What was amazing about 2021

1) Using a dumb phone - this is pretty awesome, I am able to do so much more now that I do not have that distraction and television shows are so much more immersive now that I am not constantly looking at my smart phone.

My Nokia 3310

2) Television - Foundation, Squid Games, The amazing race Australia, Invincible, almost all Marvel and Star Wars shows from Disney. There is so much content coming out now because there are so many competing streaming services that I am missing a lot of shows that I may be great like Ted Lasso, Peaky Blinders, Warrior, Rick & Morty and Attack On Titan.

4) Movies - "Kong vs Godzilla", "Dune" and "Spiderman No Way Home" were amazing.

5) The Kindle - This thing has been around for a decade and I never thought it was worth it but it is one of my best purchases. I remember watching Kim read on his Kindle while I worked and Definition, thinking he was so stupid to use an extra device when he could just read from his phone. I was so wrong, the kindle is amazing, its easy on your eyes, more user friendly then a paper book and you don't have the easy distraction you are able to get with a smart phone. I ploughed through 9 books the first month I picked up the the thing.

6) Deleting Facebook and Instagram - I breath a sigh of relief writing this because Zuckerburgs products felt like a burden. I can write a thousand page report on all the good this did me like:

• Fakebook was incredibly dangerous because of how much of my identity was easily accessible through that site.  
•  I got to shed old contacts that I was dragging around with me, by deleting my own account, I was not upsetting people I did not want to upset by removing them as my friends. 
•  I got to shed old contacts that I was dragging around with me, by deleting my own account, I was not upsetting people I did not want to upset by removing them as my friends. 
• Facebook had me stuck in an old identity that I could not budge because so much of my history was accessible through that site. 
• I was not doing free work for Zuckerborg anymore by providing free content for him to monetize. 
• I am not providing free data that he can use to manipulate society. 

7) Birds Eye Vege Rice - This is not actually rice its shredded cauliflower and broccoli and because it in not rice its carb content is really low. Microwave a little bit of it with some salt and baked chicken pieces and it's the best tasting food I have ever had, no really better then any chocolate or cake or even a sausage sizzle with bacon. I love this stuff so much I would not mind eating it once a day for the rest of my life.

8) Libgen - I don't mind buying books since I love what authors are giving me unless they have political views I am against, but then I just won't read the authors books. I do hate the idea of Amazon tracking my purchases and interests so I torrent my books. If I can't find the books I want through torrents; I use Libgen which I only discovered a few weeks ago, it will now be the first place I go to find the books I want.

9) Books - The Almanac of Naval Ravikant, How to lose with almost everything and still win big, Atomic Habits, Attached I loved these books and will read them again in the future.

10) High Protein Keto - First let me talk about keto, I have been gaining weight from 85kg to 122 kg for 10 year, This year I discovered keto and lost about five kilos doing 75 to 80% fat but it became hard to keep my calories down doing this type of keto because I was always hungry and eating all the time but then I switched to 65% fat with more protein and staying satiated with lower calories has been easy.

11) Dr Eric Berg - I have been listening to him for years but this year because I was on the low carb diet, I listened to him a lot for my fitness and he is an amazing recourses for improving your health.

12) Crispy Bacon and Eggs - I think I have discovered a form of pure joy. Every morning since I have been doing high protein Keto I make crispy bacon then make eggs in the bacon fat from the bacon cook and I have to say the physical feeling of satisfaction I get after finishing my meals in the morning and enjoying a bottle of Pepsi max is like I have taken some drug.

Ohhh... Bacon

13) Quest Salted Caramel Protein Powder - This year I have consumed more Kale and Spinach then the rest of my life combined, because if you blend Quest salted caramel protein with Kale and spinach with an avocado and butter it tastes like a vanilla ice-cream milk shake, even though there is practically no carbs in that drink.

14) Vanguard - I learned about Vanguard from this video suggested to me by YouTube. Since I read the Four Hour Work Week I have been trying figure out some way to make money without having to work, just create an app or a website that makes me money while I sleep and I have tried so many businesses outside my main job that was a waste of time but with Vanguard I can just invest any extra money I make in my main line of work and as soon as I have 25 times what I need to live off I will be able to retire.

15)  Mouse wheel click - Did you know that the scroll wheel on your mouse clicks? I didn't, but I discovered it does this year. If you click on a weblink with it, it will open that link on a new tab making your web surfing faster. With programs like Freetube it opens up functionality that is not available without the scroll click. 

16) Abcoe - through this site I am able to buy all sorts of things that are not available in normal stores like Beqa cheese squares that are normally only available at hospitals and single serve cups of butter that are normally only get in hotels, planes and restaurants. The were selling expired Pepsi Max Mango and since Pepsi Max is not perishable, I bought a years supply of it. ... Bad Dpak

Bad Idea

17) Making my own supplements - this year I learned that I should eat egg shells, after cooking and blending them into a powder, but eating the stuff directly was disgusting so I started filling empty capsules with the stuff and it started going down a lot easier. Then I filled barley grass into capsules and I now eat it more consistently.

18) Technology - There are a few things I loved this year:

• Xcloud - Microsoft just started rolling that out, basically that means that people won't even need powerful consoles and computers any longer, they will just be able to pay $15 to play the one game they want instead of paying 500 - 1000 for the game machine then $15 - $100 for the game.
• Samsung Galaxy watch 4 - I am not going to spend 500 for a smart watch. but I am impressed by the technology. You just have to wear it and it will track and tabulate your body fat percentage. I remember having to take a dozen tape measure of various parts of my body then entering that into a website to get a guesstimate of my body fat percentage and now kids just have to wear a watch.

  

  Body fat calculation I made in 2006

  
  
• Unreal engine 5 - With this engine far more realistic movies, TV. shows and games are now possible at a lower price and faster then it was ever possible before.
• Plenny Bars - When Soylent came out, I kept thinking, "Why can't they deliver this in bar form? If the idea is for food to be as convenient as possible, why go through the effort of making this mixing this powder and cleaning up after? Why can't we just have a bar? " Soylent did not deliver, but Jimmy Joy did with the Plenny Bar. Now I want a low carb version.
• Manaburger - I would like to be a vegetarian like most of my family because I don't like animals suffering, but I like the taste and nutrition I get from animal foods. Manaburger is the most compelling meat replacement product I have seen in years. I hope Mcdonalds gets them soon. 

Re-discovering My Love For Books

I have read 30 books this year, don't believe me? here, have a look at my goodreads stats. I am someone who use to read a lot but had stopped doing it about 10 years ago, largely because of the smart phone but this year I dropped the smart phone for a dumb phone, deleted all my social media profiles and bought myself a kindle and I have to say that going back to reading has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life. The years that I was not reading books, I have missed out on a lot of wealth and life enjoyment while the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google have made thousands from my attention and work while making me miserable and stupid.

I started reading The Expanse novels to get back into reading. The thing that struck me the most while reading these books is how different the entertainment experience is when you read a book compared to listening to an audiobook or watching a T.V. show or movie. Books transport you into the world of the story. T.V. shows can't do this, with these mediums it always feels like you are sitting in your own world while the story is happening on the screen, not like you are a person living in the story watching things happen. If you are not someone who reads novels, I suggest reading a story yourself to see what this feels like.

I did not just read stories. I also read educational books. I think I heard Brian Tracy say that when you read a book, you are taking in 10 years of a person's life experience, why would you ever not want to accept such a beautiful gift. Here are some of the great lessons I picked up from the books I read:

1. From the Book "Who Is Pulling Your Strings And What To Do About It" by Harriet Baiker I learned the many tricks people use to manipulate you so when I found my dream job and found the senior sales person there using various tricks to get rid of me like saying "Deepak you are a nice person and this job is not for you", I recognized it and was able to take steps to ensure this blew up in her face.
2. From the book "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big" by Scott Adams I learned that the way to maintain a good diet long term is to be on a journey to discover how to make healthy foods taste delicious. I had never thought of maintaining my eating this way. I was just eating dry chicken breast, broccoli, beans and drinking water during my 20s to stay fit; not this year, this year I have only eaten delicious food that I looked forward to. I even discovered how to make kale and spinach taste like ice cream(no really), so I have consumed more kale and spinach this year then I had done the rest of my life combined before 2021.
3. From the book "The PE Diet" by Ted Naimen I learned why both low-fat vegetarian diets and high fat-keto diets work, its about keeping the protein-to-energy ratio high. the more protein you have for the amount of energy you consume, the more satiated you will be and thus the less calories you will consume.
4. From the book "Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It" by Gary Taubes I learned that fat just does not stay in your fat cells, it gets released into you blood stream constantly and if it is not used, it get stored in different fat cells, knowing that was interesting because I had been adding fat to my diet because I was doing Keto, why would I need to add more energy to my diet when fat from my fat cells were circulating in my veins anyway, it gave me the license to try cutting fat consumption lower. I also learned about rat experiments were rats were starved and they still became fat because their hormones were saying conserve energy and when the rats were dissected at the end of the experiment the researchers found the fat starving rats had shriveled organs because they were breaking down their organs to ensure they could store as much energy as possible, amazing. 
5. From the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear I learned that you can engrain a new habit for yourself by attaching it to a pre-existing habit: say you want to plan out your day everyday, you can attach it to your habit of brushing your teeth everyday, if you want to drink more water everyday, attach it to your habit of eating everyday, say you want to do kettlebell swings everyday, attach it to your habit of taking a shower everyday.
6. From "The Almanac of Naval Ravikant" by Eric Jorgenson I discovered the only form of meditation that I have been able to do daily and it is to just sit with your eyes closed quietly for an hour. I don't quite do it the way Naval recommends. I go for an hour long walks everyday, I will start here then maybe move onto the sitting.
7. After re-reading "The Power Of Less" by Leo Babauta I threw away half of my things and have been able to add more things that I enjoy in my life now. It felt crazy going to the library and giving away all those text book like Tim Ferris books I had in my closet, but I had kept them in my closet for years and would have kept for years more.
8. From "Attached" by Amir Levine I learned that I have had insecure attachment style with which I have caused a lot of pain to avoidant attachment styles when I have tried to have relationships with them. I even blew women I was yearning for inside when they wanted me because my insecure attachment system had been triggered by some thing they did, wish I read this book long ago, would have saved me people I loved a lot of heart ache.

I even read some normal books that I was not able to find a kindle version of. I don't like normal books anymore, the kindle is a much more user friendly... mmm that's not entirely true, a kindle is good for reading a book front to back but it is not good if you want to pick up a book and flick to an important idea that you want to re-read; because of this I have been contemplating getting a book shelf(which is a horrible thing for a minimalist); I want to re-read the happiness sections of "The Almanac of Naval Ravikant", I want to revisit some of the lessons from "How To Lose At Almost Everything And Still Win Big" and I want to be able to flick through "How To Write Great Copy For The Web" the next time I build a website or go for a marketing role.

I have actually re-read a couple of books because I wanted to pick up something new that I may have missed on my first read through. I do not retain all the knowledge from these great books, but that's OK, Naval says that even if you don't consciously remember everything you read, the knowledge you do take in becomes part of you subconscious memory and becomes your character.

It was a great year of reading, being transported to new worlds, understanding mine and others psyches and gaining new knowledge to achieve more in life. I have had to go back to the smart phone because I need to scan in everyplace I visit due to Covid19, but I hope I can drop the smart phone again when Covid has passed so that I can dedicate more my spare time to reading.