One of the things that I have been very interested in recently is the abundance mindset. The internet offers many definitions, but at this point, “I know it when I see it”. It is also something I don’t have. Yet. Or at least, it is sporadic. And that’s something I want to remedy.
I know at least a couple of people who display it in most circumstances. They are calm like Stoics, but I think they embrace life and its flavours much more. And I have seen that this mindset makes their lives better – both professionally and personally. This is reason enough, but something I read recently also gave me an a-ha moment – George Saunders’ convocation speech at Syracuse University for the class of 2013. 1
(more…)What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness.
Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded…sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.
The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem is a book I recently read, and loved. It was written in Polish in 1965, and translated to English in 1974. Lem wasn’t an author I had heard of, despite having read many science fiction anthologies. An online post that extolled him at the cost of my favourites like Asimov was what led me to this book. (I would have linked it, but I’ve forgotten how I found it!) Lem has been translated into 41 languages and has sold 30 million copies. But he was rebuffed by quite a few American writers including Philip K. Dick, multiple times, because he was perceived as being annoying, and had commented that American writing was “ill thought out, poorly written…” Also, his belief was that the only true motive for writing was to contribute to literature.1
It made me think of a post in one of the newsletters I often recommend to folks – Taylor Pearson‘s The Interesting Times. As I tweeted sometime back, his writing is centrifugal – pointing to books, posts and ideas, and centripetal – goes deep into an idea and provides food for thought (the latter is different from what Austin Kleon meant in the original framing 2). The specific post I am referring to – 4 minute songs, which was about certain rules that a creators need to follow if they want their work to be consumed and appreciated, was the latter, and made me reflect. I wondered whether, even at an individual level, we are increasingly optimising for others’ consumption over our own expression.
(more…)Let me begin from the unlikely context that sparked this thought. Mohanlal’s Drishyam 2. I thought the film was a poorly-written, with the character becoming inseparable from the pandering that’s required for the star’s fanbase. Most of the world thought otherwise. While I agreed that I too wouldn’t have liked to see the character lose a cat-and-mouse with the police, there are ways to script a win-win – Ayyappanum Koshiyum being a case in point. But it made me wonder about the kind of cinema that is unlikely to get made based on the will of the majority.
The will of the majority impacts other things too – for instance, politics. My Twitter feed is abuzz with people who call out the current government. It has perfectly executed the Fascism playbook of dismantling not just opponents but the architecture of institutions and culture that creates a free society. But in the larger world, one has to acknowledge that it got democratically elected, and that the people who do not like the Modisatva are still a minority.
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