Brain Ticklers Ed. 6
Links for July 2020 covering the usual stuff and more. I think you will like it. Don’t miss.
Hope all well with you, my friend. And the past month was good for you.
Like everyone else, it was yet-another locked-down month for me. Going through the same set of emotions around news events - international (Floyd), national (Ladakh), and local (CoVID cases).
One good thing that happened was: If publishing one post a day counts for anything, I have had my most-productive streak in a decade. From 27-Jun to today (05-Jul), I have done one-post a day making it 9 days in a row. I was the only reader of all of those posts but does it matter? I have come to believe that the falling tree does make a sound.
Another thing that happened (good/bad I do not know): I channeled my inner Marie Kondo and got rid of 80% of books/notes from my engineering and B-school days. It did pain to let books go but they were gathering dust in the attic for years together and there is no hope I will read them again.
Oh and one last thing: A long pending dispute with Income Tax department (where there was an outstanding demand because their calculation was wrong) got resolved purely through personal follow-up (with no accountant or bribe involved).
Since it is widely recommended that we have at least one image in a post, here is one for this post, in the form of a riddle. If you do not know the answer, go to the end of the newsletter.
What did I write in the past month
Techy Posts
Zoom’s first mover disadvantage: An arm-chair analysis of why Zoom will end up as a “trial” app for video interactions before people move to other serious apps (in India).
Crime and Convenience: What gives us the right to criticize others’ harmful act? And what makes the doer of a crime think it is OK to do it? A thought experiment.
Parts of psychology that apply to product management: In the series on “ConB meets PM”, this part marks the scope/boundaries of psychology branches and product management phases it will cover.
Personality and Product Management: Part-3 of the ConB meets ProdMan series, focusing on “personality” concepts from Consumer Behavior literature, with some examples thrown
Top (Tech) Players in India: An attempt to identify the US-based, China-based, and Indian services targeting the Indian digital services market, extending an SCMP post.
Slightly Serious
2x2 to explain if hard work will lead to success: A management style 2x2 to explain to a 7 yo on how hard-work (usually) leads to success and why one should not leave it to luck/genius.
Groucho’s quote and me: An open note to readers of my blog to tell that I secretly hate them and wish someone else read this, who I then start hating. Ad infinitum.
ScreenTime+ for Knowledge Work: Idea for a productivity measurement app that goes beyond tracking keystrokes, measuring screen time of apps, and URL tracking in browsers.
Fun
(Read only if you are into PJs _and_ know Tamil) Untold story of how India’s richest man named his house and the song the kids from Kollam would sing before a vacation.
On to this month’s ticklers (if my writing does not tickle you enough, grr):
Tools/Techniques/References
For an intuitive understanding of several concepts (including very basic things I thought I knew well), I chanced upon Better Explained. Worth your time - go ahead and subscribe.
I wrote about “negative anchor tasks” a while ago. Looks like I was on to something. More serious, productive, and successful people than me have had the exact same thought. Read this short and hilarious article: Structured Procrastination as a way of getting things done.
Do you know what XY problem is? In summary it is: If you have a question about the problem, ask it directly. Do not attempt a half-baked solution and ask a solution around that half-baked solution. On a related note, here is some advice on how to handle questions that are half-baked in a good way.
Here is someone who has gone deep into science with respect tp bio-hacking and reducing weight. He talks about the 3 levels of batteries our bodies have and how the body utilizes each of it. If nothing, read the summary to get a sense of what it is. If you want a single takeaway, it is this: One should eat less (about 500 Kcal lesser than needed) to reduce about 1 Pound per week.
If you are into writing, consider avoiding adverbs, exclamation points, and hooptedoodle (an old NY times article that I believe is worth your time!)
My daughter has started using a computer more frequently (online classes etc.) and has the urge to type at least as fast as I do. Since I do not have any formal ‘typing’ training, I did not even know where to start. After a bit of googling, I found two good ones: typing.com and keybr.
Parag Honor List of children’s books (in India). Also, I just learnt about Common Sense Media for review on all kinds of media for children (I wanted to know if Roblox was suitable 7 y.o and found this).
How to lead a happy life? Not giving any summary here. Read it if you want to 🙂
Ticklers from Current Affairs
Have you seen several arguments becoming sacred when it comes to the country, patriotism etc.? Alex Danco compares it with pro-wrestling, where there are sacred aspects you never question.
If you want to keep yourself updated on China and their shenanigans, you should subscribe to this “Sinalytica” newsletter by Manoj Kewalramani.
A good write-up on scenario planning for the next year (i.e. post pandemic). It is meant for start-ups but applies well to all of us I guess. I particularly liked the “Will you send your children to school” question; and the answer expected from it as a barometer of how the economy will perform. (Our answer to it has so far been - Not until a vaccine is available).
Do you have a friend/family-member who claims to be made-of-iron because he/she never gets sick? If they claim it is because of their good habits etc., call it bullshit. It could just be that their genes are not susceptible to viruses.
WFH is not going to be permanent and things will revert back to normal (i.e. we all will go to office) says this NY Times article. Even I feel the pendulum has probably swung too much into the other side, with permanent WFH by some companies.
Income Inequality will reduce in India post COVID. (Not really among people but between the Rich Vs Poor states). How will it change after things become normal? Will it not go back to what it was before? Or even get worse?
Ticklers from History
Advertisements in newspapers during Spanish Influenza, not unlike the “baba chooran” messages in WhatsApp these days
What the food you eat used to look like (Banana, Watermelon and stuff!)
Map with literal meaning of every country’s name.
Do you know why engineering/science degrees in India have more theory than practicals? Well, it is about caste system and who the colonial masters wanted to get into elite institutions. Or so argues a book. I do not have a strong argument but am biased enough to agree with these conclusions.
Ticklers in Science
A deep dive on: whether bronze age humans had a "theory of mind” (google it); or if it was an invention to address issues that could not be answered using God.
There is a global vault of seeds - where millions of seeds (the ones used in farming) have been frozen for later use, once Coronavirus destroys us all (really)
Plants can also be put under anesthesia. Irrespective of whether they understand how anesthesia works or not, this was interesting to me in exploring consciousness in plants, how their movement is similar to animals (watch a video here to be amazed - you will not look at plants the same way again), pan-psychism and more.
MIT profiles innovators under 35 who are doing extraordinary stuff in AI. Some very good work there that might interest you. Meanwhile, I am waiting to be featured in the list of the 100 best TBD over 100. (Will not reveal TBD because I really do not like self-promotion; I also hate competition)
It is computation all the way down.! An elaborate explanation from Stephen Wolfram on how science has moved from “equations” of the last 300 years to computation now. (One day… one day…. I hope I understand these articles well enough to explain to y'all)
5 exercise myths debunked by science. Not exactly debunked, but just that the hype is killed a bit.
Ticklers inTechnology
I read about this concept of Digital Pollution recently. Honestly, I don’t think it can be compared with pollution in the physical world. The analogy just does not fit.
Rules of thumb of a 1x developer - A good list of things for a software developer (or actually any tech knowledge worker IMO)
Chatbot companion for the lonely. I did try Replika a while ago creating a Jungian shadow of myself there but did not like it so much. Should try again!
Salesforce claims to remove gender bias in AI. I am in the camp that thinks one should not introduce such overrides in AI. If there is bias, fix the training data. If all training data available to you have gender (or racial or other) biases, fix your society first. I am not saying AI should wait for society to get better but by overrides, we might make the problem worse in other dimensions. I would be comfortable where AI is reflecting the society than falsely believing society got better because we added overrides to AI.
Ticklers in Societal things
(Tweet thread) Gender roles in India and how COVID changes things. (I am sharing this even being aware that I am someone who shares exactly 0% of household work - so this is not exactly some woke virtue signaling for you)
Nextdoor (a neighborhood social network) is in trouble in the US with the Black Lives / All Lives debate. Wonder what kind of messages we would see if it were available in India, with the kind of stuff that gets posted in WhatsApp. Continuing the race related news, read this anatomy of anti-Black racism. A good read on the topic starting with the definition of what race is; and how there is systematic stigmatization etc. If reading those made you feel you should go break statues, here is something to read that argues about demolition of statues versus removing them (featuring Robert Clive). While no one in their right mind would want to compare Robert Clive with Gandhi, do you would know that Gandhi's statue was removed in Ghana because of his race related writings earlier? To know more about how Gandhi’s thoughts on this topic evolved, here is a note about transformation in Gandhi’s thoughts (I am a Gandhi fanboy and should say this: He was a Mahatma not because he was born that way, but because of how his thinking evolved).
More race related readings for you
Tech terms like master-slave changing now. Similar to statue demolition, I think this is an overkill. While one should ban derogatory language aimed at people directly, these have gone a long way further and should be left alone.
Multi-cultural products are locked behind a cupboard in Walmart.
How Wikipedia editors are struggling to find neutrality with the recent protests.
Black CEOs in Silicon Valley and their travails. (On a related note, I have seen this happening even in India, where dark-skinned mothers in children’s play area are assumed to be nannies while fairer-skinned nannies are assumed to be mothers! I do it too.)
A different take on everyday racial abuse - that the abuser might not really be racist but just uses it as a weapon in a general argument.
A professor got attacked and “cancelled” as they call it now for speaking about group differences and genetic influence on intelligence.
Fun Ticklers
Do not keep staring at billboards when you go out to shops and malls (er., if and when you get to go to shops). You might be tracked for an AI project.
When you reply to this newsletter, please type from a Smartphone because apparently you will be more honest and open when you type in Smartphones.
A “different” take on the movie Parasite (that Bellandur apartment uncle who called his ‘Bangladeshi’ maid as "similar to Kim family” was right after all).
If you want to coin a new term for the age of coronavirus, you better be aware of the rules of framing it and more importantly making your friends use it. And in the process, you will learn these words: coronaverse, coronapocalypse, coronasplaining, panglossary, and many more. Even I coined one - See Urban Dictionary. (I think it passes those rules well enough, no?)
Profile of an Indian hack-for-hire firm which uses interesting techniques including "graphic notifications to unsubscribe from pornography websites". Scary! The last line is funny though: "The Indian guys have a reputation for customer service”. Our IT services and BPO reputation haha!
Answer to the riddle in the picture:
Two Shilpas. (Din’t get it still? Here is some help: If you are having a bad time, remember that this…. two shilpas!! Read it fast. Still no? “Two Shil Pas = Too Shall Pass”. Taken from here).
If you find any parts of this useful, do consider sharing with others. Don’t want to? That is perfectly OK too. You can choose to just reply back to me with what parts you liked/disliked. Won’t do that too? Phew. OK.