Few people exemplify the word ‘polymath’ better than Krish Ashok to me. By day, he leads a major team at TCS which by itself sounds demanding. But what’s astonishing is that he manages to balance a rich set of hobbies and side projects outside of work, while also having a family. Ashok is considered a legend by several people - thanks to his many memes, Tumblrs and music projects during the golden age of Indian Twitter. He once even gave a TEDx talk about hobbies.
The interesting thing about several of these projects is how they bring intersections together - heavy metal and Sanskrit; or rage comics and Tambrahm culture; or indeed his recent book which blends science and Indian cooking. Ashok has acted as an inspiration to me many times and it was a pleasure to speak to him. And towards the end, you’ll see why I consider him more Opeth than Iron Maiden.
What I spoke to Ashok about:
Consciously aiming for free time and how to work it into one's life
How hobbies and other interests can actually help the work one is doing
Consuming content for learning vs enjoyment
Breadth & depth of various topics
Why money should not be the primary consideration for a hobby
Metrics to live life by (including "create vs consume" ratio) and why these are different for everyone
Taking control over your life from tech companies!
LINKS
Everything Krish Ashok
His book, Masala Lab
His website, which houses his many projects
website : https://krishashok.me/
His musical projects (Linguini Stotram is a good place to start)
Soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/krishashok
Probably his greatest cult project, Tambrahm Rage
A TEDx talk he did in 2011, around hobbies
References made during the show:
Ashok and I wrote some parody songs together for Cricinfo long back. Here’s an example
Ashok featured as a guest on Amit Varma’s The Seen & The Unseen podcast.
TED video of the guy who builds a toaster from scratch
The learning pyramid Ashok references towards the end : https://www.educationcorner.com/the-learning-pyramid.html
Getting Meta links:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/40Vo30aQilVrxEOkoSmDjx?si=pCOPeJlcR0uN_g2ZZs8iLQ&dl_branch=1
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdGF0aWMuYWRvcmlsYWJzLmNvbS9mZWVkL2dldHRpbmctbWV0YS54bWw
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