Tribute to Irrfan Khan!

 3 Minute Quick Read.

[Image Source: Wikipedia ]

Irrfan Khan passed away just at 53. (29 April 2020).

Tributes from all over the world are pouring, and rightly so.

He rocked not only Bollywood but also Hollywood flicks. 

A very few Indian actors to do so. 

His work is admired by likes of Tom Hanks too, calling him “The coolest guy in the room”.

His filmography shows a lot of films, television, and video games.

I distinctly remember watching him in “Kamla Ki Maut” in Pune’s Deccan theatre.

(Seems there is debate on whether his first film is Salaam Bombay or Kamla Ki Maut. Though I have watched both, I remember him only for Kamla Ki Maut.)

I searched YouTube and found his Salaam Bombay work too.

Those were engineering college days; the movie was either Matinee or Morning show. And low on ticket cost for student days. My friends mocked me after the movie for this choice. Movie had no dance sequence, fights, chase-scenes, or any other typical Bollywood Masala. But still, Irrfan khan made the place in my heart somewhere.

Afterward, I watched his lot of movies, Hindi mainstream, offbeat, and even English movies. As of today, out of his filmography, I have seen his 24 movies. In almost every movie his acting and role were outstanding. And I will continue watching his films.  

But the movie that deeply touched my heart and I will like to watch anytime again is “The Lunchbox”.

It is a subtle platonic love story, unfolding slowly through letters.

It has no sexual tones of any kind.

The duo never meets in the film – And protagonist Irrfan’s last letter concerning the heroine more than oneself, takes the movie to great heights. 

In my humble opinion, it is probably the greatest love story made in Indian Cinema. No wonder it is highly acclaimed and won a large number of accolades all over the world.

Here is a brief trailer of “The Lunchbox”. 

For a current Socially isolated & distressed times, It is perfect film to watch, and a tribute to great actor!  

[Video Source: YouTube  ]

The only way to start (and stick) to digital quarantine (aka declutter or detox)!

7 minute Quick Read.  

Japanese Olympic player addicted to mobile games raked up 5000 $ (close to 4 Lac Indian Rs) bill and another player played Pokémon at night, overslept and missed his Olympic game altogether. 

It’s not peculiar to Japanese. Technology addiction is not only common but also play a harmful role in our life. 

A quick Google search shows many tips and techniques to get rid of addictive games, social media, and new technology. 

Cal Newport, an author of digital minimalism, claims that such quick fixes don’t work. 

He performed a live experiment. He mailed for voluntary participation to subscribers of his blog. He anticipated 50 to 100 responses. He was flooded with 1600 volunteers. The event made national news. 

Through experiment & careful study, the author came with a concrete way to address addiction. 

Your technology addiction plus a strong billion of investment pull by big tech firms make it almost impossible to get rid of. So if you really want to escape from the clutches, - quick fixes and tips don’t work.  Book suggests radical suggestions in three steps. 

Step #1: 

Decide optional technology. Optional technology doesn’t impact work or personal life. Thus work-email is not optional – it is a necessity. So what-ever distracts you but not vital for personal or professional life is optional. Games, Television is optional, a microwave isn't. WhatsApp is optional if it is a personal tool. But it is used for sales calls, then not.  

Step #2 

Take a 30 days break from technology!  Yes, you read it correctly. The author advises 30 days complete break from optional technologies. If it is not possible in some areas, then the workaround is ok. But take a break from all distractions.  First one or two weeks you may find it difficult, but then you will realize the futility of clinging to them. 

Another important thing is to find engaging and satisfying activities for you. You may want to learn music, read books, play with your kids or walk with your spouse holding hands. Just find and cultivate quality better alternatives in life. Alternatives that make your life rich in quality. 

Step #3 

After 30 days, slowly add the necessary technology back in life. But don’t do it like typical detox. In typical detox, people fully indulge in it. In 30days most people lose their taste in technology. He provides three key questions to ask before adding technology back in life.  

1. 1The first check is necessary. For instance, one interested in political news turns to allsides.org. Or instead of doing networking online, you can start doing it in the real physical world. If still, you find that the technology then three questions are - 
2. First Question – is this technology support the value that I want to nurture in life. For example –if you value learning or value spending quality time with family, will this technology help?
3. Second Question – is this the best way to nurture that value? Is there an alternative? For example, instead of keeping in touch on messages, you may want to call or meet your contacts in person occasionally – which is a more satisfying and meaningful option. 
4. Third Question – set boundaries – how will you use this technology in day to day life. For example, you may decide to use Facebook only on weekends, or LinkedIn only 30 minutes per day. Thus even if necessary, set strict rules for using technology.   

These three steps, and three questions – help us not only to get rid of technology addiction but bring meaning and satisfaction in life. 

One doesn’t need to sacrifice lovely relationships, miss important events/presentations or meetings nor waste huge money owing to addiction.  You just need to start somewhere, so to start with, let’s first decide a 30-day break from the technology!

[This is my take or review of Chapter 3 of Cal Newport’s digital Minimalism] 

[Image Source: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/camping/why-camp.htm ]

[ For review of Chapter 2: Click here]

First step in getting your life back from digital addiction!

6 minute Quick read.

Digital detox - abstaining from social media, a smart phone is popular these days. So are the attempts like deleting apps, removing notifications, purging follow lists, and un-friend contacts are also very common ways to reduce digital clutter in life. 

Cal Newport, author of digital minimalism argues such an ad hoc approach doesn’t really help in the long run. Particularly as you are fighting billion-dollar Goliath of tech giants spending on your attention. 

You may value your attention and time for keeping an update in your field, spending quality time with family, contributing back to society, diving deep in your spiritual practices or simply enrich your leisure life. Whatever you value, you need to protect your time. In order to get rid of attention-seeking technologies and focus on value-adding activities - rather than ad hoc approach, - what you need is overarching philosophy and strategy deriving from it.

Digital Minimalism provides us three principles for such a philosophy. 

Principle #1: Clutter is costly. 

For example, Thoreau spent 2 years, 2 months and 2 days in a self-made cabin in the woods. Away from the world and came out with Walden – America’s most celebrated literature piece. The biggest chapter in the book is about the economy. Thoreau meticulously tracked every dollar spent. And he concluded that to live his life, he just needs to work for one day per week. This is for the industrial age of mid-1800. Thoreau’s idea is not new. But his way of measuring money in terms of “cost of life” was new. According to him every extra hour he spent in earning, is akin to farmers' "smothered and crushed" life.  

Similarly cluttering one’s life with social media and all of its paraphernalia clutters life and leaves us “smothered and crushed” for a quality life. Thus clutter is costly. 

Principle #2: Optimization is important.  

The Law of diminishing returns always works. For instance, if one keeps on adding more people or resources on a software project, one may see it useful at the start. But continuous addition of manpower will ultimately retard the project. This works in every field. Hence optimization is necessary. 

So is the case for the use of technology. If we keep on adding one app or tool over others, finally it burdens us down. 

But surprisingly we don’t try to optimize use. Seemingly there are two reasons for it. 

1. Most of tech products (e.g. Smart Wearable or WhatsApp ) are too new. Novelty seeking, experimentation factor continues and we refrain from optimization. 
2. Second is cynical reason. Those big-tech giants are spending billions of dollars on technology. They want you to think of the ecosystem as useful, fun, and interesting. So often they instigate to refrains from optimization. 

  Thus optimization in technology is important. 

Principle #3: Intentionality is satisfying: Lessons of Amish hackers

 Amish people seems to be frozen in time, And myth goes that they are averse to technology. They are not connected to the common electric grid, don’t use automobiles, and unthinkable for smart phone addicts - they don’t use smart phones at all, not even those old numbered or dial phones. They use community phone booths. Our young generation may not have seen them at all!

Deeper research in their lifestyle shows that they don’t reject all technology. They scrutinize it carefully. If the technology is detrimental to their values, community or church they discard it. And they have a well-established community-driven process to do this.

Being intentional, purposeful in the use of tech products not only will bring satisfaction but meaning and flourishing in life.

Thus these three principles can help us develop overarching philosophy to minimize the use of technology in our life. And gain our precious autonomy - first step towards digital de-addiction. 

[This is my take or review/summary of 2^nd chapter of Cal Newport’s book – Digital Minimalism]. 

  [Click for First chapter review here]  

 [Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gambling_-_dependence_on_gambling.jpg ]  

War on technology addiction is one sided!

3-minute quick read. 

When smart-phone was introduced by Apple –it was supposed to be a combination of iPod and phone. Facebook was also introduced to just connect girl-friends, boyfriends and so on. But today technology has engrossed our life. An average user checks his phone almost 90 times a day and spends an average 2 hours on social media.  

We are addicted. Even American psychological association APA – has recognized this as a diagnosable problem. Addiction used to be connected only with booze and smoke. Technology addiction is a deliberate attempt by technology firms. Tech firms are labelled as “Tobacco farmers in T-shirt”

This was recognized very early by Tristan Harris – a Google employee. He even made a 141 slide deck titled “A call to minimize distractions and respect users’ attention”. It was viral. Larry Page – influenced and made him a product philosopher to bring his ideas. But Harris couldn’t make any impact! His ideas mean reduced revenue for the firm, frustrated he quit and started non-profit for this cause.  

Tech Giants' hooking techniques are studied by Adam Alter, a marketing professor at Stern school of business. His background in psychology helped him to go deeper into techniques. He came out with a popular book “Irresistible: rise of addictive technology and business of keeping us hooked” -praised by the likes of Adam Grant.  

Irresistible – probed the science of addiction and outlined various hooks by tech giants. Two of the hooks are intermittent positive reinforcement and drive for social approval. Intermittent positive reinforcement is an unpredictable reward for your action. These two principles are employed in technology addiction by using “like”, “upvote”, and “tagging feature”.  

Tech giants like Facebook, Apple, and Google – have monstrous resources behind these addictions, truly making them “Tobacco Farmers”. And this war on “tech drug” is one-sided! 

[This is a review of First chapter of Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism – A lopsided Arms Race.  Watch this place!]

[Image Source: https://www.pickpik.com/facebook-app-icon-media-social-media-apps-social-network-35469 ]

Getting used to Digital Quarantine!

 3-minute quick read

We are becoming social media and mobile junky.

On average we check mobile every 12 minutes sometimes up to 96 times a day, adding to almost 35 days per year! Social media use is topping the chart with an average 2 hours 22 minutes per day. Try adding that for a year to find the lost time!

But worst is its effect on our mental health and reducing the most important psychological variable in our life – autonomy. 

This is not accidental, but tech firms are carefully introducing it like a Nicotine in Tobacco.We must block this. Andrew Sullivan has called it information addiction and you can find addiction evidence in scientific research. This is an attention economy at its worst!  

We certainly want to get value from technology innovations, but must block its detrimental effects. Often the haphazard effort like a digital sabbatical, removing apps, and notifications don’t show long lasting result. What we need is the overarching tech philosophy.

Cal Newport’s new book Digital Minimalism provides a road map of it. It introduces tech philosophy and shows action steps to adopt it in life.

The book outlines philosophical underpinnings, the aggressive intervention of 30-day digital quarantine. Then how to apply a balm of meaningful, satisfying activities. And adding carefully chosen value-adding social media activities only. Book also talks of 1600 people’s experiment of going on digital quarantine underscoring the importance of solitude, leisure, and attention resistance. It looks like a complete therapeutic package on this addiction.

I hope the book will help us to regain control of those lost 35 days per year and gain our foregone happy & satisfying life in post-Corona life!  

[This is my review of “Introduction” of Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. Reviews of remaining book chapters will follow. Watch this place!]

[Image Source: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/135807 ]

10 ways to contribute in a (Virtual) Book club!

3 Minute Quick Read.

Few toastmasters have come together and formed a small book club “Books for Self-learning. Its a virtual book club. Generally, we talk and post about non-fiction books. But what is true about most of the online or virtual community applies here too. Few members contribute posts or interact (what experts call producers) and others are spectators (consumers). For a thriving, and learning community members should contribute more and more. Here are 10 ways anyone can contribute to the virtual community.  

1. Post photo/image/Amazon or Goodreads link of your current reading. This can be done weekly or monthly.
2. Post book-review, summaries, or comments on the completed reading. Or just link from your blog/linked-in/Facebook etc.   
3. Post simply a quote, paragraph, graph or something that appealed to you from the book.
4. Post interesting stories/articles about authors, books, and publishers.
5. Post Cartoons, humorous jokes, events about books, authors in news.
6. Post lists in news. For instance Bill-Gates summer book list, Obama’s reading list, or Shashi Tharoor’s.
7. Post a question/request about something in the group. That will trigger discussion.
8. Post about book-related events in the group. Like BDB Bookclub, or Jaguar-naut online lit-fest.
9. Post about author events, or book-day, library-day or any other events related to books.
10. Post about your writings. If you are writing or planning to write a book, blog, or article, share it in the group. That will inspire others to write.
11. (Bonus tip) Post opinion poll, survey, or quiz on books, member's habits/views or attitudes. 

So what are you posting today? Post and continue Posting in future too! 

[ Image Source: https://www.pexels.c om/photo/gray-mug-on-top-of-piled-books-3150547/  ]

How Vivekananda continues to Inspire!

5 Minute Quick Read. 

["I only tell you this, that whoever reads this letter will imbibe my spirit! "
                                                                                                      - Swami Vivekananda" ]

Vivekananda is an inspiring personality. 

He enthralled the audience that listened to him at Chicago in 1893. He inspired hundreds after his return and these lectures are outlined in “Lectures from Colombo to Almora”. His contemporaries like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, and even Industrialist Jamshetji Tata expressed how he was influential. Mahatma Gandhi in Feb, 1921 at Belur, even said that, 

 I ask you, young men, not to go away empty-handed without imbibing something  of the spirit of the place where Swami Vivekananda lived and died”. 

His inspiration continues even to this date. I have at least half-dozen close friends who were inspired by his words, writings and are living their life as Monks or are serving full time, the poor and needy. They are walking the path shown by him. There are enumerable examples of how he continues to inspire. For instance, a famous story about Anna Hazare, social activist goes, that he was about to commit suicide and then read the works of Swamiji. It inspired him to pick up rural development and continues to inspire to serve India. 

I am always amused by the inspirational power of Swamiji’s words and writings. One can understand the influence on his contemporaries due to direct contact, but how come he continues to inspire people even today? 

Recently I came across a behavioral study about the inspiring power of words. Researchers used Poetry as a channel for inspiration. A group wrote Poetry and tested for their level of inspiration. Another group read this poetry and commented on various parameters. Total 36, 020 data points were collected.  

Researchers concluded that inspired writers were able to inspire average readers. Readers found poems as more sublime, insightful when writers were more inspired. Surprisingly efforts put into writing or originality of writing weren’t having any effect on the reader. And the only connection between reader and writers were poem!  

This kind of explains how Vivekananda continues to inspire. He was highly inspired person. He spoke about his Guru Sri Ramkrishna as, 

 ” My teacher, my master, my hero, my ideal, my God in life “. 

He mentioned at one point, 

“It is true I believe Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to have been inspired. But then I am myself inspired also. And you are inspired. And your disciples will be; and theirs after them; and so on, to the end of time! “   

What he wrote was from the deep truth he experienced. His expressions were just an outcome of his inner pure, inspired state of being. And hence his writings are more than the words, they are medium, the vehicle that continues to inspire and will continue to inspire us. 

References: 

Image Source: https://istore.chennaimath.org/product/letters-of-swami-vivekananda/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_and_legacy_of_Swami_Vivekananda  

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpspp0000094  

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/is-inspiration-contagious/  

https://advaitaashrama.org/cw/content.php  Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

How to Write a Lot !

5 minute read - Book Review of "How to Write a Lot"

[Image Source : https://www.amazon.in/How-Write-Lot-Practical-Productive-ebook/dp/B001Y35G60 ]

In general writing productivity and particular academic productivity boils down to simply how much one can write & publish. The book “Write a Lot” by Paul Silvia addresses this issue and gives practical solutions. Book is prescriptive and is a quick read. I could complete it in one sitting on the weekend. Few nuggets from the book: 

·  It quoted William Zinsser, “If writing seems hard, it’s because it is hard. It’s one of the hardest things people do.”  Author provides ways to simplify it. He points that finding a block of time or waiting for inspiration is a catastrophic. Also he shuns the idea about writers block, particularly for academic writers. Writer’s block hits only those who believe in it.

·  First advice he gives is to make a schedule, allot a time and stick to it. Daily two hours or so. One must protect this writing slot ruthlessly. Build and get into the habit of writing. This is single most important take away from the book.

·   He suggests writing first and revising later. But just produce something in the allocated slot.

·  Author gives the example of, Trollope – who despite full time job at post office published 63 books. That’s stunningly productive. Trollope’s writing schedule included 3 hours of writing every day before breakfast. He wrote average 250 words in 15 minutes.  

·  Second advice author gives is about goal setting. Goals for every month and then goals for the particular day. He suggests writing the goal down. Stick to them and emphasizes monitoring. He also advises rewarding oneself after goal achievement. Full cycle of goal setting theory included.

·  Third advice author gives on agraphia (inability to write) is to form a support group. A small group of academic only (He advises separate group for doctoral scholars). Group should meet once a week and focus on writings of each one. He advises to confront anyone who is lacking in writing or goal completion. And provides some tactics to bring him in the habit of writing (first advice). This is a kind of constructive social pressure to maintain the habit.

· He demonstrates how single habit of regular writing can bring good balance in work and life.

·  Book also gives a list of reference books on style, grammar, punctuation and motivation.

·  There are dedicated chapters on style, journal article and book writing. But I didn’t find them much in sync with the book topic. May be just filler.

·  I read that the new edition of the book is published in September, 2018 -with added chapter. The one I read is an older edition.

Paul Silvia himself writes a lot, daily from 08:45 to 10:00 AM in mortifying location. Being a social psychology faculty, he has beautifully blended the scientific principles of habits, motivation, and way to maintain them in this behavioural prescription for poor writers. I am also getting in the habit of daily writing, but couldn’t form the support group yet.  

Finally the book is persuasive, quick and essential read for anyone who wishes to be a productive writer. I am looking forward to read another book from him on writing – it is specific on research or journal writing in psychology.