Snippets: September 2022

A brief check-in on what's been happening, and where this newsletter might be headed next

Hey everyone!

It's been a fairly long time since my last post on mental health - a lot of things have changed for me since then, as I've been able to build up momentum in many other aspects of my life post-treatment. I’m still very much in a formative phase, but things are slowly coalescing as I figure out what my main priorities and goals are. At the same time, I’ve just embarked on another semester of school, and I'm expecting my workload to increase further in the coming weeks. That being said, I figure it's worth sharing an update on where this newsletter might be headed.

Right now, I intend to focus a lot more on computer science, software development, and personal projects (shameless plug, but I spent a lot of time working on my personal website, and I think it provides a comprehensive snapshot of who I am right now) - and while I still really enjoy writing, it's mainly a conduit for me to to organize and reinforce what I've learnt. The focus of this newsletter will always be on broader takeaways that you can apply to your personal life, which likely means that there will be much less of an overlap with what I'm spending most of my time on (although there have been some interesting books on the computer science and its relevance to human life).

That being said, I still do a fair bit of regular reflection and occasionally come across interesting insights that I feel are worth sharing with the world. I'm thinking that moving forward, I'll be structuring my newsletter a little bit like Austin Kleon's "10 things worth sharing this week", sharing snippets of things I found interesting and not-so-original observations about the world - except mine will probably be on a monthly basis, and probably not half as insightful.

That being said, here are some of the lessons and musings I've had in the past month and a bit:

• Everything is on a best-effort basis: Communication of every kind is lossy. Promises are not always kept. Commitments may waver and wane over time. Nothing is guaranteed. Once you understand and accept this, it's easier to be kinder to yourself when you feel like you aren't meeting expectations. At the same time, I think it also reminds you that you have a choice in how you spend your time, and hopefully, that motivates you to allocate it more wisely.

• Building a second brain: I've been thinking a lot about this concept that's increasingly becoming more popular in the productivity and self-help landscape. First coined by Tiago Forte, the basic motivation behind this whole system is to use technology and digital tools to organize information in a way that makes it accessible at a moment's notice and an effective catalyst for your creative output. I've been building such a system myself with tools like Notion, Telegram, Microsoft To-Do and Google Calendar (the principles are more important than the tools), and refining it as time goes on. I'm excited to share it in a proper article (or maybe even a video) once it's more refined.

• Perfect is the enemy of good: This is in the same vein of the first point. Since everything is best-effort, you shouldn't impose excessively stringent standards on work that you intend to ship. It takes some experience to know where that sweet spot is, but in general, it's never too early to put your work out there. That's the whole principle of learning in public, and it's worked wonders for me in the few months since I've started.

• Ground yourself with long-term thinking: I find that when I'm feeling stuck, nothing helps to ground me more than thinking about the long-term. Whenever you face an obstacle or conflict, ask yourself: will this matter in a week's time? what about a month or a year? if you feel like it won't have a big impact on you in the long term, you can act accordingly. Don't give the little things more attention than they deserve.

• Treat rest as a priority before it becomes one: This is a big one for me - and judging by trends with work stress and burnout, it might be for many others as well. We usually maintain a list of priorities on a day-to-day basis, and we decide how to spend our time according to those priorities. Rest is not often explicitly placed on that list, but rather something we do once we have "free time". The problem is that with the current nature of work, you will never run out of things to do. And once you reach a state of burnout, rest becomes your only priority. The lesson is simple: Treat rest as a priority before it becomes one. Carve out time in the day or a day of the week for leisure. Force yourself to take breaks if you have to. If you have any choice in the matter at all, you don't want to be doing it only when it's too late.

• Broad net, tight filter: Yes, deep work is important. It's a necessary and vital skill to be able to focus on a task for a length of time. But breadth is equally crucial. Read widely and learn about everything in the world that you can, so that your thinking doesn't become calcified and you don't grow oblivious to the world. But once you've taken in all that information, be very selective on what you choose to spend your time on. It's likely that you'll never be able to do all the things you want to, and that's fine. Cast a broad net, but filter rigorously.

• Knowledge is unstructured, and we build it from scratch: Information is often transmitted in a highly structured format, through books, lectures, videos or other mediums. But knowledge and skill - information put into practice - are fundamentally unstructured. It’s impossible to copy and paste knowledge from one brain to another, and so the challenge is how we can facilitate this process as quickly as possible. This is something that the folks trying to build a second brain are working on, and something I'm really interested in as well. I think that in the future, we'll need brand new tools to facilitate learning in entirely new ways, and technology will likely play a big role in that.

• The arc of your life is determined by friction: Our everyday decisions - and thus the broader course of our lives - is characterized by friction. We are biologically wired to choose the path of least resistance - it's what saves valuable energy and time. The issue, then, is which decisions and actions offer the least resistance in our lives. The whole purpose of technology and the apps we use is to reduce friction - but for which activities? Browsing social media and online shopping? Or self-directed learning and creative pursuits? We are the architects of our own environment, and we get to decide whether to add or remove friction from each of our daily choices.

• Negativity thrives in a vacuum: I firmly believe that feelings like hate, resentment and envy brew in the absence of vitality. I define 'vitality' here as all the things that bring about our best selves - nurturing relationships, personal hobbies, sources of inspiration, welcoming environments, and communities that make you feel valued. Most of the time, the people who we disparage and alienate don’t have as many of these avenues available to them. The only way to break what often is a vicious cycle of isolation and judgment is by giving them opportunities to broaden their horizons and re-integrate themselves with the world. it's easier said then done, but it's something very worth keeping in mind.

3 Questions for you:

• What served you in the past, but is no longer serving you now?

• What acts of service have you taken for granted?

• Can you afford to slow down?

That's all from me for now, till next time!