Sorry for the clickbaity title! But it’s unlikely you’d be here if the title were a more nuanced but boring[1] “Some links worth knowing”.
Over the course of several years living on the internet[2], I’ve come across plenty of interesting places. Some useful too[3]. A few months ago, I felt it’d be kinda cool if there were a repository of such “useful and interesting” links that everyone could contribute to. Arose KnowTNet[14] – short for Knowledge Transfer Network. These links are the knowledge that need to be transferred to almost every individual. I mean I think the world would be a better place – if not a far more better place – if *everyone* knew these things. And while I won’t claim the resources below are exhaustive by any means, but it’s hard – once in a month or two kind of hard – to come across resources this mindblowing[4]!
But then, neither did I advertise KnowTNet, nor did it even reach a 100 links mark. And we also want to keep domain-specific resources separate from the below resources.
Enter this page. Enough talk.
First up are the resources for the young folks – or the young you.
- The Tail End — Wait But Why – I can expect to live up to 80 years of age. 20 years are already done. 25% of my time is up. However, more than 90% of the time I can expect to spend with my parents is up. So are so many things. Adds some perspective doesn’t it? There’s no more time to be fooling around with our lives. Go, read it. There’s much more to groaking that perspective.
- The Difference between Introversion and Social Anxiety? – Quora – So, so, so many times I’ve seen introverts describing themselves – or someone else describing introverts – as people wanting to hide themselves as soon as they come across strangers, or even friends. So many times, that I wish I had the time and permission to write a bot to scrawl the internet – and comment this link whenever I find this description happening. That. That is not introversion! That is social anxiety. If you have it, better get yourself helped, you might hurt yourself for some opportunities of life. What is social anxiety? Why did I provide the link for?! Go, tap!
- Fluid and crystallized intelligence – Wikipedia – Two things here. One, if you work hard, you can be as good as *that* topper. And two, *everyone* is talented. The link primarily deals with the first point. People have different cognitive abilities – some people just have brains better suited for “problem solving”. Regarding two, the nuances are: one’s academic performance is not the sole indicator of one’s “talent” – in a discussion here, talent is distinguished from intelligence; academic performance relates to intelligence; while talent is more broadly applicable, say one’s music skills. In one part, the difference is that of terminologies. In another, if one defines talent as being better than the *average* in something, then, by definition, some people are above the average, and some below. And if different talents are independent of each other – in fact, there exists positive correlation, among different talents rather than the negative correlation necessitated by the fulfillment of point two – point two is just wishful thinking. It’s entirely possible for someone to be good for nothing. And so is it also possible for someone to be good at many things.
- Inner satisfaction lies not in wanting to excel at some extrinsic measure. It rather lies in being satisfied with your own mediocrity. Now, it’s a different matter as to how much value one must place on inner satisfaction. Someone has to plough the field. Someone has to learn enough that they can help heal others. Someone has to learn enough to be able to connect remote places to more mainstream places. Humbleness lies in not looking down upon others despite mediocrity[5].
- Also, parents! Your child is not the best. Stop overpraising him! Let them have a real understanding of where they stand in comparison to not-them. Sooner, or later, they have to step outside. You’d help them best by preparing them as such, rather them keeping them under delusion.
- In one part, this concerns parent’s own insecurities. That my child is not good at something. That they are deficient in some way. Those seem like scary thoughts[6]. But true (parental) love would lie in loving the child for who they are, rather than them adhering to your definition of good enough.
- Even if you are not talented enough as that musician, not intelligent enough as that topper, the only way you can be your best is by working hard. So, keep working hard, but take care to not break yourself.
- Health, Growth, and Emotions – TeensHealth.org – KidsHealth and TeensHealth and their sister sites. These are some of the absolutely best sites concerning growing up, I wish everyone knew. Every fortnight, someone pulls up yet another sex-ed website. Stop with the repetition. Use and contribute to the already existing resources instead if you have no ulterior motive[7].
- Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari [Book] – If there’d be one history book, I’d want to replace school history textbooks with, it’d be this[9]! We are not India, China, US, UK, Australia, South Africa before we are humans.
- Why Does the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Seem So Eerily Accurate? A great read whether you believe it or not. Tldr; Use it to understand people, rather than predict them[10].
- Knowledge, perspective, advice, and comfort for parents – KidsHealth.org – This one for parents!
- A Parent’s Guide to Surviving the Teen Years – KidsHealth – This too! I mean, I assume almost all of the readers would have raised / are raising / will raise young humans some day. Nothing better than being an informed parent, to provide best for your child.
- Willpower Doesn’t Work. Here’s the Key to Being More Productive According to Neuroscience – Medium – Yes, there’s a Wikipedia page on that topic – Implementation Intentions! It’s clickbaity enough; I won’t explain.
- Depression: Concerned but don’t know what to say? Here are some simple, proven strategies for talking to people at risk – r/depression There is a vital difference between “you should do <action>” and “you could do <action>“. […] If they say: “I’m a useless waste of skin. The world would be a better place without me,” simply disagreeing can make them feel even more “intrinsically wrong” […] If you think they’d be fine if they just stopped feeling sorry for themselves, putting up with abuse, or staying stuck in the past, then you are not the right person to help, even if you’re correct. Chances are they’ve tried to do exactly that, over and over again, and failed. If that goes against your intuitions about how one ought to respond, then, go have a read! It’d un/hopefully[11] be helpful someday.
I did not expect this to be exactly 10 points. But, well, all is well that ends well[12]. See you another day!
PS: If it’s too much to take in one go, set yourself an “implementation intention” (see point 9) to relook at it some other time ;).
NOTES:
- Let me know of a good enough yet accurate enough title!
- I wonder what the carbon footprint of my internet searches would be. Here‘s a nice link that I didn’t have the time to go through in detail.
- Not every interesting thing is useful. So, mind your interests!
- Is that subjective? Yes! I know of people who find philosophy interesting to people who find it useless; people valuing extrinsic satisfaction above intrinsic and vice versa. But the crucial point is – even if these links are boring, I’d bet they are useful!
- PS: I’d place my time above me wanting to be humble. Again, inner satisfaction. It does not lie in whether I want to be seen as humble. Humbleness just helps to keep social interactions pleasurable.
- Hey, I’m not a parent!
- I’m looking at you wannabe entrepreneurs[8].
- Yes, money is necessary to live. Yes, money/capitalism has proven to be great at improving the *average* standards of living, by being a source of motivation. But if you are in it more to do good that to earn your bread, do debate as to why the existing resource can’t be improved before creating yet another resource.
9. Well, okay, school education is a much broader topic. The current system is only good for the person who wants to pursue that particular field.
10. I’ve been guilty of trying to predict people despite knowing it. Predicting people is hard. One’s MBTI (even if considered at that moment) is not the sole factor that decides one’s decisions.
11. While I’d want to hope that no one you know catches depression; but if someone does catch it, then hopefully you’d be in a better position to help them.
12. Not quite; but saying it does feel quite a bit better than “This one ended well; no problems then!” [13].
13. Well, not quite, like a college class – here are more resources the more interested can read up on:
– Cosmic Evolution – From Big Bang to Humankind Also, “Big History”
– Bragging, When Is It OK and When Is It Not OK? | Psychology Today
– Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy – Scientific American
– How Summer Camp Helps Develop Your Child’s Mental Health and Resilience – Medical Daily
– Relationships: Interdependence vs Codependence
– How Your Attachment Style Impacts Your Relationship?
14. Oh, I’m taking it down to cut some costs.
Now, that’s it!
The mind of just another human born in 1999. 