14-June-2019
Today I read a good article titled ‘Eight ways to read books you wish you had time for’. This article is written by Neil Pasricha in HBR.org. He makes an incredible point that every day an average person reads about 100000 words, equal to one book a day, through paper, blogs and other online resources.
Neil used to read about five books a year as recently as three years ago. Then he read 50 books and last year he read 100 books.
The article is very insightful with a lot of linkages to other online resources. The eight points are as follows.
Today I read a good article titled ‘Eight ways to read books you wish you had time for’. This article is written by Neil Pasricha in HBR.org. He makes an incredible point that every day an average person reads about 100000 words, equal to one book a day, through paper, blogs and other online resources.
Neil used to read about five books a year as recently as three years ago. Then he read 50 books and last year he read 100 books.
The article is very insightful with a lot of linkages to other online resources. The eight points are as follows.
- Live inside the world of books: Surround yourself with books. Read physical books as much as possible. Do not go for online books since the linkages can take you off-track.
- Go red in the bed: Use red light to read at night. This increases the serotonin levels and encourages sleep.
- Make your phone less addictive: They are designed to make you want to hold them in hand. Fight the tendency
- Use Dewey Decimal System to organize your library: It helps you find gaps in your book list
- Solve the ‘Next Book Dilemma’: Use resources like Booktube to make a ‘Playlist’ of books that you want to read. Have a discipline to read only from books that are on that list. Do not put junk into that list. The entry in that list should be well thought out. The books in that list should help you evolve and grow as a person.
- Unfollow all news: Political scientist Herbert Simon says that ‘Information consumes attention. A wealth of information leads to a poverty of attention. There are two articles linked here. One is ‘Why you should stop reading news’ on Farnam Street Blog and the other is ‘Five things you notice when you quit the news’ one ‘Raptitude’
- Read on Something that doesn’t do anything else. Read physical books as discussed earlier. Let the article do not ask you to click on different links and take you on a rambling journey till you forget where you started.
- Talk to local book store owner: They will help you identify books based on your emotional state and needs.
16-June-2019
Today I read another article by Neil Pasricha. The is a companion article to the one by the same author that I had read two days ago. That article was titled ‘8 Ways to read 100 books in a year’. This article was written in 2017 and is titled ‘8 ways to read (a lot) more books this year’. The 8 ways are:
- Centralize reading in your home: Prioritize reading in the home. Instead of TV, have books in your main room and relegate TV to the remote room. He talks of the poem ‘Television’ by Roald Dahl
- Make public commitment about your reading. Commit to send two short reviews every weekend
- Find a few trusted curated lists:
- Change your mindset about quitting: Don’t feel bad about quitting reading a book midway. Consider it as an opportunity to read better books. Neil does the ‘First Five Pages Test’.
- Get out of reading news: The shorter choppier nature of the articles is preventing us from going deep into a particular book.
- Triple your churn rate: Keep your library moving. Add a few books and throw away a few books regularly. Your library should be dynamic.
- Read physical books
- Reapply the 10000 step rule. Read five hours a day. Use the hours and minutes hidden in the day to read book. The example given is of Stephen King who used to read while standing in line for a movie and even during movie.
A reasonably good article.
17-June-2019
Read and article by Tim Urban, titled ‘The Tail End’. It talks about how many years / months / weeks / days you got in your live and makes some projections. For example, I am now 56. If I live up to 85, I have about 30 years of life left. On an average I read 15 books in a year which means that in my life span, I am only going to read 450 more books.
I can extend this further. I will watch around 300 movies, write a maximum of 25 more books,
Also as you grow older, you will be losing friends and are not making any new friends.
So cherish the friendships you have.
The key message is Prioritize your life. Do not leave. Plan your weeks. Every new week opens possibilities. Every new week is a blank canvas, where you can plan your greatest accomplishment.
You must make weekly resolutions instead of yearly resolutions.
It is a great idea.
19-June-2019
Today I watched a video by Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert Comics, on his tips for writing. The following are the tips.
Tip #1: How do you know that your topic is good: Does it make you feel anything? Match the audience. Write for audience, writer for an invisible friend, especially when writing humour.
Tip #2: Write for the reader, not for yourself
Tip #3: First sentence should evoke curiosity. Adams first sentence is often provocative
Tip #4: Pace and lead the reader. Try to feel and try to be like the reader.
Tip #5: Use direct sentence. Say ‘The boy hit the ball’ and not ‘The ball was hit by the boy’
Tip #6: No jargon, adjectives, adverbs or cliches. Imagine that someone is going to offer 100 rupees for every word that you can remove. There are many words that you can remove. There are many things that you as a writer thinks is important. Reader is going to be removing all these words anyway..
Tip #7:Brevity = Brilliance
Tip #8: Use sixth grade vocabulary. Use simple words
Tip #9: Musicality, percussion. Letters have tone and tenor. The sentences should be musical.
Tip #10: Avoid ugly words like moist, talk etc. Use nice words instead.
Tip #11: Consider Association. They are powerful. However be careful of over-association or wrong association. It is very important to ensure consistency when using associations. Writer should be very careful not to associate a person with ‘Hard as nails’ in one place and ‘Soft as snow’ in another place in the same book. Sometimes people make wrong associations like saying ‘I like babies and automatic weapons’
Tip #12: Use visual language. Check out ‘Mcgurk effect’ for more details
Tip #13: Violate a norm. There should be something about your writing that makes the reader uncomfortable
Tip #14: End clever or provocative
Tip #15: Write everyday. If you plan to be a writer and not writing everyday, you are not taking your writing seriously.
Adams also has a formula for humour writing. Use at least two of the following six humour dimensions to make a joke, the more the better. The six dimensions are clever, naughty, Bizarre, Cruel, Cute and Recognizable.
If you can work at least three of the above, it is good.
Clever: Play on words
Naughty:
Bizarre: Things that are out of place
Cruel: Like ‘Meisel talked about her husband’
Cute: Kids and animals (Calvin and Hobbes)
Recognizable:
21-June-2019
Today I read a good article by Zat Rana in Quartz Magazine. The article was titled ‘The difference between intelligence and wisdom and how to acquire both’. Author says that wisdom lies in knowing that you are not wise. Intelligence is associated with knowing something and applying that knowledge in a specific context. While wisdom lies in ‘knowing’, wisdom lies in ‘understanding’ something. Wisdom has more dimensions and can be applied in a broader context.
17-June-2019
Read and article by Tim Urban, titled ‘The Tail End’. It talks about how many years / months / weeks / days you got in your live and makes some projections. For example, I am now 56. If I live up to 85, I have about 30 years of life left. On an average I read 15 books in a year which means that in my life span, I am only going to read 450 more books.
I can extend this further. I will watch around 300 movies, write a maximum of 25 more books,
Also as you grow older, you will be losing friends and are not making any new friends.
So cherish the friendships you have.
The key message is Prioritize your life. Do not leave. Plan your weeks. Every new week opens possibilities. Every new week is a blank canvas, where you can plan your greatest accomplishment.
You must make weekly resolutions instead of yearly resolutions.
It is a great idea.
19-June-2019
Today I watched a video by Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert Comics, on his tips for writing. The following are the tips.
Tip #1: How do you know that your topic is good: Does it make you feel anything? Match the audience. Write for audience, writer for an invisible friend, especially when writing humour.
Tip #2: Write for the reader, not for yourself
Tip #3: First sentence should evoke curiosity. Adams first sentence is often provocative
Tip #4: Pace and lead the reader. Try to feel and try to be like the reader.
Tip #5: Use direct sentence. Say ‘The boy hit the ball’ and not ‘The ball was hit by the boy’
Tip #6: No jargon, adjectives, adverbs or cliches. Imagine that someone is going to offer 100 rupees for every word that you can remove. There are many words that you can remove. There are many things that you as a writer thinks is important. Reader is going to be removing all these words anyway..
Tip #7:Brevity = Brilliance
Tip #8: Use sixth grade vocabulary. Use simple words
Tip #9: Musicality, percussion. Letters have tone and tenor. The sentences should be musical.
Tip #10: Avoid ugly words like moist, talk etc. Use nice words instead.
Tip #11: Consider Association. They are powerful. However be careful of over-association or wrong association. It is very important to ensure consistency when using associations. Writer should be very careful not to associate a person with ‘Hard as nails’ in one place and ‘Soft as snow’ in another place in the same book. Sometimes people make wrong associations like saying ‘I like babies and automatic weapons’
Tip #12: Use visual language. Check out ‘Mcgurk effect’ for more details
Tip #13: Violate a norm. There should be something about your writing that makes the reader uncomfortable
Tip #14: End clever or provocative
Tip #15: Write everyday. If you plan to be a writer and not writing everyday, you are not taking your writing seriously.
Adams also has a formula for humour writing. Use at least two of the following six humour dimensions to make a joke, the more the better. The six dimensions are clever, naughty, Bizarre, Cruel, Cute and Recognizable.
If you can work at least three of the above, it is good.
Clever: Play on words
Naughty:
Bizarre: Things that are out of place
Cruel: Like ‘Meisel talked about her husband’
Cute: Kids and animals (Calvin and Hobbes)
Recognizable:
21-June-2019
Today I read a good article by Zat Rana in Quartz Magazine. The article was titled ‘The difference between intelligence and wisdom and how to acquire both’. Author says that wisdom lies in knowing that you are not wise. Intelligence is associated with knowing something and applying that knowledge in a specific context. While wisdom lies in ‘knowing’, wisdom lies in ‘understanding’ something. Wisdom has more dimensions and can be applied in a broader context.
The distinction between knowing and understanding is important. Knowing is factual. Understanding is more fluid. When you know, you will apply your knowledge to specific context. When you understand, you will apply your knowledge to different contexts. When you understand you see the bigger picture.
Intelligence has ‘specific utility’ while wisdom inspires ‘flexible versatility’. Every time you have a perspective shift you gain knowledge. As a result, the mind changes regards to that specific knowledge. So you will approach that task differently in future.Wisdom goes beyond. With wisdom you not only learn a specific thing and its association, you learn a broader contextual lesson, which can be applied to different situations. That will come only with understanding. Knowledge is best leveraged when it is connected to other sets of knowledge.
Knowledge is knowing more of the same thing. Wisdom expands on it and links different ‘Knowledge Packets’ together. Wisdom creates the inter-linkages of different sets of knowledge packets for a ‘grand association’.
That is where you consider the nuance and where the respect of complexity comes in. Wisdom is where specialized information finds its flexibility.
In summary, intelligence is an additional knowledge that changes your perspective about a specific set of knowledge. Wisdom is the integration of a new knowledge with the knowledge of an unrelated set of ‘Knowledges’. Just by knowing this difference you are not going to become wise, but the first step is to understand that ‘there is a difference’ and understand ‘the difference.
I am already wise.
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