Sidvicious

Temporary Human Being

[BookNote @BookNoteApp]

10 books that could replace a university degree:

1) How to Solve It by George Pólya

[Electra @Electrarythm]

Spend around 10–30 minutes a day visualizing a version of yourself that you are deliberately trying to build. Do it when your mind is already calm, especially in the evening or just before sleep, because the mind accepts imagery more easily when it is not being pulled in different directions.

The basic idea is simple. The brain treats repeated internal experience as something important. When a certain kind of situation is lived again and again in imagination, with enough detail and emotional weight, it starts to lose its “imagined” quality and becomes something your mind recognizes as familiar territory.

And what becomes familiar stops feeling impossible.

Old patterns weaken in this process not because you fight them directly, but because you stop feeding them the same mental rehearsal. At the same time, new patterns begin to stabilize because they are being repeatedly experienced internally before they ever exist externally.

Start by settling your body. Slow breathing. Less tension in the face, shoulders, stomach. You are not trying to force anything, you are just lowering internal noise.

Then choose one specific scene. Not an abstract goal. A moment. Something you can step into mentally.

If it is health, do not think “I want to be healthy,” instead see yourself moving through a normal day with physical ease, walking without effort, breathing clearly, feeling your body light and responsive.

If it is confidence or success, see yourself in a real situation where you would normally hesitate, but now you speak without that hesitation, you are steady, direct, and things unfold without internal resistance.

If it is discipline, see yourself already inside the routine, doing the work without negotiation, as if it is simply what you do.

Always stay in first person. Through your own eyes.

What is directly in front of you. What is under your feet. The texture of the environment. The light in the space. The small details your attention would normally skip.

Then sound. The way voices actually enter the space. The rhythm of your breathing. Any background noise that belongs to that environment.

Then physical sensation. The weight of your body. Temperature on the skin. The sense of movement. The way you occupy space when you are not resisting yourself.

Emotionally, you are not trying to force excitement. You are allowing a quieter set of states to appear. Relief that things are simple. A sense of “this is already how I operate.” A quiet internal stability that does not need justification.

You are not building a fantasy. You are rehearsing familiarity.

At the end, stop adding detail and just remain in the general felt sense of it for a short moment, as if your mind has already accepted it as normal.

Let that feeling continue lightly as you move into the rest of your day.

Repeat it often enough that the scene stops feeling like something you are trying to reach, and starts feeling like something your mind already knows how to do.

[Divya Kukreti @div_yahan]

Some amazing articles I read on Substack last weekend

[Giuliano @Giuliano_Mana]

https://t.co/iHM9coelsq

[Gurpriya @GurpriyaSidhu]

Every time I read something by Amit, I discover 5 new rabbit holes to jump into.

[Mountain Rats @mountain_rats]

The Most powerful! Shani Maharaj!

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Yes

[Tim Denning @Tim_Denning]

https://t.co/fnire2eOJr

[Katyayani Shukla @aibytekat]

Two great engineers quietly break down the mindset shift required to survive in the AI era

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Indeed, Idiocracy is happening much faster than expected

[Chirag Barjatya @chiragbarjatya]

The first step to change your life is if you can read this article in one go with full attention. Many people can’t. Attention span is broken. Force yourself.

[MajestyMasculine @majestymasculin]

Most men ignore the simplest way to improve their appearance.

You only need one product: Vaseline.

Here are 7 Vaseline tricks that can transform your look (and your life): 🧵

[Katyayani Shukla @aibytekat]

Perplexity just quietly dropped a 42-page internal guide on how they actually use AI at work.

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it "digital transformation."

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would "10x productivity."

That's not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.

I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a "pilot success."

Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured "AI enablement."

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We're "AI-enabled" now.

I don't know what that means.

But it's in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."

He asked what that meant.

I said "compliance."

He asked which compliance.

I said "all of them."

He looked skeptical.

I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."

He stopped asking questions.

Microsoft sent a case study team.

They wanted to feature us as a success story.

I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."

I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.

They didn't verify it.

They never do.

Now we're on Microsoft's website.

"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."

The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.

He got 3,000 likes.

He's never used Copilot.

None of the executives have.

We have an exemption.

"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."

I wrote that policy.

The licenses renew next month.

I'm requesting an expansion.

5,000 more seats.

We haven't used the first 4,000.

But this time we'll "drive adoption."

Adoption means mandatory training.

Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.

But completion will be tracked.

Completion is a metric.

Metrics go in dashboards.

Dashboards go in board presentations.

Board presentations get me promoted.

I'll be SVP by Q3.

I still don't know what Copilot does.

But I know what it's for.

It's for showing we're "investing in AI."

Investment means spending.

Spending means commitment.

Commitment means we're serious about the future.

The future is whatever I say it is.

As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

[Pavol Rusnak @PavolRusnak]

No more photoshoots!

Just use this Nano Banana Pro prompt with a selfie:

"A professional, high-resolution profile photo, maintaining the exact facial structure, identity, and key features of the person in the input image. The subject is framed from the chest up, with ample headroom. The person looks directly at the camera. They are styled for a professional photo studio shoot, wearing a premium smart casual blazer in a subtle charcoal gray. The background is a solid '#562226' neutral studio color. Shot from a high angle with bright and airy soft, diffused studio lighting, gently illuminating the face and creating a subtle catchlight in the eyes, conveying a sense of clarity. Captured on an 85mm f/1.8 lens with a shallow depth of field, exquisite focus on the eyes, and beautiful, soft bokeh. Observe crisp detail on the fabric texture of the blazer, individual strands of hair, and natural, realistic skin texture. The atmosphere exudes confidence, professionalism, and approachability. Clean and bright cinematic color grading with subtle warmth and balanced tones, ensuring a polished and contemporary feel."

[Louis Gleeson @aigleeson]

Someone used Elon Musk's actual thinking framework as AI prompts.

It's the closest thing to having a billionaire engineer rip apart your ideas and rebuild them from physics.

Here are the 15 prompts that changed how I solve problems:

[The Driven Man @Thedrivenman]

Why life actually begins at 40 - Alan Watts

[Vittorio @VittorioVitt0ri]

Show up obsessed,
outwork the gifted,
study harder,
train longer,
refuse to quit.

Talent gives a head start,
obsession crosses the finish line.