Month of January 2026
While January is temporally the best choice for the start of the year, it is the worst choice climatically given how temperamental the weather is. It's cold outside, your body's natural thermogenic rise is impaired, and the bed is just so comfy. There's a reason New Year resolutions have a subjectively high failure rate. In short, progress on fitness goals isn't up to scratch.
January saw me trialling Readwise in what will inevitably become yet another futile attempt at creating a second brain. But the app did manage to resurface old highlights from Algorithms To Live By that I'd read in 2020 and forgotten about completely. Which is, honestly, what the app says it does. One of the key highlights I'd made was about the explore-exploit dilemma. It struck a chord, hit a nerve, insert similar cliche here. I realised I'd been far too happy settling for known options and experiences the last couple of years. This year would be different though. This year would be all about novel experiences.
Results were... mixed, to say the least.
Attending the Soul Jam was not the only thing I did in January. The month started out chaotic - a wedding in the first weekend meant that I was travelling the whole time, running on little-to-no sleep. Sleep was restored over the following days and weeks, but my fitness goals still eluded me.
You know what else was chaotic? The traffic in Bangalore roads early in the mornings. Over two sessions, I managed to cycle a combined 55.1 km - this isn't disappointing by any means, but I was hoping I'd get more done this month. I feel like the cycle is due for a service some time next month, so I'll try to put in longer distances and sessions once that's done. What probably needs to be curtailed is my habit of having a "hearty meal"1 towards the end of a cycling session. I've got a high visibility helmet, but I've been debating whether to get a high-vis jersey as well, because the second cycling session saw me fighting for my life multiple times with how careless drivers can be. Best not to linger on this topic, methinks.
Keeping in line with the theme of novelty and novel experiences, Sambuca was something I tried out this month. The viscous, syrupy-sweet liquid tasted very good, but the overpowering flavour of star anise meant that I stopped soon after. All things considered, not bad, though I would recommend it strictly in moderation.
After a strong finish to my reading goals for 2025, I set up a similarly ambitious reading challenge of 12 books for 2026. So far, progress has been quite good. Currently reading More Everything Forever by Adam Becker, and This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, and based on what I've read so far, I'm digging both these books. I've been reading on my Kobo and the fact that Readwise syncs all the highlights and annotations means that I have an easy way to revise what I've read, even if I do take a day or two off.
The number of active subscriptions I have has been a cause of some anxiety for me the last couple of months. All these subscriptions, the forex markup, and taxes on top make it an increasingly expensive endeavour, and the rate at which the Indian Rupee is falling isn't doing me any favours. Spent quite a few days reviewing my current subscriptions, slicing and dicing through the data. Some cancellations will be necessary, to make room for Readwise (when the trial expires) because I have a slight feeling I might upgrade to the monthly plan.
In my free time, I have been creating a personal website from scratch. I'm currently hosted on Bear and I'm quite happy as things stand. While the Bear manifesto does make it seem like it will be sufficiently enshittification-proof, I do not want to take any chances, so a backup is essential. And that's what I've been building towards. Will I make the switch in the near future? I would say no. But it's good to have a backup.
After months spent in my to-read pile, I finally managed to read Joan Westenberg's essay on how she rebuilt her brain in 90 days, and what she learned along the way. The 90-day cognitive reboot "challenge" she mentions seems... interesting? I'm not sharing the rules here, you really should go read Joan's essay, but the challenge is definitely something I would like to try in February, or at least a subset of it.
If I seem to disappear for a month or two, at least I'll have an excuse!
Per my Strava notes↩