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Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode

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of Theta and AI with Mukundan. So today's episode

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is personal, it's about overwhelm, it's about

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clarity, and about the weirdest moment of peace

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that I've had in a while. And yes, it involves

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an AI -coded app that I've built during a spiral

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moment. So this particular moment... It was a

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Wednesday. I was tired. I was just spiraling

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like crazy. And, of course, craving some McDonald's

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fries. And that's not the beginning of a recipe

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podcast. It's the start of something more real.

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Something very personal. I want to tell you about

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a week where everything felt just a little off.

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The meetings were tense. The expectations were

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very unclear. And my brain just fighting on all

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cylinders with nowhere to go. And in the middle

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of all that noise, I built something. Something

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that I didn't know that I needed. So let's look

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at this more deeply. Things felt different at

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work that week. The tone in the meetings was

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different. The urgency in updates. There was

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a lot of unspoken signals that something is shifting.

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And while I've contributed a lot, I know that

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I wasn't the loudest. I know that I wasn't the

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most visible either. And that self -doubt started

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whispering louder than usual. At the same time,

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I was putting pressure on myself to write my

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weekly blog post, publish my weekly podcast as

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well, like this one. And I had made that promise

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to myself and to my readers and my listeners.

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But by Wednesday, I hadn't written a single line.

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I wasn't blocked. I was just scattered. There's

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too much going on that week. And somewhere in

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that mess of thoughts, I found myself craving

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those warm, soft McDonald's fries. That's the

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thing about spiraling. It doesn't always look

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like you're crying in a corner. Sometimes it

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just looks like micro -anxiety that's disguised

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as productivity. So, I'm a builder. That's how

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I deal. And let me help you understand why I

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build these tools. Because I'm a builder like

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that. And I don't journal. I don't even vent.

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I just code. And I had this thought, like, what

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if I gave all this chaos to an AI? Not to solve

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it. Not even to coach me. Just to reflect on

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it. To notice it. To help me name what I was

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feeling. And so I built this. I called it an

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AI thought organizer. It wasn't flashy. It wasn't

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something for productivity either. It wasn't

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for sale. It was just a mirror that I built.

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Something that I used Python to code and powered

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it using an AI model, like a GPT -4 model. And

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it's just like this. Imagine that your brain

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is a cluttered desk. And this little AI quietly

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walks in and says, Hey. let me just straighten

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this up for you so you can see the surface again

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right so that's how it is and let's look at how

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this app works this tool works without losing

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you in the code right now if you're wondering

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how this works under the hood yes there's a blog

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with the full code so that the blog you can obviously

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look at I'll give you how to do it yourself.

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But for you, my dear listener, here's what matters.

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You type in whatever is on your mind, right?

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And the AI organizes it into three things. First,

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it will give you a summary of your thoughts.

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Then it will give you an emotional signal. Like,

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you know, what are your... What are you probably

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feeling right now? Is it like maybe you're happy,

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you're sad or whatever, right? Or maybe some

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more complex emotions. You're anxious, for example.

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Third thing could be a reflective nudge to help

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you reframe your thoughts. That's it, right?

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There's no coaching. There's no judgment either.

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Just like a gentle clarity. and if you're curious

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the back end uses gpt4 like i mentioned and a

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few lines of python with streamlit and that's

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it nothing complex streamlit is this uh front

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-end library that i use for all my projects it's

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just like really easy to use um it helps you

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build this like front -end applications um using

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python but like very simple application it's

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not something complex so streamlit can help you

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if you don't know how to use javascript or node

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.js or whatever those front -end libraries are

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which i don't personally so streamlit helps in

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my case to give you this quiet little mirror

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helps you build in this particular use case it

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was helping me build this quiet little mirror

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for my brain but for most of us What matters

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is that this tool works. And here's what caused

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me to laugh. I pasted in my rambling thoughts.

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There was three scattered sentences. And what

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I got back wasn't a solution. It wasn't even

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advice. It was just... understanding and the

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summary well it was on point the emotion it noticed

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my low -key stress and the prompt it asked something

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I'd been avoiding so that made me laugh not because

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it was funny it was because it just saw me So

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I did what I always do after a moment like this.

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I went and got the fries. So this is not a coach.

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This is not a fix. It's just a mirror. We think

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of AI as fast, efficient, and smart. What if

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it could be quiet? Like, not like a therapist,

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but not even your productivity tool. Just a space.

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A space to talk about whatever you want to talk

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about. That's what this app gave me. Gave me

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space. Not to do more, but to be more clear about

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how I felt. And for me, that mattered. so what

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i want to talk about a before and after case

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like before i'd say that i'm tired meetings were

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weird i want fries for mcdonald's i haven't written

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my blog it's wednesday and after this ai output

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the summary would be you're feeling overwhelmed

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by shifting the work dynamics and self -imposed

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creative pressure and that's true right that's

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what i'm feeling right now i mean in this case

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the dynamics of workflow shifting and um i've

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imposed a lot of pressure on myself so a lot

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of pressure to create so that the separate pressure

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to create blogs and stuff that is something that

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i've imposed on myself and in emotion in this

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case um there'll be subtle stress craving small

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wins So I'll tell you that you are stressed out

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and you're craving a little win. Could be the

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fries, right? That could be a small win. And

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prompt, what would it look like to give yourself

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permission to pause without any guilt? This prompt

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is kind of helping you think through the next

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action that you should do, right? The mirror

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that will help you to... think through what to

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do after this so the before is like a noise and

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the other just signal to um just deal with your

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emotions i would say finally just these are my

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thoughts this isn't the big launch there's no

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call to action here there's no paid deal just

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a reminder that sometimes you're building something

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for yourself and and it could be the best kind

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of therapy and maybe just maybe the fries were

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always the point if you want to try building

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this tool you can go to the blog that i have

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linked to this show notes for the full blog and

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the source code it will be linked in the show

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notes and if you want to reflect on your own

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thoughts just leave a comment or reply with your

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biggest takeaway and let's normalize pausing

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pausing on your thoughts let's just normalize

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being seen even if by an ai