Hey Reader,

I’m off to the EconoMe conference in Cincinnati this week. Ohio friends hit me up!

I’m also super excited to announce a new (totally separate) newsletter: Future-Proof Your Career with AI.

In speaking to my readers and clients I observed a recurring pattern.

Really smart professionals knew that they should be using AI more, but were completely lost about where to begin.

And with the rapid innovation — DeepSeek, NotebookLM and GPT o1 Pro — how on earth can you keep up?

Thankfully, I don’t have a real job, and can do it for you! Every Thursday, I’ll be your AI Sherpa.

I’ll share practical AI applications, tools, and strategies that will help you stay relevant without spending hours figuring it out yourself.

Best of all, it’s totally free.

(Clicking this link will automatically sign you up.)

Here are this week's top reads:

// one

What if your worry problem is really a planning problem?

8 minutes | Psyche

We think worry is primarily an emotional problem. But new research suggests it's more about flawed planning algorithms in your brain. Chronic worriers start planning too early, struggle to stop, and obsess over irrelevant details. Should we obsess less about our feelings and more about fixing our planning errors?

→ Read the article​

// two

The passion recipe

5 minutes | The Art of Impossible

Are you chasing passion—or just another dopamine hit? We think passion strikes like lightning, but it actually arises from tiny sparks of curiosity stacked together over time. Turns out, passion isn’t something you find; it’s something you cultivate, deliberately.

→ Read the article​

// three

How I learned that the problem in my marriage was me

7 minutes | NY Times

Most marriage advice overlooks a key fact: we’re often the problem we’re trying to solve. The author learned this through therapy with Terry Real (aka Bruce Springsteen’s couples therapist), whose brutal honesty revealed his anger as emotional dependence—expecting his wife to fix childhood wounds. Healing marriages, requires relational strength: openly confronting our flaws without using our partners as emotional crutches.

→ Read the article​

Stories from my life

I saw this debate between two RadReaders on Twitter this week:

I'm of two minds here.

From age 16 to 35, I grinded with ferocious intensity.

That grind, without a doubt, enabled me to semi-retire at 35.​

The last decade has been chill, joyous and curiosity-driven.

Yet, I haven’t experienced nearly the financial success of that first period.

Indeed, it’s a chicken-and-egg dilemma.

Here's one lens: How would you explain this dilemma to your young kids?

To me, there's healthy struggle versus unhealthy struggle.

The unhealthy kind comes from not-enoughness, conformity, status chasing, low self-worth and scarcity.

The healthy part from curiosity, presence, passion, intrinsic motivation and aliveness.

As a parent, it becomes less about the outcome of the grind and more about examining each component.

For both my kids (and myself) I'm constantly wondering:

Where does your not-enoughness come from?

And what brings you aliveness?

This Week on The Examined Life Podcast

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This week's episode: Is it time to sell?​

Below the Fold
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LAST WEEK'S MOST READ

• ​Pure independence (Collab Fund, 957 clicks)
• ​Why you’re always busy but never productive (and how to fix it) (Nir and Far, 803 clicks)

​

And finally, Eddie Vedder’s acoustic vocals on Black still hard 30 years later.

With gratitude,

Khe

PS, here's how we can help you:

​Apply for our Coaching programs: Are you an executive or founder undergoing a career change? We’ll give you frameworks and accountability for this transition.

​The Life Operating System: Your home base for personal productivity. It combines tasks, notes, project management and a CRM in one place.

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