Lighthouse No. 47
Hello there! đđ»
Welcome to the 47th edition of âThe Lighthouseâ!
I had a fabulous Saturday! It was a typical Saturday till the fag end of it when I had a surprise in store. Canât wait to share it with yâall.
For Their Own Sake
A few years ago, I saw this video and read this post on how portable tech and its software has revolutionised and eaten the world. A blitzkrieg style assault on everything. A remarkable journey where one single device replaced countless others. The mobile phone, for example, is ubiquitous. A technology that was once a luxury has now become a necessity. Rewind to the mid and late nineties, an elite few had access to the mobile phone. Now, theyâre everywhere with everyone. This is generally how technology integrates itself with society. There are early adopters, and then the crowds follow. The reason - economies of scale bringing down costs.
This technological revolution brought along with it the promise of increased productivity and multitasking. We can now afford to read, talk, watch, listen, and work all at the same time. Blurring the lines between work and leisure, colleagues and family, what could once be painted in shades of white and black now became brushstrokes with shades of grey. Like watercolours bleeding onto one another when they are fresh, one thing bled into another, taking up space and attention. This upheaval lured us away from the vital connections we had with each of these activities.
When I saw the image on the Gecko post, one thing caught my eye - the Walkman. Although Iâve used one a few times, I didnât take a fancy to it. I was happier using the boom box stereo system that came with a multi-band equaliser. I could fiddle with various frequencies to make the music sound better. The stereo system was an exclusive device made for listening. One could do nothing else with it. Journey back a few more decades, and you arrive at the gramophone, which also served only one purpose: playing music. You popped in a cassette or slipped a record, and music filled the room. Sometimes, background squeaks used to present themselves through the speakers. It was a reminder that the cassette or record was well used, like leather developing a patina over the years. An overdose of nostalgia. Listening to music was an enlightening experience. There were no strings attached to it - not for the sake of improving productivity or something that played in the elevator or in your car. Listening to music was for its own sake. Something that is almost lost today.
Iâve seen a similar thing happen in writing too. Writing today involves typing out emails, posting messages on social media, or short-form messaging on WhatsApp. With some purpose. Writing on the physical medium, too, seems to be with a motive. People write morning pages to empty their thoughts, express gratitude, and remind themselves of their purpose. I have done this too. I wrote morning pages every day - even made a statement or two about it. However, most of the posts here on the blog never came out from those pages. They came when I sat down in front of a blank screen and started to type. When I wrote for the sake of *writing* itself. That is also when writing led to fulfilment. When I wrote to find meaning, I never came close to it. But when I wrote for the sake of writing, I stumbled upon meaning too.
It doesnât stop here. This effect has also clawed its way into reading. I was reading and taking diligent notes, trying to connect the dots. Once again, Iâve made a statement or two about this on Twitter because I thought it was a cool thing to do; till a few months ago. I was reading David Deutschâs âThe Beginning of Infinityâ and taking notes. All of a sudden, I lost interest in reading. If I had to give it a name - Iâd hit readers block. Not only in reading that book but generally in reading. It was a chore. I couldnât explain it. I was browsing the covers on my shelf and picked up a Murakami. It was absorbing and enthralling. Murakami is one of my favourite authors. I fell in love with the book. I picked up books from the suggested reading section that were mentioned by Haruki. I came across two books - One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. I fell in love with these books too. I also felt a twinge of guilt - I was having a secret love affair with each of these books. One didnât know about the other. Haha. I found joy in reading once again. I wondered why. It took some time for me to figure it out, but then I realised it was because I read for the sake of *reading*. Not for notes, not to make connections, but to just read.
The biggest brunt perhaps has been borne by the one thing the phone was invented to do - to connect people afar, both in space and time. To stay in touch with them, listen to their voice and drown in a sea of emotions. It is ironic to see the mobile phone do more of everything else and less of this. It appears to be one of those creations that has betrayed the very purpose it was created for. If the phone had a soul, it would cringe. I still find it satisfying to pick up my phone and call someone instead of sending messages. Itâs so very human!
Technology definitely ate many things, made the world smaller, and maybe more efficient too, but it also engulfed the emotions connected to each aspect of what it touched. Nowadays, I make it a point to do each of these things for their own sake, for without it, life seems a little colourless. Next time you listen to a song, listen. When you write, write. While you read, read. Talk to a loved one. For all these experiences come from the same place that we come from - having a soul.
Some interesting stuff I came across:
Furious/ Curious by Seth Godin: I've been a long time follower of Seth Godin's daily posts, and he's a prolific writer - sharing some of the best ideas ever. Yesterday's post from Seth was one of those tidbit kinds of posts - Curious/ Furious. It enthralled me that one could have such a powerful effect with such a small post. I shot back a mail with my thoughts on it and immediately got a reply notification to that mail. An auto-responder that thanked me and told me about the massive volume of email Seth receives every day. It also gave me another address to get in touch with Seth but not to keep my hopes of a reply high. I forwarded my thoughts to this mail address to thank Seth for inspiring me to think on those lines. Another notification, this time the mail was from Seth himself! I was stoked! The reply had two words, and it echoed - "well said!". The weekend was going to be a roll!
The Silicon In Silicon Valley Again by Dan Wang: Being deeply entrenched in manufacturing, I feel sad for how manufacturing took a nosedive in the past decade. It was treated as an outcast, and software was fashionable. Because it was easy to build and scale. Somehow, a key point was missed. Build and scale for whom? Build and scale on what? The answers to these two questions are hard to give and even harder to actualise. Many large corporations treated it as a problem to be kicked down the road for someone else to solve. And here we are today, at the crossroads. I love it when Dan writes essays that strike at the heart of this issue and tell us how much we have lost and stand to lose. We cannot ignore one of the fundamental pillars of our society and our economy- manufacturing. I loved this fragment - âSoftware is fashionable, but we need more than software to reshape our physical world. Software alone will not construct manned bases on Mars. Software alone will not decarbonize the atmosphere. And software alone will not make our cities gleaming wondersâŠManufacturing capacity isnât merely a nice-to-have to respond to emergencies, but is the key to realizing a technologically-accelerating civilization.â
Harder Than It Looks, Not As Fun as It Seems by Morgan Housel: Morgan Housel shares the facet of human emotions that is a crucial driver in how we categorise people. What makes a person they are? Their skills? Or their shortcomings? Thinking deeper on these lines begs us to realise that the skills a person develops are because of their faults. What makes it out on the surface is the skill, which hides the scars. Here's Morgan in his own words - âWhen you are keenly aware of your own struggles but blind to othersâ, itâs easy to assume youâre missing some skill or secret that others have. The more we describe successful people as having guru-like powers, the more everyone else looks at them and says, âI could never do that.â Which is unfortunate, because more people would be willing to try if they knew that those they admire are probably normal people who played the odds right.â
A thought on curiosity Iâm ruminating on:
âThe important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.â
~ "Old Man's Advice to Youth: 'Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.'" LIFE Magazine (2 May 1955) p. 64â
â Albert Einstein
Till next weekend, stay safe and take care.
Cheers!
Prashanth đđ»
If you would love to discuss anything Iâve written about and shared, please reach out to me by replying to this email or sending a direct message on Twitter đŠÂ @iam__prashanth. The tribe there is over 2400 members and continues to grow.
If youâre reading this because someone shared this newsletter with you, or you clicked a link somewhere, welcome! Please subscribe to receive future updates. Thanks for your love!