1.
I took a session to the team this week on High Agency. This concept that we can influence the course of events around us and make change, rather than be a victim of the circumstances. I feel the number of people who are self directed, who will not give up when faced with challenges, who will find a way through ambiguity, are rarer now. I read a few articles, listened to podcasts and watched any available videos to prepare for this and hope to collate the content around this to one place for future reference. Hope to continue to find a way to strengthen that attribute in me and people around me.
2.
I have often felt that when I am worried about a topic or a line of thought, I will find signs of that everywhere. I call it my version of deja vu, knowing it maybe that once I find something, I look for the same or find associations in what I see, so the serendipity is probably made up my mind, but would like to think of it as the universe trying to tell me something. This week it was two things. One was that “words are cheap, look for actions to know what someone really feels”. I was trying to assess myself with that scale - are my actions meeting my words? I came across this in a podcast (Invest like the best - Robin Dunbar, of Dunbar number fame) as well as a random tweet pointing to a life coach advising on relationships.
Another was about “pathless path” - this book about creating our own path, deviating from the default paths on which we might be sleepwalking now. I was thinking about this constantly while sitting through some mindless sessions, thinking if the business of software development is disconnected from the actual pleasure of software development. Came across this in another article which beautifully described how the brain gets lulled into a comfort zone by choosing paths of least resistance, the need to fight that by changing things, and avoid choosing autonomous paths which we will end up regretting much later. It is a recurring theme I am coming across now.
3.
I am labouring through the book “48 laws of power” - it continues to disgust me, but I am continuing thinking I should know the dark secrets too and maybe even write a counter to it one day (maybe a fantasy).
I am a third of the way into the book “Art of Loving” by Eric Fromm. I wish I had read this much earlier and maybe such subjects should be taught in schools, for people to have a better understanding of ourselves and treat each other much better than what we would have otherwise in our clumsy attempts at learning such lessons through failures that end up hurting one another. It is not an easy read, but I found it fascinating that we love because it is the only way we realize our humanity, escape from the human condition of loneliness, that love flows from freedom and independence and it needs care, responsibility, respect and deep knowledge of another person.
4.
I keep dropping into rabbit holes and burrow farther in. I happened to read an appreciation tweet by Pico Iyer about the actress Carey Mulligan and her movies. I looked up many of her movies, read one story that was turned into a movie in which Carey Mulligan acted (An Education) and ended up watching two of her movies. She Said (Netflix) was about investigative reporting that brought down Harvey Weinstein and launched the metoo movement across the world. It is mind boggling to know the level of sleaze which was condoned by many people in the industry to allow people like Harvey Weinstein to destroy people for many years without any repercussions. I like this genre of movies about journalists battling odds to uncover important stories (The Post, All the Presidents Men, Spotlight) and this one didn’t disappoint.
Another was a much more mellow affair, The Dig (Netflix), about an archaeological excavation of burial mounds and people who dedicate their lives to such quests, like the extremely long rabbit holes. Slow movie, but just the kind I like.
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