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Half Life Show

20 Episodes
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Description  Have you found yourself surprised when you were laid off from your company? Or have that nagging feeling you might lose your job when the economy takes a turn for the worse?  In this short episode, Vikram breaks down his 2-year framework for staying prepared, honing your skills, staying sharp and being ever prepared for your next gig or interview. With the proper mindset, you will notice when your job stops providing you value or realize how you can elevate yourself to the best v...
Description  In part part of this two-part series on rebooting health, Subbu and Vikram talk about the importance of diet and nutrition for health, and share their methods for keeping calories under check, getting enough protein, foods to absolutely avoid, how to get back on track when our diets fall off the wagon, and how to deal with challenges and temptations that arise regarding foods in our day to day lives.    Links  Subbu's diet and nutrition spreadsheet Open Food Facts    Chapter...
Description  In part one of this two-part series on rebooting health, Vikram and Subu talk about the importance of consistent exercise as we age, describe tools and frameworks that they use to get started on exercise especially strength training, and ways to develop consistency. They talk about workout programs that work, and those that do not, and why, how different programs are suited to different people, and how to design a 21-day workout challenge for yourself.    Links  BowTiedOx - Your ...
Description In this episode Subu and Vikram distill down ideas from the book Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. They discuss better ways to organize your productivity and time, and the importance of not getting distracted and spending your attention wisely.  Links Amazon book link  Vik’s book notes An interactive book summary 5 ways to create time  Chapters 0:00 Introduction 2:24 Productivity 13:45 Time 25:32 Attention 35:10 The Middle Path  Let's Get Social TwitterInstagramYoutubeWebsit...
Description Inspired by the Cortex Podcast, this episode is about why new year resolutions don’t work and a better approach to setting your intent for the new year. Subu and Vikram reflect on how 2022 was and talk about their yearly theme for 2023.   Links Last year’s yearly themes episode  Cortex Podcast - Our inspiration for Yearly Themes Alan Watts Lecture on Taoism  Wu Wei  Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman Fitbod App for Resistance Training Chapters 0:00 The Concept of Yearly T...
In this episode Subu and Vikram talk to Priyanka Shetty, an actor, director and playwright who left her secure software engineering job to pursue a life of acting and theater performance. Her latest touring play is the Elephant in the Room, which was recently premiered in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and is a solo performance, a one woman show, which is a tale of a search for identity with deeply embedded Indian roots, and finding context and common ground in America. We hear ta...
In this episode, Subu and Vikram talk to Dr. Harish Vedantham, a radio astronomer and professor at the University of Groningen, about the exciting world of research in exoplanets - or planets in solar systems other than our own, possibility of alien life, building radio telescopes on the moon, the James Webb space telescope and fast radio bursts from the universe. They discuss what it is like to be in an astronomers shoes, places they go, and what the teaching and research life feels like. Wh...
Description  In this edition, Dr. Sidharth Mohan, a biophysicist and an expert in protein biochemistry, heavy metal drummer and indie music promoter,  talks about the fundamental building blocks of life, the wonders and secrets that Mother Nature won’t reveal to us, and the implications of learning those secrets on the future of humanity. He talks about drug discovery and how the entire scientific community came together as one to develop and deliver Covid-19 vaccines to the world. Subu ...
Description  In this episode, Vikram and Subu explain the meaning of first principles, it's meaning in philosophy and science, and explore what it means to break things down into their basic constituent forms, and how that can accelerate learning. Drawing from a variety of examples from cooking, music and invention, they analyze how to think like the experts and how to become one in a field of one's choosing.  Links First principles and scientific theoriesForty Second BoydJames Clear on First...
In this episode, Subu and Vikram discuss what a successful career means, and what it takes to achieve it in various stages of one's career, with examples from Tech CEOs to Navy Admirals. They also discuss important career decisions such as: Should you job hop? How to negotiate salary? Is remote work good for career?  Links  So good, they can't ignore you - Cal Newport True Learning is done with Agency Admiral Hyman Rickover Doing a Job: The Management Philosophy of Admiral Hyman Rickover  Cha...
Vikram and Subu explore ways to expand the time available in a persons life as a whole, and discuss the principles of Ikigai and incremental work to discover the purpose of life and avoid burnout.  Links IkigaiThe Ikigai DiagramThe Nothingness of Money by Lawrence YeoThe Clock Man by Shel Silverstein Chapters   00:00 Pastries, Popcorn and Teeth   04:57 Time: The one true resource  11:57 Making Time and Ikigai  17:59 Controlling thoughts about money in your life  23:41 Trading money for time  ...
Sampath Krishna takes Subu and Vikram on a story-telling trip to the Arctic and back, describing his encounters on the way, and explains what it means to take on a motorcycle ride of massive proportions. Always a traveler, and never a tourist - Sampath talks about the solitude of long rides, the journey into the inner self, and about exploration and discovery - in foreign lands, or within oneself.   Chapters   00:00 Intro and Follow-up from The Giving Tree  03:41 Motorcycle ride to ...
Half life show's first book club episode! Subu and Vikram go back to the basics and talk about a timeless children's classic - The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, and all the lessons we can learn from it at any age.  Chapters  00:20  Follow up  04:07  The Story of The Giving Tree 11:18  Unconditional Love and Materialism  17:00  Finding Contentment and Happiness  21:36  The bright side of life  26:18  Outro  Links Full TranscriptThe book...
Subu and Vikram look back at how 2021 went, create new strategies for maximizing 2022, discuss what really grinds their gears and list out the good and bad.  Chapters 00:00 Date System Nerd Out  05:31 Positives and Negatives of 2021  10:07 New Ideas for 2022  20:43 A Year of Focus  33:21 Books and Audiobooks  45:16 Podcasts  48:57 TV Shows  51:28 Outro  Links Episode Transcript Onepod.fm - Subu’s podcast transcription and search software Audiobooks Pier...
In this episode, Vikram and Subu discuss work-life balance using the analogy of four light bulbs. Vikram presents a holistic approach to defining the four light bulbs, and Subu describes how managing expectations and priorities within constraints has reduced anxiety and increased health and happiness.   Chapters  00:00 Movie Nostalgia 02:25 The Four Light Bulbs Concept 06:48 Subu's four lightbulbs 09:00 Vikram's four lightbulbs 16:30 Calibrating your lightbulbs 23:00 Prioritizing whats import...
How do you start a new project and make it successful? Vikram and Subu discuss starting the Half Life Show, and how they navigated challenges as first-time podcasters. They also share their experiences with technical blogging and open source programming, while identifying their past mistakes, finding strategies to beat inertia, and brainstorming ideas to sustain and grow a new project into something successful.  Links 1000 True FansBlack Earth - Subu's and Vikram's previous projectSubu's Tech...
Ever wondered what language you think in, or why you prefer subtitles in foreign films and anime? From Dostoevsky to Camus, what did we lose in book translations? Do you find yourself using multiple languages in the same sentence and will your children speak all the languages you do?  In this episode, Subu and Vikram explore the power of language in the emotions they convey, how we perceive them, and how it connects us to our past and the stories almost forgotten.  Links Transcript Chapters 0...
Should you be a helicopter parent and what are the signs of a good parent? Children are not playing enough! Are you expecting too much out of your school? Expensive school districts in US, how has COVID affected education? What are the  four planes of child development? Effects of early education in children, how teachers shape the future of kids, and modern education in India.   In this episode, Vikram and Subu discuss the education choices they face as parents, reflect on their own exp...
Subu and Vikram discuss the role of luck in science, career and their own lives  Links Episode TranscriptSurely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!The accidental discovery of viagraThe Unfair AdvantageBounce, Matthew SyedChapters  00:00 Intro 00:34 Wasabi and Babies 03:33 Did Feynman get Lucky? 08:30 Vikram's own aha moment 11:37 Purposeful Practice and Unfair Advantage 15:10 Getting lucky with Viagra 17:26 Good Friends and Lucky Failures 27:30 Cringey Metaphors 30:00 How Vikram and Subu met 33:36 Lu...
Vikram and Subu are heavy metal musicians disguised as tech nerds who obsess over living life to the fullest while balancing family, career and personal hobbies. In this podcast, they discuss a layman's approach to living a meaningful life, with anecdotes and inspirations from their own experiences. After realizing they spend half their waking lives at work, Subu and Vikram embarked on a quest to find ways to enrich their other half-life - the one they have control over and filled with things...


























