5 Links for the weekend (12Jul19)
#5onFriday - 12Jul19 Edition
Hello, ladies and gents.
Yet another Friday. Yet another work week comes to an end. And that means that over the next 2 days you can recuperate, relax, recreate, recharge, rethis, and rethat!
But before that, because it is Friday, here is a curated list of 5 things that you MUST read over the weekend. Here's the list!
1. Mental Health at Work
This piece on FT talks about how ignoring mental health conversations (and thus issues) at work is a bad idea. Forget work. Ignoring these conversations anywhere is a bad idea. I've had friends that have needed interventions and trust me if you ignore it, things can escalate to such proportions that it becomes really tough to find answers.
Please do read this piece. Talks from the perspective of the family of a lawyer (more about the lawyer in the article), the piece makes you aware of telltale signs that you would often miss at your respective workplaces (or at other places where you meet people).
If there is one link that you would click from this letter, please make sure it is this one. Please. Share widely as well. No, not promotion. Just pull the link and share it.
***
2. Kakeibo. Guess what it means ;)
So, one of the things that I suck at is managing money. And thus I read extensively about it. I have tried various methods, trackers and what not. Nothing seems to be working for me, to be honest. But I refuse to give up. Latest in the series of things that I want to try is this called Kakeibo. This is a Japanese way of budgeting and managing the money for your household. I read about it, saw some videos and I think this could work for me (just that it is tough to implement if you are an entrepreneur that does not draw a fixed salary). This link has a great introduction on the method and gets you started on it.
Try it. And tell me what you think of it.
***
3. On Writing Well - William Zinsser
The other thing that I am working on actively is my personal website. I don't know why would I do it, but I want to. And thus I was looking for some examples of great personal websites. I stumbled onto Derek's (the dude is amazing!) and then onto a page where he has summarised some of the books that he's read. Out of those summaries, the one that caught my eye was the one about On Writing Well by William Zinsser.
Some of the tips that jump at me are...
Establish a daily schedule and stick to it.
A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.
Read everything aloud before letting it go out into the world
The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.
Make the reader smile and you’ve got him for at least one more paragraph.
Prune out “a bit,” “a little,” “sort of,” “kind of,” “rather,” “quite,” “very,” “too,” “pretty much.”
Writers who write interestingly keep themselves interested. An interesting life and a continuing education.
You must read this post by Derek.
And then, the book.
And no, I have not read the book yet. But I will soon and I did add it to my toBuy and Recommendation List on Amazon.
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4. How do delay death?
You would know of my obsession with longevity. And thus when this piece showed up on my feed, I HAD to read it. And now that I've read it, I have to recommend you to read this. And then go lift weights. Even if you are not keen about the idea of longevity, weights will help you live better. Really.
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5. Serena "the Goddess" Williams.
Of course, you know of my BIG crush on Serena. I've talked about her in the past. Today, I want you to read this essay that she wrote for a magazine. The world needs more such people. Do read. Any attempts to "summarise" what she's written will do injustice to the essay that she's written. Do read it.
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So, that's it for the day.
And if you are still reading, you can help me with a few things.
A. How do I get more readers?
B. How do I get ideas to write?
C. How do I become better at expressing myself better that you are forced to spread it more?
You can use this anonymous form to respond to these in case you want to keep your identity hidden.
That's it!
Hope you have a great weekend and even better next week. See you then!
Thank you for your time!
With gratitude,
@saurabh
1947, Starbucks, R-City Mall, SoGv2-35
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