Helping you question the meaning of your life’s work is mine
Alongside the traditional definition of a UX designer, I am a human - an educator, a friend, a son, a partner. Every decision I make that affects the systems I belong in can make or break how someone experiences the world.
Then, I’m a true “experience” designer. We all are.
How and why I view the world the way I do is captured in this page. A culmination of these experiences and this knowledge is being used to build Sthir.World.
I am a firm believer of interdependence. As Steve Jobs said to himself in his email, “I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being.” It’s only fair we give our best to the world that gives us so much.
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A Sthir (Stable) World
Sthir is a long-term concept for a transformational wellness resort built on a simple premise:
Meaning is what's required to face our toughest challenges and meaning is constructed through articulation.
Where most retreat models pursue calm or detachment, Sthir is designed around a different success metric — a guest who leaves able to say what they figured out, not how relaxed they felt.
Timeline of events leading up to Sthir:
Before 2015
Loved cars as a kid growing up. Wanted to be an automotive designer. Sketched cars all over my school notebooks.
August 2015
I moved to the US with a dream of being a product designer there. Over the course of my education, I fell in love with the problem-solving side of design rather than the aesthetic side.
January–May 2019
For my undergraduate thesis, I designed a prototype for an app focused on intentional living and intentional buying. I researched psychological survey-building and used my learnings from the structures of the Red Bull Wingfinder and The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to understand how best to ask questions without leading people. This app was supposed to help people understand themselves better before it told them the type of houses they should rent, and products they should buy.
August 2019
Visited New York and got re-introduced to the practice of Buddhism. (I had been around it through my sister when I was younger). I studied and passed the test of Buddhism. My biggest takeaway was a continued belief that intentional living was the key to higher satisfaction.
September 2019
Interviewed for a company where I knew I would make products that would touch millions of hands. I was told that my interview was the best they had ever seen. Almost got the role, but the company went on a hiring freeze due to the conversations against plastic packaging. Devastated, I returned to the job search.
November 2019
Started a different job. Bought a dream car. Fell in love with it. Maya.
March 2020
Did not enjoy my job. "My job was not what I thought it was going to be."
The aforementioned car was primarily used to get me to my job. While it was still a joy to drive, my overall emotional state was not any better because of it. Started to find things outside of work to keep me fulfilled.
June 2020
Covid-19 hit. Lost the job. Had to sell said dream car. Felt extremely sad, but learned that the car was just a product and there will always be another.
July 2020
Had to leave the US due to Covid-19 and returned to India. Felt like I was leaving my American + Design dream behind.
September 2020–August 2021
Worked in the shoe design and manufacturing industry in India. Biggest learning(s):
Aesthetics are easy to focus on, and easiest to replicate (at least on the surface). Most people buy things that look good, so as long as you can make a product that looks good, there’s a good chance it will sell.
You have to be safe to be creative. If you're not safe, you don't care about innovation and invention, or about reaching your highest potential in a field. Your biggest worry is a consistent paycheque. This learning was not about design, but about human psychology and the work culture in an environment where the fight is less about corporate hierarchy, and more about being able to put food on the family table.
Saw my best friend lose both his parents due to COVID-19. Stood with him as he returned their bodies to the earth. His father was one of the strongest individuals I had come across. A fierce lawyer, and one to never be afraid of anything. Learned that nothing is permanent.
September 2021 and beyond
Came back to North America. Started gathering more traditional “hard and soft skills” to succeed in a corporate world.
September 2022
Started teaching as a professor. Had a lot of imposter syndrome, but the fulfillment of learning and bestowing the knowledge at the same time was unreal. Experienced Ananda.
November 2023
Started working pro-bono for World Design Organization to build an Oath for Design.
July 2024
Split up after a long-term relationship and thought I lost my identity. Learned that your strongest relationships (or losing them) can be destabilizing. Hit rock bottom - no amount of money, things, or experiences felt fully satisfying.
Late 2024 / Early 2025
Healing/rediscovering journey. Started training for a marathon. On easy days and hard ones, I knew skipping a run was not on the table. Trained through snow and wind, often running in colder than -15c in Toronto alone. Got lost one Friday in a snow-stormy evening, many km’s away from home.
Did this alongside my full-time gig as well as teaching part time and also trying to build Equavoice - an accessibility first collaboration tool.
May 2025
Ran the marathon. Rode the high for a bit even though I didn’t accomplish my goal time. Learned that it wasn’t failure; just gaps in training (for the hills of Vancouver are unforgiving).
September 2025
Broke my foot and was told I’d need to be out of running for about a year - it felt like a major setback. I was devastated as I felt that was now finally a part of my new identity.
October 12 2025
2 hour silent meditation at Rouge National Park, Ontario. Was able to answer a lot of my questions about why I wanted to build this and what it would entail. It was like a sketch came to my mind of the entire thing - I wanted to help people build the stability I so often lost myself. The conviction was strong.
One of the best experiences of my life as I set an alarm for 2 hours, closed my eyes and started meditating - I opened my eyes 4 minutes before the alarm went off. Experienced Ananda.
Early 2026
Ran the Ikigai workshop 1:1 with 3 separate people who were feeling "lost."
Biggest learning: Creating a space where people feel comfortable opening up about their insecurities is just as important as the questions within the activity itself. Without that safety, they are unable to speak the whole truth, and without the whole truth, they will not be able to get on the right path.
Learned about situationships and the nature of being able to continue giving even when the times get tough. Solidified my belief that different lived experiences are a huge factor to consider at all times, and grace can and should always be extended where possible.
My foot started to heal and I was back to running. Although this time felt different as there was less pressure to perform, and more to see my friends.
May 2026
Went to Portugal as it seemed like the best place for the Sthir concept to succeed. Fell in love with the country as I walked the Caminho de Santiago path. Watched other pilgrims silently walk their journeys. Enjoyed a Pastel de Nata at a little yellow house stop along the path. Met a doctor there from Switzerland who had been creating prosthetics for 20 years - he was now on a break, trying to figure out his next steps. Met two Irish doctors and walked the entire last day with them (~29km). While talking to them about their favorite books, I made a connection to my thoughts about Escapism…Are those in more demanding fields/jobs more likely to “escape” when not working? We all have a different amount of patience and energy to extend. We may be givers on most days, but there are some when you are just surviving. Not every day can be an energy creating day.
While eating a simple cheese and ham sandwich and overlooking the ocean, I came across a post from a friend who had mentioned Intrapsychic grief. Reached out in support. Continued the conversation and decided to host interested folks for a discussion about this topic.
June 2026
With that friend, I co-hosted folks at my house for an event we called "Imagined Futures."
During this gathering, I intended to understand if the core mechanism works at all: can an intentional conversation actually move strangers through the mourning of an imagined future that didn't happen — a career path, a relationship, a version of themselves they expected to become?
It was a facilitation prototype — a low-cost, human-scale test of whether Sthir's central bet holds up in a room with real people and real grief. What was supposed to be 2.5 hours ended up being close to 5 hours. When one person opened up, so did the rest. When I first tried to share this on my instagram to see who wanted to join, I was hesitant… "What would people say about what feels like a grief circle?"
Then I realized that it was never about serving everyone…just the ones that wanted it.
The questions we asked were of hardships and how we overcome those. The anchors they have and use. I learned that our relationships give us a lot of meaning. Maslow would agree. But what if our most important relationship is failing? That's the tough cookie. That is why meaningful work is so important. I believe that if our work gives us meaning, we live healthier, happier lives. This belief has also been solidified from the books and media I consume. Some of these are shared below.
July 2026
I attended a workshop hosted by Inner-kind. I met the founder, Nabil Bou Ali and we realized the amount of overlap we both had in our ideas was huge. It was an instant connection. This was made possible due to Weiwei Su, founder of Hello Parts, as she was the one leading this particular workshop.
August 2026
Presenting my ideas at the IDC Conference in Pasadena, California. Challenging design and designers to do better for the world.
Follow along for what’s coming…
2034 (or before)
Open doors to first Sthir.world space.
Books that have helped shape the way I think:
(Added in no particular order)
These all fall into categories of the destination or the journey of getting to the destination.
Someone asked me why these aren’t all traditional design books…
This is because: to design for humans, it’s important to understand humans.
What works and what doesn’t work.
How we win, and what we learn from failure.
What we enjoy and what we regret.
Where we’ve come from (history) and where we’re going (strategic foresight).
Currently Consuming
The Meaning of Your Life
Arthur Brooks
Connecting/reconnecting with the 'why' of your life is a deliberate choice and practice.
Previously Consumed
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
Héctor García & Francesc Miralles
Your ikigai — the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for — is the key to waking up with purpose every morning. Longevity is less about genetics and more about community, movement, and having a reason to get out of bed.
Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl
Everything can be taken from a person except the last human freedom — the ability to choose one's attitude toward any given set of circumstances. Those who have a 'why' to live can endure almost any 'how'.
I was introduced to ‘logotherapy’ because of this book.
The Power of Regret
Daniel H. Pink
The deepest regrets aren't about things people did; they're about the things people failed to do, the risks they never took, the connections they never made. By confronting and processing regret rather than suppressing it, you can turn it into a compass for living with more intention.
What Money Can’t Buy
Michael J. Sandel
Markets are efficient at allocating goods, but when everything is for sale, market values begin to crowd out non-market values that matter deeply — fairness, civic duty, human dignity. We have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society, where the logic of buying and selling increasingly governs areas of life that should be governed by other values.
Nexus
Yuval Noah Harari
Information is not the same as truth — throughout history, the most powerful information networks have been built on myths, bureaucracies, and now algorithms, each with their own biases and blind spots. AI represents a fundamentally new kind of entity: unlike all previous tools, it can make decisions and generate content autonomously, raising unprecedented questions about power and accountability.
The Audacity of Hope
The work of each generation is to close the gap between what we claim to believe and how we actually live.
Barack Obama
Atomic Habits
James Clear
You don't rise to the level of your goals — you fall to the level of your systems; goals tell you where to go but habits determine whether you get there.
10% Happier
Dan Harris
Meditation can help you stabilize even in the tough times. Reactivity makes us human; Mindfulness can elevate the human living experience.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
People are primarily motivated by feeling important and understood — criticism rarely changes behavior, but genuine appreciation does. The most powerful thing you can do in any conversation is become sincerely interested in the other person, because everyone's favorite topic is themselves.
Dale Carnegie
Greenlights
Matthew Mcconaughey
Life is not a problem to be solved but a story to be lived, and the authors of the best stories are unafraid to be the hero of their own adventures.
I learned how much I enjoy Matthew McConauhey’s voice through this audiobook.
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho
The journey toward your dream will transform you in ways the destination alone never could, and the treasure you seek is often found in the journey itself. Most people abandon their Personal Legends the moment the world starts pushing back, mistaking obstacles for signs to stop.
Deep Work
Cal Newport
The ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task is becoming increasingly rare and increasingly valuable — making it a superpower for those who cultivate it. Shallow work (emails, meetings, reactive tasks) expands to fill whatever time you allow it; protecting blocks of uninterrupted focus requires deliberate, almost radical, scheduling decisions.
Letters in Stoicism
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
We suffer more in imagination than in reality — most of what we dread never happens, and obsessing over possible future pain multiplies it needlessly. Time is the one truly finite resource; learning to use it well, rather than letting others consume it, is the foundation of a philosophical life. Virtue is the only true good because it's the only thing entirely within your control, immune to fortune, circumstance, and the opinions of others.
Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Erik Barker
The traits that make people successful in extreme situations — stubbornness, rule-breaking, intense focus — are often the same traits that destroy relationships and derail careers in normal contexts; context is everything.
Getting Beyond Better
Roger Martin, Sally Osberg
I learned about Social Entrepreneurs from this book. Social entrepreneurs don't just improve existing systems — they target unjust equilibria and fundamentally transform them by changing the actors, incentives, and structures involved. The difference between incremental improvement and true transformation is willingness to challenge the assumptions everyone else accepts as fixed.
Unlimited Power
Tony Robbins
The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your habitual mental and physical states, and you have far more control over both than you think. Modeling excellence — studying exactly what the best in any field do differently — is the fastest shortcut to mastery, because someone has already done the hard work of figuring out what works.
Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari
What made Homo sapiens the dominant species wasn't physical strength — it was the unique ability to believe in and cooperate around shared fictions like money, nations, religions, and corporations. The story of humanity is largely the story of how imagined orders — systems we collectively believe in even though they exist only in our minds — shape reality.
Clear Thinking
Shane Parrish
Most bad decisions aren't made in moments of careful reflection — they're made automatically, when our default behaviors hijack the situation before reason has a chance to engage. Creating space between stimulus and response is the single most important habit for consistently making good decisions, and it requires deliberately designing your environment and routines.
The Coaching Habit
Michael Bungay Stanier
The most powerful thing a manager or coach can do is stay curious a little longer before jumping to advice — the 'Advice Monster' in all of us rushes in too fast and solves the wrong problem. Helping others less and asking more creates greater independence, capability, and engagement than constant hand-holding ever could.
The 4 Hour Workweek
The goal shouldn't be to work less but to create maximum output with minimum wasted input — ruthlessly eliminating, automating, and delegating anything that doesn't require your unique skills. 'Lifestyle design' means engineering your life to have the freedom, mobility, and income you want now, not after a 40-year career, by asking what is the worst that could realistically happen if you tried something bold. Fear of failure is almost always overestimated and the cost of inaction is almost always underestimated — the new rich measure success in time and mobility, not money.
Tim Ferriss
Unreasonable Hospitality
Will Guidara
The 'unreasonable' extra touch (a hot dog from a street cart for a guest who mentioned it in passing) costs almost nothing but creates a memory that lasts forever.
Current Side-quests
Goals fail in the gap between what we can't say and what they can't see. This app closes it.
I am currently working with a co-founder to design this app.
Accountability App
I co-founded designwalks™ in 2025. designwalks is a community-led series that brings designers together through conversation, movement, and shared reflection. Each walk explores a different theme, using the environment as a prompt for deeper thinking and meaningful connection.
Are you a creative in Toronto looking for community?
Join us on our next designwalk.
designwalks
Other things that have shaped me psychologically
The power of Love, and splitting from long-term relationships
Relationships can be the biggest stabilizer and also the biggest destabilizer. From friends to romantic partners, who we choose to spend time with can have huge implications in our life.
Is the most important metric in love how another person defines you? How do two people’s previous lived experiences define their presence in a current relationship?
30km in is when the race really starts. That’s when the body wants to give up, but the mind keeps pushing.
I ran my first full marathon in 2025. It was one of the toughest things I have done physically. My social circles now consist of a lot of runners who show me how much is possible with consistency.
Running a Marathon
Speaking/Guest Engagements:
Some of us are in a Situationship with our work
View details of my talk here
(The presentation and handout will be posted here later)
International Design Conference
Industrial Designers Society of America
Pasadena, LA, August 2026
Next in Line Design Podcast
Find me in the following episodes:
- Welcome to YDC
- Design Education: Three Generations
- Wellbeing by Design: Harnessing Technology for Mental Health
- A Chat for Design Grads: Building the Perfect Portfolio
Available on the WDO Website
World Design Organization, 2025
Heritage in Motion
Host and Jury Member
Design Sprint
View the Report
World Design Organization, 2025
It Always Comes Full Circle
Better Thinking, Better Outcomes
Resilience Conference
Watch it on YouTube
View the PDF Presentation
Say Hi to The Future, September 2024
Get Emotional
Celebrating World Industrial Design Day
International Balkan University, June 2024
Design at the Intersection of Accessibility and Inclusion
Year End Show YES! Panel Discussion
Watch it on YouTube
School of Design at George Brown College, May 2022
Understanding and Uncovering Why Design and Designers Should Care About The World
Resources to dive deeper into:
Design for the Real World
Victor Papanek
Design for the Real World opens with one of the most confrontational preambles in design literature. Papanek declares that there are professions more harmful than industrial design, "but only a very few of them," and that advertising design — "in persuading people to buy things they don't need, with money they don't have, in order to impress others who don't care" — is "probably the phoniest field in existence today."
Doughnut Economics
The economy doesn't need to grow endlessly — it needs to operate within a "doughnut": above a social foundation where everyone's basic needs are met, and below an ecological ceiling where we don't destroy the planet. GDP is a deeply flawed scorecard; a thriving economy should be measured by whether people have enough, not whether output keeps climbing. Raworth shows that regenerative and distributive economies aren't utopian dreams — they can be deliberately designed through smarter institutions, incentives, and ways of measuring what actually matters.
Kate Raworth
Social Entrepreneurships to look into:
Grameen Bank
Muhammad Yunus
Microfinance for the rural poor who had no access to traditional banking. Didn't improve banking — created an entirely new financial system for people banks had written off. Nobel Peace Prize, 2006.
Partners in Health
Brought serious medical treatment to the rural poor in Haiti and beyond, in places the global health system had decided weren't worth the infrastructure. Changed the equilibrium of what "possible healthcare" means in resource-poor settings.
Learn about our partnership with Partners in Health, Canada, where my class reimagined their digital engagement strategy to help increase donations.
Paul Farmer
More resources and things to look into:
I often cite these reports. Through extensive research, they act as a good reminder about where happiness is found.
I came across camp reset a couple of years ago while having a discussion about this topic with Jay Wall.
While I had come across these before, it was my 2026 trip to Portugal where I met someone who had lived in some intentional communities before and from whom I got to learn more about them. My take is that people may still want them, but it’s hard for the everyday person to leave the everyday Maya behind.