Hi there 👋
When I first messaged some of my close friends and family that I'm going to start writing about mindfulness, the nervous system and the brain, one of my closest buddies replied saying:
"Hey man, this is great news, but if you don't mind me asking, why brain? What about it caught your interest?"
I was thinking that's a great question nobody asked. And probably he was a bit concerned. Or he genuinely wanted to know the why.
Then I realized we often don't ask enough why's, eh? I'm currently sitting in Toronto, Canada. It can get brutally cold here. Okay, I'll come back to that rant later. There's still more time for winter. Thank God!
But yeah. Why brain?
Just to give you some background, I work as a business analyst in my 9 to 5 day job. In simple words, I'm the middle guy in the product management process and my role is to turn complexity into simplicity. After 5pm, I try to do the same with my life.
I try :)
In business analysis there's a framework called The 5 Whys. It's a root cause analysis technique where you ask "why?" five times in a row to drill past the symptom and find the actual cause of a problem.
Fact: It originated at Toyota in the 1950s to 1970s as part of the Toyota Production System, developed by Taiichi Ohno.
Here's how it works:
Why was I late to work? → I left the house too late.
Why did I leave too late? → I couldn't find my keys.
Why couldn't I find my keys? → I didn't put them in the same spot when I got home last night.
Why didn't I put them away? → I was on my phone and just dropped them somewhere.
Why does this keep happening? → I never built a consistent "key drop zone" habit when I walk in the door.
Root cause: No arrival routine. Solution: Drop the keys on a hook by the door.
Simple. But most of us never get past Why#1.
So back to My Why on this Letter.
I won't get to all 5 whys today but I can tell you the one why to begin with.
Back in early 2020, life was great. I was juggling school and work, building, growing. Then the world paused for a brief moment, and the next thing we knew, COVID. Life hasn't been the same since. It's gotten better from where we used to be. But it's not the same either.
My then roommate was working on a brain training app for middle school children with his childhood friends. I was curious, as I always am, and I kept asking him questions. What's the app? Who's it for? How's it different?
I got so hooked with the vision of creating something unique from the traditional educational content schools were offering, that I kept suggesting him marketing ideas. Eventually he got so tired of me that he said:
"Why don't you just join us and start executing your suggestions if you're down?"
All I needed was 1 day, 2 nights, and 3 cups of coffee to say yes.
The idea was simple. Gamify the learning experience for middle school kids and make them competitive enough to learn and execute faster. We did quite well. I did quite well. Then life happened again, so I stepped down from my responsibilities, kept my equity invested, and went back to my 9 to 5.
On a recent call with the founder, he mentioned the company's latest round closed at a $5.5M valuation. Grateful 🙏
Fast forward from 2022 to 2025.
I open my social media apps and all I hear is, ChatGPT, AI, ChatGPT, AI, data centres, S&P 500 swings, Elon Musk with his own AI, AI wars between LLMs, AI races between countries, and so on.
Are we cooked? Is this a second COVID or something?
But what's AI actually doing here? What can it do better than my Google search already does?
I got curious again. And here's where my brain finally caught up with my heart.
If AI is 1000x smarter than humans, it means I can never compete with it on IQ (Intelligence Quotient).
But wait, were we humans just born into this world for IQ stuff?
Nah. What about EQ (Emotional Quotient)?
I spent days and weeks learning and relearning the history of humans. What makes us so different from every other creature on this planet. And what I came across just blew my mind.
Here's the fact that started everything for me.
AI is incredibly good at thinking and talking. But you and I? We're good at living and feeling. That's the gap that no machine can fill, no matter how smart it gets.
Because to feel something, you have to be somewhere. And the only place feeling actually happens is right here. Right now.
We can be here. We can be now.
That's the gap. That's the gift. That's the why behind this Letter.
Behind the Heart of Here & Now
Here & Now sits in the middle between Past & Future. Pun intended.
Here & Now sits in the middle between Good & Bad.
Here & Now sits in the middle between Right & Wrong.
Here & Now sits in the middle between Success & Failure.
Here & Now sits in the middle between Health & Sickness.
Here & Now sits in the middle between Fit & Unfit.
Here & Now sits in the middle between Love & Hate.
The idea isn't to glorify or condemn one side. It's to understand the Why behind the What that's been happening, so we can find the How behind whichever end goal we want to reach. In a systematic, human way.
P.S. The end goal can be different for different people at any given moment. And that's exactly the point.
One small ask before next Monday
Pick one thing you've been doing on autopilot. Anything. Could be your morning coffee, the route to work, the way you reply to your mum's texts.
Ask why you do it that way.
Then ask why again.
Don't worry about getting to 5 whys. Just notice what comes up at Why #2 or #3.
That's your starting point.
See you next Monday.
Warmly,
Narman
Just a human building something he needed himself