The Thinker's Digest #5

Your fortnightly dose of brain food

Author

Nishant Bhide
September 04, 2023

Dear Thinker,

In order to achieve extraordinary success, you sometimes have to challenge the existing rules. Most worry of the ridicule and rejection they will face if they follow a different path. However, every once in a while there comes one who doesn’t give two hoots about what people think and reinvents the way the game is played.

Admiral McRaven, in one of my favourite speeches on YouTube, outlines this beautifully. One of his batchmates, while completing an obstacle course in SEAL training, tried a manoeuvre that no one had attempted before. This obstacle called the “slide for life”, consisted of a 30 foot tower at one end and a 10 foot tower at the other. Both were connected by a 200 foot long rope. You had to first climb the 30 foot tower, then grab the rope, swing underneath and pull yourself hand over hand till you reach the other end.

This was the only way to do it and the record time for this obstacle hadn’t been broken in many years. Instead of going feet first (apparently the only way), McRaven’s batchmate went head first. The manoeuvre was dangerous and people called him stupid. But, by the time he reached the other end, he had smashed the previous record by a huge margin. Sometimes, to achieve extraordinary success, you have to challenge the norms.

In today’s headlining article we chart the story of one such sportsman who braved the jeers and insults of his unique style to become the best bowler (not cricket) in history.

In continuation of this theme, we also have the story of what saved the world’s largest company and how a catastrophic event led to the birth of some of India’s most well-known companies.

Finally, we look at a ghost subatomic particle and the importance of unstructured free time.

I would love to chat about these topics more in-depth so please feel free to reply with your thoughts, opinions, suggestions about these articles or any other!

Brain Food

1. The Man Who Broke Bowling

When we first went to a bowling alley, our default bowling style was holding the ball with both our hands and throwing it along the ground. As we grew older, the railings went down and we started bowling with one hand. This was the norm. Continuing to bowl with both hands after we learnt seemed crazy and moreover opened us to ridicule. (as teenagers, this was more important).

Bowling, apart from being a teenage pastime, is also a serious sport. This article talks about how one man, braved the ridicule and mastered the art of bowling with two hands. Today, Jason Belmonte, is the best bowler the sport has seen and his success has changed the way people bowl.

Read his inspiring story, here.

2. Rest

Some of the most creative and revolutionary ideas have come to people during unstructured time. The most famous being Isaac Newton resting under an apple tree and discovering gravity. The advent of the hustle culture has made filling every minute of our lives with productive tasks fashionable. This article explains why idle time is important especially in today’s content-intensive world.

Read this eye-opening article, here.

3. The Elusive Neutrino

It’s common knowledge that all matter consists of protons, neutrons and electrons. However, the universe consists of many other stranger particles like positrons, quarks, Higg’s boson and many others. One such particle, the neutrino, is exceptionally elusive. In fact, it is the particles ability to remain undetected that makes it so valuable to us.

Read the strange ways of the neutrino, here.

4. How the iMac Saved Apple

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, was close to bankruptcy in the year 1997. Windows had just launched Windows95 and Apple were slowly seeing their market share obliterated. In true rising from the ashes fashion, Steve Jobs returned in ‘97 and with legendary designer Jony Ive, created a PC that changed the companies fortunes.

Read the story of the iMAC, here.

5. Phoenixes of Partition: Startup Sagas from 1947

India’s independence from the British was followed by the brutal partition of the country into India and Pakistan. Millions of people lost their lives and many more got displaced and lost all they owned. This catastrophic event also saw one of the largest migrations in human history.

This resulted in people having to rebuild their lives and livelihood from scratch. The resilience and brilliance of the Indian people turned this tragic moment in history into an opportunity to start some of India’s most famous companies. This fantastic podcast delves into those very companies that are household names today.

Listen to this engaging podcast, here.

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Here are some earlier posts to give you a sense of the topics covered in this newsletter -