Snippets: October 2022
On leaps of faith, chasing growth, and purpose
Hey everyone!
October is nearly coming to an end, and it seems like everyone's starting to look forward to some respite at the end of the year. Personally, I can't wait for December to come - I've made plans to travel to Bali for a workcation of sorts, and it'll be my first proper break in almost 2 years. More importantly, it's going to give me the time I need to sit down and properly pursue all the projects and ideas that have been accumulating in my backlog. I'm looking to get a lot more comfortable with systems, command-line tools, and compiled programming languages, and I'm only just starting to delve into the rich and vibrant communities and projects in the open-source ecosystem (that’s all I have to say because I don’t trust myself to stop if I share any more).
With that in mind, there are 3 main takeaways I have for this month:
Leaps of faith
This month marked another significant set of changes in my life. I stopped volunteering with Ground-Up Initiative and diverted a significant chunk of my free time to a part-time internship role at a robotics startup called Fabrica.AI. In some ways it feels like a big change, but it was set in motion by a host of factors and concerns that have been weighing on my mind for a while now. It all comes down to one thing: impact.
Since the start, my goal has always been to contribute as much as possible towards mitigating climate change. With all the discussion that’s been going on recently, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about sustainability and what it's really going to take for us make transition to a better future. I've come to believe that rather than consumer behavior, awareness or advocacy, the biggest levers for change will lie in industry, technology and policy. It's not to say that former isn't important, but I feel like their significance is greatly overemphasized - and what’s more, these channels are all too easily hijacked by corporate greenwashing campaigns that distract us from the real problems that need to be solved. I'm fully aware that this is a controversial view, but most people rarely think beyond trivial things like recycling, using less plastic, or reducing your "carbon footprint" when it comes to sustainability, and that in itself is a very big problem.
As much as I'm aware of the its limitations (I was once a proponent of degrowth and low-tech solutions - I have Thoreau's Walden to thank), I believe that breakthrough technologies can contribute much, much more in our fight against climate change. I'm really interested in things like alternative battery technologies, clean energy, more efficient semiconductors, and harnessing automation and ground-up data collection to build models and visualizations which can help us understand processes on a planetary scale. I want to contribute as much as I can to these areas with the limited time and energy I have in my lifetime. I'm still not sure what that looks like, but that’s precisely why I chose to take the leap, and I know that this is the best stage of my life to be exploring alternative paths.
Optimizing for growth
Growth is something else that I've been paying a lot of attention to. On some level, I feel compelled to work as hard as I can to make up for all the opportunities and experiences I’ve missed out on as a result of my condition. But in addition to that, I've always been inspired by groundbreaking individuals and organizations, and I'm really interested in understanding how they get things done. I can’t say I know all that much at this point, but I believe that it boils down to a few fundamental but highly overlooked principles. Once you've taken care of those, opportunities and breakthroughs come much quicker than you would initially have thought. I intend to write a full article on this concept very soon, but here’s a teaser:
Make the mundane things effortless. We hardly pay enough attention to the little things - communication, chores, organizing information and scheduling tasks. It seems like we often take these processes for granted and stop asking ourselves how they might be improved. Those who make the most out of their time tend to obsess over these small details, because they make the biggest difference in the long run. Personally, I've been implementing shortcuts and automations wherever possible, and I have to say that there's a really great selection of software in the macOS ecosystem that's made a huge difference in how quickly I can get things done.
Consistently improve your diet. When I say "diet", I'm really referring to all the inputs you get from the world. There's the food you eat on a daily basis, but there's also the information you consume through news feeds and interactions with the world. Finally, you have the groups and social circles that you spend the most time around. Our personalities, behaviors and beliefs are derived from the sum of these inputs - and while some of these factors may be beyond our control, there are still plenty of active choices we can make. The most important thing is to make this a continuous habit - the faster you want to grow, the more actively you need to make these changes.
Rest and wander. It's a bit counterintuitive, but it takes skill and effort to learn how to rest well. I say this because I think it's really easy to squander your free time mindlessly browsing and consuming content, or engaging in activities that don't help you feel replenished. The other related skill is wandering - being able to really disengage and take things a little less seriously. It seems a little bit strange for me to be saying this, but I always like to play with hypotheticals and entertain the possibility that my work could amount to nothing in the future. Having that lightness reminds me to stay open and keeps me on my toes.
Purpose
All that being said, I think the foundation for growth - and what really sets someone apart from the crowd - is having a clear and abiding sense of purpose. It makes the hard things manageable and the easy ones effortless. I'm grateful that I've established a clear purpose (at least for the next few years), but the honest truth is that it's a rare thing to come by. It's completely fine not to have grand ambitions and live a more carefree life, but that's personally not how I'd like to operate. My hope is that if you're reading this, you feel the same way. Whatever the case, you'll know when you found a cause that truly means something to you. My advice is that once that happens, pursue it with everything you have and don't look back.
That's all for me for now - till next time!
3 Questions for you
A simple question worth asking to assess whether you're acting with the right intention: would you still do it if no one was watching?
What problems are you currently facing? Are they important? Do they fuel your energy or rob you of it?
Are you taking care of yourself?