Gathering thoughts…
A world of little thoughts.
I am currently visiting a friend’s family in Nuremberg. One of the first things I noticed was the lack of healthy food in their kitchen. It’s filled with junk food, sugary snacks, and processed items. You can find unhealthy options everywhere. This, of course, has a huge impact on their kids' eating behavior. The…
Take a new leap of faith Read the book Go to events Go to sports meet new people Travel the world for half a year Talk to people you wanted to talk to Listen to podcast Ask for a raise Don’t escape from the hard things in life by short term dopamines (insta, fb, YouTube, dinner, sleep, etc…) Put your mind in it Put an…
Lately, I’ve been thinking: home is not a place, a country, or any physical location. Home is a feeling you get around people, people who always welcome you with a warm hug every time you see them and give you a tight hug every time you leave. While some people identify with their country or hometown, I identify with…
i've apparently made it a quasi-tradition to start editing a new site or writing a new blog post (or if i'm feeling super ambitious, both!) right on the new year. two years ago it was substack, last year it was buttondown, and now it's omg.lol (and here too, i suppose). last night i entered the new year alone (with my…
In my course Introduction to Design Project our main project is to make a lamp, do the ideation, 3d modeling, 3d printing and the electrical assembly of the final product. This course lasts for about 2 months and already in the 2nd week we already have to have some ideas of the concepts and lamps that we want to do.…
i may sound like a soulless creature here, but i did use to have a soul i promise - it was a garden with fragrant flowers, honeydew, some butterflies and all shades of colours. i don't know when i became a parched desert but if i am this today then i am also what i was. i am just scared, i think, of the colossal…
People has so many topics outside of work. You gotta have life outside work or feel energetic & interested to go outside to enjoy life. Now I’m feeling like it a bit - I like going outdoors and explore Or just listen to conversations That’s how you get to like know more perspectives and more things It’s pretty…
I love synthesizers. I own a couple of vintage ones, and other bits of vintage audio gear. There's something very interesting about how they look and how they are designed, they're like a little time capsule of a bygone era, fascinating for a wide number of reasons. But it's also true that electronic bits of kit tend…
reading Holzfällen after reading "the Novelist" by Jordan Castro is a special experience. it is like the same book.
It's the fourth quarter of 2023, and I chose to replenish my 6-month undated Roterunner planner - https://roterunner.com/products/purpose-planner - partly out of convenience, partly out of utility. Meanwhile, here's a list of planners which folks have shared -…
I wrote 2 drafts with some ideas about topics I could write about... they are gone. I can't recall what they were about, as much as I sit around and try to remember, I'm still left with just a blank page in my brain. This shows how important it is to write your ideas the moment they pop out because everyone has good…
I hope this is free and online forever because you know we've been burned many times. And we never got rich from all the time we spent on the Internet.
my friends and i are narcissists we think we're pharaohs among peasants
The prevailing cultural norm views work as a necessary evil - something to endure from Monday to Friday and escape from on weekends. In contrast, I perceive work differently. For me, work is engaging and fulfilling; it isn't a switch to turn off at 5 PM or on weekends. Yes, I have to push myself sometimes, and no, I…
How much time do I waste waiting for her to get ready. What more can I do?
Last month, I started learning how to make homemade ramen. The goal was simple, make something edible. Now I'm getting pretty good at making ramen. And my interest is starting to peter out. I'm not waking up thinking about where to source local chickens anymore. I'm no longer rifling through amazon for better fridge…
Are the poor more generous than the rich? It's an interesting if romantic notion, somewhat backed up with serious but contested research. But while the science isn't clear, most of us have personal experience of the generosity of the not-so-fortunate. As a little boy in mid-70s Srinagar, I'd sometimes be given the…
Today I had a goodbye dinner with my parents at a nice restaurant, before leaving for San Francisco tomorrow. It was the same restaurant where we have been for a goodbye dinner nearly exactly two years ago, before I left for my exchange semester to Taiwan. It felt melancholic to have a similar moment again. And it…
Twenty-four years ago, I had a great idea. I started a journal to record my sons' actions and words. Sometimes I look back at old photos and wonder about the details behind the picture taken. A written record provides even more details. My great idea lasted about eight months. Then nothing. Now I am writing and…
- playfulness of thought / intellectual playfulness - freedom of thought - privilege of pointlessness
every day you must take time a short time to eat a cookie there will be a time that a cookie will be the last cookie you'll ever eat so if you eat a cookie every day you're fighting the chances that the cookie you last ate was the ultimate last cookie of your life don't waste time on bad cookies
the first thing if you give it more time than it's worth. Try not to be alarmed. It will come back to you.
Beneath vast open skies, Mountains stare and Oceans rise, A view serene, so complete, No walls, bounds or goals to meet.... Yet man, in folly, stakes his claim, Assigns to beauty, price and name, As if the earth, confined by gold Will reveal its beauty for the price its sold The lake reflects the moonlit glows, Waves…
We waste too much time waiting. We wait for the clock to strike the perfect 9 AM, 10 AM, 2.30 PM, or 11 PM to resume work after a break. We'll scroll through a few more reels if there are 3 minutes to 5.30 PM. I used to do that while studying. I would arbitrarily take a break and then resume at half past something.…
i once had a piano student who had glenn gould energy a little baby of 7 or 10 years old and he told me he only plays the piano to impress girls i thought so young...and he already knows what life is about.
Então... Eu tenho notado, como a maioria das pessoas cronicamente online, que a magreza voltou com tudo. Fica difícil sustentar que você quer continuar sendo uma pessoa gorda quando o cenário geral, tipo, 90% das pessoas já não tem noção e não faz mais sentido a máxima de "não comentar sobre o corpo do coleguinha."…
I think the hardest thing I’ve had to do is to decide who to be as a creator. Helping others explore and develop their creativity felt much easier than developing my own. There is such joy in standing with another creative and helping them t o aim their creative arrows toward their desired target.…
Now in the early years of my fourth decade as an adult, am trying to determine what will end up being my go to cocktail in this decade. Wine has and will always remain my trusted and loyal companion at home. Beer will be that calm, peaceful and silent friend walking by my side. But a cocktail will take on a…
It’s Saturday. I should be grading homework and unit assignments. I have a master’s portfolio proposal to write (separate, apparently, from the actual master's thesis I wrote last semester). I have grad school homework to do. Instead, I’m on the couch. My youngest child has his legs draped over mine; he’ll follow me…
You know when you see sketchbooks that belonged to people who sketched? They're wonderful to look bakc through. I am a person who draws, but much of my “sketch” work is done on the computer. I have a good chunk of files of things I’ve started or experimented with or copied to get a feel of, or something. I want to…
It's one of those experiences that tell people how 'further' and 'farther' they are from the ones around them every day. You see laborers, officegoers, businessmen, students, people from different parts of the country, from different countries, and more. Today, I sat beside a laborer, and my financial woes suddenly…
Today I had a beautiful day. Getting up early to a great breakfast, hopping on a mountainbike in the morning sun, being in the mountains, doing intense physical exercise, drinking refreshing drinks, wellness with my family, and having a fantastic dinner together. Not all days can be like that, otherwise we wouldn’t…
Just do everything perfectly. Once at a time. Conversations - throw away the unimportant bits. Be clear - tell yourself be clear Even when you got into shit situations Find one way to go out You are good at doing that You need to improve To be better at doing the task while doing though Don’t get stuck at previous…
I wish they had given me some heads up about life. I wish they knew better about the rat race, and did not nudge towards the same path and mistake the made. I wish I knew better about money, I won't be in the hole I dug myself and I won't be stuck in a job that's draining every drop of life out of me. I wish they knew…
February is the month to show your love to that special person. You know exactly who I'm talking about. The person you depend on. They are always there when you need them. You can’t live without them. Yes. Show yourself some love. Here are four gifts under $40 to consider to brighten your day: 1. Coffee/Milk frother.…
The mundane daily motions of life often happen without much thought to the big picture of life. The thought lurks in the background, but is generally entangled and lost in the mental haze of daily grind. Important takes the back seat, to cede to urgent. Whatever remains of the time when you aren't working and aren't…
when i'm alone, i don't eat because to eat, you have to cook, and if you cook, you have to do the dishes and it's just not worth the hassle (i can't understand people for whom eating is such a pleasure that they'll go through the trouble of not only cooking, but BAKING) it turns out it's far more enjoyable to be…
Play the cards you are dealt with! All my life, I have constantly compared myself to others and then made a decision. It's after a long period of time that I have developed an understanding that no one will ever have the same experiences the way you do. If you wish you were Ambani's son/daughter today and presented…
sabe uma coisa que me irrita profundamente? pessoas que olham uma mulher em uma relação e daí olham para o homem e não se constrangem em agir como se a mulher tivesse sido salva por aquele homem maravilhoso que teve coragem de abrir o caminho de espinhos para oferecer amor incondicional a ela..... preguiça em níveis…
2023 - a new year. A new year where people will make and, inevitably, break new year resolutions. Like last year. I resolve to begin my writing journey…with consistency. I prefer short form - short and succinct. This is my aim. What will I be writing about? People say specificity wins. Maybe that will evolve over…
In 2020, I had this grand plan and it was unorthodox, but effective. I traded in my Android smart phone for a feature phone. I stopped reading the news religiously. I started to write more. And by hand. I would take notes on pen and paper writing in cursive to maximize my recall and memory. It all worked. I started…
Imagine a time when the institutional machinery (read: governments & other agents that mass-organise people and resources) successfully pulls off something beyond belief. I am not talking about the run-of-the-mill political propaganda. I am talking about upheaving lives and livelihoods in a single decision. (Think the…
Historically, overly-extractive business models eventually face pressure from the public, shareholders, and regulators. Once-unstoppable cigarette companies have been forced to pay the public health costs of their products and fund billion-dollar anti-smoking marketing campaigns. The market conditions for renewable…
I'm talking about structures - more specifically incentive structures. Politics, economies, sports teams, companies are all driven by incentives Those that set up well calibrated incentive structures are the most successful That's why capitalism (with regulation to account for self-centeredness of humankind) works so…
In the book "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, there is a distinction made between two aspects of thinking: system one and system two. System one refers to fast and automatic thinking, while system two involves slow and deliberate thought processes. For everyday tasks like opening doors or getting dressed,…
I think that´s the feedback I've gathered over the last 4 months or so. It's been mostly this year that I've been completely independent, working on my own, that I've seen it. I've had some hits in the past. Some of like people around call "the 15 mins of fame". And had some peaks in certain occasions. But nothing…
From my experiments: The best sleep schedule for humans is polyphasic in the summer (±5h at night, 90 min during the day) and monophasic during the winter (8-10h sleep at night; no nap during the day). It’s best to wake up with the onset of the morning dawn (slightly before sunrise). It is natural for humans to wake…
Remember those boxy robots from a couple of decades ago? The ones that spoke to humans and passed witty quips? I remember being so hooked to it that I'd have given an arm for that experience as a kid. Safe to say, we fell rather short in our attempt to make that a reality. We used the language of computers aka logic,…
