Tag: AI

Wk 31-26 – Weekly Note

Notes and reflections from Week 31 of 2026.

2 Aug 2026.
Seema’s Starbucks.
I’ve been coming here everyday for the last week or so. Some normality has come back to life. I think as much as I like being a nomad, I also like the idea of being tethered at one place and living a boring life of routine. Talk of weirdness. Lol!

PS: Pradeep asked me what do I mean by “fix life”. This normality of having a routine is a component in fix life.

Ok, so a lot to talk about.
Took much action over the last few days and I feel like dumping things somewhere. I mean I am dumping those onto my Roam and notes and all that but I still want to capture those.

Lessgo…

Oh, the song of the week is this.

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Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from the week gone by.

1/ A month in Dubai

I’ve decided that I will go live in Dubai for the month of Sep. It’s my 2131231th attempt to go build a life outside India. Let’s see if I am able to make it work this time.

While I am there for this tiny window, I will see if I can shift my personality to live in a place like Dubai where people expect everything to be polished and all that. Like I said, I am not sure and I will never find out till I actually do the hard thing.

Oh, and more than just the shift, I need to also think what I can apply myself to. Agency, AI transformation, 66MGRoad, Yellow, Writing, Or anything else. And if nothing else, a podcast 😀

PS: While editing this, Claude told me to build a clone of FlexingIt for Dubai market. Lol, so many ideas. So less time. Such easy desk execution now. What does a man do!

PPS: As I write this, there are news that the conflict is escalating and that means all my investments and plans will go down the drain. I remain an optimistic and I hope we would find some resolution soon.

PPPS: As I edit this, there are talks of de-escalation. Optimism Pro Max.

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2/ The August Plan

While September is Dubai (and thus things around there), here’s my plan for August…

  1. Work more on WeAreC4E.com. Make it into a lead magnet for event piece for C4E.
  2. I am thinking of shipping the CRM tool to the world. I find value in it. Let’s see if others will find value as well. So, I will make a landing page and will try to give demo to people and sell them a subscription. In case you want to buy, am selling it for $99 a year.
  3. Make Book 2 shippable. It’s almost ready. Just that I need to make a pass thru it.
  4. Operate in Eco Mode. And as a part of that, use cash as much as I can (against digital payments). Unless absolutely necessary. I want to add friction to the money spending thing.

I will add more as they come.

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3/ Udipt and Himanshu

On 66MGRoad, these two boys are helping me move things. And I’ve been proven very wrong by these guys at a lot of places. I want to make a list but I think that is beyond this blog. At this time, I merely want to acknowledge and document that I was wrong.

Also they taught me the value of doing things with Brute Force. And reminding me of PG’s do things thats dont scale.

Thank you, boys.

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4/ Eco Mode

I have activated Eco Mode in life.

This meant that I’ve cut EACH expense that is not required. This means, I have expensive memberships and I will downgrade on things where am paying to get special access (you know, lounges, clubs etc). I am also more mindful and I am eating at home. And I am increasingly tempering my spends at Starbucks. Irony, I am sipping onto a 400 bucks coffee while I write this.

Among these, the one that hurt the most was cancelling AMEX. Couple of reasons TBH.

A, I spend about 75K on it per year, just to get access to the card. I can get Claude for that much ;P. The add ons they offer dont really add a lot. I dont think I’ve used any of their additional services. I will find out ;P

B, Over time the service had really degraded. Like one time I didnt have my card on me and they denied me access to their otherwise empty lounge.

I know it will be tough to get this again. But I had to get it as an ego thing. I got it. And they were not able to offer me enough value to retain them when the times turn bad for me. Compare this to Claude. I am thinking of getting an even higher tier than that 200 USD Max!

Oh, this is true for people and relationships too. I’ve often see myself getting cut when I stop offering value. In fact, I’ve been cut even when I was valuable. Lol!

PS: like I said above, I will use as much cash as I can in all of August, to know and see how am I spending.

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5/ Previous Weekly Reviews

I dont know why but I was seeing older posts on these weekly reiews.

And I realized that they were more layered, nuanced and revealed more about my thinking and were not merely reporting. I think since I got busier I started to cut corners. Starting with this one, I will get back to more verbose, more long-form notes where I talk about a lot more than mere reports.

Lemme know what you think.

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6/ Ideal End State

I met Dr H this week. She asked me what do I really want from life and in life. And while elaborating on it, she asked me if it was a lavish home, people, money, power or something else. And when she further elaborated it, I realised it was something VERY similar to Kevin’s Ideal End State.

Made me think.

And here’s my articulation of how I want my life to be. PS: Note 2 self – my more private ideal end state document is here.

My answer will always start from the Kabir couplet.

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

And if I were to tangibalise it, I would say,

  1. Enough to not think about spending money. I anyway don’t splurge. I spend on mid-level comforts (business class travel etc). I think I would glad if this number is in high three-digit USD millions.
  2. Enough to support friends, family and acquaintances with things that they need. Need. Not want.
  3. Live without needless drama. In a place that gives me AC (or is cold without AC). I dont know what this location could be.
  4. Some work that allows me to travel the world and meet people. And with time, people who are at the top of their games. I remember Chamath or someone mentioned that the world is run by 150 people. I dont want to run the world would but I would love to know some of those.
  5. Support and be a patron to people who’re pushing the baton with art, music, entertainment, films etc.

Of course there is more. The private link above has a longer list.

What do YOU really want?
What’s your ideal end state?

PS: An argument against this ideal end state is that I want to enjoy the journey and not work towards a destination. And while I do things that take me close to my ideal end state, I want to continue to optimise for day to day joy.

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7/ Lessons from HelioCoach

I’ve never talked about this our loud but here I am.

For context, I pulled together a team of friends and well-wishers and built a consumer mobile app for supplementation compliance. You may see it at heliocoach.com.

Of course the market is crowded but I thought I could find a place and build a business. We wanted to get just about a few hundred dollars each month and that would have made us enough to keep the team going. You know, Ramen money!

We did each thing that all the startup gurus say — content, ebook, influencers, founder branding etc etc. And yet we were unable to make any dent anywhere.

Of course, I take it in the stride. And I did get something from it.

Here’s a list…

  1. Aarya
  2. Confidence that any app can be made using Claude. I am using that confidence to build 66MGRoad now. And Chandni and Aarya are now building Yellow.
  3. Lessons on importance of distribution. This has been on my radar for like decades but I havent moved my ass on it.
  4. Awareness that I am unable to push people I love. As the originator of idea and “leader” of the team that was working on this idea, I take all the blame for the non-success of the app. And I learnt that unless I push, I wont be able to take things far. This is something that Nakul also mentioned. That unless you are a gunda in your team, you wont be able to move things forward.

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8/ Nims. And Mt Everest

The mountains took Nimsdai away. I am sad about it and my thoughts are with his family. This tweet from Barsha expresses the agony and anguish that I feel in words far better than me.

Also, lemme talk about something else here. Lemme make this about me.

When I was young (around 2013 or 14), I read somewhere that years are long and decades are short. And at that time I made a promise to myself and the world. That I will do three things – make a billion dollars, impact a billion lives and climb Mt Everest. And I will take 10 years to do that. This 10-year deadline expired on Jan 1, 2026. And ofc, I didnt do any of these three. While I am hopeful that I will do the first two, I’ve given up on Mt Everest.

Many reasons. Lemme try to articulate.

a/ I dont have it in me. It’s plain simple acceptance of defeat and humbling down that comes with it.

b/ I did go to the Everest base camp (in 2021) and I sort of understood that it’s not for me and thus worth the effort. This could be my justification-brain talking here but a shot at Everest would have taken me a few years of all-in training and a lot of money. I know there are serious hobbyists who’ve done it. But I am not like them. I am easily distracted and have way too many interests to go all-in into one of those.

So, I gave up.

Mind you – this could be my defeat talking. So read with that bias please.

c/ I realised that Everest was a bragging conversation more than anything else. I come from Delhi and Haryana and like most people from there, I love to talk. And this means that I would have spoken it out loud in some conversation. So, that!

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9/ Rant on Reading

I grew up with comic books and novels (my father used to read potboilers from Surendra Mohan Pathak and all) and then once I went to MBA, I got to read more. And with time reading habits evolved. Till the last few years. When my reading habits changed.

I stopped reading books unless they were recommended by a lot of people I respect.

Most of my reading then became blogs, newsletters and all that. And then that stopped too. Not because there was so much to read but because I found “better” way to read. By seeing videos, talking to people and tinkering and all that. And for my use case, this works well. So I never picked books again.

Plus I’ve been distracted a lot. I have immense respect for people who’re able to do things while battling personal things. I can either keep the kitchen running for myself. Or I can think deep about things. Lately i’ve become acquainted with a young woman, Drishti. She does brilliant work at work and for her personal projects. I dont know how she gets the time. Or find the energy. Or may be its easy once you have a job that gives you a fixed fee for a fixed time you rent there. There are times when I regret my decision to not take a job and use my non work time to meander. But then I think about how we as humans weren’t really supposed to take jobs and all that. It’s just a construct to keep the fire burning.

Ok am rambling. Moving on.

PS: This means that my reading list and the TIL group that I run is dying a slow death. I am just glad that Pradeep keeps me posted on important things around the internet!

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10/ Claude

While I was doing an edit pass, I realised that I hadnt talked baout Claude. And I must! After all, thats where I spend a lot of my time and attention. I have nothing specific to write this week. My tokens got Maxxed on a Tuesday or something (reset happens on Thursday) and I felt like one arm has been taken away from me 🙁

And since it came back on a Thursday, am back on it with a vengeance! Yay!

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📷 Photos from the week gone by

Available on request :D.

But I have to place this here.

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📈 Trackers…

Here are one.

Love that there’s good recovery (I suspect Whoop is misfiring), green on emotions and about 6-7 hours of sleep on an average.

Also notice the pushups row. I do sets of 5 thru the day. Aim is to get to 100 pushups in a day (through the day) and then grow sets to 10 and then more.

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✅ Action on LARGE objectives for the year

In 2026, I plan to do three things.

  • Book2
  • Human Flag Pole
  • Save a million dollars

Book2 / Caravan Serai.
No movement this week. I will pick this in August.

Human Flag Pole.
I’ve started with push-ups. Its nothing tbh but some action for sure.

Save a million dollars.
No action to report.

📌 So, what did I get done last few weeks? And what will I do next 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.

So, this year, I want to track the following…

  1. Health. Sleep, food, movement. Bad. Many weeks running.
  2. C4E / Work. Pick a thing to apply myself to. Reworked on C4E website. Added some content. Made some progress on 66MGR.
  3. Brand SG / Distribution. No action TBH.
  4. People. No action.
  5. Book2. Nothing this week.
  6. Shauk. Again, nothing.

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🏃‍➡️ Health

No large actions apart from eating first meal post 12, taking supplements on time (Just popped the Vit D 60000 IU tab), some pushups. Which is a LOT tbh, compared to what I am typically on.

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⏲️ Reminders from last few days

Thanks to Claude and sgTasks, I dont forget things. However like most things that you stop thinking about, often they become blind spots and you dont even think about those. And I’ve found that thinking about things in the liminal often gives you great clarity.

So, I shall write those here in a list.

  1. Fix my linkedin
  2. Get a better CA for C4E
  3. Fix the voice guide on my AI tools
  4. 66MGR Ops things
  5. Close edits on wearec4e.com

Eventually this list will get longer. But at least it’s a start.

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🗓️ So, one thing that defines the past week?

Routine.

The other words for this year have been: Getting Back, Freedom, People, Motion, Show, Flow, Excitement, Embarrassment, Blur, Whiling, Movement, Activity, Regular, Easy, Journey, Downtime, Same, Drift.

So that.
Over and out.
Until next Friday.
SG

Oh, and this too shall pass.

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. Previous editions from 2026 are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (missed these three), 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 (missed), 26, 27, 28, 29 (missed these three), 30

PPS: Please do point typos.

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

Wk 30-26 – Weekly Note

Notes and updates from Week 30.

26 July 2026.
Back home.
At Seema’s Starbucks.
Was away for about 15 days. Large part of it was in Colombo. And now that am back, am trying to not go anywhere for the next 30 days. Lets see how it goes.

So, I am in that funk right now.
Whats the utility of writing this. No one reads this. AI creates lot of slop. Even I dont do as much mehnat as I must while I write things. And the primary reason for writing this is to get gunk out of my head. That’s happening anyway cos I journal a lot and take notes and talk it out. And of course I am forgetful, so that helps.

So that.
Lets start writing and see where it takes us.

Oh, I almost forgot. The track of the week is this. This version is ever better. You decide.

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Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from the week gone by.

1/ The monthly “focus”

I started this last month on where I would talk about what I want to do in the upcoming month.

In the months of Jun and Jul, I had decided to work on these…

  1. Revenue from Claude
  2. 66MGRoad
  3. Fix CA for C4E
  4. Distribution
  5. Caravan Serai
  6. 56 Hours
  7. Lean onto Claude to run my life
  8. Worldly problem
  9. Poker
  10. Public Speaking
  11. Fitness
  12. Fix 25

This must look like a long list but I can put them into three clusters only – work, play and health. The first four are work, next six are play and last two are health. And each feeds into another.

Even though these are clusters, I do think that I need to trim these. Thanks to friends and special thanks to Pradeep (he told me today morning that my “top three” things have four things in it), I will try to reduce these.

So, in the month of August, I plan to work on just one thing in each bucket. Here they are…

Work – 66MGRoad

Play – AI tools and all that

Health – Keto Diet for a month. Starting today. Ok, tomorrow please. I feel like Thepla and all that today : D

So, that.

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2/ CJP

Cockroaches have run wild and they brought the change they were seeking! Wow!

So, I need to admit something. All my life, I’ve never been in support of dharnas, blockages, strikes and all that. In fact, I would argue (in close quarters of course) that these do more harm than good. And I’ve never overtly supported any public movement. Not because I dont want to. But because of two things.

a/ I dont have the balls. Simple.

b/ I am not informed enough to take a stand. And this is true not just for protests or any political conversations but for everything that needs deep thinking. I operate at the surface. I hide behind my articulate ass and skirt the real issue. Plus, it was never gonna impact me anyway – I am male, old, self-employed and all that. And each time I was asked by people, I would make a “wise” comment about my being apolitical and move on.

However, CJP and the movement has shown what it means to have a spine. Young people decided on something and they came out in numbers and they showed what it meant to have spine. I know there are conversations about the movement having bad actors, influence from deep state, hidden agendas and I dont know what all. But, the fact of the matter remains that The Minister of Education had to put in his papers. If this is not change and impact. I dont know what is.

And I must learn.

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3/ Colombo. And home.

Like I said in the beginning, I was in Colombo for a few days.

I must admit that I quite liked my time there. I even made a new friend, who I hope to stay in touch with. In fact, I told SO that we must live in Colombo / Sri Lanka for an extended period. I dont know when I’d be able to do that but it’s definitely on the cards (as long as I dont forget).

Colombo gave me everything that I wanted. Coffee shop (they dont have Starbucks, there’s Barista and Java Lounge), nice people, India-like cost of living, safety (at least the parts I was in, I didn’t feel unsafe), India timzone, modern conveniences (nots just supermarkets but they also have PickMe, an Uber like services that delivers people and restaurant orders alike) and good food. The only complaint I have is shitty internet. I am assuming that will get fixed with time.

Oh, I took my parents as well, to get to the Hindu trail. Wrote about it here, specifically from the lens of making an itinerary for old parents. Should you choose to go there with your parents, please do ask me.

The Ramayana Trail in Sri Lanka, Planned for Old Parents

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4/ ADHD

I self-administered an online ADHD assessment. And guess what was the outcome.

I am taking a human proctored one in the next week.

Once I get the results, I will have proven beyond doubt that my inability to focus on one thing is as medical condition. No, I dont plan to take meds. I will find a way to solve for things without that.

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5/ Survival for another month

Thanks to an unplanned project, we survive yet another month!

Which is good and bad.

Good – that we survived.

Bad – that I am stuck in this survival mode for years now. 20 years to be precise. I dont know how to get out of this. And I have tried everything including a lot of self-imposed, self-love. And even though I believe I am smart, I am still poor. This is a genuine, from the depth of my heart question that I really need an answer on.

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6/ Claude

How can I write my weekly note and not talk about Claude?

Even though I was away, I did some Clauding. And the list of chats and projects is getting longer. And the amount of revenue I’ve made remains 0. But one thing has moved and I am probably not giving it enough weight. I’ve acquired three projects to help businesses get more efficient with Claude.

Here’s a list.

  1. I am helping a finance company optimise their speed to market and enable the sales team to focus only on sales and give up all the reporting, updating etc etc to a custom built tool.
  2. I am working with a manufacturing company that has plants across the country to save the time of their accounting department by building tools to reconcile things faster.
  3. I am helping a corporate gifting company do better by building a CRM tool purpose built for them and for their use case.

All these are pilots and if these work well, I’d try to convert these into a service layers. Oh, and apart from this, I’ve made a personal CRM tool (for other superconnectors as well), a task manager, an accountant and more for myself. I hope to build these into standalone products and offer them for sales.

So, I may very well be able to pivot into an AI-enabled transformation service provider. I just need to get sure of the outcome before I make it commercial. And I need to figure that it’s a large enough opportunity. I could be a McKinsey 2.0 for SMEs and traditional businesses!

Here’s a request – in case you have a problem that you’d like to be automated with the help of AI, please do let me know. I will not charge you anything. Really.

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📷 Photos from the week gone by

Since I was in Colombo, I did take a lot of photos. And as always, available on request. Lemme know if you want those.

Here’s a teaser…

📈 Trackers…

No trackers for this update. I didnt capture data TBH. Hoping to get back to this from this week on.

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✅ Action on LARGE objectives for the year

In this section, I capture progress on the large objectives for the year. Going forward. I will also add monthly priorities. I suspect, if I keep going like this, I will end up with an OKR system of my own.

In 2026, I plan to do the following three things…

  1. Book2
  2. Human Flag Pole
  3. Save a million dollars

Book2 / Caravan Serai.
Book 2, draft 1 is done. I had finished it before I went to Colombo. But I am not confident enough to unleash it in the world. I will work on it in Jul-Aug and get it ready.

Human Flag Pole.
No action.

Save a million dollars.
No action worth reporting. I am just grateful that I survived this month.

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📌  So, what did I get done last few weeks? And what will I do next week?

A one-line report on things I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

Health.
Sleep, food, movement.
Nothing to be honest. Travel screwed this. Need to find a way to keep consistent on these things while I travel.

C4E / Work.
Regular things. Nothing large to report.

Brand SG / Distribution.
No action. We did release a few videos. See them here.

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People.
Spoke to some friends. Talked to some contacts. Used my CRM tool to reignite some connections. Love that!

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🏃‍➡️ Health

Nothing large to report.
Status quo.

Trying to self -administer some meds and supplements and all that. I am still unable to find a way to work out. I’ve tried almost all shapes and sizes of inspiration and motivation and all that to get to learn. But I havent been able to 🙁

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⏲️ Reminders from last few days

Same as the last few weeks. Parking this section.

The only saving grace is that I’ve built myself a tool on Claude that helps me not lose track of things. At some point in time, I want to build public showcases of these tools to help people become better.

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🗓️ So, one thing that defines the past week?

Getting back.

The other words for this year have been: Freedom, People, Motion, Show, Flow, Excitement, Embarrassment, Blur, Whiling, Movement, Activity, Regular, Easy, Journey, Downtime, Same, Drift.

So that.
Over and out.
Until next Friday.
SG

Oh, and this too shall pass.

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. Previous editions from 2026 are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (missed these three), 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 (missed), 26, 27, 28, 29 (missed these three).

PPS: Please do point typos.

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

PPPPS: This wasnt the best weekly update but I really had nothing else to write. Hopefully, ill have something large to report from the next week on.

Wk 21-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts, reflections and everything else from Week 21 of 2025.

May 24
3:4p PM, Jamjar
Updated at 8 AM, May 26th at DN Nagar.

The week gone by was a super fast one. Naman and Vishal were around and that meant I was lot more busy with them. Reinforced the belief that you can either work or manage life. I mean, am sure there are people that manage homes and lives and all that. But I know I can’t. So that.

Ok enough of prelude. Let’s get going.

Let’s go!

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

A/ Self-Image
Lemme start with the biggest, the deepest thing in my head and heart: my self-image.

Context – I was talking to somebody last week and I realized that I think that I am doing the worst in my friend and social circle. In terms of money, life, work, societal goals etc etc.

And this means that my self-image is really really bad. And like all problems that I need to solve, I need to work on it.

Now I don’t know how to do it but I want to make a note in this weekly update. And I want to reflect on that during the coming week. Let’s see how I do that.

B/ Photo on the internet
Continuing on the self-image thing, it is one of the large reasons why I didnt put my photo on the internet.

But, I now have many photos on the internet. On places like Linkedin and Twitter. And people are commenting left, right and centre. And that’s not cool. And I need to fix it. So that.

And no, I am not linking to those. Go find out!

B.1/ Personal brand
HIGH TIME I WORK ON MY DISTRIBUTION AND PERSONAL BRAND. COME ON AK! And AK, Happy birthday!

C/ C4E People
My people are stronger than I had imagined them to be. For context, at C4E, we have a tough client and I was of the opinion that we must let go of that client. Not worth the effort. But my team said they will manage. And they seem to be managing. So, yay!

D/ Push ups
I talked about pushups last week. I am glad to report that I continued for a few days. I’ve missed it over the last 2-3 days but I am mostly been thinking about it. So that’s cool.

I will eventually get to a point where I can do 100 push-ups in one go. Adding this to yet another life goal. Lol!

E/ Google IO / io
I saw the keynotes from Google IO. Loved that I am almost at the peak of my life at this time and I get to live and do great things.

I also saw the announcement by Sam and Jony about Open AI and io. And I want to scream in the void. There’s so much to do in life and we are fighting over religion. Sigh.

Thing is, when I saw the video, epiphany dawned onto me that they are actually talking about building things that will impact the way the world lives and works. Lemme give an example. When Apple made the iPhone with a touchscreen, I am sure they weren’t the first ones to make a phone with a touchscreen. But they definitely were the ones to show people what they wanted and marketed that well. To a point that people started to demand that. And other companies had to innovate to stay relevant. And that pursuit of relevance made these companies chase innovation and that chase of innovation gave a larger mass actual access to a better life.

Same thing with Tesla. Tesla wasn’t the first one to make electric cars but the marketing and communication around it made the entire world open up to the ideas of electric cars. And that forced every other car manufacturer to chase it. And that made the dream the reality.

So, that is the kind of impact that you need to have rather than doing delivery of groceries in 10 minutes. You build something that shifts how people live and operate. And then you talk about it. And then you enable. That’s something I want to work on!

Oh, and while I do that, I want to make money. To be able to do more things!

Makes sense?

F/ Mr Beast at a Billion Dollars
This seems to have not got its due because of all the other news from the last week (AI, Cannes etc). The fact that one-person from a non-celebrity, non-sports background is a billionaire is a remarkable thing. This gives me a lot of hope!

G/ Madhushala by Harivansh Rai Bachcchan
One of my favorite poems of all times. I dont know why am talking about them here but I listen to these often.

मेरे शव पर वह रोये, हो जिसके आंसू में हाला
आह भरे वो, जो हो सुरिभत मदिरा पी कर मतवाला,
दे मुझको वो कान्धा जिनके पग मद डगमग होते हों
और जलूं उस ठौर जहां पर कभी रही हो मधुशाला।।८३।

और चिता पर जाये उंढेला पात्र न घ्रित का, पर प्याला
कंठ बंधे अंगूर लता में मध्य न जल हो, पर हाला,
प्राण प्रिये यदि श्राध करो तुम मेरा तो ऐसे करना
पीने वालों को बुलवा कऱ खुलवा देना मधुशाला।।८४।

Also, related, see, these lines from Zakir. I dont want no one to come when I die (I want to die alone – caretakers of my will, please take note) but these lines ring home.

H/ Cheerleader of action
I was talking to someone the other day and I happened to mention that I am the biggest cheerleader of action. Lemme elaborate.

So there are people say they will do things and they’ve been saying it for 100 years. And then there are some people who actually do things. They move forward. Even if its an inch at a time.

I have this solid belief that I ought to support the ones who actually do things.

Often you would find people who fake and all that. But their actions show their true intent. You know, words > action and if you have to make a mistake, I love folks who err on the side of action.

Oh, this also correlates to that adage – “God helps those who help themselves”.

This tenet seems to have percolated in each thing I do and each action I’ve taken. I want to mention Roohi here. The kid has the tenacity of a warrior. She is taking action all the time!

Phew!

I/ Issac John of Ivory
Got connected to Issac John. He’s one of the founders at Ivory. The chat with him was one of the most hearywarming and interesting ever. I wish I am like him when I grow up.

J/ Baarish is here!
Yay!

K/ Khosla Ka Ghosla (and films)
Lemme talk about this in a tad more detail.

In the week gone by, I spent some time thinking about the medium of films. And I realised that we need to be a player in that.

Plus, I saw Khoslsa Ka Ghosla on Saturday at Balram‘s Secret Cinema Screenings. Revisited the ride of emotions that I get each time I see it. Made me reflect on a lot of things. Here are some…

Watching films is a communal experience that I am not sure I get the value of. In fact, I dont get the value of watching anything when you are in a group. No films. No sports. Nothing. And I know I am wrong. Because nations have been built, battles have been fought, planets have been conquered on the back these communal experiences. People meet ideas as these experience. People meet people. And most importantly, people meet inspiration. And these experience, people and inspiration makes people create magic. 

Coming to me, I am not fan of these. Simply because I am not the consuming kinds. Not passively. I want to be an active player in the dance of the universe around me. I want to not just have the front row seat, but actually build that seat! 

Ok, I am getting into the rant zone. Will skip.

Oh, I did meet Balram to talk about films and all that. Was a very very interesting meeting. Let’s see where it goes. Wish I was like him! I wont say more here.

L/ Saw a Working Man, A Jason Statham Film.
I love him!
I ended up seeing 2 films in the week!
Must fix this.

M/ Mario
Been watching Mario run videos on YT. And its the most therapeutic thing ever. Here is one for your viewing pleasure.

So that was from the week!
Phew!

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 21.

I quite like some of the photos that have some lessons. I wish I could upload those here.

And no, this does not have my photos 😉

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by? And the next week!

Book 2
No update. Again, please stay patient. I shall get back to this soon.

PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give 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. Didnt sleep well most of this week. Ate a lot of food that I shouldnt (not calling it Kachra, thanks J). Did a few pushups but that was that. A solid -1. Lol!

On this, addendum. When people realise that I am not well (when they see my tweets etc), they reach out to ask me how am doing. And I dont know how to reply to them. It gets awkward. Maybe going forward, I will not update my health conversations on public forums?

Meru. Was an ok week. Met a few people. Moved the needle. But still far from where I’d like to be. A 0.

C4E. Better than the last week. Cash flow remains a problem. This output for Foxo is kickass. I dont want to say -1. And I dont want to say +1. So a 0.

Brand SG. No action on this either. But some action. So a 0.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol!
-1

Shauk. Saw a couple of films. Met some new people. Not the best. But will have it 0.

So the overall score is -3 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: 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

Looked at all the days I’ve missed 🙁

Must fix.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I didnt read as much during the week. But I used my downtime to get some reading done. Here are some…

  1. Pritesh Jain’s Blog (on Punit’s Recommendation)
  2. This post by Balram
  3. PG’s new essay on good writing
  4. This tweet from Dharmesh Ba.
  5. This tweet from Hemant about taste, instinct and risks. Do read.
  6. Rick Rubin on The Way of Code. Probably the most impactful thing I read in the last week. This deserves a long discussion. I dont know when.
  7. This essay about Sarvam.

🧠 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. I dont think this would see any action anytime soon.
  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?

Busy for nothing.
I was busy for nothing. I had family over and thus I was busy for nothing specific.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… 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

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.

PPPPPS: I “wrote” some part of this post using voice to text. Can yout spot what part?

Wk 13-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes and thoughts from Week 13, 2025

Morning!
At this time, its 9:05 AM and I am waiting for AK to finish reading highagency.com. And then she and I will record the next episode of Adulting Podcast. And then I have a bunch of things to do and then I have a lunch with Paras. And then I have some work. And I will find time in between all these to write this piece.

So, with that, let’s go!

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by? And the next week!

I was to work on the 2025 plan and Book 2.

Like last week, I didnt make any progress on either. I do have a few reasons and excuses on why I couldnt. I will not get into those. I will acknowledge that I didnt work. And I will try and do better in the coming week. So that.

Moving on…

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give 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. I want to do 4 things here – eat better, sleep better, work on my muscles and generally by happy. In the week gone by, I did nothing. So -1 there.

Meru. A lot of action here. I cant talk about a lot of this. I even wore shoes 2 days in the week gone by! So yeah! But despite the action, am far from getting to the ideal state. So, I will give myself a 0.

C4E. Again, like Meru, I did a lot but nothing to show for. Luckily, Chandni is doing the heavy lifting on the revenue and everyone else is supporting her. On Labs, AK (and increasingly KP) are keeping the movement. I will give myself a 0.

Brand SG. I got a few emails as a result of work I had done in the previous weeks. So that was good. However I didnt take any action on it. So, a -1.

People. Did a few things. Got Bri some gifts. She knows about one. Doesnt know about the other. Plus, like last week, met a few people. Nothing large of consequence. So, a 0.

Book 2. No action. -1.

Shauk. No large action. Did catch the sunset. And thus, a 0.

So the overall score is -3 for this week. Same as last week.
Trends from the previous weeks: -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

Here’s the tracker.

What do you notice?

For me, the highlights are…

  1. I’ve missed my daily twitter review. I need to try harder.
  2. I didn’t track money for a few days. This is largely because I had relatives over and with them I was loose with money.
  3. Sleep and recovery has largely been ok. I need to get more consistent though.
  4. I added a few rows (journals, OMAD etc). I plan to track those.

That’s it I think.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from the week gone by.

Absolutely love some of these.
Do you want to guess which one?
Ping me on X.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I bookmarked a lot. But I havent read a lot.
Nonetheless, I will capture those here.
At some time, I will have someone post these on larger platforms as well.

  1. What to do. By Paul Graham.
  2. This mile long essay on High Agency by George Mack. This is one of the most important pieces you will ever read.
  3. This essay from Anand never goes old. Do read it.
  4. Companionship Content by Anu Atluru. I love each thing she writes.
  5. Assorted links on how to get rich (thanks to AK for the prompt)
  6. Recurse Manual – This could actually be the future of SoG. And while you are at it, do read Late Checkout Story, Values at Bending Spoons, the Tiny Story, Lossfunk and other venture studios #currentThings
  7. Pradeep’s Note Taking Dilemma – here
  8. Made this list of tools I use – here
  9. Finshots on Ozempic in India – here
  10. Had to read about Frank Slootman but I did not.
  11. The Turner Diaries. Here.
  12. Gautam on how to capitalise a services compnay and reward people.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

Here are some from this week.

A/ AI
Faceless channel, content, code, design, creative services and dunno what all. A lot is on my mind, especially that one of my children is directly impacted by this. I will probably write a longer note some day. For the time being, AI remains at the top of my head. So that.

A.1/ Studio Ghibli
I hve to talk about this. I may not have an eloquent answer but for the first time in my life, since the AI revolution happened about us, I am feeling cheated. Enough said. May be I will do a solocast on this.

I also wrote this on my daily note on the 27th March…

The entire internet has gone bonkers over it. And I think it’s not a good thing. No, I am not resisting change. I am in-fact all for change. But I felt sad that the insane effort that all these artists at Ghibli put in to build art is now a commodity. On the internet, it will be a passing fad – people will make photos, try to look “cute”, make films and I dont know what all. But in the process, we will forget the hardwork that the artists would have put in.

Of course you can compare that to the work of writers and painters and coders. And surprisingly, I was ok when those were “displaced”. So little conflicted on that.

Nothing has changed since I wrote that.

B/ Bhiwandi
On Tuesday, I went to Bhiwandi to see some warehouses. While I went to a few only, the visit was eye opening. The suprising efficiency with whch things were moving around was jaw-dropping. I have heard about those at CynLr, I’ve seen documentaries, I’ve experienced it (QC) but I saw the engine like a living and breathing thing for the first time.

I am not sure I am big fan of how that’s working but it’s incredible. Has to be a highlight of my week.

C/ Meri.health
I got this message on my WA group where a gent from the first batch of IIT Delhi (Ramesh Ji) wants to do a public health startup. And I am unable to help him (I have a lot going for me). I tried to find someone who can help them but I was unable to. My heart goes out. I wish I could help them.

In fact, if you are someone who can help these folks, I would love to connect and even volunteer for a bit with you.

D/ Attention Span
Multiple people have told me multiple conversations that I have ADHD and I need to do something about it. I will start with meditation.

On the beach today, I will not use my phone at all. And I will fix this. #currentThings

E/ Eco Mode
I am gonna live in the Eco Mode from 1 April. The only expenses I would make would be towards work and health. Nothing else. No more gifts, no more “quality of life” improvements, nothing else. The idea is to extend the runway for as long as I can.

F/ Rejection
A candidate rejected me at Meru.

Here’s some backstory. When I interview someone, my approach is to dissuade them from joining me. Some people try to show you the rosy picture and good things and all that. I try to show you the worst things and then, despite that, you are keen on working with me, I am all heart.

This person rejected me. And that was not cool. I felt bad. Need to not feel bad when such conversations happen. Oh, the funny thing is that I’ve been rejected by people in the past and each time that happened, I didnt really feed bad. This one felt personal and hurt more. Dunno why.

G/ Nails
My nails havent been clipped in a while. And I need to find a way to do that. I dont like them dirty and there isnt any time to do that. I may do it today.

H/ Travel
I had decided that this year I will travel less. That is already not happening. I am staring at an upcoming trip to Bangalore (for health) and a trip to Bangkok (to meet Vivek and kids). I want to not do either. But I will have to. So that.

I/ This tweet. And People.
I wrote this in fit of rage. I absolutely hate when my people dont trust me. I want to write more but I will leave at it. I will write on my Roam and in my ecochamber but its important to capture that my heart has been broken so bad that I dont know what to do about it. No, I am not ok. But dont ask me about it. I just want to pour things here and someday when (and if) I write a biopgraphy, purely to leave lessons for people, I will talk more on it.

J/ The Order
More about it is here. Saw this last night. Loved it. Oh, and the writer of The Order (Zach Baylin) is also the writer for King Richard!

I saw a film after a while and I totally loved it. I must find more films and see those.

K/ Started Journaling.
After I saw a tweet (it was by Namya Khan and I cant find the link (thanks to Pradeep for sharing the link)). And this has been inspired by Marcus Aurelius.

L/ Lucky Ali
He’s been dropping bangers one after another on his YT channel. See some here. so many emotions. Lemme make a list.

  1. Why am I not producing this? Why am I not after Rabbi Shergill to make documentary on his life?
  2. He’s aged and clearly unable to sing well. It’s not good to see him in pain. On the other side, its incredible to see him try so hard!
  3. Things like music never go old. One must create art, even in the day and age of AI

On, and staying on music, I cant stop seeing this by Maithali Thakur. May be have a dekho.

M/ Purpose
On C4E Village, the other day we were taling about purpose and while talking, happened to say something increbile (at least I think so). That the world is a mirror. If you are unhappy, the world would look unhappy to you. If you are happy, the world would look happy. I further said…

“…am 42, failure, but instead of that making me sore – it inspires me to do more. more than a 24 year old. and not to any end. but to burn. on both sides. in a way that meri aag ka tez, mera prakash at least mere aas paas ke logo ki duniya ko roshan kar de and unki raah me ek streetlight ban jaaye. raah pe chalna unka kaam hai, mera hai raah ko roshan karna”

And I said…

“we make meaning in life when we make meaning in other people’s lives. the most content, happy, people are the ones that are either reading Naval or doing charas or helping others.”

And finally, my advice was…

“bina apne matlab ki duniya ki madad karo, kaafi swad aaega”

N/ Naman hit a personal money milestone.
Super happy about it!
More on it on my echochamber

M/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words…
Not too many things to be honest. I have actually covered most of those in the text above!

Phew that was a lot for the week.

🧠 Reminders from last week

I am adding this section. To capture things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates.

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

  1. Health
    • Kitchen setup
    • Gym membership
  2. C4E
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency / Upwork
  3. Shauk / Personal
    • Poker
    • Better dressed SG
    • Use of money / time
    • Love
    • Demand more from life

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

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Action.

In the previous weeks, it’s been Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—

Ok!
This is it for the week gone by. Late by a day. But it’s here. Yay!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

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

PPS: This week, thankfully, I maintained a note where I would keep dumping things that I want to capture in my weekly note. I loved being mindful about this habit. I will continue with it.

Wk 05-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from Week 5 of 2025. I talk about things I did, things I learnt and things I am thinking about.

6:47 PM, 2 Feb
Jamjar, Versova

I should be at CSS.
But I am sitting this one out. I have multiple reasons. Here’s a list.

A/ I want to write this before the day ends. I started late and then I had to be at places and thus I didn’t get time. This is my pursuit and I am responsible and I have to get this done. CSS is C4E’s pursuit and I have it in very capable hands of AK.

B/ Also, I want AK (and other kids) to start taking independent ownership of things. I want them to start living with the idea that I will not be around. I also want to learn to not have the pleasure of seeing my kids in action. I want to give them the space to grow and I want to be absent from their lives. I want to be proud of them from a distance. Howsoever tiny it may be but it’s indeed a thing that I value a lot. More about CSS is here.

Ok two only 😀

Anyhow. Coming to the review of the week. Here’s a report.

What I was supposed to do in the week gone by.
And my report on the same.

A/ 2025 plan.
In one line, I haven’t been able to work on my plan for the year. I think now that one month of 2025 is gone, I may never get around to doing it. May be I will still do it during the next week. Let’s see.

The tracker from the week that went by.

The tracker from the last week is here.

As you can see, I have started to miss some days. I need to get stricter about it. And now that I’ve done this for a month, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do this everyday.

What do you see in this tracker?

Photos from the week

Here are some pics from the week gone by. Here is the link for the week.
As you will see, it was quite a week!

And this brings me to highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

Highlights from the week gone by…

In no order…

A / Unidimensional personality
I’ve realised that I have a very unidimensional personality. I was dinnering with a friend of 20 years last night and I did not know what to talk to her about. Each time she would talk about current affairs, friends, etc etc, I would bring it back to work.

While its ok for me at this stage of my life, I think I will have to find a way to change this. Oh, I do want to change this. While work is interesting, what I do today is not world-changing. Aisa bhi kuch khaas nahi kar raha main!

B/ AI FOMO
I have this HUGE FOMO about my lack of participation in the AI rush. While we at C4E have a client who works at the forefront of AI, I am still a silent observer. I feel like that person sitting on the sidelines while life is passing him by!

I don’t know what to do about it.

I do have a friend and collaborator in Krishna. I do have that not-so-secret startup that I am building with a few friends. Both are on the fringes of AI but I would like to have a more mainstream participation. I don’t know how. Any ideas anyone?

C/ AK at Hyd
AK is going to Hyd in the next week. I am INCREDIBLY proud of it. I know she will read this. And I want her to know that I love her!

D/ Processes over people
Each day I am reminded that if I want to scale, I need to think beyond my love for people. You know, I REALLY wanted to prove to the world that I can create a billion-dollar company with great people at the helm and all that. But each passing day I think its getting difficult.

Today I met AK Sir (not my AK but AK sir) and reiterated that if I want C4E to go beyond where we are, I will have to think more about processes than people.

So that.

I know, I know. Sad and disappointing. But this is how it is. I swear that the world is unkind, unfair. And at the same time, it is good, nice and all those warm things. I think its fair to say that the world is indeed a reflection of who you are!

ISTG, I am full of hope on most days. In fact, as I write this, I am staring at the first loss-making year for C4E since COVId-19. And I remain hopeful that we will do well.

Time shall tell.

E/ Took a laptop back from a C4E alum
One of the people at C4E moved out abruptly. Many things lead to this. We weren’t able to challenge the person enough. We couldn’t pay her well enough to help her retain her lifestyle. We didn’t have enough work to keep them meaningfully employed. And then some more.

Each time someone moves on from C4E, I feel sad. In most cases, I justify my sadness with the knowledge that whoever goes away, has gone to a better place. And that’s ok.

In most cases when people go, they go with the gifts that C4E had showered them with – most of these are intangible. In some cases it’s tangible. This person when she moved, C and I decided that we would ask for the laptop that we had got for them. This is very unlike us. I have promised people that I will take care of them for as long as I can. And in most cases, I do. Even after they move on from our life.

But for some reason, this one seemed personal. And I hate it. HATE IT.

But I had to do it. You know, a man’s gotta do. I am also justifying this one as the first in many steps that I will have to take to make C4E bigger and better. So that.

Oh, in the same bullet, I want to write about a tough separation with someone who we were trying to get at C4E. But I shall skip the gory details. All of us at C4E failed with that. Our culture failed. I wish we didn’t. But lesson learnt.

F/ Private Twitter
On the counsel of AP, I’ve made my Twitter private.

I will continue to be on @saurabh and I will build that into a large distribution page (despite the flag and shadow ban). But all personal updates will move on @altsg. Go follow that.

G/ Met Prof Kavi Arya
What a guy!

This meeting was probably the highlight of the week. He runs e Yantra. I heard his journey and I was inspired to do more with SoG.

Meeting him again on Tuesday the 4th. Looking forward to that!

H/ Met Murtaza.
Again, what A GUY!

Again, the second highlight of the week. Murtaza is all of 33 and wise beyond his years. I wish I could be like him. I wish I could create the kind of impact and wealth he’s been able to create.

I/ MDI Network
For the startup, I have been asking for help from people. The set of people who came forward the most is from MDI! I even made a post on LinkedIn about it.

I can’t express in words how much the help means to me. I would’ve spoken to 10 odd people and EACH person gave out advice, inputs, connections and more. I am so so floored by the generosity of these people.

I aspire to be like that. I want to be that person in deed when someone comes to me in their time of need. Come on, universe!

J/ Other things worth noting
I am adding this section for things that I want to take note of, but don’t have large comments to make. This doesn’t mean that these are small things. Just that I’ve either spoken about them elsewhere or I want to keep those private. Here they are, in bullets…

  1. Sachin told me to stop with self-deprecating humor. Wrote more about it here.
  2. Vinny told me about the secrets of the restaurant business. It’s no longer a case but there was a time when I wanted to run a restaurant (I still want a cafe / co-working space etc).
  3. Pradeep did a KICKASS job on Towards Eternity! It is a weekly newsletter that curates and brings together insights from the world of healthtech. Aimed at health enthusiasts, startups and investors, Pradeep cranks out a kickass letter week on week. Do subscribe!
  4. I failed as a leader at C4E. I failed to instil camaraderie. I failed to inspire a sense of urgency in my people. I failed to have us at a team seek higher standards. More is on my roam.
  5. Decided that at C4E, we will stop with low-value work. More on this in some subsequent post. Maybe Chandni will write this.
  6. Read about Bardo. Loved it!
  7. Was reminded that I need to learn the art of sales. I suck at it and I will make a deliberate effort to learn. Thanks, Ramanuj.

Ok that.
Phew

One large takeaway from the week?

In one word.
People.
Simple.

In the week gone by I must have spoken to some 20 people and each was an intense, long chat to learn more, share more, connect more and all that. And I want more! Lol!

Ok!
This is it!
Lemme know what you think.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01, Wk 02, Wk 03, 04

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.