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Recently I read the book ‘Show your Work’ by Austin Kleon. I have seen this book at so many places - at a friends house, as a gift, on book stalls, at coffee tables but never got around to reading it. But this time i decided that I am going to buy the physical copy as opposed to an ebook as it contains a lot of drawings and graphics by the author and also because it was a long time since I held a physical book. I got my husband to buy it along with the other two in the series - Steal like an artist and Keep Going - as an anniversary present. I was inspired to read this after Youtuber ‘ Ali Abdaal’ shared how this is one of the most life changing books he has ever read. About the book This book gives you tools, mindsets, frameworks and strategies to be creative in the digital age. It is simple to read and divided into 10 chapters each providing you a way to operate and be creative.The idea is to cultivate an ability to showcase you work. You don’t need to be an expert. Share a work-in-progress and take your audience behind the scenes to reveal your process of working. It might be useful for someone and might help them to get creative and show their work themselves. Instead of being a hoarder of information, be a curator and a collector of ideas that resonate with you. Share your interest and passion with others and you will be able to find your tribe. Once you are successful, help out those that you took inspiration from. This book feels so good to hold and read. It’s a short book, which is easy to consume and reflect and write on. I finished it in one sitting and then re-read it for capturing my notes. I thing its a great coffee table book and I am going to read it several times in the future just to refresh and feel inspired whenever I am feeling a creative block. Who Should read this book? Any one who has a creative pursuit, in this digital age, should read this book. Even if you are not an artist or a creative person, you will definitely benefit from it. Summary + Notes Through this book, the author argues that it’s not just enough to be good at your craft. In order to be discovered by others you have to be ‘findable’. One needs to be able to share their work freely so that they can be discovered by those who share their interests and passions. The book is also not meant to teach you tricks of self-promotion instead it lays out the idea of being so good that others will not be able to ignore you. All you need is a new way of operating. H e lays out ten philosophies/way of being that you can imbibe to be able to thrive creatively, in the digital age 1. You don’t have to be a genius Good work isn’t created in isolation. Instead it is a work of collaboration with other minds, who are part of whole movement of people who are supporting each other, stealing and contributing ideas. So its not about how smart or talented you are but what you have to contribute - ideas that you share, the connections you make and the conversations you start. Be an Amateur. An Amateur is an enthusiast who pursues his/her work in the spirit of love (In french the word means ‘a lover’) which allows them to not be afraid to look stupid or silly. They have an advantage over the professional as they are willing to try and share new things, experiment and follow their interests and in the process make new discoveries. They know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing. Amateurs are life long learners and open to learn from their successes and failures. In this fast paced and changing world, everyone is turning into an amateur, the point is to learn to work with unknowns and uncertainity. The best way to start sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn and then learning it in front of others. See what others are sharing and find out gaps that you can fill in through what you know. Don’t worry about how will you financially support your choices and just continue to create and share what you love. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few. - Shunryu Suzuki You can’t find your voice if you don’t use it. Share the things that you care about online and people will find you Read obituaries of people to derive meaning into your life 2. Think Process not product Take people behind the scenes : In the digital age, people just are not interested to see the finished product but instead they want to know the process behind the product. It helps the audience to be a part of the creative process and in forming a relationship with the customers Become a documentarian of what you do : There is an art to whatever we do and there might be people who are interested in the art. You can start to keep a journal, or a blog to record your process and share it with the world 3. Share something small every day From your documentation find a little piece that you can share. If you are in the early stages of work, share what’s inspirational and motivational, when you are in the middle of a project, write about your methods or show your work in progress. If you have just completed a project, show the final output or your learnings from it. This is similar to the idea of ‘intermediate packets’ from the book ‘Building a second Brain’. Only share something that you think intuitively is worth sharing. Turn your flow into stock. Share something daily (flow) and in the background work on the content that is more durable and meaningful (stock). Maintain your flow while working on your stock in the background. If you follow sharing as part of a daily routine, you will notice themes and trends emerging in what you share. You can then turn them into something bigger and substantial. Buy yourself a good domain name where you can start sharing whatever is it that you are working on. Make it your own turf and spend time doing and posting good work and other things will eventually follow. 4. Open up your cabinet of curiosities Share your influences, interests, tastes as it tells people who you are and what you do. Don’t be a hoarder of things instead try to be a collector or a curator which is not very different from being creative. Share anything you like that other people might discard. Look for the gems in the discarded and do not be afraid to edit or filter out your influences. Give credit to the creator of the work that you are sharing. Also give context for what you’re sharing i.e what the work is, who made it, how they made it, when and where it was made, why you’re sharing it, why people should care about it, and where people can see more work like it, where we found the work that we are sharing 5. Tell good stories Human beings are interested to know where things came from and how it were made and who made them. The stories we tell about a work we do has a huge impact on how its valued by others. This value is derived by how people feel about your work and what do they understand about your work from the stories that you tell them. In order to become effective when sharing ourselves and our work is by becoming a better story teller Have some structure to the stories that you tell Be honest and candid about the work you do and strike up a conversation with others about your work 6. Teach what you know Whenever you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. This helps generate interest in what you do. Teaching others doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it adds to it. Whenever you share your work with others its is an opportunity to educate your self through people who provide either feedback on your work or connect you to further resources 7. Don’t turn into a human spam A human spam is a person who just keeps on sharing his own work all the time instead of finding out what others are truly interested in. If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community. If you’re only pointing to your stuff online, you’re doing it wrong. You have to be a connector. If you want followers be someone worth following. Do a vampire test to know whether you should keep someone in your life. If someone drains you of energy they are a vampire and if someone energises you then they are not. Be around people who are not vampires. Find and meet people who share your interests and passions and nurture your relationships with them. 8. Learn to take a punch When you are ready to put your work out there into the world. Be ready for the good, the bad and ugly. The more people read and consume your work the more criticism you will face. Relax and breath deeply and take whatever comes. Keep moving with your work. You cannot control other’s actions so just focus on your momentum Protect your vulnerable areas don’t avoid them. If you spend your life avoiding vulnerability, you and your work will never truly connect with other people Remember work is something that you do not who you are Take feedback from people who care about you and what you do and be wary of feedback from anybody who falls outside of that. 9. Sell out Don’t be afraid to charge for your work - through donations, crowdfund, selling your products and services. Asking for money in return for your work is a leap of faith you take when you are confident that your work is truly worth something. Keep a mailing list for the days when the technology might expire but everybody will have an email where we can directly reach out to our audience. Don’t be a pushover and provide value through your content to all those who have signed up over the email in the form of newsletters. Experiment with and expand your work. Embrace opportunities that are line with what you want to do with your creative work. Leave the rest. Pay it forward - Once you have had success, use your influence, money etc to promote the work of people that have helped you along your journey. Provide them with opportunities where they can show their own work. 10. Stick around Don’t give up and continue to pursue your ambitions even if you think you are failing. Don’t quit. Chain-smoke : Once you complete a project, don’t idle out, instead keep the momentum going by using the end of one project to start another. This is similar to building a hemingway bridge of ideas. Take a break when needed from your work to rest and recharge and avoid any burn-out. The thing is, you never really start over. You don’t lose all the work that’s come before. Even if you toss it aside, the lessons that you’ve learned from it will seep into what you do next.

What is Deep Work? Deep work is defined as “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.” There is a ubiquity of deep work among influential individuals like Carl Jung, Woody Allen, J.K Rowling and it is in sharp contrast to the behaviour of most modern knowledge workers, who are rapidly losing the familiarity with deep work. The reason for this is there exposure to a vast number of network tools - email, SMS, Social media sites and infotainment sites like Reddit etc which has resulted in fragmented and narrowed attention span for most knowledge workers. In contrast to the idea of deep work, there is shallow work which is defined as “Non-cognitively demanding, logistical style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts often don’t create much value in the world and are easy to replicate”. Shallow work has the potential to permanently reduce our capacity to do deep work. There is an ongoing debate about how the network tools are distracting us from what is truly important. There are people on both sides of the debate - techno-skeptics who argue that many of these tools are damaging society and then there are techno-optimists who argue that these tools are changing the society for the better. The author’s interest though is in exploring, through this book, how there is a work culture’s shift towards the shallow which is exposing a massive economic and personal opportunity for the few who recognize the potential to do deep work. Why is Deep Work Important? 1. Deep Work is Valuable. In the information age, there has been a shift towards deep work, as more and more population are now knowledge workers for whom deep work is becoming a key currency. There is an increasing evidence that those who cultivate the skill for deep work and make it core of there working life will thrive. Also deep work is becoming increasingly scarce and thus its becoming increasingly valuable. There are two reasons for this value - Quickly learning complicated things and the ability to produce the absolute best stuff that one is capable of producing. **** The rise of digital technology is transforming the labour markets in unexpected ways. We are in the early throes of the Great Restructuring. There is a rapid increase in the capabilities of a machine and as they improve, the gap between machine and human abilities is shrinking, as a result employers are likely to hire “new machines” instead of “new people”. There has also been massive improvements in communication and collaboration technologies that is making remote work easier than ever before, motivating companies to outsource key roles - leaving the local talent pool underemployed. This Great restructuring is not driving down all jobs but instead dividing them - though an increasing number of people will lose in the new economy as their skills become automatable or easily outsourced, there are others who will thrive - becoming more valued than before. There are three groups of people who will fall on the lucrative side of this divide and reap benefits of the intelligent machine age. These are : The Highly Skilled workers : People who are good at working with Machines. The Superstars : People who are great at what they do. The Owners : People who are investing capital in technologies that are driving the great restructuring. The author focuses on the above two groups - The highly skilled and the superstars and proposes methods on how to become a winner in the new economy. There are two core abilities to thriving in the new economy - The ability to quickly master hard things. The ability to produce at an elite level - in terms of both quality and speed. These two core abilities depend on the ability to do deep work. There are following benefits provided by deep work : Deep work helps you learn hard things : Learning requires intense concentration and deliberate practice.So, what is deliberate practice? Your attention is focused tightly on a specific skill you’re trying to improve or an idea you’re trying to master. You receive feedback so that you can correct your approach to keep your attention exactly where it’s most productive. Deep work helps you produce at an elite level High Quality Work Produced = Time Spent * Intensity of Focus Maximizing intensity maximizes the quality of work produced per unit of time. Attention residue: Switching from one task to another leaves our attention fragmented ie. when you move from Task A to Task B, your attention doesn’t immediately follow - a residue of your attention remains stuck thinking about the original task. By not switching task and focusing on working on a single hard task for a long time helps maximizing performance and minimizing the negative impact of attention residue from other obligations. Thus to produce at the peak level you need to work for extended periods of time with full concentration on a single task free from distraction. So, the type of work that optimizes your performance is deep work. 2. Deep Work is rare Below are the trends that are driving the move towards depth which will become increasingly rare and therefore increasingly valuable as a result. Busyness as proxy for productivity: Since there are no clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in a job for most people are, they are just keeping busy assuming it to be an indicator of productivity. Deep work should be a priority in todays climate but its not since shallow work is easier and in the absence of clear goals employees tend to gravitate towards shallow work to appear busy and our culture rewards behaviour if it is in alignment with “the internet”. Also there is a difficulty in measuring the value of depth or the cost of ignoring it. 3. Deep Work is meaningful The connection between deep work and a good life is evident in craftsmanship but its a bit muddled when it comes to knowledge work. One of the issues could be clarity as it is difficult to define what does a knowledge worker does and how is it different from others. Another issue is the presence of people who are trying to convince knowledge workers to spend more time in shallow work. The central theme of this following arguments (neurological, psychological and philosophical) is to establish a connection between meaning and depth in knowledge work The Neurological Argument of depth. We generally place a lot of emphasis on our circumstances assuming that what happens to us determines how we feel. Instead research suggests that we construct our worldview based on what we pay attention to. So deeper the attention we place on things that are important to us the deeper we will work on it. The Psychological Argument of depth The experience of the flow state enables us to go deeply into the work we are doing as it orders our consciousness and makes our life worthwhile. The Philosophical Argument of depth. The task of the craftsman is not to generate meaning but to cultivate in himself the skill of discerning the meanings that are already there. A similar potential for craftsmanship can be found in the jobs in information economy. Whether you are a writer, marketer, consultant: Your work is a craft, and if you work diligently to hone it and give it its desired respect and care then you will be able to generate meaning in your daily efforts in professional life. There is potential of craftsmanship that can be found in knowledge work as well. Be it a writer, marketer, consultant : Your work is craft, and if you hone your ability and apply it with respect and care, then you can generate meaning in your professional life as well. How to implement Deep Work We have a finite amount of will power which is different from character that can be summoned(deployed) when needed without limit instead will power is a muscle that gets tired. So, we need strategies in place to cultivate deep work, make it part of our routine to minimise the amount of willpower needed. There are different type of depth philosophies- The Monastic Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling : Attempts to maximise deep work by eliminating or radically minimizing shallow work. The Bimodal Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling : This philosophy has divided time into some clearly defined stretches to deep pursuits and leaving the rest open to everything else. The Rhythmic Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling : This philosophy argues that the easiest way to consistently start deep work sessions is to transform them into a simple regular habit. The goal is to generate a rhythm for this work instead of deciding if and when you are going to go deep. The Journalistic Philosophy of Deep Work Scheduling : Indulge in deep work whenever time or one’s schedule permits. It based on your moment to moment decision to whether to go deep or not. Strategies to implement Deep Work 1. Ritualize To make the most of deep work sessions, we need to craft/ build rituals like the greatest men or thinkers have had. The rituals must address some general questions like Where will you work and how long? How will you work? How will you support your work? 2. Make Grand Gestures Commit seriously to the task at hand. Put yourself in exotic location to focus on a writing project, or take a week off away from work just to think, or lock yourself into a hotel room are all examples of making grand gestures which pushes your deep goal to a level of mental priorities that help unlock the needed mental resources. 3. Don’t Work Alone There seems to be an assumption that indicates that deep work which is an individual endeavour is incompatible with generating creative insights which is said to be a collaborative endeavour. Big corporations like Facebook believe that new ideas emerge with smart collaborations. The key is to have both in an arrangement called the hub and spoke architecture of arrangement where you expose yourself to ideas in hubs on a regular basis but maintain a spoke in which to work deeply in what you encounter. 4. Execute Like a Business The 4DX method of execution: Focus on the Wildly important : Identify a small number of ambitious outcomes to pursue with your deep work hours Act on the Lead Measures : There are two types of metrics to measure your success : lead measures and lag measures. Lag measures is a metric that defines what are you trying to improve and Lead measure is the behaviour that will drive success on the lag measures. The problem with lag measure is that it’s something that you can’t control. For example if you write a blog post than how many people read and appreciate it is not in your control but you can control how many hours will you work on a blog to produce quality output which is a lead measure. So take action on things that you can control Keep a compelling Scoreboard : Have your deep work hours on display Create a cadence of Accountability: Do a weekly review by looking at your scoreboard, celebrate good weeks and try to understand what led to the bad weeks and how can one improve. 5. Schedule Down-time from deep work 6. Instead of scheduling the occasional break from distraction so you can focus, you should instead schedule the occasional break from focus to give in to distraction.Schedule a fixed time to complete an identified deep task and then commit publicly to the deadline. 7. Try Productive Meditation. The goal of productive meditation is to take a period in which you are physically but not mentally occupied and focus on a single well defined professional problem. Keep bringing back your attention to the problem at hand whenever it wanders. 8. Try to chose and pick your preferred network tools by following the craftsman approach to tool selection instead of the any-benefit approach to tool selection The any-benefit approach to tool selection states that using a networking tool is justified if you can identify any possible benefit to its use, or anything that you possibly miss out on if you don’t use it. The craftsman approach to tool selection on the other hand states that one identifies the core factors that determines success and happiness in one’s personal and professional life and adopt a tool only if it positive impacts on these factors substantially outweighs its negative impacts 9. Apply the law of vital few to your internet habits : which is 80% of a given effect is due to 20% of the possible causes First identify your personal and professional goals. Then list for each of the two goals three important activities that helps satisfy the goals Next consider the network tools that you currently use. For each such tool, go through the key activities you identified and ask whether the tool has a positive, negative or little impact on your regular and successful participation in the activity. 10. Drain the Shallows Schedule every minute of your day Quantify the depth of every activity : Ask how much would it take to train someone with lesser experience to complete the task Ask your boss for a shallow work budget Fixed Schedule productivity : Fix a firm goal of not working past a certain time and then work backward to the productivity strategies that help with the implementation of this rule. Become hard to reach A commitment to deep work is not a moral stance and it’s not a philosophical statement - it is instead a pragmatic recognition that the ability to concentrate is a skill that gets valuable things done - Cal Newport

Lyrics - Amitabh Bhattacharya Movie - Lootera क्या कभि सवेरा लाता है अँधेरा सूखी सिहाई देती है गवाही सदियों पुरानी ऐसी एक कहानी रह गयी रह गयी अनकही - २ क्या कभी बहार भी पेशगी लाती है आने वाले पतझढ़ की बारिशें नाराज़गी भी जाता जाती हैं कभी कभी अम्बर की पत्ते जो शाखों से टूटे बेवजह तो नहीं रूठे हैं सभी ख्वाबों का झरोखा सच था या धोका माथा सेहला के निंदिया चुराई सदियों पुरानी ऐसी एक कहानी रह गयी रह गयी अनकही - २ This song had me gripped from the time when I first heard it and continue to do so even today. In fact I would recommend the entire album which is filled with such underrated gems of meaningful and deeply poetic lyrics . I think the very attempt of trying to explain the lyrics is making me guilty of robbing it of its poetry and depth. My words cant describe the slow hum, the haunting beats which onsets a flood of emotions. The love that is expressed via the different tuning of instruments cant ever be put into words. So with acceptance of my own limitations with vocabulary i present to you this heart wrenching song. Enjoy it on a light rainy day in the natural light, sitting under a tree or sipping tea while it traverses a path within you or lulls you to sleep. This song is sung in third person. It is trying to tell us of an old and forgotten tale of loss and doom. The theme centres on empty promises and draws contradiction between the apparent and the actuality. It implores us to ponder if the blossoming of the spring has ever brought about an impending fall. And that sometimes the pouring of the rains could be due to the skies whimpering. The leaves that fall during the autumn might have a reason for being upset.That the dreams the duo had were real or a mere illusion/deception? That someone pretending to comfort us to sleep could actually be responsible for depriving us of it. That tale of such deceit was left untold. Well composed and beautifully rendered!

Evoking a nihilistic view of the world where human lives are inconsequential and an individual’s actions’ meaningless, ‘Laal Kaptaan’ is layered with a meditative stance on the endless and forever moving cycle of time. Depicting a detailed revenge saga to convey the futility of revenge in an essential age old philosophy of the cyclical nature of the universe. “Aadmi ke paida hote hi kaal apne bhaise pe baithke chal padta hai usse vapis lewane ... aadmi ki zindagi utni jitna samay us bhaise ko laga us tak pahunchne mein” It is an exhilarating experience ‘chiefly because it’s rare . It’s unique because its a desi spin on a western telling of a period drama. However what makes it immersive is its authenticity and heft. In contrast to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s rendition of a period which primarily focuses on the magnificence and the magnanimity of an era, this is essentially a rather gritty take on the period format driven with and evoking the ethos of the erstwhile Indian subcontinent’s philosophical musings. Filled with jaw dropping imagery and breath stopping visuals, it never simply revels in its own grandness but rather focuses on making a philosophical point of view about life and death, purpose and karma, actions and its consequences. Set up against the backdrop of 18th century india when the British East India company was slowly spreading its tentacles via any means possible, drawing a wedge with the various dynasties of the time, it chronicles the tale of a Naga sadhu on a killing spree. Amidst the wilderness of the arid ‘bhagwa’ landscapes we are introduced to a bounty killer who has been on a look-out for a target to settle old scores. His relentless pursuit for almost 20 years conveys that the past weighs heavy on him and we see that unfold during its 155 minutes run-time. Slow-paced and trippy, it allows a gradual build of its narrative and characters. The historical detailing gives it credibility and the story lends itself to this period of avenging kings and gory family betrayals. Each character has been given a unique look and little details are added to flesh out the characters further. So the sadhu has a red British military style coat to underline the nature of his past. Red being a symbol of revenge indicates his goal. A mysterious woman clad in earthy linen saris has cropped hair and it gives us a moment to ponder. A witch and a fortune teller literally has a black tongue. Also there is madman dressed in funky shoes and has a skill with scents and smell. So there are minute ways in which the story attracts our attention to keep us engaged. A lot of emotions and feeling are conveyed through eyes. Most of the time we get a close up of the characters eyes to convey their feelings and intentions. This creates a strong paradox amidst vast expansive landscapes. The story is layered with a lot of information being revealed to us in flashbacks demanding the audience to get engaged in the characters by constantly guessing what and how did things happened in the past. Meanwhile also setting up side stories and planting little puzzles in there so that we remain invested in the world while the larger story unfolds. It also gives us time to formulate our own theories so that we partake in the protagonists long winding revenge journey. The story has a certain pace which gives us time to reflect upon the happenings instead of just acting like a traditional fast paced thriller. It is directed masterfully with an assuredness which is commendable. The story and the visuals gives us a glimpse of the era gone by. The camera instead of being an intruder is a mere observer of this unfolding of a revenge saga. It transports us to the 18th century India giving us an authentic picture of what and how it looked and behaved back then. Although already with an ambitious story but the mood of the film is elevated further with stupendous performances. The visuals are jaw dropping due to the neatness of the backdrop and its carefully crafted setting.The constant back and forth jump in time drives the point of the persistency of the sadhu’s purpose and frequent flashes of his sinister past drives him even more fervently towards his single minded goal. The movie is very intricate in terms of visuals as well as characters. We get a set of colourful characters with their own idiosyncrasies. I found myself constantly paying attention to the sheer jaw dropping visuals at display. The costumes look authentic and true to the times it is set in, contamperous with the fashion and the ways of the times. The colour palette is so rich and contrasting at times. So the day shots are well lit with vast colour laden landscapes while the night scenes has a green sepia tint to it. I found myself distracted with some of the choppy green screen imposed during the night scenes though. There are a lot of dead bodies scattered around to bring about the fraility of human body. The violence though gritty is never glorified. The camera is an observer of this period. It doesnt participate or judge but simple witnesses the drama happening on this arid bhagwa landscape. The action looks raw and well done. The background score is mostly lends itself to the story and uplifting the mood of the scene. It also at places elevate the tension and the drama. Overall it a good score and doesn’t interfere with the experience of watching it. The opening dialogue gives the crux of the story is. It talks about cycles - of life and death, of new and old, of age and birth. Bringing forth a philosophy of life chakra which constantly keeps on turning irrespective of its little inhabitants. While sounding sinister yet conveying a deeply philosophical idea about the human condition. I like how ‘Navdeep’s films are around ‘betrayals and revenge. It's also very restrained like he believes in the world and the characters are merely its pawns so the film is always larger and the camera always an observer. the whole point of making us a party into this story was to tell us the futility of it all. as the cycle of times goes it will keep on repeating so do we as audience are okay to take on the revenges. While the avenging sadhu is portrayed dancing in its own dance of revenge but he is never glorified. He is ugly and sinister and with a single minded goal to kill but do we as people observing this learn anything out of this? Its an ambitious film matched with requisite skill. Instead of being hollowed out with its beauty its given depth. The film comes alive due to conviction it has in its material. Helmed by some very passionate individuals it gives me hope that we shall be able to see our own individualistic indian stories told with similar skill and panache in future