Smartman

On moving from iOS to Android and finally owning a smartphone

For the past few years all my smart mobile activities happened on a 4th generation iPod Touch which is technically, not a smartphone. It has been a reliable companion and has served me well for 3 and a half years. And it chose the perfect moment to die, coinciding with the launch of a really good smartphone.

I had resisted buying a smartphone for quite some time because I didn’t trust myself with it. I am a compulsive consumer of information and spend, like many of you, most of my time plugged in to the internet. Often, I was absent from the moments that were passing me by and having another device to distract me was a scary thought. Now, I think I have become more mindful and more deliberate in the things I do and hopefully won’t repeat the bad habits of the past. Thus, I have recently purchased Xiaomi MI3 which looks like a great phone at an unbeatable price.

Our smartphones have more computation capacity than the computers that were used to send Apollo 11 to the moon, we might as well make good use of it. Here are some of the top apps I’ve been using on iOS and would recommend to you as well. Most of them are available on Android too. 

1. Reading
This has been my topmost activity on the iPod. Some of the apps that I use: Pocket, Readability, Next Draft (only on iOS). None of these require an internet connection once you sync the articles. I have also started using Audible to listen to audiobooks on my drive to work.

2. Music
A close second for the most popular use case of a smart device for me has been music. Apart from my own collection, I use 8tracks, Aupeo, Stereomood, Songza. But, all of these require an internet connection. If you are willing to pay 100 bucks a month, you can use Gaana to download almost unlimited music which can then work without an internet connection as well.

3. Finance
Excels and Google Spreadsheets aren’t fun and tracking monthly expenses can be difficult. Hence, I use Splitwise to split bills with roommates and friends. For tracking monthly expenses, I found Wally the best though it is only available on iOS.

4. Games
EA Sports’ FIFA has been my most played game. I enjoyed Infinity Blade 2 a lot though it is only available on iOS. Among car racing, Asphalt beats everyone else. Bad piggies is engaging and I find it more fun than Rovio’s other ubiquitous offering Angry Birds.

5. Messaging
You already are on top of this I believe. IMing is one of the most time consuming, distracting things on a smartphone. People have told me anecdotes of waking up in the middle of the night to check their WhatsApp. iPod doesn’t support WhatsApp so I used Kik and Messenger. But, now I am on WhatsApp and this is how one of my friends welcomed me: “You are fucked now”. I hope I am not.

6. To-Do Apps/Task Manager
Clear is simply the most beautiful to-do app out there. Its use of native iOS gestures is just brilliant. Sadly, it is not available on Android. Google keep is what I am going to use now. Evernote is another one that is my workhorse which I intend to continue using.

7. Fitness
Did you hear about the 7 minute workout thing that did the rounds of internet some time back? I found it pretty interesting and was using an app for it. If you run, using Runkeeper would be a good option though I’ve not used it personally.

8. Miscellaneous

Duolingo for learning languages. Dictionary: WordWeb and original edition of Webster’s. The breadth of Podcasts on iOS was amazing. HeyDay as an automatic journal. Guitar Tuner. 

Moving from iOS to Android is a big deal for any geek. The things that I am definitely going to miss is the experience. Apps made on iOS are simply better designed than their Android counterpart. I can quote you a bunch of examples - Uber, Pocket, Duolingo etc. These are apps which exist both on iOS and Android but the experience on iOS is way better. Then there are apps which exist solely on iOS and are incredibly designed leveraging full potential of the iOS platform.

Xiomi is known as the ‘Apple’ of China and I hope it lives up to its hype. The hardware is awesome albeit a 4.7 inch instead of a 5 inch screen would have been perfect for me. The software is a lot like Apple which is a very good thing. Overall, I am very pleased and don’t feel that it is my post-purchase rationalization. I’d recommend it. 

2 Weeks Sprint

Notes on how to get started on something new

In internet domain, a lot of companies use 2 weeks sprints as a way of developing their product. These sprints are a list of things which need to get done in 2 weeks - thus becoming a TAG (time and amount goal). People put their head down and work on this with few distractions - atleast that’s the utopian ideologoy behind it. Although, I did not realise it and it took a friend to point this out, but I have been doing the same thing recently in my non-work life as well to good effect.

It started with reading. Some time back, I read more in a month than I did in the preceding year. And this was not passive online consumption jumping from one article to another but a more involved, active reading of a good book chosen after either a careful consideration or at an implusive whim. I carried a book wherever I went and read everywhere I could - while waiting to catch the metro, in the metro, on the rickshaw, in some spare moments at a friend’s place, in a cafe. This desire wasn’t forced upon by anyone but came from within and it felt great. This period of complete flow and being in the zone ended with me having read a bunch of great books, gaining new perspectives and learning a lot.

Side Note: If you want to read more, here’s a great article by Ryan Holiday. Also, sign up for his monthly book recommendation list, I’ve discovered a lot of gems there.

Then came a series of (still unpublished) articles which I have fondly compiled in the form of an ebook. I wrote on the lessons I learnt while running my first startup so that I can use those for my next venture. I used to work on it whenever I could. Scribbling down notes in a notebook while riding to work in the passenger seat of my friend’s car, at work whenever I could sneak out some time on Evernote, or at home, as soon as I returned back from office without caring to change my clothes or getting ready for dinner. This helped me finish off the first draft of my book in a relatively short amount of time. 

Side Note: If you want to get started on writing - you can try out some of the softwares I use - Notebook/Evernote for note taking. Q10 for writing. Scrivener for giving structure.

Then came the designing bit. Since I can’t sketch or draw to save my life, I resorted to learning designing softwares to help me bring my thoughts to creation. I put in two weeks of focused designing ignoring almost everything else, learning online courses, soaking up as much as I could. I practised and produced two works which I am proud of.

Side Note: Here are some of the classes I took and found the most useful - 1, 2 and 3

It also happened with Cooking. 2 weeks, mom’s recipes and I transformed from someone who fretted about what to eat for dinner to being able to feed a party of 2 pretty well. 

You catch the drift with where I am going with this.

These short of intervals of time with extreme focus helped me reach a level of which I could be proud of. And important thing is that none of it was very deliberate, it was just something that I felt I should be doing and went ahead with it. I had gotten into a flow. 

The point I am trying to make is if you want to level up in a particular field, a short sprint can help you achieve that quickly. As I write this, I realise that there is a counterpoint to this where people say slow and steady wins the race which is actually quite true. But, I am talking about new tasks which require an initial thrust, the first few scary and unpredictable steps. These sprints will help you cross that first hurdle.

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Inspiration and Getting Things Done

There have been times, which quite honestly come way too often, when I have felt uninspired and not wanted to do anything for a long time. I have procrastinated, produced work below my standards of quality and hence have been miserable. On the other hand, there also have been times when I felt a flow, was inspired and thought about something deeply and produced the best work that I can.

Obviously, we all want to maximise the latter and do away with the former. But, for this I do not want to rely on factors that are out of my control. Hence, I’ve found myself a few actionable items, hacks if you please, which have helped me stay more in the inspired zone and allowed me to produce good, meaningful work that I can be proud of. This post is about those things and I hope some of these are useful to you too.

Inspiration, for me, is something that drives me to create, to do and sometimes even consume. A good book inspires me to write stories and pen down my thoughts as well as inspiring me to pick up another good book to read. Inspiration moves you to act, it pulls you away from inaction. It instills a sense of optimism as if everything that you desire is in your reach and shows you a clear path to achieve those. But, where does it come from?

A good book, obviously. A moving speech, a thought provoking movie or a good conversation. But, apart from these external factors, I believe our own thoughts are our biggest sources of inspiration. Don’t we all know how our best ideas have a habit of arriving to us in the shower? But, how do we tap into this source?

The best way is to put yourself into those positions. I am not talking about the long walks, showers, long bike rides kind of thing. I mean a step after that. Start recording during that time. I am deeply influenced by and believe in a brilliant TED talk says that how the inspiration fairy grabs you and you have to act in that moment or else that fairy will move on to the next available, better prepared seeker. Keep a notebook at hand, record a voice message to self on your phone, tell a friend. Once these inspirations are recorded, you can work on them at a later time.

But, there are times when even after knowing all this stuff, you can’t act on it. What to do then? Don’t we all have a few brilliant ideas in our heads but nothing to show it for. Try these:

1. Change things
Our mind gets bored with repetitive things and seeks constant change (an oxymoron, I know). Whether it be in foods we eat, things we do, our hobbies or even our relationships. But, the irony is when we do seek out changes, it resists. Mind is a weird creature, seeking change but resisting when the moment to change comes along. Come over that resistance and change something. Move to a different location to work or change your posture or use a standing desk. Change helps to bring fresh perspectives and hopefully it can drive you back into flow.

2. Just get started
Starting up something is the biggest step and requires the most effort. At times, I write random stuff just to get started. Sometimes I even write about the fact that I don’t have anything to write about. But, after substantial number of minutes have passed with me putting pen to paper, something good starts to emerge. And it has served me well in other activities as well.

3. Get a good tool
An instrument or the tools of a trade/skill are very important for the kind or even the amount (and maybe thus the quality) of work produced. It is easy to say that a good artist excels irrespective of the environment she lives in. But, there is no harm in using all the help that you can get. I have not been much of a snob about it though - I still use a worn out Dell which heats up after 10 minutes of usage which also happens to be the amount of time it takes to boot up. But recently, I got a beautiful notebook and a Staedtler as a gift and I bought myself a writing desk. They make me want to use them. Beautiful tools call out to you. They want to serve the purpose they were built for and thus help you get into a flow.

4. Keep your personal and work tools separate
This is to ensure that there is no context creep between the two and it lets you focus on each thing separately. I have set up my personal, albeit slower laptop for personal projects and I keep my office laptop just for that - office work. It lets me be more involved in my day job and allows me more time or atleast a perception of more time for personal work.

What to do after you are inspired and have recorded your thoughts? Elaborate, even when you are not in the flow. Neil Gaiman once said that if you write only when you are inspired, you can be a good poet at best. But, to be a great novelist, you have to slog it out through drudgery even when you are not inspired. You have to put in those extra hours, one word after another and hope that you can get into a flow.

Related watch - Jack White on Inspiration

A Primer On Minimalism

minimalism

/ˈmɪnɪməˌlɪz(ə)m/

noun

1. a movement in sculpture and painting which arose in the 1950s, characterized by the use of simple, massive forms.

2. an avant-garde movement in music characterized by the repetition of very short phrases which change gradually, producing a hypnotic effect.

3. deliberate lack of decoration or adornment in style or design.

Minimalism, as a philosophy has attracted me for quite some time. I have been a follower, reader and if my friends are to be believed, a vocal supporter of the minimal way of life. First started as a movement in art and music, it is now found in almost every aspect of life you can imagine. 

Minimalism can have different connotations for different people. For me, it means hoarding less stuff and doing more with less. It also means removing clutter and waste from my life - things like stress, bad influences, poor connections. This leaves me with only the things that matter, which add value to my life. 

If you are interested in exploring about this philosophy, here are a few points which might come in handy to get you started.

1.Buying less stuff - Let’s just get this out of the way. Minimalism by definition means making do with lesser stuff. It might sound cynical to say but we’ve been conditioned to consume. A visit to the mall yesterday reminded me of the lure of buying more stuff. I was impressed by all the shiny stuff on display around me and felt like buying things I didn’t need or the ones I already have. Now, there is not a problem with that per se. But, the problem arises when this ‘stuff’ doesn’t add value in your life and takes away valuable time, energy and money from things and experiences which actually matter, which brings me to my next point.

2. Spend on experiences, not things - There is a brilliant 5 minute clip of George Carlin where he talks about our hoarding culture. We spend our lives hoarding stuff and buying more of it wherever we go. We have to do that because we can’t carry our stuff everywhere we go. Whereas, your experiences travel with you wherever you go and help you grow as a person. Stuff fades away but the memories of great experiences linger on. 

3. Removing excess baggage - Realise that you are a tiny part of something huge at play. The stress you carry, the worries that you have, the emotional baggage that bogs you down and your problems are of no consequence in the grand scheme of things - not only on the scale of universe but on the scale of your own life. Worry itself is wasteful but if it is actionable then it could be good - so choose your battles carefully. You only have so much energy, spend it on contemplating about the things that matter a lot to you.

4. Deeper rather than wider - There is way too much stuff in the world for us to consume. Too many books to read, so many movies to watch, many places to see and a lot to learn. My idea is that there is a bigger joy in immersing yourself completely in one single thing rather than superficially scanning tens of them. The world is designed with plenty for each to learn in her own path of choosing. The knowledge from one book is equal to what you get in 100 books together or from one each of them. It is a matter of how you perceive it. A moonlit evening can be romantic to the heart which is full of love or can feel lonely to a troubled mind. It is a matter of how you look at it. 

5. Focus - This has become one of my favorite words recently. Focus on only the things that matter. Our tiny attention spans have a way of moving us about in different directions. Give more to one single activity, you are probably going to enjoy it more. Read less but deeply engage with it. Watch a movie and imagine yourself becoming the character. Project yourself how it would feel in the stadium while watching a match on the screen. Immerse yourself, become them.

6. Prioritize - We are all capable human beings who want to do a lot in our lives. I, for one know that I want to do multiple stuff - write, cook, click pictures, play guitar, learn Spanish and a host of other things. But, the structure of our lives doesn’t allow us to do so many things all at once. So, learning to prioritize helps. Saying ‘NO’ to things is as important, if not more, to choosing which ones to say ‘YES’ to. And if these priorities change over time, that’s fine. 

Leading a minimal life has helped me reduce stress, become more fulfilled and be happier in general. I am not an accomplished minimal guy but am getting there. So, this post is to remind me how to get there as much as it is to inform you. I hope these steps help you get started on your path to minimalism if you like to. And, if you do, I hope it brings you as much happiness in your life as much as it has in mine. 

Further Reading:

What is Minimalism by The Minimalists

Minimalists FAQs by Leo Babauta 

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Appreciate your time. Thanks!

Doing is a state of being

I have been obsessed with the idea of being for quite some time now. I have spoken about this in some of my posts and have had some understanding of this concept. But, it is only recently that I have realised that I understood it all wrong. 

Poster in a friend’s room. 

Earlier, when I thought of ‘being’ as a concept, I imagined a life where I am not doing anything, just lying around engrossed in my own thoughts and observing the world around me. I did that for some time and enjoyed it. But, soon I realised that this is not the idea of being. Make no mistake, for others, what I just described could be a perfect way of existence, but its just not for me.

For me, ‘Doing’ is a state of ‘Being’. I like being in the midst of action, being aware, making things happen, producing more than consuming. I realised this the hard way when I wasn’t particularly happy with the state of affairs. I procrastinated, dilly dallied on the things that needed to be done. Feeling productive is a great feeling, it almost makes you feel as if your existence has a purpose. And that is why I wrote this post - to remind myself when I am feeling lazy that beyond the laziness, beyond the comfort zone, there is a much better feeling. 

Of course I am saying this right now because my mind seeks conflict. It might happen that after a few months of doing, I might feel like going back to not doing anything and being. But for now, I am good with ‘Doing is a state of being’ principle.

Simplifying Reading Habits

Recently, I’ve been in a constant quest to simplify my life. Reducing clutter and keeping only the things that interest me the most, the ones which add the most value in my life instead of aimlessly consuming everything that comes my way has been my intention. I want to control my life and the experiences I get. Doing this but without sacrificing the chance serendipitous moment is also to be taken care of.

One of the biggest things in that regard is controlling what I read. I’ve been an information junkie for as long as I can remember. From Pustak Mahal’s amazing series of Children’s Knowledge Bank which I used to buy from the book stalls on railway platforms, buying books from the Scholastic book fairs held at my school to the Internet. Consuming information feels good to me, it helps me grow. But, there are days when you feel as if you’ve consumed so much but at the end of the day you still feel hollow. That is why I have decided to control what I read. Hence, now, I’ve unsubscribed myself from all reading lists except a few. These are the few blogs which I admire and like to learn from.

1. Aeon Magazine - In this fast paced world of fast food articles, Aeon is slow journalism. They publish just one single, in depth, well researched article from the subject matter experts a day. Covering various genres, it is one of the best places to get an introduction on some new subject.

2. Zenhabits - It is a perfect, simple blog by Leo Babuta. A one man show, it has quickly become one of the most visited blogs on the internet. Leo’s daily insights from his life experiences are deeply thought provocative. One of his write ups, which is also pinned on his home page is Breathe and I absolutely swear by it.

3. The Minimalists - I have been a fan of minimalism philosophy and these guys are living it where we just dream about it. They are guys just like us who used to hoard stuff earlier but have now realised the importance of keeping only the stuff that matters and nothing else.

4. Art of Manliness - A man’s guide to everything manly. Need I say more?

5. Books - Not restricted to any particular category, but reading books is always a pleasure to get lost into. It takes time, but you come out of it feeling as if you have learnt something which is going to stay with you for longer than just any random article on the internet.

6. Hacker News - A geek’s default place for everything that is new, groundbreaking and exciting. Comments from the contributors are equally and sometimes even more informative than the articles themselves.

7. Mark Manson - Mark is a digital entrepreneur who has travelled the world and shares his experience in well written, insightful articles. No fluff, pure gold.

Having written this article, I feel that even this list is a little much and I need to cut down. I probably will. I hope you find some of these sites as useful as I do.

Did you like what you read so far? You can subscribe to my mailing list to get updates on new posts. I am not sure how frequently I’ll send you an email but it will never be more often than once a week. 
Appreciate your time. Thanks!

First drafts are always crappy

Recently, some of my friends were fretting about the brand new redesign of their website. They were comparing it to Musicfellas and thought that theirs wasn’t good (which in opinion was actually way too good for the first version). It caused them grief and a little sadness. They were anxious. What they had forgotten was that they were comparing something which was a result of over 6 months of painstakingly discussing and sometimes even fighting over the minutest of details with something which was put out in a few days.

It’s not just them. I had been procrastinating on writing a short article for a friend’s blog for quite some time myself. I had a fear of imperfection. I didn’t realise one key point - first drafts are always crappy.

Things improve over time:

We don’t see how many pages a writer has torn apart to produce that great novel.

We don’t see the many erroneous brush strokes behind that final masterpiece.

We don’t see the multiple wrong notes before that final perfect one which makes a genius piece of music.

We don’t see the many changes in the color, size or placement of a button on a website before the final version.

And this can be overwhelming, depressing and a lot of times demotivating.  

Biz Stone, Twitter Co-Founder, once famously said: “Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success." Overnight success stories and get famous/rich/better quick is what we want. But, we forget that the people who seem be able to do that, have achieved it over a period of time. 

At Musicfellas, we didn’t get great (that’s what people have said) at design from the day one. Our first versions were almost embarrassing. It took us time, patience and constant perseverance to achieve what we did.

So, if you feel like you are creating less than awesome stuff to start with, realise that it is natural. You are already way ahead of so many people who haven’t even started something. You are in the top 1% of creators (completely made up stat). For you to achieve perfection, it is completely OK to take time.

Be aware that beautiful things, and the best ones at that, emerge incrementally.

Added bonus: Have a look at some of the earliest versions of the most popular websites in the world and see how they have evolved and gotten better with time: Wayback Machine.

Did you like what you read so far? You can subscribe to my mailing list to get updates on new posts. I am not sure how frequently I’ll send you an email but it will never be more often than once a week. 
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Drive

I drive down to Noida from Gurgaon and back quite often. If you know anything about that route, you would know how perennially congested that route is. The traffic moves painfully slowly and it feels that all the jerks have decided to come onto the road to drive(including me, I guess). Bikes zoom in an out with absolutely no concept of safety whatsoever. When you are driving a car, you curse the bikers and when you drive a bike, you curse the cars. Anyway, I digress.

So, on one such Friday night, I was driving in this God forsaken mess of a traffic and I couldn’t help but smile. You see, THIS is life, every second of it, every moment whether good or bad. It is this particular moment that you are reading this, is your life. It is not tomorrow, not the day that has gone by but right here, right now. Even our brain interprets it that way, it is “science, bitch!" 

More often that, I am grumpy about the traffic. If I meet someone who travels the same route, we talk about it like some long lost friends - a sense of camaraderie emerges. The traffic, hence, takes up more of your life than the travelling time. But it is up to you to choose if you want that to happen.

Sometimes, you can choose what you get from life, at other times you can’t. But, at all times, you can always choose your reaction to it. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to be happy in every moment, but being aware is a good place to start. Just notice that every moment is YOUR life. It is not waiting for you at the end of the road. It is happening right now, every single moment. Smile, you are LIVING :)

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Fear of imperfection

Ever since I last wrote, I’ve been trying hard to write something and publish it for people to see but haven’t been able to because of a fear of imperfection in what I write. Actually, it happens a lot. I like to believe I am a perfectionist, not that I am, but I’d like to believe so. Or atleast that I am striving towards it. A fear of producing something perfect was preventing me from doing something which is good. 

In the last week, I drafted a lot of articles on many different ideas but I just couldn’t publish them. I wrote on things which were important to me, which moved me but I wasn’t happy with what I had written. I knew it could have been better. 

The definition of perfect here is something that I feel proud of producing, I feel good about and could be at peace with. Although, we all do stuff seeking an acknowledgement of the world around us or of ourselves, it eventually comes down how that makes us feel. It gives us a feeling of being able to create something, of adding value, of playing our part in this entirely meaningless, long drawn out game of life that someone is enjoying at our behest. If we are characters in a game, we might as well have fun while doing it. 

I recently read the book The Spy who came in from the Cold by John le Carre (great spy novel, completely different from what you would expect in a spy mystery) which propelled the author into stardom. The author later reflects that his life of comfort was now over. Anything that he ever produces again would always be pried and judged upon by eyes of the world. The activity that brought him joy had suddenly lost its innocence.

I am not sure that how he was able to deal with it but I am trying to internalise it. Instead of waiting for the end product, I want to enjoy the process, every moment of writing, whether I publish it or not is a different matter altogether. And if I do decide to publish it, it is fine if it is crappy. Things get better with time. 

After all, what bothers us the most, what keeps us await at night are not the things that we did but we wish we could have done. 

How do you guys deal with, if it exists, your struggle for perfection? (I also realised, leaving a blog post with a question is a good way to end when you don’t know how to end it).

Did you like what you read so far? You can subscribe to my mailing list to get updates on new posts. I am not sure how frequently I’ll send you an email but it will never be more often than once a week. 
Appreciate your time. Thanks!

Illusions | Haiku

Richard Bach is a master at weaving simple stories into something deeply profound and moving. Illusions was also in my list of the best books I read last year. 

You can swim through walls,

Walk on water,

And everything that is taught in this book could be wrong.

#BookReviews in Haiku

On Illusions - Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach