They say "dreams do come true" & today it happened :) Won my 1st ever men's singles #Tennis tournament. Hope it will prove to be catalyst for #2019 tennis season. #LifeofTennisPlayer
Beyond the emotional part, it's the very high psychological pressure that you carry in your head and yet win in a grand slam marathon match against the seeded clay Court specialist, that makes this win an even bigger feat. Hats off to @zach_svajda
I know a 35-year-old married couple in India. No kids by choice.
Household income is strong. House almost paid off.
Good investments. Foreign trips every year. Comfortable life.
Looks sorted from the outside.
But in the long run, this choice usually backfires.
In India, money without family responsibility mostly turns into consumption. Bigger cars. Better phones. Another vacation to the same three places with different hotel names.
At some point, experiences stop feeling new.
Kids arenât just an expense here. Theyâre continuity. Legacy. A reason to stay sharp, relevant, grounded.
Ask older Indians what gave their life meaning. Almost none will talk about gadgets or trips. They talk about their children, the sacrifices, the chaos, the pride.
Comfort is addictive in your 30s.
Loneliness is brutal in your 60s.
Choosing ease over building something bigger feels smart today.
Simple & best advice, never travel via @AirIndiaEx80743 . we made this mistake by booking family trip with them & now despite medical urgencies (wife and kid suffering from Acute diarrhea, 2 Doctor's prescription says the same) , they are hellbent to charge 12K for rescheduling.
THE BIG REGRESSION
My folks are in town visiting us for a couple months so we rented them a house nearby.
Itâs new construction. No one has lived in it yet. Itâs amped up with state of the art systems. The ones with touchscreens of various sizes, IoT appliances, and interfaces that try too hard.
And itâs terrible. What a regression.
The lights are powered by Control4. And require a demo to understand how to use the switches, understand which ones control what, and to be sure not to hit THAT ONE because itâll turn off all the lights in the house when you didnât mean to. Worse.
The TV is the latest Samsung which has a baffling UI just to watch CNN. My parents arenât idiots, but definitely feel like theyâre missing something obvious. They arenât â TVs have simply gotten worse. You donât turn them on anymore, you boot them up.
The Miele dishwasher is hidden flush with the counters. That part is fine, but hereâs what isnât: It wouldnât even operate the first time without connecting it to an app. This meant another call to the house manager to have them install an app they didnât know they needed either. An app to clean some peanut butter off a plate? For serious? Worse.
Thermostats... Nest would have been an upgrade, but these other propriety ones from some other company trying to be nest-like are baffling. Round touchscreens that take you into a dark labyrinth of options just to be sure itâs set at 68. Or is it 68 now? Or is that what we want it at, but itâs at 72? Wait... What? Which number is this? Worse.
The alarm system is essentially a 10â iPad bolted to the wall that has the fucking weather forecast on it. And itâs bright! Iâm sure thereâs a way to turn that off, but then the screen would be so barren that it would be filled with the news instead. Why canât the alarm panel just be an alarm panel? Worse.
And the lag. Lag everywhere. Everything feels a beat or two behind. Everything. Lag is the giveaway that the system is working too hard for too little. Real-time must be the hardest problem.
Now look... Iâm no luddite. But this experience is close to conversion therapy. Tech can make things better, but I simply canât see in these cases. Iâve heard the pitches too â you can set up scenes and one button can change EVERYTHING. Not buying it. It actually feels primitive, like we havenât figured out how to make things easy yet. That some breakthrough will eventually come when you can simply knock a switch up or down and itâll all makes sense. But that's at least 20 years down the road.
Itâs really the contrast that makes it alarming. We just got back from a vacation in Montana. Rented a house there. They did have a fancy TV â seems those canât be avoided these days â but everything else was old school and clear. Physical up/down light switches in the right places. Appliances without the internet. Buttons with depth and physically-confirmed state change rather than surfaces that donât obviously register your choice. More traditional round rotating Honeywell thermostats that are just clear and obvious. No tours, no instructions, no questions, no fearing youâre going to do something wrong, no wondering how something works. Useful and universally clear. Thatâs human, thatâs modern.
Many people like using the end of the year to reflect back on the past 12 months. For whatever reason that's always felt foreign to me. All that's done. The effort's behind. I put it all out there already and experienced it fully in the moment. No need to revisit, no replays necessary,
For me, the end of the year is all about the potential of the next one. Reflecting ahead, rather than behind, is what energizes me. 2026 is an open book, 2025 is closed.
@stanwawrinka Rooting for you from every corner of the street, every close seat at the court I can get to see you one more time. You are timeless, an inspiration.
Stan the man one more time :)
Remember that you got the best backhand ever in tennis.
Love you,
Biggest đȘ
The measure of wealth is freedom.
The measure of health is lightness.
The measure of intellect is judgment.
The measure of wisdom is silence.
The measure of love is peace.
@naval
What a crazy final this @rolandgarros final turned out to be. Quite believed from the start that @carlosalcaraz would be the winner but not in this heart pounding manner. Really feel for @janniksin .this match may change career trajectory for both players in opposite directions.