Manan's notes

Weekly update, Week 35

What I thought about this week

Hi! I hope you've all been well.

I don't have too many uniquely insightful thoughts to share this week, but I thought I'd share some mundane thoughts instead. Here's what I've what been thinking about the last few days.

Building community

I attended an event in SF a couple of days ago called Dining with Strangers. Imagine sitting in a bright, airy space and sharing a meal with 40 to 45 strangers. The only thing you know about them is that they’re just as interested in meeting new people and gaining new perspectives as you are.

The energy was electric. We talked about what home feels like to us, our favorite memories, what gets us excited in the morning, and the various paths that led us to where we are today. The best part was that we never once mentioned work. It was enriching and energizing -- my heart felt so full afterwards.

Props to the organizer, Adele -- she planned and executed the event masterfully. I got tons of hosting inspiration from her!

I'm feeling compelled and excited to host something of my own! The current idea: a breakfast + co-working session to create whatever. design sustainable fashion, develop mobile apps, create digital art, write short stories, compose electronic music, craft handmade pottery, explore quantum computing — and everything in between... The only rule is that everyone should be prepared to share a demo of their work/play by the end in some form. Then, we'll chat about how the creative process felt, what our biggest wins and challenges were, and how we can best set ourselves up for next time.

If this sounds interesting to you, let me know, and be on the lookout for an invite in the coming weeks :)

Building tools

As you can probably tell, I've been very inspired to create more than I consume and build things recently. It's shocking to me how little I've created for myself in the last 24 years, given how much I've created for others (work, school) and how much I've consumed (social media, books, textbooks, videos, blogs...). I'm choosing to think about it this way: I've spent the last 24 years accruing judgment — it's now time for me to exercise that judgment and the skills I've learned to bring value to people in ways only I can.

Building apps that solve my problems or that I'd love to use myself is a great starting point. If others like these apps too, that's an awesome bonus! Here are a couple ideas I've been considering:

  1. Social personal knowledge graph. Imagine exploring Wikipedia with a dynamic, personalized knowledge graph that grows and illuminates as you read, showing connections between topics and suggesting new areas to explore. This social personal knowledge graph not only tracks your learning journey but also allows you to share and compare your intellectual adventures with others, offering a unique visual representation of your expanding knowledge base.
  2. AI + Audio first draft tool. Imagine a writing assistant that interviews you about your topic, helps you structure your thoughts into an outline, and then generates a first draft using your own words. This app aims to make the writing process easier by breaking through the initial barriers of getting started, allowing you to simply talk through your ideas while the AI handles the organization and initial drafting.

For peer pressure and public accountability, I'm committing to having a prototype to share for one of these apps by the end of September! Not sure which one yet, but if you would especially love to see either one of these come to life, give me a shout.

What I read this week

  • The case against morning yoga, daily routines, and endless meetings by Andrew Chen. Some interesting musings in here about embracing serendipity, investing in compounding advantages, and becoming top-25% at two or more things.
  • Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace. My co-worker told me this book was the best entry point into David Foster Wallace's work. The first essay is about DFW's experiences as a correspondent invited to an "adult videos" convention — weird but compelling at the same time? Not sure what to think so far but I'll keep going.
  • The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergin. This is a doozy, but I'm hoping understanding the history of oil will significantly uplevel my understanding of global geopolitics in the last two centuries. So the effort seems worth it.
  • The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop. Stripe Press book about the father of interactive computing and his contributions to the internet and technology as we know it.

Other Cool links

  • I feel sad that I didn't know about ar5iv (and arXiv's experimental HTML view) until recently. Squinting at PDFs sucks, this makes reading papers much more fun.

  • Hate makes a comeback in Idaho, this time with political support • Idaho Capital Sun. TIL that the panhandle of Northern Idaho is one of the biggest hotbeds for Nazism and white supremacy in the United States.
  • Postgres.new. Ever wanted to experiment with a toy database, loading random data, trying out migrations, and exploring better schemas, all without leaving your browser? Now you can do just that, oh and there's LLMs too.
  • Fascinating SF map: blue areas receive tap water mixed with groundwater, while uncolored areas get pure Hetch Hetchy water.

  • https://myperfectweather.com. Put in your ideal weather conditions and this site can tell you for how many days different places in the U.S. experience those conditions. This photo make me never want to leave California:

Until next time!