Inspired by Mark Zuckerberg's yearly goals ranging from reading books, developing AI to travel, I want to focus on learning how to create an iphone app this year (2017).  End of last year was about reading books about startups and kids education -- all the reading I should have done before doing Kidsorted.

Books I read (and some online courses in 2016)-

1. Crossing the Chasm - it reconfirmed my belief that we should focus on a narrow use case, become the best in that area and then expand from there
2. $100 startup - got inspired by it but my DNA is to create high growth tech companies so didn't quite work for me
3. Udemy course on SEO - this was great for learning new tools and how to actually do SEO
4. Udemy course on investing - still work in progress but rekindled my interest
5. Founders Dilemma (just started) - talks about dangers of 50:50 partnership (wish I knew!)
6. Growth mindset (in progress) - has influenced how I'm interacting with Aanya.  Also, changed my own thinking about what I'm capable of
7. 4 hour body - lost 6 kgs by following this book 
8. Tools of Titans - just browsed but not that impressed
9. Zero to One - 2 key takeaways were 1) aim for 10x better product and 2) distribution is more important than product.
10. Lean Analytics - started but want to read it 
11. Charisma Myth - just started but want to read
12. Small Giants - started but somehow was too upsetting (re: kidsorted) to finish

Started reading some fiction as needed some light hearted entertainment while feeding Aayush.  I had ordered 3 books a while back - these were award winning books by female authors.  Me Before You was pretty engaging till 3/4th of the book, then it started getting a little repetitive.  I've been mostly reading non fiction as I feel that I'm learning something new.  After reading this book I was thinking about what I learnt or was it a waste of time.

I guess fiction does play an important role in building empathy and broadening your outlook.  This book definitely did both as I feel that I got some insight into the lives, thoughts and frustrations of quadriplegic people.

Makes me feel thankful for what I do have.  I had hurt my left ankle and wasn't able to walk properly for a few days.  Even that much restriction felt extremely limiting as I was so dependent on Ashish for every little thing like going to the toilet or a glass of water - things you don't even think about in normal day to day life.

As an aside - Aanya asked me what book I was reading and I told her it was called "Me Before You."  A few weeks later I was reading the book "The Whole Brain Child" and I asked Aanya rhetorically "you know what book I'm reading" expecting her to ask what but she responded, "Me Before You".  She's got amazing memory :)

All in all, the book was great for what I wanted at the moment - a book to keep me entertained while feeding that is easy to pick up quickly after interruptions which are plenty at the moment with baby Aayush and his big sister Aanya.

I finished reading the book "The Happiness Project".  While reading the book I tried to absorb it better by reading it slowly, taking notes along the way and thinking about what it meant and how I could apply it.

It's one of those books that you read and want to discuss with someone to try to understand better.  I'm writing about it instead in the hope that writing about it will help me understand the message better.

A year ago I quit my job to "follow my dream" of becoming an entrepreneur.  It's been an exhilarating yet tough journey.  In one of the startup blogs I read it mentioned (or I interpreted it to suggest) that it is important to enjoy the journey of entrepreneurship rather than focus on the end goal as written in the book The Alchemist.  Hence I decided to read it as we're going through a rough patch and I wanted some inspiration on how to tackle this phase.

I enjoyed the book but kept feeling that I might be missing the point or not fully getting what Paulo Coelho was trying to say.  My mom loves the book and has made my brother and sister both read it.  She says there's learning to be had in every sentence!

So I've listed below some of the learnings I can apply right now (spoiler alert: if you haven't read the book then don't read the below):

1. Enjoy the journey: this is what I was looking for in the book.  Not obvious from reading it so I had to think about this one.  The shepherd learnt many things and had many new experiences on his quest to find the treasure.  He met many hardships on the way but came out stronger from them.  In the end the treasure was where he had started.  But would he have become what he was if he had found the treasure without making the journey?  No!  Hence the journey is as important (if not more important) as the end goal.
2. Follow your dreams: it's really difficult to actually quit what you're doing right now and take the step towards following your dream.  I should know - it took me 6 years to finally leave eBay and start my entrepreneurship journey.  I was comfortable with a salary, was actually enjoying working at eBay and was constantly discouraged by people around me.  You also are afraid of what others will say (your family, friends etc who have always preferred security and are all professional).  In the end once I did it I had a lot of support from everyone.  Similarly for the Shepherd, he chose to give up more settled ways of life and constantly make changes to achieve his dream.
3. Don't judge yourselves by what others thing is right: related to the point above, it's very difficult to take a path that is different from what everyone before you (your parents) have take and from what your peer (friends, coworkers) are doing.  The Baker who had a dream to travel didn't because he was comfortable and had the respect of everyone.  
4. If you want something badly the entire universe will conspire to make it happen for you: this is true for me so far.  I needed a role model to help me make the jump from corporate life to startup world.  At the right time I found a mentor who was starting his second company; I worked with him in the initial phases and that gave me confidence that I could do so myself.  Similarly the Shepherd kept finding encouragement and support e.g. in shape of the King, the Alchemist.
5. Love will encourage you to follow your dreams not discourage you: this is something I've experienced first hand.  Ashish was always encouraging and believes more in me than I do myself.  He also pushes me to think/dream bigger
6. Be open to new experiences: This seems to be recurrent theme throughout the book.  The Shepherd is presenting with many new situations and he immerses himself with full enthusiasm in each case - the glass shop, the oasis etc.  We tend to inherently resist anything new (especially if the source comes from somewhere else).  I'm not sure how well I fare on this one - might be a blind spot but I feel I am generally up for new experiences.
7. Take your time getting there: Related to the first one; don't rush to the goal.  If the Shepherd's didn't take the time to spend time on many detours he wouldn't have collected as much wealth as he did which allowed him to go further and gave him a buffer.  This is definitely something I can work on better as I usually rush through things to go faster.
8. Pause, reflect: The Shepherd takes time at or before each new endeavour to reflect.  Again something I can work on as it will help deepen the learning and improve next steps.  Hopefully my starting to write again will help with this step.
9. Trust your instincts: The Shepherd is always in tune with his instincts.  He is one with The Force of the world.  I sometimes feel that I've got a good sixth sense but I'm not always sure what it's telling me and how to act.  This one probably becomes harder as you grow older.  One for me to work on.
10. Hardships: For any goal worth striving for there will be hardships on the way.  The Shepherd got robbed twice and beaten up and he continued.  This is one of the most important points.  In startup language, there are many death valleys to be faced.  The trick is to take them in your stride and continue.
11. Perseverance - Don't give up too quickly.  Again this is one that I have to watch out for.  Already I have thought about quitting at various points in my entrepreneurial journey.  I love the story told here about the miner who had just one more stone to turn.  It's personally very inspirational for me to keep going.
12. Achieving your destiny:  This is what it's all about.  Why are we doing any of the above.  As Paulo Coelho states: a metal will keep being a metal.  But when mankind moulds it into something useful it has achieved its destiny.  Similarly that what we are striving for.  We want to become what we were meant to be and to do.  It's difficult to figure out what that is.  If we have even a small inkling of what it might be we have to give it our everything to try and achieve it.  I guess that's what will bring us happiness!

It started out well and was quite a page turner. However I soon realized that it was part fiction and part history of Delhi. It took me some time to get used to the format of randomly switching back and forth between accounts of Delhi's history and the fictional story of the protagonist. By the end of 3/4th of the novel I started enjoying the stories. Perhaps because the more recent events were more familiar to me. The issue I had with the book was that it touched upon huge events very briefly and found myself constantly going to the internet to read about the people that were referred to in the book. It was hard to really learn about the events just from the book.

Nonetheless, I did learn quite a bit of history from the book that I wasn't familiar with. In fact the only history I knew before this was from history lessons in school and the odd non fiction book I read (the best one being Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre). It was eye opening to read the book and how violent our history has been. It made me realize how ancient the clash between Hindus & Muslims is and the number of times they have massacred each other was astounding. The author did focus primarily on sex and violence though so was a pretty biased view.

All in all, not really the lightweight fiction I was looking forward to at that time. Neither is it a proper non fiction that could provide good insight into Delhi's history. Would need some supplementary reading to understand the history. Maybe more enjoyable for someone who is already familiar with all the events accounted in the book as it gives a different twist to them.