This is just a list of ways to escape reality. You can choose or not choose whatever your preference may be. And please do not take these as any medical advice for your current problems. On drugs and Booze. This could be the bad way of escaping the reality. You and me can agree that reality can sometimes be too painful, too boring or too irritable. That we need to find a way to stop thoughts. Some, people even get depressed as they find no solution to their problems in current reality. Some proportion ending up drugs and Alcohol. However, the problem with these is that it does not stop problems, but temporarily suppress consciousness to it cannot comprehend anything. You might wake up feeling worse the following day. In my opinion not a good way of escaping reality. Virtual Reality On TV, video games and virtual reality. Getting addicted to screen is also, a way of escaping reality. Whenever we are looking at a screen we forget what our feelings, instead get involved in the virtual reality of the pixels. As, these provide us to be in somewhere we are currently not, again it is highly addictive. You can stay on your couch eating Pizza making your body unhealthy while watching someone travel around the world and living in a jungle. You can do anything to a human body which you cannot do in reality without getting jailed permanently for life, even watch realistic videos of someone killing someone. I am not sure these are perfectly healthy ways of escaping reality. But I would rather watch dolphin videos. Books Blogs Newspapers Art I am a big fan of written material as an escape of reality. Fact that they do not produce noise makes it more fascinating to me. Books contain, journeys people took, their imagination, surely produce different virtual realities, depending on the person who is reading them. You can take your time doing it. And it is silence. More closer to your reality than anything else. You do not have to suppress your consciousness to enjoy a book. But generally they demand you are calm and at peace, as the processor of pictures in this case is your own consciousness, and if it is heated with arguments with your Ex, it might just not work. On work and flow. Work and flow are also ways of escaping reality. You might not feel hunger, when you're stressed at work. You would not remember problems at home. You might get into a flow of feeling mildly drifting in cosmos if you're deeply engaged in creating activity. This could also mean you might enjoy nurturing plants in your backyard vegetable plot, while forgetting you have a diagnosis of cancer, and 6 month death sentence from the oncologist. Is, it a good way of escaping reality? It would be if it doesn't give you problems of kind, that you like to solve, inherently. How not to escape reality If you do not want to escape reality but to embrace it, I suggest you sit on a chair and do nothing of above sort. Just letting the thoughts like drifting clouds. You, might get sleepy. Other than that being mindful is the only way to embrace reality. Simply, it is just being aware of your awareness, noticing its inherent nature of non persistence. Who knows you might understand something about yourself, that you have been looking for all your life.

Why you should be a listener? The world is filled with chaotic noise. Most of the modern problems of Homo Sapiens are due to the fact, they are confused with this messy overflow of information. However, most minds, unless diseased is capable of figuring out the path, navigating through the chaos, when a clam and natural space is provided. I am sure throughout the working day, at least you once feel, overwhelmed and need of someone to talk about it. So, is everyone else. We all love to talk, about ourselves, as it is refreshing and calming. Even if we are not provided with solutions. Imagine 8 billion people speak at once, there would be nobody to listen. Which is happening nowadays, and a root cause for our ever-growing selfishness. So, indeed there is a great vacuum for listeners in current world. Also being a listener will make, you feel that you are indeed, needed by someone else. Listen. Listen more. Listen further more before speaking Listening is not therapy Fundamental difference between therapy and listening is, the latter do not try to provide a diagnosis label, and there is no structured approach. Yet, it is a very powerful way, to help someone who is in need of a companion. In listening, the listener do not try to give a solution. Instead, be non-judgmental, and empathic. Something we all crave for. We all crave for a validation of our feelings, by another human being. We might expect it from our partner, a family member, or even a stranger. And If you become a listener, It will be a great assets to the people who live closest to you. Lot of, unspoken words and feelings which will be unearthed, would provide a fertile soil for more natural solutions. However, there are dangers. Dangers of being a listener. Dangers of listener are twofold. Unless you are an empty bucket with no feelings, you would feel heavy after the listening. Naturally some people are better at being listeners than others. Second consequence being you might be a target, by people with hidden agendas. Unfortunately, these problems cannot be avoided. As, it is utmost important to keep your mental space clean and safe during hearings. If it disturbs your day, to listen to someone else, we can always revert back to our baseline level by listening nothingness of the nature. You might take a walk and listen to natural song of earth, in the local park, which might provide some healing to your soul. Where and how you can become a listener. At home, where your partner may need one. Just try it for a once without reacting. At work, I am sure there are hundreds of co-workers who has to say something. At school, in the park, in Hospital ED or online platform. While you're alone, you can listen to your own voice in head and we call this special case of mindfulness. Remember to be a sponge while you're doing it. So you do absorb everything and give out nothing. If you try to squeeze out your openions, it will prevent the flow of the sound.

I used to know the names of all the eight-thousanders byheart, in order. Not so while ago. And now I realise how peculiar thing it was, when I couldn't find anyone else who is having a favourite mountain. Maybe I am in a wrong forum of life. But, here is about my favourite mountain of them all K2. K2 Why K2 is my favourite mountain. K2 is the second highest mountain in far west corner in Himalays. It is Isolated from the rest of the world, deep within Pakistan Himalays. It has a simple shape from a distance, looking like a gigantic pyramid. But, here is a thing, by volume it easily surpass, 100 man made pyramids. The shape itself provides dangers to the climbers, as it is a difficult climb from bottom to top. Here I have to confess that I am yet to climb any of these giants hence I imagine of the view from the top where no birds can fly and flock. No goats can exist and no helicoptors could land. Even humans survive only for few minutes there, although views are breathtaking due to the fact that the sky is beneath you while you are at the top. It is my favourite mountain, as it is isolated from the rest. Like it has this thing called introverted nature when considering the rest of the lot. I would be dead if I tried to terreck to the basecamp through the Goodwin-Austin glacier. However, If I was there, I wouldn't object to my temptation of climbing it, even if that is the last day of my life on earth. It seems a good way to perish. To be frozen on a cold mountain, to the eternity. I will be freezing and shaking like a fresh fish out of the water, while fingers giving up themselves to frostbite. My mouth will be painfully distorted remembering a cup of coffee and bean soup, which I could have had instead by a warm hearth and a constantly nagging domestic cat. But, at the moment non of these realities exist, unless I can squeeze into fourth diemension and space travel like a pro. A savage Giant. There were some interesting facts of its discovery, as it is second peak of Karakoram range identified and measurred by british Surveyer Thomas George Montgomerie in 1856. For a brief period of time there had been a debate for it being highest mountain of earth, as the surveys done on mountains were purely dependent on traingulation and trigenometry, and bounded with human errors. The mountain rises about 3600 meters from its glacial base, making it one of the highest rock faces on earth. Whenever I look at a mountain, in horizon, I imagine the K2 being there comparatively to amaze myself, knowing that would be three times or four times taller and would occupy half of the sky ! Everything else about K2 I have put on a fact sheet. As silent as the mountain is, as savage as it is about 99 climbers have died so far, and biggest disasters were in 1986 and 2008 claiming 13 and 11 lives respectively. Yet, there would be more mountanieers seeking this adventure yearly although mountain itself, do not ask for to be climbed. K2 Fact Sheet 1. K2 is the second-highest mountain in the world, standing at 8,611 meters (28,251 feet). 2. It is located in the Karakoram Mountain Range on the border between Pakistan and China. 3. K2 is often called "The Savage Mountain" because of its extreme difficulty and dangerous climbing conditions. 4. Unlike Mount Everest, K2 is considered a much more technical climb. 5. The mountain was named K2 during a survey of the Karakoram range. The "K" stands for Karakoram. 6. K2 was first successfully climbed on 31 July 1954 by Italian climbers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli. 7. Temperatures near the summit can fall below −60°C in winter. 8. For many years, K2 had one of the highest death rates among the world's tallest mountains. 9. K2 is part of a region that contains some of the largest glaciers outside the polar areas. 10. The mountain is a favorite challenge for elite mountaineers because it combines great height, steep slopes, unpredictable weather, and avalanche risk. Even though K2 is shorter than Everest, many climbers consider it the toughest and most dangerous of the world's 8,000-meter peaks.

Why magical to mindful living? I am not sure some may have wondered why there is "magical" to the mindful living. Mindful living is supposed to be about truth, reality and everything which is not abstract. But whenever I take this minful approach to life more and more I am convinced of the magical part of it. Life is a continous flow of abstract ideas, which have no name, but named after our ancestors. Do not believe me? I have just found the 100th example on the list ( rest of it, I have written all over the blog) which is the story of metaphors. A magical tree https://unsplash.com/@merittthomas Stingrays do not learn how to swim they are magical. Kids are learning how to swim. Backstroke breast stroke butterfly stroke, it seems complex and complicated. How your arms move, how your ankles rotate, how the knees are kept while breathing every two kicks. They learn years, how to swim. This seems not natural. Humans are not built for swimming, but they do with effort and innovation. What humans do with hard work effort and creativity stingrays inherit from birth. Never do they learn how to swim from professional stingray coaches. Neither do horses to gallop, or bees learn waggle dances from cousins. Creative writing masterclass I was reading a book on creative writing, just to find out importance of language features like metaphors similes idioms and puns. How to detect those in a paragraph and appreciate and comment, something often done in any literary class. But the problem I saw in myself was these things all were in retrospect. Nobody says what there is going inside the brain of a writer when he or she is involved in the creative project. I think there is something magical is going on in our brains when we do a creative task. And no book, no guru is able to capture this process other than saying it’s “magical”. Creative writing is not the only place such magic happens. If you’re looking for a solution to a math problem, or even trying to develop a new marketing strategy for your business, little bit of magic happens exactly moment you get a novel idea. What are the elements of magic So for ease of understanding I list out possible reasons for this magic, which I will exapand in future. They may not be appealing to you. As long as you provide these ideas into your brain and stirs it up like an alchemist, magic would do the rest. A good rest, calm mind, silence. Good observation, alertness and awareness on thoughts Believing in magic and be receptive to it Apply regular randomness to routine tasks Hard work is tiring but magical work is tireless.

"A washing machine has never made any women Happy." Have you ever wondered why you hate sunday afternoons, where you always have to come back home for monday? Maybe you live alone, or you take care of the house. Then one essential origin of this uneasiness comes from the pile of dirty laundary overflowing baskets. Generally on sundays. And you would dream to see the bottom of it -Sky2035 , as it seem it never ends. And it reminds me of Francosie Sagan, the french screenplaywriter and Novelist, who among other things did struggle to find her perfect washing machine among many sports cars. Happy Operator I used to do my own laundary. Now I don't. When I come home with an enourmous pile of used cloths, and keep in a corner, I do not think what happens to it. Somehow, by monday, it magically appears in wardrobe, with a fresh smell and nice comfortable texture again. This happens over and over. And I am guilty of not being part of this process. Call me feminist if you like, having read the quote by Sagan, I know I must have done something wrong. Even if I do use that time for a 10000 times productive thing can I rationalise my act? Era of no washing machines There was a time we didn't have washing machines. I can remember walking to a far away well, with all our laundry. It was like a ritual, as there was no tap water at home. First it was cold water bath for the kids. And we went to the fields and the stream to see crabs, catch some fish in a jam Jar. Or sit in the morning timid sunlight, just to warm our bodies, like a couple of warm blooded lizards. It was fun, except for the utterly cold first bucket of water on the head, that we had to endure, to have a bath. But, I wagely remember my mother not being part of our fun. She was by the well whole time, for an hour or half more washing cloths by her hand, with a piece of solid soap. Bending over a rock. I hardly remember me giving her a helping hand. Was I not been kind, and empathic? However there was a time I did do my laundary. That was when I was alone. By my self in afternoons I would do it without a washing machine. Hardly a thing enjoyable. I couldn't think anything else other than when it will be over and dreaming the bottom of it. A slight feeling of accomplishment, and cleanliness might be there at the end of it. I think it is time I shoud change the attitude towards washing machines. They are essential component in my house, once installed I barely notice them. Rarely I involved with its function unless it was broken. But, What can I do to make it a happiness machine? Until I find some magical washing machine which makes lime juice while washing clothes, I will just stick to operate them from time to time myself. Atleast the unhappiness it provides would be equally shared with. Francosia Sagan Francosia Sagan was a French writer known for her stylish, emotionally sharp novels about love, freedom, and the emptiness beneath glamorous lives. She became famous at just 18 after publishing , a novel that shocked many readers with its mature themes and cool, detached tone. She was reckless, fast-paced personality: in 1957, while driving her sports car at very high speed, Sagan suffered a near-fatal crash that left her in a coma for days. After recovering, she openly wrote about the strange emotional effects of the painkillers she received, adding even more to her image as a rebellious and unconventional literary figure. Her works and life together made her a symbol of youthful freedom, sophistication, and quiet sadness in postwar French culture.

Disclaimer: explicit content in a literary perspective ahead. Surface tension - Essay There are many things, which happen in the universe, other than you. Yes, you! the selfish egoic humble proud subjective isolated consciousness which is reading this now (you are allowed to add or subtract adjectives as much as necessary, but what matters is the core, the bare consciousness stripped out of adjectives). How about surface tension? This little force which is negligible when compared with the human scale that we try to measure things, is one of the core reasons, life exist. Including animals, plants and gigantic Armadillos of east Andes. In 7th grade you may have learned about how surface tension works, to keep a water droplet in a round shape, and soap bubbles to become spherical. There are thousands more examples where surface tension works. If you have forgotten middle grade science on your way to PHD, following is a handy list. Poem on Surface tension Due to surface tension Insects can walk on water Small objects like needles can float on water Water rises through plant stems (capillary action) Meniscus forms in containers and test tubes Raindrops stay together Lung alveoli are affected by surface tension Ink flows through fountain pens and markers Formation of foam and froth Water can move through tiny pores in soil and paper towels Coitus I was discussing the act of coitus with one of the friends of mine, in thorough detail as it happened. And having a degree related to biology, the aftermath of this lustful human act was replaying in my mind in a remarkable detail. I couldn't ignore the fact that I am imagining gigantic human sperms swimming in a sea of seminal fluid enriched by fructose and salt, in a confounded space of fornix of a vagina (top part of a female reproductive tract). Now, that is all what a man can achieve, except the little bit of euphoria having succeeded doing that, his role is over. While anticlimax is wearing him down, the sperm, with half of genetic material required to clone life, would struggle to reach the ovum to unite with other half, unless they have the help of the negligible force of surface tension secretly guiding them towards its target ahead of their swim. (for your reference I have calculated how much it has to travel in human scale, which is 60-80km in distance, by foot, you can see the reference to the calculation at the foot notes) Surface tension as a reason for existence. When we refer to the above list, we can see coitus is not the only action, that our existence also depends on surface tension. Plants exist due to capillary action, our lungs, do not collapse due to surface tension, and every cubic millimeter of our body, depends on surface tension for transport of essential nutrients. The fascinating fact is not the science itself. It is about how we can translate this information to tangible human form in everyday life, if just we remembered at right time. So, what is the right time to remember Surface tension? Scenario 1. - When things go wrong blame surface tension. When your boss blames you for no reason, you can ventilate your anger on the surface tension which worked extra after an episode of coitus which happened approximately nine months before his/her birthday, this way you are not targeting some human but interconnectedness of nature. Same is the reason for stupid oil price hike and market collapse happening each and every time President DJT opens his mouth in front of a microphone. Scenario 2. - When things go right praise surface tension. When you are elated, and successful and triumph after hitting a milestone in any aspect of life, you can be grateful to surface tension for doing that. That tiny little force, which makes things move in microscopic distances made it all possible for you to have a consciousness of your own and all the people around you who share love and happiness with you. It is not a crazy thing to do; it is a rational thing to do :) Armadillo So, what would you blame or praise surface tension for? -end Surface tension essay- Foot Note on calculations. A human sperm cell is about 50 micrometers long (0.05 mm), making it extremely small and invisible to the naked eye. However, to reach the ovum, it must travel a much longer distance through the female reproductive tract, typically around 15–20 cm. When compared directly, the sperm travels a distance roughly 3,000 times its own length. To understand this in human-scale terms, if a sperm were enlarged to the size of a 2-meter-tall person, its journey would be equivalent to traveling about 60–80 kilometers. This shows how remarkably large and challenging the journey is relative to the sperm’s tiny size.

I was reading the book by above name written by Rosmery Friedman. More likely assembled by him as all the quotes were produced by who came before him. Many writers in the world have contributed to the book. If you do not know, being a writer is hard at times, when nothing seems to come into the blank mind occasionally. Some call this a writer's Block. Some do believe in such phenomena, and some do not, as for the ones who do not believe in this, writer's block, I assume they don't because they have a writer's commonplace book and a good pair of eyes. What is a writer's commonplace book? This is a book, a writer carries with him/her all the time, so, whenever idea occurs, a quote is found from a book written by others, or a new intuition arises in mind while looking at buffaloes grazing in the fields, he/she can write them down. Not, as paragraphs, but as notes and quotes to self, with minimal words. Even one such interesting ideas can turn into a poem, an essay or even a novel. If you do not believe me, ask from Jack London. After writing his famous "Call of the wild" he had just a spark of idea to write an Opposite novel. In 1906, 3 years after the initial publication he published his second book "White fang" which was even more embraced by readers than the former. The core idea of white fang was just "A wolf adjusting to a civilized society" Commonplace book Commonplace book is not a diary. Diary is a place where we keep records of our observations. But fundamentally commonplace book is not a diary, although it can contain observations. Majority of these observations are just thoughts (& judgements) which arise in the mind. The reason to keep a commonplace book is evident. Our short-term memory averagely can remember only 6-9 things at a time. Even if you get the most brilliant idea than Einstein himself during lunch, you will forget this when you are into desserts. And commonplace book will solve this problem. There can be alternatives, including, recorded messages on your phone, or a dictator phone, or even a note app on the phone itself. Yet, I would highly recommend a notebook and a pencil, as it won't distract you with thousand notifications. Example entries. Having introduced you to the commonplace book here I will give some example entries from the above book. Hilariously enough I found TV as a commonly occurring theme among some writers, and these are some quotes of them. --EXTRACT-- Television is a fantasy which destroys everything. MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE Television has made us extraordinarily well informed on subjects we know nothing about. MICHAEL HOLROYD The 'television Personality' who possesses no skill other than a quick wit and a certain ease of manner in public, is a modern phenomenon which has never existed before. ANTHONY STORR TV plunges people into noisy Isolation. FRANCOISE SAGAN Film and TV purvey life to those who do not live it. SOURCE UNKNOWN I felt passionately about not wanting my children watching TV because it was vulgar, stupid and debasing. AUBERON WAUGH --END-- Ha ha, I really wonder what these writers would have said, if they encountered 10 second Tick Tock and YouTube shorts of gen Z..

It suddenly occurred to me that the rat race I am immersed in do not necessarily have to be a greedy selfish affair between me and the world, for me to become wealthy. Of course that is the traditional point of view, and that is why the getting rich game is labelled as a rat race. However, the second definition of being wealthy is equally rewarding and satisfying. A definition of being wealthy. A definition of Wealthy In this definition, being wealthy is never about the amount of money you earn or spend. It is like water in a cup. But it is never about amount of water in the cup. It is about the "Status" about the cup being, full, empty or half empty. Imagine every one of us carrying a cup with us. And by trying to be rich we toil with others on trying to get it full. We beg, we confront, we clash, we cry, we triumph. And I can imagine 100 people in a room with half empty cups trying to get water from each other's pot (we call this fundamental problem of economics or optimal distribution of scarce resources, like money). And I call this room the scheme of capitalism at work. In this game the guy with the biggest cup with highest amount of water wins. It seems something is twisted about the game and there is evil spirit behind numbers. Consider a scenario, having the full cup is the end game. And there is option to trade cups. Instead of finding water, we can trade a cup and easily achieve status of being full. In fact, you will see when you have only a 100ml cup and your previous cup had 200 ml water you can easily donate 100 to others who are thirsty and dying. (You can call this true Philanthropy) A Dream of future. It is time we had a better system than capitalism. It had worked well and done miracles in advancement of technology and human knowledge. However, in the heart of it, the evil spirit of desire to be rich is there. It promotes things which are valuable, not necessarily ethical or good in long term. Better would be a system which is governed by the principles of generosity, contentment and co-operation on global scale. We will find more happy people in such a world than we find in traditional capitalism. As global connectivity is faster than ever, it is high time we explore such endeavors. This seems a good moral ambition to chance, however, you can just be happy chasing ducks in the park, if you trade a smaller cup than moral ambition or success. Take home message -> You can be happy, either chasing more and achieving it physically, or morally. Or you can be content like Jim Carrey

A Wednesday morning. A delightful, casual, clean day of the week. As the sun rises, common populace wonder out from their hideouts to overcrowd the streets. Groups of children dressed in white following steps of their parents and teachers to the school. And teachers distinctively dressed to contrast themselves from students walk at a slower stern pace with straight necks. Streets full of vehicles of middle class debt owners, creating traffic jams at cross roads. Lawyers crossing the road dressed in white shirts, and black overcoats, resembling the truth that they try to reveal or conceal on the witness stand. Hospitals, shops, factories of cooperates attracting crowds like gigantic magnets in junkyards, imitating beehives or anthills. Crowded district Through this mass mess you travel towards your workplace and wonder what's all with this. It feels like a whimsical dream. Where and why all of these crowds move? Deluded by stories made by their ancestors and peers. They wear trousers shirts and belts, golden glistening ornaments that appreciated by others who belongs to same clan. Without a clue to why and how and what is their purpose. Isn't this another cycle of growth and prosperity of baptized penguins? You wonder into the deep chasms of philosophical argument of Anatolie Frances novel "Penguin Island", while experiencing the clothed cultured flock of penguins first hand. Story of a freedom Nut The car you're driving speeds in suburbs 40km per hour. Just like the growth of the society, riding the exponential curve. Yet you realize you're just a nut, plain, metal, dirty nut, inside the engine, holding one piece of metal glued to the frame. Nut has nothing to do with the movement, yet nuts together with other pieces makes movement possible. A nut is not independent, although it can dream about freedom, and write about it. Yet if a nut wishes to be free, there is no choice but to step out of the car, which will halt any movement or progression. As far as other nuts concerned from that point onwards, a freedom nut would cease to exist. He will be replaced by a similar nut. And nobody would stop to be with the nut who decided to step out of the car. You imagine yourself deserted by the moving car by the road side. Getting rusty by the weather and falling into eternal boringness of the still universe. Not wanting happiness You feel like the solo nut who chose to stay still. Once you chose to stay and watch, you see the illusion of movement and its absurdity. You label it as "Not wanting Happiness". It is like you have got ridden of the parasite of success within you forever. Wanting movement and reaching destinations had been the way of your problem solving for ages. "Not feeling wants" is your new definition of life. Who cares about the pile of files on your desk today, that you have to archive. Who cares about dirty laundry you have to do today after work. Who cares about hunger or thirst or you'd die by the road in five days. Even if you do, during those five day you'd still be free of wanting. There would be no wanting or not wanting to make a living, be happy, or be a legend. Pure existence in its natural form, without a will to carry on it will cease to exist like decayed lost nut.

Waggle dance - the story of randomness It's not only humans know how to dance and convey a message. Honeybees also do this, not for burning calories after full stomach, but to inform other bees of potential direction of flowers. If one bee finds out there are flowers in a part of the forest, after returning they would do a waggle dance in front of other worker bees to show exact location of the honey patch. Most of the bees would follow this advice but 20% of the bees ignore this. They would take a random journey to a different direction. Venturing out looking for better hunting grounds. Waggle dance Explore and exploit When you think about a big company, like amazon, and Google and even Wall mart or Starbucks, they exactly imitate the behavior of bees. The majority of their budget and resources are utilized for the purpose of exploiting current affairs. Improving their own system, in an Iterative manner so they can increase their margins of profit. These actions are generally guaranteed a measurable outcome. As an example, increase in number of unit sales or a reduction in production cost. However approximately 20% of their effort would explore random ideas. Seemingly stupid, seemingly irrational seemingly crazy like a bee who chose to take a random walk despite proven paths. However, this is not by chance, but by design, as Jeff Bezoes and every CEO of these companies know what it means exploring randomness. Major discoveries are made not by the formal process but a mixture of random events which happens to people and environment. (Chaos theory) Fat tailed distribution. The reason behind this kind of organization, or rather disorganization in life and nature is the principle of "power law" or "fat tailed distribution" if you know some statistics and mathematics. Compared to normal distribution, things which work in power laws have a fat tail, which skew the average markedly to right. Business venture is such a distribution. As Jeff Bezos puts it, in baseball home run can earn you four points. But In business home run can earn you 1000 points in his case a trillion points. But how can someone achieve that is by playing around with resources, taking a limited risk. Fat tail Experimentation mentality. What helps one in such a venture of hitting a home run in any discipline is having an experimentation mentality. This is the explore part of your equation. If you are an artist, go and run a business for some time. And quit if it doesn't work for you. If you are an engineer, go and study marine life or a chloroplast. If you're a zoologist, learn how amazon sorting algorithm works, and learn the principle in action in a group of buffaloes that you study. 😉 you can call it a detour, if you're walking in a park. But all the wrong turns do not end up in disaster, they just change the future dramatically for everyone in long term. (Chaos theory again) even the seemingly trivial ones. Story of randomness is fascinating. You're here because of it!

A Harvard lecture on what is moral ambition I was listening to a Harvard lecture by Rutka Bradman the other day and it was about how intellectually gifted students or intellectually superior part of the population end up in doing some mediocre selfish game played in corporates, finance, And other fixed categories of workforce in our society. According to him majority of these people by the end of their life, are not happy about what they have done or accomplished in their careers so the alternative he gives in this speech is having a moral ambition which is: Finding a suitable sizable solvable and utterly neglected problems in the society and try to find a solution for these problems for the great good of humanity. As an example, climate change, hunger, poverty, ethnic clash traditional capitalism etc. A wood Duck Moral Ambition? Or truth? I thought about this for a moment It seems very nice thing to morally pursuit if someone is not inclined for absolute truth in the world. I would say second best option is having a moral ambition like Rutka mentioned. And I'm sure nobody wants a second-best option in Life as when we play any game we want to be first right? So, what is the first and foremost thing to pursuit in any life? I think it is the truth. Because whenever you're getting closer and closer to the truth riding asymptote in life the happiness and the feeling of success and even the feeling of moral ambition gets heightened. Sometimes you may never come across to 100% truth in life yet the pathway to finding out truth about your existence or it's nonexistence, truth about your selfish ambitions, mystery about afterlife if it is there, seeking these things early in your life even if you are struggling, make you more clarified about your current status of mind as well as current pursuits of mind. Is chasing ducks in a lake better than moral ambition? Imagine a thing which you pursue, let it be moral ambition or other, which doesn't matter at the end of the life, on your death bed, why does it matter now? Why does it matter a moral ambition if there is nothing called moral ambition in the nature? Don't get me wrong I'm not asking you to be selfish and stop your charity, just being rational and trying to understand our deep core reasons for doing anything. It Is far more superior to just being selfish. If I can spend a perfectly content comfortable life sitting on a bench under a tree near an isolated lake full of ducks, isn't that something to pursuit? Is it wrong to pursuit something like that without getting distracted by moral ambition? These are the questions that I asked myself whenever my mind tries to create a future which is far beyond what is expected from anyone's life. I think what is expected from any human life is inclination to strengthen the effort to reach as much as possible to the Truth in the world, during the lifetime and I only see very few people talk about these truths without being prejudiced by the stories of the creators of the past or even seekers of the past. but any individuals journey is very unique, and we cannot compare to anyone else's in the past.

The simple answer is anything that interests you. Trust me there is no bad kind of reading. Just like exercise, there is no bad exercise right? As long as you're doing it any exercise is good. Similarly reading is a good habit. There should be no need to put barriers to what you should be reading. Read My reading habit. I started reading as a very small kid. First thing I can remember was a big book with Russian fairy tales. Now as an adult I can see that wasn't a big book at all. But relative to a five or six year old kid that was. The beautiful vasilessa. I was attracted to the ivans, sea horses and magical woods with wiches who ate kids. And it did not stop from there. I was in search of stories all the time. Novels, translations. We exchanged books with our classmates. Tarzen, sherlock Holmes, Jack London and Emily bronte. I was in these magical world of imaginary tales. It was the era before smartphones and movies. But imagination involved. In parallel to these fascinating novels, I found out that there are quite fascinating textbooks as well. They are different from novels as there are no characters. But for any curious mind there are enough things to discover. From why the sky is blue to how Steve Jobbs spend his day. I found most of the time that textbooks doesn't capture attention on the first chapter. Sometimes interesting stuff comes in later chapters. I would turn the pages and take a haphazard walk. Just like I would do in a botanical garden. A walk in the Botanical Garden Imagine you visit a botanical garden on a Sunday. There would be a lot of places. Lot of people. There would be thousands of shades and corners to explore. Would you panic? No, you would slowly explore some of these places, engage In thought. Look at wild flowers and write down your observations. And next day you will come back and revisit some of these new places and old ones. Each time you would spend different quality of time in the same garden. Now imagine you do the same with your textbook. I found this very interesting. You will not meet me carrying a notebook, if you met me in this garden. But I suggest you do just that like Moriarty, as your imagination from this garden is totally different from the author, that you might need to capture it. Just like a fleeing butterfly your novel thoghts might slip away otherwise and you might not be able to show anyone. Exploring Colors Let's get back to novels. After reading loads and loads of them I found out that novels are kind of boring. Texts are much more interesting. But after sometime you might find that texts are boring too. Life is far more interesting. Infact all these reading material are representations of life. Someone's perspective of the world, factual or imaginative. When I look at the world now I can see what reading has done to my world. When I look at a tree I see it differently from anyone else. In a unique way, as books have taught me a lot about trees. When I look at a flower I can separate its shades from the science behind it, as I have read about color theory. When I see stars, I see them unique way as I have read how these giant balls are appearing as twinkle stars at night, and even move faster than light into forever darkness. When I see ants I see how they see the world as I have just seen the photographs of ant vision. So definitely my world is rich in imagination and opportunity only because of variety of books. So what should I really read? If I was stuck to one book. One domain of knowlege, that would never had happened. I would never be able to write an article or have a meaningful conversation about meaning of life. So, to answer the question What you should read, is anything that interest you. As our interests are unique and you are irreplaceable if you master your interests. Which can look like work to others but just a play to yourself.