salman.io

👋🏽 Hi! I’m Salman Ansari

I live my life wearing different hats. These days, I toggle between my roles as a senior full-stack software engineer, author, illustrator, essayist, and online course creator. I’ve also been a startup founder & CTO, DJ, and head instructor at a coding bootcamp in the past, to name a few.

I wrote about the benefits of embracing a generalist lifestyle in a popular essay, The Polymath Playbook.

This website is a digital garden for my writing—essays, notes, newsletters and more. Writing online has changed my life for the better in so many ways. It has opened new doors, helped me build self-awareness, and fostered new friendships. Most of all, it gives me a channel to discover and express my truest self. If you’re curious to explore the power of writing, be sure to check out my free writing guide.

📖 Fables

I write and illustrated fables for kids and adults alike. I’ve published a few of them for free—you can check them outin the Fables section:

• The Fool is Free — On the power of embracing curiosity and playfulness.
• The Boat of Stillness — On the power of stillness in a world of chaos.
• Pay the Piper — On the burden of being too good at what you do.

Wandering Spirits: I wrote and illustrated a book of modern fables. Inspired by books like The Little Prince, it’s filled with tales that feed the soul, tug the heart and spark the mind. It’s available worldwide on Amazon and all major book retailers.

📝 Essays

• The Polymath Playbook — My most popular essay, in which I share my way of life—embracing my inner polymath, and exploring multiple pursuits rather than specializing in a single path.
• Listen to Yourself — Build self-awareness & discover your hidden truth.
• The Courage to be Disliked — How to stop worrying about what other people think.
• Friends over Followers — The true power of the internet is the friends you make along the way.

Visit my blog for more essays ->

• Writing Guide — Collection of lessons learned from years of writing online.
• Bookshelf — Selections of my favorite books of all time.

Visit my digital garden for more notes.

🦊 Newsletter

I write the Quick Brown Fox newsletter: A weekly newsletter with essays, comics and fables on creativity, self-awareness, and playful productivity. You can subscribe below, or browse the archives to view all the past editions.

If you have questions or just want to chat sometime, feel free to get in touch—I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by!