Keep it real

A dinner with Pasquale D'Silva at Casa Nautilus

San Francisco,
July 27, 2025

Dear young polymath,

This is the seventh installment of a series where we share insights from guests at Casa Nautilus. Nautilus is a 3-month residency for young polymaths. We bring you here, fully funded, to do the thing most people never get to do: go all in on becoming yourself.

Which brings us to the theme of this dinner:

Are you authentically you?

It sounds kind of cliché at first, but I promise it’s not. Being yourself, really you, and practicing that in the real world is harder than most people will ever admit. It’s even harder when you’re quirky, creative, or ambitious—because the world wants to shape you before you even get a chance to figure out who you are.

So how do you hold onto your strangeness in a uniform world? You meet someone like Pasquale D'Silva. He’s the founder of Illusion of Life, a whimsical creative lab that “births new characters.” He’s building a theme park in New York City—yes, seriously—with a magic Scottish dog named Spark who lives in a quantum portal inside a yellow tin briefcase.

The first time I saw him, Spark’s case was handcuffed to a bookshelf in the Nautilus library—and I immediately thought: oh, this is going to be good. Pasquale worked at Warner Bros. At 14, where people assumed he was just the coffee boy. But he wasn’t there to serve lattes. He was there to learn magic.

What followed was a dinner unlike any other. Here’s what I learned about keeping it real from the man with a dog in a quantum portal:

I. Say “Yes, and…”

Pasquale got to where he is now by living the philosophy of improv.

“There’s momentum between your choices. The more you say yes, the more things accelerate.”

For him, “yes and” means being in flow with your intuition. Let your feelings lead you instead of your fear. Great things don’t come from rigid plans, they come from increasing the surface area of serendipity.

That’s how he decides who to work with: “Are you cool? Can we talk about life? Can we vibe?”

Pasquale assured us that life is positive-sum. That flow states are contagious because energy travels faster than logic. He chases feelings the way others chase certainty. Is that chaotic at times? Yes. But there's wisdom there because having conviction over a truth and having momentum will lead you to more opportunities than following a 5-year plan.

II. Pay attention

Are you awake to catch the wave when it hits you?

Most people aren’t – most people are asleep. Not literally, but spiritually. They move through life like NPCs in a game they didn’t design. Pasquale reminded us to snap out of that:

“There’s no requirement to perform.”

You don’t have to rehearse before you speak. Just reach the person on the other side of the matrix. Say something real. Be someone real. Why? Because emotions and feelings are real, and in our culture people are dying to feel something.

Pasquale told us his favorite actor was Robin Williams—because Robin was a master of attention. A magician who could pull vibes out of thin air. A performer who felt deeply and channeled it into characters.

“Artists work in planes of completely irrational thought,” Pasquale said.

“Their job is to feel stuff.”

When he said that, I realized: The real job of a polymath isn’t to be “right” or “successful.”
It’s to feel deeply, and transmit that into form.

That’s how you know you’re alive: you’re turning inspiration into creation or expression.

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III. Practice magic

Magic is a real thing. Magic is what happens when something touches your inner child before your adult mind can explain it away. Magic radiates. You feel it.

“Magic works instantly for kids,” Pasquale said.

“But for adults, you have to work to activate their inner child.”

That’s the goal of his work with Spark. Spark isn’t just a Scottish dog. He’s a portal to wonder. Someone at dinner said this after meeting Spark:

“Usually when people demo things I try to dissect to see how it works but with spark I didn’t care how it works because I was looking at a cool scottish dog in a quantum portal”

That’s what real magic does. It disarms your skepticism. It invites you to feel before you analyze. Animation is magic. Pasquale reminded us that animation literally works because of the persistence of vision—you flash enough images and your brain believes they’re alive. That’s what art is supposed to do. And of course, technology is your wand. Use it to close the gap between imagination and reality.

“Saying “yes and” helps me surf the wave of magic,” Pasquale said.

“Magic comes from people. And every day feels like play.”

So what’s the takeaway, young polymath?

Be real as fuck.
Say “yes and” to things that scare you.
Stop performing.
Increase serendipity.
Chase feelings.
Birth art.
And let the world meet the unique, weird, passion-filled version of you that you usually keep hidden.

The world needs your truth. Not your polished pitch.

We’re saving you a seat at dinner. Apply to Nautilus’ next cohort.

With magic and momentum,

MacKenzie Fisher, Philosofounder and a Nautilus protege
Sign up to my publication here.

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