My Daily Quotes & Notes
<I have switched to using a personal journal in 2020>
28th of December 2019 | Home, Agra
“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” — Mark Twain
11th of December 2019 | Bouganvilla Hermitage, Goa
“Whatever it takes to finish things, finish. You will learn more from a glorious failure than you ever will from something you never finished.”― Neil Gaiman
- Single point agenda challenge — Ship the booking flow!
10th of December 2019 | Bouganvilla Hermitage, Goa
“Being is enlightenment.”
9th of December 2019 | Bouganvilla Hermitage, Goa
“Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.” ― Rumi
5th of December 2019 | Bluelotus Coworking, Goa
“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock,
the stream always wins. Not through strength, but through persistence.” —Buddha
Jio Wedding, Mumbai — Tuhina’s Place, Bangalore — Hyatt, Hampi — 3 Edge, Chennai — Bastora, Goa : social media cleanse + digimarketing interest + goalife
18th of November 2019 | Trident, Mumbai
“What simple action could you take today to produce
a new momentum toward success in your life?” — Tony Robbins
14th of November 2019 | WeWork Mumbai
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” — Vincent Van Gogh
11th of November 2019 | WeWork Mumbai
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.” — Benjamin Spock
8th of November 2019 | Agra Home
“If I quit now, I will soon be back to where I started. And when I started I was desperately wishing to be where I am now.”
7th of November 2019 | Agra Home
“Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.” — Theodore Isaac Rubin
6th of November 2019 | Agra Home
“Powerful avalanches begin with small shifts.” — Pamela McFarland Walsh
5th of November 2019 | Agra Home
“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But
above all, the world needs dreamers who do.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach
4th of November 2019 | Agra Home
“Do a little more of what you want to do every day, until your idea becomes what’s real.”
1st of November 2019 | Agra Home
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” — Charles Swindoll
31st of October 2019 | Agra Home
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. — Lao Tzu
29th of October 2019 | Agra Home
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill
28th of October 2019 | Agra Home
“Your needs are fully taken care of. You are being loved very dearly. This reminder softens you; brings about miracles around you, and changes your life.”
25th of October 2019 | Agra Home
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” ― Lao Tzu
20th of October 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“Always do what you are afraid to do.”
19th of October 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“It’s not who you think you are that holds you back it’s who you think you’re not.”
18th of October 2019 | Booking office Amsterdam
“You cannot possibly say that you are what you think yourself to be. Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment. Your self-image is the most changeful thing you have. It is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passer by. A bereavement, the loss of a job, an insult, and your image of yourself, which you call your person, changes deeply.” — Nisargadatta Maharaj
17th of October 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself.” ― Brian Cox
16th of October 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“The ultimate gift of conscious life is a sense of the mystery that encompasses it.” — Lewis Mumford
- ✅Paid the Airtel internet bill from Amsterdam. :)
15th of October 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.” — Zenrin Kushû
11th of October 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“Everything is difficult until you know how to do it.” — Anonymous
10th of October 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“The first step to accepting yourself is to stop comparing yourself to others.” — Joe Duncan
9th of October 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.”
― August Wilson“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” — Thomas Edison
8th October 2019 | Zoku Amsterdam
“Excuses are the rocks where our dreams are crushed.” — Tim Fargo
7th October 2019 | Zoku Amsterdam
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” — George Bernard Shaw
- Successfully pushed to get out of the house to a co-working space! #breakallbarriers #slowandsteady
3rd October 2019 | Booking.com Amsterdam
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the
candle or the mirror that reflects it.” — Edith Wharton
2nd of October 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“You can’t be paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push yourself.” —Arnold Schwarzenegger
24th of September 2019 | Amsterdam Home with G21
“We cannot teach people anything. We can only help
them discover it within themselves.” — Galileo Galilei
- Finishing Anyplace Tenant Screening flow today.
- Going to Italia tomorrow!
21st of September 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“You can feel sore tomorrow or you can feel sorry tomorrow. You choose.”
- Biked 15 kms today — to and fro Amsterdam Bos with Udit and Girik.
18th of September 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men and women who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it.” — Muhammad Ali
17th of September 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“This is the real secret to life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” — Alan Watts
16th of September, 2019 | Amsterdam Home
“Rise above the storm and you will find the sunshine.” — Mario Fernandez
13th of September, 2019 | Stockholm, Sweden — Anjana’s place
“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” — William Jennings Bryan
- Sweden!
12th of September, 2019 | Derde Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker
- Going to Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪 today!
- Did airport standup as Schipol! ✈️
11th of September, 2019 | Derde Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” — Nelson Mandela
10th of September, 2019 | Derde Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Go forth and make awesomeness.”
9th of September, 2019 | Amsterdam
“At the end of the day, we can endure much
more than we think we can.” — Frida Kahlo
7th of September, 2019 | Derde Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” — Confucius
31st of August, 2019 | Nishit’s Place Poolside — Menlo Park, California
“If we did all the things we are capable of, we
would literally astound ourselves.” — Thomas Edison
30th of August, 2019 | Nishit’s Place! — Menlo Park, California
“When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it.” — Stephen Covey
29th of August, 2019 | Nishit’s Place! — Menlo Park, California
“Don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try.” — Michael Jordan
28th of August, 2019 | Facebook — Menlo Park, California
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” — William James
27th of August, 2019 | Nishit’s Place— Menlo Park, California
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
23rd of August, 2019 | Amazon Alexandria — Seattle, Washington
“Being aware of a single shortcoming within yourself is far more useful than being aware of a thousand in someone else.” — Dalai Lama
22nd of August, 2019 | Akrita’s Place — Seattle, Washington
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” — John Quincy Adams
21st of August, 2019 | Poorva’s Place — Seattle, Washington
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde
20th of August, 2019 | Poorva’s Place — Seattle, Washington
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.” — Dale Carnegie
18th of August, 2019 | Poorva’s Place — Seattle, Washington
“The more you think and talk about your goals, the
more positive and enthusiastic you become.” — Billy Cox
15th of August, 2019 | Flamingo, Las Vegas
“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look
the world straight in the face.” — Helen Keller
- Confident at the pool party ✅
13th of August, 2019 | Flamingo, Las Vegas
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” — Oscar Wilde
7th of August, 2019 | Going to Las Vegas — SFO Airport, California
“Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads you to wisdom.” —Buddha
7th of August, 2019 | Arhaan’s place — East Cut, San Francisco — California
“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.“— Matsuo Basho
6th of August, 2019 | UC Berkeley, EECS Cory Hall — Berkeley, California
Attending this lecture today!
1st of August, 2019 | Pacific Workspaces — San Jose, California
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” — Robert H. Schuller
31st of July, 2019 | WeWork — San Jose, California
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” — Vincent van Gogh
30th of July, 2019 | Aniruddh’s House — San Jose, California
“Choose your heroes or they will be chosen for you.” — Russell Brand
29th of July, 2019 | Visiting PayPal, San Jose, California
“Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.” — Napoleon Hill
23rd of July, 2019 | Irvine, California
“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” — Maya Angelou
8th of July, 2019 | Rent 24, Amsterdam
“Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it.”
8th of July, 2019 | Rent 24, Amsterdam
“When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.” — Dalai Lama
6th of July, 2019 | Home, Amsterdam
“Change is the essence of life; be willing to surrender
what you are for what you could become.” — Reinhold Niebuhr
3rd of July, 2019 | Amsterdam Offices @ Keizersgracht, Amsterdam
“Decide whether or not the goal is worth the risks
involved. If it is, stop worrying.” — Amelia Earhart
2nd of July, 2019 | Amsterdam Offices @ Keizersgracht, Amsterdam
“Wherever you are, be all there.” — Jim Elliot
1st of July | Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.” — Henry Ford
28th of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Someone who thinks the world is always cheating them is right. They are missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.” — Eric Hoffer
27th of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.” — Saadi
- Tenant screening
- Schema partners
25th of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — E. E. Cummings
24th of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“The secret to your success is found in your daily routine.” — John C. Maxwell
21st of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
19th of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Be the one who decided to go for it.”
18th of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Adventure may hurt you, but monotony will kill you.”
17th of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” — Theodore Roosevelt
16th of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment” — Jim Rohn
15th of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Peace in the world is everybody’s business, no matter where you live or what you do.” — Betty Williams
13th of June| Home @ derde de grootstraat, Amsterdam
“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.” — Vincent Van Gogh
7th of June| Home Office, Agra
“Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles, it takes away today’s peace.”
6th of June| Home Office, Agra
“Tough times don’t last; tough people do.” — Gregory Peck
5th of June| Home Office, Agra
“Self-esteem is the ability to see yourself as a flawed individual and still hold yourself in regard.” — Esther Perel
4th of June| Home Office, Agra
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain
3rd of June| G21, Gurgaon
“Don’t let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.”
31st of May 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” — Booker T. Washington
30th of May 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Look for something positive each day, even if some days you have to look a little harder.”
29th of May 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Live the wonderful life that is in you.” — Oscar Wilde
- Woke up at 4:30 am before all alarms. Let’s choose the top 1% choices today!
- 1. Deeplinks
- 2. UK Visa
- 3. Partners
28th of May 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Idealistic as it may sound, altruism should be the driving force in business, not just competition and a desire for wealth.” — Dalai Lama
27th of May 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer them with love.”—Mahatma Gandhi
21st of May 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.” — Mark Twain
19th of May 2019 | Hotel Mansingh Palace Pool Side, Agra
“The secret to happiness is freedom. And the secret to freedom is courage.” — Thucydides
For the week #21 (May 19 to 25)
- Anyplace app v2 work planning
- Push notifications and deeplinks
- Read about Swift 5
- App optimisation/architecture ideas
- Try speeding up the build time
- Lisbon meetup ideas
- Arcorporatebulkbuild properties
- Feedback on the sales deck
- Booking flow design ideas
- Check ssl security for arpit.work
- Do the next step for partners
- Code usable Listix
- Try Lightwell
- Read about google cloud database
- Draft a blog idea, read writing well
- Try sample machine learning on iOS
- Code product hunt pwa + react + firebase
- Check about school of motion, find mouse
- Research on travel blog. Publication if needed.
- Idea about domains — arpit.travel, .cooking.
- Travel plan for Americas
- Research on photography equipment
- Natural parks and lakes + activities
- List for Netherlands packing
- Plan 90 visa days
- Travel plan for Europe
- Get an idea of personal finances
- SBI phone number + credit card
- Driving license + permit
- Chennai related plan
- Read about Netherlands registration things
- Get idea about parents trip
- Make list for cooking ideas at home
- Car rear view mirror
- Driving license smart card
- Read about 8 hour intermittent fasting
- Print home architecture plan
- JPML next steps
- Talk to all
17th of May 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Most people get ahead during the time that others waste.” — Henry Ford
15th of May 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” — Mahatma Gandhi
13th of May 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Do small things with great love.”—Mother Teresa
10th of May 2019 | Orchid Gardens, Gurgaon
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”—Walt Disney
- Slept during the day today on Nayan’s bed.
- Strong storm in Gurgaon today.
- Felt unclear and wrote some pages.
- Swimming, rain and ice cream.
7th of May 2019 | G21, Gurgaon
“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every
opinion now accepted was once eccentric.” — Bertrand Russell
2nd of May 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.” — Chris Guillebeau
30th of April 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Nothing will bring you peace, you must bring yourself to it.” — Gant Laborde
11th of April 2019 | Dad’s Room, Agra
“We ought to walk through the rooms of our lives not looking for flaws, but looking for potential.” — Ellen Goodman
9th of April 2019 | Dad’s Room, Agra
“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” — Henry van Dyke
8th of April 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”—Maya Angelou
6th of April 2019 | Kids Room, Agra
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” — Oprah Winfrey
4th of April 2019 | Kids Room, Agra
ज्ञानविज्ञानतृप्तात्मा
कूटस्थो विजितेन्द्रियः।
युक्त इत्युच्यते योगी
समलोष्टाश्मकाञ्चनः॥६-८॥जो (औपनिषदिक) ज्ञान, (आत्म अनुभव रूपी) विज्ञान से तृप्त है, विकाररहित है, इन्द्रियों को जीत चुका है और जिसके लिए मिट्टी, पत्थर और स्वर्ण समान हैं, ऐसे योगी को युक्त कहा जाता है॥8॥
The Yogi who is content with knowledge (of Upanishads) and direct experience, is without defects, has conquered his senses and gives equal importance to mud, stone and gold, is said to be connected (to self).॥8॥
- Came back from Gurgaon yesterday after 4 days. Added Stories of India and Zima Blue App.
- Love death robots has next to perfect episodes for this age.
- Some substances ruin your mental balance strongly.
- Home cooked food is the best.
- Booked a day in Damdama.
- North India is getting Hot.
- Zomato Orders for 4 days.
- Cooking 🍳 eggs+cheese+butter+multi-grain-bread sandwiches is delicious!
- Stories of India with Taxi guys is super cool. Let’s see where this goes.
27th of March 2019 | Kids Room, Agra
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते
मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भुर्मा
ते संगोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥४७॥तुम्हारा अधिकार कर्म करने में ही है, उनकेफलों में नहीं। तुम कर्मों के फल का कारण मत बनो और तुम्हारी कर्म न करने में भी आसक्ति न हो॥47॥
Your authority(duty, control) is in actions alone and not in their results. Results of action should not be your motive and you should not get attached to inaction either.॥47॥
— Bhagvad Gita. Chapter 2
24th of March 2019 | Kids Room, Agra
नासतो विद्यते भावो
नाभावो विद्यते सतः।
उभयोरपि दृष्टोऽन्त-
स्त्वनयोस्तत्वदर्शिभिः॥१६॥असत् वस्तु की तो सत्ता नहीं है और सत् का अभाव नहीं है। इस प्रकार इन दोनों का ही तत्त्व तत्त्व ज्ञानी पुरुषों द्वारा देखा गया है॥16॥
Asat(that which is changing) has no existence whatsoever and there is no absence of Sat(that which is permanent). This essence of both these is seen by the enlightened men.॥16॥
- Make E-Card for Bhaiya.
- Give one final punch on the app.
- See you at the top ebook.
- Start Motion Design course tomorrow morning, sleep early today.
- Bhagvad Gita, Chapter 2 —
23rd of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
18th of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“एको द्रष्टासि सर्वस्य
मुक्तप्रायोऽसि सर्वदा।
अयमेव हि ते बन्धो
द्रष्टारं पश्यसीतरम्॥१-७॥आप समस्त विश्व के एकमात्र दृष्टा हैं, सदा मुक्त ही हैं, आप का बंधन केवल इतना है कि आप दृष्टा किसी और को समझते हैं॥७॥
You are the solitary witness of all that is, almost always free. Your only bondage is understanding the seer to be someone else.॥7॥
-Ashtavakra Gita, Chapter 1 “
- Day 1 of 18 — Bhagvad Gita :
Ch1- अर्जुनविषादयोगः — अर्जुन विषादयोग — Disappointment of Arjun
13th of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
योगी को धैर्य कहाँ, विवेक कहाँ और निर्भयता भी कहाँ? उसका स्वभाव अनिर्वचनीय है और वह वस्तुतः स्वभाव रहित है॥७९॥
There is neither fortitude, prudence nor courage for the yogi whose nature is beyond description and free of individuality.
12th of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
जहाँ सूर्यास्त हुआ वहां सो लिया, जहाँ इच्छा हुई वहां रह लिया, जो सामने आया उसी के अनुसार व्यवहार कर लिया। इस प्रकार धीर सर्वत्र संतुष्ट रहता है॥८५॥
Peace is everywhere for the wise man who lives on whatever happens to come to him, going to wherever he feels like, and sleeping wherever the sun happens to set.॥85॥
- Slept all day, worked and finished the app all night.
11th of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.” — Robert H. Schuller
- Ship it to the team before 6pm! #godspeed on
10th of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
कृतं किमपि नैव स्याद्
इति संचिन्त्य तत्त्वतः।
यदा यत्कर्तुमायाति तत्
कृत्वासे यथासुखम्॥१३- ३॥किये हुए किसी भी कार्य का वस्तुतः कोई अस्तित्व नहीं है, ऐसा तत्त्वपूर्वक विचार करके जब जो भी कर्त्तव्य है उसको करते हुए सभी स्थितियों में, मैं सुखपूर्वक विद्यमान हूँ॥३॥
No action is ever committed, in reality. Understanding thus I exist pleasantly in all situations by just doing what is to be done.॥3॥
9th of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ― Albert Einstein
- Will finish all functionalities of the Anyplace app this weekend!
- Smell of new paint and and the noise of calmer conversations.
8th of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Closed in a room, my imagination becomes the universe, and the rest of the world is missing out.” ― Criss Jami
- Added animation to search cards! Let the Americans see some animated magic.
7th of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Home alone for the first time in years today!
- Let’s finish the app — great feeling to finish an app single handedly on iOS.
6th of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him. — Buddha
- Stumbled upon this yesterday night
5th of March 2019 | Kids Room, Agra
“When we give up on our dreams, we die while still alive.” — Robin Sharma
- Woke up at 5:30 today, saw Nicky left with Anyplace. Woke up and cleaned desk to work now.
- Will finish all Anyplace functionalities today! Do the best in my control, change the universe.
4th of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” — Zig Ziglar
2nd of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.” — Bruce Lee
1st of March 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us.”—Earl Nightingale
28th of February 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“How many success stories do you need to hear before you make your own?”
27th of February 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.” — John Burroughs
26th of February 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.” — Teresa Amabile
25th of February 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci
23rd of February 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“You don’t always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go, and see what happens.” — Mandy Hale
- Finish Calendar
- Finish Booking Flow
22th of February 2019 | Kids Room, Agra
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” — Dr. Seuss
- Never look up to anyone, never look down on anyone. Even if it’s the concept of “Modiji”. People are so important just because you think they are.
20th of February 2019 | Kids Room, Agra
“When you accept everything, everything is beyond dimensions. The earth is not great nor a grain of sand small. In the realm of Great Activity picking up a grain of sand is the same as taking up the whole universe. To save one sentient being is to save all sentient beings. Your efforts of this moment to save one person is the same as the eternal merit of Buddha.”
- Manjay bhaiya fixing everything. The best carpenter I ever saw, master.
19th of February 2019 | Home Office , Agra
“When we seek to discover the best in others, we
somehow bring out the best in ourselves.” — William Arthur Ward
18th of February 2019 | Home Office , Agra
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead — his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms — this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.”
- Played football last night at Fasta, then worked till 2:30am.
17th of February 2019 | Home Office , Agra
“Still your waters.” — Josh Waitzkin
- Wrote the conversational morning pages in the reading section of kids room.
- Deep cleaned Kids room — have a reading table, working table, and a workplace downstairs.
16th of February 2019 | Colorful Room at Home, Agra
“Still your waters.” — Josh Waitzkin
- Got the Eshadi Nau Upanishad book.
4am, Friday, 15th of February 2019 | Galaxy Neeraj’s Room, Gurgaon
“Failure is success if we learn from it.” — Malcolm Forbes
- Met Nayan, Ekansh, Akarsh, Gauri, Treta, Udit + Z People! Valentines day.
- Had Anyplace meeting at 11pm at Nayan’s place.
- Working now after cleaning with drinking water.
Wednesday, 13th of February 2019 | Room, Agra
“It is a very hard thing to understand, but you will come to learn in time that nothing in the universe has power over you until you allow it to exercise such a power.”
― Swami Vivekananda, Karma Yoga: The Yoga of action
- Cleaned the colorful kids room at 5:30 am. Cleaned the table, the laptop. Sound proofed the windows.
- Added Airtel router to boost signal at home.
- Started working at 6:30 am.
- Let’s leave no stone unturned today!
- Tips: Write the first character of code in XCode.
Tuesday, 12th of February 2019 | Home Office, Agra
“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” — Simone de Beauvoir
- Scared for the standup, small loud exchange with bhaiya. Let’s push the app today!
- Sat for a long time in the accounts room downstairs. Got a small headache. Slept at 10pm though eating nice food.
Monday, 11th of February 2019 | Home, Agra
“The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls
you than the way in which you take it.” — Elbert Hubbard
- Moving WiFi to the floor downstairs.
- Setting up home office downstairs step 1 ✅
- Getting aligned with the 6 months letter plan and app chart sheet.
Friday, 8th of February 2019 | Galaxy, Gurgaon
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The
more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss
Tuesday, 5th of February 2019 | Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Every moment you live in the past is a moment you waste in the present.” — Tony Robbins
Tuesday, 22nd of January 2019 | Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” — Epictetus
- Snowing in Amsterdam!
- 🔥 Finish demo app things.
- For India — Albert Heijn buy things, Pack, Delhi to Agra ticket, Charge all devices, Prepare Tickets and Passport, Single cert. things/Documents, Amsterdam Meetup Documents, Travel Insurance, Cards+Cash+Currencies+Both Phones+Wallet sort out, Communicate about plan at home.
- Amsterdam return prep — Tickets, Travel Insurance, Calculated Schengen Days, Hotel Reservation, Company Letter. Clothes, Where to stay, Presentations and all.
Monday, 21st of January 2019 | Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” — Suzy Kassem
Sunday, 20th of January 2019 | Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi
Vondelpark, tandem biking, mini pancakes, blue skies, ducks, trees, sunshine and life planning XD
Friday, 18th of January 2019 | Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can do what others can’t.” — Jerry Rice
Just pelo anyplace-ios
Thursday, 17th of January 2019 | Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong.” — Mandy Hale
Wednesday, 16th of January 2019 | Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Love dies only when growth stops.” — Pearl S. Buck
“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” — Sven Goran Eriksson
“Bravery is the solution to regret.” — Robin Sharma
Working with Laura today!
Monday, 14th of January 2019 | Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
Woke up at 9am for the daily standup! Koichi was in a car, haha.
Sunday, 13th of January 2019 | Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” — Tony Robbins
Friday, 9th of January 2019 | Nadzeya’s Mom’s Place , Маладзечна
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill
Wednesday, 9th of January 2019 | Vova’s Office, Minsk
“The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.” — Neale Donald Walsch
Tuesday, 8th of January 2019 | Nadzeya’s Office, Minsk
“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” —
Vincent Van Gogh
Bad word in Belarus — SHOPA!
Monday, 7th of January 2019 | Vova’s Apartment, Minsk
“What weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men and women. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.” — Carlos Castaneda
Saturday, 5th of January 2019 | Vova’s Apartment, Minsk
“When you’re curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.” — Walt Disney
Friday, 4th of January 2019 | Who is John Galt?, Minsk
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us — E. M. Forster
Thursday, 3rd of January 2019 | Minsk, Belarus
“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” — Amelia Earhart
Wednesday, 2nd of January 2019 | Schipol Airport, Amsterdam
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” — Alan Kay
- Boarding in 1 hour to Belarus!
Tuesday, 1st of January 2019 | Westerpark, Amsterdam
- Cleaning the outside world and cleaning the inside world!
- Cooking Egg Curry
- Making 3 month plan on a quarter of A4 sheet
- Buying postcards and moroccan naan!
- Walking to Westerpark.
- Chocolates from Stach!
- Packing for Belarus.
Happy New Year 2019 in Amsterdam!
Monday, 31st of December 2018 | Derde Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam!
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest people.” — Roald Dahl
JOMO:Joy of missing out! — Laura
Friday, 28th of December 2018 | Derde Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“Yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery. Today is
a gift, which is why we call it the present.” — Bil Keane
Thursday, 27th of December 2018 | Derde Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
“You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” — Jerry West
Monday, 24th of December 2018 | Bar Otero, Madrid
“If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again.” — Flavia Weedn
Saturday, 22nd of December 2018 | La ciudad invisible, Madrid
“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions.” — Catherine Cook
Friday, 21st of December 2018 | Hostel Cervelo, Madrid
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.”
Tuesday, 18th of December 2018 | Casa 26, Barcelona
“Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have.” — Robert Holden
Sunday, 16th of December 2018 | Casa 26, Barcelona
“Be who you were created to be, and you will set the world on fire.” — St. Catherine of Siena
- Return the Spanish mac keyboard tomorrow.
- Find event for Tue + Wed in Barca.
Sunday, 16th of December 2018 | Barcelona–El Prat Airport , Barcelona
“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” — Seth Godin
Thursday, 13th of December 2018 | WeWork , Berlin
“This is your life. Do what you love, and do it often.” — Holstee Manifesto
- Complete the Anyplace app
- Rafael + Steve meeting at 6. Rafael — Amsterdam and things, meetings, cafes, etc. Steve — moving to ams things. Catchup and planning.
- Find workplace for tomorrow.
Wednesday, 12th of December 2018 | Carathotel Munich, Germany
“Find a place inside where there’s joy, and
the joy will burn out the pain.” — Joseph Campbell
Tuesday, 11th of December 2018 | Münchner Stadtbibliothek (10Mbps), Munich
“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
Monday, 10th of December 2018 | Schipol Airport, Amsterdam
“Khush raho”
Friday, 7th of December 2018 | Monks Coffee, Amsterdam (12Mbps)
“Life is always happening now, it’s never waiting to happen”
Everything is clean in the house, love in Amsterdam.
Thursday, 6th of December 2018 | Bocca Coffee Roasters, Amsterdam (40Mbps, Laptops in specific area after 11)
“Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.” — Vernon Howard
Travel Things
- Book Belarus Flight
- Madrid to Ams [or] Lisbon +Lisbon to Ams
- France/Brussels on New years
- Anyplace meeting from 27th Jan. See India flights.
Wednesday, 5th of December 2018 | Hugo de Grootstraat, Amsterdam
Any person capable of angering you becomes your master. They can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by them.” — Epictetus
Tuesday, 4th of December 2018 | Farmers Market, Amsterdam
“The wisest mind has something yet to learn.”—George Santayana
Monday, 3rd of December 2018 | Back to Black Cafe, Amsterdam
“The surest way to find your dream job is to create it.”
Well some good WiFi with nice coffee and pretty women works.
5:45 pm : At the Back to Black cafe next to Aiswarya’s Booking.com office in Amsterdam. Waiting for her to return from work, then we go and see Sameer.
Last 3 days in Amsterdam have been pretty amazing. Don’t even remember a single moment that didn’t make my living cells come alive. Have seen some of this city, have to see more.
Dump — The last 1 hour was full of doubt and sudden worry in my head. More unacceptable because I had dreamed of going to Amsterdam like I’ll be in a fairy tell. Well, not to deny, hasn’t been anything less. The sense of wonder and design everything here puts me in can’t be explained in words. Maybe it’s just the European winter chill that’s growing on me. Or was it Nadzeya’s words that shook me a little bit about money and all here. Things seem expensive here and thinking about settling here wasn’t perfect in my head. Well, some people have their opinions and should keep them. Created doubts about long term planning about saving money here. How to live here, what would be about my job, will we earn enough, will it be lonely here. It is a selfish choice, is it worth to leave family and the familiar rich and warm roots of India. Is all this just the effect of the unstoppable smoking up from the last 3 days. Disconnecting from the Now has always been uncomfortable.
Well, here is the Now. It’s funny how all the things in your head vanish and how your fingers tapping on the keyboard producing some symbols on the screen changes what you see in the Now and actually takes you on a journey of different feelings, different emotions, and gets that energy flowing. It’s phenomenal. Just typing some words out from your h
Wednesday, 28th of November 2018 | Home, Agra
“Be an encourager, the world has
enough critics already.”
Met Vijay Bhaiya at Jackson today.
Tuesday, 27th of November 2018 | Home, Agra
“Don’t let those dead rationalised images of yourself in your own head become obstacles to connect to the now of the living in you”
Sunday, 25th of November 2018 | Room Cleaning Night at Galaxy, Gurgaon
Ais’s Birthday flowers and Sweden!
“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to
be accepted by others. You need to be yourself.”—Thich Nhat Hanh
Friday, 23rd of November 2018 | Cowrks Suncity, Gurgaon
“Today’s accomplishments were yesterday’s impossibilities.” — Robert Schuller
Working from an office after 2 months — Feels great!
“Ghar ki Thaali”
Sitting here for a couple of hours in the fancy Cowrks office in Gurgaon, I guess it’s time for lunch. I just pinged Nayan’s flatmate who supposedly works here about having lunch together, hoping to utter some words today. Anyway, busier cities, busier schedules. Though one thing that everyone loves is a nice hot meal. Something that has the power to change everything in your day. Since I leave for Amsterdam in a week and just the thought of not getting this regular supply of this Rich Indian creates some fear. Staying with my parents in Agra for a couple of weeks boosted this feeling. Well there is a lot of things in life to be afraid of, but seems like none of them can be compared to food. Opening some app and ordering is not my thing, an overwhelming number of options mashing up together in my head with just a single flick of my finger. Too much to decide, too difficult to wait, too hard to see the packaging getting wasted. This doesn’t compare anything to the smell of fresh food right after getting down from the burner in a restaurant. I decide to walk to a nearby restaurant with my limp from overexerting my legs at the Cult.fit class. Though going to Bikanerwala is worth the pain. I calm my jumpy head from smoking up a lot in the last 3 days as the sun and the heat makes me extremely elated of the fine day in the city. Funny how the mind works.
I enter Bikanerwala, and I stand at the counter obviously hoping to get that great North Indian food. Nothing goes wrong and I get a coupon from the counter for a “Ghar ki Thaali” (*excited*) and head to order it. Well, the that section seems full of people, and I try to jostle in the crowd to hand over my receipt assuming maybe this is the reason of people leaving this country. The guy says 10 minutes and I obviously don’t let myself wait there and walk back to the coupon guy to buy something to drink. I pass through endless number of Indian sweets admiring how the older people in my family could prepare those at home. It’s a dilemma to choose between these sweet savouries, but pushing the temptation of the sweets down was easier with starting the day on fruits and planning to have a healthy day. I walk to the counter and order a Buttermilk. Well, why not? The buttermilk from Bikanerwala has these delicious large south Indian style mustard seeds. I return to the drinks counter, pass the receipt, and this gets ready in a minute. I still have to wait for the food for another 15 minutes.
Casually sipping the buttermilk while enjoying watching people at the North Indian counter, I get called out for my thaali. Well, the kid in me jumps and yells with a strange excitement for food, while the adult in me carries that calm and serious face like all those guys next to me. All this social conditioning of adulthood suppresses us to express the happiness of small and tiny everyday things that make up life. Anyway, I pick a super nice sunny spot next to the entrance and take a picture of the whole setting expecting to miss this in Europe. The drink is already over at this time and I sit down to start with rice in one corner and slowly proceed sequentially with the design of the plate. Sadly, the daal ended and rice still remains (classic problem with a combo meal). Well, let’s just mix the potatoes with rice and finish this thing, assuming this to a dish in some possible cuisine. Tastes great. All this Gurgaon + Office + Aloo today reminds me of the time in OHC’s cafe for lunch making you sleepy. Let’s be a bit careful not to overeat. Well this ends, and I look at the Paneer still remaining in corner that makes my head say Fuck Off to any other thought. This orange shahi paneer in the restaurants in Delhi has it’s distinct smell and taste. I don’t know whether it’s good or not, though it makes you seriously crave to it at times. I start with the roti and slowly this paneer disappears in me. In the middle of this, an office girl (who is probably the only other solo in the restaurant except me) stares at me for a second and I look back. Well, this is India and I have a girlfriend somewhere on this Earth, so this story dies here and I focus back on the food. Surprisingly, the Raita still remains and I wonder whether starting with Buttermilk and ending with Raita makes sense. It doesn’t really matter, let’s just proceed and get over this thing one spoonful at a time. Finally it ends and my whole mind body system has evolved to a point of being grateful about my day. The fat sides from the rotis still remain as I deeply wonder what to do with them — will the guard allow me to carry these outside? will there be birds on the way? should I wrap these in the paper under the plate? Seeming uncomfortable, I gave up while the cleaning guy asked me to hand over the plate. Feeling a little hesitant, I handed the tray to him and walked outside.
Filled with content, I step outside to head back to the Cowrks office. As I see a fancy chai place and 10 other restaurants, I wonder how all this is a grand system is a replacement to the tiny everyday things we do in houses daily while living with our families. All that food prepared every single day by our mothers, making chai multiple times a day, and just having that “Ghar ki Thaali” for every single meal. It’s funny how development, business, growth, and, money can and simultaneously cannot change a lot of human life. I walk looking up in the sky at all these buildings and some pigeons and other birds freely sailing in that sky. This thing about every moment is new hits my head as I imagine the pigeon’s flight to the first like that.
I head back into the fancy glass building being sure that every past moment has it’s own irreplaceable things that you just keep getting used to. What’s happening and what you think is happening is a paradox. Your brain could make infinite stories out of the infinite things that are around you at every possible moment. Well after getting all this out on this computer, I start feeling there is nothing in the world except what’s happening now, the thing we call time, past and the future is just another invention of our own heads to keep things orderly. Let’s live with the living, let’s live with the ever flowing current of life that we misunderstand as time. What we call now is already the past, and what you we call future is just a projection from all our interpretations of the past. Enjoy your meals.
Thursday, 22nd of November 2018 | Orchid Gardens, Gurgaon
Let all those flowers of fear, worry, violence and all blossom, they will get soon get withered. No need to run away from them or suppress them. You are the living, the undying who can stay with them, watch them coming, and going away. When you see nothing around, you see your own creation is a nature’s biggest magic show. — Afternoon thoughts
Tuesday, 20th of November 2018 | Home, Agra
Thank you Praveen Bhaiya. You are forever in our hearts. Goes to greener pastures on 18th of Nov 2018.
Gayatri Mantra
ऊँ भूर्भुवः स्वः तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं भर्गो
देवस्य धीमहि धियो योनः प्रचोदयात्।
ऊँ
गायत्री का क्रम ऊँ से आरम्भ होता है, ऊँके ऋषि ब्रह्मा हैं। ऊँ का अकार, उकार, मकारात्मक स्वरूप है। उसके अनुसार ऊँ को सारी सृष्टि का मूल माना जाता है। ऊँ से ही सारी सृष्टि का विकास होता है। यह एक स्वतन्त्र विषय है। यहां केवल गायत्री पर ही कुछ कहते हैं।
भूः
सबसे पहले भूः शब्द आ रहा है, क्योंकि सामने वाली वस्तु को लांघ कर कोई नई बात नहीं कही जा सकती, सामने वाली चीज भूः से आरम्भ की जा रही है। वास्तविक आरम्भ भूः भुवः स्वः महः जनः तपः सत्यम् से है।
सत्यम् से भूः तक की स्थिति एक सूत्र से बंधी है किन्तु हमारी दृष्टि सत्यम् पर नहीं जा सकती। सामने की भूः को हम समझ सकते हैं इसलिए भूः से ही इसका आरम्भ करते हैं। दूसरी वैदिक रहस्य की बात है कि देवताओं की गणना में अग्निर्वै देवानां अवमः विष्णुः परमः यह कहा जाता है।
सबसे पहले अग्नि है, सबके अन्त में तैतीसवें विष्णु हैं। अग्नि शब्द परोक्ष भाषा का है। यह अग्रि (अर्थात् सबसे पहला) था जिसे बाद में अग्नि कहने लग गए। अग्नि का सम्बंध भूः से ही है और इसी अग्नि की सारी व्याप्ति हो रही हैं, इसलिए प्रथम दृष्टि भूः पर ही जानी चाहिए। भूः का निर्माण कैसे हो रहा है? पृथ्वी तो पञ्च महाभूतों में सबसे आखिरी महाभूत है।
भुवः
पहले पञ्च महाभूतों का कहां किस रूप में क्या होता है जिससे पृथ्वी बन रही है? उसका सारा श्रेय भुवः को होता है। भुवः नाम का जो अन्तरिक्ष है वह सोममय समुद्र से भरा हुआ है, अनवरत सोम की वृष्टि वहां से पृथ्वी पर होती रहती है किन्तु स्मरण रहे कि अकेले सोम की वृष्टि नहीं है।
भूः भुवः स्वः ये तीनों सूत्र जुड़े हुए हैं। स्वः में आदित्य है। वहां अमृत और मृत्यु दोनों तत्त्व मौजूद हैं।
अमृत और मृत्यु दोनों तत्त्वों को साथ लेकर आदित्य की गति बताई गई है। उसमें भी आदित्य का ऊर्ध्व भाग आदित्य मंडल है और वह आदित्य बारह मंडलों में विभक्त है।
बारहवें मंडल पर विष्णु विराजमान है जो आदित्य मंडल का ऊपरी अर्ध भाग है उसकी विवेचना वेद में अमृत रूप में आई है। नीचे का अर्ध भाग जो पृथ्वी से जुड़ा आ रहा है वह मृत्युमय है।
मृत्यु में अमृत का आधान हो रहा है। इस तरह से अमृत मृत्यु दोनों से जुड़ा हुआ तत्त्व जो सोम रूप में बनकर पृथ्वी पर उतर रहा है उसके बीच में अन्तरिक्ष ही सारा समुद्र-घर बना हुआ है। इस अन्तरिक्ष में हमारी पृथ्वी जैसे अनन्त लोक विराजमान हैं जो सूर्य की ज्योति से ढके रहते हैं और सूर्यास्त के बाद तारों के रूप में खिल पड़ते हैं। उन तारों के स्थान में बैठकर पृथ्वी को देखें तो यह पृथ्वी भी एक तारे की तरह चमकती दिखाई देगी।
भूः से चला हुआ अग्नि भुवः को पार करके स्वः में जा रहा है। स्वः को संस्कृत में स्वर्ग वाची बताया गया है। स्वः प्रत्यक्ष है, आदित्य से सम्बद्ध है जिसके एक दूसरे से बड़े 12 मंडल रूप विभाग हैं। इसका पौराणिक विवेचन जब देखते हैं तब इसका स्पष्टीकरण बहुत विशद रूप में होता है।
सम्मिश्रित होकर पृथ्वी तक आ रहे हैं और यहां नीचे समुद्र में उनका मन्थन हो रहा है। मन्थन द्वारा जो किनारे पर पांक आ रहा है- वायु उसमें बन्द होकर बूंदबूंद, पांक-कीचड़ सिक्ता सूख कर पृथ्वी का रूप बनता चला जा रहा है।
गायत्री मन्त्र में कहा है भूः भुवः स्वः। स्वः से आगे के व्याहृतियों के नाम क्यों नहीं ले रहे हैं। ये तो सात हैं, स्वः पर ही क्यों रुके हैं? इसलिए कि आगे के व्याहृतियों के व्याहृती के रूप में बोलने के लिए स्वरूप स्पष्टीकरण नहीं होता।
व्याख्या जब तक नहीं आ जाए तब तक स्पष्ट नहीं हो सकता कि क्या महः है, क्या तपः है, क्या सत्यम् है? सत्य बोलने से क्या समझ में आएगा, इसलिए गायत्री उन सबका परिचय दे रही है।
तत्
तत् शब्द को सम्बंधपरक माना गया है। सम्बंध तो अनेक प्रकार के होते हैं। पञ्चमी विभक्ति से जुड़ा हुआ तस्मात् का भी तत् है। भूः भुवः स्वः, किसी तत् यानी स्वः से ऊपर का विचार हो रहा है। स्वः का निर्माण किससे हो रहा है।
स्वः
जितना भी है, वेद-विज्ञान के विचार के अनुसार जैसे हम हैं वैसे स्वः है। यहां पर जो अवधि सौ वर्ष की है वहां वही अवधि काल क्रम से हजार वर्ष की है। यद्यपि पुरुष मात्र शतायु होता है, देवता भी शतायु ही है किन्तु उनके सौ वर्ष हमारे हजार वर्ष होते हैं।
स्वः की इस तरह की विवेचना पुराणों में खूब आती है लेकिन महाप्रलय में स्वः की भी समाप्ति तो हो ही जाती है। जनः नाम के परमेष्ठी मण्डल से स्वः का उदय हुआ, उसमें ही लीनभाव भी बताया गया। स्वः नाम का तत्त्व भी लीन होगा, वह भी चिरस्थायी नहीं है।
तत्सवितुर्वरेण्यं
उससे ऊपर सविता है। सूर्य को जो सविता नाम दिया जाता है वह प्रतिबिम्बात्मक रूप में ही दिया जाता है क्योंकि सविता नाम वैदिक परिभाषा के क्रम में परमेष्ठी मंडल के पांच उपग्रहों में गिनाया गया है। शतपथ ब्राह्मण में एक ग्रह अतिग्रहभाव की विवेचना आई है, ग्रह-उपग्रह (अतिग्रह)।
ग्रह कहते हैं प्रधान को, उपग्रह कहते हैं गौण को। तो वहां पर सत्यलोक से चली हुई जो ज्ञानमयी शक्ति है उस ज्ञानमयी धारा का परमेष्ठी मण्डल की सोममयी धारा से सम्मिश्रण होता है और यह सम्मिश्रण युगलतत्त्व में जुड़ करके अद्वैत भाव ले लेता है।
Monday 19th of November 2018 | Home, Agra
Live when you’re alive. Compromise when that flow of air stops.
Saturday 17th of November 2018 | Home, Agra
You are the very source of life, the living, the awareness of life. Don’t let the conditioning of your past stop you from being alive. It’s a responsibility to keep your mind open, and keep your conditioning be a tiny speck of things you learnt to survive in this world. Now that you’ve survived for so many years, don’t let this learning block the unfolding of your inner godly universe into the outer reality. Be in touch with the oneness, the ever changing, ever growing speed of the universe within you that is you. Keep upgrading your perception to see things are they are. There is no future, there is no past, there is only the now. By the time you perceive it, it is already the past. The future is just a project of your past mixed with your memory and intellect. As you’re typing this, you are just watching your own brain playing in this reality. A state of flow where your memory, intellect and the consciousness connect to make your reality this that is. Does the whole world exist right now? Does anything beyond this perception exists? It may/it may not. Reality is your creation. Start looking, start seeing, stay curious and stay alive!
Friday 16th of November 2018 | The Executive Chair, Agra
Man is a creature of his Kratumaya (क्रतुमयः, will, purpose). Let him therefore have for himself this will, this purpose: The intelligent, whose body is imbued with life-principle, whose form is light, whose thoughts are driven by truth, whose self is like space (invisible but ever present), from whom all works, all desires, all sensory feelings encompassing this whole world, the silent, the unconcerned, this is me, my Self, my Soul within my heart.— Chandogya Upanishad
Thursday 15th of November 2018 | The Executive Chair, Agra
“That reflection of you in the mirror is a thing of the past already”. Be on the ultimate extreme of growth, for the dead thoughts of the past don’t connect to the present. Leave no stone unturned, do each and every single thing in your control. To break barriers of the thought that dwells in the past, the light of life needs to be connected to the present. Battle hard if you need to the resistance to change that is bound to block. Universe means change and life means change. Cut short everything that comes in the way of life to shine. Push and pass through the destruction. The dead thoughts need to shed for the light to pass through. Let the momentum of your thought be faster than light, for it needs to be there before the life energies reach the present. Nothing comes between you and the light. Let it shine, let things burn, let discomfort be your friend at that time, let you yourself be vulnerable, for that what it takes to be with the light, be with life. For when nature turmoils, it cleans up and makes space. Don’t battle people, battle the ghost of the pasts. Let the light take it course, make that godspeed your friend. The whole intensity of the universe is needed to break through. Dead thought needs to be shattered to tiny little specs of dust to make space for the light to enter. Listen to the nature’s call, be with life, be with light. Forget moving fast, fast is the new slow. Move faster than your thought. The present is already the past. Stay ahead of your mind. Be in the present. That’s what it takes to be faster than light. Listen to the universe. For being on the extreme end of control your own energies, and the extreme end of letting go to be present in the now. It is the most intense and blissful state that is the peak of the life within you. Be here and hustling will be a dead, old age philosophy. Faster than light speed it is.
Monday, 12th of November 2018 | Home Terrace, Agra
Morning musings — “What moves the ant is moving you”. You close your eyes in the morning and try to place the center of your head towards the sun. Your thoughts still talk to you, about the past, about what you felt in the bed just while waking up you are still thinking about that ghost of your past, your intellect mixes with your memory to produce emotions, to remind you why you should feel the way you feel right now. Scooters and cars honk the road, you visualise the tapping of those horns, and wonder about the pollution for no reason again, monkeys move around you and climb the towers and the banners and you feel the fear of them biting you. That fear happens in your imagination and you keep a chappal close to you in case that imagination is going to turn into reality. You anyway start doing what you were going to do. You close your eyes again slowly and try to move your focus away from the past and try to notice what’s happening right now. Slowly you see the light in the darkness and wonder whether your eyes are seeing something or not. The sunlight produces warmth and light on your forehead and everywhere else it touches your skin. You imagine your own self in your own head doing that. You slowly feel you are a living being. Am I a plant, well this is what they call vitamin D, this is why people bask in the sun. So much is going inside you just by the sun. You start wondering. You open your eyes and see the pigeons moving in circles in the sky. The ants moves on the floor everywhere and getting stressed when you go closer. A question arises, how they are connected to the sun and how they have this energy in them, why are these ants this shaped, how come they also have the life in them, the same as what I have in me. How is it even moving, does it feel the same way I feel about my life? Does it experience things in the same way that I do? The Religion in my memory starts answering — God is doing all this. The Science in my intellect starts answering — it has limbs it is an animal, its parts produce energy all that. Curiosity is still not satisfied. What about the whole thing, why is all this happening? Life is pretty magical around us, things that seem so simple things are so mysterious. You look closer at the ant, so small, so many of other ants also moving around it. The ant is carrying some food for her home. Other ants are also moving in the random directions, I am assuming they are in the search of food. Should you tell them what way is the food? Or should you not? You leave them alone, like the nature designed them. You get up and feel you just thought of getting up, your body moved, your feet performed what they had to, and you’re up now. You still wonder how is all this even happening. Was anything happening when you closed your eyes and were just seeing the light of the sun in the supposed darkness of closed eyes. You realise all this sense of wonder had been forgotten in all these growing up and money making race. You look around, monkeys are running. A kid’s mom is combing his hair in another house on another terrace. You remember you were also like that once, you remember what parents mean. You clean up and see that you’re grown up and fold your sheets now. You walk down slowly to come back to your home for breakfast, you become grateful for the morning today that reconnected to you to the childlike wonder that had been inside you all this time. Everything around you becomes an unlimited magic show, when you clean up your own head and your own eyes start to see it. You start wondering life is just so mysteriously beautiful, while drinking juice and eating your breakfast and then now you have to get back to your “daily activities” after writing down all this down on a computer.
- Deactivated Facebook again — felt like going to a marketplace of human life, and completely unrelated random information that created new insecurities for no reason.
Sunday, 11th of November 2018 | Home, Agra
The air is doing it’s job to keep you alive, the sun is doing it’s job to keep you and the whole earth warm. The trees are doing their job to clean the air. All these people did their job to make life comfortable for you and they are dead now. The tomato seed did it’s job for so many hours, fought against all the conditions and produced a tomato so you can enjoy that sandwich now. The bees collected so much honey to make your juice sweet. Your legs and hands do their job to keep moving. After all this universe conspiring for you to just be alive, there is no reason to be sad in this world when your breath is still going on — Morning thoughts while drinking juice and making bits of paratha for the squirrels and monkeys on the terrace at home.
Saturday, 10th of November 2018 | Home, Agra
“What one fool can do, another can too”
- Discussed ideas and came up with City Mapper with Ekansh.
Friday, 9th of November 2018 | Home, Agra
“Work like a scientist, work with the environment, stop wishing for all to change. Feel, see, measure, act, and grow” — Me, morning realisations
Thursday, 8th of November 2018 | Home, Agra
“Whoever is happy will make others happy too.” — Anne Frank
Tuesday, 6th of November 2018 | Preet Vihar, New Delhi
“One who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.” — Confucius
Monday, 5th of November 2018 | Galaxy, Gurgaon
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” — Joseph Campbell
Sunday, 4th of November 2018 |Orchid Gardens, Gurgaon
“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.” — Og Mandino
Saturday, 3rd of November 2018 | Sibang Bakery, Gurgaon
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” — Bruce Lee
Friday, 2nd of November 2018 | Galaxy, Gurgaon
“The universe reveals its secrets to those who dare to follow their hearts.” — Ralph Smart
Wednesday, 31st of October 2018 | Galaxy, Gurgaon
“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” — Andrew Carnegie
#tools : Sending customer services and collecting NPS scores —
#tools : Hubspot — Cold Email Marketing
Tuesday, 30th of October 2018 | Di Ghent, Gurgaon
“Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.” — Sara Blakely
Sunday, 28th of October 2018 | Galaxy, Gurgaon
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently
that which should not be done at all.” — Peter Drucker
- 27 rounds of Suryanamaskar today.
- Day 1 of 100 vector days — Tinariwen video.
- Going for Football at Cult Oreo City.
Saturday, 27th of October 2018 | Galaxy, Gurgaon
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
- Bullet Journal ✅
- Morning Pranayam
- Golf at Hamoni
- Vyapar Kendra courier
Friday, 26th of October 2018 | Galaxy, Gurgaon
“The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.” — Carl Sagan
- Got Jiju’s phone from IGI!
- Met iOS team at Another Fine Day!
- Gurgaon feels great!
Thoughts — Being physically with people around you is a psychological need as our animal brain is wired that we are separated from the head and it’s danger. So we confirm to the actions of the people around us to feel comfortable that what we are doing is fine.
Thursday, 25th of October 2018 | Faridkot, Punjab
“Make each day your masterpiece.” — John Wooden
Wednesday, 24th of October 2018 | Home, Agra
“You are the one that possesses the keys to your being.
You carry the passport to your own happiness.” — Diane von Furstenberg
Tuesday, 23rd of October 2018 | Home, Agra
“I’ll leave tomorrow’s problems to tomorrow’s me.” — Saitama
“You have to keep doing it. No matter how difficult it gets. It took me a full 3 years to get this strong.” — Saitama
- Finished One Punch man series today.
Monday, 22nd of October 2018 | Home, Agra
“Give yourself permission to slow down. You
can speed up by slowing down.” — Gabby Bernstein
- Noticing the honking sounds after waking up.
- Family got a new Toyota Innova car today.
- One Punch Man!
Paul Graham’s (Y Combinator) letters for startups
Some pointers from these
- Live in the future and build what seems interesting. Strange as it sounds, that’s the real recipe.
- When you have an idea for a startup, ask yourself: who wants this right now? Who wants this so much that they’ll use it even when it’s a crappy version one made by a two-person startup they’ve never heard of? If you can’t answer that, the idea is probably bad.
- It’s even better when you’re both a programmer and the target user, because then the cycle of generating new versions and testing them on users can happen inside one head.
- So if you want to find startup ideas, don’t merely turn on the filter “What’s missing?” Also turn off every other filter, particularly “Could this be a big company?”
- When something annoys you, it could be because you’re living in the future. Note it down, find the ‘obvious’, keep a background process running, you don’t have to sit down and force yourself to come up with ideas.
- A good way to trick yourself into noticing ideas is to work on projects that seem like they’d be cool. If you do that, you’ll naturally tend to build things that are missing.
- Because a good idea should seem obvious, when you have one you’ll tend to feel that you’re late. Don’t let that deter you. Worrying that you’re late is one of the signs of a good idea. Ten minutes of searching the web will usually settle the question. Even if you find someone else working on the same thing, you’re probably not too late. It’s exceptionally rare for startups to be killed by competitors — so rare that you can almost discount the possibility. So unless you discover a competitor with the sort of lock-in that would prevent users from choosing you, don’t discard the idea.
Sunday, 21st of October 2018 | Back from Fatehpur Sikri · Home, Agra
“You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” — Zig Ziglar
Friday, 19th of October 2018 | Dussehra· Home, Agra
“The most effective way to do it, is to do it.” — Amelia Earhart
Wednesday, 17th of October 2018 · Home, Agra
“The way you tell your story to yourself matters.” — Amy Cuddy
Monday, 15th of October 2018 · Home, Agra
“Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.” — Robert H. Schuller
Sunday, 14th of October 2018 · Home, Agra
“Build a dream and the dream will build you.” — Robert H. Schuller
Saturday, 13th of October 2018 · Home, Agra
“The greatest universe is the one within you.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo
Friday, 12th of October 2018 · Home, Agra
“Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very
silent if no birds sang except the best.” — Henry Van Dyke
Tuesday, 9th of October 2018 · Swan Hostel, Jaisalmer
“If you don’t like where you are, change it. You’re not a tree.” — Jim Rohn
Tuesday, 9th of October 2018 · The Raahi Hostel, Jodhpur
“If you can change your mind, you can change your life.”—William James
Monday, 8th of October 2018 · The Raahi Hostel, Jodhpur
“The only way to learn it is to do it.” — Archimedes, Sword in the Stone
Sunday, 7th of October 2018 · Galaxy, Gurgaon
Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible — Francis of Assisi
Saturday, 6th of October 2018 · Greenr Cafe, Gurgaon
“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many
short races one after another.”—Walter Elliott
Prepared Macbook for Anu, booked tickets to Jodhpur and working with Nadzeya now.
Friday, 5th of October 2018 · Another fine day, Gurgaon
“Nothing can stop a good idea” — Saw this on someone’s t-shirt
Thursday, 4th of October 2018 · The cafe next to Blue Tokai, Gurgaon
“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have
courage to lose sight of the shore.”—William Faulkner
Wednesday, 3rd of October 2018 · DiGhent, Gurgaon
“Do the thing you think you cannot do.”—Eleanor Roosevelt
Eggs Benedict at DiGhent, notes on organisation and iPhone organisation. All 1–1s with anyplace team today - to show first app progress, got 1st paycheck, and learned more about the team. Great experience!
Tuesday, 2nd October 2018
“In any profession, when you lose yourself, and then you become the art” — A.R. Rahman
Watched the Creative Indians on Netflix, setup iPhone XS with folders, Remembered
Monday, 1st October 2018
“If you focus on what you left behind, then how can you see what lies ahead?”—Chef Gusteau, “Ratatouille”
September 30, 2018
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.” — Hellen Keller
Last day of the month today. It’s review time for September ’18. #reflections
5:00 pm at Gurgaon, India.
Aiswarya reached Amsterdam today! I feel great about her and I’ll surely miss her being in India a lot. She wrote everyone a letter, and I read all the nice lines she had for me :) Woke up with a big mess in my head. Lot of changes and overwhelm and sleeping late recently. It’s all cool. Need to get exercise and routine back in place and ditch all those unhealthy routines. I organised and cleaned my room, time to do the same with my head.
- I started working out this month. Superb feeling, going to cult.fit and meeting friends there occasionally is super cool.
- Me, papa and bhaiya had birthdays this month. Glad to see everyone growing up more. Zomato started in Agra and could deliver a cake for papa’s birthday!
- Was in a room sprinting with the iOS team at Zomato for the first week of the month (and my last week at Z). Working hard and connecting with the new iOS team was amazing. Said goodbye to Zomato with a GIF and celebrated my last day together with Pranu and people at Aiswarya’s house. Glad to see Tuhina coming from Bangalore and Anu in midst of all the fun. Pranu is going to Singapore! Looking forward to see him soon.
- Did things for the single certificate in Agra. Ah, this single certificate problems in India! Though talking like a grown up to my parents about my girlfriend and life seemed scary, but was a big personal achievement. Feels so supportive and nice :)
- Worked on a catalogue for JPMedilife, saw the boxes that I designed in sketch, are now printed. Happy about the progress, still a long way to go. Will work more on this with Bhaiya, push this more.
- I started working at Anyplace.com this month. We help people live in a hotel. After long work and waiting for almost a year, it’s nice to see a spark of result as a Remote job. Reading about remote work and trying to handle this is challenging and fun. Glad to spend 2 days with Koichi in Gurgaon and excited to learn more with him!
- Got a gadget upgrade! My iPhone XS arrives in a few days and already got the latest space grey MacBook Pro. I got a gadget organizer too and have things sorted in my bag. Roaming here and there finding co-working spaces was cool, and working at Hamoni was great. Need to manage some internet problems in India, and structure all workplaces and cities somewhere.
- Lived and chilled with Anu! Couldn’t spend a lot of time because of the transition and running around. And now she got a job in Goa. Wow :D Excited about her living there, and me going there in winters.
- Watched Creative Indians for some quality entertainment with Neeraj today. We bought a washing machine. Udit is in Bangalore with all folks!
- Aiswarya and me met each other’s parents. Flew to Chennai for this. Papa and Chachiji came to Gurgaon. Happy to see Chachiji feeling less in pain with her knee, and grateful to see my parents and being able to take them to a Mayur-like place.
- Stayed in Bangalore for 5 days before going to Chennai. Tuhina took me to lunch at Google! Fun to see her dealing with the big change of city for her. Grateful about connecting to Akhil and reconnecting with Suren. A great trip living in a Nani house with awesome weather.
- Nadzeya came to Gurgaon! Taught me Storyboards and she loves the sunshine here, thank all the gods for her help.
- Next month starts tomorrow. Excited to build all the products and go places!
September 27, 2018
“Make your faith larger than your fears and your dreams larger than your doubts.”—Robin Sharma
September 25, 2018
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” —Leonardo da Vinci
September 24, 2018
“Motivation comes from working on things we care about.” — Sheryl Sandburg
September 23, 2018
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”—Martin Luther King
- Quick list of Git aliases : http://jasonm23.github.io/oh-my-git-aliases.html
- Books for nomad life —
September 22, 2018
“If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work”. — Nhat Hanh
Jumping between WiFis and coffee at Third wave coffee roasters, Bengaluru.
“Cold fashioned” coffee (black coffee with orange juice and jaggery) works good for me.
Quick —
- Avoid large images in sketch files.
- Asana is great for task management.
- Walk to think better.
- Plan specific list of todos for the day.
September 21, 2018
“By doing what you love you inspire and awaken the hearts of others.”—Satsuki Shibuya
Working in Bangalore with Suren and Tuhina. Had lunch at Google today!
September 20, 2018
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”—Epictetus
September 19, 2018
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.” — Dr. Seuss
Working at Cafe Hamoni today since WeWork was full of people. First day of working in isolation had lying down in the grass and playing golf as a gift!
September 18, 2018
September 17, 2018
“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.”
Anyplace day 1!
Beautiful landing page —
September 16, 2018
“Once you realize how beautiful you are, you will find it
hard to keep the company of those who do not.”
September 15, 2018
“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But
above all, the world needs dreamers who do.”—Sarah Ban Breathnach
September 14, 2018
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” — Henry Ford
Sketch for Print —
September 8, 2018
“You often feel tired, not because you’ve done too much, but because you’ve done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
September 7, 2018
“The creative adult is the child who survived.”
Last day at Zomato.
September 5, 2018
“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”—Seth Godin
September 4, 2018
“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” — Henry David Thoreau
September 3, 2018
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
September 1, 2018
“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” — Joshua J. Marine
August 31, 2018
“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” — William Shakespeare
August 30, 2018
“Challenge yourself with something you know you could never do, and what you’ll find is that you can overcome anything.”
August 29, 2018
“What weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men and women. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.”—Carlos Castaneda
August 28, 2018
“Whether a thought is spoken or not, it is a real thing and has powers of reality.” — Frank Herbert
August 27, 2018
“Always remember that the future comes one day at a time.”—Dean Acheson
August 26, 2018
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.”
August 25, 2018
“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.” — Deepak Chopra
August 24, 2018
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The
more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”—Dr. Seuss
August 23, 2018
“Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” — Les Brown
August 22, 2018
“Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.”—Robert H. Schuller
August 21, 2018
“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.”—Og Mandino
August 20, 2018
“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.” — Neil Gaiman
August 19, 2018
“Listen to your instinct, grab the opportunity when it
presents itself and then give it your all.” — Helen Mirren
August 18, 2018
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” — Zig Ziglar
August 17, 2018
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” — George Bernard Shaw
August 16, 2018
“The grass is greener where you water it” — Neil Barringham
August 15, 2018
“Do more of what makes you happy.”
Independence day.
Landing Pages
Clean, Minimal, Gravity animation —
Email Conversion, with great UX copy and CTA—
August 14, 2018
“A champion is defined not by their wins, but by how
many times they recover when they fall.” — Serena Williams
August 13, 2018
“Every person is a new door to a different world.”—Six Degrees of Separation
August 12, 2018
“When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.” — Dalai Lama
August 11, 2018
“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.” — Neil Gaiman
August 10, 2018
If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun. — A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
August 9, 2018
“Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.”—Arthur Christopher Benson
Learning React, better —
August 8, 2018
“If it can be solved, there’s no need to worry, and if it can’t be solved, worry is of no use.” — Dalai Lama
Decided to stay and find a focused work desk here.
August 7, 2018
“Quit worrying about how everything is going to turn out. Live one day at a time. “—Joel Osteen
August 6, 2018
“The past has no power over the present moment.” — Eckhart Tolle
August 5, 2018
“Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
August 4, 2018
“Opportunities to find our deeper powers come
when life seems most challenging.”—Joseph Campbell
August 3, 2018
“Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very
silent if no birds sang except the best.”—Henry Van Dyke
Made a list of ideas to pursue after Z.
August 2, 2018
“If it ain’t fun, don’t do it.” — Jack Canfield
Resigned.
August 1, 2018
“Some changes look negative on the surface, but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.” — Eckhart Tolle
The day I decided to get my time back. UIKit revamp 792, Just do it.
July 31, 2018
“I am strong because I’ve been weak. I am fearless because I’ve been afraid. I am wise because I’ve been foolish.”
July 30, 2018
“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.”—William James
July 28, 2018
“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin
it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it.”—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
July 27, 2018
“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”—Greg McKeown
July 25, 2018
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”—Albert Einstein
July 24, 2018
“A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes.” — Wade Boggs
July 23, 2018
“Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.”—Benjamin Spock
July 20, 2018
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men and women who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it.” — Muhammad Ali
July 19, 2018
“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”—Bruce Lee
July 18, 2018
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment”—Jim Rohn
July 17, 2018
“Replace fear of the unknown with curiosity.”
July 16, 2018
“Self-esteem is the ability to see yourself as a flawed individual and still hold yourself in regard.”—Esther Perel
June 22, 2018
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”—Socrates
June 19, 2018
“Love the life you live. Live the life you love.”—Bob Marley
June 18, 2018
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” —Marie Curie
Alternative to Intercom —
May 24, 2018
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but
also dream, not only plan, but also believe.”—Anatole France
May 23, 2018
“Everything you want to be, you already are. You’re
simply on the path to discovering it.”—Alicia Keys
May 22, 2018
“You are stronger than your challenges and your challenges are making you stronger.”—Karen Salmansohn
May 21, 2018
“Dream big dreams. Small dreams have no magic.” — Dottie Boreyko
May 20, 2018
“You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.”—Jonathan Safran Foer
May 18, 2018
“Jumping from failure to failure with undiminished enthusiasm is the big secret to success.” — Savas Dimopoulos
May 14, 2018
“Successful people have fear, successful people have doubts, and successful people have worry. They just don’t let these feelings stop them.” — T. Harv Eker
May 13, 2018
“Low self esteem is like driving through life with your handbrake on.” — Maxwell Maltz
April 18, 2018
“Your greatest dreams are all on the other side of the wall of fear and uncertainty”
April 15, 2018
“It’s time to start living the life you’ve only imagined.”
April 14, 2018
“Lead with your strengths, not your weaknesses.”
April 13, 2018
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” — Vincent van Gogh
April 12, 2018
“How many success stories do you need to hear before you make your own?”
At 5'o clock, designing the language game.
April 11, 2018
“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.”—Walter Elliott
April 9, 2018
“A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.” — Sonia Sotomayor
April 8, 2018
“Fear does not prevent death. It prevents life.” — Naguib Mahfouz
April 6, 2018
“I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and
you’re not in this world to live up to mine.”—Bruce Lee
Learning Russian through this these days —
April 4, 2018
“If you stumble make it part of the dance.”
April 3, 2018
“If you are always trying to be normal you will
never know how amazing you can be.” — Maya Angelou
April 2, 2018
“Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future.” —Earl Nightingale
April 1, 2018
“Most people get ahead during the time that others waste.” — Henry Ford
March 31, 2018
“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” —Henry David Thoreau
March 30, 2018
“Fear, uncertainty and discomfort are your compasses toward growth.”
March 29, 2018
“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” — Jordan Belfort
March 28, 2018
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right. You’ll be criticised anyway.”—Eleanor Roosevelt
Mac app to control all your music from a single place
Daniel Pink talks about different stages of energies in a single day
March 27, 2018
“Create something today even if it sucks.”
March 26, 2018
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. One who lives life fully is prepared to die at any time.”—Mark Twain
March 24, 2018
If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies. — Albert Einstein
March 23, 2018
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, bring others along.”
March 22, 2018
“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” — Seth Godin
March 21, 2018
“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” — Maya Angelou
March 20, 2018
“If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down.” — Toni Morrison
March 19, 2018
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” — Booker T. Washington
March 16, 2018
“What you seek is seeking you.” — Rumi
March 15, 2018
“Do what you love, not what you think you’re supposed to do.”
March 14, 2018
“The trouble is, you think you have time.” — Buddha
March 12, 2018
“Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.” — Hellen Keller
March 8, 2018
“What gets measured gets managed.” — Peter Drucker
March 7, 2018
“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you
help them to become what they are capable of being.”— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
March 6, 2018
“Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.” — J. K. Rowling
March 5, 2018
“Wherever you are, be all there.” — Jim Elliot
March 3, 2018
“Winning starts with beginning”
March 2, 2018
“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”—Oscar Wilde
March 1, 2018
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”Mahatma Gandhi
Comic Style Fonts
10 Free fonts used by theoatmeal —
Pablo Stanley uses this for thedesignteam.io comics —
Javascript library for text effects
February 28, 2018
“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”—Oliver Wendell Holmes
February 27, 2018
“What are the most powerful words in the universe? The ones you use to talk to yourself.” — Karen Salmansohn
February 26, 2018
“It’s not who you think you are that holds you back it’s who you think you’re not.”
Wrote on some quick learnings at Gameloft Mexico
February 25, 2018
“Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.” —Doris Lessing
February 24, 2018
“It’s up to you how far you go. If you don’t try, you’ll never know!” — Merlin, Sword in the Stone.
February 23, 2018
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle
The creative personality
Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals.
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, published in 1996
February 22, 2018
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then
by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”—Vincent Van Gogh
I set up a secure landing page for a productivity app I am building — Listix.co
Design in Sketch and generate a webpage with the Launchpad app
Learn how to launch a landing page using Amazon AWS
Get started with After Effects
20 minute video intro
(Woke up at 4:30am and saw this)
AE Shortcuts
(Shortcut cheatsheets are my favourite)
February 21, 2018
“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe”
February 20, 2018
“Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own
rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.”—Anne Sweeney
February 18, 2018
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect” ― Anaïs Nin
February 17, 2018
“There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference
between mediocrity and accomplishment.” — Norman Vincent Peale
February 16, 2018
“Do a little more of what you want to do every day, until your idea becomes what’s real.”
Found this comic artist on Medium. Nice drawings
(She uses oatmeal kind of engagement by placing 3 more links at the bottom of her posts. And also looking at this I realise I should learn how to draw facial expressions. It evokes a lot more emotion.)
Uses colorful illustration to simplify and explain complex topics —Oliver Emberton. Popular on quora.
Japanese Illustrations
February 13, 2018
“Go ahead, let them judge you”
Ralph Ammer— Powerful storytelling with drawings and animations
February 12, 2018
“Don’t let small minds convince you that your dreams are too big.”
I like how this top status is not permanent. It helps people work hard to write engaging articles on the particular topic on the platform. It gives people the social reward also. Great way to keep the demand and supply of the business in balance!
February 11, 2018
“Adventure may hurt you, but monotony will kill you.”
Steps to showcase your work on Behance if you’ve never done it —
February 10, 2018
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” — Marie Curie
February 9, 2018
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man
— George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists.
Preserved Music from the 1900s — Peaceful for listening to when working on creative projects
Interactive WebGl based animated music video 🎧 — great storytelling
💡[Idea] Planning to set up a community on preserving best practices on motion design. Some name suggestions : The Animated Life, The Animators, Men in Motion, Motion Symphony.
5 minute setup —
February 8, 2018
“It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement.” — Isocrates
Grateful for getting my first blogpost published
Get started with motion design in 9 steps — UX Collective
^Got added as the first link on www.sidebar.io — Top 5 design links daily, ~40K designers subscribe this all over the world
< The CEO liked this animated GIF I made for practice, got merged on the Zomato App’s Homepage. 10 Million+ users will see this now. I hope this sets a trend for new apps in India. https://dribbble.com/shots/4154404-Zomato-Fries-Loop
February 6, 2018
Published 2 Articles
February 2, 2018
“It is not the load that breaks you down. It’s the way you carry it.” — Lou Holtz
The 3 Stages of Failure in Life and Work (And How to Fix Them) — James Clear
- If you want to build a successful business or create a great marriage or learn a new skill then “sticking with it” is perhaps the most critical trait to possess.
- If something is not working, smart people don’t repeat it endlessly. They revise. They adjust. They pivot. They quit.
- How do you know when to give up and when to stick with it?
3 Stages of Failure
- Stage 1 is a Failure of Tactics — HOW mistakes. You fail to build robust systems, forget to measure carefully, and get lazy with the details — failure to execute on a good plan and a clear vision.
- Stage 2 is a Failure of Strategy — WHAT mistakes. When you follow a strategy that fails to deliver the results you want.
- Stage 3 is a Failure of Vision — WHY mistakes. When what you want to become (your why) doesn’t align with the actions you are taking.
- Fixing Failure of Tactics (HOW Mistakes)
- Record your process. Building great systems is crucial for repeated success. Start with writing specific steps you’re following and developing a checklist.
- Measure your outcomes. If something is important to your, measure it.
- Review and adjust your tactics. You need to be constantly reviewing and improving how you do your work.
- Fixing Failure of Strategy (WHAT mistakes)
- Launch it quickly. Nobody really knows which ideas work until you try them.
- Do it cheaply. Helps you test more ideas and reduces attachment.
- Revise it rapidly. For millions of years, life has been adapting, evolving, revising, and iterating until it has reached the diverse and varied species. It is not the natural course of things to figure it all out on the first try.
- Fixing Failure of Vision (WHY mistakes)
- Take stock of your life. How do you want to spend your days? It is not someone else’s job to figure out the vision for your life. That can only be done by you.
- Determine your non-negotiable. Your “non-negotiable” is the one thing you are not willing to budge on, no matter what. It’s very easy to get fixated on your idea. But if you’re going to get obsessed with something, get obsessed with your vision, not your idea. Most of the mistakes that people assume are Failures of Vision are actually Failures of Strategy.
- Navigate criticism. Criticism can be an indicator of failed strategies and tactics, it is rarely an indicator of a failed vision. Learn how to deal with haters.
February 1, 2018
“Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own.” — Bruce Lee
January 24, 2018
MOOM — Mac window layout manager
Illustrated guide to creative habits
January 23, 2018
“The creative adult is the child who survived.”
January 18, 2018
“It is more pleasant to make than to keep a friend, as it is more pleasant to the artist to paint than to have finished painting.” — Seneca
Beautifully designed event page
January 17, 2018
“Life gives to the giver and takes from the taker” — Joe Polish
4 awesome links to start drawing Isometric Illustrations
Laws of UX
Quick recap of stuff to keep in mind while designing experiences
Developing Mastery and Being Passionate
- The most common and cliche’ advice about seeking a happy life and prosperous career is to “follow your passion.” Millennials are notorious for seeking fulfilling and passion-filled jobs, only to be left disappointed and disappointing.
- People who want a job they are passionate about are less concerned about what they can give to the world and are more concerned about what the world can give to them. You don’t have an innate passion that you should “follow,” instead, your passion follows you.
- Rather than selfishly seeking a life you’re passionate about, Newport recommends becoming a “craftsman,” wherein you develop rare and valuable skills. Newport calls these rare and valuable skills, “career capital.” Adopt the “Craftsman mindset” (what can you offer the world), instead of the “Passion mindset” (what can the world offer me).
- As you develop confidence, you begin to deeply enjoy what you’re doing — and become very passionate about it. As Newport explains, “Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.”
- You can then begin making distinct connections and projections into what has been dubbed, “The adjacent possible” which Steven Johnson described as, “a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself.” In other words, this is how you become an innovator and a shaper of societal and global change.
- If you look at any person who is honestly seeking a higher level of success, they are usually waking up early, studying and learning lots, seeking advice and feedback, and creating, testing, and failing.
- Happiness is a byproduct. You cannot pursue it directly. It comes from dedicating yourself to a cause you firmly believe. Happiness can’t come from following a self-centered and obsessive passion aimed only at making yourself feel good. Happiness comes from self-growth and using that growth to make the world a better place.
Being unstoppable with the 5-Second Rule
- The 5-Second Rule is a bias towards action instead of overthinking and been taken over by fear. In that 5 seconds, you get the opportunity to be courageous. It’s a small window of courage that you can access for free. After 5 seconds, your days are numbered and your brain will sabotage you.
- Made famous by Tony Robbins, the Burn the Boats Hack will give you leverage and destroy your Plan B. The story is simple. There was this army trying to take an island and they kept failing.
January 16, 2018
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does — William James
You Make Or Break Your Life Between 5–7 AM
- A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.
- How you start something is very important. Prevention is far better than rehabilitation. Starting right is much easier than correcting course. Research confirms the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, is most active and readily creative immediately following sleep. Your mind is clearest in the morning. Your energy is highest.
- “I frequently say to missionaries in the field, ‘You make or break your mission every morning of your life. You tell me how those morning hours go until you are on the street in your mission, whatever time it is; you tell me how those hours go, and I will tell you how your day will go, I will tell you how your month will go, I will tell you how your year will go and how your mission and your life will go.’”
- When you upgrade yourself intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually, you’re enabled to see the world from a more elevated plane. You’re empowered to deal with the difficult and challenging emotions required for growth and evolution. You quickly learn how to work with people, solve problems, and create an amazing lifestyle where you’re making great money.
- If you could give yourself two hours, every morning, solely dedicated to learning, thinking, planning, meditating, praying, and writing in your journal, your life would change. These are the best things you could do with your morning time.
- Robin Sharma : Get up at the same time every single morning. Build consistency and ritual into your morning. 20–20–20 rule. Feel different in first 20 minutes — Exercise, get that dopamine and seratonin flowing. Second 20 minutes — Review your plan, daily plan/weekly plan. Third 20 minutes — Learn, read, know more and see around corners.
January 10, 2018
Automation makes otherwise pleasant activities turn into “work”. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
January 9, 2018
The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion — Albert Einstein.
Deep Confusion As A Victory Tool
Podcast by Robin Sharma
- Society teaches us that confusion needs to be avoided. I suggest to you, that without confusion, there is no growth.
- One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star — Friedrich NietzscheRead.
- 95% people and the society tend to run away and avoid confusion. They say the legendary have clarity so confusion needs to be avoided.
- The top 5%, the legendaries, they know that a life of continuous growth has multiple cycles of death and rebirth. They know that deep confusion is a precursor to new understanding and clarity.
- (Growth hack Robin Sharma uses at the end of the podcast — “Share this podcast with 3 more people to change their life in the next 60 minutes”)
Similar concept
January 8, 2018
Beasts avoid the dangers which they see, and when they have escaped them are free from care; but we men torment ourselves over that which is to come as well as over that which is past. Many of our blessings bring bane to us; for memory recalls the tortures of fear, while foresight anticipates them. The present alone can make no man wretched. — Seneca
Making weekly plans is the best way to pull your dreams closer
Weekly Planning: How to Plan Your Week | The Art of Manliness
Additions to Sketch in 2017
Top pens of 2017 — Design + UI code on Codepen
Developing an illustration style
Learnings of a professional sillicon valley blogger over 10+ years
- An email subscriber is worth 100x twitter or LinkedIn followers or whatever other stuff is out there. An email = a real channel.
- There’s always room for high-quality thoughts/opinions. Venn diagram of people w/ knowledge and those we can communicate is tiny.
- Titles are 80% of the work, but you write it as the very last thing. It has to be a compelling opinion or important learning.
- People are often obsessed with needing to write original ideas. Forget it. You’re a journalist with a day job in the tech industry. Publishing ideas, learnings, opinions, for years & years is a great way to give. And you’ll figure out how to capture value later.
- To develop the habit, put a calendar reminder each Sunday for 2 hours. Forced myself to stare at a blank text box and put something down.
- Focus on writing freq over anything else. Schedule it. Don’t worry about building an immediate audience. Focus on the intrinsic. Think of your writing on the same timescale as your career. Write on a multi-decade timeframe. This means, don’t just pub on Quora/Medium
- Most of my writing comes from talking/reading deciding I strongly agree or disagree. These opinions become titles. Titles become essays.
January 7, 2018
The right and the wrong answers come from your heart.
January 6, 2018
“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” ― Oscar Wilde
Picking books in an overwhelming book fair
Quick litmus test for selecting books
- Pick it up, flip, do you really want it? Yes/No. Keep flipping unless you find the book that makes you say Yes. Save decision energy, be quick, escape FOMO.
- Check for the original date of publishing of the book. If it’s old and is still getting sold, it has stood the test of time. There should be something in this book that is helpful.
- If you are a visual person, buy a book if you like it’s artwork. Keep some on your bedside to flip pages and get some fresh vibes on demand.
- If you had been waiting to order that book online, pick it up and buy on the spot to get over it.
- Set an hour timer and enter those second hand book booths. You never know what you find there, and for super cheap. Embrace serendipity.
January 5, 2018
You can choose to feel better or be better. In the long run, one of these is easy to do but will make life hard, the other one is hard to do but will make life easy.
Tim Ferris Podcast — How to Handle Information Overwhelm (and Social Media)
- Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are like neighborhoods in order of the people abusing on them. Twitter is like a small crowded street where people through pots on your head for no apparent reason.
- News — If it bleeds, it leads. Make people angry or upset, it will lead them off task, and they will engage into advertisements.
- Don’t worry about taking in all the information. The strong and important one will stick — have faith in your mind.
- Turn all notifications off — select time to go on social media, avoid going online if not in a clear state of mind.
Goals vs Systems — Focus on systems and fall in love with them
For example — If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.
- Goals reduce your current happiness. It means when I will achieve this, I will be the better version. You are already the best version of yourself, enjoy the practice — Commit to the process, not a goal.
- Goals are strangely at odds with long-term progress. When all of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after you achieve it? — Release the need for immediate results.
- Goals suggest that you can control things that you have no control over. You can’t predict the future — Forget about predicting the future and build a system with feedback that can signal when you need to make adjustments.
Goals are good for planning, can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term. But eventually a well-designed system will always win.
January 4, 2018
If you fear failure, you will never go anywhere
Learning something new — Links
Sacha chua — Awesome at visual notes and emacs
Don’t know where to find answers? Deeply observe nature
- From Antifragility (Nassim Taleb) — Empedocles’ Tile — A dog always sleeps on the same tile. If there is something in nature you don’t understand, odds are it makes sense in a deeper way that is beyond your understanding. So there is a logic to natural things that is much superior to our own.
- What Mother Nature does is rigorous until proven otherwise; what humans and science do is flawed until proven otherwise.
- You can find all solutions in nature. Biomimic your life.
3 awesome films on earth, nature and wildlife
This makes your deeply think about the environment we live in —
Never Tell People What You Do
- It’s a simple question, and you’ve probably answered it hundreds of times. “What do you do?” If you’re like most people, you probably get the answer dead wrong. Your standard reply is probably a factual description of your current job.
- The right answer is: what you WANT to do. You are probably much closer to your goals than an aspiring Hollywood actor. The main thing standing in your way is your willingness to say what you want.
- If you met Elon Musk, I bet he wouldn’t talk much about Paypal; he would probably tell you about how he plans to make space flight routine.
- When you are too embarrassed or cautious to say what you want, you make it impossible for others to help you.
- Be bold. Be brave. Be honest.
January 3, 2018
Plan in decades. Think in years. Work in months. Live in days.
UI Trends
- “Mondrianism” is a UI pattern drawing inspiration from the works of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, in its compositions.
4 Awesome Interactive web stories from 2017
If It Doesn’t Suck, It’s Not Worth Doing
- Interestingly, your mind can seduce you so much so that the idea of something becomes more satisfying than the thing itself, so you stop at the idea and never make it real. A primary obstacle to success is the idea of success.
- The principle SEAL taught is what he calls the 40% rule — which essentially means people feel maxed-out mentally and physically, and thus stop, when they are at only 40% of their actual capacity. Going past this 40% capacity is when it becomes uncomfortable. Thus, SEAL’s mantra, “If it doesn’t suck, we don’t do it.”
- The concept is: Do something and don’t stop until it’s complete, no matter how long it takes. You want to develop what Greene calls “A perverse pleasure” in experiencing internal conflict, and sitting with it.
- Deepwork — “The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.”
- People are taught to love themselves regardless of their performance. Thus, they justify mediocrity. Yet, Asian’s and other immigrant groups who often are considered to have low self-esteem consistently outperform American’s who have high self-esteem.
- True confidence is earned. It’s earned by succeeding. Not by wishing for success. Meta-analytic research confirms this. True confidence emerges when you consistently push-through things that suck. The longer you sit with the boredom, pain, and discomfort — and actually create something meaningful, the more confident and successful you will be.
- There is a joy and pride that come from pushing yourself to another level or across a new frontier. A life devoted only to the present — to feeling good in the now — is unlikely to deliver real fulfillment. The present moment by itself it too small, too hollow.
If It Doesn’t Suck, It’s Not Worth Doing — Personal Growth — Medium
Most applauded Articles on Medium
Storytelling that hooks.
Plan in decades. Think in years. Work in months. Live in days — Patience
The crossroads of Should and Must
- Should is how others want us to show up in the world — how we’re supposed to think, what we ought to say, what we should or shouldn’t do.
- Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest, most authentic self. The intuition that swells up from somewhere deep inside of us. Choosing Must creates the kind of work that puts ripples through the universe.
- Grab a piece of paper and write the numbers one through ten on the left side of the page. At the top, title it “What am I so afraid of?” This is your Worst Case Scenario list. This is your list of things that make you think “They’re all going to laugh at me.” These are your largest fears, and you’ve got ten minutes to write them down.
January 2, 2018
“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” — William Faulkner
Protect your mornings — Start Journaling
- Start with gratitude and appreciation for everything happening. Take plenty of time to reflect on and write about all the details of your life and relationships. All the people who matter to you — how far you’ve come — specifics about what is happening — what has happened, since the last time you had a recovery session. Recording your history is a crucial component of journal writing. It provides context to your ideas, goals, and plans.
- Be radically honest — gratitude and appreciation for the brilliance — honest with yourself about where you’re not showing up — need to commit to making specific changes. Write down the key changes you need to make to achieve your dreams and ideals.
- Journaling is a powerful therapeutic and healing tool. While writing about the things you need to change, openly write about the frustrations and difficulties that have led you to where you are. Be very honest and vulnerable with yourself. The purpose of this writing is for you to get clarity, and to re-establish your priorities and focus. If you can’t be honest in your own journal, how can you expect to be honest in the rest of your life?
- Write about your big picture dreams. A key component of writing big-picture is that it reconnects you with your “why.” It’s very easy to lose sight of your why during your daily routine and busyness. The end is what really matters, and you can save a lot of trouble by beginning and continuing with the end in mind. There is a huge difference between “means” goals and “ends” goals.
- Your vision (your WHY) = 10–25 years’ out
- Your long-term goals (AKA your wild guess) = 36 months’ out
- Your actual goals (AKA your realistic game plan) = the next 90 days
- Weekly Planning
- What you did well (your “wins”)
- What didn’t go well (what you didn’t do, who you didn’t reach out to, where you fell short)
- Record any significant events (like great moments with a friend, family, or a breakthrough in your work)
- What your plans are for the following week
- Learnings from your previous week
- Short bullet-point list as a reminder of your “why” and “end” goals
- Things you’re working toward over the next 1–6 months
- Specific must do’s the following week — including plans regarding your morning routine, learning, relationships, work, fitness, etc.
Psychology of Shapes
- Squares and Rectangles — Straight lines and right angles of these two shapes give a sense of reliability and security. People strongly associate squares and rectangles with buildings the reason why they bring the feeling of trust and authority.
- Triangles — The lines are placed that way so our eyes automatically move to the top of a triangle or in the direction it is placed. An upright triangle brings the feelings of stability and balance but the reversed one looks risky and ready to fall giving people a sense of tense.
- Circles, ovals, and ellipses — Round shapes may give the feeling of magic and mystery. In addition, unlike the previous shapes circles don’t have angles so it makes them softer and milder
- Spirals — It’s often associated with the circle of life and growth. Also, in some cultures, spirals may represent the knowledge or information. In modern society, they are seen as a sign of creativity and a fresh mind.
- Natural shapes — Natural shapes have clear meanings of the plants and animals which they symbolize. A rose is a flower of love and passion, while a lion is a symbol of pride and bravery but this is another topic to discuss.
- Abstract shapes — They are usually visual symbols of abstract ideas or simplified versions of natural shapes.
6 Key apps in 2017
- Coinbase — Cryptocurrencies.
- Twitter — Twitter has played an enormous part in amplifying political messages this year, most notably those of President Donald Trump.
- Amazon Key — In a nutshell, for $250 Amazon will sell a kit that includes an Internet-connected camera, a smart lock for your front door, and a Key app. The delivery person can still get into your house via the smart lock and leave your order if you aren’t there.
- Messenger Kids — Facebook unveiled Messenger Kids in December, making a bold play for the next generation of social-network users with a free app that lets those too young to use Facebook proper (the under-13 crowd) text and video-chat with parent-approved contacts.
- Messages with Animoji — When Apple introduced the $999 iPhone X in September, the tech giant also trotted out its own take on facial-recognition technology, Face ID. With Animoji, you can create all kinds of animated characters — a unicorn, a panda, a pile of poop — that talk with your voice.
- Facebook — We still don’t know exactly how much of an influence Russian meddling had on the 2016 presidential election, but this year we learned that it did happen on several social networks, including the biggest one of all: Facebook.
The Sticky Truth about Modern Written Language
What heiroglyphics, emoji, and stickers have in common.
- English didn’t evolve from a logographic system at all; it’s a cousin, not a child. And Mandarin, whose billion active speakers make it the single most spoken language in the world, uses a syllable-based logographic language system.
- Now, linguists may object to the classification of emoji as a logographic writing system. That’s because emojis are actually ideographic — that means that each emoji represents an idea, rather than a specific word.
- It’s important to take a moment and note that no logographic writing system uses pure logograms (a word = an image). Mandarin includes syllabic elements to help describe newly encountered words, while Egyptian Hieroglyphics allow for consonants for the same reason.
- Cuneiform script — Oldest written language. Invented around 3,400 B.C., cuneiform isn’t a spoken language, but rather a writing system. Cuneiform applies the same symbols across multiple languages, most notably Sumerian and Akkadian.
- Emoji are popular because they’re faster and more expressive of human emotion, and that has historically been even more true for Chinese users, which explains why it’s China (and Japan) who are blazing the trails in terms of sticker adoption.
- Shigetaka Kurita is often called the father of emoji. He was the one who actually coined the phrase, and he was the one who helped introduce them into Japanese mobile phones in the late 1990s. They became so popular that when Apple released the iPhone in 2007, and wanted to make inroads into the Japanese market, they included a hidden feature that allowed users to turn on an emoji keyboard.
- With a sticker I can say in a single tap what would otherwise take me a sentence or two.
Making peak state decisions
- “Peak experiences as rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality, and are even mystic and magical in their effect upon the experimenter.” — Abraham Maslow
- The reason people consider peak experiences to be rare is because they haven’t set up their lives to have them on a regular basis.
- However, if you want to set a new path in your life, you need to make a powerful and definitive decision. And you want to be in a peak state while you make that decision.
- You need to get out of your day-to-day routine. You need to give yourself some space. That doesn’t mean you need to go away for several days or weeks (although if you can, it would be very helpful).
- You need to get your body moving. Before speaking for several hours to his audience of thousands, Tony Robbins purposefully and continually puts himself into a peak state. He does this by jumping up and down, spinning around, fist pumping, standing with his arms outstretched, and even bouncing on a trampoline backstage.
- The core purpose for having a morning routine is to put yourself into a peak state in the morning — so you can then operate from that state for the rest of your day.
- If you make a decision to live at a higher level, there will naturally be lots of resistance to your living out that decision. If you don’t do it the moment you wake up, you’ll immediately slip into your current state of operating, which is below the level of your decision. Thus, despite your best intentions, your behaviours will continue to match your current reality.
- “The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.” — Richard Marcinko
Your Company’s Culture is Who You Hire, Fire, & Promote
Anatomy of an asshole — Socially aversive personalities, known as the “Dark Triad”: Psychopathy, Narcissism, and Machiavellianism.
- Psychopaths are driven by short-term tangible rewards, and engage in reckless, antisocial behavior to get it. Favorite cinematic depictions of psychopaths in corporations are Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street” and Patrick Bateman in “American Psycho”. Their emotionality is callous and aggressive (manifested as angry outbursts or even physical violence with little remorse) and their behavior is impulsive and irresponsible . They gleefully defy norms and laws, and use deceit and manipulation for profit or (even creepier) self-amusement. They are unfortunately overrepresented in corporations, especially among CEOs.
- Machiavellians are fueled by long-term tangible rewards and will strategize schemes to get them. The Machiavellian is a strategic, calculating manipulator who believes that the ends justify any means. While as manipulative as psychopaths, Machiavellians are far more future-oriented: planning ahead, forming alliances, and carefully maintaining their reputations. The Frank Underwood in house of cards.
- Narcissists are motivated by whatever boosts their ego, whether tangible rewards or simple praise that validates their idealized self-image. Tony Stark.
- The Accidental Asshole (Not assholes, but perceived like that) The key distinction is that people with Dark Triad traits are often insensitive to others, while people with autism can be indifferent. A cinematic reference is Mark Zuckerberg as portrayed in The Social Network.
- Empathy — Cognitive empathy is the capacity to understand another person’s mental state, while affective empathy is the capacity to respond with an appropriate emotion to another person’s mental state.
Managing the Darkness Within — People who strongly exhibit Dark Triad traits at work often work better as individual contributors, given that empathy is a key aspect of being a successful manager, and the perception that your manager genuinely cares about your well-being is one of the strongest predictors of employee job satisfaction.
The Pain of Waiting — Loading UX
- Visual augmentation that matches our brand design — The striping occurs right to left while waiting and then the bar fills left to right quickly when loaded. The animations also occur at a faster rate than framework defaults suggest (Bootstrap, I’m looking at you) so it feels faster.
- Textual Status Updates — We display a couple dozen text statuses (“Connecting to database,” “Acquiring connection,” etc.). They’re displayed in random 2 to 4-second intervals to feel real.
- Humor — If the query takes longer than around 12 seconds (painful, but sometimes necessary), our textual status updates get funnier and weirder. We hope queries never take that long, but if they do, we try to reduce the anxiety with humor.
27th December 2017
- BBC Hunt — Beroe — Deep sea bioluminiscent hunter — Beautiful.
26th December 2017
- How to tell a story on social media — When you are on Facebook, that’s an all encompassing awareness around your social graph. When you’re on Pinterest your psychology is intent to buy or aspiration to buy. You need to be storytelling differently on those platforms. You have to be giving them different visuals that are mapped to the psychology not to the number of users that are there… But to reverse engineer why they are there!
- Document. Don’t create — ****If you adopt that philosophy, it will allow you to overcome your fears of putting yourself out there. Just tell the world what’s going on. Describe your jfourney, outline your vision, and describe your thoughts, ideas, actions, wins, losses, anxieties and ambitions online.
Appstore Surfing Summary
- Lot of random apps using AR.
- Categories are very difficult to find now. Category icons suck compared to the older Appstore version.
21st December 2017
Un-commit
- To get immediate progress, get clear on what you want, and say “NO” immediately to everything else.
- Sunk Cost Trap.
- To shield you from everything distractive to your goals, create an environment.
- Usually, hard decisions exist because you’re comparing apples and oranges. Every choice you make sets you on a path. Your identity is formed by your decisions. An essential component of true decisions is that you “cut-away” alternatives to that decision. You remove obstacles.
- Send some texts — “I had a moment of clarity today. I realised I’m terrible at things I’m not 100% definite about. It’s clear that I’m not 100% definite about the work we’re doing together (or whatever the relationship represents). I’ve tried to force things to happen because I genuinely love and respect you, and what you do. But it’s become clear that I’m not 100% in this relationship, and probably never will be. I don’t want to waste any more of your time. I’m sorry I haven’t been upfront and honest with you or myself. I wish you the best.
- “You are really not in business until you hire your first person.”
- Un-commit immediately to anything you’ve erroneously committed to already. Clear your future of things that shouldn’t be there.
- Then, create a system to shield yourself from making incorrect commitments in the future.
- Counter the hustle. Sleep well, eat well, do less more intensely. Be bold enough to embrace the ordinary.
- Chinese Wu-Xing and life energies.
- The Chinese term wuxing (wu-hsing, “five processes” or “five phases”) refers to a fivefold conceptual scheme that is found throughout traditional Chinese thought.
- These five phases are wood (mu), fire (huo), earth (tu), metal (jin), and water (shui); They are regarded as dynamic, interdependent modes or aspects of the universe’s ongoing existence and development.
- Deep Work tips
- Take care of your attention. From task A to task B, there is a lag in attention.
- If you go in different directions, it will be difficult to go deep.
20th December 2017
Schools of philosophy
- Nihilism — Nihil means Nothing, Misunderstood Nietzsche — The key idea of it is the lack of belief in meaning or substance in an area of philosophy. For example, moral nihilism argues that moral facts cannot exist. There is no purpose to existence.
- Existentialism — From Soren Kierkegaard and Nietzsche — Existentialism focuses on the problems posed by existential nihilism — Answers questions about what is the point of living and existence.
- Stoicism — From Greece and Rome (Zeno of Citium, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius), Good for high stress environments — Pain will pass, you will remain, so the best thing to do is focus on what you can control — Stoicism is a school that focuses on how to live in a world where things don’t go your way — Accept it, and move on to the next problem — The idea at the heart of it is acceptance of all things that are beyond your control.
- Hedonism — Greek thinker Epicurus, Utilitarians — Hedonism is the idea that pleasure or happiness is the one thing with intrinsic value. Most hedonistic philosophers would say you should read a book rather than get drunk, as reading is a higher kind of happiness than getting snockered.
- Marxism — Karl Marx, 19th Century German — His key ideas are all critiques of capitalism — It is a method of critiquing a consumerist society for reducing everything to a commodity and the phenomena of mass marking reaching into all parts of our lives.
- Logical Positivism — The logical positivists had a good try — until they found it a dead end. This school was popular in the 1920s and ’30s, and was focused on the idea of verifications, which sought to base all knowledge on either empirical data or logical tautologies — By this idea, metaphysics, ethics, theology, and aesthetics cannot be studied philosophically as they don’t offer ideas with truth values.
- Taoism — Tao Te Ching, Lao-Tzu — Taoism is based around ideas of humility, the ‘Way’, a focus on the individual, simplicity, and naturalness. The principles of Taoism would also resonate with physicist Niels Bohr who admired Taoism’s ability to view opposites as complementary.
- Rationalism — Socrates, Rene Descartes, and Spinoza — This is the key tenet of rationalism, the idea that knowledge must come primarily from reason and thought, rather than empirical evidence. Convenient, but no longer enough.
- Relativism — Relativism is the idea that views are relative to perspective or considerations. Similarly, situational relativism is an idea in ethics where a rule is to be followed under all conditions except for some, when we would then follow another rule. For example, don’t kill unless you would save lives by doing so.
- Buddhism — A religion based around the teachings of Gautama Buddha, an Indian prince, Buddhism is dedicated to the idea that suffering has a cause and that we can overcome it by means of mediation, following the noble eightfold path, and contemplation of sutras.
19th December 2017
Procreate Tips
- Hold down to make a straight line.
- Hold down and touch to make 15 degree increments.
- Drag a color to flood fill.
- 3 finger drag down to cut/copy/paste.
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©Arpit Agarwal — 2018
I maintain this list for digital creators
To perform in high stress environments
Notes from the Letters of Seneca — Real life teachings from the Stoic Master
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