Free Thoughts

Children as Rhizome: The Most Complex Challenge

Connections, Free Thoughts /

Children are the most powerful rhizome we can build. A young mind absorbs, shapes and evolves ideas with a speed we can’t imagine. But here lies the greatest challenge: how do we educate without limiting ourselves to the obvious? How do we verticalize our approach when every child is a different world? I’ve made mistakes. When I was tired I gave in to videos instead of dedicating myself to them. I got angry when I should have listened. I learned that small things make the difference: walking together, using silence instead of scolding, co-creating dialogues. I’m not a perfect father. But the effort is manageable, and it can give so much.

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Fatigue as Part of Well-Being

Connections, Free Thoughts /

Fatigue is often seen as negative, but it’s actually woven into daily life and part of the well-being experience.

After an intense two weeks of work and personal challenges, the author reflects on a weekend marked by a pleasant tiredness, one that allows space for ideas to emerge.

Rather than forcing productivity even in rest, embracing this gentle fatigue can create cognitive space for creativity and recovery.

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From Obsessive Doing to Active Presence

Free Thoughts /

The writer describes a day lived in “active presence”, fully experiencing the moment without frantic doing. Shifting away from the pressure to constantly act, he finds relaxation, insights, and renewed cognitive energy.

This awareness expands mental bandwidth, reduces intrusive thoughts, and enhances agency. Even small engagements like reading or playing become richer.

True well-being, he suggests, comes from mindful presence, not pressured productivity.

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Two mistakes, one lesson: when the glass is in the wrong box

Free Thoughts /

Two mistakes this week. Dinner with Friends, board games. Taboo, game I love. Bad. Greta: ‘Strange, you usually do well.’ Friend smiling: ‘I was hoping we’d win, I had my ChatGPT on the team.’ Wasn’t just the headache. It was rigidity where lightness was needed. Let the mind go, live the moment with serenity. Not ‘don’t think, act’ from movies. Different. And the other mistake? Blog, excerpts. AI copy-paste without my eye. Result: telegraphic posts. My mantra: human at the center, AI tool. And then here the mistake. Both same problem: glass in the wrong box. Lightness boxed as ‘don’t think’. AI boxed as ‘does everything’. I saw, recognized. Now correcting. Right box.

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Well-being, not happiness: rethinking Christmas

Free Thoughts /

Well-being, not forced happiness. Christmas becomes obligation to be happy. Sky-high expectations, perfect gifts, lavish dinners, then inevitable down. Forced happiness is temporary peak followed by crash. I’ve never lived Christmas well, I admit it. Marco noticed and I’m sorry. Gift made thinking about person’s core becomes meaningful, but when it becomes work task it loses meaning. I lived Christmas as corporate project: Christmas Eve, Christmas, Boxing Day. Close everything by December 23rd, ready January 7th. Result? Maximum stress, short circuit. This year first step: made the forcings background noise, focused on happy children. Well-being allows happiness to emerge naturally. Without expectations that crush.

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Renovating: why you can’t find the glass (and that’s okay)

Free Thoughts /

Restructuring. Not the house. Myself. And in a house under renovation, it’s normal not to find the glass. Three rooms: kitchen (cognitive abilities), living room (relationships), bedroom (deep me and family). The kitchen is complete, sparkling. Metacognition, reticular thinking, everything ready. Living room in full work, objects boxed. Bedroom just started, the most delicate. This week I forgot household tasks. Banal things. With my memory it shouldn’t happen. Instead of worrying, I understood: I’m restructuring. Cognitive energy goes elsewhere. The glass is boxed, not lost. It happens. Not a problem. Unexpected things happen: broken pipe, power cut. Part of the process. That’s okay.

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When bias evolves: from frontal attack to subtle strategy

Free Thoughts /

The bias I named has evolved. No longer frontal attack but subtle strategy: lateral attacks to refill cognitive bandwidth, cut supplies, block liberating activities. But I saw them in time. The twenty-six year war (18 years → 44 years) continues. The rhizome expands: me, the Friend with whom I exchange philosophical audio, others. Concentric circles, not hierarchy. Themistocles at Salamis: not brute force but strategy. Yesterday: Victoria 3, chaos orchestrator. Golf swing empties mind. The bias counterattacks. But I’m ready. The ball is mine.

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The technique that freed me from rumination: naming biases

Free Thoughts /

This week I identified the bias that’s dominated me for decades: “I Depend on Others, I don’t collaborate with Others.” The technique of naming it—giving it a name when it arrives—depotentiated it. The brain shifts from passive to active. Rumination decreases, cognitive bandwidth frees up, ideas come. I haven’t solved it, but I no longer submit. The origin? Adolescence, adult responsibilities too soon. The catalyst? Amelia, 26 weeks, 710 grams, 109 days NICU. From forced hero to anti-hero to strategist. Naming, accepting, evolving. Tools make the difference.

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Golf, empty mind and perceptual time: my conscious refuge

Free Thoughts /

Golf taught me something forced meditation never could: emptying the mind without forcing it. The swing demands free mind, present body. A few seconds in physical time, immense in perceptual time. Like when you play with your kids and look like a complete goofball: them happy, you happy. Empty mind, full joy. Golf isn’t just sport. It’s my way of finding harmony. Find your swing.

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Accepting is not surrendering: the power of conscious serenity

Free Thoughts /

For years I thought accepting meant surrendering. But accepting is not submitting. It’s conscious strategy. From the science of post-trauma Tetris to the serenity/happiness distinction, to the paradox: when you stop fighting what you can’t change, you gain more power. Acceptance isn’t passivity. It’s emotional intelligence.

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