It’s been more than a month since graduation and it’s a good time to ask how well I’ve used it. There’s nothing wrong of course, in lazing around or just finding time to relax. But relaxation for me instead means the tempo is lowered while I keep my momentum going. Some parts of this post also serve to establish future posts where I check back in on my projects. It’s been a wild time regardless – I’ve joined a startup, started a book club/conversation group, made headway in learning blockchain and music production and consumed a lot of stimulating content.

Let’s start with the interesting stuff. Check out Quibbl, a new way to consume the world around us. The website you see is its first iteration and I’ve been brought on by a great friend to be part of the team. What I love about this is the way it plans to change the way we interact with content. Right now, the most common way for us to interact with content is to ‘react’ to it – from the ‘Like’ button on Facebook to the Heart-shaped symbol on Twitter/Instagram, we are encouraged to be rapidly interacting with content by simply clicking a button. Worse is when we’re allowed to simply share content without even having read it – the click bait title is sufficiently provocative to warrant a shout to our friends. Quibbl says ‘Let’s change that. Let’s make your reaction tied to your credibility as a consumer’. If you read something and agree with it, claim it. If the line of reasoning has an expected outcome, then your position can be supported by reality. For example, if you believe the logic for Trump’s impeachment is insufficient, you can vote on it, and if you’re wrong, your credibility points are affected. I love this because now we empower netizens to be more conscious about what they consume and about what they believe in. When Quibbling becomes the new norm, you will see a natural fight against ‘fake news’, enabled by the social system we build around Quibbl. More of that can be found in this video. I’m working on the Tech team, which is mostly my effort to be a part of this big change in the social news consumption environment. But it’s also a step towards my effort on building technologies that support my social agendas. If you remember, five years ago I set up five grand goals for myself, I’ve made serious headway in four of them – the school I’m keeping for a slightly older me to approach. I’ve learned Computer Science, but that’s just step one. I still need to learn how to use my knowledge and skills to build projects and this will give me significant experience in that arena. Bigger moves to come.

The second thing I wanted to talk about is Deliberate Evolution, an exciting project that’s in no way going to be attributable to one person which is what makes it thrilling. DE started out after a couple of friends and I realized that we were having such great conversations. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a good way to continue the conversation post-college, especially if we wanted an environment where we can engage with people from opposing views.  The world around us was trying to put us in camps that isolated themselves from each other, but us as moderates were frantically looking for spaces to engage a diversity of views. DE is a promising step in that regard. We’ve set up a small group to try out the philosophy and methodology, and we aim to expand over time and establish a way for others to set up similar groups.  We meet online (because the group is eclectic in backgrounds) twice in a month, once to have a conversation on a pre-selected topic and the other to have a discussion on a book we’ve chosen. We just had a pretty rich discussion on Globalisation and the growing tide of Nationalism and we’ll be chatting in a couple of weeks to talk about Sapiens – a book I’m extremely affected by.  I’m aiming to post summaries of these discussions on my blog, as a way of collecting knowledge but also making it open to the public forum of discourse and debate. Over time, we aim to build trust with another and not just grow intellectually but empathetically as well. There’s a lot of thought gone into the establishment of the group’s values and procedures and I’m looking forward to the day we have a tested concept to reveal to others.

Of course, I’m making use of my time to do a lot of self-improvement and strengthening. Mind, body, soul and all that. I like the concept of using my downtime to power up again for another big marathon. I’ve decided to grow in two main fields – cryptography and music production. Cryptography, specifically cryptocurrency, is such an emerging field that it’s already disrupting ways of life as we speak. In my time in college, I frequently brushed along themes of cryptography but was always intimidated by it. Now I decided that if I want to invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the other 20 currencies, I want to know intimately how it works. That’s how I do most of my investment, but with currencies, I’ve always been cautious. I also don’t just want to invest, but I want to create products and services around them to derive value. This course taught by Princeton  is so powerful for that.

I’m also learning music production in an effort to figure out more ways to transform some of these wild concoctions in my mind into beautiful things. I realize over time that we connect to music in different ways, especially when we’re emotionally sensitive. As I started listening to music, especially in that recently emotional portion of my life, I decided I wanted to create music too.  For this, I’m taking an online course from Berklee that’s really exciting. Maybe I’ll drop some stuff over here soon.

Those are the highlights. I’ve been reading, watching shows, partying, eating good food, adventuring and all of the regular me stuff but I’m excited for these inflections that I’m on. There are also secret projects, projects that I’ll announce when it’s the right time, but these are pretty darn monumental if I can get them to work. Also I’ll be in Berlin in a week and a half. Wow, I’m making myself excited, there’s a lot to look forward to. I’ll keep riding these waves.

i hope you’re riding yours.