Weekly Letter 52/52

A mandatory year end reflection

Dec 27, 2024

I don’t know why I changed the naming of my letters. Last year they were in week_number/year format. That is a better one. Will continue that next year.

In my last letter last year, I did some reflection using the Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage” poem. This Telugu song from Rangashthalam also sings the same.

Listen to this as you read the rest of the letter :)

1. Civic-Technologist

I continued on strengthening my fundamentals. I wanted to get rid of my hardware phobia this year and learn core statistics.

Hardware:

My hardware phobia was to such an extent that I couldn’t even drive a four-wheeler. I kind of conquered that now — I got a license :) I still fear to drive speed though, but I’ll let it pass as a healthy fear.

I also got a HAM license and made a few contacts using the HAM Radio at NIAR. I didn’t send enough time on it as I wished. I don’t know if I will do that next year. This is not coming up on high on my list now.

I did a few IoT projects — morse code player, led blinking morse code, Indoor air quality sensor. Got some comfort with Raspberry Pi and Microcontrollers. I am curious about this and want to work with more sensors and collect interesting data. I hope to deploy some of these projects in real world settings.

Statistics

I must have bored you with my constant blogs on Statistics this year. I wrote 40 blogs on my Stats learnings this year. My Telugu book - అన్విక్షికి - is also an outcome of these learnings. I’m very happy how this turned out.

To paraphrase Statistician John Tukey, every statistician needs backyard of a scientist. I got that backyard of Dr Sarath (literally for a week). I got to apply my Stats learnings on air quality data. I’m very happy with these two works in this context:

I’m happy with this role of mine.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. Actor

Disappointed here. I had to wait for a few external decisions to do things here. I was actually just waiting as an actor this year. I couldn’t commit to any project as a consequence. To just keep the momentum and learning going, I did a few reels on Instagram, took dance classes, and gave auditions. I hope they materialize soon. Or I should find a way work here without waiting for external decisions.

A few good things did happen. A filmmaker I deeply admire saw my SriSri reel and called over for a chat. We screened our shortfilm at Ravindra Bharati. It also won a couple of awards.

I’m waiting for what is ahead.

⭐

3. Writer

I wrote a lot this year. Also, diversely. Stats blogs, stories, poems, screenplay, అన్విక్షికి and papers. Letters of course.

Even though I couldn’t get అన్విక్షికి published, the process of writing it and reaching out introduced me to some nice people. Got some validation when my short story got shortlisted at the India Science Festival.

A big thanks to the Hyderabad Write Club! Did a lot of writing there and also got to experiment by hosting a few prompts.

I’m happy with this role of mine.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

But I lack clarity on how to improve in this role, especially in writing papers and screenplays. I feel learning happens when there is a healthy balance between thinking and doing. If you know of any resources that will help me, think about good writing, please send across :)

4. Friend/Family

Made new friends. Also fought with a few unnecessarily. I think I’m spreading thin here. I tried to spend time when I was required — didn’t attend a couple of weddings :(

We played cricket for a few weeks. It was turning out to be a good habit… friends and mutual friends were turning up to play every week. But monsoon gave a long break to it. I want to revive this next year.

The main struggle in family is to find a balance between detachment and obsession. Both extremes are maladaptive in a social life.

⭐⭐

5. Citizen

I started a constitution reading group early this year. I couldn’t continue it. I hosted SamvidhanBot on the RaspberryPi, so at least it was a bit active. However, it got negligible attention. I couldn’t add much content to it as well.

I printed some preambles on Ambedkar Jayanthi. Met Vinay in the process. We wanted to get some chatbot sort of thing done on Constitution. This didn’t materialize as well.

On scientific temper, I gave a couple of talks on biases we hold. For tech audience, I use Stats (Causality) as a way to start this talk. For others, I use అన్విక్షికి. But many in my inner circle still hold dangerous beliefs.

I’ve paid my taxes and voted. Bare minimum.

⭐⭐

6. Human

This will be my ode to books. Whatever better (or worse) human I became is because of books I read. I documented some of my learnings here: My Gita

Books are among the greatest inventions of mankind. I don’t know something. One of the billions who ever lived on this planet knows about it and writes about it. I get to read the book, sometimes after hundreds of years of it being written, and now I know that thing!

Beginning this year, I knew very little of fitness, statistics, electronics. I learnt these things primarily by reading. It could be Isaac Asimov’s booklet on Vitamins or Larry Wasserman’s All of Statistics. I’m fitter today (my fat % reduced!) and better equipped in catching biases & running statistical models.

Looking back, three books left a strong impression on me this year.