Excursions

Our species' collective common sense is on a downward trend; my movie theatre experience yesterday proved this again. With mobile phones in their hands, they kill the vibe with the ringtones and flashes. A few pick up the calls in the middle of the movie. Some peek at their phones out of habit just to check the notifications. So what’s fricking wrong with these folks? Can you not stay away from the dopamine-inducing notifications even for a couple of hours?

There is also a crazy trend on the rise recently. People are creating reels of theatre response — a highly anticipated scene begins, the entry of an important character or a dialogue or a fight sequence, and people have their smartphones out recording the screen. What the fuck, man!

I am ready to pay extra for watching a movie at a theatre with a “no smartphone allowed” policy. I know it’s near impossible, but a guy can dream, can’t he?

A sidetone, the movie I watched was Vikram Vedha, and I absolutely loved it. I don’t care that it’s a remake. It is remade well, in the right spirit, and backed by solid performances.

The longer a break I take, the more difficult it is to get back. It’s foolish but true. Something that applies to everything I do. Even writing. Or replying.

I finished reading Stolen Focus by Johann Hari today 📚

I loved the premise of this book but found the second half unconvincing. Sure, lack of sleep or hunger or extended work hours does lead to loss of focus. But they do harm our society in a lot of other ways. We can’t point to every problem that plagues the world today and say it affects our focus. Similarly, ridding ourselves of the focus problem can help us solve even more significant issues. But without concrete actions, it is all talk.

The extent of topics that Hari wants to cover with the book is too spread for my liking. I wished it was more focused on the subject.

Even though I knew deep within that it was coming, the news of Federer’s retirement saddens me. Being an Indian, I never thought I would watch any sport as intently as I watched Cricket. Or cheer for anyone as loud as I did for India. Federer made me do both – this man is why I fell in love with Tennis.

I cheered every time he effortlessly hit those winners precisely where he wanted. There was some elegance to his aggression that always attracted me, something that the ferocity in the play of his competitors lacked. As his rivalry with Nadal grew, so did the craze amongst us tennis-crazy friends. The respect for both lived through many heartbreaks, one particular during undoubtedly the greatest match of all time.

As the sport moved on, leaving the beauty of the master’s gameplay behind, I moved away from the sport. I have never enjoyed the game since. Yet whenever Federer participated in a tournament, I refreshed the scores during his matches. I hoped that he managed to swat a winner against his tiring, ageing body. Just as he did through his graceful backhands over the years. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

Thank you for bringing cheer to millions of faces. We and the sport will miss your game, GOAT.

Since I downloaded and started using the Arc browser, I haven’t gone back to the other browsers. It has allowed me to stay on a website for longer and not get distracted by the bookmarks. Or shortcuts. And I don’t even use the marque features of the browser.

I read a flash fiction I wrote 5 years ago – it was a time when I was experimenting a lot with what I was writing. And I still love every word that I wrote then.

For the last few days, I have been away from all the social timelines. No specific reason, just that life happened.

I liked this article from Monica Chin at The Verge, where she talks about what makes a good laptop. Though the answer to that question usually is “well, it depends why you need it”, I agree with all of the must-meet criteria that she lists down – good RAM, good display, good keyboard (with backlight), good connectivity and good battery life.

In addition, portability and form factor matter to me. Too thick, large or heavy, and it no longer is a laptop in my eyes.

I don’t get Apple’s iPhone 14 lineup. Let me be upfront and say I have no intention of being an asshole. Or to troll Apple. I am genuinely curious if Apple has improved iPhone 14 (non-Pro) in any significant way over the last year’s model. Even S models from yesteryears had more significant upgrades. If I am wrong, I must have missed reading something between the line.

If there ever was a generation of iPhones that the previous year’s model could be recommended over, this lineup has to be the prime candidate.

I didn’t follow the Apple event live – I was sleeping peacefully, unaware of what Apple was announcing. I’d also skipped the WWDC and Google I/O keynotes. Knowing that the improvements will only be incremental, my excitement for these tech events has dwindled in recent years.

My daughter recently participated in a three-legged race during the festive period. Though she wasn't too excited to put herself through the challenge, knowing her close friend would partner her through the race made her sign up. Before the race, she and this friend walked together with their legs tied across the neighbourhood. Of course, they were laughing and having fun. But more importantly, they were getting used to this way of walking.

This practice continued for an hour; the actual race lasted for 20 seconds. But that hour had made them habitual of putting their three legs work together in harmony. No doubt, they won the race. While other kids struggled to put their legs in sync, these girls walked with ease.

They had made the new way of walking a natural. Practice is known to do that. I agree with Paulo Coelho when he says, "To become really good at anything, you have to practice and repeat, practice and repeat until the technique becomes intuitive." With practice, you fight the competition by not fighting it but by internalizing the rules. Even in life, you can get bogged down by the many curveballs that life hurls at you or decide to internalize the rules. The choice is individual.

Longer rallies in racquet sports tend to have a slightly different effect. For instance, my friends and I are incredibly competitive whenever we play a game of badminton. We want to win a point against the folks on the other side of the net as quickly as we can. So our rallies are usually short. But every time a rally lasts long, we subconsciously stop playing against one another - instead, we start to play together against the shuttlecock. So, we invariably want the rally to last even longer.

Isn't it funny how a situation at a point turns the very rules of the game on its head? How your competitor momentarily changes mid-match when it is competitor no more?

I love the visits to the library with my daughter. She loves spending time amidst the books – strolling through aisles, looking excitedly at the varied genres of books. Of course, she hasn’t read them all (duh!), but making her choose her book for the day is a difficult task.

I finished reading Think Again by Adam Grant today 📚

Though the book is in no way short, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Grant presents numerous ideas across sections and chapters – some focused on individuals, others on teams. Some on one’s personal life, others on the professional one. Given the recent trend of expanding trivial ideas into a book, I admire the depth Grant attempts with this book.

Sure, not everything works for me. Not all suggestions are practical. A few chapters and their conclusions contradict the more significant point being made. Some sections just have no relation to the central premise of thinking again. The conclusion sounds weakest as if it was added after the thought (something that Grant acknowledges in the Epilogue).

As I struggle today with forming opinions amidst the information overload, this was an essential read. Every help I get to think better is welcome.

Unless you have skipped a lot of school, or work, or both – or you live in the USA – you have probably used an A4 sheet of paper before now. Have you ever wondered why it is the shape or size it is? Time to dust off some high-school level maths to investigate.

Source: Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size →

I have been using a MacBook with Touch Bar for the past couple of weeks. I used this panel regularly for the first time. I can see why Apple wanted this to stick – when it works, it works well. For example, Zoom puts the buttons for full screen, mute, and video on/off front and centre. It, no doubt, speeds up the flow. But searching for the escape button is an absolute pain!

Apple screwed up the execution. Instead of replacing the row of function keys, this should have been an additional panel above the keyboard. It was ok even if this was available on the larger MacBooks only. But, alas. Apple knows better.

Don’t ever try to retell famous comedians' jokes. They have a whole process, a build-up before they hit their audience with the joke. You can’t do it all in the 2 minutes you borrow from someone. And they have the skill you don’t, hence famous. Duh!

I switched to the yearly plan for Micro.blog today. Knowing my love for this service, no idea why I didn’t do this earlier. Sure, it’s not perfect. But it’s the one that has allowed me the most freedom with the way I write.

A few audiobook narrators mar the book for the listeners, making me return a book immediately. Worst are those who sound sensual irrespective of the scene they are reading. Bloody I ain’t getting aroused as you tell me the character is staring at someone getting murdered 🤦🏽‍♂️

I write many forms of posts & enjoy them all. But as my friends would know, my love for them is not equal. So then, why do I continue to publish them? An apt metaphor from Robin Sloan made me ponder on the same today. I published a few thoughts, a healthy reminder on the same.

Can we recover a physical literature? Can we recover a literature that is not merely read but felt? The library museum gestures at just such a possibility.

Source: Ode to the Library Museum →

At a time, visiting Techmeme homepage was a respite from the typical downer news on the front page of mainstream news portals. They debated the political & legal mess we are in and advertised false promises. Instead, I would be excited by all the updates from the tech space – new hardware devices, new software updates.

Sigh! That time is no more. When I visited the Techmeme homepage, it was full of just what I was running from earlier – legal and political mess. And advertisements for stuff that isn’t available yet, something we call rumours.

While I was writing the post yesterday about my dependence on smartphones, I realized how misunderstood the term “dependence” has become in the context of this device. Most articles I read about this assume it is the indulgence or addiction one talks about. I was talking about neither of these – I depend on this device to carry out many of the tasks I regularly do. Unfortunately, this factor gets lost in all the hullabaloo about the addictive nature of smartphones.

With new lights, this spot that I have walked across so many times looked different. I liked the shades of yellow amidst the shadows. I wish I could capture it better.

I wonder if no one on Micro.blog creates any type of long-form posts using the web editor. I can’t be the only one who finds this interface too limiting. It is suitable only for short updates. The goal of keeping things simple shouldn’t hamper the experience of writing posts. Whenever I attempt to write a long post with this interface, I instantly look for other options. Sure, I don’t switch. But I would love to avoid having this feeling.

Saving and building on a draft is unnecessarily complicated. Keyboard shortcuts do not work consistently – undo/redo often messes up the post. This is exasperated by the already small editor window. In addition, the experience is not consistent between writing a new post and editing a draft.

This isn’t the first time I have complained about the writing interface. I wrote this almost a year ago (and that wasn’t the first either).

The editing experience remains poor for long-form posts – both from a desktop and a mobile device. It’s a great system with a promising base, but still has a long way to go before I can use it for the longer form content.

Neither am I the only one with the request. The editor is the most essential part of any blogging system. I hope Manton gets time to work on fixing it, an ask that’s pending for too long now. Without this, the platform isn’t fit for the blogging needs of full-length posts.

Go to bed when you are tired, and allow your body to wake you in the morning (no alarm clock allowed).

Source: Can You Catch Up on Lost Sleep? →

I agree with this “no alarm clock” part wholeheartedly. When you wake up consistently, without an alarm, you are sleeping well.