Published February 1-5, 2023
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Mindwandering
Isn’t it a wonderful word? Mindwandering. I came across this word recently as part of a title of a book by Moshe Bar that showed up when I was searching (textwandering?!) for something. I realised that there is a lot of “mind wandering” that I do – just like everyone. While at a meeting, suddenly I am transported to a different place and time, triggered by something I heard or felt. And then abruptly, I am back to the present. I always keep my notebook or small paper and pen handy so I can write thoughts as they buzz by. This isn’t planned daydreaming; it is leaving the busy present in a way no one else around notices.
So, I decided to explore the topic when the book was published recently. Here is an excerpt:
So much attention has been paid to ways to unplug from the bustle, and that’s absolutely to be commended. I’ll share my own positive experiences with doing so in silent meditation retreats. But as a series of discoveries in neuroscience over the past several decades have revealed, the greater challenge is freeing ourselves from the distractions within, which disrupt our attention and intrude on the quality of our experience even when we are in a perfectly quiet place. In fact, they may do so even more in times of quiet.
Research has revealed that our brains are inherently active. A number of brain regions connected in what’s dubbed the default mode network (DMN) are always grinding away, engaged in a number of different involuntary activities that neuroscientists collectively call mindwandering: from daydreaming to the incessant self-chatter and from ruminating about the past to worrying about the future. The brain regions most often identified as being part of the DMN include the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, and the angular gyrus, but there are several more that come and go as part of this massive, large-scale network. Not only does all of this inner commotion tug our attention away from the present moment, but it can dampen the quality of our experience, lowering our mood and potentially contributing to anxiety and depression. Yet there’s a method to this apparent madness. Evolution has clearly taught our minds to wander. According to various studies, they’re caught up in mindwandering between 30 and 47 percent of our waking time, gobbling up a great deal of energy.
…Our sense of self, research has shown, is largely a form of prediction about who we are, about how we will think, feel, and behave in different situations, associating how we’ve thought, felt, and behaved in similar situations in the past with how we will do so now and in the future. The same is true for how we develop our assessments of others. Associations are the building blocks of most mental operations.
This is, essentially, why so much of the DMN’s mindwandering activity is concerned with thinking about the past and the future, taking us away from the now. We’re searching memory for associations to help us interpret what’s happening in our lives and what might be coming. We’re intently making all manner of predictions. Indeed, as I continued researching what people were thinking about when their DMN was active, I found that they’re often creating elaborate scenarios of future events, like little movies about how situations in their lives are going to play out. No wonder so much of our mental energy is hogged by the DMN. After all, knowing how to interpret situations, establishing a sense of who we are, understanding others as best we can, and anticipating what turn of events we might need to be prepared for are all crucial to making our way through life.
Such a wonderful explanation for what we all do! Mindwandering happens a lot when I am reading. Even as I make notes of the interesting ideas, I also add to my notes my own pointers – a stream of consciousness about what thoughts have been triggered. This is the way ideas come. Mindwandering (and I didn’t really have a name till I came across this book) is a great way to think and imagine, both precursors of creation.
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Science Fiction
I like science fiction. It is perhaps because I am forever trying to imagine the near future – the long future is an extension! I like the world creation of Tolkien and Asimov. More recently, I discovered “The Expanse” (TV series). It is even better than the Foundation series on Apple TV a few months ago. The Expanse imagines a future far out – planets in the solar system have been colonised, and the beyond beckons. Another good series is Andor, part of the Star Wars stories.
There is something magical about good science fiction – it lets the imagination roam free far away from the present. Eventually, all good science fiction is about people and their stories and relationships. My earliest memory of science fiction is of listening to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” on BBC World Service. The humour brought to life by voices over the airwaves left a dent, er, mark. (For those who didn’t get it, Arthur Dent is one of the key characters.) Like many of my generation, I grew up watching “Star Trek” and being fascinated with space. I would listen to the live broadcasts of space shuttle take-offs and landings on either BBC or Voice of America. Then of course, there were the timeless Star Wars movies. (I watched all of them again a year ago with Abhishek.) And of course, the space-themed rides in the theme parks!
Maybe it was the pandemic, but over the past two years, I have started reading more science fiction – old and new. I read Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) and 1984 (George Orwell). I watched Dune, and bought the book (haven’t started reading it as yet). I read Andy Weir’s books – The Martian and Project Hail Mary. I know there’s so much more to read and wonder.
With commercial space travel a reality, space will no longer be just something in the sky for our children (or perhaps their children). And so it is with technology – that which was once impossible is becoming available, first to a few, then to many, and finally to all. Sci-fi shows us glimpses of a future that we will not live to see, but one which is within the realm of possibility.
I recommend reading science fiction to let our imagination roam free and let authors take our minds to new worlds – either the microscopic or the telescopic!
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Time Management
I wrote earlier about punctuality, but there is a broader theme to be addressed: time management. Many people I meet are complaining about lack of time to do many things in their life, and forever scrambling from one activity to another. So, what are my views on time management?
At any point, it is important to know what one’s top three priorities are. These are the important themes – and not just the most immediate to-dos. These priorities move us forward in the direction which we want to do. For me, my top three priorities (and these have generally remained unchanged for the past few years are): making Netcore into an enduring, great company, putting India on an irreversible path to freedom and prosperity, and creating institutions for generations to come as part of philanthropy. These are my BHAGs (big, hairy, audacious goals). They anchor my life. I know I cannot work on all of them – the immediate focus is Netcore. But these are three things that I think about and want to accomplish in life – have some successes in all three areas in my obituary.
The key to time management is controlling who can take away your time. I do not have an assistant to allocate my time; I do it myself. I make the decision of who needs to be given time. I maintain a Word doc as my Calendar. It makes me do annotations, move things around easily, keep a running list of future meetings I need to schedule – all in an easy low-tech way. I do not rely on Google Calendar or any other calendaring system. This has worked well. In the past two-and-a-half years, I have missed one meeting and been late for another meeting. That is 2 out of probably 2,000 engagements. The past two years were easier because most of these meetings happened on Zoom; with the world having opened, more in-person meetings happen now, and thus travel times will reduce efficiency of time even as the in-person meetings will improve the quality of outcomes.
It is important to decide whom to meet and whom to avoid. One cannot say Yes to every meeting request. I like to keep some free time daily so I can read and think. Like, the other day, I kept a few hours of contiguous time so I could dig deep into the world of Web3 and think how it can be applied to solving problems in adtech and martech. While conversations with others are important, some contiguous time to reflect on the inputs and connect the dots is important – this cannot be delegated.
One has about 10-12 hours a day. It is very difficult to maintain 100% performance throughout the day. One has to decide which are the times one can be most productive and block off that time. For me, the early mornings are the “me-time”. Do not let any person, message, device or app intrude into that.
To summarise: time management is thus another word for prioritisation. Know the tasks and the people that are important to you. Build your life around them. The rest are like interrupts which will come and have to be handled. Don’t let them define the day. Controlling how and to whom you allocate your time is critical. Ensuring plenty of white spaces in the calendar for the writing, daydreaming and mindwandering is essential.
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Music
When I was young (in my teens), I liked listening to Hindi songs. The only options then were an LP player and radio. We had many records at home. I would also record songs from the radio so I could listen to them whenever I want. My years at IIT expanded my repertoire to English language songs – the likes of Simon and Garfunkel. I had a 2-in-1 radio and cassette player in my room at IIT. Sometime after that as I started working and then became an entrepreneur, my interest waned.
Now, nearly 30 years later, music has come back in my life thanks to the Amazon Music app on my mobile and the Bose QC45 headset. It was last April when I upgraded my mobile phone so I wouldn’t have to worry about storage space. I had also bought the headset, ahead of a US visit. My main purpose was to have a few songs downloaded which I could listen to offline during the flights. I ended up downloading a couple hundred Hindi songs – mostly from the 1970s and later. Many of the songs have associated memories of my growing up years.
With the noise cancellation headset, I realised the songs playing at low volume in my ears helped me switch off from the surrounding sounds and concentrate better. The technology is now so good that even the engine noise in flights is almost cancelled. I could now create my own private space wherever I wanted. This was for me a new experience – and one that I began to like.
I have since expanded the songs in the app. I downloaded all the songs from “Hamilton” and then added many more English language songs. Of late, I have also added some musical soundtracks. My favourite is from “Lord of the Rings.” Although I have watched the movies multiple times, I had not paid as much attention to the musical score in the background. A few chords had stuck with me. I now realise how good the compositions are.
In the app, I use the “Random” mode – so there is always a surprise coming up next, rather than the same sequence. At home, I sit in my chair with my writing notebook, put on the headset, switch on the Music, and commence my thinking and writing. For the time I am listening, I am switched off from the street noise and all other distractions.
Music playing softly in my ears helps me relax and think better – and I wish I had not let my childhood interest disappear. Next, I want to explore classical music, symphonies and even music from other countries. I don’t have a natural ear for music, but I guess it’s never too late in life to explore new horizons!
35
Driving
I learnt driving when I was working in the US. While I had a licence from India acquired just before I left for my Masters, I had done no driving. When working at NYNEX in White Plains, I found that travelling around by public transport was quite limiting. And so, I took some driving lessons and got myself a licence. The licence gave me freedom, and I fell in love with driving around in the US. In the two years before returning to India, I must have driven about 10,000 miles. I was stopped only once for speeding. This was in California and when the traffic cop realised I was from out-of-state, he let me go with a warning.
I have some very good memories of driving in the US – mainly the New York area and then California where I had lived for six months. I owned an old Buick when I was in New York – because I knew I had to return to India soon and didn’t want to invest in an expensive car.
I continued driving in Mumbai after I moved back in 1992. The car was a Maruti Suzuki 800. I drove a lot during my early years as an entrepreneur. Traffic was not bad in Mumbai and finding parking was not difficult. And then one night, I had an accident.
I had gone to attend a wedding near Dadar. As I was driving back, I hit a lamp post in the middle of the road. I was momentarily blinded by the sharp headlights of an oncoming vehicle and I didn’t see the pole in the middle of the dimly lit road. The top of the lamp post crashed through my windscreen and shattered it. The broken glass was all over the front seat. Luckily, I was unscathed. After that day, I decided to keep a driver. I realised my mind was constantly whirring and even though driving is mostly reflexive, it was not worth risking one’s life on Mumbai roads. It has now been more than 25 years since that incident. I haven’t driven on my own after that, even though I am confident that I will still be able to drive – it’s not something one ever forgets.
I do miss driving at times, especially when I am travelling with Bhavana and Abhishek on vacations. Not driving limits the number of places one can visit, especially in the US. Of course, there is now Uber but that’s more for short distances. One cannot think of taking an Uber on California’s coastal highway 1 from San Francisco to San Diego!
India’s roads infrastructure has improved dramatically over the past decade. At times, I do think I should start driving again. But then, I also know that road discipline is not as great as in the US and a single mistake by me or by someone else could be quite costly. The memory of my collision with the lamp post is still quite fresh in my mind. And so, I guess driving my own vehicle is not something I will probably ever do. But I am glad for the few years that I did.