Author: Pradeep

  • Weekly Notes 27/2025

    I realized I was not listening to podcasts that I usually would. I have downloaded PocketCasts to fix that. I have also downloaded the X and Tusky app for Android to access X and Mastodon. Thus ends my social media detox.

    What I’m reading?

    1. Education is free, Learning is expensive by Seth Godin
    • “If knowledge was power, controlling access was essential.”
    • “They even call it the ‘admissions office.’”

    2. On SpaceNews going paywalled, and the broader disregard for archiving in journalism by Jatan Mehta

    I read Doc Searls’ blog post about the subweb only two days back and now to be bought into my own space world so quickly is sad to see.

    3. Six Paths by Vishwesh Shetty (Qissa Comics)

    4. Build an Epic Career by Ankur Warikoo

    What I’m watching?

    Matt D’Avella is someone I started following when I was into minimalism. Good to see that he is still trying to hang in there.

    I have been trying to explore solarpunk and lunarpunk themes in my story writing. I haven’t written much this year. That’s something I hope to fix at this year’s NaNoWriMo.

    I’m seeing many finance YouTubers and podcast hosts talk about cryptocurrency again in India. Most of the stuff that I have watched had been sponsored by the cryptocurrency exchange, CoinDCX. Another cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, which had decided to not comply with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) guidelines for cryptocurrency exchanges and had left India is also returning with a India Blockchain Yatra.

    Mukesh Bansal’s solocast on fasting.

    Madhu Kela, knowingly or unknowingly says in this podcast, “China is an autocracy, India is a bureaucracy”, although he corrects it to democracy before he completes.

    Storytelling in Malayalam

    My Instagram watch time is also growing. I might add things I watched from there as well, starting next week.

  • Black Death (Book 2 of Six Paths)

    I finished reading Book 2, Black Death of Six Paths. I am enjoying the storytelling and the good pace at which the story is progressing.

  • Six Paths (Book 1, The School of Bharata)

    Six Paths, Book 1 of The Schools of Bharata

    I finished book 1 of the Schools of Bharata series. I liked the storyline but don’t understand why the characters look the way they do. It isn’t written like a manga, although that seems to be the inspiration. But, this is a great effort for the first series.

    Cross-posted from Instagram.

  • From Mumbai Paused:

    However, even now, we don’t receive the connections we seek and the answers we want. We get what they want to sell. Look at the book recommendations you’re served, even after years of ‘learning’ who you are. Then remember the person at the old neighbourhood bookstore who could glance at you and hand you something that changed your life. Rare now, but unforgettable.

    The post also provides a section of geology-inspired vocabulary to use.

  • Malayalam storytelling

    When I was little I used to listen to Malayalam folktales from my grandmother. I was wondering who would provide a similar experience for my children. I am happy to see storytelling creators emerge who bring forth such storytelling on a public platform.

    My son started listening and my daughter joined in.

  • While I am writing Weekly Notes in text, I am also seeing Weekly Notes in pictures on Instagram. I might add that to next week’s Weekly Notes.

  • Weekly Notes 26/2025

    I almost lost this domain name. I was only on Instagram and Netflix.

    What I’m reading?

    • Platform Reality by Robin Sloan
      • “Ted Gioia’s recent newsletter style is a key example of 2020s ventilated prose, an unmissable textual trend.”
      • Always read the PS.
    • Playability by Jay
      • “One of things happening in culture that I think we can all feel intuitively is that increasingly media mediums are playable. I don’t mean ‘gamification’, and I don’t simply mean ‘engagement’ (but metrics inside of systems are certainly part of it). But the sense that people – Gen Z and Gen A, are literate in exploring systems. They poke at the rules, bend them, maybe even break them and see how the system responds far more than millennials did. We played the game, but didn’t fully appreciate that culture is an emergent property of a system’s design.”
      • “gamification (In my opinion) is mostly about obedience theatre.”
      • “Gamification is used to make you feel like you’re playing when you’re really just complying.”
      • “Code writes the rules. Rules shape incentives. Incentives shape behaviour. And behaviour becomes culture.”
      • “This is why playability matters. Not because everything is a game, but because we are all beginning to think like players, and this changes how we should understand agency inside of systems.”
      • “There’s a lot more we can say about both of these challenges, but in short they make doing solarpunk both harder and more necessary. The more cyberpunk the world gets, the more useful solarpunks become. The more material reality is buried under layers of digital abstraction, the better it feels to actually get your hands dirty.”
    • AI Won’t Live on Publisher Sites by Ben Werdmuller
      • “Almost nobody is visiting homepage after homepage. Readers almost universally read content from a central feed of information.”
      • “Email newsletters are, at their heart, another version of this model. By subscribing to a publisher’s newsletter, you’re adding their content to your reverse-chronological feed of information.”
      • “If AI lives in the browser, as it does in products like Dia (and soon in Chrome), you can query not just one information source, but every information source you visit through that browser.”
      • “publishers are better off considering how they might embrace emerging standards like Model Context Protocol (MCP) into their offerings so that their information can be consumed.”
    • Use a Lot of Words by Seth Godin
      • “Verbosity is the new brevity.”
      • “AI isn’t like that. In fact, our concision is getting in the way of the insight we’re looking for.”
    • How I Turned ChatGPT Into My Personal Nutrition Coach and You Can Too by Brett McKay

    What I’m watching?

    The video has some AI tool suggestions that I want to try out.

    This video taught me a lot about Dharavi and its history.

    This video asks an interesting question and not sure if it really answers it.

  • Weekly Notes 22/2025

    I spent most time this week with work. I ended up not doing anything I expected to be able to do this week.

    For the coming week, my in-laws are coming, I am going to Mumbai to get a passport, and I want to take a look at all the things I missed in the last few weeks of engaging with work.

    Watched

    I believe the title is misleading, but don’t let that stop you from watching this video. My main point is to view the world as a stack of layers. This is what he refers to as wrappers (in a 3D sense). I have unfurled these wrappers into layers to make it easy for you to see.

    The biggest risk is taken by business people who connect a product or service with customers. As you move away from the customer, the risk (risk is the wrong word, but no synonym fits better) decreases. We can see this with the changes AI is introducing at this layer. Similarly, the best earning potential is often found at this level, but it also comes with the highest potential for loss.

    This made me reflect on which layer I prefer to work in. I’ve found that I might excel in support roles more than main roles. Even when I watch something, I’m more interested in the support character’s work than the main character, who often gets all the attention.

    I studied mechanical engineering, which plays an important role at many basic layers. You can’t ship without a ship. However, this doesn’t always create the most value (or money) for the customer. If you are in this layer you feel like you are being exploited. Without it, businesses would struggle. But, without a good or service being sold to a customer at the highest layer, you would struggle.

    Money flows down. When you’re squeezed by a layer above, it’s hard to earn more than the person in the layer above you. To earn more, you have to provide more value to the layer above you. The closer you are to the customer, the higher you earn for the value you provide.

    Many things can push you to choose a layer to work at. Your circumstances, your attitude, or what you learnt. If you want to earn more, you must learn to be of service in the layer above you.

    I did not watch, read or listen to anything besides this. I am hoping to return to a more normal cadence of writing, reading, watching, and listening by the end of the September quarter.

  • Week 21/2025

    I have been more focussed on work this week. This week was much better for all of us health-wise as all of us were sick in Week 20.

    Writing

    I did a lot of writing offline. But, I did not get any online writing done.

    Reading

    I did not get any reading (listening or reading) done.

    The rains have begun in Pune, much earlier than predicted. We got caught up in one such torrential downpour on Monday. Other than that we have mostly been enjoying the rains from home or office.

    Most of my online presence has been on Instagram. I had wanted to be on blogs, but I have not got a block of time on which to focus and read a blog post.

    We are waiting for our kid’s schools to re-open after the summer vacation.

    I am expecting next week also to be work focussed. I expect to continue writing offline and do not expect to write online. I am planning to return to the gym from Monday.

  • Weekly Notes 20/2025

    I missed posting Weekly Notes 17, 18, and 19. I had daughter’s birthday, and parents visiting in these weeks. I did not read or write much.

    Operation Sindoor also happened in the interim. X turned out to be the place to get most information during this period and I relapsed to browsing it continuously in this period.

    I also got back on Instagram to try and get some solutions for things around the house.

    I have a huge backlog of things to read (especially blog posts) and watch. I am hoping to get off social media and get back to the old web, as planned in the beginning of the year.

    In short, we will get back to normal programming and perhaps more blog posts here from this week.