Krish Ashok : Techie, Author & Musician

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 enjoymentBreadth & 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

Twitter : http://twitter.com/krishashok

His book, Masala Lab

Amazon : https://www.amazon.in/Masala-Lab-Science-Indian-Cooking/dp/0143451375Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/54968807-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 RageTumblr : https://tambrahmrage.tumblr.com/

A TEDx talk he did in 2011, around hobbies

YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZnI_A6GSYE

References made during the show:

Ashok and I wrote some parody songs together for Cricinfo long back. Here’s an example

Cricinfo : https://www.espncricinfo.com/print/story/510333

Ashok featured as a guest on Amit Varma’s The Seen & The Unseen podcast.

https://seenunseen.in/episodes/2020/12/20/episode-204-a-scientist-in-the-kitchen/

TED video of the guy who builds a toaster from scratch

TED : https://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toaster_from_scratch?language=en

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

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/getting-meta/id1573882113

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdGF0aWMuYWRvcmlsYWJzLmNvbS9mZWVkL2dldHRpbmctbWV0YS54bWw

IVM website: https://shows.ivmpodcasts.com/show/getting-meta-y2rb-RtSzWNdzZ8i99R2Q

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