Claude Archives

Wk 19-26 – Weekly Note

Notes, thoughts and highlights from Week 19, 2026.

11 May, 2026
5 AM
DN Nagar

I write this on a Monday morning from the desk at my home. I woke up 10 minutes ago, checked Instagram on texts from my crush (none for the last 5 days), had a sip of water and typing. It’s 5:15 AM AM and I aim to get this done by 5:45.

90% of this is being written by a Claude skill that I trained. Lets see if you can make it. Ofc, I wrote 100% of the balance 10% and I have edited baout 90% of the balance 90%.

The highlight of the week was my screentime. On the laptop and on Claude. And the fact that I asked my insta followers to recommend me some new music. Both experiences were interesting. Both overwhelmed me. Both are offering me the new that I am not used to.

The honest line of the week is something I scribbled into Roam a couple of days ago, “Claude is pulling me in all directions. I have multiple tabs open and that means I am not looking at any. And this is being a problem.” That’s where I am. The tools have multiplied faster than my attention. The bottleneck is no longer ideas or even building. It’s pick-and-finish. I will talk more about Claude subsequently, but on the music front, I will take the safe option of music I know. For example, this one by Bashir.

And with that, lets go to the week!

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

In no order…

1/ The Peer Conversations

In the week gone by, I reached out to a few other marketers that I respect. And I was blown by the incredible clarity that those people had. Some realizations are…

One — I am not going back to a traditional agency model. AI has compressed agency-side economics by a LARGE factor on the client side. And in words of one of the folks I spke to, “all the kids are doing great work with AI — we are probably fossils.” A thousand agencies in the market, all playing catch-up. I’ve seen this movie before with social media. Don’t want to go again.

So, I dont think C4E in its current shape will survive. I dont think I’ve annnouced the death knell in these clear words. I am giving ourselves a year at max. I will bet that we would be irrelevant by end of the year. Let’s see.

Two — the offline business will thrive. Elon and Pradeep have been telling me to work on this. I have not paid heed. Maybe its the time to do so?

Three — there may be something in Soham. Need to chat with AK on that.

2/ “Its expensive to be poor”

My access to a $200 a month Claude subscription is yet another proof point of the maxim that its expensive to be poor.

I’ve seen friends and strangers struggle with rate limits and all that. And I on the other hand can do 5 things in 3 tabs and apps and yet not hit even 10%. Heck, I can even “rent” out my limits.

Even though this is the most expensive subscription I have, I can see it save me so much time! Plus THE MOST INCREDIBLE THING is that Claude is pulling me in all directions and giving me the kick that probably drugs give you. I am not sleeping, I am not distracted. I am in the flow. Am dreaming of possibilities. It’s made me realise that I need to be fit enough to “enjoy” this “grind” for a long-term. I can see the “why” that will make me fix the “how” and the “what”. I want to be fitter and more active and I want to ship things. For once, I want to put Seneca to rest and not die.

In words of Andrew, Claude is helping me reduce the time and friction from an idea to its execution. Do see this podcast.

PS: The other expensive purchase (Airpods Pro Max) is being a dud.

3/ 101 on Indian Arts, and the AI Distortion Problem

Sonali talked to me about her passion project – Indian art. She has an interesting thesis on it. I will not explain it here. But in one line, she argues that AI does more disservice to Indian art to anything else. Since the training data is skewed to English and Western artforms, the misrepresentation and omissions and hallucinations are real. AI is actively rewriting what Indian art “is” – kolam loses its geometric precision, Kali gets hypersexualized, and once distorted versions dominate search, the correct version disappears from collective consciousness.

That is her “large battle.”

4/ The Ghostwriting Book Project

As part of sgwashere.com, my latest book (the one am ghostwriting) has moved from “shaping” to “executing” this week. We’ve despatched the book to beta readers are we are now in the editing phase. My sense is that we would have a publishing ready book by end of May.

Yay!

5/ Lessons from Nimisha and Himanshu and Others

Many threads in this one

One (the highlight),
Nimisha gave me a 90-minute growth marketing masterclass that I am still digesting. Here are some takeaways…

1. Reddit is criminally underrated. She grew a subreddit to 2,000+ members in 15 days. And she said shes not even the best. So I have been told to focus on that

2. Faceless AI accounts for TikTok / IG. Audit competitor accounts for the last 6–12 months. Find what’s working. Replicate format. Don’t over-invest in tooling. Test format first.

3. Read Brian Balfour’s 4 Fits framework. Product–Market → Product–Channel → Channel–Model → Model–Market. Each fit must be validated in sequence. A mismatch at any stage breaks the growth loop. She told me on my face that we are have the wrong channel for its product and model. I agree.

4. Viral vs trending is a real distinction. Viral = millions of views on one piece. Trending = 1,500 posts about you across the platform. The mechanic? Viral spike creates a traffic bump. Use that window to release a second high-potential piece while the audience is primed. Compound.

5. She connected me with other young people. The highligt being Kaashvi. She also gave me many lessons. Post for the next week.

Two,
Himanshu (a student at MDI) has blown me with his hardwork and enthusiam for work. Wish I was that when I was 21. He’s like Aarya. Insane potential that makes me afraid. And inspires me enough to work harder to be able to give them a platform worth their talent.

6/ The ’56 Hours’ Update

56 Hours has its own page on the blog now. From “told friends about” to “linked from the homepage.”

While I am writing the script, talked to Naman on Sunday about turning it into an AI film. He is excited. I am excited. Built character dossiers on Tuesday. Here’s one of the outputs…

7/ People…

Met and spoke with many people.

A producer friend who’s struggling.
A seasoned entrepreneur who wanted intros to CMOs. I hate when I am used like that.
Varsha.
Saw Tanzila‘s show on Thursday. Incredible! Bumped into Sampat while I was there.
Saw Roshan Abbas on stage. Loved it! I will try to take a leaf from his book and try to become a listener. I may even convert my “daily” soloCast into a live radio of sorts. Afterall, we are all stories. And I love to gather those! #sgtodo
Did a long call with a friend who I had lost touch with.
A client+friend who made me make this video about commandments for young people.

8/ Other things worth noting…

HelioCoach is chuggling slower than I had imagined. I will push it more.
shipshit.in has started to come together well.
Read Dr Pradip Jamnadas on hugs and inflammation earlier in the week. Go hug someone.
I HAVE to do a TinyDesk clone in India. This has been on my list for a 1000 years.
I need to make a list of things that I do NOT want to be associated with. And I want to make a list of people who I do NOT want to become.
I need to reduce the gap between my impulse. And my response. Say, I want to check what my crush is upto. I need to WAIT before I take action of lifting my phone and seeing her insta.
I want to be able to have intensity drip through my work. The only work I know is writing. And I dont know how to showcase my intensity in this day and age. But I need to think on this.
This tweet by Elon…

So that.

📷 Photos from the week gone by

Stopped this a few weeks ago.
In case you want to get photos from me, DM me.

📈 Trackers…

Was not a good week. The sleep was all over the place. Worse I didnt track a lot. I am down on all counts. Overspent. Had many Diet Cokes. Sleeping less, walking less, more screen time (on Claude lol), missed trackers etc.

No screenshots this week.

I hope to get back on track this week.

✅ Action on LARGE objectives for the year

In this section, I will capture my progress on large objectives for the year.

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

Book2
Human Flag Pole
Save a million dollars

Book2 – made some progress. Yet to get to a point where I can talk. But its no a 0.

Human Flag Pole – no action.

Save a million dollars – no action. In fact, last 2 months have seen financial stress.

📌 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…

Health. I will work on sleep, food and movement. Not a good week. Sleep broken. No workouts. ~5K steps. Will work on it.
C4E / Work. I want to shortlist some idea to work on. No new ideas. I am running behind on this one.
Brand SG / Distribution. No large action but I am. started to see some traction. Got a premium X. Started to do videos. Wrote a few pieces. But no outcome.
People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc). No large action.
Book2. No large thing.
Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc). Nothing additional.

🏃‍➡️ Health

I added Health as a key section last year. I read somewhere that you need 4 things to live long — sleep, exercise, diet and community. I will track all four. And then some more variables that I feel are important to me.

This week was bad. Again.

Bad sleep
Bad food
No supplements.
No workouts.
Stress and dissatisfaction – good!

⏲️ Reminders from last few days

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office.

A few things…

Update C4E’s Culture Book. This is still WIP.
C4E’s website. This is new and WIP. Parth showed me some updates. Lets see when we ship it.
Sparring Partner as a Service. Added this new thing.

I have a suspicion that this list will grow and will become unmanageable in a few weeks. I will find a solution when I get to it. For the time being, here’s a sheet where I track my actions.

Here are the things that I’ve closed previously…

Start a podcast with C and AK. This remains open and will probably get shut. I dont see the excitement in the three of us.
Storytelling presentation for the session on the 7th March. I missed this. And I will do this in March. Maybe on the 28th or the 29th? I missed this again. I dont think am doing this. So closing and moving on.

🗓️ So, one thing that defines the past week?

Excitement.

Love all that I did with Claude this week. Super excited.

The other words for this year have been: Embarrassment, Blur, Whiling, Movement, Blur, Activity, Movement, Regular (again), Regular, Easy, Journey, Downtime.

—
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. 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

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 one was 90% “written” by Claude and edited heavily by me. Tell me what bits do you think I wrote?

Wk 18-26 – Weekly Note

Notes, thoughts and highlights from Week 18, 2026.

2 May, 2026
Started writing this at Silk Road Coffee Company and continued at other places.

Today’s M’s birthday. One of those rare people in the world that I love. And I gave Poo a hug. Again, another rare person that I love.

And I write this from a table where I am with AK, Prak, Naman and C. My people. The ones I want to live with and grow old with. Grateful that I have these people around me. If I were to zoom out, I think I would agree that my greatest achievement has been my mastery over my time. I am able to choose who I want to spend my time with and what I do with that time. I am mostly ok on the money front as well, though it could be better.

So that.

The week gone by saw a lot of action. There are a few things that I even delivered (yay!) and I shall talk about those shortly.

The song for the week is Lucky Ali’s Dekha Hai Aise Bhi. And this version of Iris.

And with that, let’s go.

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

In no order…

1/ Bunked a Work Meeting

Some context. I live in Andheri West. I had to meet a mentor at Nariman Point. For some work. And life updates.

Nariman Point is as far as you can go, if you travel South from Andheri. And typically takes about an hour early in the morning. And I had to meet him at his office. This means I had to wear pants. And do more superhuman things like that.

I did all of it.

Wore a shirt.
Wore pants.
Left home at 7:30 am to bear and beat traffic.
Reached a Starbucks close to his office at 8:30.
For a meeting at 10:30.
And then, I didnt go.

And no, I am not proud of it.
And I must talk about it.

The thing is, I had to go there to update him about work I’ve done in the past few months. And I didn’t really have a lot of new things to show him. Which is ok. No update is also an update. But while thinking about what to tell him, I realised, I am a hack. I havent dont anything by myself. All that I had to talk about was other people, doing things that I would have taken credit for. And I would have made pretenses about how I made those things happen.

Yes, ladies and gents, imposter syndrome is a real thing.

No, I dont need. I will be ok.

2/ Money

I will not get into too many details but I have feel the financial pressure. And I dont see it easing in the next few months. And I know that the next few things would be expensive. So, we shall see what do we do about it.

One option is to go extreme eco mode. But then I dont want that to hamper my ability to ship things. Case in point, I put up $200 to buy Claude Max (you will read about it shortly) to help me do more things.

So that.

3/ Spiral Bound

If you are from the films space, you would know Spiral Bound, the screenwriting thing that Boman Irani Sir runs. Last week they held a dinner and party of sorts for the students. And I was invited.

Here’s a photo from the event. Look at that talent on the stage!

And no points for guessing, I didnt go.

And I hate it. This is the second thing that I shouldve gone to but I didnt. I wish I was more social and I had it in me to attend these things.

Oh the highlight was that for this, I had to write 11 pages of a screenplay. Which I did. And I am grateful. I am gonna develop it further into a full feature script. In this month itself. Ofc with the help of AI.

I call it 56 Hours.
Ask me about it next time you meet me.

Also, side note: I am thinking, is this writing of the script a distraction? I should be hyper-focussed on making money and fixing my home before I think about others. But then, that would be the rational thing to do and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it is that I am not rational. Heck, I am not even rationalising.

Also, also, this brings me to my next point.

4/ Film Making and Offline Business.

I love the business of films.

Even though it has changed drastically in this post-AI world (in writing, music, design, even production and direction), the core tenet that we are all about stories has NOT changed. The tools available have. The barriers to entry have gone down even more. And the only thing standing between who you are and what you could do is your ability to actually do!

And I love the business of live events. And while I’ve not done a lot of these in the recent past, I think I must rethink about it. For the sheer love of things that it allows me to do – travel, solve problem, stay in the moment, operate in a high-stress environment and more.

And Pradeep has been insistent that I must do both of these. On the films, he says that I must make one (all by myself) and then decide if I want to do more or not. And on the offline events space, he’s been after my life to get into it head first. The world seems to be moving offline, people are getting lonely and people need a detox from devices and AI.

So, why not.

Let’s see.

5/ Lessons from Kay Khoo

I met Kay over the weekend for a coffee.

Hands down, this was one of the most incredible meetings I’ve had in long long time. For a large part of the time I spent with him, I felt I was out of my depth. Which is incredible. I would love to be in more rooms like that.

Here are some lessons I took away. Words are mine.

A/ Do Large Things
Kay mentioned that when he gets on a project, his mind first expands to figure the grandest picture that he can. Even if its impossible, improbable, unrealistic et al. And then he sets about seeing how to make it happen.

Wow!

B/ Pick things you want to work on
Kay was abundantly clear that he wants to cheery pick projects that he puts his mind to. Ofc, he’s at a place where he can pick and choose things. I am not. But from what I could imagine, he would’ve been like this since a lot of time to come to this point.

A pursuit worth investing energy into.

C/ Have opinions
This.
He comes from the design space and he has opinions. Which is not unheard of. But he had a rational reason for EACH of his opinions. And he could put those forth in simple words.

Unlike me where I say I dont “vibe” with things. Must learn how to be more articulate and clear and have rational, simple explanations.

D/ Choose your words.
I was with him for about two hours and in that time he dint use a single profanity. In a world where we take pride in being “brash” and “bindaas” and “chalta hai”, the man chose his words, spoke well and didn’t have to lean onto expletives to put his point forth.

So that.

I wish I met more people like Kay.
I hope I get to spend more time with him.

6/ Tale of 2 Maxes

This past week saw me “invest” in two Maxes.

Airpods Pro Max for about 50K
Claude Max for $200 per MONTH!

And at least with Claude Max, in the three days I’ve had it, I’ve seen a remarkable shift in life. I am running three tasks at the same time and I can see my brain expanding. Right now, a lot of my usage is about writing and design. I am yet to get to the code part (for that, am using TRAE)

Both are out of aukaat for me (in terms of money) but I think I wanted both. And now that I have put in money, I will see if I continue to be excited about it. Oh, and these two happen to the most expensive purchases for myself in a while. And also, the belief that its expensive to be poor has been reinforced. And thus, must make more money.

7/ The shattered rickshaw

Lemme start this one by saying that I am grateful for my privilege.

So, a couple of days ago, I was coming back from Versova and on one of the intersections, I saw a rickshaw that was apparently in an accident and was shattered so bad that it would get scrapped.

And next to it, crouched, was the driver. I don’t know if he was the owner or the renter but he looked devastated. He had his face in his hands (I couldnt see more) and was shaking. There were people around him but they were all in various stages of helplessness. And like it happens with such incidents, a crowd had gathered.

I didnt see this scene for more than a couple of minutes cos the rick I was in was ushered by the traffic cops but I realised what wa happening. The rick that was shattered was probably the only way for the driver to make his living. More than that, it was probably a large part of his networth and worldly possession. He had his entire world shattered in front of his eyes!

The last time I felt like that was when we were demonetized and there was this image of a old man from a tier 2 (or 3) location with his hands on his forehead. I cant forget that visual. I wont forget this rick person. The helplessness on these people. The shattered rickshaw could probably get fixed but what about the man? In one second, his entire life would’ve changed. You know, when life leaks one strand at a time from your soul, you dont realize. My business has been bleeding for last two years and on a day to day basis, I dont get to see the impact. But when you lose everything you have in one snap, I dont know how that would feel. Like I said, life’s been kind to me and I am grateful.

I remember one time Paras lost that he had built in a fire. Paras being Paras bounced back. I am not sure of this rick person. Neither am I aware of what happened to that old man.

Made me guilty of my privilege. Made me sick. Made me think. Made me question the reason. Made me want to work harder.

8/ HT’s book

Ok, coming back to things that I did, with the help of Claude Max, I’ve been able to deliver a book that am ghostwriting for a mentor. Ahead of time. And yes, I used AI liberally.

As we speak, the book is at the review stage and some folks are reading to give their inputs. Lets see what they say. Needless to say, I am damn excited about it.

9/ ShipShit

I shipped.
Shit.
See it here. I didn’t intend to shit it on shipshit but that was the only domain available that was not being used. And thus I ready fired aim the domain. And it is ready. In some shape.

Oh and I worked on this with TRAE and NOT Claude. Lol!

So, if you are a screenwriter and you want to take the tool for a spin, please lemme know. And in case you dont want to let me know, you can easily sign up and play. In either case, please do give me feedback.

Disclaimer: This is WIP and thus PLEASE do NOT use this for commercial work. There are bugs and you will lose progress.

10/ Work

I dont have a lot to say here. I was to pick a thing to apply myself to by the end of April. I still dont have an answer. I did have a few thoughts but dont think they are panning out. I now have the following options…

Toss a coin (I dont have two options but you get the drift)
Ask my Village and I will do whatever they tell me to
Give myself one more month. But I had decided I will not make my timelines flexible

So, I dont know which one to choose. You help me.

11/ Instagram

I got back on Insta last night (I am on altSaurabh).
And after a month.
And oh man, it is a hellhole. Before I knew it, I had spent 2 hours on it. Doing inane things. Scrolling profiles of my crushes. Getting envious of perfect lives of pseudo-strangers. Thinking about all the things that I could’ve done.

If for the brain expansion that happened with Claude Max, these two hours with Insta were so terrible that I wanted to puke.

But… there’s always a but…

I realised that I need it.
For work.

The world has, for some sad reason, moved to Insta as their primary vehicle for content and news consumption. It’s a necessary evil that you have to live with, to put your point forth and connect with more people.

But is there a way to do it without wasting time on it?
Maybe use it only from a browser?
Are there any wise answers?

11/ Other minor updates

No minor updates from this past week.

📷 Photos from the week gone by

Stopped this as few weeks ago.
In case you want to get photos from me, DM me.

📈 Trackers…

Lemme start from Whoop….

And then.
The steps…

Number of steps I took in the week gone by. For comparison, while in BKK, this number was 15K.

Then, the weekly…

I am glad that screentime is not tru the roof.

Finally, the larger tracker…

I see a lot of red flags. Lemme know what you see.

✅ Action on LARGE objectives for the year

In this section, I will capture my progress on large objectives for the year.

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

Book2
Human Flag Pole
Save a million dollars

With Claude Max, I made some effort on second book.
And I love it!
Let’s see if I can carve time to actually write more.
I am giving till end of May to get the draft ready. The best part of Claude is that it can act as a solid research assistant and help me. And even if it hallucinates, I am ok. After all, we are working on a fiction project.

The other two are still sus.

📌 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…

Health. I will work on sleep, food and movement. Was not a good week at all. I will work on it in the coming week.
C4E / Work. I want to shortlist some idea that I want to work on. I still dont have it. I have one more day on this. And in case I dont get it, then I dont know. And I am sad about it 🙁
Brand SG / Distribution. No action on this.
People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc). No action.
Book2. I want to start with this. Did some work.
Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc). No action.

🏃‍➡️ Health

I added Health as a key section last year. I read somewhere that you need 4 things to live long – sleep, exercise, diet and community. I will track all four. And then some more variables that I feel are important to me. Let’s see what comes out.

This week was REALLY bad.
Bad sleep.
Bad food.
Bad energy.
I need to put in some work on this.

⏲️ Reminders from last few days

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. I am revisitng htis after a while

A few things…

Update C4E’s Culture Book. This is still WIP.
C4E’s website. This is new and WIP.
Sparring Partner as a Service. Added this new thing.

I have a suspicion that this list will grow and will become unmanageable in a few weeks. I will find a solution when I get to it. For the time being, here’s a sheet where I track my actions.

Here are the things that I’ve closed previously…

Start a podcast with C and AK. This remains open and will probably get shut. I dont see the excitement in the three of us.
Storytelling presentation for the session on the 7th March. I missed this. And I will do this in March. Maybe on the 28th or the 29th? I missed this again. I dont think am doing this. So closing and moving on.

🗓️ So, one thing that defines the past week?

Embarrassment.

Yeah. That’s the word I want to use. I did a few good things but the highlight (the lowlight actually) has to be my conduct with Boman Sir and Arun Sir. I am quite embarrassed about how I conducted myself this week.

And I will fix it.

The other words for this year have been: Blur, Whiling, Movement, Blur, Activity, Movement, Regular (again), Regular, Easy, Journey, Downtime.

—
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. 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

PPS: Please do point typos.

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

PPPPS: I am not really happy about this update. But I guess we will live with this and aspire to do better in the next one.

Wk 12-26 – Weekly Notes

Notes from weeks 9, 10, 11 and 12 of 2026.

I am back!
After exactly a month.
The last post here was on the 22nd of Feb. And in the last 4 weeks, a lot has happened. I’ve travelled to Dubai, Delhi, KL, Singapore. There is a war in the Middle East. Some inkling of the idea (in terms of what I want to do) seems to be taking shape. And as always, a lot of thoughts and observations. Lets see how many of those can I capture here.

But then I havent written a lot lately and I think I the writing muscle needs some sort of a booster. Maybe this post is that.

Lets go.

Wait, the track of the week is this.

I used to hear this track a lot when I was younger. And I had forgotten about it. And then I meet a friend and he reminded me of it. And I love it. I can not stop grooving to it!

PS: Here’s a post about the friend. And a photo I took.

Any how.
Let’s go…

💭 Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from the last few weeks

As always, these are not in any order.

1/ The world becomes kinder when you’re seen as a success

If there is one lesson that I’ve learnt in the last 15 days, it is this – the world will reward you more if it sees you as successful.

Nothing surprising about it.
The entire theory of evolution is about natural selection of the strongest. The Selfish Gene says that whatever has the highest odds of propagating, will survive. Success is the independent barometer reading of your value to the world. And the world will reward the ones that they see are already successful. We see this play out a lot around us beyond the books and in real life.

Founders with IIT-IIM pedigrees get funded more. The success indicator is the school they went to. Actors that do well tend to get offered better films. And apparently in Dubai, if you dont have a Rolex on your wrist, you are not allowed inside certain places. The car your drive, the place you live at, the clubs you have the memberships to indicate a lot about your success.

And that begets you more opportunities!

So, its imperative that you are a success if you want to deliver on your destiny. I’ve been the kinds to never chase the worldly markers of success. But I am learning it the hard way that I must. And it will need a large change in my personality to do this. Let’s see if I can choose this discomfort as I think about the next things in life.

And like that maxim goes that its expensive to be poor, there’s another that I want to tattoo on my backside – you’re a failure if you dont succeed.

Lol!
Maybe need to come up with better ones.

2/ The concept of Karma is theoretical at best

The other thing I learnt while I was on the road is that Karma is overrated. It’s the softer pillar that you lean on to tell yourself that you are doing good and as a result, good will happen to you.

Same as religion but milder.

With religion, the idea was to create some guidelines that would serve the rulers and create some semblance of order with those doctrines. And then with time it became degenerated (or maybe evolved) as a way to control people and wield power.

With religion, the rules of conduct are set by old books and their keepers. With karma, you set the rules, you want to be good, hoping the good will circle back.

With Karma, you dont serve one person’s agenda but you limit yourself. And then you stay in the boundaries. However, IRL, I’ve seen boundaries diminish with such ease that I am often left wondering, were there any in the first place.

So that.
Wont write more.
I am hoping that my readers are smart!

3/ Life in other countries is very relaxed…

…if you can do you own dishes and clean your clothes.

Jokes apart, I think the day to day life is a tad better out of India.

I travelled to three countries and lived with friends for more nights than I slept at hotels. And that means I could see life up close. And I realised that daily friction of living is so less in other countries that I am left wondering, why is our life in India so screwed.

The landlords dont bother you if 5 people come in.
The neighbors are not pesky.
You dont fight over petty things with folks around you.
The strangers are generally helpful.
No one is cutting queues.
You are offered space.
There is overt politeness.
Everyone seems to be helping each other.
The two countries that I spent most of my time in, there was no large display of religious disharmony (one is an extremist nation and the other has very hard rules against such).

Of course its expensive to get the army of domestic helps that we are so used to in India. So if you can afford, it would be even better. If you can’t afford, you ought to find your balance. But am more convinced that one must not live in India!

PS: If you do choose to live out of the country, you also have the option of finding your kinds (other Indians) or you can learn to chat with folks from other nationalities and expand your knowledge. I specifically write about this because I saw a lot of my Indian friends make friends with other Indians!

4/ Dar ke aage jeet hai!

Read this “jeet” as…

making cold calls,
making small talk,
taking shots beyond your comfort zone,
sales
etc.

Most people I know are unable to do these because, well, fear.

I am the same.
I have a hard time initiating a conversation with someone. I have a very terrible self-image. To a point that Kunal shared some notes and ideas on how to fix it (I tried but I havent been able to fix). But I do know that folks that are able to overcome their dar are indeed great!

And I I have to say this, in bold.
That if I could turn back time and re-learn life from scratch, I would learn the art of sales. Really. I just dont know how to sell. I often sell myself short. Or I push myself way too much.

5/ Claude Code

I am claudemaxxing for last two three days and I love it.
I have this spring in my step.
I am giddy with possibilities.
I can build up these worlds that I live in.
I love the idea of being able to control my future and do larger things.
And I know I am like a child – I am not sure of the risks and pitfalls and everything looks full of hope. So that!

Oh, with Claude, my friends and I have tried to work on a nutrition supplementation app, a screenwriting support tool and I dont know what all! I know none of these are production quality, none of these have users but as they say, hope floats. I will keep updating here.

Here’s an update from Sunday evening…

6/ The return of Travis

This was one of the biggest news of the tech world in the last few days. And no, I am not untouched by it. I have conflicting thoughts on Travis. On one side, he built a company and took it global and created impact. And on the other, he’s not a nice person. So that.

Anyhow.

Do read Travis on Atoms.
And Om on Travis on Atoms.
While you are on Om, also read Om’s piece on storytelling and Symbolic Capitalism. This is something that I want to push at C4E!

7/ Stripe Press

Spotted Rohit’s piece on Stripe Press.

I have to start a Stripe Press clone! I’ve been thinking about it for too long. And if my latest manifesto (to spread joy while i make money) is to be believed, I would love to do something in the publishing space. I do have a few friends in this space. There is Prak. Just that I havent had the courage to do that. Plus the money situation in the publishing business sucks. So that.

Lets see what I end up doing.

And while we are on Stripe, here’s advice from Patrick to folks who are between 10 and 20. Read. And truth be told, relevant to even people my age!

8/ Mobile free in April. Can I?

I want to spend the whole of April without a smart phone. Is it possible?

Especially when I plan to be in a different country for a few days. Let’s see. I mean I can use my smart phone dumb (assistive mode) and live with it.

I dont know.
Time shall tell.

But today, on Sunday the 22nd, I plan to not use my Smart phone.
I am carrying a feature phone.
Let’s see how that goes.

You may also want to see this daily YT live that I do…

9/ Lessons from last few days

I will make a linkedin post on this but I want the content to have originated here.

Like I said, the last few weeks have been interesting. I’ve been about town and met people (old and new) and learnt many lessons.

I wanted to capture all those even though its humanly impossible to do a good job, even with notetakers and all that. So, here’s one line lesson from some folks I met. And like in most one-line pieces, a lot of context and nuance will get lost.

Anyhow.
In no order, let’s go…

Aastha taught me how to think big. And not give up. And be at it. In fact, Aastha has to be one of the top 10 people I’ve met and been able to befriend in the last 5 years.

Pritam taught me that a true general will never leave till he wins. And if he is forced to, he will not leave without his team. Pritam is also a top-10 person.

Bux and Puspesh taught me in different words that the market needs to validate the idea by paying money for it. The validation of ideas is NOT in research or in reports.

Puspesh also taught me how you find your space in this world. And even if you choose to be stubborn about what you want to do and how you want to do, the world will often give you what you seek.

Sharan taught me that consistency can be easy. Thing is, this has been my Achilles Heel. I am not consistent and I want to learn more from Sharan.

Aanchal taught me how is it to be focussed and driven and yet have a good time. She and I share a common last name and I want to be better friends with her.

Mahesh Sir taught me how to build and support a village. And how to put your money where your mouth is!

Swathi taught me what courage could look like, especially in the face of battles on all fronts – work, personal, health, etc etc.

Ajeet Sir taught me how to build networks and bring people together. And be compelling when its the time to sell.

Bhaargav taught me how is it to acknowledge that you were on a wrong path. And then course correct. And keep at it.

Ankesh taught me yet again that I need to be fearless. And he also taught me that it’s ok to acknowledge that you may not know everything. Also, Ankesh is another top-10 person.

Krishna taught me how to change my opinion and look beyond things that I am convinced about.

Rohit taught me young hustle. And dream. As I write this, the boy from a tiny village (literal village) is in SFO and building his dream.

Ayush is another young hustler and he taught me how to focus.

Varoon taught me grace. On this one, I will have to give context. He’s been a client on two projects – on one, we did a kickass job and on the other, he fired us. And yet he remains accessible and helpful and polite and graceful.

Aoenha taught me how to be a bossperson and chase an idea that no one can even fathom and do it with so much passion and energy that the world has to line up and give you what you seek.

Samriddh taught me three things on my last meeting. I will only talk about one. To not give a fuck. While I hear this from many many people, I am not left inspired. In Samriddh’s case, his journey has been nothing short of incredible.

Phew!

ISTG, there are more.
But I am tired of writing and remembering.
I need a better system ;P

10/ $50 from NeoSapien

This honest review of NeoSapien Neo 1 that I wrote a few months ago seems to be ranking high on SEO. And I have made some 50 dollars thru it! I love free Internet money!

In case any of you has any consumer tech products that you want me to review, am here! Lol!

🈺 Photos from the past few days

Here are some.

Not too many. Especially cos I was not in India. And I’ve been thinking about shutting this anyway. So may be, from next week on, I will shut this.

🈺 Trackers…

I dont have trackers.
I was unable to track while I was on the road.
No one to blame.
So skipping these for this update.

🈺 Action on LARGE objectives for the year

In this section, I will capture my progress on large objectives for the year.

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

Book2
Human Flag Pole
Save a million dollars

No action in the last week on any of these goals. I do have a vague thought on what I want to do in terms of work. But that doesn’t count on these at this time.

So, no progress and no update.

☑️ 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.

Like last section, no update over the last few weeks. Just been on the road and terribly busy with it.

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

Health. I will work on sleep, food and movement.
C4E / Work. I want to shortlist some idea that I want to work on.
Brand SG / Distribution. No action on this. I remain away from social media.
People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc).
Book2. I want to start with this.
Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc).

🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ Health

No action again. I mean I didnt track or actively think about it.

🧠 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.

A few things.

Start a podcast with C and AK. This remains open and will probably get shut. I dont see the excitement in the three of us. Closing this. Couldnt make progress.
Update C4E’s Culture Book. This is still WIP.
~~Storytelling presentation for the session on the 7th March~~. I missed this. And I will do this in March. Maybe on the 28th or the 29th? I missed this again. I dont think am doing this. So closing and moving on.

These few come to mind as I speak.
I have a suspicion that this will grow and will become unmanageable in a few weeks. I will find a solution when I get to it. For the time being, here’s a sheet where I track my actions.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Movement.
And that’s why I was not that active on socials!

The other words for this year have been: Regular (again), Regular, Easy, Journey, Downtime.

—
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. Previous editions:

2026: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (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.

Wk 07-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from the 7th week of 2025. I talk about C4E, Book2, Hospitals, AI and its impact on life Personal Brand, Economics and more.

Versova
Starting writing this at home.
Now at Starbucks.
There’s calls and meetings. So let’s see when and how I finish this.
Now at Jamjar at 1805.

The 7th week of the year is over!

Is this year flying past by like a rocket to the moon or what! I know that time seems to pass on faster as you age but this year has been something else. I don’t remember when the new year started and I don’t know when Feb is now ending in like 10 days!

I think this is also cos I’ve been on probably the steepest slope that I had to climb. And on this one, I am not merely climbing. I am sprinting. And no, I am not complaining. I am loving it!

Anyhow, here’s my update.

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

A/ 2025 plan.
I don’t even want to talk about this. Open forever. It’s no longer on my radar. I don’t think about it.

But like I said last week, this is my ritual for like 1000 years. I want to not have done this. I will pick this up. If not next week, then in the week after that. And if not then, then some other day.

B/ Health
This was not on last week’s list. It was in one of the things that I wrote about this was NOT on the top.

I am adding this to the TOP from this week onward.

My ability to do large things and go beyond is indexed on my health. And I need to work on it.

A few days ago, I tried to shift my identity to that of a healthy person. So far it hasn’t helped. I need to do more action on it.

I will track these two as North Star things. I will remove the plan once I do it. But health will be my north star.

Moving on.

The tracker from the week that went by.

Here’s the tracker from the week gone by.

Here are the changes I made…

I have added a weekly average column to know how the week was (often it gets tough to see that in large context). Now I know that in this week, I spent more money than average. I walked less than average. I slept more. I was more in control of my emotions. Etc etc.
I added a color code to “good” behaviour. You can see the two days when I slept more than 7 hours. V will be proud of me 😀
I can’t stop eating Kachra!
If you see this, please tell me what you see that I am missing.

Photos from the week

Here are some photos from the week gone by.

There are a lot that I want to capture for posterity. I am uploading those here as well (with slight edits to ensure that this page is not messed; originals are on the link).

Oh, since I have a new phone, am taking a lot more photos.
Plus I am reading a lot and thus a lot of content to share.
Plus I went to the beach more times this week.

So that has helped.
Let’s see how it is the next week.

Interesting Reads

Here’s a list of things that I read / saw / consumed that left an impact on it. In some cases, I went and stirred up debate in my network.

Here’s a list. In no particular order.

If there’s one thing you read, PLEASE ensure it is this. In the essay, Prasad talks about life and careers in a post-AI world.
On the same thread, Sam Altman’s Three Observations.
It would be useful to re-read this piece by PG. On writing. And life in a post-AI world.
Prak shared this piece by Michael Dempsey. I read it. Took notes. Went down the Rabbit Hole on Schelling Point. Still unable to wrap my head around it. But will spend more learning. In fact I am increasing getting fascinated by Maths, Physics and Economics (see this channel). Let’s see where I end.
The Pygmalion Effect. Video (not a read per se)
Jung on Life After 40. This was very interesting, especically cos I am, well, over 40. And even more so cos I keep crying that I am old and all that.
No one cares. Read this.
Been reading about SEO and these two pieces were good to read. In one line, all the fears of folks about AI-written content are dumbfounded. Google does NOT punish (as of writing this, unless things change).

There are more links and things that I read. And there are more videos I see. I share those on this group. In case.

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

In no order…

A/ AirPods Pro Max
I had decided that starting 15 Feb if I could write for 30 days straight (and even AK had to write), I would get myself one. But none of us wrote. So, no AirPods for me. Important to document.

B/ Book2
I’ve started to work on it. And I am leaning on Claude for that. So far, I’ve “written” 5 chapters of approx 2500 words each. So that’s fast. At this pace, I should have a draft ready in like one month!

Here’s a WA group that you may join in case you want to help me read the early drafts and help me find direction.

C/ C4E lacks action and attention
I’ve not been able to focus on C4E in the last few days.

Thankfully we are in the middle of our downward cycle and thus there isn’t much to do. So we are ok. Plus the team is running whatever we have well.

However, we as a unit lack action-orientation. We take too much time for everything. We think a lot. We dont break enough things. We are not ghissoing our chappal enough.

Need to fix it. And add some sense of urgency. I will pick this up in the next week.

Three things worth noting here.

We wanted to price ourselves at a premium. We took action towards that we haven’t made any large progress.
Our new creds was to be ready last week. It is not. I will not ask for it or chase it. I will make one myself. Adding to my todo.
We need to reinvent our model. We haven’t done anything about it.

D/ Dave Matthews Band
I’ve recently been tripping onto music from Dave Matthews Band. I dont know but I love the sound they make!

You can start here.

E/ Claude and Cursor
I’ve been experimenting with the two things. One to write “code” and the other to “write” book2. And I love it.

I feel my mind has expanded. I can see it expand! I now realise that I can do a lot more. The power of my thoughts is a lot more, well, potent! The sky seems to be the limit. I will try and write more on this. But time seems to be a roadblock.

F/ I suck at negotiations
I knew this all along but I know this more now. That I suck at negotiations. I dont know if I want to learn that, at this age but it’s a good thing to know about. I will ensure that my kids learn the skill. And do whatever needs to be done – to make them great at it.

Oh, and as a matter of principle, I will not work on any negotiations from here on.

G/ Growing up
Had to go to the hospital. And I hated it. Each time I go to one, I hate it. I dont have an answer for my hatred or my aversion to those. But I hate them.

I know I will have to go to more of these in the next few years. It’s a deep fear. And I am trying to learn. I hope I am better. I hope I grow up!

H/ H2 of the day makes me sad and ineffectiveness
I’ve realised and I have known that I can’t do anything productive in the second half of the day. So this week on, I will move all my non-value-add things to the second half. The first half will only be to do deep work, independent of any conversations. If someone has to meet, it has to be in the second half. At least, for as long as I can control.

Even today, I did a lot till about 1 PM. Post that I went to the clubhouse and merely vegetated. Must be my sugar levels or something.

Irrespective. I will try and control this a lot more.

I/ IPO
Ajax are getting IPOd tomorrow.

They are a client and this is the first time I’ve seen a client get to IPO. Incredible learning experience. One more feather to the cap.

Now the lifegoal is to build a company that IPOs. Or may be not. I may not do well with the public scrutiny that public companies must endure. Let’s see.

K/ Angry and Sad with Kumbh
My parents were stuck in an overnight jam somewhere in UP. Or whatever state that Kumbh is happening at.

And I hate it.
And I dont know what to do about it.
I am angry and sad about it. I have enough money that they are not on public transport. But I dont have enough money to get them a charter plane and VIP darshan. I wish I had.

Plus, on top of it all, I dont understand how faith and religion becomes so important that they are willing to endure this. I am reading Man’s Search for Meaning I and get the why to live and all that but where is the why in this?

Thankfully their spirits are high.

L/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words on those.

For a work thing, I decided to submit to two elder gents. I will blindly do what they ask me to. I will offer to them the kind of adulation and submission I’ve wanted from my people. See this.
Managed 45 days of daily journal. Now will aim to do 365.
Deleted Insta yet again from my phone. I will put that on sinphone and see how much time I invest on it.
Became a fan of Nicobar! But only when they are on sale. And I am ok to wear older fashion. The only thing latest I want is the iPhone 😀
I am increasingly getting interested in Economics. Here is one of the creators that I absolutely am a fan of!
I need to check for ADHD. I dont know if there are online tests. But I need to know.
I have started to work on my personal brand all over again. This time on video. Have reached out to AD for help (now that he’s doing this professionally). Let’s see where I reach.

Ok that.
Phew

One large takeaway from the week?

In one word?
Respect.
More about it on my Roam. Or somewhere in the deep confines of my mind 😀

For context, last week, it was Money. The week before that it was People.

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, 05, 06

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