Hello from the Himalayas,
Before writing anything, I feel I should include a disclaimer of sorts.
I am on a continuous learning curve for the last 10 years. Sometimes, when I am asked for it, I feel I’m not yet successful enough to impart advice. So, please take my recommendations with a grain of salt and remember it’s coming from someone who’s still shaping his professional story. All of my advice is mainly context-dependent and is probably only relevant to paths adjacent to mine. That said, let’s start today’s note.
Slouching
After an extended stretch of productivity to check-off my to-do list, here comes the slouch-week. When I’m slouching, I resist active production work and end up spending days just consuming and play catch-up with my tasks.
My body enforces a buffer period of slouching before I get in a flow state again. This happens every alternate month and I’ve been mostly unsuccessful in changing this pattern. If you go through this and have managed to change it to a better pattern, please send me your tips.
Generative Leaps
Non-random games are mostly incremental and don’t have much unclaimed-value left for a trailblazer. Randomness-infused paths open up opportunities for unclaimed generative leaps. A few examples of how I have been able to make generative leaps :
Accepting the responsibility of a task that’s on the edge of your regular operating zone and overlapping with an opportunity zone.
Starting a conversation with someone actively working in your opportunity zone.
Starting an unstructured-but-directed project at the overlap of opportunity zones.
Converting good conversations into collaborations and good collaborations into relationships.
Announcement
For Yak Collective(the open, networked community I’m part of), I am running a side-project to build a network visualization/mapping tool called Yak Network Map. The main aim of this experimental project is to create a web-hosted interactive map that serves as a domain-interest based discovery tool for Yak Collective members. I released a scope-and-roadmap document for the v1.0 prototype last week.
Interesting Finds of the Week
Nadia Eghbal’s book on open-source software production— Working in Public — is launched. She talks about it in this a16z podcast episode.
Hyperlink.academy — My friend Brendan Schlagel (along with his two co-founders) launched a new platform this week to nurture and host experiments of new online learning models — from exploratory courses to generative events to virtual communities-of-practice. I recommend checking it out and enrolling in a course that you like. They are also looking for new course-creators.
DIY-bio has a serious candidate in the COVID-19 vaccine race — led by Preston Estep and promoted by famed geneticist George Church — being developed by the citizen-science group Rapid Deployment Vaccine Collaborative.
If you’re into classical history but reluctant to read thick texts, here is a fairly deep dive into Ancient Greece in 18 mins, with temporal and narrative context.
This explainer-video for NASA’s latest venture to Mars with the Perseverance rover, launched from Earth last week.
Thanks for reading.
Until Next Week,
Vinay
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