MONTHLY MULLINGš”
I am stuck, the Big Lessons from COVID, and Cryptocurrency
Hiš,
Tapan here.
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Happy Monday yāall!
š¢I am stuckā¦
I am stuck. I have been losing discipline, some of my habits, and spending a lot more because of daylight savings. Once the sun has set around 4 pm, I donāt feel like doing anything. I order food, eat like a pig, sleep a lot, and keep delaying actually doing things I should be doing. To top that, London announced a new lockdown and the gym has been shutš·
I havenāt released a new blog post in some time, stopped posting on my Instagram account, struggling to think of ideas to work on, and my reading habit is taking a toll as well š
And as a result, you might have guessed it, I have been feeling rather down. Funny how it works? Lazying around is my decision but at the same time, that decision is making me sad.
So why would anyone make such a decision? A decision that makes you unhappy? And yet, I am not the only one struggling with this. A lot of friends I have talked to are in the same situation and even they are feeling rather down.
Now, in no way I am saying that you have to be productive all the time. Winding down is nice some times. But my issue is that if I wind-down a lot, I feel pathetic. My mental health spirals down.
Blaming things on daylight savings is an easy way out. At least it is for me. One of the major reasons I have been facing this issue (after much reflection) isā¦ drumrollsā¦ not being productive on Sunday evenings.
I have been reflecting on this. When I was super productive just a month ago, I used to plan my entire week on Sunday. This included putting down things to do, cooking for the week, and planning my calendar. This did not just help with my Sunday evening anxiety but also helped me be productive during the week.
On weekdays, after I was done with my 9-5 work, I had a plan, a task to do next. Plus dinner had already been made. So I could get on with the important stuff. Procrastination was difficult.
So here is my plan to āunstuckā myself.
š„Meal Prep for the week on Sunday evening - so I can reduce my spending, eat healthier, and during the week I donāt have to think about what should I cook for lunch or dinner.
š Use Notion to put tasks for the week on Sunday - I donāt struggle with waking up early but I have been waking up early and working on my 9-5 job. So thatās going to change. I will use the early morning time, my most productive hour, to work on projects that bring me happiness (including my blog).
š¶āāļøSchedule a 30-minute walk for the week - I think well when I walk and evening walks are my favorites. So I am going to put time on my calendar for every evening after work to go for a brisk walk. 6 pm sharp. This, I am hoping, will reduce my lazying around after work plus rejuvenate me after a long day. Stop blaming the daylight savings.
So thatās my plan for now. I will write back after a couple of weeks and update you on if it actually workedšÆ
Do you face similar issues during winters? What do you do? Write to me. You already know where (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or just reply to this email!).
Onwards.
šMULLING
āThe Big Lessons from History (COVID) by Morgan Housel (Article - 20 mins)
There are two kinds of history to learn from
Specific Events: We pay attention to this. What did this person do? What did the country do wrong? These specific stories are easy to find. But their usefulness is limited.
Broad Behaviors: This kind of history show-up again and again. These are the 50,000-foot takeaways from events that hide beneath the specific events in history. The broader the lesson, the more useful it is for the future.
So here are Morganās broad lessons to be learned from COVID (or at least the summary. The actual article is really interesting. Give it a readš)
š³Calm plants the seeds of crazy
When there are no recessions, people get confident. When they get confident they take risks. When they take risks, you get recessions.
When markets never crash, valuations go up. When valuations go up, markets are prone to crash.
The same applies to COVID. People got confident because there hasnāt been a pandemic of this scale in such a long time. This hindered the way people responded to the pandemic.
Nothing too good or too bad stays that way forever, because great times plant the seeds of their own destruction through complacency and leverage, and bad times plant the seeds of their own turnaround through opportunity and panic-driven problem-solving.
šPeople believe what they want to believe, see what they want to see, and hear what they want to hear
One is that everyone has a model in their head of how they think the world works, and that model is built mostly from what youāve experienced and what people you trust have told you. But since everyone hasĀ different experiences and trust a different set of people, the models of how we think things work vary wildly from person to person.
An important lesson from history is that everyone sees the world through a different lens, and incentives can cause smart people to embrace and defend ideas that range from goofy to disastrous. It shows up all over the place.Ā
šRisk is what you don't see
An important lesson from history is that the risks we talk about in the news are rarely the most important risks in hindsight. We saw that over the last decade of economists and investors spending their lives discussing the biggest risk to the economy ā was it Ben Bernankeās monetary policy? Barack Obamaās fiscal policy? Donald Trumpās trade wars?
No, none of those. It was a virus. Out of the blue, causing havoc we couldnāt comprehend.
š The Diffusion of Innovation by Deepu Asok (Article - 3 mins)
The diffusion of innovation is a theory that explains how a new idea or technology spreads through a specific population or a social system. Diffusion itself is a concept that is widespread in sciences like physics and biology.Ā
āDiffusion is the net movement of anything from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentrationā.
Using this theory content creators can understand that their early audience will be a small group of people who are really interested in the kind of message they are spreading. Instead of expecting a mass adoption right from the beginning, content creators can set realistic expectations about the pace of adoption.
If you are an entrepreneur, it helps to understand how you need to position your product or service in the service of your early adopters. These are the people who will help you cross the chasm before it can get adopted by the general masses.
šCONTENT UPDATE
šPODCAST
šØāšWHAT THE HAT!?
WTH!? is a weekly podcast discussing the journey of graduates from mostly engineering colleges. Releases every Saturday.
We also started WHAT THE HAT!? Insights - a newsletter (every Sunday) providing you an update on the episode releases, behind the scenes, various segments, and other things in a readable format!š°
šŖ Diwali Special - We did a Diwali special episode discussing what we are planning for Diwali. Itās a fun short episode. Check it out!
ā S2E4 - Jimeet Sanghavi on being a Director at CollegePond and counseling over 10K students - We talked to Jimeet sir who is a Director at CollegePond, a counseling service in Mumbai. We asked him questions on how to select a Masterās program, the current climate of higher education, and what should students.
š§ APPLEĀ |Ā SPOTIFYĀ |Ā YOUTUBEĀ |Ā GOOGLE PODCASTĀ |Ā ANCHORĀ |Ā CASTBOXĀ |Ā STITCHERĀ |Ā JIOSAAVNĀ |Ā WEBSITE
Note: If you like our podcast, share it with your friends on Twitter, Instagram, or anywhere else! Donāt forget to tag us! (Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn)
š°COLD BREW MONEY
Our weekly podcast discussing money because your friends and family wonāt. Releases every Monday.
š #19 - Should you update your portfolio based on the US election? - No. We elaborate on our response in the episode. Check it outš
š¤#20 - Cryptocurrencies - What are they and should you buy it?! - We talked to Ian Phillips who is a Blockchain developer and co-founder of Etherize, a hybrid formation portal that helps crypto organizations leverage legal entities and legal entities to leverage blockchain tools for the benefit of their communities, users, and investors. We ask him about the basics of crypto and why should you invest in Bitcoin? (#BTC)
We are discussing one of my favorite topics - mental models. We are covering what are they, why do we need them, and mental models for investing.
š§ APPLE | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE | GOOGLE PODCAST | ANCHOR | CASTBOX | JIOSAAVN
Note: If you like our podcast, share it with your friends on Twitter, Instagram, or anywhere else! Donāt forget to tag us! (Twitter | Instagram)
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Chalo bye for now.
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