Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 196 // Week 32 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

I hope your week went well. My own week was filled with work on both professional and personal fronts. But I felt joy working on both fronts as I’ve been coping with stress with my meditation sessions (with Waking Up app).

I’ve been practising a new kind of meditation from the app where you are observing your breathing for some time from a seeker perspective and then you suddenly switch perspective by seeing yourself seeking. It may sound weird and difficult but it makes you see yourself from a secondary point of view.

At biological level It makes you feel what is it that’s looking outwards, is it your brain? you as an entity? a bundle of nerves? or what? Sometimes I felt the agony of not being able to know – what is it inside me that is observing the breathing, of course, it can be said that it is oneself, but is it really though? Or is it just our consciousness?

But as I did the practice for a few days, I finally started to understand what it denotes. Why feeling this way is necessary and observing this state of self is necessary. Because If we see, our body and soul (if you think there is one), connects with each other through the consciousness. If consciousness is helping us gaze into the world, what if you start gazing back at consciousness itself. It starts disappearing as an object and remains as an inherent subject (oneself).

I know the whole thing I mentioned above, one may not understand completely, because you have to do this kind of session yourself with an open mind to be able to understand this. But it truly helped me in gaining perspective. I was able to focus more and feel joy.

Coming to creative progress –

  1. I’m on day 37 (consecutive) streak of a new language learning and feeling great to learn more.
  2. My next podcast episode (Episode 24 is also coming soon in next week), editing is in progress.
  3. My book reading progress –
    1. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership from the CEO of the Walt Disney Company – Progress 15% (Audible)
    2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Homes – Progress 10% (Audible)

That’s it for personal and creative updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.


Issue 196 // Week 32 // 2020


An article I found useful

How To Write In Your Journal To Improve Yourself and Achieve Your Goals – This how-to article by Benjamin Hardy, PhD is very elaborate documentation about why journaling is the most important thing one should do.

Where, why and when to journal. How to achieve a peak state with journaling right before you are about to start your work.

Useful read.


A travel itinerary I loved —

Mumbai to London by Train – Even though travelling seems like a distant dream in these COVID-19 times. But still one can dream. This itinerary is nothing short of a dream. Mumbai to London by Train!

Even though this route has a route through Pakistan, which may not be feasible now if you are going from India. But still, this IIT Guwahati student’s Itinerary felt like so much fun but a daring long train journey. Someday! (Someday!)


A trick I loved to journal more

Real-Time Journaling – This real-time journaling video (with timer) by Lavendaire founder Aileen Xu, really helped me establish a journaling routine. As I was facing difficulty concentrating in my journaling habit. This feeling of writing along with someone really did the trick and I was able to journal more often.

Check it out, it may be helpful for you too if you are finding it difficult to journal.


Music I’m listening to —

Iltija by Samar Mehdi – I stumbled upon this refreshing piece of music by Samar Mehdi. Really heart felt piece of music and lyrics –

हुए जुदा जब हम तुमसे…
और क़रीब आ गए तुम हमसे…

When you are apart from me…
now we feel closer…

Really good one. Check it out.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2fCZmeT0fawVr8H6NymPkk?si=G6OsvsvLQk-dEeG58Knl0w

Quote which I found meaningful –

The best ideas and insights occur away from your work. They happen while you’re relaxing, or often while you’re thinking about something completely unrelated.

— Benjamin Hardy, PhD

Before saying “see you next week”

I’m really excited to share the new episode of my podcast! (Finally after a good long creative block)

Episode 23 – Chidanand Hiremath (Visual Designer, Photographer and former Digital Nomad) – Traveling the world, knowing oneself and creating nude art

Links – Spotify | YouTube


Lastly, join the Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

We do creative challenges, habit creation and related stuff on the group. Here is your special invite link to the group.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu


About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.


Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 196 // Week 32 // 2020


What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

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Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 195 // Week 31 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

If you have been reading the newsletter from some time now, you’ll know, I’ve been learning a new language!

This weekend will mark the 30th consecutive Day of my language learning and oh boy! let me tell you, making the learning like a game where daily playing it and making a streak, makes it so much fun. It changes the way you think about learning. My favourite language learning app – Duolingo has done just that. I think that’s the reason I’m able to stick to it. Sense of competition between online peers and rewards/trophies, that too has it’s own advantages.

I hope this learning continues and I finish the course in the coming few months!

Coming to some mental clarity talk, it has become really like a mental block to create or work on something new in these trying times for me. I’ve even been struggling with my own podcast since a month where I have a few episodes sitting in my editor window and I just couldn’t move an inch further.

To resolve this block, I talked to a couple of my creative friends, re-read a few chapters from the book – The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Set on my computer for some more blocked sessions but finally, I got through some editing and about to finish the next episode. Creative work sometimes become so hard that it’s even hard to explain.

Anyway, moving to the book reading/listening progress, I finished the big Sherlock Homes series book 2 finally and started the next two book –

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.


Issue 195 // Week 31 // 2020


An interesting tweet —

A Trip across America – Trailer and Crank Story – I came across this twitter thread last week and it made me feel weirdly connected to this old story from 1984.

How this guy (back then a kid) and his family embarked on an epic road trip across America. A lot of emotional moments and some funny ones in this travel memoir of sort.


A ad which stole my heart (specially with it’s video editing) —

You Can’t Stop Us – This new Nike ad is on another level of editing. Even though I loved the emotion in this ad but the editing! that stole my heart. Check it out!


A video I learned from

What We’ve Learned from Write of Passage – This conversation between my favourite online writer and Twitterati (David Parell) and his business partner (Tiego Forte) was a class in its own way. They discussed how making their online class about online writing and learning about the whole process of how to improve their students’ experience, changed the whole game for them. Really interesting conversation if you are interested in online course creation and more.


Music I re-listened to —

Michael Kiwanuka – Cold Little Heart (Live Session Video) – This 11+ minutes Michael Kiwanuka song was on repeat this past weekend. This song touches a nerve suddenly right in the middle of the song and then you can not stop playing it again.


Quote which I found meaningful –

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.

— Marcus Aurelius

Before saying “see you next week”

I’m really excited to share the new Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

Why vibely? Basically it’s a place where we want to make the group and our content interactive. There are daily interesting challenges like –

  • Reading for 1 hour everyday and posting your progress
  • Doing one act of kindness every day
  • Journaling prompts for you
  • Travel writing for 500 words

and more such creative challenges.

It’s a really fun place to be. You’ll get gamified rewards and recognitions for completing the challenges. We are trying to make it a safe place for all the like-minded people to join in the self-growth journey. If you are already working on your passion projects then you’ll get all the support you can and no bashing or judgement for being who you want to be.💡

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

P.S.: Our Facebook group is not going anywhere, we are just adding an interactive branch to it.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu


About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.


Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 195 // Week 31 // 2020


What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 194 // Week 30 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

In the past week, I posted a creative challenge each day on my Vibely Lifestyle Architecture Community (link for the same at the end). As I was creating these challenges for my community, it gave my own creativity a new spark and I was able to come up with new ideas every day.

Apart from that, it was not a very peaceful week at the work front. Too many things going on at the moment. Just trying to calm the storm down.

As I’m sitting too many hours while working from home, to get my body moving I started going on long walks since past 1-2 weeks. I’ve been enjoying my late evening walks as I use that time to listen to my audiobooks as well. It gives me a clear phase shift between work and self.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock Holmes only this week –

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.


Issue 194 // Week 30 // 2020


An interesting art portfolio

Art from Sifty Kaur – Found this artist on the interwebs and her art is really interesting – oil painting on canvas, drawings and paintings.

Check it out, here is one of her artworks –


An interesting tweet —

London to Culcutta journey on bus – Found out that there was a bus service which used to tour London-Calcutta (India) route and it existed till 70s.

I just wonder how the passengers would have coped for so long a bus journey. I wish I had a time wheel to go back and travel in this bus.

Check out the tweet below for details –

https://twitter.com/RKDasgupta/status/1277694020916056064

A home architecture story I loved

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Pavana holiday home – This Houzz story on the Rang De Basanti director – Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra‘s Pavana Home was a great home architecture story.

He has this multi pavilion home near Pavana Lake in Maharashtra which has a mesmerizing view and a design created like a jigsaw with interlocking structures making it whole and then some!


Music I’m loving —

Everyone Lied by Dorvin Borman – Loved the Grungy vibe of this song and put me in flow state.

Beautiful drum and synth amalgamation!


Quote which I found meaningful –

The only way to learn it is to do it.

— Archimedes, “Sword in the Stone”

Before saying “see you next week”

I’m really excited to share the new Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

Why vibely? Basically it’s a place where we want to make the group and our content interactive. There are daily interesting challenges like –

  • Reading for 1 hour everyday and posting your progress
  • Doing one act of kindness every day
  • Journaling prompts for you
  • Travel writing for 500 words

and more such creative challenges.

It’s a really fun place to be. You’ll get gamified rewards and recognitions for completing the challenges. We are trying to make it a safe place for all the like-minded people to join in the self-growth journey. If you are already working on your passion projects then you’ll get all the support you can and no bashing or judgement for being who you want to be.💡

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

P.S.: Our Facebook group is not going anywhere, we are just adding an interactive branch to it.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu


About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.


Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 194 // Week 30 // 2020


What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 193 // Week 29 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

Last week was a reflection week for me. I conducted a half-yearly review of my yearly goals. As it is important to work hard on things you care about, it is more important to reflect on your progress in short and medium periods. For me, these periods are weekly, monthly and 6 monthly. It made me rethink about course correction and realigning my energies towards things that actually matter.

Otherwise, it was a productive week for me on the work side, on the creative side it was more of consume week than create. Next week is going to be a create week more than consume.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock Holmes some more this past week and finished the Atomic Habits –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 75% done (Audible)
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 100% done (Audible) – This audiobook is like a page-turner version for audio (I don’t know if there is a specific word for it for audiobooks, let me know in comments if there is).

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.


Issue 193 // Week 29 // 2020


An new material I’m exited about

Pentadiamond – A new addition to the carbon family, Pentadiamond, is predicted to be light like graphite, hard like diamond and semiconducting like silicon.

I can’t even imagine, how many use cases are there for this kind of material. I’m excited to think about – how it might be used (i hope not as a weapon).

Here is the original research publication link.


A poem I loved —

I would like you to be still! read by Eva Green – I recently discovered the Eva Green has an Instagram page and man! isn’t it filled up weird but fresh stuff, I hadn’t been exposed to before.

This is Pablo Neruda’s poem “I would like you to be still!” in Eva’s brilliant voice –

The poem and the narration both are wonderful.


A show I loved

Homecoming – I was excited to watch the Season 2 after an amazing Season 1 with Julia Roberts as the protagonist. Homecoming series is about how a private company authorized by military runs a program to make the PTSD veterans forget their past. But it becomes much more than that eventually. It’s a great drama and the way it is shot, kudos to the DOP.

I loved the season two as well, even though the protagonist is different in this but she’s a refreshing change.

You can check it out on Amazon PrimeVideo – Season 1 | Season 2


A Podcast episode I re-listened —

How to Become a Psychedelic Therapist – This episode of the Tim Ferriss show was amazing. Marcela’s story, the conversation about the psychedelic therapy and MAPS were out of the world.

A must listen. This was the second time I listened to it this week.


Quote which I found meaningful –

Once we let go of every thing, everything remains.

The Minimalists

Before saying “see you next week”

I’m really excited to share the new Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

Why vibely? Basically it’s a place where we want to make the group and our content interactive. There are daily interesting challenges like –

  • Reading for 1 hour everyday and posting your progress
  • Doing one act of kindness every day
  • Journaling prompts for you
  • Travel writing for 500 words

and more such creative challenges.

It’s a really fun place to be. You’ll get gamified rewards and recognitions for completing the challenges. We are trying to make it a safe place for all the like-minded people to join in the self-growth journey. If you are already working on your passion projects then you’ll get all the support you can and no bashing or judgement for being who you want to be.💡

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

P.S.: Our Facebook group is not going anywhere, we are just adding an interactive branch to it.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu


About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.


Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 193 // Week 29 // 2020


What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 192 // Week 28 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Last week went fast for me as I had been working on multiple creative works. My first short podcasting course is out! (Check out the playlist at the end of this page), a new podcast episode is launching in this week and another story coming soon in “Lifestyle Design in Action” series.

Plus I’m really excited about the interactive community we just launched on Vibely (app). Where we are starting up with Daily creative challenges for you all. So join in the fun (here is the special link for you to join)

Moving further, this year couldn’t get worse with all the unexpected things. Jagdeep (veteran actor) passed away this past week. I share about him in the 2nd point of today’s pentacle.

I focused on some exercise and meditation again this past week and tried centring my energy and focus. I’ve started going on long walks in night time (safe distance and when fewer people are there). The monsoons are here but we are just sitting home, it’s all that we wished for when we were in offices, but now as we are home, all we wish for is to go out! Life is such.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock homes some more this past week and some of Atomic Habits –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 70% done (Audible)
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 70% done (Audible) – This audiobook is like a page-turner version for audio (I don’t know if there is a specific word for it for audiobooks, let me know in comments if there is).

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.


Issue 192 // Week 28 // 2020


A tweet I found really insightful about meetings

In the Work From Home era, meetings have increased drastically. But as an employer you should focus on how to reduce unnecessary meetings and as an employee you should think on the below points to make a meeting useful (if at all it was) –


A beloved veteran Bollywood actor who passed last week —

Jagdeep (Soorma Bhopali) passed away – A veteran actor famous for his roles like Soorma Bhopali passed away. I loved his Sholay performance so much.

His real name was Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jaffrey and he’s the father of actor, voice actor, dancer, comedian, impressionist – Javed Jaffrey.

May he rest in peace.


A new service I’m curious about

Hey.com – It’s a fresh take on one of the most important communication mediums EMAIL.

Did they reinvent it?

Not exactly, but they considered all the thing wrong about the current email services and tried to fix them and it took them over 2 years to get most of the things right.

I loved all the subtle nuances it has, but it got a hefty price tag of $99/year! But if you are considerate of privacy and time and less frustration weighs more for you then money, then this is it. It’s a great email service.

Here is a detailed demo of the service (loved how the CEO himself gave the entire demo, shows that how passionate a founder CEO can be) –


Music I’m loving —

Songs of Innocence by U2 – Sifting through my iTunes playlists from 2014, I found the U2’s album which they launched in a big surprise at Apple’s fall event in 2014, Apple presented a free copy of U2 album ‘Songs of Innocence’ to everyone with an iTunes account. I still have that album on all my Apple Devices.

Here is the entire album’s playlist. If you are up for it! (I love it btw, it was my companion on my marathon training sessions in 2014~15) –


Quote which I found meaningful –

In matters of style swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.

— Unknown

Before saying “see you next week”

I want to share my first short course on Podcasting in collaboration with LMT (Last Moment Tutions). If you are curious about podcasting, you should check it out. I share a beginners guide to podcasting in this 5+1 part video series.

Here is the YouTube Playlist of it (because short course is FREE, main course coming soon!) –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu


About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.


Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 192 // Week 28 // 2020


What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 191 // Week 27 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

I hope your health is good and you are holding up.

Another week passed by and with so much happening in the world right now, news has become the worst form of media. So I’m not actively listening to the news for many days now. If something is important it still reaches, you. Instead, I focused on my first-course creation (Psss..Podcasting for Beginners) and also focused on consuming targeted content on skills I wanted to acquire (like a new language learning) or the content I really loved (yeah I binge-watched POI for few days).

Getting your mind away from focus is also as important as to focus. Between focus and not focus there is a subtle balance. If you walk that line then you cop better with your own physical and emotional states.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock homes some more this past week, and some of Atomic Habits –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 60% done (Audible)
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 50% done (Audible) – This audiobook is like a page-turner version for audio (I don’t know if there is a specific word for it for audiobooks, let me know in comments if there is).

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.


Issue 191 // Week 27 // 2020


An article i found interesting

How A Love Of Nature Makes Your Kid Smarter, More Creative, And Less Distracted – This article is basically a summary of Richard Louv’s 2005 book Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder.

If you are a parent you should definitely read this and if you are not, still it will make you feel nostalgic about your childhood.

A Good summary to read.


A podcast episode I loved —

Hugh Jackman – Tim Ferriss sits down with The Wolverine in this episode (pun intended) and talks about Best Decisions, Daily routines, reading first thing in the morning as a couple.

This was one of the good interviews I listened to in long time, which i really enjoyed!

Check it out!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3WXafxuJS11IvovMQj6mSK?si=LDCCFZQtTjaus0lBO_Pwhw

A book I added in my reading/listening list

The Overstory: A Novel – This book is recommended by Hugh Jackman in the podcast in the second point. He mentions that what you are done reading this book, it basically changes how you notice nature around you and look at things.

P.S.: This book turns out to be on Trees and it has won the Pulitzer price as well. (you can get your hopes high)


Music I’m loving —

Ocean by Native – Discovered this song last week on YouTube, what a gem of a song!

Beautiful lyrics immediately fell in love with it.

Few lines to get you curious –

I’d rather see the ocean once in a lifetime
And miss it for the rest of my days
Than never feel the sand beneath my naked feet
And never hear the sound of breaking waves


Quote which I found meaningful –

when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

— Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

That’s it for this week.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.
Himanshu


About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.


Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 191 // Week 27 // 2020


What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 190 // Week 26 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

I hope you are well and adjusting better to the situations compared to previous weeks.

Last week was more of a mindf**k for me because of office work stuff but eventually, it all came to resolve and I caught up with my peace.

I had been working on my first online course (coming soon! Yay!!) in the past week and slowly getting better at seeing myself in front of a camera and communicating more clearly than before. But it’s an ongoing process as of now.

Anyway, not much to share on the creative side this week.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I didn’t move much further this week but still, small progress is progress –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 50% done (Audible)
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 30% done (Audible) – This audiobook is like a page-turner version for audio (I don’t know if there is a specific word for it for audiobooks, let me know in comments if there is).

No progress on below ones this week –

  1. Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway – 20% done only (Audible)
  2. Breaking Smart: Season One: How Software is Eating the World – 70% done (an amazing book recommended by David Perell) (Kindle)
  3. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – 50% done only (Kindle)
  4. Truck de India – 20% – (Kindle)

Current Yearly Tally – [Yearly goal – 24]

Read – 6 | In progress – 6 | Pending in Reading list – 4 | Yet to discover for reading for yearly goal – 8

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.


Issue 190 // Week 26 // 2020


An app I loving again

Duolingo – I’ve been playing around with Duolingo since way back half a decade ago. But didn’t see through my language learning until the end because of my own priorities.

This pandemic has given us unfathomable situations from getting weird news every other day OR being stuck in our homes for more than 3 months OR finding it difficult to maintain our relationships with family and loved ones. It all started to go south. But then I realised that even though I can’t control what’s happening in the world at large but I can control my own peace and sanity, it’s all in my head, If I can put my mind to new and constructive stuff, of course, I can get through these tough times.

Content Creation on scale, learning guitar and learning a new language became my main focus for good since past many weeks.

In the language learning part, Duolingo became my friend and I’ve been loving to learn a new language which is not a native Indian language. I’m loving the app’s implementation of gamification and cool ways to help you memorize the common words, phrases instead of normal language learning approaches like starting from ABCD of any language.

I’ll highlight recommend it to anyone trying to learn a new language (even just for fun! but I’m serious).


A movie I’m excited to watch —

Motherless Brooklyn – This is one movie which I was excited to see since it came out but It wasn’t available in India earlier. But recently I got to know that it’s coming on Amazon Prime Video in India. Now it’s already here. I got to know about this movie from Tim Ferriss podcast with Edward Norton sometime ago and it got me really curious that how much efforts Edward had to put to make this movie, even being a Hollywood Star. But as it was his dream project he took the road and made additional efforts to see it through.

This is a neo-noir drama based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Jonathan Lethem, assumed in the 1950s and Oh my god!! the Brooklyn bridge from that era is visualized very beautifully in this movie. Kudos to the DoP of the movie.

If you are in India and have Amazon Prime Video, you can watch here right now. I’m going to watch it this weekend (may give my review in next week’s post).

If my write up didn’t have you excited this trailer will –


A video I loved

Sushant Singh Rajput’s Home tour – You can get a great idea about the man by seeing his house but you can get a deeper idea by conversing with the man and find how intellectual and thoughtful the man is (or rather was).

In this video, both his home and his conversation show how brilliant of an artist and an individual he was.

P.S.: If you loved Sushant and can get triggered by seeing him again on screen. Please skip this video. I love him too, but this is just my way of remembering him.


Music I’m loving —

Passionfruit by Drake – This song and the beat has been playing in the loop this past week. In my cycling rounds and runs. Love this beat.

Sometimes when you re-discover a song you loved but had forgotten, it gives a different kind of joy. This is one of those songs.

Check it out on YouTube –


Quote which I found meaningful –

Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.

— Wayne W. Dyer

Before saying “see you next week”

Here is a video I made on WWDC2020 and iOS highlights (Psss…it’s in Hindi and yeah I’m in quarantine haircut!) –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu


About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.


Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 190 // Week 26 // 2020


What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

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Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 189 // Week 25 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

This past week had been a rollercoaster again for the entire nation. Sushant Singh Rajput’s death came as a real shocker. An actor who was doing so well, or so we thought from the outside. He might have been doing well on the monetary level but at an emotional level apparently he wasn’t.

It was a shock to me personally as well, as I liked him as an actor, his movies like Kai Po Che!, his portrayal of MS Dhoni (the ex-Indian Cricket Captain) in M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story and many more. He would get into the character so much that you couldn’t tell him apart from the character he was doing. Plus he was a really intelligent human being, his keen interest in astrophysics was really rare to see in any of the Indian Artists. In fact, he was one of the person in my interview dream guest list for my podcast. Gone too soon. I surely am going to miss him as a human being.

On the other side, tensions on Indo-China border are increasing day-by-day. I just hope things settle down. But if chinese forces keep on intruding, I don’t think India will stay with hands folded. War is the least we all want at this moment, where we are are in the middle of a historic pandemic. So I really hope that things calm down on border and China gets their shit together now. It’s high time.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I moved forward on below books –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 40% done (Audible) – I was on a binge listening spree on this one.
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 25% done (Audible) – finally started out on this book, I really wanted to read it since it launched last year. So many insights. I’ve been following James from 4-5 years now and love his actionable writing.

No progress on below ones this week –

  1. Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway – 20% done only (Audible)
  2. Breaking Smart: Season One: How Software is Eating the World – 70% done (an amazing book recommended by David Perell) (Kindle)
  3. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – 50% done only (Kindle)
  4. Truck de India – 20% – (Kindle)

Current Yearly Tally – [Yearly goal – 24]

Read – 6 | In progress – 6 | Pending in Reading list – 4 | Yet to discover for reading for yearly goal – 8

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.


Issue 189 // Week 25 // 2020


An event I’m looking forward to

WWDC 2020 (Virtual Event) – For the first time in the history of Apple, WWDC is going virtual this year due to the Pandemic. I’m so pumped about this virtual event. Updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS are awaited. I hope they live up to the expectations of customers’ feedback.

Not sure if they’ll be launching any new hardware in this event. But big software updates are for sure awaited. Fingers Crossed.

If you are as excited as I am, click the link in the title to go to the WWDC page, for following up on updates and on the WWDC days the event can be tracked here.

WWDC 2020 (Virtual Event)

A podcast conversation I loved —

Ali talks to his roommate Molly – Ali Abdaal is one of the rising YouTubers who talk about productivity and lifestyle design. In this video he has a conversation with his long time friend and roommate Molly, where they talk about Molly’s cancer survival, being a doctor and going through the situations to be where they both are.

I resonated a lot with this video’s realness and totally recommend for watching –


A video which made me understand things at a deeper level (after Sushant Singh Rajput’s Death)

Parents Who Have Lost a Child – Call it serendipity or something, the below video surfaced on my YouTube feed after I had been hit hard like others (after Sushant’s death).

I was amazed at the ease with which some of the parents spoke about losing their child. It shattered my heart to listen to the mother when she was telling the story that how his son was sitting on the dining table and crying in front of her maid (caretaker) that “Mom, I’m Sorry”, “Mom, I’m Sorry”. Then he jumps out of a high rise building and dies.

But listening about their pain and how they have gone through it all, made me realise not to take things for granted. I felt grateful in a weird way.

Check it out.

P.S.: If you are someone who’s in depression and can be triggered to see people talk about suicide in detail. Please don’t watch this video.


Music I’m loving —

The Important Song (Live) by Joe Anderson – I stumbled upon this song via an Instagram Story. This is from a 2009 album from Joe Anderson. He put out an important topic in the son literally named “The Important Song”. The idea is brilliant.


Quote which I found meaningful –

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

― James Clear (Atomic Habits)

Before saying “see you next week”

Here is the latest story from my Lifestyle Design in Action Story Series where Tanistha Arora shares her story. Check it out if you haven’t –

and if you haven’t checked out my podcast episode yet with Shashank Murali (Co-Founder and CEO of Tapchief), then what are you waiting for! Check it out now. Here is the YouTube link –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu


About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.


Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 189 // Week 25 // 2020


What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 188 // Week 24 // 2020

Saturday Pentacle Weekly Newsletter - Banner
By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Another week passed by. Week 24th to be exact. Even though cities have started to open up here in India and in many other countries, but the vaccine is still away and the virus is still here. So we should all be cautious when going out. I know this is what we all know, but just trying to put it out as a reminder to everyone.

As promised earlier, I want this newsletter to become a getaway for you from all the news and the chaos.

Last week was productive for me, I got a good amount of things done at work. On the creative side, my “Lifestyle Design in Action” story series (on my blog) is also being liked by you all (my readers), so I’m continuing to post these guest posts from various people living alternate Lifestyles. In other news, I’m doing a collaboration and exciting news is coming up mostly in the next week. So watch out for that.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I moved forward on below books –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 30% done (Audible) – I was on a binge listening spree on this one.
  2. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – 50% done only (Kindle)

No progress on below ones this week –

  1. Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway – 20% done only (Audible)
  2. Breaking Smart: Season One: How Software is Eating the World – 70% done (an amazing book recommended by David Perell) (Kindle)
  3. Truck de India – 20% – (Kindle)

I added below books in my reading list as subsequent reads –

  1. How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie
  2. The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein
  3. Atomic Habits by James Clear
  4. The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger

Current Yearly Tally – [Yearly goal – 24]

Read – 6 | In progress – 5 | Pending in Reading list – 5 | Yet to discover for reading for yearly goal – 8

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.


Issue 188 // Week 24 // 2020


An article I found useful

Go From Chaos to Clarity in 30 Minutes – In this article (or rather how-to with personal experience) Tiago Forte shares his process of going from total Chaos to Clarity in 30 mins.

He shares how he does weekly review and how he has refined this process over the years to make it so that it aligns him to his goals when executed weekly.

Interesting approach and a good read.


A podcast episode I loved —

Tim Ferriss Show – Rick Doblin – Loved this interview of Rick Doblin by Tim Ferriss where they discuss the origins of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and how MDMA and psychedelic drugs are being a promising cure of PTSD.

There are a lot of nuggets in this episode. I finished it in just one sitting.

Here is the YouTube link (or click the title for the rest of the platforms) –


A video I loved

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man – Episode 2 with Matthew McConaughey – This video was the highlight of the last week’s intellectual consumption and sort of eye-opening in a very subtle way.

This is why I love Matthew McConaughey because he has this capability to listen as well.

Totally recommend watching this as it will educate you too –


Music I’m loving —

Garden Concert by Jubin Nautiyal – My sister introduced me to this Garden Concert from Jubin Nautiyal (A Hindi Singer from the mountains). In the pandemic situations as everyone is stuffed in their homes and feeling anxious. This was a really amazing and unique concert he put together at his home garden.

If you have the will to do something you can put together things and do almost about anything and beautifully. That’s what this Garden Concert symbolised to me. I loved his music as well. Such a buffet of great Hindi songs.


Quote which I found meaningful –

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

— James Clear (Atomic Habits)

Before saying “see you next week”

Here is a throwback photo I posted on Instagram. You can check it out here or go to my Instagram for the whole story and more –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu


About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.


Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 188 // Week 24 // 2020


What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 187 // Week 23 // 2020

Saturday Pentacle Weekly Newsletter - Banner
By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Last week was difficult as violence irrupted in many states of the US in the wake of Geoge Floyd’s death while he was being arrested by police. Racism still exists in the world and things really need to change. The environment in the US and many of the western countries is changing and there is sort of a movement going on right now. It’s a historic moment. Black lives matter. This movement is showcasing that on a scale.

I’m trying to educate myself with the history of racism from online sources, blogs and books and following the threads on social media on this.

Past week in India, there was a cyclone which hit the western shoreline of India – Nisarga but fortunately, it was not as destructive as it was thought to be.

2020 is slowly becoming the year of the century when things are changing so rapidly. Every day new events.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I moved forward on below books –

  1. Breaking Smart: Season One: How Software is Eating the World – 70% done (an amazing book recommended by David Perell) (Kindle)
  2. The Sign of the Four” of the Sherlock Holmes series – Finished (Audible) – on to the next one in the series – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
  3. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – 40% done only (Kindle)

No progress on below ones this week –

  1. Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway – 20% done only (Audible)

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.


Issue 187 // Week 23 // 2020


An artical I found useful

The importance of red teams – This article was a great read from Dr Peter Attia. I found two ideas very intriguing from this article which I would like to share as a summary –

  1. Importance of Red –

    In the early 19th century, the Prussian army adopted war games to train its officers. One group of officers developed a battle plan, and another group assumed the role of the opposition, trying to thwart it. Using a tabletop game called Kriegsspiel (literally “wargame” in German), resembling the popular board game Risk, blue game pieces stood in for the home team—the Prussian army—since most Prussian soldiers wore blue uniforms. Red blocks represented the enemy forces—the red team—and the name has stuck ever since.

    Idea – One Organization itself can have both the teams and play tactically, as their own red team can work as an enemy simulation and the blue team can, therefore, be trained better.
  2. Differentiation b/w signal and noise – On the contrary to the point of the counter team or the counter idea (as mentioned in point 1), there is one more paragraph in the article which gives a great perspective –

    Generally, the more we can introduce and consider opposing views into our thinking, the more we can rely on the knowledge we’re trying to build. But—and this is a very, very big BUT—not all opposing views are equal. Recognizing the difference between scientific (worthy of debate, though often still incorrect over time) claims and pseudoscientific (not worthy of debate, as the very foundations on which they sit are not pulled from the disciple of science or the scientific method) claims is crucial and a failure to do so makes the following exercise futile.

    Idea – As we are constantly bombarded with information in these present times, so it because very difficult to identify the signal from noise, meaning – logical or scientific debate as compared to illogical or pseudoscientific debate. But as it is difficult at the same time it is as important to do this rightfully and diligently.

An ad which I really loved —

The Art of Music Production – This new Apple add shows the creative process of a Grammy-nominated music producer – Oak Felder.

I was just amazed by seeing the way things change when you become a producer and shift from working on the atomic piece to moving to the place where you can see the birds-eye view of a masterpiece.

That tells if you are a world-class producer (of any art) or no.

A brilliant ad which is centred on the customer –


A video which intrigued me

How MDMA is being used to treat PTSD – As western scientists are opening up to experimental drugs in medicine. MDMA which is commonly known as ecstasy or molly, is a psychoactive drug primarily used for recreational purposes.

But as I follow Tim Ferriss and he’s very active in the support of research with these psychedelic drugs and keeps sharing about it through his blog and newsletter. It made me really curious that if it actually works than how deep the impact it can make on the lives of people living with a disorder like PTSD. It will be a paradigm shift.

This video shows exactly that with example.

P.S.: I don’t recommend any of the psychoactive drugs and this mention is just for research on the impact of MDMA on PTSD patients.


A Magnet scientist who blew my mind – Professor Eric Laithwaite (A British electrical engineer) who is known as the Father of Maglev and pioneer in the development of the linear induction motor and maglev rail system, shows in this 1975 video – how Magnetic Levitation can be achieved.

It was just mind-boggling. Check out the video –


Quote which I found meaningful –

It’s a helluva start, being able to recognise what makes you happy.

— Lucille Ball

Before saying “see you next week”

Here is the latest story from my story series – “Lifestyle Design in Action” which I published last week –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu


About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.


Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 187 // Week 23 // 2020


What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading