Not living a microwave life - Issue #16
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed last week’s Madness. There’s a lot more in store this week.
Good morning guys,
I had an epiphany when I came across this statement.
Not living a microwave life - there is beauty in slowness.
The meaning behind not living a microwave life is quite simple- as I recall my experience living at halls, my go-to meal that I love to prepare was a bag of noodles - Maggi. I pour the content into a container along with water and microwave it. Over time, this became a pavlovian response as I ascended from my first to the fourth year of University. The reason why it became a microwave meal was due to various reasons: easiness, convenient and I wasted less time in preparation.
I was originally conflicted with the idea of cooking every day, it seemed like a waste of my time. At one point, I even considered hiring a food service company to deliver pre-set meals. But, I knew this wouldn’t last long due to cost implications. As I started working, I began to develop the habit of cooking in bulk for both my lunch and dinner meals and the food lasted me about two days.
And, this allowed me to achieve two things: The pleasure in slowing down and cooking a freshly cooked meal seemed like a therapeutic session; it provided me with the opportunity to practice my default activity. And, secondly, it satisfied my internal feeling of not wasting my time while cooking.
I believe slowing down can be considered as a mental model. A reflective measure to other facets of our lives. It’s a process of calling a “time-out” and reflect on the process that we practice at work, for our personal lives, and our side-hustle.
Ultimately, slowing down provides us with the opportunity to re-centre our thoughts, energy and goals.
That’s all for today. I hope you guys have an awesome week ahead.
Yours truly,
Abhishek
Stuff I enjoyed from last week
Podcast - In this podcast, Samantha Ryan and Naval Ravikant expand on various ideas. 1) Throw out the idea of work, if you’re constantly using the idea of work…work to keep yourself happy, then you’re just beating yourself up. If it’s your passion, then it’s not work. If you practice the idea of ‘checkbox’, for example going to the gym, meditating, or writing each day. Remove the idea of work because it downgrades it into a chore. 2) Do your best work, not for anyone else but for yourself because humans connect with commonality and shared interests.
Article - The idea of people driven learning is a forum that is driven by influencers - to create a personal monopoly. Its a combination of skills, interests and personality traits. And, the best way to create your personal monopoly is a) apply trader joe’s strategy - the idea of using a curator as your learning guide and b) become a fan. It’s definitely worth the read.
Youtube Video - My favourite productivity book, in this video Ali Abdaal provides a breakdown into the book Make time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky. One key idea that I’ve been practising for the past couple of months is to write down my 'daily highlight of the day’. I originally came across this in a blog post. I acquired this book while back and after coming across this video - it’s time to read it.
Question I'm pondering on...
What victimhood have you adopted that is pressing on you from the outside and preventing you from being happy?
Kindle highlight of the week
Authenticity is a welcome relief to consumers who live in a society where they constantly feel that they’re being taken advantage of or hearing only parts of the whole story. Don’t try to fake it. Eventually you’ll be shown for who you are.
Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence—and How You Can, Too - By Gary Vaynerchuk
Blog post
The Gift of Feedback – Abhishek Nair
Google defines feedback as: information about reactions to a product, a person’s performance of a task, etc. which is used as a basis for improvement. The idea of feedback is to deter an individual from repeating the same mistakes. And, that’s the beauty in showcasing your work to the world because you welcome feedback from…
Video
Pay yourself first