favorite song

Moment of falling in love

Nothing seems out of place

Every note perfect

Nothing could have been done any different

Running in loop

Discovering new little things to love

Like how some words are said, even funnily

Can only be done in that way, endearing

Like pure magic or work of a genius

Have too much of the good thing

Till can’t take it any more

To come back any time through the years

And find the same pull of the heart

നോൺ ഫിക്ഷൻ

"Chinua Achebe - Man of the People. ഫിക്ഷനോ നോൺ ഫിക്ഷനോ?"

"ഫിക്ഷൻ"

"നോൺ ഫിക്ഷൻ നിർത്തിയോ?"

"ഇല്ല. ഒരെണ്ണം വായിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്."

"എന്തിനാ. ഫുൾ ഉപദേശം. വായിച്ചാൽ ഉറക്കം വരും." 

ബുക്ക് കൊണ്ടു തലക്കൊരെണ്ണം കൊടുത്തു. 

"നീയെപ്പോഴാ അതിനു നോൺ ഫിക്ഷൻ വായിച്ച് ഉറങ്ങിയത്?"

"ആ പിക്ചർ ബുക്ക് ഇല്ലേ? അത് വായിച്ച്."

"ഏതു പിക്ചർ ബുക്ക്‌?"

"അതു പോലും ഓർമ്മയില്ല, പിന്നെന്തിനാ വായിക്കുന്നത്. ഇതാ ഞാൻ പറഞ്ഞേ, നോൺ ഫിക്ഷൻ കൊള്ളില്ല."

ഒന്നൂടെ കൊടുത്തു. 

"ആ, ഓർമ്മ വന്നു." Shape Of Ideas - Grant Snider. "അതു നല്ലതായിരുന്നു"

"നാളത്തെ ഹെഡ് ലൈൻ - അച്ഛൻ മകളെ രണ്ടു പ്രാവശ്യം തലക്കടിച്ചു. പ്രതി ഇപ്പോൾ കൊല്ലത്തിരുന്നു ചപ്പാത്തി കഴിക്കുന്നു. വാദി അടുത്തു തന്നെ ഉണ്ട്."

rules to live by

Conduct lot of experiments 

Be self disciplined 

Do everything out of love - love for other people, love for work, love for life 

Connect with people 

Share a vision that people want to join and be part of 

Lean in to every moment - expecting magic or miracles 

Have / find fun and delight in everything we do 

Be true to what you believe in, never compromise your core beliefs

Process > Outcome 

Stress + Rest (Reflection) = Progress 

There are no boundaries or limits 

Be the best you, you can be 

Always strive to keep making a better you 

Build bridges, not walls

Be the change you want to see

If I end up blaming the world for all my problems, then the problem is me. 

Admit mistakes

Be kind 

Gracefully tell the truth 

Intellectual Humility 

Be Authentic, don't adjust, don't pretend, don't play-act, don't compromise - don't be an adult, be a child 

Persist - don't let go if it is right, keep coming back at it from different angles at different times until objective is met 

Be curious - keep learning, every day learning compounds over time 

Move from short term thinking to long term, practice second order thinking - impact of actions, avoiding immediate reactions, how to achieve long term goals even with short term pain 

Growth mindset instead of Fixed mindset 

Forgive and Forget 

Take responsibility, own it up 

Talk TO people, don't talk ABOUT people 

Do favors 

Be a rebel, differentiate, stand out 

Strive for excellence in everything, continuously improve, don't compromise 

Move from Hierarchies to Networks, from Competition to Synergies 

Care + Attention = Love 

Keep your word

Understand why, communicate why - key to creating the shared vision 

Communicate with compassion 

Listen actively - to why people are saying what they are saying, listen for emotions, listen between words, craft messages that can penetrate toughest of shields 

Let them hear the smile in your voice. 

Find some / any good in others, to find a reason why we should work with them, try hard to find common ground, try hard to find topics where we can agree before solving disagreements 

Disagree without being disagreeable 

Help people

Simplify everything - thoughts, words, actions, interactions 

Be vulnerable - don't worry about what was shared if it was true 

Craft experiences such a way that different people win

Purity of purpose (squeaky clean purpose) behind everything, no hidden agenda or intent, no worries 

Don't do anything that I will be sorry for later 

Switch on for occasions, break the monotony, vary the pitch, change the avatar, keep it interesting 

Go to any war knowing whether you will win or lose, anticipate and plan accordingly 

Change one thing every day, try one new thing every day, test what works

"Be patient, it's a nine-innings game" don't rush the process or expect results too swiftly 

-- collated from various sources and advise received over time

endless conversations

How does conversations end?

When we have nothing more interesting to say?

When we think we have said enough?

How much is enough?

When we think we are revealing ourselves more than we intend to?

When we think we may be stretching the topic too thin?

When we start to think too much before saying something?

When we start to think about boring the other person too much?

Why can’t it take new turns and become endless?

All the Bright Places

Precocious teens, smart and wise beyond their age, moody, suicidal, beautiful / handsome, well read, troubled, weird – common characteristics of three YA novels I read recently. I seem to have forgot my teenage years, whether I struggled so much. It is the time when you understood enough about the world, society, people, politics, religion and community – but still harbor an idealistic view, wants to contribute, want to change the world and think it is possible. Half of them would have already blended in and any one fighting still could be seen freakish. It is hard to accept the adults who have become like zombies who have adjusted and accepted the world. How much longer do they fight? How do they deal with the failures when the reality closes in? How do they keep their idealism burning as long as possible, to keep them genuine, uncorrupted, fresh and innocent? How to keep the connections open while they make the transition? Or don’t transition at all, but keep the sanity?

- After reading “All the Bright Places”, Jennifer Niven

milkman

“Perceptions are reality”, they say. Start a new narrative / gossip about a person, on hearsay, driven by jealousy, intention to take revenge for one’s hurt ego, or upon violating someone’s preconceived notions about how someone should be. Keep finding new reasons to strengthen that narrative, anything could cement it further. Keep building the crescendo, the germ transferred to other minds, multiples and feeds on itself. It could lead to bringing someone down, that’s when the new imaginary monster unleashed gets satisfied. 

In its wake, boundaries of what is true and what is false gets blurred. No one is able to decide and separate out fact from fiction. Eventually the victim might start believing it herself. Any one acting out of ordinary will be turned a freak and that makes it easier to discount their view which may be the truth. Create narrower divisions of us vs them, draw crisscrossing lines to block off people like pawns in a chess board, create symbols and micro ideologies to keep the smaller groups tighter and closed off from others. Are there masterminds to these games or once started these are independent monsters who cannot be controlled? If there is an overall master mind, in spite of the evil and danger he poses, it must be mind blowing strategy.

How do one get out this maze? Reacting and kicking out will drag one down like a quicksand. Blocking out will also not make it go away. How do one fight an imaginary hydra? Do an individual have any way out once caught in this? Resign to the fate is the only option? How to device a counter attack that has a chance of success? How to keep the sanity? How to not become another pawn in the game?

- After reading Milkman, by Anna Burns.

podcast notes

Listened to Winning at the Great Game: My Interview with Adam Robinson (Part 2) [The Knowledge Project Ep. #48].  It kept going from topic to topic, but I have realized few benefits of listening to podcasts. In the morning commute, listening to such fires the brain cells and puts it in a mood to attempt something new, more hopeful, more alert and triggers some ideas for new experiments. They might be talking about something, but brain could do some free association and something they talk about could be taken into a new context of what I am interested in or related to the problems I may be struggling with.

5 takeaways from this one.

1. Key to learn anything. Break it down to small steps or skills and Rehearse each one.
2. "A beginner mind sees many possibilities, an expert sees only a few"
3. Break down complexity to a few key metrics that we can reason with.
4. Learning how to learn is an important skill not taught to many students.
5. “What does people know about you that you don't know about yourself?”