Performing at India Day
Hello from my home in Matinkylä! This is NordLetter #67, a weekly newsletter on living and walking in Finland. Each week I share some of the interesting things I found on the web.
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This is coming at you, a little later than usual. Usually I write my Nordletters on Saturdays.
I was busy this week - dancing, forgetting the steps, looking at the steps, learning the steps, dancing, forgetting the steps …
You get the gist.
I performed at India Day today. And I wanted to write all of this down, while it is still fresh in my mind. Here’s the video. Our performance starts at 6.25 approximately.
There are three things I will talk about here - practice, stage fright and enjoying the thing. I could put it under three neat headlines, but I won’t.
These three things weave in and out of the story. Not as distinct things but as strands that weave in and out.
I practiced in the morning today - for around an hour, with Prerna. It is not fun practicing with Prerna. She is a hard taskmaster. No bullshit. Irritating. Essential.
I practiced till around 8:15, especially the section since O O Jane Jana. Most of the choreography was finalised a week before our performance. And we were still tweaking things in the week that followed.
I, need time to remember things. Some, who might have had training, or prior exposure (looking at you Bhawesh and Shubham) to dance, can pick up the steps just during figuring out the steps. That is not me. I take time, to practice and then learn.
Dancing, is lots of practice. Once you know the song, the steps that go with the song, then you can enjoy. And enjoyment is important during the performance. Enjoyment and expressions are what bind you to the crowd.
Before I went on to perform, we had just gone through our routine - me and Ayush - the full five minutes. Then, once inside the backstage area, we did a little bit of practice again. The show was running a bit late. We were expecting to go on stage after forty minutes. But were told soon after - you’re going next.
Till that point, I had not stressed about this performance.
Once I was standing on the stage, behind the curtain, while a band crooned some great rock songs, I could feel my heart beat in my mouth. I tried to remember the steps, and I was drawing blank. I thought what if I do not remember anything. What if I stand on the stage, and do nothing. This band had really worked up the crowd. It would be a difficult act to follow.
Then I told myself - stfu.
I jumped a bit. And waited. Waited for the band to finish. Waited for the crew to move their stuff off the stage. Waited for them to announce our names.
It felt like an eternity.
And then, just like that, we were on the stage.
I don’t know how the performance would have gone, if not for the crowd.
I started a little hesitant, unsure, missing a beat. But then, we had expected that.
But once we started, and the crowd jumped in, the performance went in a breeze. Of course we had to still do the steps. But it felt like we were on auto mode. Or at least I felt that way.
I was looking at the crowd, but in an abstract sense. I had thought I would look at Prerna in the crowd. But I lost track of her after a while.
I had fun, doing this.
We were done after our five minutes. We went down the stair to the right. Gathered ourselves. Then we high-fived, drank all the water they had given us. And laughed.
The thing we had worked, so so hard on for the past month or so, was done. And it had gone well.
People would remember this performance.
/five things to share
1. Sam Altman and the whale by Mat Honan
In some ways, the AI hype cycle has to be out of hand. It has to justify the ferocious level of investment, the uncountable billions of dollars in sunk costs. The massive data center buildouts with their massive environmental consequences created at massive expense that are seemingly keeping the economy afloat and threatening to crash it. There is so, so, so much money at stake.
2. Ford reveals breakthrough process for lower priced EVs by Andrew J. Hawkins
The automaker announced plans to build “a family” of low-cost electric vehicles at its Kentucky assembly plant, starting with a four-door, midsized $30,000 pickup truck in 2027. Ford touted the announcement as its “Model T moment” that will be more streamlined to help bring down costs and put the company on a path to profitability.
Most other manufacturers have their platforms, the VW group, for example uses the same drivetrain for their different sub-brands as well.
3. No Limit for Better by Kevin Kelly
Pricing abundance is tricky. Netflix, Spotify, and millions of software apps are offered at a fixed price for unlimited use. That works — they make money — because in fact, there is not unlimited use of them. We get satiated pretty quickly. We only watch so many hours, listen for limited hours, or eventually stop scrolling. This may not be true of AI. It looks like the demand for AI can exceed our own bounded time.
AI is not going to be rolled-back. The big companies will continue to subsidise it, hoping they can make money eventually. The platform companies (MSFT/AWS/Google) are at present. Others may, later.
But how do you price it?
There will always be people who abuse the limits. Pricing per use would make sense, but people don’t like paying like that. They like a fixed cost.
The second thing is subscriptions subsidise heavier users. Not everybody who subscribes to 20$ per month will be using that much. Like how gym memberships work. The real question is this - is 20$ too less for even normal users.
I think OpenAI’s move to ChatGPT is a step in that direction. This would allow them to control cost a bit. Which we may not like, but is required for it to be a sustainable business.
4. Education expert blames Finland’s neglect of gifted students for PISA rankings decline by YLE
“If everyone studies exactly the same content and does the same tasks, the weakest fall behind and the most gifted get bored,” she said, adding that this boredom and loss of motivation are linked to underperformance.
Makes sense, if, how mentioned in this article all the gifted children do is assist their teachers. They should get time to explore things on their own, not just help others get better.
5. Everything I Know about Self-Publishing by Kevin Kelly
You are expected to bring your audience.
So when an author today pitches a book to an established publisher, the second question from the publishers after “what is the book about” is “do you have an audience?” Because they don’t have an audience. They need the author and creators to bring their own audiences. So, the number of followers an author has, and how engaged they are, becomes central to whether the publisher will be interested in your project.”
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.