Inspiration

Sometimes I get a little worn out by the friction of everyday life.  In these times, it helps to have things to return to in

The utility of art (includes escape from myopic utilitarianism)

It’s often difficult to have a conversation about art because we’re almost always talking past each other. I once

Master of None

I was pretty late to Master of None – my wife was watching Season 1, and I didn’t really catch the first couple of epi

I’m constantly fascinated by teenagers – shifty, anxious halflings figuring life out

locust-style social effect I’m on a train. It’s 218pm, I’m on the east-west line on the way to Buona Vista. There’s a

Singapore Skyline

I want to write a quick blogpost about the Singapore skyline. I’m not an architect, or architecture student, or even any

Marina Bay Sands is Singapore’s Schelling Point

What’s Singapore’s single most identifiable landmark? It’s changed over the years, and that’s the subj

Mariamman Temple and Capital Tower

The oldest Hindu temple in Singapore is Sri Mariamman Temple. It was founded in 1827 by Naraina Pillai, eight years after the

Foo Fighters [2017]

Bummed myself out by being late for the first 4-5 songs or so. They started perfectly on time, we assumed they’d be abou

Whiplash [2014]

Context / preamble: I watched this movie because it was the most voted “what shall we watch next” movie in my TV g

Off Course [2015]

Watched this on a whim while going through Netflix looking for things to watch in the future. Pleasant time-pass. I wanted to

how to unlearn your conditioning

First you need to recognize that you are conditioned. everybody is. But we’re also conditioned to assume that our condit

Minority Report [2002]

I first watched Minority Report in the cinema with my brother, when it first came out. It must’ve been 2002 then. I reme

Get Out (2017)

Great movie. I usually avoid movies that are supposed to be horror movies of some kind, but I heard lots of people saying good

Rick and Morty

I was late-ish to Rick and Morty. Some of my friends liked it, and talked about it in ways that made me think I would like it

Blogging all over again

I happened to drop by a “classic” blog of a friend of a friend, and I was just floored. It has an archive that goe

Narcos

My favorite thing about Narcos is the big picture storytelling – when the show zooms out into the big picture, and the narra

Sense8

Sense8 notes I’ve been wanting to be more thoughtful about the media that I consume. I know that I want to make a living

June 2017 status update [vomit 0684]

(I wrote this in June 2017, while I was on reservist) Dear Visa, How are you? It’s me, your oldest friend, who’s always be

how to bullshit everyone with an inspirational success story

I used a procrastinating underachiever. Then I decided to Follow My Dream and play in a rock band, <s>sell t-shirts<

Is Ya Kun Kaya Toast “Authentic”? [2013]

Originally posted on Poached Mag in 2013. I was having kopi with some friends at Ya Kun Kaya Toast. A friendly auntie spoke to

think bigger

Every so often I encounter something that pulls me out of the box that I’m currently in. It’s 2:51pm and I’m really slee

reorient

At my last 1-1 with Dinesh we were talking about quicker reorientation after failure. We were talking about my motivations, an

Singapore Dreaming [2006]

I watched Singapore Dreaming on YouTube. I found it a little underwhelming. I respect Colin and Yen a lot as writers, and I th

Wonder Woman

I’m really glad the movie exists. It’s delightful to see strong, powerful women in action. Themiscyra is beautiful

reduce bullshit

Most people are full of shit- and when I say that I mean Frankfurtian bullshit, ideas and statements that aren’t verifia

there’s no escaping constraints; we have to work with them

-1- Constraints can be cruel, arbitrary, stupid, unfair, unkind, damaging, crushing, painful, horrifying. The idea of wishing

Ideas

Bum-a-cigarette app idea: “Smoke Buddy” It’ll have to be location-based, showing you smokers in your area. I

marriage

Originally posted on Hacker News: Here’s my random, unsolicited opinion: I doubt porn is the cause. Porn might be a como

belonging

belonging – a place to call your own I was thinking about ‘belonging’ earlier, and how I have always felt like I

We have to learn how to live and play with supernormal stimuli

I was on the train a while ago without my phone (left it at home) and I was just curiously watching what other people were up

Real Life Is Dystopian

Lately I’ve been collecting factoids that I’ve found dystopian about the world we already inhabit. A mirror that

Memoirs

I have always been a somewhat scatter-brained person, and I’ve also always felt this sort of compulsion to catalog every

2017 Review

Highlights: Hosted Venkat when he came to Singapore did GA workshop (April 13th) Meeting Shitij’s friends Written: Relig

Safe spaces

Some people think that safe spaces have a coddling effect. And maybe that’s true sometimes. And the examples are pretty

Game of Thrones

I was late to Game of Thrones – I think I started watching it in preparation for Season 6, and timed my binge-watch such tha

Westworld

It took me a while to get around to watching it, but once I did I had to watch the whole thing. “Upstairs” is prob

The Expanse

I remember I saw a few people recommending it on Facebook but it took me a while to get around to it – but once I did I had

Guns N’ Roses [2017 – Not In This Lifetime Tour]

0650 gnr I caught Guns N Roses live about a week or two ago when they came to Singapore. It was really nice to see Axl, Slash

cultural appropriation is very context-dependent

In response to http://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/02/17/japanese-twitter-seems-to-have-no-problems-with-karlie-kloss-geisha-phot

todo

funwork 2nov2023 movies twitter intended to watch: citizen kane (10< space odyssey (6), seven samurai (5), howl’s moving

favorite poems

Good Bones by Maggi Smith Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a th

The Human Game

Essay WIP. I find myself thinking about an Alan Watts lecture, that you can find on YouTube titled The Human Game. And he talk

Arrival [2016]

TLDR: I didn’t like it, I found it tedious and underwhelming. I went to watch Arrival with the wife yesterday – sever

Writers

Here are some writers that I’ve found interesting: Adam Gopnik AellaGirl Alain de Botton Amanda Chong Bill Wurtz – hi

Tips

Web browsing Google search tips from Reddit Gaming Mouse I use a gaming mouse (Logitech G602). First of all, it’s a good

Deeper Consciousness

I’ve had this recurring conversation with a friend about how there’s a deeper consciousness in each of us, that w

2016 wordvomit overview

#know yourself What do you want Weaknesses #convictions support yourself regulate your #emotions / psyche #manage yo

Tripping through time on the information superhighway

Originally posted on 1000wordvomits. I wanted to write about “tripping through time”. I was telling another friend about t

Parents, peers and other benevolent plagues

Originally posted on visakanv.com/1000/ I’ve been reflecting on how people get into drinking and smoking and drugs. And by e

Beating yourself up is egotistic

When I was a kid, I was stuck in a very silly cycle. I’d get home from school every day and I’d avoid doing my homework fo

Glossary

Antifragility: Some things are fragile in the sense that they lose from disorder. Some things are robust to disorder– they r

4 years together

Fun fact: Sharan Kaur and I got married 4 years ago today. It was kind of a secret. We did it over milkshakes and hotdogs at a

The Folly Of The Plunge

There’s an overly romanticized idea in both business and romance (and probably in many other fields as well) – tha

‘hacking’ the 7 sins

I once extensively dissected all the 7 deadly sins as a mental exercise (I was bored as a conscript, and I wanted to solve the

Retake the narrative

Wrote a response to someone asking, “Why should Muslims have to answer for what some madmen do halfway across the world?

When arguing, strive to understand context

— 1. When arguing, seek to understand context — [Published 2016] Roughly between ages 13 and 23 I was thoroughly convinced

the jetpacks of 2020 will be whatever helps us navigate information overload

TL;DR: In the broadest sense, we already have powerful engines; to go faster we need better shock absorbers and handling. ____

people seem fundamentally unserious about their information diets

TL;DR: “Every new piece of news is seriously important” => fundamentally unserious about the nature of importan

Different perspectives are more kaleidoscopic than different “points of view”

Thought: Words and phrases like “perspective” and “point-of-view” don’t adequately convey how ra

Identity fragments and withers away when there’s nobody else to perform for

One of the most interesting things I’ve ever read was about this guy who was homeless and living in the forest for a rea

Early Employee

source +1 to this. I’m a relatively early employee at my team, and while my founders don’t really mind whether I&#

is your subconscious smarter than you are?

Original: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9072394  I really liked this idea– I think by Robin Sharma [1], but by many

Annual Reviews

Every year I make it a point to do some reviews of my life. Here’s a list of what I’ve done so far. 2009 birthday

Making Sense Of Modern Civilization

1 To be born into modern human civilization is both a great privilege (for the safety and opportunities it provides) and a rat

An Analysis of Power And Social Dynamics In ‘Mean Girls’

Theory: The movie has such enduring power and is quoted so much because it sheds some incredible light on real sociological ph

Breaking Bad

I was very, very late to Breaking Bad – the show was already completely done for a year or two or longer by the time I ended

index

Curiosities, People, books, movies, TV, now, reviews next, post-ideas, todo, pending fear – is one of the most important em

scared men

I knew some dudes like this. They’re like young versions of the racist old man Bill Burr described in his standup –

Southside With You [2016]

My wife and I have always been fans of Barack and Michelle Obama as a couple – they’re smart, respectable, warm, lova

2 Days In Paris [2007]

It’s interesting to watch a movie that’s set in 2007 – social media was just starting to become a thing, but it

A Sideways Look At Time

A Sideways Look At Time is a 1999 book by Jay Griffiths that I find myself referencing over and over again. I thought I’

2016

WIP I want to make it a point to do annual reviews. Next year I’ll update it every month. But this is retroactive. Writt

Beware the moral failing fallacy

SELF-LOVE AND THE “MORAL FAILING” FALLACY: Here’s something that’s taken me a long time to be able to

pics

Language news Good typography The message has to suit the medium: Recurring theme of brooding over cities how people make refe

SeeingSpaces

Stone tools, computer mice, bricks and smartphones are all designed to fit the human hand. people looking ridiculous SeeingSpa

Parable of Shitty Choices

OVERALL TLDR/SUMMARY: Effective decision-making can be counter-intuitive. You assume that a good decision is supposed to look

The Terminal (2004)

introducing navorski was a master-class in building sympathy for a character – fish out of water (see also: mean girls), lea

Keyboard shortcuts

For Mac. Cmd + ctrl + space – Emoji keyboard Ctrl + click – Right-click Cmd + Shift + 4 – Screenshot area (+ Ctrl – sa

The Seductive-Destructive Siren-Song of Fame

In 2010, I wrote a blogpost about Justin Bieber. In 2018, I want to expand this post into something broader, about celebrity a

Death

I believe that it’s important to properly come to terms with death in order to live well. This is something that’s

Goals are a way of making sense of the chaos around us, giving us a vision of the future to live into

2017 update: This post is hilariously vague. I need to add some measurable, achievable targets to prove to myself that I have

Adulthood is about taking responsibility

The following are selected quotes from @1000wordvomits. -1- “What is “this”? Whatever it is that distinguishes me fr

Ways in which I’ve been a misfit + how that’s shaped who I am

I made this post because I want to make sense of who I am. I’ve had a funny relationship with being a misfit. Initially,

Concepts

Guiding ‘Principles’ Beware the Guilt-and-Shame Ego Trap. Alternate names: Self-flagellation trap, beating yoursel

Drogon vs Balerion size comparison

Hypothesis: Artists perceive differently than regular folks

I have some kooky hypotheses about how people like this (and folks like Van Gogh) experience reality differently from the comm

Realizations I’d like to be reminded of

There are some things that I realize from time to time, and I wish I could be reminded of regularly. This is an attempt to con

What does it mean to be Indian in the modern world?

WIP “To be an Indian writer in this society is to face, every day, problems of definition. What does it mean to be ‘Indian

Fashion is omnipresent and inescapable; we are all making fashion statements whether we realize it or not

Why does this post exist? I think fashion is interesting and important. I’d like to develop a better sense of my perspec

The West Wing

Just great “displease you, you feckless thug” Gays in the military scene with Admiral… “They’re

Institutionalized

Local man gets released from prison, quickly proceeds to attempt to throw himself into path of bus to extort money from driver

making sense of bullshit-ville

To be born into modern human civilization is both a great privilege (for the safety and opportunities it provides) and a rathe

Jokes perform social functions and sustain social orders

Lol so we should just stop appreciating comedy in general… (cos every joke/skit is inherently poking fun at some facet o

work learnings

The following is a list of things that I personally learned. Work in progress. One on ones. It’s very important to have

Bojack Horseman

WIP I just finished watching Bojack Horseman Season 3. I’ll review this one first when it’s still fresh on my mind

Feature Requests

Spotify Problem: Overplayed music Suggestion: The simplest, bluntest way this could work is a block/ban list. “I donR

DR wedding speech

Thank you everybody for being here on this pleasant day, to witness our friends writing the next chapter of their lives. 

Predictions are a good way to test your understanding

Preamble Originally on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9325637  It’s always interesting to look at old predic

Mind-expanding stuff

https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/the-universe-is-scary  Wait but why Neil Tyson’s the universe is in us, we stopped dre

Sanjay’s Super Team

I’m thinking about Sanjay’s Super Team, and Ratatouille, and overcoming ‘villains’. Overcoming cynicis