I am greatly inspired by Paul Graham’s essays[1] and adapted his idea to share content that would be helpful to readers. I will write down here about new things i discovered and things i wish someone had told me.

How happy is the blameless vestel’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned.
-Alexander Pope

I like that this talk is very analytical. His insight on role religion plays in shaping society and POV on Grand Canyon vs older civilizations is really interesting.

This post has really changed the way i look at work and career. Definitely recommend giving it a read and checking out her other posts.

This is by far the best speech I’ve listened to. I wish I could really meet him at a party he described.

This talk made me realise how small details can radically change the experience.

Thanks to Peter Thiel and Susan Cain for shedding some light on the issue many people(me all the time during early 20s) face. Also being in engineering gave me opportunity to meet co-workers and bosses that are more on the side Peter Thiel mentions in the video.
On a similar note, I read through this book: Gifted, geeks, aspies and other aliens in this world
Such an extensive reserch from Andreas Hofer. Very well done and wish I had a school teacher like him!
Article that’s very well done about emotional intelligence, it has certainly gotten better for me with age! Striving to find a balance is a major takeaway for me.

Questioning how much we give up just because we are treated unfair is a great insight from this talk.

I really like this talk because it draws our attention to something that’s often overlooked
She clearly explains the reason behind major hindu traditions of praying rivers
I have first-hand experience with reforms river Godavari brings to the city I’m from

Always been a big fan of music. This talk is very moving just like music itself is!

There are very few books that can influence your perspective and this is one for me. A helpful insight I gathered from this book is to not always blame myself if I can’t figure out how to use things. Also, I learned all the details designers have to take into consideration when building products. It talks about how it’s not always(never) users fault but it’s a design fault. It also talks a lot about designing for failure and what things to consider during design to make a successful product It also mentioned about different cultures viewing timelines differently. For us future is forward and for some cultures future is behind and past is forward(which is mapped to us being able to see what’s infront of us and not at the back)
. It also taught me that having an approximate knowledge is enough for a few things rather than aiming for accuracy. On a similar note, I also read Hooked which explains what makes users hook to something(habit/app/idea). It has a 4 step(trigger, action, reward, investment) framework to building apps/products that has potential to get users hooked. It talks about habits(something that’s done without much thought). Then it goes deep into each of the steps
Trigger: Can be internal/external and this is what makes users open the app
Action: What actions user has to perform to satisfy their trigger
Reward: Because humans are motivated by reward. What does the app offer
Investment: Users will be ready to invest for reward in the future

I remember reading about Walden in school(9th grade), good to revisit it now(reminder of growing up, haha). I think getting exposed to diverse perspectives broadens ones thinking and also serves as a toolkit to analyse problems.I really liked the Emerson part in the write up. It’s only practical to understand, what works for one doesn’t necessarily have to work for everyone else.

It’s very inspiring to see Megan talking passionately about her career. Being helpless causes people to be more anxious about problems is a good insight I got from this talk. Explains why my mom gets more anxious when I travel than me.

Super insightful!

Links:

1. Paul Graham’s essays