1.) Drawing Your AI Boundaries
This podcast with Arthur Brooks and Simon Sinek is worth a listen.
They cover a lot, but one of my main takeaways was about the risk of outsourcing “the process” to AI.
Most things in life have a “use-it-or-lose-it” tendency:
Muscles, skills, qualities, character traits, etc.
And this is becoming increasingly important to keep in mind as AI becomes more powerful.
Given that we can now get results without having to go through the process previously required to generate them, we run the risk of impoverishing our inner lives.
As an example, I spent a full month writing this blog post on Nonduality and Consciousness.
The process of thinking through these ideas in depth reoriented my worldview, and I feel more at home on this planet as a result of writing it.
Although I could have produced a better result with a well thought out ChatGPT prompt, that misses the point:
Sometimes the process is the point.
The process is what changes us, deepens us, and reshapes us from the inside out.
I could also ask AI to give me 10 gift ideas for my brother’s birthday. However, if I do so, I miss out on the opportunity to exercise my own creativity, thoughtfulness, and perspective-taking muscles.
And these are things I don’t want to lose.
So, as AI gets stronger, we need to be clear about what processes we’re not willing to outsource.
Otherwise, we’ll become like a marathon runner who takes a taxi to the finish line.
He might get there faster, but he misses out on all of the inner benefits and development he would have got if he’d actually run the race.
What about you? What processes will you refuse to outsource?
2.) On the Growing Need for a Philosophy of Life
As we increasingly rely on AI for guidance, one of the things most likely to atrophy is our gut instinct.
Sinek even goes as far as to say that: “AI may destroy wisdom.”
If this is true, the advice of Socrates from 2,400 years ago to “know thyself” is now no longer a luxury, but a necessity.
But how do you actually develop self knowledge?
One of the most powerful exercises I’ve done in recent years is to articulate my philosophies of life and work.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a philosophy as:
“A theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for behaviour”.
In essence, a philosophy is the unconscious operating system guiding your behaviour in daily life—the principles you’re using to navigate the world.
So if you articulate yours, you’re essentially making the unconscious conscious and translating the language of your heart into words on a page—almost like holding a mirror up to your “gut instinct” and seeing what’s there.
From here, you can see it more objectively, and tweak it if you need to.
Not only does this lead to better self understanding, it’s also an immense source of clarity for when the time comes to make an important decision.
If you’d like to get clearer on your own philosophy, this short exercise from my upcoming book walks you through the process and questions I use.
3.) The Joy of Unpacking Words
I grew up in a town in Ireland called Limavady. The name comes from the Irish Leim an Mhadaidh, which literally means “leap of the dog.”
This has its origins in an ancient story about the O’Cahan clan who were on the brink of defeat in battle.
In desperation, they sent a wolfhound carrying a message to a neighbouring village asking for help. To reach them, the hound made a massive jump over a wide river, delivered the message, and the neighbouring tribe came and saved the day.
Fiction or not, the story illustrates just how much meaning and depth can be packed into a single word.
It’s almost like words are “zip files”, that if we take the time to open and unpack, can reveal hidden depths.
Below are a few examples of everyday words that are worth a closer look:
— Information — combines “in” (incoming sense data) and “formation” (being formed). So the content we consume (books, videos, podcasts, etc) is quite literally forming our being.
— Human being — points to the reality that there are two aspects to our experience: the human (physical, practical, everyday concerns), and the being (the eternal, spiritual elements). Living well requires a skillful integration of both.
— Relationship — “Relation” implies a bond between two people, and “ship” suggests they are in a “ship” i.e. boat, moving towards a shared direction. The more the two people agree on the direction, the better the relationship functions.
What about you? Have you noticed any everyday words that carry a deeper meaning? If so, hit reply and let me know—I’d be curious to hear.
4.) The Most Important Word in Sleep
I interviewed Professor Guy Leschziner for our podcast recently — a leading sleep expert who has treated tens of thousands of patients as Clinical Lead at one of Europe’s largest Sleep Disorder Centres.
My key takeaway was that the most important word in sleep is: “association”.
The brain is an associative organ that links certain environments with mental and emotional states.
What tends to happen as insomnia develops is that the sufferer increasingly associates their bed with the experience of not being able to sleep — and it becomes a place of dread, worry, and anxiety instead.
CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I)—which has a 70–80% success rate—is largely built on this understanding.
The goal with CBT-I is to get the patient to re-develop a strong association between their bed and sleep.
To do this, clinicians actually prescribe a reduction in the number of hours in bed.
So if someone spends 7 hours in bed, but only manages to sleep for 5, the therapist will set their total time in bed to 5 hours.
The aim behind this is to get the patient so tired that when they do actually go to bed, they drift off quite quickly.
Over time, a strong association is rebuilt between bed and falling asleep. Once their sleep gets more consistent, the time they are allowed in bed is gradually increased.
Even if you don’t suffer from insomnia, there’s a practical takeaway here.
We’d be wise to keep our bed as a “sacred space” for sleep, and avoid artificially stimulating activities while we’re in it (Netflix, Tik Tok, etc).
If we do these things in bed, our brain will begin to associate it with stimulation rather than rest—gradually eroding the link with sleep, and making it easier for insomnia to take hold.
5.) Non-Sleep Deep Rest
Linked with the above, another useful discovery this month has been this Non-Sleep Deep Rest Protocol from Dr. Andrew Huberman.
Taking only 10 minutes, it guides you through a visualisation + breathing exercise designed to restore the nervous system to a state of calm and relaxation.
You can do it sitting or lying down, and at any time of the day.
Personally, I’ve found it a great way to reset to normal functioning (and heart rate) after a workout, and also just before bed in the evening.
Highly recommend giving it a try — you won’t regret it.
6.) Creating a Family Memory Bank
I’m in a fortunate situation where three of my Grandparents are still alive.
Realising they aren’t going to be around forever, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in recent years getting to know them as deeply as possible—asking about their lives during different periods, their parents, the towns they grew up in, what life was like “back then”, and so on.
I get to have a lot of fascinating conversations for TWU’s podcast, but for some reason, these have been some of the most interesting and meaningful I’ve had.
My cousin and I were talking about this, and he said you have to record them, so that I can pass their stories on to my own kids someday, who can then pass them on to theirs, and so on..
Sort of like creating a “family memory bank”.
I mean, how cool would it be if you could hear a recording of your great, great, great grandparents talking about their lives in the 1700s or 1800s?
So I’m currently in the process of doing this.
A question worth thinking about then…
Is there anyone in your life you’d love to record, so that you can pass their story on to future generations?
7.) The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake — David Brooks (Long Article)
If you’re curious about the cultural forces which have been driving the growing levels of disconnection, fragmentation, and isolation we see in our society today, this article from David Brooks has an interesting hypothesis.
For hundreds of thousands of years, human psychology has been moulded in the context of extended family (Grandparents, cousins, aunties, uncles, etc).
The modern nuclear family, by contrast, is a relatively recent experiment—and, one that Brooks suggests may have been the pivotal first step toward the disintegration we see today.
If you have the time (you will need it 
), this is worth a read.
