How to Think Like an Innovator: Fall in Love With the Problem, Not the Solution | Adhisha Gammanpila of Feynman

How to think like an innovator starts with one shift most people never make: stop building the solution you love and start falling in love with the problem in front of you. This episode is a masterclass in exactly that — from a quantum computing founder who has been doing it since he was 14 years old.

Adhisha Gammanpila is the founder of Feynman, a quantum computing AI platform making advanced science accessible to researchers worldwide. He is one of Sri Lanka's earliest published quantum computing researchers, a former assistant lecturer at Jadavpur University's Computer Science department, and a serial entrepreneur whose platforms have served over one million users and processed 700 million rupees in revenue. He built his first app at 14 — a mobile encryption tool called TED (Text Encrypt and Decrypt) — to hide messages from his parents after getting caught with a crush. It spread to 50,000 downloads across Sri Lanka and India and won second place at Oracle Silicon Valley. He has a self-reported success rate of 1.1% — one success out of roughly two hundred attempts. He is still building.

This conversation is not about quantum computing. It is about what happens when a deeply creative person decides to treat every problem they encounter as an invitation — and never stops asking: can we do it in this way?

In this episode, Sheran and Adhisha go deep on:

▸ How to think like an innovator — the mindset shift from solution-builder to problem-lover that separates people who build something real from people who keep building the wrong thing beautifully
▸ Creative problem solving as a daily practice — how divergence thinking, solitude, and long garden walks generate better ideas than any brainstorm session
▸ How to deal with rejection as an entrepreneur — the exact mental reframe that turns a professor saying "I have no value in this" into a product pivot and a new market
▸ Inner child and creativity in adults — why keeping your inner child alive is not soft, it is a competitive advantage, and why the most creative leaders Adhisha has met are the ones who never stopped playing
▸ Using AI for self-awareness — the 16Personalities method and personal app Adhisha built to predict his own future mistakes before they happen
▸ Ego, Carl Jung, and the Sinhalese rice stalk — a proverb from a former CXO of Hemas that reframes humility as the mark of real value, not weakness
▸ Where real confidence comes from — and why it is not confidence at all but trust in the inner voice, built by looking back at what actually worked
▸ The teacher who said "you somehow made it" — and why that one line still plays in Adhisha's mind every time he hits a wall

This episode is for the creative person who keeps building what they want to build instead of what the problem actually needs. If you have felt the gap between your vision and what the world is telling you — and you are not sure whether to push through or pivot — Adhisha's framework will change how you read that signal. You do not need to know anything about quantum computing to get everything out of this conversation.

🎙️ Host: Sheran Ranasinghe
🎨 Guest: Adhisha Gammanpila — Founder, Feynman | Quantum Computing Researcher
📍 Recorded at: Future Ink Graphics, Cleveland, Ohio
📩 Contact: thecreativeodysseypodcast@gmail.com
📸 Instagram: @thecreativeodysseypodcast | @sheranstories
Produced by Odyssey House Media

Keywords: Adhisha Gammanpila, Feynman quantum computing, The Creative Odyssey Podcast, Sheran Ranasinghe, Odyssey House Media, how to think like an innovator, creative problem solving, divergence thinking, inner child creativity adults, how to deal with rejection as an entrepreneur, fall in love with the problem not the solution, entrepreneur mindset, imposter syndrome, self-awareness, quantum computing Sri Lanka, personal development podcast, Sri Lankan entrepreneur, creativity and innovation

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Because you have to fall in love with the problem and you're not the solution, you are trying to be. Not following the hurt. You break the hurt. That is where the creativity comes in. Everyone must be doing it in this way. Can you do it in this way? That curiosity, that spark is the creativity. I take pride in having my inner child alive. And that is my greatest strength. Knowing that your inner child is alive and it will do all the weird things, even your uh 30-year-old die, and you let go of your ego, what others will think, and you just do what your inner child is doing. I spend a lot of time in solitude, I would say that is where the creative users play. I think it's called divergence thinking. And when you have all those options, you sit down and think shortly, and then it becomes convergence thinking. That's how I do it. And once you do that, once in a week, you are good for like good several months because you are focused. It's self-effort, conscious attempt to detach, not to let the external pressures drive you. I trust that inner voice, that just gives me the confidence. I will say the number of times I got succeeded is one not fine, it's just you keep on trying and you will somehow figure it out. That voice always goes in my mind. And for the eight-year-old that you said, again, I would say keep on doing it, you will figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

What do you do, and how do you explain it to somebody who has no idea about the field you're in?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Absolutely. So uh what we have been doing is we are making quantum computing easy to use. So the question that comes to me is okay, what is quantum computing? So I'll go with that. Okay. So uh we know everything around all this cameras, mics, phones, TVs, internet, everything goes with computing.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

And over time, computing becomes faster and faster and faster. Now in the world, it's at a point where things cannot get much more faster. It's like saturated at a point. And that means can technology advance any more further? It's a question to ask. And uh the next era is quantum. Quantum is much more faster, can give better results in terms of computing. And that is what quantum computing is. And the problem with that is it's very, very, very hard to use. So from our school days, we have been taught certain things, the binary, one or zero, uh plus or minus, on or off. But when it comes to quantum, it's not like that, it's both one and zero at the same time.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

So it's a different paradigm, and it's very hard to understand with all the patterns that we have understood. There's a lot of unlearning to be done. And uh when it comes to using a quantum computer, you have to live with that.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

I see. What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_01 2:52

So everything that you have to code should be in that uh one and zero both at the same time, kind of a um uh state. So it goes at a very uh fundamental uh concept of quantum superposition, that is anything that you see in the world, an atom or anything, it can be a particle or a wave at the same time. Wow. So that's the concept. So bringing that and trying to write a computer program or a software, it's you're gonna ask. Right. Uh and this is a problem. Like even in the world, the the workforce for quantum engines, it's very less. So we are trying to solve this problem. And we have created a uh software or an AI agent platform where we help scientists to tell what their requirement is in natural language and maybe share the data that they have. And the AI will do all the hard work and let them use their creativity with their subject knowledge and use the power of content to get better results. Example, uh, let's say as a person who knows uh well on chemistry but doesn't know anything about content. How that person can use it is to tell different creative combinations, do this, do that, why not try this and that, and run it and give me. The AI will do all the hard work, run it on a super quantum computer and give the results because the AI cannot do it. It's a person's creativity that would write, rather do it. So we are creating this platform for scientists to innovate and find solutions for bigger problems in the world like climate change, drug discovery, pharmaceuticals, likewise.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Big answer, but uh, it's really, really helpful to understand. I'm curious, how did you get into all of this?

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Absolutely. So uh the quantum computing startup has been almost like one and a half years, two years. Okay, but my journey started started off somewhere around 2009. So that is when I was schooling, um I had a crush on a girl. Okay, and in Sri Lanka, it's a very secretive matter. It's a crime if you get caught. So uh I got caught to my parents, and um apparently they state that they did not know, but I was embarrassed. So back in the days I had my friend Samat and Roshnal. So what I told them, guys, I got caught, and we need to do something. And what we did was we created a simple mobile to keep mine and my girlfriend's SMS messages encrypted. So only myself and her can uh could read it. So we used it and it spreaded like wildfire at the school, and when we woke up, we saw around 50,000 downloads from Sri Lanka and India all together. Wow, and it was a breakthrough. What was it called? Uh it was called TED.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

TED.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, text encrypt and decrypt. Oh wow. The simplest thing that we could come up with. And uh this one the second most innovative uh app at Oracle Silicon Valley. Wow. So we were in Silicon Valley and uh we got exposed to Oracle, we uh this team met uh at that time Facebook. So it was it was a lot of uh new experiences. How old were you guys? Uh that was somewhere around um four, yeah, around 14 years old. Very young, I would say 14, 15. Okay, that's remarkable. Uh that was a tipping point for me that to understand okay, if you face a problem, probably that could be a problem that others are also facing.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

So just go and solve it. Wow. Just try to go and solve it. And that has been a key driving force for me.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

We're so excited to share with you all the episodes that we found in Sri Lanka. We know a lot of you have been waiting, but we wanted to make sure that we did this really meaningfully because it really was an exciting time. I honestly thought he was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

The link to the PDF for the magazine is in the description. And please check it out. They're doing really cool things that I really think you should be checking out to see their journeys. So without further ado, let's get to the episode. Okay, so that happened at 14. Yeah. So you came back to Sri Lanka after that, right? Yes. How was life like after that?

SPEAKER_01 9:33

So it was it was a shift. Yeah, everything that I saw became a problem and a solution, and how can I uh come bring a solution? So after that, I did my exams and uh from 2014 up till now I worked, I created a few startups, some went well, some did not go well, and then was in the corporate for some time, and then again now in the uh startup world again. So uh, but what did not change is the the mind shift that I had. Okay, so go solve a problem. So right after coming back with my exams, advanced level, uh I picked a problem. That problem was uh for generations in Sri Lanka advanced level exams. How you get to know classes is through leafers. Yes. You go out of the school, you get a file of tuition leaflets. Yes, yes. That is how I studied, that is how my parents studied, and it had not changed. So in 2014, we wanted to change this, so we created a platform called Guru Par. Guru teach of R is the road. So it's a platform for you to find tuition teachers. And uh for the first few years we did not make revenue. Uh, after around three, four years, uh we started making revenue, but from the first day onwards, children were flocking to it. Wow, we got around one million users per year, and uh because it's uh it's around 25,000 users uh uh students per batch. So it's it's a very small market compared. So one million users or visits per year is big. Yeah, and uh predominantly it became a big hit, and uh when the COVID hit, we transformed it to an LMS. Oh so all the teachers is learning management system, absolutely, yeah, yeah. And I think we made around, I mean, through the platform, around 700 million rupees were transacted within seven seven months of time, seven to nine months of time. So it became a journey, and it was uh it was another problem we solved, and it became a business. And there are similar little apps we created to do. Yeah, so on one end we were doing services, and even with those, my clients came to us was uh our creative thought process because not every use case is the same. We have to be creative to find solutions, right? Likewise, likewise, and now we are here building uh quantum and trying to solve bigger problems in the world. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

How do you pick the problems?

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Absolutely. So, out of many things, um again, it goes to my childhood. Uh I think it's mostly the childhood things or the inner self.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

So let's talk about the childhood then. So before the 14-year-old crush, how was Adisha like? Little Adisha like?

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Little Adisha was mischievous, definitely not studious. Uh playing around, getting caught, punishments, that kind of a person. And uh only till about after the last two years of college brought me to the serious track. I mean, that is where the right, right, right, right, right. And that was also another tipping point because I fell in love with physics, not with applied physics, but with theoretical physics. Uh that's because uh I love the things that cannot be seen, like let's say the condoms of the questions that we spoke about, yeah, because you have to imagine you have to imagine how it will be look, how it will be like. You have to innovate, you have to be creative to think something that you cannot see. How will it look like? How how how to formulate it? So that was my skill. And even for exams, I used to create different questions and give to the school, to tuition teachers uh on physics, especially around theoretical physics. And uh that gave me another creative job to understand okay, you love theoretical physics and you're very passionate, and on the other end, you have this go go build a business kind of uh energy going on. So that actually gave me the idea if you can commercialize several branches in theoretical physics, there's a fortune to be made. And that's why I thought, okay, in our lifetime or in this generation, quantum is the nearest. And that's how I got into quantum computing, and in 2012, slowly, slowly learned. In 2019, I was one of the earliest quantum computing researchers to publish a paper in Sri Lanka on things baby steps. Right, right. So that's how I select the problems, whether it resonates within myself, right, right, and uh whether that alignment is, and if so, I go on.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

So walk me through a a day of yours. I we didn't talk about this, but uh I'm curious, like when do you have the time to think and imagine and and all of that? Like, how do you do you schedule time for it or what what how does it look like?

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Frankly, it's a it's something I'm trying to build in myself, having you know, living according to a schedule, frankly. Uh but if I if I'm to uh pick because I would say I'm a little bit untidy, but when it comes to thinking, uh that I uh spend a lot of time uh in solitude, I would say that is where the creative juices flow. Uh one thing is I take a lot of time to shower, frankly.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

Shover.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Shover. Okay. Because because that is where Archumid is, all those people got the ideas, right? And that solitude gives you ideas, and I think about thoughts. And I I I I like to stay alone, maybe out in the garden, go for a walk. Then I I uh purposefully take those actions when I have a problem. Sometimes I just wander in the garden for like one hour, one and a half hours, just sometimes even sweating, but my mind is wandering on a very specific part. I think it's called divergence thinking. Yeah. And when you have all those options, you sit down and think short list, and then it becomes convergence thinking. That's how I do it. And once you do that once in a way, you're good for like good several months because you're focused.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Because you kind of saw the vision behind it.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Yes, and I think it's it's mostly the meditative meditative aspect I I practice. Explain to me how just close your eyes. Uh imagine you're looking at a highway and let the vehicles move and travel, and all those vehicles are just different thoughts in your mind. And you just look at them as a uh person on the side of the road and let the thoughts flow. And then the thoughts will flow, and you you will slowly see yourself coming to a very calm place. You do it for 10-15 minutes, and you are at a very different uh state of mind. Yeah, and whatever you want to focus, you just put your mind towards it and it goes. And that has been my I was how would I say my compass?

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Yeah, yeah. It's interesting because I for the last year and a half have been doing something similar. I didn't think of it as meditating, but uh spending like time uh in a in solitude, uh where I I I call it uh because the thing is this meditation was always something that they always told to like clear your mind, right? And you were trying really hard to clear your mind, and and and all it happened was like distractions came, right? So I was like, okay, I can't meditate. But like when I started creating or whatever, let's say I'm like sanding a piece of wood or something, I don't play any music or anything like that, and I just kind of like work on it, and as I'm working, like thoughts come, and what I realized was I want to acknowledge the thought. So, like you seeing the cars going by, I'm like, oh, that's a thought I had. I acknowledge it, and then all of a sudden it goes away, and then the next thought comes, the next thought comes, and all of a sudden it's quiet, and like I call it the flow state, and in that there's always this like little pings. I like I call them pings, and I like follow that ping and like follow the curiosity, and I go and like see what's happening or whatever, and then I learn something about it. As a matter of fact, this idea I had to come to Sri Lanka and stay for a month and then record about 20 episodes of Create Sri Lankan Creatives came from that. And I have a notebook nearby in case something comes, I forget all the time. So I write it down, and then I went to my wife and they're like, hey, guess what? We're gonna go to Sri Lanka for a month, and then we're gonna record 20 episodes. I'm happy to say we passed 20 episodes yesterday, and I have today, I did like four, and then I have another more like on Tuesday. Um, but so that's super powerful that that the you have been using. And and at what age did you start doing this meditating practice?

SPEAKER_01 18:17

I would say I really leveraged it uh like around 10 years ago. Okay. Ten years ago. That was really young, dude.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Yeah, what the heck did you think? How does a 20-year-old come like I'm gonna start meditating? There has to be something that I draw into it.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Yeah, I think it was it was uh so I think uh mostly I there was a point in time where I I thought, okay, um I'm saturated, at least probably at that time. Okay, and I want more advice. So my goal was okay, within one or two months I'm gonna talk to 100 people and I'm going to get the advice. That was my goal. And I could not make it to 100, but I got I spoke around good 20-30 people. And one of those people told me was uh Adisha, you need to have experience to go. That is absolutely yes, but it doesn't necessarily need to be your own experience. Right. You can have other people's experience, you can learn from it, and that was a shift. And in that journey, someone's experience was meditation. Maybe steam jobs meditating 15 minutes before going to a meeting or some some some advice like that, some book call likewise, and uh that I tried started replicating, and uh that that that really helped me even before this uh conversation I had a on my way I was meditating, yeah, because whole day pitching, pitching, right? It was so much noise, yeah. On my way I was just sitting in the Ubai meditated for like good 15-20 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

No, that's awful, that's so crazy. It it's funny how like now I I hear in the tech and found CEO founder uh world, they talk about they they call it thinking time, right? And they try to have so much time to think and whatever, at least as as a routine and a practice. So it's cool that you're doing the same thing, and I've been doing the same thing in a different way, and now I know what I'm doing. So the problem that you're trying to solve is um trying to make quantum computing more accessible for people. Why does this matter so much?

SPEAKER_01 20:36

So again, this goes to purpose in life. I believe I've been given this exposure experience uh by for some sort of a reason. I am not going to go and figure out what is that reason, but for some universal purpose, I have been given this opportunity, even to have this conversation, exposure everything. So, and my responsibility is to give. Help uh if someone is in need, help them. Uh if someone is struggling, help them. Because I have been fortunate and I've been given these opportunities. I was brought up by mentors to different stages, and because of that, I grieve. So it's my responsibility. And it just happened without even asking. Yeah, and it's my responsibility to give. So, with that thought, with all the intellect except social, but have we have gathered so far, but I I thought, what is the biggest problem we can solve? We should be solving. And if I may ask a question, what is the biggest problem the world is having right now? Global warming. Absolutely spot on. Just to share some context. Since the industrial revolution started early 90s or four, beginning of it all in the early 80s, like 1980s, like was in that period. Since then to now, they're very Global temperature is almost at 1.5. This 1.5 is a very important number. The global temperature since then to now, if it if it exceeds 1.5, it will go to a catastroph uh irreversible climate disaster state. Now we are at a 1.4 kind of a level. Geopolitically, there can be different uh points of view, but in a scientific most popular accepted scientific point of view, I'm sharing this. Okay. If this happens, humanity goes away. Climate disasters come. So even right now we see the seasons difference. And there are scientific evidence that there are nine planetary systems, and out of nine, six are already off the charts. So if all nine goes out, we are in danger. So over the next few years, if we don't cut down half of our carbon emissions and get on track, we are going to hit this 1.5 and be in a very big problem. As humans, we should use our intellect to come solve this problem. And one way to solve this problem is quantum. Climate change happens with global warming. And uh majority of this carbon emissions that happens in the world is through because of the uh ammonia production.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

I see.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Ammonia production is for food, right? For the the the compost or the soil production. Right. For the food greenhouse gases, right? Greenhouse, but in that process, it's the ammonia production.

SPEAKER_03 23:33

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Ammonia production used to give the to create the soil for the uh the fertilizer production for the food.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Uh, because the fertilizer production process is you highly energy intensive to create the ammonia produced. But if you look at a microorganism, it can create the same ammonia very simply through enzymes. But right now, factories they put a lot of energy, pressure to create it, but and uh microorganisms, just tiny animals, creatures, yeah, they do it. But how do you do it? Nobody knows. Industry we call it Haberbosch process, but uh, how does the um the microorganism does it? Nobody knows. And uh one way to crack that equation is a quantum computer because supercomputers cannot simulate that because the process is so complex, right, computationally heavy, supercomputers can't do it at the moment. But if a quantum computer can come in when the the hardware is ready, when it comes and do it, there's a huge climate benefit that could come into play.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

So this is a big research that is happening all around the world with quantum computers to simulate this process. And similarly, there are so many other um areas where quantum computing can be used for climate prediction, modeling, disaster prediction, likewise. So that is why we picked quantum computing, trying to bring the uh technology for the scientists who does not know quantum and let them be creative and figure out solutions. So we provide the platform for them to use quantum tech. So um that's that's the problem we are trying to solve through quantum.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Just from my I've heard this other argument for AI and using uh that is is like all the data centers and all of those things that use all the the water to cool the machines down, and that that creates more of a damage. What is your thoughts about that?

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Yeah, that's true. That's true. And um the world should move, the world is moving towards renewable energy. And when the uh like if you look at AWS, there are certain renewable energy locations. Now, when we deploy a solution, we always look at whether it's a renewable energy location and deploy it in that zone.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

And in that case, uh the software that you deploy is carbon neutral.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

I see. So what you're saying is that um current sacrifice is gonna be taken care of by the solutions that you guys people are gonna provide?

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Uh that is on one hand. On the other hand, most of these tech companies are using renewable energy to power their data centers. So even though when as consumers or as developers, we look at the renewable energy locations and deploy our solutions there. I see. So we don't have a higher carbon emission coming in as well because we run on green energy. At the same time, uh now a lot of tech companies are buying data centers, nuclear plants request to power the AIs. I think that is where the biggest question is. Yes. And that's absolutely correct. And uh that is where renewable energy storage systems are required, and uh, that is also another place where battery design is also simulated with quantum technologies. That is also a place where quantum tech with solutions that we built can be helpful. Over the next decade, we are going to focus on quantum for climate drug discovery, likewise, yeah, and keep it there. And when after we are on a safe zone, we might look at uh giving it to um you know stock exchange for rapid trading or portfolio like finance kind of industries. But right now we are focusing on the climate space for quantum.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

That's super interesting. Thanks for explaining that to me. I appreciate it. What challenges have you faced so far in in this last 10-year period or uh yeah, or longer, and what have you learned from them?

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Absolutely. Um so I mean every day is a challenge. I know, even though you do, even if you do a restaurant or a uh quantum tech company, or you do you know, even the simplest thing that you could do, everything is a challenge because you have to learn. Yeah, it's all about learning. So um, if I'm to pick one big challenge, was okay, I'm in Sri Lanka and I'm building a software product for a scientist somewhere in in a UK university. That was a challenge for me to initially understand, okay, I have this problem, will he have that problem? Yeah, so I had to hypothetically build a solution for myself and then go and show them okay whether this will work for them. That was a big problem. Apparently, uh I was wrong. Oh wow. And their feedback was one year ago. Addisha, what we have built is awesome, very valuable, but uh I have no value in this. So it was very hard to hear. Uh, because it was the academia that I pitched to, and they were worried, okay, the all the PhD people will be doing using AI for quantum, and there's no value in the research that we're going to do. So then we thought, okay, this solution is needed for the industrial researchers. Correct. Okay, now they loved it. For the academia, it was a different solution that we wanted, we had to build. So those kind of iterations, uh until we started those iterations, it was uh difficult. Then we got a proper got into a proper feedback loop and we understood their requirements. Then one challenge got resolved. So now it's on a good track. Uh, and another uh challenge though.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

Can you explain to me what was going in your mind when they rejected you?

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Uh so this was not my first time rejection like that. Because, like, you know, in my previous startups, the ones I mentioned, the tech platforms, and likewise for four three, four, three to four years we did not make revenue. So I was pitching to teachers to advertise on our platform, didn't happen. So it was the uh time when somebody rejected you, you took things personal. Right.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

So now you're like use subjection.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Why isn't he buying or like that? That that person now now it's like okay, this is the marker denying your product. You become very objective. Okay, what is the pain problem, pain point? Right. So you you objectively assess it. Now it's nothing personal, it's it's you have to be glad, okay. They gave this real feedback, so you can you know that's true. That that's that's the way forward, otherwise, you can't build a company for you because you have to fall in love with the problem and you're not the solution you are trying to build. So you need to understand what the person's problem is and go try to fix it.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

You fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Absolutely, yes. That's brilliant. Yes, I think some Steve Jobs or someone said that you fall in love with the problem, not with the solution. So you go and build the perfect solution for that problem. So that professor said, Okay, that's not his problem.

SPEAKER_03 30:42

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Okay, I had to park things aside and ask, interview him again and see what are his problems. Okay, now it became a new universe for me to understand and deliver for them. Right. And I took my previously built product and changed the audience and tried to see whether they have problems. Okay, that audience seems to have that problem, and I'm building it separately for them. So that's a little bit around that, and then uh people around quantum is very less skill force, so I have to train them. So uh that is a challenge. Uh, but now uh we are also creating a uh you know tutorial series, like a mini university for quantum that makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

Uh, real quick though, um when you look at LMS systems and and and teaching one-on-one, uh have you seen the pros and cons in it, or uh have you been able to just do LMS uh alone and and kind of stand back and watch? Or how does it happen with your experience?

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Yeah, so uh I would love the the physical sessions. Uh like when I was I I for a short period I did lectures at the University of the Pur University in the computer science department, and I really enjoyed teaching because even though there are 30 students, I I was able to you know group them and understand what they really need and to teach them in the style that they understand, and when that triggers them, I see their creative josas going on and that that gave a different level of satisfaction, yeah. So for that reason, I prefer um physical, uh, but online also you can do it, but the connectivity is not that great. You don't see their faces, you don't get to know that uh whether they really understand. I think um LMS directly cannot satisfy that as if you're teaching someone one-to-one in a group. Uh, but I'm curious with the AI could solve it.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

I was just thinking the same thing. Because I'm like, if there was a way to have the AI understand, like this is like summarize the way people process information and and understand. I bet you could like the same way you know, social media they like really analyze the script and the audience and all of those things. I bet you could do that.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Absolutely. I individually have done it for myself, like like I I have done this thing called the this is sixten personalities. Have you done that? No, I'm not. So there's this platform called 16 personalities, it lasts personalities, and it'll do a like a personality assessment. Uh-uh, okay, okay. And quite detailed, and I've since again a few like almost like five, six years. Since five, six years, I've been doing it. So I have the history. So I've uploaded all the data to the AI. You have to be very careful you're uh sharing your privacy, but I have done that, and the AI I've prompted in a way such that it would understand my persona and um deliver the subject better in a way that I would understand, right? And it's so powerful that I can predict my future mistakes with them.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Like your weaknesses and like your tendencies.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Absolutely. And I created like a like a app for myself, uh, which actually uh it's called preview. So preview our life. Oh my gosh. Uh, it was a little bit of a hard concern for many to understand, but for me, I uh it predicts it predicts my mistakes. Yeah, it's unimaginable to imagine that your future mistakes are included in your personality.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

You know, the funny thing is I had done similar things with uh just Chat GBT because uh I think last year or something, especially with the business, and I wanted to figure out how which direction I want to take this. I literally gave all my experiences. I uploaded my uh resume and all the projects I worked on in in school, in in college, and in work situations and my weaknesses and things that went sour, all that things. I wrote everything, and then I was able to like see like, okay, this is the 10 that the reason I get prideful or ego is because this was triggered, and I was like, oh, okay, so if I just understand that that's usually a trigger point for me, then I'm able to recognize it's more like I it's it's very interesting that like I was doing that, but I never thought about like predicting future problems and mistakes.

SPEAKER_01 35:19

I mean it's it's all about how creative you can be doing, oh my gosh, dude, that's like blowing my mind right now.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

That's awesome. Do you have siblings? Yes, I have a sister. How does she see you? Like, how does she describe you? I'm curious.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Okay, I think I have to describe her. Like so, she's like around three three years younger to me. Okay, and she's uh she recently graduated, finished her, finished two masters. Okay, she did her bachelor's in engineering, did an MBA while she was at the university. I don't know how. Wow. And now she's doing two PhDs in engineering and economics.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Okay, wow. You guys are really smart.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

I don't think there is anything for her to tell her about it.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Yeah, she's like, okay, it's a different level. So okay, that's fair. Uh, how does your parents uh see you then? Are they smart as well?

SPEAKER_01 36:12

I I I of course, like uh my father is an engineer and uh like a former uh former leadership member of the CEB, okay, and mother is a teacher, uh both retired now. And how I think they might be seeing me as um brave person who follows his heart and who is not scared to take decisions.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Yeah. I think Do you do a lot of risk assessment when you jump into something?

SPEAKER_01 36:40

After getting married, yes.

SPEAKER_03 36:45

That's a really good answer.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

After getting married, yes, but uh the driving force or the or the or the signal I look for is the the gut feel. Because uh sometimes you you think so many things, overthink, yeah. Uh and uh but you just consciously just take a quick decision, and that is the right decision that you finally take, not the calculated one. Right, right. So now I'm I'm quite uh on that track because I've you know different things that you explore, right? So for me, let my you know the logical side of things assess as well as let my inner voice to give the feedback as well.

SPEAKER_02 37:27

So there are times where the gut was more more like do this, even though the analytical side is like I wouldn't do it. Yeah, yeah. So many. So many. Yeah. Was that a thing you did it from a very young age or just uh you learned from a very young age I looked at the the the logical side.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

Okay. Uh but as I grew I saw the pattern, okay. Especially okay. Another good habit I think I had is once in every three months. I always try to look at my personal tent, try to, you know, self-assess, understand where I can improve. Okay, especially after university exams. I come home during the weekend. What I do is I completely try to crack myself okay. Good habits, bad habits, likewise. Wow, okay. I don't know for some reason that has been a habit for me good seven, eight years now. And in the journey, um I understood uh the things that I took as decisions are correct, and the ones that I took as calculated things well planned did not make it.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Um have you ever uh struggled with imposter syndrome and like negative self-talk?

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Absolutely, and I did not know that is a common thing, even and uh knowing that there is a thing like that itself made me detach from it and understand okay, that's nature. And it also gave me the scope, okay, the things that I don't know, and even just to chat GPT and quickly see what was uh to quickly grasp some knowledge around it. So uh it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

I think AI really helped me kind of um analyze the things about myself and see what things come from a place of like a label that I was that I got from a past, to like, oh no, actually, this is a good idea, like let's explore it and like learn more and things like that. I mean, I I use AI all the time. It's because I I I've been able to just learn so much about so many things because of my curiosity. So that's super cool that you use it those ways to like I didn't even care about the privacy thing. I'm like, no, no, no, this is gonna help me. Like, I don't care, who knows what I mentioned to you about how I look at creativity and how I think everybody's creative, and it's create creativity should not just be used in the artistic side of it. How do you define creativity and and kind of enlighten me here?

SPEAKER_01 40:00

So, how how how I would say creativity it's it's not tech or it's not arts. Fundamentally, it's it's uh being a mismatcher, a mismatcher, yeah. It's not you know not being a matcher, like you know, uh you know, not following the herd. You break the herd.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

You don't fit you don't have to fit in.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

Yeah, you don't have to. I think that that that is where the the creativity comes in, right? Like can we do it in this way? Okay, everyone must be doing it in this way, okay. But can we do it in this way? That curiosity, that spark is the uh creative creativity. I don't know whether it's a formal thing, but I I that is creativity for me. So when you ask that question, uh then things flow, right? Or can you do it in this way? Right, and it can be for arts, it can be for tech, it can be for cooking, uh, it can be for anything. Just thinking outside of the box in any avenue is creativity.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Right. How do you encourage that with children, especially? And I mean, children already have that, I think imagination and curiosity. But along the way, as you grow up, that kind of is taken away from you. Like, how do we I mean, I don't know if you have children or not, um but I'm I'm I'm curious as a person who's trying to solve problems. How would you try to instill that as a value in in children as they grow up and not let society or anybody like take that whimsy and curiosity away from them?

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Absolutely. So I think I I take pride in having my inner child alive, uh, and uh and that is my greater strength. Wow. Knowing that your inner child is alive and uh it'll do all the weird things, even your 30-year-old adult, and you let go of your ego, what others will think, and you just do what your inner child is doing, even doing a stupid thing, that's fine because uh that's your inner self, right? Now, why or from where did that uh courage come from? Is I saw this um some image of Barack Obama or someone uh doing something playful, and there was a caption saying don't let your inner self die or something. I was thinking, okay, if if those kind of people, the people that you know you know were leaders and likewise, and if they are also preserving and living in that way in certain parts of their lives, you don't have to hide it, just uh keep it unspoiled.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

Right. So now I'm even more curious, how did you not let ego get in your way of you?

SPEAKER_01 42:46

Good question. So when I was in the corporate, uh, this was a big problem for me because working with people became managing egos. Right. So whenever I don't know something, what I do is I try to go to the depths of things. And uh ego is a topic that I started learning about before handling it. You need to understand what yeah. So I was looking at what Carl German was saying, the modern science of what it says, and predominant, predominantly um the self-identity, and it's a self-made thing, and uh, and if you let it ride you.

SPEAKER_02 43:21

Ego is a self-made thing.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Yeah, I mean it's uh it's my definition, I would say, or my interpretation. It's something that you have told yourself. This is your identity, this is how you want the world to see you. It's in a way, it's the personal brand also. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

So uh because I I because I I I mean, I remember I I left US. I left I left Sri Lanka around 17 years old. Then I saw my friends do A levels and then get into jobs. And I saw like something change in them. Like as they get older and as they get higher up in their careers and they get a title and all of those things. I find especially in Sri Lankan culture, hierarchy is a big thing, right? Like I hate when people call me sir. I'm like, I didn't deserve to maybe you're doing a lower job, lower job, quote unquote, but you're calling me sir. But he's much more older than me. And I tell him, please don't call me sir, just call me by name. That's one thing in US culture that I really appreciate about. Like respect is given to everybody, right? And you call by name. So how what is your like uh how do people not get lost in that?

SPEAKER_01 44:30

I think it's it's it's the awareness that you get. So for me, um, similarly, understanding and learning about ego made me realize okay, there's just a thing that we as humans have created in our mind. You let go of it, and there's there's more wisdom or there's more things flowing into you because things are unblocked in your mind. Right. You save money as well, and you manage your ego. And on the other hand, some some I think he he was a former CXO of Hay MOSP.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:01

And uh he gave me one advice, I think one of those 30 people in single is the goyam. The more the flexible when the rice grains are there, only the this the stock will bend. When there's value only, you will bend, but the the empty one they will just stay straight. But the ones who have the knowledge, the the the value will always be humble, they will bend. So be like that. Wow. That was also an eye open, and uh, and I see that among the readers they are they're humble, they they say they don't know, and then that that been uh that has been a model for me as well. I think it's it's learning. It's learning that is ego, and and there are instances where I feel like I should activate my ego as well to handle the situation. Right uh because otherwise you sometimes you get advantage of advantage of you.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Uh you use it when you need to.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 45:59

Especially when you're trying to like maybe direct a team or something, something like so you need to be very, very self-aware, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

So you have to be ready for the context, you know, act according to the context rather than just not to be purely that kind of a thing, right?

SPEAKER_02 46:15

Right. Because I realize one thing I've been uh thinking a lot about is as I'm back in Sri Lanka, not that it doesn't happen in the US, that this but not a lot of people are aware of themselves to spend the time by themselves to take the thinking time or meditate, they're just so consumed by society and life and always thinking that things are happening to them and things like that. Like, how can people mean put effort into being more aware?

SPEAKER_01 46:46

Yeah, I mean it's it's um it's unfortunate because um it's it's um it's a big machine that you are running in, right? And you have to really detach it, detach detach from it and see, okay, this is the this is how the world I see and how it runs. And get out of it. Like let's say you wake up in the morning, go for the job, get the paycheck, like it's a cycle. Just take a step back and just observe, okay, what's really happening, and then understand what you are doing, what what is where are you spending your time. So I time track like like for the last 10-12 years, I've been time tracking.

SPEAKER_03 47:26

Got it.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

And I see where my time is going. And uh at least I used to say my time has been mostly spent. So maybe at least knowing what you're doing on a daily basis and having a track of it will at least give you a sense of self-awareness. At least you know what's happening with you when you know that you can at least compare it with the world and see how whether you are doing what you need to be doing in life. And for some reason, out of those patterns that made me detach and uh it gave me the mental freedom to do a business which I love to do, uh, in an area which I would love to stay and spend the life. And for me, uh, I was just looking at in one paradigm, okay, or in one perspective, okay, it's the business, the global impact that I have to do. That was my perspective some years ago. But as time flew, I understood it's also another branded machine that we are living in. But if you really think, have you even thought of the responsibilities that you have to have as a son for a parents? Where does that fall in the whole global impact that we're trying to do? Right. You need to think about life in a holistic way. One of my mentors or my coach told me Adesha health means mental, physical, spiritual, your relationships, life. So for me earlier it was only my potential, working to my potential, but now it's making sure I have done my best for the parents, for my parents, for my loved ones, life-wise. And that has become become my equation for success. So that was possible only because I detached from the existing world, and I'm trying to see life in my own empty book to write. And I then I get the total control of life. So, how can someone could do it? I think it's it's self-effort, conscious attempt to detach. Always try to detach and observe, see what's happening. Uh take control of life and not to let the external pressures drive you. Yeah, then you need it's a combination, you know, voice, detaching, and all those things align like the movie. Then you get the tab. Right. So you you try to stay in that shit as much as possible. So that's what I'm trying to.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

That's really, really smart. That's very powerful. So I mean, uh in that case, from what I'm hearing, is then it doesn't matter where you're living, it doesn't matter what culture you're from. It as long as you are able to detach from yourself, you'll be able to find self-awareness.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

I mean, yeah, because you can see when you detach yourself and see yourself in the front and you see all the mistakes that person is doing, yeah, and you will be like, okay, go and fix this. Yeah, like aerial view.

SPEAKER_02 50:21

You just have to look back at your life and oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 50:24

Oh shit, what am I doing?

SPEAKER_02 50:25

Right. Very cool. Um, I see. I think you already said this, but um what uh impact are you trying to make through your company?

SPEAKER_01 50:38

So uh pretty much we are trying to move the world forward or make a quantum leap in the world.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

First of all, where do you get the confidence to do this? Um do you ever think about that?

SPEAKER_01 50:53

I need to think about it, but it's it's not confidence. Confidence is something that comes and goes. Okay, but I think it's it's the inner voice that says that. I think I trust that inner voice, and that voice and that trust gives me the confidence.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

And you also have a lot of mentors, right?

SPEAKER_01 51:11

Absolutely, absolutely. And there has been, you know, they are the ones who actually taught me to understand, okay, the imposter syndrome, and it's and uh even when you feel like this think about the things that you achieve, and likewise, so um, and uh yeah, I think that trusting your inner self is the confidence, trusting your inner self and the confidence, but how to trust that it's it's practice, right? You have to have you look at the past, things work, okay. Now you trust yourself. When you build that trust, I think automatically confidence works out.

SPEAKER_02 51:44

Have you counted how many times you failed?

SPEAKER_01 51:47

I would say the number of times I got succeeded is one or two, two or three, and that is around 1.1% success rate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

So it's 99.9%, it's just so my wife, uh nephew, uh, is eight-year-old, very smart kid, and he actually watches the episodes and listens to the the podcast and all of those things. For a kid who has so much imagination and things like that, what would you have to say to him if he wants to solve problems like you in the future?

SPEAKER_01 52:21

Absolutely great question. And um, I'll tell what my teacher told me at that age. Okay. So if she's watching, her name is uh Mudita Parnaliyanage, and at school I was supposed to create a boat. Okay, and I was not able to do it within the deadline, but I kept on trying to do it, and finally I went to her and told Miss I did it. And she gave me the relevant marks, and she told me, Adesha, the boat you somehow made it. So in life, you have this scale, you get some, you you keep on trying, and you will somehow figure it out. That that has been like a thing that always echoes in my mind when I face a bottleneck, uh hardball. That voice always goes in my mind. Adisha, you can you keep on doing, you will figure it out. And for the eight-year-old that you said, again, I would say keep on doing it, you will figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

Keep on doing it. Link and listen to that, keep on doing it, and you'll figure it out. Uh, Adisha, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I am super grateful. Uh, I learned a lot from you. And I think uh um if anybody is watching this and you're like being inspired right now, um, I'll put how to connect with Adisha and also find a way to connect with yourself, to pull back from your life and to like analyzing. Analyzing is the best way possible, and also things like meditation and creating. Um, try to do that because there is so much creativity inside you that uh if you actually tap into that, you can actually solve problems to help the world. Um, that's all we have today. All I gotta say is keep dreaming, keep creating, and keep going on your own creative RSC. Till next time. See you later.