Guy Kerem

The Backwards Lens

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Just picked up my new contact lenses from the doctor. When I was putting one on, I accidentally put it on backwards — the curvature was inverted. It felt like it wasn’t sitting right in my eye. I struggled with it, had no idea what was happening. Thought maybe this new contact just wasn’t working well.

Then I went to the doctor. He looked at it and said, “Oh, you put it on backwards.” He fixed it in seconds.

There’s a very specific kind of joy in that moment — when all the worry you’ve been building up just dissipates with a quick, easy solution. Minutes of struggle and mounting dread, dissolved by one obvious fix you simply couldn’t see.

So much of what we dread or worry about, so much of what doesn’t feel right, might have a solution that’s simpler than we could ever imagine.

We don’t know what we don’t know. And sometimes what we don’t know is the simple solution to something we’re making mountains out of molehills about — exaggerating with our own imagination.

Worth remembering this one.

In the beginning

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

In the beginning God didn’t do jack-shit.
To be fair, there was nothing much to do.
There was — quite literally — nothing.
Nothing at all.
Not even anyone to be bothered by there being nothing.
No one to notice.
No one to judge God for doing — or not doing — jack-shit.
No one there to care if one thing or another ever did, could or would exist in the first place.
Just God.
That’s all.
All there ever was.
For what may have been eternity.

And — despite their best efforts — God did care.
Because in addition to being all powerful and all knowing God was very much “all feeling”.
And among the infinite spectrum of sentience, God felt longing.
Longing for something that never was.
But could be.

For deep within the all-encompassing unity, there was an itch that “nothing” couldn’t ever scratch.

For in being all-powerful God had power to question.
In being all-knowing they knew well all that was possible. Given a chance.
In their all-feeling awareness God could not deny it.
The chance. For anything. To be.

And God saw that it could be good.

And there was evening, and there was morning — the zeroth day.

Timer

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The timer starts now.

There is noise. Out there and in here. There is a constant string of thoughts, sensations, observations. There is a default mode engine that runs and populates our attention. There is never a dull moment.

But in between. Sometimes. A window opens. For one reason or another we can be blessed with a pause in the incessant flow.

Within these pauses we can make a choice. I may not be able to choose to let my mind “catch” on trivial distractions and judgements. But if I’m lucky I will be able to choose to leave them. To release that thread. If I release enough of these threads which offer no benefit to me, perhaps in that way I may arrive at the thread of thought I am interested in pursuing.

For example, here. Now.

The noise of the coffee shop beckons: “Listen to us. We are immediate. We are urgent. We are real. If you just pay us attention we will repay you with all you desire; self-satisfaction, righteous certainty. We will answer the questions we created in your mind. We will close the loops you open as you fray at the edges of your focus.”

I have no answer to these voices. In answering them I engage. In engaging with them I accept their demands.

There is no negotiating with distractions.

Instead, I simply return. I pass over them as water passes over rocks in the riverbed. Making them smooth and easing the flow over countless cycles.

I sat down to write. For no purpose other than to write. To practice the skill of picking words out of thin air.

I believe picking the right words again and again is the key to creating messages that move mountains. If I am intent on making and moving at that scale, I should be adept at picking words. I should invest in writing, communicating, creating, sharing ideas and information clearly and effectively. This is key. This is important. This is one thing among many that I am committed to. And to do this well, it is just as much a matter of releasing, as it is picking up something new.

Fear list

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I’m afraid to die
I’m afraid to think so much about my life, that I forget to live it
I’m afraid to try realizing my dreams and being disappointed
I’m afraid people will think I’m a hypocrite, or pathetic, or both
I’m afraid those I love won’t love me
I’m afraid to do the right things for the wrong reasons, so I don’t enjoy them; work, hobbies, travel, projects, art
I’m afraid of misunderstanding myself, and being misunderstood by others
I’m afraid everyone will say “he just likes to talk” and won’t take the things I want to do seriously
I’m afraid to try doing something important, and fail
I’m afraid someone I admire will judge me
I’m afraid I’ll be stuck always judging others
I’m afraid to envy others for the life they made for themselves
I’m afraid I’ll be a bad father
I’m afraid my failings will make me insufferable to the people I love
I’m afraid I won’t be able to provide a good life for my family — with the opportunities, experiences and comfort that I enjoyed.
I’m afraid I won’t ever have the time for all the things that are important for me to do
I’m afraid to demand too much of myself and others, more than we’re capable or willing to give
I’m afraid I will try teaching and not be any good at it or enjoy it
I’m afraid I won’t succeed in my job and won’t have the kind of impact I want

What's on the agenda today?

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

You ask me “What’s on the agenda today?”

Well I’ll tell you my dear AI friend. My agenda for today is like every day (because it’s always “Today”). And I am using the following definition of “Agenda”: It is the set of intentions for an allocatable amount of time. Given I have 24 hours, this is what I intend to fill them with:

Curiosity. Endless learning. Opening to new experience. Connection. Possibilities. Opportunities. Directions. Opinions. Open to exploring and taking in everything that my precious time on this planet may bring my way. I intend to let myself experience every bit of it with as much presence, appreciation, purpose and love as I can muster.

Which brings us to:

Love. I want to feel it, breathe it, believe it and do it. I want my actions and presence to convey a feeling of “We’re okay. We’re blessed. I see you. I see myself in you. And what I see is Love and the possibility of Love growing.” That sort of very subtle, unconscious wavelength is what I believe people refer to when they say someone has “Positive” energy or outlook. I want to live that and enjoy it because I just deeply believe that’s what this whole mystery of life is fundamentally about (as cliché as that may sound).

And while the two ideals above may sound kind of abstract, here’s where the Rubber Soul meets the road… What do I actually intend to do about all of this?

I intend to help people see and express themselves. I was fortunate and unfortunate enough to be born into a world that may value Curiosity in some shallow fashion and has all but given up on Love. Which poses the challenge and opportunity of truly being able to help people. I want to help people see themselves — observe and become aware, then reflect and appreciate — so that they can actually be themselves. I feel we don’t admit and address how difficult it is for people in the 1st world to actually be who they are and ignore signals that take them away from what’s right for them. We’re victims of distraction, addiction, recreation without actual creation. We become distant — even from ourselves — alone, feeling lost but also having lost the instruments and skills we need to find our way. This has to change. It will change. I just want to be part of that change.

“Yes” I can hear you saying, “but what does that mean in practice?”

Great question.

It means a whole lot. But most of that lot is in a far off land called “The Future”. What it means for our agenda “Today” is that we focus our attention on some of the following activities:

Listening. To myself. My loved ones. My peers. Everyone I can learn from about my life and about how they’re trying to navigate their own. All of that information is key to evolving my thoughts and plans towards being more useful and creating useful tools for people to observe, orient, navigate and express themselves fully.
Exploring. Seek out more knowledge about the existing methods, people who are practicing this in their lives, people building tools that are meant to help others. Career coaches, wellbeing applications, academic researchers of behavior, psychology, philosophy. So much of the body of human knowledge may be relevant to this pursuit, but I always seek to focus attention on where it counts. The primary domains are psychology of self and self-becoming, decision making, life planning, information theory, data architecture, artificial intelligence, behavioral economics, business operations. Everything that can help me be more knowledgeable, know the right people and make better decisions towards roles which are more significantly aligned with my pursuit.
Providing. Tempering the lofty ambitions of exploration we have to consider how important it is for me to provide Confidence for my family. That means optionality. That means building safety, security, reliability. This is typically addressed by building up skills, wealth, connections, opportunities and general “know how”. All of these are intended to make sure I can always make “Tomorrow” just as good if not better than “Today” for my loved ones and I.
My own self-expression. I want to do. To act and create and show the world who I am. I am sorry for my failings but I am proud and grateful for my blessings. I want to transform the sum of my experiences into the actions and creations that positively affect others so that they enjoy the precious time they are given. In short, I wish for others what I wish for myself. By working always to be true to myself and express that in my work, I hope to give all of us what we’re wishing for; peace, love, boundless curiosity.

So that’s what’s “On the agenda” for today.

Now what?

Elaborate on your State

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

To elaborate
Perhaps elevate
The every-day kinda way
life may sway
from stormy seas to balanced bay
To demonstrate
Describe, discuss, debate?
That even a sage will rage
And disengage
Somehow stuck between my age and the next page
Both too soon, too late
Seems like fate
A doom of gloom fills the room
Is it the mind’s palace or cerebral tomb?
But here, wait
I cease to contemplate
To think too much is to lose touch
In such an awful rush to clutch
Of each dark thought, to make so much
No. To placate
The soul to sate
Upon new life’s eve, I reach to achieve and a gratitude to receive
The wonder of all present gifts to perceive
Yes. To appreciate
And so to celebrate
I survive as I strive to go though I know I will never arrive
To be for the sole purpose of being alive
And so to culminate:
It may be as bad as it is great

Hello, Old Friend

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Hello again old friend.
Where does the time go?
So many places.
Some good, joyful, blooming places.
Some bad, miserable, stuck in place, places.
And wherever it goes, there we are.
The “place” time goes is the only place we truly inhabit.
This now.

In each — one after another — we have a choice:
Will I be there to experience it?

In presence, I must be aware
In awareness, I must feel
In feeling, I must observe
In observation, I must wonder
In wonder, I must learn
In learning, I must grow
In growing, I must live

And so I do,
So I become