dan dennett
Dan Dennett Notes
russell barker
russell barker add – do I want to do a blogpost about this? yes Revisit his videos… Russell Barker Executive function self
Why do we want to become productive members of society?
I’ve had a few different interesting conversations with a few different people. One friend said, when she was asked to a
Naughty Boy
Naughty Boy: Under-table Scribblings Of A Recalcitrant Joker is a collection of poems by blogger and entrepreneur Visakan Veer
Communities
This blogpost started out as a bunch of notes and links, and I found myself sharing it with people over and over again so much
Education is about lighting fires
My teachers recognized that I lacked internal motivation, but they never really addressed it. _ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
day 4 of free agent life
2018 Jul3 – Day 4 of free agent life: I went to bed at about 230am last night. I was somewhat disappointed in mys
what i look for in a writer
in a marketing context signals I like – using a domain rather than gmail. but of course, totally understandable if someone
ecommerce growth plans
(abandoned draft) Last week, I wrote about my own journey as an ecommerce retailer and how we built our business from cringe-i
sheryl sandberg 2012 HBS speech
sheryl sandberg 2012 HBS speech Full transcript
baidu eric xu talk
notes i took a long time ago from some talk he gave Introduction / Story Defining a successful startup Equity structure Founde
The Absurdity Of Modern Civilization, A Prison-Zoo Of Our Nightmares and Fantasies
– 1 – To be born into modern human civilization is both a great privilege (for the safety and opportunities it provides) a
Being Smart vs Being Kind
Originally written in July 2017, over at @1000wordvomits. When I was a child, I was told that I was smart. I wasn’t great at
Inner Newsfeed
I’ve been thinking about this concept for a while. Discussed it with a couple of online friends: Just think of your own
stop “confessing your feelings”, women are not confessional booths
 "Can I know you?" "Will you be my friend?" "I think I've fallen in love with you" are all
Radical Candor
I find myself referencing Radical Candor in many conversations over and over again. It’s a very powerful, simple and use
saas marketing struggles
Brief: what should a saas marketer be prepared for? A window into the experiences (good/bad) that you’ve had as a market
One Must Imagine Sisyphus LOL-ing
Life, particularly in modern civilization, is an absurd circus. We’re all clowns living in boxes trying to amuse ourselves w
sitemap
This is a test post that I might use to list out all the posts on visakanv.com. I’m wondering if visakanv.com might be a
money or life
https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/988756622477479937 Book opens by talking about how shitty people are with their money and
Tribe, by Sebastian Junger
original thread This book grew out of this 2015 Vanity Fair article about soldiers and PTSD Junger grew up in a Boston suburb.
echo chambers are inescapable; the challenge is to design good ones
It's interesting to witness how people throw the term "echo chamber" around to criticize others who are careful
It’s my fault and that’s a good thing
(notes for a future essay about self-blame, responsibility, the concept of fault) A long term tension in my life: I don't
a system can only be improved at its tightest bottleneck
I’ve been thinking a lot about Tiago Forte’s point about bottlenecks – that the only meaningful improvement you
Skinwalkers: mass shootings are nihilistic acts of disaffiliation
(Writing this post because I’m cleaning out my bookmarks in one-tab and realizing that I’ve mentioned Skinwalkers
we turn our lives into mostly-predictable sitcoms
(The following is from a conversation with a friend, after an acquaintance told us about feeling suicidal) it’s interesting
I have to articulate my fears so I can defeat them
I have two big fears that are holding me back in life 1 is a fear of daily reviews 2 is a fear of scheduling in both cases, it
timing like a state
We have colonized time just the way we have colonized space – and our wild, natural rhythms are in a sense contained and imp
there are no trusted adults, you have to supernanny yourself
The following is a cleaned up transcript of a conversation I had with an older friend in 2015 Visabot: I hate that I keep gett
stress log: identify the root causes and address them
2018-feb-24: i was feeling super chill after a really slow, luxurious shower, trim beard, etc. then sat in my chair to start d
Bestof 2018
todo: search twitter for “from:visakanv 2018” FB Jan happy new year I want to go to the moon (hilarious) trippy gl
sexual objectification – “the standards don’t apply equally”, because the costs are unequal
I would say that this IS objectification, but the context we live in dictates that men are affected differently by objectifica
Krabi [2017]
Twitter thread of pics – Day 1 – Day 1 – was sleep deprived – didn’t sleep all night. flight was relatively short, p
My National Service Experience
Wrote this a few years ago. While I was still in NS. Around Dec 2011. I still remember when I went for my medical check-up a f
surviving in jailworld requires some complicity; dismantling it will take lifetimes
Notes from a conversation about Oprah and Neoliberalism: yeah so there are multiple things going on at the same time, and peop
to sleep earlier I need to fix my poverty mindset
I had a post called “next“, and in that post I concluded that I should write how-to guides to myself. At the top o
Bestof 2017
FB Jan Emotional labor thread and discussion “Was 2016 dangerous for celebrities?” – clever use of Wiki article
a set of notes about storytelling
Storytelling Heft? (2022/2023) fiction should slap you in the face and kick you in the gut and spit in your mouth otherwise wh
sinister connotations allow people to be assholes with plausible deniability
I like words. It’s a big part of why I’m a writer. I like everything about them. Here are some interesting things
Remind me later
I think a lot about the passage of time. About how the past and future each have histories of their own. The sun used to revol
Listen to your “naggy” wife
Written as a Facebook comment on February 22nd. Today’s coffee thoughts shall be about this. My wife is my best friend a
there are several kinds of happiness, so be precise about what you’re pursuing
Martin Seligman: The new era of positive psychology 3 kinds of happiness pleasure home warddrobe commute workspace dates food
jamming studios
The first jamming studio that was a significant part of my life was some dingy place in Clarke Quay. I don’t remember the na
train station
Train Man, what a long day it had been. So many terribly written emails to respond to. So many arrows to siam. Another day. No
Threads
startup bullshit Just shipped some stuff for work, so I thought I'd take a second to explore some thoughts that have been
smartphones and other linguistic legacies
Language is full of interesting legacy issues. The pocket supercomputer I'm writing this on isn't really a "phone
eddies
I love this comic by Kevin Simler of Melting Asphalt: Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the
Inspiration
Sometimes I get a little worn out by the friction of everyday life. Â In these times, it helps to have things to return to in
The utility of art (includes escape from myopic utilitarianism)
It’s often difficult to have a conversation about art because we’re almost always talking past each other. I once
I’m constantly fascinated by teenagers – shifty, anxious halflings figuring life out
locust-style social effect I’m on a train. It’s 218pm, I’m on the east-west line on the way to Buona Vista. There’s a
Singapore Skyline
I want to write a quick blogpost about the Singapore skyline. I’m not an architect, or architecture student, or even any
Marina Bay Sands is Singapore’s Schelling Point
What’s Singapore’s single most identifiable landmark? It’s changed over the years, and that’s the subj
Mariamman Temple and Capital Tower
The oldest Hindu temple in Singapore is Sri Mariamman Temple. It was founded in 1827 by Naraina Pillai, eight years after the
how to unlearn your conditioning
First you need to recognize that you are conditioned. everybody is. But we’re also conditioned to assume that our condit
June 2017 status update [vomit 0684]
(I wrote this in June 2017, while I was on reservist) Dear Visa, How are you? It’s me, your oldest friend, who’s always be
how to bullshit everyone with an inspirational success story
I used a procrastinating underachiever. Then I decided to Follow My Dream and play in a rock band, <s>sell t-shirts<
Is Ya Kun Kaya Toast “Authentic”? [2013]
Originally posted on Poached Mag in 2013. I was having kopi with some friends at Ya Kun Kaya Toast. A friendly auntie spoke to
think bigger
Every so often I encounter something that pulls me out of the box that I’m currently in. It’s 2:51pm and I’m really slee
reorient
At my last 1-1 with Dinesh we were talking about quicker reorientation after failure. We were talking about my motivations, an
reduce bullshit
Most people are full of shit- and when I say that I mean Frankfurtian bullshit, ideas and statements that aren’t verifia
there’s no escaping constraints; we have to work with them
-1- Constraints can be cruel, arbitrary, stupid, unfair, unkind, damaging, crushing, painful, horrifying. The idea of wishing
marriage
Originally posted on Hacker News: Here’s my random, unsolicited opinion: I doubt porn is the cause. Porn might be a como
belonging
belonging – a place to call your own I was thinking about ‘belonging’ earlier, and how I have always felt like I
We have to learn how to live and play with supernormal stimuli
I was on the train a while ago without my phone (left it at home) and I was just curiously watching what other people were up
Real Life Is Dystopian
Lately I’ve been collecting factoids that I’ve found dystopian about the world we already inhabit. A mirror that
Memoirs
I have always been a somewhat scatter-brained person, and I’ve also always felt this sort of compulsion to catalog every
2017 Review
Highlights: Hosted Venkat when he came to Singapore did GA workshop (April 13th) Meeting Shitij’s friends Written: Relig
Safe spaces
Some people think that safe spaces have a coddling effect. And maybe that’s true sometimes. And the examples are pretty
cultural appropriation is very context-dependent
In response to http://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/02/17/japanese-twitter-seems-to-have-no-problems-with-karlie-kloss-geisha-phot
todo
funwork 2nov2023 movies twitter intended to watch: citizen kane (10< space odyssey (6), seven samurai (5), howl’s moving
favorite poems
Good Bones by Maggi Smith Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a th
The Human Game
Essay WIP. I find myself thinking about an Alan Watts lecture, that you can find on YouTube titled The Human Game. And he talk
Tips
Web browsing Google search tips from Reddit Gaming Mouse I use a gaming mouse (Logitech G602). First of all, it’s a good
Deeper Consciousness
I’ve had this recurring conversation with a friend about how there’s a deeper consciousness in each of us, that w
Tripping through time on the information superhighway
Originally posted on 1000wordvomits. I wanted to write about “tripping through time”. I was telling another friend about t
Parents, peers and other benevolent plagues
Originally posted on visakanv.com/1000/ I’ve been reflecting on how people get into drinking and smoking and drugs. And by e
Beating yourself up is egotistic
When I was a kid, I was stuck in a very silly cycle. I’d get home from school every day and I’d avoid doing my homework fo
4 years together
Fun fact: Sharan Kaur and I got married 4 years ago today. It was kind of a secret. We did it over milkshakes and hotdogs at a
The Folly Of The Plunge
There’s an overly romanticized idea in both business and romance (and probably in many other fields as well) – tha
‘hacking’ the 7 sins
I once extensively dissected all the 7 deadly sins as a mental exercise (I was bored as a conscript, and I wanted to solve the
Retake the narrative
Wrote a response to someone asking, “Why should Muslims have to answer for what some madmen do halfway across the world?
When arguing, strive to understand context
— 1. When arguing, seek to understand context — [Published 2016] Roughly between ages 13 and 23 I was thoroughly convinced
the jetpacks of 2020 will be whatever helps us navigate information overload
TL;DR: In the broadest sense, we already have powerful engines; to go faster we need better shock absorbers and handling. ____
people seem fundamentally unserious about their information diets
TL;DR: “Every new piece of news is seriously important” => fundamentally unserious about the nature of importan
Different perspectives are more kaleidoscopic than different “points of view”
Thought: Words and phrases like “perspective” and “point-of-view” don’t adequately convey how ra
Identity fragments and withers away when there’s nobody else to perform for
One of the most interesting things I’ve ever read was about this guy who was homeless and living in the forest for a rea
Early Employee
source +1 to this. I’m a relatively early employee at my team, and while my founders don’t really mind whether I&#
is your subconscious smarter than you are?
Original: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9072394 I really liked this idea– I think by Robin Sharma [1], but by many
Annual Reviews
Every year I make it a point to do some reviews of my life. Here’s a list of what I’ve done so far. 2009 birthday
Making Sense Of Modern Civilization
1 To be born into modern human civilization is both a great privilege (for the safety and opportunities it provides) and a rat
An Analysis of Power And Social Dynamics In ‘Mean Girls’
Theory: The movie has such enduring power and is quoted so much because it sheds some incredible light on real sociological ph
scared men
I knew some dudes like this. They’re like young versions of the racist old man Bill Burr described in his standup –
A Sideways Look At Time
A Sideways Look At Time is a 1999 book by Jay Griffiths that I find myself referencing over and over again. I thought I’
2016
WIP I want to make it a point to do annual reviews. Next year I’ll update it every month. But this is retroactive. Writt