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…
- Work more on WeAreC4E.com. Make it into a lead magnet for event piece for C4E.
- 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.
- Make Book 2 shippable. It’s almost ready. Just that I need to make a pass thru it.
- 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…
- Health. Sleep, food, movement. Was better than the last week.
- 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.
- 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.
- People. No action.
- Book2. Nothing this week.
- 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.
