Trying to understand how people work. I focus on "zero to one" research: unanswered questions about the world – often hiding in plain sight – that lack a descriptive framework. My work has been supported by Emergent Ventures, Ford Foundation, Harvard University, Schmidt Futures, Ethereum Foundation, Protocol Labs, Cosmos Institute, and others.
I think theory should derive from practice, so in addition to writing to understand a topic, I like to find ways to test those ideas in the "real world." I've worked at GitHub and Substack in pursuit of those interests, and my work usually has a strong ethnographic approach: trying to understand a place or a thing based on how people actually use it.
My writing mostly lives on Substack these days, but I keep this site as a little pied-à-terre on the internet.
(Note: I changed my last name; you can also find my work under Nadia Eghbal.)
Jhanas – a series of altered mental states that are accessed via concentration – are often described as an “advanced meditation practice,” a phrase that suggests that one must be a skilled meditator to access them: just as only a skilled outdoorsman would embark upon an expedition to the Arctic Circle. It implies that meditation exists on a spectrum of difficulty, with perhaps mindfulness apps like Calm and Headspace on one end, and jhanas on the other.
The jhanas are a series of eight (or nine) altered mental states, which progress from euphoria, to calm, to dissolution of reality – culminating in cessation, or loss of consciousness. They are induced via sustained concentration, without any external stimuli or substances. This is a practical guide on how to do them yourself.
I participated in the Summer of Protocols research program this summer as a Core Researcher. It was an 18-week program, funded by the Ethereum Foundation, that aimed to catalyze a wider exploration of protocols and their social implications.