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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Rumination: the bitch that devours your mind

Complexity /

Rumination is a bitch, damn if it’s a bitch. Pardon my French but these are the perfect words. That client who owes you money? The mind starts grinding anger, wraps around itself, infinite loop. And transforms a person with mistakes into a Public Enemy Number One. Objective data multiplied tenfold, monsters created. Then talking it resolves, but the wound remains because of our attitude. Techniques like breathing and grounding help. But content is also needed. It’s not immediate, it’s not easy. It’s possible.

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The myth of “Doing”: why Jobs and Ferrari don’t just do for the sake of doing

Complexity /

Doing for the sake of doing. That Italian culture where if you don’t do immediately you’re lazy, useless, lost in chatter. But Steve Jobs didn’t solder iPhones. Enzo Ferrari didn’t assemble engines. Toto Wolff doesn’t change tires in the pit. They allowed the brain to work before doing. Systematic approach: hours thinking about design of a detail, then a 2-hour meeting that changes the entire product. You don’t need to be Jobs to apply this. Stop 10 minutes before the event and think about table organization. The mechanism is identical on a small scale. Systematic approach isn’t for the unreachable. It’s for anyone who wants to do well, not just a lot.

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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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Discomfort is not an enemy: why change hurts (and that’s okay)

Pragmatism /

Positive discomfort. Finally. The hardest part of managing a mental restructuring process? Managing discomfort. We presume it’s wrong, a problem. Actually it’s the best part. It shows the change is happening. Client asks for free help: Wolf approach. Mini analysis, compromise, conditions. First boundary: I respond outside hours deliberately. Second: I oppose, strong discomfort, don’t respond immediately. He writes again, shows real interest. Third boundary: I set limits. Difficult? Without a shadow of doubt. Doable? Absolutely yes. Discomfort? Present, strong. But signal it was working. Discomfort is not an enemy. It’s a signal you’re truly changing. And that’s okay.

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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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Verticalizing: today’s effort becomes tomorrow’s well-being for all

Complexity /

Verticalizing means personalizing the approach. It costs effort today but generates well-being tomorrow. It’s not privilege, it’s equity: giving each person what they need for the same goal. From yourself to children, from work to the world. A neurodivergent student verticalized today becomes an autonomous adult tomorrow. An understood employee today becomes an effective leader tomorrow. Effort is investment. Well-being is return. Exponential.

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