Monthly Wrap! (August)

Monthly Wraps are blogs that are up on the last Sunday of the month which include::

Blogs of the month
Book recommendations
What did I curate? Resources I’m binging on – of course, I’ll be choosing the major ones. Just a brim of how much I curate!
Reminders & Reflections to ponder – Of various of my reflections of the month, I’ll choose one or a few. And some re-realized reminders!
My writing journey/ my book updates

Here’s August’s “Monthly Wrap!”

Blogs I wrote this month:

Book Recommendations:

This month I could read 3 books:

Effortless by Greg McKeown. Like his last book “Essentialism”, this book is also a great reminder! Once you’ve removed the non-essentials and once you’ve started to focus on only the essentials, there comes the point where you have to think about making that essential task as effortless as possible. That’s where this book comes into the picture. If not directly, in some way or the other, Greg’s book has helped me change the course of my life.
101 Essays that will change the way you think by Brianna Wiest – Like the title says, it’s multiple essays compiled into one book. So even though all that the author has conveyed is truth in it, it does not feel cohesive and it may even seem conflicting sometimes (even though it is not) and hard to digest if you’re a beginner. But it is definitely a great book.
Think Again by Adam Grant – A great book. The author has clearly shown why we should rethink our belief systems, and how to create such an environment where rethinking is always welcomed. I liked the author’s humility. Even though he has first-hand experience working with NASA, Microsoft, etc, he purposefully delays acknowledging that and then blasts that truth onto our face as though it is not such a big deal.

What I curated:

Movies:

Series:

Cars on the road

Few (must watch) YouTube videos:

Apps used this month:

Starryai – This app has AI which makes images representing the words you input to it. Just a fun app to see what an AI makes out of words.
Refind – Though uninstalled this app on my phone, I’m still using its service on my desktop as a bookmark on chrome. Refind gives you 5 (or more as you choose) articles every day that you might find useful. The best part is, that the links to those articles are sent to your inbox, and you can wish to see the articles whose titles might be of interest to you.
Vero – It’s Instagram without an algorithm. This might be useful if you want to stay away from the toxicity of the Instagram search feed. This app showcases only the posts of the people you follow. This might be a great platform for creators who are already famous, but that aspect is definitely a downside for someone looking for traction.
Xtiles – A visual-based note-taking app. It’s more than just note-taking actually. It’s more useful for brainstorming. However, it still requires some work in terms of what the other note-taking apps already have. I think the super-note-taking and brainstorming app is that which merges all the great features of various note-taking apps. However, that’s too ideal and might never happen.

Reminders & reflections to ponder:

Not always, but sometimes, Dharma resides in our happiness
When even waiting long for your teacher does not guarantee that you’ll learn completely, I wonder what effect will await those students that make the teacher wait for him/her.
Making someone feel bad about themselves to try to make them do something or teach something is not a good way to do so. And this especially holds true if the person who’s trying to teach is himself/herself not a great personality.
If you intend to, you’ll see. If you’re not seeing, you don’t intend to.
Not knowing cannot be an excuse. If you do not know, know!
Just like you’ve heard, You may be born poor, but you must not die poor, you must realize and remember that You are born ignorant, but you must not die ignorant.
Being ignorant is also a Karma. It catches up with you.
If you’re passionate about something that’s harmful in any way, then it is not passion, it is addiction.

My Book Update:

I realized the delay in writing my second book is due to two reasons mainly. One, because writing a second book is hard because the first was your best. And the first book was your best because you took all the time until then in your life to write it. And the second reason is, to be honest, I’m actually working on multiple writing projects. I’m writing a short guidebook, and personal writing prompts, along with the second book.

Thank You,

Yours Loving,

Sanath Kumar Naibhi