Excursions

Thanks to Micro.Threads, I discovered and followed a couple of folks that I thought I was already following. Fascinating how much the interactions in one’s timeline can unearth!

I finished reading Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman today. This is a wonderful collection of thought experiments around our perception of time. The summary of the book says it’s a collage of stories – but there aren’t stories. With each “story”, the author Alan Lightman instils a fascinating possibility for the concept of time being something uniquely different. What if everyone settles on their view of time? What if it is always in the past? Or always in the future? Or with just a day of life? It’s a thought-provoking list.

All these 30 dreams are poetic vignettes that paint the varied interpretations of time. They evoke emotions through vivid narration of people’s lives in such a world and their surroundings. I paused after each chapter, pondering over the impact existence of such realities could have.

At the surface, sure, these are just fictional stories. But dig deep, and you may be able to draw a parallel with realities of our world. With our perception of time. This is a beautifully written, short but profound read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📚

What if I want a title-less post? Does it look OK? A big aim always for me is to not have any titles for my post. How will that look on a blog that expects a title. I have no idea – but here’s to check that.

A clean interface always helps! This is as clean as it gets. However, I already have a clean interface on my machine, a native app that is absolutely clean. So, why do I need another clean interface? Possibly not.

Anyway, what intrigues me the most is how it looks on Matt’s Micro posts site. It’s so clean. Is it the default template? Plus, a system around #tagging as part of the post’s body itself is pretty ingenious.

Lol’ed at this tweet by M.G. Siegler →

Breaking: NYT to acquire Metacritic, refocus site from movie review aggregation to critiquing Facebook.

I call things that I can’t put any name to as “meta”. I already have too many posts that are categorised as #meta. They have nothing to do with Facebook.

Here’s how Meta is defined – all so apt for what Facebook is going for in varying degree.

“showing or suggesting an explicit awareness of itself or oneself as a member of its category” - Lol! A good joke

“cleverly self-referential” - a lot less clever, a lot more self-referential

“concerning or providing information about members of its own category” - Information-shinformation, bruhh!

So, what is it. Facebook has gone Meta? Meta has engulfed Facebook? Or Facebook is Meta now?

The new name for Facebook is as vague as the future they plan with it.

When I published the final issue of my newsletter last week, I had promised I won’t send another letter to anyone, even if they stay subscribed. Even if I continue writing the essays. Here’s what I had said.

I prefer not to break your trust. You had signed up for something which I no longer intend to deliver.

I wanted the reader to provide me explicit permission to mail the essays. Today, I received the first one, with a really wonderful feedback on my writing. I am so glad the message wasn’t lost.

Both David Warner and Aaron Finch seem to have found their form today – that’s not a good news for other teams in T20 World Cup. With Maxwell and Smith already playing well, Australia is another formidable side. Interesting tournament this. 🏏

I had to connect with Google customer care today over a call. I spoke to a representative, but I am not sure if there was an actual person on the other end. I might have spoken to an AI. Crazy!

I finished listening to Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks and I instantly wanted to purchase the eBook version of the book too. This is one of those few books that are best read as both audio and text version. The audio brings out Matthew’s expertise as a storyteller — you realise how powerful the medium of storytelling is. However, as I had recently complained, it doesn’t give me enough chance to make notes from. Or to go back to those key sections and read them again.

I am not a storyteller by profession. I don’t get on a stage to narrate a story from my life to a group of strangers. Rather, I can’t even do that if I wanted to — the introvert in me shudders even thinking about it. But I do like to tell stories to the people I am comfortable with. To my family, my friends, my colleagues. And what Matthew attempts to narrate in this book is how to do that better.

But it’s not the “how to tell better stories” part that I found helpful. It is how to find those story-worthy moments from your life that had me excited. Matthew has a very natural, effortless way of conveying the methodical ways to identify, prepare and tell your stories easily. You would expect that, he is a teacher first, after all.

At the same time, he is also a writer and a renowned storyteller, though. So, listening to him tell his stories and use them as a tool to teach the process behind was fascinating. He has mastered the art over his many shows, and he lays out everything he has learnt through his experience for his readers to benefit from. He holds back nothing.

I have made so many notes, and I will make a many more when I read this book a second time. One thing, I have got homework for life now. And I don’t complain.

You should read this book even if, like me, you have no intention ever to tell your stories to strangers. Because, as Matthew says, there come moments in our life when we do tell our stories. So, instead of being terrible at it, we can attempt to do slightly better. Maybe we will not bore a few people the next time we ramble along in front of them. A must-read for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️