Happy New Year - A Word Salad
We live in a noisy, turbulent world. Most of our major crises (social, political, economic, and technological) are not external threats like those humanity faced in evolution. They are manmade. We created them, and somehow, that makes them harder to navigate.
For many of us, December brings relief. A break from the relentless pressures of daily life and the constant stream of news. But when January arrives, we’re back to the same.
Happy New Year is a word salad. The new in “new year” is not a switch that flips at midnight on December 31st. It doesn’t.
Social media overflows with greetings, posts, and opinions about how to have a happy new year. Some are useful. Most are not.
What matters more is self-renewal. Strengthening your inner self, what I’ve called the ‘Inner Watchman’, that reliable, always available inner friend who helps you navigate inertia and noise. To recap, last new year in the 29th edition of Mindvista newsletter (https://mindvista.co/2025-and-beyond-reflect-and-ace-the-future-with-your-inner-watchman/) finding inspiration in a 19th century prison design, I published ‘Inner Watchman’ as a framework for self-guidance.
A year later, revisiting the framework I find that it remains valid. If anything, the ‘Inner Watchman’ can benefit from a refresh and inspiration. And that’s something I’ve experienced both deliberately and accidentally in 2025. I found that stepping back can give that boost, and I’m sharing this as a sequence in this 62nd edition.
Two Stepping Back Actions in 2025
Two experiences taught me about renewal in ways I hadn’t anticipated. One was accidental. One was deliberate. Both led to the same insight
The Accidental: A Music Festival
On December 21st and 22nd 2025, by chance, I attended the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival, thanks to HCL Concerts.
Two evenings. Five instruments: flute, veena, violin, sitar, and vocal. Ten hours of Indian classical music.
I walked in casually, expecting a pleasant evening. What I experienced was an immersion in a live masterly performance for a knowledgeable and appreciative audience.
What stayed with me wasn’t just renewed interest in Indian classical music. It was a reminder of what it means to be human that this happened in 2025, coming right at the end of my first full year writing about being human in the age of AI.
The concert was 100% human mastery. Zero AI. Pure craft, timeless music. In an age of synthetic abundance and algorithmic rush, here was meaning earned through decades of practice, delivered through embodied skill.
The maestros played for themselves. The audience simply received. No one was checking phones. No one was half present. I left feeling replenished in a way that scrolling, consuming, or even “relaxing” never achieves.
The Deliberate: Learning Sanskrit
In 2025 I made a deliberate choice to start and learn Sanskrit language, and commit to a long journey.
This wasn’t about certifications or for vanity. It is a self-commitment and a forcing function to step back from today, from technology, from the domains that I am familiar with. It requires starting over with no prior knowledge to learn a new script and grammar and to assimilate new ways of thinking embedded in the language itself.
As a beginner, I am reliving the experience of childhood learning, struggling with basics, making mistakes, feeling the humility of not knowing.
The textbook and the teaching from my teacher are designed for beginners. Even in these early days, I sense a loftiness, a weight to the language that I imagine most ancient languages carry. The words also feel deliberately crafted and dense with meaning.
What surprised me was how relevant the wisdom felt. Not distant or archaic, but applicable today.
The ten short sayings called Sukthams from the textbook weren’t merely a list but they resonated strongly.
I am sharing them in the Sidebar below without any comments for your read. They might sound simple and trite in English translation, but I find they carry a lot of meaning and also as I was reading in the original language they carried unexpected weight that translations don’t fully quite carry.
These two very different experiences led to the same outcome: the renewal of self.
Experience: Art and Nature
Renewal isn’t passive rest. It is active engagement but in a different mode than the one we use for our daily work and battles with the world’s noise.
From these two experiences, I learned that sustainable renewal needs two components working together:
First: Principles. Something steady to anchor you when the world is turbulent. Wisdom that guides decisions and actions. Not complicated theories or extensive frameworks—just clear, grounded principles you can return to.
Second: Inspiration. Something to replenish your senses and reengage your mind in fresh ways. Not motivation or hype, but genuine inspiration that comes from two accessible sources:
- Experience: Engaging fully with art (human excellence like the concert) or natural everyday wonder like a morning sky or birdsong
- Learning: The act of becoming a novice in something entirely new, reliving the beginner’s struggle and discovery
Why both? Because principles without inspiration become dry theory. Inspiration without principles becomes fleeting feeling.
Here are the two sources of inspiration that emerged from my stepping back that are accessible to anyone, anytime.
Experience: Art and Nature
Art
The music festival showed me this path clearly. Ten hours of entirely human mastery. No AI assistance. No synthetic generation. Just embodied craft developed over decades and performed with full presence.
It could be a concert like I experienced. Or theater, dance, a gallery visit, a poetry reading. What matters is full sensory engagement with human excellence.
When you witness craft at that level, when you see or hear what a human being can achieve through dedication and practice, something shifts. You remember what’s possible. You feel the weight and value of human effort. You’re inspired not by motivational speeches but by tangible proof of human capability.
Nature
Anything not manmade becomes a source of wonder when we pay attention.
Nature engages all five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. Not as concepts, but as direct experience.
You don’t need vacation or special trips. These experiences are available daily if you create the pause to notice them. The wonder is there. The question is whether we’re present to receive it.
Learning: Becoming a Novice Again
Renewal isn’t passive rest. It is active engagement but in a different mode than the one we use for our daily work and battles with the world’s noise.
From these two experiences, I learned that sustainable renewal needs two components working together:
First: Principles. Something steady to anchor you when the world is turbulent. Wisdom that guides decisions and actions. Not complicated theories or extensive frameworks—just clear, grounded principles you can return to.
Second: Inspiration. Something to replenish your senses and reengage your mind in fresh ways. Not motivation or hype, but genuine inspiration that comes from two accessible sources:
- Experience: Engaging fully with art (human excellence like the concert) or natural everyday wonder like a morning sky or birdsong
- Learning: The act of becoming a novice in something entirely new, reliving the beginner’s struggle and discovery
Why both? Because principles without inspiration become dry theory. Inspiration without principles becomes fleeting feeling.
Here are the two sources of inspiration that emerged from my stepping back that are accessible to anyone, anytime.
The other source of inspiration is the act of learning something entirely new where you’re a complete beginner.
For me, it’s Sanskrit. For you, it could be an instrument, a language, a craft, an art form, a sport, anything where you start at square one.
Why does this inspire? Because it reconnects you to the beginner’s experience. The struggle builds different muscles: patience, persistence, attention and humility. You’re reliving childhood learning, but with adult awareness and appreciation.
This kind of learning is different from consuming information or asking AI for instant answers. The difficulty is the point.
When you engage as a true beginner, you remember what growth feels like. You rebuild your capacity for sustained attention. You practice being comfortable with not knowing, with being awkward, with making mistakes.
That practice transfers. It makes you more resilient, more patient, more capable of engaging with uncertainty in other domains.
Recommendation for Action
Give life to your Inner Watchman as your reliable inner friend and guide.
Step away to be human.
Do something:
- Experience art or nature fully. Engage your senses completely.
- Learn something entirely new. Become a novice again.
Do this without pressure and yet do it.
Find your “concert moment”, whatever that means for you. It could be ten hours like my music festival, or it could be ten minutes of watching birds or clouds with full attention.
It could be daily practice or weekly ritual. What matters is regularity, not perfection.
The world will not become less noisy. The turbulence will not calm on its own. The manmade crises will not solve themselves.
We’re like explorers navigating unknown waters. The external conditions are chaotic and unpredictable. Survival and success depend not on controlling the weather or the waves, but on maintaining inner compass and steady hand.
Explorers need both: clear direction (principles to guide decisions) and inspiration (to replenish energy and keep sailing).
This is why renewal matters. It’s not escape from the world. It’s not retreat into comfortable illusions. It’s preparation to engage more effectively.
In the age of AI specifically, there’s an additional dimension: the ease of letting AI do everything, answer everything, decide everything. That path leads to atrophy of judgment, of skill, of humanity itself.
The necessary path is developing our humanity of mind and senses, of wisdom and wonder, so that AI remains a tool, not a master. So that we navigate with AI assistance, not drift wherever algorithms take us.
I share this not as prescription but as reflection based on experience.
If this helps you find a renewed you, whenever you want it, I’ll be happy.
Best wishes
Cheers
Sidebar
10 Sukthams or Short Sayings
Excerpted from Samskritha Bharathi Pravesha – beginners text here are ten short sayings, shared as I encountered them: original Sanskrit, transliteration, and meaning. They speak for themselves and are offered without any comment.
1. On Persistence
Sanskrit: प्रारभ्य चोत्तमजना न परित्यजन्ति ॥
Transliteration: Prārabhya cottamajanā na parityajanti.
Meaning: Noble people, once they have started a task, do not give it up (until it is completed).
2. On Utilizing Time for Knowledge and Wealth
Sanskrit: क्षणशश्चैव विद्यामर्थं च साधयेत् ॥
Transliteration: Kṣhanaśhaśhcaiva vidyāmarthaṃ ca sādhayet.
Meaning: One should acquire knowledge and wealth little by little in every moment.
3. On the Power of Enthusiasm
Sanskrit: सोत्साहाणां नास्त्यसाध्यं नराणाम् ॥
Transliteration: Sotsāhāṇāṃ nāstyasādhyaṃ narāṇām.
Meaning: There is nothing impossible for enthusiastic people.
4. On Fortune Favoring the Diligent
Sanskrit: उद्योगिनं पुरुषसिंहमुपैति लक्ष्मीः ॥
Transliteration: Udyoginaṃ puruṣhasiṃhamupaiti lakṣhmīḥ.
Meaning: Fortune (goddess Lakshmi) approaches a diligent and lionhearted person.
5. On Inner Strength and Success
Sanskrit: क्रियासिद्धिः सत्त्वे भवति महतां नोपकरणे ॥
Transliteration: Kriyāsiddhiḥ sattve bhavati mahatāṃ nopakaraṇe.
Meaning: Success in action for great people depends on their inner skills, not on the tools or external aids.
6. On Integrity of Great People
Sanskrit: चिन्ते वाचा क्रियाया च महतामेकरूपता ॥
Transliteration: Cinte vācā kriyāyā ca mahatāmekarūpatā.
Meaning: Great people maintain uniformity (consistency) in their thought, speech, and action.
7. On the Nature of Foolishness
Sanskrit: मूढः परप्रत्ययनेयबुद्धिः ॥
Transliteration: Mūḍhaḥ parapratyayaneyabuddhiḥ.
Meaning: A fool is someone whose intellect is guided by others’ opinions.
8. On Collective Action and Shared Knowledge
Sanskrit: ज्ञातारौ खल्वेकः सन्दिग्धे कार्यकर्तुम् ॥
Transliteration: Jñātārau khalvekaḥ sandigdhe kāryakartum.
Meaning: Even a knowledgeable person may doubt when acting alone (implying the need for consultation or collaboration).
9. On the Definition of a Wise Person
Sanskrit: विकारहेतौ सति विक्रियन्ते येषां न चेतांसि त एव धीराः ॥
Transliteration: Vikārahetau sati vikriyante yeṣāṃ na cetāṃsi ta eva dhīrāḥ.
Meaning: They alone are the wise ones whose minds are not perturbed even when there is a clear cause for agitation (such as desire or anger).
10. On Merit Over Age or Gender
Sanskrit: गुणाः पूजास्थानं गुणिषु न च लिङ्गं न च वयः ॥
Transliteration: Guṇāḥ pūjāsthānaṃ guṇiṣu na ca liṅgaṃ na ca vayaḥ.
Meaning: Virtues (merits) are the true objects of reverence in the virtuous; neither gender nor age is a consideration.
II. Questioning / Asking
Good conversations flow from well‑sequenced questions—topical, simple, coherent, cohesive.
LLM Conversation Example 1
Q: What are empirical judgments?
A: Empirical judgments are based on observation, experience, or experimentation.
Q: What are moral judgments?
A: Moral judgments are based on ethical principles and values.
