Writing and putting myself out there online changed my life.

I was caged in a small circle before. A virtual world consisting mostly of the faces I’d seen in real life but which came filtered on my screen. I would want to fruitlessly post Instagram pictures to please that group of “friends”.

But then I started a blog and a Twitter handle. I started engaging with other open-minded and sort of unconventional people in the virtual world. These were people I’ve never met physically and perhaps will only really meet some of them with a bit of intention (or luck).

We became friends real quick. It’s so cool that we’re no longer limited to the people in our immediate geographical location and can have deep meaningful conversations with incredible people from literally across the world.

The kind of people I’m friends with online are very different from the people at my school or the neighborhood where I live. Groups tend to think alike.

Occasionally, there’s a bug, a different kind of individual in the group. What does that person do? Where does that person find another of his kind?

The Internet used right is a place to:

• learn stuff

• improve your thinking

• network with people

• make friends

• make money

• create opportunities for yourself

• create communities

• make stuff

• sell stuff

• publish stuff

• literally change your life for the better

“The coolest people I meet are the ones who find me through something I’ve written.”

— Derek Sivers

Yeah, same.

Shout out to The Unconventional Kind: Jack, Mia, Adrián, Elijah, Sahil, Naisukhy Manveer, Eszter, John

The critical rationalist community: Brett, David, Sarah, Charlie, Logan, Michael, Sam

Others: Jay, Andrew, Jha, Owen, Nikhil, William, Surbhi, Tadas, Kate, Aastha, Chris

(If I missed you, tell me!)

The Amazing Things & Ideas List

• Are successful authors creative geniuses or literary labourers?

An intriguing read. “Artists… experiment with styles and topics early in their careers but, when success arrives, they begin repeating whatever brought them success”, the author says. They explore, then they exploit.

Thinking in terms of this changes not only how we understand the writers of the past, but also the work of contemporary filmmakers, dancers, musicians, performance artists or YouTubers.

• The modern day Library of Alexandria is the smartphone:

Pomp 🌪 @APompliano

You can learn anything on the internet with a little curiosity and enough time.

5:56 PM ∙ Oct 13, 2022

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• Book I’m reading:

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Franklin’s curiosity made him an accomplished polymath. This book is a little hard to read because its written in old English and not structured very well. But it still gives a fascinating insight into the brilliant mind of one of American history’s most important people.

• On resilience:

“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”

— Dinos Christianopoulos (Greek poet)

I published two posts on my blog this week…

Check them out!

1. When you should take someone’s word for it 

Hint: never.

With the search and understanding of good explanations we don’t have to take someone’s word for it, ever.

2. How to Journal for Increased Productivity, Meaning and Motivation

I’ve been using some journaling / reflection frameworks recently. I want to share the same frameworks I use so you can get amazing value from them too.

Thank you for reading.

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Onward,
Arjun

Blog | Twitter

P.S. Here’s a cool picture of people celebrating the festival of lights from my side of the world.