Turning 31; Still No Clue

Photo by Pineapple Supply Co. on Unsplash

Well, ever since I turned 27, I have tried to share my learnings from the past year on my birthday. Below are my learnings from the last year:

1. Easiest way to excite your inner child is a ball pit. For a couple of months in 2022 I had worked at an afterschool setup over the weekends, and I would witness the joy every kid displayed when they played in the ball pit; I sensed the excitement and sheer joy to jump into the pit amongst the parents too.
2. We are all united by our paranoia for checking if we’re on mute in a meeting.
3. If you’ve decision fatigue when it comes to deciding on a gift, order an Amazon gift card
4. Travel pillows actually go front.
5. There is no other source of confidence other than a positive feedback cycle. I feel this is much more a sustainable option than fake it till you make it.
6. Shampoos that don’t lather are like people who work in silence.
7. If you’re a man that helps around, don’t make a big deal out of it.
8. You’ll always be toxic for someone.
9. The YouTube influencer who asks you not to watch his videos after a certain point is like the doctor who doesn’t want you to visit them.
10. Be polarizing — don’t tiptoe. In our attempts to impress people, we tend to be diplomatic and don’t speak out in support of a particular side. When you are your genuine self, either people hate you or adore you; there is no moderation.
11. When you threaten to make a move till you count to three, always strike before 3. Always nice to catch someone off guard. This is the lesson I picked up from the tv series Reacher.
12. Sleeping butt naked is freedom at another level.
13. Men and women aren’t the same. It is a simpleton’s way of enforcing equality. Men and women should be entitled to the same rights and same opportunities. That’s the message to push forward.
14. If you’ve a long beard, and you decide to wear a mask and a fedora, dogs will bark at you.
15. Few months ago, I stumbled on a video about a Hindu priest who does wildlife photography, and my biggest takeaway — a true wildlife photographer is the one who captures without disturbing the scene and doesn’t even make their presence evident to the animals. Anything captured with their knowledge is nothing but them in panic and fight mode.
16. Never hit unsubscribe in promotional mails; it could be phishing. Hence, always block such emails.
17. Company surveys are never anonymous.
18. If you talk about integrity and loyalty in a contract, you messed up the contract as it isn’t doing what it is supposed to. The Alpine F1 team learnt this the hard way last year when their reserve driver just shifted to Mclaren and their only ammunition for the supposed “jerk move” was to bring the loyalty card.
19. The only way to test the strength of an argument is in the crucible of open debate, and you will realize people don’t want to debate.
20. When somebody says “I don’t mean to be that person”, immediately ask them “don’t be”. People who hide behind disclaimers to speak the truth don’t deserve the chance.
21. People who avoid commitment are the ones who know how big a sacrifice it is.
22. We as a generation use “depression” loosely.
23. Don’t keep anything on the airbag portion of the car on your front dash.
24. In your 30s, you’ll most definitely think you wasted your 20s.
25. Speedometer max speed and toaster highest setting are a joke.
26. There are two sets of people who post group pictures on dating sites — one who doesn’t have a lot of great pictures and the other who is fully cognizant of how they are the best looking amongst the lot. No judging, but success in online dating is mostly just strategy.
27. The scoop we see in ice cream parlors is actually a cool engineering item. It is filled with a defrosting fluid that gets warm from the palm and cuts through the ice cream.
28. “Always” is a good response to any compliment.
29. Read history; human nature typically doesn’t change. I went down a rabbit hole of reading about India’s freedom struggle and the parallels that can be drawn with the current situation is just uncanny.
30. When you absolutely understand the difference between giving up and having relapses, you tend to have relatively more consistency with doing hard things.
31. By my standards, I consider the past year to be absolutely unproductive. I didn’t read much, didn’t engage in a lot of activities like I usually do, turned my back on romantic relationships that were presented to me, and most importantly I had a shift in mindset — went from being a person who was ambitious, aggressive, and was ready to dominate everything I did to becoming a nihilist who pretty much questions the validity of anything I did or aspired to do. Like a snake who sheds its skin, you end up shedding a lot of things you thought were important.