Author: Saurabh Garg

Wk 31-25 – Weekly Notes

Updates from Week 31 of 2025.

10 AM.
Versova Starbucks.
AK’s spot!

I dont know how this came to be called AK’s spot. Like most things, it would have started with me sitting at one specific place, and then my people finding a place around me. AK being AK would’ve picked one opposite and then like each thing, this became a habit.

So, am AK’s spot. And here is my recap of what probably was one of the most stressful and yet exciting weeks in a long long time. For starters, see this…

Screenshot of Whoop data from last week.

Ok, I am still listening to Ray.

Today, it’s this version. On loop. I encourage you to play this while you read the rest of the post. Can’t stop thanking Starbucks for introducing me to this voice and track.

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I must find a way to do these unplugged gigs. You know, like NPR’s Tiny Desk, Sofar, David Letterman’s and all that.

Anyhow. Let’s go.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order.

A/ WTF to write?
So, letting you all in on a secret. I copy-paste the secions an headings and content from the previous week’s post. Then I edit ALL the sections execpt this one. And then I take my time to go thru my notes and lessons and and all that and I add those here.

Today when I opened my notes, I realised that this week was so busy that I was unable to capture a lot of things. And that means that I dont have a lot of things to write here.

But we shall prevail and let’s see what I write.

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B/ Linkedin Shoutouts
Starting this week, I will give shoutout to at least 3 people each Sunday on my linkedin.

This week, I gave a shoutout to Nikunj, Roohi and Nipun. See here.

In case you need me to talk about you, you know who to reach.

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C/ Hard things that don’t scale
I am often reminded of doing things that don’t scale and now that I am in the middle of doing things, I am learning the deeper meaning.

Things that scale need time to put rails and then, well, scale. The things that dont scale are built to get to the market the fastest.

And that nuance is what makes a LOT of difference.

And no, I am not advocating one over another. You gotta pick what works for you and what you want to work on.

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D/ Raanjhanaa’s alt ending
The neck of the woods that discusses films is going berserk about how the producers have used AI to recreate the ending of a film.

There are notes from people about how the director was not consulted, how the nostalgia induced by film now seems cheated, how the consumers deserve more. Etc etc.

Before I write more,

No, I havent seen the film.
No, I dont care about the fandom.

But what I do care is that AI is here.

And especially in disciplines like filmmaking that have been gatekept for long. After code, this is the one that needed disruption and is getting disrupted. I love that I am around to see this revolution. I just hope I was bang in the middle of it.

Oh, and couple this with Shekhar Kapur’s Warlord. And with attempt from C4E folks of doing a feature with TNKS (see this). And while editing, just saw this.

All I can say is that change is coming. And either we embrace it. Or we die a slow, painful, agonising death.

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E/ Founding Creator Roles and JDs
In this video, Balaji talks about why EACH startup needs a Founding Creator. And wow, eyes opened. I’ve remained on the sidelines for too long. And I need to now advice the same to all my younger friends.

This is one of those life changing advices that need no more words to be split. I’ve been guilty of remaining a private person for too long and I need to change that. I wish I was more adaptable while I was younger!

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F/ F1, the Film
I havent had the time to write about F1 yet. I will probably sit on it today.

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G/ New kids to learn from
I am starting to feel the need of finding new people to learn from. In a different era, this was SoG (see this). But with time, that got faded. And now I have no one.

SoG and my life’s work

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Thing is, lately that supply of new, fresh, young talent has dried down. I need to build another group / cohort or something that I can be a part of, to learn new things.

If I had more time, I would teach (each teaching session requires a lot of prep). And since I dont have that, I want to rather build some group. Any ideas anyone? How are you doing this? How do you think others are doing?

I do have some groups that I run where I overshare. Here’s a list.

  1. SG’s Braintrust
  2. TIL
  3. 2025 Mentees (private link)
  4. Taste for Makers

And I am sure there are more. But I need this structured manner in which I can learn from young ones.

Come on, universe! Help me! tw

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H/ Safe Word.
Was reminded of this. See this. And yes, inspired by Simon Sinek.

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Ok, so words are not wording. See A. And see this. May be next week.

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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 31.

I would love to highlight this quote from Om, from this post about Meta’s MSL.

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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?

I had two large things when I started this year. Book 2 and a yearly plan (that I’ve been writing for a long time. This year I couldnt).

Book 2 – no action.

Yearly Plan – I dropped it a few weeks ago.

And starting today, I am adding a new large life objective. Health. More in the next few lines.

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☑️ So, what did I get done last week?

This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. More awareness. Tiny actions. I am also building a new section on this weekly review. But the metrics remain off the chart. So, a -1.

Meru. Was busy. Did some things that showed outcomes! A 0. Yay!

C4E. No action from my side. 0.

Brand SG. No action. And no action does not mean 0. It means a -1.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. I started with poker. So a step in the direction. But a 0.

So the overall score is -3.

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📊 The tracker from the last week

Here is the tracker.

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Ya ya.
Far fewer greens.
I will fix it. Especially cos health seems to be a recurring theme here.

I need to find the cause and then eliminate that.

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📖 Interesting Reads / Views from the last week

I have added views as part of the reads from this week onward. This is cos a lot of my “reading” now happens via podcasts / YT videos that I consume while in commute.

Here’s a list.

Oh, while each of these links is interesting and important, I am highlighting some.

  1. Microsoft Research’s note on what jobs are in demand and the ones that are gonna go out. Here. If you are the one who thinks will get impacted, please talk to me and I will try to help.
  2. The Philosophy of Sridhar Vembu (of Zoho), according to Notebook LM. Via this.
  3. Om’s MASTERpiece on Meta, Zuck and MSL. Here.
  4. Balaji talks about why EACH startup needs a Founding Creator. Here.
  5. This is a very interesing post on Reddit about how to build wealth as a young person. Here.
  6. Cheaper by the Dozen. Here. Funny that English language paperback version is not available. The Marathi edition is.
  7. An interview of Brian Chesky where he reflects on his IPO conversation. I love him! Also, I love the quote – “your culture is often forged in the darkest moments”.
  8. This thread by Tim. On investments and money.
  9. Taleb on Stoicism. Here. I love the guy. Sad that he’s blocked me on X. This video reshaped how I thought about stoics. I realise that I have much to learn! In fact, you must subscribe to Picking Nuggets – one of THE best channels on YT.
  10. Mahesh Murthy’s interview. TBH, I havent watched this in full and I know he may not carry the cleanest reputation. So that.

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🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates.

So, I’ve been skipping this for the last few weeks. I am skipping this week as well. Havent had the time TBH to work on this. Again, this week is tough but I will get to it soon.

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🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ Health

Today on, I am introducing a new categoery. Health.

I will track it here as a seperate section.

A/ So few things that are at the top of my mind.
I am 42. And probably with a body of a 50-year old. And thus I need to work on it.

I am not getting younger and since I love the idea of living, I really want to do something about it. See this photo that a friend sent me.

I’ve been tryin to be 31″ since 2012. We are on the 31st week of 2025. 13 years. And I was supposed to have climbed Mt Everest by 1 Jan of 2026. I cant climb my bed most days.

So that.

B/ sgHealth
I plan to share some updates about my life and all on this WA channel. You are welcome to join. Here. Expect frequent updates. At least once a day.

C/ Crowdsourcing my health
I’ve often said and believed that getting healthy is easy for rich people. And I’ve never had the money. So, I could stand on the sidelines.

And I can no longer do that. So, to test my thesis, I approached some friends with an offer. Give me 10K each for 3 months. If I can get tangibly better (health wise), I will goto even more people!

While the two people who’ve agreed to help me can pay 10K today, I’ve told them that I will have lost 2 KGs by end of August (I was 91.3 while naked) on 30th July. If I am 89ish, I will take their money for OND and see how it goes.

D/ Use of AI
I wrote this following query to help LLMs help me with my food.

Hi, you are my food ordering guide and companion.

Each day I will give you places where am hanging out at. I need to know what should I order there which is low in calories and high in protein, with high satiety. 

Please note…

1/ Give me a list of gluten free, low carb, no daily, no oil foods that I can eat as someone living in india.

2/ Please know that I am a diabetic, lactose intolerant.

3/ I want this to be made without oil. Not even ghee, no butter.

4/ Please know that I am gluten intolerant and I am lactose intolerant.

5/ I dont eat non-veg. I can eat eggs, though. 

Here are more details..
a/ Cooking methods: I dont want no oil. I am okay with steamed, boiled, grilled (dry), or tandoor-cooked items.
b/ Nuts and seeds: I am okay with almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc
c/ Legumes: I am comfortable with dal, chickpeas, black beans, etc. but I will try to give you more details as we start.
d/ Sweeteners: complete avoidance of sweeteners

When I give you a restaurant name, please browse the internet, find menu from reputable sources, analyse macros of promising menu options, find 5 most suitable menu options, and suggest a reasonable 1 line simple request for each which I could convey to the waiter or chef to either lower calories, increase protein, increase satiety of that particular menu option

For each meal, I want to eat portions that are at max 400 grams. And I want a lot of fibre and protein. Followed by fat. And then if in case, carbs. I am ok with spicy.

Finally, before recommending, check your recommendation against the 5 things that I have told you.

Also, I will tell you what I fianlly ate. I will also upload the photo. keep a tab of the time am eating, whwat am eating, macros and all that. And then give me a weekly report.

Ask me any questions that may help you do your job better.

Thanks!

Let’s see what comes out of it.

So, that.
Let’s see if I am any better.

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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Stress.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Numb, Blur, Fast, Uncool, Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

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Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30

PPS: Please do point typos.
Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

Wk 30-25 – Weekly Notes

Updates from Week 30 of 2025.

Jul 28, 2025, Monday, 8 AM
I am not in the best of health but I have to write. Am trying to be consistent. And since I couldnt write yesterday, it had to be done. Also, if I dont write now, I will not be able to and that means I will have to skip. And that’s not happening.

So, lets go.

As always, some sections that I will talk within.

Oh, and listening to this. On loop.

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💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order.

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a/ Anshika + the muscle to ship.
Read this.
See this.
And I wish I could show you a 100 things that AK shipped in the last few days. I need that energy around me. The kid has been so good with juggling all balls the last two weeks. It’s incredible. She’s eating healthy, going to the gym, showing up and all that.

That’s it. Nothing more to say.

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b/ Session at IIM Mumbai
Took a session for some folks at IIM Mumbai. These folks are from some MSME board and this was a continuation learning program for them. I didnt really enjoy taking the session but I think it was interesting for them. I could see that they were engaged. Just that it was tough to get folks to open up and talk.

Oh, I showed these two videos to the participants.

Also, I realised that I love teaching. And for more than anything else, the questions that come my way are the ones that I cherish more than anything else. This slide from Vishal Khandelwal on Dr Feynman defines the why and how…

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I need to find more opportunities to teach. But then I dont want to not work either. So, the conundrum. Sigh.

But I would love to teach nonetheless. Come on, universe.

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c/ Chatter on longevity
Since I got myself a FOXO membership, I’ve been reading and thinking about longevity. Plus I read this long piece on Bryan Johnosn. And this online chatter on twitter. See two tweets.

It’s incredible that all it took was one person to literally spawn so much chatter. It’s probably these unreasonable people that move moutains and push us forward.

I need to learn how to become unreasonable like that. Any clues anyone?

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d/ Poker
Have put about 2000 bucks on online poker the last few days.

More than anything, I find it insanely enjoyable. If there was no chase of largeness or greatness, I would just do this! I’ve played micro stakes cash games and some micro stakes tourneys. I continue to suck at cash games. In tourneys, I’ve got to ITM a few times.

Oh, I also trained a chat on chatGPT into becoming my poker coach. No, its not helping. Cos I’ve lost most of the 2K I had put in : D

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e/ Events
Wrote this on Twitter.
Reproducing it here with minor edits.

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Overshare coming.
I’ve had one of the most transcendental moments of my life.

Last time I felt like that, it was in 2021 and I was en route to the Everest Base Camp. The sight of the sun rising from behind the clouds, mountains, early in the morning left me awe struck.

Coming back.

I normally dont cry.
I escape.
If I have to, I walk in the rain.

But today, since I woke up, I’ve cried twice. Both to the music of ARR. I dont know if it’s caused it or it was the last straw on the camel’s back. You know, causation or correlation. A lot’s been happening lately, and just say whatever is happening is not routine for me, and I know a lot is bubbled inside of me.

So, this happened as I stepped out of the shower. I had put on some music. And the algorithm of YT played ARR’s Berklee piece. And it played Kun Faya Kun.

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The first time, I was listening to the aalap about Ali (see from 6:28 for about a minute). The aalap is followed by one of the greatest lines ever written about spirituality, bhakti, devotion, submission, ask, request or whatever you want call it.

It goes, “mujh pe karam sarkar tera, araz tujhe, karde mujhe, mujh se hi riha”

This “mujh se hi riha” is like the epitome of self-actualisation. I dont know if I will ever be there. But in those few seconds I didn’t have pain, didn’t have a want, dint have a worry, dint even probably have a self. I was probably what they call “the one”. I will never know.

The second time was when YT played Vande Mataram after a bit. And this happened around the lines, “tu hi zindagi hai, tu hi meri mohabbat hai, tere hi pairo me jannat hai, tu hi dil, tu hi jaa” etc.

This time, the lines were not important. Important was the way the two performers looked at ARR.

See this first.

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These ladies looked at him not once, but probably for all the time they shared the stage.

In their eyes and body language, and the entire being, I saw awe, devotion, respect, want, love, submission and everything else that you can imagine. All for ARR.

When I was growing up, I’ve always wanted to have that North Star to submit to. To guide me home. Or a large super nova to suck me towards it (astronomy nerds, please tell me what is the strongest force that pulls you? Black holes? Supernovas?). Never found one.

Rather, I took comfort in many many stars, all shining bright, and I navigated through those. I still do. I am glad and grateful that I have many folks who’ve agreed to be my guiding lights. You know, shoulders of giants. I am nothing without them. I would have never seen what I’ve seen if I didnt have their shoulders to stand on.

And as I grow up and start to think about the meaning of life and the universe and my life of potential (jiska aachar bhi nahi dal raha) etc etc, I realised that I have this insane need to help others see the light.

I dont know why.
I dont know if I am capable.
I dont know if I am good.
I dont know what it even means.

But that.
Phew.
Glad I wrote.

Oh, and no I dont think I let out 100%. I will need more such sessions. I dont know when it would happen next time. The last one was almost 4 years ago when I was in a different funk (life’s much better now and I am thankful for that). But I know I need at least one more such outpouring.

And yes, I am ok.
100% there.
I haven’t lost it.
I still want to make a billion dollars (should upgrade to trillion) and impact the lives of a billion people. And I still want chaand taare and all that (thanks, SRK, Abhijeet and others).

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f/ long term games
C read TNKS and reminded me about the thank you page.

And it stuck me that the page dates back to 2013 or 2012 or something. And even though it’s been 10+ years, I am still in touch with a lot of those folks that I’ve credited in the book! Talk about long-term games. Naval would be proud of me.

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g/ Gravity Crew. Mrs Mohan. Anna and others.
Recently, Anna’s son got married. And the team from Gravity went to attend the wedding. While I was aware of it and had seen some pics, I was amazed to see a pic of Mrs Mohan and Anna on Roshan Abbas’ insta!

I have nothig but fond memories of the kindness of Mrs Mohan while I was there. She operated with grace, took care of the entire mad house and was one of the glues that kept the “greatest force known to mankind” ticking.

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h/ what ChatGPT / Claude thinks about me.
The other day, I asked some LLMs what they thought about me. Here’s what they had to say. Here – Claude. Perplexity.

I am embedding a few things…

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i/ the second screen
So, I use a second screen at home. And I think, the additional monitor is game changer. To a point that I am thinking that I will get another monitor (so, two extra screens).

But then, I dont work from home. Or may be I will start to work from home? Actually, the thing is, more than work or home or screens, I dont want to be tethered. I dont want my things to end up owning me. So, I want to take a hard look and rethink. The easy answer is to avoid attachment in case I have to leave. But the investment and the thinking that goes alongside.

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So that!
Ok, moving on.

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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 30.

I would like to post the following photo on the blog. This is the homepage of a website. 100% marks for the copy. Thanks to Nimchan for letting me know about this. I love that my community tells me about things that I need to know about.

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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?

Book 2 – no action. I will not drop this. I know I am gonna be busy I think I love the feeling of writing things. So that.

PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago. This is after probably 10 years that I dont have an yearly plan!

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☑️ What did I get done last week?

This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. No action. I will give myself a -1 on this. I am starting a new regimen from today. Let’s see how is the next week.

Meru. Was busy. But I dont think I moved the needle as much as I would have liked to. -1.

C4E. No action from my side. 0.

Brand SG. No action. And no action does not mean 0. It means a -1.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. I started with poker. So a step in the direction. But a 0.

So the overall score is -4 yet again for this week.

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📊 The tracker from the last week

I did not fill this in this week.
So, no updates here.
Not even sharing the blank one.

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📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

Few interesting reads.

  1. From Seth Godin. Here.
  2. From AK. Here.
  3. About Bryan Johnson and pursuit of immortality. Here. Oh, I want to do such long-form, deep-dive interviews. May be on The Optimist’s Manifesto?
  4. This from DHH on life and death. Here. A quote from in it, “That life is long enough if you spend it well, but spending it well requires embracing life’s shortness.”
  5. This from Jason. Here. On craft. On fulfillment. On meaning.
  6. This is not a read per se but I see this video often.
  7. This tweet from Erik. Here. I love this line, “My favorite relationship advice is to do whatever it takes to become more secure and positive-sum.”

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🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates.

So, I’ve been skipping this for the last few weeks. I am skipping this week as well. Havent had the time TBH to work on this. Again, this week is tough but I will get to it soon.

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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Numb.

This went past by too fast. There was a lot of work and very very long days at Meru. Need to find a way to streamline those.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Blur, Fast, Uncool, Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

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Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26, 27, 28, 29

PPS: Please do point typos.
Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

Wk 29-25 – Weekly Notes

Updates from Week 29 of 2025.

Jul 20, 2025.
Sunday.

I normally start writing this on a Friday evening. And by Saturday I have a vague draft in my head. And then by Sunday I polish it. Today, I am sitting on this at 7:15 PM on a Sunday. So, I will not be able to do reviews and edits. And thus, if you spot any errors or bugs, you know what / who to blame.

Also, this week has been the fastest since the beginning of time. Days blurred into each other and it came to a point where I lost track. I wanted to take a breather on the saturday (very unlike me) and I planned for it. But I couldnt. So, I havent had the time to reflect.

Without further ado, lets dive in.

Oh, am listening to this – Forever My Friend.

I discovered this at a Starbucks. Far cry from the world of Terence where says, and I quote…

Parker’s a young kid, pretty good on the sax, gets up to play at a cutting session, and he fucks it up. And Jones nearly decapitates him for it. And he’s laughed off stage. But the next morning, what does he do? He practices. And he practices, and he practices with one goal in mind: Never too be laughed at again. And a year later he goes back to the Reno and he steps up on that stage and he plays the best motherfucking solo the world has ever heard. So imagine if Jones just said “Well, that’s okay Charlie. That was alright. Good job.” Then Charlie thinks to himself “Well, shit. I did do a pretty good job.” End of story. No Bird. That, to me, is an absolute tragedy. But that’s just what the world wants now. People wonder why jazz is dying. I’ll tell you, man – and every Starbucks “jazz” album just proves my point, really – there are no two words in the English language more harmful than “good job”.

Anyhow.
I heard it.
And I love it.
And here it is for your viewing / listening pleasure.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order.

1/ The F1 Film
I am yet to watch this film. VG has told me to see this a 100 times and I havent been able to find time to do so.

Each person I talk to seems to be raving about it. And I havent had the time to see the film. Let’s see when.

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2/ The #TNKS film
Staying on films, its a well known secret that I want #tnks to be adapted into a film.

I’ve even written a script. I shopped it around a bit and I realised that no one is as interested in it as I thought they would be. Plus I didnt want to invest time, energy or effort into chasing and pushing. So, the project went on a backburner.

But lately, with AI, I think it may be possible!

Naman and Vishal have taken my bait to accept it as a challenge and work on it. They’ve even made a teaser. See the teaser here.

What do you think?

I’ve given them a 6 month window to see if we can make a film out of this. The best case scenario? We would have a film. The worst case? They would learn.

So that.

Ready. Fire. Aim. FTW!

3/ Walking has been a challenge.
I have said this multiple times and I say it again. Mumbai and India is not built for walking. I know people who do it despite the dust, heat, strays, traffic and all that. And no, I am not those people.

While in a different country, I can easily get 10-12K steps in. Here, despite all the concious effort, I cant get more than 6-7K.

I know folks in Bangalore and Pune and Goa and the hills find it easy. But again, I am not there and I dont see myself there either in the forseable future.

But then I want to be fit and till I snap out of my slumber to start lifting weights, I need to start walking. Any tips / ideas anyone?

4/ Figo Mag
Balram showed me a copy of this magazine (see it here – Figo Collective) that a couple of people put out. Love it.

Reminded me that I’ve wanted to create something tangible that people can touch and feel and play around with. Brought me to another point that I told C while walking around. People who chase one singular passion all their lives end up creating things that move you so much that you start questioning the meaning of your life and all that. Just that while you are in the questioning zone, you are comparing your life of a generalist who’s going wiht the flow with someone who’s chased things with a singular passion!

I have three images for this. Here.

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5/ AI experiments
I tried to learn n8n and I found myself struggling with it. And, its not a great feeling. to bes honest, I dont want to learn how to code but I want to be able to take advantage of things. Especially these tools that are now lot more accessbile to us. The things that enable us to do more!

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6/ Speed and Urgency
Life is anything but predictable. So, sooner you do things, better it is. And I am unable to rally people around me to run with a certain speed. Even when I push for things, I’ve seen that I am unable to bring about a change. I need to learn how to be more convincing.

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7/ Writing Cohort
As part of Meru, been running something for active seniors where am assisting them in writing their biographies. I have one person right now and its a brilliant place to be. Each interaction teaches me new things, makes me challenge my existing notions and at the same time enriches the repotoire of my awwareness.

One of the lessons from a session was to not hoard books. I was told that since there’s only little time, you will probably not re-read some of your favorites and thus its better to give those away and help people discover your favorites.

Today, I met Parth for lunch and gave him a couple of books.

Oh, fun fact, when I met him, I told him that I was once fascinated by Kurutoga pencils and I could see on the Amazon page that I bought one in 2018!

PS: In case any of you wants your elders to write their biographies, please let me know.

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8/ Health.
Multiple concerns.
More spots. More headspace.
Seem to be forgetting a lot. See this.
Unable to control what I eat. Wont talk more.

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9/ Personal Brand
I have to find a way to build my personal brand. I think in the times we are alive it has to be in shape of video. And may be text. For someone who’s hated his face all his life, this is a tough one.

With Adulting, I have started to release some of my words. I need to now accelerate it. I want to start doing things like MFM where they routinely get to talk to interesting people. I have the machinery and the meachnism and all that to manage the release. I just need to shoot!

Come on, Mr Garg!

Maybe I will ready fire aim at this and record some. The only times I have is towards the evening, post office hours. I want to cram in workout, reading, experiments and all that in it. I will have to find a way to record these too. Adding to my TDL for the week.

Let’s see when.

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10/ Three Cups of Tea
Datar told me about Three Cups of Tea.

I will save you the effort of clicking. From wikipedia…

The book’s title was inspired by a saying Haji Ali shared with Mortenson: “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family…”

The point is, recurring games with recurring people.

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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 29. The one I want to post on this blog is…

Source: Twitter

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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?

Book 2
ISTG I want to pick this again.
I dont know how.
I have way too many things happening to think about this.
May be I will drop this as well?

PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.

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☑️ What did I get done last week?

This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

PS: I have skipped this for the last few weeks. I HAD to bring it back this week. So, things that I work on (in order) are…

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. No action. And I’ve not had the best last few days. I will give myself a -1 on this.

Meru. Moved the needle a bit. However it is not enough. I need to do more. I will give myself a -1.

C4E. No action from my side. But things seem to be ok there. All credits to folks at C4E. So, a 0.

Brand SG. No action. HAVE TO PUT IN A LOT MORE EFFORT HERE. At this time, I will give myself a -1.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. Nothing. So, a 0.

So the overall score is -4 for this week. Need to buckle up.

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📊 The tracker from the last week

I missed this last few weeks. This past week I have been deliberate in filling this in. Here we go…

The first couple of days were good. I slept well and had great recovery. And then life happened. And then work took over. And then it went downhill. I’ve also had many more days in the red / yellow zone compared over others!

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📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

Couple of reads.

1/ Seth Godin on Terms of Service.

2/ Naval on Arena. He says, “So the right way to learn is to actually go do something, and when you’re doing it, you figure something out about how it should be done.”

3/ From Sahil Bloom -A very useful list of things that you could immediately act upon, especially if you are young.

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🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.

Skipping this week as well. I will get back to this next week.

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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Blur.

This went past by too fast. There was a lot of work and very very long days at Meru. Need to find a way to streamline those.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Fast, Uncool, Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

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—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26, 27, 28

PPS: Please do point typos.
Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

Wk 28-25 – Weekly Notes

Updates from Week 28 of 2025.

12:28 PM
Jul 14, Monday

I am writing this on a Monday (and not on a weekend). In an attempt to ensure that there’s continuity. I really want to be consistent and even if I am late by a day, I want to be der aaye, durust aaye.

Also, this will be a little different from other weeks – simply because I am short on time. I have given myself a 25-minute window to talk about this. And I will lean on to my notes.

Listening to this as I type this. And this.

Let’s go.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order. And for this week, not in any particular structure either.

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A/ The best and the worst of humans and our behavior is visible not in our day to day. But in adversity. And on flights. The entitlement, rudeness, want to cut queues and all that.

While on it, I want to mention that EVERYone MUST see Love Actually. And this scene. The monologue is probably one of the best pieces of writing ever. I wish I could write like this. Hats off, Richard. Oh, fun fact. Richard Curtis also wrote Notting Hill, apart from other stellar films.

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B/ I havent used my laptop at all in the last few days. To a point that am making typos and having a tough time type. Which is ok, tbh. But still. I can’t even remember how I start my day. I dont know the apps I open on a day to day basis. I dont remember the bookmarks that I want to open each day. I dont know which shortcuts do what. Grrrr.

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C/ Remarkable is not remarkable at all.
Saw a couple of people use it. And I was not impressed. I liked the form factor and the thinness and everything. But I dont like it enough to buy. I love the e-ink. I love the conversations that it can start. But I dont find the utility and price point marriage to be a good one.

Here’s the thing. This is one of those products that I wouldn’t buy even if I had the money.

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D/ Each time I am abroad, I think to myself, why am I not living in a different country? I know the world is talking about how India is the future and all that. But I also know that I want to experience another life in an alien environment.

And, I know that I am firmly on ground, in India for another 24 months at least (if not forever) but I really have to be not here for a few years.

To be honest, it will remain a want from what I can think of.

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E/ Walked an average of 10K steps over the last week.
Ate in moderation (I think).
Sleep was all over the place.
And I still gained weight!

Recovery over the last week.

Steps from the week gone by.

So, I would say it was a pretty good week in terms of effort.
But outcome was zilch.

Oh, and I need to lose like 25 KGs. 

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F/ Need to become a lot more atmanirhbar
This trip I realized that the ones you can count on, even despite their assurances, will not come thru.

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G/ Paid for quality and reliability.
I was working on a project and I realized that if you pay for quality and reliability, you may end up making less but you would sleep better and you would be happier.

I thus need to ensure that I find a way to pay top dollar to top talent and then get them to do top work. And while they do that, add the layer of reliability in that. And life can be good.

The only challenge would be when the outcome and quality is subjective, as it happens a lot in the kind of work I do. So that needs to be seen. Let’s see when and how.

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H/ Projects business 
Realised yet again the goods and the bads of the life spent working in a projects business. Will probably do an adulting podcast with AK on this.

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I/ Filmmaking and AI
AI can now help do films FAR faster and maybe this is the time to scale up that piece. At least the TNKS bit.

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I/ The want of Apple’s AirPods.
God knows how long I’ve wanted to get myself a paid of AirPods. And God knows how tough the last few months have been. And thus I havent been able to get myself one. And I dont know when this toughness will end. So that.

Reminds me of that old-age Mumbai adage – how do you know you are doing well? You start to live towards the South and start to occupy large spaces. On the other hand, am moving northward and moving to smaller spaces.

So that.

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J/ Tesla in India
Tesla is opening their showroom on the 15th. And I am not invited. Sigh. Must work hard to get to a place where I am invited to better parties.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 28.

The one I want to post on this blog is…

Source: Unknown.

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☑️ What did I get done last week?

This is a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

This week I dont want to update this. I didnt really do anything tbh.

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📊 The tracker from the last week

No tracker this week. I will be back next week.

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📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

No reads.

I will be back next week.

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🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.

Skipping this week. I will get back to this in the week of 14th July.

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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Fast.

That’s the world I would use for the last week.

This was probably one of the fastest weeks of my life.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Uncool, Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

.

—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26, 27

PPS: Please do point typos.
Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

Wk 27-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes and thoughts from Week 27 of 2025.

Morning!
Of afternoon. Or evening. Or whatever time you read this at.

This week and the next week’s edition will be not as detailed as I would like them to be. I am on the road and may not be able to carve time to reflect on how I spent time. But an edition nonetheless. You know, progress > perfection. So, yay!

So, the H2 of 2025 is here.

This has been one of the most “interesting” years.

Interesting from multiple lenses.
Exciting.
Challenging.
Full of changes.
One of the rare years when I didnt do my regular yearly plans.
But then I went with the flow and learnt a lot.
I even saw a large change in my personality and decision making (you know, from people person to ideas person). I am sure there is more.

While I want to write about this year, today is not the time and here is not the place. Right now I want to publish this weekly note.

Oh, I am listening to this as I write. By Twin Strings and Raghav Chaitanya.

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Ok, lets go!

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order.

1/ Mann Ko Bhaya to Accha, Na Bhaya to Aur Bhi Achcha
I saw this first as a status message of Hareesh Sir. And then I read more about it and reaslised that this is by Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Salute to both the men.

Over time I have started to try and internalise this. And I think I am successful to some extent. And it has been one of the most liberating ways to live life. I no longer think about the good or the bad. I think of things without attaching any emotion. Guruji from Vipassana would be proud.

Of course I am yet to build that in to daily practise but I try on a day to day basis. And I am lot more about not attaching the emotion and outcome.

PS: Lol, Mr Garg. See point #9.

Oh, if Marcus was the kinds to write Hindi poetry, he would’ve probably written this.

Any how.

The point is, mann ko bhaya to accha, na bhaya to aur bhi achcha.

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2/ From Chaand Taare to Kutumb
If you’d had met me a few years ago and asked me what my trip in life was, I would have said…

Saari daulat saari taaqat
Saari duniya par hukumat

If you live under the rock, this is from this song.
And if you dont know, in one of the shots in this track, SRK is actually passing by what would eventually become Mannat.

But lately, my want of taaqat and hukumat has changed to…

Sai itna dijiye, jaame kutumb samaay,
main bhookha naa rahoon, sadhu na bhookha jaaye

This is by Kabir.
And this has been the cornerstone of my life and decision making in a while.

This implies that rather than having all of it, I want enough to take care of myself and my village. This also indirectly implies that I will reduce my wants (not needs) and I will try and help my people to do more.

Oh, and this epiphany happened when I was meeting AP. More on our interaction in a bit (point #8). But this is what defines me now.

Make of it what you will.

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3/ Its expensive to be poor
I read this somewhere once that its expensive to be poor and I have now seen this in action. If you are rich, you can “buy” time and use that to do whatever.

Here’s an example – say you have to travel between Mumbai and Delhi. The poor (aka middle class) will probably take the train and invest 15-18 hours for this. If you are better off, say me, you would take a 2-hour flight. You may spend another couple of hours to reach the airport and check-in and all that.

Just because you can afford the flight, you saved 13 hours.

Now, thats where the imagination of most people will end.

Indulge me a bit more.

Imagine you were uber-rich. I am talking SRK level rich. You could take a private plane and save another two hours.

And then if you are even more rich, say Ambani rich, you can question the very reason of travel and call whoever you want to, to, to your place and save all the time.

Now, extrapolate that for everything. Food you eat, healthcare you have access to, people you meet, education you get, opportunties that come to you, access to private deals and everything else.

Get the drift?

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4/ Posture
I’ve realised that I need to fix my posture.

I have this lingering pain in my back all the time. I think I can blame it on sitting hunched over my laptop for like 42 years. I really want to fix this.

So, from today on, I will ensure that my back is ALWAYS stuck to a support structure. Or it is straight. As I write this, my lower back hurts and I have some giving me a backrub!

And as I edit this, my back is hurting but I am resting it against a backrest at a cafe that is blasting AC air on my face at 18 degrees. Wow!

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5/ WSOP
WSOP is on as we speak.

I REALLY want to get the ME Bracelet some day. And I know that I dont have a lot of time left. A, age. And B, AI. I mean its probably a matter of time (unless already) before AI-enabled and coached people come in and with superhuman intelligence start to whoop asses of poker players.

In fact, it would be interesting to see KidPoker take on some AI bots. Has this been tried? Adding to my #todo

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6/ Aadmi Ka Zeher by Srilal Shukla.
It’s after a while that I’ve read a whodunnit.

And I enjoyed it. Buy here.

Looking forward to a Jeffery Archer that I took from Ankit last week.

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7/ How to write your autobiography
As part of learning more about active seniors (for Meru), I’ve been running tiny experiements.

This week I started with a small one – to help active seniors write their autobiographies.

Now, this is tough.

For a simple reason – I have not lived the experiences they have. Plus I know that I am not the most effective communicator. And I know that I have not helped other write an autobiography. Yes I have ghostwritten a few. Yes I’ve written a lot of books. But I have never “taught” anyone to write an autobiography.

So, lets see how that adds up.

But then, this a also new thing that am trying and I am very very excited about it! I’ve had one session so far. Let’s see how the next one goes.

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8/ Akanksha Pandey (AP)
I know of AP for a while now.

I first met her to see if we can work together. At the time we couldnt make it work. But she is one of the smartest young people I know. And I had to stay in touch. And we did.

So, I met her in the last week. And I realised that AP’s great IRL as well! Here are some notes from our meeting…

  1. I asked her to look at “couples” like [Bonnie + Clyde], [Shilpa Shetty +Raj Kundra], [Donna + Harvey] and others. The point? Large things get built when you are with someone for long and have shared madness for things.
  2. The Godfather and his principles of living life – loyalty, frienship, winning people.
  3. 1000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly
  4. Sex and the Cash Theory by Hugh
  5. Kunal Shah’s Forbes interview

I know these links without nuance and context wont be of much use to people reading this but I wanted to share here. And I am sure there’s a lot more but these are what I recall from the top of my head (and from my notes). Maybe some day I will edit this and add more.

But meeting AP has to be one of the highlight of the week so far.

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9/ Respect
This week, two of my fav kids crossed lines.

In two independent places.
At two different times.
Now this is a tough one to write and I will not.
But I want to catalog it here. More on my echochamber.
Also see point #1.

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10/ Deepak Ravindran (DR)
Lemme start with a disclaimer. I dont know DR personally.

However, he’s recently started a new startup (Kirana Pro) and it’s been all over the news. But this post is not about that. This is about how he’s running his personal brand. You just can NOT miss it. The corner of the internet I spend time at, I get to see and hear a lot about him. A lot means, A LOT.

And naturally, like most people I am enamored by and want to get to know, I followed him across socials. And then I reached his WA group where he and his buddies chat with each other.

And, O.M.G.!

The group opened up another dimension in the brain. A lot of chatter there is techbros nerding over the new things. I am unable to understand a lot of things there but the rare things I can fathom, I love it. Each post there is a lesson (to a point that a lot of saves in the photos from this week are from his group). Each chatter there is about building (some are delusional as well, but well…).

Ok, the point is, I need to surround myself with more people like that.

Bas itna hi.

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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 27.

The one I want to post on this blog is…

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Made me think hard.
To a point that my head hurt.
Or may it did cos I was on a long flight. Lol.

I dont know what my myth is. But I know what my myth is not. And that’s a good place to start. I need to now work towards finding it.

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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?

Book 2
No action.
I am thinking, should I drop this?

What do you think?
PLEASE let me know.

PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.

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☑️ What did I get done last week?

This is a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

I may not have a lot to add this week (and the next) but here is a report nonetheless.

At this point, the following things are important to me and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. No action. 0.

Meru. Same as last week. Tried to move the needle. But not as much as I would have wanted to. So, a 0.

C4E. No action. 0.
Next week on, I will remove this from this tracker.

Brand SG. No action. 0.

People. No action on this either. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. Nothing. So, a 0.

So the overall score is -1 for this week, like it has been for the last 2 weeks.

Trends from the previous weeks: -1, -1, 3, 0, -4, 0, -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.

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📊 The tracker from the last week

This is the tracker for the last week.

All the amber is becuase I am on the road.

The week was better in terms of steps, sleep, food and recovery. But was terrible in terms of mood. Hope the coming week is better.

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📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

No large inputs here. I did read a few things but I dont have the time to update those. I will get back to this section once am back on ground.

In the meantime, the best place to get these updates is via my TIL WA group. It is inspired by Sunanda’s fabulous book, TIL, and on this WhatsApp group, I aim to post VERY VERY VERY frequently. Like MULTIPLE times a day. About things personal (rants, overshares, thoughts etc), what I read, what I want to think about, what I need help on etc. Join here.

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🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.

I will skip this section this and the next week. I will get back to this in the week of 14th July.

From previous weeks, here are things that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories…

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker. No action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (Will stop tracking these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
    • Adding films
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Speak better!
  5. Money (adding this on Jun 29)
    • Passive income

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Uncool.

That’s the world I would use for the last week.
Wont talk too much here but it was not the coolest week. The good thing is that this happened after a long long time!

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

.

—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26

PPS: Please do point typos.
Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

Wk 26-25 – Weekly Notes

Weekly update from the 26th week of 2025. This has Saurabh Garg’s notes, thoughts, reflections and everything else.

9 AM, Jun 29
Listening to this as I write.

The halfway mark to the year is here. Normally I would do some sort of analysis on how the year was, where am I on my goals and all that. But this time I did not work on the year plan and thus I dont know where am going. I do know a few things – that I was supposed to be a billionaire by end of this year. And I was supposed to have climbed the Mt Everest. And I was supposed to have impacted a billion lives. I am FAR from all three. My networth is negative. I am the unfittest I’ve ever been. And lol on impact.

However if I look at it from other lenses, I think I am ok. In fact I continue to be divinely discontent. I am ok with what I have. And I would love to have a lot more. I am surrounded by family and a few friends who continue to wish me good. I live life on my terms (a lot of it, if not all). I believe I make a meaningful contribution to the ones around me. And I think I’ve made progress as a human being as well. I am still guided by the seven vices but I think I am more aware and I see some action on the right side.

Ok, let’s go.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order.

1/ Meditation
I want to restart with it. There was a time when I could do upto 60 minutes each day. I think it was around COVID when Naval asked folks to do 60 minutes of meditation each day as soon as they woke up. I am not sure. And no, I dont want to go back in the history and check. The point is, I want to build this again. I will start with 10 minutes of Headspace and then see where it goes.

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2/ Justh’s new track
Here. No, I am not a big fan. Unless the track grows on me with time.

PS: It was important to capture it here cos I am a fan and I want to support.

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3/ Saw a play about Manto’s three stories around friendship
I love Manto as a writer. So much so that I even produced a podcast (thanks to Mudit and Anamika for lending their voices). So when I saw this poster, I had to go see it. And am I glad that I saw it. The highlight was the story of Mammad Bhai.

Multiple things happened while I was there.

Here’s a list.

3a/ Made me reflect on my friendships.
I spoke to Vivek about it. And I realised that the root cause of my inability to seek friends is the Heen Bhavana I have deeply embedded in me. I dont know an english equivalent of this. But that defines me. In fact, as I was reflecting on what Vivek told me, I could pin point a time when this Heen Bhavna got stronger. It was a rainy evening where all my friends were hanging out at some place in Powai. I was going through a VERY tough time financially and I wanted to avoid meeting (why spend). But I was emotionally blackmailed into going. The dinner that was to happen at home was moved to a random restaurant and I had to tag along. Lot of stupid alcohol and food was consumed and after paying for the bill, I didnt have money to even travel back home. And I walked for 2 hours. I know this must be life story of a lot of people and I speak from privilege. But this day broke me. And I am still trying to recover from that. So that.

3b/ Saw Naseer Saab in the audience.
Was reminded me the time when I actually sat in his drawing room, trying to make a film with Anshul, Smita and Shikha. Ofc that never panned out. But I do wish I had taken a more proactive role in how I managed things back then.

Also, I was unable to walk upto him and say hi. I know he wouldnt have remembered me – he meets a million people each day and my interactions were very limited and happened a few years ago. The lesson for me is that I ought to have a personal brand that makes a Naseer Saab come walk to me. And no, I am not coming from a place of pride. But from a place of having more opportunities and better experiences. You know, like Naval says, if you are famous, you get invited to better parties.

So that.

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4/ Conversation with Rimjhim
I met Rimjhim as a potential colleague. I want someone to work with me and help me do more. Someone recommended her. We talked. But we realised that we may not be a fit for each other. Nonetheless, I decided that I want to stay in touch with her. And then we decided to do a podcast.

I recorded it yesterday. And I LOVED how she managed that conversation. I wish I could ask questions like that. She REALLY made me think about a lot of things that I would otherwise not think. I am so so glad that I did that chat with her.

Must find more people like that.

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5/ Definition of Good Friends
The last two-three weeks have been tough. Because I’ve had to let go of some people. And in most cases these were friends. And I was unable to explain to myself that if I love them, why would I let them go.

And then I realised that the job of a good friend is to not just mollycoddle people. But show them the mirror, however harsh it may be. And then help them get better. I want to practise radical candor in each of my interactions. And that.

Also, this is far-cry from where I have been in life – that all your mistakes can be forgiven. I want to get to a point where I am an ideas person (and not people person). You know, family over sports team over village.

And yes, I am WIP and it’s important for me to capture this for my people. Afterall, the only people I have are the ones from work.

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6/ Middle of my own storm
Someone sent me this and I was BLOWN by it.

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7/ Reading
Prak would love this 😉

So, I was at Ankit’s place last night.
And he said that he was gonna give his books away.

This is the man who’s got THE BEST taste when it comes to reading and all that. So, if he’s doing a giveaway, he would probably have a great collection to part ways with. I may or may not participate in it but he gave me two Jeffery Archer paperbacks.

Once I was home, I read a chapter of one of those. And I am wanting to go back to it, even though I am writing.

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8/ Abundance with Food as reflection of insecurity
The other day I was talking to someone about why I always order more than needed and I want to always have some stuff to eat at home. That person, lets call them A, told me that it is probably because when I was growing up, I dint have enough food on my plate.

Now, this is factually incorrect. My parents ensured that we had enough food on the plate all the time. I mean, comparatively. We didnt live in luxury but in our middle-class home, there was everything we wanted, just that we had to wait and make choices.

May be A was hinting at my mindset. I’ve grown up wanting things that are out of my reach and all my actions are inspired by that chase.

9/ No Swiggy / Zomato
Staying on food, I have deleted online ordering apps from my phone.

No, not to save money. But to avoid snacking.

I want to make it hard for me to snack. I want to make it hard for me to eat random things at random hours. I will hate it for the first few days but I think I will get to it.

And I want to pick my food from places that I know will do a good job of making it (none comes to mind as I type this). I will make the effort to walk to a place to eat.

And I will work towards getting my own food. No, not cooking but getting someone to help me. Multiple people – Rohilla, Sonam, Ashi have volunteered but I just dont like the idea of a functioning kitchen at my home.

Lets see what I do over the next few days.

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10/ Saurabh Shukla
The number of people who’ve come to me and told me that I look like a fitter version of him is incredible. I hope to meet him some day.

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11/ How to get ahead in life?
This has been a recurring theme of questions that I’ve got from a lot of folks over the last few days. I think the answer is in being reliable, choosing action (over words) and thinking long-term.

I dont know why am posting this here. But came into my head as I was writing this.

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12/ CynLr on WEF
If there’s one highlight of the week, it would be this.

CynLr is a startup based out of Bangalore where they are reimagining what manufacturing could be like in the future. I’ve spent a lot of time working for them. While I dont work with them anymore, I continue to be a cheerleader and supporter. In fact, CynLr continues to be one of the stickers on my laptop.

Gokul and Nikhil are irrational, hardworking, focused and forces of nature. I love them!

So, Gokul had told me YEARS ago that he will be on WEF at some point in time.

And he is now!

Even though I had literally nothing to get them to this place, this feels like a personal victory. There’s nothing more I love than seeing people I care for win.

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13/ Kevin’s ideal end state.
I am in awe of each thing Kevin does. A few months ago he posted about Ideal End State. I read it and I decided to make a document for that. I revisited it and it reminded me why I started what I started. Made more notes. So that.

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14/ Freedom
Enough said.
If there’s one word that I want to stand for, it would be freedom. In conversation with Rimjhim, many words came out – freedom, adventure, curious, people-chaser, movement (harkat) and more.

If I had to pick one thing that would define me, it would be this. Freedom.

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15/ PD’s birthday
If there’s a second highlight of the week, it’s PD’s birthday.

I can never explain my relationship with her but I know she’s an important part of my life and personality.

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16/ Yatin Sangoi‘s show on RD Burman
Saw Yatin’s show. This was the second time I was seeing it. And like the first time I saw it, I was amazed. To a point that I am inspired to help more people build shows of their own. Let’s see when.

But there are many more takeaways. Here’s a list.

16a/ Anil Kapoor, Robin Singh, Saurabh Garg.
In many of the tracks that Yatin showed, there were Anil Kapoor and Jeetendra. Now, when someone makes a list of most successful actors of their times, Anil or Jeetendra would never show up. But they were consistent. Always. In fact, these folks are what they call, mild success.

Same for players like Robin Singh. He would never make it to any list. But he was consistently there. Read this (I wrote this a few months ago). Again, mild success.

Same with me. I will never be on any list. At least from the things that I’ve done so far. But from a lot of metrics, I am a mild success.

And I want to change that. I no longer want to be one. I would do whatever I can to be a wild success.

16b/ Fandom (for RD and others)
Yatin’s entire life seems to be dedicated to taking RD’s work to masses. I met Harshit there. A large part of his life is to take Hindi as a language to more people. Palash has a podcast where he talks about obsessive passion of people and how they take large risks. The Manto play I saw seems to have done by someone who’s passionate about the work of Manto.

The point is, some people get so obsessive about some things that that becomes their raison d etre. And that I think helps them build world class things.

In my case, I dont know what am obsessively passionate about. I am interested in way too many things. I like experimenting. I like the chase of the new. I love exploring. And may be this is why am a mild success at best?

Ok, moving on.

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17/ Saw M for a bit yesterday.
Yay!

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18/ Micro-Drama
I think the rules of filmmaking and storytelling are being rewritten by this new format that seems to have find new audiences. I will explore more on this in the next few days.

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19/ Life Straw
Got myself a Life Straw Go 2. Get your’s here.

Added it to my tools of trade page.

Yeah, am at mid-life crisis where am buying random expensive things. The next thing will probably be an On shoe. And yes, I already have All Birds. Even though I dont wear them.

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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 26. The one that I would like to plaster on my blog is…

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?

Book 2
No action.
I havent had the time.

Meru is taking LOT more time than I had anticipated.

PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.

☑️ What did I get done last week?

This is a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

I may not have a lot to add this week but here is a report nonetheless.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. No action. 0.

Meru. Moved the needle a bit. Not too much though. This has been the status for the last few weeks. 0.

C4E. No action. 0.
I think I am ready to remove this from this list. I don’t do anything large here anymore. I think I am ready to hand it over to C and AK as my heirs. On the work front, C and F run the show on the day to day basis. AK is in that liminal state. Let’s see when she decides. But more or less I think I can move on from it. Just that I didnt make it the Wild Success that I wanted it to be.

Brand SG. No action. 0.
I did record a podcast. But that’s too little.
HAVE TO PUT IN A LOT MORE EFFORT HERE.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. Nothing. So, a 0.

So the overall score is -1 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: -1, 3, 0, -4, 0, -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.

📊 The tracker from the last week

This is the tracker for the last week.

Compared to the last 2-3 weeks, I’ve done much better on tracking at least. I need to fix what I eat though.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I have a lot to share TBH but I may not have the time to write about all of those. So, I will get to those in the next week’s update.

The best place to get these updates is via my TIL WA group. It is inspired by Sunanda’s fabulous book, TIL, and on this WhatsApp group, I aim to post VERY VERY VERY frequently. Like MULTIPLE times a day. About things personal (rants, overshares, thoughts etc), what I read, what I want to think about, what I need help on etc. Join here.

So, some links that I want to share…

  1. Chamath’s Annual Letter. Here. The best quote from there is, “Taste is judgment. Discipline is strategy. Stamina is alpha. In a world without free money, survival is the product.”
  2. Mammad Bhai, by Sadat Hasan Manto. Here.
  3. Kevin’s post on Ideal End State. Here. I’ve spoken about this earlier as well. But it’s worth a revisit.
  4. This list of lessons from Tim. Here. The ones that have stayed with me are, “26. People who are always joking are hard to take seriously so they rob themselves of opportunities” and “6. The wealthiest people have a psychopathic sense of urgency.” among others.
  5. This by Seth on using words. Especially in this post-AI world. Thanks, Prad for sharing.
  6. This concept of Levered Beta. Incredible read. In Hindi, we often say, “seat pe rumaal rakhna”. This is the closest equivalent to that.
  7. Mike’s Build. Mike is quickly becoming my favorite Internet person. And while you are at it, read advice.
  8. This NYT piece about one of the things in Grief Tech.

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🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories…

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker. No action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will at some time stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
    • Adding films
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Speak better!
  5. Money (adding this on Jun 29)
    • Passive income

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

PS: Adding a section of things that I talked about that I need to do in this post and the last ones…

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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Disappeared.
That’s the world I would use for the last week.

The week literally disappeared. I need to be more in touch with reality and all that.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

.

—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25

PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

Wk 24-25 – Weekly Notes

Weekly update from the 24th and the 25th week of 2025. This has Saurabh Garg’s notes, thoughts, reflections and everything else.

7 AM, Jun 23

I haven’t written for 2 weeks now (I was busier than expected). And while I dont have a lot of time today to write either, I will do it. I have promises to keep (Hi, AA). I will not talk about how busy I was and all that. I will merely get writing.

Here we go.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past two weeks

PS: These are not in any order. Specifically because I was all over the place the last two weeks. I haven’t had the time to process things that I was experiencing and living.

PPS: Since I didn’t get to write for the last few days, my thoughts and reflections will suffer from recency effect. A lot of my words are an outcome of what ive been thinking lately.

Let’s go…

A/ Taught some 300 people about Gen AI
It was not the best session in terms of my delivery but I got a reality check that the world out there needs a lot more education that the world of twitter has. In fact, we must encourage each person to get active on twitter and follow the silicon valley types and see where the world is headed. Not from the lens of being scared about it but from the lens of learning and being ready.

Here’s my feedback from the students.

B/ Kabir
Saw this reel on Insta.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by गुलमोहर (@kagazkephoool)

Insane lessons. And insane talent of to dissipate lessons from Kabir. The amount of wisdom from kabir made accessible by this music is fabulous.

At some point in time, I want to commission someone to do such things. In case I am unable to in my life time, I hope one of you (the ones reading) does it.

C/ Grateful that Vivek exists.
I just wish I was not so far behind him in terms of wealth. I would have got to spend more time with him and M, if I werent.

D/ The Flight
Everyone has been talking about the Air India plane crash. Since then I’ve taken two flights – both Air India. And in one of those, there was a very rough patch. So clearly, thanks to the recency effect, been thinking a lot about it. In bullets…

First things first. In the grand scheme of things, we are meaningless. Heart goes out to folks who lost their lives. Even tougher is the lives of the ones left behind. I wish there wasnt so much pain in the world around us.

Second. I am not afraid to die. Just that it would be a shame that I died without doing anything that I had set out to do. Heck, maine to achi achar bhi nahi daala! I have a lot to lose and the thought that I would go randomly, I get sad.

Third. I would’ve taken 500, if not 1000 flights in my life. And I was never the kinds to be scared. But thanks to second above, I am little scared. I was reminded of what a classmate from MDI once told me – while a plane going down is a Black Swan event, the very nature of the event means that it can happen to you and the destruction would be 100%, unlike a road accident where the destruction is not fatal.

Fourth. In the two flights I took in the last week, I was unable to write. I tried to but I failed. I could merely take bullet point notes. I need to fix this cos flights used to be me sacrosanct writing place where I could be in the zone and get a lot thought / written.

Fifth. Maybe I need to work on my attention span? Maybe get back to meditation? Maybe I am unable to write cos I am unable to focus on things?

So that.

E/ Events is a good business
Over the weekend, I was in BKK. For an event thing.

And I was reminded of all the reasons why I love it – there’s no set office, there is freedom of time and place for the most part, there is ample use of common sense and there’s some of the most interesting real life folks with real skils and not just keyboard warriors.

Oh, and it sucks as well – there is no scalability (the largest event agency would be like 500 crores), there is a lot of muck (relationships, under the table conversations etc) and no large impact on the universe per se.

So, its something that I would like to be a part of in some way. But now that I have Meru and some bits of C4E, I may not be able to.

At this time, I am merely cataloging. Oh, wait, events business is a brilliant training ground for life skills. I want EACH of my kids to be spend a year doing events. But then, I dont know where so I find kids who want to build their lives around mine (and then subsequently, I build mine around their’s). So that.

May be I will bring back SoG?

F/ Life without border and passport control
I pine for a life where I dont have to worry about my passport or about visas and all that. But then lately, with all the news around hyper-nationalism and flying horrors, I dont know.

G/ Health and Fitness
I have realised that I dont look great and I anyway don’t dress great. And thus I get judged and a lot of opportunities that ought to come to me, dont. So, I need to work on those. Maybe fitness with help.

Thing is, my looks or clothes never mattered to me. In fact, I looked at it as a giant fuck you to the world. But now I realise that this fuck-you attitude was not the best thing.

So, I will fix it.

PS: Is 42 the wrong age to admit this? Or maybe this is me coming out with my insecurities?

So solution…

I will make fitness my P1. You know, Yoga. I think I can do this. I’ve done it in the past. Then at some point IN THIS MONTH (7 days to go), I will add a better diet (where I prep things myself (I cant seem to find a cook)). And then at some point in the month, I will add a gym or some sport. I dont think I can do gyms yet. I need to pick a sport for sure.

My P2 would be better groomed. You know, more focus on shaving my head, beard etc. Perfumes, accessories etc. Better footwear (no shoes ;))

My P3 would better clothes. This may take forever. But I will try.

H/ Let go of a team member
Not the best feeling to part ways. But had to be done.

Have done in the past as well and no it doesnt get better.

And funny thing is that I will have to part ways with more team members in the next few months.

I/ Work hard, make money and give money
The entire world around me seems to be moved by money. I need to find a way to make a LOT of money. And then use that money to build better lives for everyone around me. And give great money to people that are around me.

I am a capitalist at heart but I love that people chase more things than money.

J/ SG on Mira Murati’s team
C pointed that Mira’s team seems to have a SG. I must gather all these folks ;P

K/ Biography writing for seniors
I am working on a cohort to help active seniors write their biographies. While the idea sounds good on paper, there are inherent challenges with that. I need to solve for those.

L/ Personal Brand
My sense is that world in the future would be run by personal brands. Think Elon. Think Tanmay. Think SG. Three different people. Three different spectrums. Each has a certain influence over things. Each has opportunities in direct proportion to their brand.

I need to work on this.

This has been a theme since I dont know when. I HAVE to accelerate this. I will probably hire someone for this.

On this, I will also put in motion my podcast and content. Just that in the post-AI world, I dont know what is the importance of all the content you put out.

M/ Ask. And the world shall give.
See this from Jim Rohn.

And this from Steve.

N/ Regrets in life
While I was in the flight yesterday, I made a list of things that I regret in life. While more details would go on my notes, here are four folks that I wish I could continue to be with – KG, RG, RN, Parents.

Funny most of my regrets seem to around people. And not around money, achievements and all that.

O/ Make a film
I have decided. I will make a film this year. It would be a short (while I will try, it may not be a full-length), But will do. And this is apart from my book (lol). That I will work on as well. More details in subsequent days.

Oh and all these things need one thing and one thing only – my decision that I will separate people and projects. I know it would require me to be tough and stern with my people but I will do it. Oh, and also marry this with my thing about personal brand (see J above)! And AI!

Wow, so many things seem to be coming together!

P/ Passive income
I HAVE to HAVE mutiple sets of passive incomes. Right now, I only have one source of income – that too needs me to be fairly active. May be a franchisee of something? May be something on rental? What else?

Oh and I need passports of 3 countries and bank accounts in 5.

Q/ Not deep
Lol (first time I heard this, it was from a kid I mentor – she said that no boys are deep – all they do is talk about pizza, games and sex).

So, while I was writing this, I reaslied that am an ordinary person. And while thats ok, makes me question the meaning of these notes. I mean why would you (or someone) read these notes? I dont talk anything deep. I talk about what I want to do, what I fail at and mostly these are reflections.

R/ “ai makes people dumb”, “money makes them lazy”
Everyone has read that research of less than 50 participants where they proclaimed that people that use AI tend to get dumber. No they did not use these words. Dont hold me for words. But try to get the drift.

Warikoo had an interesting take on it. He highlighted two things – AI and UBI.

I will do an episode on this. CC Anshika.

S/ If money werent an object…
Like I said, I was in BKK over the weekend and apart from one presentation for 3 hours, I had all the time in the world to explore. So I went around. And I realised that at different times, I wanted to buy…

Remarkable
AirPods
On Sneakers
Even thought about changing my phone

I realised, I wanted a new toy.
However, I chose to not get.
You know, money.
I wish money werent an object…

T/ Neosapian
Wrote a review of the Neo 1. Here.

Review of NeoSapien’s Neo 1

U/ Films
I saw a few films – dunno why or how. And I dont even remember the names (except Ritual Killer and Bonnie and Clyde that I remember seeing cos it was in the long / boring flight).

V/ Details
I am realising that I am unable to remember names of things but I can remember facts around them. For example, I wanted to write the name of the film I saw but I couldnt remember it. I remembered hunting and Africa. I googled. No response. But then I thought, lemme put the name of the actor. Again, I didnt remember the name of the actor. But I remembered he’s often refered to as the voice of God. And thus I made the connection.

I dont know what to do with this information. Maybe I will put this in some LLM and see what can I do about this.

Phew!
So that!

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 24.

The one that I would like to plaster on my blog is…

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?

Book 2
I didnt get time to even think about thinking. The person I was working with seems to have a lot on her plate and thus I am unable to move. No, I am not leaning onto her and blaming her for my inaction but I didnt move on this at all.

PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.

☑️ What did I get done last two weeks?

This is a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

I may not have a lot to add this week but here is a report nonetheless.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. No action. 0.

Meru. Again, like last update, moved the needle a bit. No large updates to be hoenst. 0.

C4E. No action. 0.

Brand SG. No action. HAVE TO PUT IN A LOT MORE EFFORT HERE.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. Nothing. So, a 0.

So the overall score is -1 for this week. Also, like I said, the last two weeks went in a whirwind.

Trends from the previous weeks: 3, 0, -4, 0, -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.

📊 The tracker from the last week

This is the tracker for the last 2 weeks.

Nothing to write home about. I have failed.

I will rise up again.

PS: I have noticed that each time I am on the road, I miss updating this. And once I am back to ground, I take a few days to get back to speed. And that causes the chaos. May be I need to find a way to do this better.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I have a lot to share TBH but I may not have the time to write about all of those. So, I will get to those in the next week’s update.

The best place to get these updates is via my TIL WA group. It is inspired by Sunanda’s fabulous book, TIL, and on this WhatsApp group, I aim to post VERY VERY VERY frequently. Like MULTIPLE times a day. About things personal (rants, overshares, thoughts etc), what I read, what I want to think about, what I need help on etc. Join here.

So, some links that I want to share…

  1. Ankush Datar on Thin Desires vs Thick Desires. Here. And here.
  2. Pentagon Pizza Index. Here. And their twitter account. Also read, Big Mac Index.
  3. Wrote a review of a note-taking device. Here.
  4. Why you MUST not read. By Kevin. Here.
  5. This NY Times piece talks about Grief Tech. I first heard a version of this on Sahil Bloom’s Twitter.
  6. This video of Boston Dynamics machines at America’s Got Talent
  7. These two resources (a video and the companion presentation) by Vinod Kholsa on Luring the VC.

There are a lot more but I will skip. You know, done is better than best. Progress > perfection.

🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker. I played poker in bangalore and it was fun. I dint win a lot but I was able to read some players. So that’s cool. Other thing (pool) saw no action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
    • Adding films
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Speak better!

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

PS: Adding a section of things that I talked about in THIS post…

  1. Kabir
  2. Film
  3. book 2
  4. Personal Brand
  5. Podcast on AI and UBI (for adulting?)
  6. Meditation
  7. Yoga

Did I miss something?

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Experience.
That’s the world I would use for the last two weeks.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed)

PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

Review of NeoSapien’s Neo 1

So, I met Dhananjay (DJ) for the first time at the insistence of Aditya Sir. Aditya had told me that DJ was working on an AI-wearable. Mind you, this was some 6 months ago, before AI became ubiquitous. 

So I was curious!

The first thing that struck me was his fitness. 

He is extremely fit and ripped, and he has long flariy hair, and I was like yaar I wish I could be like that! 

Any how, the second thing, and more pertinent to this post that hit me was the blinking pendant he was wearing around his neck. The curious cat in me asked him, what was it. 

And turns out, it was an early version of Neo. An AI-enabled notetaker that you hang around your neck! Wow! 

At the time, he mentioned that Neo can also track the emotions of the people in the conversations. For example, while talking, if somebody’s sad while talking to you, the notetaker will tell you that the other person was sad. 

Now somebody like me who likes the idea of living in public, and taking notes, and wanting to be a super connector, this seemed like a godsend thing. I could focus on conversations and be fully present in the meetings. I won’t have to carry a notepad, I won’t have to break eye contact, and I will absorb more! I am anyway, a big fan of augmenting human capability with such tools and all. 

So when I finally got access, I had high expectations. And here’s my unbiased, honest review and how I use it. 

USE CASE 1 – THINKING 

1.1/ I use this while I want to talk to myself. 

I go for walks and I don’t carry a notepad etc. 

I merely talk out loud the things that I want to save. Since the device does NOT record the conversation, I also use the voice memo feature on my iPhone to record those. 

USE CASE 2 – IRL MEETINGS 

2.1/ I use this in physical meetings where people are ok with a physical device. 

TBH, till these browser-based based AI-notetakers were not commonplace, it was tough to get consent. Now, all I say is, think of this as my AI notetaker from the browser window, in a physical meeting room.

In those meetings, I can focus on conversations and outcomes and all that. Rather than scribbling furiously in my notes. 

No, I dont use this for online meetings. For that, I use Granola. Ofc, if Neo comes up with a browser extension, I will try it. 

2.2/ Saves me the pain from decoding my handwriting 😀 

2.3/ Once I have those notes, I port those into my Roam. While I do that, I add context. This is where all the magic happens. 

USE CASE 3 – EARLY DRAFTS FOR WHAT I WRITE

3.1/ I also use this to “write” early drafts. 

My best writing happens when I have talked out loud about a concept. And then I let that simmer in my head. And then I vomit out the word salad. And then I don’t edit (lol). 

And with Neo, I talk about loud about what I want to write. And then I use that as my first draft. 

PS: A large part of this very post was “written” by Neo! See raw notes in screenshot. 

WHAT WORKS FOR ME? 

1/ Battery life is GREAT! 
I charge it once every 2 days 

2/ It can gather voice streams even in noisy environments. 
This is great. Because I am at a Starbucks all the time. 
Or I am walking on the noisy roads (Mumbai, you know) 

3/ The notes and summaries are pretty amazing. 
I dont know what engine they use at the backend but it captures pretty much everything! 

WHAT DOESN’T WORK FOR ME

1/ I don’t like the form factor. 
Nothing to do with Neo. Just that I dont like pendants. Even when I do podcasts. I hate to use a clipon mic. 

2/ Haptic Feedback
I want the “click” button to start the device to give me some haptic feedback. 

Right now, it doesnt do anything. I mean it works, but I like some feedback for sure. This is the very reason why I was bearish on touch phones when they first came (really!). 

3/ Audio recordings
I wish the device were like a dictaphone where I could record everything. Often, there is merit in relistening to conversations. Right now I cant access raw recordingts. 

FINAL VERDICT?

I like it. I would love to make this a part of the joining kit of every team member.

If you want a gadget that can become your note-taking copilot, you MUST try it. I want DJ and Neo to succeed. So, I could be biased in my opinions. 

I would encourage you to try it. However, as always, please do your due diligence. I could be biased. 

So, that’s it. In case you do end up buying / using, lemme know and we must chat on use cases.

PS: DISCLAIMERS

1/ I paid for Neo. I paid 9999, cos I was one of the early backers. 
I did not get any freebies or money from DJ for this. 
PS: Price seems to have gone up. 

2/ Here are raw notes from the app after I “talked” to it.

Wk 23-25 – Weekly Notes

Weekly update from weeks 22 and 23. This has Saurabh Garg’s notes, thoughts, reflections and everything else.

Hi!

I am back after a break of a week. I couldnt write. I was on the road. No, I am not beating myself over it (unlike past times). But I am acknowledging that I am not being consistent. I will try harder.

Now with that motivational self, pep-talk, lets get back to business.

The update for the last two weeks.

From the top of my head, a large part of update would be about Bangalore trip, health, personal brand and village. Lets see what else do I write.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past two weeks

A/ Anurag Sir
I want to start from here. You know, how heroes fall? That! I love the guy. I love his films. I love his storytelling. A large part of my life has been dictated trying to be what he and Vikram Sir have been.

But, the guy’s falling. Hard. I can say a lot but I dont want to. I just want to catalog that I am sad about him falling 🙁

PS: In case I forget in the future, note to self, read about what he said about Netflix launching in India with things apart from Sacred Games.

Staying on films, saw Khosla Ka Ghosla, at an event organised by Balram. Each time I see the film, I am amazed that the film captures Delhi nuances so well that I am inspired to do similar things!

And staying further on films, I really want to be in the films business. I know AI and all is gonna disrupt how this business works (we are already making short films using all the AI tools) but there’s something about visual storytelling that still moves people. I need to be a player in this space. Come on, universe…

B/ Bangalore
Many notes from this one. Lemme write in bullets.

  1. Played poker. Enjoyed it. Must play more. Met some really incredible people on the poker table. Must do more to be around Poker
  2. Realised that my personal brand needs a lot of work. I orgniased a meetup and I was unable to meet a lot of good folks. I HAVE to work on this
  3. Spent time with Sonam and each time I meet her, I want to be able to afford person like her to work with me (either at C4E or at Meru)
  4. Met a couple of really interesting folks (you know, the VC, startup kinds). I realised I enjoy meeting these people. I had this VERY strong urge to move to Bangalore, just for these connections. But I realised that I am chasing vanity and I would do well staying away, keeping my head down and building.
  5. Saw collective-thinking in action at a couple of places. A new fancy coffee shop has opening in Bangalore. I try to not go to these fancy places. And while I was not keen on going, I was taken there. By folks who apparantly “boycott” these places. Plus everyone famous at Bangalore seems to be there as well. It’s like how socialites want to flock the fancy places? No, I will not rant about it. Merely saying.

Ok this is it?
I thought I would have a lot to say about this trip to Bangalore. I clearly do not.

C/ Counter Strike
Recorded a video where I talked about how I am inspired by Counter Strike and how each thing their echos how I have structed C4E. In case you want to see, it’s here.

D/ Life Manual for the your 30s
On someone’s request, I wrote this manual where I talked about what . You may read this here.

The Life Manual for your 30s

On this note, please give me prompts that you want me to write on. I work the best when triggered!

E/ Build a new format to track what I am working on.
Each few days I have something new that I track. This time I have copied this from what I saw on screens of my new team at Meru. I’ve been at it for a few days now. Let’s see how long this lasts.

F/ FOXO
Got myself a FOXO subscription. This is the most expensive thing EVER that I’ve got for myself. Prior to this, the most expenisve thing was sgElectra.

So far the only tangible thing I know is that I can hold a plank for a minute and I am a diabetic. Oh, thrown in a gym, I can do 10 pushups. Plus my balance seems to be good and calcium in my bones seem to be ok as well. So, apart from my diabetes, most things are ok. I need to figure why and how do I have bad skin and less stamina. I need to work on my lower back and improve my posture. Let’s see what more I discover.

The other related thing is that I read this thread about Ray Kurzweil and one of the thing he says is that we will probably live forever. He says that “death will be optional” and there are three things he talks about – a, science seems to have learnt the secret of aging, companies like Neuralink seem to have found success in Brain Computer Interfaces and then the digital twins are already around (thanks to FOXO).

So, if we can live for the next few decades, we can be immortal. This is the frontier that no one knows (except Ashwatthama or may be Trivedi :D). Let’s see.

PS: I am an investor in FOXO. And C4E does some work for FOXO.

G/ Getting the AI FOMO
On a day to day basis, I have this HUGE AI FOMO. I have written about this in the past. And its all over my twitter. I think the only way to go about this is by actually doing this. I think the only way to do this is to carve time (now that I have agreed that I wont find anyone to work with me and support me). And I need to probably cut down on a lot of other things.

H/ Broke “H” on my laptop’s keyboard.
I tried to fix C’s laptop’s keyboard. I had fun. I was bored. On a whim, pried open the H on my keyboard and now I can’t fix it!

Grrr…

I/ Recorded an episode of The Optimist’s Manifesto Podcast with Subendhu (of FOXO).
He’s had a stellar life and has such a wide range of experiences that I want to be him! Spoke to him for two hours. I need to build a life where I have similar richness of stories!

J/ Jayant Mundhra
One of the conversations in the last two weeks was with Jayant. He’s an incredible writer and over the last 2 years, has built a community of about 100K folks that read general purpose advice from him. While I dont about each person I meet, Jayant is special. He’s doing EXACTLY what I want to. And he’s doing a GREAT job at it. And he’s consistent with it. If I could be a shade consistent of him, I would be elsewhere in life!

He also told me about Zero1 network, again something I want to be able to build. But unlike the Kamaths I dont have a lot of FCF. Maybe I will build a corpus as I go along? Let’s see.

K/ KP got hitched!
This means Pooja ka bachcha is growing up.
Poo saas ban gayi ;P

L/ High-Performance Org
One of the latest lessons from Hareesh Sir has been that I need to be a little more strict with my people. The idea is to build a high-performance organization that delivers on the promise to the stakeholders.

This is similar to the riff about idea people and people people from the last update. In fact this is something that I lack in my life.

I am way too kind when I work with people and I need to learn balance. I dont want to create weak people. May be that’s what I had done with other businesses? That in my unwavering support, did I create weak orgs there?

Lot to think!

M/ Mountain Goat
Thanks to J, discovered a new retaurant in Lokhandwala. Mountain Goat. They serve Wai Wai Sadeko. I think I will go there a lot (went there on May 28th and havent gone back, lol) if my sugar doesnt spike.

So this is it from the last 2 weeks. Lemme know what is interesting and what is not. And what would you like to see more.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 22 and 23. A lot to be honest.

The one that I would like to plaster on my blog is…

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?

Book 2
I didnt get time to even think about thinking. The person I was working with seems to have a lot on her plate and thus I am unable to move. No, I am not leaning onto her and blaming her for my inaction but I didnt move on this at all.

PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.

☑️ What did I get done last two weeks?

This is a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. Got FOXO membership. Now I have a CGM (for a few days) that tells me how I recat to food and all. I am more aware. No action. No done. So a 0.

Meru. Was an ok week. Moved the needle. But still far from where I’d like to be. Thus, a 0.

C4E. No action. 0.

Brand SG. No action. The trip to Bangalore told me that I remain an insignificant person in the large scheme of things. I need to get more active. I want to give a -1 but one a day to day basis, in my world, I get by ok. So, a 0.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. No large things. Bangalore trip, FOXO, Poker. So, a 0.

So the overall score is -1 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: 3, 0, -4, 0, -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.

📊 The tracker from the last week

This is the tracker for the last 2 weeks.

 

I really need to pull my socks on this. I cant be missing.

PS: I have noticed that each time I am on the road, I miss updating this. And once I am back to ground, I take a few days to get back to speed. And that causes the chaos. May be I need to find a way to do this better.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

Some links that I want to share…

  1. Rahul on Obvious – here
  2. Mary Meeker’s report on AI – here. Do not miss this.
  3. Derek O Brian was in a flight that got damaged in the hail. In this video, he talks about his near death experience.
  4. On “choice”, from David Ogilvy. Here. Thanks to Pradx for sharing this.
  5. From the top person at Snapchat – how to build companies – here.
  6. V told me about Navagunjara (no I did not know about this even though I claim to be a fan of Mahabharata)
  7. This is a great list of superpowerful maxims about life. From founders. The ones I love are as follows…
    • 1. Money comes naturally as a result of service.
    • 4. Be a professional opportunist.
    • 7. You don’t need to be a genius; you just need to collect more information.
    • 12. Mute the world, build your own.
    • 17. Make yourself easy to interface with.
    • 18. Relationships run the world.
    • 20. Quality of your life is the direct result of the quality of your decisions.
    • 23. Problems are opportunities in work clothes.
    • 31. Actions express priorities.
    • 32. The public praises people for what they practice in private.
    • 36. Business is problems; the best companies are problem-solving machines.
    • 40. Always more audacious.
    • 44. Making mistakes is the privilege of the active.
    • 46. Incentives rule everything around you.
    • 50. Intensity is the price of excellence.
    • 51. You can’t save souls in an empty church.
    • 61. Imitation precedes creation.
    • 63. Optimism is a moral duty.
    • 69. Repeat, repeat, repeat; volume and consistency win.
    • 72. The hard way is the right way.
    • 73. Be intolerant of slowness.
    • 74. Hire a professional critic.
    • 79. “Action solves everything.”
    • 88. Avoid boring people.
    • 90. All good things in life come from compounding.
    • 93. Have pride in creation, not consumption

PS: Are these useful? Do these help in any way? I read a LOT more than what I share here but these are what I think people I know must read. Skewed towards startups, hard work, deliberate living etc etc.

🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker. I played poker in bangalore and it was fun. I dint win a lot but I was able to read some players. So that’s cool. Other thing (pool) saw no action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
    • Adding films
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Speak better!

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Grind.
That’s the world I would use for the last two weeks.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed)

PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

The Life Manual for your 30s

If you are entering your 30s, this guide may come in handy.

I shared a link in one of the WA Groups I run (you can find a list of all groups I run here) and Neha asked me…

how would you write one for folks entering their 30s 🌿

I knew I had a lot to say, and when I asked for more details, she told me to write about “Relationships- with body, mind, spirit; pursuits and money; people.”

I understood this as 3 things. 

  1. Relationships 
  2. Pursuits and money. I will call this career. 
  3. People. 

I feel I am qualified to talk about the last two, and the next few paras would be about that. However, before you read, a few disclaimers. 

1/ I started writing this on a flight. Lol.
I don’t know why this is a disclaimer. 
And then I worked on this in the lobby of a cheap hotel. 
And then I was on a flight when I wrote this. 

2/ My advice would have worked for me if I were to relive my life.
You know, my kind of mindset, my kind of upbringing, my kind of emotions and all that. This is not general purpose advice. Most of what I said will not be applicable to most folks. Please take everything with a pinch of salt. 

3/ I am biased.

4/ Do your own diligence before you take action.
My advice is typically not for people who want to take it easy. I am indexed on hard work, harsh opinions and moving ahead in life. I want you to take action and do more. So, that bias will reflect in what I write. 

5/ This may sound like a rant from an old person.
Which it probably is. Even I am probably not aware. 

6/ I have nothing new to report that you already do not know.
Just that stories and examples from my life would be unique. And you need to find meaning and inspiration from those stories. 

So let’s start.

If you think your 20s went by fast, 30s would be faster.
And 30s would be more challenging.
At least it was for me. 

The world would expect you to “handle” adult things (like marriage, homes, children, careers). With maturity.

You would see your friends zoom past very fast. In my case, I saw ALL my friends rise through the corporate ladder faster than Bolt goes thru those 100 meters and earn all the goodies that come alongside (cars, houses, weddings, kids, access to lounges, business class travel, foreign holidays etc) with scary consistency. World does reward boredom. I on the other hand was stuck in some funk, and there were so many times when I knew I couldnt go dinnering with my friends because I cant afford the restaurants they go to.

And while the two things above happen, you would start seeing your fitness levels fade (unless you are working on it already). Fitness in terms of body, mind and soul. Body – you probably aren’t sleeping enough. Mind – you probably have stopped learning long ago. Soul – you probably are playing jumping jacks between relationships. See Appendix A.

Oh, and if you are entering your 30s in this day and age, you would be staring at irrelevance, thanks to AI and harder-working, younger people who are probably at the peak of their hunger. Thankfully, you don’t need to worry about older folks like me. My ilk is obsolete. Even this gyaan I am giving you can be articulated far better by an AI tool. 

And no, all’s not bad. Here’s the good part.

You are at a place where people will start taking you seriously. You are no longer a “kid” who’s only daydreaming and fucking around to find out. You are an adult who has probably “thought through” things, and you know what you want to be working on. 

You would also have some friends, acquaintances and well-wishers who’ve known you for a few years now. You would have earned some social currency for sure, and you hopefully have built some sort of safety net (in terms of savings). These connections, social currency and bank balance will come in handy when you want to do things. PS: In the subsequent part, I talk about how to build these two. 

You also would have some clarity on how you want to spend your time here and where you want to live. On where to live, see my biased take in annexure B. 

Life’s a gift, and we ought to make the most of it. Like Naval says, the journey is all we have and the attention is all we can give. So you need to figure out what journey gives you the most rasa and who do you want to gift your attention to. In my case, I was a foolish drifter till COVID struck and I was a slave to the vagaries of life. I went where life took me. When I was clueless, I followed the herd. When I didn’t know better, I would default to drifting. 

Now I try to live a more deliberate life – I choose who I want to meet, who I want to work with, what I do, when I do and where I live. I also know nothing is in my control and Pale Blue Dot and all, and this plane I am on can drop from the sky (it did not), and all my gyaan will have no consequence. Except that I would have seen one of the most gorgeous sunrises on the right hand side. Gorgeous enough for me to die with a smile on my face. 

Oh, and I am ok to limit my wants.
Here’s an example. I want to live in a certain building in a certain part of Mumbai. I know I can’t afford the rent of that place, let alone owning it. So, instead of me getting mindfucked about it, I choose to use that as an inspiration. I look at it each day (I make sure I see it everyday) and I resolve to work harder. And no, I don’t spoil my day-to-day work (my attention) by craving for it, but I use that as a goal that I want to get to someday. If you think I’ve given up, no I haven’t. I remain one of the most ambitious people I know, but I also am more aware that I need to enjoy this journey and give all my being to it. 

Now, after the meandering, here are my ACTUAL thoughts. These are not in any order. 

1/ Avoid vanity like the plague. 

This is the number 1 shift that folks need to make when they transition from 20s to 30s. 

Most folks I know are stuck in the vanity trap. I want you to get out of it. Na samman ka moh, na apman ka bhey. Go do Vipassana. Go read Aurelius. Meditations is a good place to start. Go practice detachment. Do whatever, but do not do it in the chase of getting recognition, rewards and all that. Do not work for the spotlight. Do not chase famous people. In fact, do not work to be famous. Do work that delivers value and if that makes you famous, enjoy the fame. 

No, this does not mean you don’t let the world acknowledge your work. In fact, it’s amazing to get rewards and it’s great to see your loved ones see your success. It’s also amazing to see greater access when you are famous. Truth be told, fame has its own advantages. 

But don’t make it the only metric. Let that be the by-product of your work. 

2/ Ready. Fire. Aim. 

Take action. 
Thinking is good. 
Processing is better. 
But taking action is best. 

One of my closest people defers all actions till they’ve internalised information, read thru opinion and thought thru things. In my opinion, by the time they take action, it’s often too late. But their deferring of action probably serves them well. However, I believe in action.

Get these three words tattooed on your forehead – Life rewards action.

So that you can see it everyday. And others can too. And no, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. 

Thing is, you didn’t come here cos someone was “thinking” about getting married or someone was “reading” about how to have babies or someone was “waiting” for the perfect partner. You came here cos your parents took action.

This laptop that I am writing on was created cos thousands of engineers took action.

This flight was comfortable because many people took action.

This post is happening cos I am taking action.

The prompt for this post came in cos a young lady took action. 

What action would you take?

3/ Stop with activism. Start with creation. 

No, standing for nature and human rights is not bad. 
But you are standing. Not creating. 

No, sharing social media posts about the atrocities of rulers is not a bad thing. 
But that’s sharing. Not creating. 

No, participating in boycotts is not a bad thing. 
Wait, it’s actually bad. 

Ignore this. 

So, us humans are designed to create.
If you create, you are engaged.
If you are engaged, your passionate fire rages from inside out, and lights up the world around you.
And that light, that gift is all we have! 

Oh and I read somewhere that we find meaning in creation. Think of the most fulfilled and most engaged people (I dont believe in happiness) and you would see that they are obsessed with creating or with their creation. A parent who dotes on their child, a filmmaker who cant stop talking about their film, a teacher who’s meaning comes from creating younger minds.

My meaning comes from sharing what I know and seeing others use it. I am a gardener who’s meaning is from tending to the garden and not from the wait of the fruits of the trees.

And while you are on creation, two things…

3.1/ Be less cynical.
Enough said.

3.2/ Stop hating capitalists. 
I’ve seen a lot of folks in their late 20s and early 30s hate capitalists. I don’t know too much about capitalists but like most things, most people of any type are bad. But some are some good. You need to pick the good ones, lessons from them and then move on. 

4/ Grass is greener where you water it. 

You can choose to live slow. 
But then stay slow. 

You can choose to live fast. 
But then don’t crave for slow. 

Balance is a myth. 
It’s a capitalist’s and a politician’s scam to keep you on the treadmill. You can’t have the cake and eat it. 

Pick one side and stay there. 
Now that you are in your 30s, you better pick a side. And take action. 

In my case, I love both the sunrise and the sunset. But I cant have both. One will require me to wake up early and the other will require me to stay up till late. I had to make a choice. I made one.

Another one. I want to live in the epicenters of action. And yet I want to live in the mountains. I know I have to choose one. So, instead of craving for the magnanimity of the mountains, I have made peace with living in a concrete jungle.

One more. I want to do things that impact billions of lives. What I do today impacts handful of people. And God knows that I want to work on things that impact large things. And despite that I dont beat myself over the gap between where I want to be and where I am.

Here’s a quesiton. What is your patch of grass that needs to be watered to make greener?

5/ Zubaan Ki Keemat. 

You need to work hard to have a zubaan that has some keemat. 

Rajesh Sir, one of my many gurus, is so punctual that I question the watch if he’s not on time. I’ve tried to learn this from him and each action I take, I try to do it in a way that it establishes that I am a reliable person who’s words carry weight.

If I’ve said something, that would happen, come hell or highwater.

Of course I am not perfect. I am often inconsistent. But I am aware of this and I am working on it. Also, if I am inconsistent, I am with myself. When I am with others, I do whatever I can to be consistent.

For example, if I tell someone that I am meeting them at 6, I ensure that am there at 6 but I’ve told myself that I will do 10 pushups and I dont do those.

Make a list of all times when you were inconsistent and then see how it impacts your reputation and reliability and social currency and gravitas. And you would have the answer.

6/ Reputation

Your reputation should be built from the time you hit your 18. Or 21. Or when you pass out of college. Sooner you start, the better. If you havent worked on this deliberatey, it’s time to start now. Your 30s are an even more important time to build a reputation. 

In fact, all we have is our reputation.

In your 30s, you can no longer appear to be a fickle person. You can’t be vibing thru your 30s. You will be entrusted with large things. In fact, you must WANT to be entrusted with larger things. You’ve worked hard in your 20s to build a life and a skill. This is the time you want to apply and scale and create impact.

And often these opportuniies are gatekept behind the heavy, closed doors fortified by the strongest locks that have only one key – your reputation. In fact, you walk into a room decades after your reputation has made itself comfortable in it.

Work on that.  

7/ Health

If I could change one thing about how I’ve lived thru my 20s and 30s, I would work hard to be healthier.

Ironic that I am in the worst shape of my life and I know that the road is a tough one from here on and yet I refuse to do anything about it.

Wait. Lemme go do 5 pushups and come back.
Back.
Could do only 4

So, I want each person who’s transitioning from their 20s to 30s to focus on their health. In fact, if you can, make health your biggest spends (not clothes, not fashion, not eating out, but health). I have started to. I recently made the most expensive purchase of my life – a membership at Foxo. I can see myself making more spends in the similar space. In fact, my work will probably index highly on health. I am encouraging all my friends and family to make more investments on health.

PS: Super inspired by Vivek who ensures that he’s physically active all the time.

8/ Place faith in people 

People create magic
You are people
You create.
You have magic. 

And while you do, work with others to do so. 

Find a few young folks that you can mentor. 
While you do that, learn from their exuberance and experimentation. And try to create things with them.

Find a few older folks that you can submit to.
On submission, see this tweet by Tushar Sir.
While you submit, try to see why they do what they do. Learn from their experience and stories.

I’ve had a engaging time here only because I was lucky to be surrounded by people 20 years younger and 20 years older. See SoG.

Ok that.
Phew.

This is it for the time being.
In case you have a thought, please let me know 🙂 

Annexure A

I’ve seen way too many people fall by the side when they get into a romantic / sexual relationship. While it’s an important part of growing up, in your 30s, life stakes are higher and you better not be trapped by just carnal pleasures.

If you have to, make your partner your strength. 

Annexure B

Here’s my biased take – if you do NOT live in some hub of sorts (Mumbai, Bangalore etc) and still believe in remote work propaganda, you need to accept that you will be left behind. 

Having said that, C4E is fully remote, and folks live at places like Nasik and Goa. But the folks who live at these places have accepted that they want to take it easy, and that’s a choice. You need to know what choice to make. 

On where to live, do read this piece by Paul Graham – Cities and Ambition

Annexure C: Additional Reads

I will keep updating this as and when I think of more things.

  1. Man’s Search For Meaning
  2. Shawshank Redemption

Lemme know what you think. Share this with whoever you think can find value. All the best!