Zaee

Just here to save interesting thoughts.

[Ramesh Srivats @rameshsrivats]

The NEET issue is not just about an exam paper leaking. It is a leak of trust, a leak of patience, a leak of restraint, and its way to becoming a leak of faith in the system. My (serious) take.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

@Hardism I was waiting for you to post about this and I really like your take on this.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

@yephomete Maybe next time we show a video of childbirth. Gender equality deffo ends then.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

@ManeeManjunath To answer. It's a way to sexually interact when in long term long distance relationships. Sexual expression can take many forms, this is one of them. Can one live without it, sure, but we also do deserve pleasure.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

@Hardism You said it. Just rode aqualine yesterday, had flashbacks to Shanghai metro. Mumbai is upgrading and those who really use the infrastructure know it.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

@Hardism People who don't have to walk on the streets are the people who think strays are "community". Those walking from train station to home at 9 pm know the fear of rabies. Stray dogs will look cute when you're inside a car and they're chasing it.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

@Hardism Well said. Some cinemas do cost as low as 200. And others provide Rs 1000 level quality. Let people decide how much they are willing to pay.

[Martina Navratilova @Martina]

Women is not a feeling, women is not a spelling contest, women is not a costume. A woman is an adult human female.
That’s it. No need to redefine it at all.
Anything else is what needs to be defined. A woman is the definition.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

Heartbreakingly disgustingly true

[Hardik Rajgor @Hardism]

People are surprised at the apathy of officials after the deaths by the hoarding fall in Mumbai.

Bhai, this is a city where half a dozen people die EVERY DAY by just falling over from crowded moving trains.

"Ye toh roz ka hai."

This is the attitude of officials. Not for days, weeks or months. For DECADES.

They are OK with thousands of people dying by just falling over from trains.

The Prime Minister himself had a roadshow yesterday just few kilometres away, while trapped people were STILL being removed from the site.

They shut down few metro stations as part of the PM's security arrangement, which created a stampede like situation on the railway station. But so what if a few more people had died?

"Ye toh roz ka hai."

Kisi ki pet ka paani nahi hilta. Ameer aadmi thodi mar raha hai?

The police went all the way to a remote town in Kutch and arrested shooters who fired shots outside Salman Khan's house. But not even a single BMC officer has been suspended after 16 people are dead.

If the BMC were a person, it would be serving two life-sentences for criminal negligence. But all we will get is passing the buck and gyaan baazi from politicians. After all...

"Ye toh roz ka hai."

[Shiv Aroor @ShivAroor]

For how many decades has the decay of Mumbai been diverted as the city’s ’spirit’ and ‘soul’? Despicable.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

Aur karo metro protests. I am heartbroken when I read this. What fault of hers? Trying to use public transport?

[Hardik Rajgor @Hardism]

Our family Whatsapp groups are full of news articles and clippings about a distant relative, who died falling from a local train in Dombivli.

"According to officials, Riya Rajgor boarded a Mumbai-bound fast local around 8am, but was forced to stand at the door since the train was overcrowded. As the train picked up speed after Dombivli station, she lost her balance, fell on the tracks and died on the spot," said the Hindustan Times report.

To think that this is how people die in the financial capital of this country, day in and day out, and we let it happen. For years, decades. People just falling out of trains and dying on the spot. Is this how low the value of a human life is? Is this how a functional city operates?

Mind you, this is not the only such death of the day. They run into double digits, daily. So many grieving family members, so many heartbroken friends, so many relationships over in the blink of an eye. These deaths and their scale, are a blot on our city.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

@Hardism I am so sorry 😞

[Orange Book 🍊📖 @orangebook]

Money can buy a lot of nice things, but the best things in life can only be earned, with efforts and commitment:

a spouse who loves you too,

kids who still care about you even when you are old,

a meaningful relationship with your parents while you still could,

loyal, thoughtful friends who are simply happy to spend time with you,

talents and self-confidence that no one can take away from you,

a clear, sharp mind capable of appreciating deeper conversations,

peace of mind and gratitude, because you understand how lucky you were to simply be born, and to experience life once.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

She has the ability to make something pretty tedious sound beautiful and meaningful. :)

[Gee @MusingGee]

People who live alone, on their own fascinate me. I often wonder how it feels like cooking for just one, giving human names to your music playlists and finding fallback friends online who fill in the crevices of loneliness with empty or deep talks.

Sleeping alternatively on each side of the bed on simultaneous days to keep the sheets warm. Have no one to share breakfast with and occassional someone to share dinner and a night cap with.

Who does their bedsheets smell of, besides their own odour? Does the bathroom rack with one toothbrush and a toothpaste call each other companions? On their sick days, who kisses their burning eyes, with a promise of a better tomorrow?

How is it living on your own, as a responsible adult, responsible for yourself?

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

@GayatriiM Wow, you make it sound romantic. It's pretty mundane most days.Sick days do feel crap.Lots of moments of loneliness and boredom but you stop using other people as means to an end. I cuddle a pillow in bed. You learn to take care of your emotional, mental, physical needs.

[Zaee @zaeevolution]

Anything new about the rich romanticising poverty?

[Hardik Rajgor @Hardism]

If Dharavi is the "pride of India", why doesn't Rahul Gandhi spend the rest of his life in a 250 sq ft house along with 5 other people?

Imagine living in the most prosperous area of Delhi, in a huge mansion with all kinds of house help available, and telling the poor people of Dharavi that they should be proud of living in "Asia's biggest slum". The tone deafness is off the roof.

[Hardik Rajgor @Hardism]

Bharat and India both already exist. Both can be used interchangeably. No one has a problem with them being used interchangeably. So that is what they did on some documents and invites. Why is there so much kitkit and rona-dhona over it?

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

Days after a quarterfinals loss in the 2010 French Open, Novak Djokovic told his coach, Marián Vajda, that he had decided to quit playing tennis.

He was No. 3 in the world, a grand slam winner, and a favorite to win Wimbledon.

After Djokovic said he was quitting, Vajda asked,

“Why did you start playing this sport?”

Vajda immediately sensed what the problem was:

Djokovic was focusing too much on rankings, records, titles, and external expectations. As a result, Djokovic said, “I was mentally at one very messed up place.”

As Djokovic thought about Vajda’s question, he thought about how many of his earliest childhood memories include his “most beloved toy”—a mini tennis racket and a soft foam ball.

He started playing tennis, answering Vajda’s question, “because I just really loved holding that racket in my hand.”

“Do you still love holding a racket in your hand?” Vajda asked.

Djokovic thought about it for a few seconds, got excited, and said:

“I do. I still love holding a racket in my hand. Whether it’s a grand slam final on center court or just playing around on a public court, I like playing for the sake of playing.”

Vajda nodded, “Well that’s your source. That's what you need to tap into. Put aside rankings and what you want to achieve and what you think others are expecting of you.”

Vajda then suggested that Djokovic take a few weeks off.

Djokovic agreed that he would.

But when he woke up the next morning, Djokovic was dying to hit tennis balls. He went to the courts to play for the sake of playing. “And I never looked back ever since that moment.”

The following season, Djokovic enjoyed one of the greatest seasons in sports history. He won 43 straight matches. He won three Grand Slams, including his first Wimbledon title. And he finished the year as the number one player in the world.

“I started to play freely,” he says of that season. “I became the kid that I was when I started playing.”

Takeaway 1:

There's a word for being like the kid who does something for the sake of doing it:

Autotelic.

From the Greek "auto" (self) & "telos" (end)—an Autotelic is "someone or something that has a purpose in, and not apart from, itself."

As opposed to someone who focuses on rankings, records, titles, and external expectations—for an Autotelic...

”The work is the win,” as Ryan Holiday once told me.

Since you control the effort more than the outcome,

“Ultimately, you have to love doing it,” Ryan said. “You have to get to a place where doing the work is the win and everything else is extra.”

Takeaway 2:

When reading about Autotelics—people who describe their work as play, who simply seem to love what they do—a common mistake is to think that it’s all bliss all the time.

One of my favorite Autotelics is the legendary skateboarder Rodney Mullen, who is in his 50s and still skateboards every day.

“There are days,” Rodney said, “where you don’t want to go out. Or it hurts. Or you’re sore. Or you just suck—you're not making progress, and you feel defeated...But that's the nature of love—it's got hate in there, it's got pain in there. And that’s what draws you in, that's the magnetism.”

At one point during the recent Wimbledon final, Djokovic angrily smashed and shattered his racket. And after losing the match, he admitted that it will take him a while to get over the loss.

That’s the nature of love—it’s got hate in there, it’s got pain in there.

- - -

“I see people with talent, with all those things, but the one thing they don't have is just that love for doing it for the sake of it.” — Rodney Mullen

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Nat Eliason @nateliason]

Prove you can do hard things

When a teenager asks why they need to learn calculus, what should you say?

You know they will never use it in adulthood, outside of certain career choices.

You could say, “It’ll help you get into college,” but then they’re left wondering why college cares if you know calculus.

And once they’re in college, maybe you could say, “To get a good job,” but why would a potential hirer care how you did in multivariate calculus if your job doesn’t require any knowledge of calculus?

But I recently realized there is a very good reason to take Calculus. It’s to prove you can do hard things.

The ability to do hard things is perhaps the most useful ability you can foster in yourself or your children. And proof that you are someone who can do them is one of the most useful assets you can have on your life resume.

Our self-image is composed of historical evidence of our abilities. The more hard things you push yourself to do, the more competent you will see yourself to be.

If you can run marathons or throw double your body weight over your head, the sleep deprivation from a newborn is only a mild irritant.

If you can excel at organic chemistry or econometrics, onboarding for a new finance job will be a breeze.

But if we avoid hard things, anything mildly challenging will seem insurmountable.

We’ll cry into TikTok over an errant period at the end of a text message. We’ll see ourselves as incapable of learning new skills, taking on new careers, and escaping bad situations.

The proof you can do hard things is one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself.

My goal with our kids is to avoid lying to them as much as possible.

I won’t tell them that calculus is super important or even that grades are super important. The truth is, they aren’t, so long as you have other plans.

Calculus is a great way to prove you can do hard things if you have no other proof to show.

But if you’re learning programming and building apps in your free time, or winning soccer championships, or writing a novel, then you are doing hard things. Probably harder than Calculus.

This is also why there’s so much survivorship bias and bad advice in the “C students hire A students” trope. Most C students are not doing other hard things instead of school. They’re just goofing off, so they end up working for the A student.

But some C students are getting C’s because they’re obsessed with other projects. Hard projects. And that obsession with doing hard things lets them blow past their Excellent Sheep peers over time.

So if you have a C student who’s obsessed with something hard, you probably don’t have to worry. If they’re getting high and watching TikTok, well…

I don’t particularly care what grades my kids get once they start school. But I do care that they consistently prove to themselves they can do hard things. If Calculus is how they want to do it, fine, but there are many, many more options.

And if you’re not someone who knows they can do hard things, find a way to prove it to yourself.

Build a habit, learn a skill, create something, whatever it is that turns your default stance on challenges from “that seems hard” to “I can figure it out.”

Create proof you can do hard things.

[DanRodenby @DRodenbyTennis]

Djokovic’s recent results & level of performances are becoming an actual joke. Playing at such a ridiculous standard in every aspect of his game - serve, return, movement, backhand, forehand, mental. 17-0 in Grand Slam matches in 2023, 51/54 sets won. 36-years-old.