The independent laboratory of Sahil Tayal — exploring human behaviour, identity, organisational life, everyday economics and the translation of ideas into useful things.
Think → Test → Build → Observe → Revise. Not necessarily in that order.
A research-oriented practice that distinguishes observations, working hypotheses, proposed models and established evidence.
Why does the distance between who we believe ourselves to be and what we actually do persist, even when intentions are sincere?
Behavioural executionFrictionSelf-regulationStatus: conceptual model / proposed empirical investigation; not presented as a validated theory.
How can workplaces strengthen capability, agency, psychological safety and meaningful participation rather than treating people as interchangeable resources?
OBHuman developmentWork designWhat do retail transactions reveal about trust, pricing, constraint, attention and consumer choice that aggregated reports can miss?
Field observationRetail economicsDecision-makingWhat changes when the person observing experience recognises that they are also part of the system being observed?
Philosophy of mindReflexivityCan fragrance function as a meaningful cue for identity, ritual, memory and emotional expression — without claiming that perfume itself causes psychological transformation?
PerfumeryExperience designHow can accessible software reduce the distance between a thought and a prototype, while preserving human judgement, authorship and critical evaluation?
Human–AI interactionPrototypingA proposed friction-based framework for understanding behavioural execution. The current agenda considers identity, intention, environmental support and friction, with potential longitudinal within-person testing.
Research note: operational definitions, construct validity, alternative explanations and falsifiable predictions matter more than elegant diagrams.
Explore a teaching simulation →Using a family retail setting as a vantage point for studying the practical microeconomics of purchasing decisions, trust, credit, seasonal demand and behavioural trade-offs.
Read the public field reflection ↗Independent fragrance concepts organised around human experiences: connection, boundaries, courage, agency and more. An applied creative practice, not a clinical intervention.
Enter House of Venus ↗A sister space for intellectual play, conceptual tools and thinking experiments. A useful counterpart to the sensory practice of Venus.
Visit House of Mercury ↗The lab is deliberately interdisciplinary, but interdisciplinary does not mean exempt from evidence.
Observation: something noticed.
Hypothesis: a proposed explanation.
Prototype: an implementation to evaluate.
Finding: a result supported by a defined method.
Established claim: a conclusion supported by a broader evidence base.
Prefer clarity over grandiosity. Treat lived experience as a source of questions, not automatic proof. Distinguish mechanism from metaphor. Respect participants, privacy and uncertainty. Make room for humour: an excellent antidote to taking one's own theories too seriously.
These are educational thought experiments, not psychological tests, diagnostic tools or validated scientific instruments.
Hold intention constant and vary practical friction and environmental support. Watch how a simple illustrative model changes its estimate.
Illustrative logistic function: p = 1/(1+e−z), z = 0.8 + 0.3 × support − 0.42 × friction. Coefficients are chosen for demonstration, not fitted to data.
Generate a testable starting question. Then ask: what observation would change my mind?
Questions are prompts for investigation, not findings.
Choose a statement to see how an ambitious claim can become an empirically tractable question.
Overclaim: Motivated people always act.
Better question: Under what conditions does self-reported motivation predict action after accounting for friction, opportunity and habit?
Writing is where working ideas become public enough to be challenged.
Behavioural execution, self-concept and the friction between intention and practice.
Explore the inquiry ↗How small transactions reveal large questions about constraints, trust and strategy.
Read on LinkedIn ↗A question about material progress and the continuing search for a meaningful life.
Find on Medium ↗Fragrance as a medium for translating human experience into a physical object.
Read the project ↗What it means for the observer to remain inside the experiment.
Read the manifesto ↗Long-form writing and publication archives across Medium and Substack.
Medium ↗ · Substack ↗An interdisciplinary practitioner interested in human behaviour, organisational life, economic systems, consciousness and applied creative experimentation.
Commerce graduate of Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi; MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS). Professional experience includes EY, consulting and public-sector exposure. More recently, family retail has become a setting for observing economic behaviour at close range.
Professional details are presented in summary; see LinkedIn for the public career record.
View LinkedIn profile ↗Organisational behaviour asks what people do within systems. Retail makes choices visible. Philosophy asks what it means to experience those choices. Perfumery makes subjective associations tangible. Technology lets ideas become prototypes.
The point is not to claim expertise in everything. It is to let one discipline sharpen the questions asked in another.
“The aim is not to make every idea sound impressive. It is to discover which ideas remain useful when reality answers.”
— Lab editorial principle
Open to thoughtful conversations around organisational behaviour, human capital, applied research, field observation, experimental design and interdisciplinary collaboration.
No. This is an independent personal research and experimentation portfolio. Projects are described according to their current status; conceptual work and demonstrations should not be mistaken for peer-reviewed findings.
You can link to the public pages. For scholarly citation, verify authorship, version, publication date and whether a formal paper or persistent identifier exists. Do not treat a prototype as validated evidence.