Suppose you're in a different country.

Unfamiliar things everywhere.

One day, you see someone from your own country.

You feel a strange relief.

The same day, you both hang out. Maybe you even share personal secrets.

What's happening?

Would this have happened if you had both met back in your home country?

It's not necessarily about the person you met.

It's something happening on your end.

Stay with me. There's something glitchy here.

Trust - What it is

Now, before we go further, let's be clear about what trust actually is.

It isn't just a feeling.

Trust is the solid thought in your head that predicts another person's actions.

You say "I know what he'll do".

You're not guessing at his actions, you're anticipating them, based on things you already understand about him.

And where does that anticipation come from?

From what you have in common: His habits, his choices, the way he sees the world, if enough of that lines up with your own, your brain gets more confident in its prediction.

But here's what your brain conveniently forgets.

The things you don't share with him are still there : He still carries experiences, pressures, priorities and instincts you know nothing about. Those absences don't cancel your prediction, but they should quietly weaken it. Most of the time, they don't.

So trust is when you look at the "back", but you start seeing from the strong "front". You can read about the "back and front concept" here

Thus,

When everything around you is unfamiliar, your brain is quietly working.

Adjusting to the language, the culture, the people, the little things you don’t even notice.

Then someone familiar appears.

Suddenly, you don’t have to work so hard.

Your brain gets a break.

And that relief is real.

The problem is what your brain does with it next.

Which brings us to the sentence your brain keeps confusing:

Let's see them.

The first sentence: " I trust him."

The second sentence : "I recognize enough of this person to stop working so hard to interpret them."

Now look at that second sentence again.

See how close it sits to the first one?

It has the face of trust. It wears the same expression. Read it quickly, and you'd swear it was saying the same thing.

It isn't.

Your brain doesn't want to separate the two, separating takes effort, and effort is exactly what it was trying to avoid in the first place. So it merges them instead. And that merge is where the mistake happens.

Brain just hates effort. You never knew the cost for that had been in autopay.

Which means the real question isn't whether the familiarity is real. It's whether you let a prediction stand in for a feeling of relief.

If I strip everything and keep them side by side, they are Prediction and Relief. See? Now they're completely different.

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Let's take this somewhere it shows up even more clearly.

Picture a table between two people.

Every shared thing they have, similar culture, similar habits, similar background, gets placed on that table. The more that piles up, the stronger the prediction feels - “I know what she'll do”. “I know how he thinks.”

Two strangers from different countries start with an almost empty table. Two people from the same hometown start with it already full.

A fuller table feels like more trust. But look closer, it's really just a stronger anticipation built on relief.

It is still standing on things you happened to share, not on anything you actually witnessed him do.

And this doesn't stay confined to people you just met.

It shows up anywhere something feels certain simply because it feels known.

"This is how it's done," a familiar voice says.

He's not lying. He's not wrong, either. He's seen this path enough times to predict its outcome with real confidence, the cost, the risk, the result. That confidence is genuine.

It's just built on familiarity, not on it being the only way things work, or even the best one.

Which brings us back to where we started.

Next time, when you make a decision(which itself involves a certain amount of trust), take a minute to look into its fabric. Is it just familiarity? Shown repeatedly? Or was I simply forced to give it my attention?

One more thing,

None of this means avoid the familiar. Enjoy it. The relief of recognizing something, or someone, is real, and it's not something to be suspicious of.

The point was never to distrust what's familiar.

The point is to notice what your brain quietly does with that relief, it turns a full table into a guarantee. And a guarantee is something you have to actually earn, watching what someone does, not just counting what you happen to share with them.

Familiarity can augment trust. Read again. "Augment".

Remember the table we filled with the common interests, a bit before. The filled table shouldn't convince you that the other person emptied his pockets.

There are still things he hasn't placed on the table.

Have a great day!

—Akhil

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Two cars collide at a crossing.

Both drivers step out shouting.

“You weren't paying attention!”

Strange, isn't it? They're blaming each other for the same thing.

And yet, both are certain they're right.

Why?

Because each one has a reason. A sequence of things that happened before the collision. A story the other driver never saw.

From the outside, they look identical.

Two angry people. Two damaged cars. Two accusations.

But they aren't.

Stay with me here. This isn't really about traffic.

Two Versions of Everyone

Every person you'll ever compare yourself to exists in two versions.

There's the front, what you actually see. The marks. The revenue. The shouting, the "he wasn't even looking at the road."

And there's the back, everything that quietly brewed the front into existence. The sleep he didn't get. The years no one was watching. The reason he's holding his ground so hard, right now, without even knowing why.

We only ever meet the front. And somehow, we still walk away thinking we compared fairly.

Here's where it gets interesting, once you see this, you'll start noticing it everywhere. Not because it's new. Because it was always there, and nobody pointed at it before.

The Unfair Fight You Didn't Know You Were In

You didn't do well on the exam. Somewhere, someone did.

You look at their result, their front.

Then, without meaning to, you look at yourself, not your result, your back. Your situation. Your family. Your time, split a hundred ways.

You compare the unfinished mess behind you to the finished result standing in front of someone else. That was never a fair fight.

It just took this long for either of you to notice.

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So When Someone Criticizes You...

Here's something that might change how a bad comment lands next time.

Someone posts something they made in five minutes, and it takes off. Someone else spends days on a piece, and it barely moves. If people call the second one weak, don't reach for "but I worked so hard on this." That instinct makes sense, it's just answering the wrong question.

They never saw your back.

They can't defend against something they never witnessed. All they're telling you is that something cracked in the front, the only part you ever showed them.

Sometimes fixing that means going back and resealing what's underneath. Sometimes the crack really is sitting right there in the front. Either way, the back was never part of the conversation they were having.

And Sometimes, It Runs the Other Way

Someone sits alone in their house for months. Doesn't talk much. Doesn't go out. You walk past, and quietly, you judge it.

What you're judging isn't nothing. It's not some invisible back you can't see, you are seeing something, right now, in front of you. His silence, his hours alone, his one-track focus, that's a front too.

It's just a front you don't yet know how to read.

A year later, he's built something. And the moment that new result appears, everything shifts. And those become Focus, Discipline, Vision. not because anything about him changed, but because now there's a newer, louder front standing in the way. The quiet months you once judged get quietly re-filed, no longer a front you dismissed, just "the back" of the thing he became.

He was never showing you a back. You were looking at a front the whole time. You just weren't the audience it was written for yet.

Not Everything Back There Belongs to Him

One more thing worth sitting with. Not everything in the back is even his to claim.

Timing. Luck. A door that happened to be open when he knocked. The back isn't only effort, it's effort plus everything that happened to be true at the time.

That doesn't erase what he built. It just means the front was never fully anyone's to promise, his or yours.

Where the Certainty Comes From

You tell a cook the milk ratio is wrong. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't, maybe there's a method you've never heard of, a reason sitting just out of view.

You're not wrong to notice something. You're wrong to assume your way is the only way that works.

That certainty came from somewhere, a belief that got cemented in you long before you ever met the cook. Where beliefs like that actually come from is the whole subject of my last piece, Read the full article here

Now You Can't Unsee It

I'm not here to tell you to stop comparing. That was never really the point.

The point was just this, now you know there's a front and a back. And once you see it here, you'll start seeing it everywhere, even in places louder than your own life.

A ten-second clip goes public. No context. Just a front, stripped clean and judged by a thousand strangers in an afternoon. Nobody watching knows what's behind it, and most don't wait to find out.

The question is simpler now. You know what you're looking at.

A front. Just a front.

The back brews the front.

And the front is not a comparison tool.

There was nothing to compare. There never was.

Because the back you carry is your own signature.

Have a great day!

—Akhil

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You're arguing with someone. Not shouting , just going back and forth, fact by fact.

They lay out their point. Then another. Then another.

You run out of facts to answer with.

And still, you don't agree.

So what were you actually holding onto?

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1. The reasons everyone already knows

Ask most people why this happens, and you'll hear the same list:

• Bad timing.

• Wrong tone.

• Too much ego in the room.

All true. All real. None of them the actual answer.

Because sometimes the delivery is perfect. Nobody's angry. The timing is right. And the person still walks away exactly as convinced as they were before you opened your mouth.

So the question isn't how you said it.

Something deeper is holding the door shut.

2. The invisible starting point

Every opinion someone has ,is not sitting there alone.

Something is holding it up. Something under it.

They don't see it. They never looked down.

To them, it's not even a belief anymore. It just feels true. Like the sky is blue.

So when you argue with their opinion , you're not really talking to the opinion.

You're talking to the thing underneath it. The thing they never once looked at.

And here's the part that matters most:

That thing under there , it's not a mistake. Not stupid. Not broken.

It's just a setting. Installed early, before they were old enough to question anything. Nobody chooses it. It just gets put there.

So this is not their fault. It was never their fault.

3. Watch what happens when you keep asking why

Take something small. Something almost nobody questions :

"Good kids don't talk back."

Ask why.

"Because talking back is disrespectful."

Ask why that's disrespectful.

"Because a parent knows better."

Ask why that means the child shouldn't speak, even to disagree.

And here's where it stops. Here's where the answer stops being a reason and becomes something else entirely:

"Because that's just how it is."

That's the floor. The belief that was never chosen . Only handed down, and never once checked.

Now think about what that one small belief quietly built.

Twenty years later, someone can't take feedback at work without feeling attacked.

A partner disagrees, and it doesn't feel like disagreement. It feels like disrespect.

One sentence, from a long time ago, still running the show. And the person has no idea it's even there.

4. They're not defending the opinion. They're defending the floor.

This is why logic alone doesn't work. You can dismantle someone's argument piece by piece, and they'll still walk away unmoved.

Because the argument was never the real structure. It was just the last brick on top.

Take the floor away, and the whole house feels like it's falling.

That's not stubbornness. That's not ego, not really.

That's someone protecting something they don't even know they're protecting.

5. Where these starting points come from

Nobody sits down and chooses their floor. It gets built for them - by parents, teachers, culture, the people they trusted before they were old enough to ask questions.

Most of it was never proven. It was just never questioned, because the person who handed it down seemed sure enough for both of you.

That's the quiet part. Most people carrying a floor don't know they're carrying it. And even if they somehow found it ,most never think to ask if it still holds.

6. This isn't about being wrong

One thing worth saying clearly: having a floor doesn't make you foolish. It doesn't mean you didn't think things through.

Everyone has one. Most floors were built with good intentions. Some of them are wise. Some of them are the reason a person is kind, or careful, or loyal.

This isn't about tearing your floor down. It's not "fix this."

It's just - this is where the switch is. Not right. Not wrong. Just the real place.

7. The fruit was the whole effort

Here's a way to picture it:

Imagine a tree. Not the person ,the belief system inside them. That's the tree.

What you argue with , a person's opinion , that's the fruit. Everything the tree worked toward. The full effort, held in one small thing you can see.

But somewhere before the fruit, before even the tree, there was a seed.

The seed decided how the roots would grow. How deep. How strong. Which way they'd spread underground.

And then the seed was gone. Not turned into anything. Just gone …used up in the planting.

What's left isn't the seed. It's only the root.

The seed decided everything. Then it disappeared. Only the root is left to find.

You can't see the root either . Not at first. But if you follow the tree down far enough, you can find it. And once you see it, you understand it. How deep it runs. How strong it's grown. What it will and won't let go of.

That's the real work. Not picking apart the fruit.

Following it down to the root , the belief system's own root, not the person's.

And here's the part that explains why this never stays in one place.

Every fruit carries its own seeds. Someone hands you their opinion, and without meaning to, they've handed you the seed inside it too.

Plant it somewhere new -a child, a friend, a community … and it grows the same kind of root all over again.

That's how one floor becomes a thousand floors. Not by anyone deciding to spread it. Just one fruit, passed on, seed and all.

8. What this means for you, not just them

It's easy to read all this and think of someone else. A parent. A friend. Someone who "just won't listen."

Here's the harder question:

What have you never once asked "why" about — not because you checked and it held up, but because it never occurred to you to check at all?

Somewhere under every opinion you hold, there's one thing that isn't really an opinion at all. It's just there. Quiet. Running everything above it.

That's the real handle. Not the argument. Not the fruit on top.

Once you know it's there , in you, in someone else , you can actually reach it. Move it, if it needs moving. Understand it, if you're only trying to be understood.

It's hard to reach. It was always going to be hard.

But now you know where to look.

Have a great day.

— Akhil

A while back, I wrote about a smaller version of this same thing — why we argue for people who'll never know we did it. If floors and roots stayed with you, that one might

too:Read Article

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A comment section, past midnight. Someone has said something about a footballer …not even cruel, just critical. A missed pass, a bad night. Somewhere, a stranger reads it and feels their jaw tighten before they've even finished the sentence.

They don't remember deciding to defend him. Their fingers are already typing.

Twenty minutes later, they're still there. Still replying. Still angry. The footballer will never read any of it. He is, at this moment, almost certainly asleep.

So who, exactly, is being defended?

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1. The slow fusion

Nobody wakes up a fan. It happens the way most things that matter happen to us ,quietly, repeatedly, without asking permission. You see someone once, by accident. Then again. Then you notice something in the way they move, or speak, or fail and try again, that looks like a life you wanted for yourself ,the performance you never got to give, the confidence you're still practicing.

Psychologists call the extreme version of this identity fusion . A merging so complete that people have gone to real extremes defending a group or a figure they've fused with. Most fandom doesn't go nearly that far. But something like it, in a smaller key, happens to all of us. Slowly, their wins start to feel like evidence. Their losses start to feel personal. And their critics start to feel like they're criticizing something in you.

2. Why the fight never feels optional

Here's the part almost nobody notices in the moment:

When you defend someone else, the thing actually on trial is you.

They have a self already built, tested, secure enough to survive a bad night and a bad headline. You're the one who put a piece of your own identity on the table to protect theirs. So when a stranger online pushes back, it doesn't land on them. It lands on you , and you didn't even mean to hand them that power.

3. Catching it before it spreads

This isn't a character flaw. It's a wave . With a beginning, a peak, and an end, if you let it have one. The mistake is treating it as who you are instead of something passing through you.

There's a boundary at the very start of it . The half-second where the jaw tightens, before the fingers move. That's the only place it's small enough to actually see. Once it spreads, it isn't a feeling anymore. It's a fire with your name on it.

You don't have to win the argument. You just have to notice early enough, that it was never really about them.

A note: the idea of treating a feeling as something with a shape and a boundary ,rather than a seamless part of your character . I first came across in ’s writing , and it inspired me, stayed with me long after I read it. Some ideas are worth naming their source.

Have a great day!

--Akhil

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It was 6 PM. I looked at the clock. For a moment, it felt unfair.

The day was gone. Twenty-four hours had passed for everyone.

Yet somehow...someone had already exercised.

Finished their work.

Read a few chapters of a book.

Spent time with family.

Rested.

And they still didn't seem to be in a hurry.

I wasn't jealous of what they had done,but something else.

It felt like they knew something about a day...

that I didn't.

For a long time, I believed productive people simply had more discipline.

Now I think the difference is much simpler.

They understand what a day actually looks like.

Not the numbers on a clock.

The “shape” of it.

Most of us don't really live through twenty-four hours.

We live through moments :

• Breakfast.

• A notification.

• Lunch.

• A quick scroll.

• Another notification.

• Dinner.

• Sleep.

The day quietly disappears because we never stopped to look at it as a whole.

Some people do.

They know where they are inside the day.

Not just the time.

• Their energy.

• Their attention.

• Their patience.

• Their motivation.

They know that the person they become at 8 AM is not the same person they become at 3 PM.

And instead of fighting that...

they build their day around it.

Imagine standing beside a river.

From the bank, all you see is water flowing.

But if you could rise above it...you would notice something else.

Some parts flow effortlessly.

Some become narrow.

Some become violent.

Some almost stop moving.

A day is no different.

Energy doesn't flow equally through it.

The people who seem to have "more time" are often the ones who have simply studied the flow of their own day.

They know what deserves their best energy.

And what doesn't.

Deep thinking.

Writing.

Studying.

Creating

These belong to a different version of themselves than replying to messages or organizing files.

They don't wait until they "feel like working."

Instead, they ask a quieter question.

"What kind of energy do I have right now?"

The answer decides the task.

Not the mood.

****

Something else changed the way I look at productivity.

Most people measure work. Very few measure recovery.

We carefully calculate how much fuel we burn.

Almost nobody learns how long it takes to refill.

Real rest isn't scrolling until guilt appears.

Real rest is reaching the point where your mind quietly says,

"I'm ready again."

That's a completely different feeling.

If you've noticed it once...

you'll never confuse the two again.

The same goes for breaks.

People who seem to achieve a lot don't always take fewer breaks.

They simply know where the borders are.

They know when a break is helping them.

And when it has quietly turned into escaping.

That awareness saves hours.

They aren't forcing themselves, they can see it happening.

***

There's another small habit I noticed.

They almost always know what's next.

And it is just...the next step.

When one task ends,

the next one is already waiting.

There's no standing in the middle wondering what to do.

Tiny decisions no longer steal tiny pieces of the day.

Maybe that's why it feels like they have more than twenty-four hours.

They don't.

They simply experience all twenty-four.

They know where the time goes.

Where the energy goes.

Where the distractions begin.

Where the recovery ends.

They've quietly mapped something most of us never even thought to observe.

Their own day.

Time never became slower.

The clock never became kinder.

They simply stopped walking through the day with their eyes closed.

And once you begin noticing the shape of your own day...

Twenty-four hours starts feeling surprisingly large.

Maybe productivity isn't about doing more.

Maybe it's about finally understanding the life that fits inside a single day.

***

Have a great day!

—Akhil

If my work made you pause, I would be really happy to have you in my community!

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Kevin sat on the cold ground. The prison was less noisy today. He could hear gentle roaring far outside. He knew it was raining. It rarely rained in North Amazon . But was always dry and warm. The prison was dark, humid and slowly started glowing in the dawn.

He slowly tried to move. His shoulders were aching. He was in absolute horror last night. His hands were stretched. Punished so rude, and perhaps the punishment was made dirty with personal grudges of the punisher, and he felt it.

Officer Herald was watching the guard today. He had been walking like a lizard, to and fro on the corridor. He was tall, well built and had very little jokes. The place goes in an unsettling silence when he appears.

"Rainy day isn't it officer?" Kevin tried to draw his attention.

Herald did not even flinch. Kevin felt he noticed him. "Some there to talk to you!".

Still there was no response. The erect spokes of his brush like mustache seemed gleaming in the lights.

"How was the Magma ball incident connected to the panel you've conducted?"

Kevin saw Herald in front of the bars the moment he finished the line.

"You say so? Who told you this nonsense?." He growled with only air in his throat, and no voice at all.

"Oh I said so! You heard it. I can blow this into the air and yes you know it flies really hard."

Kevin stood up slowly, tapped the dust over his clothes, and watched his mustache pressed on the bars.

"Why don't you cut those! Hadn't anyone told you it looks sick on you!"

"I said who told you those!" Herald's eyes started to go red slowly, and he slammed the bars.

"Let's say someone in you panel talks too much"

"Huh? What the hell!"Herald sounded too obvious so that anyone around him could suspect him. He thrust his one leg on the floor, leaned more into the bars.

Kevin chuckled. He turned around and walked away from the bars. And slided down his back on the wall of the cell, and sat there on the floor. "I have been wondering, why you always be so perfect in your job." Kevin smiled "Anyone perfect in anything always has something to hide." Kevin rised his head , fixed his brown eyes on Herald. " But you don't seem like that. I know you are not involved. You are just always angry. But now I am sure that you know something about it."

Herald lifted his stare from him. "You always beat around the bush. I have been guarding you and your bloody corridor for a year. So I am not surprised."

Kevin tapped on the floor with tunes in mind. Jumped up and reached the bars, and held the bars "You don't know me." He said.

Herald caught Kevin's dirty hands. He took a look at it.Dirty, covered deeply in soil. He then looked back Kevin in his eyes. Kevin could see something in his eyes. Does he know... Kevin thought.

---

"The way of the land...and the way of the hand..."

"Move the hand... take out the sand..."

Little Omar told him. Kevin heard it closely.

"The way of the what?!" He watched Omar, confused.

"Lady Cath told me that. She told there is a wayyy in everything here in the tall garden. She took my hand and showed me". Omar glowed his eyes out with exitement.

"Let me tryy. It looks really fast.!" Little Kevin told.

"Kevin you are digging the wrong way... let me show you again...See this ,first know the land.. Then, you move the hand, move the sand ,right hand to left, left to right..see the sand moves."

"Yes , its moving..!"

"Faster, deeper, faster faster deeper deeper!"

Kevin opened his eyes. He suddenly looked around. He stared in the bars wondering what time of the day was it. He slowly oriented and knew he was in an afternoon nap. He rubbed his eyes and slowly crawled to a darker corner of his cell. He removed the sheet from the floor. He looked at the tunnel. The path was hideous. Dangerous. I have to try. He thought.

The end of the tunnel leads to the wall of a pipe. The drainage pipe large enough to fit him , or that was what he hoped. It is the pipe through which water and wastes drain out. the pipe must be cut the right time. The water rising to the cell could block others entering the tunnel. The current of the water could take him faster outside. Today must be it he thought.

He spent so many days observing water. He removed taps, of just faked tap leakages to repair them. He knew the water network everywhere and he placed his ears on everywhere to hear them. Besides it was a work he was forced to excell, long ago. He worked so hard. All for now or for never.

After dinner, Kevin entered his cell and waited for things to settle down. he knew Herald was not on duty this time. He waited till the guard was sleepy and everything settled down.Silence everywhere. He took the small steel rod, which he had collected by secret from the worksite in prison, and stared at the tunnel. Better than ever, he felt his heart inside his chest now clearly. He looked around. The guard was nowhere to be seen. He wondered for a moment. Well, nothing to loose. He thought . He tied towels around his head, ears and nose to be covered and started slowly descending down the tunnel with his face away from the bars of the cell. When his head was only left to be dipped down, he saw a shadow suddenly over him. Without looking back, he descended. In a glance he noticed a big mustache clearly even in the shadow. He felt his heart pause for a second, but still descended down.

He felt blood flowing through his hands. Perhaps due to injuries from the rough walls of the tunnel. Kevin took many things while working in the prison which he thought could come in handy. A steel rod, a knife,a towel, pointed rocks, small ropes etc, carefully foreseeing and selecting those only needed. When he reached the base he could hear burbling of water inside, and smashing of wastes on the walls of the pipe. He stood over the pipe. He could not keep his balance due to the vibration it caused. He was surprised by his heart pounding so hard. Perhaps he must have atrophied in prison, or may be due to the necessity of his purpose to be done outside.

Taking out his knife, he tried to cut the pipe. A few scratches barely. From now ,sounds will be heard and guards would have already became suspicious. He knew that. He took his steel rod, and stabbed so hard on the pipe. Water splashed so hard into his face that he almost fell down. He knew tha current of the water is low at nightime and will get better when pipe is opened further. he took his knife and started to open it real quick. The sawing sounds were heard loud, he knew. When he felt the hole is fit for him, he squeezed his tall, muscular body completely into the pipe ,and closed his eyes. He could feel many things splashing , smashing and squishing over him. His towels were so soaked it started to enter his mouth nose and ears while he unknowingly tries to catch a breath. He never knew were this particular pipe may lead to, unlike other pipes. He felt so many shakes, hits on wall . His head felt dizzy, and finally he saw light and fell on to some place hitting his back.

---

I should not blackout....I should not.. he thought as he jumped up knowing that he was in a large pile of wastes. He looked around and in front of him, there was a pit to which wastes actually drained. He was lucky enough to hit on some log just on the side to which some wastes piled up just before the pit.

Moon was well lit on the day. He still held his steel rod. There was so many lights in the prison. They must have known. I must hurry . He thought. But he found two guards suddenly in front of him. He glared at them. "Well, nothing to loose!". He said and drilled towards them striked the guard's head so hard so he could hear the "popping of clay vessel" sound and ducked suddenly since he knew the other one would point the gun . He striked the other on his legs. There was a pop sound and Kevin held his ground. He stood up , ran from the moon to the woods like he was in the air. His chest hitting so fast that he felt the heart is lifting him. The full moon was the one he never would have expected.

He heard some footsteps running behind him in darkness of the woods. He was chased. There was complete silence and only sounds of the smashing of leaves on the floor. Kevin ran by changing directions. But there was nowhere to hide, and he felt no way to outrun the chaser. He saw a marshy land forward. He felt pain slowly ascending on him from his legs, and felt like coming back to his senses from the adrenaline and suddenly knew who was behind him. But it was the same moment that, the person caught hold of Kevin, lose balance, and both fell into the marsh.

They both rolled on the open marsh,and it was like everything stood still, even the trees,and even wind watching them fight in peace,below the well lit moon. Kevin caught his hair and rolled over him. Kevin could feel the grip of the officer's hand so hard on him, that he got completely stretched while trying to dominate over the officer. His steel rod fell somewhere unknown, and his body was completely aching, the smell of rotten woods and of foul animal droppings on the squishy marsh made him more weak,and he felt the officer's grip going loose. Feeling so exhausted, Kevin took a split second decision, and took his knife and stabbed him, on his abdomen.

Kevin, covered in complete wastes and mud, stood up and stared at him. It was the same sight in Herald's eyes he saw. Like something was there behind those eyes. Kevin knew that if herald wanted, he could have caught him from the very begining.

Kevin, slowly sat and held Herald's head.

"Looks like you know me,officer!"

Herald smiled. "You owe me" he said, his tone spitting agony.

Kevin put his head slowly down,pulled out the knife from his abdomen, and stood up."I never leave any of my depts unpaid."

Kevin wiped his knife, turned around, and slowly disappeared into the woods.

Herald laid in the marsh, looking up. He never saw moon so bright. In his agony, he thought of his home, long visited. He felt the whole forest looking at him, and slowly he felt falling into darkness. His matted mustache still dripping mud.

(To be continued….)

If you liked this, and feel to support me, you could keep me caffeinated . It inspires me to work more. Thanks for reading!

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Suppose your friend tells you,

"You should start sleeping earlier."

You nod.

You agree.

And then... you do nothing.

Now imagine hearing the exact same sentence from someone famous.

Maybe a YouTuber.

A successful entrepreneur.

Or someone with a million followers.

Suddenly, it feels different.

It feels... more important.

The words didn't change.

The advice didn't change.

Only the person did.

So what exactly happened?

For a long time, I thought this was just me.

Then I realized it isn't.

It's something our brain does surprisingly often.

And once you notice it, you'll start seeing it everywhere.

Not just in yourself.

In everyone.

Think about the people closest to you.

Your parents.

Your friends.

Your classmates.

You know them.

You know the mistakes they've made.

You know their bad decisions.

You know the moments they weren't confident.

You know their failures.

In other words...

your brain has access to their entire background.

Now compare that with someone you admire online.

You don't know what they look like on a random Tuesday.

You don't know how they behave when they're angry.

You don't know how many times they've been wrong.

You only know the version that reached you.

And that's an important difference.

Our brain doesn't judge people in isolation.

It judges them together with everything it already knows about them.

Sometimes that helps us.

Sometimes it quietly changes how much we value what they're saying.

Not because the advice is better.

But because the person feels different.

Psychology has names for some of these patterns.

One of them is the Halo Effect.

When we notice one impressive quality in a person, our brain quietly assumes they are probably good in other areas too.

A successful entrepreneur suddenly sounds qualified to talk about health.

A famous actor starts giving relationship advice.

An athlete begins explaining productivity.

Sometimes they're right.

Sometimes they aren't.

But our brain often gives them extra credibility before they've earned it.

The opposite can happen too.

That's where the Horn Effect comes in.

We notice one flaw.

One mistake.

One disagreement.

And suddenly our brain starts discounting everything else that person says.

Even if they're correct.

Again...

the information didn't change.

Only our perception of the person did.

There's another interesting pattern hiding underneath all this.

It's called an appeal to inappropriate authority.

It sounds complicated.

But it's simple.

We assume someone is an expert...

outside the area where they actually earned that expertise.

Imagine asking a celebrity for medical advice.

Or taking financial advice from someone simply because they're famous.

Their success in one field quietly spills into another.

Our brain connects dots that don't necessarily belong together.

Now here's the important part.

I'm not saying we should stop listening to experts.

Or stop respecting experience.

That's not the point.

The point is much smaller.

And much more useful.

The next time you notice yourself instantly agreeing with someone...

Pause.

Just for a second.

Ask yourself,

"Am I agreeing with the idea... or with the person?"

That single question changes everything.

The same thing works the other way around.

If someone close to you says something...

don't reject it immediately just because you know their imperfections.

Separate the idea...

from the person carrying it.

Sometimes the best advice reaches us through ordinary people.

We just don't notice it.

One habit I've started practicing is mentally giving these moments a tag.

Not to judge myself.

Just to recognize what's happening.

"This is my brain giving extra weight to a stranger."

Or,

"This is my brain discounting someone familiar."

The moment I can name it...

I stop being completely controlled by it.

Not always.

But much more often than before.

And I think that's the real goal.

Not to become perfectly rational.

We're humans.

These shortcuts exist for a reason.

The goal is simply to notice them.

Because once you recognize the pattern,

you finally get the chance to decide...

instead of letting the pattern decide for you.

In my next article, I want to explore something related to this—how these same mental shortcuts slowly grow into admiration, influence, and eventually fanbases. Because the beginning is much quieter than we think.

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