Category: General

Whenever I visit a city like Venice, Rome, or San Francisco, I always face the same challenge: how do I make the most of the experience? I want to do more than just see the sights—I want to truly understand them. But to do that, I either need to hire a local guide or try to figure everything out on my own.

Don’t get me wrong, guides can be fantastic. A good one can make a place come alive, sharing fascinating stories and context. But they’re expensive, you have to work around their schedule, and—let’s be honest—some guides are better than others. On the flip side, exploring alone often leaves me feeling like I’m missing out on the bigger picture. What’s the story behind that building? What did it look like centuries ago? Why is it significant? Without a guide, I’m just guessing.

That’s why I’ve started thinking about what the future could look like. I believe we’re heading toward a world where none of this will be an issue.

Imagine This: AI-Powered Glasses

Picture this: You arrive at your destination and are handed a pair of sleek, AI-powered glasses. The moment you put them on, they greet you by name. They already know which language you speak and even your interests, because you’ve shared a bit of information with them in advance.

The experience feels completely tailored to you. As you start walking, the glasses guide you through the city, pointing out landmarks and telling you their stories through an earpiece in a warm, friendly voice. No stiff, generic explanations—this guide feels like a companion who really gets what you’re interested in.

A Tour That Brings History to Life

What makes these glasses truly incredible is the augmented reality (AR). When you look at a landmark, the glasses overlay information directly onto what you’re seeing. For example, imagine standing in front of the Colosseum. Through the glasses, you don’t just see its current state—you see what it looked like 2,000 years ago, bustling with life. You hear the roar of the crowd and see gladiators preparing for battle.

It’s not just sightseeing; it’s stepping into history.

Fully Personalized and Self-Paced

The best part? It’s all on your schedule. Want to linger at a spot for a while? Go for it. Need to move faster? No problem. The AI adapts to you. There’s no group to keep up with, no guide rushing you along, and no awkward pauses waiting for someone else to catch up.

Why I’m Excited

This idea excites me because it solves so many of the frustrations I’ve faced while traveling. It’s affordable, accessible, and incredibly immersive. I wouldn’t have to worry about hiring the “right” guide or feeling like I’m fumbling through a city on my own. Instead, I’d get a seamless, enriching experience that’s completely customized to me.

We’re not there yet, but I believe this future isn’t far off. The technology—augmented reality, AI, spatial audio—is already developing rapidly. In a few years, this kind of personalized tour could be the standard.

Until then, I’ll keep dreaming about how amazing it’s going to be to put on a pair of glasses and feel like the city is coming to life just for me. And when that day comes, I’ll be ready to experience the world in a way I’ve always dreamed of.

Ever wished you could talk to the people you admire? High-profile thinkers, industry experts, or even historical icons? The reality is that access to them is tough, sometimes impossible. But there’s still a way. If they’ve shared their knowledge through books, podcasts, or webinars, that’s an open door. You can dig into their material, pick their brain, and learn from their perspectives.

Now, there’s a new tool for this—custom GPTs. People are creating specialized GPT models based on well-known personalities, coded with their views and approaches. It’s a whole different level of access.

Take Naval Ravikant. I think he’s a brilliant mind—he dives deep into everything from business and spirituality to life in general. Having a direct conversation with him would be a game-changer, but since that’s not on the table, I use the Naval Ravikant GPT. I ask questions, explore his ideas, and get responses crafted around his unique perspective. It’s as close as I’ll get to having Naval in the room, and it’s pretty powerful.

And if the person you admire doesn’t have a GPT? You can make one. Curate their insights, build the model, and you’ve created a new way to learn from them.

Bottom line: you’re just a few clicks away from engaging with some of the sharpest minds out there. Use it, experiment, and make the most of it. A good conversation—even a virtual one—can go a long way.

During the last couple of years with the mainstream release of ChatGPT, the world has gone crazy talking about artificial intelligence in almost every conversation.

I’m not saying I’m opposed to it. In fact I use AI every day myself.

However, not as many people are talking about the use of AI for the elder generation. The folks who feel loneliness and don’t have anyone to talk with. There’s a real opportunity there.

Imagine an AI companion for seniors. It’s friendly, always there for you, and you can talk about Anything with your AI companion.

It reminds you to take medicine, engages you in deep conversation and reminiscing about your life, works out with you, reminds you about upcoming birthdays and anniversaries of your family members and can even make calls to them as your assistant and when they’re ready to talk, pass on the microphone to you to talk.

There’s so much opportunity in this regard specially for the booming aging population!

And now with the latest ChatGPT 4o, the technologies are going to get more and more natural which is definitely going to play well with the older population who needs to feel more comfortable talking to an AI.

The best scenario would be when an elderly person sitting in a nursing home is able to converse with her AI companion and feel like she is talking to a relative who is always there for her.

There’s no point in trying to keep everyone happy. There will always be someone who’s going to have a difference of opinion.

Be yourself. Be biased – Unashamedly biased.

You have been created to be unique so take advantage of that and be yourself.

Will everyone agree with you and want to be your friend when you put out your thoughts publicly?
Of course not.
Only the ones that match your mental frequency will be the ones that will be attracted to your message. And that is plenty.

Just be understanding with other people’s thoughts, feelings and beliefs as well. Be pluralistic.
You don’t have to agree with them. You just have to respect their thoughts and actions for what they are – theirs.

 

I’ve never had a dog. Not until we got one in 2021 during the height of COVID. I realized after getting a dog that I have so much to learn. It’s amazing what our dog Amber has taught me without saying anything verbally.

I’m a true believer that there are lessons to be learned all around us. Natural patterns of the creation and the universe is filled with so many lessons if we are willing to stop and pay attention and learn from them.

Dogs are definitely one of those entities that if we observed quietly, we can learn so much from.

The way they look at you, the way they love you, the way they care for you and the way they convey how they feel without any spoken words…

When it all comes down to it, they just want to give love. All they want in return is attention from you. In fact, you can even starve a dog and it will still love you. That kind of unconditional love is unheard of. I mean where are you going to find a creature that loves you no matter what. You can starve a dog, you can beat it up (not that you would ever do that) and it will still come back to you, want to be close to you and empathize with you, can even feel your feelings and support you when you need it most. Who does that? No humans that I know of at least.

It’s hard to believe that dogs originated from wolves. We look at wolves and we see a ferocious creature that can rip you apart and then you look at a little cute yorkie poodle, like we have, or something similar to that and all you can think of is how cute he or she is and how you just want to shower them with your love and attention. Nature is funny that way.

I definitely have learned a lot from our dog Amber and still continue to learn how to love, how to not be judgmental, how to be caring, how to appreciate the smaller things in life and stop to smell the flowers (and grass, and weeds and everything in between ☺️). It’s like she is an explorer every time we take her out. Like she is seeing and experiencing things for a first time. In the back of my mind, I know that she is really searching for new smells and other dogs’ pee and stuff like that but just the act by itself helps you remember that the wonder of all that is around us is something to be appreciated and paid attention to instead of just walking by. Keeping the wonders alive in our minds is what keeps us young. Repetitiveness makes things boring and we get older faster IMHO. I really believe that wonder by itself is an anti-aging potion which prevents boredom and keeps things interesting. Time goes by a lot more fruitful when you are intentionally spending it instead of having it spent by repetitive tasks that are mundane or waiting for others to tell you what to do.

So thank you Amber. I very much appreciate the life lessons that you continue to teach me. I’ll continue to pay attention and learn from you.

Imagine you put a baby in a diaper by a computer. What is she going to do? What do we expect her to do?

Probably just bang at the keyboard and produce gibberish. Uncontrollable exuberance resulting in incomprehensible output.

How is that different from what humans do with our minds which are no less than a super computer itself?

Are we able to control it or is it controlling us?

I think we all know the answer. In fact the stress and anxiety that our supercomputer produces is enough to drive most people insane. I would go as far as saying that if you reduce the power of the human brain, the reduction would linearly result in increase in happiness. Because then your brain is not hyperactive and bored all the time looking for “something to do”. Boredom is frequently the source of evil.

So why do we let our minds control us instead of us controlling it?

Well, the answer is simple. We don’t let it happen, it happens because we don’t know how to control our mind – much like that baby sitting on the computer. If we had a manual and knew how to control it, perhaps the output would be different. But we don’t.

Now consider the possibility that there was a way that we could turn things around and gain the ability to bend this super computer to our will. Imagine the magnitude of power and control we would have if we could control our own mind. Imagine the happiness we could produce at will.

There’s a concept of separating yourself from your mind and your body. The more space you create, the better you feel. When you first hear this concept, it just does not make sense or at least it did not make sense to me the first time I heard it. I could not imagine myself separate from my mind and body. I thought that my mind and body are “myself”. What’s the difference I thought? But the more I thought about it the more I realized that my mind and my body are items that I have accumulated since birth. My mind is made up of all the thoughts since birth and my body is the accumulation of everything that I ate and drank or was fed by my mother in the womb. “Myself” is different than these items that I usually identify with. Some can call it the soul, the noor, the force, particles of the universe… whatever you call it, that’s the thing I’m talking about. That is what’s truly “yourself”.

Let’s look at an analogy of what it’s like to separate yourself from your thoughts and your mind. Imagine you are sitting in traffic. It’s early in the morning, the sun is hot, traffic is jam packed, you are late to work, you forgot your coffee, people are honking their horns around you and everyone is frustrated. You are frustrated. This is similar to what happens in our minds all the time. Lots and lots of traffic and we are right in the middle of it all.

Now let’s say that you get out of your car, leave it where it is and you step into the carriage of a hot air balloon. It’s a nice big beautiful multicolored hot air balloon and the carriage is very comfortable. You get inside the carriage and it starts elevating. You get to 50 ft then 100 ft. You look down at the traffic. These cars and people that were around you are now below you. Everyone is still frustrated but now you are not in the middle of it. You are an observer from above. Your stress level drops a bit.

The hot air balloon keeps on rising and now you are at 500 ft and then 1,000 ft. Now the cars look even smaller from this distance. It’s hard for you to relate why these people below are frustrated. The whole scene starts looking a bit comical and beautiful at the same time. The balloon continues its rise and now you’re at 10,000 ft. Now you are literally seeing the big picture and wondering to yourself why you were ever frustrated to begin with? Your perception of reality has changed. Your thoughts of being late at work have evaporated. So what if you’re late. What does that all mean in the big scheme of things anyway?

This experience of you rising in the hot air balloon and separating yourself from the traffic is exactly what it would be like if you separated yourself from your thoughts. If you become an observer, a witness to what’s going on in your brain and separated yourself from your thoughts, you would become much more attuned with the processes in your brain since now you are observing them much more objectively rather than subjectively.

Of course all this said, none of this is easy to do otherwise we would have a lot more happy people around the world. But hey… let’s not stop trying. A conscious mind has a lot of potential. No need to numb our minds with excessive alcohol, drugs and other substances to temporarily slow down our supercomputer just because it’s hard to handle. Instead, let’s practice ways that will get us better equipped to control that power we have on hand. It will be worth the effort for sure 👍

I’m addicted to writing restaurant reviews for Google maps. When I go to a restaurant, whether I like it or don’t like it, I write a review either way.

You might ask: why do I do it? What’s in it for me?

There’s definitely no money in it of course. I have written hundreds of reviews but Google has not sent me a penny nor do I expect that they ever will.

Then why do it Asif you might ask..?

Not everything you do is going to have a payback in a monetary fashion. Sometimes the reward is the feeling you get when you know the impact you made.

For me in this case, I knew in my heart that I could help folks by writing honest, straightforward and concise reviews of places that I have been to so someone else who considers going there knows what to expect. That small impact makes me feel fulfilled. Just like writing this article makes me feel fulfilled because I’m sharing my thoughts with others who will eventually read it.

No matter how small of a contribution, you can always contribute to others and make your impact with what’s in your hands. Never forget that.

What do you really want in life? Do you want happiness that’s long-lasting or do you want momentary pleasure?

The answer is simple of course: Both right ☺️

Let’s talk about the sources of each – pleasure and happiness.

You get pleasure when endorphins are rushing through your brain and giving you that momentary feel of satisfaction. That type of satisfaction occurs when you just won a race, ate a piece of delicious cake, won the Lotto, had great sex, or a bunch of equivalent things which give you a feeling of satisfaction in the moment.

The challenge with most of us is that we confuse these spikes of pleasure with happiness.

Figure: The way I think about Pleasure vs Happiness

 

So what’s true happiness and how do you attain that? 

Happiness is harder to come by, requires more investment of time and energy and patience. Happiness also sometimes comes with momentary pain as you try to achieve that state of happiness.

Because of all these obstacles, many of us don’t even bother trying to work at it. It’s just too hard. And many times it’s not even guaranteed that you’ll achieve happiness at all that work. While pleasure, even though it’s momentary, it’s guaranteed.

So that begs the question… Is the pursuit of happiness worth it? 

Why not just have many spikes of pleasure along your life which is definitely much easier to attain rather than pursuing happiness which is harder and not always guaranteed?

That’s a very good question indeed.

Let’s look closely at the problem with pleasure.

Pleasure is temporary of course but the bigger problem is that once that sense of pleasure is gone, it drops you right back to the state where you started. Sometimes even lower because of the expectation you had that it was going to last. And when it doesn’t last that long and the euphoria fades away, you have that feeling of dissatisfaction which stays with you longer.

Happiness on the other hand is incremental and sometimes exponential depending on how much you invest in it. Happiness builds on top of the previous state you were in.

But once again, the challenge with happiness: it takes work and intention. And that’s the reason that most people opt for quick pleasure instead of pursuits of long-term happiness.

I personally think there’s room for both. Sometimes you just want a quick hit of pleasure and that’s okay. As long as we don’t get addicted to those spikes of pleasure.

I truly believe that if we want our lives to be worth it long term, we should incrementally be investing in our happiness. And sometimes that investment requires payment in the form of sacrifice of momentary pleasure.

 

In business and life in general, it’s all about solving other people’s problems.

In your profession, the higher the number of people you’re able to help with your product or service, the bigger your market potential is.

Personal life works the same way. The more you help people and cater to others’ needs and feelings, the more loved and respected you are.

It’s a very straightforward fact of life that logically makes perfect sense but it’s not intuitive to many. I confess it was not intuitive to me as I was growing up. I had to learn it along the way.

Just because it’s logical doesn’t mean it’s easy to pull off of course. But if you can do it, you’ll see the results in your life and business both – Guaranteed!

I’m still learning and and getting better at it day by day… Good luck to you as well!