| Sunday, 10 November 2024 |
A community-powered Sunday newsletter on mental models, self-reflection, learning, growth, photos, books, and more Subscribe here
Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Dear reader, good morning.
Well, Trump won. What more can I say?
I know. Let’s embark on our third “quest”. I’m about a month too late, but let’s find ourselves some nice gifts and thoughts as we run the clock down on 2024.
And once you’re done with that, of course, we have your usual weekly dose of books and pictures to ponder over. And a brand-new collection of community-contributed original art.
1. Leaving the next page unturned 📚
2. The infectiousness of art 🎨
3. This week’s Silent Sunday contributions 📸
1. Leaving the next page unturned
Hello, dear readers, it’s Hari here as usual with First Principles Books. I hope you’re having a relaxed Sunday.
I have a question for you: how often do you decide to not turn to the next page of a book and just… leave it?
This was one thing that I felt deeply uncomfortable about doing when I first started reading. The story would be engaging. I’d be having a great time. But then, often inexplicably, I’d no longer be interested. I felt a sense of guilt when I left books unfinished like this. Over the years though, I have become quite comfortable doing it without a second thought. I’ve made my peace with it—after all, I read for me; I owe nothing to anybody else.
But there’s one book that I abandoned that still haunts my thoughts every once in a while. It’s called Infinite Jest.
Written by David Foster Wallace, it is one of the densest, most complicated reads I’ve ever picked up (and I only got to page 285 of its 1,000+ pages).
Wallace, if you haven’t heard of him, is most known for Infinite Jest, but I’m sure many of you may have come across his famous 2005 commencement speech to the graduating class at Kenyon College, US. Called ‘This is Water’, it is hands down one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard—a deeply moving 22 minutes in being mindful, empathetic, and looking beyond immediate experiences.
I enjoy reading The Ken because it is informative, the articles are well researched, well written, without the spin and bias. I admire The Ken team for their dedication to getting closer to the true picture.
Hari Buggana
Chairman and MD, InvAscent
Transparent, Honest, Detailed. To me, The Ken has been this since the day I subscribed to them. The research that they put into each story and the way it is presented is thoroughly interesting. Personally, I’ve always had a great time interacting with the publication and reading the stories.
Harshil Mathur
CEO and Co-Founder, Razorpay
The Ken has proven naysayers wrong by successfully running a digital news publication on a pure-subscription business model in India. They have shown that discerning readers are willing to pay for well-researched, well-written, in-dept news articles.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
Executive Chairperson, Biocon Limited
As a designer, it’s easy to get lost in the craft of building products. As a business owner however, keeping up with a rapidly changing landscape is key to saying relevant. The Ken doesn’t just help me stay on top of what’s happening in India(and beyond), but makes it fun to do so.
Rahul Gonsalves
Co-founder and CEO, Obvious Ventures