At 6:15 PM the past Friday night, I was walking to the library from my office - and I passed the dog-park. Some of you may know it from previous newsletters. It was dark, as the sun sets at 4 PM here. Nobody was there. It had been a while since I went there (because of the low temperatures). But this time, I felt like a string was pulling me towards it so I walked and stood at almost the center of the park.
Photo by lee Scott on Unsplash
I looked around, trying to memorize all the little details around me. The tall crane that shimmers green at night, the naked and skeleton-like trees set at uneven distances, patches of snow on the ground. It was so quiet. I looked at the windows of the towering apartments, watching silhouettes move and TVs emit colorful light. And I thought, if tonight were my last on this planet, how would I spend it?
It’s a powerful question that I urge you all to ask yourselves once in a while. It tells you what you really yearn for, and care about.
✍🏻 What I wrote…
***The longest article of mine of all time***: I thought of writing this back in November when I received a thank you note from someone who got an internship at Salesforce. I had referred many people over the past year, but for reasons that are sometimes beyond our control, most couldn’t get the offer. This made me think, what can I do to help increase their chances? What can I do to see more such thank you’s? So, after 20+ hours of thinking and writing, 50 survey responses, 10 calls, and countless editing later, here it is. A master guide of resources for people who want to network more effectively and obtain the first interview. Buckle up, you’re about to go on a 5500 word-ride. P.S. for everyone who comments in my article and shares it on LinkedIn, I will send an invite to a Google Hangouts group session to answer questions. Read more ➡️
Writing your 2020 goals with air, earth, fire, and water: Have you written your 2020 goals yet? No? Brilliant. I wrote mine just a week ago with the help of the classical elements. We all strive to achieve momentary balance in our day-to-day lives, but we don’t incorporate that when we set our goals. We all want to achieve too much too soon. Break the ceiling. Change the world.
You can do it. It will happen. But, if you want to enjoy the journey as much as the destination, it’s important to be patient and set goals that serve all your physical, mental, and spiritual needs. Read more ➡️
Travel Safely and Economically - Lessons from Southeast Asia: I woke up feeling shaky and terrified. I couldn’t remember much from the dream, but the bits I did remember were of me walking alone at night in Thailand and having the suspicion that someone was trailing me. This was two weeks before I went on a solo trip to Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia.
My top three priorities on the trip were to be safe, be frugal, and of course meet people. If you’re planning your first trip abroad, I’m sure you would have similar priorities. While learning to meet people and make friends requires a book in itself, I thought I would address the other two categories from my experience. So below are some of the things that I did either before the trip that helped or learnt during the trip which I hope will help you. Read more ➡️
I will announce the giveaway winners in a follow-up short post this week!
Are you enjoying this so far? Fantastic. Why not send me a tweet with what you thought, or give me ideas on what to write about next?
What I read…
Design: I’m all about the type
Raise your hand if you thought Times New Roman was a font. Come on.. be honest.
If only I had a nickel for every time I used fonts in place of typeface… (Actually, I wouldn’t be rich since then everyone around me would be equally rich and wrong, and the value of money would go down). I’ve been reading more about UI and UX design recently, and taking short video cum article courses on designcode. This article on typeface is as whimsy as it is enlightening. It will be five minutes well spent, I guarantee.
Economy: What’s going to save us? The answer has always been obvious
The most disappointing feature of the most recent jobs report is that wages did not grow very much, even though the U.S. economy is at or near full employment. For 2019, wages grew at 2.9% — but, since inflation is about 2%, real wage growth is about 1%. That’s hardly impressive. The last decade was the second-slowest for payroll growth since the 1940s. What’s the solution? Subsidized healthcare, housing, and education. In some sense, that’s always been obvious. But in other senses, these are areas where we haven’t seen disruption the way we saw in technology. Let’s hope it’s not too late.
Neuroscience: Is there a limit to human capacity?
In my opinion, the most consequential revolution of this century will stem from startups that are trying to build neuroprosthetics: invasive and non-invasive devices that extend and improve our cognition. But first, why do we need this? Isn’t our brain the most complex machine already, with unlimited storage potential? No, it’s not. We have a finite, but large, capacity. Yet the amount of information we consume has skyrocketed in the past two decades.
Psychology: Healing trauma through the vagus nerve
I subscribed to Tiago Forte recently after I read about his initiative, Praxis. I obtained a newsletter cum article from him recently that was almost 8000 words long. Do I want to spend 30 minutes reading this? Sigh, let’s do it. I ended up reading it all the way till the end (and glancing through some parts quickly), and having a sense of profound feeling that I read something very special. The way he blended two chronologically asynchronous stories into one is worth noting.
Technology: Cash is the technology we can never replace
Think about the last time you used cash. How much did you spend? What did you buy, and from whom? Was it a one-time thing, or was it something you buy regularly? Was it legal?
If you’d rather keep all that to yourself, you’re in luck. The person in the store (or on the street corner) may remember your face, but as long as you didn’t reveal any identifying information, there is nothing that links you to the transaction. However, we’re walking into century that’s getting more ready to sing an elegy for this technology.
Are you enjoying this so far? Fantastic. Why not send me a tweet with the article you liked and spark a discussion for a wider audience?
Book of the month
Psychology: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Some say the window to one’s soul is through their palette. Others say it’s through their heart. Daniel Kahneman says it’s through the eyes. More specifically, the pupil. Daniel observed that our pupil dilates when we perform slow thinking activities (e.g. multiply 24 by 37), sometimes even by 50%. And conversely, it constricts when we perform fast thinking activities (e.g. having a casual conversation). I’m still in the first 10% of this book, but it’s piquing my interest with every chapter. I started this routine wherein I would read for 30 minutes before I sleep. This book has kept me good company there.
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Aaand.. you’re awesome. Don’t forget that.