recent reads

Few recent reads:-

Real Word vs Book Knowledge: Morgan Housel is someone I started following recently. Listened to his interview in Farnam Street podcast as well. This article was very apt for a debate that I was having with a colleague. We started a library within our team. Few folks pooled in money and we bought around 25 books which are some of the best in the areas where we all should be picking up skills, that will be useful in our work. In that context, argument was about bookish knowledge vs someone surprising us with their practical wisdom. I have no doubt there will be people who haven’t read widely, but will have brilliant insights. But it cannot be a “Vs”, not a “either / or” qn. One without the other will be incomplete. Also people use the excuse that they have real world knowledge to justify why they don’t read. In general, I think reading is on a decline (atleast among my acquaintances) and it could be one of the reasons for the rising social ills.

What is Love? : I think this could be one of the best articles I have read about love, to the extent I searched who might have written this in the Book of Life (could be Alain de Botton). Our innermost thoughts cannot be expressed without significant editing. We cannot truly be ourselves without shocking others. It is only with the loved ones can we be free – our weirdness, weaknesses, vulnerabilities can be tolerated and we can be without pretenses.

Epitaph to a Dog by Byron: below lines is a good prelude to the next article. When we love, it is truly love or is it just lust? Are our friendships meaningful, do we care deep enough or is it to pass time and avoid being lonely? Are we speaking the truth all (or even most of) the time? Our capability to deceive ourselves and others in sophisticated ways, sometimes even without us realizing consciously, might be a skill the animals may not have acquired.

While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,
And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven.
Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debas’d by slavery, or corrupt by power,
Who knows thee well, must quit thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust!
Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat,
Thy tongue hypocrisy, thy heart deceit!
By nature vile, ennobled but by name,
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.

Is Your Emotional Intelligence Authentic or Self Serving? : this is something worth thinking about. Is my humility real? I pride myself in listening well, but do I change my mind based on what I hear? I think I can feel other’s pain, but then do I impose myself in trying to help? Do I want someone’s approval all the time to reassure myself?