I took my exam for the faculty of Letters at the University of Bucharest, I traveled to Timisoara, in October 1989, for what I thought to be an easy 9 months holiday under the camouflage of military service. Alas, it wasn’t set to be even remotely a holiday. Traditionally, if you were a student in communist Romania, your military service was somehow easier. Your superiors weren’t so hard on you (provided that your parents were keeping those small bribes coming in) and some of the actual tasks (like guarding the facility perimeter, which was the only “war” mission during peace) were limited in time. Unfortunately, we got in the wrong place. We were the only group of students, around 30 people, in a facility with more than 400 veteran soldiers who were set to be there for 1 year and 9 months, more than double than our time. Enough of a reason to give us a lot of trouble. Add to this the understandable envy for an allegedly better lifestyle after military service (given the fact that we were going to the University) and you’ll have a better picture of how we felt. Definitely in the wrong place. In December 1989, two months after I started to serve, one of the most important political events of the last 50 years unfolded right under my eyes. It’s still called the Romanian Revolution, but truth is it was just a chaotic succession of events which ended up with the killing of Ceausescu and the reign of a new generation of communists, more cynical, shrewd and aggressive than the first ones. Being caught in the army by a revolution is a very unpleasant thing. I won’t go into details, because I wrote another article describing those frightening days (The Sun Always Rises In At Dawn (/the-sun-always-rises-at-dawn/)), I will just tell you that I didn’t sleep for 5 nights in a row. Also, I was literally under fire, with bullets passing me by so close that I could clearly hear them. A few times I was very, very close to dying. Apart from the natural question “When is this going to end?”, what do you think it was the most common thought in my head, during those sleepless nights? Of course: “Why is this happening to me? Why am I even here? This is so wrong.”. To make a long story short, I survived. In a few months, army was over and I could get on with my life. But the brutal experience of being thrown in a war I couldn't avoid, the pressure of coping with all that confusing context in which I didn’t know how and when to act, the constant fight with the fatigue, all those things were now part of my life. I sucked them up and went ahead, adjusting, taking risks, making mistakes, like everybody. ## The Bird Plane Incident Fast forward 2 decades. A few years ago I was on a plane in Los Angeles. We were set to fly to Auckland, New Zealand, over the Pacific Ocean. I was after one full week in Vegas (/the-trip-to-las-vegas/), a bit tired, but ready for the flight, which I heard it should take around 9 hours. I fell asleep just minutes after we took off. And get up after another few minutes (or so I thought, at the moment). There was an announcement made by the captain and people around looked scared. Apparently, the plane hit something and we had to get back to LA. I was asleep for two hours, it seemed. At the airport, I realized it was for real: looked like a bird (or something) hit the nose of the plane. 3 meters on the right or on the left, and it would have hit one of the engines. /wp-content/uploads/2012/08/IMG_0094.jpg As I lined up for the bus who was taking us to a hastily booked hotel, I saw that people were really scared. Nobody was talking and a woman next to me, dressed in black, was shaking. I started to talk to her. She was from Croatia, originally, but she was living in Australia for 15 years now. I could feel her fear. I decided to fool around for a while, just to shift her focus from the incident. In like 15 minutes, we were laughing, cracking jokes and planning to meet in Croatia next year. People in front of us and people behind us were laughing too. Fear was gone. In the morning we met again at breakfast, just before jumping into the bus who was taking us back to the airport, for a new flight. She was smiling. And so did the other people at tables. And then I realized something very important. In her lifestyle, that was a major event. Her neat, calculated and perfectly predictable lifestyle was for a few hours completely chaotic. Truth is we were just 3 meters away from dying. But in my own personal universe, it was just a slight flight delay. The experience of being so close to death during the Romanian Revolution raised a subtle tolerance level in me. I don’t know if it was the “danger tolerance level” or just “the chaos tolerance level” but it was something that made me stay calm during that bird plane episode. ## You Don't Look Like A Romanian Yes, I was born in the wrong place. That's true. But I worked my ass trying not to do the wrong things. Every once in a while, my virtual friends from all around the world are asking me something along these lines: “Why do you think you’re born in Romania? I mean, you don’t even look like a Romanian. You look more like an Irish.” In time, I learned not to answer with the long story I already wrote in the post above. Instead, (with a little bit of a theatrical pose, I admit it), I breathe in and whisper slowly: “I don’t know. I think I’m just lucky”. First published on: August 8, 2012 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-subtle-benefits-of-being-born-in-the-wrong-place%2F&text=The%20Subtle%20Benefits%20Of%20Being%20Born%20In%20The%20Wrong%20Place&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-subtle-benefits-of-being-born-in-the-wrong-place%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-subtle-benefits-of-being-born-in-the-wrong-place%2F&t=The%20Subtle%20Benefits%20Of%20Being%20Born%20In%20The%20Wrong%20Place https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-subtle-benefits-of-being-born-in-the-wrong-place%2F&title=The%20Subtle%20Benefits%20Of%20Being%20Born%20In%20The%20Wrong%20Place Previous ### How To Write A Successful eBook, Get A Publisher Deal, Reach #2 In AppStore – The Quick And Easy Guide (/how-to-write-a-successful-ebook-get-a-publisher-deal-reach-2-in-appstore-the-quick-and-easy-guide/) Next ### So Far Apart (/so-far-apart/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Understanding Emotions URL: https://dragosroua.com/understanding-emotions.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/understanding-emotions/ Published: 2008-12-11 Modified: 2025-12-01 Views: 49 Categories: Personal Development, Relationships and Society, Spirituality and Beliefs, Success and Wellness Tags: mindset, self awareness Taking the plunge on such a complicated topic as emotions is something that I wanted to do long time ago. In fact, this post is staying as a draft in my MacJournal (/power-blogging-with-mac-journal-gtd-style/) for more than 2 months now. I always wanted to start writing about it, but also felt a little uncomfortable with it. It was like something was not still clear. I had the overall idea but there was some inconsistency in my approach. Today I'll go for it because I simply feel like doing it. Noticed the reason? "I simply feel like doing it". The trigger for starting to write this was an emotion. A feeling. ### Being A Prisoner Of Your Own Emotions I always was quite an emotional person. I am a Scorpio sign, which is a Water sign, and Water signs are well known to be extremely emotional. My rising sign is Capricorn, an Earth sign. Among all the Earth signs, Capricorn is known to be the most sensitive. Quite an emotional super mix here, right? When I was younger I was always emotions driven. My emotions were so intense that I often mistaken them for thoughts. I often acted out of impulse instead of reason. I was so immersed in my own emotional field that I was convinced that I'm thinking when I was in fact only reacting to some stimulus, same way as the Pavlov's dog. Needless to say that when you act only and only by emotions you get hurt . Sometimes you get hurt big time. But your acting pattern is already set and even if you promise to yourself not to repeat the same mistake again, you'll do it. You say you won't do that thing that caused you pain, but you go straight to it. And get hurt again. I'm sure many of you experienced the same pattern. You get emotional on some situation, act, do something wrong because you acted only as a result of that emotion, and then get hurt. And then do the exact situation again. You get hit by the same emotion, do the exact same thing and get hurt again. Sooner or later you start to feel embarrassed by your own emotional system. You start to actually feel bad on a whole different level, by being able to predict how you will act on a certain circumstance. I won't see this movie because it will make me cry. I won't meet those people because I'm shy and I'll do something stupid. I won't talk to my parents because I always felt like they wanted to control me. You don't do a rational assessment of the situation, you just remember you acted in a hurting way, and start to avoid the whole situation, regardless of the potential. Each and every circumstance has a potential. Most of the time is about a learning potential. But if your actions are emotions driven, you won't see that potential. Acting only by emotion is the easiest way toward manipulation. The more emotional you get, and the less assessment you put into your life, the easier for you to be manipulated. You will attract people or situations in which you will be the puppet, and they will be the puppeteer. You won't even realize that, of course, you will just notice how your life becomes more and more miserable. ### Emotions As A Feedback System It took me some time to understand that emotions are just a feedback system. As strange as it may seem, emotions are not part of "us". They're only with "us". Our main being, so to call it, has nothing to do with emotions. It can exists pretty much without emotions. But it needs them in order to give us feedback about what we're doing. Seeing emotions as a feedback mechanism was a healing way to look at my life. Breaking apart from my emotional system gave me the space and light needed to assess whatever triggered those impulses that causes hurt. Didn't happened at once, and I'm not always completely detached from my emotions. They're still part of my system, but they're not the leading force, just the co-pilot. The biggest mistake people make about emotions is to deny them. To repress their feelings and try to obey to a path of correctness or "spiritual health". That's even worse than acting only by emotion, without assessment. Emotions are a fantastic tool and they should be used as such. Imagine how you would walk into a dark forrest without a compass. You won't know where you're heading. You won't know where you are. The forrest may be dark and scary, but that has nothing to do with your compass. The forrest is not your compass. Thinking that the compass is the only possible answer to your quest is just dumb. The compass will just show you where you are. It will also tell you what to do, but if you don't do it, don't blame it on the compass. To get out of the forrest you need to act, and take into account what the compass is telling you. If you deny the compass you're also out of track. You will rely only on luck to get out of the forrest, and that's stupid. If you have such a good tool with you why ignore it? Just because you ignored it in the past and didn't do nothing? Acting only by emotion is to pretend you're following your compass, when in fact you didn't. You just talk about it and expect things to change around. Well, a compass wouldn't change stuff around. You will change stuff around. ### Follow Your Thoughts And Be Guided By Your Emotions Emotions are just informations about your path. You walk on your path by following your thoughts. Every single thought you had it will materialize sooner or better. It will become your reality, one way or another. I won't go now into details about how this will happen, I plan to write about this in more detail later. For now it's ok to understand that your thoughts are the drivers of your vehicle. If you still think that your emotions are part of your being, you will tend to mix emotions into your thoughts. Some thoughts will please you, some don't. Some thoughts will seem easier to follow, some will seem really scary. You will even twist your thinking patterns based on emotions your thoughts triggers. If you separate your emotions into an external feedback system, your thoughts will be just thoughts. You will think to do something and that's that. After the thought has been released, it will be followed by an emotion. It will generate a feedback. But not in the same moment, a little bit later. That's your emotional feedback mechanism. How can you use this feedback mechanism? Well, there are permissive emotions and non-permissive emotions. If you experience joy, enthusiasm, hope, you'll be on the permissive side. If you'll experience sadness, anger, depression, you'll be on the non-permissive side. The permissive emotions are green lights. The non-permissive emotions are red lights. Whenever your thoughts trigger a permissive emotion it will be like "go" signal. Your thought is ready to be transformed in action. Whenever your thoughts trigger a non-permissive emotion it will be like a "stop" signal. Don't go there, don't do that, your thought won't be worth of becoming an action. When used like this, your emotional feedback mechanism will prove to be incredibly helpful. It will not be a cause of pain. You will understand that the only one who creates pain is you. The one who creates happiness is also you. And you will be told that by your emotional feedback mechanism. It will be an enlightening experience. Simple, but enlightening. Following this feedback mechanism is not simple though. Yes, when you manage to follow it in a constant way you will experience alignment and happiness. But until you manage to do it completely and correctly you will have to spend some time. There are people that think this is the whole purpose of the life. Finding happiness is only a matter of aligning your thoughts with your emotions, and then release the positive thoughts into actions. ### Twisted Feedback Mechanism What's happening if your compass is broken? If your emotional feedback mechanism is corrupt? If the thoughts triggers are chaotic and your actions are inconsistent? Well, you fix the compass. That's all you have to do. And if you know that this is only a compass, and is outside of you, you will save yourself same shame and guilt by thinking that is "something wrong with you". The vast majority of people has broken compasses, in fact. They act in disharmony with their true emotional feedback mechanism. That mechanism has been broken long time ago and they're still using it. Many people don't know there's something wrong with their emotional feedback mechanism. But it is. One of the biggest emotional corruptions is fear. Fear is the anticipation of something that might be going wrong in the future, and experiencing the outcome in the present moment. You fear something that it isn't real, but it might be. Fear is one of the most powerful emotions we have and in fact it is only a modified version of hope. Hope is the anticipation of something that it will go right in the future, and experiencing the outcome in the present moment. Many awaken people give advice to follow your fears. Or at least to confront them. Facing the fears equals to face the worst outcome from the future in the present moment. You fear confrontation with a business associate? You're afraid of what this can do to your business status? It's only in the future, it's only a potential of this current reality, better bring it in the present. And confront it. You will see that the negative outcome was just something you created in your mind. It's not real, only your fear makes it real by projecting it into the future. Bringing your fears in the present moment will destroy the projection. Fear is an emotion that you should follow. Back in time, fear was a very healthy way to stay alive. If there was something bad in meeting a leopard with your bare hands, and that leaved some scars, well, your emotional feedback system will trigger some fear next time you'll be near a leopard. You know what fears tell you, that you had negative experiences in the past, and then you'll do your acting. You may confront the leopard or run. Fight or flight. But fear was so corrupted during the last hundreds of years. It is used as a social conditioning mechanism. Traditional media – tv, newspapers, et all – is projecting potential bad outcome and that triggers fear in a lot of people. That raises the "fight or flight" state in all the media consumers. Why? Because it's easier to control people in a state of fear. They will try to protect themselves from the future bad outcome and they will do whatever it takes for that. This is the most relevant example of a twisted emotional feedback mechanism. There are also a lot of false hopes floating around, like fake religions, and a lot of physically induced positive emotions, like drug addictions. These are all corruptions of your own emotional feedback mechanism. If you want to travel safely, just keep your emotional feedback system away. It's crucial to trust your emotions. It's crucial to rely on your own feedback in order to avoid traps. Denying your emotions or allowing them to be twisted by false fears, false hopes, or drugs, will be as bad as breaking your compass during a storm. You might get out of the current storm, but nobody guarantees that you will survive the next one. Your journey is fantastic. You have so much to do, so much to learn and so much space to grow. Your travel must be well guided so you can experience all what you deserve. Keep your compass clean. Trust your emotions, but don't become a prisoner to them, as they are your only true friend. Don't let anyone twist your emotions. Follow your heart means trust your true self, face your fears and search for real, deep and simple joy. First published on: December 11, 2008 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Funderstanding-emotions%2F&text=Understanding%20Emotions&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Funderstanding-emotions%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Funderstanding-emotions%2F&t=Understanding%20Emotions https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Funderstanding-emotions%2F&title=Understanding%20Emotions Previous ### Freedom (/freedom/) Next ### Raw Food Update – 4th Month (/raw-food-update-4th-month/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Why I Chose to Open-Source MetaCellKit from addTaskManager URL: https://dragosroua.com/why-i-chose-to-open-source-metacellkit-from-addtaskmanager.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/why-i-chose-to-open-source-metacellkit-from-addtaskmanager/ Published: 2025-08-06 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 49 Categories: Apple and Mac OS X, Assess Decide Do, iPhone, Programming Bits Tags: addtaskmanager, coding, ios development, side projects https://medium.com/@dragosroua?source=post_page---byline--988715244ea4---------------------------------------There’s something quietly powerful about staying with a project long enough to see its deeper needs emerge. In a world obsessed with pivots and launches, we often overlook the value of iteration — of living with the code long after the dopamine rush of version 1.0 has faded. Over the past few years, while building and evolving *addTaskManager* (https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1492487688?mt=8), I found myself returning again and again to the same piece of UI: the humble table view cell. It sounds simple — just a row in a list — but in a productivity app like ours, it’s where the real interaction happens. It’s where tasks are created, reviewed, rescheduled, and often abandoned. That surface deserves attention. At first, I did what many developers do: I created specialized cells for different contexts. One for simple task names, another for tasks with due dates, one for showing context and priority, and yet another for long descriptions. Each one had its own quirks, bugs, and maintenance footprint. And each one added a tiny bit of friction to the development process. But because I stayed with the project, I didn’t settle for that. Over time, patterns emerged. I noticed that almost all task cells could be expressed with a combination of a title, an icon, a badge, and up to three pieces of metadata. With this realization came simplification: one parametric cell, infinitely configurable. Working seamlessly on iPhone, iPad and Mac (https://capitaloneshopping.com/p/apple-2025-mac-book-air-13-inch-/NPPNQZPMTD). That cell is now **MetaCellKit** — a Swift package born out of repetition, refinement, and eventually, elegance. **View on GitHub** (https://github.com/dragosroua/MetaCellKit)** ** # What MetaCellKit Is MetaCellKit is a highly flexible, card-style table view cell that supports up to three metadata views, automatic date formatting, and dynamic layout adaptation. It powers all the task lists inside *addTaskManager*, from simple master lists to detail-heavy project overviews. It’s more than just a visual component — it’s a reflection of what it means to polish something through repeated use. Every corner radius, shadow offset, and content compression rule was tested not just in theory, but in the daily grind of real users and real workflows. # Why Open Source It Now? Because after all these years, the component feels stable. It feels right. It solves a problem without getting in the way. And I know that if *addTaskManager* needed it, there are likely others out there building similar tools — task apps, note-taking interfaces, settings panels — who are stitching together multiple cells when they don’t really have to. MetaCellKit is my way of giving back a piece of the path I walked. # A Quiet Invitation If you’re building something that lives in a list, take a look. Clone the repo, drop it into your project, and see if it saves you a few hours — or a few headaches. Even more, if you’re at the early stages of a product or side project, know this: staying with it might teach you things you didn’t expect. Not everything worth building comes fast. Some of it comes from showing up, again and again, to the same piece of code and quietly making it better. And maybe, someday, you’ll extract a small gem from your own journey — and share it with the rest of us. # Explore MetaCellKit on GitHub https://github.com/dragosroua/MetaCellKit (https://github.com/dragosroua/MetaCellKit) First published on: August 6, 2025 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-i-chose-to-open-source-metacellkit-from-addtaskmanager%2F&text=Why%20I%20Chose%20to%20Open-Source%20MetaCellKit%20from%20addTaskManager&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-i-chose-to-open-source-metacellkit-from-addtaskmanager%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-i-chose-to-open-source-metacellkit-from-addtaskmanager%2F&t=Why%20I%20Chose%20to%20Open-Source%20MetaCellKit%20from%20addTaskManager https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-i-chose-to-open-source-metacellkit-from-addtaskmanager%2F&title=Why%20I%20Chose%20to%20Open-Source%20MetaCellKit%20from%20addTaskManager Previous ### Learning Solidity – A Flipping Journey (/learning-solidity-a-flipping-journey/) Next ### AI Won’t Take Your Job — Because It Already Took It (/ai-wont-take-your-job-because-it-already-took-it/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 39 Things URL: https://dragosroua.com/39-things.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/39-things/ Published: 2009-11-10 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 48 Categories: Blogging, Success and Wellness Tags: lessons learned, list post, wisdom Today I'm turning 39. And I thought it would be a good moment to post a list about 39 things I learned so far in my life. Or things that seems important to me now. Or just things. 1. Regrets are like plastic surgery: they can't really improve anything and they're expensive as hell. 2. Money is good, but you're way much better than your bank account. 3. Hate is useless. No matter at what end of it are you. 4. Love survives. Somehow. 5. You can be fooled by the wrap sometimes, but everything you receive from life is in fact a gift. 6. You're as good as you want to be. 7. Friends are in your heart, even if they aren't in your life for many years. 8. Goals are good, but no better than the mechanical rabbit at a dog race. At the end of the race, they're useless. 9. Believe everything you want, it will turn out to be true at some point. 10. Day dreaming is like oxygen for your mind. If you can't day dream, you're slowly suffocating. 11. Inside or outside yourself, travel is a miraculous thing. 12. Work pays off. 13. It's ok not to like somebody. 14. Your words are more powerful than you think. Use with caution. 15. No matter how much you have, it's always about how much you give. 16. I'm much better at starting things than at managing them. I made peace with that. 17. When you really need someone or something, it will appear in your life. You may not see it, but it's there. 18. I bumped into many "it seems there's no way to get over this" moments in my life. They're all in the past now. 19. Whatever you speak to yourself into your mind, you will silently go to others around you. Treat yourself nice. 20. Hangovers are temporary. So it's pain. 21. Whenever you feel you can't do it anymore, you can do it at least twice the time you did it. That's a fact. 22. Believe your intuition. Just don't let it know that, it will inflate with pride and lose accuracy. 23. Forgive fast, forgive often. 24. You have to repeat your lessons until you learn them. Can't trick the system on this one. 25. There is no such thing as an "inappropriate moment". Everything happens on time. 26. You don't need permission to be happy. Nor acceptance or validation. 27. Fighting is such an energy waster. So much healthier to go the gym instead. 28. When you want something, go get it. Don't fantasize about having it. 29. You can make mistakes. That's ok. 30. Other people can make mistakes. That's ok too. 31. Everything happens for a reason. You may not see it right away, but it's there all the time. 32. What you see is mostly what you think you see. Looking back, a lot of stuff looks different to me now. 33. Success is not a career, a family or wealth. Success is happiness acknowledged. 34. Happiness is a process, not a goal. 35. Somebody may hurt you at some point and you may hurt somebody. Pain is part of the game. Suffering is optional. 36. Everything you get, you wanted at some point. You only get what you want. 37. It's ok to be loved by other people, even if you don't love yourself. 38. Sometimes I get so bored with elevated sentences about life, like the ones I wrote here. I really do. 39. Stop doing stuff. Start living your life. First published on: November 10, 2009 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F39-things%2F&text=39%20Things&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F39-things%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F39-things%2F&t=39%20Things https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F39-things%2F&title=39%20Things Previous ### 7 Reasons To Enjoy Life More (/7-reasons-to-enjoy-life-more/) Next ### Goals and Mechanical Rabbits (/goals-and-mechanical-rabbits/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 7 Things I Learned From My 3 Year Old Girl URL: https://dragosroua.com/7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl/ Published: 2009-03-14 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 48 Categories: Parenting, Personal Development Tags: family, learning, lessons learned, list post *November 2025 update: all posts in this series now have enhanced semantic navigation. You can browse all related posts in this specific topic and even have a hub page (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series/), from where you can see all of them.* Today is Bianca's 3rd anniversary. She is the most precious gift life gave me so far. I am just happy to be around her and she is making me so happy just by being around. Since she came into our lives, everything changed. Each year, I find myself learning more from her than from my books, my personal development workshops, my any other source of information . When she was one, I learned that "Once you're down, there are literally a *gazillion* ways to get up again." which, along with other 6 things made from my first round of 7 things I learned from my one year girl (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-girl/). When she was two, I learned that "The world is what you say it is" which, along with other 6 things made from my second round of 7 things I learned from my two year old girl (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-2-year-old-girl/). This is what I learned from my 3 year old daughter last year: ## 1. Do things on your own During the last year she had an irrepressible need of doing things on her own. She wants to be there when I assemble furniture, when I plant trees in the garden, when I clean the house (/how-to-clean-up-your-house/), when I cook, when I write, when I check my emails on my iPhone. And she wants to do everything I do, on her own. Maybe some of her experiences are difficult and she's having a hard time trying to do complicated stuff but she's enjoying every second of it. Life is better when is experienced first hand. ## 2. Love is the same, regardless of the loved persons Her mom, my beloved wife Diana, is having a special relationship with her. They're playing together, they're laughing together, they're watching cartoons (/personal-development-with-dumbo/) together. With me, she is trying to play games or to help me with harder tasks. With her grand parents, she's inventing on the spot some new moves or activities. With her English kindergarten friends – although she's not speaking yet very good English – she's playing like nothing is wrong. Love is the same and is coming from the inside, it's not a function of the person you love. ## 3. Making friends is the easiest thing in the world I'm amazed by her capacity to relate with unknown persons. When we eat out, every waiter is trying to talk with her and she is so responsive, like she knows the guy from the day she was born. She doesn't reject anybody, unless the person is really annoying and/or boring. Kids don't have social constraints when it comes to relationships (/social-networking-versus-real-life-relationships/), they're just interacting naturally with everybody around. No need to exchange cards, phone numbers or to ask for a favor. Bianca is making friends like this is the easiest thing in the world. And I learned from her that this is the easiest thing in the world. ## 4. Don't fake it When she wants something, she really wants something. If she doesn't get it, she cries. Instantly and with big tears. And you know what: she doesn't fake it. When she is happy she can laugh for half an hour continuously. And she doesn't fake it either. When she's upset, she's really upset. When she's joyful, she's really joyful. I don't think I ever saw her faking something, even when she's trying to pretend she's upset, she's so authentic about her pretending. There's no need to fake sadness or joy (/understanding-emotions/), things are so much better when you give yourself permission to be authentic. ## 5. Learning is better Last year she had an uninterrupted flow of lessons: she started to talk, she started going to the kindergarten, she started to be more and more autonomous. She's embracing totally every new experience and she is silently learning. Even when she is not sharing things with us or when she's not learning directly from us we know that she's listening, she's watching and she's integrating every experience into her life. At some moment we're just amazed by an unexpected phrase she said, or with a certain sequence of activities she performs on her own, without any help from us. Learning is better. ## 6. Endless playing I am amazed about her capacity to play. In every place, in every situation, in every physical state. She plays when she's tired, she plays when she's happy (/training-yourself-for-happiness/), she plays when she's outside the house, when she's alone, when she's with us, she plays everywhere. If I would look through her eyes I'm sure I would see the world as a huge playground, a place created and maintained for our infinite appetite to play. And I love to look at the world through her eyes. ## 7. Always like the first time Last year she started to look at short cartoon movies. In fact, with her astounding learning capacity, she started to learn almost all Disney movies we have. But despite the fact she knows the movies by heart (and she can even sing some small passages from Mamma Mia) she constantly ask as to play the same movie again and again. The joy she's expressing each time is fantastic. It seems like each time she looks at a movie is like the first time. And, in fact, she is. And I learned how to do the same: I can look at the same thing a thousand time and still find something new in it. I just can't wait to see what I will learn this year. ? First published on: March 14, 2009 ### 👧 7 Things I Learned From My Daughter Series 3 Years Old Part 3 of 7 View all 7 posts → (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-daughter-series/) ← Previous 2 Years Old 7 Things I Learned From My 2 Year Old Girl (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-2-year-old-girl/) Next → 4 Years Old 7 Things I Learned From My 4 Year Old Girl (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-4-year-old-girl/) #### Complete Series: 1. 1 Year Old: 7 Things I Learned From My One Year Old Girl (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-one-year-old-girl/) 2. 2 Years Old: 7 Things I Learned From My 2 Year Old Girl (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-2-year-old-girl/) 3. 3 Years Old: 7 Things I Learned From My 3 Year Old Girl (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl/) 4. 4 Years Old: 7 Things I Learned From My 4 Year Old Girl (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-4-year-old-girl/) 5. 5 Years Old: 7 Things I Learned From My 5 Year Old Girl (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-5-year-old-girl/) 6. 6 Years Old: 7 Things I Learned From My 6 Year Old Daughter (/7-things-i-learned-from-my-6-year-old-daughter/) 7. 7 Years Old: 7 Gifts I Got From My 7 Year Old Daughter (/7-gifts-i-got-from-my-7-year-old-daughter/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl%2F&text=7%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%203%20Year%20Old%20Girl&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl%2F&t=7%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%203%20Year%20Old%20Girl https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F7-things-i-learned-from-my-3-year-old-girl%2F&title=7%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20My%203%20Year%20Old%20Girl Previous ### 77 Reasons To Love Your Life (/77-reasons-to-love-your-life/) Next ### Passion Is Power (/passion-is-power/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 8 Things I Learned From Starting My 8th Business URL: https://dragosroua.com/8-things-learned-starting-8th-business.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/8-things-learned-starting-8th-business/ Published: 2014-06-01 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 48 Categories: Business, Personal Development Tags: entrepreneurship, lessons learned, list post A few weeks ago I wrote about disruption (/open-connect-connect-hub-disruption/), and how to embrace it. The context was related to my sudden involvement in a new business (doubled by a drastic change in lifestyle, but that’s another story). The new business, a co-working space in Bucharest, called Connect Hub, is up and running now, and although it’s been opened for less than 2 months, is going strong. The first two months were hectic, to say the least, but now the chaos seems to decrease in intensity. We’re slowly approaching the **attention** stage of the business. I found the speed at which we browsed through** enthusiasm** and **naivety** quite encouraging (but that would be, somehow, the expected behaviour, you know – after you started 7 businesses, it is supposed to know a little bit about this thing). By the way, if you don’t know anything about these “business ages”, I recommend you to read the original article: The 7 Ages Of An Online Business (/the-7-ages-of-a-business/). Now, back to the article. I’ll keep it short. These are the 8 lessons I learned during the last few months, since I started to apply business processes on top of my weekly, free Open Connect (http://openconnect.ro) event. ## 1. Clients First, Processes Later When I started the project, when people in the Open Connect community agreed they would like to move together in a new place, I went to see some office spaces in office buildings with them. Like, literally, I gathered a few companies and freelancers from the Open Connect community and we went together to see those places. I also let them know that I need a firm commitment from them. I listened to their requests, suggestions and ideas. Some of theirs needs I was able to fulfil, some not, but I didn’t enter the business all by myself, without any customer. I took them with me even before the space was ready. All my other business were started differently. They were mostly projections, they were built on expectations rather than verified reality. Some of these expectations worked, some of the projections “clicked”, but starting directly with the clients, this time, proved to be a very good risk management approach. ## 2. Business Partnerships Can Go Wrong At Times. It’s Ok. In the very early stages of a business there’s a lot of stress. Things can evolve insanely fast. And, somehow, this stress can make some of your partners to feel insecure. In other words, they may get the cold feet and want to get out It’s ok. It’s allowed. I mean, it’s not pleasant at all, but it’s something that should be taken into account and managed. Somehow. In my experience, the best way to manage these situations is communication. Playing the prima donna or getting passive-aggressive may give you some immediate advantage, but in the long run it won’t work well. If you’re the founder, that’s tough. It’s like the earth is shaken under your feet, you feel unsupported and you have to do some serious extra struggle to patch up this process. Be prepared. ## 3. Early Delegation Is Lethal – Don’t Do It in the very early stages of a start-up, you need to be in control. But hey, don’t be a control freak. You need that control in order to evaluate and measure (see number 6, below). That’s one of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in other startups: everybody makes a list of their tasks, now let’s look each in his own direction and expect everything to work smoothly. Well, guess what, it doesn’t. Not only it doesn’t, but it sets the ground for an implosion, sooner or later. Because, in the early stages, there’s a lot of entropy, of unexpected stuff and some clear head should be aware of this and keep things under control. In the beginning, as a founder, you are responsible for the vision. You know where you want to go. You know how you will go there. So, man up, stand before everyone else and let them know that they should report to you somehow. Don’t patronise them, and explain why you do this, but also be very firm and set up clear boundaries. Equally important is to give the necessary tools to the rest of the team. It’s a very thin line between being a one man show, and putting together an elastic and efficient small team. And by small, I mean really small: the entire hub is run right now by a team of 2 people, with 2 extra helps every once in a while. ## 4. It Hurts To Stick To The Plan. It Hurts Even More Not To After we found a suitable space in an offices building, we made a project with an interior designer. We had to design a space that was equally appealing as a work-space, and flexible for an event venue (that’s basically the definition of a hub). Sticking to the plans in Autodesk was painful at times: we didn’t have all the materials, some of them were more expensive than we thought, some of them required more time to be assembled, and so on ad so forth. But we did whatever it took to stick to the plan. And people were amazed: “guys, you did it exactly like in the pictures”. A few weeks ago a client who held a workshop in the hub told me that they wanted to work with us because “they heard on the internet that the space was exactly like in the pictures”. It was one of the biggest compliments I received in the last couple of months. ## 5. Health Is Not Optional I’m not kidding. The effort required to make things happening in the first few months of a start-up can be really taxing. I felt this really, really hard this time, even if I’m keeping an active lifestyle, I eat right, I run, I teach tango and so on. Well, during the first few weeks it was so time consuming that I couldn’t teach tango anymore (but I got back again to teaching after the first month). The fatigue may not be felt only on the physical level. You may get mentally exhausted, you may get emotionally unstable and that’s as dangerous as getting sick. After a couple of wrong steps in this area I backed up and doubled the time for myself (outside of the business) and also improved my diet even more. One more thing: being healthy during these times it’s not optional. It’s compulsory. You are the one holding the vision, you are the one training the team, you are the one responsible for everything that happens. If people around you are getting crazy (and, if there is even a small penchant for playing the drama queen, believe me, under this stress, people will play the drama queen big time), so, if they are getting crazy, it’s your task to keep a clear mind, a cold head and a strong vision. ## 6. If You Don’t Measure It, It Doesn’t Exist Especially because of the speed, you will find it difficult to measure everything around you. Well, if you’re not measuring it, it will be lost. In the very early stages of a business, a lot of stuff is happening, a lot of new and unexpected situations are created, and each and any one of them needs to be properly integrated. Not all of them will be solved. Well, not all of them will be solved in an efficient way, anyway: there will be losses, misunderstandings, lost opportunities. But all of them can be measured. And that’s something that is very, very often overlooked. For instance, we wanted to implement a marketing idea, a series of events, for about a week, grouped around a common theme. The implementation was a big fail, nothing worked well. But at the end of it, I insisted to measure it, and it turned out that, despite the emotional cost of feeling that we worked for nothing, there were some real benefits. Not as big as we expected them, but at least it was something. If we didn’t measure this week, it would have been passed under the “failure” label. Which was not only bad, but inaccurate as well. ## 7. The Fluffiness Of The First Few Months Is Allowed This one is in very close connection with the one above. By “fluffiness” I mean the fuzziness of the processes, the continuous movement from one day to another. No matter how thoroughly you plan, no matter how many scenarios you make, at some point, things will go crazy. It is supposed to be like this, you know. You’re in an uncharted territory. That’s why it’s called a “start-up”, because you’re just starting things up. It’s not like you’re having a blueprint and everything will fall into places. Well, when things are going crazy, just cope with it. Don’t expect that everyone around will be functional 100 percent. Don’t get angry if they mess up. And there were a lot of mess-ups. Some clients were not politely treated, some opportunities were lost, but, at the end of the day, I accepted that as an inherent cost of the early days. The fluffiness of the first few months will soon be replaced by clear process and everybody will know what are the benefits of every good move and what are the costs of any bad move. I accepted this “fluffiness” as a witness period, so we can refer to it later on, when everything will work right. ## 8. I Still Have It 🙂 Entrepreneurship is not a thing you do every once in a while. Once you did it, it's in your blood. You are “infected”. For the past 5-6 years I functioned as a digital nomad, a one-man-show working in coffee shops, starting ventures related to the online, things that kept me in a quite comfortable state of “floating”. After 10 years of hard core entrepreneurship, I guess this approach was a healthy reaction and I enjoyed every minute of it. But now, with Connect Hub, I started something in the real world, with real people, real desks, and, yes, even real toilet paper. Toilet paper that needs to be changed, you know, every once in a while. And fast. Otherwise the saying: “the shit just hit the fan” will get a very realistic touch, pardon my English. So, I still have it. I can still do it, I can still get involved in creating and managing processes in the real world. I do feel a bit rusty in some areas, and some things changed during the last 5-6 years, but, overall, I think I’m on the right track again. There’s still a lot of stuff to be done, and I expect at least 6-9 months of hand-on activity until I will decide to delegate the wheel to somebody else. Because, obviously. I would want to start something new. 🙂 First published on: June 1, 2014 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F8-things-learned-starting-8th-business%2F&text=8%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20Starting%20My%208th%20Business&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F8-things-learned-starting-8th-business%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F8-things-learned-starting-8th-business%2F&t=8%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20Starting%20My%208th%20Business https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F8-things-learned-starting-8th-business%2F&title=8%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20Starting%20My%208th%20Business Previous ### The Mud Race (/mud-race/) Next ### Auto-Pilot Answers And How They Can Eat Your Life Up (/auto-pilot-answers-can-eat-life/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Assess Decide Do – Colors And Icons Significance URL: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/ Published: 2025-11-24 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 48 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Assess Decide Do, Digital Tools Tags: assess, decide, do, framework For over 15 years, the Assess-Decide-Do framework has used a consistent visual system. Three colors and three symbols, each one supporting a specific function. If you've used addTaskManager (https://addtaskmanager.com) or worked with ADD materials, you already know them: red for Assess, orange for Decide, green for Do. Then for the icons: a plus sign, a question mark, a minus sign. These weren't arbitrary choices. They create a visual language that mirrors how traffic signals work—a system everyone already understands. But I've never published the reasoning at the theoretical level, only within the app implementation itself. Given the momentum my framework is getting these days, including AI integrations (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/), the time has come for a detailed explanation. ## Red for Assess: Stop and Capture Assess is red because red means stop. Just like you stop your car at a red light, you stop in Assess to offload information from your mind into the system. The **plus sign (+)** represents what's actually happening in this realm: you're adding to the system. Assess overloads the system with data—thoughts, tasks, ideas, dreams, possibilities (/the-overwhelming-power-of-small-steps/). Everything gets captured without immediate commitment or action. Red creates the pause you need to externalize what's in your head. It's the signal that says: don't keep driving forward with all this mental cargo. Stop. Unload it. Get it out of your mind and into a container where it can be examined later. ## Orange for Decide: Get Ready Decide is orange because orange means prepare. Just like an orange traffic light tells you to get ready before the green, the Decide realm is where you prepare yourself by making conscious choices about what matters. The **question mark (?)** represents the core activity here: pondering. You're asking questions (/why-being-successful/) about each captured item. Is this important? Does this align with my priorities? What context does this need? When should this happen? Do I have enough resources for it right now? Orange creates the transition space between capture and execution. You're not passively collecting anymore, and you're not yet in full action mode. You're actively planning, assigning context, setting commitments. ## Green for Do: Move Forward Do is green because green means go. Just like you move forward at a green light on a crossroad, you move forward in Do without distraction (/humans-need-entropy/) or hesitation. The **minus sign (?)** represents what happens in this realm: you take items out of the system by completing them. Each finished task is eliminated through execution. The minus doesn't mean deletion—it means transformation from intention to liveline (ADD treats every completion not as a deadline, but as a liveline). Green signals committed execution. When you're in Do, you're not capturing new things or reconsidering priorities. You're executing on what you've already decided matters. ## So Simple It Just Blends In The traffic light metaphor does more than make the framework memorable. It taps into a pattern you've internalized since childhood: red-orange-green as a sequence of behaviors. You don't need to think about what red means. You don't need to remember that orange comes between red and green. The system leverages existing mental models rather than requiring you to learn something new. The symbols reinforce the function: - Plus (+) for adding to the system - Question mark (?) for evaluating what's there - Minus (?) for completing and removing Together, the colors and symbols create immediate visual feedback about where you are and what you should be doing. When your Assess list is overflowing with red items, you know you need to move things through to Decide. When everything's stuck in orange, you're in decision paralysis. When Do is overflowing, you know you might be in a burnout (/5-early-signs-of-burnout-and-the-most-common-cause-for-it/). The system shows you the imbalance without requiring conscious analysis every single time. ## Why I'm Publishing This Now This information has lived on addtaskmanager.com (https://addtaskmanager.com) for over a decade, embedded in the implementation documentation. Anyone using the app could see it. But it existed only at the practical level—in the tool itself, not as standalone theory. The other day I was testing several LLMs (Grok, Gemini, ChatGPT), asking them to create infographics using the Assess-Decide-Do framework. Every single one hallucinated the visual system. They invented blue for Assess, gave me lightbulbs and compasses, created combinations that looked reasonable but were completely wrong. Until I directed them to addtaskmanager.com. Then they got it right, because the information was there in the implementation docs. That's when I realized: I've kept this at the implementation level for 15 years. It worked perfectly for people using the system, but it wasn't available as theory. Anyone wanting to work with ADD conceptually—to teach it, write about it, build their own tools (https://github.com/dragosroua/claude-assess-decide-do-mega-prompt)—had to either use the app or guess. So here it is: the visual language of Assess-Decide-Do, separated from any specific implementation. Red means stop and capture. Orange means prepare and decide. Green means execute and complete. Plus for adding, question mark for evaluating, minus for finishing. It's a system designed to work with your existing mental models, not against them. Sometimes the most useful documentation is the stuff you thought everyone already knew. First published on: November 24, 2025 ### ⚡ Assess-Decide-Do Framework Design & Meaning Part 6 of 11 View all 11 posts → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) ← Previous Stage 3: Do Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) Next → AI Evolution Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) 2. Evolution: Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) 3. Stage 1: Assess: Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) 4. Stage 2: Decide: Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) 5. Stage 3: Do: Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) 6. Design & Meaning: Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) 7. AI Evolution: Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) 8. Skills Architecture: Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) 9. Ecosystem Expansion: From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) 10. Always-On Agent: Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) 11. Multi-Agent Council: LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance%2F&text=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20%E2%80%93%20Colors%20And%20Icons%20Significance&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance%2F&t=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20%E2%80%93%20Colors%20And%20Icons%20Significance https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance%2F&title=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20%E2%80%93%20Colors%20And%20Icons%20Significance Previous ### Can AI (Really) Understand How You Think? Well, Maybe… (/can-ai-really-understand-how-you-think-well-maybe/) Next ### 7 Random Facts About Vietnam (/7-random-facts-about-vietnam/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How to Deal With Rejection: 5 Fresh Ways to Look at Getting Rejected URL: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-deal-with-rejection-5-fresh-ways-to-look-at-getting-rejected.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/how-to-deal-with-rejection-5-fresh-ways-to-look-at-getting-rejected/ Published: 2010-04-05 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 48 Categories: Relationships and Society Tags: confidence, courage, how to, mindset, resilience This is a guest post from my friend Henri Junttila, @henrijunttila. Learning how to deal with rejection is tough. Depending on how you get rejected and what for, it may hurt a lot or it may hurt a little. I'm a big believer in the fact that we create our own reality. Why do you react to some things, while I do not? It's because of our personal experiences and our beliefs. Most of these beliefs can be changed if we want to, so you can remove the fear you have for getting rejected. You can increase your courage and you can remove the label of "not being good enough", just to name a few examples. Here are 5 fresh tips on how to deal with rejection: ### 1. Release Perfectionism Why are we afraid of getting rejected? Is it because we have to seem like we're perfect? Have we been taught to keep up a charade and not others see our weaknesses? For a long time, I battled with perfectionism and it led me to reject rejection. I was in my own imaginary world and refused to face reality. It wasn't until I started letting go of being perfect that I started making fast progress. It's okay to show people that you aren't Zeus the Greek God. We all have vulnerabilities and we all make mistakes. If you show some of them to your audience or the people you hang out with, they will just be able to relate to you more. ### 2. It's a Learning Opportunity Getting rejected is one of the best learning opportunities, that is, if you pay attention and learn from the experience. If you get rejected and blame someone else, you're probably not going to get much out of the interaction. If, however, you start thinking about what you could've done better, you're on to something. If you can't figure it out, ask the person or company that rejected you. If you sent in a guest post to a blogger, ask why it got rejected. Sometimes it's just your writing that doesn't fit, but sometimes it's because your writing has flaws in it. Figuring out these flaws will only make you better. If the response is that your grammar sucks, at least you'll know what to work on. ### 3. Be Aware of Your Programming We've all been rejected when we grew up, so we've learned to think of rejection as something bad. If we walk up to a pretty girl (or man, if you're a girl), we get scared because we might get rejected. But what if that girl wasn't a good fit for you in the first place? What if she hadn't rejected you and you would've gotten married, and lived a horrible life with lots of fighting. Look at the rejection as a blessing in disguise. Now you can go forth and find a girl that actually is a good fit for you. The point I am trying to make is this: you cannot know what the rejection means. In the short-term it might feel bad, but you have no idea what it teaches you or what it might lead to. You cannot judge the rejection as something good or bad in most cases. Constantly looking at the negative, even when it isn't necessary, isn't productive. Believe me, I've been there and done that. ### 4. No Rejection, No Growth What would happen if you were never rejected? Would you grow as a human being? Would you need to grow? If everyone says yes to you, you wouldn't need to change anything and you wouldn't need to learn anything. That would be a pretty boring life, wouldn't it? I personally have come to enjoy getting rejected (in most cases) and getting criticized (/100-ways-live-better-life-83-listen-critics/), because I know it's an opportunity for me to grow. I've learned that resisting or hiding from rejection is useless. My ultimate goal is to grow, evolve and become brilliantly better. If I am avoiding rejection then I am in conflict with my goal. It helps to step back and ask yourself what your goal is and if you're moving away from it with the actions you take every day. ### 5. Rejection is Essential to Success If rejection is necessary for growth then we can probably assume that rejection is essential to success. There are many different ways you can look at this. If you run a small company, lose a contract and go bankrupt, is that success? Again, you cannot really know what this will lead to. In that instance, it wasn't success if you look at it from the viewpoint of making money, but I'm sure you can learn something from the experience of going bankrupt that you can apply to your next endeavor. It all comes back to your own perception of reality. You can use an effective map or a broken map. It is completely up to you. But I've found that the more I align myself with reality, the faster I am able to make progress and grow, in both business and life. Sometimes things hurt, but that's just how life is. It isn't all a walk in the park, although it surely can be. By becoming aware of your own programming, you can start to remove the bad and replace it with the good. *Author Bio: Henri Junttila is a lifestyle superhero, who writes about self-improvement for conscious people at his blog, the Wake Up Cloud. Make sure you check out his free Discover Your Passion in 5 Days e-course if you're serious about living a passionate life.* First published on: April 5, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-deal-with-rejection-5-fresh-ways-to-look-at-getting-rejected%2F&text=How%20to%20Deal%20With%20Rejection%3A%205%20Fresh%20Ways%20to%20Look%20at%20Getting%20Rejected&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-deal-with-rejection-5-fresh-ways-to-look-at-getting-rejected%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-deal-with-rejection-5-fresh-ways-to-look-at-getting-rejected%2F&t=How%20to%20Deal%20With%20Rejection%3A%205%20Fresh%20Ways%20to%20Look%20at%20Getting%20Rejected https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fhow-to-deal-with-rejection-5-fresh-ways-to-look-at-getting-rejected%2F&title=How%20to%20Deal%20With%20Rejection%3A%205%20Fresh%20Ways%20to%20Look%20at%20Getting%20Rejected Previous ### Dream Big, Act Bigger (/dream-big-act-bigger/) Next ### The Magic Fairy Exercise (/the-magic-fairy-exercise/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Like A Fish In The Water URL: https://dragosroua.com/like-a-fish-in-the-water.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/like-a-fish-in-the-water/ Published: 2021-09-22 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 48 Categories: Financial Resilience, Relationships and Society Tags: 365 challenge, financial freedom, financial habits, money mindset When I was little, I used to fish with my bear hands in a small river near my grandfather's house, in the countryside. It was a relatively wide river, but very shallow, with just two, three different arms, each not deeper than my ankle. We had this easy, but very effective technique: at the intersection of two river arms we were building rapidly, with our bare hands, a small sand dam (the river bed was very sandy), diverting the water from one arm to the other. At the same time, some of use were going to the end of the drying arm, and build another sand dam, but this time with a very tight passage in the middle. As the fishes would try and swim downstream, trying to escape, they were forced to go through the hole in the middle of the second dam. Where our bowls were waiting for them. It was almost too easy. ## The Invisible Sand Dams Of Our Lives The other day I remembered these episodes very vividly. It took me a while to understand why, but eventually it came to me. Our world is very much like that river. People who control the sand can build at any given time small dams, redirecting us, the fishes, wherever they want. I am sure that, back in the real river, the real fishes somehow felt that something wasn't right. They must have feel the level of water going down rapidly and the imminence of some danger. But they couldn't assign it to any known cause, because it was all inside their ecosystem. For them, this must have been some sort of "well, the water is just going down, we have to swim for our lives". And they were swimming wherever the new riverbed would lead them, not questioning one second what happens. And then, when they were facing that little passage in the second dam, they must have think: "this is the only way out, we have to go through this, and we will be ok". Alas, that tiny hole was the end of their lives. It's the same in our modern world. The boundaries of our world are rapidly changing, as the people in power move the sand dams. We swim not in an ocean, but in a river controlled by somebody else. Our way becomes narrower and narrower, and, although we may feel, at times, that something is not quite right, that some danger is imminent, we can't assign the real cause to it. Because that cause is outside our known ecosystem. We are like a fish in the water, not even imagining there's someone more powerful, altering our path as they see fit, making us bounce from sand dam to sand dam. And then, when we finally see some tiny way out, we rush to that place, hoping it would be our redemption. Of course, just like the fish swimming right into our bowls, that narrow passage is not our freedom, that promise of redemption is actually our demise, our death. Think for a while how many times this played out in our history. Try to remember how many times we were "redirected" to different paths, by bigger societal forces, and "there was nothing to do about it". ## The Almost Impossible Escape Our fishing technique was so effective, that we believed for years no fish can escape it. And yet, we eventually discovered it is possible to escape. It's very difficult, almost impossible, but it can happen. Simply put, the way out is the other way. Swimming upstream. The only fishes that could escape us were those who, sensing us while we were building the first dam, were stopping and changing direction abruptly, swimming in the other direction. But they were very few. The vast majority were passing between our legs and hands, without the tiniest problem: "well, it's just some movement of the sand, nothing will happen, let's all swim downstream, like we always did". Swimming upstream means going against the establishment. And that's hard. Not only because the establishment is almost always more powerful than you, but also because it requires more energy and more attention. You can't afford to rest. You have to be aware. All. The. Time. On top of that, you will also get some opposition from your own kind, who, while swimming downstream, will give you the eye, or, even worse, they will force you to go in the same direction, with them. Don't do that. Resist. Swim upstream. *Photo by Brandon (https://unsplash.com/@greener_30?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/trout?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: September 22, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flike-a-fish-in-the-water%2F&text=Like%20A%20Fish%20In%20The%20Water&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flike-a-fish-in-the-water%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flike-a-fish-in-the-water%2F&t=Like%20A%20Fish%20In%20The%20Water https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Flike-a-fish-in-the-water%2F&title=Like%20A%20Fish%20In%20The%20Water Previous ### Every Hammer Is Just Looking For Some Nails (/every-hammer-is-just-looking-for-some-nails/) Next ### The Subtle Art Of Improvisation (/the-subtle-art-of-improvisation/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # MAC OS X – Quicksilver: instantly create text files and prepend or append text to them URL: https://dragosroua.com/mac-os-x-quicksilver-instantly-create-text-files-and-prepend-or-append-text-to-them.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/mac-os-x-quicksilver-instantly-create-text-files-and-prepend-or-append-text-to-them/ Published: 2007-01-25 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 48 Categories: Apple and Mac OS X, Digital Tools, Programming Bits Tags: automation, coding, efficiency, how to, tools Suppose you are in the middle of something, reading a post on a blog, or writing a fine article in your editor of choice, or even writing some code for your ground breaking web 2.0 application. And ka-boum: you have an idea! Something so interesting, so juicy and fun to think about crosses your mind, than you feel you can't live anymore until you actually write down that piece of thought. Somewhere, somehow. So there you go: 1. leave your current activity/application 2. open Finder (or some other program menu containing an outliner application shortcut, for instance) 3. open that outliner application 4. open a new file in it 5. start writing the marvelous idea 6. hit save as menu item 7. chose location and save 8. close the outliner application 9. return to your current activity/application But here's how it would look like, if you would use Quicksilver: 1. type CTRL + spacebar to invoke Quicksilver window (while having the current activity/application still in front of you) 2. type "." and start writing your marvelous idea 3. hit TAB and type "cre.." meaning the first letters of your "Create file" action of Quicksilver, and then enter (this really counts like a single action) 4. chose location and save 5. hit escape to hide Quicksilver window Huh! We are four steps shorter than the original approach. That counts for less physical work, and less time, almost half, right? Nice, isn't it? But that's not the only advantage: you actually remain *in the flow*, while your thoughts are free to fly. Isn't that *really* nice? So, how we actually do that? We will learn – in less than 5 minutes – how to quickly create files with just a couple of keystrokes. We will then prepend text to them, like in an idea stack, where the last idea must be the first one. And then we will append text to them, like in a journal that we keep while actually working. It's fun to have all that power of getting things out of your head, while still doing some other stuff. Let's start: ignite Quicksilver with your keystroke of choice, mine is CTRL + Spacebar: Now, if you just type, Quicksilver will act like an application launcher, and start searching for the closest match of your typing, being that an application or a file. If you just want to quickly start typing, just press "." and start typing. You see that in the right pane the default selected action is "Large Type", which does nothing but print your text all over the screen. Preety nifty, to be honest, but we don't want that for now. We want to instantly create a file from what we wrote, so we hit Tab, and the type "cre…", meaning the first letters of the action "Create file…". Don't worry, Quicksilver will learn from your behaviour, and in time, the most used action will be presented first, replacing the one you see right now. After we chosed the "Create file…" action, all we have to do is hit Enter and chose a name and destination for our newly created file: Took you far more less to do that, that it took for me to write it… Let's go even further, let's prepend some text to our newly created file. Ignite Quicksilver again, press "." and start the most recent idea you had. Now hit Tab and type "pre…" which will bring you the "Prepend to…" action, and, surprise, there's a third pane, from which you will actually chose the file. /wp-content/uploads/2007/01/quicksilver-prepend-text-to-file.png In the third pane, the one in the picture above, start writing the name of your file, or, even simpler, the name of the folder which contains your file, let's say "Documents". Quicksilver will open another window below the third pane, where you will navigate in the folder structure, using arrows keys. Simple stuff. Really simple and effective stuff. And for the appending operation, the drill is almost the same: ignite Quicksilver, press ".", start typing, hit Tab, and the type "appe…", meaning the first letter of the "Append to…" action. In the third pane, start looking for your document, select it and hit Enter. /wp-content/uploads/2007/01/quicksilver-append-text-to-file.png We learned in less than 5 minutes how to quickly create text files from our random thoughts or notes, and then how to append or to prepend text to them. It's like having a whole new layer of functionality on top of your whole Mac, a layer that you access by simply typing CTRL + Spacebar. That was for today, thank you for reading and look forward to see you again here for more tips. [tags]Quicksilver, Mac OS X, productivity[/tags] First published on: January 25, 2007 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. 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Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Oversimplifying Versus Analysis Paralysis URL: https://dragosroua.com/oversimplifying-versus-analysis-paralysis.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/oversimplifying-versus-analysis-paralysis/ Published: 2021-09-02 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 48 Categories: Financial Resilience, Location Independence, Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, decision making, financial freedom, framework Entropy is a wonderful concept. It measures the degree of disorder or randomness in a system. If you really think about it, being able to measure how messy something is it's actually mesmerizing. Because if we know how fucked up things are, we can also have a rough idea about the effort required to get everything back on track. We're dealing with entropy on a daily basis. Our reality is by default in a continuous state of disorder, it's just that we spend a lot of effort imposing predictability on it. We create routine and rituals (/the-case-for-personal-rituals/), we develop attachments to persons and places, we adjust and adapt in such a way that we make sense of the world. And in this process we draw a mental map of what consider to be a safe space to move in. In the middle of this map, there's total predictability, and as we go further away, we enter risky territories, in which we deal with more and more randomness. In the middle of this map we may have our relationship with the significant other, we have families, close friends, maybe our job. At the outskirts, we find unknown persons we just crossed path with, unpredictable events or just random situations that we most of the time have no idea how to manage. ## Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Needless to say, this tension between the middle of the map and its boundaries, between comfort and risk, is a good thing. We should keep trying to enlarge our mental map, we should keep uncovering unknown, or even risky situations. In this process, we create a larger, more profound space, which in turn will feed us more self-trust and energy. This continuous discovery process has two possible approaches. It either oversimplifies everything, assuming we are already prepared for everything and anything that reality may throw at us, or it stops everything in its tracks, waiting for more data, for more confirmation, for just one more piece of information, bringing everything to a stall. It's oversimplifying versus analysis paralysis. On one side, oversimplifying gives us courage. If we trust that will somehow manage anything, then there's nothing stopping us. The downside is that we can't, indeed, manage anything. Sooner or later we'll meet some sort of resistance or unmanageable conditions that will force us to stop or do some radical changes, in order to adjust and adapt. On the other side, analysis paralysis will keep our mental map frozen. We may never get out of our comfort zone (like, literally, this mental map is our comfort zone) and we will never bring in more data in our systems. The upside is that we will feel, most of the time , secure. ## Small, Spicy Risk The approach that seems to work most of the time, at least for me, is small, meaningful increments. Small raids outside of my comfort map, driven largely by curiosity. During these raids, I need to assume that things will turn out ok, or at least they will be somehow manageable, otherwise I won't make any move. Before engaging, I also need to gather as much data as I can, but there's a small caveat to it: I try to gather data only relevant to the size of the trip. For example, if it's something life altering, like moving to a new country, then I allocate quite a lot of research to this phase. And I'm not actually moving any resources until I have at least a rough idea about the risk involved. But if it's something that doesn't span for more than a day (like, for instance, where am I going to work from today) then I just oversimplify everything and push forward. Actually, generating more data, or analyzing too much for this specific situation, will take out most of the fun from it. Needless to say, this applies even better in investing (whether it's money invested, or time, or emotional involvement, it's irrelevant). If there's a significant alteration of my portfolio, then I do a lot of research. Most of the time, I end up not moving anything. If my portfolio (of assets, time or emotional involvement) is not suffering a massive alteration, then I just oversimplify and jump in. Most of the time, the benefits of these jumps are way more than the portfolio invested. It may not be an immediate return, like I won't make significantly more money (although sometimes this is happening too), but I will definitely learn something that, in connection with all the other parts of my mental map, will help me increase profits, at some point in the future. *Image by kesie91 (https://pixabay.com/users/kesie91-384798/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=548716) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=548716)* First published on: September 2, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Foversimplifying-versus-analysis-paralysis%2F&text=Oversimplifying%20Versus%20Analysis%20Paralysis&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Foversimplifying-versus-analysis-paralysis%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Foversimplifying-versus-analysis-paralysis%2F&t=Oversimplifying%20Versus%20Analysis%20Paralysis https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Foversimplifying-versus-analysis-paralysis%2F&title=Oversimplifying%20Versus%20Analysis%20Paralysis Previous ### Opportunity Management (/opportunity-management/) Next ### Coffee And Conversations (/coffee-and-conversations/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The New Hard Skills Are the Old Soft Skills URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-new-hard-skills-are-the-old-soft-skills.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-new-hard-skills-are-the-old-soft-skills/ Published: 2026-03-04 Views: 48 Categories: Artificial Intelligence, Personal Development Tags: ai tools, coding, communication, mindset I consider myself fortunate to have learned to code when I was very young. That skill stayed with me for decades and for the largest part of my adult life it was what kept bread on the table. As you already know, I'm seldom writing code nowadays, but I continue coding using the English language, vibe coding iOS apps (/vibe-coding-ios-apps-on-my-ipad-with-claude-from-my-favorite-coffee-shop/) on my iPad daily. Last week I finished an intense streak, launching 4 apps at a time. Just a year ago, this would have been unthinkable without an entire team behind me. And yet, here I am, doing it. But let's stop for a second. Although the delivery happened in time, it wasn't without bumps. There were problems along the way that needed to be solved, blockers that had to be eliminated and many things happening at once. The difference is that one large part of the process, the actual coding, was compressed in a matter of days. But the rest, well, had to be managed — not for one, not for two, but for four apps at a time. ## The New Hard Skills Coding, the hard skill that survived almost 4 decades in my life, is now obsolete. But discipline, focus, communication — all these "soft" skills are taking prime time now. I was able to push this through by staying on course, identifying bugs and asking for targeted solutions, and just not getting lost in the maze that suddenly exploded around this thing. Suddenly, what felt like "nice to have" is the key differentiator. Communication is not a soft skill anymore — it's the fundamental difference between having your product delivered on time or not. You need to communicate clearly to that LLM exactly what you need from it. Vision, or the ability to see a problem from different angles and generate a big picture — a universal map that will encompass your product — is even more important. Now that everything can be done, knowing what NOT to do is fundamental. ## Cognitive Frameworks Are The Next Frontier I've been using Assess – Decide – Do (/assess-decide-do-framework/), my cognitive framework, for fifteen years. It helped tremendously not only in my day-to-day work, but overall, with my entire life. I've been location independent (/category/location-independence/) for that same stretch, having lived in 4 countries across 3 continents. That's not easy. Yet, I was able to do it not only on regular income, but thoroughly enjoying it — and I still do. I give ADD the primary credit for this. It didn't have some secret sauce or hidden knowledge inside it. It was just enforcing a certain behavior. It was a way of thinking, planning and doing. Now, these kinds of cognitive frameworks are the ones that are moving the needle. It's not about those who know the most, because knowledge has just been commoditized — it's about those who use knowledge in a better, more streamlined way. So, instead of learning a new programming language or signing up for a new master certification, you'd better start incorporating something like Assess – Decide – Do into your life. It doesn't necessarily have to be ADD — find something that works for you, but stick with it. That's your wild card now, not the certifications you earned last year. ## The New Rules In short, here's how things are going to unfold from now on: - "Prompting" is just communication. If you can't communicate clearly with a human, you can't communicate clearly with an AI. Master this. - The paradox: as tools get more powerful, the people who thrive aren't the most technical — they're the most *clear-thinking*. Practice cleaning your thinking, not remembering syntax. - Discipline becomes harder, not easier, when execution is instant. When you can build anything in an afternoon, choosing what NOT to build is the real skill. - Imagination is the ultimate moat. AI can optimize, iterate, and execute — but it can't want something that doesn't exist yet. The bottlenecks didn't vanish just because AI can build anything we can imagine. They just moved inside our minds. And that's actually good news, because we can train our minds. First published on: March 4, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-new-hard-skills-are-the-old-soft-skills%2F&text=The%20New%20Hard%20Skills%20Are%20the%20Old%20Soft%20Skills&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-new-hard-skills-are-the-old-soft-skills%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-new-hard-skills-are-the-old-soft-skills%2F&t=The%20New%20Hard%20Skills%20Are%20the%20Old%20Soft%20Skills https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-new-hard-skills-are-the-old-soft-skills%2F&title=The%20New%20Hard%20Skills%20Are%20the%20Old%20Soft%20Skills Previous ### My Personal AI Assistant, AIGernon, Gets a Face (/my-personal-ai-assistant-aigernon-gets-a-face/) Next ### Attention Is All You Need – But the Reasons Have Changed (/attention-is-all-you-need-but-the-reasons-have-changed/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # A Few Downsides Of The Overachiever Syndrome URL: https://dragosroua.com/a-few-downsides-of-the-overachiever-syndrome.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/a-few-downsides-of-the-overachiever-syndrome/ Published: 2020-06-07 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 47 Categories: Health and Fitness, Success and Wellness Tags: assess, burnout I'm just as good as the last goal I achieved. I constantly need more goals to prove myself worthy. I need to do more in order feel better. I always feel I'm not good enough. All of the above are symptoms of the overachiever syndrome. I know, because I've been suffering from it for a long time. It's not the moment, nor the space to dig after the causes, after what generates this overachiever syndrome. It may come from various places and it can manifest at various ages, and it can be triggered by various stimuli. There is no single cause that you can pinpoint. But its effects are always the same: constant fatigue, irritability, incapacity to function equally in a relationship (you're either stepped on or you're stepping upon your partner, unconsciously), the constant feeling that life is unfair, or a profound lack of empathy (because, of course, if you chose suffering, everybody must suffer, period). The good news is that once you realize you're a victim of this overachiever syndrome and you start the work to make it go (which is not that easy, you'll see soon why), things will improve significantly. But the impact of it is so profound, that, even years after serious work on it, some of its effects will still linger around. What follows is just a short account of some of these downsides. ## Pain Is Your Friend No, it really isn't. I told myself this phrase so many times, during my trainings for my ultra-marathons (or during those ultra-marathons) that, in time, it became some sort of a personal mantra. Like, you know, the other bullshit: "no pain, no gain". Of course you can have some gain, without dying of pain. Of course you can have a balanced activity, that, in time, will yield some benefits, without having to strive so hard that you will lose yourself (and many others, I dare say) in the process. The overachiever syndrome will make you think that, if there isn't some significant pain you're experiencing to get something, that something is worthless. So, you have to choose goals that will generate pain, and, in the end, you'll have to make friends with that pain, just to get there. Of course pain *doesn't have to be* your friend. It doesn't have to be your enemy either. Pain just is, and so is pleasure. They are just sensations, wrapped up in emotions. They come and go. No need to befriend neither pain, nor pleasure, for they are not here to stay, they're part of the ebbs and flows of life, and it's way better to let them be like that, than to grasp, attach, and cling onto them. ## I Said I Understand, Don't Lecture Me Another standard overachiever syndrome response. Getting feedback, or engaging in fulfilling conversations – the type that eventually lead to something useful, no just empty chit-chat – all this is very difficult for an overachiever. Because that person went to hell and back, remember? He or she knows exactly how things works, so don't even bother to tell your opinion, it's pointless. An overachiever is ready to go through hell again, rather than admit he's wrong. For him or her, going through hell is a worthy goal, one that will reinforce the defining approach: always doing more, in order to feel more. So, in time, they start to suffer from an almost physical deafness: they simply don't hear what you tell them, you have to repeat, or you have to yell, or you have to do something extraordinary to interrupt their flow of thoughts, just to make them understand what you're saying. Otherwise, if you try to have a normal conversation, you will always get – more or less passive-aggressively – the "I said I understand, I *know* what you mean". It's never "I *heard* what you mean", it's "I *know* already, I don't even have to listen to you". ## My Biggest Goal Is To Cease Being An Overachiever And I'm going to conquer any imaginable obstacle for that. See what's happening here? The syndrome is so strong, that it's disguising itself into its own destruction. The ultimate goal: I will strive so hard, in order not to strive so hard anymore. Hilarious, if it wouldn't be excruciatingly sad. The emptiness inside the overachiever is so pervasive, so painful, that the mere thought that he or she will have to just stop for a while, to just let things be, is unbearable. No. I won't do that. If that's the cause of my misery, this "overachiever syndrome", I will start working on it immediately. I will make a plan. I will follow it and don't tell me I didn't understand, because I know already what I have to do and I'm, oh, so friend already with the pain that I have to endure. Because I have to endure some pain to get rid of this, right? Well, no. You really don't. You just have to stop for a while, understand that you never, ever made the world go round. You never, ever made the sun rise or the flowers grow. All this just happens. All this is just an ocean that we're so lucky to understand we're navigating for a certain amount of time. An ocean going up and down, with waves of pain and happiness where all we need is presence, and awareness. That's all there is to it. *Image by danieltitovan (https://pixabay.com/users/danieltitovan-10984691/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3872285) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3872285) * First published on: June 7, 2020 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fa-few-downsides-of-the-overachiever-syndrome%2F&text=A%20Few%20Downsides%20Of%20The%20Overachiever%20Syndrome&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fa-few-downsides-of-the-overachiever-syndrome%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fa-few-downsides-of-the-overachiever-syndrome%2F&t=A%20Few%20Downsides%20Of%20The%20Overachiever%20Syndrome https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fa-few-downsides-of-the-overachiever-syndrome%2F&title=A%20Few%20Downsides%20Of%20The%20Overachiever%20Syndrome Previous ### A Definition Of Wealth (/a-definition-of-wealth/) Next ### A Blockchain-Based Experiment In Content Monetization – Hive (/a-blockchain-based-experiment-in-content-monetization-hive/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Anger Management URL: https://dragosroua.com/anger-management.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/anger-management/ Published: 2021-10-22 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 47 Categories: Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, relationships, resilience Apart from being the title of a popular movie with Jack Nickolson, anger management is also a skill. One that is very useful. And one that I was very bad at in my early days. Still learning about this, by the way, and still have a long way to go, but making progress. Anger is a very destructive emotion. Not necessarily because of the actual, physical damage that it can generate (for things, relationships and persons), but also about its highly addictive potential. Anger is a sudden energy surcharge and it's triggering our adrenal glands. That is very tricky. Because we also trigger adrenaline when we're in a survival situation. Our body is not very good at recognizing subtleties. If we expose it too much to a certain stimuli, it becomes attached to that stimuli. Little does it matter for the body if we were really in a survival situation, or if we were just angry that our coffee was too hot. It will still get addicted to that sequence of chemical reactions. As it builds up, anger can also work very close with our sense of entitlement. That surge of energy makes us feel powerful, even though we're not usually very daring. But in a burst of anger we may do or say things that create a certain image of ourselves. We see ourselves as someone who takes action, who makes things happen or who fights against injustice (again, little did it matter for our ego if this justice is really justice, or just discontentment that things aren't really going as we want them to go). It's obvious that both addiction and entitlement are really toxic. So, how do you manage them? It's hard. Very hard. But doable. Probably one of the most important things in this process is to observe and understand that we're angry. It may seem trivial, but we're not always observing anger. We're so focused on the triggering event, or person, that we simply find normal to yell, we don't even realize we're angry. It's like the other person is pushing a button that bypasses our sense of self. We become, in a sense, the reaction and we cease to be a person. So, if we can really stop and say "ups, I'm angry now", half of the job is done. At least for me. The other half is to understand that everything that we think or do when we're angry is twisted. It's not real. Or, to be more precise, it's not accurate. It's more about what we want to happen, how we want the world to be, than how the world really is. When we're angry we're really in a violent patching exercise, during which we apply various patches onto the persons or situations which triggered us. We try to adjust, or to construct a new world on top of the real one, one that is closer to our expectations, and we do this in an aggressive way. Of course, the world doesn't give a shit. If I can get to this point, my anger is usually managed and I can continue with my day more or less normally. At least I'm not on auto-pilot, and I can take small decisions, like breathing, looking the other way, taking a short stroll, or a break, etc. Soon, the potential storm is averted entirely. I'm not saying this is easy. I'm just saying that, with exercise and patience, it's possible. *Photo by engin akyurt (https://unsplash.com/@enginakyurt?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/angry-face?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: October 22, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fanger-management%2F&text=Anger%20Management&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fanger-management%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fanger-management%2F&t=Anger%20Management https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fanger-management%2F&title=Anger%20Management Previous ### Placebo, Nocebo And The World At Large (/placebo-nocebo-and-the-world-at-large/) Next ### London Bridge Is Falling Down (/london-bridge-is-falling-down/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Assess Decide Do stages – Decide URL: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-stages-decide.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/ Published: 2009-06-14 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 47 Categories: Assess Decide Do, Getting Things Done, Productivity and Effectiveness Tags: assess, decide, do, planning ADD comes from "Assess Decide Do" and it's a life management framework, initially described in this introductory post (/assess-decide-do/). As opposed to the regular productivity approaches, a life management framework focuses on a higher level integration and rejects the task checking approach as the only metric for measuring productivity performance. In ADD, each individual can have only 3 main stages or can act in 3 main realms: the Assess realm, the Decide realm and the Do realm. Those stages are cumulative, in the sense that an imbalance in an early stage, like the Assess stage, can create negative consequences in the following stages. A balanced, constant flow between those 3 stages is the main metric of a fulfilling life management. If you came here directly you may want to check out first the Assess realm (/add-stages-assess/) post. Today will talk about the Decide realm. ### What Is It? The Decide realm is the place in which you intent to change your reality. You get in, put up the intention to modify your reality, and then you get out of it. You move immediately in the Do realm. The Decide realm nature is disruptive and powerful. It really challenges your current reality and it does this with a lot of force. It's a hit and run approach. And it's supposed to be like this. As opposed to the Assess realm, where you can spend hours, days, weeks or months, the Decide realm is a very short one. You don't live long in the Decide realm. Or, if you do, you have an ADD imbalance. And that would be the so called *someday syndrome*, a situation in which you allegedly took a decision, but never follow it. You remain stuck in this decision realm for ever. ### The Decision Is In You How do you know you actually took a decision and you're not still in the Assess realm? How do you know it's time to make a decision in the first place? How do you make that decision? For many of us, decision seems to be driven by outside factors. We have to go to the job, we have to move out of the house for the errands, we have to pay our mortgage. We make these decisions in response to outside factors. Once the decision took, we move. Go to the job, to the grocery shop, we pay the bills. In fact, the decision is never driven by outside factors, it's an internal process. We take a decision after we can't assess the facts anymore. If there's nothing more to assess about our mortgage payment we make a decision: pay it. Or don't pay it, of course. If we can't assess anything more about the job, we go there, we immerse in the task. If it's nothing more to add about our grocery shopping list, we go shopping. Or don't and give room to other events in our life. ### Decision Is A Reality Killer Each decision you take will kill your current reality and will force you to replace it with another one, by going into the Do realm. You can recognize a decision by its level of reality destruction. If the decision will not change something in your reality, it's not a decision, it's still an assessment. If the decision will dramatically change your reality, you know it's time to move on and create that reality. For example, if you decide to go to your job, that will dramatically change your current environment: you'll be in a different room, talking with different people and doing something different from what you're doing now. If you're going to the grocery shop, you'll alter your reality by bringing in some more items. If you pay your mortgage, your reality will be modified also: you'll have fewer money and you'll be closer to completely pay your house. So, the simplest and most accurate sign for recognizing a decision is its capacity of changing reality. If it's not projecting a new reality, different from your current one, you're not actually making a decision, you're playing with your mind. ### Choosing Your Personal Path Taking the right decision is an art, so it's living in the Assess realm, so it's doing things in the Do realm. Identifying the best decision you can take at a certain point in your life it's a key factor in your life management framework. In fact, your personal growth and evolution are dictated by your decision, not by your assessment, nor by doing. It's what you decide that creates your reality, doing it is just an effect, not a cause. You're taking at least one decision each minute. You drive your focus and create your next reality all the time. Sadly, most of the time you're doing it on auto-pilot. Without assessing. You're just following old habits or established patterns. You're living by reflex, not by miracle. Each decision you take is really a small miracle, because it reveals your creative powers. With each decision you actually modify your universe and create your desired world. The core of your existence is in the Decision realm. The power of your self transformation is there, in the decision you take, in the realities your project for yourself, in the future you already see and embrace. So, instead of going to a job, assess more and see if that job really fits you. Instead of going to the grocery shop see if you can do something more interesting with your time. Instead of paying your mortgage see if you can pay it all in one leap. Maybe the answer to all these will be: ok, I've assessed it and I can't do anything about it right now. I'll go to that job, I'll go shopping and then I'll pay my bill. But if you do this assessment constantly, something will change. Your decision will be influenced. Maybe after a while you'll understand that your job is not fulfilling. Is something you'd like to change. And with this everything will change. What you've just done is to broke an old, petrified flow in the Assess-Decide-Do pattern and create a new one. This is how life changes. ### Small Decisions Or Big Decisions? The power of a life management framework resides in its flexibility, in its power to adapt and adjust. You can apply this pattern to all processes, from your lifetime destiny and fulfillment to your day to day activities. As long as you correctly identify each stage in which you are acting, you have the power to rewrite those patterns. There are no small or big decisions. Each decision is important and each decision has the power to change your world. Maybe this post was a little bit on the emotional, not-so-factual, side, but I did it on purpose: I wanted to emphasize the importance of the decision realm as the core of your potential. ADD is just a framework and it supports any implementation you like, so I'll be writing in the near future about specific usages of it, like ADD for relationships, ADD for career or ADD for a healthy lifestyle, so expect a more practical and day to day approach of the decision process in those posts. Until then, be sure to create your reality carefully. 🙂 First published on: June 14, 2009 ### ⚡ Assess-Decide-Do Framework Stage 2: Decide Part 4 of 11 View all 11 posts → (/assess-decide-do-framework/) ← Previous Stage 1: Assess Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) Next → Stage 3: Do Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) #### Complete Series: 1. Foundation: Assess Decide Do (/assess-decide-do/) 2. Evolution: Assess-Decide-Do: 15 Years After – Revisiting a Productivity Framework in the Age of AI (/assess-decide-do-after-15-years-revisiting-a-productivity-framework-in-the-age-of-ai/) 3. Stage 1: Assess: Assess Decide Do Stages: Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) 4. Stage 2: Decide: Assess Decide Do Stages: Decide (/assess-decide-do-stages-decide/) 5. Stage 3: Do: Assess Decide Do Stages: Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) 6. Design & Meaning: Assess Decide Do: Colors And Icons Significance (/assess-decide-do-colors-and-icons-significance/) 7. AI Evolution: Supercharging Claude With The Assess Decide Do Framework (Mega-Prompt Inside) (/supercharging-claude-with-the-assess-decide-do-framework-mega-prompt-inside/) 8. Skills Architecture: Assess Decide Do in Claude, But With Skills (/assess-decide-do-in-claude-but-with-skills/) 9. Ecosystem Expansion: From One Repo to Three: How ADD Framework Expanded Across the Claude Ecosystem (/from-one-repo-to-three-how-add-framework-expanded-across-the-claude-ecosystem/) 10. Always-On Agent: Introducing AIGernon, My Personal AI Assistant – with a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/introducing-aigernon-my-personal-ai-assistant-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) 11. Multi-Agent Council: LLM Council With a Dash of Assess Decide Do (/llm-council-with-a-dash-of-assess-decide-do/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-decide%2F&text=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20stages%20%E2%80%93%20Decide&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-decide%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-decide%2F&t=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20stages%20%E2%80%93%20Decide https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fassess-decide-do-stages-decide%2F&title=Assess%20Decide%20Do%20stages%20%E2%80%93%20Decide Previous ### Assess Decide Do stages – Assess (/assess-decide-do-stages-assess/) Next ### Assess Decide Do stages – Do (/assess-decide-do-stages-do/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Being The Weird One URL: https://dragosroua.com/being-the-weird-one.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/being-the-weird-one/ Published: 2026-03-18 Views: 47 Categories: Location Independence, Personal Development, Travel and Fun Tags: digital nomad, growth, personal story, self awareness One of the most transformative experiences in life is being displaced. I know in the current world this is a very weird thing to say, but bear with me. ## The Digital Nomad Lifestyle I've been location independent (/category/location-independence/) for 15 years and digital nomad for a little more. It's an amazing lifestyle. Very diverse, very fulfilling, but extremely jarring. While you experience far more than you would do in average lifestyle, that also means you're constantly adjusting, constantly trying to fit in, adapting to unforeseen and unpredictable circumstances. It gets tiring at some point. Of course, in time you can build some "muscle" for this, you learn some shortcuts, but the very nature of unpredictability is that is, well, unpredictable. You can never tell what will happen next. And out of this vast pool of unknowns, the most impactful one is "how will they look at me?". By "they" I mean all these people you'll encounter in your journey. They're all new. You've never seen them before. In a normal lifestyle you have some social substrate that's supporting and solid: your neighborhood, your school mates, your relatives. When you're constantly living somewhere else, not so much. And that makes you fundamentally weird for anyone who's looking at you. There's no way around this: you're a stranger. And you will always be. ## Being The Weird One – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Let's start backwards here. Let's start with what's ugly. We define our persona both internally and externally. We have some deep thoughts about who we are that never leave us, they come from "the inside", but there's also a thick layer generated by constant interaction, coming from "the outside". It's the reflection you get by looking in their eyes. And when the eyes are constantly changing, the reflection, the "you" that you get from the others, also changes. You literally start to drift away. You lose contact with your personal history and, some days, you look at the guy in the mirror with genuine surprise: "is this guy really me"? For me, this is the ugliest part of this lifestyle, the constant redefining of your personality and identity. I know it sounds abstract, I'll give you some real life examples a little later. Now, for the bad parts: there really are not many, honestly, at least after 4-5 years. You learn the basics and the basics work pretty much everywhere. There is an adaptation period that's compulsory in every place, between 3 and 6 months, but after that, you function without too much friction. The price for this initial effort is really worth it – and with this, let's get to the good. Because, yes, the good greatly outnumber any ugly or bad stuff you inherently get. ## 1. You Get High Entropy I wrote before about this fundamental need that we have: we need entropy (/humans-need-entropy/). Without entropy, we decay. This is not symbolic, this is biological, we need to confront new challenges constantly to stay in shape. Being the weird one gives you a lot of entropy, because there's never the same way of being weird. In some places you're being weird because you travel, but in remote cultures, you get weird for way more reasons. ## 2. Your Learning Muscles Are Constantly Trained This constant adaptation rhythm, as jarring as it is, makes your "learning muscle" grow and improve. I speak 5 languages now, and I'm comfortable in Western or Asian cultures. By comfortable I mean all those subtle situations that you literally have no way to know unless you've lived there. It's not about taking your shoes off in Asia (/asia-for-digital-nomads-a-primer/), although it counts, but it's more about understanding how much from what you hear it's polite, how much is actual information, and how much it's saving face. The same words in Asia do not mean the same thing in the West. ## 3. You Delay Death Both physically and mentally. Physically, you need to be in shape so you pay extra attention to your routines, you eat as healthy as you can and you try to always be on top – simply because tomorrow may require more from you than today did, and you have no way to know how this will unfold. And mentally, because you discover, you uncover, you learn, you experience and you live far more than by sitting in one place. There's more life crammed in the same amount of years, which, ultimately, counts as delaying death. ## Personal History Now, before closing, here are just a few of the "being the weird one" experiences I had so far: - in Vietnam (/7-unusual-facts-about-vietnam/), especially in the countryside, everybody greets me: "Hello, sir". Everybody. Everywhere. 20 times a day. - in Korea (/7-random-facts-about-south-korea/), men will look at me with a very subtle mix of apprehension and admiration, both pretty unsettling – it's because Westerners are not really welcome in their culture (I'm talking about real life, not tourist places) - in Spain (/remote-working-in-spain/), tying to speak English made me a complete alien, nobody speaks English. So I had to learn Spanish. - anywhere in Asia the assumption is Western guy = rich guy. This led to more scamming attempts that I can remember. The first year was really difficult. - in Europe and, to some extent, in South Korea, working from a coffee shop is normal. In Vietnam, not so much, the coffee shop is a space for relaxation and killing time All in all, the cultural differences account for the majority of weirdness situations. ## The Strange Guy In The Mirror Yeah, that guy in the mirror still surprises me sometimes. But I've made peace with that. That shape shifting reflection isn't a loss of myself — it's proof that I've been somewhere real, and that it changed me. That's not drift. That's actually growth. First published on: March 18, 2026 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeing-the-weird-one%2F&text=Being%20The%20Weird%20One&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeing-the-weird-one%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeing-the-weird-one%2F&t=Being%20The%20Weird%20One https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbeing-the-weird-one%2F&title=Being%20The%20Weird%20One Previous ### My Latest iOS App, Light Njoy, Lets You Share Your Light – Like, Literally (/my-latest-ios-app-light-njoy-lets-you-share-your-light-like-literally/) Next ### AI Made Us All Wizards – Wizards of Oz (/ai-made-us-all-wizards-wizards-of-oz/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals – Ultrabalaton URL: https://dragosroua.com/big-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/big-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton/ Published: 2015-04-19 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 47 Categories: Personal Development, Running Tags: goal setting, ultra-marathon *November 2025 update: all posts in this series now have enhanced semantic navigation. You can browse all related posts in this specific topic and even have a hub page (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/), from where you can see all of them.* For years, on this blog, I wrote about business (/77-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/), the millionaire mindset (/30-sentences-for-a-millionaire-mindset/), making money (/making-money-with-a-purpose/) or other things from the same category. I wrote ebooks on those topics and I also gave interviews. And many of you enjoyed it. To be honest, I enjoyed it too. Creating a niche is useful, it makes you easily identifiable. If you do your job right, people will slowly start to associate the niche you’re writing about with you. In other circles, this is also known as “branding”. So, when people will want to know more about business, the millionaire mindset or making money, they will come to this blog. But there is a small danger in this approach. The danger is that I may lose authenticity. And I think authenticity is important. It's important to know that behind this blog there's a real person, just like you. In all honesty, business, the millionaire mindset or making money or business are NOT everything I do in my life. I don’t wake up in the morning thinking how to make money, I don’t spend my evenings creating business strategies and, believe me, I’m not spending my weekends crafting millionaire mindsets. As much as I like to do all those things, they are not the only ones I do. In other words, I do have a life. If you read this blog regularly, you noticed that in the last 2 years I started to add articles about other stuff than personal development or business. Specifically, I started to write about running. The main reason for this is that running, as a lifestyle, can be enormously beneficial. It’s such a simple thing to do, yet the consequences, on nearly all levels of your life: physical, emotional or mental, are incredibly powerful. A few weeks ago, I had the chance to use an “intelligent” weighing scale, one that uses impedance gauging in order to extract all sort of useful information about your body, other than just your weight. Here’s what I found out: - I weigh 79.5 kilograms. (3 years ago I was weighing around 95 kilos) - My body fat percentage is 17.9%. (3 years ago I had around 25-26%). - My metabolic age is 30 years. (I am 45 years old). I guess you got the idea. These are just some measurable pieces of information about the change that running created into my body, but, apart from this, there are also things way too subtle to be measured, like my emotional stability, my mental sharpness or my overall endurance capabilities. I’m not gonna transform this post into a running apology, don’t worry. But I wanted to have a clear field set up before we go into more important stuff. ## The Moving Wall When I went for my first run, 3 years ago, I couldn’t do it for more than 300 meters. My head was exploding and I choked. I had to stop, regain my breath and start all over. I went home after this first run very frustrated. But I didn’t stop. In a few days I came back in the park and tried to run again. This time it was better. I was able to run uninterruptedly 500 meters. Big achievement. In a few weeks I was able to run 1 kilometer. I’m very, very honest with you when I’m telling that I felt like a god. 1 kilometer was a huge, huge milestone for me. Like a wall I had to break. Little did I know at that time that those walls are moving. The more you try, the weaker they become. And they move forward. Time went by and what once was a limit, became a memory. I went over a few moving walls during the last 3 years. I went to 5km races, then 10km races, semi-marathons, mountain semi-marathons, then marathons and, lately, ultra-marathons. Last week I finished my first 100km race, in 12 hours and 33 minutes. ## One Of My Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals for This Year: 220 km Around Lake Balaton And, finally, after more than 10 minutes of reading, we’re getting to the point of this article. My “big, hairy, audacious goal”. What is a “big, hairy, audacious goal”, or BHAG? It’s a goal so scary, so big, so different from your current situation, that almost feels impossible. 3 years ago, when I could barely run 1 kilometer, a BHAG would have been running a 10km race. And when I was able to run 10km, a BHAG would have been a 100km race. Right now, I want to run a 220km race, with a cut-off time of 32 hours. It’s one huge lap around lake Balaton, in Hungary, at the end of May (30th May, to be more precise). Of course, it’s not something that I decided yesterday. I took the decision last year, and I also (briefly) announced it in some places. But it’s the first time I write about it extensively on this blog. There are 2 reasons about that: one, it’s a huge milestone in terms of personal development, and two, it also has a social cause linked to it: not only will I run 220km, but I also want to raise money for a charity I support, called “Scoala de Valori” (The Values School), a charity which creates special programs for exceptional teenagers. But more on that in a few minutes. Let’s take them one at a time. The personal development part, namely, the BHAG part. I admit that I was intimidated when I first read about Ultrabalaton (that’s the name of the race). At that time, the longest I ran was 60 km. Less than a third of Ultrabalaton. So, I wasn’t even remotely prepared for it. But it was the intimidating part that was drawing me into it. The scariness. The unknown. The mystery. Will I be able to do it? How would I feel after I cross this limit? How will I feel while I’ll cross this limit? These questions, as hard to answer as they were, created some sort of red string that eventually led to the final decision: I have to do this! A BHAG takes you out of the comfort zone brutally. It creates such a contrast with your current context that, in the process of reaching it, virtually your entire world will collapse. And a new one will be created. At the end of the process, your new world will be unrecognizable. That’s scary. But that’s also very, very useful. The ability to identify and to commit to BHAGs, as strange as it may look from “the outside” is a key ingredient in succeeding in any other area of life. At least, that’s what I learned in the last 25 years. There are a few mechanisms by which BHAGs are “crafting” you as a successful person, but I’d like to talk only about 2: first, it’s the “aim high” approach, and second, it’s the “learning curve” approach. The first mechanism is about how high you aim. You know those motivational posters on Facebook: “aim for the stars, so, even if you fail, you’ll still reach to the moon”? It’s somehow similar. If you set up an incredibly high goal, even if you reach just 10% of it, you’ll be way better off than before. (In my case, this is about the fundraising part, not about the race. The race is still 220km and I won't settle for 10% of it ? ) And I think now it’s the moment to tell you more about the fundraising part. As I told you, I support an NGO, but I do this in a rather structured way. I don’t just tell people to donate for that NGO, I actually “sell steps” around the Balaton. I basically sell each step around lake Balaton for 1 RON. So, the fundraising goal (the BHAG related to fundraising, to be more precise) it’s about 220.000 RON.  Around 52.000 USD. A LOT of money. In a very, very short time frame. But, as I told you, aiming this high created an interesting result: in just a few weeks I raised more than in ALL my previous fundraising campaigns combined. At the moment of writing this, I raised 2349 RON, around 550 USD. Even if, in the grand scheme of things, this is just 1% of the BHAG, it’s more than I ever raised with my running activities. So, that’s one way a BHAG can create success. The second mechanism by which BHAGs are making you more successful is the “learning curve”. Because they are so far away outside your comfort zone, they’re literally forcing you to learn new stuff in an accelerated way. And learning is always good. I think I learned about long distance running AND fundraising, in the last few months, more than I learned in my entire life. And I’m still 5-6 weeks before the race. ## Current Status And Training Routine I write this during a silent weekend somewhere near the mountains, at my parents house. I think this is the first “vacation” weekend I took since I started Connect Hub, exactly one year ago. I just finished a 10km training, trying to take advantage of the hilly surface here. It almost didn’t feel like a training at all, more like a walk in the park. I train 4 times a week. 2 times I do hills or speed training and the rest of 2 I do long runs, either back to back or longer, like the last 100km race about I already wrote here (/the-story-of-my-first-100-kilometers-race/). Since I never run such a long race I’m having a hard time telling if I’m prepared or not. All I know is that I have a good mental attitude (meaning I simply can’t wait to go there and to start running) and I am taking a lot of care not to injure myself during trainings. Time will tell. ## Ok, So You Want To Donate So, you already have some ideas about what a BHAG is, you understood why am I doing this, and you feel compelled to make a donation. Good. All you have to do is to follow this link and then to click on the green button (the text may be in Romanian, but just look for the part that says: “Vreau sa fac o donatie”, which means ‘I want to donate”). RouaInAlergare.ro One more word about the fundraising part: this blog post is not a sales pitch. I didn’t take you here just to make you click the green button. Don’t go there if you’re not convinced you’re doing it for a good cause and don’t do it if you’re not 100% congruent with yourself. Ok? Thanks ? ## Future Updates During the next few weeks I won’t have many long runs, but there will be a few other sporting events that I’m gonna take part in. All of them are just part of the training for the big one. So, if there will be enough interesting material to share about this BHAG and the steps I’m taking to make it real, I’ll share them here. Stay tuned :). *(Photo credit: Radu Cristi (https://www.facebook.com/DonezAmintiri).)* First published on: April 19, 2015 ### 🏃‍♂️ UltraBalaton 220km Series Goal Setting Part 1 of 8 View all 8 posts → (/ultrabalaton-220km-ultra-marathon-series/) Next → Preparation The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Preparation (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-preparation/) #### Complete Series: 1. Goal Setting: Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals - Ultrabalaton (/big-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton/) 2. Preparation: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Preparation (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-preparation/) 3. Marathon 1: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The First Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-first-marathon/) 4. Marathon 2: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Second Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-second-marathon/) 5. Marathon 3: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Third Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-third-marathon/) 6. Marathon 4: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Fourth Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-fourth-marathon/) 7. Marathon 5: The Story Of My First 220km Race - Ultrabalaton - The Fifth Marathon (/the-story-of-my-first-220km-race-ultrabalaton-the-fifth-marathon/) 8. Recovery: Ultrabalaton - The Aftermath Of A 222 Kilometers Race (/ultrabalaton-the-aftermath-of-a-222-kilometers-race/) ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbig-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton%2F&text=Big%2C%20Hairy%2C%20Audacious%20Goals%20%E2%80%93%20Ultrabalaton&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbig-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbig-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton%2F&t=Big%2C%20Hairy%2C%20Audacious%20Goals%20%E2%80%93%20Ultrabalaton https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbig-hairy-audacious-goals-ultrabalaton%2F&title=Big%2C%20Hairy%2C%20Audacious%20Goals%20%E2%80%93%20Ultrabalaton Previous ### The Story Of My First 100 Kilometers Race (/the-story-of-my-first-100-kilometers-race/) Next ### We’re Gods. Really. (/we-re-gods-really/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Breaking The Veil Of Illusions URL: https://dragosroua.com/breaking-the-veil-of-illusions.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/breaking-the-veil-of-illusions/ Published: 2021-11-10 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 47 Categories: Meaningful Relationships Tags: 365 challenge, social media We live in an algorithmic world. For those of you not aware, or under 30, this may sound strange. That's because this is the only world you know. But for those of us who pay attention (or who are simply old enough to have witnessed other structures) this is obvious. We may not all describe it using the same word, "algorithmic", but we all know something is very off with the world we live in. ## What Does "Algorithmic" Means? In this context, "algorithmic" means the world is continuously created and enforced by certain information algorithms. Let me explain. What we call "reality" is simply a collection of information. We take in information from our physical interfaces, like temperature, humidity, shapes and colors, sounds. We then organize this information, based on previous models, and create a representation of the world in our brains. These models that we use for representations are not intrinsic, they are not "out there", identical for everybody. They are influenced by a variety of factors: culture, economic development, scientific discoveries, beliefs, and so on. They are also continuously adjusting. Up until 15-20 years ago, these models were predominantly social. In the sense that society, at large, was their depository and it was propagating these models through various channels: education, work, family, etc. People were passing on these models, and there was some sort of feedback applied to them, some assessment, and based on this assessment, some models were improved, and some discarded. There was a process involving many loops, steps and quite a lot of time. Something happened 15-20 years ago. What we call "internet", and, more precisely, "social media", became the prevalent channel for the propagation of these models. Information travels instantly on the web, and it's way easier to reach people through the internet, than it was before, using slower, but more thorough processes. It was just easier this way, and many of us were enthusiastic about this improvement. On top of that, social media diluted the concept of "news", or valid information, and replaced it with opinions. It doesn't matter as much what's true, but how it makes me feel. Instead of passing by models that were verified and endorsed via longer, more thorough processes, we created and distributed with an incredible speed, via internet and social media, incomplete structures, unverified (and unverifiable) claims, we started to define trends and polarize society with unprecedented speed and depth. All this happened because of the increase in speed and accessibility of information. We made something great, the internet. But we weren't quite ready for it, as a species. You see, propagating information on the internet is based on something called attention. It doesn't happen by itself. There is not ethics attached to it either. There is an incentive for the players and there are specialized structures and skills which are used for that. We usually call these "content producers", but there are many other parts involved, from politics to business. The only thing they have in common, though, is the need for energy. In this case, energy equals money. All structures broadcasting information on the internet need money, because they compete for a very limited resource: human attention. As a result of this competition, algorithms appeared. Responses were studied and algorithms were improved to the point that they even predict what you, as a user, may click on, in the next 5 minutes. This incredibly refined machinery obfuscates "reality" and instead serves something that will elicit a reaction, that will trigger attention. That's what keeps the machine alive. And by "obfuscation" I don't necessarily mean falsification of reality. Most of the time it's just a decoupage, a small slice of reality that it's served, a slice that will make you resonate with it. In time, you end up believing that the slice you're being served is the only reality. That's the veil of illusion. That's the problem. ## Breaking The Veil Of Illusion In a sense, we already live in light version of the Matrix. It's not as "under-the-skin" as the dystopian structure in the movie, but it's not far from it either. Although we can still move around and talk to each other, we already live in carefully crafted parallel realities, based on what we want, or, more precisely, on what triggers a reaction from us. Sometimes it's pleasure, but way more often than that is fear. So what we see in front of our eyes is a thin veil of imagery, custom-made by algorithms, which validates all our assumptions. It's very hard to break through this, because "it feels" so real. It is so well made, that breaking it will almost feel like delusion. Whereas, in reality, us living under the veil is the real delusion. Breaking the veil of illusion starts with practicing healthy distrust. Just because something "seems" real, it doesn't mean it is. Just because we are seeing something now, it doesn't mean that's what happens. It's just the first layer of the thick layer of imagery, the one constructed by the algorithms. With courage and patience, we may start seeing beyond this. Not to give any spoilers, but, once you conquer your fears and start seeing through the algorithmic constructs (which may take years, a lifetime, or more) what is on the other side is way more beautiful than whatever the veil can create. *Photo by William Randles (https://unsplash.com/@will_randles?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/s/photos/veil?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)* First published on: November 10, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbreaking-the-veil-of-illusions%2F&text=Breaking%20The%20Veil%20Of%20Illusions&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbreaking-the-veil-of-illusions%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbreaking-the-veil-of-illusions%2F&t=Breaking%20The%20Veil%20Of%20Illusions https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fbreaking-the-veil-of-illusions%2F&title=Breaking%20The%20Veil%20Of%20Illusions Previous ### The Anatomy Of A U-Turn (/the-anatomy-of-a-u-turn/) Next ### The Tourist Bias – Revised (/the-tourist-bias-revised/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # I'm Not A Cat URL: https://dragosroua.com/im-not-a-cat.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/im-not-a-cat/ Published: 2021-02-16 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 47 Categories: Blogging, Technology Tags: 365 challenge, digital nomad, remote work This pandemic changed our world in ways we would have never imagined before. One of the things that changed dramatically is how we work. Before the pandemic, working remote was some sort of weird thing to do (when it wasn't "sold" as being a perk, that is) whereas now, it's pretty much the norm. But not everyone was prepared for this. For some of us, this change came with real challenges, especially if we didn't necessarily have to use tech in our daily lives before. A hilarious thing happened because of this a week ago. Look at the video below to understand what I'm talking about. Let me summarize this if you didn't watch the video: during an official hearing in a trial, one of the lawyers accidentally pressed a filter button in his Zoom app and turned himself into a cat. You know, the kind of filter that you use for kids, or for fun, where your face is replaced by a very realistic cat. Needless to say, this thing became viral almost instantly and turned into an internet meme. But the funniest thing of all was that the lawyer felt compelled to say to the judge: "I'm not a cat". ## Am I Really, Really Not A Cat? Let's stop for a while, please. It's ok to have a laugh, I had a few, actually, while watching the video, but after that, I still had something on my mind. Something so strange, and so hard to understand, that my first reaction was laughing, although, underneath it, there's a very scary territory. It's about the "I'm not a cat" thing. How can a human being feel compelled to actually say that to another human being? I don't necessarily think that lawyer was a stupid person, on the contrary, I think he's a very clever and intelligent man. So, what are the processes that are going inside that mind? How did we get here? I mean, it's ok to laugh, but then you gotta make a few steps back and start asking some questions… Truth is, we live in a world where we have to disambiguate everything, *because we believe anything*. We live in a post-factual world, which started in the Trump era, and segued into a post-fundamentals world (/the-gamestop-takeaway-were-already-in-a-post-factual-world-but-were-just-entering-a-post-fundamentals-economy/) (which was proven by the famous GME stock story). The post-factual world was created as a consequence of constantly rejecting reality in the search of self-validation. If I repeat incessantly that I'm a genius, people will eventually start to believe this. If I repeat incessantly that I'm the best president ever, the world will have to follow my orders. If I repeat incessantly that an election was stolen, not only people will believe me, instead of the people who are delegated to check these facts (like the judicial system, for example) but they will even take action to implement the result of my imaginary election by storming the Capitol. If you look at the faces of those participating in that riot, you won't see hardcore soldiers applying a coup, but merely kids believing that Santa Claus will bring them presents if they will behave (like Santa Claus wants them to behave, in this case). For what is worth, I don't see ex-president Trump as the culprit, but merely as the most prominent figure promoting a post-factual world. The phenomenon was already woven in the deep fabric of society when he became president, he just made it "mainstream". We live in a world where we believe everything we want to believe, *because there are no immediate consequences*. We believe for instance, there are no biological differences between women and men, and one can identify as anyone. And if you deny to someone that right, to identify as whoever he or she wants, you're committing a crime. Let's be clear, this is not about the freedom to believe what you want, which doesn't even have to be discussed, it's beyond fundamental, but about the imposition of your beliefs onto others. Somewhere along the way we stopped accepting reality from the outside, and we're forcing it from the inside. Everything is plausible now, because we're out of reference systems. To the point that we, as humans, have to tell to another human, in human language, that we are really not a cat. Really? First published on: February 16, 2021 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fim-not-a-cat%2F&text=I%E2%80%99m%20Not%20A%20Cat&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fim-not-a-cat%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fim-not-a-cat%2F&t=I%E2%80%99m%20Not%20A%20Cat https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fim-not-a-cat%2F&title=I%E2%80%99m%20Not%20A%20Cat Previous ### Unintended Consequences, Convergent Evolution And Stranger Things (/unintended-consequences-convergent-evolution-and-stranger-things/) Next ### Going Somewhere (/going-somewhere/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # Six Impossible Things URL: https://dragosroua.com/six-impossible-things.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/six-impossible-things/ Published: 2020-05-25 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 47 Categories: Motivation and Inspiration, Spirituality and Beliefs Tags: courage, creativity, wisdom If I would to be left on a desert island, with only 10 books, one of them would certainly be "Alice In Wonderland". Among all the things that I still remember every once in a while from this magical book, one dialogue is consistently popping out in my mind: the one between Alice and the Queen: > "Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things.""I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carrol ## Believing Impossible Things For years (what am I saying, for decades) I used this dialogue as an incentive to dream, to push boundaries, to expand my mind and accept new possibilities. If I remember well, I even did this exercise on purpose, for a few days in a row. Like literally trying to imagine six impossible things, and trying to imagine them before breakfast. There is a story about the arrival of Cristopher Columbus in what today we know as South America. The Spanish ships could get so close to the shore because they were simply invisible to the locals. No other ship coming from the sea ever arrived there, so they didn't have a previous recollection of such a thing, so they didn't "see it". (I personally think there is a bit of myth here, and the locals couldn't understand what the ships were, but they could actually see them as objects. Either way, the fact that they couldn't assimilate those objects to anything familiar in their minds still proves my point.) Our understanding of reality is limited by our experience. We cannot understand things we didn't learn (/the-language-of-happiness/), previously. We have to somehow incorporate them in our consciousness, we need to draw them on a map that we know beforehand. The funny thing is, though, that we can combine all our experiences in something that was never before. It's called imagination and it's the process through which we can actually "believe impossible things". Imagination is a curious process: it can create representations of "impossible things" in our minds, but, at the same time, we know that these things cannot happen in real life. The simplest example is flying: we can imagine people flying without any equipment, just like a pigeon, but we also know that this is impossible. To make an already long story short, by exercising our imagination we train our minds to make new connections and enlarge our understanding of the world. That's a wonderful thing. But. There is a "but". The line between imagination and reality is a very thin one. Our minds can trick us very often into believing impossible things, when we really shouldn't. This is the toxic version of "imagination", it's called "delusion" and it's a dangerous path. To continue the example above, if we would actually believe that people can fly without equipment, and try that, we will die. As simple as that. Gravity is unforgiving, at least on this planet, in this solar system, in this galaxy. If we become addicted to "believing impossible things", if we force our way into reality, reality will fight back at some point. Dreaming big is nice, for as long as you're aware that you're dreaming. "Putting a dent in the universe" will work out as long as you know which universe you're currently inhabiting. And, with that, we're finally getting to what I wanted to say from the beginning of this article. ## Enjoying Reality As It Is If we spend a lot of time "dreaming big", and those dreams are constantly invalidated by reality, then something strange will happen: we're going to be unhappy. Although we knew in the beginning that we're just dreaming, and we're just trying something that may or may not work, we're still disappointed when it doesn't work out. And, instead of accepting the rules of the current reality, we stick to our dream, trying to convince the universe that gravity should make an exception for our audacious, unequipped flying man. A much better thing would be, in my opinion, to just enjoy flying, as it is. Yes, we may not fly without equipment, because there are these limitations, like gravity and so on, but at least we can fly, somehow. We may want a job that is so fulfilling and extraordinary in our dreams, and yet, reality tells us that we dream of something impossible. Maybe we're too old for that job, or too unprepared, or, deep down, unconsciously, we don't even want that job. Well, that's not a reason not to enjoy whatever we do now, in the current moment. We may want a dream-like relationship, a perfect love story that will never end, and yet, because of our own limitations, because of our own insecurities, we will never find one. Instead of trying to build this impossible thing, and becoming stressed, tired and disappointed in the process, why not enjoy whatever we have right now, whatever we can build with our current setup? Enjoying reality as it is – without expecting it to fit into one of those six impossible things we train to believe before breakfast – is a fine art. It's not spectacular, but it's incredibly fulfilling. It's subtle, it may even seem dull from afar, like you gave up on something, but you really didn't. By mastering that art, you only gave up of what's simply not allowed in this moment, and made room for what it is possible, for what it is real. And, most of the time, that thing is even better. *Image by Gerd Altmann (https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=141396) from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=141396) * First published on: May 25, 2020 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fsix-impossible-things%2F&text=Six%20Impossible%20Things&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fsix-impossible-things%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fsix-impossible-things%2F&t=Six%20Impossible%20Things https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fsix-impossible-things%2F&title=Six%20Impossible%20Things Previous ### And The World Will Never Be The Same (/and-the-world-will-never-be-the-same/) Next ### Can Consistency Be Bad For You? (/can-consistency-be-bad-for-you/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # The Apple Pile And The Need For Consistency URL: https://dragosroua.com/the-apple-pile-and-the-need-for-consistency.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/the-apple-pile-and-the-need-for-consistency/ Published: 2015-10-25 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 47 Categories: Personal Development Tags: consistency, habits, perspective In a corner of our kitchen there is a small basket. We use it for fruits. It has a round shape and it’s made of straws. It can hold bananas, avocados, oranges or apples. Usually, we put them on top of each other. The other day I wanted to take out a banana from this pile of fruits. But the banana was underneath a pile of apples. I carefully took the apples, detached one banana, and then put the pile of apples back. When I started, there were only bananas in the pile. So I arranged one apple near another and the pile grew slowly. I did it slow, deliberately. I didn’t know why, but I felt something important will grow out of this apparently benign operation. The topmost apple was sitting on only three contact points, made by the three apples underneath it. Suddenly, I found this almost magical. If it weren’t for those three apples, the topmost one couldn’t stay there. Couldn’t be suspended in the air. It needed the support of the others. I think I sat a few dozens of seconds looking at those apples. ## The Interdependence Of Things And then I realized why I was so baffled. We always want a certain thing to happen, just like the topmost apple. We know what we want, we see it and we want it now. But, almost always, we don’t have the supporting points. We just want the topmost position. The best career. The best house. The best relationship. We know perfectly how it will look. Just like the apple on top of the pile. It was at the perfect level. Only it just couldn’t be there alone, it needed the other three apples underneath it. So, we can’t have that career, that house, that perfect relationship just like this, out of thin air. We need to build it. And by that I don’t necessarily mean to strive for it, I don’t think it’s fundamentally a difficult task to find the perfect house or the perfect relationship. On the contrary, actually. By “building it” I mean something very subtle: the interdependence if things. That foundation is made of many, many things, all interconnected. Just like the relationship is made of many, many things, all interconnected. In my pile, the support was made by 3 apples. But I could have had any other fruits: pears, peaches, prunes. It didn’t really matter that the support was made of apples. But it mattered that the support was there. It’s the same thing with what we want. We need to have the connecting "fruits", so we can climb on top of what we desire. It won’t happen out of thin air. It needs consistency. ## The Missing Links For a second, I imagined the apple on top of the basket, at the same level, but WITHOUT the other apples underneath it. For a microsecond, it would have stay there. But then, without the support, it would have fallen down. That’s exactly what happen when we rush to do things forgetting this interdependence: we have something, but we have it for a very little time. If it’s not correctly built, it will collapse. Suppose we want a very fulfilling sexual relationship. We know how it looks. We know the type of woman (or man) we want. It’s like we already know the position of the topmost apple. So we start searching and, at some point, we find something that looks exactly like what we want. So we start the sexual relationship (or, in other words, we put the apple at the level where we want it to be). For a microsecond (let’s say, for a night, for a few days, or weeks) the relationship works magically. But then, alas, it collapses. And we’re sad. We hurt. We don’t know why that happened. We were so clear about what we needed, we found it and yet, it was stolen from us. It was “stolen” because we didn’t have the support. We didn’t have the interdependence. In this specific case, of the relationship, we didn’t know each other. We didn’t take the time to understand each other, to grow a friendship. The apple of sexual fulfillment stayed in the air only for a few nights, or weeks. It was not supported by the other “fruits”. But it’s not enough just to have some fruits. The thing is to have those fruits BEFORE we expect the biggest fulfillment. We have to build up, fruit by fruit, our nice pile of support points for our relationship. If we built it carefully, the pile will stay. It will give support for the topmost apple. If not, it will collapse. Nothing is out there “by itself”. Nothing exists without some foundation, some support, something that will act as a cause for it. As I was slowly getting out from the kitchen, I started to eat my banana. The taste was good. First published on: October 25, 2015 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-apple-pile-and-the-need-for-consistency%2F&text=The%20Apple%20Pile%20And%20The%20Need%20For%20Consistency&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-apple-pile-and-the-need-for-consistency%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-apple-pile-and-the-need-for-consistency%2F&t=The%20Apple%20Pile%20And%20The%20Need%20For%20Consistency https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fthe-apple-pile-and-the-need-for-consistency%2F&title=The%20Apple%20Pile%20And%20The%20Need%20For%20Consistency Previous ### The Story Of Transmaraton – 64 KM Ultramarathon (/the-story-of-transmaraton-64-km-ultramarathon/) Next ### 45 Kilometers For 45 Years (/45-kilometers-for-45-years/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # How I Wrote And Published 4 Books on Amazon in One Month URL: https://dragosroua.com/why-and-how-i-wrote-and-published-4-books-in-one-month.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/why-and-how-i-wrote-and-published-4-books-in-one-month/ Published: 2010-02-04 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 47 Categories: Blogging, Money and Wealth Tags: books, do, ebooks, kindle, self publishing, taking action I don't really believe in advertising as a valid, long-term monetizing strategy for a blog. There are more cons than pros, if you take the time to really look at it. Yet, many bloggers are rushing towards advertising and fill up their blog real estate with tons of banners and then dumbly wait for money (/money-and-you/) to pour in. Advertising has a very low entry point, all you need is some traffic and traffic building is relatively cheap, that's true. But advertising also have a very, very low output: you need incredibly high amounts of traffic to make a decent amount of money. I won't talk about the pros and cons of advertising as a blog monetizing strategy in this post. What I am going to talk about is my blog monetizing strategy for 2010. ### The Strategy First of all, let me tell you that I intend to make a huge change in my blog revenue in 2010. And by huge I mean huge, period. Second, I intend to make this happen by increasing my throughput. Delivering more value (/creating-value/). This extra value may be contained in the form and the structure of this blog or it may be just an extension of the blog. Precisely, I'm going to build my own line of information products. In the first 3 months of the year (including January, which is gone) I will create a series of ebooks. After that I may try a line of podcasts and/or video. If talking to a microphone is not at all unusual for me (I worked as a radio host for more than 7 years) doing some vlogging is certainly something intriguing. Which for me translates into "I have to do this". The very first items of my information products line are already out and they have been out for at least 2 weeks now. If you're reading my blog on the web (as opposed to being an RSS subscriber (http://feeds.feedburner.com/dragosroua)) you noticed some changes. To make a long story short: during January, I already wrote 4 new books and also published them on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/entity/Dragos-Roua/B00365N5ZS). I won't describe them now, I will let you download the free previews (/work-with-me/), if you want. Word of caution: there is one book which doesn't have an associated ebook version and that would be The Productivity Trap (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1450552137?ie=UTF8&tag=edthchofapepa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1450552137) (Amazon affiliate link). Now let's move on the "why" part of this decision. ### Why Selling My Own Information Products Because it's more suited to my own lifestyle, to be honest. And because I find it much more appropriate to the whole concept of blogging as a business. A highly successful blogger (/the-7-traits-of-highly-successful-bloggers/) should focus on increasing his throughput and deliver more of his personal experience, rather than relying on external, adjacent businesses, like advertising or affiliate marketing. I have nothing against that, and as a matter of fact I'm doing pretty well on affiliate marketing, I just came to a point where I want to do more. And here's why: #### 1. Bigger Input If I will build my own series of information products I will have greater control over the audience response. I can see what products are performing well and what products are not. I will see exactly what parts of my efforts are making the biggest impact. And adjust. We will grow together. #### 2. Better Connectivity I will get in touch faster and deeper with my readers. Each of their responses will help me provide more value. Or, if I'm on the wrong path, I could be warned earlier. Anyway, creating more value on top of an already existing layer will streamline the existing communication. #### 3. Better Return Let's face it: in advertising, you're the last layer from a huge pile. Each layer on this pile is retaining something of the value you deserve. At some level, this is understandable and I have nothing against it, as I already said it. I just choose to minimize this pile and keep fewer layers of interaction. ### How I Did It I started to write. Ok, it was a little bit more than that. 🙂 Before sitting at a table and write, I tried to find the answers to 3 simple questions: #### 1. What Are You Going To Write About? Not that I don't have a gazillion topics ready to be extracted from my brain in the form of a readable ebook. It wasn't the lack of topics, on the contrary, it was the prioritizing and selling strategy. What exactly would be the most fit and useful range of topics for my audience? And then it hit me: since I already have a lot of topics covered in this very blog, why not just run a content analysis and see which type of content performed better than the other? I think the technical term for this is "crowd-tested". Selecting topics which were already doing great in terms of traffic, comments and social media exposure. That's one of the biggest advantages of a blog. You get all the interaction with your readers and deliver your message to a live audience, ready to validate or invalidate it. Oh, and in the process you do have a lot of fun too. Well, to keep a long story short, I chose to write ebooks based on the most popular posts I had in the last year. #### 2. How Much Do You Want To Write On Top Of These Posts? I was fortunate enough to have a previous experience on this: my first ebook. It took me about 2 months of on and off writing to get that done. But it was like 90% new content. And, to be honest, it really felt like huge. So I decided this time I will only go for 60% new content on top of the blog posts. That would lower the pages number, but this is not necessarily something bad. On the contrary. My aim is to provide easy to use and to re-use information. I'm not writing a philosophy manual. If I would write something like this, I would make revenue plans not for a year but maybe for 50. Or even 150 ;-). Now, one would argue that you can't write tons of good, easy to read, appealing books just by using crowd-tested blog posts, and I would very much agree with that. I have more than 350 personal development articles on this blog now but I won't go for more than 10-15 good books using only the best of the best. I intend to freeze this strategy somewhere around book number 15. By that time I hope to gather enough experience and ability to be able to start writing books from the scratch, without the skeleton of a blog post. To be honest, I have 3 book projects (on personal development) that are waiting in my Someday/Maybe folder. Maybe that Someday is sooner than I thought 🙂 #### 3. In What Form Are You Going To Sell Those Ebooks? That was tricky, but in the end I come up with something really neat. I decided to have both electronic and printed formats. If there's nothing to be explained about electronic formats (I already did it for my first ebook and I explained a little bit the process in thelaunch post (/introducing-my-ebook-30-sentences-for-a-millionaire-mindset/)) I think the printed part of this decision deserves a little bit of an explanation. I was studying self-publishing platforms for a few months and sometimes during November last year I decided to give a try to CreateSpace.  The whole process looked clean and also easy to manage. All you have to do is to upload a PDF containing your book and a cover. You get an ISBN number and your own eStore, handling the whole selling process. The book is printed on demand, of course. After I played a little bit with the site I abandoned the idea. And then, just a few weeks after, I saw that one of my fellow bloggers, Steven Aitchison (http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/), started to do exactly that. He published his first book on CreateSpace and… Amazon! Wow. It was like a thunder for me. I knew all the time that CreateSpace was an Amazon company, but for some reason my mind refused to make the connection. Of course! If you self-publish via CreateSpace you can make your book available on Amazon.com too. And why is that important? you may ask. Why that thunder? Because Amazon gives exactly what you don't have as a blogger: marketing and a HUGE captive audience (you may have a big community as a blogger, but not a HUGE captive audience).  It was really enlightening. So, I re-started the whole self-publishing process. The first one was 30 Sentences For A Millionaire Mindset (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1442101539?ie=UTF8&tag=edthchofapepa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1442101539) (Amazon affiliate link), just to have a printed peer and then moved on the new ones. Everything was going on smoothly, but something was missing. And I didn't know exactly what, until I decided to start a challenge with Steven. We decide to race: whoever will be the first to have 5 books published on Amazon during January, will win. Strangely enough, I won that one. But the February challenge is already on, and we're targeting 4 new books with that. So it's complicated. 🙂 I started a challenge not because I wanted to win, in the first place (although the desire to win was there too) but because I wanted to be held accountable. To have somebody who can tell me: I will do it regardless of what you choose to do and I may win this. These types of challenges are a fantastic motivator. At least for me. ### The Routine If you're going to follow this monetization strategy, you have to be aware of some of the pitfalls. First of all: you will write more. Much more. So be sure to put aside some extra time for that, if you're not a full time blogger. Writing blog posts is one thing, but committing to a book, even if you already have a scaffold for it, will take more energy and focus. Prepare to spend more on this side. The good thing is that books have a bigger inertia than blog posts: they tend to remain alive much more time than a blog post. So the passive income revenue potential is bigger. Second: It will take some time. It's not only the approval process for the printed books, this one is relatively manageable, somewhere between 24 and 48 hours. It's about the extra work you should do AFTER everything is done. You will have some new activities or you'll have to put more time in activities you already perform, like writing landing pages, communicating with your affiliates (if you already have a network of affiliates) and analyzing market inputs (sales, evolution, etc). Third: balance it. It will be a huge effort. Be aware! Balance your extra work with some rest or other activities. I did feel a few times the gentle touch of a potential burn out during this month, but hopefully I made it without it. ### The Goodies Now, I know you're curious about what's in those ebooks anyway. I can feel it. 🙂 Since you made it till here I can tell you have a genuine interest in them and you could really, really find a use for one or all of my ebooks. So, without further ado, here's my proposal. Are you ready? Really? Ok, let's do it: I'm going to give *free* copies of any of my ebooks in exchange for a review. How does it sounds? Yeah, I heard that 🙂 Oh, and the best part is that you DON'T need to have a blog to get a free copy! Because you can write a review at Amazon.com too. How cool is that? You get a *free* ebook and all you have to do is to write a review on your blog OR on Amazon.com. Kinda neat, if you ask me :-). Now let's get practical. Here's what you have to do: leave a comment and let me know which ebooks are of interest to you. You can have any of the ebooks, including the flagship of my fleet, 30 Sentences For A millionaire Mindset! If you want, you can have all 4 ebooks (The Productivity Trap (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1450552137?ie=UTF8&tag=edthchofapepa-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1450552137) [Amazon affiliate link] is available only in printed form, I'm afraid, so that one should be bought directly). Also, please let me know if you want or not to become an affiliate (/affiliate-program/). Ups, I almost forgot: you can promote and resell my ebooks and you'll get 50% off of each sale. I could have pick a smaller amount and then try to lure you in with some "extra" discounts up to this number, but I choose to do it upfront: 50% no questions asked. And since the printed versions are on sale on Amazon, you can promote them just as you promote other Amazon books on your site, if you're an Amazon affiliate. Ok, after you let me know which ebooks are you interested in, I will email them to you for free. The only thing I ask is to let me know when you're going to publish the review, where (your blog and/or Amazon) and if you found some value in what I wrote. If you think somebody else would be interested in this giveaway, feel free to spread the word. I don't know for how long I'm going to do this, so be sure to act now, because, based on the response I get, this offer may end really soon. That's all. Go! First published on: February 4, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-and-how-i-wrote-and-published-4-books-in-one-month%2F&text=How%20I%20Wrote%20And%20Published%204%20Books%20on%20Amazon%20in%20One%20Month&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-and-how-i-wrote-and-published-4-books-in-one-month%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-and-how-i-wrote-and-published-4-books-in-one-month%2F&t=How%20I%20Wrote%20And%20Published%204%20Books%20on%20Amazon%20in%20One%20Month https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2Fwhy-and-how-i-wrote-and-published-4-books-in-one-month%2F&title=How%20I%20Wrote%20And%20Published%204%20Books%20on%20Amazon%20in%20One%20Month Previous ### Don’t Hit It Big! Unless You’re Ready For It… (/dont-hit-big-unless-youre-ready-for-it/) Next ### Life Device Drivers: What Are They and When You Need To Upgrade (/how-to-manage-and-upgrade-your-life-device-drivers/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 21. Be Better, Not Perfect URL: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-21-better-not-perfect.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/100-ways-live-better-life-21-better-not-perfect/ Published: 2014-12-01 Modified: 2025-12-03 Views: 46 Categories: Blogging, Personal Development Tags: 100 ways series, growth Striving too much for perfection will ruin your life. It will wipe out all those little imperfections which are making you… well, human. Being better, on the other side, is rewarding. Look back at the "yesterday you" and just say: I'm better! Perfection is death camouflaged in beauty. You can't really be perfect and still be alive. Your life is made out of all those little limitations, all those spots on your immaculate canvas. Eliminating them will make you perfect but it will also take life out of you. On the other hand, striving to be better stems from accepting your limitations. From acknowledging your imperfection. Most of the time, striving to be perfect will kill any action you may take, just by knowing it's impossible to be perfect. *Just by accepting that you are not perfect, only improvable, your life will change dramatically. For the better. * ## How To Be Better And not perfect, that is. It's a two step approach, something simple, yet effective. Don't be mislead by the apparent simplicity, because there's still a lot of work involved. We don't have time in a single blog post to dive into all the details, but, believe me, there's work to do if you want to be better. So, the first step is be present. It all starts from here. I know, it sounds a little confusing, but believe me, it all starts from here. Be present in your own life and pay attention to what’s happening with and around you. Then make your choices. Choose consciously to do something, not like a reaction to the environment. A good example here would be money. Choose consciously a way to make money and then start implement it. As opposed to making money just to pay out debt. It’s nothing wrong with paying debt, on the contrary, I think it’s great. But if you make the financial part of your activity the main reason to do it, you may end up with something that it’s not fulfilling in the long run, to say the least. Sometimes it may happen, I know, sometimes you really hit it and find a good job, that pays well and in good conditions. Congratulations, stay there. But, more often than that, it happens the other way around. You just go to the job because you have to. You’re forced to. In a way, you become a slave. And that puts you in a very delicate situation. Not only because you kinda lose your sense of freedom, although it does count. Not only because your emotional field will be poisoned with negative emotions most of the time, although it does count. But because you will not express the best part of you. Because the greatest gift you can give to the world, that thing that only you can give, it’s not there. You chose not to give it, by exchanging it with a well paying job. And that happened because you were not present. You didn't choose consciously (/what-you-get-is-what-you-choose/). I use this metaphor of “finding your true calling” because it hits a chord in many people. But it’s the same with everything else. It’s the same with relationships. It’s the same with health. We make our choices based on reaction, not conscious action. And the number one consequence of this, in terms of damage, of course, is the fact that we can’t genuinely express ourselves. We have to play on a very restrictive set of conditions. And, guess what? That set of conditions will block us. We can’t become better, in an aligned sense, if we’re not true to ourselves. Of course, we can advance on the social ladder, we can get a better position at that job, but it won’t help us to be better. It’s an apparent “better”, it’s not the real one. We just do it for more money (if money was the main reason). Or for more attention (if getting attention was the main reason). Progress over perfection applies to money too. My book *Gravitational Habits For Financial Resilience* shows how small, consistent habits compound into lasting wealth—no dramatic lifestyle changes required. Get it: Apple Books (https://books.apple.com/pt/book/gravitational-habits-for-financial-resilience/id6756201311) · Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Ny2dEQAAQBAJ) · Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G5FPKNZR) ![Gravitational Habits For Financial Resilience book cover](/images/gravitational-habits.webp) As long as you’re present and make your choices in a way the lets your freedom, creativity and your very core as a human being to manifest, you’re half way there. So, if you want to be better, that’s the first step: be present. Then, when you know you took the right decision, just stay there. Do whatever it takes. Do whatever you can. Just wake up in the morning, look at your smile in the mirror (because you will be smiling when you wake up) and ask yourself: how should I play my game today? Keep working. That's the second step. further reading Emotional Stability (/emotional-stability/) Optimize For What's Necessary (/real-value-versus-perceived-value/) 33 Ways To Feel Better (/33-ways-to-feel-better/) Want more actionable life advice? This post is one of 100 Ways To Live A Better Life (/100-ways-to-live-a-better-life/). First published on: December 1, 2014 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-21-better-not-perfect%2F&text=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2021.%20Be%20Better%2C%20Not%20Perfect&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-21-better-not-perfect%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-21-better-not-perfect%2F&t=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2021.%20Be%20Better%2C%20Not%20Perfect https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F100-ways-live-better-life-21-better-not-perfect%2F&title=100%20Ways%20To%20Live%20A%20Better%20Life%20%E2%80%93%2021.%20Be%20Better%2C%20Not%20Perfect Previous ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 20. Write An Ebook (/100-ways-live-better-life-20-write-ebook/) Next ### 100 Ways To Live A Better Life – 22. Stop Self Sabotage (/100-ways-live-better-life-22-stop-self-sabotage/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? --- # 5 Things I Learned From Teaching Others URL: https://dragosroua.com/5-things-i-learned-from-teaching-others.md HTML: https://dragosroua.com/5-things-i-learned-from-teaching-others/ Published: 2010-02-11 Modified: 2025-12-02 Views: 46 Categories: Relationships and Society, Success and Wellness Tags: entrepreneurship, growth, lessons learned, list post A few months ago, I started a series of workshops. One is about doing online business (/77-tips-for-starting-an-online-business/) (which I call the "mentorship") and the other one is about blogging (/blogging-101/). Both are pretty demanding in terms of focus, energy and time. Mentorship is 2 days in a row and blogging is split in 3 days, usually 3 Fridays in a row. I really enjoyed doing these workshops. Interacting, teaching and always being challenged are so different than blogging. We will never replace human interaction, I suppose, regardless of how much social media we will create. And as much as I value blogging as a personal development channel, I'll always be amazed by the results you get from direct interaction with another human being. But what amazes me the most, is how much I learned during this process. Didn't even realize I'm actually learning from it, because I was totally focused and immersed, but after the initial thrill dried out, I noticed a different approach. The concern of "am I going to deliver today?" was slowly replaced by "what would I learn today?". The biggest secret of teaching is that you constantly learn from it. You're constantly being challenged even if your main teaching themes are the same. The mere act of getting out and share your experience will always get you out of your comfort zone. I teach roughly the same topics (with some improvements from one series to another) but every time I do it it's different. Every interaction is unique. Now, let's see what are the 5 things that I got substantially improved by teaching others: ## 1. I Rebuilt My Interpersonal Skills Every person is unique. And every time I interacted with another person during my workshops, something magic happened. Couldn't describe it and I won't even try. Suffice to say that I drastically improved my interpersonal skills. Before the workshop a normal interaction would usually last as long as the physical interaction: after we exchanged some information, the other person was out of my radar. But after I started to teach, I created a sort of a loop. Each time I interacted with someone I projected his or her image into a very near future. "I understand how you are now, but here's how you're going to be in a very short time if we're going to learn this or that." And that made a huge quantum leap in our relationship. We literally grew together: he, as a performer of new tasks, and me as a witness. And witnessing other people growing has this strange effect of triggering growth in yourself too. ## 2. I Remodeled My Organizing Skills Preparing a workshop is totally different than preparing a blog post. To be honest, is more complicated than preparing a business meeting too, and I know that because I  had literally hundreds of business meetings in my 10 years as an entrepreneur. It's not that you have to predict everything all the time: did I get enough paper or pencils? Do I have everything I need at the workshop location? The desks are good? How are the chairs? Do we have electricity? (Yeah, I can freak out at times 😉 ). It's more about creating a specific context in which you can express yourself in a more powerful way. Once you get over the little details that you'll roll on autopilot, you will start to feel the whole structure of your performance from another level. You will start to identify chunks of high interaction, favorable contexts and instant changes and opportunities. You will learn how to get the most of your environment with minimum effort. And that's what organizing is for me, anyway. ## 3. I Validated My Personal Experience Yes, I did business for 10 years. Yes, I still do business today. But let me tell you something: we will always need validation for our actions. It's part of how we're functioning as human beings. And by validation I mean putting your expertise to be tested by others. Let other people stress you with questions, let them put you in uncomfortable situations and see how – and if – you can get out in good shape. Getting out and teaching what I've learned in 10 years of entrepreneurship had a very important (yet almost invisible for any other person than me) effect: actually proved if my personal experience was good or not. Based on my evaluation after the mentorship workshops I made some informal recommendations to some investors and, to my great satisfaction, some of the young entrepreneurs I recommended got an initial seed funding. Which, to be honest, I consider to be a great thing. 😉 ## 4. I Enforced My Personal Brand Real brands are built in real world. If all you do is stay at your computer and write, you may become a famous blogger. And that's ok if all you want is to be a famous blogger. But be prepared for some big surprises when you go out in the real world. Every time I started a new workshop I knew I will put to a difficult test not only my experience, my knowledge and interpersonal skills, but also my personal brand. Each attendant was in fact an amplifier for my personal image. Any screw up is highly penalized when people are expecting to learn something from you. What could be perceived as a mild disappointment in a normal relationship, would become a huge turn off if you're teaching the other person. If you're trying to make the other person better, you can't be less than great. And striving to be the best version of yourself (/are-you-the-best-version-of-yourself/) in front of an eager audience is the best thing that could happen to your personal brand. Honestly. ## 5. Refined My Networking Skills Before starting these workshops I had quite a comfortable position in the online publishing industry in Romania. I still know a few key people and try to keep close with my old partners. But things are changing incredibly fast in this industry. After just a few months of workshops I feel like my network of people has exploded. I am actually forced to find ways to keep track of what I'm starting and with whom. The term "business opportunity" become more common than "good morning". The pressure of keeping my connections alive, after spending a lot of valuable time together, pushed me to a new level. It's not the fact that I know more people than I knew when I owned my own business. It's the actual business quota for each person I know. It's like every new encounter is wrapped into a veil of business proposals. I can't follow all of them, which I think it's a sign of normality, but I do enjoy this new field of opportunities. *** Now, I'm curious: did you have similar experiences? How much are you getting when you're teaching somebody else? If you're a coach, for instance, how much do you feel you  "give" and how much do you "receive"? Would love to hear it in the comments. First published on: February 11, 2010 ### I've been location independent for 15 years And I'm sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works. Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships. Get Free Guide → Subscribing... 🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription. Free. As in free beer. Share https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-things-i-learned-from-teaching-others%2F&text=5%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20Teaching%20Others&via=dragosroua https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-things-i-learned-from-teaching-others%2F https://news.ycombinator.com/submitlink?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-things-i-learned-from-teaching-others%2F&t=5%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20Teaching%20Others https://reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdragosroua.com%2F5-things-i-learned-from-teaching-others%2F&title=5%20Things%20I%20Learned%20From%20Teaching%20Others Previous ### A Winter Tale (/a-winter-tale/) Next ### 7 Ways To Drastically Improve Your Social Life (/7-ways-to-drastically-improve-your-social-life/) Work With Me (/work-with-me/) Explore all Topics (/categories/) Browse by Tags (/tags/) Apps I Made (/apps/) addTaskManager (/productivity-apps/) |ShareByLight (/sharebylight/) |Flight Lens (/flight-lens/) |Hacking Habits (/hacking-habits/) |Zen Tales (/zen-tales/) |Light Njoy (/light-njoy/) |MosquiGo (/mosquigo/) |Just 5 Words (/just-5-words/) |AI Kiddo (/ai-kiddo/) |Coloring Kiddo (/coloring-kiddo/) |999 Wise Quotes (/999-quotes/) |Shape Walk (/shape-walk/) |Pane Shatter: Smash Glass (/pane-shatter/) |Adulthood (/adulthood/) Copyright, Dragos Roua 2006 - 2026. Privacy Policy (/privacy-policy/) | Terms of Service (/terms-of-service/) ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years Ask me anything ![Dragos](/images/dragos-hat.png) I've been blogging for 20 years ask me anything Hi! I'm Dragos. I've been writing about productivity, nomad life, running, mindset, and building apps since 2006. What would you like to know? Habits that stick Nomad life lessons What apps did you build Do you have a newsletter? ---