Good noon and welcome! Here’s a list of things I read, watched
and learned in the past week that might benefit you guys. Enjoy!
Forward: Sorry for the length of this week’s article –
but its worth reading (I guess)
1: What I Read
Sophie’s World - "
2: Anecdote with a lesson: Centipede and The Tortoise
(This is a new addition to 5BF where I’ll be sharing
something specific that I learnt in past week)
In Sophie’s World there comes a short anecdote about a centipede
and tortoise with the lesson of not letting your mind interfere into what you
do best naturally.
“There once lived a centipede with 100 legs who danced so
gracefully that everyone admired her dancing. Everyone except the tortoise. So,
the tortoise wanted to somehow destroy centipede’s performance without being
held responsible for it. As the devil is full of ideas, one ingenious idea quickly
came to his mind: he’d send a letter in which he’d fake his huge fandom of her dance
and then ask her how is she able to dance so gracefully? Does she lift her 37th
leg before she lands her 45th leg, or she lifts both her 51th
and 36th leg at the same time? Sure enough, as the tortoise sent the
letter, next time poor centipede’s performance dropped significantly as she was
stuck thinking about tortoise’s letter and which leg should she lift, and land
which one, at which time???”
3: What I Watched
In a recent seminar on reading books as an antidote to nihilism
where I was an attendee, the speaker suggested a British filmmaker Adam Curtis,
who, he said, makes great documentaries on our modern-day world and how we’ve gone
astray. I found many high rated documentaries from him, and am currently watching
‘The Trap (2007): what happened to our dream of freedom’. It has three, one-hour-long
episodes. I watched the first one – and it was genius!
Episode 1: Fuck You Buddy – the title for this episode comes
from a theory presented by the late mathematician John Nash ('a beautiful mind' movie) in which he
proposes that the best way to live in this world to be constantly trying to deceive
the other person while thinking they’re trying do the same. This pretty much
sums up episode one where Curtis shows how ‘The Game Theory’ revolutionized our
views on each other and the way we live/should live in the societies. Must
watch!
4: A Rough Spreadsheet
Our university classes continue to be online and I was both
frustrated and panicked by the news. Having nothing much to do and being in the
room all day, I knew I had to come up with something to keep me above the line, not
letting me sink into depression, anxiety, etc. So, I came up with a ‘spreadsheet’
which outlines in detail what I’ll be doing throughout the week at specific hours. Below
you can find the image. Although rough, it has presented me with a sense of
responsibility and duty which I was looking for in such an abundance of time. (And
I believe, it’s the first of many such planned-events coming in following
weeks)
5: This Week Quote:
‘Total responsibility in total solitude – is this not the
very definition of our liberty?’