You can get in touch with me: lin'at'mindoflin.com or subscribe to my substack: The Purpose Lab

About Lin

Mind of Lin is my personal website where I share the contents of my mind that I find is useful for me and hopefully for you as well.

My goal is that this website will be a place where you can learn and apply tools, techniques and frameworks of transformation so you can create the life that you want.

How I got the idea for this website

The contents of this website is an amalgamation of ideas, life experiences, meditation practice, reflections, contemplations and work experiences. All experiences have lead to the present state of me and the result is this website.

Childhood hobbies

A big part of my childhood was playing video games with my friends. We all had the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and played games like Super Mario, Megaman and Contra.

Playing video games was a big hobby for me. During my high-school days I used to play video games after finishing my studies for the day. My favorite games that impacted me the most were the RPGs, like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. At that time I decided that I wanted to become a game developer when I grow up.

Because of my interest in games I attended high-school with a technical focus and learned programming and math. Later on I decided to take courses in computer Science and engineering in university.

My Studies in Engineering

In university I got a Master's degree in Computer Science and focused in interactive simulations (more specifically, Collision Detection for interactive simulations of rigid bodies).

During the end of the studies in university I had to decide what I wanted to to after finishing. I reflected on a life-purpose and came to the conclusion that the most meaningful way of living my life was to teach others what I have learned. Mainly, because you cannot bring anything with you when you die, So I thought that the best way to leave something behind is to share knowledge to the next generation. To this day this is still part of my mission. At that time it was knowledge-sharing in the setting of a academic career in research and after that more focus on the teaching part.

So I decided to apply for graduate studies (Phd). I looked around in various universities in the world and got an internship offer at a renowned top science university, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). At that time (probably still) was the top university to attend for Science and Engineering in South-Korea. In my case, Computer Science. I thought that an internship was a good way of getting the feet wet and try out the academic path. So I joined a research group in Korea, focusing on Algorithmic robotics. Later, I joined the lab as a Master student.

The results of my studies was a publication in a top robotics conference, IROS 2013. See the link for the paper.

The depression and negative mindset

During my research in South-Korea I realized how though of an environment it was mentally. I was surrounded with brilliant students and felt that I was not good enough for research. Impostor syndrome crept up on me and dealing with it in daily activities became quite the challenge. I became depressed and a felt a sense of dread and heaviness in the body which was an accumulation over time from injuries in martial arts training. My martial arts training was a serious hobby for me and also a hobby I truly enjoyed at the time (and I am still enjoying it now). I remembered somehow that meditation could help with depression so I googled on meditation training in the area and found a martial arts and meditation club nearby, which I joined.

The turning point

When I was in the club I practiced Korean traditional martial arts (기천문) and meditation practice (letting-go practice). After practicing for around a month I felt this heavy weight getting dropped off my body. I felt much lighter. I also got this euphoric happiness which I never felt before. All objects that I looked at seemed to have a bright quality to it (lasted around 1 week). I got hooked on meditation and became serious with the practice, which is counter-productive when it comes to meditation. My depression lifted and I felt my better and could continue on in my academic pursuits. I realized I was not free from all the negative emotions that was part of me during my university studies and during my Korea visit. I did realize that the negative emotion was probably from past thinking which conditioned my thinking mind to believe in certain thoughts and emotions. As a result I became more aware of my thoughts and mental reactions to experiences occurring to me.

The uprooting of conditioned reactions

Because of my experiences and mental makeup I do get easily stressed up and worry about all sort of things. I continued practicing meditation after my South-Korea visit. I became less stressed and joined the work force as an software engineer consultant. The work did not feel right. When you are employed you are somewhat less free because you have to do what the employer want you to do. I guess this is what others call "selling your soul" when you get employed. I felt that the job was not right and too stressful for me so I quit. I decided to join a 11 day Vipassana meditation retreat. I learned Vipassana meditation (S. N. Goenka lineage) which helped me uproot even more unconditioned, unprocessed emotions/stress in the body. As a result life became less dreadful, but I am not free from dreadfulness and suffering. That I know for sure. Life is now much better.

Joining the work force again as a teacher

After quitting my job and learning vipassana meditation I tried teaching (hourly employments), which I enjoyed more. I guess my reflection during my university time was right and still resonating with me. So I became a certified teacher for high-school (grades 10-12), teaching math, technology and programming. I have now been teaching for more than a decade. I enjoy teaching the subjects I love.

My Solo-entrepreneur efforts

During my career as a teacher in technology I felt that a coursebook for a technology course was missing in the market so I created my own digital book, which I sold to many Schools in Sweden. At that time (2022) I was also expecting my first child which pushed me to finish my book and self-publishing it online (here). I sold the book during 2022-2025. Because the course became a legacy course (due to new teaching guidelines for the new grading system), I released my book for free 2025. If you are interested in reading it you can find it in my Swedish teaching portal: praktiskteknik.se (practical tech).

Becoming a lead-teacher at my school

During my latest job I got the chance to become a lead-teacher. I was responsible in leading four teachers to improve the student's motivation and mindset. During this time I got more serious in reflecting and contemplating my actions and values in life and came to the conclusion that my core values, what I value in life are: Basics: Mental clarity, knowing and concentration. Without these you cannot clearly and objectively observe your inner happenings (experiences).Core: Creativity, Fundamentals and Adaptation. With these abilities you can apply knowledge, create complex stuff and create value for yourself and others. With adaptation you will be able to adjust your path so you advance in your learnings and creative pursuits. Creating: In this category of core value, I value Craftmanship, for integrity of my creations, Simplicity to see what matters and value creation which will create something that has a context for me and others. In the Evolution category: Giving to the next generation. My reasoning is that you cannot take anything with you when you die. All your desires will be worthless and your material belongings, you have to leave behind.

Nothing is yours, which mean you can only give to others

That is my conclusions to my core values. All core value categories lead to the next and in the end everything produced is for others.

My take is that you will probably be forgotten in a couple of generations after your death. What I have said and done are probably forgotten with time. I can make impact in other people's mind by providing value to others. That in turn can affect how they understand their reality and what they value. This impact affects the evolution of human minds. All these reflections and contemplations have lead me to where I am at now.

My leap to total uncertainty and taking full responsibility of my actions

During my lead teacher position, which was a temporary position for one year, I realized how I was treated unfairly when i came to my salary development compared to others colleagues. I felt that colleagues with less experience had higher base salary than me and teachers with similar work (teaching technology), but not having the same technology depth and know-how had way higher salary. I confronted my boss with my findings, which basically said I had the right salary. That answer I did not agree with. The boss also clearly literally said that what I did in work was not unique and other teachers can take my job and do it. That was the last straw. So I decided to take a sabbatical leave from my teaching work and try out the entrepreneurial path. I also got in touch with my union, which basically said that all things produced at work is owned by the school. Which means I have no ownership and control over my creations and materials.

The bottom line is that I do not like the fact that I am replaceable and I lose control of all that I have created. During all these years I feel like I have given all my energy in order to improve our school but it is not acknowledge. I have create lots of material that is used by other colleagues and I know that I am not properly valued at my job. All that said I have decided to take the path of full career freedom, where all that I produced are valued by others more transparently. The result of how it is valued are definitely more clear to me. I get full control in what I create without a course curriculum deciding what I can and cannot teach. On the positive side, I have acquired skills that I can leverage an scale up if I execute my entrepreneurial decisions right.

The tradeoff by making this transition is that I lose predictability of income every month and there is uncertainty in whether I make it economically every month. The effect of my decisions is that I will get back my career self-worth and respect. That, in itself is invaluable.

What is next up for me

Right now I live by my core values and navigate my life with those in my heart and mind. I will value my health and design a career around my life and not around. This website is just the starting point and I share all my tips and tricks in how to make this transition to a more purposeful life in alignment with your core values here.

I have shared the blueprint/transformation framework that I have used to come to this point. Sign in to this website (not sign up required) in order to access this transformation framework for free (right now. I plan to publish my book after getting feedback to a book platform like Amazon Kindle). The process is definitely helpful but requires effort from the reader side, as required for all changes for the better. The digital book is in the resource page. If you want more articles like this and more tips, blueprints, frameworks in order to improve your life, join my substack newsletter: The Purpose Lab (see top of page).

Kind regards,
Lin