I recently completed my 100th book. Here’s a quick reflection:

I started with self-help, but it gets repetitive real fast. Once you have read 10 or so books, the 11th book simply fails to hold interest. I had to quickly start exploring other genres. Self-help is what you see advertised or shared via word of mouth - it sounds smart. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

There’s a right time to pick a particular book. Mastering this (picking the right book at the right time) is the key. Start with a short gripping fiction to get some momentum going (like The Alchemist or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). Then move on to longer but readable ones (The Martian, Dark Matter, etc.) and finally non-fiction (Factfulness). The trick is to fall in love with reading itself rather than a particular book.

After reading 100 books, I now put more time into selecting books, sometimes hours at a stretch. I have reduced my non-fiction consumption to half of last year and added fiction (And Then There Were None, The Little Prince, etc.). I’ve realized that you can’t really conquer your to-read list. Each book references other books. The pile keeps growing. Hail Hydra.

I now have a solid understanding of the science behind modifying habits. I’d recommend this more than Atomic Habits.

Here are my notes from The Power of Habit:

People are different. Their goals are different. The way they do things is different.

If at any point you have tried to guess why someone does something in a particular way, you might want to take a deeper look at yourself. I first took the MBTI personality test long back and I tested as an INTP (logician). It was pretty spot on. A few years back, I was going through some changes so I took it again. I tested as an this time. The description blew my mind. For the first time, I felt like someone had finally understood me.

2020 was the first year in a long time where I didn’t burn out. I want to keep this sustainability for the long run.

My yearly theme serves as a conscious reminder of what’s important to me right now, and that’s enjoyment. So yeah, I want to have fun. There, I said it. It took me some time to internalize this.

Everyone has a different definition of fun. Here’s mine: being able to wake up one morning and change what I’m doing on my own terms. In other words, fun is freedom for me. Freedom to do things I like. When I like. With people I like. For however long I like.

Does it mean I’ll slack off? Not really. I’ve already built good habits in the last few years. This year, I want to balance it right. I want to design life for fun. I want to stop and smell the roses. Have a good time. I want to do more of what I like right now ( anyway).

2020 has been a really shitty year. But it has also taught me what I need to be happy. Just the right people around. I’m grateful I got to spend a long time with my family after 10 years. The pandemic brought things into a new perspective. Why defer living if you don’t know whether the world or you will be alive tomorrow to experience it?

Two things have stood out for me. One is the fact that if 2020 can happen, then anything can happen. Don’t take things for granted! The other being that since we got through 2020, we can get through anything.

What went well?

I experimented with a small group in Dec 2020 on how to go about executing goals. Someone suggested the book “The 4 Disciplines of Execution”. The author, Chris McChesney, defines the disciplines as:

1. Focus on the Wildly Important Goal (WIG)

I read 50+ books in 2020. There were days where I just read continuously for hours and hours. I’ve realized that this pace isn’t sustainable for me. I’m aiming for a lower number in 2021.

To get more out of my previously read books, I want to go through my old book notes again and reflect regularly. It has a very good RoI for me. So here’s what I have come up with:
I’ve started a Telegram channel where every day, I share one bite-sized excerpt from my old books. As a reader, you can think of these as actionable ideas to spark your thoughts or simply prompts for serendipity. Every post has a dedicated comment section where you can start a discussion with other subscribers. You can share things that worked for you and things that didn’t. Feel free to build on top of these ideas / sparks as well.

Marketing has to be built into the product. A new-age marketer has to understand product design and be involved in it from the very start.

Here are my notes from Purple Cow:

GitPitch is a perfect example of a product by developers and for developers. I found it while preparing for my first conference talk. It lets you create slide decks in Markdown. As a developer, I love Markdown’s declarative format. It allows a separation of concerns between my intent and the actual design. For example, I can choose to style my H2 headings from a Markdown document differently for a presentation vs a blog post.

Fast forward to today, GitPitch is shutting down! The developer tools market is hard.

I’m in love with this newfound genre of business novel. It’s non-fiction so it teaches you something while it’s written like fiction so it’s quite easy to read. The Goal serves as a good introduction to operations, the theory of constraints, and managing an enterprise, with practical examples.

Here are my notes from The Goal:

I watched one of Ankur Warikoo’s sessions where he dropped some hard-hitting truth bombs. Here are some interesting tidbits:

1. We all know when something’s missing in life. We may not want to admit it, we may not want to come to terms with it. But we all know when something is missing.
2. What you’re good at and what makes you happy needn’t be the same things.

Daniel does a great job at explaining why we are so bad at predicting what will make us happy in the first place.

Here are my notes from Stumbling on Happiness:

I recently sent out the 100th issue of this newsletter. Two years ago, I had started reading books again and I wanted to build a writing habit as well. And that’s when I came up with this newsletter structure. I kept a deadline of reading one book every 2 weeks and sending out my book notes. In the other week, I would share whatever is on my mind in that time frame.

Time for a quick recap. Here are the ones that I enjoyed writing the most:

I didn’t learn much but it was a good refresher of my school days. It’s worth noticing that the majority of people who did advance technology had the freedom to do it. Also, many of the discoveries were made by people who dabbled in multiple fields or simply serendipity. This book reminded me that science is experimentation. Advancements are not necessarily made by the smartest of people but by people willing to do a lot of experiments and observations.

Here are my notes from A Short History of Nearly Everything:

A frog is that one thing you have on your to-do list that you have absolutely no motivation to do and that you’re most likely to procrastinate on. In the Eisenhower matrix, the frog mostly lies in the important but not urgent quadrant. You don’t want to do it, but you need to. Eating the frog means to just do it first thing in the morning, otherwise the frog will eat you i.e. you’ll end up procrastinating it the whole day.

The idea behing the frog-eating theory is that once that one task is done, the rest of the day will be an easier ride and you will get both momentum and a sense of accomplishment at the beginning of your day.

It used to work for me before but now it doesn’t. Now I start my day by eating cake - a very easy task that I can do within minutes and I can’t say no to! Once I get some momentum going, then I tackle the frog next.

This requires a bit of delayed gratification. Sometimes, I’ll have a super easy task towards the end of the day. And I want to check it off to feel good. But now I put it off for the next morning. Say I’ll write a blog post in the evening but stop before hitting the publish button - I’ll do that first thing next day. Or I’ll write code but put off committing it. Or I’ll stop on the last page of a chapter. You get the point. Cake is a good way to start a new day. And get some momentum going!

My key takeaway is that parents’ praise molds their children’s mindsets. It’s a very slippery slope - focusing on outcomes vs efforts can result in quite different mindsets. Growth mindset has compound effects in life so the earlier someone has it, the better.

Here are my notes from Mindset:

I’ve dipped into fitness at surface level multiple times. I started working out but couldn’t sustain it. I even tried Intermittent Fasting for a couple of months but it didn’t work for me.

As a vegetarian, it’s definitely hard. Then I came across Divjot’s journey. As a vegan, he lost weight by a calorie deficit and walking 10k steps. This looked sustainable. I got motivated again.

I decided to dive deeper into fitness and understand it once and for all. Here are the things that helped:

The best part about this book is the long-form stories of 10+ people instead of cherry-picked anecdotes.

Here are my notes from Mastery:

If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.

Attending meetup events has been a good way for me to find like-minded people. But after the pandemic forced everything to go online, it created a void for me which the virtual events simply couldn’t fill. That’s when I came across mastermind groups.

Have you noticed that the construction and aviation industries have very low error rates? Well, it might sound boring but they use checklists! Loaded with stories, Atul takes us on a journey to create a 90-second checklist in the world of surgery that ended up reducing the fatality rate by a third.

Here are my notes from The Checklist Manifesto:

Pronoia is the feeling that the Universe is conspiring to help you.

It’s a prevalent theme in one of my favorite novels, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. In it, the protagonist, a young boy, is told by an older man to pursue his dreams. He tells the boy, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” The book also deals with omens, signs that the universe wants the boy to follow a specific path, which leads to his goal of fulfilling a dream.

There’s a saying in the startup world, that if you’re willing to do whatever it takes to make your idea work, you might as well pick a bigger market rather than a smaller one. The same can be extended to mindsets - if you’re willing to put in the work to become the best version of yourself, you might as well pick pronoia over paranoia.

Ben goes deep into the struggles a CEO faces on a daily basis. Pick this up (along with The Culture Code) if you’re already running a business or aspire to start one. It made me understand the reasons behind the processes at large companies.

Here are my notes from The Hard Thing About Hard Things:

I’m addicted to cohort-based courses. There’s so many of them already and new ones keep popping up like JavaScript frameworks. Recently, I found another interesting one: Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte (h/t to @abnux). Check out the illustrated notes from a fellow of BaSB cohort. I’m currently using GTD for productivity; it’s working for me so I’m not looking for a change right now.

Until We Meet Again… 🖖

It’s a good reminder that life is short, so do things that you love doing. There’s no point toiling to acquire things you wouldn’t enjoy for long. My main problem with this, as with other philosophical texts I’ve read, is that the language used is unnecessarily complex (both in terms of sentence structure and words). The book consists of 3 letters. The first is quite good and I’ll probably read it again next year. Skip the second one, skim the third.

Here are my notes from On the Shortness of Life:

The spy’s goodbye is one of the most heartfelt scenes in all of MCU.

I’ve been watching Agents of Shield from day one, back when it started in 2013. I loved the cast and the writers - they took it up a notch every season. The finale was so wholesome that anything I say will only lessen its memory.

If you follow MCU films but not TV, you missed out on Aida who is terrifying compared to Ultron. Also, Fitz is the one of the best character developments in TV! I’ll always remember that LMD scene, the Doctor (You. Are. Weak!), and “Do something” - all because of the brilliant portrayal by Iain De Caestecker. And Tahiti is a pretty magical place.

Well, as Tony says, part of the journey is the end. What am I even tripping for?

Robert explains the concepts behind manipulation techniques which are widely in use today. There are some heuristics we use in our everyday life to get by. They serve us right for the most part but leave us vulnerable to get tricked easily. Being aware of such tactics is a good first step to start recognizing them and remain uninfluenced.

Here are my notes from Influence:

I recently discovered Studio Ghibli movies. That’s when I realized that I’ve been missing out on a lot. The first one I watched was “Kiki’s Delivery Service”. It’s a feel-good visual treat!

I’m in a dilemma here. As much as I want to binge them all, I also want to savor them as I know the movies are good but limited in number. Aargh!

Right now, my favorite animated movie is Pixar’s “Inside Out”. I’m convinced it will not stay that way for long, owing to this recent discovery. What’s your favorite animated movie?

Until We Meet Again… 🖖

YMMV

Here are my notes from Tao Te Ching:

Most of my reading happens in the Apple Books app. Whenever I find something that makes me reread it or teaches me something new, I add it to my journal. But when I select that text and hit copy, the app adds the citation info which I don’t want.

I was thinking of building a helper menu bar app for myself, but then I found a neat solution without installing any third-party software. In a nutshell, you create a Quick Action in Automator that receives the current text from iBooks and map the keyboard shortcut ⌘C to trigger the previously created action when pressed inside iBooks. See the post linked above for a step-by-step guide.

Until We Meet Again… 🖖

Some of the analogies are good. It started out strong but the book is way too long for its content.

Here are my notes from 12 Rules for Life:

This is a follow-up post to Lessons Learnt from Open-Source.

Maintainer burnout is real. I haven’t been active on open-source for quite a few months now. A lot of my projects are dying a slow death. As mentioned in the above post, I simply don’t have the time nor the energy to maintain old projects or start new ones. I have 500+ PRs pending to review which already feels like a nightmare!

This is a good primer on geography and politics. It’s not meant to be read in one sitting; the information can be overwhelming! Keep a map handy for better understanding.

Here are my notes from Prisoners of Geography:

Let’s start with an exercise. Last week, how many hours of content did you watch on YouTube? Hint: Go to the YouTube app on your phone, tap your profile, and click “Time watched”. Round your answer down to the nearest hour. If this is more than 10, you can definitely save a significant amount of time if you’re watching it at default speed.

The next time you’re on YouTube, try pressing “>” (shift + .) to speed up the playback rate by 0.25x (“<” decreases playback rate). It will be uncomfortable at first but after a couple of hours, this will feel like the new normal. To make this adjustment faster, you can also go to 1.5x for a few minutes and then come to 1.25x. 😉

This isn’t limited to YouTube though! Most media players and streaming services offer an option to change playback rate. The overall idea is this: If you are reading more, try increasing your reading speed. If you’re watching more, try increasing your watching speed. If you’re listening more, try increasing your listening speed. You either consume more in the same time or save time to spend somewhere else, both of which are quite favorable outcomes.

I am a speed-reader and that helps me read more books in the same time. This year, I’ve started increasing my video consumption speed as well. And it has already brought huge time-savings for me. For every 1 hour, you save 12 minutes (1.25x) or 20 minutes (1.5x) or 30 minutes (2x) depending on your speed. This is a skill that keeps on giving throughout your life.

Skip the first half! The second half has practical advice to incorporate into your life. I’ve already been doing most of them hence the short post.

Here are my notes from Digital Minimalism:

Last weekend, I stumbled upon a bridge shuffling tutorial. It looked pretty dope and after watching the video, it seemed easy to pull off as well. I tried it out but it didn’t come out well on my old deck. So I bought a new pack of cards and boy, it took me literally 10 minutes to get the hang of it. It feels like a magic trick and the sound is oddly satisfying! Here’s the tutorial that I used:

MJ’s moonwalking is another cool optical illusion that I have on my bucket list for next year. What are some things that are easier to do than they look?

After reading Sapiens last year, I was looking forward to reading this - another thought-provoking one from Harari!

Here are my notes from Homo Deus:

You might have heard of the phrase “All advice is autobiographical”. There’s a lot of background information which is hidden. I want you to seek the context behind the advice. Here are some examples to demonstrate my point:

1. Let’s say you’re working in a big company and looking to switch to a startup. You ask your friends who are in a startup right now. They advise you to go for it.
   But wait! Probe deeper. Have they worked in a company before? If they haven’t, they probably don’t have much context on your current state. Someone who hasn’t been on the other side can’t give you the full picture. So the next time someone who has only worked in big companies or only been in startups advises you something, don’t take it at face value as they don’t have calibration. Actively seek out folks who have been in both places; they can empathize with you a lot better. If I were at your place, I would seek out someone who was in a company and switched to startup and vice versa to see if there’s any mismatch in their advice.

I loved the first half; the second half not so much. The diversity of Branson’s businesses and his willingness to try everything once are commendable. Oh screw it, let’s do it!

Here are my notes from Losing My Virginity:

If you haven’t read our origin story, you should go check that out first. I’ll wait.

This post shares our experience of organizing the second version of AwesomeConf. And the story begins in June 2019. Having just organized a month earlier, we were super pumped up with the experience that we wanted to extend it to another domain we both love - design! We created yet another WhatsApp group to start brainstorming on it.

I really liked the concept of antifragility. Having read The Black Swan, I knew Taleb’s style. I find him hard to read but the content is presented in myriad applications. So I skimmed it, making lots of notes along the way. These include the need for redundancy, stocking up for emergencies, the barbell strategy, having skin in the game, etc.

Here are my notes from Antifragile:

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, where participants attempt to write a 50,000-word manuscript during the month of November every year. If you’re an aspiring writer, do check out https://nanowrimo.org/; they have everything you’ll need to get started - resources, pep talks, writing buddies, etc.

I came across NaNoWriMo back in college via Reddit. Codelympics used to host fun challenges to finish more side projects. They announced GaSiProMo (Galactic Side Project Month) in November 2015 where you had to start, and finish, a side project in 30 days. Going down the rabbit hole, I found NaNoWriMo, which was the inspiration for this challenge. I liked the overall concept but I wasn’t into writing at that time - in fact, I hated documentation and tried to minimize my writing to a minimum.

It was a very heavy read. Maybe because it’s a weird mix of fiction and non-fiction. Or maybe because I’m simply not ready for philosophy yet.

Here are my notes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:

So you have a goal, skin in the game, and a . What now?

I read this again after 3-4 years and still found it fresh. I could relate to many situations where I mishandled them in the past. The ideas presented in this book are simple yet effective. I’ve seen them work for many people, including myself. The secret is to not treat them as life hacks! If you’re praising, do it sincerely.

Here are my notes from How to Win Friends & Influence People:

You know why your manager creates an artificial deadline? Because it works!

It’s easy to get stuck on a task and not seem to make much progress. Your perfectionist nature comes into play. You start procrastinating.

But why does this happen? Say you started building an app on one fine day, let’s call it Day 0. You might not be working on the same the next day. Maybe you worked on it on Day 10 again. Now your brain thinks, “I have come up with the current output in only a few hours (albeit on Day 10). What if I spend more time on it? The output will be even better.”. Perfectly logical argument. But with your current priorities, you might not be able to work on this again for another 10 days. And your side-project keeps hanging around.

I avoided this book for the longest time, because the title seemed clickbaity! However, it contains some really great guiding principles for life including the importance of keeping promises, empathy, etc.

Here are my notes from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

How committed are you?

So you have set a goal. Nice! But winners and for the lack of a better term, losers have the same goals. So setting the right goal is necessary but not sufficient. In startup terms, ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is everything.

Pick this up if you need to convince your manager (or even yourself) on the benefits of remote work, which includes access to the best talent, freedom from soul-crushing commutes, and increased productivity outside the traditional office. It also debunks various myths, for example, innovation only happens face-to-face, people can’t be trusted to be productive at home, company culture would wither away, etc.

Here are my notes from Remote:

Setting the right goal is half the battle won.

I’m a big-time advocate of learning by doing. I don’t set a consumption goal; I set a creation goal. Here’s my process:

Calibration

With more and more jobs getting automated, this book posits an economy of micropayments that compensates people for original material they post to the web.

Here are my notes from Who Owns the Future?: