Backyard

NOTICE TO THE READER

This book contains no instructions, frameworks, exercises, affirmations, or guarantees.

It does not promise improvement, clarity, healing, productivity, or personal growth.

Any sense of relief experienced while reading is incidental and not reproducible on demand.

This book does not replace therapy, discipline, ambition, structure, or purpose.
It also does not oppose them.

If you are uncomfortable without pressure, deadlines, or internal narration, stop reading now.

Prolonged exposure may result in:

reduced mental rehearsal
shortened internal arguments
loss of urgency without loss of function
difficulty justifying unnecessary stress

The author assumes no responsibility for readers who discover they were carrying more than required.

By continuing, you accept that nothing in this book needs you.

INTERNAL MEMORANDUM

The book was briefly circulated inside a large consulting firm as part of a “mental wellness reading list.”

Within two weeks, HR requested its removal.

An internal memo cited “unintended cognitive side effects,” including:

employees declining optional meetings without guilt
junior staff no longer over-explaining their decisions
managers reporting “a noticeable drop in performative urgency”

One partner described the book as “deeply unmotivating in a way that’s hard to argue against.”

Another wrote:
“People aren’t disengaged. They’re just… not anxious anymore.
We don’t know how to manage that.”

The book was quietly replaced with a title about resilience.

No official ban was issued.

It simply stopped being mentioned.

Someone I Know

Someone I know keeps arguing with a version of himself that no longer exists.

The argument usually starts in the shower.
Continues on the train.
Peaks somewhere between opening email and not sending one.

He doesn’t want advice.
He doesn’t want closure.
He just wants the argument to stop following him around.

So he opens MindFlipOut and writes one response. Not the correct one. Not the mature one. Just one that ends the conversation.

He closes the app before the thought can object.

The problem isn’t solved.
The future isn’t brighter.
But the argument doesn’t make it to lunch.

He eats without defending himself to anyone.