When was the last time you shifted gears?

I shifted gears yesterday, literally. I rented a car with manual transmission. Normally, I drive an automatic. Just push the gas pedal and watch the car accelerate. It makes driving so simple and seamless.

My drive home was neither simple nor seamless. I was grinding gears while shifting, stalling out at traffic lights, and jerking my family around in the backseat. “Papa, that hurts,” my daughter screamed. This wasn’t my plan.

But it was my intention. There’s a reason why I chose manual over automatic. Why I chose research in Italy over a corporate job in California. Why I pulled my daughter out of the neighborhood she grew up in and brought her to a city where she needs to redefine herself. I want to shift things up and introduce productive friction into our lives.

I work really hard to abstract away friction — not just from product user experiences, but also from my family’s life experiences. A clear drawback is that we don’t pause and consider the choices that move our lives forward. This leads to a life on autopilot. I want us to manually drive our lives forward, even if that means grinding some gears along the way.

In today’s world of AI and algorithms, where even your feeds and feelings are on autopilot, it’s more important than ever to take control and steer your attention toward what truly matters. Ready to grind some gears in your life or career?