It’s always on a Plane 

As I write this, I’m en route to India, a place I haven’t been in the last 15 years. That’s a story for another day though.

I’m 7 hours into this 12 hour flight, and my airpods have just died, so I’m giving them some rest. Naturally, despite having two separate projects going with my best friends claude and gemini, in between conversations there’s a lot of empty space left to think.

It’s probably because I don’t give myself much time to breathe in normal life, in between trying to juggle what every 20-something probably is, (some slew of work, friends, fitness, hobbies, sleep, and a crippling dopamine addiction) that I find myself the most introspective on planes. It likely has to do with some mix of the opportunity of a new place, whether it be a shorter trip to Toronto or a vacation I’ve been waiting months for, but I find my mind doing the craziest things on these expeditions.

There’s a whole lot of nonstandard behavior for Maanav on these flights:

• Books and audiobooks, when I don’t typically in daily life. Typically they’re of the self-help variety
• Fun projects, which I don’t always make time for (get ready for another AI wrapper, because it’s coming)
• Reflecting on past relationships, remembering the best and the worst moments, and generally reminiscing
• Thinking about what I’m not doing right at the moment in life - I do lots of this but especially the misses are apparent.
• Evaluating my decisions - did I choose the right job? endeavors? hobbies? Am I spending my 20s the way I ‘should’ be?
  • Lots here since I’m on an x-month journey around many states
• Planning - this one is typically just reflective of me not having had my cafe time to sit down and do the same, but you will definitely see me looking at AirBnBs or similar while on a flight

I do sometimes wonder if all this comes out because I don’t give myself the time to process and sit down with my thoughts on a regular basis, and chances are me asking that to myself means it is, but life doesn’t work as cleanly as we’d hope.

Society or Instagram or insert your reels platform of choice here tells me that many high performing individuals don’t really have time to stop and think - planning and strategy is important, but more than that is just execution. I wonder what’s actually right, but I’m sure life will reveal to me the happy balance.

Ramble over for now, I’m sure this will resume on another flight