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A few laps at MC with S and V. Went in closer to noon and the temps were just right! Nasal only with the mask on. Right after the first lap, I had this tightness in the upper chest which eased out over the next few loops and I definitely could have picked up my pace if I really wanted. The calves were ‘talking’ right after the run and the fresh OJ which I gulped down was just what the body needed…Great consecutive run after yesterday. I’m kinda liking getting back to this.
2022-02-06 11:11:22 – MC loops 🏃 Ran 1.68 miles in 00:26:05
Pace : 15.53 min/mile.
Elevation Gain : 82 ft.
Elevation Loss : 70 ft.
Calories : 292
Location : Chennai
💓 : 163
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With the lock-down being lifted, S & I head to the beach. Some slow barefoot running in the sand. Been several (8?) months that I’ve really run and today it was good just being out there.
2022-02-05 06:39:02 – Marina Barefoot 🏃 Ran 1 miles in 00:18:42
Pace : 18.7 min/mile.
Elevation Loss : 2 ft.
Calories : 189
Location : Chennai
💓 : 152
Retrospectives and Flukes
@Morganhousel wrote a fantastic post yesterday outlining how each person’s trajectory is riddled with ‘flukes’. Humanity constantly evolves from a quagmire of possibilities and there’s very little merit in looking in retrospect. I think the likelihood of a successful forecast can only be enhanced if we work with the factors in the present – not the past, not the future. The past is barely helpful and you’d rather not rely on those from the future. (Odd I say that after all those years I spent churning numbers as an actuarial analyst.) Ultimately what trumps is that humans find it really hard to delineate emotions from decision making. As much as you’d like to disagree, you see it in every realm – Medicine, Finance, Sports, Academics, Health just to name a few.
In 2016, we had a fascinating close call on I-15 S while heading towards New Haven. (Fascinating because, I learnt it the hard way and everyone who drives a car and has a floor-mat should be aware of this.) Accidents tend to give you that moment for retrospect and back then I jotted something similar to the thoughts I have today:
The proverbial – ‘Everything happens for a reason’ is just not true. I believe the human brain does a wonderful job in assigning a reason to the cause and quite conveniently this is always subtly and retrospectively done. In its quest to find reason, it ends up triggering neural connections that emotionally and logically seem reasonable. So when and how do we draw the line while making choices and how do you substantiate the choices you’ve made? Or is the whole premise that as a logical and emotional machine you’re feeding good and bad data (choices) as a stimulus to train the body to better react to unforeseeable situations in the future?
I’ve taken quite some risky shifts in my career over the last decade. Most driven by what I felt at that very moment – Gut instinct. Absolutely none that I regret. And most have been very rewarding. So when it comes to making a choice at that critical moment, I try and keep retrospectives at bay. Every once in a while, I do catch myself careening from this golden rule. That’s when I take a good pause, stop connecting the dots and look at just that isolated dot at that moment. It’s worked wonders before and I trust that streak to continue. Irony being, my previous statement moots everything I said before! What can I say, we’re a good bunch of optimistic morons.
MC
Last evening we were at MC. The plan was to get a swim in and head back home. Been a while that we hung out here. 8 years? Nothing much has changed. Which is great, because it did bring back some great memories. I wish I chronicled these better then. The first time I was here, was to see if we wanted it to be a venue for the wedding. Thinking of which, wow it’s going to be 10 years soon! Time flies!
P and I decided to order some Orange Juice for ourselves. S joined and we got some snacks. In about twenty minutes rest of the family joined and we decided to go all in and have dinner here. Overlooking the greens and the river, this is one beautiful serene place. Nothing to beat an unplanned dinner together with the family. Should do this more often.
Firewalls on thin ice
The more that I read and the more that I build, with every additional service that I self-host, I realize there are so many points of failure – each becoming more evident as time passes and experience grows. The blaring one’s get attended to sooner or later, and the not-so-urgent one’s remain there – slowly tended to on the whims and fancies of time and interest. Until, from a different perspective, what you judged to be urgent or frivolous flips and then you are just not sure what you are dealing with.
This must be why it’s so addictive. There are more questions than straightforward solutions. There’s so much uncertainty veiled with the promise of freedom, curiosity and learning. There’s the thrill in making things work despite it being a non-standard approach. And ultimately it’s all yours – the wins and the losses. Well, mostly the losses. But hey, even before you stop to assess, there’s something new round the corner that someone’s built – Intricate yet imperfect. Just what you need to spin-off in that direction…
This. is. why? What’s your reason?