Welcome back. This is part 7 in an 8-part series about our personal sense of agency. In the last part, we explored agency as a form of participation in a world that rewards us for relinquishing it. We examined how it arises within resistance, takes shape through practice, and expresses itself through attention, volition, and d…

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🎤 “Let’s get ready to RUMBLE!”

Okay, that was my best Michael Buffer impersonation. I’m not sure if I hit the mark, but let’s go with it… Cue the spotlight and several thousand stunned Substack subscribers fumbling for their popcorn…

In this corner: – a self-proclaimed writer, researcher, and social scientist, with the title of “Internet Personality” b…

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Welcome back. This is Part 6 of an 8-part essay series on agency. In the last part, we stepped out of theory and into felt experience. We explored agency as something relational and rhythmic – recognizing agency as a volitional moment based on where we place our attention. Attention and volition (manasikāra and cetanā) became …

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My eldest son has been wanting a phone for some time now.

Years ago, I set a rule for all of my kids: if they want a phone, they need to read a couple articles by on tech and mental health (this one in particular), and then write a report on what they learned and how they planned to use technology differently. From that, I would turn the report into a c…

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If you’ve made it this far in this series, welcome back. This has become more than just an essay. It’s become a journey. And thank you for joining me down this path.

In Part 1, we explored a question: What is agency, really? And why do we seem to be losing it? In Part 2, we traced a brief history of agency, from ancient Greek ph…

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If this is your first time here, I’d recommend starting from the beginning. You’re landing in the middle of a long conversation, and this part is the longest so far (buckle up!). This conversation began with the rise of artificial intelligence and turned quickly toward something more personal: our own sense o…

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In part 2 of this essay, we looked at determinism as one of the most enduring, and increasingly persuasive, arguments against the existence of free will. The idea, as Sapolsky and others have laid it out, is relatively simple: every thought, feeling, decision, or impulse arises within the causal order of…

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Before agency became a buzzword in the age of AI, it was a philosophical dilemma, a spiritual koan, and still today, a neuroscientific puzzle. The question of whether we truly have the power to choose freel…

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In March 2025, a study out of UC San Diego made history. For the first time, a machine (OpenAI’s GPT-4.5) passed the original version of the Turing test. Not the simplified version often invoked in media headlines, but the real thing: Turing’s three-player “imitation game,” where human judges converse simultaneously with on…

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Dear Substack Community:
Strike that.
Dear World:

There’s something I need to admit – not just to myself, but out loud. There’s power in the commitment that comes with saying something publicly. I need to address this, not because it's surprising, or because it’s new, but because I’ve finally stopped tryin…

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"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

— Mark Twain (I think it’s Twain… No, I’m certain of it.)

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Something is Stirring

I used to think transitions were solitary. When I recently stepped away from a career that had once defined me, it felt deeply personal. A gentle unraveling. A private reckoning.

But then I started noticing the same story in so many others. Friends, colleagues, and people I’ve met online and off. Ea…

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“Put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room. Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.”

— Stephen King, On Writing

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Every now and then, in the middle of a conversation, I’ll casually mention something I talked about with my coach. And almost without fail, I get the look. A tilted head. A curious pause. Sometimes a skeptical squint. “Wait… you have a coach?”

I’ve gotten used to it.

I don’t play a sport. I’m not training for a marathon or gearing up for the Olympics. So …

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The question has come up many times over the years: Why do you meditate?

Friends have asked, colleagues have been curious, and occasionally it slips into conversation like a pebble tossed into a still pond, or sometimes more like a floaty in a swimming pool: a little awkward and waiting to be noticed…

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Well, it’s been a little over two months since I stepped away from my last endeavor.

The intention was simple: rest, reflect, and figure out what might come next. I haven’t been in a rush. After years of nonstop motion, I wanted to give myself the space to notice what ideas might surface when I stopped trying to force them.

…

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There’s a prophecy told across many indigenous cultures about the eagle, with its sharp vision and power, and the condor, with its deep wisdom and grace. And how they will one day fly together in the same s…

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🚨Spoiler Alert🚨— This article contains plot elements from Severance. If you haven’t seen the show, consider watching it first, unless you enjoy mysteries being revealed out of order. Which, might be fitting.

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About a month ago, after a particularly profound experience at a Vipassana retreat, I found myself seeking further ways to deepen my mindfulness practice. I wanted something that extended beyond the cushion — something that brought awareness into the world, into movement, into nature.

That’s when I came across Mark…

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It was such a strange dream!

I was certain about everything.

I could see everything so clearly.

I knew what things were, what they were for, and what they weren’t.

The world was made up of clear-cut objects, discrete and definable, each in its rightful place – including me.

It was the late ’90s, right at the height of the dot-com boom. I was working in te…

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