Howdy !

Hope you're having a great weekend! It's been a weekend full of work for me, but I did manage to get time to go visit mum for Mother's Day here in Australia. I think she liked her present. Whew! Anyway, more on the week that was below...

As always, a small ask, if I may? If you have a friend who you think would enjoy the this email, maybe forward it on? It helps A LOT! If you're the friend reading this, click the link below to join! Glad to have you here!

In this week's email...

• Week in the Life
• Creative update - Ramadan21 EP2
• Read - The Beginning of Infinity
• Gadgets & things - Compact portable cutlery
• Watch - Learning how to learn
• Quote - 'The universe is rigged in such a way that if you just want one thing and you focus on that, you will get it.'

Week in the life

I can't believe it's the last week of Ramadan already! On the fundraiser front, It's up past $1000 which I'm very excited about! I little bit more and we'll break through last year's record.

For the sake of thanking those who have contributed, here's a small screen grab to say thank you to the existing donors...

Thank you again to everyone for contributing. If you're thinking of contributing but haven't done so, head on over to the Chuffed donations page...

I'll keep this week's summary short as the blog is down at the moment and I'm working on getting it back up and running.

Creative update

Photos x Raffy Youtube (~7min)

https://youtu.be/7HIlX5xFy-c

Episode 2 is finally up! It's a much slower cadence this year, but I think It's nicer in a way to have a narrative that you can somewhat follow for the days.

Apart from seeing something Ramadan related for the first time in Australia, it also features the real star: Luna the cat.

Gadgets & tech

Compact portable cutlery (~$16)

https://amzn.to/2RIl0zJ

I've been trying to be mindful of my use of disposable cutlery for a while now and while I do have a set of portable ones, the case was just a bit too big so I never really carried it with me as much as I thought I would.

I saw this recently and it seems far more compact a solution which means I'm more likely to ACTUALLY take it with me and reduce plastic waste!

• Luminar AI - The quickest way of editing photos and getting amazing results. I showed someone the other day how a near final edit could be done in less than 90 seconds and they were blown away!
• DJI Mini 2 - It's easy to fly and takes excellent pics. Best of all, it charges over USB-C so no need for a ton of chargers!
• Aeropress Go - Make an awesome cup of coffee with an Aeropress that fits into a coffee cup!

Read

The Beginning of Infinity

https://amzn.to/3xWAh0x

I seem to be going through a dense book phase at the moment and this is no different. I'm about 20% of the way through and it's a very interesting look at some basic assumptions about knowledge itself.

One thing I had never considered is that these days, we tend to accept that there are known and unknown pieces of knowledge and we can have theories and test them to discover more knowledge.

That simple process wasn't actually something the people believed in and therefore for a large chunk of human history, people simply didn't try!

Current book that I'm reading:

• Guns, germs and steel - In the last leg of this book now in between 2034 (as above). It's pretty meaty so it has taken me a while to get through and to understand some of the subtleties, it requires a bit of focus to "read" as an audiobook. I'm listening at a slower pace to digest what it has to say, but well worth it for the different perspectives.

Watch

Learning how to learn (~17min)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O96fE1E-rf8

After starting to read the book above, I was thinking about how many other models we have that we take for granted was actually quite and involved process of innovation. One of the basic abilities is "how to learn" and clearly everyone is capable of learning, there has actually been quite a bit of research into how to do it effectively.

Here is a short TED talk that summarises the key elements of a free online course I did years ago that's far shorter and gives you the basics. Hope you enjoy!

Quote I'm pondering

"The universe is rigged in such a way that if you just want one thing and you focus on that, you will get it."

- Naval Ravikant

Another thought provoking quote from Naval that rings true. Most of the time in life, everyone has competing interests and the finite resource of time. You need to exercise to be fit, but also want to relax while balancing a way to generate an income and looking after family. These things create conflicting priorities but Naval suggests that picking one as the priority is probably the best way achieve it. Really speaks to my own inability to have one clear focus! 😂

That's all for another week, ,so stay safe and stay random!

- Raffy

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