7th September, 2026

What am I working on?

Keeping it simple this week. This is what I made -

What am I reading?

“I hope we never lose sight of one things - that it all started with a mouse.” - Walt Disney

I recently finished reading Disney Comics: Around the World in One Hundred Years and it was such a nostalgic experience. The kid in me was totally gleeful turning those pages. Mickey, Goofy, Minnie, Pluto, and the rest were some of my favourite cartoons to watch as a kid and meeting them again through this collection felt like reconnecting with old friends. The collection showcases characters, stories and adventures brought to life by some of the most creative Disney writers and illustrators across the decades. I particularly loved the decade introductions by David Gerstein that provide fascinating context and help readers appreciate how Disney comics evolved alongside changing times.

Stories featuring Bucky Bug, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Daisy and Donald Duck, Recess, Lilo & Stitch, and others round out the collection (in both short comics and long form) making it a rich representation of Disney comics through the years. If you grew up watching these characters and shows, this book is well worth a read. Across a hundred years, Disney comics reflect changing artistic styles, storytelling techniques and cultural values. I am planning to write a separate blog on this.

What am I watching/watched recently?

I watched a couple of short animated movies last week. Here's some of the ones I really liked

• Disney’s Paperman is an Oscar-winning short animated movie that just shows how much can be packed in less than 10 minutes. The story is about a lonely office worker who serendipitously meets a women at the station and is instantly captivated. Before he can speak to her, she boards the train and leaves. But fate has other plans. Later, he spots her in a building across the street from his office window. Trying all ways to get her attention, he starts folding paper planes and sends them towards her window. All attempts fail and she vanishes once again. Call it magic, call it destiny - they are guided them towards each other and finally unite. Rendered entirely in black and white with the only splash of colour being the red lipstick mark on a sheet of paper, it is such a heartwarming watch.

  

• Dinner for Few is a 10-minute animated short film by Nassos Vakalis. It is a dark sociopolitical film about capitalism, systemic greed and exploitation. The story shows anthropomorphic pigs (reminded me of Spirited Away) at the dining table constantly eating with the cats on the floor are being fed on scraps (shows how the rich consume all the resources while the masses are struggling for survival) There is a lone worker relentlessly producing the output that sustains the entire system. Midway, their greed runs the supply dry and the cats combine to revolt against the oppressor. However, the revolution fails to break the pattern and the next generation mirrors the old one. What caught my eye was the chains that bound the pigs under the table; tightening its grip to ensure that no single person breaks rank or allows the resources to trickle down to the lower classes. Dark, unsettling and uniquely designed characters - again a must watch.

  

• Burnout is another great short animated film I watched last week. It shows the self created psychological weight of our passion turning into obsession - our endless pursuit to achieve greater and greater things. Passion starts with a small spark (literally shown that way) for the artist - it is joyful and motivating and represents the reason they began creating in the first place. It also shows how seeking validation and recognition has become a part of the creative process adding more pressure on the artist. As skills improve, so does the ambition and the spark grows bigger and bugger asking for "MORE". More work, more perfect, more recognition. The tiny sparks turns into a giant monster and consumes the artist. Ultimately, it is less about failures but more about the pressure artist puts on oneself. A beautiful animation with some food for thought.

New thing I learnt lately?

You would have seen a lot of collabs and partnerships between brands and creators. To assess their effectiveness, I thought of a 2×2 framework that segments content based on performance. The percentage thresholds can be adjusted based on your category benchmarks and overall content performance to get a relevant segmentation. Use learnings from 'Best Content' to create more of such content, boost 'Silent engine", avoid "No-go" and improve "Vanity trap" content.

I came across an article that mentions that there is not a single kind of mindfulness skill/activity for all biases. Different biases arise from different psychological mechanisms, so they respond to different mindfulness skills. The article introduced two schools of thought:

• Ellen Langer: Langer defines mindfulness as actively noticing new things in usual life, questioning our assumptions and seeing situations from different perspectives. She emphasizes on curiosity and novelty seeking behaviour.

• Jon Kabat-Zinn: Zinn defines mindfulness as paying attention deliberately by closing our eyes, accepting the situation and letting it go. Rooted in meditation, his approach develops awareness of our thoughts and emotions.

The one line summary I got from it was: For biases caused by narrow thinking/perception follow Langer's technique and for biases arising out of emotional discomfort follow Zinn's technique.