Barath

Working on something new!

[Barath @barathms15]

Skye is India's first micro-meditation buddy. An electronic device that guides you with micro-meditation.

In today’s fast-paced world, finding time for lengthy meditation sessions can feel almost impossible. Try micro-meditation with Skye (the anywhere, anytime meditation)

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

In 2019, MIT professor Patrick Winston gave a legendary 1-hour lecture called “How to Speak.”

It has 18M+ views for a reason.

His frameworks:
• Your ideas are like your children
• The 5-minute rule for job talks
• Why jokes fail at the start

15 lessons on communication:

[Hemant Mohapatra @MohapatraHemant]

A huge, huge part of a founder's job is to simply inject (1) energy / optimism (2) clarity (3) urgency into EVERYTHING they are involved in. Every email, every meeting, every walk & talk, every slack thread, every whatsapp chatter.

[Naval @naval]

New podcast on AI (full episode). Links below.

A Motorcycle for the Mind

0:00 If you want to learn, do

2:13 Vibe coding is the new product management

6:49 Training models is the new coding

10:13 Is traditional software engineering dead?

13:07 There is no demand for average

14:12 The hottest new programming language is English

18:36 AI is adapting to us faster than we are adapting to it

22:56 No entrepreneur is worried about AI taking their job

26:46 The goal is not to have a job

29:49 AIs are not alive

32:55 AI fails the only true test of intelligence

36:49 Early adopters of AI have an enormous edge

39:37 AI meets you exactly where you are

43:02 Always leverage the best intelligence

44:37 If you can't define it, you can't program it

49:37 The solution to AI anxiety is action

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

I’ve made a short film.

Look at the things around you: doors, bins, staircases, furniture, railings, doorhandles, windows.

Do you like how they look, or not?

Modern design has become boring, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

The word “beautiful” is overused. We don’t need “beautiful” lamps, bus stops, and water fountains – we just need lamps, bus stops, and water fountains that are interesting, that actually mean something.

Or, at the very least, not boring.

Because the aesthetics of architecture and urban design aren’t just a bonus; they totally change how we think, feel, and behave.

Boring environments make us more stressed and less productive; they erode our sense of community; they make us sadder, less trusting, and lonelier.

A boring world is one where we spend even more time online and where our addictions are even harder to battle.

The Problem

There is global, widespread dissatisfaction with how the world looks. In this film, and the series it will lead to, we want to investigate that feeling and give it a voice.

The point isn’t that we should return to the past or get rid of modernism. It’s about learning from the past in order to improve the present, and about giving the public what they very clearly want, which isn’t the eradication of modernism but the co-existence of modernism AND traditionalism.

Just look where tourists go, where they take their photos, and that tells you everything you need to know about what most people find interesting or beautiful.

And look at where people go on holiday. It’s always to cities filled with old architecture and design, with churches and mosques and palaces, with charming little alleyways and stone staircases and wrought-iron railings.

Of the world’s fifty most visited buildings, only four were made in the 20th century, and they’re all museums or memorials.

There’s a reason why posts about this go viral online all the time. Regardless of why the change happened, it is clearly the case that we no longer make things how we used to.

People are rightly confused by the fact that old lamp posts (to take the example we focus on in the film) are usually so pretty, while modern ones are usually so boring.

Some people say this is just an example of survivorship bias… and they’re mostly correct. But that’s the whole point!

Saying old buildings are usually prettier than modern buildings is not to say that architecture used to be better, or that the past was better.

It is simply to say that certain kinds of buildings, because they have been preserved, are good examples of what people like most.

In which case... shouldn't we try to design at least some buildings in a way that we know people like?

A Unifying Cause

Everybody, from all sides of the political spectrum and all backgrounds, stands to benefit from a world that is designed more thoughtfully and imaginatively. The world could be such a colourful, meaningful, and thrilling place!

So this isn’t about left versus right or conservatism versus progressivism; it’s about making our world a more interesting and meaningful place to live in. This should be a unifying cause, because everybody loses out when our homes and cities are badly designed.

I want this film to unite people who think they’re on opposite sides, and to create a consensus that we need to change our approach to how we design our buildings and the objects – benches, bus stops, bins, lamp posts, aircon units – that fill our cities.

The Importance of Details

We are incredibly rich and have a sprawling choice of shows to stream, phones to buy, or shoes to wear… but everything feels more and more generic all the time.

If you want to understand a society, don’t listen to what it says about itself – look at what it creates. You can learn everything about the Victorians – the good and the bad – just by looking at their lamp posts.

And what do the ordinary details of the modern world say about us?

That we are technologically advanced, very efficient… and care more about making money, about making things as quickly and cheaply as possible, than making our world an enjoyable place to actually live in.

It’s important to learn about why and how things have changed, but that’s for another time. The first step is establishing that the public aren’t happy with modern architecture and design, and that something needs to be done.

But what we need isn’t a total revival of so-called ‘traditionalism’; the truth is that traditionalism and modernism can (and should) co-exist.

The trouble right now is that we only have one, and that people are tired of it.

The Power of Noticing

But this film (and the series it will, all being well, lead to) is about more than the specific argument it presents. Above all it’s about a way of seeing the world around us, a way of noticing and thinking.

“How you do anything is how you do everything.” That is probably true, and it also applies to whole societies, not just individuals; a single doorbell implies everything else about the whole socio-economic and political system that gave rise to its creation.

And, beyond being merely “useful”, the ability to notice details makes the world a richer place to live in, and life a richer thing to lead. This is what the film is about, more than anything: the power and joy of noticing.

A Bigger Project

This short film is just the beginning. We want to make a full series about the history of art and architecture, both for their own sake and also to see what we can learn about life in the twenty-first century and how to improve it. To keep updated you can join our email list over at our website, linked in the reply below.

Final Words

You can watch the film here on X, or over on YouTube, also linked in the reply below.

So… this is where the dream begins, the dream of a new series and the dream of a more charming, more interesting, more meaningful modern world.

Spread the word.

[Jay Alto @theJayAlto]

there are essays, and then there are "violently shift your entire perception of reality" essays

[Barath @barathms15]

Whether you meditate every day or you’ve never tried it but care about your mental well-being, this article will give you a new perspective.

https://t.co/L8Y2pWORTT

[Barath @barathms15]

Skye slips into your your pocket with ease, just like how we imagined it 8 months ago. Launching soon!

#skyeforall

[Barath @barathms15]

@will_lawrenceTO Thanks for sharing!

[Barath @barathms15]

Interesting, also check other projects by him. Found something cool there.

[Bjørn Karmann @BjoernKarmann]

Introducing – Paragraphica! 📡📷
A camera that takes photos using location data. It describes the place you are at and then converts it into an AI-generated "photo".

See more here: https://t.co/Oh2BZuhRcf
or try to take your own photo here: https://t.co/w9UFjckiF2

[Wall Street Mav @WallStreetMav]

In 1995 a group of NASA scientists studied the effects of various drugs on spiders, specifically on the way they weave their webs. 🤨

The LSD one looks good. The Caffeine seems to be more messed up than the one on Speed 😂

The Marijuana spider got halfway done and gave up.

[Barath @barathms15]

@justingordon212 🤓waiting!

[Barath @barathms15]

@justingordon212's newsletter is amazing!
Check it out: https://t.co/KPUZMUkSIH

[Barath @barathms15]

@alexwidua @deepakmurali_97 how?

[Barath @barathms15]

Duolingo's user retention features are awesome. I have a 230 day streak now.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

How Duolingo reignited user growth

Retention is the #1 consumer metric that is a game changer.

Amazing breakdown of what product changes led to massive success 👇 https://t.co/4LRzLo1iK3

[Simon Beckerman @simonbeckerman]

My first drawing of ⁦@depop⁩. I made it in April 2011, in Milan, where I was living at the time.