Non-Tech

We behave in a certain way. It is shaped by various factors like our upbringing, environment, privilege, etc. But most of the time, it is shaped by our instincts. Until pointed out, we continue to act with our instincts. This instinct-driven behavior is our default behavior. I am making a case that anyone who has never rebelled against or resisted their default behavior will find it hard to achieve success in this world. All the successful people we see have done something that required fighting the default behavior, which led them to achieve something exceptional and become successful. ...

Yet again, this is not a book review, instead, go ahead and read the book Atomic Habits. I can’t recommend it enough. Written by James Clear, the book is not a theoretical text just talking about habits. Rather, it is a handbook that goes into the depth of how habits form, how they can be fostered, how human evolution hinders good habit formation in today’s world, etc. It gives you practical tips and actions on setting good habits and breaking bad ones. ...

Everything feels like work since the pandemic began. But the feeling has been more gnawing for the last couple of months. I have been working from home since 2018, but that was different! The work from home since the pandemic began is pretty adverse. The Tragedy of Lost Contexts Everything happens from the same place, things like work, seeing friends, entertainment, conferences, meetup, reading for fun, side project, etc. Earlier, there was a context and a place for each and everything. All of these other things have encroached on my workplace. Seeing friends in person is replaced by meeting them on Zoom. Watching movies in theater has been replaced by Netflix or Prime Video. Conferences had a special place for them in big convention centers in distant places. Now there are online platforms for organizing that too. A different company would host us for the meetup. There was a novelty in seeing new company spaces, a joy of talking tech for hours, that was fun. But now that too is only on Zoom, and it feels like yet another meeting. Cafes were for side projects and reading, but alas, that too happens in the same room, the same place. ...

This is not a book review. Instead, this is a book recommendation. Please go ahead and buy this book. If you cannot afford to buy the book, please reach out to me. I will help you buy it⁕. This blog will give you a general idea of what this book is about. I will provide some background about the book and the author, followed by the notes from the book. ...

I use different devices for consuming content from disparate streams, even for books. This post discusses each method’s various pros and cons and what fits best in what kind of circumstance. You can refer to the table at the end of the post, where I have broken down each comparison aspect. Physical Books This method of consuming knowledge became prevalent with Gutenburg’s printing press. Getting a new book always gives you that dopamine rush since it has a sense of newness, new cover, the smell of paper, etc. ...

Synopsis of the Book The Psychology of Money, written by Morgan Housel, published in 2020, could be categorised under Psychology, Finance, and Nonfiction. The author wrote an article three years ago which got a lot of traffic hence decided to write a book out of it. Last year I saw that the book was recommended by many folks in my network and on Twitter. All of the recommenders were highly impressed by the book and spoke intensely of it. Now that I have finished it, I can understand why! ...

There are numerous Hindu festivals celebrated throughout the year. The rituals associated with each festival differ to the extent these festivals are celebrated. I am here to recount the environmental impact of the customs Hindus are involved in. Although a ritual associated with each festival and its effect on the environment is insignificant on a small scale. But with Hindus in India being close to a billion (966 million as per the 2011 census, with the population growth rate that might be almost a billion), these rituals don’t scale very well. The practices Hindus have been following, believing them benign, just a form of worshipping their god of belief. Let us look at the environmental impact of various rituals performed on particular occasions (festivals, funeral). ...