Howdy !

It's the Sunday Surprises 2nd birthday! Actually it's off by a few days (but let's not have that get in the way!). Any suggestion on how we should celebrate? Let me know! Can you believe it's been 2 years already?!

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In this week's email...

• Week in the Life - read on the blog
• Creative Update - S02E13 - Learning how to learn
• Gadget - Kaweco Fountain Pen, DJI Mini 2, Floately Levitating Planter
• Read - Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve
• Watch - Why Recessions Happen
• Quote - “Slavery resides under marble and gold”

Week in the life

The 2 year birthday of the newsletter kind of crept up on me really! Apart from a few weeks break in the last 2 years, this has been the one habit that's been a blessing of the pandemic. From this, the habit of the podcast, starting the Medium blog and the beginnings of more regular Youtube content are starting to bear fruit. Thank you SO much for following along for the ride! It's very much appreciated!

I'll have to do something to celebrate. Do you have any suggestions?

This week's newsletter was delayed due to quite a hectic on call. While most are busy, this one had my pulse racing, but more on that over on the blog...

Creative update

S02E13 - Learning how to learn

The latest episode of the podcast is out now! This week is a bit more on the educational front because Chandra has been dying to do an episode on this. It's one of his pet topics so we explore the similar (and different) ways we studied for exams and the different techniques/apps/gadgets we used along the way.

Gadgets/Tech

Instead of the usual new gadget, I thought for this birthday edition, I'd put up my 3 favourite gadgets from the last year that I've loved using.

Kaweco Fountain Pen

This is a pretty recent and relatively cheap purchase but has become my favourite day to day fountain pen! I love the fact that the lid is screwed shut so the chance of ink spills is minimal and that the pen is literally half size when closed but expands to be a normal sized pen.

DJI Mini 2

I literally ordered the Mini 3 recently but in the mean time, before I get a chance to use that and have an impression, this is by far the best value for money tiny/beginner drone you can get. For it's size and price, it packs a huge amount of capability in!

Floately Levitating Planter

I think I received my order around the time that the newsletter started and it's still one of those things that I enjoy seeing around the house. There's something mesmerising about watching the plant levitate that even after 2 years, I'm not tired of.

Read

Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve

Given this week's learning focus on the podcast, I thought this would be a good article to revisit that covers the natural way the brain learns and why spaced repetition and reinforcement through quizzing makes things stick.

If you're attempting to learn something new and don't want to listen to our podcast, this is a decent summary to get you going.

Book I'm currently reading

• Death's End - This is the last book in the "Three Body Problem" trilogy and I have to say this series has gotten me excited to read fiction again after a long while. Only just finished the last one and in the beginning chapters of this one so can't give an opinion just yet!

Watch

Why Recessions Happen

Given the current economic climate and all the talk of recessions, I thought I'd go and learn what a recession actually is! This video is US focussed but many of the structural economic aspects are applicable to many Western countries including Australia. There are 2 other videos that are also useful, but this one was probably the best at explaining what a recession is and the drivers for the one the world might be facing right now.

See also...

• How the economic machine works - Ray Dalio's excellent overall view of how the economy works including recession and deflations
• Why a 2022 recession would be unlike any other - This is a short video that compares and contrasts the many recessions in the past and what's different this time around.

Quote I'm pondering

“Slavery resides under marble and gold”

– Seneca

Seneca always has a very concise way with words and this one really struck home with my focus on trying to free up some time for myself. In this quote he's referring to people who are bound to work because of the luxuries that they've purchased which means that their goods own them instead of vice versa.

While my workload is less about the trappings of materialism and more from a sense of responsibility, the net result is the same: the feeling of being trapped by circumstance. Again as mentioned in previous newsletters, I think after 2.5 yrs of pretty much constant work, I'm not really in the state to make the best decisions so I'll be going on my long break and reassessing work commitments at the end of the year.

The quote was food for thought though. Do you find yourself working because of the trappings of a lifestyle? Are you enjoying most of the time there? (Let's face it, no one is going to enjoy everday at work).

That's all for the birthday edition of the Sunday Surprise! Again, thank you SO much for following along!

- Raffy

PS - Given it's been 2 years, I'll be going back through the feedback and tweaking things. 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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