I recently watched a CODE interview with Jony Ive, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Tim Cook on Steve Jobs. This blog post shares my thoughts from it...

I was watching the interview of Jony Ive, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Tim Cook with Kara Swisher celebrating the legacy, and the person that was Steve Jobs. They talked about how Steve used to be one of the most eccentric people out there. One of the instances the guests shared was that he always cared about making the best product possible. Not the most, the best. It made me feel something. It made me feel how I sometimes tend to be sloppy, and careless about the things that I do.

> “Our species deserves better, deserves thought.” -- Jony Ive

When asked about the level of care that the design team at Apple takes when designing the packaging for an Apple product, Jony Ive said, “Our species deserves better, deserves thought.” One thing that Jony Ive touched upon was being intentional. He shared how Steve made every decision after a considerable amount of thought and intention. Nothing was done just because. Hearing this statement made me think about all the times that I have made decisions unintentionally, and how they have over time accumulated a certain amount of debt with them.

I read or maybe watched it somewhere that the entities in this Universe almost always tend to decay. If you leave an apple in your fridge for a week, it will naturally decay. A body without exercise and a healthy diet will naturally become unhealthy. Anything left to stay the way it is will eventually become worse. It becomes our responsibility to regularly re-evaluate the decisions that we make on a day-to-day basis, and take necessary actions to mitigate the problems that may have arisen due to our lack of care.

As a software engineer, it is my responsibility to not just focus on the latest and greatest tools and technologies out there, but to take a retrospective look at the things that I have built. It is to consider the possibility of paying back the debt that I or my team have accumulated since the decision was made. It is also crucial for me to re-evaluate my skills as an engineer, and to rebuild or repair my knowledge of engineering.

Another excerpt from the interview which I admired was the story of how Steve Jobs surrounded himself with poetry, music, and art, to churn out ideas. It makes me think about diversifying the kind of information that I feed myself.

Another story of Steve Jobs that I revere is that he loved picking other people’s brains. He used to call people every day to ask them about the things that they were thinking about, the kind of music that they were listening to, the places they were visiting, and more. This gave him the perspective that he is not the only one with interesting ideas. He is surrounded by the very people who built the world that we live in. I, too, shall aspire to accommodate this aspect of curiosity into my life. I am not particularly sure how to, but hopefully, if you have any ideas, you can share them with me.

Here’s the interview that I am referring to:

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Last but not the least, I found this picture of Steve Jobs just being himself, sitting in a park. He is not looking at an iPhone in his palms, he is just enjoying the little things in life.

![Steve Jobs sitting in a park](https://pancham-khaitan.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/portfolio/images/steve-jobs.png)

Living an intentional life

YouTube is a great tool for learning and entertainment, but I am not particularly the biggest fan of YouTube Shorts. This article explains why...

I absolutely love YouTube. I think it is one of the most influential platforms of our generation. It has probably the world’s largest base of knowledge ranging from adding two numbers to a detailed tutorial on how to assemble an AK-47 in under a minute. I love it for the simple reason: It provides value to me. It adds value in my life by presenting the creativity of the best of the best artists called YouTubers.

But, as you can guess from the title, I am done with it, or at least, one part of it: Shorts. Launched as a competitor to TikTok’s endless scrolling bonanza, Shorts is an absolute time-kill. I find myself opening Shorts out of the blue, almost subconsciously, and I do not like that. Today, I spent almost two hours scrolling through the one-minute long videos on Shorts. That means, I watched at least 120 videos. And what did I learn from it? Nothing, really. It added absolutely zero value to my life, except for the fact that people will ask you to wait till the end of the video for the big reveal. Why? Why do we need to ask people to wait until the end for the video which itself is merely a minute long? What is it about our brains that is changing because of the consumption of the short-form content?

I don’t have a scientifically proven answer to this, but I know that I do not like doing something mindlessly for long. It makes me feel hollow, and weak. It makes me feel like there’s nothing left to do in life. Hence, here’s a GIF of me deleting the YouTube app from my phone…

!["A GIF of me deleting the YouTube app"](https://pancham-khaitan.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/portfolio/images/remove-yt.gif)

You may be thinking, “Hey, he still has Instagram! Why is he being so preachy about deleting YouTube?” Look, I know that Instagram is exactly like, if not worse than, YouTube. I have turned off all notifications on Instagram, including DMs. I only open it once a day to check if I have any messages from my friends and family. If not, I simply close it and continue on with my day. I want to uninstall it, but unlike YouTube, it has social features which force me to keep the app on my phone. I tried using the web app, but the UX of it is borderline terrible. Hence, the app. Don’t worry though, there will come a time when every one of my friends would have jumped ship from Instagram, and I would have deleted my account from it. Until then, I guess I am keeping one more annoying thing on my phone.

Thanks for reading! Have a great one.

[UPDATE] So, I did delete my Instagram account and I am free of all vices in the world! Just kidding. Got a long way to go, but off to a good start.

I am done with YouTube

My shoes recently got stolen from my apartment. In this journal, I write about how trusting the world to do good can result in unexpected surprises, and how one's trust should be earned, than be given.

I have been the kind of person who always sees the good in the world. I have been the kind who wants to do good, and expects to receive good in return. I believe in maintaining the harmony of Nature.

But recently, my confidence has been challenged quite extremely. A delivery boy from Zomato came in to deliver food to my neighbour, but on his way out, stole a pair of one of my favourite shoes. They were kept in the shoe-rack outside my home, but, that thief thought that they were kept there for him to steal away.

After scrubbing through hours of CCTV footage, I finally caught the exact moment this act took place. I even got the details about the thief from the security guard's entry log. His name is Hemendra Meena. I got his contact details, and told him to return what did not belong to him. He denied having done anything at all. This made me angry. I went to the police station to file a complaint, but even the police didn't cooperate much. "Cooperate for a pair of shoes?" you might ask. A fair question. But it's not just about the shoes. Today, he found the courage to steal someone's shoes. Tomorrow, he may find the courage to commit a more serious, a more dangerous crime. Will that act be justified then?

After heading back home, disappointed, and sad, knowing that despite having all the evidence I need, I couldn't teach the guy a lesson. I no longer cared about the shoes, I cared more about the justice.

Later, I saw a few of the society committee members discussing the matter in detail, and how the safety of the society was under threat. One gentleman, pulled a few strings, and the police are now actively looking for the thief.

I have also reported a fraud to Zomato, and have asked for strict actions to be taken against the man, and I to be compensated for the loss of my time and resources.

At the end of the day, as I am writing this blog post, I am thinking to myself, "Did I do something extreme just to find the shoes? Was the effort to catch the shoe-thief even worth it? Am I actually thinking about justice or revenge?" I don't know. I feel like it was my duty to do something about fixing what I thought was broken. It may result in justice, or disappointment. But one thing that I know I learnt from it is that in life you must remember that the world is out there to satiate its own needs. If you feel like feeding the world, remember to not over-extend yourself along the way. You may not have anything more to give to the world, but the world will strip away anything that you may have left. I am not referring to money, fame, respect. I am talking about everything!

Anyway, after being completely spent, my roommate and I went out to have a good dinner. I had a cappuccino, spicy garlic noodles, and a veggie pizza. Not something that I eat regularly, but I had these items to remember this day. To remember that I am my own saviour, and that my trust should not be given, rather should be earned.

Would love to know your thoughts about it.

Pancham

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