Serendipity and Learning

I have written about Zero before . The app is downright simple. All it does if really activate a timer appropriate to the fast you have chosen, apart from tracking history and all that. The fitband I have does the same thing - it adds a number to the step and aggregates data. Both these are driving behaviours. The button is the enabler. The band is the enabler. The data keeps you going. For instance, seeing the streak on the band or on the fasting app is a great motivator. Wondering a good way to get off junk snacking now! I

I discovered zerofasting app a few days ago. I was trying out intermittent fasting largely successfully for a few months (with a few cheating days in between). And when the lockdown started, I stopped all fasts (the world is coming to an end anyway). And then out of curiosity (my main driver anyhow) happened to try out zerofasting. It is nothing - all it does is makes you push a button that says "Start fast". Thats all. Just the pushing of a button, makes a significant difference. 

Atomic Habits by James Clear takes off where The power of habit by Charles Duhigg leaves off. It takes a behavioural route to building good ideas as opposed to a more checklist oriented approach. It has some interesting propositions - creating a 1% increment, building a stack of ideas, making desirable ideas easy and attractive while at the same time making undesirable ideas difficult and unattractive among other things. The power of compounding as attached to habits is what creates a superpower. You work out each day and in 6 months, it compounds. You read each day and in a few years, it compounds many times over. This is the part which resonated with me because my reading habit is a good example of how it is a well developed superpower - I wish I could say the same about my writing as well. And that is how skills are built - a bit each time. The book was recommended to me by a number of people and it lives up to expectations. 

I am a reader. I can read anything. Anything. Fact. Fiction. Humour. The wrapper of a biscuit packet. The newspaper cone which the peanut vendor passes on. Anything. On the contrary, I cannot understand when I have to hear. Not beyond a point atleast. And that beyond a point is as immediate as tears on cutting onions. Mildly put, I like to read and understand. I cannot bear to hear lectures - either in person or on video or audio or anything. My only experiences with audio-books have been as sleeping pills. Yes, I can listen to songs - but nothing that I have to reflect and comprehend. I have tried a couple of podcasts as well many years ago - when it was the rage - but gave up because of the above reasons. But at the urging of a friend, I decided to give it a shot again. Its just two podcasts thus far, and I seem to have been able to hear and comprehend. Looking back, I realise that perhaps when I tried it earlier, it was off a desktop or on a device that did not have mobil...