A book about ordinary things and unusually useful ideas

Ants
in the
Room

A playful, story-led book about the strange places useful ideas come from: power cuts, dirty dishes, parallel parking, children, bad decisions, and the small things we usually ignore.

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The website is public. The chapters are not. Invited readers can enter with an email address and a five-digit code.

A book by Dhairya Pujara

Antsin theRoom

Finding extraordinary ideas in ordinary things.

Dhairya Pujara

“No ants were harmed. Several weak paragraphs may have been.”— a necessary disclosure

A note before you begin

A small taste of the book.

Before I ask for your email address, your five-digit code, and your honest opinion, it seems fair to let you read something first.

This book is a collection of stories about solving problems, although many of them begin with me creating one.

I am not a guru. I do not wake up at 4:30 in the morning, drink lemon water, journal beside a window, and solve capitalism before breakfast. I am an entrepreneur, educator, father and immigrant who has spent an unreasonable amount of his life noticing small things and wondering why everyone else has agreed to ignore them.

Some of those small things became ideas. Some became mistakes. A few became chapters.

From “Address the Ant in the Room”

Ants are small enough to dismiss.

Ants are small enough to dismiss, boring enough to ignore, and persistent enough to alter the structure around them. No individual ant looks dramatic. That is precisely the point. The damage comes from repetition, coordination, and time.

The invited chapters begin after you enter your five-digit code.

Read one chapter.
Tell me where you stayed.

I am sharing a few chapters with friends, people whose judgment I value, and readers who kindly volunteered to help. I do not need a polished review. I need to know where you laughed, where you paused, where you got bored, and where the chapter lost you completely.

Enter the room

Use your email address and the five-digit code that came with your invitation.

Pick a chapter

Choose one of the four chapters currently open for preview reading.

Read normally

No editor hat required. Just notice where you laughed, paused, skimmed, disagreed, or wanted more.

Tell me the truth

Answer three or four short questions, then tell me what the experience of reading it was actually like.

Chapters currently in the room

Four chapters are currently open for preview reading. Pick one at a time. Specific reactions are far more useful than a generous “I liked it,” although I will happily accept that too.

Attention · Preview open

Address the Ant in the Room

Why the tiny, boring thing everyone ignores may be doing more damage than the obvious crisis.

Read Chapter 1 →

Basic math · Preview open

2 + 2 Is Still 4

Why pressure, presentation, and complexity can make us distrust answers we already know.

Read Chapter 4 →

Relevance · Preview open

Sell Shit

A debate-club challenge, a smartphone, and the moment the object stops being the center of the conversation.

Read Chapter 5 →

Momentum · Preview open

Wash the Dishes

Why one ordinary, visible, controllable task can help when everything else refuses to go according to plan.

Read Chapter 8 →

For invited readers

Help shape the book while it's still changing.

You're one of a small group of readers getting an early look at the manuscript. I'm not looking for polished reviews. I'm looking for honest reactions—the places where you laughed, paused, got confused, or wanted more. Those moments help decide what stays, what changes, and what quietly disappears.

●Early access to the finished book
You will hear about it before the general launch.

●A heavily discounted copy
A thank-you price for the people who helped while the book was still being argued with.

●A real influence on the edit
Your reaction may help a story stay, change shape, or quietly disappear.