Ibrahim Dar

There will be times when you will want to prioritize short-term maths over long-term karma. It will make all the sense in the world to focus on the short-term numbers. But the eternal formula is this: long-term karma beats short-term maths every single time. Bet on empathy.Bet on service.Bet on integrity. These are hard to […]

All skittles taste the same. They have different colors and fragrances, and that’s why we associate different tastes with each.  It seems like there are countless services, categories of products, and genres of content. But just like skittles, it’s all a different paint job on the same thing.  There are only two categories of services […]

New York City residents produce 360,000 tonnes of trash every month. That’s over 72,000 elephants. It is easy to make trash.  It is hard to make the perfect blog post.It is hard to make the perfect song.It is hard to make the perfect logo. The solution? Make trash, and polish it to perfection.  Play the […]

I’m sorry I couldn’t send out my “thought of the day” emails the past week because the “thought of the day” has been “How am I going to get a good outfit for my wedding?” I have been absent because I am getting married in less than two weeks.  Upon reading this, you’ll not take […]

Honeybees take about 10,000,000 trips to make about one pound of honey. You can get 10 pounds in one trip. It takes me 30 minutes to write one post. You can read it in 30 seconds…or skip it in 3. Production and consumption have an asymmetrical marriage.  If you choose to be a creator, you […]

When you say, “will you marry me?” you’re actually saying, “Will you reject everyone else, including future prospects?”   Accepting anything comes at the cost of rejecting everything else that might be in its place. That’s why making decisions can be hard. But if your choice is better than everything you’re missing out on, deciding […]

All perfection is a volume-based accident. Remember, whatever you think is perfect, whether it is that cheesecake at the corner cafe or the girl you can’t muster up the courage to talk to, is a result of statistical overload. When over 7 billion people reproduce, of course, Brad Pitt is born. When Picasso makes over […]

The line between bravery and foolishness is defined by what works. If the risk pays off, you’re a hero. If it doesn’t, then a fool. Caring about whether you’re considered a hero or a fool at the end will keep you from getting started. More importantly, it will make you something worse than either of […]

Should you burn the ships and charge ahead or have a contingency for every mishap? Money Heist Season 5 came out today, so let’s talk about plans. Don’t worry, no spoilers. Some say that burning all backup plans is crucial for success. Others say that success comes from careful strategy featuring Plan B, C, and […]

Hey,You’re being brainwashed. And you cannot stop getting brainwashed because your brain absorbs content, stories, and opinions. An average person is exposed to over 5000 ads every day. To sell you what you “must have,” they make you feel as if you lack something. It is, therefore, essential to make a list of what you […]

If you paint a cow like a zebra, it won’t get bitten by flies. Why? Who cares why? I’m more interested in how they found this out. And they found this out the way we find out most things: experimenting. Experiment to unlock new insights. Don’t operate as if you know all there is to […]

Samsung makes products ranging from phones and TVs to tanks and helicopter engines. Being a “jack of all trades,” however, is no excuse to slack on excellence in any one dominion. Consider Samsung phones: the company has a 220-pound robot butt built just to test if their phones will bend in your back pocket. Being […]

When Reuben Mattus got tired of discounting his ice creams, he decided to make “high-end” ice cream. To make it seem luxurious, he came up with a foreign-sounding label: Häagen-Dazs, a made-up word that means nothing. However, it sounds foreign enough to work.  It works because people worship what’s exotic yet take for granted what’s […]

Love requires courage and cowardice. You need to be brave enough to love someone but be afraid whenever they take a risk. That’s why parents force kids into “secure” yet passionless career tracks, and certain people discourage friends from going “all in” on their dreams. Master making risky things look secure, and you’ll get all […]

If the hater is a microwave, it is literally not cool for an ice cube to pretend the hater doesn’t matter. Keeping physical distance is its only option. Yes, it has recently become culturally “cool” to pretend that others’ opinions don’t affect us, but we are social creatures. We are wired to absorb others’ opinions. […]

We, humans, love to win. But we can choose what winning means to us. Eating a hundred sausages is a win for a hotdog eating contestant. Not eating a single sausage is a win for the guy who just started a vegan diet. Think about what you count as winning. Is it getting the most […]

Perfectionism is holding in a fart on a zoom meeting with a muted mic. It is going the extra mile in making sure things are ideal in ways people don’t even care about. No one cares that your book has a typo on the 235th page. And yet, all around us are people refusing to […]

The gaming industry makes well over a hundred billion dollars. If you think, then, that any game is “free,” you might as well believe that a Nigerian prince needs your help to liquidate his inheritance. Every game has a cost because every game costs money to make. This goes beyond Fortnite and PUBG. This applies […]

Chocolate would be the cheapest product on the planet if dogs were the wealthiest species on earth. They can’t eat chocolate. The price of a product, service, or solution is not determined by how valuable you think it is. It is determined by how valuable the potential buyer thinks it is. Solving the same problem […]