City of Chaos, Human Alarms, IKEA Effect, Original iPod and Urban Archaeologist

#23 of 10+1 Things

Nov 1, 2021

⚡ Welcome to #23 of 10+1 Things!

Thanks to everyone who bought me coffee last week. Your support($1 or ₹75) keeps this newsletter up and running.

I conducted a survey last week and was surprised to find that majority of you preferred to read my newsletter on Mondays. So I've changed my publishing schedule and from now, the newsletter will be delivered to your inbox on Monday!

Also, one feedback I received was to change the section where I share the music that I'm listening to. I have replaced it with another section and let me know your thoughts about it!

Also, this edition of the newsletter is delivered in partnership with ‘The Breads’. Eli London who writes 'The Breads' goes through a lot of content on the internet and delivers interesting things that give readers points of conversation to make with friends or co-workers.

The Breads by Eli London

A mostly weekly collection of links, products and ideas to make you and your life more interesting.

If you love 10+1 Things, I'm sure that you'll love ‘The Breads by Eli London’.

Without further ado, here are 10+1 Things that I thought were worth sharing:

🧠 The IKEA Effect

Have you ever thought about why we are in love with building houses with lego kits or assembling furniture from IKEA? IKEA Effect is a cognitive bias in which we overvalue products that we've built or created than the pre-assembled items. People tend to love items that they've made themselves and often end up paying more than normal for these products. This is one reason LEGO kits, Subway, custom shoes and DIY kits are popular. If you're a maker or an entrepreneur, make sure that your product has some elements that make people believe that they've made something themselves!

Learn More on IKEA Effect

⏰ Human Alarms

In the 19th century England, industrialization was on the rise and more people had to wake up to go for early shifts. But how would people wake up early as phones didn't exist and alarm clocks were not popular? A Knocker-Up or Knocker-Upper was someone who was employed by these workers to wake them up on time in the morning. These human alarm clocks were paid a few pence a week to make rounds and bang on the windows or doors with a long pole. The knocker up would not move until was he was sure that the drowsy client was up and ready. Some Knocker Uppers even used a peashooter to blow to fire small peas into the windows of occupants to wake them up.

📜 50 Rules for Life

Ryan Holiday, author of the popular book 'Ego is the Enemy' has written an interesting article on 50 short rules for Life. He gathered these rules while practising Stoicism himself from the works of great stoic philosophers across two thousand years. My favourite ones from the list are "Look for the poetry in ordinary things." and "Find one thing that makes you wiser every day"

Check out 50 Rules

What's your favourite from the list?

🍎 The Original iPod

It's been 20 years since Apple has released iPod, a product that revolutionized the way we listened to music. In honour of the 20th anniversary, Panic Blog has shared some interesting photographs and information on the early prototype of the Original iPod. This was an early prototype that was made before the final form factor was ready and also helped in keeping the design confidential. The chunky prototype has a scroll wheel, navigation buttons, debug port and a tiny screen at the top right corner. The internals are similar to that of the final product but the overall form factor was made massive deliberately to conceal the original design.

Check out the prototype

🌇 City of Chaos

With endless traffic jams and a waterfront slum, Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria is on course to become the biggest city in the world. Spiegel International has covered an interesting story of inhabitants in Lagos. The megacity is growing at the rate of 3000 people each day and is expected to become the largest city in the world by the end of this century. Due to lack of proper planning, poor maintenance of drainage and rising sea levels due to climate change, flood is a common scene on the streets. There is no serious public transportation system and traffic control is a mess in the city that has over 20 million people. Most people that commute to work often end up spending the same time as they do at work while commuting. The city is truly on the brink of insanity and really needs attention.

Read the story

🚢 Waste Fuel

One of the hardest aspects of decarbonization is to cut down emissions from long-distance and heavy-duty transport. Cargo ships contribute nearly 3 per cent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions and this number is expected to climb as global trade expands. A Californian startup called WasteFuel is working to solve this riddle by converting farm waste in America into clean fuel for container ships. The company backed by shipping giant Maersk is currently building facilities across America to produce 'bio-methanol ' from wastes such as corn husks, wheat straws and other scraps. Bio-methanol is a promising alternative as it can be used by converting engines in the existing vessels.

Check out Waste Fuel

🖼 What do Kids eat?

This week I'm exploring a project called 'Daily Bread' by Gregg Segal that investigates the eating habits of children around the world. Globalization is altering our relationship with food and our diets have changed over time resulting in rising obesity rates. Segal asked kids around the world to keep a journal of everything they eat in a week. Once the week is over, portraits of children were made with the foods they ate placed around them. It is clear from the portraits that the foods consumed by kids in the western world are less healthier than those consumed by their counterparts in Asia and Africa. Eating habits of kids are important as they have a longer influence on their lives and can be a reason for many chronic health issues like heart problems, diabetes, colon cancer and more. You can read more about the project in his book or check out photos on his website.

Check out more photos

🧵 How to Win

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

How to Win (without talent or luck):

Sahil Bloom has shared yet another excellent thread narrating 20+ principles on how to win without any talent or luck. We have always been told that winning often requires incredible talent or sensational luck. This is obviously wrong and everyone can win with extreme passion and relentless pursuit for success. In a nutshell, to win in life, you need to adopt a positive mindset, play long games, be curious and should prioritize process over outcomes.

Check out the thread

🎬 Urban Archaeologist

This week I've enjoyed watching a documentary titled 'The Artefact Artist' that explores the story of Scott Jordan, who has been excavating New York City’s trash for decades. For nearly five decades Jordan has explored landfills, construction sites and other less-explored areas of New York City. He has dug up all kinds of objects including some historical artefacts that date back more than 300 years. The discovered objects are diverse and give us a glimpse into the habits and lifestyles of previous generations who have lived in that area dating back to the 18th century. From ancient glass bottles to a gun from the revolutionary war, Jordan's apartment is now full of these items that were once buried beneath New Yorker's feet!

Watch the Documentary (20 min)

📚 Ultralearning

I'm enjoying reading the book titled 'Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career' by Scott Young. The book explores nine principles that will help you to master hard skills quickly and help you to future-proof your career by taking advantage of self-learning. Young was interested in computer science but couldn't afford to attend MIT. So he embarked on a self-learning project and decided to learn the MIT curriculum himself using the resources available online. In just 1 year he was able to pass the final exams of the MIT programme which usually takes 4 years. Scott is really a cool guy and has done other personal challenges like learning 4 languages in 12 months and teaching himself to draw self-portraits in 30 days. Nevertheless, this is an interesting short read I would definitely recommend.

Check out the book

“Your deepest moments of happiness don’t come from doing easy things; they come from realizing your potential and overcoming your own limiting beliefs about yourself.”
~ Ultralearning, resurfaced using Readwise (FREE)

❓ One Question for you

This is a section where I ask you a thought-provoking question. This week's question is:

What can you do today that you were not capable of a year ago?

I would love to hear your answers in the comment section or as a reply to this email. Like being anonymous? Use this form to submit your response.

Curious enough to know my answer? Read it here.