This week, I learned:

  • Vulture is a neat library that funds unused Python code. uvx vulture script.py works fairly well, out-of-box. This helps when cleaning up AI-edited scripts that often have left-over code or imports.
  • One of the lightest alternatives to Google Analytics is GoatCounter. If you just want page views, referrers, browsers, OSes, countries, and devices, it’s great. It’s privacy-friendly (no cookies), open source, easy to self-host, free for small sites, and the data is exportable.
  • The number of countries that allow visa-free entries to Indian passports is gently growing in Asia (Kazakhstan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Iran, and Philippines).
  • Lessons from performance books. Claude # #
    • Summary: In early days, explore, sample. Then narrow based on interest & fit. Practice hard and persist.
    • ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Range (David Epstein): In changing environments (rules shift, feedback is noisy/late), sample broadly, i.e. generalize. Specialization vs generalization
      • Nobel laureates have more hobbies. Olympic athletes have less. Shift nurses have same hobbies as non-shift workers. Hobbies help expertise in some areas
      • Rewarding ONLY what succeeds locks behavior, halts exploration. Vary / delay incentives. Reward AFTER figuring out what works. Reinforcement and rewards
      • Maybe “orderly” people specialize and creative people generalize? So pick what aligns with personality?
    • ⭐⭐⭐ Peak (Anders Ericsson & Robert Pool): Compounded practice at the edge of competence, with good immediate feedback, helps 14-26%.
      • But talent (genetics, upbringing, brainpower) differentiates more the expert level.
      • Slow, effortful practice (spaced recall, interleaving topics, self-testing) builds lasting knowledge - but looks inefficient and doesn’t help with exams. Learning and long-term retention
      • “Easy” 10K hours don’t help.
    • ⭐⭐ Grit (Angela Duckworth): predicts roughly the same as conscientiousness (18%). It predicts success in stable paths moderately (but brainpower, etc. matter too).
      • But premature grit hurts. Quit if it helps.
      • But environment can defeat grit.
  • Lessons from attention economy books. Claude # #
    • The attention economy is real. It is designed to capture our mind, and it is winning.
    • Distractions hurt MUCH more than we think. Batching, focus time helps.
    • Privilege helps. The rich have more control over these than the poor do.
    • ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Deep Work (Cal Newport, 2016) and ⭐⭐⭐ Digital Minimalism (Cal Newport, 2019): control the tools. Focus time, digital detox, embrace boredom. This helps - when you can afford to.
    • ⭐⭐⭐ Indistractable (Nir Eyal): control yourself. The problem is internal (also true), so build habits, since willpower depletes (hm… not really).
    • ⭐⭐⭐ How to Do Nothing (Jenny Odell, 2019): reject. Embrace boredom as resistance. This helps - when you can afford to.
    • ⭐⭐ Stolen Focus (Johann Hari, 2022): regulate & rebel. The problem is systemic and external (also true). Reclaim your interface.
    • BTW: Goldfish have excellent attention spans and memory :-)
  • Lessons from trauma books. Claude # #
    • ⭐⭐⭐ The Body Keeps the Score (Bessel van der Kolk, 2014): trauma recall shuts down the speech area. Eye movement desensitization (EMDR) helps. So does CBT, despite what the book says. But does yoga (only a little) or neurofeedback (too little data)?
    • ⭐⭐⭐ What Happened to You? (Bruce Perry & Oprah Winfrey, 2021): calming people down before talking. Strong connections help more than a therapist.
    • ⭐⭐ The Myth of Normal (Gabor Maté, 2022): trauma causes cancer (no), autoimmunity (partly), ALS (?), etc.
    • ⭐ It Didn’t Start with You (Mark Wolynn, 2016): maybe anxiety is epigenetic and heriditary? Unproven. Family Constellation Therapy is wrong
    • ⭐⭐ My Grandmother’s Hands (Resmaa Menakem, 2017): maybe racism is a somatic (body) response to generational (epigenetic) trauma? Too little data
    • ⭐⭐ No Bad Parts (Richard Schwartz): maybe we’re not one person but a collection of parts, and interviewing family systems (IFS) helps? Unclear
    • ⭐⭐⭐ Maybe You Should Talk to Someone (Lori Gottlieb): our memory is unreliable and therapy is messy. Connection & compassion help
    • Most of these are based on the contested Polyvagal Theory: the nervous system scans for danger before the mind can process it. But the specific claims of the theory are wrong and it makes no other falsifiable claims.
      • The nervous system has hierarchical responses to threat. 🟢 Not unique to PVT
      • Social connection regulates physiology. 🟢 Not unique to PVT
      • Unconscious threat detection (neuroception). 🟡 Weak evidence
      • Mamellian brain (ventral vagal system) is uniquely mammalian. 🔴 Lungfish have it
      • Reptilian brain (dorsal vagal) “shutdown” causes dissociation. 🔴 No evidence
      • RSA directly measures vagal tone. 🔴 Contested
      • Reptiles are “asocial”. 🔴 Wrong
    • Trauma causes body changes too. It’s not just the mind.
    • Childhood trauma persists.
    • Relationships (connection & compassion) help more than therapy
  • What constitutes tax residency in India? For an Indian citizen, as I understand it (after 2 hours of research):
    • If you were in India >= 182 days: Resident*
    • Else, if you left India this year for employment: NRI.
    • Else, if you are an Indian Citizen living abroad (visiting or not):
      • If Indian Income <= ₹15 Lakhs: NRI.
      • Else if you were in India >= 120 days AND >= 365 days in the last 4 years: RNOR.
      • Else if you are not liable to tax in any other country: RNOR.
    • Else, if you left India for non-employment (students, tourism) and were in India >= 60 days AND >= 365 days in the last 4 years: Resident*
    • Else: NRI.
    • If you ended up as a Resident*
      • If you were NRI in 9 of the last 10 years OR in India <= 729 days in the last 7 years: RNOR
      • Else: ROR (Resident & Ordinarily Resident).
    • For all practical purposes, RNOR is like an NRI. You pay tax only on Indian income, not global income. It’s like a transition status for returning NRIs.
  • AVIF compresses better than WebP and may be the “next big thing”. I will be switching for all future images. Squoosh remains my choice of compressor and Ezgif’s AVIF maker and GIF to AVIF are handy.