NL21 - India Day
India Day + Reading the Egg
Hello from my home in Matinkylä! This is NordLetter #21, a weekly newsletter on living and walking in Finland. Previous editions can be found here.
We celebrated the 8th India Day in Helsinki this Sunday. The event was hosted in Meripuisto this year. I took the metro from home till Kampi, and then #20 to Meripuisto park. I could see the steel grids set around the venue as soon as I got down. I could hear the music as well.
The performer's stage was set on one side of the park with the sponsor tents set a little distance further, followed by food stalls. It was a beautiful sunny day to be out and about.
I had litti-chokha from the BJPRF stand and a vada pav from elsewhere.
I preferred the arrangement from last year, when it was possible to take something to eat and still be able to look at the stage and enjoy the performance. Last year's venue was a bit of a square, compared to this year where it felt like a long rectangle. With all the food stalls stretched out toward the end.
/techStuff
Apple is finally going to open up iPhone tap-to-pay
Not sure how useful this will be. From a user perspective. All the banks would want me to use their app. Sure. But I want to use a single app to do the payment.
/reading
The Days Are Long but the Years Are Short
What stops us from doing new things? There seems to be a million reasons and two opposing forces keeping us in inaction: fear and vanity.
When you do the thing, most likely you’ll have to kill it. New things tend to not work, or you have to change them drastically.
Mediocrity and perfectionism
It is important to ship. Not ship junk. But ship things which are good enough.
Repair and remain sounds simple because it is. But simple is not the same as easy.
We all need someone to talk to. We all need to be patient. New isn’t always better. It is easy to say I quit, I’m done. And difficult to stay and fix things - both small and large. But most worthwhile things in life are difficult.
How to avoid losing items? Holding pens. | Alex W.'s Blog
A place in your home to place items when your attention is being called to something else.
The Egg
Started (and finished) reading And Weir's Project Hail Mary this week. Read the author jacket and found out that Mr Weir was a software developer for 20 years, then became a writer.
I had decided then that I would google him. I did google him a day later. Upon reading, found out that he had written and published a few short story's on his website, the most famous of them being - the egg. Read it. You should read it too.
/watching
Excellent video on buying vs renting by Ramit.
For me, buying a house is not a a financial decision. Whenever I buy a house, it will be because I want to. Of course, affordability is a thing. But it will be an emotional decision. Not for investment.
About how sci-fi has changed over the years. Very interesting. I have enjoyed sci-fi the most. From Asimov to Andy Weir recently.
I pay for the premium subscription for Duolingo. But this is such an interesting view. The modern capitalist notion of growth at all costs has this issue of there being a cap to the number of humans we have on the planet. You can not grow infinitely. There will come a point where growth stops. It feels like all the investors have short term views.
If you enjoyed reading this, and know someone else who might, please consider forwarding this to them. It would help this grow and make me happy. 😄
Until next week.
