Caged in the City

Sneezing. Coughing.
Always tired.
Always checking the time.
Rushing.
Cursing. Shouting. Moving.
Tracking progress. Checking for updates.
Complaining. Questioning.
Always checking the time.
Planning. Postponing.
Forgetting. Remembering. Regretting.
Remembering. Noting. Never completing.
Checking for updates.
Discussing. Promising. Leaving.
Apologizing.
Always checking the time.
Everything now. One button gratification.
Hacky way. Wrong way. Alas, quick way.
Calculating balances. Forever doubting.
Checking for updates.
Missing food. Delaying sleep.
Missing people. Never calling. Always too busy.
Promising you’ll improve.
Always a tomorrow.
Checking for updates.
Always checking the time.
Cursing the routine.
Repeating.

-

This isn’t everyone’s story of their work life in the city, but so far it has been mine. I do not feel I’ve lived a year worth of life in the last 12 months - this doesn’t mean I haven’t had my ups - I’ve partied hard, spent good days with friends and close ones, went on mini vacations, have played football regularly and spent many late evenings walking the city, but throughout these times I’ve always kept my mind occupied in quantifying progress, always planning but never really doing as much, pushing myself to do more, always thinking of work and keeping my mind too busy to be able to let anything new in.
I delay sleep to do what I planned, but end up planning more instead of really doing. I have an irregular food routine and don’t call the people I really miss, just because I think I’d be wasting time. I spend an awfully large part of my awake-time at office, I go to work on holidays and weekends too, but am not half as productive as I should be. I keep checking my phone for new emails and whatsapp messages, and then procrastinate in replying - even if half a sentence is all I have to say.

I’m going to change this; I need time off of work to do something completely different everyday, I need to set shorter, achievable goals and work towards finishing one goal at a time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[Breaking News] AI takes over universe to calculate Pi

If in the next couple centuries we are able to build an AI that surpasses human intelligence, will it exterminate humankind? It simply might as it may foresee humankind turning against it and pulling its plug of life. As a race, we have not been subjected to another species more intelligent than us, and when the day comes, we might find it very difficult to control the motivation of a race smarter than ours. A naive proposal suggests making an AI with seemingly benign goals, one as simple as calculating the value of Pi. But here's how it can backfire. "One popular scenario images a corporation designing the first general purpose artificial super-intelligence and giving it the simple task of calculating the value of Pi. Before anyone realises what is happening, the AI takes over the planet, eliminates the human race, launches a campaign to conquest to the ends of the galaxy, and transforms the entire known universe into a giant supercomputer that for billions upon billions
Continue reading »

Firebase Auth | The Debug vs Release Signature Problem

tl;dr 1. Update Firebase console with SHA1 of your release keystore. 2. Re-download google-config.json file. 3. Place your release keystore in the same folder as your gradle file and update gradle with the code below. 4. Tadaa! Authenticating a user can be frustratingly tricky at times. I use Firebase all the time to do all server related tasks - I used to create my own Python Flask server prior to this. You literally have to write no server side code, and it's all for free. All steps at the Firebase Auth documentation are straightforward, except for the part that requires you to add the google-config.json with correctly configured SHA1 key. I got stuck at this one point, and I'm certain most developers will at the same place. It took me hours to do this the right way. Here's what you do : Firebase Auth requires SHA1 fingerprint of your release keystore. Run the keytool command given in the docs. keytool -exportcert -list -v -alias alias_name -keystore path
Continue reading »

Cold Showers

Image
"I feel tired" I said. "Then stop feeling", he said.  This is one of my fondest memories of my first job. My mentor just casually slipped it in, but it's a constant reminder that I have a choice . - Cold showers. The Internet says it's healthy for your skin. Huberman adds a bunch of biology and says it gives you a 4 hour dopamine effect. But more than anything, I say it's your mind's win over your body. It's been half a year now, but every day I step in to the shower, my body doesn't want the cold water. It sends signals to my brain saying this too much, this is too cold. I start with my feet, go up to my hips. And then my body begs me not to pour any over my chest. My innermost fears of visualizing a shark in deep waters surface the moment I close my eyes. Every single day. And yet when I pour the cold water all over me, I feel great. I realize I can just   decide  the water isn't cold. And then it isn't. I don't shiver, I truly
Continue reading »