⭐️ Quotes

School, parents, and society try to push us into predefined bins, straightforward life paths: "Be an accountant," "be an engineer," "be a lawyer." The idea is that these paths are smooth and easy, leading to a stable life. But what's to say that we need to have such a smooth path? Life is a lot more exciting when we explore it freely; any bumps in the road are a fun part of the journey. You don't have to worry about getting lost because you can succeed in nearly everything given enough time, if you're committed to it. Studying physics isn't exactly a direct path to fame and fortune, but Feynman loved it so he pursued it and lived a great life.

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Knowledge is your current state, it's what you know and can use right now. But if you want to go further, to expand your mind, and to improve your life, then you need imagination. Imagination broadens your horizon and makes the impossible possible.

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📜 Articles

​Galileo on Why We Read​

A short but sweet article on the beauty and value of reading with reflections from many great figures, closing with an especially powerful quote from Galileo. It speaks to how reading is a connection to someone else's deepest, most powerful thoughts. That connection can happen across vast spans of space and time. We can collect the best knowledge from the smartest people in history through reading their writings. As a reader it's really something to admire and bask in. How lucky we are to receive such treasures through the simple act of reading.

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​Isaac Asimov on How to Get New Ideas​

Isaac Asimov was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University most well-known for his writing of science fiction books. This is an essay Asimov wrote to a friend with advice on how to come up with new ideas and creativity in general.

The first point Asimov makes is that creativity is not specific to one field like art or poetry. It's a general concept of "making new things" whether in theory or practice. In particular, his essay points out five key traits of creativity:

• (1) Newness and exploration -- Creativity requires doing or experiencing something new in order to spark new areas of the brain. Asimov gives the example of how Charles Darwin travelled to far off lands which was a catalyst for his ideas. Getting yourself into a new environment will help you become more creative
• (2) Cross-connection and analogies -- If you're only exposed to one particular subject, it's easy to get stuck in a tunnel vision of thinking. Exposing yourself to and studying many different fields will give you information from them all, allowing you to draw patterns and cross connections, which often lead to invention. This was the way of many great inventors during the Renaissance period, the most famed being Leonardo Da Vinci who studied art, science, engineering, architecture, strategy, and more
• (3) Daring and confidence -- You will need to be bold and believe in your ideas for creativity to flow freely. Otherwise, you might stop your explorations prematurely, just before you would have made a big breakthrough. You must be unrestricted in your experimentation and confident that your ideas can work to even give them a chance of coming to light

• (4) Isolation and focus -- Creativity will require you, at times, to work alone in order to be isolated with your own thoughts. You need that isolation to fully understand, explore, tinker, and play with your ideas

• (5) Fun and flexibility -- Creativity should be fun! When forced to do it for a living or out of obligation, you won't have the will to really do it. Your mind won't do the wandering and playing that it needs to do. Creativity requires a relaxed, fun, and flexible environment to flourish

And those my friends are the elements of creativity.

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📚 Books

I've lately been fascinated by re-learning physics. Physics is a subject that most of us are introduced to in a really mundane way in school. Complicated theories and equations are thrown at you along with crazy tests.

But learning from physics is a lot more fun when you learn on your own since you can explore what, when, and how you want to. Plus, you don't have to go to the complicated parts if you don't want to; you can learn conceptually, in layman's words.

Here are three great books that explain physics in a fun way, in layman's words.

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​Seven Brief Lessons on Physics​

Talks about the seven biggest advancements in physics since the start of the 20th century, especially the contributions of Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Paul Dirac, and other prominent figures. The book does especially well in explaining the relationship between space, time, and the particles that make it all up. My favourite lesson was the explanation of the current theories for what happened before the Big Bang. Check out this Twitter thread for more:

George @GeorgeSeif94 What happened before the Big Bang? According to research in Quantum Gravity, there might have been a *universe before ours* I'll explain it in layman's terms. There are 3 simple parts to it... September 10th 2021 0 Retweets 4 Likes

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​Astrophysics for People in a Hurry​

This book by Neil deGrasse Tyson showcases the beauty of science in our world. Many people are turned off by science because it's typically presented in a very complicated, mundane way. Tyson shows science as fun and beautiful. The top notes I made from the book:

• It's beautiful that the phenomena we observe here on Earth can be seen across the universe in many different shapes and forms. The real laws, structure, and science of the natural universe always remain true no matter where we are. Perhaps this is partially why we can see so many interesting patterns across different areas of life
• Another thing is the amazing equilibrium in our universe. If the force of gravity were even slightly different, the entire makeup and energy of the sun would be drastically different! Everything is perfectly balanced to support the world as we know it today
• Dark matter and energy are those things in the universe that we know are there, but can't explain or concretely put our finger on. But sometimes you don't have to. Einstein had mastered this. His inventions didn't come from a million experiments, they were born out of his intuition. For example, we know that gravity pulls things, but if there is always only a pull then the world would collapse: "Every action must have an equal and opposite reaction" as Isaac Newton says. So Einstein discovered the "push" with his cosmological constant. Use your intuition to make sense of things; run with it if you truly feel it means something; those feelings are there for a reason
• Fun fact: Helium raises the frequency of the vibration of your vocal cords which is why you have a squeaky voice when you breathe it in!

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​A Brief History of Time​

Stephen Hawking's most famous book. The first of its kind to break down physics in any easy way to both teach and inspire. Hawking beautifully sums up the ambitions of physics in a single sentence:

All in all, the book tackles three key themes:

• Everything is in motion -- The current knowledge base in physics suggests that nothing in our universe can ever be precisely measured because everything is constantly in motion. You might hold a solid ball in your hand, but technically the particles that make up that ball are constantly moving. We can estimate their current position, but we can't know 100% of it, at least not with our current knowledge in physics
• Quantum Mechanics -- Because everything is always in motion, it means that we can't ever precisely measure the current position of any particle. Thus, modern Quantum Mechanics takes a probabilistic approach to the problem. Instead of aiming for one definitive result, we predict the probabilities of various possible outcomes. Some things may be nearly 100% certain like the movement of your arm, but in reality we are working with probabilities
• The unified theory -- The ultimate goal of physics is to achieve a unifying theory, one that can explain the entire universe in a single, compact way. We currently know how a lot of things work: particles, motion, gravity, radiation, light, black holes, and the big bang. The current quest is for finding a single theory, equation, or in general an explanation that links all of these concepts. Wouldn't that be beautiful?

A truly thrilling read showing the current knowledge of physics and what is still to come!

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🎧 Podcasts

​Sir James Dyson — Founder of Dyson and Master Inventor​

James Dyson is the founder of Dyson, a company that makes many home products like hair dryers, air purifiers, and most well-known, vacuums. James is the original inventor of the Dyson vacuum which rose the company into prominence. He is in the truest sense of the words a Master Inventor having designed and built many of Dyson's products from scratch, especially the early ones. Famously, it is said that it took him five years and 5,127 prototypes before his vacuum, the first of its kind to pivot on a ball and not require any bags, was a hit.

Tim Ferriss interviews James in this podcast about his mindset and methods in how he invents, engineers, and in general how he succeeded so much in life. The best lessons:

• James has an incredibly positive attitude; not in a cliche kind of way, really seriously. In the podcast, he mentions that he originally majored in art in school and he calls himself an "amateur engineer," but then goes on to say "that's alright, I figured it out eventually." When investors and manufacturers weren't on board with his ideas, it wasn't such a big deal. He just went on and said "OK, I guess I'll have to start my own manufacturing company." There was no getting stuck or discouraged, just constantly moving forward and believing in his dream
• James believes that the best and most exciting way to learn is empirically. He calls himself an autodidact, which means "self-taught person." Empirical learning allows you to explore things naturally and lets your mind do what it does best: think, wander, tinker, discover, and invent. That's how children figure things out and how the best learning is done
• James loves failure and finds it exciting. Failure has its benefits and positive thinking drives you forward towards solutions

• James's style of inventing things is quite simple in practice: make one change at a time, measure the result, and repeat until you have what you desire. Invention doesn't have to be some singular, grand insight or strategy or technique. It's just persistent, methodical iteration. Over the long run that will add up to a brilliant invention

• James also encourages people to be bold. Creativity and invention necessarily mean that most people won't believe in you or your ideas because they're different. Different makes people uncomfortable. You have to get comfortable in your own skin and confident in your own abilities, enough to say: "Everyone else thinks this is dumb, but I know that it's right so I'm going to do it." That's how great business and invention gets done

James Dyson is an incredible inventor and wholehearted person. This podcast is a joy to learn from. He also just released a book called Invention: A Life.

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🎥 Videos

​How to stop languishing and start finding flow​

This is a recent TED Talk by researcher Adam Grant where he tackles the topic of languishing and how to get past it. Languishing has become a popular term in this pandemic; it means being in a state of emptiness and stagnation. You feel stuck, like you're not growing, moving forward, or really living at all.

I've talked with a lot of friends about this lately and we definitely feel it during the pandemic. We've had a birthday or two since the pandemic began, but barely feel like we've grown up. Some people experience this feeling more frequently unfortunately. Each day goes by rather mundanely as they drag themselves out of bed, go to work, come back, eat, watch Netflix, and waste away their days. We can use a basic synonym for this feeling of languishing: meh.

After discussing languishing and how it makes life feel slow, Grant then turns to the solution: flow.

Flow is when you feel most alive, most involved in the world and totally undistracted. Many of us feel this when doing physical activities: lifting weights, playing sports, cooking, gardening, walking in nature, eating your favourite meal, travelling, or having sex. If you want to break out of the meh feeling then those are the kinds of things you need; physical, something that makes you feel alive and involved in the world. You need to make such activities a regular part of your life if you are to feel truly satisfied and fulfilled.

Grant also suggests a few other things that help with getting into flow:

• Small wins -- Not all progress has to be a huge accomplishment. Having a positive mindset about the little things will help. It could be trying to cook a new recipe, playing games with your family, or reading an extra page or two in a book this evening. A little progress is always better than no progress
• Focus and boundaries -- To feel alive you must be focused and fully absorbed in what you're doing at the time. To get more focused you have to set good boundaries. Some examples of boundaries: having scheduled times for pure exercise without your phone, blocking off time to spend with family, having a deadline for when you stop work for the day. In general having some sort of structure where you know particular times are 100% dedicated to the activity at hand is really helpful. "We need to treat uninterrupted blocks of time as treasures to guard. "
• Knowing you matter -- When you feel like you matter to the world, then you're not just drawn in by your own sense of aliveness, but also by others which can be even more powerful. Take interest and try to be a part of the lives of your loved ones. You'll find that the connection benefits you both

A wonderful, timely talk in this pandemic!

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🖼️ Beautiful Picture

The stunning Chichen Itza under the night sky in Yucatan, Mexico

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