In conversation with Shubham Ramesh Vernekar, who was part of the team at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati that designed the game Flo, a deck-building card game inspired by ikigai. Flo won second place in Stanford Center on Longevity’s 2025 Design Challenge: Reimagining Education and Learning for Long Lives. The Japanese phrase Ikigai, which loosely translates to "the happiness of always being busy” relates to finding a purpose that fuels joy in one’s life.

Interviewer Anuradha Varma is a journalist and Mindset Coach, and co-founder of Gen Seasoned.

Get in touch at [email protected]

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction to Shubham Vernekar and Flo card game
1:00 Shubham's Background in Product Design
3:00 The Flo project and why they decided to apply for the Stanford Design Challenge.
6:00 Understanding longevity and well-being
12:00 How information overload affects productivity in the current generation
15:00 Zen, the first product created by the team, which uses the Pomodoro technique for time management
18:00 Flo card game design and focus
24:00 Ikigai philosophy in Flo
27:00 Market launch plans

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