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Jay Vidyarthi đ´
Founder at Still Ape â Training + Curriculum at Healthy Minds Program â Co-Founder at Feel Good Games
Jay Vidyarthi is a notable figure in the fields of user experience design and mindfulness technology. He is the Co-Founder of Feel Good Games, a company focused on creating engaging gaming experiences that promote well-being. Additionally, he is the founder of Still Ape, a UX design studio dedicated to mindfulness and compassion, which aims to integrate these principles into technology and user experiences.
Professional Background
Vidyarthi has over a decade of experience in mindfulness practices, having participated in extensive retreats and training programs. His work emphasizes the intersection of technology and mental health, where he has contributed to various projects, including the Muse brain-sensing headband and other mindful technologies.13 He has also been involved with organizations like the Healthy Minds Program, where he develops curricula that promote mental well-being.6
Contributions and Philosophy
As an "attention activist," Vidyarthi advocates for a balanced relationship with technology, encouraging individuals to reclaim their attention in a world saturated with distractions. His approach combines user-centered design with mindfulness practices, aiming to create products that foster self-care and personal transformation.234 His insights have been featured in prominent platforms such as Harvard, MIT, TED, and Forbes.23
Current Role
At Feel Good Games, Vidyarthi is focused on developing card games and other interactive experiences that not only entertain but also contribute positively to players' mental health. His commitment to creating meaningful gaming experiences reflects his broader mission of promoting well-being through innovative design.56
Highlights
I wrote a book, y'all. Just sent the manuscript to the publisher last week! đ
It all began with two pieces of writing that resonated online, where I first introduced the term âattention activismâ. I started a newsletter, only to be humbled by how challenging it is to write something great, so I gave up on the book idea for a while and kept writing articles.
As the public dialogue around tech use polarized, I found more nuance. My peers in tech went all techno-utopian, while wellness influencers became almost anti-tech. The experiments I was running in my own life always led me between the extremes to a radical form of moderation.
Between the moral panic and techno-optimism, attention activism went from a curiosity to a calling.
The thought of writing a book was still daunting, but the fear dissipated when I realized that I didnât have to write a book to scratch this itch, I just had to write an outline. It might never go anywhere, and thatâs okay. As it turns out, breaking a big project into smaller chunks really works. I shared the outline with a few people, and got a lot of encouraging feedback and a few bites from hybrid publishers. I felt a mix of excitement and disbeliefâwas I actually going to commit to this?
With the publishing agreement signed and money on the line, I plunged into writing. It was an emotional rollercoaster. Some days, I was on a high, thrilled with my progress. Other days, it felt like garbage. I felt like garbage. Who would ever want to read this? Itâs all been said before.
When I finally had a first draft, my wife was the first to read it. She poked a lot of holes for me to fill. From there, I enlisted 12 beta readers and subject matter experts who provided almost 700 individual comments and reactions. To my great relief, the vast majority were positive (look at all the â¤ď¸s in the attached image!). A few even told me stories about how their lives were already changing in small, important ways.
Whatâs interesting is that â despite all my uncertainty about this over the years â just getting to a first draft is already very satisfying. It felt like climbing a mountain, and no matter who reads it or what they think, standing here at the summit, I can say for sure that Iâm proud of it. Anything else that happens now is just icing on the cake.
Last week I shared the work-in-progress book description as an exclusive on my email list. If you're not already subscribed, you missed it. But don't worry, in the months to come, I will be sharing more exclusives, including invites to share feedback, never-before-seen excerpts, early discounts, and even a contest! Subscribe free at attentionactivist [dot] com for full access.
SFU is where I first successfully integrated my passion for meditation with a growing design practice through Sonic Cradle. I never expected that I'd still be working at this intersection a decade later! Integrating the personal and professional has been a huge source of wellbeing in my life, so I hope this chat on the alumni podcast helps today's students find the same:
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Itâs even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isnât as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.