Monthly Mulling - June 2020

I hope you are doing fine in these trying times and keeping a check on your mental health.

Sometimes just disconnecting from social media helps - a simple app timer could be helpful.

Here is the newsletter for June 2020.

MULLING

Here are the things, I have mulled over in the past month -

Survivorship Bias (Video) - Survivorship Bias is a logical error where you look at things that made it past some selection process and overlook things that did not. It is explained really well in this YouTube video. In investment, this bias skews the average results upward for the index or surviving funds, causing them to appear to perform better since underperformers have been overlooked.

Dealing with Impostor Syndrome (Video) - I doubt myself a lot at work; always thinking that I am not adding any value and there are a lot of people who can do a “thing” better than me. Impostor Syndrome affects a lot of people where they have internalized themselves as being a fraud. Shane Parrish (from Farnam Street) explains that the easiest way of dealing with Impostor Syndrome is acknowledging it and then going forward, delivering whatever you have to deliver. In most instances, the feedback is positive.

How the U.S. stole an island (Video) - Johnny Harris, in this beautifully edited video, talks about Diego Garcia - an island in the Indian Ocean which the U.S. turned into a military base driving out the indigenous population.

Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive (Article) - In this article, the author explains the association between pop songs having a lot of repeated lyrics and audio compression (repeated words means more compression). More than anything, if you are a fan of beautifully visualized data, you should definitely take a look at this article. It explains the data with stunning visualizations!

Back to normal? (Article) - Atit asked a basic question - now that the lockdown restrictions are being lifted, how much income from business/job justifies the risk of catching the virus? The answer based on a simple valuation is ~ 5 lakhs INR per month.

The Mermaid - Octopus Scene (Video) - This is a fun one. It is going to be one of the weirdest scenes that you have ever watched in a movie.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (Quote) - “Relationships are built in the silences.”

Lessons from History by Will & Ariel Durant (Quote) - “So the conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it—perhaps as much more valuable as roots are more vital than grafts. It is good that new ideas should be heard, for the sake of the few that can be used; but it is also good that new ideas should be compelled to go through the mill of the objection, opposition, and contumely; this is the trial heat which innovations must survive before being allowed to enter the human race.”

CONTENT UPDATES

Here are the updates on the content that I have released this month

Blog Posts - I posted 3 articles this month.

A Book of Quotes - I recently started learning Adobe Illustrator. In this post, I have illustrated some of my favorite quotes

Lessons from Richard Feynman - I have summarized important lessons from “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman” by the eccentric Richard Feynman. Favorite quote, “you have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing.”

Colonial Borders - How are they causing political issues? - I am discussing three borders that were formed by the colonists - the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, and India-Pakistan that are still causing political issues, wars, and skirmishes. The lines were drawn without considering the culture and traditions of people living in the region.

Podcast (What the HAT!?) - We started a podcast! We are talking to graduates from our engineering college and learning new things from them. We have completed the recordings for season one and are releasing episodes every week on Saturday.

Jay Shah - Talks about his work at Facebook and hustling on the side. He recently launched an app called Mindspace Meditations.

Virang Jhaveri - He is the CEO Founder of Picostone, a home-automation startup in India, which recently received a funding of 5 crores INR.

Jainam Shah - He talks about joining his family business and expanding the business to the U.S.

Sumit Ranka - He is the CEO Founder of ThinkPot and co-founder at Innov8. He talks about running a successful e-commerce business in India and OYO Rooms acquisition of his startup Innov8 for 220 crores INR.

Prerak Sheth - He is a consultant with PwC, working in the CyberSec department. He recently lost 50lbs and talks about his fitness journey.

TREAT YO SHELVES

I finally made the switch to the Kindle app and I absolutely love it. I will be still ordering physical books but it will be a balance between Kindle and physical copies. I am still figuring that part out.

Books Read this Month

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall - Geographical insights on 10 maps that discusses the past, present, and potential future conflicts in these areas. My favorite chapters were Africa, Middle-East, India-Pakistan, and the Arctic.

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman - This autobiography shows the life of the eccentric Richard Feynman, who is known for his work on the Manhattan Project, outside of the project. He had a wonderfully curious mind and motivates you to be curious about a lot of things.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah - It is one of the most reviewed books on Amazon. It’s the beautiful story of Trevor Noah, who was born and raised in South Africa and talks about apartheid in Africa. It was one of my quickest reads.

The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant - This one is a short read but a heavy one. Will and Ariel are known for the 11 volumes of the Story of Civilization which won them a Pulitzer. The Lessons of History could be seen as a summary of those 11 books.

Currently Reading

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss - it talks about the art of negotiation

This is Marketing by Seth Godin - the title is self-explanatory

Note: If you have book recommendations, you can directly send them to me through my social accounts linked below. I also keep my GoodReads account up-to-date, if you want to take a look. Here is a list of my most recommended books of all time.

AND FINALLY,

I am in the process of updating my podcast library. If you have any recommendations, please feel free to share!

You can reach out to me via Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or email.

Until next month! Stay safe.

Best regards-

Tapan

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