HOW TO : Reduce phone usage

I know this is not really practical :-).. But hear me out

Every 6 months, switch from an Android to an iPhone as your primary phone. You’ll be amazed at how much free time you suddenly get.

The Reset Button

When you switch ecosystems, you get a blank slate. No apps. No habits. No notifications. Your phone is boring. And that’s the feature.

Most phone usage is pure inertia. You open Instagram because it’s there. You check email because the badge is red. But when you switch phones, those habits become a bit tougher to adhere to.

Starting Fresh

When setting up the new phone, be intentional:

  • Grayscale icons. Colors are designed to grab attention. Grayscale strips that away. Your apps become tools, not emotional triggers.
  • Only install what you need. Don’t install “just in case.” Start with essentials. Everything else can wait.
  • Disable notifications. Disable all notifications except calls and messages from people you know. You’ll notice which apps you actually miss.

The cycle starts afresh

Over time, you’ll add apps. But you’ll add them consciously, not because they came pre-installed. And as your collection grows, you’ll naturally develop habits around them. And that’s when the addiction/distraction cycle kicks in again.

Why (I believe) This Works

When you have unlimited options, you default to what’s easiest. When you have to choose, you choose what matters.

Most productivity advice tells you to optimize your existing system. But you’re fighting accumulated habits that have grown over time. Switching phones is different, it’s a reset, not optimization.

Give it a try.

January 26, 2026 by HOWTO Humanity 0

Overhear : Securing AI Agents

A good framework on how to think about security when deploying AI agents.

Treat AI agents as insider threats

David Cox mentioned this during a recent conversation with Grant Harvey and Corey Noles on the Neuron podcast. Very simple, but very elegant. Once you frame agents this way, familiar tools – least privilege, role-based access, audit logs – suddenly apply cleanly. The attack surface shrinks not because agents are safer, but because their blast radius is smaller.

January 13, 2026 by AI OverHeard Technology 0

AI and the value of taste

Anyone can now generate content (text, audio, images, video) with a single prompt. The cost of creation is collapsing to near zero. We live in amazing times.

It also produces what people have started calling “slop”: an overwhelming volume of content, much of it interchangeable. When supply becomes infinite, attention becomes scarce. Two thoughts follow from this.

First, the era of personalized content is finally here.
When generation is cheap, we don’t just filter existing content, we generate it. Instead of an algorithm deciding what you might like from a global pool, your feed can be created specifically for you, reflecting your interests, context, and intent. This is a meaningful shift: from recommendation to creation.

Second, as the cost of generation goes to zero, the value of taste goes to infinity.
When anyone can make something, what matters is knowing what should be made. Taste becomes the constraint. Just as there is one Picasso among thousands of painters, there will be people who can consistently direct AI toward work that resonates. They may not produce the content themselves, but they shape it—through judgment, curation, and intent.

In a world flooded with output, taste is the differentiator.

January 11, 2026 by AI business Humanity Rantings 0

From consumer to producer

I stopped making New Year resolutions a while ago. My philosophy has been simple: if something is actually important, waiting for a specific date on the calendar doesn’t make sense. You should just start doing it, like the Nike ad says.

But for 2026, I’m making an exception.

I have never considered myself a prolific writer, but lately, I’ve noticed a growing friction when trying to express my ideas in written form. I suspect I’ve fallen into the trap of becoming a habitual consumer. When you spend all your time consuming and less time creating, the “writing muscle” starts to atrophy.

In the past, I felt a certain pressure when publishing here. I wanted every post to be thoughtful, insightful, and universally helpful. That high bar often became a barrier to actually hitting “publish.”

I think it’s time to listen to Kevin Kelly and focus on the audience of one – me.

The goal for this year isn’t to write for the world, but to write to think, to clarify my own ideas, and to move back from being a consumer to a producer.

Here’s to 2026 being the year I start writing again 😊.

January 11, 2026 by Resolutions 0

Overheard : Prosperity & Open Source

Loved this quote by Matt Ridley on how open sourcing and sharing ideas leads to improved prosperity. Positive sum instead of zero sum games. The free exchange, combination, and mating of different ideas (like trade and specialization) drive human progress and wealth far more effectively than when ideas are not not shared and guarded.

Prosperity happens when ideas have sex

January 7, 2026 by OverHeard 0

Overheard : Kindness

Warren Buffett in his farewell letter on kindness

Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts
of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you
help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to
beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.

I wish he sticks around a long time even though he is giving up his oversight role at Berkshire and continues to share his wisdom.

His letter is also a masterclass in great writing. Each paragraph is less than 5 sentences, and each page has less than 10 paragraphs. All written in simple to understand language.

November 12, 2025 by OverHeard 0

Conversation maker

Had this idea for my next get‑together — a simple prompt that could spark some fun stories.

Tell the story of something you have on you right now.

It sounded random at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.
Everyone’s carrying a story — in their pocket, on their wrist, in their wallet.

  • A keychain from a trip.
  • A bracelet from someone special.
  • A receipt for a plan that never happened.

No prep needed. Just real moments hiding in plain sight.

November 12, 2025 by Fun 0

Overheard : Attention span

Some interesting metrics on the attention span of consumers before they make a decision to spend more time on the content or not.

Shared by Lulu Cheng in a conversation with Shane Parrish

And then in terms of text, because one of the ways that people get to know you is through your writing, I don’t know about seconds, but it’s like the first paragraph. For an email, it’s the subject line. For a tweet, it’s the first line, first sentence, the hook. So the opportunity, the surface area of the opportunity we have to latch on, is getting more and more fine, which means that the hook that we need to use has to get more and more sharp.

  • Writing : First Paragraph
  • Email: Subject Line
  • Tweet : First Line
  • Video : First 30 seconds
September 26, 2025 by Management OverHeard 0

Overheard : mental model and curiosity

Mark Bertolini in a chat with Patrick O’Shaughnessy on “Invest Like the Best” podcast, speaking about the need to update your mental model about the world constantly. And the two things that differentiate good leaders from the rest.

I always say to people, the mental model that exists inside your head about how the world works is the most critical tool you have. And if you don’t constantly add new information to it and are not a continual learner, you can’t possibly know what you need to know to make good decisions.

And so I look for two things in executives, curiosity and courage. The curiosity to continue to ask questions and learn more every day, and the courage to act on it when you have a hypothesis that might be powerful. 

August 22, 2025 by Management OverHeard 0