Reading time: 3 min
Watching time: 2 videos x 6 min (2x speed)
There is this quote from Pascal I was pondering these days:
All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
In a city like NYC, where everyone is always on the go, I look at my calendar and April 23rd already feels like May 1st. But despite the rush, I feel behind.
If we pay attention, there is a pattern of constant distraction that’s already a habit for most of us.
In his quote, Pascal didn't mean “go meditate more”. But something sharper: most of what we call busyness is avoidance dressed up as productivity.
In the old Chinese book, Tao Te Ching, there is a nice saying that became very popular:
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
The cup works because of the space. A room works because of the space. Our week works because of the space.
We spend a lot of energy on the clay, but very little on the emptiness.
Clearing our minds, focusing on the emptiness (of a space, of our surroundings), finding joy in being bored → that's a skill.
Boredom is what activates the default mode network. It’s where the mind wanders and finds meaning.
Here is a very good short video that explains why 👉
The HOW in 2 steps
Here's what I'm committing to for the next 10 days:
Block 15 min and do nothing. Just sit still and let the mind wander (and have a pen and paper for ideas that emerge, no phone).
Meditate for 5 min (or 10 min NSDR) afterward, to empty the mind. No engaging with thoughts this round.
AI to (actually) use:
Build Your Daily Digest
Speaking of creating space, below are 2 ways to build an AI news curator tool that strips out the noise to focus on what you actually care about.
It pulls the sources you care about → uses Tavily for search (very good at targeted search), and an LLM (Claude in my case, but any other can work) to filter and put together a daily summary.
It can be built in Lovable, as a Google Apps Script, or with Claude Cowork (with Tavily MCP) → which I’m showing below.
If you're in NYC…
I'm co-hosting AI Pitch Blitz: $1K Cash Drop on May 4th. Startup founders and builders are showing real AI solutions, plus a prize at the end, and a nice crowd to network with.
Have an amazing end of the week, and time to get bored,
Silvia
