Cosmic Address, Exploding Cars, How to Waste your Career & Resonance Journal
#11 of 10+1 Things
Hello!
Welcome to issue #11 of 10+1 Things.
As I'm writing this 10+1 Things has crossed the milestone of 100 subscribers and I have written about what I learnt so far on my blog. A special mention to Vishisht, a 16-year old running a newsletter called Perplexed. He has been one of the early supporters of this newsletter and you can check out his content here.
Here are 10+1 things that I thought were worth sharing this week:
📔 Resonance Journal
I have been maintaining a resonance journal for the last couple of months. The idea of a resonance journal is simple. Every time you come across a video, podcast, job, article, book, project, etc that resonates with you, add it as an entry to the resonance journal. Over time you would see a pattern or a common thread of things that resonates with you. Resonance journaling has helped me a lot in my self-discovery journey. You can read more about it on my blog or check out my template on Notion.
[Read more about Resonance Journal]
🌾 Before Domestication
Humans have been tweaking organisms for thousands of years using selective breeding for desired traits. From bananas to corn, some of the foods that we consume every day used to look very different before we used to grow them. Modern bananas which we eat today are hybrid ones that have smaller seeds, tastes better, and is packed with nutrients. Another iconic example is that of corn, domesticated in 7000 BC, which was dry like a potato. The corn we eat today is 1000 times larger, easy to peel and packs 200% more sugar than the wild one.
[Read more about crops before domestication]
🌌 Cosmic Address
When you give your address to somebody, you want to make sure that you can be found using that address. In an era where interplanetary travel is soon going to be a reality, what would be our correct cosmic or galactic address? Scientists have figured it out and it would go something like this: {your country}, 3rd Planet Earth, Solar System, Orion Spiral Arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Laniakea, Universe. To give you a sense of things, Sun is located in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, which itself is part of a dozen galaxies called Local Group! Astronomers are still digging in on finding the right address and Laniakea was added recently in 2014. Inspired by this, I have also changed my address in the footer of this newsletter to my cosmic address!
[Read more about our Cosmic Address]
📷 Exploding Cars
Disintegrating is a series by Swiss photographer Fabian Oefner. The series showcases exploded cars, created by deconstructing scale models and photographing them at precise positions, creating an illusion of an explosion."What you see in these images, is a moment that never existed in real life," said Oefner. "What looks like a car falling apart is, in fact, a moment in time that has been created artificially by blending hundreds of individual images together." Pieces were arranged with fine needles and strings to create right angles. The photographed components were later combined to form a single image using Photoshop.
[Check out more photos from the project]
🦇 Building for Wildlife
Every time we build or construct something, a patch of land that could have been home to wildlife disappears. BBC's Future planet has written a great piece on how we should build living spaces considering both wildlife and humans. From building green roofs for birds to bee bricks and bat boxes, there are multiple ways to make our sterile buildings more accommodating to nature. The basic concept is to consider wildlife especially animals as a stakeholder in the building process.
[Read more about Building for Wildlife]
✉️ Back of my Head
Lately, I've been enjoying reading a newsletter called Back of My Head by Kunal Mishra. It is a wonderful collection of interesting reads delivered to your inbox every week and I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed. Here are some interesting links from BomH:
Do This. Derek Sivers made a list of directives from the 100s of books he has read. They are short 1-2 line advice on getting rich, being happy, being useful, liking people and more.
Getting Real An ebook from the makers of Basecamp with lessons they've learnt about making great web products. If you're making one, this is a must-read.
The Key To Being Contrarian: Think Like A Child This is one of the best articles I've read last year. It explained to me what being a contrarian actually means. Don't expect to understand it in the first go. Give it some time.
📹 The Most Famous Painting
In the past week, I have enjoyed watching a 13 min video titled Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci on a YouTube channel called Great Art explained. Started by art curator, writer and consultant James Payne during lockdown last year, the video explains why Mona Lisa is the greatest psychological portrait ever made. Before Mona Lisa, all portraits lacked mystery and artists represented only outward appearances. The video also looks into the technique used by Da Vinci and his research on human anatomy for painting. If you've ever wondered why Mona Lisa is hyped so much, this video is a must-watch. This is one channel that explains art without all the conspiracy crap!
[Watch the Video]
🧵 Make your First $1 Online
In a Twitter Thread, Blake Emal explains 42 ways how you can make your first $1 online. He starts the thread by saying that "Never been a better time in history to make digital dough." From starting a newsletter to charging for handwritten notes, Blake has explained 42 unique ways on how you can make your first money online. The great thing about this thread is that he has also mentioned a tool with which you can start doing the activity (For eg. Procreate for starting a comic strip business!).
👩💼 How to Waste your Career
In her newsletter, Apoorva Govind tells that staying too long is one of the worst mistakes you can make in your career. She explains that how change can be scary, but taking risks and being uncomfortable is like a muscle you have to train to. She compares it with her career where she left her stable job at Apple after 3 years to join Uber. Even though staying at Apple was a better financial decision (Apple's stock tripled!), the experiences she had at Uber was more valuable and worth the risk. My favourite quote from the post is "If you are ambitious and want to build a good reputation for yourself in the valley, if you don't want your talent to go to waste - treat complacency like cancer."
[Read more]
📚 Design of Everyday Things
I've been lately fascinated by the world of UX and have been enjoying reading the book Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. The word user experience(UX) was coined by Norman for his design group at Apple in 1993. The underlying theme of the book is human-centred design (HCD) and looks at how design serves the needs and capabilities of humans. The book explains these concepts using everyday things like thermostats, refrigerators, door handles, etc. Even though the book is about design, it should be read by anyone interested in human cognition and behaviour. My favourite quote so far from the book is:
“It is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people. It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines.”
🎹 Secret Garden
I've been working the whole week and have enjoyed listening to the album Secret Garden by Tracey Chattaway, an Australian writer/producer/pianist. Comprising of ten tracks, the album has lovely piano melodies, lush strings and orchestration giving a sense of calm and peace. Tracey's music will truly take you away to your secret garden, away from this world of distractions!
[Listen on Youtube Music/ Spotify /Apple Music ]
That’s 10+1 Things for the week.
This newsletter is free, but not cheap. It takes a lot of effort and time from my end (7~8 hours) to deliver this newsletter every week. You can help me in keeping it going by forwarding it to someone you like, buying me a coffee($5), sending me some crypto, visiting my blog or following me on Twitter.
See you next week!
With Love,
Rishi
Quote of the week: "Everybody wants to be good, but not many are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes to be great." ~ Paul Arden
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