Heartcrossings

Interesting story about elementary school kids, EpiPens and space . Three things that don't automatically belong in the same sentence. When I first glimpsed through the story, I don't think I understood the implications but the incongruity of the three items made me read again and then I got the point.  “In fact, no epinephrine was found in the ‘after’ EpiPen solution samples. This result raises questions about the efficacy of an EpiPen for outer space applications and these questions are now starting to be addressed by the kids in the PGL program.”  The students’ findings have not only helped researchers understand the effects of cosmic radiation on epinephrine but also have real-world implications for space travel and astronaut safety. What is article misses is just as relevant as what it talks about. It would be useful to understand what stoked the curiosity of one or more kids on this topic. Was there a personal connection to the EpiPen. The origin stories in such discover...

 Interesting read about the economics of Sweetgreen salad . I have them when I am traveling for work but would never spend my own money their over-priced salad. But as crazy as the numbers sound to the customer paying out of pocket, it still does not put Sweetgreen in the green Interestingly, the cost of the actual food, drinks, and packaging is only a fraction (about $4.15 out of $15 in our example) of the final sale price. Labor costs take another $4.35 bite out of the earnings, and then rent, property costs, and other expenses swallow $3.78. Those total costs tally just over $12 — great! Sweetgreen’s restaurant operations, in isolation, are very profitable for a food service business… but, of course, there are overheads to consider. Those overheads take Sweetgreen well into the red. The price seems to be what they have decided the customer will tolerate so deploying robots and holding that price and adding even more expensive options is the way they get to be profitable. Somethi...

Reading this news about medical students in America avoiding residencies in states with abortion restrictions coupled with stories about doctors fleeing red states , reminds me of things I have observed growing up in India. All states are very far from equal in India. I grew up in one of the more distressed ones home and Kolkata is home now. Kolkata has been draining talent for decades because the conditions in that city (and state) go from bad to worse. There is now an abundance of retirees and legions of services providers for the frail, ailing and elderly.  Elsewhere in India, some states have enjoyed an influx of talent combined with decent governance. Over time, this has produced two kind of India - one the BIMARU  kind and the other that is modern, progressive, dynamic, optimistic and poised for even better things ahead. The people from the two flavors of India have little in common to begin with and the disparity of their circumstances continue to pull them further and ...

Though I have only been there twice in my life, the news of Red Lobster has been interesting to follow. The chain came undone by way of all you can eat shrimp it seems. Closer home a Chinese buffet with a large assortment of sea food decided to become a sushi establishment but that did not work out. The customer wants a certain unsustainable amount of food for a price that does not work. If the establishment has no value proposition for the customer other than $X per pound of said food then chances are there is no way to save it one that X is not viable for the business.  I was intrigued by the Chinese buffet going the sushi way and did not see how the existing clientele would find that a fair swap - they were coming for the unlimited crab legs, shrimp, mussel and crawfish. How was sushi ever going to compete with that. Red Lobster decided to throw in the towel, not swap out the endless shrimp with endless something that was a lot cheaper and had no appeal to the customer. But you...

 I had heard about this 7-38-55 rule previously but a friend asked recently if this may be one of the drivers for return to office. Seems like an interesting argument at first blush - if the body language is what conveys the majority of information in a communication makes sense that people are in the same room. Reality of in-person meetings and discussions these days is that people are continuously distracted by their phones and watches if on the rare occasion that they show up without their laptop. There is always someone who is triple booked and has prioritized your meeting over their other two and be in the room with you. This person has a third of their attention on the conversation while they field messages coming from the two other discussions that they are not available for. It may turn out that this individual is also crucial to arriving at a solution to the problem you have. Their retention rate based on the formula is at most 18% of what they see of the body language in...

 I have not read the book but recently watched The Name of the Rose . It is a story about many things including the power of comedy and why it could threaten institutions that would you have you take life seriously. Be it a place of worship or learning and even a place of work where physical labor pays money. A person may participate but not subscribe to the tenets of the institution. That is the sign of a trouble-maker. A monk who would read banned comedic books surreptitiously as in the movie, or a student in school who loudly ridicules what is taught and how it is taught.  Both are acts of defiance and there is some price to pay - death or detention as the case might be. Humor is a powerful thing and in the story we learn why the church felt so threatened by it. Democracy cannot survive in an environment where humor is frowned upon. It makes sense that India while riddled with many flaws when it comes to being a democracy is blessed with a great sense of self-deprecating h...

My friend S moved back in with her parents to support them in their old age and failing health. While at first the reorganization of their lives in the new household structure was stressful, things settled in about a year. S tells me that she feels a sense of comfort being around them and doing things for them that she had missed for decades. This trip back home is for her more than it is for them. I cannot relate to her experience at all. It has never been easy for me to spend time with my parents since I left home for college. The longer I have stayed away, the harder it is when I return to visit. I would love to experience what S has with her parents. Knowing her, she is likely the one doing most if not all the work in that relationship.  She is the kind of person who will do what it takes and does not expect others to do their part. Having no expectations she is not upset or disappointed by their failure to perform. I have observed my other friend D try to escape her needy, adu...

Until a year ago the shed in my yard was completely uncared for and very rarely visited. I saw a a sloughed snake skin hanging from a peg once and then there was a bird's nest that clearly looked like it was in use. I might not have been scary but was disturbing the peace by going in there so I stopped. Then at some point that space was needed and organization set in.  The bird stopped using the nest that year and never returned. I wish I could leave the lawn un-mowed and let the wild take over. It is simply not practical if a person lives in the middle of a patch of wild. The greenery will encroach into the cracks of everything and everywhere - nature can move at furious and exuberant space. I will have saplings growing through crevices and through the walls of my house in no time. Along the perimeter, where there is a line of tall trees, there are also many invasive species that can completely suffocate those trees. They need to be cleared away too.  So the interventions an...

This essay makes for sad reading. Decline by nine is how it is described - the age by which kids stop reading for fun. The minimum bar for adults engaged in a child's learning and development is to make sure they love reading and are not afraid of math. If they can accomplish just that much, chances are the kid will figure the rest out on their own and quite successfully.  Math was long rendered devoid of fun thanks to how it is taught in early years of school, so way too many kids are afraid of it when they encounter high school math. Now we've managed take the joy out of reading for young children. With two strikes like that, it will start to take a miracle for a kid to do well as an adult, something that had once been the normal turn of events for most. The reason for decline by nine is more tragic than the problem itself: ..middle-graders’ lack of phones created a marketing problem in an era when no one at any publishing house has any idea how to make a book a bestseller o...

I met my kindergarteners a little off-schedule this week. Right after they had returned from lunch. While they were delighted to see me, I made very little if any progress with teaching them with spelling their three letter words or filling the blank with letters in the alphabet. All kids I am dealing with are immigrant children and English is not their first language. I realized that they fundamentally did not understand the point of the alphabet and how it connected to spelling and most importantly the sound of the letters were unclear to them so they could not understand what fit where. B, C and P all sounded about the same to so they struggled with the concept of B following A and why it was not C before Q. This impacted their ability to sound out the words. W and M looked about same depending on vantage point one could be the other.  While this group of kids struggled to get on the on-ramp to reading and spelling their peers had moved on to reading things. There was a special ...

I love eating like a salmon but am not a big fan of the salmon itself and turns out that its good for me too.  It is part of being Bengali and growing up in India in a place where there was an abundant variety of fish. Even so, I treasured my trips to Kolkata as a kid because there was a whole new universe of small fish there that was not quite as easy to find where I lived. A lot of the fish my relatives bought were sold live in the fish market. My grandmother would not buy fish that were already dead and they had to be pretty small. She did not think bigger fish were particularly healthy and avoided them .. eating tiny fish is said to be better for the environment, because it allows larger fish populations to thrive and puts less strain on the aquatic food systems. Smaller fish, which live shorter lives, naturally contain less mercury than larger fish and are known for being abundant sources of protein, calcium, iron — and vitamins D, A, and B12.  Turns out that she was rig...

Reading this story about two teens from Louisiana made my day. What a wonderful achievement ! The coolness of the accomplishment was only a small part of it for me. These young ladies were fortunate to be in school environment where everyone believes they can and will succeed. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Too many people are invested in the success of these women for them to fail. It brought to mind a very contrary example that I have seen. The school principal in this instance from a very rich county with no dearth of resources, tells the incoming freshman class that coming to school every day is an expectation. There was no mention of anything else they were supposed to accomplish during the most important four years of their young life. I happened to be in the audience that evening with another parent and was absolutely stunned by what I heard. There was no scenario in which a student could thrive or be successful if the bar is so horribly low. It was no surprise to see a...

I love a well-written essay like a person might like comfort food. It's my favorite genre and when something hits the mark for me, its the perfect reading experience. The unadorned honesty of this one was the thing that stood out more brightly. A person comes to a late understanding of their desires and that is a source of as much paint to those that they loved as it is to them. In a loving relationship that transitions to marriage as a sign of ripeness and completion, there can be such upheaval.  A woman in love and dreaming of a home and family with the object of her affection is not the same as a married woman. Something changes quite fundamentally at that point. Some may feel like they have made a one-way decision and there is an immense gravity associated with such a thing, Any signs of frivolity at any level can be viewed as as injury or betrayal. If those add up over time, things can fall apart. The author fortunately was able to see her own reality before she committed to ...

Watching multiple TV screens on mute can be interesting and one that I rarely have. This one happened at the gym with Formula 1 and Kentucky Derby featured side by side and a home improvement show in the screen next to these two. I tried to focus on the races for a bit comparing the racing cars to the racing horses and why one might be more popular with spectators than the other. It seemed at a certain level of mastery and perfection, it becomes harder to tell one apart from the other - human controlling a machine versus a sentient creature. When a super-novice rider like me rides a horse, the experience is riddled with  flaws produced by the rider's lack of experience. The horse merely mirrors the rider level of comfort and confidence.  So in a field of novice riders and their horses, perfection is never achieved. We look like two disjointed entities - horse and human trying to get to know and understand each other to have a pleasant experience. Neither human or horse achieve...

The concept of a family gap year makes a lot of sense and those who can afford should avail what is an unique privilege. Parents on a career track miss out huge chunks of their children's life and growth not to mention the chance of being able to grow in tandem with their partner. When they are able to catch a break and regroup, they often find they are surrounded by relative strangers who are in fact immediate family. A child having a year of almost continuous access to both parents is a fantastic gift on its own. Coupled with the ability to experience the world together is a tremendous bonus. Timing matters a lot as well: ..family gap year clients typically have disposable income and kids around 8 to 11 years old. Parents agreed that pre-high school years are the prime time, while kids are young enough to still value family time and old enough to absorb new experiences. "We wanted to enjoy our kids while we were still their favorite people," said Amy Chang, 44. "I...

I never had a personal Facebook account but do spend time on the blog's account because I am fascinated by what Facebook does to harvest attention and create stickiness. While there are many shiny things littered on the surface and only needs infinite scrolling to distract and waste time, I have yet to come across a single thing of real value that I discovered by way of Facebook. The notion that it now represents the zombie internet makes good sense to me.   It is reductive to call Facebook the “Dead Internet.” There are real people on Facebook, and real people are being fed this content. The images themselves are being made by AI at the direction of real humans who have learned that spam can be monetized. Real humans at Facebook the company are choosing not to or are not equipped to take action on these accounts or this type of content, which now makes up an unknown but significant portion of content on the site. AI spam, as well as the specter of AI content, is impacting ho...

Seeing Mona Lisa live has to be one of the most underwhelming experiences I've had. The quality of the art is not something you can even remotely focus on given the crowds taking their selfies, jockeying for a millimeter to squeeze into the space where they can take a clean shot. You join the crowd, get into the flow as you find it, see what you can unable to comprehend what the fuss is all about. Very quickly it becomes evident that there is no point to whole exercise at all - it is impossible to experience any art under these circumstances. You could check it off your bucket list (if it was on there) and get on with your day and life. It's great to see that a separate room is under consideration for Mona Lisa .  .. museum-goers complain about waiting in line for hours, the stuffy conditions, and only getting to spend a few seconds viewing the painting, which is housed behind bulletproof glass. One recent analysis of visitors' online reviews of big museums and their most l...

I recently read Susan Sontag's On Women recently and these words about the nuclear family stuck with me : “The modern “nuclear” family is a psychological and moral disaster. It is a prison of sexual repression, a playing field of inconsistent moral laxity, a museum of possessiveness, a guilt-producing factory, and a school of selfishness.” The "museum of possessiveness" and "guilt-producing factory" are the two that feel most relevant to my own experience being a product of a nuclear family - me and my parents. While I had the benefit of being close to and somewhat connected to extended family, J did not even have that. Her nuclear family for the most part was an unit of two with my parents being there in the periphery, a distant source of comfort.  Possessiveness goes with a territory that small.  It takes a lot of effort to free up from it. Guilt is a by-product of the possessiveness. No matter what you do, it is never quite enough. There is always more to do ...

Disappointing to read about what goes at Trader Joe's behind the cheerful facade . The small guy with a great product has no real shot here. They can accept the fake invitation to get a deal or have their idea stolen without that meeting anyway ..Trader Joe’s commonly solicits product samples and even asks for potential recipe adjustments—a revealing and time-consuming exercise for bootstrapped founders—before inexplicably abandoning the negotiations and releasing its own private-label versions of similar products at lower prices. The reason they can get away with it is price and selection not to mention the little quirks that make it stand out from competition that may match it on price and selection.  The store’s well-curated selection of convenience foods, particularly those found in the frozen food aisle, comprises a relative United Nations of cuisines from around the globe, tailor-made for the air fryer economy. Young people working and living alone for the first time typicall...

Rushdie's advice on writing - don't use adjectives , I am sure is a good and valid one as it forces the writer to think harder about communicating their message without painting a word picture, By the author of the Inc. article takes the advise to business with rather strange outcomes:  Consider a leader describing a future project to their team. Instead of saying, "This will be an exciting, innovative, and impactful project," removing the adjectives could reshape the delivery: "This project pioneers new technologies to transform our industry and redefine customer experience." Notice the shift? The second version doesn't just tell listeners how to feel about the project--it shows what the project does, drawing listeners into a narrative of transformation and innovation. The second example which according to the author meets the Rushdie style directive reads exactly like business-ese. This is the dreary language people are reading and writing every day of...

 Getting long overdue justice and then having it all be invalidated is a bitter pill to swallow. But it might be worthwhile to scour for the silver lining in this instance: It will be tempting to frame the overturning of Mr Weinstein’s conviction as a backlash against #MeToo. In a spiky dissent, one of the appeal judges, Madeline Singas, wrote: “Men who serially sexually exploit their power over women—especially the most vulnerable groups in society—will reap the benefit of today’s decision.” However, the various cases against Mr Weinstein have not been for nothing. Improvements to the justice system in several states, such as the abolition of non-disclosure agreements that stopped victims from speaking out, and the lengthening of statutes of limitations, can be directly attributed to the #MeToo/Weinstein legacy. Elizabeth Geddes, a former federal prosecutor who convicted R Kelly, a singer, of racketeering and sex crimes in New York in 2021-22, says one challenge that Mr Weinstein...

Over twenty years ago, I was contacted by a recruiter from a company based out of St. Louis. We hit it off at once and she got me in for interviews at a company that seemed way ahead of it's times. The conversations went great and they were ready to bring me on. Around the same time, my life started to unravel and while the details escape me now (and I am grateful for the lapse of memory). I did not end up taking that job or moving. I stayed in touch with R for several years after that even if more and more sporadically - there was something about her that set her apart from others in her profession. it made me think of her every time I was felt misunderstood. She really loved her job for one thing and was excellent at it. My resume was a hot mess but she was able to tease out who I was and what I could do. She made a wonderful match - a great team and a job that would have been a lot of fun if I had been able to take it.  For over a year, off and on, R has been posting very candid...

As I was pulling into my driveway yesterday, I heard the familiar sirens of ambulances rushing by. I live near two assisted living facilities and these sounds are woven into the fabric of my life. For some reason, I paused to pay attention to the sound that day and thought about how often I heard them and perhaps they were correlated to the number of elderly who were dying. If there were spikes at certain times of the year, I had not noticed but there are phases when the ambulance sirens are heard more frequently. Somewhere else, there the sounds of a crying infant that has just been born - maybe not even that far away as there are a couple of big hospitals nearby. Birth or impending birth is not imbued with an alarming sound like death or the likelihood of death is. Maybe in that sense we arrive with a relative whimper and some of us might make a lot of noise as we depart.  As I walked into the house, I thought about my grandfather who died in his sleep in his own bed. It was an o...

The cookie-less has been a long time coming but never quite arrives . It seems like a case of strategic procrastination and moving as slowly as possible without irking the authorities. It is no surprise that there are few fans of the privacy sandbox proposal. This post does a nice job of breaking down all the reasons not to love it.  Google has its tendrils wrapped around every nook and cranny of the Internet, giving the company limitless opportunities to collect user first-party data. The rest of us are stuck with our minuscule (by comparison) first-party data sets or rely on exchanging or pooling data.  But now that Google deactivated third-party cookies for 30 million Chrome users in early January of this year, we know they are totally super serious about this whole cookie deprecation thing. Super-serious and in the name of protecting privacy too. The reality will be quite different no doubt and it will consolidate Google's position in the ads business. Ten years ago, marke...

If small talk is not the hallmark of emotional intelligence then I have just about never met an emotionally intelligent person in all the years that I have worked. Many follow the rule of being interested in you and what you have to say - though whenever I have received that treatment, it's made me a bit uncomfortable. I am not that disproportionately interesting than the other person so it seems the tactic is to get me to fill the air in the room without reciprocating. That makes me chat about non-consequential, low-value stuff. If some of it can be amusing even better - filling up space whole being somewhat entertaining seems to be the job the person who acts interested in me has doled out.  The conversations I have enjoyed the most are the ones where the balance is great to the point of being perfect. I am as interested in learning about the other party as they are about me. We go through a range of items and that gives us both a broader understanding of the other beyond the cu...

This Vogue article speaks to my own experience and that of many other women I know. There is common and widespread belief that a much of what a woman complains about are in her head. The modern flavor of being hysterical by default. I saw a male nutritionist (and that was probably a mistake) to help me come up with a diet plan that I met my needs, was not too meat-based and helped me manage my weight more effectively. During the 45 minute consult he asked me at least five different times if I was depressed or anxious or experienced mood swings. Saying no to all of that two or three times was not sufficient to drive the message home.  He must have assumed I was reluctant to come clean with my mental health issues and if prodded enough, I would come succumb and speak the truth. After the fifth time of hearing I had none of those symptoms, he offered to write me a script for an anti-depressant that I could get on if I ever felt "overwhelmed". The conversation about diet went ab...

Reading this article made me think about how many times I have wanted to hop off the bus in my professional life and could not because of a variety of reasons. I stayed on and tried to make the most of what I found myself in the middle of. Most of the work I ended up doing is middling - nothing I would proudly recount to my grandkids.  I learned to deal with freakishly difficult people, complete absence of leadership or strategy or both and irreparably broken processes. Somewhere in the midst of all that, almost by miracle some actual work got done. I am still on that same bus hoping persistence will pay off one day. And those completely useless (to my mind) skills I have mastered to work around obstacle courses to deliver results will prove to be part of some bigger picture, grander design I have yet to see.  By staying on the bus, you give yourself time to re-work and revise until you produce something unique, inspiring, and great. It’s only by staying on board that mastery...

Long essay on the fate of mid-tier writers in Hollywood that has some interesting insights based on what part of the discussion you are most relate to. I found this little tidbit about how data is shared or not most useful: ..As for the data-sharing agreement, a closer look reveals it to be, as deWaard put it, “very limited, and very fragile.” The studios will share viewership information with a limited number of WGA administrators for high-budget shows. The guild can then release that information only in a summary form, which, in the words of the contract, aggregates the data “on an overall industry level.” The guild cannot share any information at all on the performance of individual shows. A WGA representative told me that there would be no secondary process for writers to obtain that data. Obviously, if a writer is trying to negotiate better terms for themselves, this level of data sharing is a joke. Its sharing in name only with one side holding all the cards close to their chest....

Interesting way to describe what a messy room is all about from the perspective of a twenty something male. Mr. Isaacson’s apartment tour included a large amount of clothes spread across the floor; a dresser filled with gray wigs (for his sketch comedy, he says); and a desk that was given to him by his grandmother. “I think of the clutter as, like, if you’re crossing a creek,” said Mr. Isaacson, who has since cleaned his apartment in response to some of the comments. “There are sort of steppingstones that you use to avoid the water. And I think in a good messy boy’s room, there are steppingstones of floor.” Stepping stones or not, there is always a price to pay for clutter. If this is the space a person is returning to after a day of living their interesting, busy and varied life, the space will fail to destress them. It would be hard to come there and feel calm and centered. It would be navigating said stepping stones to avoid water, floor or other calamity residing beneath the piles...

I had a chance to watch a Neil deGrasse Tyson show recently and had the most enjoyable time. Tyson balances erudition with entertainment with perfect grace. He can amuse and educate by turn. There were many young kids in the audience and he engaged with a few of them directly. I could not help imagining how lucky they might have felt and how privileged they were to have adults in their life who thought to bring them out to such a show. There was plenty to think about after the show but I mostly mulled over the impact an educator like Tyson can have.  Every time he goes on the stage talks about hard concepts in a way that is accessible to everyone, he must turn a few young people to math and science - not just for the sake of a degree but to love the subjects. Some others might feel compelled to make their time on earth because life is such an infinitely small blip. Those like me experiencing midlife angst and feeling like time is slipping away without any outcomes, he might inspire...

Loved this Ikea campaign which brought to mind some of the advanced gear hikers carry their babies in these days. The units that strap on the back of the parent are meant to make baby comfortable and snug while also protecting them from the elements. I recently saw a dad of two kids on a moderately hard trail chasing after one full-speed while carrying the second in the harness. This was such a far cry from anything I would have been able to do when J was the age of these kids.  These parents want to get their kids to love being active and outdoors, enjoy it as much as they do. That goal cannot be achieved without putting forth some serious effort - and so they do. The hiking gear needed to bring baby along for the ride is needed for good intention to become reality. I wish such things were more accessible when J was that age. Children are shaped by experiences of such formative years even when they don't properly remember them or meet them with resistance.  I'd like to be bel...