2019 in review

Another year coming to an end and this time, it is also the end of a decade. 2010s will be very special to me - I became a mom, identified my passion and learned more about myself. If 2000s was the decade I ran the rat race and followed the crowd, 2010s was the decade when I slowed down and focused on my priorities. My previous annual reviews are a reflection of that shift. 2019 is no different.

Self-reflection is a powerful tool and in the current age of distractions, we hardly invest any time in just being with our thoughts. On one cool January evening, I made this list of topics I wanted to learn more about. As I look back, consciously or unconsciously, most of the books I had picked up this year are inspired by this list.

Here's the list of books I completed in 2019 and quite a few (not listed) are in progress. Though I had set a goal to finish 40 books, I'm glad I was able to at least cross the 50% mark.

1. Notes for Healthy Kids by Rujuta Diwekar
2. Heartfulness way by Kamlesh Patel
3. Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
4. The Wellness Sense by Om Swami
5. The last gambit by Om Swami
6. The third curve by Mansoor Khan
7. The one-straw revolution by Masanobu Fukouka
8. Until the clouds roll by by Ruskin Bond
9. Parenting: Innocence to Inner Sense by Aarti Rajarathnam
10. The magic weight loss pill by Luke Coutinho
11. Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
12. Rusty and the magic mountain by Ruskin Bond
13. Atomic Habits by James Clear
14. Indistractable by Nir Eyal
15. Naan Nammazhvar pesugiren by Nammazhvar
16. Feel the fear and do it anyway by Susan Jeffers
17. Gut by Guilia Enders
18. The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton
19. Designing Destiny by Kamlesh Patel
20. Satvic Food book by Subah Jain
21. Reversing Diabetes in 21 days by Nandita Shah

On the learning front, I also participated in a couple of workshops.

1. Jago investor workshop on retirement planning and financial health. 
2. Rails workshop organized by Railsgirls. I couldn't follow through on this, as other priorities took over. But I know I can get started on Rails development when I put my mind to it.

Writing/Blogging continued steadily this year as well - 68 posts in total. Out of these, my personal favorites are these:

7 ways to reduce expenses through healthy eating

Conversations vs Connections 

How to plan for Nutritional Variety 

10 factors that impact on our energy levels 

Aim for holistic wellbeing

Review of packaged foods continued in 2019 but not at the same rigor as in the previous two years. I guess I have covered most of the popular packaged foods on my Master List. This is one area I have sort of deprioritized for 2020.

Apart from reading and writing, the other activity that I thoroughly enjoy is Public Speaking. The talk I gave at PayPal on packaged foods was a memorable one. Bhoomi College invited me again this year to give a talk on packaged foods as part of the food module in Sustainability and Holistic Education courses. It is always a pleasure to meet like-minded people at Bhoomi. 

Fear of failure/ridicule is something I seem to be not getting affected much off late. This has made me more open to try new experiments and experiences.

I tried something totally out of my comfort zone during the open mic event at my apartment - a 5 min standup comedy act focusing on packaged foods. The fact that there is humor/sarcasm in me came to light this year 🙂 On one bored summer morning in May, I thought I would try my hands at creating memes with the focus being food. I downloaded a meme creator app based on Tamil movies, created a few and uploaded them on Instagram. I thought people would dismiss them as mokkai (useless) but many wrote to me saying that they enjoyed my memes. Since then, I've been creating memes whenever inspiration strikes and I'm enjoying this process. I have created close to 100 memes this year and it's been such a fun experience.

As an experiment, I launched a 1-month program titled "Dejunk your diet" to help people eliminate packaged/junk foods from their diet using habits and behavioral changes. 6 people enrolled with me this year and I hope the program helped them to become aware of their eating habits and triggers. Due to logistic reasons and coordination efforts, I decided not to continue this program further.

I tried organizing a workshop in my apartment on the topic "How to read nutrition labels" targeted at children. Only one parent enrolled his daughter. It was such a disappointment and I remember calling my Insta friend one evening and polambifying (rambling) "What am I doing with my life" type questions. If you are reading this, thanks for listening, V!

Along the same lines, I organized a meetup in Chennai to discuss about the ingredients in packaged foods. 80 people voted on Instagram that they are interested but ONLY one person showed up. I'm thankful to her to have come all the way to meet me. Else, it would have been such a bummer.

A friend and I had also planned a workshop in Chennai, which we had to cancel due to few registrations. 

These experiences made me think a lot about my purpose and in the end, I arrived at the same conclusion that Gita taught us - "kadamayai sei, palanai edhir paarkaathey" (Do your duty, don't think about the results). 

On the professional work front, I did a small consulting project for a friend early this year. Around May/June, I decided to reapply for software projects and tried quite a bit looking through job opportunities. Most of them that came my way are full time, regular job openings. I was quite clear in my mind on the kind of opportunities that I want, based on my schedule. I almost decided that such flexible opportunities are no longer available. Call it serendipity - early this month, I found an interesting opportunity with a startup in a growing space that fits my requirements. I'm excited to learn more about the applications of Data Science and Machine Learning and this is going to be one of my core focus areas in 2020. That moment when I can use thalaivar's famous dialogue - "thirumba vandhuttennu sollu" ;-)

On self-improvement, I incorporated quite a few positive habits this year. 

I started doing weekly meal planning on a regular basis.

I started maintaining a habit tracker to track my daily habits.

After reading Digital Minimalism, I tried reducing my phone usage and set a specific time slot for using Instagram (the only social media where I tend to spend a lot of time)

I started maintaining a happiness journal to record moments of happiness in my daily life.

Though I followed through these habits for many weeks, I seemed to derail the moment my routine changes. I plan to be consistent with these habits in 2019.

On health and fitness, regular home-cooked food and Yoga practice continued this year as well. I cooked many new dishes though I didn't really keep track of them.

On the family front, we celebrated most of the festivals in traditional way. I want my daughter D to be aware of the traditions behind these festivals and it is my responsibility to ensure she has exposure to all of them. I enjoyed making various festival sweets and savories. This year, I conquered my fear of string consistency 😉 Gained good practice in making mysorepak and pori urundai.

Compared to 2018, we did travel quite a bit in 2019. We visited Chikmagalur, Vaikom (Kerala) and Yercaud. We did many one-day drives to places nearby Bangalore - Lepakshi, Antaragange, Nandi hills, Antaragange, Savandurga and Manchinabele dam. We also visited this place Indian Musical Experience in JP Nagar, which D loved it. For me, the most memorable one was the weekend trip to Gumalapura farm, organized by Bhoomi. And how can I miss the item that got checked off my bucket list - attending ARR's concert for the first time?

Overall, a memorable, balanced year for me. If I had to sum up in one line, "mysorepak podavum kathuppom, machine learning algorithms-um kathuppom".

Wish you all a very happy, healthy and bright New Year 2020!! May all your dreams and wishes come true!

Will do a separate post on my intentions and focus areas for 2020. Do take some time in the next few days to reflect back on the year gone by and plans for 2020. Having been doing this annual review exercise for years now, I can vouch for the positive effects it brings in.

Leading a disciplined life in 2020

Before I proceed further, let me state upfront that I'm quite far away from calling my life a disciplined one. But discipline is something that I constantly strive towards. This word "discipline" came into my life many years ago and I remember that evening sometime in Nov 1991. I was in 6th grade and I returned home with the progress report card of my second midterm exams. I had secured 2nd rank in class and my mom was furious. I was a 1st rank holder during the first midterm and Quarterly exams. I slipped to 2nd rank. In hindsight, this might all sound ridiculous, funny, does-it-even-matter etc. But let me tell you what my mom told me that day - "Discipline ee illa ippo ellaam. romba neram velayadikkittu irukke nee" (No discipline at all, playing a lot these days). My mom inculcated the competitive nature in me and her insistence towards 1st rank helped me in many ways during my childhood days. There are pros and cons to this parenting approach and I'm not going to discuss them here. 

She then motivated me to prepare a timetable for myself and allocate time for play, study, TV etc. For most of my school and college life, I continued this habit of maintaining a schedule. Though Dil Chahta Hai is one of my favorite movies, I don't like the scene where Sameer makes fun of Subodh (Pooja's boyfriend) for his rigid adherence to schedules. No, time tables are NOT boring.

Let's come back to the topic - Self Discipline. 

The dictionary definition states that Self Discipline is the ability to make yourself do things you know you should do even when you do not want to.

Warren Buffet says, "We don't have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest."

I came across this beautiful proverb in Tamil -  Manidhanai maattri amaikkum vidhi avanadhu ozhukkame (The rule that propels man towards change is his discipline). 

Luke Coutinho emphasizes discipline and consistency as two important criteria for good health and well-being.

There is a strong correlation between self-discipline and success in all aspect of our lives - be it our career, health, relationships and our personal growth.

As we are ready to step into a new decade, I wanted to highlight a few new trends introduced in the 2010s that are coming in the way of leading a disciplined life.

1. Proliferation of Smartphones - We are glued to our smartphones, right from the time we wake up till the time we hit the bed. Studies show that an average person accesses his smartphone 110 times a day. Any fleeting moment of boredom, we quickly reach for the comfort of our smartphones. There's hardly a minute of do-nothing in our lives. How did this habit got so ingrained in ourselves in just a matter of a few years? Let's look back at our lives at the dawn of this decade. For instance, in 2010, I had long commute times to work and I used to take BMTC/Volvo buses (shift 3-4 buses to travel one way) every single day. I used to either read a book, listen to music on my iPod or just look outside the window and be with my own thoughts.  Fast forward to 2019 - A few days back, I was on a BMTC Volvo bus and all I could see was everyone glued to their smartphones, engrossed in some form of visual stimulation.
2. Digital streaming platforms (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar) - Given the low data costs, we now have access to so many movies and web series at the touch of a button. Terms like "binge-watching" and "binge-racing" have become common parlance. Gone are the days when we would patiently wait for the weekly episode of our favorite serial. These new streaming platforms provide such instant gratification and push us towards watching the subsequent episodes in a matter of 3-4 seconds. We might have started with an episode for 20 minutes and the next thing we know, we are seated on our comfy couch for 2 hours and have watched 6 episodes. How do we ensure we don't succumb to these addictive behaviors? The need for self-discipline and setting rules for ourselves is the only way to gain control of our lives.
3. Availability of more processed foods - Although processed foods had started pervading our lives from the 1990s, they made inroads into common man's hands in the 2000s and 2010s. Most of these processed foods are designed to be addictive. Until and unless we set some ground rules for ourselves, we can easily get into the rabbit hole of getting addicted to packaged foods for the sake of convenience, taste and herd behavior. The fast-food chains have setup shop in every nook and corner of all cities and even Tier-II towns across the country. It has become so much easier to get a pizza than get a plate of paniyarams.
4. Food delivery services - In the 2000s and early 2010s, pizza delivery was the ONLY kind of food delivery service that was available. Thanks to smartphone penetration, numerous food delivery services are accessible at the touch of an icon, well supported by the ample funding by VCs. The way we think of food is changing in many ways. We order food, just because we are bored. We order desserts at random times, just because we crave something sweet or because we are upset. The fact that these food items come in cheap plastic containers doesn't seem to be bothering most of us. Convenience seems to be the top priority for every single decision, especially those that are related to food.
5. Shopping apps - The introduction of EMI and cash-on-delivery options on e-commerce websites, not to forget the SALE (with discounts galore) running throughout the year, we are constantly being tempted by offers and deals. We end up buying stuff that we don't actually need. Fast fashion with trends changing every 3-4 months and sale promotions emphasizing "refresh your wardrobe" / "update your wardrobe" ensure that our wardrobes are cluttered with clothes that we haven't worn more than 3-4 times. Clutter comes in the way of leading a disciplined life, causing stress and affecting our mental peace.

One might argue about the benefits these trends have brought in, but my main issue with these trends is how they can quickly derail our efforts into leading a disciplined life. I'm not blaming these technologies but it is our responsibility to be aware of our cognitive biases and behaviors.

If you believe in setting goals for the New Year, I would highly urge you to think about goals that can help you inculcate discipline, amidst all these distraction-causing trends.

A few ideas to get you started:

1. I'd watch ONLY 1 episode per day of this series I'm watching
2. I'd stop using all gadgets post 9PM
3. I'd start using my smartphone ONLY after an hour of waking up
4. I'd incorporate do-nothing minutes in my day
5. I'd just stay in the moment and pass my waiting time (in a queue for eg) instead of mindless scrolling through my social media feed
6. I'd schedule fixed time for social media and stick to it
7. I'd place a max of 2 orders per month from food delivery services
8. I'd pick up ONLY 1 pack of processed food during my weekly shopping
9. I'd buy clothes ONLY once a year during Diwali/Christmas

Do feel free to customize these triggers according to your needs and context. A disciplined life helps us in many ways:

1. Helps us to simplify our days
2. Helps us to differentiate between our needs and wants
3. Empowers us to focus on the essentials
4. Supports us in reaching our goals
5. Drives us towards mindfulness and being aware of ourselves

Do share your thoughts on how you are leading a disciplined life amidst these distractions.

Book Review: The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton

 

This year is turning out to be one of the best years, reading-wise. The books that I chose to read this year are such interesting, thought-provoking ones. As many of you might know, I'm a huge fan of Dr.Sivaraman. I love to listen to his talks on youtube. During one such talk, he mentioned about the book "The biology of belief" when he was briefly speaking about epigenetics. It is one of the areas that I wanted to learn about this year. 

The basic premise of Bruce Lipton's "The biology of belief" is that our beliefs/perceptions control our biology and that environmental factors play an important trigger in how our bodies react and respond. The author has taken an alternate viewpoint of the popular Darwinian thinking that our genes determine our life. 

He takes the reader on a fascinating journey in elaborating this alternate viewpoint and touches upon a wide range of topics, right from the cellular structure, genetics, environmental influence, signal transduction, quantum physics, the role of conscious vs subconscious minds, etc. The best part is that not once you feel overwhelmed by complex scientific terminologies. The author ensures that a layman reader can easily understand the whole point of view through the use of stories, metaphors and personal anecdotes. 

In the first two chapters, he explains the issues behind the widely accepted belief that we are subservient to the power of our genes. He writes,

"Genes are not destiny! Environmental influences, including nutrition, stress and emotions can modify those genes without changing their basic blueprint. And those modifications can be passed onto future generations as surely as DNA blueprints are passed on via the double helix"

The proteins inside our cell membranes sense the environmental signals and responds through cellular behavior.

"Receptor antennas can also read vibrational energy fields such as light, sound and radio frequencies. If an energy vibration in the environment resonates with a receptor's antenna, it will alter the protein's charge, causing the receptor to change shape."

He then correlates this understanding with the way how a computer chip works and the fact that similar to how computer chips are programmable, cells are programmable too. It was such an "aha" moment while reading about this inter-linkage. The "aha" moments continued to hit me as I progressed to chapter 4 on quantum physics. The author elaborates on the role of energy, good vs bad vibes that we feel and the effectiveness of energy-based healing treatments. The explanation of the role of histamine and the side effects of antihistamine drugs was just mind-blowing (Pg 76). 

The best chapter according to me is Chapter 5 that talks about mind over body, actions of the conscious vs subconscious minds and placebos vs nocebos. This one chapter is worth rereading multiple times, given the numerous insights. A few of my favorite lines below:

"The actions of the subconscious mind are reflexive in nature and are not governed by reason or thinking."

"Endowed with the ability to be self-reflective, the self-conscious mind is extremely powerful. It can observe any programmed behavior we are engaged in, evaluate the behavior and consciously decide to change the program...... The conscious mind's capacity to override the subconscious mind's preprogrammed behaviors is the foundation of free will."

"The human brain's ability to "learn" perceptions is so advanced that we can actually acquire perceptions indirectly from teachers. Once we accept the perceptions of others as truths, their perceptions become hardwired into our own brains, becoming our truths."

As a parent, I could totally relate to the final chapter - Conscious parenting. The beliefs we learned from our parents play an important role in our subconscious programming.  There are quite a few takeaways for new parents in this chapter.

"Let go of unfounded fears and take care not to implant unnecessary fears and limiting beliefs in your children's subconscious minds."

I cannot recommend this book enough. Such an eye-opener and a fascinating read!

Omega-3 fats and plant based sources of ALA

There has been an increased awareness of Omega-3 fats in the past few years. Media has been buzzing with multiple articles on Omega-3 fats, supplements and fortified foods. In this article, I have tried to summarize my understanding of this fat group.

Disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional. Do your due diligence before making any changes to your diet.

Omega-3 fats belong to the family of polyunsaturated fats (PUFA).

They are an integral part of cell membranes throughout the body and affect the function of the cell receptors in these membranes.  According to this source, Omega-3 fats lower blood pressure and heart rate, improve blood vessel function, and, at higher doses, lower triglycerides and may ease inflammation, which plays a role in the development of atherosclerosis.

The three main omega-3 fatty acids are 

• short-chain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)
• long-chain eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)
• long-chain docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)

ALAs are essential fats i.e. our body cannot make them from scratch and so we need to consume through foods or supplements.  The RDA (Required Dietary Allowance) of ALA is as below:

I looked into IFCT-2017 (Indian Food Composition Tables) and prepared this list of food sources rich in ALA, along with their respective values.

	Alpha Linolenic Acid (ALA) (mg per 100 gms)
Cereals
Quinoa	204
Bajra	140
Ragi	68
Saamai	47
Wheat flour atta	45
Amaranth seed (brown)	43
Pulses/Lentils
Soybean	1300
Black gram whole	601
Black gram dal	566
Rajma	550
Moth bean	240
Cowpea brown	207
Cowpea white	203
Green gram whole	180
Green gram dal	157
Dry peas	145
Bengal gram whole	117
Bengal gram dal	116
Green Leafy Veg
Drumstick leaves	446
Curry leaves	417
Agathi	407
Methi leaves	362
Colocasia leaves	335
Mint leaves	286
Parsley	255
Amaranth leaves, green	247
Mustard leaves	240
Spinach	220
Beet greens	207
Coriander leaves	169
Lettuce	134
Other veggies
Bean scarlet, tender (perumpayar)	227
Zucchini green	152
Cauliflower	117
Field beans	96
Knol kol	71
Zucchini yellow	71
Snakegourd	70
French beans	69
Cluster beans	63
Fruits
Wood apple	636
Sapota	125
Strawberry	112
Mango	90
Lemon juice	83
Apricot, dried	80
Banana	65
Avocado	62
Muskmelon	62
Condiments and Spices
Fenugreek seeds	1082
Cloves	691
Turmeric powder	377
Pippali	299
Pepper, black	258
Cardamom, black	197
Cardamom, green	172
Nuts and Seeds
Linseeds (flaxseeds)	12956
Walnuts	8710
Garden cress seeds	7484
Mustard seeds	3341
Pistachio	171
Gingelly seeds	120

Our body can convert ALA into EPA and DHA. This conversion happens in the liver. Research on Omega-3 fats is still ongoing and I couldn't find any conclusive proof on the conversion of ALA into EPA and DHA, as to how much of it gets converted. There are multiple factors that influence the ability of our body to convert ALA into EPA and DHA. 

• The higher the Omega-6 fats consumption is or the higher the ratio of Omega-6 : Omega-3, the lower the conversion is. Omega-6 is found mainly in refined vegetable oils, which is extensively used in fried foods and processed foods. The acceptable ratio of Omega-6 : Omega-3 is between 2:1 and 4:1
• Including foods rich in nutrients such as pyridoxine (Vitamin B6), biotin, magnesium and zinc help convert the parent omega-3 ALA into EPA and DHA

Fishes are a good source of EPA and DHA but they may contain mercury, heavy metals, PCBs, dioxins and other contaminants, thanks to severe degradation of the quality of our water sources.

The recommendation for vegetarians and vegans is to include algae-based EPA and DHA supplements. But my point of concern is the quality of these supplements, not to forget the high costs.

Being a vegetarian, I'm not planning to consume fish oil supplements. I don't plan to buy algae-based ones either. I plan to ensure my Omega-6 intake isn't too high. Using the above list of ALA-rich foods sources as a reference, I'll make sure my intake of ALA is good enough, and my body will take care of the conversion as per my need. This is my point of view.

Sources:

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/types-of-fat/omega-3-fats/

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Omega3FattyAcids-Consumer/

https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/omega-3-fatty-acids/

https://www.womenshealthnetwork.com/nutrition/omega-3-fatty-acids-benefits.aspx

The make or buy decision

After a long time, we (K, D and me) went out shopping on a Saturday afternoon. We had a clear intent of what we need to buy and we stuck to it (mostly!). It took a good 2.5 hours to shop for a few clothes and footwear for all of us. We didn't stop for our evening tea anywhere, instead, we chose to come home and I straight headed to the kitchen to make ourselves a strong cup of masala chai along with popcorn (made with dry corn, salt and oil). After 15 minutes, we were sipping tea and munching on hot popcorn.

This made me think about our decision-making process. How do we decide whether we want to make something ourselves or buy from a vendor? "Buy" doesn't necessarily mean products; it also includes services that we avail from a service provider.

There has been extensive research done on the "Build vs Buy" decision framework in the enterprise space. If a particular activity is closely tied to the "core" function of an organization, then organizations are better off building it themselves and taking complete ownership of it. If an activity is part of the "context" (activities that organizations need to do to stay in business), then they can choose to outsource to specialists/external parties.

I'm more interested to explore how these decisions are made by consumers. What factors determine whether to make it ourselves OR use the services of an external vendor? Is the "core vs context" model applicable for individual decisions? If so, shouldn't FOOD fall under the core category since it is a basic need? Why are we outsourcing/relying on food corporations to fulfill this basic need?

Now going back to my personal example. Let's take the case of tea:

Ever since we switched to using naattu sakkarai (country jaggery) for tea, both K and I don't seem to like tea made with white sugar. 

Making tea at home has become such a super easy task, given the years of practice I've had.

I can choose to add different spices that we like, and make it tastier.

In the case of popcorn, 

making homemade popcorn is so easy - the effort is literally less than a minute.

I can make it healthy by using less salt, cold pressed groundnut oil and good quality corn.

Also, it is super economical to make it at home. The multiplex cinemas are just plain ripping us off with their tub of popcorn priced at a whopping Rs.400 price point.

Let's take a moment to think about clothing. I have heard that people who knew how to stitch saree blouses always prefer to stitch their blouses themselves without seeking a tailor's assistance. They are clear about what fit suits them, the patterns, designs etc. 

I usually give my blouses to stitch to a tailor. Though she does a good job, her rates are extremely high - Rs.900 for a blouse (with lining). Sometimes, I take the material to Chennai and give it to a tailor there, where the rates are around Rs.450. I understand that the tailor invests her time, he/she has the required skill. Am I ready to invest my time to learn a new skill? How long would it take for me to learn?

I think the make or buy decision depends on the following criteria. We tend to make something ourselves IF most of these criteria are met:

• It should be easy, quick and less time consuming
• We should have the required skill and knowledge
• We possess the tools/technologies involved in making it
• We understand that the cost of making it ourselves is far less as compared to buying it from the marketplace
• Last but not least, we have the right motivation and interest levels to pursue the task of making it

To validate these criteria, I'll use an example from my life:

I give my family's clothes for ironing (pressing) to a service provider. Every Sunday, he comes home, picks up the clothes to be ironed, presses them and delivers the clothes by the end of the day. Now I know many people who iron their clothes themselves at home. But somehow, I have never taken up this activity.

1. I don't own an iron box at home
2. Though I know how to iron clothes, I have never really attempted it regularly
3. I have never done a cost-benefit analysis per se. I'm paying the service provider money to do this work, so I can use my time in other activities that I enjoy
4. I find ironing clothes to be a tedious, boring activity. People who do it themselves might disagree with me on this

It is the same case with cooking which I find to be an interesting, therapeutic activity. Some of you reading this might not feel the same way. 

There are certain specialists who are experts in their own field. We have been trained to use their expertise whenever needed.

What if all of us are trained on certain essential life skills? If not at an expert level, we can at least raise to a state where we know our way around. Some of these essential skills are cooking, sewing, managing finances (taxes, investments), growing a vegetable garden, basic carpentry, handling electrical fixtures etc.

The whole idea of whether one should be a generalist or a specialist is such a fascinating area for me. I'm yet to conclude which one is better, but from my personality, I believe I love to be a generalist with multiple skills at a decent level THAN be a specialist with 1-2 skills at a mastery level.

This post is just a random collection of thoughts on various topics. I just wanted to dump it all, so I could get some clarity.