8 Comments
User's avatar
Nick Widmer's avatar

A very relatable dichotomy indeed. Beautifully written, Ashwin.

Expand full comment
Bhargav Chaudhari's avatar

Loved the ordinary evening part! Reminded me of something Alan Watts said,

"Being able to live perfectly in solitude, paradoxically makes you better around people".

You posted it.

Expand full comment
Hari's avatar

I love this and resonate with it so much! So many of us fall into the trap of climbing ladders up the wrong wall. Examining the “shoulds” in our lives and where they come from is so important to avoid aiming for blind ambition.

Expand full comment
Abhinav's avatar

Another beautifully written piece Ashwin. This is one I'll be saving to read later as I expect some degree of metamorphosis of my reflections.

Expand full comment
Baxter Blackwood's avatar

Ashwin! You've done a great job here. I read a very early first draft of this: I loved what you've done with the piece since. I've never heard of the advaita vedanta meditation of asking who am I! I'll have to try that out.

And: I need to read Siddhartha probably.

PS: There's an idea called "memesis" that fits in really nicely with this. David Perell talks about it.

Expand full comment
Aleks Ficovic's avatar

It's shows that you've though about this a lot and presented a deep topic in such a fluent way. I enjoyed the read Ashwin

Expand full comment
Erin Rupp's avatar

Such a great article, Ash, and a reminder to "lean on the wisdom and stillness that comes from knowing oneself," not to get caught up in the 'shoulds' and the rat race. Thank you for sharing your wisdom!

Expand full comment
Brendan McKenna's avatar

This deeply resonates! It's very tricky to notice when my ambition is taking over and driving my decisions.

Expand full comment