The promise👍, the allure😊 and the disappointment👎

After several weeks decided to put words to thoughts. This post will be about my impressions about social media from an end user perspective. I understand each individual’s experience is likely to be unique. Around 2010 I believe I started using social media and I have couple of social media accounts. Overall my experience can be summed in 3 words: Promise, Allure, Disappointment.

Let me start with “promise”. My social media journey started with a lot of promise. Felt that it gave an opportunity to stay connected with people I still maintained contact with, connect again with people I knew but had not been in touch with and to make new friends due to shared interests or discovered connection (like hobbies, school attended, growing up in or around the same community). Social media did deliver initially and I was able to connect with friends, old and new. Became a new medium to share news, good and bad, and just be there for each other, regardless of the time zone each person was located. There is convenience in being able to connect virtually at any time.

The next bit was “allure”. I like to paint with words and share in the hope someone can relate to my experiences and add their own impressions and perspectives. So, social media became an useful tool to convey my thoughts without the burden of being a professional writer. It allowed to be true to myself, express views and share interesting information. Another allure was the facility to donate to good causes and reach out to folks for their contributions, if they were interested.

Finally, the “disappointment” part. There has been more than one disappointment, at different levels. Authenticity is lost when public posture and opinions expressed in smaller private groups are at variance. Also, while connecting to people virtually is convenient it becomes a bit of bother if one or more users post material that is either insensitive or offensive. There is a certain level of self-policing involved in group situations. When one speaks up about insensitive/offensive material posted and it still continues one starts feeling like an outlier if even the good people whose voice will be heard choose to be silent. Another thing that irritates me is the senseless forwards. I don’t have anything against forwards per se. Occasionally I forward or post links that I find interesting or useful. What makes forwards irritating is when the person either blindly forwards without reading the contents or uses plausible deniability as a reason to avoid taking any responsibility if there is insensitive or offensive material. Some groups may also have folks’ intent on pushing their views leaving no room for discussion or debate if there is difference of opinion. I guess it’s a measure of general polarization when discussion about issues turn personal instead of remaining issue driven. Maybe I get more affected by such stuff than I should, but a sense of disenchantment started building over a period of time. The platform providers also bear some responsibility for trying to make it a safe and secure experience instead of just trying to push content into the feeds for the “free” use of the tool. For example, if I happen to read about quarterly results of a company, say Nike, it’s not because I am looking to buy a pair of sneakers. Unfortunately, the half-assed way the algorithms/AI for using user data works it means that the next time I log in to social media tool I might find ads for Air Jordans or something similar. Likewise for what user posts the tool determines should figure in the feed that will interest the user. My usage of social media reduced as a result. The last straw, so to speak, was 2-3 months ago when a post appeared in my feed that seemed to indicate a friend that I had not kept in touch with passed away suddenly under tragic circumstances. When you see something like that there is a pang of guilt for not having kept in touch with that friend and as a reflex reaction I clicked the link associated with the tragic event. My account got hacked (and looks like that friend’s account must have also been hacked) and similar posts under my name also started appeared in my other friend’s feed. Obviously, the platform provider can do a better job of monitoring for bad actors and taking swift action. My already reduced usage of social media is now even rarer. Yes, I may miss out on some happenings and updates about friends, but I have more peace of mind and that’s priceless! 🙏

US $ : Aha moment!

People experience aha moment/s in life when they suddenly discover something that was previously unknown. Mine happened few years ago. As always there is a story behind that moment of truth 😊 Happened when I was doing the laundry of my clothes! All the clothes from the laundry basket went for washing and drying without me checking the clothes for any contents. Unbeknownst to me there were couple of US one $ bills in one of my trousers. After the washing and drying cycle, I collected my clothes from the dryer. Imagine my surprise getting couple of US dollars as reward for my effort! The dollar bills came out crisp and clean too! Wow! 👌 I later learned that the US $ bill is actually made of linen and cotton, contrary to my thinking it’s all paper. 🙏 That explains the resilience of the currency! 👍
The aha moment: Discovering that the US $ is strong 👏
Let me plead mea culpa before anyone accuses me of money laundering 🙏 In my defense it was an accident and many great discoveries have been made accidentally! 😂

Words of the day – Zaidy, Tractile,…..!


Zaidy and tractile war requiring troops, fighting with pease-shooter, to perform jete brought out bullhorns to end the conflict!
If you are wondering WTF was that that’s the same feeling I get when I play scrabble against the computer and see a word I never knew existed. Don’t worry, it’s not my covfefe moment! 😂 Hell, I can’t afford a covfefe moment, I don’t have an army of supporters trying to infer sense if I spout or write gibberish 🙏
Just trying to use words from one of my recent scrabble game against the computer for fun. Was meant to convey “Growing and stretching war requiring troops, fighting with peashooters, to move from one front to another resulted in growing calls to end the conflict”

I play the computer at grandmaster level, Which means I lose more often than I win. The win loss ratio is ~ 5:1 in favor of the computer. Why do I still play at that level? Maybe I am a glutton for punishment 😉 No, just kidding 🙏 Increasingly getting instrospective and withdrawn, I try to find activities I can do by myself. In addition to vast repertoire of words (originating from many languages) the “scrabble engine” must also be employing AI/ML. Must also be building up a database of a player’s profile based on previous games played. That translates into incredible difficulty winning against the computer at the highest level. To add to the misery there appears to be some kind of inequity built in too. I am not sure how much actual randomness is there in the alphabet tiles for the human player. So many times I end up pulling my hair in frustration on ending with all vowels or all consonants. Canceling a game before playing the first word does not result in the game counted as loss for the human player. Very few times I have actually canceled a game as I generally believe in playing the cards I am dealt with, at work or play. The idea is to see what I can do to make a positive difference. Obviously that’s not a strategic play but I am not consumed by thoughts of winning. Majority of times that means losing the game, that’s ok with me. Losing is never fun but if it’s a loss after playing hard and fair and the other player plays better they deserve the win. That’s how I look at the result of the sports teams I support too. It is what it is. Anyways, the scrabble game today had a happy ending 😊 It seeemed that the computer struck a death blow by placing “ing” next to the word “annex” (bottom right of image) and reaping the benefits of huge points by way of triple word score to zoom to ~ 440 points taking a 90-point lead almost at the end of the game. With prayer on my lips I played the word “tractile” (top left of image). Lo and behold, I got the benefit 2 triple-word scores (9x multiplication factor) + 50 point bonus for using all 7 letters! It was nice to turn the tables on the computer for a change 👏 One game won! 👍 As they say “You live to die another day” 🙏

Dictionary meaning of today’s words below

Tractile: capable of being drawn out in length; ductile. 2. capable of being drawn.
Zaidy: means abundance or one who grows; yiddish for grandfather
Jete: a jump in which a dancer springs from one foot to land on the other with one leg extended outward from the body while in the air.
bullhorn: an electronic device for amplifying the sound of the voice so it can be heard at a distance; a megaphone.
pease: nounplural pease. an archaic or dialect word for pea

Word of the day: Conscience

Splitting the meaning of the word conscience into two.

For those who believe in conscience it’s a guiding force that influences their behavior and choices.

For those who don’t believe, conscience = con+science. Meaning there is no scientific basis for it, no rationale to have one. In other words, it’s an unnecessary impediment to achieving a person’s goals.

Conscience is one of those things which is experiential as it doesn’t have a physical manifestation 🙏

Signs of getting older? 🤔

Seeker: What are the signs of getting older? 🤔
Sage: If you wake up early on a cold, wintry Saturday morning, like any working day, to pose this question! 😊 or
Seeker: Or what? O learned one 🙏
Sage: If you wake up early on a cold, wintry Saturday morning to read this post! 😊 and
Seeker: And what? O wise one 🙏
Sage: If you wake up late on a working Monday morning wishing it was Sunday morning instead! 😂
Seeker: Thanks for being so perceptive and sharing your knowledge 🙏