App subscriptions and Yoghurt

I recently researched and replaced many paid web app subscriptions I had with free alternatives that either perform the same function or come close enough. Here’s the list of which service I replaced with what.

1. Micro.one → flipboard.social (for the Fediverse)
2. Inoreader Pro → Inoreader Free

Newsletter for friends #05: Too many things happened lately

Hi friends,

It’s been over three months since I sent out the previous newsletter for friends. Usually I share every month’s key things as a linked list, which includes what I liked reading, professional space writing I published, some non-space thoughts I blogged about, and notable

Realizations about actually avoiding social media

I’ve had or re-had a few realizations lately that have helped me greatly:

1. Crossposting to or across social media is counterproductive if doing so to avoid social media. Applies to POSSE too.
2. Having a domain for micro thoughts, day-to-day photos, comments, and random musings is a waste of

An unexpected Moon Monday story

Something unexpected happened recently. I had covered someone’s published research on my Moon Monday blog+newsletter. I don’t know the person but they saw that and so reached out to ask if I would write a recommendation letter for their visa application abroad. After

Places I’ve published Moon Monday editions from

• Airports
• Trains
• Cafés
• Amid conferences
• Hostels and Hotels
• Recently from a beach
• Weddings
• When traveling in Europe and China
• A hospital

How? Since the day is etched in the name, Moon Monday, I plan every week around it.

Someday I’d love to publish a Moon Monday

Responding is better than replying

The other day I posed a question on the Web that has (gladly) initiated a string of responses from people. And by that I do not mean comments on social media but entire blog posts. Before sharing a few thoughts on that and making it all meta (the good kind)

I do (not) care

I don’t care if you like or react to my posts on social media. I’ve hunted down and turned off all such notifications everywhere possible so I barely know you liked them anyway.

​I don’t care if you don’t read my

If I was born and brought up in the time of modern social media, would I even blog?

This was the question I asked on the Web yesterday, and people had interesting responses. Imagine you were born and brought up in a time where Twitter and Instagram always existed. Would you still blog?

Many said no, which I find to be an interesting conclusion especially for people who

The story of my blogs

I’m the latest guest on the “People and Blogs” series by Manu. Hearing from people in this series has been a great way for me to meet some of their blogs over coffee. And now some of you web humans reading this might like the story

Reinventing the wheel

Instagram (I): Stories are not posts. They disappear after 24 hours.

People (P): What if I want to retain them?

I: Now you can archive stories

P: I don’t like some people

I: Okay, you can mute their stories too

P: I want to

The media and arbitrary ethics

Someone from a legacy Indian media outlet called me recently to ask me to write an article on Indian space within five days, and for free. They expected me to agree to commit to it then and there itself. I said I’d have considered contributing but the timeline

Social media, where a teaser post about your article gets a better response than your actual article

I’ve seen this recurring theme on Twitter, LinkedIn, and virtually every microblogging social platform I’ve used. Teasing something exciting you’re working on gets better visibility than when you share that work itself.

Here’s an example from the Twitter of yore—which

Newsletter for friends #04: Things and thoughts from October

Hello friends,

Continuing to embrace a calmer digital life instead of drowning in the slurp—and now slop—of social media, I’m sharing with you via this web letter some notable things I’ve been up to or enjoyed in October.

Reading

• How

Follow my blogs on social media that doesn’t suck!

Look, I hate social networks, especially all mainstream ones like Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and the ilk. And, microblogging is a terribly contextually deprived way to create, absorb, and converse anything. I can’t justify sacrificing my time and efforts on places which degrade my thinking, mental health,

On the gap between voter turnouts in the US and Indian elections

2024 is a national election year for both the US and India. Some web searching led me to check past voter turnouts in both countries, and I was quite surprised with the numbers:

The US (Source)

• 2004: 60.1%
• 2008: 62.5%
• 2012: 58%
• 2016: 59.2%
• 2020: 66.9%