Eid Mubarak !

If you're thinking "wasn't there just an Eid a few months ago?" the answer is yes, there are 2 per year and the second was this weekend. Are you celebrating? Let me know! Eid wasn't the only exciting this weekend, but more on that below...

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In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Creative Update - various
• Gadget - Fingerprint enabled padlock
• Read - 99% of the world's population in sunlight?
• Listen - Andrew Bayer- Midnight
• Quote - “Because if in the 2010s, we started to ask a question that we had never really asked in the 2000s, and that question was: what is a currency? In the 2020s, we’re going to start asking the question: what is a nation?”

Week in the life

While the week this week wasn't particularly of note, the weekend has been great! Firstly it was Eid yesterday in Australia but a lot of the world is celebrating today. What's it like where you're reading this? Eid Mubarak to you if you're celebrating!

All the calendars predicted Eid to be today here as well so I kept my schedule free for the Sunday and then had to do a last minute work reshuffle to get the morning off to go to prayer. Thankfully, a friend swapped with me last minute.

I also did something for the first time ever, but more on that over on the blog

Creative update

I'm currently working on editing a new YouTube video for the Raffy Halim channel, so nothing finished as of yet. Here's some recent creative things you might have missed...

• Medium - Five reasons I can’t go back to a normal luxury car after driving a Tesla (and 3 things I wish Tesla would do better)
• randInt EP 012 - S02E12 - Toxic traits & Optimisation rates
• YouTube - Cats of Ramadan

Gadgets/Tech

Fingerprint enabled padlock

It's one of those gadgets that the moment I saw it, I wondered why it hadn't been done before?! Basically instead of using your keys, you use your fingerprint to unlock the device. I needed one for my storage cage in the apartment which I keep misplacing the keys so mine is on it's way. It allegedly lasts 2500 lock/unlocks on 1 charge and can be juiced up from a powerbank in case it looses charge when locked.

Other gadgets

• Solar powered heating/cooling lunchbox - This is a Kickstarter that I'm umming and arring about supporting. Looks ingenious though
• 65W GaN Charger - Tiny charger for almost all your electronic devices!

Read

99% of the world's population in sunlight?

This is a pretty short article on the special time of year when quote a phenomenon happens where most of the population is actually in daylight in someway.

The phenomenon has only just happened so here's the write up explaining how it happens.

Book I'm currently reading

• The Dark Forest - Pretty interesting sci-fi epic exploring some of the weird habits of humans when facing an existential threat

Listen

Andrew Bayer- Midnight

It's been a while since a dancey/EDM track has been stuck in my head, but this one has been on repeat since I heard it last week. I suppose it's no surprise since Andrew Bayer creates some of the most interesting indie-pop-ish electronica out there. His previous album "In my next life" has been one I play quite frequently and his next one also looks like it'll at least in part, hit some semblance of repeat plays in my playlist.

Quote I'm pondering

“Because if in the 2010s, we started to ask a question that we had never really asked in the 2000s, and that question was: what is a currency? In the 2020s, we’re going to start asking the question: what is a nation?”

– Balaji S on The Tim Ferriss Show

I absolutely love podcasts with Balaji Srinavasan and his take on the future and this episode on the Tim Ferriss podcast is no different. It's a mammoth one again at 3 hours and I'm about 1/3 of the way through.

The quote did strike a chord for me since he's right: the 2010s did lead to the cryptocurrency revolution, the base of which asks "what is a currency?" and tries to find a better alternative to now. Especially with current world events and trends in society, I suppose it's worth asking what makes society a "society" or a nation a "nation"?

His proposal for a "network state" is pretty interesting but I'm not sure it's plausible without a lot of friction as the design he describes (again, haven't finished the whole podcast) suggests breaking off into smaller groups of people that have aligned values. Now everytime you have a group > 1 you're never going to get full consensus so I wonder what the optimal sizing will come to?

Either way, it's a fascinating question that has made me stop and think. Multiple times actually during my run today when I was listening to this podcast!

That's all for today! Have a wonderful week ahead!

- Raffy

PS - What was your favourite part of the email this week? Do you like/dislike the subtle changes this year? Let me know with 1 click! I read the survey every week (& keep tweaking things with your feedback!)

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