“The mountains are calling and I must go.”

– John Muir

Add me to the group chat!

I wasn’t thinking about resilience, or how to grow from discomfort when I got on my catch-up call with my buddy Noku in July. 

What I had on my mind was more along the lines of how I was excited to tell him my Service Industry Horror Stories after spending some time waitressing in a restaurant in town. 

They were the “my feet hurt so much” variety, and the “you won’t believe the delicious meal this one customer sent back to the kitchen” type.

What happened next catalyzed an even bigger, even crazier adventure that my feet appreciated significantly less.

I talked to him about some of my summer passion projects, and how they were progressing, as he listened patiently, asking enthusiastic questions. 

But then, with classic nonchalance, he mentioned his plans to summit Mt. Fuji, explaining how the huts were almost fully booked, who he was planning to do it with, and all the incredible details. 

I had to stop him right there, because the radar we all have inside that God gave us to detect cool opportunities was going off like a fire alarm. 

Mount Fuji. 

Yes, the Japanese mountain. The big one. That one you see on postcards and in dusty geology textbooks. 

That one. 

“Is there room for me to come too?”

“Yes,” he said. “But you have to book your overnight hut like now, because they’re almost fully booked.”

So I did. 

That was still mid-July, and there were somehow only 8 huts left for a stay at the beginning of September. 

So I got my reservation, and he added me to the group chat.

The stars had aligned. I was going to climb Mt. Fuji. 

How to start climbing. 

There is nothing like walking uphill for an hour only to pull out your crumpled trail map and see that you have several more hours (and meters of elevation) yet to go until you can stop at a hut to sleep. 

The start of the climb is like this: You don’t want to ask how far you’ve gone because you know it will not be very much. 

You want to eat another snack, but know you should save some for farther up. 

The mood is still pretty good, but you keep getting stark reminders of how little cardio you have done lately.

The question on everyone’s minds is “Are we really gonna do this?”

Well, let’s keep walking and find out. Because really, at the start of the climb, that is all that you have to concern yourself with: putting one foot in front of the other and continuing along the trail.

How to take breaks.

You pause, catch your breath with cool nonchalance. 

“Let’s wait a second for SoAndSo to catch up,” you advise the members of your group who are part mountain goat with a false sense of charity. 

In reality, your main motivation for stopping is that your lungs feel like deflating balloons and your lower back is making you wish you packed a little lighter. 

At the start of the climb, it feels lame to “need” a break. 

Eventually though, after enough communal huffing and puffing, ego is put to one side. 

Take the breaks. Eat the snacks. Stop to keep the group together. 

We came to realize it was never a race to the top. In fact, we were all the last person at one point or another, as were we all out of breath every few minutes. 

My reasons for climbing Mt. Fuji were not to break some mountaineering record. It was about creating meaningful lifelong memories with my friends; about empowerment; and about adventure.

Taking generous breaks along the way up facilitated all of these aims, and made the climb not only more fun, but more accessible. 

How to sing on the way up.

When you get close to the summit is when it gets steep, rocky, and unforgivingly cold. At that point, you’re absolutely exhausted, and the clouds are obscuring you from even being able to identify exactly how much climb you have left. 

Dreary and bleak, you say?

Well, it depends on the soundtrack. 

In addition to the faithful konbini snacks and layers of warm clothing, we were well-prepared with a fair supply of theater kids as well. 

I’m talking, say the name “Eliza”, and for the next half an hour, listen to every song in Hamilton as your nose turns into a popsicle. 

We sang and we sang, and when we weren’t singing, we listened to others in the group sing. 

It’s one of my fondest memories from the hike up, and honestly? It taught me that just about anything difficult is made that much more joyful if you just burst into song. 

How to wake up early for the sunrise.

I have always regarded those who willingly wake up at the crack of dawn with a fair dose of suspicion. 

Typically, I assume if they do it willingly, they are somewhat masochistic and potentially antisocial. Now though, I accept that there is a new possibility: early-risers are in love with the sky. 

We woke up at the crack of dawn to continue climbing, and we stopped near the 8th station to eat breakfast while watching the sunset. 

It was, in a word, sublime. 

The flaming oranges, blushing pinks and impressionist feathery clouds all came together into this one scene that all at once felt both staggering and life-affirming. 

Sometimes, I noted, waking up early is actually worth it.

How to stop to take pictures.

Much like I regard those who willingly wake up at 4am with suspicion, I also feel suspicious of people who take too many pictures of their food, vacations, or selves.

Why? 

Because moments should not be defined by how they look in your camera roll, but rather, how they make you feel, and the person they turn you into. 

So generally speaking, my stance is “put your phone away, for crying out loud”.

However, I must admit, in some select circumstances the act of taking a picture also does something else. 

Along the hike, taking photos of my journey was a way to reiterate to myself “this is a moment I want to treasure”, and then I captured it, not only with the click of my phone, but also a mental click that said “I want to hold this moment in time forever”. 

So I did.

Keep adventuring.

After climbing Mt. Fuji, my bucket list only got bigger. 

As soon as I got home, I wondered what other mountains there were to climb (besides Mt. Everest). 

I wanted to climb them all. 

It’s the strange thing about embracing adventure: no matter how much your feet hurt while you do it, you are hungry to do it even more the second it’s over. 

Thought To Action 

1. Map the Impossible: Write down three “too big” ideas you’d pursue if fear, money, or skill weren’t limits. Circle one. Start with the smallest visible step.
2. Use Tech Intentionally: Schedule a daily “digital audit”—10 minutes to check what tools you actually use to create versus to consume. (See this guide to mindful tech habits).
3. Build an Independent Study Track: Pick a theme you want to master this year (creativity, AI, storytelling) and design your own syllabus—books, podcasts, projects, mentors.
4. Pair Reading with Doing: For every chapter you read, add one experiment to test the idea in real life.
5. Reflect in Reverse: Once a week, ask: “What did I not do because I underestimated myself?”—then do one of those things, badly but bravely.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post Climbing Mount Fuji Was Uncomfortable—and That’s Where the Growth Happened appeared first on Green Also Green.

“We don’t have to waste our time learning how to make pastry when we can use grandma’s recipes.”― Orson De Witt, Earth Won’t Miss You

Some Of The People I’m Grateful For This Year

When we seek life hacks and thrifted wisdom, we often turn to the lofty role models we see on the glossy covers of Forbes, Vogue, and the like. 

But this year, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, I wanted to take a big highlighter, and emphasize something really important: there is wisdom all around us. 

There is wisdom in our family, wisdom in our closest friends. 

I would even venture to say there is wisdom in little children and animals, and in the minds and hearts of every person who hasn’t been invited onto a famous podcast to share their Top 3 Life Hacks For Breaking Out Of The Matrix.

This year I’m spending Thanksgiving abroad in Japan, so I’m leaning more towards a “friendsgiving” year than “familysgiving”, but in reflecting on my life, I realized that some votes of thanks are in order!

When pondering exactly how to distribute the thanks, I decided to pick twelve wise people in my own life- one for each month of the year- and tell you something I learned from them.  

12 Life Hacks From Some Of My Personal Wisdom Providers

#1: “Just go to sleep already.” – C.

Do you have that one friend who you can’t text past midnight without getting a message back that reads, “why are you still awake?!” 

…Except ten times more aggressively, in all-caps, and with four too many exclamation points?

Well, I do. 

The annoying thing is- she’s right. 

Let’s face it, you’re up so late at night because your mind is catastrophizing about that one thing you said to Sally in the bathroom that afternoon without thinking. 

If not that, you’re scrolling to avoid thinking about it, or you convinced yourself one additional email will only take “a few minutes” to answer.

Stop. 

Put your phone down. Close your laptop. Go to sleep already. You will feel better in the morning (even Harvard agrees!).

#2: Don’t sacrifice your peace just to put everyone else at ease. – My mom

I was once the person who fetishized unnecessary sacrifice, so I will be the first to say I learned this one the hard way. 

Over my short (but oh, so long) 20 years on our little blue dot, I have sacrificed my peace way too often to make other people comfortable, and to keep them content. 

It was always along the lines of “keeping the peace” for others, but crumbling on the inside. 

Anyway, long story short, my mom was right. 

Now here’s the thing I didn’t realize before that prevented me from truly internalizing this: when you don’t advocate for yourself, you aren’t actually gaining respect and admiration. 

Instead, you are training people to walk all over you. 

So speak up. Stand up for yourself. Fight for your peace and do not compromise. 

#3: Stop picking at your face. – my grandmother

If I had a dollar for every time my grandmother told me to stop picking at my face- a habit I sometimes do without even thinking – I would basically be a trust fund baby. 

But even apart from picking at my face, this extends further.

When you’re stressed out because you feel like you failed, don’t sabotage yourself even further. 

If you have acne, don’t pick at your face to release frustration, even though you will be tempted to. 

If you’re like me, you have also had the late nights of low self-esteem-scrolling through other people’s social media because it facilitates the ever-deeper spiral into self-loathing.

The first step to getting out of a deep hole is to stop digging- or in this case, to stop picking. 

What you feel will change by the morning. 

The scab you get from popping the pimple will last a bit longer.

#4: Your perception of inadequacy comes from how hard you push yourself, not from the reality of your progress. – My 10-year-old sister

Watching a young child grow up is the crash course (and crucial life hacks) in perseverance and resilience you didn’t know you needed. 

For me, I think a lot about my sister. 

She is incredibly busy, plays several instruments, and always seems to have another extracurricular hobby that she is trying in school. 

And yet…and yet.

From the inside of her own life, she doesn’t see her incredible progress and growth. 

Why? 

Because she is pushing hard and trying so many new things. 

Honestly though, I feel the same way most days, and I am ten years ahead. 

You think you’re not doing well because you are pushing yourself hard and your standards are getting higher. 

In fact, the higher your standards get, the more you probably feel you are falling short.

What you don’t realize is how much progress you have already made, and the expectations you have already exceeded. 

All you can see is how far you have left to go. 

So remember- you are learning. You are growing. You might not feel it, but you’re doing great.

This growth is the whole point. 

#5: Effort counts twice. – my brother

There is a special place in the world for all the women with little brothers who once shadow-boxed around them in public and now communicate exclusively through Michael Scott and Phil Dunphy references. 

My brother, however, is not just an Office superfan or a shadow-boxing addict. 

He is also ruthlessly stubborn and (unreasonably?) obsessive. 

When he gets it in his head that he wants something, there is no ‘undo’ button. 

In watching my brother grow up, I’ve had the opportunity to see him get into obsessions and pursue them with crazy intensity, whether it’s boxing, video editing and social media marketing, or business and finance. 

He does the unglamorous work on the missions he cares about, and then he gets results. 

It’s not so much a hack as a heuristic, but here it is: become obsessed. 

Relentlessly pursue your vision for success. 

Work harder, because effort counts twice. 

#6: Not everyone is worth the effort. -Aunt T.

Some hacks turn out to not be hacks at all. 

For example, when we are taught to measure success against how close we are to being married, having two kids and a dog, two matching BMWs, and an iPhone that doesn’t fit into the pockets of our jeans.

Here’s the truth: Being single doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you. 

Losing friends doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. 

Getting ghosted by a mentor or a role model you really looked up to doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. 

Getting rejected from your dream college or the perfect internship doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

Oh, and here’s a controversial one: Maybe losing those particular people and life paths is a blessing in disguise

…Because sometimes the hacks that get us to where we want to be are the painful losses we didn’t want to endure.

So listen to my aunt and walk away. 

Better people will find you, and what’s more is they will choose you. 

#7: It’s never too late to start something new. – my grandfather

Apparently, you’re supposed to retire at 65. 

Some people do that. 

My grandfather isn’t one of them. 

In fact, he decided to go one step further: get an additional job. 

Now, my grandfather has worn lots of hats throughout his life, so I guess it wasn’t a surprise when in his 60s he decided to add another one to the list: being an ordained deacon in the Catholic church.

So far, he has been an anesthesiologist, a pilot, a boat captain, a boy scout leader, a dive master, a business owner, father/grandfather, and now, a deacon. 

Some people might get dizzy just imagining this, but for me, getting to witness this has been a source of peace.

In a world that tells you to choose one thing for the rest of your life, my grandfather has been a shining example of what it looks like to reinvent yourself over and over again. 

Throughout your life, there is actually lots more time than you realize. 

No, you can’t have seven careers going at the same time, but over 70 years, you will have space to grow in many directions. 

And guess what? 

If you get to your 60s and realize you have blossoming career aspirations in a completely different space, it’s not too late. 

Don’t get stressed about having to choose one thing and commit to it forever. 

There is always time for that reinvention. 

#8: You won’t realize how hard it is until it isn’t hard anymore. – my high school homeroom teacher

As a teenager, I thought life was supposed to be miserable. 

High school was lonely, and it felt like every few weeks I found myself crying on the bathroom floor all over again- or in the office of my homeroom teacher, updating her on the most recent drama in my life. 

If it wasn’t boy drama, it was feeling like I was going to fail all my classes and never get into college, or stressing because “I have no idea what I want to do with my life and everyone else does”. 

Looking back, fifteen-year-old me deserves a lot of credit that she didn’t give herself. 

She did some hard things back then- hard things that seemed impossible once- and she had the courage to invest in herself and create the life I get to enjoy now. 

I wish I could tell my fifteen-year-old self that it gets way, way better, and that she is facing some inordinately hard years, so crying on the bathroom floor is normal. 

However, I also know my fifteen-year-old self would have rolled her eyes hearing that. 

In truth, she just had to be patient, get older, and come out the other end of the tunnel to see the bright light of her future. 

How did I ever make it through that?

Now I know: turns out, being a teenager is just incredibly difficult, and you only realize just how difficult it is once you grow out of it, look back, and wonder how did I even survive that?

For me, one of the people who provided me incredible solace in the difficult stormy waters of high school was my homeroom teacher, with whom I have exchanged tears, laughter, heartbreak, and lots of small pep talks and reassurances.

You might not be a teenager, but you can still pose the question to yourself: What if what you’re experiencing right now is just difficult? In fact, what if it’s supposed to be difficult? What if you can’t make it out exclusively with skincare hacks and new piercings?

Could it be that you are growing and changing, and emotional growing pains are real? 

Is it possible that maybe, just maybe, there is a beautiful future waiting for you on the other side? 

#9: Don’t underestimate the social credit you get by being genuinely excited for other people. – N.

You know that feeling when you open up LinkedIn and the first thing you see is a post about yet another person who is excited to start their sparkly new internship?

Or how it feels when you’ve just broken up, but that girl who sits three cubicles away from you met the love of her life who just engaged to her at sunset, and by the way you can see the diamond on her finger from the moon?

Yes, I’m talking about that sticky green jealousy that makes you hate them but hate yourself more. 

When you feel the lack of what you want, it’s natural to resent the abundance of others.

So, naturally, if I then told you to pick up those pom poms of support and love and genuine excitement, and wave them in the air as hard as you can, you would probably want to punch me in the throat. 

Here’s why you shouldn’t: when you celebrate other people’s wins, you are giving yourself an important message. 

You are signalling that you know your win is coming too. 

And trust me, the wins are coming your way. 

#10: Quit the boring books. – Aunt W.

The sunk cost fallacy is real, and if you have ever kept reading a boring book way past the event horizon at which you knew it would never get better, then you are a victim.

Of all my aunts, this one reads the most voraciously. It’s actually a little intimidating, between you and me. 

But here’s what she won’t do: keep reading a bad book until the bitter end. 

I learned to put down bad books too, but there was a time when I felt I simply didn’t have the authority to say a book was boring enough to be abandoned. 

Now, I think about the sunk cost fallacy in other areas, and wonder to myself where I need to jump the ship and move onto something better. 

You have the authority to make that call for yourself. 

No, really. You do.

Yes, there is uncertainty, and yes, you might jump onto another boring book, but you will at least be able to handle it just like you did the last one. 

Remember, it doesn’t matter how many pages in you are. If it’s not getting any better, it’s probably not worth the wait.

#11: It starts with deciding to be an artist. – L.

I used to carry the deep belief that I had to do hard things to prove I could do them. Then, I had to deprive myself of the things I loved to prove I had “discipline”.

One of the activities I deprived myself of was being an artist. 

When I held this belief up to the light, I wondered where it came from, then promptly decided I didn’t want to carry it anymore.

Since then, I have embarked on the long, slow, acutely painful process of reclaiming the side of me that is, at heart, a writer-artist-explorer. 

L. has been my writing buddy since we met in kindergarten, and she has been instrumental in showing me what it looks like to step into your creativity and live like an artist. 

Really, it boils down to this: If you want to live a creative life, stop telling people you’re not an artist. 

If you want to be a writer, start calling yourself one. 

Call yourself a scientist. 

Call yourself an entrepreneur. 

Being exactly what you aspire to be is about actually making the choice to be that thing and see yourself as worthy of honoring your gifts. 

#12: You might need to cry first, but you still have what it takes, and you will impress yourself later on. – my littlest sister. 

Meet my youngest, yet most mature sibling- because, like I said, life hacks also come from kids.

She may be little, and she may be sweet, but make no mistake: she is a force to be reckoned with. 

My sister has decided she will one day run the Natural History Museum in London, and that she would like to pursue paleontology. (She’s 4 by the way. Who told her what “paleontology” was??)

She is several grade levels ahead in math, and when it comes to reading and writing, it feels like she could be very well start composing Shakespearean sonnets.

However, like every superwoman, she has her kryptonite: Kumon. 

The funny thing about Kumon and my sister is that she is actually amazing at it. 

Like I said, she is incredibly precocious, and has no problem understanding what to do. 

So the problem isn’t the math. It’s the act of sitting down and doing extra work. 

Now, I don’t do Kumon, but I’ve sat down to do things before that give me that same feeling. 

It’s the “this code cell will be the end of me” feeling, or “there’s so many applications to submit and they’ll mostly get rejected” feeling. 

My sister cries about Kumon the same way I cry about Python error messages. 

But guess what else?

After crying, she does the Kumon. And after the Kumon, she gets to play. 

Sometimes, in order to sit down and get through long sheets of math, you need to cry first. 

That’s okay. Just get it done.

Thought To Action 

1. Design a Tech Sabbath: Pick one day or evening a week to go screen-free and let your thoughts get noisy again. (Read why stillness fuels creativity).
2. Build a ‘Slow Stack’: Keep one long, complex book by your bed and promise it five pages a day—no summaries, no speed. Just sustained attention.
3. Use AI as a Mirror: Instead of asking an AI tool for answers, ask it for better questions. Collect your favorites in a “Thinking Prompts” doc.
4. Join the 30-Minute Club: Set aside 30 minutes each day to learn something unmonetized—no career goals, no productivity—just intellectual play.
5. Create a Digital Garden: Capture the best things you’re reading, writing, and noticing in one evolving document. Growth deserves a home.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post.

The post 12 Life Hacks I Learned From Some Of The Coolest People I Know appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being.”

– Eckhart Tolle

Insights From Mt. Takao

Of all the weird natural systems on the planet, I thought I was over mushrooms. I really did.

Turns out though, we’re back in love. And yes, today I will subject you to that obsession. 

On a strictly academic mission, I climbed Mt. Takao, and got to have a lot of fun drawing different geological features and eating sweet treats (it’s a hard life, I know). 

From that trip- one of the best homework assignments I have ever had to do- I gained some random insights, as many silly backpackers do when swearing off mainstream society and disappearing into the woods.

If you’re wondering about the deep theme of these insights, don’t bother, because there isn’t one.

Rather, I decided to draw from my favorite moment on the trip: the oyster mushroom. 

Me sitting on the forest floor, drawing a mushroom

#1: Systems thinking

It was when I started to see mushrooms cropping up everywhere, and eventually sat on the cool shaded forest floor to draw a few by hand, that it really struck me: this cute little mushroom, right here before me in its dark non-plant-non-animal glory, was part of a huge planetary system that made the perfect conditions for it to end up before me. 

I mean, stop and think about this: mushrooms require particular soil conditions, particular temperatures and moisture, and it’s even larger systems that manufacture these conditions. 

You can zoom out and zoom in, and on all different scales, you can explain the simple presence of a mushroom on the ground. 

Then I thought about it some more, crouched there as one with the little white oyster mushroom, and felt it was a tragedy that when we think about the world around us, it’s often easy to forget about the systems things are made up of. 

Be a systems thinker. 

So what is there to do? 

Try what I did. Choose one object- an apple, an ear bud, your half-eaten sandwich…

Zoom out to the biggest force you can think of that brought that single thing to where it is now. 

Now zoom in. How was your sandwich made – from the bread to the seedling that ended up creative that tomato slice?

#2: Fast-track to replenishing creativity. 

There is nothing like a long train ride followed by a long hike to really clear your head. 

On my way to Mt. Takao, I enjoyed this uninterrupted hour of time on my Kindle, reading about plant leaves and atmospheric gases in David Beerling’s Emerald Planet as my friends napped in their seats. 

It was peaceful, quiet, and I got to let my mind wander along different trains of thought. 

On the trail, it was the same. 

I marveled at the trees, stopping every five steps to take yet another photo of a ravine, towering cedar tree, or translucent spider web. 

But, once again, I had hours upon hours of time to just think. 

No music, no notifications, no to-do list besides keep watching until you reach the top. 

By the time I got back to Tokyo though, I had several new notes on various projects, random tangents, and interesting questions to look up when I got home. 

Make time to think uninterrupted. 

One of the best systems, I realized, to create emptiness in which to nurture the baby seedlings of your creative garden, is to do something where the emptiness is a natural byproduct. 

Hiking is like that. Showering is like that. Reading is like that. Sometimes, even household chores are like that. 

When you do something where you mind can detach from the nagging expectations of a looming Google Calendar block, your creativity will step in and have a play. 

There are probably already tasks like that for you, and you might not even notice it. 

Next time, pay attention as your mind wanders. Savor the creative play. 

#3: Nature is therapy. 

In the deep cavernous well that is my camera roll, there lies a meme. 

On one side is a gray-skinned, sleep-deprived cartoon with bags under their eyes, asking Jesus, “Is this it? Is this the hardest test you have for me?” Jesus replies, “You literally just have to put your phone down and go outside.”

It’s funny, but accurate. 

Why are we always surprised that when we hide from the sun and spend twelve hours a day in front of a screen, we also happen to feel miserable and depressed?

Truth be told, humans weren’t designed to stare at screens. We were made to hike through forests, draw tiny mushrooms, and gaze in wonder at a deep green range of mountains. It’s what humans have been doing for millions of years. 

Nonetheless, I am still impressed at just how rejuvenating it feels to have a day outside, my phone tucked away at the bottom of my backpack, where the Notification Bird can’t get to me. 

Put down your phone and go outside. 

It’s hard to get away from screens- whether it’s your phone, or the laptop where you work all day. 

Still it’s worth making a deliberate effort, because your stress, worry, and constant existential dread will melt away. 

To make it more fun, take someone adventuring with you. Make it fun and easy. Bring a notepad. 

Maybe, like me, you will end up crouched in front of a mushroom, amazed at the multitudes it contains. 

Thought To Action 

1. Map the Impossible: Write down three “too big” ideas you’d pursue if fear, money, or skill weren’t limits. Circle one. Start with the smallest visible step.
2. Use Tech Intentionally: Schedule a daily “digital audit”—10 minutes to check what tools you actually use to create versus to consume. (See this guide to mindful tech habits).
3. Build an Independent Study Track: Pick a theme you want to master this year (creativity, AI, storytelling) and design your own syllabus—books, podcasts, projects, mentors.
4. Pair Reading with Doing: For every chapter you read, add one experiment to test the idea in real life.
5. Reflect in Reverse: Once a week, ask: “What did I not do because I underestimated myself?”—then do one of those things, badly but bravely.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post. 

The post 3 Secrets A Mountain Mushroom Taught Me About Creative Focus, Systems Thinking & Inner Peace appeared first on Green Also Green.

“The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” -Steve Jobs

Passion vs. Grit

The typical narrative places grit and passion on opposite ends of the spectrum. 

We imagine “following your passion” as taking a low-paying career in something we enjoy as a hobby. Then, alternatively, there is the “gritty” path that will pay-off years into the future, after many all-nighters and existential crises. 

This is a false narrative, because actually, passion and grit work in tandem, and today I want to unpack how that happens.

Angela Duckworth

The inspiration for this entire post comes from one woman: Angela Duckworth, a psychologist and author who studies grit and self-control. 

On her recent appearance on the Mel Robbins podcast, she discussed the ideas I’m outlining below. 

My Realization

This podcast was a paradigm-shift for me in several ways, but especially as someone who has always struggled to “narrow down” my interests and unlock the things I’m super passionate about. 

Here are a few key insights I realized about myself that might strike a chord:

1.  I have always assumed the “harder” path was inherently more respectable, even if my “easier” path was even more unique and impressive. I figured if I spent a bunch of time trying to brainwash myself into being interested in certain things that didn’t really excite me, that I was doing something inherently more “impressive” than pursuing other (equally) well-earning, nuanced, respectable field/careers/subjects. 

2. Grit is more about consistency than about excessive effort. If you only have 3/10 effort to give, it’s still better than 0. If you fall off the horse, get back on. 

3. You probably don’t even realize that you are talented or passionate about something, because you take your interest in it for granted. For example, I have lately become obsessed with mineralogy, as I’m taking a geology course. I thought everyone found that cool, but turns out, it’s a strong interest  somewhat unique to me. 

#1: The Hard Thing Rule

Duckworth talks about a rule she uses to cycle her kids through interests so they can find their passions, and, in turn, develop grit. 

To choose your “hard thing” she outlines these 3 rules.

#1: The hard thing must require deliberate practice and goals. 

While listening to Duckworth and Robbins, I thought to myself what in my own life might count as a “hard thing”, and the immediate example that stood out to me was learning how to play piano. 

As a kid, I had a checklist on my desk, created by my mom, and on it were the list of things I had to do every day when I got home. 

It was more or less: homework, shower, eat dinner, and practice piano. 

So practicing piano became a habit, like brushing my teeth or packing my school bag. 

It also became a goal- to learn to play Jingle Bells before Christmas, or to memorize Scherezade. 

#2: You cannot quit the goal. 

Another important rule is that you cannot quit the goal. This doesn’t mean you are committing to the “hard thing” for the rest of your life, but rather, that your experiment of the passion you have for that hard thing must be fulfilled. 

About a year and a half ago, I ran a half-marathon, and at the last mile, an aching pain permeated my right hip. I knew I had to finish though, because this was a goal I had and it needed to be completed. 

I ended up finishing, but the last mile took me 45 minutes. 

Duckworth says you have to finish your goal too. After the goal, you can stop, but you must cross the finish line.

Me, after I finished the half-marathon!!

#3: Nobody gets to choose the hard thing but you. 

This is the one most parents ignore. It’s either: you must learn piano or violin, or you will take karate because you need to learn self-defense. 

It even happens in careers. 

If I had a dollar for every kid I met who was on the I’m-becoming-a-doctor-because-it’s-what-my-parents-want track, or the lawyer/engineer/finance bro equivalent, I would never need to work at all. 

You need to choose your hard thing yourself. 

It can’t be your mom. 

It can’t be your math teacher. 

And no, it can’t be another white dude on the internet who thinks the only thing you ever need to learn about is AI.

The problem, then, is how to choose. 

#2: Choose easy. Work Hard. 

Most people think they have to “choose hard”, then “work hard”. It’s a belief I even internalized myself. 

However, if you choose easy first, working hard requires much less friction, and you will experience greater success. 

So…how do you “choose easy”?

#1: Choose easy. Avoid the ‘should’

Let’s start by clarifying what “choosing easy” isn’t. It isn’t:

• Giving up because one random, cruel person in your past told you “you can’t draw” or “you’re not good at math”. 
• Avoiding risk 
• Rejecting growth mindset (e.g. “I will never be able to figure out how to ride a bike because I fell off my bike twice when I was trying to learn.”

What “choosing easy” really means, is to pursue the things you’re already really excited about. Not what you “should” be excited about, but what you actually are excited about. Think:

• What do I like to learn about in my spare time?
• What am I least likely to procrastinate on?
• What kinds of fun facts do I naturally want to tell people about?
• What kinds of problems really annoy me about the world?
• What kinds of lifestyles, jobs, people make me jealous?
• What kinds of skills, knowledge, or behaviors do people compliment me on (or tease me about)?

No Stupid Answers!!

When you go down this list, you might think your answers are stupid, but they’re not. For example, I love to bake and knit, and I thought these were just silly hobbies. 

Lo and behold, my love for these activities provides a deeper clue toward the fact that I love to be creative in a tangible way. I love exploring the properties of materials, and to learn about chemistry in a tangible, non-academic way. 

If I am answering the question “What kinds of lifestyles, jobs, people make me jealous?”, I will point to the cover of a National Geographic magazine, and tell you that I’m jealous of everyone who gets to be a National Geographic explorer. 

Now, that makes perfect sense. 

Exploring the natural world feeds my soul, and I would love to be able to combine a love for chemistry with an enthusiasm for exploration. 

It’s might seem silly- of course anyone would envy the person with a super cool job- but it’s not. 

I know, after many a rock-rant, that minerals and geochemistry are not universally fascinating, nor is knitting or baking or sitting curled up with a National Geographic.

#2: Work hard through deliberate practice. 

Duckworth and Robbins highlight this second part of “choosing easy”, and it’s perhaps the more intuitive part of the path to passion. It’s pretty simple:

High Quality Practice = Having A Goal + Getting Feedback

What is the difference between me, someone whose peak running performance was a half marathon a year and a half ago, and Usain Bolt?

The difference is practice- and not just quantity, but quality. 

I want to take a highlighter to this point, just like Duckworth did in her discussion. 

This is why you are not a food critic, even after spending over 10,000 hours eating food. It’s why you are not a spelling bee champion, even after spending years trying to spell ‘Worcestershire sauce’.

If you want to become great, you need to practice with a goal in mind (e.g. “knit a scarf for my dog”), and get feedback (e.g. “I have 7 stitches on my needle instead of 6. I did something wrong.”). 

If you don’t have those two ingredients, you will not become the Usain Bolt of your “hard thing”. 

Passion belongs to everyone. 

A lot of times when we talk about passion in the context of really clear passion- the person who has known they wanted to be an architect since they were 5 years old, or who has always known they wanted to be a professional ballerina. 

But most of us aren’t that person. 

In truth, passion is for everyone, and it’s just about unlocking the gifts and interests you already have, maybe without even realizing it.  

Thought To Action 

1. Design a Tech Sabbath: Pick one day or evening a week to go screen-free and let your thoughts get noisy again. (Read why stillness fuels creativity).
2. Build a ‘Slow Stack’: Keep one long, complex book by your bed and promise it five pages a day—no summaries, no speed. Just sustained attention.
3. Use AI as a Mirror: Instead of asking an AI tool for answers, ask it for better questions. Collect your favorites in a “Thinking Prompts” doc.
4. Join the 30-Minute Club: Set aside 30 minutes each day to learn something unmonetized—no career goals, no productivity—just intellectual play.
5. Create a Digital Garden: Capture the best things you’re reading, writing, and noticing in one evolving document. Growth deserves a home.

Sources

The Mel Robbins Podcast

The post Angela Duckworth’s Approach To Discover Your Passions & Developing Grit appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Cinema is a mirror that can change the world.” -Diego Luna

Go watch a Disney movie. 

There are basically two ways to learn life lessons in my book: 1) the hard way, by getting your heart broken and your dreams crushed, or 2), the easy way- by watching a Disney movie. 

I know you have Hakuna Matata memorized, and it’s the only Swahili phrase you can say. Your first exposure to talking furniture was probably Beauty and the Beast. 

And of course, you watched The Little Mermaid 14 times before the DVD mysteriously disappeared because your parents couldn’t take it anymore. 

If you’re like me, the first romances you ever idealized were also Disney romances, and maybe some of your first Halloween costumes were from the classic 90s and 2000s films too.

So if you grew up waiting to become a Disney princess or imagining your dog as an animated sidekick, this is for you.

All those hours you spent watching movies might just have taught you some incredible lessons about courage, joy, and how to stay true to yourself in a world that aggressively manufactures sameness. 

(Also, I tried to give minimal spoilers if you haven’t seen some of the films below!)

Me dressed as Elsa (Frozen) at 12 years old

#1: What Else Can I Do? (Learn from Encanto)

The very thing you are trying to suppress, hide, or change, is the path to becoming even more powerful if you lean into it.

One of the most powerful messages to learn from Encanto is to lean into your shadow self, mirroring some of what Robert Greene writes about in 48 Laws Of Power. 

But what do I mean by this?

Throughout all my high school years, I felt like I had to squeeze and contort myself to fit into a predetermined future box that contained a single career. There was a set list of jobs, and you were just supposed to pick one based on the class you did the best in. 

It was a pretty straightforward algorithm if you had one favorite class, or could easily clump your interests into a definitive job description. 

But for me it was a nightmare, because I loved all my classes, and found all the jobs super cool. 

My solution? 

Suppress, hide, and try to change. 

I loved creative writing with a passion, but this didn’t make sense in the context of science and math. People only saw the link between writing and science if you were planning on going into journalism or sci comm. 

I tried both on, but I knew there was still something missing. 

So what did I do?

Suppress even more. 

It got worse and worse until I took a gap year before college, where like a plant transplanted from a tiny plastic pot to a big wide-open field, my roots spread out wide and far, and I got to reinvigorate my love for writing in all its expansiveness. 

Now I don’t try to suppress; I try to explore. I ask what else can I do?

The answer is always a pleasant surprise. 

#2: When I’m Older (Learn from Frozen)

All the crazy things happening to you now will make sense in the future. Trust the process.

Olaf sings this song in Frozen II as a bunch of crazy things are happening in the plot and he is lost in the woods without the other characters. 

In short, he has every reason to panic.

However, the charming thing about Olaf is that instead of panic, the entire time, he is reassuring himself, “This will all make sense when I am older.”

What I love about this is the fact that while we might usually see Olaf as the naive, childlike comic relief in the film, he is actually right. 

When I was 13, I moved to England from Miami. 

Yes, from Miami, where you have to worry about wearing enough sunscreen, to England, where you have to take Vitamin D pills just to stay sane in the winter. 

As a 13-year-old already halfway through the social Rubix cube of middle school, moving to an entirely new continent and starting over was tough. 

The first year, I had almost zero friends, and was constantly lamenting the gray skies and strange new education system I had been transplanted into unwillingly. 

When my life didn’t play out how I wanted it to, one of the hardest things for me to do was to take a step back and go “This will make sense one day.”

And guess what?

Seven years later, I can confirm it made perfect sense. 

If I hadn’t moved to England, I wouldn’t be who I am today. 

That said, wouldn’t it be so much easier if we could learn from Olaf and walk through the woods when we feel lost, alone, and hopeless, and trust that yes, this will all make sense when I am older?

#3: Gaston (Learn from Beauty and the Beast)

No matter how amazing you are, there will always be people who reject you. Don’t try to make sense of it. 

Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking: “But he’s the villain in the movie. Why are we learning from him?”

Hear me out: Yes, I know Gaston is the villain. I know he is self-absorbed. Maybe even a narcissist. 

Let’s take a step back, though. 

In this song, LeFou (Gaston’s bro, if you will) is trying to cheer up Gaston because he is feeling down and out about Belle rejecting him. So he lists off all the things about Gaston that are impressive. 

“Gosh, it disturbs me to see you, Gaston,” he says. “Looking so down in the dumps…There’s no man in town as admired as you. You’re ev’ryone’s favorite guy. Ev’ryone’s awed and inspired by you, and it’s not very hard to see why.”

Wow, so Gaston is a great guy to a lot of people. Yet for whatever reason, his insecurity is blinding him to this because he is hung up on the fact that Belle won’t marry him. 

Imagine how differently Beauty and the Beast would have gone if Gaston just had the emotional maturity to let Belle go, wish her the best, and marry any of the many women who really wanted to be with him. 

My ten-year-old sister once said something very wise, as children have a beautiful tendency to do. 

She said, “Sometimes you want to be friends with someone, but they don’t want to be friends with you. That’s okay.” 

It struck me, because she’s absolutely right.

In trying to bend over backwards for the people who don’t want what you have to offer, you miss out on appreciating the people who are your biggest fans. 

#4: We Don’t Talk About Bruno (Learn from Encanto)

We all have Brunos in the closet, even if we pretend we don’t. “Not talking” about something won’t make it go away. 

Can you tell I loved Encanto?

This song broke the charts because it’s catchy in every language, but really, it’s about being in a family that avoids talking about the hard stuff, in this case about what on earth happened to Uncle Bruno. 

But this doesn’t have to be about family. 

As individuals, we all have Brunos in the closet, and we refuse to talk about them, or even acknowledge them, until they blow up in our faces. 

You know how when you’re driving and your gas is low, your car will give you a little red warning?

50 miles becomes 20, 20 becomes 10. Sometimes, even at 0 miles, you can still go a little further before getting stranded. 

Well, once I got to 0 miles of gas in the tank, and I barely managed to get home. 

It’s easy to ignore a blinking red light telling you to stop at a gas station, but hard to ignore when you’re stranded in the middle of a winding mountain road. 

Address the thing before it becomes catastrophic. How?

It starts with talking about your Bruno.

#5: Spoonful Of Sugar (Learn from Mary Poppins)

Make the hard thing a little more fun. 

Perhaps the only thing more timeless than Mary Poppins is that universal groan right before you start the one long, boring task you’ve been avoiding all week. 

Disney’s solution is simple: take your medicine with a spoonful of sugar. 

Mary Poppins puts it this way: “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game, and every task you undertake becomes a piece of cake.”

About 2 months ago, I climbed Mt. Fuji with some friends. Before you climb, you are pumped with adrenaline, and at the top you have the wonderful sense of achievement.

In the middle, though, motivation is sparse. 

So what did we do?

We either sang musical number after musical number, or we listened to the rest of the group as they sang musical numbers. 

In the upper half of the mountain, I even came up with a game we all played together, where I would give a word like “boat”, and they would guess a musical number with that word in it. 

Did our legs still hurt? Absolutely, but our minds were on the likes of Hamilton, West Side Story, and Wicked instead.

Playing a game and singing songs didn’t make the climb effortless; it just kept us from dwelling on our sore feet, exhausted legs, and the sense that the mountain just kept getting taller. 

It works just like Mary Poppins claims: “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in a most delightful way.”

#6: How Far I’ll Go (Learn from Moana)

Trust the instinct telling you to try something random and new. It knows something you don’t yet. 

Moana is, like most princesses, unsatisfied with staying in her comfort zone. The difference between her and the rest though, is subtle. 

“I’ve been standing at the edge of the water, long as I can remember,” she says. “Never really knowing why.” Then, later in the song, she confesses, “I can lead with pride. I can make us strong. I’ll be satisfied if I play along, but the voice inside sings a different song. What is wrong with me?”

Nothing is wrong with you, Moana.

Much like Olaf trusts that everything will make sense later on, and like Isabela in Encanto has to lean into her shadow self to realize the true extent of her powers, Moana needs to trust that her urge to explore is telling her something important. 

Last Christmas, I got a small crafting kit under the tree. It came with two short, chunky wooden knitting needles, and a little clump of magenta-colored wool yarn. 

To my surprise, I spent all of Christmas Day knitting in my pajamas until I produced a mug cosy, completing the craft kit. 

In the week that followed, my mom and I went to the knitting shop to pick up more yarn so I could make a bigger project- a scarf.

I kept following that random new obsession, and almost a year later, I have also made a tote bag, hand warmers, and a scarf for my dog!!

Okay, maybe I didn’t defeat any evil demi-gods or giant crabs like Moana did, but I listened to the voice, and it told me I like this- let’s explore it. 

After all, you never know how far you’ll go…

#7: Do You Wanna Build A Snowman (Learn from Frozen)

Everyone has someone looking to them for love and support. Be there for them when it’s easy, but especially when it’s hard. 

Frozen is, ultimately, about sisterhood, and that’s one of my favorite things about it. 

It teaches us how to lean on others, especially in a world that trains women to see each other as competition. 

In this song, we see Anna begging her big sister, Elsa, to build a snowman for her, but it’s never really just about building a snowman. 

This is a plea for connection. 

The powerful message of this song, though, is that connection doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to make it about having a deep, existential conversation. In fact, you don’t even have to spend money.

For Anna and Elsa, it just means going outside together and building a snowman. 

As a proud big sister myself, one of my favorite things to do with my own little sisters is to bake. Whenever I visit, we make something tasty, and in the weeks and months leading up to a visit, we compare notes on what recipes to try. 

It’s not really about baking, although baking is lots of fun.

Really, it’s about connection.

We all have someone in our life who is the Anna to our Elsa, and could use our lova and support. 

Frozen just tells us it’s actually not as hard as we think to provide it. 

Apply What You Learn After The Movie.

Learning doesn’t stop after the credits finish rolling though. 

You can continue to engage with these Disney films by relistening to each of these songs using the links below:

1. What Else Can I Do?
2. When I’m Older
3. Gaston
4. We Don’t Talk About Bruno
5. Spoonful Of Sugar
6. How Far I’ll Go
7. Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?

Thought To Action 

1. Upgrade Your Inputs: This week, read one thing that feels above your level—a book, essay, or paper that makes you slow down. Growth hides in friction.
2. Curate Your Feed: Audit your digital spaces—unfollow three accounts that shrink your thinking and replace them with three that expand it and help you learn.
3. Start a “Curiosity Thread”: Pick one question that won’t leave you alone and spend 15 minutes a day chasing it down. (Here’s how to build a personal learning ritual).
4. Try AI as a Reading Companion: Feed a dense article into an AI tool and ask it to explain it five ways—like a teacher, a friend, a skeptic, a poet, and a child. Notice what each version unlocks.
5. Share a Synthesis: Write a one-paragraph reflection and post it publicly or in your notes—learning cements when shared.

Sources

No external sources were used for this post- just my precious childhood memories. 

The post What Disney Songs Helped Me Learn (The Easy Way) appeared first on Green Also Green.

““We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.” — Peter Drucker

The Science Of Learning At The World’s Most Innovative University

After completing my first year at the world’s most innovative university, I realized that the way most of us think about learning is completely wrong.

Before you throw your flash cards at me, or close this tab because you’re “done with school”, let me explain.

If I were to tell you what I usually associate with learning, the first word that came to mind would be “school”. 

That doesn’t seem too crazy, as most of us consider school a place purely constructed for this thing we call learning. Then we graduate, and our school churns out an economically productive individual. 

Success.

The only problem with this is that when school ends, often our focus on learning does too.

What do most people not realize?

A decline in learning new things after we finish school also leads to a decline in creativity and critical thinking skills. 

In a professional setting, if you’re working in a team where no one is learning anything new, your collective performance could even struggle, with more people increasingly adopting fixed mindsets. 

Okay, okay, we all sort of know that learning is important at all stages of life, but I’m reminding you of this because this idea rarely translates into action. 

Today, I’m going to tell you what I have learned over the past year about how to learn effectively, even if you hated school. 

…Not just so that you can pack what I say away into another mental filing cabinet, but so that you can finally turn your knowledge into action.

Let’s get started.

The Gardeners & Carpenters In Learning

One analogy that helps me understand different approaches to learning is the same analogy used to understand different approaches to parenting.

There are the gardeners- those who nurture the growth of a young seedling, making sure it’s healthy and well-nourished with enough sunlight and water to prosper. 

Then there are the carpenters, building a structure to achieve the desired end result. 

In parenting, this is usually meant to demonstrate the difference between moulding your child into a predetermined ideal of adulthood versus focusing on giving a child what they need in that instant.

It ultimately boils down to the eternal struggle between outcome and process. 

Is it about the journey or the destination, grounding in the present moment or sacrificing for the future?

In learning, we see the same battle. 

Do we learn because it gets us that impressive salary at a Fortune 500, or because it nourishes our minds with exciting new ideas that make the lens through which we live more colorful?

The idealistic side of me wants to say learning should always be pure and internally motivated. The pragmatic side says we learn for survival and status alone. 

What it should be is perhaps not even the relevant question here. 

The truth is simply this: learning is one of the highest-leverage investments in yourself, even after you finish formal schooling, but we are only given the tools to do it one way, like the carpenter.

The Switch In Learning

The difference, though, is that once we finish school, we see a switch. 

We are no longer learning in the style of a carpenter, building up knowledge whose structural integrity must withstand exams. 

Without exams, we are learning like the gardener, growing, weaving in and out of ideas and projects like a vine stretching toward the sun. 

We don’t have to achieve depth, so we often don’t. 

We have the freedom to learn anything we want, however we want, but we usually decide there is no time left over. 

Limiting Beliefs About Learning

Now that we have already established that learning is important and that once we leave school, the way we think about learning is limiting us, let’s get specific. 

Here are 3 limiting beliefs about learning that are holding you back not only from being a better problem-solver and more creative thinker, but also from having more fun and building greater connections with others. 

#1: You learn for knowledge. 

Let me guess—you were taught that learning means memorizing facts, spitting them back out in exams, and maybe feeling smart when you can casually reference some obscure theory in a conversation.

But here’s the problem: this kind of learning doesn’t stick. 

And worse—it misses the point entirely.

Gardening reminds us that growth isn’t about hoarding seeds—it’s about what takes root. 

When you learn like a gardener, you don’t collect knowledge just to have it—you grow it to use it- to nourish your ideas, cross-pollinate fields, and feed action.

In fact, studies show that when you cram knowledge for the sake of retention or regurgitation, you forget most of it within days. 

But when you use what you learn—apply it, explain it, build with it—it transforms into something alive. Something useful. Something memorable.

#2: Learning is a chore. 

If every time you think about learning, your brain sighs like you just asked it to scrub tile grout… we have a problem.

The truth is: if you believe something is a chore, you’ll avoid it. 

It’s basic human psychology. 

High friction = low follow-through. 

And if you associate learning with drudgery, you’ll either procrastinate endlessly or push through with zero joy (and probably zero retention).

Gardeners don’t treat tending their plants like a punishment. 

They do it with music playing, while experimenting, failing, and replanting.

And they love it.

#3: It has to make sense. 

There’s this belief—especially in the productivity-obsessed world—that your interests must line up neatly into a five-year plan or a LinkedIn-optimized narrative. 

You need to justify why you’re learning about regenerative farming and computational physics and 16th-century botanical illustrations. 

Gardeners know better. 

They plant things because they feel drawn to them. They’re curious. Something in the seed speaks to something in them.

The truth is: your interests don’t have to make sense to anyone but you. 

The dots only connect looking back. Steve Jobs famously said that, and he’s right. 

He had no idea that taking a random calligraphy class would influence Apple’s entire design philosophy and help shape technology used by billions. But it did.

So plant the seeds you’re drawn to. 

Water them. 

Let them grow however they want. 

Some will flourish. Some won’t. 

But in the process, you’ll grow too. 

And later—maybe years from now—you’ll look back and say, “Oh. That’s why I needed that.”

Learning Like A Gardener

Now let me tell you what small adjustments you can make from now on to keep learning and growing effortlessly. 

#1: Learn by doing.

The most valuable thing I’ve learned after a year at a university with no exams? 

That doing—not memorizing-is—is what transforms information into understanding.

Funnily enough, I might even add that learning by doing makes memorizing an effortless byproduct of any assignment. 

Project-based learning lets ideas take root. 

It turns the abstract into something you can touch, test, reshape, and grow. 

The best part? 

You don’t need to be in school to do this. 

Learning by doing is available to everyone. You can build something tiny, test something silly, launch a little blog, redesign your bedroom as an engineering challenge, or start a recycled journal project with your own trash.

If learning is a garden, projects are the tools that help you dig into the soil.

Start small. Grow from there.

#2: Gamify, gamify, gamify. 

I hate that we talk about “going down a YouTube rabbit hole” as something negative. 

Can you imagine what it would be like if you couldn’t help but want to learn? Most people would say no, when actually, we have all experienced this addictive drive to keep accumulating information about something.

I say listen to your obsessions. 

What are the videos you can’t help but binge on YouTube? What accounts are you drawn to on Instagram?

Let’s be honest—if learning feels like drudgery, we won’t do it. 

But if it feels like play? We’ll sneak in hours without even realizing it. 

That’s why gardeners don’t need to be forced to keep tending. They fall in love with the process. They experiment. There’s no external reward, but still—it feels good.

So gamify it.

Track streaks. 

Set up a points system. 

Reward yourself with something lovely (like matcha or memes) when you finish that chapter or video. 

Better yet: build quests.

Try this: instead of making learning something you have to force, find a way to make it feel like something you want to explore. 

That might mean swapping textbooks for YouTube rabbit holes, walking podcasts, or passion projects. 

However you frame it, lower the friction. Feed the fun.

Because if learning is joyful, you’ll keep showing up. And showing up is 80% of it.

#3: Ruthlessly pursue your nonsensical, impractical interests. 

You know those weird things you’re interested in that you don’t tell people about because they “don’t fit”? 

Those are often the richest soil.

Your interests don’t have to make sense. They just have to be yours.

Maybe you love spreadsheets and sculpture, or you’re obsessed with soil chemistry and early 2000s Tumblr aesthetics. 

Maybe you’ve even been reading about how mushrooms communicate or watching videos on Japanese packaging design or sketching mechanical parts in your journal without knowing why.

Follow those threads.

Your passions don’t have to connect yet. 

They’re seeds. 

And like any good garden, some seeds grow in ways we couldn’t predict. 

So ruthlessly pursue what pulls at you. The impractical, the out-of-place, the ones that make no sense. 

That’s where you’ll find the roots of your originality—and maybe even your purpose.

Thought To Action 

1. Learn by doing—treat learning like planting a seed, and grow it through real-world projects.
2. Gamify your curiosity to reduce friction and make learning joyful again. 
3. Ruthlessly pursue your weird, impractical interests—they’re often the roots of your originality.
4. Reflect weekly to recognize how your ideas connect and evolve over time.
5. Trust your learning journey even when it doesn’t make sense—growth is rarely linear.

Sources

Ingber, S. (2019). NPR Choice page. Npr.org. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/05/28/614386847/what-kind-of-parent-are-you-carpenter-or-gardener

Okano, H., Hirano, T., & Balaban, E. (2000). Learning and memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(23), 12403–12404. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.210381897

Reese, H. W. (2011). APA PsycNet. Psycnet.apa.org. https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2014-55719-001.html

Steffens, M. C., von Stülpnagel, R., & Schult, J. C. (2015). Memory Recall After “Learning by Doing” and “Learning by Viewing”: Boundary Conditions of an Enactment Benefit. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01907

Stein, G. M., & Murphy, C. T. (2012). The Intersection of Aging, Longevity Pathways, and Learning and Memory in C. elegans. Frontiers in Genetics, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2012.00259

Walsh, M. M., Krusmark, M. A., Jastrembski, T., Hansen, D. A., Honn, K. A., & Gunzelmann, G. (2022). Enhancing learning and retention through the distribution of practice repetitions across multiple sessions. Memory & Cognition, 51(51). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01361-8

Weinstein, Y., Madan, C. R., & Sumeracki, M. A. (2018). Teaching the science of learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3(1), 1–17. Springer Open. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0087-y

The post The 3 Biggest Lies + 3 Biggest Secrets About Learning appeared first on Green Also Green.

“To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak.” – Indian Proverb

The Long Walk Towards Something Better

The walk (or dance) towards something better can feel long, lonely, and futile. 

There are many moments of wondering why you even bothered in the first place, and wondering if anyone out there even hears what you’re saying, let alone cares.

Whether it’s climate change activism, social justice work, or even just advocating for yourself, it is easy to lose hope but imperative not to. 

You’ll get there one day, and when you do, it will be worth it. 

Today though, I’m not asking you to take my word for it. 

Instead, I want to share with you some lessons from the world of dance on how to create impact while maintaining hope and joy.

Dance Lesson #1: Repetition does not equal futility. 

In dance, the same steps rehearsed over and over create transformation—not just in performance, but in the performer. 

Change often feels invisible until it’s embodied. 

Activism and social entrepreneurship are no different. Every email, every march, every tough conversation is a rehearsal for a freer world.

So when you feel that sense of growing hopelessness, remember that when you “go through the motions”, even when you don’t feel like it, you are still creating change. 

How To Apply This

1. Set a micro goal and repeat it daily — e.g., write to one local representative per week, or spend 5 minutes daily reading about an issue you care about.
2. Track your repetitions — use a calendar or habit tracker to visually see your consistency and remind yourself of your progress.
3. Reframe “going through the motions” — when you feel bored or burned out, remind yourself this is part of the transformation process, not a sign of failure.
4. Reflect monthly — journal or record a short voice note about what’s shifted in you over time from your repeated actions.
5. Celebrate the small wins — every message sent, every conversation had, every resource shared contributes to collective change. Name them.
6. Use repetition as resistance — when systems want you to give up, continuing to show up is itself a rebellious act. Treat consistency as protest.
7. Teach or share what you’ve repeated — guide a friend through a task you now know by heart.

Dance Lesson #2: Harness the pause. 

In dance, movement without breath leads to collapse. Throughout every step, you must breathe, and it’s through this breath that you recognize your space in the room and the state of your body. 

When we want to create change, we often think of action- adding on a big new step that changes the world. 

But what if change is also about what we take away- taking away the sense of guilt that can come with feeling joy in a world overcome with suffering, taking away the stress and anxiety of overcommitting just to “feel useful”, taking away the belief that change is only possible if we sacrifice. 

Rest is an important pillar of creating impact. 

At the end of the day, stepping back doesn’t mean giving up—it means honoring your body and your rhythm.

How To Apply This

1. Schedule a weekly “no” moment — set aside 30 minutes each week to not do anything, no matter how small. Let that be your breath.
2. Create a joy ritual — deliberately engage in something that brings you joy, even in tough times: music, cooking, nature, dancing. Let yourself have it.
3. Try “pause journaling” — each day, write down one thing you chose not to do in service of your mental health or energy.
4. Unsubscribe or unfollow — once a week, remove one source of noise or urgency from your digital world.
5. Learn from nature — take a short walk without a podcast or phone. Just notice. Breathe. Let your body recalibrate.
6. Rest without guilt — when you take a break, write a sticky note: “This rest is a contribution to the world I’m building.”
7. Say “no” with love — practice declining commitments with grace. You don’t owe overextension to anyone.

Dance Lesson #3: Presence is the goal.

Don’t make perfect the enemy of good (or the enemy of progress).

In dance, much like in advocacy work, missteps are inevitable. The question is not how to have perfect execution straight from the get-go, but how to stay present with any errors you commit and learn how to improvise.

Always comparing yourself to a gold-standard future outcome makes every small step feel futile. Instead, try to measure your progress day-to-day, moment-to-moment. 

This might also highlight some areas where you can align better with the values that are important in your work and your life. 

How To Apply This

1. Start each day with a grounding ritual — a stretch, a breath, a mantra like “I am here. This is enough.”
2. Shift from outcome to process — ask yourself, “What do I want to experience today, not just accomplish?”
3. Notice when you compare — gently call yourself out when you start focusing on the ideal instead of the real.
4. Celebrate honest mistakes — once a week, share something that didn’t go to plan and what it taught you.
5. Use sensory anchors — when overwhelmed, notice five things you can see, hear, or feel to return to the moment.
6. Check in with your values — once a week, ask: “Am I still aligned with what matters most to me?”
7. Replace “perfect” with “present” — next time you’re unsure how to show up, just aim to be truly there.

Dance Lesson #4: Find your ensemble. 

Another way to avoid feeling burnout is to find your ensemble. 

This might mean you find a team of people to work on the same project with, but it could also mean working alongside others who are doing similar work. 

Whatever it looks like for you, find your people. 

It will make life 1000x easier, allow you to reinforce your own skills with the talents of others, delegate, lean on others when you need help, and just enjoy the overall process more deeply. 

Change happens when we move together- not just in unison, but in deep connection. 

Even when your solo feels isolating, there is always an ensemble waiting for you.

How To Apply This

1. Join one group aligned with your interests — a local club, Discord server, reading circle, group of friends or online forum.
2. Collaborate on a small project — even if it’s just co-hosting a one-time workshop or writing a blog post with a friend.
3. Send one message a week — reach out to someone whose work you admire, even briefly, and express interest in connecting.
4. Practice peer check-ins — have a 15-minute weekly call with someone doing similar work to share challenges and victories.
5. Celebrate others — spotlight a teammate or peer publicly once a month. Appreciation builds connection.
6. Co-work virtually — share quiet focus time with others via Zoom or in person to stay accountable and connected.
7. Ask for help — once a month, practice the vulnerable art of leaning on someone else. It deepens trust.

Dance Lesson #5: Embody first. 

Everyone hates a hypocrite. 

Growing up, it’s the first thing we pick apart in our parents, and one of the most common complaints about people we don’t like. 

The tricky part comes when we turn the analytical laser back towards ourselves. 

To be a good leader, this act of constantly bridging the gap between your words and your practice is crucial. 

If others can see the holes, they will not be inspired to embody what you stand for either. 

Embody the change you want to see in others. It will keep your followers loyal.

How To Apply This

1. Audit your actions vs. values — choose one value (e.g. compassion, sustainability) and ask, “How do I show this daily?”
2. Start with yourself — before asking others to change, take a step that reflects the shift you want to see.
3. Use “I” language — speak from your own commitments and lived experience, not just ideals.
4. Model the behavior — if you want a team or family to communicate better, practice that openly.
5. Invite accountability — ask a friend or mentor to point out when your actions aren’t aligning with your values.
6. Simplify your message — boil your beliefs down to one sentence and ensure your life reflects it.
7. Lead from example, not ego — let your embodiment be quiet but consistent. People notice integrity.

Thought to Action 

1. Conversation: Engage in curiosity-based conversations with more people from outside your area of expertise, your industry & your culture. 
2. Journaling: Use journaling to track your progress in all areas of your life, including when you are advocating for the issues you care about. 
3. History: Learn from the creative geniuses of history how to leverage the tools we have today to generate impactful solutions to the world’s biggest challenges. 
4. Self-educate:  Leverage the plethora of free podcasts, YouTube videos, Coursera courses, and more to expand your mind and empower you to solve the problems you care about. 
5. Habits: Apply these 3 methods to start thinking outside of the box by switching up your routines and changing the way you look at the world around you. 

Sources

No external sources were used for this article. 

The post Dance + Activism: How To *Actually* Change The World appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Don’t think about making women fit the world- think about making the world fit women.” – Gloria Steinem

Me Before Cycle Syncing 

I’m going to be honest with you. For a long time, I thought I was just a lazy person. 

I would spend at least half the month steeped in a cocktail of anger, depression, tiredness, everybody-hates-me-ness, and the other half recovering. 

I was always tired. I was often sad. 

I frequently wondered why I couldn’t just sit down and study, write, ideate, and create. 

One part of me assumed it was “teenage brain”. The other part assumed life was just a consistently difficult experience, and I simply hadn’t developed enough discipline to get everything done.

Enter: Cycle Syncing

Gradually, I began to try a new approach- scheduling creative and analytical work at different points in the month, supplementing with magnesium during my luteal and menstrual phases, having four separate grocery lists for whatever phase my hormones were in.

I was cycle syncing- adapting my eating, working, exercising, and social interactions to fit my hormones rather than forcing myself to show up the exact same way every day. 

Today, I want to tell you some of the lessons I learned from this process- lessons that will hopefully make you a more creative problem-solver, or maybe- if your hormones work on a daily cycle and not a monthly- more aware of how to support those around you. 

PSA: You aren’t lazy. 

There is a myth that to be a high-achieving person, your daily routine must consist of waking up at 5am, spending three hours at the gym, running uphill to work (uphill both ways), and cranking out 25 hours of deep work without taking breaks. 

Okay, maybe this is extreme, but it is not too far from how most of us imagine the gold standard of productivity. 

The problem here can be boiled down to one word: hormones. 

While male hormones work on a 24-hour cycle, female hormones simply don’t, and this makes a big difference toward how males and females should each optimize their performance at different tasks. 

For men, with testosterone peaking in the morning, the 5am wake-up call to do deep work and intense workouts makes perfect sense. 

For women, on the other hand, not quite. 

So today, I will be talking to those of us with female hormone cycles about how I learned to harness my hormones to be a more creative problem-solver. 

My hope? To help you harness your hormones too.

Let’s get started. 

#1: Track, observe, adjust.

The first step to addressing your specific needs in relation to what your hormones are doing is to know what phase of your hormone cycle you are in. 

Because this is a gradual process, there are several approaches you can use to help with this, and ultimately, the best way to gain awareness is to understand what each phase feels like for you and what factors might influence this (e.g. dietary, exercise, mental health, etc.).

To begin, you can use an app like Clue to track your periods. Then, when you’re planning each week, you can log in, check what phase of your cycle it says you’re in- follicular, ovulation, luteal or menstrual-  and plan accordingly. 

For example, in the follicular and ovulatory phases, you are likely to feel more energized and sociable, so you could aim to schedule networking events, dinner parties, of other get-togethers then. On the other hand, you might plan more reflective, gentle activities during the luteal and menstrual phase, such as that yoga class you’ve been wanting to make it to, or that quiet spa day you have been needing. In work, you could use the luteal and menstrual phase for organizational, strategic, or creative tasks, and the follicular and ovulatory phases for problem-solving and collaborative tasks. 

Then, as you begin to experiment with what tasks your energy levels are more inclined to at each phase, you can fine-tune your scheduling to your own hormones.

Cycle Syncing Tips: Awareness For Each Phase

All:

• Use a period tracker like Flo or Clue

Follicular Phase:

• During this phase, you are likely to feel highly energized. 
• You will likely see little to no discharge.
• Roughly days 6-13

Ovulatory Phase:

• During this phase, you are likely to see stretchy, clear and wet discharge. 
• You are likely to feel very energized when in this phase (more than in any other phase).
• Roughly days 14-16

Luteal Phase:

• During this phase, you might experience sudden mood shifts due to the sudden drop in estrogen from ovulation. Symptoms like PMS might suggest you are in this phase. 
• You might also notice more white, creamy discharge. 
• Roughly days 17-28

Menstrual Phase:

• Easy to track- this is when you’re on your period! You can use this as a reference point for when the other phases are happening. 
• Roughly days 1-5

#2: Ride the energy wave. 

When you live in a female body, there is a consistent fluctuation in your energy levels that you can expect pretty much every month. 

What does this mean for you?

You can roughly predict how much energy you will have over the next week, and when you will be more “in the mood” for certain activities. 

In a world designed for male hormones, this idea might seem strange.

But if you yourself have a body that doesn’t work this way, realizing that your energy levels are on a 28-day (ish) cycle can completely revolutionize how you think about “laziness”, “hustle”, and productivity overall. 

The best approach, in my opinion?

Ride the wave. 

When you undergoing the extremely energy-intensive process of menstruation, let yourself rest. Accept that your body is putting a lot of energy towards shedding the lining of your uterus, and that might mean you get less done those days. You will not go so intense in the gym. You will need more sleep. It’s okay. 

On the other hand, harness the energetic high of the follicular and ovulatory phase. Go out with friends. Go on that weekend trip. Batch-create content, or meals, or new experiences. 

Cycle Syncing Tips: How To Ride The Energy Wave

Follicular Phase:

• Your most experimental and mentally-flexible phase – try new routines and ideas at this time. 

Ovulatory Phase:

• Your social butterfly is unleashed- use it to connect meaningfully.
• Lean into boldness. 
• Don’t overschedule yourself. A big dip in your energy is coming up. 

Luteal Phase:

• Frontload your work early in this phase so you can spend more time resting towards the end. 
• Prioritize editing, decluttering, and organizational tasks. 
• Limit unnecessary social interactions.

Menstrual Phase:

• Build in “buffer days” on your calendar.
• Prioritize rest and hydration, and view rest as productive. 

#3: There’s a time to be a social butterfly & time to be a hermit crab.

As an introvert, my natural habitat will always be at home, in my sweatpants, curled up with a book. 

That said if I’m going to register for a networking event, I will get much more out of it if I go durning my follicular phase, as I will be less self-conscious and much more sociable than if I go during my luteal phase. 

This willingness can also be influenced by diet (e.g. Many women experience magnesium deficiencies during their luteal phase, leading to symptoms like PMS. Magnesium supplementation can help with this.), exercise (e.g. Strength-training, cardio, and yoga can each significantly mitigate your emotional state at different points in your cycle), and general stress levels.

Cycle Syncing Tips: Dealing With Other Humans

Follicular & Ovulatory Phases:

• Schedule meetups, dates, and collaborative work during this phase—you’re more outgoing and mentally sharp.

Luteal & Menstrual Phases:

• Set boundaries around plans—this is a “nesting” time.
• You might be more sensitive to conflict; try not to schedule emotionally charged conversations late in this phase.
• Say “no” freely—this is a great time to withdraw and reset.
• If you need connection, prioritize low-key, comforting company.

#4: Rest is an opportunity for growth. 

Everyone has ideas for how to stay “productive” when your energy is high, but what do you do when your energy levels are low (besides sleep)?

In my experience, it helps to consider two types of energy here- physical energy and emotional energy. 

During the luteal phase, emotional energy is low, and I tend to feel more sensitive. During the menstrual phase, on the other hand, my physical energy is low and my emotional energy is moderate. 

However, there is strength in sensitivity, as cliche as it sounds. In my experience, this is a great time to do creative work, organize my schedule, and complete any administrative tasks I might have been procrastinating on.

For the type of low energy characteristic of the menstrual phase, on the other hand, it is a great time to do slower exercises, such as gentle walks or taking time to stretch. 

Cycle Syncing Tips: How to Rest & How To Push

Follicular Phase:

• Perfect for: brainstorming, planning projects, starting habits, trying new things.
  
• Avoid: intense decision-making about rest or relationships—your mood is higher than it will be later in the cycle.

Ovulatory Phase:

• Perfect for: visibility (presentations, launches), collaborative work, pitching.
  
• Avoid: major decisions about rest or future goals—you may feel overly optimistic.
  

Luteal Phase:

• Perfect for: editing, finishing tasks, checking details, home organization.
  
• Avoid: high-stimulation environments or long days packed with people—protect your energy.

Menstrual Phase:

• Perfect for: reflection, journaling, spiritual practices, evaluating what’s working or not.
  
• Avoid: major meetings, demanding tasks, or making long-term decisions unless absolutely necessary.

Thought to Action 

1. Label your week by phase (follicular, ovulatory, luteal, menstrual) and try aligning your to-do list to match.
2. Consider working in femtech to solve problems in women’s health, which is sure to be highly lucrative. 
3. Learn the four phases of the female hormone cycle —get familiar with what you or your partner/friend/team might be going through.
4. Normalize conversations about periods and energy—mention it casually to reduce shame and improve empathy.
5. Use journaling to monitor your emotions, energy levels, and productivity at different points in your cycle.

Sources

https://helloclue.com/articles/cycle-a-z/wet-sticky-what-your-discharge-is-telling-you

https://www.healthline.com/health/womens-health/stages-of-menstrual-cycle

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/menstrual-cycle-phases

The post Cycle Syncing: The Biological Secret That Will 10x Your Productivity appeared first on Green Also Green.

“Learning never exhausts the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci

One of the most well-known figures to represent Renaissance culture is the world’s favorite creative genius, Leonardo DaVinci. A painter, engineer, and scientist, he lived dozens of lifetimes in one. 

How did he do it? 

And why have so few managed to do it since?

This is a good question, an important one in a world so simultaneously plagued with problems and blessed with beauty. 

For many of us, living the life of a Renaissance person seems like a romantic pipe dream. 

Indeed, it seemed not so long ago that we were all starry-eyed toddlers who had seven answers whenever an adult hovered over us and asked that expansive-but-terrifying question: “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

Fast forward twenty, thirty, or forty-plus years, and those pipe dreams have been flushed away. 

But what if there was still time, and a strong need, for more people with DaVinci careers?

I’m not describing an alternate universe; I’m describing our reality. 

Now, here are 4 easy lessons that you can apply from DaVinci himself to make it your reality too. 

#1: Study Nature Closely

When designing his flight machine, DaVinci sketched an entire folio titled Flight Of Birds. He studied their wings, how air passes over them, and was even the first to document a maneuver called dynamic soaring. According to this research paper, his description pre-date the first “generally accepted explanation of the physics” of this technique by almost 400 years.

What can you take from this?

Observe patterns, systems & behaviors in the natural world. 

The original creative genius is natural selection herself.

#2: Embrace Experimentation. 

Another branch of Davinci’s legacy concerns his sketches of human anatomy. 

At the time, dissection was against the law unless you were a physician- he wasn’t. Nevertheless, he still dissected human remains, drawing what he saw and providing us with breakthroughs about the functions of bones and muscles in the body. 

Another example is DaVinci’s water vase experiment, which sought to test the theory that gravity is a form of acceleration. Ultimately, engineers at Caltech have confirmed that his understanding of gravity was centuries ahead of its time, and that he was able to calculate the gravitational constant with 97% accuracy. 

But what about the experiments that didn’t quite go to plan?

His Last Supper painting, whose experimental pigment didn’t stick to the wall, leading to quick degradation. 

His rejected plans to cast the bronze doors of a cathedral in Piacenza or design the dome for the cathedral of Milan.

In fact, for most of his life, DaVinci’s idea of himself was far from “creative genius”.

He considered himself a failure.

He experimented anyway. 

He tested his ideas (especially if they seemed unconventional).

He embraced failure. 

We need to do the same. 

#3: Self-Direct Your Education. 

Leonardo DaVinci was not what you would call “well-educated” in the traditional sense. He received the usual schooling of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but no “higher education” at university. 

In fact, it was only once he was about 30 years old that he started diving deep into the realms of advanced geometry, arithmetic, and Latin. 

At the end of the day, DaVinci was self-taught. 

He did his own experiments. He led his own research. He came up with questions and sought to answer them on his own terms. 

To what end? 

Making connections. 

The curse of being endlessly curious is that you are endlessly unsatisfied by the curriculums created by others. 

However, once you start to direct your education to learn about what truly fascinates you, you realize that the blessing is in gaining your own unique problem-solving vision that single-field, single-culture, single-skillset individuals just don’t have. This turns you into a creative genius.

DaVinci created a curriculum that answered all his questions, and for you to do the same is easier than it’s ever been before. 

Harness all the books, podcasts, YouTube videos, blogs, AI agents, and social media platforms that stimulate your curiosity.

Stop trying to make sense of your interests. 

Start following them. 

#4: Make Creativity A Habit. 

Arguably the most important of DaVinci’s creations was the creation of a habit, or perhaps several habits that changed the way he saw and responded to the world, ultimately creating a creative genius.

So, what can you do to replicate DaVinci’s genius (or maybe just his habits) in our fast-paced, hyper-productive, mostly-online world?

Make time daily to create.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Go out for walks in nature. Bring a sketchbook and pencil with you. Spend a few minutes looking closely at one component of your surroundings, and sketch it as you observe it.
• If you’re working on a design, product, or engineering problem, look at how nature solves similar challenges.
• If you’re learning something new (coding, art, engineering), try unconventional methods without worrying about failure.
• When stuck on a project, ask: “What would happen if I did the opposite?” or “What rule can I break?”
• Pick a subject unrelated to your field and explore it (e.g. read a book or article about it, listen to a podcast episode) —Leonardo studied everything from music to anatomy.
• Set up “apprenticeships” for yourself—shadow professionals or take online courses outside of your formal education.
• Schedule daily “idea time” (even 10 minutes) to brainstorm or sketch.
• Use cross-training: If you work in STEM, do something artistic like painting or writing to keep your creativity active. If you work in the arts, try a logic puzzle or engineering concept.
• Take Leonardo-style breaks: He believed stepping away from work helped ideas incubate—try taking walks, changing environments, or switching tasks.

Thought To Action 

1. Keep a Curiosity Journal: Note down observations about how things work or ideas for inventions, no matter how small.
2. Sketch For Your Brain: Draw diagrams and sketches to help process your thoughts and develop your ideas further. 
3. Study the “How” Of Everything You Find Interesting: Ask more questions and get in the habit of approaching all situations with curiosity and interest. 
4. Innovate Through Collaboration: Partner up with someone from another discipline to work on a project or to hear how they conceptualize particular challenges or ideas. 
5. Ask “What If” Questions: Regularly ask questions with a beginner’s mindset, asking the sort of “What if?” questions a child would. Make curiosity fun. 

Sources

Heydenreich, Ludwig Heinrich. “Leonardo Da Vinci.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Oct. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Leonardo-da-Vinci.

Papadopoulos, Loukia. “Experiments in Gravity: How Leonardo Da Vinci Was ahead of His Time.” Interesting Engineering, 14 Feb. 2023, interestingengineering.com/science/leonardo-da-vinci-inner-workings-of-gravity. Accessed 23 Feb. 2025.

Richardson, Philip L. “Leonardo Da Vinci’s Discovery of the Dynamic Soaring by Birds in Wind Shear.” Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, vol. 73, no. 3, 3 Oct. 2018, pp. 285–301, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2018.0024. Accessed 22 Feb. 2021.

The post 4 Secrets From Leonardo da Vinci On How To Become A Creative Genius appeared first on Green Also Green.

“AI is neither good nor evil. It’s a tool. It’s a technology for us to use.” — Oren Etzioni, AI researcher

The AI revolution has crept into almost every industry, and healthcare is no different. In fact, the effects of using AI in the healthcare industry have had revolutionary impacts, leading to ground-breaking solutions that offer valuable lessons to other industries. 

Today, let’s dive into some examples of where AI has seen successful applications in the healthcare industry, and what we can learn from them. 

#1: Early Cancer Detection

Cancer leads to millions of deaths every year, creating not only a heavy weight on the healthcare industry, but also a tremendous emotional burden on countless families worldwide. 

Imagine if you could get diagnosed early enough to prevent death. 

Now, that is more accessible than ever. 

With tools that support individuals to more effectively self-diagnose as opposed to just relying on Dr. Google to make sense of their symptoms, early cancer detection AI tools could begin to ease the burden of losing a loved on to cancer, and the weight on the healthcare industry to support patients who are in the later stages of a fatal diagnosis. 

#2: Neurological Diagnosis

Neurology has a reputation for simultaneously being an incredibly high-stakes field to work in while also being beautifully (and frustratingly) complex. 

Naturally, there is little room for error when it comes to taking care of a brain. 

Still, from automating image interpretation tasks to accurately identifying brain structures, detecting abnormalities, and predicting different treatment outcomes, AI has already acted as a huge help to practitioners in the field of neurology. 

However, there is still a long way to go in developing more effective methods of integrating data science into healthcare. 

#3: Chatbots For Preliminary Diagnosis

Last but not least is Dr. GPT, who we find ourselves unknowingly putting greater and greater trust in as the days go by.

Available at the fingertips of anyone with internet connection, the increasing number of chatbots available to effectively screen patients is making healthcare more equitable than ever before.

While we are not ready to do away with human doctors and nurses just yet, AI chatbots can still help to streamline preliminary diagnosis through administrative tasks, para-clinical tasks (“consensus-building with multidisciplinary teams”), research, and education. 

In a world where healthcare feels out of reach for many, the importance of cutting costs and increasing accessibility cannot be overstated.

AI In HealthCare: Interdisciplinary Takeaways

1. Data-Driven Decision-Making

Steps:

1. Identify Key Metrics: What data is most relevant to your goals or challenges? E.g., student test scores in education or project completion times in construction.
2. Choose AI Tools: Use platforms like Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, or industry-specific AI tools.
3. Analyze Patterns: Look for trends, outliers, and correlations.
4. Make Predictions: Use data to forecast future scenarios.
5. Act on Insights: Implement changes based on predictions and measure the outcomes.

Questions to Explore:

• What specific decisions in your field could benefit from deeper data insights?
• Are there underutilized data sources you can access?
• What tools are available for data analysis?

Example:
Walmart uses AI to analyze sales data and predict inventory needs, optimizing stock levels to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction.

2. Early Problem Detection

Steps:

1. Map Risk Areas: Identify vulnerabilities in your processes (e.g., structural weaknesses in engineering or environmental risks in conservation).
2. Implement Sensors or Monitoring Systems: Use IoT devices or AI tools to track critical data points.
3. Set Thresholds for Alerts: Establish early warning indicators.
4. Take Preventive Action: Develop action plans for when thresholds are breached.

Questions to Explore:

• What are the biggest risks in your field?
• What types of data could signal early warnings?
• How can you involve your team in defining response protocols?

Example:
Conservationists use AI-powered systems like Wildbook to analyze data on wildlife populations, identifying species at risk of extinction early enough to take corrective action.

3. Personalization

Steps:

1. Understand Your Audience: Collect data on user needs and preferences.
2. Leverage AI for Segmentation: Use AI tools to group users or customers by behavior, demographics, or goals.
3. Design Tailored Experiences: Create content, services, or solutions that address specific needs.
4. Measure and Iterate: Continuously analyze engagement and satisfaction metrics.

Prompts:

• How can AI help you better understand your audience?
• What data can you use to improve personalization?

Example:
Duolingo uses AI to personalize language lessons, adapting to each user’s pace, strengths, and weaknesses, resulting in higher retention and user satisfaction.

4. Automation of Routine Tasks

Steps:

1. List Repetitive Tasks: Identify tasks that consume significant time but require minimal creativity.
2. Choose Automation Tools: Use tools like Zapier, UiPath, or custom AI solutions.
3. Implement Workflows: Develop and test automated processes.
4. Reallocate Time: Focus freed-up resources on strategic activities.

Questions to Explore:

• What tasks in your workflow could be automated?
• How much time could automation save your team?

Example:
GE uses AI-powered software to automate routine inspections of jet engines, reducing downtime and improving accuracy.

5. Real-Time Monitoring and Feedback

Steps:

1. Install Monitoring Systems: Deploy sensors or AI tools to gather real-time data.
2. Set Up Dashboards: Use platforms to visualize and interpret data.
3. Provide Instant Feedback: Share actionable insights with relevant stakeholders.
4. Optimize Responsiveness: Create processes to act on real-time feedback quickly.

Prompts:

• Where in your workflow could real-time monitoring improve efficiency?
• How can you ensure the data is actionable?

Example:
SmartCap uses AI-powered sensors in mining helmets to monitor workers’ fatigue levels in real time, reducing accidents and improving safety.

6. Scaling Solutions for Accessibility

Steps:

1. Identify Underserved Areas: Where are there gaps in access to your services or solutions?
2. Leverage AI Platforms: Use AI-powered tools to deliver solutions at scale (e.g., Coursera for education or drones for conservation).
3. Partner Strategically: Work with organizations to expand reach.
4. Measure Impact: Track metrics like reach, engagement, and effectiveness.

Questions to Explore:

• How can AI expand access to your offerings?
• Who are your target underserved populations?

Example:
Microsoft’s AI for Accessibility program uses AI to develop tools for people with disabilities, such as Seeing AI for the visually impaired.

7. Predictive Analytics

Steps:

1. Define Objectives: What future outcomes do you want to predict?
2. Collect Historical Data: Gather relevant datasets.
3. Use Predictive Tools: Platforms like Google Cloud’s AutoML or IBM Watson.
4. Plan for Scenarios: Develop strategies for likely predictions.

Questions to Explore:

• How can predictive insights improve your decision-making?
• What trends or outcomes are most critical in your field?

Example:
UPS uses AI-powered predictive analytics to optimize delivery routes, saving millions in fuel costs and improving efficiency.

8. Training and Upskilling

Steps:

1. Assess Skill Gaps: Identify what your team needs to learn.
2. Implement Training Programs: Use AI-powered platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, or custom solutions.
3. Incorporate AI Tools: Introduce tools that align with new workflows.
4. Foster Continuous Learning: Encourage regular skill development.

Prompts:

• What new AI tools could enhance your work?
• How can you make learning a routine part of your team’s culture?

Example:
Adobe offers AI training to designers, helping them master AI-driven tools like Adobe Sensei for automated creative workflows.

Thought to Action 

1. Adopt a Growth Mindset for Upskilling: Treat AI as a tool for continuous learning. Take incremental steps to learn new technologies or approaches, regardless of your expertise level.
2. Leverage AI for Personal Development: Use AI-powered platforms to enhance your skills, such as language learning apps (Duolingo) or career coaching tools (LinkedIn Learning).
3. Integrate AI into Problem-Solving: Use AI tools to analyze and break down complex problems into manageable parts, leveraging insights to develop creative and data-backed solutions.
4. Develop a Personal AI Project: Apply what you’ve learned by creating a small project where AI plays a central role, such as automating a personal task or analyzing data from your hobbies or interests.
5. Identify Inefficiencies in Your Workflow: Analyze your current workflow for repetitive or time-consuming tasks and explore AI-powered tools to address these inefficiencies.

Sources

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Au Yeung, J., Wang, Y.Y., Kraljevic, Z. and T H Teo, J. (2022). Artificial intelligence (AI) for neurologists: do digital neurones dream of electric sheep? [online] Bmj.com. Available at: https://pn.bmj.com/content/23/6/476 [Accessed 6 Jan. 2025].

Kalani, M. and Anjankar, A. (2024). Revolutionizing Neurology: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Advancing Diagnosis and Treatment. Cureus, [online] 16(6), p.e61706. doi:https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.61706.

Kharat, P.B., Kabir Suman Dash, L. Rajpurohit, Tripathy, S. and Mehta, V. (2024). Revolutionizing healthcare through Chat GPT: AI is accelerating medical diagnosis. Oral oncology, pp.100222–100222. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oor.2024.100222.

Reardon, S. (2023). AI Chatbots Can Diagnose Medical Conditions at Home. How Good Are They? [online] Scientific American. Available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-chatbots-can-diagnose-medical-conditions-at-home-how-good-are-they/ [Accessed 6 Jan. 2025].

Soerjomataram, I., Bray, F., Stewart, B.W., Elisabete Weiderpass and Wild, C.P. (2020). Global trends in cancer incidence and mortality. [online] Nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK606460/ [Accessed 7 Jan. 2025].

You, Y. and Gui, X. (2021). Self-Diagnosis through AI-enabled Chatbot-based Symptom Checkers: User Experiences and Design Considerations. AMIA … Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium, [online] 2020, pp.1354–1363. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33936512/ [Accessed 21 Oct. 2024].

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