Tag: Hiring

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 19-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts and reflections from the 19th week of 2025.

5:40 AM, May the 13th.
Tuesday. This is that weekly review that never went out.

If not for AA. Thanks, AA. I am grateful that I have folks like here that push me towards consistency.

Thing is, like most weeks, I started writing this on a Saturday, I wrote some and then I thought I would write the rest on a Sunday. And then I had to spend the day with someone, solving their crisis and Sunday went in a jiffy. I then pushed this for a Monday morning. But then that never happened. Cos Monday Monday’d with a million calls.

But here I am.
With the review.
Lets see where we go.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

1/ Looking for an EA / Helper / Business Analyst / Whatever you may want to call it.
At Meru, I am looking for someone to work very closely with me and make things happen. At C4E, many people have played that role – from SJ2 to SJ to CM to AK to Bri and many more in the middle. Each of these people has hopefully learnt a lot from me. In exchange, I paid them whatever I could. And then I took their help in getting things done.

At Meru, I need someone like that. I would like to run faster and thus I need this person. If you know someone who’s ok with an 8 lakh kind of CTC, is in Mumbai and is willing to wrk with me closely, please recommend.

Do read this post as well.

PS: While UTMs are great for marketers, I hate them!

2/ The India-Pakistan War
I wish I had more time to write on this. But I have to write this…

In one line, despite WHATEVER happens, am not on the side of war. Or on the side of nationalist boundaries. I know a lot of close friends and connections are cheering and rooting for military action that India took. I know there are rational reasons for that. I know we shouldn’t be aggressed up on. I know innocent lives were lost and they have to be avenged. I know I am a great fan of Mahabharata, that literally is about the greatest war of all times.

I also know that I am not the greatest fan of MK and yet I love his lesson on non-violence.

And yet I am not for war.

I wish I had the words to talk about why the war is a bad idea for everyone, everything. I wish more folks exercised restraint. I wish there was dialogue.

I would park this by sharing this.

3/ Kids in Mumbai
NG and VM are here for a few days. Krishna was here for a couple of days. And I am trying to spend time with them. And as a result, I am wasting time. I am being irregular with my updates. I am spending more time outdoors. I am not doing these reviews. I am scrambling at the last minute to get things done.

I need to learn how to manage time better.

The other good thing that am loving is that I have two young boys willing to listen to me. Wait, I have an idea! How about I give them my letters and have them discuss?

Point aside, I need to find a way to become better with my time.

3.1/ Hosted a Mini CSS
While people were / are here, AK hosted an evening full of music and conversations.

I have two videos from there. I am not uploading them here. But I am willing to share with whoever asks. Here’s the link.

4/ Voice Training
I talked about how I want to be better spoken. I chatted with Riya. And now, I have got Sonu Sir to give me some homework. And it’s similar to what Riya told me. And I know that I wont be able to do it. Sigh!

Apart from this, I saw a DastanGoi performance by Sikander Khan. It was good and could’ve been better. I am super inspired to do more to support more artists.

5/ Got Paras Chopra’s Book
Yet to read it fully but love his work and I am excited that he’s poured his ideas in a book. Also see this deck.

If you point out three mistakes in this post, I will gift you a copy ;P

6/ “The world was made by people who gave a shit”
I dont know where I read this first (I suspect, some tweet by Toby) but I have been thinking a lot about this. At work. At personal life. At everything else. I really want to be the person who gives a shit.

Contrast this to how we are trained and taught at India. Jugaad. Chalta hai. Need to fix this!

Next time you see me saying “koi baat nahi”, please tell me about it and I will fix it.

7/ Antler Next 100
Like I spoke last week, Antler released their Next 100 report. We at C4E got together and chatted on it. Lots of lessons for me. Need to convert those into action. AK, if you are reading this – do your thing.

8/ AI Experiments
I have been thinking if I should go do somethings with AI by myself. In the last few years I have not done anything by myself. I have only got things done. Which has served me well, TBH. I learnt the art of delegating, I groomed some folks and overall we are at a net positive.

However with AI, I have this FOMO like I had with Crypto and Web 3. So, I want to give in and do something by myself. Just that I dont know if I have the time to do this. I mean there are more urgent battles to fight – Meru, C4E. And there are other Shauqs (of book2, poker, pool, films etc.).

Or may be I can take one of the battles and use AI to ship something?

TBH, I dont know what I would do. Let’s see.

9/ Brain Games
I’ve been playing Peak, Lumosity and Elevate lately.

I dont know if these make a difference to anyone’s life but I do play these. I like the idea of challenging myself.

I used to play these long ago and it’s interesting to see that I am not doing as well as I did 3-4 years ago. Maybe I will get used to those games and become better? Or maybe these games actually work? Who knows!

Anyone has any experience here?

10/ Clean My Notes
I take a lot of notes. And in the last 2-3 weeks I have not organized those. I need to work on that. So I will do a time block and do that. #sgtodo

So that was from the week!
Phew!

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from the week gone by.

I loved that I was at the beach almost everyday this past week!

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

2025 Plan and Book 2

Both haven’t happened. I will drop the 2025 plan.

On book 2, I have hit a random roadblock. I will unclog it. You will hear about the next steps on the update for Week 20.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

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

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

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

Health. Last week was a tad better. I ate better. I still need to go to a skin doctor and the Foxo thing. But I was better. I will give myself a 0.
So, 0 there.

Meru. Good week. My co-founder was traveling and I had the baton. I think we moved the needle on most things. So that’s cool. A 0, tbh. I will give a 1 when we see progress.
So, a 1.

C4E. Some action. Again, I dont want to track this. Letting C handle the kitchen.
So, a 0.

Brand SG. AK has been releasing some of our conversations. I am sure it’s helping in some way. So, this is not really -1 this week. And no, it’s not even a +1 either. So, 0.
0.

People. I think +1. I was surrounded by friends and strangers and love and inspiration and all that.
So, a 1

Book 2. No action. For almost a month now!
-1

Shauk. Apart from mini CSS, no action on this. I didnt play pool, I didnt play poker. I didnt travel. Etc etc.
So, -1

So the overall score is 0 for this week.

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

📊 The tracker from the last week

I havent been filling the tracker properly.

Nevertheless, here’s it.

Lemme know what you see.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I didn’t have a lot of time to read or reflect in the last week. But of the few things I read, here are some links…

  1. Paras Chopra’s slide deck. Link
  2. Shaan VP on Taste. Link. Staying on taste, I have bookmarked this by Utsav but yet to read. Taste has infact become a recurring conversation in my head.
  3. Shaan VP on Creativity. Link
  4. AK on her graduation. Link

I know I should read more, reflect more and write more!

🧠 Reminders from last week

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

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

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker – no action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Use of money to buy time – on this!
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Adding this – speak better!

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

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Slack.
I am taking it easy. I need to do more. I need to remind myself that the day I dont work, I dont eat that day. Need someone or something to push me more to make me work harder and smarter. I am merely leaning on my people and I know they are working for themselves and at best, for us. But not for me. So I need to move my ass.

Come on, universe.

Oh and in the previous weeks, it’s been Getting back to action. Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

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

Oh, and this too shall pass!

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

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

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

PPPPS: I had almost skipped this. But thanks to AA, I wrote this. I am glad. I need more cheerleaders like her in my life. Will try and find them!