Tag: Weekly Notes

  • Weekly Notes 23/2023

    Reading/Listening

    I am currently reading/listening to:

    • The Bullet Journal Method – Ryder Carroll
    • Marathi Vangmayacha (Galeev) Itihas – Pu La Deshpande

    Writing

    I have been busy with professional commitments this week but was very happy to be able to write two posts on my blog:

    The book, Trackside got my writing and reading started again this week.

    Spirals

    I did not follow any new spirals this week. Most were continuations from the ones last week.

    I loved Varun Mayya’s explanation of AI on Nikhil Kamat’s YouTube channel. Here he talks about the Indus Valley Report for 2023.
    YouTube’s algorithm introduced me to Curly’s Analog channel. He implements Scheper’s Antinet.

    I stumbled on Neeldhara’s tweet about a resource she created on note-taking on her blog.

    Embed of Neeldhara’s tweet.
    FP was mentioned by Curly Analog in one of his videos. This may be a good video to begin going down the Zettelkasten playlist FP has created on YouTube. Detailed notes on his blog begin from Lesson #1.

    FP mentions that he backs up his notes digitally. Presently, he does them on Obsidian.

    Frontline has a nice interview with Ananyo Bhattacharya, who is the author of The Man from the Future, a book about John von Neumann. I plan to get this book.

    I argue that another of von Neumann’s contributions to computing, specifically his insistence on putting everything into the public domain and preventing the computer from being patented, has also had an enormous impact. He is the godfather of the open source movement, which is incredibly important today.

    Ananyo Bhattacharya, Frontline

    Some of the smartest people in technology say they are worried that AI is worse than pandemics and nuclear weapons. What I worry about is not AI extinguishing humans, but our humanity.

    Om Malik, Your Weekend AI reader

    Across India, there’s a new kind of tourism that’s seeing a boom- astrotourism. Amateur astronomers, citizens building telescopes, hobbyists, and private companies are organizing dark sky tourism with nightly sky watching and fun daytime experiences.

    Sandhya Ramesh, India’s new tourism boom is in the sky
    Twitter thread on the 2023 Odisha train collission.

  • Weekly Notes 22/2023

    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

    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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Weekly Notes 10/2023

    Writing

    The lower volume of work completed in Week 9 meant that more work-related writing got done than anything else. I did not write any blog posts. I did not publish the weekly space newsletter. I did not attend the RozWrite sessions.

    OTT

    I watched:

    • Nanpakal Nerratha Mayakkum (Malayalam, Tamil)
    • Alone (Malayalam)
    • Adrishyam (Malayalam)
    • Thattassery Kuttam (Malayalam)
    • Christopher (Malayalam)

    Of the lot, I enjoyed watching Nanpakal… the most. I had to watch the review by Baradwaj Rangan to really appreciate the movie more.

    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]

    Cycling and Badminton

    Another week without cycling. I played badminton on all days this week.

    YouTube