Asking Why is an Act of Compassion

A lot of people take offense when asked "why." Many don't even ask the "why's" of their own lives. However, I've realized that those who do ask these questions are often truly compassionate. They genuinely want to understand and are trying not to make assumptions or ignore the underlying reasons.

Asking questions and being curious are fundamental aspects of human nature. Yet, not many people practice this. It's difficult because these questions can tear through the societal facade that expects obligation and faith rather than a curiosity to understand more deeply.

Reflection on asking why

I'm writing this based on my recent experiences. I have struggled to do deep work for a long time because my work has been largely ad-hoc. While it's crucial work and I'm doing a good job, I don't feel satisfied because I'm not getting into my flow state.

This led me to question many things, and I stumbled upon the book "Dopamine Nation - Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence." The author discusses how, in this age, we tamper with the pleasure and pain scale. We indulge in so many activities that give us a dopamine kick, raising our threshold for pleasure and lowering it for pain. In this pursuit of constant pleasure, we lose the ability to enjoy small things or work on something which is long term and become overly sensitive to minor discomforts.

This resonated with me and made me sit down to question my actions. Asking these questions wasn't easy, but it was crucial for achieving long-term change and mastery in my work.

Through this process, I identified the root of my problem. I remembered a time when I felt satisfaction from my work. It was when I was doing a job, where I had clear deliverables. I used to wake up early and get work done in 3-4 hours, which was equivalent to 7-8 hours during normal hours. The key? I avoided my mobile phone and social media until the afternoon. Using a smartphone immediately after waking up is like having a packet of potato chips (junk) for breakfast.

This realization was a lightbulb moment.

Dopamine fasting concept

As a founder, you believe you can solve anything and everything, but you need to be aware of what is consuming most of your time. Things will remain ambiguous until you have a product and eventually achieve product-market fit (PMF). Once you reach this point, it becomes easier to manage, develop, and ship. Until then, it's a chaotic process, and none of it matters until PMF.

Here are a few changes I am making in my life:

No mobile phone, social media, or checking messages for the first 4 hours of my day after waking up (this is my dopamine fasting).
Make a list of things I want to do tomorrow by the end of the day.

If I can consistently practice 1 & 2 for the next 30 days, I plan to hit the gym for 1.5 hours in the afternoon.

I will write back after 30 days to see how this goes. This is another compassionate act towards understanding my well-being, which I could only arrive at by questioning.

If this works out, I will engage in more dopamine fasts to recalibrate my pleasure and pain scale and find joy in small things and build muscle for long term mastery.

I highly recommend the book to become more aware of the downsides of capitalism based on consumption, with your phone being the biggest and fastest drug supplier. I used to joke that when chips in our brains (like Neuralink) become common, we'll have apps to get high without any intoxication. After reading the book, I realized we don't need a chip; we're already getting high without realizing it.

On a different topic, you can check out this small demo and progress we made, which didn't make it to the previous blog.

Here you can see real time depth analysis on a simple webcam (RGB) camera. It's taking care of all the details. And we are able to generate 3D point cloud, processing it at 10fps.

Tweet Link: https://x.com/sourav_bz/status/1811030077221785819

Thanks for reading till the end, I will continue to share these updates, of not just building the product but also on how we are adapting ourselves to play the long term game.

_"You need to survive long enough to get lucky" - Harj Taggar_