You don’t stop having fun because you get old; You get Old because you stop having Fun

The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people but because of the silence of good people

Napolean

Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.

Charles Richard

Someone with half your IQ is making 10x as you because they aren’t smart enough to doubt themselves.

Ed Latimore

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Confucius

Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay.

Dalai Lama

The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.

J Krishnamurti

When you see someone doing something that doesn’t make sense to you, ask yourself what the world would have to look like to you for those actions to make sense.

Shane Parrish

If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.

James Cameron

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Mark Twain (apocryphal)

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves

Carl Jung

Every time someone does the right thing, the world becomes a better place to live in…

Anon

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing

Dale Carnegie

Almost any technology that has the power to save a billion lives, always starts with something that could kill a million

Anon

If you really think that the environment is less important than the economy, try holding your breath while you count your money

Guy McPherson

You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do

Elenaor Roosevelt

“What is Common Sense, isn’t Common Practice” – Stephen Covey

I did not succeed in Life because of Intelligence, I Succeeded because I have a long attention span

Charlie Munger

Isn’t it a Paradox that we want a newer version of everything, but we fear to change our mind?

Carmen Jacob

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

Allen Saunders

One Man’s Terrorist is another’s man Freedom Fighter

Anon

• “The extraordinary Genius of Albert Einstein ” (Youtube)- reflecting on the principle of relativity in terms of social relations and individual identities or thought processes, asking the question – how was Einstein able to make his breakthrough?
• ” Can we all become Geniuses ” (Discovery+) – From the episode of “Through the Wormhole” narrated by Morgan Freeman – Genius lies somewhere in the human mind, bringing mathematical insight, sparking artistic inspiration and enabling some to see what most cannot. Might we augment our biology with technology to unlock the genius inside us all?
• The Brain that changes itself – Our Brain is fantastic and continues to amaze researchers trying to unlock its secrets. You would’ve heard people say Change is hard and most people hate change, but if you look deep, your body and specifically your Brain is tuned efficiently adapt, handle and thrive with continuous changes.
• Ancient Aliens – Puzzling Pillars – Temple pillars that can sing and reverberate. No existing technology can easily reproduce these ancient marvels at the scale it was done. One wonders, where’s all that lost knowledge from Ancient India. While I’ve still not visited Hampi, i was personally fortunate to experience the sounds from these stone pillars that Sri Nellayappar Temple in Tirunelveli.

• Age of PageRank is Over! – With search patterns increasingly moving over from traditional search engines to products like TikTok, Instagram etc, it’s only natural that we’ll very soon have AI powered, hyper-personalized search systems that’ll determine what I see, read, use and recommend.
• Architecture Notes – Redis – Architecture Notes is quickly becoming my go to place to reinforce fundamentals. I like the way the content is organized and presented in an effective way to makes learning fun.
• Career Roadmaps for Developers – By far one of the best organized contents I’ve seen to help developers in picking up a path and guide their learning. Best part – it’s open source, so if you want to add something you don’t see and think it’ll be useful for the community, submit a PR.
• Advice for Junior Developers – I wish I read this before talking to a bunch of junior devs a couple days ago. This article presents an important list of things that budding devs should start assimilating as part of their work. While many of us would feel this is intuitive, actioning it needs intentional practice.
• Make-A-Video & Phenaki – Following Meta AI’s announcement 2 weeks ago of their “text to Video” generator, Google has release 2 of their own text to video generators this week. It’s amazing to see the acceleration in text to image, video and audio models. Looking forward to a full-fledged movie created by AI only with story prompts!
• Resiliency in Distributed Systems – A good read on some fundamentals to consider when working on large scale systems specifically around downstream and upstream resiliency.
• QR Codes! In fascinating that the Toyota subsidiary that invented the QR code never exercised its patent and released it for free making these pixelated blobs omnipresent and so useful these days.
• MemLab: An open source framework for finding JavaScript memory leaks – Interesting read on how Facebook detects in-browser memory leaks and how it’s benefitted them.
• Taking it light and doing a small tech history lesson, Where GREP Came From – Computerphile – Computerphile was recommended to me by Hari and I found some of their content very informative with some interesting speakers on the lineup.
• Meta – AI, Read speech from Brain – I’ve always been fascinated with the human brain and wondered if we’d ever fully understand and decode its inner workings. Here’s an interested read where Meta’s FAIR lab has been able to decode speech from non-invasive recordings of brain activity! Mind reading slowly becoming real.
• __ZStandard – Thanks  Jeeva  for sharing this one. ZStandard is a fast compression algorithm, providing high compression ratios. It also offers a special mode for small data, called dictionary compression. The reference library offers a very wide range of speed / compression trade-off, and is backed by an extremely fast decoder
• Firefox and its sad decline… – I love Firefox, but this is an example what happens to a product when there’s mis-timing, lack of customer focus and market understanding issues coupled with bad decisions. It’s sad to see Firefox fall from over 34% browser market share in 2010 to less than 3.5% currently.
• Engineering Ladders – This is a wonderful resource for Managers that’ll help in having meaningful career conversations around expectations at each level for both Engineering and management tracks. This is not intended to be used as a checklist for promotions, rather a guidance for career conversations
• Power of Inversion – ” Avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance “. This post explores some common applications of the Inversion mental model in engineering and how we can use it to make things better.
• ML Codegen Vs Coding by Hand – In the previous musings I shared about auto code-gen and it got me intrigued into aspects that are debatable and why we should tread with care. This post explores some of this nuance and has a good further reading on other thoughts on the same topic as well
• __Can GPT-3 explain how code works? – I was amazed by the extent to which models like GPT-3 & OpenAI Codex are getting increasingly efficient at writing code. Makes me wonder when we’d land in a situation where we no longer hire programmers
• **What’s in a good Error Message? **– Extremely important for all engineering devs and leads reviewing code. Both the article and the discussion/comments following it has several extremely using nuggets we should think about.
• CacheLib – Facebook’s web scale general purpose caching engine that powers multiple critical applications.
• __Mind Pong! – I’m so excited to see how tech like these will change our future and the things we’ll be able to accomplish. While a part of this brings hope, there’s fear on what this would do in the wrong hands.
• Google Imagen – What is original / real / true? With tech like GPT-3, Imagen etc, answering questions like this, fact checking news articles, authenticating artwork will get increasingly difficult with expanding AI prowess.
• __Rubber Duck Debugging. I never knew what I used occasionally as a Developer in the early days had a name and real psychology behind it!

Here’s a list of Podcast episodes i’ve found worth sharing.

• Dr. Layne Norton: The Science of Eating… – From the Huberman Lab podcast, this is by far the most comprehensive information I’ve seen on diet, nutrition, Health & the entire science behind it. Dr. Layne and Dr. Huberman cover a wide variety of important topics in this really long form episode, but you can find timestamps to sections that you can use to know about things you feel important.
• How to Work with a Passive-Aggressive Coworker – From the HBR channel, this is an 8 min video episode with some great tips to deal with passive aggressive folks at work. We’ve all been there on both sides of the table and understanding this a bit more can help us all become a bit better.
• Thriving In The Face Of Contradiction – Another good one from Hidden Brain. From the podcast excerpt – “ We all face tough decisions in life, whether we’re juggling the demands of work and family or deciding whether to take a new job. These situations often feel like either/or choices. But psychologist Wendy Smith says this binary way of confronting dilemmas contains a trap. She offers a different way to think about difficult choices, one that opens unexpected possibilities.”
• No Stupid Questions – What’s wrong with holding a grudge? – Another good conversation between Angela and Stephen where they talk about the emotional cost of grudge, how to let go of resentment, whether Apologies work.
• All-In – Adobe acquires Figma for $20B, TPB SPAC, FedEx CEO’s recession warning, macro picture & more – It takes some getting used to this podcast format of multi-participant discussion on varied topics, but once you are over it, you’ll come to appreciate the depth of analysis on topics and the amount of critical thinking involved and the kind of questions raised. In this episode Chamath, sacks and others dissect the Adobe-Figma deal & fears of a global recession.
• Authenticity is a double-edged sword – Another gem from Adam Grant where he talks about what effective authenticity looks like and how we can learn to strike the right balance.
• Sleep Toolkit: Tools For Optimizing Sleep & Sleep-Wake Timing – Dr. Huberman provides practical tips to improve and optimize sleep patterns. I’ve personally incorporated some of this (morning sunlight exposure, core body temperature rise, early dinner)  in my daily routine and can definitely see improvements in waking up energy, sleep quality etc.
• You 2.0 – Befriending your inner voice – What we say to ourselves, and our inner voice is a big contributor to how we think, act, react and transform. This podcast covers the effect of this chatter, and how to keep our negative emotions from transforming to chatter and harness its power in a constructive way.
• Should You Try to Be Less Angry? – Another one from my favorite podcasts – “No Stupid Questions” where Angela and Stephen discuss about Anger and it effects. While it’s not always good to keep the pot boiling, Anger as evolutionary measure does come in handy in situations and it is important we learn more about how to tackle our emotions and understand its effects.
• Master Investor Ed Thorp on How to think for yourself and many more topics – This is a long format podcast but there’s some invaluable takeaways from Ed’s experience. I’m a big fan of the Tim’s questions to his guests and the insights that he gleans from them. What particularly excited me in this podcast was how Ed was leveraging the power of compounding in anything he does, be it investing, loosing weight, forming habits, learning new things etc. Really loved the concept of “scrap time” and hope to incorporate in my life as well.
• Why you’re smarter than you think! – From the Hidden brain show notes – “ From the time we are schoolchildren, we are ranked and sorted based on how smart we are. But what if our assumptions about intelligence limit our potential? This week, psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman proposes a more expansive notion of what it means to be “smart “.
• How simple is too simple – In this episode of “No Stupid Questions”, Angela Duckworth and Stephen Dubner discuss the obsession humans have with magic bullet solutions and why there are no simple answers.
• How to Change Your Workplace – Adam Grant’s “Work Life” has been one of my all-time favorite podcasts and in this episode he delves into “Change” and how each one of us no matter where we are in the hierarchy can bring about meaningful, positive, long-lasting change and motivate people to embrace new ideas.
• Mind Reading 2.0: Why Conversations go wrong hosted by Shankar Vedantam (@HiddenBrain) where they talk about conversational styles and why understanding them is important to be able to effectively communicate.

Here’s a list of Videos i’ve watched in the past and found worth sharing.

• Could one vaccine protect against everything? – This is the same question I had when taking 3 shots of the COVID vaccine. I wonder how a world without diseases would look like and what would happen to the entire healthcare sector (apart from these vaccine makers) when this becomes true.
• Mathematics is the sense you never knew you had! – I wish I had a Maths teacher like Eddie woo. In this inspiring TED talk he makes a case for why Mathematics is a sense just like touch & sound and in the process inspires us to think differently about it. I wish schools taught these early on.
• Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad – I’m a master procrastinator and have been trying hard to overcome it for many years now (maybe procrastinating too much the actions required to overcome procrastination!) While I’ve gotten progressively better it’s important to understand the underlying reasons for why we put off things so we can learn to become better. This video talks about the importance of balancing emotions and how they can affect why we put off certain things and what we can do to change.
• The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History – How did one man’s effort or a specific business’s interest create a long standing health problem and environmental catastrophe of the modern world is the premise of this video. I personally learnt a lot of new and interesting things in the video. Some parts chemistry, some parts psychology and a bit of economics!
• Locked in a machine for 70 years – Inspiring story of Paul Alexander, a polio survivor, who beat the odds and continues to be one of last surviving people living in an Iron Lung. It was emotional for me to know the hardships he had to overcome and still achieve things many can only dream about.
• You don’t actually know what your future self wants – Profound talk by one of my favorite podcast hosts, Shankar Vedantam, this video is about coming to terms that our future self will not make the same decisions as we are making today and learning some ways to help craft the person we are to become.
• The Biggest Myth About Climate Change – With increased occurrences of extreme climate events, it’s hard to ignore the fact that climate change is real, and we need concrete action to minimize its adverse effects. In this video, Joe explains how Climate change naysayers are incorrect and why there’s nothing “natural” about climate change.
• Why Genghis Khan Refused to Invade India – My weekly dose of a little bit of history and this one is a refreshing take on Genghis Khan.
• Why You Are Lonely and How to Make Friends – Pandemic has decreased social interactions than before, limiting mostly to virtual connects. This video explains why it’s important that we seek out friends and social connections and practical tips of how to go about it.
• The 4 things it takes to be an expert – Subhadip recommended Veritasium a couple months back and I’ve since then become a fan of their videos. In this video, Dr. Derek talks about the 4 things that are required to become an expert at things and why you can’t have expert in every field
• Why No One Can Agree What’s REALLY the Tallest Mountain – Did you know that the longest mountain range in earth is under sea and the tallest peak isn’t necessarily the Everest? There’s never a time when I have come out of a video from this channel without learning something new and also wondering how some of the simplest things we assume from our schooling can actually be very complex.
• As someone who personally struggles with initiating the first conversation, I found 7 Ways to Make a Conversation with Anyone very insightful and practical. It’s a beautiful TEDx talk that you’ll appreciate if you are working to get better at connecting and talking to someone.
• **Trying to Land a Plane (to Prove a Point) **- I’ve always been intrigued by Dunning-Krueger effect & Imposter Syndrome and how it pretty much manifests in everybody. Personally I’m starting to get comfortable saying “I Don’t Know” and “I need help” more often these days.
• The Last Human! – A Glimpse into the Far Future – I’ve always been mesmerized by Futurism. It expands your own thought process of what’s possible and how to think about things. It opens your mind to the various possibilities of handling situations not only in the future but also in the present.
• * Sensory Adaptation! – Without this very strange phenomenon, you would be lost, overwhelmed, and completely unable to navigate the external world.
• * Unanswered – Mysteries from the Mahabharata | Christopher Charles Doyle | TEDxYouth@NMS
• * Did Ancient India have AI Robot Technology?
• Change your Life, one step at a time : I’m a big fan of Kurzgesagt videos and highly recommend it. This one came exactly when I was thinking of making some small changes in my lifestyle. I’ve been awe-inspired by the amount of research that goes behind making some of these videos. Here’s the supplementary info for this particular video.

Here’s a list of articles i’ve found interesting

• Technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives has arrived. Are we ready? – Personally, I believe tech like this would only worsen grief than help. With AI getting significantly better each day, there’s going to be more dilemmas like these that we need to be prepared to handle.
• How to Think for yourself – In this article, Paul Graham talks about importance of independent thinking. He also lists out what it means to be an independent thinker and the components of independent thinking and how we can nurture it.  I resonate with the thought that you are largely influenced by the kind of people you surround yourself with, so be open to diverse experiences, meeting and learning from new people.
• Non-linear workdays changing the shape of productivity – 9 to 5 work model is dead and as the world shifted to the hybrid work model employees now can craft their work schedules that suits them the best and takes into account their natural working rhythms. While greater flexibility will lead to greater productivity, it is important to have a clearly defined process and guideposts that prevent employees from straying too far away from a collaborative working schedule.
• How much would you pay for a box that beeps! – This article had interesting nuggets on how to pitch a product to the customer and set the price for it. It underscores the fact that customers don’t buy your product for its cutting-edge spec or features, they are buying it for solving their problem, so focus on the problem and you’ll never have to worry about lack of customers. This is applicable for everything that we do, day in and day out.
• 3 Types of Meetings — and How to Do Each One Well – A refresher on how to handle meetings in a hybrid work model and how to ensure everyone can make the most of meetings.
• How to have better Arguments? – Arguments are inevitable these days and it’s extremely important for us to understand the basics around arguing (why/how/when etc.). In addition to arming us with information, knowing these will help both us and the other person to get more out of the exchange.
• Why It’s Hard To Learn From Our Mistakes – Though a clickbait-y title, there’s some key information shared in this article around common reasons for why it’s easy to make mistakes and how neuroplasticity can help overcome this.
• How to deal with difficult people without losing your mind – Conflicts are inevitable in all walks of life and having an approach that works for us and learning the alternatives  definitely helps. From the article – “ While most of us admit we are far less than perfect, we often find it quite difficult to accept others’ imperfection. If we are to handle difficult situations successfully, we must accept that people can be both flawed and fabulous.”
• Chesterton’s Fence – A Lesson in Second Order Thinking – As Modernization, Reorganization, Consolidation etc. become part of our usual work vocabulary, it’s imperative we understand the importance of second order thinking. As the article points out ” A core component of making great decisions is understanding the rationale behind previous decisions. If we don’t understand how we got “here,” we run the risk of making things much worse “
• Why Facts Don’t change Minds – “ The way to change people’s minds is to become friends with them, to integrate them into your tribe, to bring them into your circle. Now, they can change their beliefs without the risk of being abandoned socially ” – In this article, James talks about why facts don’t usually change minds and what does it take to get people to accept a different point of view
• Lifestyles – Morgan Housel – A well written piece that talks about how important mindsets are and how finding a balance between external vs internal measures of success or happiness are core to our wellbeing.
• An Engineering team where everyone is a leader – A very well written piece with practical tips for managers and leaders on how to build a team where each engineer is empowered to make decisions and leads from the front.
• How to mend your broken pandemic brain – COVID-19 pandemic has truly hit the humankind in all possible areas including messing up our brains. As the world slowly starts its recovery journey, this article talks about some of the impacts to our brain and how we can help fix it faster.
• Ask HN: I’m in a rut. How did you get out of yours? – This active thread on HackerNews has lot of tips and discussions on how to handle and recover from Burnout and languishing. What intrigued me was, how a simple question when asked in a powerful forum could lead to tons of learning. Never be afraid to ask questions!
• How can I become a Director? – A very well written piece by Guru Bhat on what it takes to become a director. Eloquent as always, Guru hits the bulls eye on some key attributes that everyone should aspire to attain if they are on a quest for this title. I’ve been fortunate to learn by experience how “Bias for Action” can be a key differentiator in creating value for our stakeholders.
• Injections that edit Genes to stop diseases! – I’m filled with both hope and fear when I read articles like this. While this has the power to save millions of people, what stops someone from using the same tech for nefarious purposes.
• How to work with someone you can’t stand – “ Like it or not, your job and reputation can rely on an ability to get along with others.” Valdes-Dapena says there are steps you can take to make the situation more bearable.”
• The Top Idea in your mind – Another one of those gems from Tim’s newsletter where Paul Graham writes about ambient thought.