Tag: Dubai

Wk 42-26 – Weekly Note

Notes, updates, highlights and thoughts from week 42 of 2026.

19 Oct 2026
20 Oct 2026
Singapore.

Haan ji good morning! good etm!

This weeks update comes in a new avatar. Because while I was writing, I realised that I invest a lot of time in formatting. And the world we live in, the AI enabled one, we dont really need formatting and structure. We can lean onto AI for that.

So, here’s an experimental one.

Oh, here’s the track of the week.

1/ Singapore Stories

I am in SG this week and unlike other times when I am a mere tourist for a few days (or I have agenda), this time I am living like a local. With a friend.

And here are some unfiltered observations.

a. There are a very few coffee shops with charging points. And that means I cant sit at a place for too long (the laptop I have runs out in like 4 hours). And this means that my work productivity is taking a hit. And this means that my general happiness levels are low. And that means I am not a great company.

I dont know how to fix this. I mean I know that my general happiness and wellbeing is in always being on the intellectual treadmill. And wihout a laptop, I am unable to be on one. I tried with an ipad and a phone and it didnt cut.

So, yeah. The city’s not made for remote workers. Like me. Unless I choose to get myself an office space. But then I dont want to have one specific location that I go to.

b. People in Singapore love to queue up. Which is a good thing. After all, large-scale functioning societies must have some sort of order.

But then there’s me. Who’s spent all his life avoiding queues. If I see a traffic light doing a countdown from 7 seconds to 0 and I am just 10 steps away from it, I will not run to catch it. If I see a bus that I need to catch pulling away, I will give up on it. If I am chasing a member of opposite gender for romantic interests, if they act pricy, I distract myself with some Taarak Mehta.

The other day, my niece queued up for 30 minutes to get a frozen yogurt. I dont get the sense. I refuse to believe that it could taste so good that I invest 30 minutes of my life in it. Take Benne for example. Long queues. But not my jam. Never been to one, even though they are growing like mushrooms.

So, this lot of order, lot of queues is nice but not for me.

In fact, I’d say that Singapore feels like a school for adults. People are easy going. Shorts are ok. No one bothers you. There’s safety, order, cleanliness, structure and all that. Like a good school. And a fab campus with gardens, pools etc. Made for adults. Not for me.

PS: I was also finally able to articulate that I want to live away from India but I will never be a Non-Indian. I wont be able to cut ice with non Indians. Some people have the charm to do that. Not me.

So, the business to think of would be to serve Indians around the world.

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2/ The last 1000 things

I saw this on X while I was doomscrolling yesterday (sad in the head about how I am holed in a room without a Starbucks / coworking space to go to).

And then I read it and I realised that this 1000 is a great thing to look upto.

And as soon as I read this, I got up from the bed and walked to this coffee shop to write this.

Inspired by this, I will start today for a SG of three years from hence.

I tried to be the coolest 30-year-old and failed. I then tried to be the coolest 35-year-old and failed again. At 40, I wasnt the coolest 40-year-old. I will be 45 soon and unless something superhuman happens, I wont be the coolest.

But if I start today, I would have the shot at being the coolest 50-year-old. And let’s gun for that.

PS: Life goes past very very fast. If you are young and reading this, please know that days are long and decades are short.

3/ The world around me

The worlds burning – literally.

I dont track news at a lot of places but the limited ones that come to my feed (Paris, Riyadh, CJP in large part of india, St Petersberg, Kolkata, Thailand et al), all seem to be going thru some sort of crisis. And then there are places in Africa and South American and deep in Europe that I dont even know about that seem to have their own crisis.

I dont know what’s the problem of this world!

There are days when I think hard and I want to fix the world and there are days when I think I should stick to my lane and fix my house first and not think about others.

4/ Hiring

All of us know that I am trying to hire people at C4E. And I am failing at it. From my this week’s experiments, I want to talk about three things.

a. I wanted to hire a quasi-CEO, sort of partner to myself to help with C4E.

I met many and almost shortlisted one. Got him to meet my people. And then we couldnt get him on board. We are way too married to our cult (not culture) that we have a had time accepting more people in our fold.

b. I have been trying to look for a SEO person to manage a client and I’ve failed at it. Please help!

c. I tried to help a friend person out of goodwill and we couldnt come to agree to terms.

And then he talked to me in an impolite tone and manner. And then I lost it. I am done with him. And done with offering myself up with with needless kindness. I want to help people and want to make this world into a utopian, good place but I think I need to reconsider it.

Not just him but a social media butterfly asked me to help her with some random RT and all that. And I lost it when I was told that I am creating “drama” and “not on paid roster” and all that. I must write a note on how (and why) my words are not for sale. And how I will judge each person that participates in this engineered virality. And how I need to be shameless about marketing. In fact, this deserves another section of its own.

Or wait. Maybe am getting to Andropause.

5/ Marketing Self

One of the most important lessons of this year has to be that I need to learn how to accept compliments. And market myself.

Thank to Dr H, I am ok with accepting compliments. But I am still far from my ability to market myself. In fact, tweets after tweets last few days made me realise my mistake.

Here are some…

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Now, I come from that school of thought that if I am worth 10, I need to say that it’s 1. And then the world around me operates in “make it till you fake it” and if they are worth 10, they say 100.

So I am surrounded by folks who toot their horn each time they get up from their bed and all that. And I am the kinds who would not talk about it even if I won a Nobel / Oscar / whatever is the epitome of recognition.

I know, I know. I need balance. I need to own my wins and acknowledge my losses. But I am unable to talk about myself with words that at even a hint of hyperbole.

I dont know the solution on this.

I think, if I am able to abstract my work from my personality, I should be ok. Lets see.

6/ AI and Cognitive Intensity

Read this on twitter.

From what I can understand and comprehend this tweet, to be able to operate AI with its 100% power, you need to have a the ability of handling large cognitive loads. You may not be busier just in terms of time but also in terms of how much brain you need to use. Since I’ve gone Max on AI, I can feel that my brain has expanded a 100 times, if not more. I have way too many threads and way too many ideas in my head that I am unable to sit still.

In fact, I think this is the place where a generalist and the multitasker may do well. Where you can switch context fast. And deep work is done in partnership with AI.

Wait.

Before I shill my generalist brain, I have a tiny comment.

I know that as a society it would make us go back eons. I mean unless there were folks willing to be on the edge and do more than what life offered, we would still be in caves. Plus the value of doing 10000 dedicated reps to build your muscle for something will be even more. I mean we have these millions of people who cant write one line to save their line or express themselves. Even for their anger and anguish, they need to lean on to AI. And if you told them to make a coherent argument for or against a notion, you would see them struggle.

Coming back. If you are able to keep many things in your head and context switch and lean on to AI for doing things, you could actually have a great life.

Brings me to the next point. Great life.

7/ What makes for a great life?

I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a great life. Especially at 44 when I dont have a lot to show for how I’ve lived.

To think of a great life, you could look at it from following lenses (and each in isolation).

a. There are these worldly things that you could want to own, you know, cars, houses, crypto assets, reputation, distribution and all that. And each time I think of that, I am reminded of Pale Blue Dot. And then I think about things that the likes of Steve and Elon do. You know, mad scientists? Again, deep down, I am probably not there. While I am ambitious person and want to make a dent and help the world become better and all that, I dont think I have that streak of madness in me.

b. Then there could be a thing about a great family, friends and community. You know, the one that you build (and not inherit) with deliberate effort. That you provide for. That provides for you. That allows you to be you.

No, I dont have a family per se. I dont have a lot of friends either. I do have many acquaintances and many communities. So I think am better here than work.

c. There’s talks about a great life where you have some meaning and purpose. I do have one. And no its not very differentiated from what others may have. And that’s ok. While we are unique as individuals, the uniqueness ends at that.

In terms of my purpose, I aspire to be that person who helps you see more and do more. And I am around when you’re in a soup. I know this is not really Ikigai material but I am ok there. In fact I often pay from my pocket and time bank to help others.

In terms of work, what I do doesnt add a lot to anyone to be honest. Except giving me the freedom of time. For example, I am reasonably free. I control a large part of my time. I am able to do a lot of experiments that need me to be available and invest effort, money and time. And I can do those with a reasonable degree of freedom, choice and agency.

d. Then a great life could be about your ability to chase you interests, hobbies and passions. As a person, I am not particularly passionate about a lot of things. I dont care for food, travel, events, experiences and all that. But I am passionate about people. I love when I see people create magic. I love when am able to push them out of comfort zone. On this one, I think am good. I’ve had many people who’s life got just a tiny bit better because I was in it.

Apart from these 4, the other things that we generally think about when we want to talk about a great life is health, money and faith (religion). Funnily in my case, when I was reading about great life, these three things didnt even cross my mind.

Lemme write a line about each.

  • Health. I am not doing well in this one. I am diabetic. I have inflammatory diseases. Hernia. And more. I need to probably work on this to be able to have a great life.
  • Faith / Religion. I grew up a Hindu and a lot of my lessons and mental composition come from Mahabharata and Ramayana. Plus I grew up in Delhi and a lot of my thinking is as Indian as it comes. And despite this, I dont identify with any religion anymore.
  • Money. Lol. This is the grease that moves the world. I am of a firm belief that having money may not give you happiness but lack of it will 100% make you unhappy. In my case, not one of my conversations is about money. Maybe because I’ve assumed that I will get when I want it?

Ok, this became an exercise in soul searching. Felt ok after I did this. I don’t like it that am not large or whatever but I am otherwise mostly ok in how I live.

Phew.

Ok, so I seem to have an ok life. I’ve may be even had a micro-win at it. But there’s one thing I’ve failed with. And that too something that I hold close to my heart.

Marketing.

8/ My failure as a marketer

So, I am on a 100-day sprint to write 100 posts (one each day) on linkedin. And today’s day 4. Over the last 3 days my words have been seen by like 20 people. And I am sure 15 of those, I know them already.

I am told that my content is tough to read (I dont agree but numbers dont agree with me). I am told that I dont cause any controversy (I dont want to do it for sake of creating controversy). I am told that my words are shit (I was always told that I wrote well, despite my grammar snafu).

But my attempt at marketing myself dont seem to work.

In fact, I am thinking that I am a failure with this entire distribution lead modern marketing. I can see what seems to be working (mid things by celebesque people wanting to shill things for affiliate links) but I cant seem to get to do those things by myself. Neither do I have the energy to DM people and ask them to post about me. And I definitely will not want to put my fam and friends on the internet in hopes of getting some clicks.

So that.

9/ Failed to get to 5K AED

Another failure is my attempts at getting to 5K AED from Dubai.

One of my large goals was to get to 5K AED before 15th Oct. I did make some attempts but I was unable to move the outcome.

In fact, this has been a recurring theme this year. Since I decided to get back to active work, I’ve chased many ideas but I havent been able to put my finger onto one and do it. I havent been able to spot such a large opportunity that I am excited to my bones about it.

I dont know a solution to this. I’ve tried everything. Coaches, OKRs, Claude artefacts as TDLs, accountability buddies and all that. And nothing has worked. I have to find a solution to this for sure.

10/ The Focus for October

This is one of the few sections am retaining.

We are on the last-third of Oct and I have these three tasks.

  • Book 2. I picked the fragments of what I call book2. I will work on it over the next few days. I will work on this in a sprint this week. Let’s see where we reach.
  • A portfolio of bets. Stop forcing one focus. No action. But thanks to Claude and WonderKid, I’ve done a lot. In fact, I may take a more active interest in Yellow. While I may not understand women’s health but I do know about business.
  • 40 pushups in one go. I am pretty confident on this one. I am at 20. I plan to do 25 tomorrow. Let’s see.

So, this is it.

Lemme know what you think of this new format.

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, 31, 32, 33 (missed), 34, 35 (missed), 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 (missed these three), 41

PPS: Please do point typos and gaps in thinking.

Wk 41-26 – Weekly Note

Notes, thoughts and highlights from Week 41, 2026.

10 Oct 2026
Starbucks Versova

Started this on the 4th of Oct. Continued on the 5th. And then on the 9th and now I am on the 11th and still not able to get this out. Sigh.

So, I am writing this after a while. And I can feel the rustiness in my brain and on my keyboard. The muscle seems to have atrophied. TBH, I dont know what to write. I have lot of thoughts but there is no coherence, no structure, no thought to those. I can ramble on but I dont know what to exclude.

In fact, I am questioning and I am thinking, I dont know why I write these in the first place (except keeping a running log of my life and getting to my catharsis by giving myself a break and finding some mental balance). Not many people read this. And if they do, they dont tell me.

PS: I dont think I write for people. I do write for serendipity and expansion of my luck surface area. o that.

As I sit here on the 5th 6th 9th 11th of October, trying to think of things from the 3 4weeks gone by, I remember very few things. I mean I do remember a lot and I have a lot to say but the words fail me. And the things I remember are not necessarily good emotions or bad emotions. I must have been angry at some point but I dont remember it. I was scared at some time but I dont remember why. All I have is this blur of ideas and incidents.

Does this mean I have attained nirvana?
Does this mean I am no longer human?
Does this mean I’ve lost the capacity for experiencing large emotions?

I dont even remember large events that happened around me in the last few days. I remember reading about the FlyDubai incident, CJP protests, some Asian or Commonwealth games where Indian Cricket Team won the Gold (don’t know what else did we win), Instinct raising 10 billion dollars (or valuation), Open AI’s Dots, US-Iraq thing.

Most of these are geopolitical events, “current affairs”, sports. And while I am updated about these, I am not deeply interested in these. I dont know if I should be. May be I should be?

I could be interested in things that are closer home – you know, hygiene in Mumbai, the attempt to move to Dubai, work I do, people I care for and all that. But again, I dont see the point of it, if in the end all that we do id meaningless. Or may be your life and your attempt and giving people meaning itself is an act of meaning?

Anyhow. I am rambling.

In this edition, unaided, I want to talk about…

  • Of course AI. And all the tokens I burn.
  • Dubai trip.
  • 19.5 20 pushups.
  • Travel being the new normal for me, at least for the next one year.
  • Me being more social. Someone even asked me if I’ve picked up some MLM scheme that I want to shill.
  • My failure with a founder as his storytelling coach.
  • My early success with sgwashere.
  • My failure with hiring.
  • Vv.
  • Finally, the large question that I want to tackle. A close friend asked me what’s rich for you. My answer (ownership of time) didnt cut with her. And thus the question for all of you. What’s your definition of being rich?

So, with that long context, let’s go with the weekly review.

Oh wait.

The track of the week this version of Mera Mann. And this one by a Youtuber.

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

1/ The October Focus

I start each review with the public plan for the month. The one for September was empty. 10 days of October has gone past already. And then I am in Singapore for about 10 days. I will be out and about and may not have too much time to do things.

Nonetheless, the plan for October is as follows…

  • Book 2 ;P. I plan to make this my primary thing for the Singapore trip. Aided by Claude, of course. I figured, I can take advantage of the break / trip and invest my time and energy in working on this book. Let’s see if I find a place to sit and write while I am in Singapore.
  • Life plan. I have struggled to figure what to focus on for work. I’ve tried it for 6 months and I’ve had many ideas but I havent been able to stick to any, or make any of those work. I think I will give up on that. And now I will build a portfolio of bets (which I already have, lol). I will do all things that I want to work on. Lets see how that goes. The only thing is that I will stop thinking about focussing and doing one thing.
  • Get to 40 pushups on a trot without getting a heart attack 😀

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2/ Claude and my voice

I had trained Claude with my voice. I gave it my emails, blogs, WA chats and other things. And then I told Claude to learn how I write and then write some. And then I gave it feedback till it started to write like me. It was great for a while. A lot of my mails went via Claude and no one felt any difference.

But somewhere along the way, it broke.

The things it was writing for me? Well, was shit.

To a point that I had to re-write almost everything that it was writing for me. So, I need to revisit it.

Btw, this is a pattern I’ve noticed with Claude. Things keep breaking. I had a made a CRM for myself and I was very happy with it for a few days. And then one fine day it stopped working. Then I made a WA tool that tracks my WA chats and tells me what to work on. And then it broke.

Dont get me wrong. The tools worked well. It ran thru logic, rendered correctly, did everything expected. But the piping I was doing to have the data get read from my laptop, that broke! I think that was to do with my laptop not being on 24×7. Maybe that’s why the Mac Mini revolution happened?

Wait. Why am I talking about here? No clue. If I had an editor, they would chop this out 😀

Moving on…

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3/ Hiring at C4E

I’ve realised that I need people to scale things. After all, people create magic. I can never be a fully autonomous company. And while I need people, I need them to think of things from the lens that I have. I need them to have all the values that I hold true. And I want them to live with my whims and quirks.

Anyhow. So I put a post out. That I need someone to stand next to me and help me. Met some 10 people. None so far is a hell yeah. Some are “nice”.

Here’s a set of feedback and thoughts…

  1. Hiring is tougher than anything else I’ve ever done. Especially because I cant pay a lot.
  2. People dont want to work at all. Most people I met seek “balance”. And when I ask them what does this balance looks like, they have no answers. Except, “time for self” and “chilling”. Of all the people I met, just two of those were willing to work hard.
  3. People are poor with followups. If I could teach people one thing and one thing only, I’d say, the art of followups. Of the people I met, just one person is GREAT with followups.
  4. Everyone has so much happening in their lives that it’s literally impossible to expect them to give their all-in to something that’s not their dream. Unless what you dream of and what they dream of are in sync.
  5. People dont read. People are not into specifics. They have poor attention to detail. Many people claimed to have stalked C4E but not one recalled or remembered things. TBH this says a lot about me than it says about them.
  6. People have an overinflated sense of self. Which is good for them but I am not a fan. Maybe cos I dont have it.

More reflections on this as I talk to more people.

The biggest lesson for me is that I must reach more people. So that I have a larger TOFU and some of that trickles down to me.

PS: Also see #8 below.

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4/ Founder Brand and Storytelling

Last time I wrote this piece, I talked about how excited I was about building a founder storytelling practise. I also dumped all I know about it on a few blogposts. And I did get some leads.

One was very promising. And I spent a lot of time with that founder to see if I was a good fit for him to help him build his founder brand.

And he chose to not go ahead with me.

And I am sad about it. To a point that I dont know how to express it. I gave it all but it wasnt good enough for him. So that.

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5/ Dubai

I spent about 15 days in Dubai. Give or take a few. This time I wanted to live like a local (I didnt) and find things that I could do there, to be able to live there (I didnt).

The trip was, well, interesting. I met a lot of people. Each seemed to have their version of Dubai. I agreed to some versions. I didnt agree to others. I need to sit and figure what version of the stories am I gonna hold close and live with.

I know that I want to live in Dubai for a few months. And I have given myself a target go earn 5K AED by 15th Oct. On that, we have 10 5 days to go. Zero clarity on where it will come from.

Here are some other observations about Dubai…

  • Dubai is all about transactions. People meet. People talk. People think. But at the end of it, everyone seeks a transaction. Even close friends. And the ones you know of before they move to Dubai also become transactional.
  • People are there to make money. Nothing wrong with it. Why would you leave your home and live at a place far far away? And to make money, they do multiple jobs (could work for someone like me with no focus). And yet they need you to lead with one specific thing. I want to build a startup and at the same time, write for founders. Since startups, I write essays. And since I am a well-connected man, I want to help others. So I have a lot to talk. But not one lane.
  • People are dressed impeccably. I am told London is fashionable. Dubai is probably better than that.
  • I didnt enjoy the weather. But people are mostly ok with it. Maybe it will be nice in Dec.
  • The city is incredibly safe. And is very walkable.
  • Things are expensive. Coffee is like 25 AED. The city is great if you make 50K AED each month. But less than that, its gonna pinch you.
  • You need to know people to be able to make things move.
  • Oh, the ghosting nature is correct. You really have to be valuable to people.
  • Brown skin is a tax. 
  • Everyone is busy in their lives – kids, family, social etc etc 
  • When I was there (in Sep and Oct), the traffic was back and so were the jams

Oh, while I was in Dubai, I got really bored after a few days and wanted to get things done. In fact that’s been my state for a long time now. I really want to apply myself to something. I know I cant do one thing for too long. I thus need to find projects. Something that I can do for a week or so and then rest for a week and then get back to work.

So that.

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6/ 19.5 pushups

I did 19.5 push ups day before a few days ago. I am stoked. I have never been the gym / workout kinds. And this gives me validation and I am happy.

Vikram tells me that its an achievement to do 20. I dont get his motivation. He can do 100 and he’s celebrating my not even 20!

PS: I did 20 on Friday. Did nothing on Sat or Sun. Let’s see how’s Monday.

PPS: I hope I can get to a 100. And then do a push-up faceoff with Vikram. And then hopefully, the human flag!

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7/ Travel

From what I know, over the next 3 months or so, travel will the new normal for me and I need to build my life around it. For such large things, I try to think about it a few times, talk about it loud to a few people and then starts to dawn onto me slowly. So that.

This means workout / yoga / gym / writing / blogging etc all needs to happen with the constraints of flights and cabs and trains and hotels and hostels and shared houses.

In fact, I dont think i’ll have a home for the next one year. I want to mentally prepare myself for that.

Over the next few week, ill be in Singapore and Delhi. With tiny trips to Mumbai.

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8/ Epiphany with work

I realised that I need someone to work alongside. And my ADHD brain needs someone to lean on to for getting things done. Over time I’ve had people who would do that for me. With time they’ve moved on, drifted apart, grown up and in general not around. And I am unable to offer time, money, brand, validation or anything that people seek.

So, I need to do the hard thing and find more people to be around me. Who are as dedicated with work and for them life is more than watching F1 or whatever.

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9/ Vv

Found a new young colleague – i have a good feeling about her. She has been helping me do things with Claude. I love her brilliance. And I hate her unavailability. I wish more of her time overlapped with me.

V, if you are reading this, you know the action points ;P

PS: I dont want to get ahead of myself. I’ve had many people but few have stuck.

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10/ Social / Pseudosocial

I’ve been very social lately. This is very unlike me.

Someone even asked me if I’ve picked up some MLM scheme that I want to shill. In the last few days I’ve been more dinners and all of those at fancy places that typically need you to think about what to wear and all that.

In fact, I wore pants for one of those places. And the others are the kinds where people go for specific occasions.

No, I dont enjoy these places. Just that I am forced to. And thus I need to be social. I am actually being what I call, Pseudosocial.

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11/ Work

Many things to note. Here’s a list.

  • Am easy on the cash flow, for a change. Got some big fat advance. So I can breathe easy. Honestly, this is a nice feeling. I wish I had more of such days.
  • Made a few new pitches. Not sure of the outcome yet. But I did make pitches. Unlike the last few months. I want to do more of these.
  • Lost direction and motivation with both 66MGRoad and Atlas. While writing, I realised that I am the kinds to not see things thru if I dont have someone leading it. And thus the want to hire someone to help me.
  • Finished and initiated a new biography project. So, sgwashere is going ok.
  • Fired a CA. Hired a new one. Books for the last FY C4E are closed. Finally. Now to wait for the tax refund 😀

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📷 Photos from the week gone by

I took some. As always, available on request.

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📈 The trackers of life

No tracker updated last few weeks. I did get back to filling some. So when I do the next week’s review, I will have something to show for.

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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. I will probably strike this off if I cant do this in the Singapore stint.

Human Flag Pole.
No update. Except the 20 pushups.

Save a million dollars.
No update. Cash moved in and out. Nothing moved toward the goal.

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

  • Health. Sleep, food, movement. Sleep hasnt been the best since Dubai. Even in Dubai, the sleep was screwed. I think its all the food that I am eating that I shouldnt. I had imagined that eating well should be possible once you are on the road. But no, I was wrong. No action on movement. I tried to get in 10K steps but I’ve failed.
  • C4E / Work. Got a couple of new small clients. Made a few pitches. Tried to hire people. So, I’d say some movement. I still dont know where I will be headed. I am oscillating between startup ideas, events, Claude-enabled businesses and other things.
  • Brand SG / Distribution. Nothing large.
  • People. Talked to many many people in Dubai. And I’ve been incredibly social lately.
  • Book2. Lol.
  • Shauk. Nothing tbh.

🏃‍➡️ Health

No log this week. Just the pushups.

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🗓️ So, one thing that defines the past week?

Itch.

I am itching to do something. I am done with these small things and I dont know what’s the large thing I can do. I’ve thought about it. I have talked about it. But nothing seems to be moving! Sigh!

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

So that.

Over and out.
Until next week.
SG

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, 31, 32, 33 (missed), 34, 35 (missed), 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 (missed these four)

PPS: Please do point typos.

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

Wk 37-26 – Weekly Note

Notes from Week 37.

Sep 12, 2026
Dubai

I am here since a couple of days. And this trip so far has been nothing to write home about. While I am writing this, I am reading what Claude wrote for me and it’s incredible how much it knows about this trip. For example, it wrote this line… “The bags are in the room. The Niyo cards are still not topped up and the travel adapter i was supposed to buy in Mumbai is sitting in a shop in Mumbai.” And somehow it knows that I was to add money in my Niyo cards and buy a travel adapter.

Anyhow. I am here.
And let’s see how this trip goes.

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

1/ The September Focus

The plan for September remains empty.

Think of this as the month where I took a break and did nothing. And thought about what to do next. Let’s park it at that. Think of it as break season for me. And of course, like most things, even when I take a break, I want to work on things. And I am indeed working on things. These things may not be structured per se in terms of client outcomes but in terms of exploration and all. Like right now, Claude is churning out websites for a few projects that I am excited about.

2/ Dubai

Claude tells me that this is my fourth trip here. I have no way to check. But I was to say that I’ve been here more times than this. And I dont have energy or inclination to check. So lets live with that.

So, while I am moving around and meeting people, I am in the Marina area and I quite like it here. Very modern. Very structured. Has easy access to a water body (a canal). Wish it was close to a beach as well (there’s JBR but thats very commercial for my taste; some part of this post is from a Starbucks outlet here). I can totally see myself living here. Just that like Akshay told me, this is an expensive place to be poor in. I mean I am not poor per se but I am not rich either. Definitely not from Dubai standards. And it’s way too hot for my taste. It’s September and 8:30 in the night and the air is still stuffy. Maybe I spend only the winter months here?

Anyhow. It’s just been a couple of days and a lot of thoughts. I will write them sometime. Maybe on this post itself when I get to that.

3/ Founder Storytelling Coaching

Spotted a tweet where a founder seems to be seeking services of a storytelling coach. I thought it would be an interesting problem to solve. The founder wants to get better at telling his own story, and he is right that it is the thing standing between him and the rooms he wants to walk into.

So I reached out to him and we got talking. And things are now at a place where we will do a pilot. And got me thinking. That it’s a large enough problem to work on and it fits into my thinking about being useful and being there when you are stuck (and not being there when you are happy or sad; must write this piece somewhere). Need to think more on this.

Oh, I wrote this piece while thinking about that project.

How to build a Founder Personal Brand

In case you know folks who need help with their founder stories and personal brand for founders, please do tell me.

4/ Focus. Focus. Focus.

In one of the chats in Dubai (with Pritam), I realised yet again that I need to be able to focus on one thing; in case I want large outcomes. If I continue to be a mild success, I can do that well. But in case I need to a wild one, I have to be able to focus on one thing.

I’ve tried hard to be focussed on one thing but I’ve failed miserably at it. I’ve tried hard to stop doing things but that makes unhappy. I’ve wanted to cut off things that dont give me immediate value and don’t allow me to play to win. Even those dont take me where I want to be.

So, I need to find a way to get focussed in life.

I know I am not a big fan of specialization but I think I am coming around to the fact that I need to pick a lane and stick to it. And then while I am on it, I need to figure what could be the way to find my hobbies.

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5/ Strong opinions. Loosely held.

Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking a lot about things. And a lot of my strong opinions are changing.

For example, the entire coaching thing – where you charge money to give gyaan? Well, I no longer think it’s a bad thing necessarily. There are more examples, but I am not ready to talk about those at this time. May be I will process some more and come around to that.

Also see the bit on founder storytelling coaching thing.

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6/ Work in spurts

I’ve realised that I can only work in spurts. Once I move on, I move on.

Lemme give an example. The other day, I whipped together an app to help folks write their manifestations. And then I moved on. And then while writing this weekly review, I stumbled onto that app again. And ISTG I had forgotten about it. Similarly, I made my own clone of Tally to manage my expenses. I burnt like a billion token on it in a week and then I forgot about it. Till it resurfaced a few days later.

So I need to find a way to track things so that I don’t lose, well, track of those. Any clues? I do have a command centre that I made with Claude, a task manager, a CRM but still.

Oh, another corollary of the same problem. When I work on a project, I have a limited context window for myself. This could mean features, people, tasks, things or whatever. And once I switch the session or move onto something else, I am unable to find a way to recall all things. I’ve started to maintain a tiny readme on each project now but it’s still not a replacement for my brain. Any folks here have been able to grow their brain?

May be I need to re-read this piece by Ryan?

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7/ I think when I talk.

No large thoughts on this one. Simple. That my best ideas and interactions and brainwaves come in when I am talking. And thus I need more listeners. And confidants that I can talk to. And more people who will give honest feedback and not mince words.

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8/ Other Notes and Links

Starting this week, I want to put some effort on this piece. I will try to write a line or two about things that caught my eye in the week gone by. Think of it as a news round up. And I will also share this with folks on my TIL group.

a. iPhone Duo
Apple released their new iPhone, and I love it. I am not the kind to have foldable phones, but this one, I want! In case you want to gift one to me, lemme know.

b. Bending Spoons acquired Miro
I used to love Miro when I would start with a mindmap on each thing. But with time, I have stopped using. I wonder why. It’s a powerful tool, I enjoy working on the maps and Miro is one of the best tools available for that.

Bending Spoons is one of those companies that acquires good businesses, builds ruthless efficiency in those and makes money. I’ve always imagined having a company like that – multiple businesses, optimised, well paying, well earning and good life.

Of course I’ve heard in private conversations about them being “sharks” and exploitative but I think there’s some lessons there for sure.

c. The AI threat
After Jensen said AGI has arrived, this thread by an Anthropic engineer (Jacob) made the world spin. As on last reading, it has 170 MILLION impressions!

While we are on this, also see Anthropic’s Econ Scenarios. Best seen on a computer. Some stark takeaways. Especially if you are reading this. Cos, odds are, you would be a knowledge worker. At least I identify myself as a knowledge worker.

While this was happening, over the weekend, both Sam and Dario seemed to agreed that they need to control the advancement. Wow. I miss that I am not at the frontier of this conversation!

d. Dubai
I saw many Indian companies here and I was super proud! A small list is Maharaja Bhog (lol), Bisleri, Porter, Urban Company. Well done fellas!

Staying on this, since I am not surrounded by regular folks, the chats of AI are missing here. In fact, am yet to find my community and network here and thus I dont know what the city talks about!

e. This tweet from Aakrit about AI is fab!
Love the simple distillation of what I think is true but could never articulate.

f. Pocket FMs’ $500M
The internet melted over Pocket FM’s news about the $500M ARR. And they seem to have pivoted 11 times. Wow. And that they use AI to create content. And they are in the entertainment business. If they can, why can’t others?

See this tweet about how they reached here.

g. Writing things down – link
From Ben of Stratechery. Took a lot of notes. Especially about his comments on why he doesn’t like watermarking text on AI. I never imagined that could even be a thing!

h. PG’s note on powerful startups – link
TBH, I am yet to read this. But he’s written an essay and you better read it.

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PS: Do let me know what you think of this roundup.

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📸 Photos from the week gone by

Quite a few photos.

As always, available on request.

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📈 The trackers of life

No action on trackers.
I know that I am unable to track things when I am on the road. So, let’s wait for me to come back. Or settle down.

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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 again.

Human Flag Pole.
This is the best thing of the week. For three days, I did 15 push-ups on the trot. This is great improvement for me. I could only do like 2 and now I am upto 15. Even if I am dying after the 10th one. Let’s see when I reach 100. And then I will aim for pullups. And then we shall see where get.

Also, on a this, saw this from Dan Go and was left shocked.

Save a million dollars.
No action. I think I need a money coach ;P

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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 what shipped. Not WIP.

  • Health. Sleep, food, movement. Nothing to report. I am walking a tad more and I am controlling what I eat. Rest, nothing to report.
  • C4E / Work. Same as last week. No large actions. Still shuttling between 66MGRoad and Atlas Fractional.
  • Brand SG / Distribution. Nothing large.
  • People. Talked to many people in Dubai. Yet to see how would it impact my life and brand.
  • Book2. Lol.
  • Shauk. Nothing tbh. Was busy with travel and all that.

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📅 One thing that defines the past week?

Uncertainty.

And I am surprising ok with that. I know a lot of people are unable to live with it. But I think I am ok with it.

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

So that.

Over and out.
Until next Friday.
—SG

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, 31, 32, 33 (missed), 34, 35 (missed), 36

PPS: Please do point typos.

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

Wk 34-26 – Weekly Note

Notes, thoughts and highlights from Week 34, 2026.

22-23 August 2026.
Starbucks, Versova.

This is the first post on a new laptop. I will talk about the laptop in detail in a bit.

The last week has been, well, a blur. I dont recall where time went. I had the same routine – wake up, goto Starbucks, come back home, eat, sleep, while time etc.

One of the days I couldn’t sleep. I dont know why. And that day I sort of didnt do much. And then the regular life and cadence.

So that.

Ok, I dont know what else to write here. Lets get to the notes bit.

Track of the week has to be this.

Lets go…

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

1/ Update on the August Plan

I had decided that in August I will do the following…

  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 am glad to report that I have progress on 1 and 4. I couldnt push the CRM as much as I would have liked but that’s ok. You do some, you miss some. Last week, I had worked on 1, 2 and 4. Book seems out of bound.

PS: despite the Eco Mode, I got a new laptop. More on it shortly.

PPS: I dont have a plan for Sep. I dont plan to make it. Apart from the fact that I will be in Dubai. And in case I am unable to get to Dubai, I will spend Sep in either Goa or Singapore.

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2/ The New Laptop

I have a new M5 Pro. Not Air.

This is a big upgrade from the old M1 that I was running. I got it last night and I can feel the difference already. This is the second large investment I’ve made in myself after Claude happened (the first one is the Max account). And this is the MOST expensive thing that I’ve ever bought for myself.

Many thoughts on this one. Lemme try and articulate…

A – I didnt plan to get this one. Someone on MDI JFK wanted to sell a new laptop for cheap. I thought I would like to get a good bargain. I threw a 20% lesser number at him. And he bit the bullet. So that.

B – Since I’ve got Claude, I have started to feel the need for a faster machine. The M1 I was using was painfully slow. And thus I anyway had to get a new one. Just that I was delaying it for a future time. When I would have had the money. And then I said, fuck it.

C – I know I am in the Eco Mode. But to me, this is a business expense. And for the next 3 years. The last one was with me for almost 18 months. And the one before that was with me for 3 years. So I think we will be ok.

D – this is my first pro in years. I dont like the bulkiness of it. But I will make do with what I have.

And if you are reading this, please poing gaps in my thinking.

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3/ Storyhunt

As part of my ghostwriting practise, Claude helped me come up with an idea to run a competition to uncover stories from diaspora.

And it came up with Storyhunt edition 1. In words of Claude,

Storyhunt is a public call for hidden stories from the Indian diaspora, compiled into a book. Submission form lives on sgwashere.com at /storyhunt/.

The idea is simple. If you are from the South Asian region and you live away from here and there’s a story worth telling, you must find a way to tell that. You may submit here.

PS: I am thinking, if this goes well, I will make it an annual thing. It gives me opportunity to talk to people, know more about them and write!

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4/ Writing

Since Claude happened, I havent written a lot. And I dont like it. And I want to get back to it. Starting coming week. I mean this week is almost over. I am thinking I will start writing about things that I deeply care about. Things like living a deliberate life, not chasing the rat race, finding a way to push things and seeing how the outcomes arrive at you.

Plus I want to use writing to help me get ahead with work and all. Think of it as “voice” of the founder. Just that I dont know what is it that I am founding 😀

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5/ Rejections at 66MGR and Yellow

The two current opportunities that I think are venture scale, 66MGRoad and Yellow, both got multiple rejections from multiple accelerators. Which is ok. The point of this rejection is that we’ve not been able to communicate the story well. For someone who calls himself a writer, this is not the best case scenario. I will push harder on this.

The other thing I realised is that my casualness while talking to people puts people off. And while this is a personality change, I think its one that I would like to make. You know, a strong opinion but loosely held.

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6/ Spotlight Session

Along with Harshit Gupta, we did a Spotlight session on Saturday. Here is the event page.

I loved the fact that there are 20 people who came from as far as Mira Road and I dont know where all to nerd about a language. And were immersed in a conversation about words and nuances. The fact that I was able to put this together is my biggest win.

I must do more of these.

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7/ AMFIs annual report

The rare post about work.

I think this is the third year in the running that C4E has designed AMFI’s annual report. And each year we’ve set the standards higher than the last. Incredibly proud of what my people are able to pick up when left to themselves.

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8/ Lessons from Suraj Kaeley

I first met Suraj when I was working on Meru.

Neither of us is associated with Meru at this time but we’ve stayed in touch. And he asked if we could meet. I was ofc not keen (I didnt want to travel all the way and I know that I cant add any value to his life – he’s a senior and knows a lot) but he persisted and we met.

And I realised my folly immediately. I must make it a point to meet more people. All the online interactions and remote work is ok but real magic happens when you shake hands. At least for the next few months.

So back to Suraj. A tiny, one-hour interaction with him taught me so many lessons. Here’s the list.

A – Play to Win (or Play to Play).
Suraj recommended the book, Play to Win. While there is a lot to compress, I think, for me, the biggest lesson was that you need to play to win. I tend to play to play. I often use Joker’s dialogue – “am a dog chasing cars”. Need to fix that.

And ofc, every rich person I know, plays to win. Every athlete plays to win. My friends who’re the most successful, play to win.

Suraj then gave an example from his book writing journey about how he’s implementing the play to win principles in his work.

Within this, the other lesson I got was to find a way to get to a maxima with your projects and ideas and chase that metric. This is one of those lessons that I keep getting from all people I know and I keep forgetting. I am glad Suraj reminded me of this.

B – Value of handshake.
Suraj mentioned that he makes it a point to shake hands in real life. This is counter-intuitive to how I live and run. I think there’s a deeper lesson here.

PS: I went all the way to meet a friend who was exhibiting at an expo to shake his hand and came back.

C – Investing in People
This I’ve done a lot. So am ok on this. And I dont want to spill more ink on this. If I can push you more, please read 1000 true fans.

D – Follow up
On sales, he told me that most people lose deals cos they dont follow up. And I realised, am the same. A client says no, I move on. He said, go back to that client, ask them things, listen. Nothing new but I realised I wasnt doing it.

So that!

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9/ Other Notes and Links

Some notes and thoughts. In no order…

  • My initial euphoria over Claude is done. This means that I am not hunting for ideas to make revenue with. I dont have any at this time. But I am sure I will find some.
  • I gave gyaan to a few people this week – two founders of a women-first startup, a singer who’s trying to break out from the mold, a person whos lost her parents in COVID-19 and yet to come out of it. All these three conversations made me realise that I love it when am able to show path to people. I just hope I can do this with more.
  • I made a broadcast list on WA where I would over-share things that I should ideally talk to close friends on. But since my laziness is legendary, I’ve made a broadcast group. In case you’d like to be added to it, lemme know.

Guess this is it.

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📷 Photos from the week gone by

Some photos. As always, if you ask for those, you will get. And you miss 100% of the shots you dont take.

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📈 The trackers of life

This wasnt a good week for trackers. So while I will reproduce them here, you will see a lot of misses.

This is the daily one. I know a lot of misses.

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And this is the mood tracker that I maintain when I get the opportunity. I love that I have many greens and few reds. Shows that I have chosen to accept what comes my way.

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What do you see in it?

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🏃‍➡️ Health

I must pat on the back for the small win that I now do I pushups almost everyday. And just yesterday, I did 10 pushups on the trot. My posture is shit but I can do 10. Yay!

Ofc the target is 100 pushups. Lets see when I reach there.

Brb, doing pushups and coming back.
Ok did 10.

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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 again.

Human Flag Pole.
This week I walked more. And I reached up to a point that I could do 10 pushups on the trot. Lets see if I can continue with 10 for the next few days. I want to reach till 100.

Save a million dollars.
No action to report.

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📌 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. Was better than the last week.
  2. C4E / Work. Pick a thing to apply myself to. Still dont know what to apply myself to. I have been shuttling between 66MGRoad and Atlas Fractional.
  3. Brand SG / Distribution. A lot of thinking but no action TBH. I have trained a Claude skill on it. Lets see what it creates for me.
  4. People. No action.
  5. Book2. Nothing this week.
  6. Shauk. Did a Spotlight Session with Harshit. Must do more of these sessions.

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🗓️ So, one thing that defines the past week?

Skip.

I didnt have any other word to think of. The week went past and apart from Harshit’s show, each thing was like a skip thing for me. So that.

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

Over and out.
Until next Friday.
SG

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, 31, 32, 33 (missed)

PPS: Please do point typos.

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

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.