Happy New Year 2015

New year wishes to all my readers!
Every morning, as a sort-of ritual, first thing I do is go through news like people used to do in old times, albeit in digital format. I started first morning of the year with a news article which describes Count Leo Tolstoy's way of living. The article is called secret to to a happy life. I was glad to see the article in a mainstream media. It wonderfully describes the values I wish to imbibe in my ways of living. I'll quickly summarize the 7 ways:

1. Keep an open mind: Willingness to change your mind based on new experiences
2. Practise empathy: Tolstoy displayed an unusual capacity to empathise by stepping into the shoes of people whose lives were vastly different from his own. Crossing the fence to the other side.
3. Make a difference: taking practical action to alleviate other people's suffering
4. Master the art of simple living: Tolstoy rejected all organised religion. He adopted a revolutionary brand of Christianity based on spiritual and material austerity. He gave up drinking, smoking, and became a vegetarian.
5. Beware your contradictions: Tolstoy famously preached universal love yet was constantly fighting with his wife. Moreover, the apostle of equality was never able to fully abandon his wealth and privileged lifestyle. His personal transformation, if not complete, still deserves our admiration.
6. Become a craftsman: Tolstoy recognised that striking a balance between mind and body was an essential part of his creative process. He kept horse-plough,scythe and saw, cobbling tools. If Tolstoy were here today he would no doubt suggest we get some craft into our lives rather than grant so much of our leisure time to tweeting and texting.
7. Expand your social circle: Best way to challenge our assumptions and prejudices, and develop new ways of looking at the world, is to surround ourselves with people whose views and lifestyles differ from our own. 

Personally, I am not fond of new year resolutions and shit like that but this article reminded me to at least focus on some of the things which I thought I should do but have not been doing. So I will try to reinvent my craftsmanship skills, befriend more non-scientists and non-engineers, disown the stuff that I own. I should also spend less time in front of black mirror. Unfortunately my work involves working in front of black mirror but I can minimize other trivial stuff.