Stoked Smondays #1: The Courage To Be Disliked
A newsletter that you can read on a lazy Sunday but actually preps you up for the much anticipated Monday. Not literally.
A newsletter that you can read on a lazy Sunday but actually preps you up for the much anticipated Monday. Not literally.
This is where I talk about articles I have read during the week, interesting products I have come across, digital marketing (which is my work domain) and many such random topics.
Including my dog. 🐶
Hope you have fun reading this. I look forward to making this a weekly ritual.
First Milestone of this newsletter is to deliver meaningful, mind-tickling content to you guys, every week - for the next 8 weeks. Let’s go!
Tip: Go through the entire newsletter and then pick out what you'd want to read/watch. That way you wouldn't miss out on anything fun that might be waiting for you in the latter parts of this newsletter.
Also it helps improve my page's average session duration. (I'm a digital marketer to the core. 🙂🙃)
📜 Articles:
#1: Neuralink by Wait But Why: A 60,000 word long read (or maybe even more). And I'm only half-way through it.
That too after spending 3 hours during the week. Also, I'm pretty sure I could only comprehend 10% of the information.
But you know what's surprising? I still haven't reached the part where they talk about Neuralink!
This is what fascinates me about Tim Urban - the author of Wait But Why. His rabbit hole is so frikkin' deep that you'll most likely wonder how the heck does he get time to go through all of this reading?
Fuck that, how does he comprehend and organise his notes to create such long ass articles? And his illustrations - they're hilarious!
Anyway, For peeps who don't know, Neuralink is a neurotechnology company founded by Elon Musk. This company focuses on developing ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers.
To put it simply: the people at Neuralink are developing sewing machines that would sew threads (read: electrodes) into the brain.
Why? The short term goal is to cure life-threatening brain diseases such as Alzheimer's but in the long run - Elon wants to achieve symbiosis with Artificial Intelligence.
His biggest concern is that AI will fuck us all and "we will be left behind" as a species. But, if only we can create a "high-bandwidth brain-machine interface," then we might stand a chance of keeping up.
And this piece by Tim, traces back to the evolution of brain right from Jellyfish's to flatworm's to frog's to that of Mammal's. It's pretty interesting and exhausting at the same time.
#2. 100,000 stars: You come across websites like these and within seconds of browsing through you just thank the creator unconsciously - because you know something is about to blow your mind for good. This website is such.
Zoom out and you'll see the Milky Way. Zoom in and you'll spot different stars floating around. Click on any of them to read more. Further zoom in and you'll spot our sun. And further in our planets. The website is interactive (best experienced on a desktop) and you can experience a 360 view of our galaxy. Enjoy!
📘 Books:
Currently, I am reading Atomic Habits (now you know where the motivation to start this newsletter came from, lol) and re-reading The Courage To Be Disliked.
The latter one is such a powerful book - makes you question your beliefs and unlearn thinking patterns that society has hammered onto all of us.
An excerpt from the book:
“I have a young friend who dreams of becoming a novelist, but he never seems to be able to complete his work.
According to him, his job keeps him too busy, and he can never find enough time to write novels, and that's why he can't complete work and enter it for writing awards. But is that the real reason?
No! It's actually that he wants to leave the possibility of "I can do it if I try" open, by not committing to anything. He doesn't want to expose his work to criticism, and he certainly doesn't want to face the reality that he might produce an inferior piece of writing and face rejection.
He wants to live inside that realm of possibilities, where he can say that he could do it if he only had the time, or that he could write if he just had the proper environment, and that he really does have the talent for it.
In another five or ten years, he will probably start using another excuses like "I'm not young anymore" or "I've got a family to think about now”
🎥 Videos:
#1. Arachnoid Mater Dissection - Pia and its Derivatives - Sanjoy Sanyal: Thanks to the Neuralink article, I got to see the dissection of an actual human brain.
From the left you have the skin (the pink), then two scalp layers, then the skull, then the dura mater, arachnoid mater, and on the far right, just the brain covered by the pia.
#2. Rahman Flute Series by Rahul Krishnan: Try this tonight. Switch off all your lights leaving on a dim one.
Get a cup of hot chocolate. Sit comfortably.
Turn on this playlist. Close your eyes.
Sip your drink. And Enjoy. Thank me later.
🧰 Product
I came across this product Zero Balance: A virtual credit card.
Virtual cards are not a new thing these days but this is a different kind of card.
Now every time a website asks you to opt in for a 7-day trial and fill your credit card details you can use Zero Balance. If you're like me who doesn't own a traditional credit card, then this is an option that you can try out.
This card is made with a purpose to help you tryout products without giving away your payment information. No need to worry about automatic deductions or random charges. All you need to do is enter your PAN and a card will be issued to you against it!
Love this product!
🦜 Tweet:
#1
Hmm. Acha. Theek hai. #Bitcoin
#2
Prime reason why there are not a lot of dedicated SEO agencies in India. Everyone want their page ranked instantly.
🙇🏻 Person To Follow On Twitter:
Sahil Lavingia.
He is the Founder, CEO of Gumroad, angel investor, published author and runs a rolling fund. And he is just 29. Follow him on twitter if you're a startup enthusiast - you'll be amazed by how he thinks.
Hope you have an amazing Smonday folks! See you next week. 🧗🏻♂️
If you have any feedback, suggestions, tips, advice, thoughts - anything you’d like to share - feel free to comment. Or you can reply to this email.
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