ali abdaal Archives - Lifestyle Architecture Lab

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 220 // Week 1 // 2023

December 31, 2022 No Comments

Hi Friends!

Greetings from Mumbai!

A new year is here – 2023!

Wishing you a very happy new year!

These past few weeks I spent some hours on reflecting on the year gone by, what did go well, what didn’t go well and what I could have done better. Yes! A yearly review it’s in the making. I’ll be publishing it pretty soon.

Did you spend any time in last few weeks – reflecting, resting and with family? If yes, then good. If no, then you might want to meditate on that and next year end around do this activity.

It brings you a lot of insights, so many things happen during the day that we just take for granted or simply forget, if you look back and reflect on the months gone by, you get to know, how much was done and what you could have done better.

I wanted to read some fiction and you won’t believe how good children books are, I follow a YouTube channel where an audio book – Matilda by Roald Dahl (a free audiobook link here) was recommended. The presenter had read this book in her childhood and now when her kid arrived she is reading it to her. But the book is so good, that she is also enjoying it. So I bought that book on my audible and started listening to it. To my surprise the book is read by Kate Winslet (yes! the Titanic one). I’ll give a review on this book in upcoming newsletters.

Anyway, without further adieu, here is this week’s Saturday-Pentacle. A list of things and ideas I found Interesting.

Issue 220 // Week 1 // 2023

An article I found really useful —

The Lingering of loss – The writer shares a beautiful story about her friend. When she died she left her laptop to her (the writer) in her will. Twenty years later, the writer turned it on and began her inquest.

Story worth reading.

A video I found really useful —

Ali Abdaal’s video – How I failed in 2022 – Ali is one of my favourite YouTubers who really turned his passion into profession. This is the story of how he expanded his vision from his YouTube Channel to make himself a brand and then create multiple business out of it.

This is not exactly a failure which he is portraying, but rather a self reflection on how he could have done better in his business (spoiler alert he still made millions).

This is the video where who talked from his heart and shared a lot of insights. Really great video.

A weekly review process I’ve started using —

I’ve been doing weekly reviews from a long time but always wanted to make it a bit more structured, so while finding my footing back into Evernote in recent weeks, I stumbled upon a weekly review template which is GTD (Evernote link) process based. I’ve created an this Evernote link to share the same, in case you are interested to start your own Weekly Review process. It gives you structured ideas to do like –

Weekly cleanups of digital and physical inboxes
Clearing of Computer folders
Clearing of your desk
Clearing any mental mess with journaling section and more…

Weekly Reviews are great for keeping up with your larger goals which span though months or years. Daily we cannot track something, but a week is a good enough unit of measurement towards those goals. So check out the weekly review template Evernote Link, if you are interested

A productivity desk setup video I loved—

Liam Porritt’s productivity desk setup – This lawyer’s productivity setup is pretty interesting, double monitors, collar bone speaker set (something new I found) and a lot more masterful productivity accessories.

A great video, check it out, if you are interested in productivity improvements too.

Quote which I found meaningful –

“We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience.”
― John Dewey

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for supporting and reading.

Himanshu

PS. – I’m on Twitter and Instagram. Follow for regular tidbits.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 220 // Week 1 // 2023

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 218 // Week 51 // 2022

December 17, 2022 No Comments

Hi Friends!

Greetings from Mumbai!

Last week started out great for me, a bit peaceful, but then towards the mid of the week, chaos again started to pour in. Then suddenly it started to feel like, firefight mode. But all well, which ends well.

Learning from the last week –

It’s good to help the business counterparts on things that matter, but not so good when they start to pull up stunts on you with the information they got from you. Then you need to take charge and confront them as well. Stand for yourself. As I learned from a Jordan Peterson quote –

You have to be Dangerous, but that doesn’t mean you need to pose threats out of control. Being dangerous means having control over your actions but your countparty should have that fear that this man could be dangerous, if I mess with him.

On another note – I’m also learning more about cloud-based applications and migrations to modern architecture. It’s becoming fun and interesting.

As this month I got into a new year of my life (yes it is the birthday month for me), I’ve been contemplating letting certain things go, material things, I’ve been clinging on to. As you move further, things accumulate and until you get rid of some stuff you don’t need, you can’t make space for meaningful things.

Moving on – I’ve bought the maximum number of books this month in this entire year (I think 7+ books). I’m really excited about a few of the books I’m going to read in the coming months.

My note-taking has also been improving, which is more to do with the process, rather than the tools I was using. But let me tell you something, if you fix the tools you gonna use for your note-taking, it lessens the decision fatigue when you are actually doing the process. I think the last 2 months have been when I took the maximum number of notes, since the 2013-16 period when I really started out with blogging and writing. It’s been fun to rediscover the knowledge I had, resurfacing it and reconnecting to it.

I’ve been reducing my consumption of Instagram, with this iPhone app/trick (inspired by Ali Abdaal’s YT Shorts video) (it’s annoying sometimes, but it has reduced my Instagram usage from 100% to merely 15% (in terms of the number of hours per week).

So that’s it from my last week’s reflections.

Without further adieu, here is this week’s Saturday Pentacle consisting of things and ideas I found Interesting last week.

Issue 218 // Week 51 // 2022

I website I found mind-boggling —

This Person Does Not Exist – In past years deep fake images or videos have been surfacing which in many cases have notoriously put the victims of the deep fakes in shambles.

You won’t believe how believable these deep fakes have become. Check out this site to see the persons who do not exist.

A book I’m loving —

The Denial of Death – I don’t know why few books where the author is talking about death, to be more precisely their own foreseen death, are so intriguing and gripping to me always. It shows me how their perspective shifts around the time when they are thrown up against death. A race they slowly realize they can’t win, then how they start living mindfully knowing each moment counts.

This book will surely make you rethink your own fears and insecurities.

Side note – This book won the Pulitzer prize in 1974.

An unexpected video I took notes from —

In the Library with Kristen Stewart – Kristen Stewart (Stew + Art – I just made up that name breakdown) – as she was usually identified with Twilight saga movies, but when I read more and more about her, I got to know, how outstanding an actor she is and how she is obsessed with stories.

In this video, she shares her literary side and her passion for literature.

A poem I loved —

“No Help for that” a poem by Charles Bukowski from the book “You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense” (got the reference of it from above Kristen Stewart video itself)

There is a place in the heart that will never be filled a space.

And even during the best moments and the greatest times we will know it, we will know it more that ever.

There is a place in the heart that will never be filled and we will wait and wait in that place.

Quote which I found meaningful –

An idea kept private is as good as one you never had.
— Taking smart notes

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for supporting and reading.

Himanshu

PS. – I’m on Twitter and Instagram. Follow for regular tidbits.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 218 // Week 51 // 2022

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 212 // Week 9 // 2022

February 26, 2022 No Comments

Hi Friends!

Greetings from Mumbai!

Here is this week’s Saturday-Pentacle. A list of things and ideas I found Interesting.

Issue 212 // Week 9 // 2022

A book I’m reading —

The Making of a Manager – I’ve was introduced to this book from an email or video (not sure which) by Ali Abdaal.

This book is written by Julie Zhuo who is famous in the Silicon Valley circles. She started her career with Facebook and worked along with Mark and Sheryl as well.

But this book is no fluff, it’s pretty intimate story of her journey from being thown into a manager position and how she managed to be come a great one.

As quoted by her –

Good managers are made, not born.

I’m midway through this book in two sittings, It’s that interesting. Plus I’m able to relate many portions with where I am in my career right now.

My recent LinkedIn post —

Disruptive Innovation Vs Traditional incremental change – In this micro essay, I explored how Disruptive Innovation being different from Traditional incremental change can still coincide.

A Tweet thread I loved —

This thread by Joe Speiser was fire. After reading this I also started re-evaluating my entire investment strategy.

It’s full of how insights and strategy (especially cigar butts strategy).

I've always been a fan of Buffett, but after years and years of this bull run I slowly lost touch with his deep-value methodology.

This 1 quote, I stumbled upon late Saturday night, made me reevaluate my entire equities strategy.

"If I was running $1 million today…

🧵
— Joe Speiser ⚡️ (@jspeiser) February 7, 2022

A podcast episode I loved —

Minting Billionaires and the Religion of Bitcoin with Meltem Demirors – The title of the episode sounds too lucrative to be true, doesn’t it?

But when you start digging in and find how deep Meltem is in this crypto ecosystem and how knowledgeable she is, it starts turning into a really really interesting podcast episode.

Loved the episode.

Quote which I found meaningful –

Trust allows relationships to compound. When you don’t have to re-evaluate people or worry about protecting yourself all the time, you go both further and faster with less anxiety and stress.
– @ShaneAParrish

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for supporting and reading.

Himanshu

PS. – I’m on Twitter and Instagram. Follow for regular tidbits.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 212 // Week 9 // 2022

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 202 // Week 27 // 2021

July 10, 2021 No Comments

Hello!

Another issue of Saturday Pentacle is here!

This week I wanted to record the next part of Decluttering Digital Life series but it’s still in progress (blame it on other works). But hopefully, it will see the (YouTube) light on Sunday (tomorrow)

This week it was a bit easier to turn my online rendezvous into this nifty little newsletter, as I’m trying to find my process back again. I think the hard part is – when you are in the moment of consumption of a piece of content, which you find captivating, to write it down and save it so that documenting or reflecting on that piece of content is easier. So I’m trying to find my groove back again.

Notion definitely helps me keep my content bank full as my weekly resonance calendar.

This past week was more intense for me at work, but I’m realizing more and more that if you are putting your full intensity and draining yourself out in the projects where others have not made the plans well and are not competitive enough while working along, it makes everything difficult. There is an invisible line which you shouldn’t let anyone cross in that perspective. If they do, you know it’s time to let go.

Running was it was a less than average week, I did just a couple of runs. Jun month has been the greatest from the running point of view this year. I hope July is better. But Mumbai rains, they make it difficult. Even though I like running in the rain but not daily. Sometimes you don’t want to feel all drenched up. Maybe the last week was one of those times.

Anyway, time for you to read on the good stuff I found the past week. Enjoy!

Issue 202 // Week 27 // 2021

Book I’m reading —

Don Quixote – I got the weird reference of this book from a sci-fi series The Expanse somewhere in the last season (5) start when James Holden (the protagonist) visits earth to meet her mother.

Now coming to the book, here is the praise for this classic as quoted from the audible page –

The most influential work of the entire Spanish literary canon and a founding work of modern Western literature, Don Quixote is also one of the greatest works ever written. Hugely entertaining but also moving at times, this episodic novel is built on the fantasy life of one Alonso Quixano, who lives with his niece and housekeeper in La Mancha. Quixano, obsessed by tales of knight errantry, renames himself “Don Quixote” and, with his faithful servant Sancho Panza, goes on a series of quests. Many of these adventures, including tilting at windmills, are established in European literary consciousness. Originally published in two volumes a decade apart (in 1605 and 1615).

I’ve just started listening to the audiobook last week and I can say it takes you away from the current world and I’m excited to listen to it daily.

An interesting (or fearsome) fact I learned —

What’s the scariest thing? – We all have fear of something, but what is something that we all fear from? In this amazing video of VSauce, we discover that.

I just can’t imagine how he makes videos like this (just see the production value, damn!)

A Tweet thread about procrastination i liked (click the Twitter embed and read the entire thread) —

Want to beat procrastination?

The answer is in 'The War of Art' by @SPressfield – a thread👇
— Ali Abdaal (@AliAbdaal) July 8, 2021

Music or Artist I’ve been listening to —

Sam Smith – Even though I’ve been listening in rounds to songs like Dancing with a stranger (ft. Normani) and How do you sleep etc. earlier. But after seeing an Apple Documentary this past week on Sam Smith – “On The Record: Sam Smith—The Thrill Of It All” (It came out when the album with the same name came out a few years back) on Apple Music (Not able to share the full docu link because it’s exclusively on Apple Music). I discovered Sam’s whole music-making process, his band and support group and I discovered songs like – No peace, Pray, Burning and with the mix of Gospel music fusing with other genres. It felt like I opened up to a complete line of music genres. Just mind-blowing.

Here is the song Burning –

Quote which I found meaningful –

My definition of being properly educated is being right when the professor is wrong.
— Charlie Munger

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for supporting and 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 202 // Week 27 // 2021

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Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 189 // Week 25 // 2020

June 20, 2020 No Comments

Hello!

This past week had been a rollercoaster again for the entire nation. Sushant Singh Rajput’s death came as a real shocker. An actor who was doing so well, or so we thought from the outside. He might have been doing well on the monetary level but at an emotional level apparently he wasn’t.

It was a shock to me personally as well, as I liked him as an actor, his movies like Kai Po Che!, his portrayal of MS Dhoni (the ex-Indian Cricket Captain) in M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story and many more. He would get into the character so much that you couldn’t tell him apart from the character he was doing. Plus he was a really intelligent human being, his keen interest in astrophysics was really rare to see in any of the Indian Artists. In fact, he was one of the person in my interview dream guest list for my podcast. Gone too soon. I surely am going to miss him as a human being.

On the other side, tensions on Indo-China border are increasing day-by-day. I just hope things settle down. But if chinese forces keep on intruding, I don’t think India will stay with hands folded. War is the least we all want at this moment, where we are are in the middle of a historic pandemic. So I really hope that things calm down on border and China gets their shit together now. It’s high time.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I moved forward on below books –

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 40% done (Audible) – I was on a binge listening spree on this one.
Atomic Habits by James Clear – 25% done (Audible) – finally started out on this book, I really wanted to read it since it launched last year. So many insights. I’ve been following James from 4-5 years now and love his actionable writing.

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 – 70% done (an amazing book recommended by David Perell) (Kindle)
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – 50% done only (Kindle)
Truck de India – 20% – (Kindle)

Current Yearly Tally – [Yearly goal – 24]

Read – 6 | In progress – 6 | Pending in Reading list – 4 | Yet to discover for reading for yearly goal – 8

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 189 // Week 25 // 2020

An event I’m looking forward to —

WWDC 2020 (Virtual Event) – For the first time in the history of Apple, WWDC is going virtual this year due to the Pandemic. I’m so pumped about this virtual event. Updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS are awaited. I hope they live up to the expectations of customers’ feedback.

Not sure if they’ll be launching any new hardware in this event. But big software updates are for sure awaited. Fingers Crossed.

If you are as excited as I am, click the link in the title to go to the WWDC page, for following up on updates and on the WWDC days the event can be tracked here.

A ~~podcast~~ conversation I loved —

Ali talks to his roommate Molly – Ali Abdaal is one of the rising YouTubers who talk about productivity and lifestyle design. In this video he has a conversation with his long time friend and roommate Molly, where they talk about Molly’s cancer survival, being a doctor and going through the situations to be where they both are.

I resonated a lot with this video’s realness and totally recommend for watching –

A video which made me understand things at a deeper level (after Sushant Singh Rajput’s Death) —

Parents Who Have Lost a Child – Call it serendipity or something, the below video surfaced on my YouTube feed after I had been hit hard like others (after Sushant’s death).

I was amazed at the ease with which some of the parents spoke about losing their child. It shattered my heart to listen to the mother when she was telling the story that how his son was sitting on the dining table and crying in front of her maid (caretaker) that “Mom, I’m Sorry”, “Mom, I’m Sorry”. Then he jumps out of a high rise building and dies.

But listening about their pain and how they have gone through it all, made me realise not to take things for granted. I felt grateful in a weird way.

Check it out.

P.S.: If you are someone who’s in depression and can be triggered to see people talk about suicide in detail. Please don’t watch this video.

Music I’m loving —

The Important Song (Live) by Joe Anderson – I stumbled upon this song via an Instagram Story. This is from a 2009 album from Joe Anderson. He put out an important topic in the son literally named “The Important Song”. The idea is brilliant.

Quote which I found meaningful –

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.
― James Clear (Atomic Habits)

Before saying “see you next week”

Here is the latest story from my Lifestyle Design in Action Story Series where Tanistha Arora shares her story. Check it out if you haven’t –

Living the Middle Path

and if you haven’t checked out my podcast episode yet with Shashank Murali (Co-Founder and CEO of Tapchief), then what are you waiting for! Check it out now. Here is the YouTube link –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 189 // Week 25 // 2020

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Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 179 // Week 15 // 2020

April 11, 2020 No Comments

Hello there!

So Lockdown has been extended in India till 30th April in most of the states. Because the new cases are still on the rise, even though in a controlled manner, but still rising.

I think until the whole nation is tested with rapid test kits in large scale, we won’t know the scale of the spread. Even though it’s still contained because most of the Indians are obeying the stay home rule. But still, people who are out of job and food are forced to come on the streets to collect food from the NGO people.

In the past week, Cadila healthcare India who is a major pharma company announced that they have made the vaccine and it’s in animal testing phase right now. Even though the US also has some companies working on vaccines and Bill Gates is supporting parallel manufacturing of 7 strong US candidates for vaccine making, let’s see who wins the race.

This also makes a window for people to buy stocks of these companies and the underlying companies who are making the masks, ventilators. As they will eventually pop on the stock market. So we should look out for that as well.

Coming back to the newsletter and to the book listening progress, I didn’t progress much in this past week on the books front and “The Sign of the Four” book from Sherlock Holmes series (85% now) just made 5% progress. Another book – Becoming a Category of One – I just started that and wasn’t able to finish even the first part under 10%. Batching the audiobooks with workouts (non-running) didn’t work as well, as I anticipated. So I need to carve out at least half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening to progress on this front. I’ll work on it this week.

So without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 179 // Week 15 // 2020

Interesting info about Bees I found —

How do bees make honey? – While posting one of my Instagram macro photos of bee extracting food from the flower, I was intrigued by how exactly they make the honey? So I found this article on The Guardian where I found this simple but useful info about this –

“Bees start making honey, which is their food, by visiting flowers. They collect a sugary juice called nectar from the blossom by sucking it out with their tongues. They store it in what’s called their honey stomach, which is different from their food stomach.

When they have a full load, they fly back to the hive. There, they pass it on through their mouths to other worker bees who chew it for about half an hour. It’s passed from bee to bee until it gradually turns into honey. Then the bees store it in honeycomb cells, which are like tiny jars made of wax. The honey is still a bit wet, so they fan it with their wings to make it dry out and become more sticky. When it’s ready, they seal the cell with a wax lid to keep it clean.

So that’s how bees make honey. They don’t make very much of it, though. It takes at least eight bees all their life to make one single teaspoonful.“

An interesting person I started following on Twitter —

Through one of my favourite online writer – David Perell I found Matthew Kobach last week. Matthew is the Head of New York Stock Exchang’s (@NYSE) Social Media and one of the first people to ever pursue a PhD predicting how people use social media.

On his Twitter account, he shares his tips and tricks to for increasing your traction on Twitter. Very interesting personality.

A time management video I really enjoyed —

How I Manage my Time as a Doctor + YouTuber – 9 Time Management Tips – I really found this video by Ali Abdaal who is a Junior Doctor in the UK and also a famous productivity YouTuber. He’s videos have really popped up in last one year. I precisely remember a year back watching one of his iPad video – How students should use the iPad for better performance. I’m a fan of his videos since.

This particular video is for time management as he’s a solopreneur, Junior Doctor and YouTuber, so it was really useful to see how he manages his time. Check it out if you are also a one-person show, this video might be helpful –

A recipe (sort of) video I found useful —

How to make awesome cold brew with 3 different methods – This Starbucks helped me make my first batch of cold brew coffee this past week. In this one they are making it with 3 different methods. 1st and 3rd methods require proprietary instruments. But the 2nd method was the saviour. A 3-litre jar plus a cheesecloth or a cotton handkerchief plus the coffee will make you 3-4 days worth of cold-brew with this method.

I can totally recommend this to make cold-brew coffee. It was delicious.

Quote I’m pondering on lately –

Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Before saying “see you next week”
I posted a few pictures on Instagram in the past week. You can check them out here or go to my Instagram for whole stories –

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Himanshu Sachdeva (@sachdevahimanshu) on Apr 4, 2020 at 12:30am PDT

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Himanshu Sachdeva (@sachdevahimanshu) on Apr 10, 2020 at 9:40pm PDT

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

Hey friends, I’m Himanshu, 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 179 // Week 15 // 2020

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 175 // Week 11 // 2020

March 14, 2020 No Comments

Hello there!

Hope you are safe and taking precautions to prevent COVID-19 exposure! In the past week, the situation has escalated to another level. Nearly 4000 plus people are dead worldwide and most of the countries are taking extreme caution steps like locking down entire cities.

Even my own office management has asked us to work from home, keeping in mind the situation and the risk associated with travel to the office.

This whole situation made me pause for a while and think about this year. Since the start of 2020, there have been many tragedies until now. Like Kobe Bryant death, Delhi Riots, Australian Bush Fires and now this COVID-19 worldwide spread. All of it sounds like straight out of the book of the apocalypse.

But humankind is always hopeful. I hope we get through this scare as well.

From another perspective, it also seems like a way of earth balancing life. Humans have done too much harm and seem like nature is taking it’s toll now by all these events.

I really wish and want that we humans do better with the environment, the earth and the treat other sentient beings with dignity as well. That seems like the only way to return back to the equilibrium with nature because this is the only pale blue dot we got to live.

I’m personally taking steps to reduce my carbon footprint by reducing plastic in my life, avoiding burning fossil fuel and being mindful of everything I consume and do.

This Corona Virus situation may be a turning point in history when we look back from the future, it may seem like it taught us how nature can give us back what we give to her. It also taught corporates to get better at making people work from home, travelling less, burning less or no fuel for travelling and social distancing.

I’m also making a video on the whole Corona Virus situation which may help people to understand the situation and not panic. Being Alert is the need of the hour and not being anxious.

Last week we had couple of holidays in India. Holi is one of them. The festival of colors. But this time it was not as colourful due to the COVID-19. I also celebrated it along with my family at home only with a small tikka of colour.

Coming on to the book listening progress, I’m at 75% with “The Sign of the Four” book from Sherlock Holmes series and with “Nonviolent Communication” (50% done). Inching closer to the goal. Yay!

This week I also released a different kind of video (with a lot of B-Rolls) – The 90 Mins Morning routine. (Check it out at the end section of this newsletter).

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 175 // Week 11 // 2020

A video I found really useful to learn more about COVID-19 —

CoronaVirus (COVID-19) – The Basics – Ali Abdaal does a great job explaining about the situation of COVID-19 and what actions to take. Check this out. I’m aiming to create a similar video with keeping in mind Indian situations.

A person I’m curious to know more about (Maybe a podcast episode brewing…Psss) —

Pallavi Jha – She’s the Chairperson and Managing Director of Dale Carnegie Training India. Pallavi has worked with more than 8,000 organizations to date and has equipped countless companies with the skills needed to scale in India’s competitive, dynamic economy.

A powerful personality. Check out this video –

A song I loved —

Kaheen Main Khirki to nahin – Discovered this new song on SoundCloud.

Mehdi Maloof has done an interesting job with this song.

Check it out it’s a little different –

A TedTalk I found interesting –

How technology frames reality – I found this TedTalk accidentally but loved the very different perspective it shared.

How technology is framing reality and how our perception has become a real estate to sell ads. It also shares a web browser plugin prototype which helps shape the digital content and show us how things really are instead of the photoshopped versions.

Check it out –

Quote I’m pondering on lately –

This is the best reason to learn history: not in order to predict the future, but to free yourself of the past and imagine alternative destinies. Of course this is not total freedom – we cannot avoid being shaped by the past. But some freedom is better than none.
Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Before saying “see you next week”
Here is the video I released in last week – The 90 Mins Morning Routine. This is what I follow currently for a powerful and productive day. Check it out –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 175 // Week 11 // 2020

life, Patreon Exclusive, regular, yearly review

Looking back (An annual review – 2019)

December 31, 2019 No Comments

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From the past six years, I’m doing an annual review of my life. December month is usually the time of every year when I tend to slow down a bit and take a pause. It’s the time when I reflect back on the year. What I’ve done, where I’ve been, where I’m at right now and what I’m looking forward to. To promote writing online and to keep myself publicly committed to my new year’s goals, I publish the annual review here.

A rear view mirror showing Himanshu behind the camera near a waterbody showing looking back 2019 annual review text as well

This is my 7th annual review, you can access all my previous reviews at the end of this post.

This year also I’ll answer three questions, the same as the past 6 years.

What went well this year?
What didn’t go so well this year?
What’s am I working toward?

Hope it will be insightful and interesting for some of you. Lets cut to the chase.

Looking back (An annual review – 2019)

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle – Week 47 – 2019

November 23, 2019 No Comments

A poem I wrote half a decade ago which I’m pondering on again –

Rosetta Stone – A poem! – I think I wrote this poem almost 5+ years back. It talks about life, love and everything in between.

My most popular Instagram post recently —

Sepal on the sand! #tbt to beach times.
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…Click the photo below to read the entire story.

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A post shared by Himanshu Sachdeva (@sachdevahimanshu) on May 28, 2017 at 6:55am PDT

An article I loved and recommend —

A Knowledge Processing System for Marketers, Creators, and Knowledge Workers – This long-form article a great place to look for if you are a content creator or a knowledge worker (that’s a new term I learned from this article) or a marketeer. It gives the idea of how to create a KPM or a Knowledge Processing System.

Because most of the time we are just consuming knowledge in a blink and later forget about it and then eventually lose it. a KPM can help you out in retaining the knowledge after learning and eventually make you be able to use that information in any of your future projects.

Check this out, it’s long-form but really worth reading.

A YouTube video I loved –

Ali (one of my favourite YouTuber) & his brother Taimur Abdaal – talking about life and growing up together – This conversation made me nostalgic about my childhood but it was a very open conversation between the brothers. Ali being one of my favourite YouTubers, still holds up the respect for being an executioner, even after this video. As his brother certified that.

This was my first exposure to Taimur Abdaal and his perspective on life. So far I liked his ideas. Mainly because his ideas are original. Something he’s trying to create right now is re-invent the Excel spreadsheets via a new app development.

Great conversation. Very inspiring to see siblings in this kind of exchange.

Quote I’m pondering on lately –

It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
Edward J. Stieglitz

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

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Saturday-Pentacle – Week 47 – 2019