Hey everyone, welcome back to Data and AI with
Mukundan. Today's episode is a follow -up from
the last episode which I talked about cravings
at midnight and how you can have more control
over your cravings. Today's episode I just want
to talk about the inner stuff, what goes on in
our mind more deeply. You know, the kind of stuff
that sits with you at Midnight 1 a .m. 2 a .m.
Whatever basically later at night when most of
the world is sleeping When your to -do list is
full and your energy is well empty and You're
like completely drained out This is the story
of how I built an AI reflection system One that
is not just for productivity But it's also for
emotional clarity. It's called Reflection OS.
And OS is the origin story of this. And it started
on a night that I almost gave up. And the energy
was empty, like I said. So let's understand what
gave rise to this. So you ever have one of those
nights where you're staring at a screen. Your
social media is open. And if you're a content
writer, your blog draft is half written. Even
if you're not a content writer, say you're at
work and you have this, you know, big deadline
coming up. Maybe that's the next day. Maybe that's
in the morning or could be the day after. And
you have to submit it. And it's just half done.
It's already 1 a .m., 2 a .m., right? you you've
had a ton of things to do that day but this is
just one more thing and it's kind of the main
thing to do because maybe you are focusing on
doing the core piece the rest of the night and
when you got to actually filling up the document
it was just half done um i mean you barely got
to it but your energy is like drained out you
wish you can do this in the morning but you have
like an 8 a .m meeting so it has to be done before
then and it's already 2 a .m at night so you
just have six hours between now and then to a
finish the work and b get some sleep and also
c wake up and do some regular um regular things
you need to do before uh before you start work
the next day right and that's when your brain
feels heavy And the thought comes, I should have
been further ahead by now. And I've had plenty
of those moments. I mean, it's just too much
to count. I'm afraid to admit I've not been really
good at time management. Well, I guess 99 % of
my life. In the last... I guess last several
weeks or so, I'd say I have better control over
them than I did before. But most of the time,
it's just been that I've not been that good at
managing time. And I apologize for being a little
vulnerable here, but this is how I feel like,
I mean, I may not be the only one who is like
this. and in this particular instance it was
it was kind of similar that i was so much behind
and you know that day was pretty hard um just
like others as well but i just wanted to and
uh that day i was just thinking well there has
to be some some way out of this yes i've been
you know trying to find ways but i think This
is something that I need to solve. Working on
multiple projects, blog writing, applying for
jobs, launching content, burnout wasn't just
mental fatigue. It wasn't emotional disconnection.
I didn't really want to... track my habits yes
everybody says to track your habits i just i
was just tired of doing that and and it's it's
it is exhaustive like one thing after the other
right i didn't want even a to -do list i just
wanted someone or maybe something to say like
i hear you let's talk about it and it's pretty
pretty late at night like you don't want to be
disturbing people um you know if it's that late
like everybody has their own life and that's
what i used to think well there's certain ways
around this this is the way i chose for that
night it did click for me that well i'm using
ai to write um to help me with my content creation
right um come up with topics promote my content,
optimize resumes when I've done as well. But
what if I could use it to reflect my thoughts
back to me with some compassion and some clarity?
What if AI just became my mirror? One that doesn't
judge. doesn't interrupt and doesn't rush so
yeah just recently i also worked on you know
a cravings app right like it is kind of a mirror
as well but it's just more on the food aspect
like oh it will just give it back to me that
so you're craving taco bell or say you're craving
fries maybe you can just wait until the morning
Or what if it can be a bit deeper not just related
to fortune be just related to all thoughts. I
Mean it was this I Wanted to build it for me.
So this is not a scientific answer to things
This is just me trying to build Something that
solves my problem at the time right and He's
just building like a friend here You're not building
a therapist, just a friend. It's kind of sad
when you say it like that, but it is something
that will just not judge you, right? And so that
was why I built this. But just to pivot to the
actual Reflection OS app. so this like most others
that i built was again a streamlit app streamlit
is this python based app as well i mean it's
a python based app and it uses streamlit as a
python based library which gives amazing front
-end capabilities in python right and so it's
like a very simple app too what i built it's
just like one text box which will ask you what's
on your mind today kind of like what social media
platforms ask you as well right when you're trying
to post something um again this is something
that i built for myself and i'm hoping you know
it helps others as well to think through like
what people can do using ai and for this particular
instance it was just a simple intentional app
no structure just type whatever right um so the
input that i fed into this text box which was
using gpt4 in the back end was uh i mean basically
the the prompt that i gave to gpt4 was reflect
on this journal entry, give me the emotions involved
and a compassionate reflection and a reframe
that makes it more constructive. And that was
the prompt I gave. I ran the rest of my Python
-based streamlit code. And when I hit run, it
worked. Like, one of the journal entries I had
given was I feel like I'm always behind. Everyone
around me is building faster, shipping more and
growing quicker. Something that I was feeling
that day. And yeah, allow me to be a little vulnerable
here, but that was something that I'm sure not
the only one feeling that. And, you know, it's
a feeling of self -doubt. Sometimes it does creep
in. So AI as well just helped reflect that. Like
the emotions, you have self -doubt, frustration,
and comparison, which is obviously not great
emotions to have, but it was emotions to have.
And AI was helping me reflect that. So it also
gave me a reflection. Sounds like you're measuring
yourself against a standard that was never yours
to begin with. Yeah, there you go. You don't
want to be comparing yourself to others and that
is what he I was telling me They just needed
me to see in the mirror Like what my thoughts
were And It's telling me also to reframe what
I'm saying and saying that your pace is valid
Speed doesn't equal substance growth is happening
even when it's quiet so you can even grow when
you're being quiet um so that's when even i built
like a substack mini course just quietly right
it wasn't even um so basically the whole cravings
app is now a substack mini course it wasn't something
that i made a loud fuss about it i was just like
pretty quietly doing that in the back end and
So all of these reflections from the AI, when
I read that back, it just hit differently. Because
I wasn't just hearing advice. I was hearing myself,
but just clearer. And I just thought that was
very... very interesting very exciting use of
ai so to just help you understand the tech behind
this ai reflection the ai mirror let's talk about
that build for a second right for the for the
developers out there the ones who like using
ai to develop cool stuff i used streamlit for
the front end which is super quick to prototype
then openai is gpt4 with the new python sdk and
a simple text box like a text area in streamlet
which had like a reflect button and some markdown
formatting that's it it was it was very simple
no databases yet just not even a fancy ui just
a fast feedback loop between my thoughts and
the AI's reflection right and guess what it's
it's just enough sometimes you don't have to
build super you know complicated amazing dashboards
with a login you don't have to build all of that
it just starts with an input which is truthful
and An output that is useful. So I later added
some mood tags and sentiment tracking and export
options, which I haven't shared in this, but
that's something that was just for me. But that
can be added. You know, honestly, for me, like
having the mirror was the most important thing.
The core feeling had to be right. So why does
this matter? So this isn't just about journaling.
This is not just journaling. It's about building
like an emotional habit. So when you reflect
daily, you see patterns. You stop gaslighting
yourself. You stop thinking every bad moment
is your identity. And the best part, you can
build this for yourself. You don't need to wait
for an app like Calm or Headspace or Mindfulness,
which I think Apple offers. to basically ship
this you don't you you are building your own
here you know calm red space mindfulness they're
all amazing and this is this is just something
you're building for yourself and that's it pretty
much it's just like it's very simple but if you'd
like to get you know more complex with it here's
what's coming so I'm trying to roll out a public
beta version for this it will be available in
my substack mini course and I'll link my substack
in the show notes so do watch out over there
please subscribe over there so you get an update
when the mini course is rolled out so you'll
get like a public beta version so it'll be like
a free tool for journaling reflection and emotion
tagging and also like a creator edition which
will be a paid version so we'll be adding reflections
to notion tracker like weekly ai summaries for
creators founders and builders and like i said
it'll be like a substack mini course for emotional
clarity and i am looking to also build a little
community journal challenge like a seven day
reflection challenge i'll be sharing mine and
i looking for people to share theirs all of this
power by like a lit powered by this little ai
mirror so If this resonated with you and I apologize
again for being a little vulnerable here, here's
what you can do. You can subscribe to my Substack
platform and you'll be able to know when the
beta version is out for the app and you can DM
me your reflections. on my Twitter account which
I will link in the show notes as well or just
sit with the question what would I change if
I reflected before I reacted thanks for listening
to Dita and EI with Mukundan see you in the next
one