Author: Pradeep

  • Substack post vs blog post

    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

    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?

    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

    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

    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

    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

    https://twitter.com/NERAZZURl/status/1643246603095134208

  • Weekly Notes 13/2023

    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

    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

  • Weekly Notes 11/2023

    Writing

    Focus continued to stay on work related writing this week. I hope to complete and deliver many of these in the next week.

    I managed to write one blog post:

    I managed to also send out one edition of Pradeep’s Space Newsletter:

    I wrote one post on my Tumblr, Working Column:

    This week’s writing was not of the quality that I would have preferred but means that I shipped content.

    OTT

    I watched:

    • Rekha (Malayalam)
    • Ela Veezha Poonchira (Malayalam)
    • The Rocket Boys – Season 2 (Hindi) (in progress)

    Reading

    I am reading/listening to:

    • J Krishnamurti – A Life of Compassion beyond Boundaries – Roshen Dalal [Audible]
    • So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Cal Newport [Kindle]
    • Building Your Second Brain – Tiago Forte [Physical Paperback]

    Badminton and Cycling

    Another week of no cycling.

    Played badminton on all days save one.

    YouTube

    A wonderful refresher on bullet journalling. Also, loved the one page download of the video.
    Fun take on working out. I might learn more when these discussions happen with fun rather than dry talk on working out?
    Dhyan Sreenivasan talking about writer, director and actor Sreenivasan. Interview is in Malayalam.

  • Role of ISRO in the future?

    Fortune India did an interview with Chairman, ISRO Dr. S. Somanath. This was one of the exchanges in the interview.

    Commercial human space travel is something which private players in some countries are offering. Can ISRO do this?

    We can, but it is not our job. It is the job of the industry. ISRO is a national agency. ISRO can develop the technology. But the practice of government funding ISRO to develop technology is going to stop. If a technology is needed, it will be developed by ISRO and industry through government-industry funding. So, now, the industry will have to put money into technology development. They have to do some R&D and develop technology.

    This is an interesting comment and perhaps provides an insight into how ISRO thinks of its evolving role in the new space policy regime in India post-2019.

    NSIL, the Department of Space’s commercial arm signaled the intention to move to a demand-driven model in the space sector. As an example, GSAT-24 was India’s first demand-driven satellite that NSIL/ISRO built for Tata Play (DTH service provider).

    If you read through the whole interview, you can see the lengths to which Somanath goes to protect ISRO’s role while trying to push the idea that industry must lead in the future. This is a new tension for ISRO to hold. I don’t think there is enough clarity on how this will happen for him to communicate the message well.