Half A Thought

Tune in to this short story Abhinav narrates about King Xerxes and his doorkeeper's smile, 3000 years ago, in Persia... 

A few weeks ago, Ali finished his project of folding 1000 origami cranes. Why’d he do it? What’d he learn? Was it worth it? Forget all the paperwork and see how it all unfolds.

People laugh. A lot. We do it involuntarily, sometimes in embarrassment, through comedy and jokes, or simply to feel more in with the crowd. It is a language in itself, complicated with its own syntax and a social way of communicating. But a lot of times we don’t really know why we laugh. To understand this simple yet deep question, we discuss the theories of humor, the relationship between laughter and the subconscious, and The Joker. Next time you laugh, consider why you’re actually doing it and what meaning it has.

In this episode, we talk about the purpose of note-taking, why processing notes is equally -- if not more -- important as taking notes, and why notes should help us develop ideas over time. Sprinkled with Ali's lessons from origami and our brief life updates, let's talk about the three key principles of taking better, more meaningful notes.

From imagining and discovering ideas to making them real, in this episode, Abhi and Kahlil Corazo, a Roam Research and productivity expert, discuss how we can build our own productivity and note-taking stack. We talk about some key features of Roam Research, how we can build a second brain, why we should think of ideas as people, and Kahlil's own journey of discovering the idea about accessible genomics. Read more about Kahil here: https://twitter.com/kcorazo

A lot of times we find ourselves in positions where we think one thing but actually say something else. Should we speak at all? In this episode, inspired by Paul Graham’s blog on ‘What Not to Say’, we search for the necessary tools and methods on how to think, speak, listen, pick our battles, and be able to talk about controversial or even practical issues. In short, there are times we should, and there are times we shouldn’t. It’s a spectrum, and here we find direction on how to navigate it all.

Jason Liu recently began developing his faith as a Christian. Ali, born a Muslim and a long time student of the Catholic school system is still unclear where he places his faith. Together, they discuss how to overcome the initial questions and fears of questioning faith as well as the investment that needs to be made. While coming from very different perspectives, the two find grounds to understand each other.  It’s rare that conversations like these are insightful and productive. Take a listen to how a Christian and a Muslim speak the language of religious discourse.

In this episode, Abhi catches up with Caleb, his friend from Berkeley. As a Mech Eng student from SoCal, Caleb loves learning a variety of things - Hindi, guitar, philosophy, culture, and art. We talk about why Caleb loves to learn things for their own sake, what are his motivations, why dabbling in different things is gratifying, and what, even, is positive change. Among other things, Caleb also tries his hand at Hindi (listen to the 18th minute)

Now more than ever are we social distancing. No, not only the 6 feet away kind, but also the ones that are hundreds or even thousands of miles away. It is during these times that our friendships are really put to the test. To provide clarity and some historical humor, we talk about our own friendship, the difference between true friends and ‘proto-friends’, and how conversations should be coupled with both intuition and intention. It’s hard trying to stay in touch; but fret not, your vaccine lies in our conversation. :) 

In this serendipitous, casual chat, we start by talking of TV shows but end up exploring some deep questions of life - What matters; what do we really, existentially, crave; how to know what we want? We also talk about why it's better to be fully unproductive for a day and not feel guilty for being partly unproductive for a few days, and move on to discuss how life can only be lived forward, but must be looked at backward. Tune in for an engaging chat :)