MONTHLY MULLING💡

Malcolm Gladwell Is Wrong and Kintsugi: Celebrating Your Past Damages

Hi👋 Tapan here.

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Happy Sunday y’all!

As the colder months come to a close(😮‍💨), I'm starting to plan my summer adventures. I have a few trips planned in my head. Let’s see if they become a reality.

As part of my futile annual mission to become healthy, I have commenced (once again) going out for a walk before sunset. Here’s a photo from one of my walks.

Yes, there’s a “beach” in London

💡Today, we will talk about: 🐂 Picasso’s Bull (Malcolm Gladwell Is Wrong), 📚 The Reading List, and ⾦ Kintsugi: Celebrating Your Past Damages

Currently,

📖 I am reading: 🧐 Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari

I read Mahabharata at least once a year and this translation of the epic is one of the best. If you want a primer on Mahabharata, I have written about it in a previous issue.

🏃🏽‍♂️The 4 Pillar Plan by Rangan Chatterjee

The book includes 20 action items to help you live a longer and healthier life. At least, that’s what the author has promised. The 4 pillars are food, fitness, relaxation, and sleep. I am really enjoying this book as it provides specific case studies (the author is a doctor!) to show how these action items actually help your body.

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🐂 Picasso’s Bull (Malcolm Gladwell Is Wrong)

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers made the 10,000 hours model really famous.

Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.

- Malcolm Gladwell

🎻 A study found that most accomplished violin students had put in 10,000 hours by the time they were 20.

🎸 The Beatles put in 10,000 hours of practice by the early 1960s before they became famous.

🧑🏽‍💻 Bill Gates put in 10,000 hours of programming before establishing Microsoft.

💅🏽 Put in your 10,000 hours of practice, and become an expert in a given field.

But you can see the issue, right? Gladwell overlooked multiple factors contributing to the success of these people. It’s not just about the hours!

I have read for 10,000 hours but I am still not an expert.

👏🏽 The number and quality of iterations are important! 👏🏽

Naval @naval

It’s not 10,000 hours, it’s 10,000 iterations.

Devoted focused work to improve yourself over several iterations makes you an expert.

The path to success: Quantity brings quality.

🐂 Pablo Picasso’s The Bull Series is a great reminder to improve with every iteration.

Le Taureau (The Bull) by Pablo Picasso: The series depicts a bull as it is progressively refined through 11 images to the simplest rendering of form

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📚 The Reading List

I recently finished The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams. Yep, fiction 😶‍🌫️

I am trying to read more fiction this year (send in your recommendations!)

Without getting into the details of the plot, inspired by the book, I wanted to create a reading list of my own.

A list of books that brought me closer to myself, and shaped me, my thought process, and my world.

These books came to me at the right time and had a huge impact.

🪨 The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday

🧐 Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari*

🧘🏽‍♂️ Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

🌻 How To Live by Derek Sivers

🔄 The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

🐒 Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

🧠 Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, Amor Tversky

🗺️ Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Books say different things to different people. They change as the person who reads them changes too.

- Sara Nisha Adams

So, I encourage you to create a similar list for your friends and family; books that will bring them joy, if they ever miss you, they’ll find you within the pages.

P.S.: A 2023 update to my blog is coming soon!

*I have read multiple translations of the Mahabharata but this is the one that I have enjoyed the most!

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⾦ Kintsugi: Celebrating Your Past Damages

I watched Pathaan* yesterday which mentioned the Japanese art of Kintsugi, the art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer infused with gold dust.

via Sketchplanations

It represents a philosophy of embracing and celebrating the imperfections and damages of the past, rather than trying to hide or discard them.

A bowl repaired with kintsugi might be seen as more valuable than one that had never been broken.

It serves as a reminder that the object (or a person) has a history and has been through something, and that it is unique and valuable because of its past damages.

By learning from our mistakes and moving forward, we can transform negative experiences into something positive and meaningful.

*The movie was meh.

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