Abhishek Asthana continues to pick losing twitter fights. 🤣🤣🤣
Immediately added a couple of paragraphs to my "Mutation of Modi Mavens" draft. Like I said last week, have been invited by an American publication to write a 3000 word piece on the sanghi propaganda machine. Decided to make Abhishek Asthana the main narrative hook for it.
Like my WSJ profile last month, I can't reveal the name of the media outlet this will be appearing in until it actually appears. It's a work in progress with a flexible deadline. Meant to be a longform. Plan to finish it in a couple of weeks.

You'll see when it's out.
Final sneak peak. But this was a very productive morning writing session. 😁🤓
Latent Dirichlet Allocation! Damn autocorrect. This is why you never share first drafts. 🤣

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More from @gauravsabnis

5 May
If he at least had the best digital solutions, it could be understood. Like in NYC, a QR code based system for the vaccine worked really well, without being forced down people's throats. For record keeping, not gate keeping.

This uncle is still in early 00s mindset and ability.
Also this lie being spread by NN fanboys that "even in US, you need to give ssn and photo id for vaccines."
Absolute blatant lies!
Here's how tech works in normal countries. In NYC, if you have a phone or computer, go to the website, fill out the information, under penalty of perjury (as in, if you lie to jump the line, you may be prosecuted later, AFTER the pandemic is done, but if you honest, you cool).
Read 5 tweets
5 May
Yo bangalore quisling MP, how jobless are you that you're going around playing Sherlock Sherlock in the middle of a pandemic? People aren't suffering enough that they have to suffer you? And what is this bed management software trumpeting? Dude, it's 90s tech.
One Thejaswi is Bangalore Quizzing
One Tejasvi is Bangalore Quisling
@udupendra
So much of bangalore life seems to be either talking to or about Nandan Nilekani like he's some combination of Tony Stark and Bran Stark. Dude set up a decent labor arbitrage business, people. And his grasp of what is latest and relevant tech seems shaky and dated.
Read 5 tweets
5 May
Oooh I'm going to plug one of my favorite longforms of all time from historian Jill Lepore! I mentioned this in detail to my graduating students. 😍
newyorker.com/magazine/2021/… ImageImageImageImage
The tldr is it's because we were TOO efficient at hunting and gathering. 😭😭😭😭
I love my job. But it's just my job. It's very meaningful to shape young lives and fun to turn my social media obsessions into academic papers. But it's just my job.
Read 6 tweets
5 May
I came across this going through some old links. I remember when this news came out, our worry was "uh oh, we live just 5 blocks from Bellevue! Hope we don't have to quarantine!"

Oh February 2020 Gaurav, I have so much to tell you! Image
The reason I was looking up news about covid in Feb 2020 was that I was scheduled to take a class of 32 undergrads to Munich and Prague in March for a week as part of a full 3 credit course. But Italy had started a lockdown. With the worst outbreaks in the north near Munich.
As professor, I was the main point of contact. Students and parents (paying $$$ for the trip) started asking me about precautions we were taking, insurance coverage, etc if the virus spread to Bavaria when we were there. I took the questions to my school leadership.
Read 12 tweets
4 May
Nailed it. Remember when people praised the late Sushma Swaraj when she was External Affairs Minister for personally responding on Twitter to some pleas for help from troubled Indian nationals abroad. I was like, what exactly are consulates doing then? There's phone, email!
India has never even tried to build public services and systems for everyone. They are only built minimally, for elites like me. When the minimal systems don't work, we usually know someone who knows someone. How we elites coasted through demonetization. But this...Is unusual!
So much of living through crises in India is about being "atmanirbhar" - self-sufficient! This government, which is usually up in everyone's business, even promotes it as a national virtue. Even as it seeks to deflect the blame to actually self-sufficient foreign countries.
Read 6 tweets
4 May
So after making a few phone calls and sending a few aggrieved emails to people I know close to powers that be about the patent protection thing, here's a gist of the explanation I got. Which is at least a nuanced and thoughtful one, not the least "profiteering" related. ...
Whether you agree or disagree, this is the gist.
This is very much like a choice between a horrible situation and an even more horrible situation. And they're going with the decision, for now, that they think is the less horrible situation. Which is protecting patents.
These mRNA vaccines are a miracle of sorts. Their effectiveness as well as the speed with which they were put out. But that was made possible in large part by a massive behind the scenes effort by the CDC, FDA, Pfizer, Moderna, and the Biden admin's experienced Klain team.
Read 13 tweets

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