Honest conversations with a chaiwala: me: "ab toh nitish Jeet gaya" him:"sarkar koi sa bhi ho hum toh yaha (Chennai mein) kam karte hai"

I used to read non-fiction books since I liked how the information in the book was real. Lately, I have been trying out fiction, but I have to say I am disappointed. On the contrary, what I am writing now as a part of a personal exploration comes under the category fiction.

I got fed up of reading so much trash (you know what I am talking about if you read the review of the book I was reading). I am planning to write a little, explore the storyteller inside of me.

The book I am talking about is "The Chola Tigers" by Amish. My review in one word: "Putdownable"

I absolutely despise this book. It doesn't have any soul. It feels like I am reading a text book with factual data. There is no flow in the writing. It doesn't do a good job of being a work of fiction even though the events and characters described are close to real life history.

Now reading: "The Chola Tigers" by Amish

"In total, for comparison, that is much more DNA than comprises or actual genes, and more than several chromosomes, including the Y. By this measure, humans are significantly more virus than they are male."

"The DNA of the virus is inserted, and it's not a big deal. It has happened countless times in our evolution, which makes up that 8 per cent."

"Sometimes the insertion can be in the middle of a gene that puts the brakes on how often a cell divides and, in doing so, can cause unregulated division - a tumour. Sometimes though, they just sit there not doing much."

"Much of the symptoms of having a cold, or many other viruses, is our immune system reacting to an alien invasion of the cell's self-destruction at the behest of the virus."

"When a virus storms the barricades of our cellular factories, it brings with it its own DNA (or RNA) and can insert it into the host genome, whereon the host cell simply does the virus's bidding and makes new viruses. More often than not, this insertion is bad news."

"Think of a virus as a kind of hijacker, who breaks into a factory and replaces the normal plans with their own, so that the factory starts producing according to the hijacker's wishes rather than the factory owner's."

From the book: "One other thing to note is that genetically, we are not entirely human - around 8 per cent of our genome has not been inherited from an ancestor at all. Instead, it's been forcibly implanted into our DNA by other entities trying to enact their own replication."

I am reading this book called "The Book of Humans" by Adam Rutherford and I would like to share an interesting insight that the book offers. And it's worth knowing especially for those who are so sure of how male (or masculine) they are.

Now reading: "Steal like an artist" by Austin Kleon. Although I am a web developer by profession, I think everything we do involves a creative process. To improve this creative process, I am reading this book.

Bought enough books to last till the new year and even later maybe. Only thing I am still dreaming of is a new year's eve in Goa.

Although I might not be really good at coding, I manage to do enough to keep a developer job (thanks to #nextjs). I'd rather be a full-time writer or a person in public service. I am only too bound and afraid to break out of my comfort zone. #mood

Matthew McConaughey: "I want a private LLM so I can upload my favourite books, articles, journals and ask it questions and learn more about myself, with no influence from the outside world." Bro casually spilled out a million dollar startup idea. https://t.co/VshKon89TG

Thanks to Hasan Minhaj for his awesome conversation with reporter Karen Hao that made me post these. You can watch the video here:

We need better education. We need to not have an environmental crisis. And then think about how do we integrate any technology, not just AI, in service to THAT rather than suddenly ask how we serve technology.”