last week finished reading A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
“…you have to use your failures as stepping stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair. In the end it’s all a question of balance.”
i think this book came as close to portraying human suffering as it possibly could. how some end up throwing themselves into a pit of despair and let their own minds crush them, while others build a shell of ignorance which keeps pain at bay. you cannot be in pain forever. at some point it goes numb, and the more devastating the experience, the more people get immune to it.
the mid-1970s in India were a huge wave of chaos, unnecessary violence, ignorance and confusion. the Indian State of Emergency erased all the familiar norms and let human nature dictate how to be, with new arbitrary rules serving the upper classes.
it’s a miracle how people stayed sane through all this.
yet people always do. they always made it through.
@summernotes
“…you have to use your failures as stepping stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair. In the end it’s all a question of balance.”
i think this book came as close to portraying human suffering as it possibly could. how some end up throwing themselves into a pit of despair and let their own minds crush them, while others build a shell of ignorance which keeps pain at bay. you cannot be in pain forever. at some point it goes numb, and the more devastating the experience, the more people get immune to it.
the mid-1970s in India were a huge wave of chaos, unnecessary violence, ignorance and confusion. the Indian State of Emergency erased all the familiar norms and let human nature dictate how to be, with new arbitrary rules serving the upper classes.
it’s a miracle how people stayed sane through all this.
yet people always do. they always made it through.
@summernotes
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turns out лошадей с альбинизмом (не истинный, ибо тот летален) называют ✨изабелловыми✨
голубые глаза, белая шерсть
вот этот вот на фото еще ребенок, всего то 2 года
голубые глаза, белая шерсть
вот этот вот на фото еще ребенок, всего то 2 года
yesterday heard my colleague saying "you can jump from a cobalt to a bmw, maybe a ferrari even. but you can't jump from a byd to a ferrari. different category. a guy with a cobalt could easily be a millionaire. but a guy with a byd probably not."
at first, i was like, yeah, makes sense. it matched what i already believed, which is that the most dangerous place to be is average. cuz that's where you stop moving. you feel good enough, the pressure comes off, life in general is good enough, so why keep grinding?
there is an economic version of this if you zoom out, too. the middle-income trap, coined by Gill & Kharas. it goes as, countries claw out of poverty on cheap labor, grow fast, and then just, well, stop. they've lost the cheap-labor edge but haven't built the innovation to compete up top, so they park in the middle and every hard reform becomes optional as things are fine. why bother.
and the car thing is the personal-finance cousin of that. a cobalt signals nothing, so it's fully compatible with someone quietly loaded (the whole "millionaire next door" thing, real net worth often drives a boring car). a byd is a status buy. it whispers "i've arrived." Veblen would've loved it. and "i've arrived" is the mindset that stops accumulating and starts displaying.
and you can watch this happen here in real time. chevrolet still owns the road. but byd showed up in 2023, built a plant in jizzakh, and became the best-selling new-energy brand almost overnight. meanwhile the whole country is lower-middle-income growing ~7-8% a year, being the precise spot where you either reinvest the surplus or spend it to look successful. we're basically the cobalt-to-byd question playing out on the highway.
so far so good. neat theory.
tho of course i have to catch myself so as not to gloss over anything.
"when you're behind you have more incentive" may sound noble but it mostly falls apart at the bottom. being far behind usually kills your ability to move at all, no capital, every scrap of attention eaten by getting through the month. in short, a poverty trap.
the middle is just the one spot that hands you enough comfort to coast, which kills motion. being average on its own doesn't, ofc.
most people in every category stay exactly where they are. cobalt, byd, ferrari, doesn't matter. movement is the exception everywhere, not a special curse of the middle.
anyway
the phrase is still a good one.
@summernotes
at first, i was like, yeah, makes sense. it matched what i already believed, which is that the most dangerous place to be is average. cuz that's where you stop moving. you feel good enough, the pressure comes off, life in general is good enough, so why keep grinding?
there is an economic version of this if you zoom out, too. the middle-income trap, coined by Gill & Kharas. it goes as, countries claw out of poverty on cheap labor, grow fast, and then just, well, stop. they've lost the cheap-labor edge but haven't built the innovation to compete up top, so they park in the middle and every hard reform becomes optional as things are fine. why bother.
and the car thing is the personal-finance cousin of that. a cobalt signals nothing, so it's fully compatible with someone quietly loaded (the whole "millionaire next door" thing, real net worth often drives a boring car). a byd is a status buy. it whispers "i've arrived." Veblen would've loved it. and "i've arrived" is the mindset that stops accumulating and starts displaying.
and you can watch this happen here in real time. chevrolet still owns the road. but byd showed up in 2023, built a plant in jizzakh, and became the best-selling new-energy brand almost overnight. meanwhile the whole country is lower-middle-income growing ~7-8% a year, being the precise spot where you either reinvest the surplus or spend it to look successful. we're basically the cobalt-to-byd question playing out on the highway.
so far so good. neat theory.
tho of course i have to catch myself so as not to gloss over anything.
"when you're behind you have more incentive" may sound noble but it mostly falls apart at the bottom. being far behind usually kills your ability to move at all, no capital, every scrap of attention eaten by getting through the month. in short, a poverty trap.
the middle is just the one spot that hands you enough comfort to coast, which kills motion. being average on its own doesn't, ofc.
most people in every category stay exactly where they are. cobalt, byd, ferrari, doesn't matter. movement is the exception everywhere, not a special curse of the middle.
anyway
the phrase is still a good one.
@summernotes
had a dream i was getting married to the son of my mother's friend. even had a meeting with the future mother-in-law lol, she adored me, and by everyone's reaction the deal was basically sealed.
absolute nightmare.
probably because yesterday at work too many people brought up marriage. and i've been down with the flu the past few days, feverish at night.
that's how i knew something was off. my usual dream cast is mass attacks, aliens invading earth, me fighting terrorists in my city or at uni. but marriage? nah. definitely the fever talking.
@summernotes
absolute nightmare.
probably because yesterday at work too many people brought up marriage. and i've been down with the flu the past few days, feverish at night.
that's how i knew something was off. my usual dream cast is mass attacks, aliens invading earth, me fighting terrorists in my city or at uni. but marriage? nah. definitely the fever talking.
@summernotes
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I don’t like your fashion business, mister.
I don’t like these drugs that keep you thin.
I don’t like what happened to my sister.
First, we take Manhattan. Then we take Berlin.
@summernotes
I don’t like these drugs that keep you thin.
I don’t like what happened to my sister.
First, we take Manhattan. Then we take Berlin.
@summernotes
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Nodira - 101 Ways to Stay Sane
Photo
today trotted and galloped on Albus for like an hour (i had Aaron the other day)
instructor stopped helping and is letting me enjoy the time with him on my own now
the funny thing is, once you get off the horse your legs get so wobbly and seem much shorter lol.
the noodle legs walk is so real, you literally feel like a cartoon character trying to remember how gravity works on solid ground after an hour up there😱
instructor stopped helping and is letting me enjoy the time with him on my own now
the funny thing is, once you get off the horse your legs get so wobbly and seem much shorter lol.
the noodle legs walk is so real, you literally feel like a cartoon character trying to remember how gravity works on solid ground after an hour up there
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Nodira - 101 Ways to Stay Sane
today trotted and galloped on Albus for like an hour (i had Aaron the other day) instructor stopped helping and is letting me enjoy the time with him on my own now the funny thing is, once you get off the horse your legs get so wobbly and seem much shorter…
еще раз убеждаюсь how much your physical health drags your mental health down with it
last week i had flu, so couldn’t do much but sleep and drink hot tea lol. almost no physical activity at all.
everyone kept saying i got so much quieter and sadder lol
then once i got better, started working out, swimming, riding, walking
i feel SO MUCH better and more productive at work too.
suddenly people stopped annoying me ahahah
last week i had flu, so couldn’t do much but sleep and drink hot tea lol. almost no physical activity at all.
everyone kept saying i got so much quieter and sadder lol
then once i got better, started working out, swimming, riding, walking
i feel SO MUCH better and more productive at work too.
suddenly people stopped annoying me ahahah
today read that when iran banned food exports back in march, it hit tajikistan hard, since iran's ports are tajikistan's shortest route to the sea. got me thinking about how much of central asia's trade position right now comes down to just... well, not picking a side.
the region's landlocked, so it has always needed a patron. used to be russia up north or iran down south. but over the last few years it stopped choosing. now there's a route out in every direction, russia's, iran's, a caspian route west into europe (the "middle corridor"), and a new $7b+ railway being built southeast through afghanistan into pakistan. (we building railroads while oil's spiking and everyone talking about the strait of hormuz)
so when iran's route breaks, trade for us doesn't stop, it just shifts west. the middle corridor grew almost 11% in 2025, another 10% is projected for 2026. uzbekistan's own transit cargo hit 15+ million tons in 2025, much higher than previous years.
this is basically taleb's optionality, or munger's toll bridge if you want it blunter. goes as,
you don't need to guess who wins a war if you own the only bridge out. so, the smart thing to do for central asia is, instead of betting on iran or russia, just collecting a toll off whichever route survives.
the catch is this window closes the moment these wars end, so the payoff only sticks if the region builds something permanent while it's still open. maybe that's the real skill for a small country stuck between empires, never picking a winner but always owning a road no matter which one does.
@summernotes
the region's landlocked, so it has always needed a patron. used to be russia up north or iran down south. but over the last few years it stopped choosing. now there's a route out in every direction, russia's, iran's, a caspian route west into europe (the "middle corridor"), and a new $7b+ railway being built southeast through afghanistan into pakistan. (we building railroads while oil's spiking and everyone talking about the strait of hormuz)
so when iran's route breaks, trade for us doesn't stop, it just shifts west. the middle corridor grew almost 11% in 2025, another 10% is projected for 2026. uzbekistan's own transit cargo hit 15+ million tons in 2025, much higher than previous years.
this is basically taleb's optionality, or munger's toll bridge if you want it blunter. goes as,
you don't need to guess who wins a war if you own the only bridge out. so, the smart thing to do for central asia is, instead of betting on iran or russia, just collecting a toll off whichever route survives.
the catch is this window closes the moment these wars end, so the payoff only sticks if the region builds something permanent while it's still open. maybe that's the real skill for a small country stuck between empires, never picking a winner but always owning a road no matter which one does.
@summernotes