recent reads

Got to finish a saved reading list, one of many. We got an old easy chair and saved couple of such old but gold furniture which is crowding up our balcony. When it is windy, even in this hellish heat, I could sit there for hours. Especially if there is tea - I am experimenting lot more with tea now – lemon, ginger, green, masala, with spices, honey and pepper – not all at once, but trying the combinations.

Few of the recent reads:-

-          Inside Mark Zuckerberg's Bold Plan For The Future Of Facebook:- it is interesting to see what they are doing with Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality, Connectivity using drones. Such articles always gives me a pang of guilt too that being part of a technology company (services though, which is a big difference), we are doing almost nothing original whereas likes of Facebook are leading Artificial Intelligence revolution. I access FB very rarely now and not active on any social media platform much, it being a time sink as well as source of unhappiness. But it will be interesting if FB improves over time to deliver valid information to even likes of me.

-          Love of Life: Albert Camus on Happiness, Despair, the Art of Awareness, and Why We Travel:- Brain Pickings is like a highly concentrated nectar of good things. She is reading so much and extracting the best for the world and such wisdom is hard to digest at times, without going through the whole experience and context leading to such wisdom. Nevertheless, it is always good food for thought. This one, mostly caught my attention due to the observation on travel – I had wondered why does it feel like our eyes are seeing more when we travel, how will it feel to see my own city through an eyes of a stranger, why does small things take on philosophical meaning when we travel compared to our familiar surroundings. Good insight for those questions from here.

-          90:9:1 – the odd ratio that technology keeps creating:- interesting to see one player dominating the field. Is it that people are lazy to try out, afraid of failure – on both sides, from creators and consumers perspective.

-          We're Not as Open-Minded As We Think We Are:- we know it, but good to keep ourselves reminded of this. I feel it is especially true in current times when people make up their mind based on 2 minute videos in social media, shared memes in whatsapp, than sit down and read a long article, listen to a whole speech or interview than react violently about an incident based on third hand information. Good example was the JNU incident recently. Few would have actually listened to Kanhaiya Kumar’s speeches, understood where they are coming from, before reacting to it with definitive statements. I could still be closed minded about it since I am naturally left leaning – I came to that realization that I am left leaning (not that I support any party, none are good enough now) since I saw that few of my good friends are natural righties – for them, nothing could convince to move towards even center. More about it later sometime..

-          Intelligent. Modest. Soft-Spoken. Philosophical:- a good speech, a good person.

-          We Do Not Dream:- story of Leicester football club, which is at the verge of winning English Premier League. Once in a lifetime kind of event, 5000 – 1 odds, true sports fairytale which is seen in few movies. I am more interested in how they pulled it off, how does it happen that someone obscure like that comes up and delivers an extraordinary performance. This one is not one off victory since they are winning after fighting an entire season. Such underdog stories gives the masses hope that winning is possible, even against the rich and famous. Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea – all are still there with their stars. How did they build such a team, inspire them to come together, win game after game – entire world is beating on their doors now to know that secret.