I leave the who I am pages from previous years to embarrass myself. July 2020 is approximately one year since I sat down to think about myself last year.

If life is like a video game, two scores matter.

1. The happiness score – how happy you are on a minute to minute basis and how happy you make people in your life.
2. The contribution score – What did you do to improve the game itself for every player that comes after you?

Hence the first thing to realize is what is of paramount value is:

What do you think about yourself when you are by yourself.

Self-honesty is very hard because self-deception is hardwired in our brains. The mind is programmed to act selfishly, but at the same time, one should not appear selfish to an outside observer. The brain does a beautiful trick to achieve this super efficiently – Self-deception.

Eventually, most people become oblivious of their selfish motives, including me.

Another aspect that steals our energy is the hidden motives of sex, status, and power.

Enormous amounts of energy are spent on status and virtue signaling.

Hence the 2nd thing that frees up your energy is not to care what others think of you and their opinions.

Not to be impressed by anyone’s degrees, social status, rank, titles, way of dressing, or even their opinion of you. In the modern world, apart from finding and keeping a life partner and providing for the kids, status and virtue signaling are unnecessary and waste of mental energy.

The 3rd aspect is purpose. It is finding something that inspires you to live and score high on the 2 scores that matter.

I find happiness in deconstructing concepts and solving big puzzles.

The definition of big keeps changing, as I gain more experience.

The puzzle I solved already include how to develop and sell a 100 people company. Once I solved the puzzle it failed to motivate me further, and I sold it.

The current puzzle I am solving is figuring out how to build a billion-dollar revenue company. This has primarily two motives, one a very selfish motive, to become a better person. Develop the skills needed to solve a larger problem that will prepare me for the 3rd puzzle and two, to finance the solving of the 3rd puzzle.

The 3rd project I will be working on solving is achieving 600 years of healthy life for humans. A lot of things I blog about are somehow linked to the 2nd and 3rd purposes in my life. I have a unique ability to and find a lot of pleasure in deconstructing things and I believe I will be able to do both 2 and 3.

I will write a book called the first billion, which reveals my journey for goal no 2, and then if I get to solve the 3rd puzzle, I will open-source it to the world.