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Words of Wisdom from Kevin Kelly

May 8, 20201 Comment

A friend of mine sent across an article titled, 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice, a couple of days ago. I managed to read it only today. It’s actually a list of advice by Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired Magazine. The list contained 68 points, a number that Kevin had chosen to be in parity with his age (68 years). I was thinking of writing a blog post about my favorite ones from Kevin’s 68 points of advice. However as I started compiling a list, I realized that reading through the list and grouping them to relate to broad areas was difficult; to start with the list was not even numbered. So I have grouped Kevin’s 68 points of advice into broad categories (pretty subjective) so as to make it easy to understand and refer back. So given below is my classification of Kevin’s 68 Maxims.

Collaboration:

Always demand a deadline. A deadline weeds out the extraneous and the ordinary. It prevents you from trying to make it perfect, so you have to make it different. Different is better.
Don’t be afraid to ask a question that may sound stupid because 99% of the time everyone else is thinking of the same question and is too embarrassed to ask it.
Rule of 7 in research. You can find out anything if you are willing to go seven levels. If the first source you ask doesn’t know, ask them who you should ask next, and so on down the line. If you are willing to go to the 7th source, you’ll almost always get your answer.
Don’t ever respond to a solicitation or a proposal on the phone. The urgency is a disguise.
Be prepared: When you are 90% done any large project (a house, a film, an event, an app) the rest of the myriad details will take a second 90% to complete.

Communication:

Being able to listen well is a superpower. While listening to someone you love keep asking them “Is there more?”, until there is no more.
Rule of 3 in conversation. To get to the real reason, ask a person to go deeper than what they just said. Then again, and once more. The third time’s answer is close to the truth.
Everyone is shy. Other people are waiting for you to introduce yourself to them, they are waiting for you to send them an email, they are waiting for you to ask them on a date. Go ahead.
Don’t say anything about someone in email you would not be comfortable saying to them directly, because eventually they will read it.
How to apologize: Quickly, specifically, sincerely.

Creativity:

To make something good, just do it. To make something great, just re-do it, re-do it, re-do it. The secret to making fine things is in remaking them.
Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes.
Separate the processes of creation from improving. You can’t write and edit, or sculpt and polish, or make and analyze at the same time. If you do, the editor stops the creator. While you invent, don’t select. While you sketch, don’t inspect. While you write the first draft, don’t reflect. At the start, the creator mind must be unleashed from judgement.
Art is in what you leave out.
Anything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the universe, and a skill you can get better at. It’s the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows.

Interpersonal:

Gratitude will unlock all other virtues and is something you can get better at.
Treating a person to a meal never fails, and is so easy to do. It’s powerful with old friends and a great way to make new friends.
Reading to your children regularly will bond you together and kick-start their imaginations.
The more you are interested in others, the more interesting they find you. To be interesting, be interested.
Optimize your generosity. No one on their deathbed has ever regretted giving too much away.
The Golden Rule (Treating others as you want to be treated) will never fail you. It is the foundation of all other virtues.
Perhaps the most counter-intuitive truth of the universe is that the more you give to others, the more you’ll get. Understanding this is the beginning of wisdom.
Friends are better than money. Almost anything money can do, friends can do better. In so many ways a friend with a boat is better than owning a boat.
This is true: It’s hard to cheat an honest man.
Hatred is a curse that does not affect the hated. It only poisons the hater. Release a grudge as if it was a poison.
To make mistakes is human. To own your mistakes is divine. Nothing elevates a person higher than quickly admitting and taking personal responsibility for the mistakes you make and then fixing them fairly. If you mess up, fess up. It’s astounding how powerful this ownership is.
When someone is nasty, rude, hateful, or mean with you, pretend they have a disease. That makes it easier to have empathy toward them which can soften the conflict.
Don’t take it personally when someone turns you down. Assume they are like you: busy, occupied, distracted. Try again later. It’s amazing how often a second try works.
Promptness is a sign of respect.

Learning:

Learn how to learn from those you disagree with, or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe.
Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points.
A worthy goal for a year is to learn enough about a subject so that you can’t believe how ignorant you were a year earlier.
Don’t be the smartest person in the room. Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you.
There is no limit on better. Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much we can improve what we start with.

Life-Hacks:

The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self-negotiation. You no longer expend energy deciding whether to do it. You just do it. Good habits can range from telling the truth, to flossing.
Never use a credit card for credit. The only kind of credit, or debt, that is acceptable is debt to acquire something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them. Don’t be in debt to losers.
When you are young spend at least 6 months to one year living as poor as you can, owning as little as you possibly can, eating beans and rice in a tiny room or tent, to experience what your “worst” lifestyle might be. That way any time you have to risk something in the future you won’t be afraid of the worst case scenario.
If you are looking for something in your house, and you finally find it, when you’re done with it, don’t put it back where you found it. Put it back where you first looked for it.
When an object is lost, 95% of the time it is hiding within arm’s reach of where it was last seen. Search in all possible locations in that radius and you’ll find it.
If you lose or forget to bring a cable, adapter or charger, check with your hotel. Most hotels now have a drawer full of cables, adapters and chargers others have left behind, and probably have the one you are missing. You can often claim it after borrowing it.
For every dollar you spend purchasing something substantial, expect to pay a dollar in repairs, maintenance, or disposal by the end of its life.
On vacation go to the most remote place on your itinerary first, bypassing the cities. You’ll maximize the shock of otherness in the remote, and then later you’ll welcome the familiar comforts of a city on the way back.
When you get an invitation to do something in the future, ask yourself: would you accept this if it was scheduled for tomorrow? Not too many promises will pass that immediacy filter.
Buying tools: Start by buying the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade the ones you use a lot. If you wind up using some tool for a job, buy the very best you can afford.
Learn how to take a 20-minute power nap without embarrassment.
Don’t trust all-purpose glue.

Success Tips:

Show up. Keep showing up. Somebody successful said: 99% of success is just showing up.
Don’t be the best. Be the only.
Saving money and investing money are both good habits. Small amounts of money invested regularly for many decades without deliberation is one path to wealth.
You are what you do. Not what you say, not what you believe, not how you vote, but what you spend your time on.
The universe is conspiring behind your back to make you a success. This will be much easier to do if you embrace this pronoia.
If you are not falling down occasionally, you are just coasting.
When crisis and disaster strike, don’t waste them. No problems, no progress.
If you desperately need a job, you are just another problem for a boss; if you can solve many of the problems the boss has right now, you are hired. To be hired, think like your boss.
You can obsess about serving your customers/audience/clients, or you can obsess about beating the competition. Both work, but of the two, obsessing about your customers will take you further.
You really don’t want to be famous. Read the biography of any famous person.
Experience is overrated. When hiring, hire for aptitude, train for skills. Most really amazing or great things are done by people doing them for the first time.
Following your bliss is a recipe for paralysis if you don’t know what you are passionate about. A better motto for most youth is “master something, anything”. Through mastery of one thing, you can drift towards extensions of that mastery that bring you more joy, and eventually discover where your bliss is.

Wisdom of a Lifetime:

Trust me: There is no “them”.
Never get involved in a land war in Asia.
Extraordinary claims should require extraordinary evidence to be believed.
Acquiring things will rarely bring you deep satisfaction. But acquiring experiences will.
Eliminating clutter makes room for your true treasures.
A vacation + a disaster = an adventure.
I’m positive that in 100 years much of what I take to be true today will be proved to be wrong, maybe even embarrassingly wrong, and I try really hard to identify what it is that I am wrong about today.
Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore all the many problems we create; you just have to imagine improving our capacity to solve problems.
Before you are old, attend as many funerals as you can bear, and listen. Nobody talks about the departed’s achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving.
When you die you take absolutely nothing with you except your reputation.

Hope you find my classification.

Do book mark Kevin Kelly’s website. It has a treasure trove of articles on a host of subjects: https://kk.org/

Oh, I almost forgot.

Belated Happy Birthday Kevin.

Thanks a lot for sharing your words of wisdom.

Image Source: Flickr
Image by: Christopher Michael

Resources to keep the kids actively engaged during the COVID19 Lock-down

May 4, 20201 Comment

Once the lock-down was enforced in India, I and my wife struggled to find useful ways to keep my eight years old daughter engaged. Her school shut-down for the academic year and all of her after school classes were also closed. On top of that she could not meet any of her school friends in per either. We wanted to limit passive screen time (TV & Mobile). I tried to look on the web for resources that I can use to keep my daughter actively engaged. I had compiled a list of resources that I shared with my friends friends and acquaintances on WhatsApp. Thought I will share the list on a blog post. I have added the Origami as well as miniature crafts resources that I came across in the last week. Hope you find them useful.

Academic:

Khan Academy is offering free resources for learning.

Scholastic learn at Home website

Twig Education website

Google Education Resources

Stories/ Reading:

Amazon Audible has made its story collection available for free.

Compendium of Resources:

Boston Globe has published a list of resources to keep kids engaged

Simple Most has published a list of resources

USA Today has published a list of resources

Beyond the Chalkboard website

Drawing/ Doodling:

Skillshare resources on Doodling

Open Culture resources on drawing lessons for kids

Thrive Art School YouTube Channel for art lessons

ThoughtCo resources on drawing lessons

IQDoodle website courses on doodling (paid service)

KlineCreative free online drawing classes

LUNCH DOODLES with Mo Willems YouTube Channel

The Visual Alphabet – Free 5 Day How to Doodle Course by IQDoodle on YouTube

PicCandle Doodle Tutorials on YouTube

Doodles by Sarah YouTube Channel

Origami YouTube Channels:

Mica’s Paper Craft Channel

Miniature Crafts YouTube Channel:

Tiny Little Things

Programming for Kids:

List of 7 programing tools on Lifewire

CS First with Google

Scratch coding for kids by MIT

Tynker coding for kids

Snap coding for kids by Berkeley

Blocky coding for kids by Google

THRIVING IN TIMES OF COVID19 – 4

May 3, 20202 Comments

Got an extended weekend due to Friday being May Day. Woke up early on both Friday and Saturday (just 6.30 AM, pretty early by my standards for a weekend) to order groceries and vegetables on Food Delivery Apps. I was not successful in ordering on Friday but was able to order on Saturday. Somehow I have not been sleeping at the usual hour and I have been staying awake till 2 AM on both Friday & Saturday morning. So the combined effect was that, during the first part of the day I was feeling extremely sleepy and moving around my house like a Zombie.

For about an hour on Friday evening and about an hour on Saturday evening, I played cricket with my daughter & son. I also played cricket with my son for about an hour at around Noon on Saturday as well. We used my son’s plastic cricket bat and a bunch of plastic balls. I was the bowler to both of them as they took turns as batters. It was fun play time for the three of us.

One of the things that I have realized is that the only Truest Measure of Love is Time and not money. And you get to see that and feel that when you have very young kids. I have heard Conor Neill ask in one of his YouTube videos, ‘How does a child spell love?’ And went on to spell the answer as: ‘T-I-M-E.’ I got to experience this fact so dramatically a couple of days ago. On that day, I was going for my evening walk trying to catch up on my step count for the day (more on this in a later post). As I was going from one room to another, my son was frequently crisscrossing my path and making it difficult for me to walk fast. So I told him, “Let’s go for a walk,” and held his hand. At this very moment I saw his face lit up with a smile that was better than the sight of a million flowers blooming at the same time. As we were walking from one room to another and taking left or right turns, he was visibly excited and was laughing out loud. During that indoor walk session, I realized that parents spending time with kids means a lot for them, even if that time is spent on simple activities. In fact every activity and every moment that parents spend with kids is absolutely special for them.

On Friday night, post dinner as I was sitting with my son in our room not knowing how to keep him engaged, I made paper boat and paper gliders for him. As I finished making the glider my daughter walked into our room. She too wanted to make paper boat. I gave her a sheet of paper from one of her old homework notebooks. As she was making the paper boat I thought this could be a good way to pass time. So I went to YouTube and typed ‘simple Origami for kids.’ I got a string of results from which I chose the video about making a paper shirt. We did not have colorful Origami papers so we decided to use papers from my daughter’s old homework notes. After finishing the paper shirt, my daughter chose the video about how to make princess dress. The instructions in both the videos were easy to follow and we ended up with final products that looked like something shown in the videos. It’s a big surprise to me that even I was able to get it right!!!

On Saturday night, we decided to do a couple of Origami stuff once again. My daughter chose both the videos. The first one was on how to make sun glasses which was very easy. The second one was on how to make sword. This one was more complex than the other three stuff that we did. We kept missing the folds here and there and had to watch sections of the video multiple times to get the sword design right. But finally we managed to get both the swords right. Overall the time and effort was well spent. Not only did my daughter like it, even I found the time spent on doing the simple paper craft very refreshing.

Just before the lock-down I had gone to Odyssey to buy some craft-work DIY kits for my daughter. I had picked up an Origami kit in my hand initially, but decided to a buy the Quilling Jewellery kit and Amar Chitra Katha Mahabaratha book-set for her. The Origami kit would have come in very handy yesterday and the day before it. But it’s OK as long as we get any paper. For sometime now, my daughter has been pleading to open the Quilling kit and make the rings. But, I have asked my daughter to make the rings the week before her school reopens so that she can gift those rings to her school friends. Instead she has been keeping herself busy reading or drawing.

Checked on Amazon for Origami kits but they are still delivering only essential stuff. Till we are able to get Origami kits from some shop or Amazon, guess we will have to use papers from daughter’s old homework notes.

THRIVING IN TIMES OF COVID19 – 3

April 30, 2020Leave a comment

I live on the third floor of our building. Most of the houses in the neighborhood are either G+1 floor or G+2 floors. As a result, I can get visibility of far more buildings and terraces than if I were living on the first floor. One the results of the COVID19 lockdown is that the terraces of the buildings in my neighborhood have become relaxation/ socialization spots for people in the evenings. I live in a densely crowded part of the city and going for a walk on the streets is not advisable. Since its peak summer here and staying indoors for an extended period of time is extremely suffocating, a stroll in the terrace is a welcome break or rather an unusual luxury during these extraordinary times.

The terrace of the apartment complex immediately behind my house gets converted into a cricket field @ 5.20 pm almost everyday. A guy in his fifties comes to play with his two sons, one probably in his late teens and another in his preteens. They look like Tamilians but the boys talk only in Hindi. As is usually the case with boys of this age and age gap, they keep quarreling a lot about a potential catch, wrong delivery, bad shot and on and on. The dad is an extreme contrast to his sons, he rarely speaks and the look on his face resembles that of a Zen monk. After the match and on days when his sons don’t come to play cricket he goes for a brisk walk on the terrace. I think the elder son goes for cricket coaching and I have seen him do exercises (similar to the ones done perform cricket coaching sessions) on the terrace.

I have seen a couple of ladies go for walking or do warm-up exercises in the evening. But they never interact and one of them is always wearing a earphone connected to her mobile. Around 8 to 8.30 PM a couple of college guys come to the terrace to talk on mobiles. Sometimes they also do group study on the terrace. The terrace of the building beyond this one gets converted into a playground for less than 10 year olds. They are mostly accompanied by their grand parents. Sometimes I see these kids lean on the parapet wall and talk to kids in the next terrace or kids standing in their balconies in the next building.

On the terrace of the house immediately to the left of my house an elderly man and an elderly lady (most likely a couple) go for a walk in the evenings. The lady goes for a very brisk walk while chatting on mobile phone; Abishek Bachan would be proud that she is following his maxim: Walk & Talk. The guy generally strolls slowly with the look of reluctance in his face. The house and the apartments next to this building also have someone or the other in walk & talk mode. The family in the house immediately in front of my house never venture to their terrace or their balconies in the evenings. However one of the persons who lives in the house aging about sixty comes to his balcony in the mornings and chants come mantra while holding a little bit of water on his right palm.

On the terrace diagonally in front of my house, there is a very small roof garden with flowering plants. Every evening a guy in his forties or a lady in her sixties are either watering the plant or doing some sort of attending to the plants. There is a railway line of Elevated Metro Train Service very near my house. In normal days you could see and hear the sound of the trains. With the lockdown in place, the trains have gone silent. Despite all these people that I have described doing some activity or the other, a vast majority of the people still do not venture out to the terraces. Not sure, what do they do keep themselves occupied and remain sane.

Thriving in times of COVID19 – 2

April 29, 2020April 29, 2020Leave a comment

There are a bunch of trees near my house, a rarity in my city these days. As a result I get to see a bunch of birds every time I step into my house terrace. Ever since shifting to this house I have made it a point to feed the crows that live in the nearby trees. Since the lock-down feeding the crows has become a ritual. I feed them twice a day, once around 10.30 AM and once around 4 PM. It’s a fascinating sight to see the crows flying towards my house as I start placing food on the parapet wall of our terrace.

As the days have passed I have noticed a few smaller things that I have not paid much attention to in the past. The crows do seem to have their favorite foods: Chapathis are their favorite, bread comes next and they like savories like Ompodi & Mixture. The have a particular liking for Medu Vadai. They are ok with biscuits, water melon & musk melon but do not seem to like bananas. They don’t like Sundal either. Crows also exhibit different personality traits: some of them descend down on the wall pick up their share of food and fly back to the trees, some sit on the wall and eat uneasily, while others rather than eating, shout on top of their voice to broadcast to others that food is available.

I get to see other birds too. There are a bunch of pigeons that live in the neighborhood. My immediate next house neighbor places water in mud plates on his terrace for the pigeons, so they have kind of made his terrace their home. Two of the pigeons come to eat if I place scraps of fruits for the crows. Ditto for a couple of squirrels. The pigeons and squirrels come to eat only after most of the crows have left. A couple of times I have seen a solitary Myna too eating on our terrace. However all these creatures make a quick exit if I even get near the door of our terrace.

There are about 4 parrots living in a hole on the side walls of apartments two building from my house. I can see them only in the morning around 8 AM but they seem to vanish from sight after that. In the evening they will be flying at high-speed from one tree to another. Guess they have the same attitude of adolescent guys indulging in bike racing in East-coast Road. I have never seen these parrots coming to eat at my house or drink at my neighbors house. May be once of the days, I need to wake up at daybreak and see what these parrots are up to.

I also get to see cranes flying in the sky; guess they are moving towards Foreshore Estate where there is creek / backwaters. I get to see eagles gliding high in the sky over a nearby hotel, the most that I have seen is six of them. I guess a crows have made nest on the terrace of the hotel. From time to time, I see a couple of crows trying to chase a solitary eagle; it’s like watching fighter planes indulging in dogfight. Most of the times, the crows seem to be successful; happy ending… for the crows and hungry tummy for the eagles.

Around 6 PM, the villains of the current season, Bats start making their appearance in the sky. It’s quite a scary sight to see a constant stream of bats flying from south-east to the north-west direction. I guess they are coming from somewhere near Foreshore Estate where there are a couple of water-bodies and a lot of trees, but I am not sure. Once the bats start gracing the sky with their appearance, I shut the terrace door and get back into the house. The sun by this time would be beating a hasty retreat and in no time mosquitoes would be busy making everybody’s life uncomfortable.

It’s my deepest wish or daydream that on one of the days when I open my terrace door to feed the crows there should be bunch of Scarlet Macaw Parrots or a couple of Indian Peafowls sitting on my terrace’s parapet wall.

Thriving in Times of COVID19 – 1

April 28, 2020April 28, 2020Leave a comment

It’s been a long time since I wrote something or blogged. Have been thinking seriously about starting to write on a regular basis. COVID19 has turned our life upside down. The only way to maintain sanity is to focus on the positives in life and stay away from the negatives. As a result I have drastically cut down on daily news intake and cut down completely on arguing online (on WhatsApp) with friends & acquaintances. It been nearly two months since I started working from home. With the the lock-down and curfews, its become very difficult to go out and meet friends & family members too. While it did not strike me until this point, that blogging about useful activities that I and family members indulge in would be a good way to start writing once again.

My eight year old daughter is having her summer holidays, without her usual summer classes, etc. She has not been able to step outside to play, go and meet her friends on their birthdays, visit malls & play areas; needless to say it’s been a very boring summer vacation for her. As a result, like most parents, I and my wife have been trying to keep her occupied with some usual activity or the other. My year old son is still using the entire day for playing and throwing things around as he like. One of the things that my daughter likes is drawing. She used to go for drawing classes for the past three years or so. My wife also draws from time to time. Since I am working from home, I have made it a point to encourage them to draw/ paint as much as possible. Just before the lock-down started I went to Odyssey and bought some drawing & painting related stuff. In hindsight it turned out to be a very good decision.

I keep finding instructional videos for painting for my wife & daughter. A friend who knows about my wife’s interest in painting sent an Instagram link about Live painting instruction sessions conducted by Hindustan Trading Company @ 5 PM everyday during this lock-down. So, I created an Instagram account. Yesterday my wife and daughter attended the live art sessions for the first time. Due to bandwidth issues, the video kept pausing quite a number of times. So, they decided to follow instructions from the recording of an earlier session about making bookmarks. I have posted the pictures of the bookmarks that they made. I read a lot of books, so they made the book marks as a gift for me. It was about an hour and half well spent for my daughter and wife.