Santosh

Finished Reading : Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward 📚

Kiki and Jenny

Someone is amused that my coffee came before her cake!

Apart from our own elections here, the other election that has intrigued me is that of Mexico. Claudia Sheinbaum is the new president elect. I am looking forward to what a leftist, feminist, climate scientist can do with an unprecedented public support. #mexicoEłections

A quick trip to Kathmandu after a decade! Although did not get to do anything beyond the back to back meetings but did manage to go to Pashupatinath temple! The place has changed quite a lot after the earthquake.

Carbon markets, often used to describe the trade of carbon credits (mostly trade of voluntary carbon credits), is one of the least understood mechanisms and a polarising topic among climate activists. But Carbon markets are much more than just trade of carbon credit that you might have heard from someone talking about making money by planting trees or selling credits from a biogas plants or from an ‘improved cookstove’ projects. Carbon market is one of the most effective way of implementing result based financing or pricing the carbon (in other words: making polluters pay). 

While the debate on carbon market and its different implementation frameworks is still on, the European carbon market and carbon pricing mechanism does provide evidence that mechanism works if implemented properly. 

Read more here.. https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/04/25/carbon-emissions-are-dropping-fast-in-europe

As I interact with people who are not immersed in the climate discourse, it is surprising that they believe that there is ‘too’ much focus on climate action. They believe that with this kind of ‘intense focus’ on climate action, we are already doing a lot and will be able to manage this. 

Unfortunately, we are nowhere on the path to achieve our climate goals. The emissions increased post the dip in the pandemic years. We were at 57.4 GtCO2e in 2022. (See the graph below from UNEP Emission Gap Report 2023). 

And even if we meet all our existing climate goals (Nationally Determined Contributions – NDCs set up countries) we will fall short of the 2030 target by 11 GtCO2e (if we want to keep the global warming below 2 degree).

Many of us are familiar with the data, but there is a limited understanding of climate change and climate action among the general public. Mainstream climate discourse is urgently needed.

A friend suggested that I should do a podcast or a video shorts about the books that I recommend instead of blogging or writing on my website. His logic: it is easier to listen the podcast and watch videos than reading the written content on a website.

I found it ironical that people who are looking to read books (listening audio books doesn’t count) are saying that they do not like ‘reading the written content’ and would like a short reel or video to know more about a book!!

“Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life” is a fascinating dissection of how we desire things or non-things. This book is a great introduction to Rene Girard’s work in general and mimetic theory in specific.

Last year, I decided to read Rene Girard and picked up “Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World” to understand his overwhelmingly comprehensive treatise of thinking on desires, violence, culture, rituals, religion.. The list is just a glimpse of the width that he has covered as a philosopher.
So when Luke’s Wanting came out I immediately picked up this book to get more personal perspective from a modern-day entrepreneur (Luke is an entrepreneur and founder of four companies) who explored the mimetic desire theory from his personal experiences and leveraging developments and anecdotes from modern businesses.

Luke’s writing style and extensive use of examples to make us familiar with the mimetic desire make it a very interesting read for even those who are not so used to reading philosophical books.

If you are wondering what is this memetic desire and why you should even care about reading a book on this: mimetic desires are those desires that originate not because of any physical or biological needs but because other people seem to desire them.

Luke provides some great advices on managing our desires and understanding who are our role models that are dictating our behaviors. One of the easiest way to figure out who is our role model and influencing our desire are often the people whose success makes us feel sad or inferior.

But these theories are not only philosophical constructs validated by the historical anecdotes and stories. Burgis finds the scientific explanation to our vulnerability to mimesis.

What Girard calls mimetic desire might have some neurological basis in mirror neurons, but mimetic desire is a mysterious phenomenon that can’t be reduced to mirror neurons alone.

Luke Burgis

…They discovered that a specific area of a macaque monkey’s brain activates when it sees an adult pick up a peanut—the same area that lights up if the monkey picks up a peanut directly.

Luke Burgis

The book also has a really useful glossary in the end and a reading list for those who want to explore more. Please go ahead and pick this one up to explore Rene Girard, mimetic desires and how you can resist mimetic desires.

Three steps to unlock climate finance for developing nations:

1. Strengthen institutions: Help developing countries build capacity to manage funds effectively. 

2. Attract private investment: De-risk projects & create incentives to bring in private capital. 

3. Proactive focus on adaptation: Ensure funding reaches those most vulnerable to climate impacts. 

Let's invest in a more sustainable future, together! #ClimateAction #ClimateFinance #GreenInvestment 

Two decades can have a transfigurative impact on our memories. Trivial moments morph into bittersweet nostalgia, while monumental events fade into relics of the past. Starting this blog was one of those seemingly trivial acts back in 2004, but reflecting on its origins and the occasional old posts reveals a montage of life events that now feel both incredulous and utterly random.

I first used a computer and the internet in 1998-99. As a young person in a small town in Bihar, this felt like winning the lottery. At the time, I had no idea how privileged I was or how this access would reshape my entire life. Cursed with an insatiable curiosity, I made the internet my playground of discovery – a window to a world far beyond my imagination. I immersed myself in emerging web and internet technologies and the thrilling tech-pop culture blossoming across Europe and the US.

My early days on the internet were all about personal blogs and forums. While the golden era of blogging spanned 2000-2010, the first blog was published as early as 1993. Justin Hall, who started posting on his personal website that year, is regarded as the first personal blogger. He was already known in tech circles through bulletin boards and chat forums like mIRC. By 2000, personal blogging exploded, connecting like-minded strangers worldwide. Personal blogs had a very effective discoverability mechanism: links to other blogs. Roaming around, I stumbled upon pioneering bloggers and tech influencers like Kevin Kelly (the most interesting man alive and perhaps my biggest blogging inspiration), Ben Trott (TypePad founder), Matt Mullenweg (WordPress co-founder), and later, economists like Tyler Cowen (Marginal Revolution) and Tim Ferriss. The list goes on!

By 2003-04, the Indian blogosphere was booming. My inbox buzzed with emails – friends, acquaintances, even strangers – excitedly sharing their new blogs or latest posts. It was a wave of creativity and connection, and I was swept up in it. My own blog started as a jumble of personal updates and reflections, lacking any clear purpose. Perhaps a mix of homesickness and a desire to connect with my growing online social circle (from forums and websites) fueled its creation. Soon, I added a separate blog just for sharing IIFM campus updates and became part of b-school blogging groups. Many well-known figures today were blogging from various campuses across India. This era also saw bloggers banding together to challenge figures like Arindham Chaudhuri of IIPM (Fury over a blog | Latest News India – Hindustan Times: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/fury-over-a-blog/story-SGKxCQJzF65KdA1XwZOIjJ.html). It was a moment when bloggers like Rashmi Bansal and Gaurav Sabnis brought mainstream media attention to the Indian blogosphere.

My own blog went through many existential crises and transformations as life progressed. The private section of the blog became more active than the public posts. Irrepressible personal opinions, reflections, and rants were relegated to drafts or the private section, while sanitized, politically correct updates were published to keep the public page alive. It was no longer a personal blog but rather a space for sharing updates about professional life and keeping track of the books I was reading.

Now, as this blog turns twenty, it has become a treasure trove of nostalgia, a witness to a journey that began with the insecurities of a middle-class youth figuring out his future to frustrations of a middle-aged man grappling with the future his child (and other children) will inherit in this fragile, almost post-truth world.

#Delhi has air pollution.. #Bengaluru has water scarcity.. #Chennai has flood problem.. urban development and our policies need some revisit.

Meet this colorful animal made of junk and recycled plastic.. 

IIFMights in Nairobi! 

She sneakily made herself snug next to me.

I picked up Samsung Galaxy S24 to replace my backup phone. The phone is quite snappy but the AI integration could have been more comprehensive.

Currently reading: Wanting by Luke Burgis 📚