For generations, hard skills have been prioritized over soft skills. Today, engineering and computer science education still places a strong emphasis on building technical expertise through math, science, and programming courses, with little attention paid to fostering interperso … | Continue reading
Making your bed in the morning, that first cup of coffee, grabbing a croissant on your way to work, listening to your favorite podcast on the train… As much as we wish for each day to be different, repeating some of the same actions is an important part of our lives. Researchers … | Continue reading
By most standards, I work a lot. Between running a company, pursuing a Ph.D., speaking at events, and writing a book, my days are filled with work. My friends sometimes comment that I work too much. But it doesn’t feel this way. I do work a lot, but not too much. I know because I … | Continue reading
In our age of information overload, writing is not just a means of expression. It’s a tool for clarity, comprehension, and connection. If metacognition is your compass, then writing is your map. The post Writing is a thinking tool appeared first on Ness Labs. | Continue reading
At Ness Labs, we believe in the power of ideas and the profound impact of continuously feeding our minds with thoughtful content. Each month, we meticulously curate a selection of books that truly stand out in an ocean of books that can be overwhelming. This series aims to highli … | Continue reading
Alec Nguyen is the co-founder of Afforai, an AI tool to perform research and interact with documents. He is now on a mission to make AI tools more accessible to people, whatever their background. In this interview, we talked about privacy and security in the AI industry, why mult … | Continue reading
When was the last time you stopped to truly observe your own life? Turning an anthropological lens on yourself might feel strange, but it can lead to invaluable insights, allowing you to uncover patterns, gain self-knowledge, and imagine new possibilities. Anthropologists ask fun … | Continue reading
“I’ve decided to take it easy at work this year and focus on myself.” I’ve recently been hearing variations of this sentence over and over again. Magazines are publishing stories about “the end of ambition” and how more people are taking extended sabbaticals. It seems like we nee … | Continue reading
Interoceptive journaling is a mindfulness practice that involves recording and reflecting upon one’s own bodily sensations. It’s an intentional way of tuning into the often subtle signals our bodies send us, ranging from hunger pangs and heartbeats to flutters of anxiety in the s … | Continue reading
This is your August 2023 guide to discovering the most insightful, inspiring, and transformative books on mindful productivity, creative growth, holistic ambition, and developing a healthier relationship with work. The post Ness Labs Best Books of August 2023 appeared first on Ne … | Continue reading
FEATURED TOOL Welcome to this edition of our Tools for Thought series, where we interview founders on a mission to help us make the most of our minds. Davey Morse is the founder of Plexus, a company building a radically inclusive online community, connecting people not through mu … | Continue reading
So many things to do, so little time. When you juggle work, personal projects, and are hoping to have any sort of social life, managing your time can feel like an impossible endeavor. There are many tips out there—the most common one being to focus on the most important task firs … | Continue reading
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Adults often as this question when chatting with a kid. Maybe it’s because the answer is often endearing (an astronaut!) or surprising (a YouTuber!), or because it’s a way to connect through a topic that speaks to us—work. We keep doing … | Continue reading
At Ness Labs, we believe in the power of ideas and the profound impact of continuously feeding our minds with thoughtful content. Each month, we meticulously curate a selection of books that truly stand out in an ocean of books that can be overwhelming. This series aims to highli … | Continue reading
When I was younger, I badly wanted to live in Japan. Japan is a country with very strict immigration laws, but my university had an exchange program where you could go spend a semester and study in another country. There was only one problem: the Japanese university they had a pa … | Continue reading
Anne-Laure Le Cunff: “Double loop learning is a model that encourages people and organisations to continuously challenge their assumptions and goals instead of blindly repeating the same loop. While the idea seems simple, it can be hard to implement double loop learning because o … | Continue reading
Welcome to this edition of our Tools for Thought series, where we interview founders on a mission to help us make the most of our mind. Nick Daniels is the founder of Portal, an immersive productivity app designed to help you stay in the flow. Portal uses the latest technology to … | Continue reading
Our culture loves experts. Whether it’s athletes, chefs, or musicians, some of the biggest celebrities are considered masters of their craft, and we admire the long hours they put into practicing over and over again the same skills so they could become second nature. In 2008, Mal … | Continue reading
You are probably all too familiar with the dreaded creative block: sitting in front of your computer, your mind as blank as the page you are staring at, hoping that some miraculous burst of inspiration will suddenly rush through your fingers so you can finally get back into the f … | Continue reading
Welcome to this edition of our Tools for Thought series, where we interview founders on a mission to help us think better and work smarter. Ben Wisbey is the co-founder of Pylot, the very first wearable to track your productivity, so you can know when you’re ready for deep work, … | Continue reading
Would you want to watch the same play with the same actors repeating the same lines over and over again, with just some small variations in their tone each time? You’d probably get bored pretty quickly. And yet, that’s what we often unconsciously do make making career and life de … | Continue reading
Picture this: You’re at work with a big deadline coming up. Unfortunately, someone made a mistake, and part of the project needs to be completely redone in a rush. As the pressure mounts, you can feel the tension gripping your mind and body, causing your patience to wear thin. In … | Continue reading
Jim Kleban is the Head of AI at Supernormal, an AI-powered app that helps you create amazing meeting notes without lifting a finger, saving ten minutes every meeting. In this interview, we discussed the underpowered value of taking notes, the importance of building memory over th … | Continue reading
It seems obvious that the amount of time you spend on a task is a terrible indicator of how productive you are. And yet, a lot of our work culture is fixated on time. We often feel pressure to prove our productivity by working long hours or responding to emails outside of regular … | Continue reading
We all have goals. They can be big or small; professional or personal. But obstacles get in the way. External obligations such as social events, unforeseen additional work, and demanding customers can drain our energy, so there’s little left to focus on what really matters to us. … | Continue reading
Dom Zijlstra is the founder of Traverse, the only tool with mind mapping, note-taking and spaced repetition flashcards in one place. Traverse uses science-based features to help you deeply grasp complex topics so you can remember them for life. The post Think and learn visually w … | Continue reading
Josh Nicholson is the co-founder of Scite, an award-winning platform for discovering and evaluating scientific articles. Scite allows users to see how a publication has been cited by providing the context of the citation and a classification describing whether it provides support … | Continue reading
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is an elegant theort but it has been heavily contested. So what are some alternative theories of happiness that better capture the diversity and complexity of the human psyche? The post The psychology of happiness appeared first on Ness Labs. | Continue reading
Welcome to this edition of our Tools for Thought series, where we interview founders on a mission to help us think better and work smarter. Chad Thiele is the founder of Chibi AI, a creative and versatile AI writing tool for bloggers, marketers, and storytellers. Chibi AI seamles … | Continue reading
Since we are born, a set of defaults influences our goals, our relationships, our tastes. From fashion to friendship, many of the choices we make in life are imperceptibly constrained by default definitions. For example, the default definition of education is formal schooling. Th … | Continue reading
Welcome to this edition of our interview stories, where we talk to founders on a mission to help us think better and work smarter. Kim Dan-Yutin is the founder of BOOX, a suite of products designed to simplify e-reading and facilitate digital workflows through user-friendly e-rea … | Continue reading
Being alone can sometimes feel pleasurable. A good book, some quiet time to ourselves, just us and our thoughts, away from the hustle and bustle of daily work and social obligations. But, other times, it can feel isolating. We are not simply alone, we are lonely. Why is it that b … | Continue reading
Tommy Barav is the founder of Magical, a new way to manage your time using AI. It allows you to schedule meetings and take meeting notes directly from your browser tabs, and it’s fully integrated with Zoom, Notion, and Google, so you don’t have to worry about how to make the most … | Continue reading
You have a deadline. You know you should get to work. But instead of focusing on what’s urgent and important, you spend your time on something else. Despite the inner voice telling us to get started and the rising anxiety, you keep on procrastinating. Humans have always struggled … | Continue reading
Mindsera makes thinking with mental models actionable with journaling templates that guide your thought process. In this interview, we talked about the power of thinking from first principles, building a personal board of advisors, writing as a thinking tool, using mental models … | Continue reading
Children have an incredibly inquisitive mind. “Why?” they keep asking. They explore new things for no other reason except that they just want to know. Researchers tried to figure out how often kids ask questions. Turns out, a lot: on average, children ask 107 questions per hour! … | Continue reading
QuillBot is a suite of AI-powered writing tools that include a paraphraser, a grammar checker, a summarizer, a translator, and more — all in one place. In this interview, we talked about the challenge of integrating every step of the writing process, how AI can unlock our creativ … | Continue reading
If you add up the number of hours are your disposal during a given week, the total will be the same for every single living human being on the planet, whatever their occupation: 168 hours per week. Remove the weekends, and that’s 120 hours. Get some sleep, and you’re left with at … | Continue reading
“You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.” The traditional saying remains true even in modern society, and we’d like to think that when we perform a favor for someone else, they will return it in the future. But this is not always the case. Research shows that reciprocity has … | Continue reading
Welcome to this edition of our Tools for Thought series, where we interview founders on a mission to help us think better and work smarter. Nils Janse is the founder of Delibr, a Stockholm-based startup helping product managers harness the potential of AI. In this interview, we t … | Continue reading
“What am I here for?” is one of the oldest questions humans have been grappling with. For millennia, religion has provided for many a source of meaning — the comforting idea that someone was in control and that, even if we didn’t have the ability to comprehend it all, the world u … | Continue reading
Introspection is considered an inherently human ability. While external observation allows us to understand the world around us, internal contemplation allows us to examine our own thoughts and feelings to foster self-reflection and self-discovery. The practice may be as old as h … | Continue reading
Reflect is a networked note-taking app designed so you never miss a note, idea or connection. In this interview, we talked about the most important principles for a sustainable note-taking app, the limitations of collaboration for note-taking, how to build a CRM with backlinks no … | Continue reading
For decades, the metaphor that the brain is a machine has caused some confusion. However, even if the metaphor is incorrect from a biological standpoint, viewing the mind as a machine can be useful as a heuristic for everyday decision-making. Created by a cognitive scientist at H … | Continue reading
We live in a society where speed has become a measure of performance. We try to quickly go through our to-do lists, keep up with fast-evolving market demands, and rapidly ship product updates. Sure, we’re productive, in the oldest sense of the term — from Latin producere, which m … | Continue reading
Welcome to this edition of our Tools for Thought series, where we interview founders on a mission to help us think better and work smarter. Laurent Cozic is the founder of Joplin, an open source note-taking app designed to help you capture your thoughts and securely access them f … | Continue reading
Lists of exercises to rewire your brain, books about the “plastic” brain… Neuroplasticity has been touted as a magical capability anyone can harness for success. As with many neuroscience-based concepts that made it into mainstream media, the hype starts from a fact: it is true t … | Continue reading
Welcome to this edition of our tools for thought series, where we interview founders on a mission to help us think better and work smarter. George Levin is the founder of Hints, an AI assistant designed to help you save up to one hour every day. You can talk to the Hints bot like … | Continue reading