Hi Reader,

Happy Thursday :)

If you remember, I was experimenting with the idea of an “anti”-book club where everyone gathers Sunday early morning to read their own books in silence for the first hour, followed by discussing what they learned for the second hour.

You’d be glad to know that we’re done with the first edition and began the second edition of this book club last Sunday (although with some changes). This time, it’s 4 of us. And I’ve chosen the book When the Body Says No by Dr. Gabor Mate.

If you’re curious, I recommend you set up something similar with a few of your friends, and let me know how it goes. :D

Now, onto the newsletter.

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CM Long Reads

[Book] Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse: (~2 hours) I had not heard of Siddhartha by Herman Hesse until last week when a conversation with two of my roommates nudged me to purchase it. At 150 pages, it’s a short, digestible, thought-provoking read. Siddhartha is an epic novel about the life of a young Brahmin boy, Siddhartha. He leaves his family and the material world to live one of a hermit, and then disregards that to pursue one of greed and lust. Eventually, he gives that up and comes across a river that gives what he had always wanted: peace.

[Video] Is Achievement Killing Us?: (15 min) In this TEDx Talk, Neha Gupta, founder of CollegeShortcuts, touches on the culture of “overachieving” and how it kills people from the inside while putting on a facade. She redefines achievement to comprise of three ingredients, all of which are very different from the ones we were taught in school. If you’d rather read my short note on this topic, here it is. How do you think achievement should be defined? Hit reply and let me know. :)

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CM Short Bites

[Article] The (Paradoxical) Wisdom of Solomon’s: (4 min) During last Sunday’s book club, Sharanya (one of the members) introduced me to Solomon’s Paradox, which refers to one’s ability to reason more sensibly about someone else’s problems than one’s own. The moment she said it, I could hear my intellectual voice go yay! inside my head. I was happy to see they had a name for this phenomenon, because I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. This article describes a brief history of the paradox along with results of interesting experiments. I recommend reading it if you're struggling to make a decision right now.

[Short Note] How To Combat Feelings of “Wasting My Time”: (3 min) Have you ever felt, I just wasted my time. :( If you have, first of all: congrats, you’re human! And you’re allowed to feel that way. Secondly, it’s worth distancing yourself a little from the problem (Solomon’s Paradox!) to understand why you felt that way. Too often, we feel things without digging one layer deeper. In this short note, I share my thoughts on how to respond the next time you feel like you wasted your time.

[Tweet Thread] Color-Coding Calendar For More Efficiency: (4 min) I came across this tweet thread by Sahil Bloom a few months ago and began implementing my version of his advice. Sahil color-codes the blocks on his calendar to be either green (flow state), orange (productive), yellow (neutral), or red (time-sink). I keep it simpler and use three colors: green (energizing), yellow (neutral), red (draining). However you implement it, this is a simple way to ask yourself at the end of the week: What did I enjoy doing? What did I NOT enjoy doing? And how can I use this information to do things differently moving on?

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Story of the week

When was the last time you ate a hearty meal, took a walk, and then napped for two and a half hours, Reader?

For me, it was last Saturday.

I had signed up for a day-long (virtual) meditation retreat last Saturday. I was looking forward to it for two weeks.

However… I had made a rookie mistake and signed up for a retreat in EST, whereas I live in PST (3 hours behind!).

So by the time I joined the group on zoom, half of the retreat was over. 🙈

Nevertheless, I stayed on for the second half and engaged in yoga and meditation.

By 1 PM PST, the retreat had come to an end. So I thought to myself, Why don’t I just keep going on my own?

I cooked a lunch of naan, lentils, vegetables, and yogurt. Ate in silence while reading Siddhartha. Took a long walk on my house’s rooftop. And then went under the sheets to nap for an hour while leafing through the last pages of the book.

By the time I woke up, it was 4:30 PM!

However, I felt deeply rested and fresh.

There was a brief moment when I felt, Oh no! I meant to wake up an hour and a half earlier. But then I realized, What’s the point of rushing through the day when the purpose of the retreat was to rejuvenate, which is what was achieved through the long nap?

Most of us grew up without the concept of a siesta (an afternoon nap), so the thought of sleeping during the day might seem weird, or worse, a “waste of time.” However, it’s a concept still prevalent in Southern Europe, Middle East, and the Mediterranean.

And honestly, after last Saturday, I’m planning to make it a part of my daily routine.

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Thanks for reading till here, Reader!

By the way, I’m planning to hire someone full-time to work with me closely on managing social media, publishing content on my website, managing this newsletter, and more fun projects. Do you know someone who might be interested? Are you perhaps interested? Take a look at the job application!​

As always, if you learned something new reading this, spread the joy by forwarding this to a friend! I’ll be thanking you telepathically. ;)

You’re amazing.

Until next time.

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Yours truly,

Soundarya Balasubramani 💚

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Quote of the week: Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.

- Edward Gibbon

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