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Navya-Nyāya (New Logic school of Indian philosophy)Gaṅgeśa's successors in the Navya-Nyāya tradition, cross-referenced with George Pólya (Stanford, 'How to Solve It', 1945)

The Navya-Nyāya logicians of medieval Bengal developed a technology that most mental-model builders still lack: a formal grammar for the difference between a concept and an...

Pick one framework you've used more than three times this week. What is the smallest class of problems it was...

Navya-Nyāya (New Logic school of Indian philosophy)Gaṅgeśa Upādhyāya (14th-century Navya-Nyāya philosopher, Tattvacintāmaṇi)

A model that explains everything explains nothing. This is not a modern epistemological complaint — it's the precise charge the Navya-Nyāya logician Gaṅgeśa leveled against rival...

Pick one mental model you use regularly. What specific outcome, if it occurred, would force you to abandon it — and...

Navya-Nyāya (New Logic school of Indian philosophy)Udayana (Navya-Nyāya philosopher, 11th century CE)

The ancient Indian philosopher Udayana, writing in the 11th century, argued that the mind's default state is not silence but a kind of unceasing hum — what he called...

What do you habitually fill with your phone or a podcast that your brain might actually need to leave empty?

Mīmāṃsā (Indian philosophy of ritual language and action)Kumārila Bhaṭṭa (Mīmāṃsā philosopher, 7th century CE)

Ancient Indian grammarians spent centuries debating whether language shapes thought or merely reports it — and modern neuroscience has landed surprisingly close to their answer....

In the last 24 hours, how many of your plans were phrased as desires ('I want to', 'I should') versus commitments ('I...

Indian Philosophy (Nyāya) / Forecasting ScienceNyāya tradition & Philip Tetlock

Most people treat disagreement as a problem to be resolved. The Nyāya school of ancient Indian philosophy had a different view: they developed one of the world's most rigorous...

What would someone who genuinely disagreed with your most defended position say — and have you ever let that argument...

Nyāya School of Indian PhilosophyVātsyāyana ('Nyāya Bhāṣya', commentary on the Nyāya Sūtras, c. 4th–5th century CE)

Most of us treat Monday morning as a fresh start — a clean slate that Tuesday will inevitably dirty. But this intuition carries a hidden assumption: that time is something we...

What would remain of your sense of 'being behind' if you stopped using the week as the unit of measurement?

Classical Yoga Philosophy combined with Renaissance EmpiricismPatanjali (Yoga Sutras, c. 400 CE) and Girolamo Cardano (De Vita Propria, 1576)

Most productivity systems treat a cluttered mind the way a bad filing system treats paper — by adding more folders. The 16th-century Venetian physician and polymath Girolamo...

In the last 48 hours, how many items on your mental to-do list were anxieties you had dressed up as actionable tasks?

Advaita Vedanta (Indian Philosophy)Vidyaranya (Panchadasi, 14th century)

The 14th-century Indian philosopher Vidyaranya, in his Panchadasi, describes a peculiar trap he calls 'reflected consciousness' — the way awareness takes on the color of whatever...

What would remain of your position on a current decision if you stripped away the emotional atmosphere of the last...

Indian Philosophy synthesized with Naturalistic Decision-MakingBhagavad Gita (~5th–2nd century BCE) synthesized with Gary Klein (Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions, 1998)

Here's a strange feature of product work: the moment you feel most certain about what users want is often the moment you're most wrong. The Bhagavad Gita distinguishes between two...

In your last three product decisions, did you gather evidence to learn — or to confirm what you'd already decided?

Indian Philosophy (Bhagavad Gita) combined with American PragmatismKrishna / Vyasa (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, on nishkama karma) & William James (The Principles of Psychology, on the 'effort of attention')

There's a strange paradox at the heart of every great sales relationship: the harder you push to close, the further the close recedes. William James, the American Pragmatist,...

In your last significant client conversation, were you primarily listening to understand — or listening to respond?

Indian Philosophy combined with Decision TheorySri Aurobindo — The Synthesis of Yoga, synthesized with Daniel Kahneman — Thinking, Fast and Slow

There's a strange paradox at the heart of habit-building: the harder you try to force change, the more the mind resists. Bhagavad Gita scholar and philosopher Sri Aurobindo...

Which of your current habits exists mainly because of where things are physically placed in your environment — and have...

Pragmatism synthesized with Indian PhilosophyWilliam James (synthesized with Jiddu Krishnamurti's philosophy of attention)

William James, the father of American pragmatism, made a strange observation: most people think curiosity is a precondition for learning, but he argued the opposite — that the...

When you find yourself disengaged from something — a meeting, a person, a problem — do you treat that disengagement as...

Indian Philosophy combined with Decision TheoryKrishna (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2) and Herbert Simon (Administrative Behavior, 1947)

There's a peculiar moment in the Bhagavad Gita where Arjuna, paralyzed by the weight of everything he has to do, receives advice that sounds almost irresponsible: stop caring...

Which tasks on your list are you deliberately not finishing because finishing them would mean accepting they're...

Indian Philosophy (Bhagavad Gita) / German IdealismVyasa (Bhagavad Gita, c. 2nd century BCE) synthesized with Arthur Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Representation, 1818)

There's a strange paradox buried in the Bhagavad Gita that most summaries skip: Krishna doesn't tell Arjuna to find himself — he tells Arjuna to act without clinging to who he...

Where in your life are you working hardest to maintain a consistent story about who you are — and what might you do...

Indian Philosophy (Bhagavad Gita)Krishna (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2) synthesized with Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (Self-Determination Theory)

Most people treat motivation as the ignition — you wait for it, then act. The Bhagavad Gita flips this completely: Krishna tells Arjuna that action itself is the duty, and the...

Where in your fitness or work life are you waiting to feel motivated before starting — and what would actually happen...

Indian Philosophy (Bhagavad Gita) combined with Naturalistic Decision MakingVyasa (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 41) and Gary Klein (Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions, 1998)

There's a paradox at the heart of high performance that most productivity systems quietly ignore: the leaders who accomplish the most tend to be ruthlessly clear about what they...

When you picture someone you consider genuinely focused — in work, in family, in leadership — what have they visibly...

Indian Philosophy (Bhagavad Gita)Daniel Kahneman / Bhagavad Gita (synthesized)

There's a peculiar trap hiding in your most useful mental models: the better they work, the more invisible they become. The Bhagavad Gita describes this through the concept of...

Which of your mental models has been so consistently rewarded that you've stopped noticing when it doesn't fit?

Indian Philosophy (Bhagavad Gita)Krishna / Vyasa (Bhagavad Gita, synthesized with Miles Davis's creative method)

There's a strange paradox at the heart of improvisation: the musicians who sound most free are usually the most disciplined. Miles Davis didn't stumble into 'Kind of Blue' — he...

Where in your life are you doing good work but quietly holding it hostage to a particular response — and what does that...

Indian Philosophy (Bhagavad Gita)Peter Gollwitzer (with the Bhagavad Gita)

Your brain has a surprisingly counterproductive relationship with your to-do list. When you plan a task in vivid detail — breaking it into steps, scheduling the time — your...

When you make a detailed plan, are you genuinely preparing to act — or are you, at least sometimes, performing action...

Indian Philosophy combined with Decision TheoryBhagavad Gita (c. 200 BCE) and Amos Tversky & Eldar Shafir (goal completion and effort research)

There's a peculiar trap hiding in your Friday afternoon: the feeling that the week is 'basically over,' so you coast. Psychologists call this 'goal completion neglect' — once we...

Which parts of your week do you consistently treat as corridors — time you pass through rather than inhabit — and what...

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