If I had the talent to produce interesting content every week, this is what my newsletter would look like. Or if I had the discipline to journal regularly, this is what a page or two in my journal would look like. As I have neither of these, I am going to go ahead and jot down my thoughts on random topics here. (Turns out they were not totally random and some connections do exist.) No guarantees that this will be of much use to anyone, but if it leads you to pause and think, I will be happy. If Lady Muse smiles more often, I may make it a semi-regular thing. And no, writing 2000 words everyday no matter what does not work for me. The only way I get blessed by my Lady Muse is by being patient.
We all have obsessive behaviours. One popular way of dealing with these is going cold turkey but that requires too much willpower. What’s easier – if you can manage it – is to change the direction of the obsessive behaviour in such a way that it is beneficial for you. For instance, I used to love having junk food snacks in between meals. If I have a packet of chips in front of me, it will require too much willpower not to eat it. So I replaced all my junk food with healthy snacks – nuts and dry fruits. I still get the urge to snack but eating nuts is beneficial and non addictive. Problem solved.
I had similar obsessive behaviour in other areas. And the solution was similar. After Tik-Tok introduced short videos, I used to spend an obscene amount of time on inane vidoes that provided no value – it was junk food for the mind. After I realised what was happening, I decided to ask for help to a friend – The Algorithm. I consciously started training it – downvoting all videos of throwing a bottle to make it stand upright, challenges that make no sense and all prank videos. And I upvoted videos on topics that I was interested in – science, history, health etc. And short videos of sitcoms and stand up comedians are great to develop humour writing skills. So if I am watching sitcoms all day, it’s not a waste of time. Don’t judge a man by his browser history.
In no time, The Algorithm started showing me amazing content (if there was the odd video of ‘eating 100 spicy momos challenge’ I let it know immediately that I was not interested.) I still binge on short videos but the amount of value I get for my time is colossal – books, movies, documentary recommendations; health tips, priceless interviews of Dr. Carl Jung or Dr. Viktor Frankl – the list goes on.
Gently changing the direction of your obsession is the best way to optimise its momentum for your benefit.
I recently read about the Gen Z trend of ditching smartphones and using dumbphones instead. While the sentiment is admirable, this is a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Before Gutenberg came along, people would have given their right hand to get a glimspe of the manuscripts that were the treasure troves of knowledge. Fast forward a few hundred years, all the knowledge in the world is at your fingertips and you don’t want it?
I discover minimalism
When I went to Japan for my first post-doc, I thought I would need some formal clothes for meetings etc. so I had some formal clothes made. Turns out that scientists all over mostly dress casual so the clothes sat in my closet unused. Every time I opened my closet, I would wonder what to do with them. One day I decided that enough was enough and donated them to charity. The relief I felt after that made me realise that I was onto something. So I got rid of a wall full of books and I felt even better. Since then, I am always looking for things that I can get rid of.
Here’s a related titbit. Turns out that someone took a photo of me when I was working in Italy and it became a meme.
I am 99% sure that the guy wearing white t-shirt is me. I think this is the line outside the police headquarters in Italy (Questura) to renew the Residence permit (Permesso di soggiorno.)
Speaking of formal clothing, full sleeved shirt, tie, suit or tuxedo, shoes – this is hardly an ideal dress for Indian weather with temperatures at 30oC (86oF) during most of the year. We started dressing this way because of the colonial influence; earlier the traditional Indian clothing was more appropriate for the hot Indian weather.
One of the most distressing sights during scorching Indian summers is at the Indian courts, with all the lawyers and judges wearing black gowns or black suits. They pass laws that change course of history, maybe they can make life a little easier for themselves and change the formal clothing to something more appropriate for the weather? They have one of the most taxing jobs imaginable, I am sure they will work in a better frame of mind with more comfortable clothes.
Minimalism frees you in ways you cannot imagine. First, you stop getting dopamine hits from material things. Second, it drastically changes your relationship with money. Don’t get me wrong, I love earning money. It gives me security and freedom but since earning money is not directly related to material gains, it feels more like scoring points in a video game. The amount of mental space that you gain is immense. Kind of reminds me of the episode in Seinfeld where George Costanza suddenly becomes intelligent when he is no longer preoccupied with sex.
Financial considerations often creep into many of the decisions we make. With those considerations off the table, you reach a whole new level of clarity in decision making that is highly addictive. I love it!
Consciously choosing discomfort
It is becoming more and more evident that the lifestyle of comfort that began with the industrial revolution is not good for our health. Our ancestors were constantly working – hunting and gathering, growing crops, running, sitting on the ground and getting up few hundred times a day. Sitting all day on comfortable couches with food available 24 x 7 is the opposite of what is needed.
To this end I try to introduce discomfort deliberately whenever possible. For instance, cold showers elevate your dopamine levels and they stay high for longer periods. I have started taking cold showers few times a week though the real test would be during winters.
It was a revelation to realise that when making your life more comfortable is not a necessary goal, this gives you even more financial freedom. My lifestyle is not going to change much even if I win a million dollars lottery. This realisation takes the emotions out of financial decisions.
I have been walking for a few years now, along with other physical activities. It was gratifying to see the results reflected in my lipid profile test.
I am especially proud of my HDL cholesterol levels. They were at a miserable low of 40 few years ago, gradually climbing to 60, 80 and my personal best of 91. Yay for walking and traditional Indian food!
Remember death everday
If that felt like bragging, my apologies and let me give you a counterpoint. No matter how good my HDL levels, I may die tomorrow or the day after. Many a wise men have said this – remember your death everyday. The real difficult part is to be able to do it without the feelings of panick or fear. I won’t lie, it’s one of the most difficult things I have ever attempted but the clarity that you gain those few times that you succeed is indescribable. Still very much a work in progress.
Death : Ok dude, you are up tomorrow.
Me : I thought you always visited without any warning. What’s with the one day advance notice?
Death : It’s a new thing we are rolling out. Part of our customer outreach program.
Me : Why are you doing customer outreach? That makes no sense.
Death : Tell that to our marketing department. My commute just doubled.
Me : So any idea where I am going?
Death : The suffering you caused with your writing? You are definitely going to hell. Why do you bother anyway?
Me : You know, just following my passion.
Death : Passion is overrated. I wrote ‘travelling’ and ‘meeting new people’ under the passion column in my application and look where that got me. Worst case of career counseling ever.
Me : So what’s hell like?
Death : Depends. You may be asked to do chores or work outdoors.
Me : That doesn’t sound so bad..
Death : In your case though, considering the gravity of the suffering you have caused, you may be asked to participate in a five year discussion on why the Moon landing was fake.
Me : Oh God, kill me now!!
Death : Attaboy! Now you are talking! You just saved me a return trip!
Heavily inspired by Mort, a fantasy novel by the amazing, amazing Sir Terry Pratchett. Highly recommended!
Here’s a social experiment I would love to do. Find a gym that is on 5th or 6th floor of a building. Plant yourself at the gym entrance and note down how many gym members take the stairs as opposed to the elevator. Gyms can be a part of healthy lifestyle but they are not the complete solution. If you are making unhealthy choices outside the gym, that is not going to help.
I don’t remember where I heard or read it but someone said that we need a generation that is healthy without going to the gyms. Like the older generation where people were strong because they were chopping wood or carrying water for miles.
Where are you getting your dopamine hits?
Embracing minimalism is a journey full of surprises and revelations. I no longer get dopamine hits by buying clothes, sunglasses or smartphones. In addition, no junk food so the dopamine hits generated by chemicals are a no-go. So much for the hard work put in by the chemists of the Big Food industry. Once you close these obvious pathways, the things that give you dopamine hits feel amazing like being creative or being in nature. The downside is that this puts you out of phase with 99% of the population; hence the word ‘misfit’ in the title of the post.
Who am I? An identity crisis
Not sure if the term blogger is still in use and if yes, what connotations it has – as opposed to movies in late nineties where a ‘blogger’ was someone who always discovered sinister plots and uncovered conspiracy theories. Why doesn’t that happen to me? Would it kill the aliens to land in my backyard and give me an exclusive interview?
A great review of online writing in general and blogs in particular by Megan Marz. (Why do critics dismiss online writing until it becomes a book?)
The term ‘writer’ is too general and is associated mainly with book writers.
I can never be a columnist because I can never produce articles regularly and on demand. And although I have written most number of articles on movies, I am not a film critic. There are several reasons for this.
Film critics are professionals who watch movies every week and write reviews on every one of them. They write about the movies they like and dislike; I rarely write about movies that I did not like. I watched Oppenheimer two months back and I wanted to write about it so badly that I tried every trick in the book but to no avail. I could not come up with anything original that would do justice to this amazing movie. Good thing I am not employed at a magazine or newspaper, I would have been fired.
This is my Achilles heel. I cannot write on demand. And even when I do manage to write something, it is unlike any professional review. Strange detours, silly jokes, personal anecdotes, more silly jokes. There is no format. Any editor would take one look at it and press ‘delete.’
Until about a year ago, I was seriously considering changing my style and writing more serious, in-depth reviews. And then..
ChatGPT has entered the roomThe writing landscape as we knew it would never be the same again. Here’s an example. I asked ChatGPT to write a 100 word review of Citizen Kane, praising the movie (5 stars). And just to make things interesting, I asked it to write it in the style of Roger Ebert. This was the result.
Needless to say, it is impossible to compete with this. And it’s only going to get better with practice.
Forget the format, the do’s and don’ts, and all the essential features of an ideal article. I am going to be super unpredictable in every article I write. Because as soon as I become predictable, I can be copied. Instead, silly jokes, detours, and personal anecdotes are my only lifelines. What I once thought was my shortcoming may actually be a boon in disguise.
As Linus Torvalds once said,
If it’s a bug people rely on, it’s not a bug. It’s a feature.
