Rohan Monteiro

 But you … you’re omnicognisant,’ said Brutha. ‘That doesn’t mean I know everything.’ Brutha bit his lip. ‘Um. Yes. It does.’ ‘You sure?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Thought that was omnipotent.’ ‘No. That means you’re all-powerful. And you are. That’s what it says in the Book of Ossory. He was one of the Great Prophets, you know. I hope,’ Brutha added. ‘Who told him I was omnipotent?’ ‘You did.’ ‘No I didn’t.’ ‘Well, he said you did.’ ‘Don’t even remember anyone called Ossory,’ the tortoise muttered. ‘You spoke to him in the desert,’ said Brutha. ‘You must remember. He was eight feet tall? With a very long beard? And a huge staff? And the glow of the holy horns shining out of his head?’ He hesitated. But he’d seen the statues and the holy icons. They couldn’t be wrong. ‘Never met anyone like that,’ said the small god Om. ‘Maybe he was a bit shorter,’ Brutha conceded. ‘Ossory. Ossory,’ said the tortoise. ‘No … no … can’t say I—’ ‘He said that you spoke unto him from out of a pillar of flame,’ said Bru...

 Finally read 3 of Howard Andrew Jones Books titled the Hanuvar trilogy - meant to be a series of 5 books but unfortunately he died midway. So, as you might have guessed, I quite enjoyed the books. If you've ever read Savage Sword of Conan or just Conan in general, it has a very similar sword and sorcery feel. I have been a fan of Howard Andrew Jones ever since I read his excellent Ring-Sworn trilogy.  The very broad plot? This is the story of Hannibal (the general, not the cannibal) after the fall of Carthage. Except, instead of consuming poison and dying like the one in our world, Hanuvar goes around the Roman empire rescuing his countrymen who have been enslaved and shipping them towards a new island home. What this story did is made me want to read a lot more about Hannibal.  And so I now have Adrian Goldsworthy and Philip Matsyzak on my to read list.

 On occasion while I am doom scrolling Reddit, i come across a post that makes me stop, read and then re-read again, because of how insightful it is. The following was on r/AskHistorians . It felt like a well-explained summary and I decided to save it and re-post it here. I did not write the below, though I wish I did. ***** Can someone explain the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?   Hi, I’ll take a stab at giving a relatively short explanation that tries to get to the root of the problem. While people often make the mistake of thinking the Israel Palestinian conflict is ancient, you don’t have to go back thousands of years to understand it, but you do have to go back over 100, to the late 1800s in Europe to really understand the origins of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. In this time period, the majority of the world’s Jewish population lives in Europe. While in lots of parts of Europe Jews are integrated into society and relatively successful, basically everywhe...

 I was chatting with my 10 year old on the bus to school and the 10 commandments came up. for context, my daughter age 8 has a quiz at church and I wanted to make sure she was up to date. His question " Why do the commandments not include something like " don't torture people?" Which honestly is a great question that I never thought of when I was a kid. I explained it with  the rationale about how all bronze age religions were a bit bloodthirsty - he's been listening to 'Greeking out' and so he knew specific examples of human sacrifice in Greek mythology as well - Agamemnon's daughter, the offering to the minotaur etc. But it got me thinking - the original draft was actually not too great - it focusses mainly on worship rules and a few core social prohibitions (murder, theft, adultery, lying). They do not explicitly address several ethical issues modern societies consider fundamental—such as slavery, torture, equality of persons, or treatment of outs...

  Lifehack #5 Build Systems, not habits. This advice was given by james Clear in Atomic habits. I love the idea. I used to try building a habit to write 1000 words every day. It didn't work. It annoyed me . And it was very easy to give up. A habit is the thing you do. A system is the setup that makes you do it. Most of us obsess over habits. We say we’re going to wake up early, write every day, exercise more, save money. Those are all behaviors. They sound concrete, but they rely heavily on motivation, and motivation is fickle. Some days you have it. Most days you don’t. Clear’s argument is that focusing on the habit alone is backwards. Instead of trying to force yourself to behave better, you redesign the environment around you so the behavior becomes the path of least resistance. If you want to write, the habit is “write 500 words.” The system is having a fixed time, a clear desk, your document already open, and your phone out of reach. If you want to work out, the habit is exerc...

I am seeing a lot of current competitions that are banning the use of AI completely, and I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I see what they are trying to do. The rise of AI-generated slop, not to mention the disturbing level of AI use even on forums like Reddit and Quora, in emails and in social media posts, is annoying at best and a serious concern at worst. Scammers are more sophisticated with their phishing. I miss the Nigerian princes. And the American soldier in Iraq who found a ton of gold. Some of those tales were actually pretty good. Fake news, which was always a concern, now requires even lower effort to generate, and the content is really mind-numbingly stupid. In this environment, it makes sense to carve out a space for ourselves and declare this off-limits to AI. To insist that writing is exclusively for humans.A place where writing is supposed to come from sweat, misery, caffeine, and years of craft. Soulless machines have to wait by the door. Noble. Slightly ...

 There are several things that we know we need to do, but somehow we don't get around to doing them.  Multiple reasons - we are lazy, we forget, it doesn't seem important but at some level we know its the right thing to do and we resist it. I see this with my kids when its time to brush their teeth. On some level, I get it - When you are a teenage boy, hygiene isn't  really a top concern- which also probably explains why I was a virgin for so long. The point of this post is for me to list down a few things that work for me - I'm going to call them lifehacks because that's how I think of them. They aren't unique ideas - you probably have heard of them or even implement them occasionally. But these have often helped me the most. Lifehack #1 - Goal Setting I set up 2 or 3 goals for the year in January. These are written down and revisited once a month. My Goals for 2026 Write Book 3 of the Waking Dead series Pitch my non-fiction to a non Indian publisher Write the ...

  I have one fabulous review from Prashant Srivastav (Author of The Spice gate ) that precisely sums up the lead character in a single sentence. Here's the Amazon link for those who are convinced :-)

 I truly believe our role as authors , artists and content creators in this digital age is to push the boundaries of what is and isn't culturally acceptable. To shape narratives and promote new ideas because that's the only way a society can grow. Whether you are a stand up comedian using satire or a debut author with the social media footprint of a gnat, your role is to stand up and question. To be the voice of dissent. Because some things are worth standing up for. I have articulated this in multiple conversations (usually with Internet trolls) but maybe I should write this here as well. A list of unpopular opinions Thoughts on Israel : They have committed genocide Thoughts on Modi : He needs to spend less time orgasming about Nehru, Aurangzeb and temples and actually get shit done. Thoughts on religion :The world would probably be better off without it. Thoughts on the Orange Pumpkin : he is definitely in the Epstein files Thoughts on LGBTQ rights : Support them fully. Too m...

 

Original answer I encountered on Quora can be found here   In the movie Pixels, there is a scene where Tetris blocks suddenly fall from the sky, arrange themselves on buildings in the real world and thus destroy them. Remember this image, for it’ll be your guide towards razor-sharp focus. Vladimir Pokhilko wanted to stay at a friend’s house in Tokyo for a week. There was only one problem: They had a brand new Game Boy. And Tetris. At night, geometric shapes fell in the darkness as I lay on loaned tatami floor space. Days, I sat on a lavender suede sofa and played Tetris furiously. During rare jaunts from the house, I visually fit cars and trees and people together. Dubiously hunting a job and a house, I was still there two months later, still jobless, still playing. What Vladimir Pokhilko learned in those two months changed how we view video games forever. Being a clinical psychologist, he became obsessed with the idea that Tetris must have an impact on our neural system. Some kind...

 Every time  I read a non-fiction book that I like, I make a few notes. Sentences, the occasional turn of phrase, bits that resonated with me.  I decided to start publishing some of them here so that the zero followers I have could also appreciate them.   The following excerpt is taken from 'Quit -the Power of Knowing when to walk away by Anne Duke. We view grit and quit as opposing forces. After all, you either persevere or you abandon course. You can’t do both at the same time, and in the battle between the two, quitting has clearly lost. While grit is a virtue, quitting is a vice. The advice of legendarily successful people is often boiled down to the same message: Stick to things and you will succeed. By definition, anybody who has succeeded at something has stuck with it. That’s a statement of fact, always true in hindsight. But that doesn’t mean that the inverse is true, that if you stick to something, you will succeed at it. Prospectively, it’s neither true n...

 Everytime I read a non-fiction book that I like, I make a few notes. I decided to start publishing them here so that the zero followers I have could also appreciate them. The following excerpt is taken from ' Paper -Paging through History by Mark Kurlansky'. Studying the history of paper exposes a number of historical misconceptions, the most important of which is this technological fallacy: the idea that technology changes society. It is exactly the reverse. Society develops technology to address the changes that are taking place within it. To use a simple example, in China in 250 BCE, Meng Tian invented a paintbrush made from camel hair. His invention did not suddenly inspire the Chinese people to start writing and painting, or to develop calligraphy. Rather, Chinese society had already established a system of writing but had a growing urge for more written documents and more elaborate calligraphy. Their previous tool—a stick dipped in ink—could not meet the rising demand. M...

 Went to a board gaming event at the Asian Civilization Museum - It was a really fun evening and I ended up meeting a group of board gamers here in Singapore.   I also played 4 games - 3 of which I had never played before - Chai Garam , a worker placement mechanic where you are running a tea stall to collect reviews; Century Golem where you build a gem collection engine - similar to Splendor but different mechanics & Secret Hitler which is a social deduction game. It was only the next day that wifey pointed out something I didn't notice at all - I didn't play any games exclusively with my daughter. Girl z is 8 and Boy Z is 10 - I tend to play games with him more often because he instinctively picks up and understands more complex games. Except, she still needs my attention. And I need to get better at recognizing it. Boy Z is cautious, careful, diligent, loves to read. Girl Z is a happy skipping lark who likes shiny objects. Boy Z takes time to open up. Girl Z will...

 https://asian-reviews.com/2025/03/11/fiction-mirrors-the-truths-emotions-and-complexities-of-the-world-we-inhabit-rohan-monteiro/   Fiction mirrors the truths, emotions, and complexities of the world we inhabit.” Rohan Monteiro By dhanukadickwella on 11 Mar 2025 • ( Leave a comment ) Q: Not everyone writes, nor can everyone write. Tell us what inspired you to pick up a pen and start writing, along with a brief introduction of yourself. A: It was 2014. I had just learned I was going to be a dad. I was at that point a research consultant in Singapore in a job and role that wasn’t going anywhere. I felt I needed to do something with my life that my kid (s) would look up to. Something that felt more meaningful instead of sitting in an office all day. That’s when I decided to write a book. My name is Rohan Monteiro, and my first non-fiction novel, ‘Keep Calm and Go Crazy’, was published in 2015 by HarperCollins. My most recent book was relea...

 

  Writing, requires the wearing of many hats. Its tempting to focus on honing your craft and leaving everything else to the professionals. It was one of those lessons hammered into us during our MBA days — outsource everything that isn’t a core competence and focus on what you are good at. The real world challenge, however is that we still need to find semi-competent sources to outsource the other processes to. Bear in mind, these are still essential processes, they are just not ones where we have an edge and so we tend to rely on those who claim they are good at their jobs. For ‘ Shadows Rising’ I chose one particular agency. In retrospect, I should have done a little more research before selecting them. But on the surface, they seemed good enough and I figured what’s the worst that could happen? Turns out, quite a bit. I worked with them for social media posts and Amazon Ads. I have no real complaints about the social media post aspects — there were challenges but nothing that c...