Hey there! Thanks for opening this up.
No writing from me this time, just curation, but also a bit of tidying up - when you have stuff (notes, writing, social media posts) all over the place, things get lost.
The newsletter here is then a way to document what I care about, hence the subtitle of this issue. Did a bit more analysis this time around, sort of as my own notes I took while reading the articles.
(Image credits: Pexels, Longxiang Qian)
How 25 Side Projects Led to Dream Careers
Medium; Yunzhe Zhou
A compilation of what people did regarding side projects, a very important topic for me. Includes link to a guide the author wrote on how to start, as well as her own experience doing 12 side projects in 12 months.
Side projects can make a life-changing difference, as I've experienced myself. They can help with exploring different careers, gaining new skills, and testing out business ideas. Examples of each category from the post:
-1: 52 Cups of Coffee. On learning about different ways of living and working by having a conversation with a different person every week for a year.
-2: 180 websites in 180 days. Making 180 websites in 180 days to learn how to code.
-3: 100 Days of Real Food. An experiment of excluding processed or refined food led to a blog as well as a content business of meal plans, cookbooks, and food programs.
A Very Offensive Rom-Com
Podcast episode on an attempt to understand attraction: why we are attracted to who we are attracted to, done through the producer’s own research on the history of Asian men and women in America, interviews with researchers, and most notably one Asian American woman’s experiment to “see the world”.
This brings up a dilemma: if someone purposely seeks out partners who are different from the race he or she has had an affinity towards, is this individual still being discriminatory in some manner? Even when it’s rather than dismissing them, but specifically targeting them?
What a complicated issue, centered around historical and present-day happenings. I think one message this episode is trying to convey is to not outwardly judge someone based on his or her choice of partner, as being honest with themselves is a personal matter. But this brings up another question of optimal trade-offs: trust someone despite background, conduct extensive due diligence, or dismiss/avoid them entirely?
Why and How Capitalism Needs to Be Reformed
LinkedIn; Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio paints a bleak picture of America, comparing the current situation to that of the 1930’s (you know what happened then), citing the need for action in order to avoid a revolution given his concern about the government’s ability to weather an economic downturn.
Dalio keeps it real. He explains the rise of extreme populism on both sides due to disparities in wealth accompanied by disparities in values. Additionally, he claims the system of capitalism is not working - the people at the top continue to benefit as a greater portion of profits go to them via automation, rather than to the workers. Resources then shift to cater to those who have the money, hence the college cheating scandal. Regarding solutions, Dalio keeps it vague, citing establishing baseline healthcare and education for those who can’t take care of themselves, and public-private partnerships.
This Bloomberg article provides a summary. What’s interesting is how some are skeptical of Ray Dalio’s points given his status as a billionaire. Ironic though… shouldn’t he be someone who knows the system the best?
Ten Lessons I Learned While Teaching Myself to Code
Tim Ferris Blog; Clive Thompson
Clive, a science journalist who spent three years interviewing about 200 programmers for his book on coders, got inspiration from stories the minority of the interviewees who taught themselves and learns by himself.
He touches upon various aspects, I’ll highlight two:
-starting out > one part is about finding the right resources. He recommends (I do too) Codeacademy and freeCodeCamp to learn the basics of JS, HTML, and CSS. For Python, “Learn Python The Hard Way” and “Automate the Boring Stuff With Python”. The good thing is that the programming concepts remain the same despite language, such as IF,THEN statements, loops, etc.
-routine > the importance of consistency, even 30 minutes per day. On matters such as structure and deciding what to learn. Also on trial and error. Of debugging over and over until it clicks. Just like in writing, in musical performance, dance, etc.
Overall, this piece is important in touching upon the topic of learning how to learn - choosing where to start, determining routines, navigating through failures and setbacks, working with others, and establishing feedback loops (to see how far you’ve come).
Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It
Kamal Ravikant, Naval’s (the founder of AngelList) brother, wrote this book on mindset. A short and quick read that can help with mindset.
Until next time! Please do let me know if you have any thoughts/feedback, would do a lot in helping me learn from what I’m doing, and improve the newsletter.
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