Author: Pradeep

I work as a technical writer by day. At night, I mostly just sleep.

Weekly Notes 22/2023

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Reading/Listening

I am currently reading/listening to:

  • The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (Audible)
  • The Bullet Journal Method – Ryder Carroll (Kindle)

I finished listening to Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson and reading Trackside by Bharath Moro. I have updated the books list on the blog, accordingly. I was stuck in a reading rut for a long time. Trackside helped me break out of it.

I have also started reading The Hindu e-paper and Frontline magazine again. I am sharing articles that I like on my Twitter and Mastodon feeds. I might add them here in future editions of the Weekly Notes.

OTT

I watched:

  • Fubar (English)
  • High Crime (English)
  • Kathal (Hindi)
  • The Mother (English)
  • Mother’s Day (English)
  • Ponniyin Selvan 2 (Tamil)
  • Pachuvum Athbhutha Vilakkum (Malayalam)
  • Neelavelicham (Malayalam)
  • Enthadaa Saji (Malayalam)
  • Pakalum Paathiravum (Malayalam)
  • Pookkaalam (Malayalam)

Spirals

Spirals are what you would call rabbit holes today. Perhaps they are much more deeper? I hope this section clarifies what I meant by the title of this blog, Parallel Spirals?

Commonplace Books

I have mentioned Megan Rhiannon’s videos in the YouTube section of my previous post. She integrates her planner, commonplace book, etc. into one document. She includes stickers and cut-outs in her commonplace book. This got me interested into commonplace books. I watched many videos on this, but these made sense:

Jared Henderson on Commonplace Books
Ryan Holiday’s method is touched upon here. But he has other videos on this as well.

I discovered another person who used a notebook instead of a phone for a period of time, while searching about commonplace books. The last time this came up on my radar was on Weekly Notes 02/2023.

Religion

I had gone through some reading on Indian philosophical traditions last year. The YouTube algorithm suggested a video about the Kashmir Shaivism’s poet Lal Ded. I enjoyed the videos from the Let’s Talk Religion YouTube channel. Watching Acharya Prashant’s interview had diverted my focus towards Vedanta. Three specific videos on the Let’s Talk Religion spends time on the three schools under Vedanta that caught my attention.

Shankara and Advaita Vedanta
Ramanuja and Vishistadvaita Vedanta
Madhva and Dvaita Vedanta

Nikhil Kamat

I enjoyed watching all episodes of the podcast hosted by Nikhil Kamat. But, I liked this episode the most.

Ep #4 WTF is ChatGPT?

I think Varun Mayya’s explanation (of which there is a clip) of how ChatGPT works may be better than Cal Newport’s explanation.

Antinet/Analog Zettelkasten

I found Scott P. Scheper’s YouTube channel through watching Morgan’s YouTube channel. She has been explaining how to setup a physical Zettelkasten to her mother and mentioned Scott’s YouTube channel as an inspiration.

Morgan explaining her physical Zettelkasten method

I found Scott’s method more thorough. But, before I got there I went through videos by Nicole van der Hooven for more ideas on digital Zettelkastens. Her video on why she personally used Obsidian over Roam, has had me open Obsidian after a very long time:

Obsidian over Roam

I even sampled Tiago Forte’s video on visual note-taking and signed up for Milanote. I might use it to write my first sci-fi novel.

Tiago Forte on Milanote

This brings us back to Scott:

First video on a playlist on how to put together an analog Zettelkasten. I downloaded his free PDF which gave me a better idea than many of his YouTube videos.

Graphene

An editorial written by a former Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar in The Hindu sent me down the materials spiral. I was once (around 2007-08) interested in material sciences. I watched a few videos on NPTEL on material sciences and specifically on graphene and Carbon nanotubes.

NPTEL on Graphene

WordPress

I attended the 20th anniversary celebrations of WordPress in Pune. I had thought that I joined WordPress in November 2006, but it seems that I had actually joined WordPress in June 2006.

I was on Blogger before I was here. I had started blogging around 2005, if memory serves me correctly. But, as you can see above, I could be wrong.

Weekly Notes 18/2023

Pradeep1 Comment

Writing

I wrote one blog post. No newsletter edition.

Reading

I am currently reading/listening to:

  • Pacific Edge – Kim Stanley Robinson
  • So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport

OTT

I watched the following on OTT:

  • The Diplomat (English)
  • Patthu Thala (Tamil)
  • How to Get Rich (English)

YouTube

These had nice back stories about Roja, etc. Also, showed another side of Rahman
A nice introduction to Microsoft Bing Chat. I need to watch it again after I use it.
This is the weekly notes in video format. This is an interesting watch.
Ryan Holiday shares how he wrote Discipline is Destiny.
Part of the deep dive into the Ribbonfarm Extended Universe
This video started my deep dive into the Ribbonfarm Extended Universe
A very good section that deep dives into when you should give your child smartphones. Suggested age: 16.
19 million views for people cleaning (pressure cleaning) people’s back and front yards. Almost went into a rabbit hole of watching these videos.
This video was the entry point to the Attic Archives weekly vlogs above. Keep wondering why the Hobonichi costs more than INR 3,000 on Amazon.
Almost took me back to my ancient love for archaeology.

I watched a lot of YouTube this week. I am not able to watch so many videos.

Substack post vs blog post

Pradeep1 Comment

When people used the word blog posts to refer to their Substack posts, I found it difficult to understand why. I thought of each post on Substack as an edition or as an issue. When people pushed back to ask me for the difference between a Substack post and a blog post, I felt that it was fundamentally wrong but could not articulate the reasons for the same. I was reading Venkatesh Rao’s blog, Ribbonfarm, where he has articulated the reasons much better than I have.

I don’t agree with all of his points but these are good points to begin thinking about this.

  1. Blogs are ontic media; newsletters are epistemic media
  2. Blogs encourage you to invent concepts and coin terms; newsletters encourage you to use existing concepts and terms to lay out persuasive arguments
  3. Blogs are portals; newsletters are flags. Blogs encourage you to build seductive worlds to draw people into. Newsletters mark out territory in existing shared worlds.
  4. Blogs encourage true essays in the original sense of the term — explorations; newsletters encourage explainers, sermons, speeches
  5. Blogs are promiscuously and publicly social; newsletters are clannish and tribal
  6. Blogs are stocks; newsletters are flows
  7. Blogs invite internal and external hyperlinking; newsletters fight both
  8. Blogs are relational; newsletters are transactional
2021 Ribbonfarm Extended Universe Annual Roundup, Venkatesh Rao

Weekly Notes 17/2023

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I missed sending out Weekly Notes 16/2023, as I was not well.

Writing

I wrote one blog post.

I wrote one newsletter edition.

Reading

I am currently reading/listening to:

  • Pacific Edge – Kim Stanley Robinson
  • So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport

OTT

  • Pranaya Vilasam (Malayalam)
  • Vellari Patanam (Malayalam)
  • Mrs. Undercover (Hindi)
  • Rana Naidu (Hyderabadi)
  • Dear Vaappi (Malayalam)
  • How to Get Rich (English)

YouTube

Each video deepens my understanding of the book, Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte
Seventeenth century science fiction and philosophy by Margaret Cavendish

Is the Hinduism we practise today, Vedic?

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Ranveer Allahbadia did a recent interview with Acharya Prashant in Hindi, titled Forgotten Hinduism. Ranveer tries to talk to Acharya about hot takes and it takes time for him to reach the point about the question of whether the Hinduism we practice today Vedic?

Acharya Prashant says that the Hinduism we practise today is not Vedantic. He says that the Hinduism we practise today involves praying to Puranic Gods following Tantric rituals and methods.

He defines the periods from an average of 2000 B.C.E. He refers to the period from second to eight century CE is the Puranic period.

He says that we no longer pray to Vedic gods (like Indra, Varun etc.). He claims that worship in the Vedic era was mostly the worship of the natural phenomena. He claim that Vedic worship did not have the concept of idol worship and does not involve temple worship.

He suggests that Vedic practice begins with reading a few suggested Upanishads and books by the Adi Shankara.

  • Atma-bodha by Adi Shankara
  • Tatva-bodha by Adi Shankara
  • Niralamba Upanishad
  • Sarvasara Upanishad
  • Ishavasya/Isha Upanishad
  • Kena Upanishad
  • Katha Upanishad
  • Ashtavakra Upanishad

After the initial reading on Indian philosophy, this is what I plan to start reading this year. I may not read it all in two months like the Acharya suggests, but I will read through these after I begin with the Mandukya Upanishad.

Weekly Notes 15/2023

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Writing

Writing at work was good.

I wrote a blog post on the tree walk I went with my daughter.

I wrote the 50th edition of my space newsletter, since July 2019.

Reading

I read/listened to:

  • So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport (now reading)
  • The Great Derangement – Amitav Ghosh (now listening)

Badminton and Cycling

I did not cycle nor play badminton because of a muscle spasm in the back.

OTT

I watched:

  • Khalipurse of Billionaires (Malayalam)
  • Romancham (Malayalam)
  • Purusha Pretham (Malayalam)
  • Maheshinte Maruthi (Malayalam)

YouTube

Soviet Rocket Engines

Scott Manley – Why 21st Century American Rockets Still Use 1980s Soviet Engines
About the Soviet engines sold to the US based Aerodyne in 1995
Tanmay’s interview with Sahil Bloom (creator)

P Sainath

Interview by Kunal Kamra
Nero’s Guest on Sainath’s coverage of the farmer suicides in Maharashtra

What does a Quantum Computer look like?

How to think about quantum computers and what they’re good at?

IndieWeb

Jeremy Keith does a good job of explaining IndieWeb terms like WebMentions, authentication, and POSSE etc.

Tree Walk

Pradeep1 Comment

My daughter and I went for a Tree Walk in Camp, Pune on 26 March 2023. This follows the star party that we went together for.

We travelled to Camp by car and parked opposite Bishop’s school in Camp. We met with the group of about 10 people who had also come there. After a brief round of introductions, we started the walk.

The main thrust of the walk was not to make us overnight experts on all things trees. It was to get us to look at the trees in our surroundings with more curiosity. Learn how they transform through the seasons. How to identify them using the Internet and thereafter, by yourself. Observe how they flower and grow.

I tried to get my daughter to climb one of the trees but she was afraid to go more than a couple of feet off the ground. She collected a lot of fallen flowers, fruits, berries, etc. Being the youngest in the group, she got the attention of many others in the group, who helped her collect these things.

I did not follow all the tree related guidance too closely.

I have been enjoying the tree-related articles on The Marginalian. I also enjoyed the theme of trees when listening to Richard Powers’ The Overstory.

Weekly Notes 14/2023

PradeepLeave a comment

Writing

Writing at work was good.

I wrote the newsletter, Pradeep’s Space Newsletter #49. 49 posts since July 2019.

Reading

I read/listened to:

  • So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport (now reading)
  • The Great Derangement – Amitav Ghosh (now listening)

Badminton and Cycling

I had a back injury. This allowed me just two days of playing badminton this week.

The same meant that no cycling got done either.

YouTube

Tweets

Weekly Notes 13/2023

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Writing

Another week where most of the writing was focused on work. I did not get any other writing done.No blog posts. No newsletter post.

Reading/Listening

I read/listened to:

  • Ahalya – Koral Dasgupta

Badminton and Cycling

I got back to playing badminton this week. I got the badminton racket gutted again.

I got no cycling done this week.

YouTube

Weekly Notes 12/2023

PradeepLeave a comment

Writing

I delivered a lot of writing work this week. Left me in a high. But, this did not overflow to other writing. No blog posts. No newsletter. No other writing.

OTT

I watched:

  • The Rocket Boys – Season 2 (Hindi) – finished
  • Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (English)
  • Pathaan (Hindi)
  • Vaathi (Tamil)
  • Lost (Hindi)
  • Suits (English) – in progress

Reading

I read/listened:

Badminton and Cycling

I am probably going to focus on one and not on both. I stopped the badminton middle of this week. I am going to focus on cycling.

I cycled for a day for about 11.3 km.

YouTube

Twitter