This edition of the Weekly Notes is almost a week late. There isn’t much to write home about this week. It was spent being busy at work and looking forward to the Star Party.
Blog
-
A Wish for 2023
I read this post by Scott Galloway on his predictions for 2023. But, what struck me was this phrase in the last paragraph:
I hope 2023 brings you health, prosperity, time with loved ones, and the presence to appreciate all three.
Scott GallowayI think of this as a good twenty first century replacement for what I had learnt in school – healthy, wealthy, and wise lesson.
-
Note Taking 2023
Disenchantment
I’ve been keeping a Bullet Journal consistently since 2018. I followed Ryder Carroll’s Bullet Journal YouTube channel for learning how to keep one and new additions Ryder would make to the system.
A challenge with the analog system has been the about the ability to search analog notes for something specific I may be looking for. Another challenge has been the inability to embed multimedia from various sources.
On his channel, in a recent video, Ryder was answering a question posed to him on how he integrates a digital calendar into his workflow. He confessed that he uses a digital calendar but uses a Bullet Journal notebook as his source of truth. He further elaborates that he captures any task, event or note first in his notebook before transferring it to a digital tool he may use for the same purpose.
Tiago Forte recently launched an interview series following the launch of his book, Building A Second Brain. I’ve enjoyed watching this series because he captures people’s entire productivity system very well. One of his recent interviews is with Ryder Carroll.
Ryder has always been open about the fact that his process evolved. But, this video shows the extent up to which his process has evolved. Here, it did not seem to me that the Bullet Journal was as fundamental to his system as he seems to claim in the video above (the one about the digital calendar).
This left me disenchanted about what systems people share about their note-taking system online. It was silly on my part to believe what was shared. But, I assumed good-faith, that what they were sharing was the system they were following.
My Note Taking Journey
I was interested in note taking since about 2018 when the Bullet Journal gave me a framework to take notes. I was not deliberate with my note-taking till 2020. That is when I took Saurabh’s course on Notes for Growth Notetaking 101:
I think his announcement about this session in July 2020 is what helped me get on Roam Research early on, as one of it’s early adopters. It was this session that told me about Zettelkasten. It was at this session that I seriously followed Tiago Forte and Nat Eliason. But, it was also here that I started going into the world of note-taking. Roam Research, Notion, Obsidian, etc. Through it all, I’m happy that I kept my Bullet Journal.
I did not enjoy Notion because it was very structured for me. With Roam Research, I always worried that they would suddenly ask me to pay $15 a month that I would not be able to afford. With Obsidian, I wasn’t able to give it more time but I spend time browsing and enjoying other people’s note gardens. There are many more but I thought it was time to double down and settle for something.
Text-based Productivity System
I’ve reached plain-text for my productivity system. I use Notepad++ for my home productivity system management and OneNote for work productivity system management.
This blog post by Derek Sivers opened my mind to the possibility of a text based productivity system. Cal Newport wrote about it in 2009! When I posted it on Twitter, I got a reply from @tshrinivas which opened up many more possibilites:
I’ve now moved my bullet journal from dotted to square grid paper for my bullet journal. With text based tools, I’ve been more confident with portability and not afraid to capture my notes in email, Google Keep, chits, notes, etc. I am confident that I will move the most important of these into my text based productivity system.
-
Weekly Notes 03/2023
OTT
The OTT list that I promised last week is still pending.
Personal Health
The throat infection has dragged on. I am back on anti-infectives. This has affected my output this week as well.
Tinkle 10 year digital subscription
I took a 10 year digital subscription to Tinkle. I want to try and read this together with Kid 1.
Bullet Journal
I liked Hiran’s adaptation of the BuJo that he mentioned in his newsletter. I am now trying it out.
-
Weekly Notes 02/2023
I have been reading Thejesh’s Weekly Notes for more than a month now. I think this would be a nice way to round-off my non-work stuff.
Bullet Journal
I have kept a bullet journal since 2017. I have followed the dotted grid journal since I started. I bought three dotted grid journals last year but was disappointed by the quality of the dots. Some were too bright. Some were too light. I decided to switch to a square grid journal. I am enjoying journaling in this journal.
The square grid also helps with my eyesight.
Personal
Kid 2 has been keeping me busy. This week I wasn’t able to support my wife with night time child care as I had a throat infection which led to a case of cough. This also kept me away from work for the first three days of the week. I was mostly sleeping.
Tweets
This section may not survive long. When I stop tweeting, I get emails from Twitter which point me to a few interesting tweets. Over the weeks, the emails have become much better at pointing out what tweet I might read. So, I mostly read those tweets only.
YouTube
I have moved from watching the more popular YouTubers to watching an interesting second-tier of creators whose videos I like to watch. These include My First Million, Paul Millerd, Chalchitra Talks (and their sister channel Kitaabi Cabins), Matt Ragland, Jared Henderson, struthless and Money Malayalam.
Two videos that I enjoyed watching this week:
OTT
I watched a bunch of stuff on OTT which I have still not compiled here. I will put them together in a different post and link to it here in the future. I will remind you about it next week, in case you forget.
-
Deep Reset
Cal Newport defines the deep reset as:
an intentional reconfiguration of your life to amplify the small number of things you’ve learned through experience that you value and minimize those things that get in their way.
Cal NewportHe first introduced the idea in a blog post in 2020. I did not understand it then but he fleshes out the concept beautifully in episode 219 of the Deep Questions podcast. You can listen to the YouTube chapter on The Deep Reset.
I resonated with the way he went through the relationship demographic populations had with work. Specifically, the reaction millennials are now having to work. Cal suggests the deep reset as an intentional process of the millennials reaction to work.
-
Hanif Kureishi
The writer Hanif Kureishi is in a hospital in Italy.
I enjoy reading his tweet threads. Someone on Twitter had shared it earlier this week which is when I read it cursorily. I forgot who.
I found it again in the Scroll’s daily digest. They have a nice summary of the context and his tweets so far. He has a newsletter, as well.
Many of his writing in the past have been controversial.
-
2023 for Writing
I had started 2022 with a simple plan. To write and read more. This did not work.
It seems I require more focus to get anything done. So, in 2023, I reduced it to one thing – writing.
-
Regulation in the Space Sector
The space sector is compliance heavy. It needs to comply with various national and international laws. In the absence of national laws, compliance requirements are a la carte right now.
India’s private sector space regulator gave a few green signals this year. It authorised the launch of Skyroot’s sounding rocket from the Sounding Rocket Complex. It authorised the launch of satellites from Pixxel and Dhruva Space on the PSLV.
Right now, the regulator regulates only the private sector. It does not seem to regulate launches from NSIL. This is like the RBI not regulating public sector banks. This comparison does not stand up much because NSIL provides much better service and because the private sector is in its infancy.
The question to ask is how is the regulator, IN-SPACe building capacity to do its job? When there is a proliferation of startups in a sector that the Government has just opened up, how does a regulator provide adequate regulation?
-
B/o Dhanya
Dhanya and I became parents again to a baby boy on 20 December 2022 at 11 am. The boy was born at Cloudnine Hospital, Pune.
Parallel Spirals 