Starting a garden

The past weekend, with a little help from my friends , I started a vegetable garden in my backyard. It's been a really long time since I did anything similar. The choice of what to plant was almost a lottery pick. Maybe next time I'll learn to identify what makes sense to grow and what to buy instead. Here are the first sprouts of some of them.

Carrot

Carrot

Cauliflower

Cauliflower

Heirloom Cherry Tomato

Heirloom Cherry Tomato

Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi

Lavender

Lavender

Marigold

Marigold

Mint

Mint

Okra

Okra

Pomegranate

Pomegranate

Pumpkin

Pumpkin

Radish

Radish

Romaine Lettuce

Romaine Lettuce

Tomato

Some Tomato

Sunflower

Sunflower

Unknown - Really - Forgot to label - Either basil or tomato or carrot

Carrot/Basil/Tomato

Will share the progress and learnings.


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Chasing Success

Human brain has evolved to being lazy [1]. It's the natural state of things. It is also more likely than not you're average - it's the very definition of it. In our society, neither of this is adequate.

Personally, there's a huge correlation between the rise of social media and the feeling of inadequacy. Are you adequate in life? Are you married? Do you have a wife? Do you own a home? Do you have kids? Are you a good parent to your kids? Do you have friends? Are you a good friend? How many life skills do you know? How many do you excel at? Can you cook? Do you read? How many books do you read a year/week? Do you travel? How many countries have you travelled to? Are you a manager yet? Do you love programming? Do you contribute to open-source? Are you keeping yourself up to date with technology?

We have become this society where it's not enough that we do something because we like it/love it. We want to be the best at it or, more accurately, be better than the people in your social circle. This has become even more acute with the free time we have due to the pandemic. We're don't appreciate ourselves enought for what we've learnt or achieved in general and especially so during this trying times.

We tend to correlate success with happiness. Ironically, we might find success if we are happy, and we might be happier if we accept that an average existence is a mighty good existence.



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Summary of Digital Minimalism


Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

Hello, I'm Sankara and I'm a social media and smartphone addict :). Social media and smartphone are not always recognized as an addiction, at least not clinically but the result is the same. They consume so much of our time and influence our mood that at times we could fall behind on the things that really matter. Even when I read the book I wasn't fully bought into the philosophy of it. I mean I struggle with a lot of what the author had to say. I even agree with and have personally seen the way my personal and professional life is impacted by unchecked social media usage and even quit various social media platforms as a result. However, I never fully took charge of my digital life. The whole COVID situation only made it worse. This weekend (August 2020) is when I finally decided to full on and minimize my phone usage to a minimum. I'm not quitting everything in rage. I'd still stay connected. However, I'd be making a clear plan on what I want to use, why and how much and stick to it.


Why is too much digital exposure bad?


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