March/2023
long time no see:)
Finally, finally, I was able to gather my thoughts together after a long period of their constant wandering. Sometimes it’s hard to even think of what you think and when it comes to conveying it to someone else, things are getting more and more difficult.
Forget to tell you that I’m glad you’re reading it, enjoy and let’s get started
March/2023
For me, spring was always the loveliest season, which can be explained by my genuine loathing towards gray colorless mornings, which are quite common during the winter.
March was full of bright and memorable events, as it suits the first month of spring. And now I can summarize the whole month into three key things: breaking down the WBP (World's Biggest Problems), unconventionality, and friends.
I assume that I could forget something, but I hope you won’t get mad at it… Sorry to interrupt, continue, please
But before we move on to that I want to recall the second TKS global session, specifically this activity. We were given three prompts to write our answer on the TKS logo, which consisted of many squares (each person had its square): what's one thing that you learned about yourself since joining TKS, and in what way have you grown the most and what's the best thing in being a part of TKS community. The scale was insane, and the connectedness that I felt that moment with other people was one of the most emotional experiences I had that month.
WBP
If you ever thought about how all of these innovative solutions are made, you might think about an unusual approach or about a brand-new perspective, which is not wrong. However, before everything else, comes a pretty simple principle that eventually will save a lot of time and resources: in order to create a solution for something, you have to know the clear and actionable problem of it.
In the last few weeks of March on TKS session we were focusing a lot on root cause analysis of WBP. A lot of existing problems cannot be solved with just a sway of a magic wand, because they're out of our reach and unactionable. That's why the tactic to approach the solution is to find any types of factors, economical, natural, technological, political, or social, that contribute to this big unreachable problem and work from there. Here the job is to uncover the things that are hidden under the surface by doing root cause analysis and applying three essential principles: inversion, first principles thinking, and second principle thinking.
Our problem was World Hunger. At first, you may think that's an easily understandable problem, however, if you give yourself a couple more minutes you won't be able to come up with anything that will be feasible enough, because you don't know what's the actionable problem yet! To narrow down, we used first principle thinking, which means constantly asking one of the most important questions you can ask in your life - “Why?” and after determining what can be your “because”.
Once you’re satisfied enough with what you have it’s time to find a clear and comprehensive sequence of triggers that you’re willing to look into more. And as for the next step, is to outline where one solution can be effective in multiple domains.
Unconventionality
Exactly from unconventionality, we started our TKS journey 7 months ago and it was a big surprise, but a delightful one to return to it again.
Unconventional thinking is what drives technological development and can lead to breakthroughs in numerous areas of life from social changes and art to the way robots are produced. It requires taking a risk and will to embrace uncertainty.
In the TKS session, we were asked one peculiar question that can be answered from many perspectives: “If you’re the only person on the whole planet, can you be unconventional?” My immediate answer was no. And the argument for it was that just the term unconventionality refers to uniqueness and creativity and often alludes to escaping from ordinary approaches and questioning established norms while following curiosity and seeking new perspectives, and it cannot be done when you are the only one and have no one to be compared with. But anon I realized that you can have a look from a different angle and your answer will change.
You can be unconventional in this case when a comparison is between present and past you. You can grow in comparison to your past self, using knowledge from gained experience and viewpoints that were never brought up before.
Cool, isn’t it? Well, I think that's all for now about the unconventionality that I’ve managed to write for you. By the way, check out some of my other takeaways on it from another discussion.
Some takeaways from MotW (mindset of the week discussion) on unconventionality:
a long-term goal should serve you as a North Star, showing where to go, but not showing how to get there (because there are always multiple ways to get to the needed destination) and define not your career but you, as an individual (helpful, with diverse skills, whatever your North Star is)
deconstruct → reconstruct
three key mindsets behind unconventionality: seeking diverse perspectives, curiosity, first-principles thinking
keep exploring and embracing new things, while constantly reinventing yourself
changes in our identity are constant and inevitable things, and they should not be perceived as crises, but accompanied by excitement. Nonetheless, to be afraid is okay, and what helps you get through is having faith in whatever you believe (science, humanity, your capabilities, nature, etc.)
when we talk about unconventionality, the first things that come into our minds are uniqueness in approach, creativity, and open-mindedness. But it doesn’t mean there’s no space left for discipline and certain methodologies. They don’t confront each other, just the opposite they do capable of existing simultaneously, contributing to each other
Friends
I don't want to write a lot of things on this topic. I just want to take a moment and appreciate the fact that I do have amazing friends and I should not neglect it, especially in those moments when I need someone to speak with. Sometimes when a really hard period of your life comes you forget how many good things you already have and how many trustworthy, great friends you can rely on. In March of 2023, I met with old friends and we recalled a lot of beautiful moments that we spent, hardships that we carried together, and bright, full of memories stories. And after that day, I felt such a relief and positiveness, because of the realization that the life is filled with so many small, but truly good things on your path, when you teach yourself how to find them. I'm more than grateful to have new friends coming into my life thanks to TKS and the other opportunities, and also for being able to explore new things and open new doors. And as long as I do so, I believe that life will be a fulfilling and happy one.
Positive vibes only…
Longevity focus
For these couple of months, I was working on my longevity focus and after I was done with my learn part and already could operate with the basic knowledge that I gained from it, I had to figure out what I wanted to do for my apply. I was wondering a lot and what should I focus on next and in the end I decided to pick up a topic that is not the newest one but it's one of the problems that existed for a long time and find the most innovative solutions that where proposed to solve it. My topic was the treatment of type 2 diabetes, a life-threatening disease that is closely connected to the aging process, and the usage of nanoparticles in order to make an oral administration of insulin possible, which will positively result in a patient's compliance and a person's readiness to bear such a state.
If you want to learn more about this, check out the article that I published→
Now I'm working on my review where I'm researching metformin as the anti-hypoglycemic agent that carries great potential as an anti-aging drug because it directly impacts 9 aging hallmarks, amongst them telomere attrition, stem cell exhaustion, genomic instability, and more. I’m planning to give an overview of the current state of research, cover the clinical application of metformin and highlight some of the controversial topics that currently exist around this drug and its usage.
Hey! Thank you so much for listening to my story, hope you enjoyed it and took something for yourself, but leave a piece to the rest. I would be more than glad to receive any feedback from you and feel free to reach out to me.
My email: 4e4otkakathrine@gmail.com