Hello!
Week 22 has passed by. We are at 41% of the year. I didn’t know I’ll wish a year to pass faster, but here we are.
This year has given us so many surprises already. Mostly the bad ones. But this week is special. After a decade a crew mission to Space is launching from American Soil in an American built Space Craft (which is a first in history). I’m really excited to see this mission progress. (more on this in the second point of the newsletter)
[Next up is my book reading progress, which I’m sharing publicly every week for public accountability so that I reach my goal of 24 books a year this year. If you don’t want to read about the books, skip to the first point from the 5 awesome things below]
Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I moved forward on below books –
- Highly Productive Remote Work by Darius Foroux – Finished
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – 30% done only (Kindle and Audible)
- “The Sign of the Four” of the Sherlock Holmes series – 80% done (Audible)
No progress on below ones this week –
- Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway – 20% done only (Audible)
- Breaking Smart: Season One: How Software is Eating the World – 60% done (an amazing book recommended by David Perell) (Kindle)
As my goal was to read at least 24 books in the year 2020. So to just summarize and reflect for this year till now, as of writing this newsletter on 30th May I’ve read 5 books completely –
- Why We Sleep
- Homo Deus
- Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet (Book 1)
- Highly Productive Remote Work
- Nonviolent Communication
Below are the ones I’m progressing on –
- Becoming a Category of One (20%)
- Breaking Smart: Season One: How Software is Eating the World (60%)
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (30%)
- Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of the Four (80%)
- Truck de India (20%)
Below are the ones in the reading list till Jul 2020 – (have a new book to recommend me? Let me know, in the comments) keeping a few extras than 12 books –
- Atomic Habits
- Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie
This is the plan until Jul 2020. In mid of Jul 2020, I’ll be selecting the books to start with for the second half of the year. I’m looking forward to that.
That’s it for the personal updates.
Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.
Issue 186 // Week 22 // 2020
A new word or expression I learned from one of the recent books I’m reading (Breaking Smart) —
sine qua non – a thing that’s absoultely necessary
Use example – “Grammar is the sine qua non of language teaching and learning.”
A historic event which is happing and has got me excited —
SpaceX and NASA’s manned demo flight to the ISS (2020) – This is a historic moment for the whole world and especially for the US. The US Government space Agency NASA is doing the demo flight of commercial spacecraft of SpaceX with their Astronauts on it. SpaceX is founded by Tesla founder – Elon Musk.
NASA and SpaceX targeted 4:33 p.m. EDT Wednesday, May 27, for the launch of the Demo-2 flight, however, due to the bad weather that didn’t go through and was postponed to 3:22 p.m. EDT Saturday, May 20. (as of writing this newsletter on Saturday morning in 10 a.m. IST)
For the first time in history, NASA astronauts will launch from American soil in a commercially built and operated American crew spacecraft on its way to the International Space Station. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is going to carry NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley and will lift off at 3:22 p.m. EDT Saturday on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to dock to the International space station at 10:29 a.m. Sunday, May 31. NASA Television and the agency’s website are going to provide live coverage of the Crew Dragon’s trip to the orbiting laboratory.
I’m really excited to see this mission taking shape in reality. If this mission is successful, this is going to be the start of a new era of Space Exploration. More commercial companies may come into this race and especially SpaceX will move forward to their plans to land their spacecraft on Moon and Mars.
Goodspeed the Dragon.
A video I found useful —
How to Set SMART Goals – Becoming productive and effective at the same time is the goal everyone should strive for. Here is a great formula to set and achieve goals. It’s S.M.A.R.T.
This video made me recollect the famous Peter Drucker quote –
What gets measured gets managed.
— Peter Drucker
Music I’m loving —
Innerbloom by RÜFÜS DU SOL – Man! I stumbled upon this song from YouTube Algorithm and this just blew my mind. I could resonate with one of the comments on this video that said –
When I listen to this song it makes me feel like I am an observer of a world completely different from ours.
– YT Comment Citation
I really felt this somewhere in between the song. Like floating above the surface of the earth and watching it from above. It sounds psychedelic but it was more like meditative and healing.
A Quote I found symbolically true from the book I’m (re) reading (The Fountainhead) –
It is not the works, but the belief which is here decisive and determines the order of rank—to employ once more an old religious formula with a new and deeper meaning, it is some fundamental certainty which a noble soul has about itself, something which is not to be sought, is not to be found, and perhaps, also, is not to be lost. The noble soul has reverence for itself.
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.
Until Next Saturday!
Thanks for reading.
Himanshu
About Author
I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.
Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!
No spam, ever. Only great stuff.
Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 186 // Week 22 // 2020
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