Once every year, since the past 3 years, I have been trying to increase my vocabulary. I read, write down some words, then forget about it.
This has changed somewhat in the last two/three months because of Anki, I have a 40 day streak in Anki which is very impressive for me. Anki helps by not making me forget things. I have a mixture of cards there and most of them are related to programming.
The zeitgeist of my time seems to be the willingness to forget. What if people were always like this? Isn’t it natural to forget what you don’t use? because if you don’t use it, it means it’s not important.
Well I don’t want to forget about zeitgeist. I got this word from the
Steve Jobs biography. I keep the book by my pillow and every night I
read a chapter or two.
Job’s obsession with his products is remarkable. He has seems to be infatuated with them, in many sense he might be delusional because he seems to give more importance to products than to people or to people’s feelings. Do I think apple products are perfect though? No. However, my world is shaped by apple’s products and I think, it’s better off because of steve’s obstinate stance regarding his products. All computers, phones and even earphones have the same design that Apple came up with.
I never liked apple when I was younger, it seemed to go against the open and free credo. I am thankful that there are open and free products out there because if there weren’t any, I couldn’t be a developer nor without microsoft would I have been able to afford a computer. However, that book has put in me a respect for that company and it’s all because of that obstinate vision about getting things right and treating technology and products like a piece of art. Am I as obsessed and passionate about what I do? Should I be? Will that make me happier?
My last boss was obstinate too. He had a view of the world and it would take huge effort to change it. What I found stupendous about him is his ability to deal with people. He knew how to make a winning argument. Even if it was something very trivial as why he used an iPhone 7 still, he found a way to justify it and make the other person feel stupid. It’s an art.
There is also another word: volksgeist. This means “nation spirit”. What is Nepal’s spirit? Eating momo and looking forward to dashain every year, I think. Maybe it’s how I view Nepal because it’s the kind of person I am and it’s the kind of people who I surround myself with. Isn’t this a very pedestrian summary of Nepal’s volksgeist? There’s a quote that goes
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
I think I need a transplant.