5:41 PM, Nov 2, 2025
Silk Road Cafe, Versova
I am here cos the Starbucks I hang out at, their AC is not working. And I literally melt when I am at a place without AC. And thus. And tbh, this is not a bad place. I dont see a lot of people who’d make the place creepy (like at Starbucks) and thus I like it. Lets see if I come here more often.
So, before I start the review, today’s SRK’s birthday. There was a time when I was a big fan (still am but I am wiser to not attach emotions to my fandom) and I would some day like to work with him. But for today, I am content with merely wishing him birthday from afar.
Thank you, SRK, for telling me what love could be. And what power of dreams could be. And what ambition could be.
And thus, the track of the week has to be this…
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Brings me to the next part of this post.
💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
And no, these are not in any order.
a/ So this last two weeks, I wrote two posts.
One about 25 questions. And the other about Piyush Pandey. He passed away a week or so ago and while the entire country was shocked, nothing seems to have stopped. Sobering lesson in Pale Blue Dot. And ego.
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b/ I need to fix my home situation.
I have a 1 bedroom hall house. And I have AC in just one of the rooms. That means I work in that room and sleep in that room and host people in that room. And this means I have chairs, working table, my mattress and everything else in this room. And this means that it’s cluttered all the time and anything thats cluttered is dirty for me. And I dont like it.
I know only I can fix it. Either I need to find a solution or I need to stop crying. I was to do this over this weekend but I couldnt. May be next weekend.
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c/ Money mindedness
Thanks to this post, I want to be a money minded man.
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d/ Saw a Tim Cook interview onboard AI1736
This one. I realised that he cant talk about Apple till date without talking about Steve. Even though it’s been like 15 years!
Also, I realised that each time I see a film, I want to be a film maker. I dont know in what shape!
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e/ A superquote on Spartans (from 300).
“Spartans true strength is the warrior next to him. So give respect and honor to him and it will be returned.”
This is what I want to build as culture at each place where I am at. Strength thru others.
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f/ sgMahabharata is at 39 posts!
w00t!
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Yeah, just these. I do have a lot of notes and commentary. Do read.
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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by
Some photos that I took and save over the last two weeks are here.
The photo that I would like to highlight is this..
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🈺 LARGE objective from the week gone by?
I had two large things when I started this year. Book 2 and a yearly plan (that I’ve been writing for a long time. This year I couldn’t). And I just added health a few weeks ago.
Book 2 – There was no movement.
Nothing to report. The trigger by NanoWrimo makes me want to start on it again. But I dont really have the time at this time : (
Yearly Plan – I dropped it long ago.
Now its time to think about the plan for the next year. Lol.
Health – No large updates except the fact while I was in delhi, I actually lost a couple of KGs since I ate in discipline! Since I’ve come back, it’s been tough to manage eating well and I think am back to 93. Lets see how the next week is. PS: I track my health updates here, in case.
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☑️ So, what did I get done last 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.
- Health
- Meru
- C4E
- Brand SG
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
- Book2
- Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)
Health. Was ok. I am encouraged to give myself a 0.
Meru. Great progress. But nothing to report per se. And still no consumer launch. And thus a 0.
C4E. No action from my side. No comments. A 0.
Brand SG. Last two weeks was slow. So 0.
People. Some action on this. Met many friends, alums and others. Loved it. +1.
Book 2. Nothing. -1.
Shauk. Saw a play. Must watch more. A 0.
So the overall score for the week is 0!
Few weeks ago, I had decided that I want to get a positive score each week. I had to organise my life to be able to get to a 0. I think I’ve made the tracker. I need to run it now. Let’s see how it pans out in the next few weeks.
Brings me to the tracker of the week…
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📊 The tracker from the last week
I am not publishing this. I hardly took note. I will get back to this from next week on.
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🏃🏻♂️➡️ Health
Like the tracker, I am not publishing this. I hardly took note. I will get back to this from next week on.
The food log, my daily health log channel continue to be active.
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📖 Interesting Reads / Views
Quite a few. Here we go.
Also, I am publishing these on Substack as well. Here is the substack. And here’s the permalink to the post.
1/ From Collabfund
From this piece on Collabfund, https://collabfund.com/blog/if-you-get-the-chance/, I have taken these notes…
“I found in my career that if you take pride in the little jobs, people will think you worthy of the bigger jobs.”
This is important cos I see so many people wanting to do large things but they are not willing to put in the reps required. And here’s the interesting thing – reps typically look like little jobs, done many times over!
Unfortunately, I didn’t appreciate this lesson enough early in my career. As an example, after graduating from business school, I thought I could come right in and impart my newly found wisdom, when I should have been a better listener and executed the mundane tasks with as much vigor as the more interesting ones.
This – if I could give this advice to young people, I would ask them to first listen and then act.
“Just focus on doing the best you can with those two reps. Make them as perfect as you possibly can. Then focus on the next two, and the next two, and the next two.”
And people are at it, I would want them to do one thing well. Little ironical since I am not the kinds to be able to focus on one thing!
2/ From the markers of Hey
I read this post from the makers of Hey. The biggest takeaway for me was this line,
But the most interesting designs to me are when design changes your behavior. Even the smallest details can change how someone interacts with something.
Thing is, as custodians and builders of taste, we must take each opportunity to change behaviour. Even if you are not a designer, the opportunity to impact change is always there!
3/ From the founder of Replit
From Amjad (founder of replit), on his recent post, he talks about how to win.
While I am not as competitive as him, I am in agreement with 4 of the 6 things that he mentioned – dont die, never quit, do hard things and put something back.
The one that I cant seem to wrap my head around is “locking in”. And I am not sure where I am on the “playing by the rules”. I am from India and to make things work, we often have to be flexible on rules and ethics.
4/ Alex’s three-month marketing plan
This post by Alex is INCREDIBLE!
My takeaways are…
- Personality Driven Content – I need to find a way to be louder with my personality. I am 43. If not now, when?
- Each person on the team HAS to be a brand on the internet. Period.
- Need to operate the business as a content company. Each week I read something like this and I nod alongside and yet this remains a challenge.
- Need to have LARGE distribution. Need to find people with large following who are willing to support.
- Build a distribution engine where each piece you create is repurposed 100 times.
Also listed these here. Ask for access.
5/ Julian Cole on Strategy
This post talks about how to write a strategy presentation. As someone who worked on brand strategy for like 15 years, I can validate, this is spot on!
6/ Rahul Mathur’s breakdown of Meesho
Rahul is one of my fav writers these days. Other are Kuldeep, Ankush, Harnidh.
In this thread, he breaksdown Meesho’s IPO. For me, the highlights and lessons are…
- The AOV is going down by design! And they are a 75% CoD business.
- They have an in-house logistics arm that does 20-30 lakh order PER DAY! On their website, they say they pick 40 lakh orders PER DAY!
- People are discovering products via creators. This segment is opaque to me (because I live and think in a different TG)
- The business has seen few large pivots. Again, I dont track it as much and thus I dont know the specifics. But intriguing for sure.
May be I will read more about it. Looks unlikely because the segment Meesho serves is not something that excites me.
And +1 to Rahul for all the hardwork he does.
7/ “This is new to me”
On this tweet, saw this line…
Instead of “I’m bad at this”. Say “This is new for me”. This gives your brain the space to learn instead of shut down. This is neuroplasticity in real time.
Interesting idea. Especially for me since at this age, I am finding very very hard to change how I have lived and operated.
8/ How to engineer luck
This post talks about how to engineer luck.
Now, luck is one of the favorite topics and while I didnt learn anything new from the post, it was interesting to read from somoene else’s lens. Some lines that I’ve highlighted are…
A/ Unscheduled calls. I’ve started to make these lately. Not sure
Super-agent Ari Emmanuel makes dozens of unscheduled calls every day. His opening line: “Can I help you with anything right now?
B/ Luck Razor…
If stuck with 2 equal options, pick the one that feels like it will produce the most luck later down the line. I used this razor to go for drinks with a stranger rather than watch Netflix.
C/ Proactively make intros. On this, my only note is that I want to make intros once I realise that both the parties want to be introed. Ofc, I trust both parties, I know it would be of value and all that.
Networks are unique because they don’t divide when you share them — they multiply. There’s no higher ROI on any other 30-second activity. (Note — do not confuse this with making introductions where only one side gets value from it)
D/ Give!
Give aggressively, give early, give without permission.
E/ Permissionless entry into the rooms. I have been a GREAT beneficiary of this and I cant stop recommending this enough.
Find the most talented people you know and help them as much as you can, permissionlessly. Share their projects, give feedback, and make introductions. Successful people have a special place in their hearts for the people who helped them before anyone else did.
9/ Lessons on life, from a 22-year old
This is a feel-good post for Sunday.
A young person discovering life. I wish each young person here gets to live such a life and pick lessons along the way. So many lessons packed into that one!
I found myself nodding and smiling at the words. Must read.
10/ Chat GPT on Longevity
This post on insta has some thoughts on longevity.
Not sure if this is correct (afterall, AI is known to hallucinate). Here are a commentary on the post…
- Stress shortens your life more than sugar. I think I dont take stress but I am told that my Cortisol levels are not good. So need work on that.
- Live now. I’ve lived my life with this principle. So am ok.
- Don’t force yourself to stay in draining situations and do things that you are internally not opposed to. This means bad marriages, bad jobs, energy drains etc etc. Mostly I am ok to get out of those. But when I can’t I need to be faster to get out of those.
- Deep connection matters more than any supplement. I need to double down my efforts on building more communities and being more immersed in those.
- Find purpose larger than self. I need to work on this one. At this time, I dont have a large enough purpose apart from the chase of freedom.
While on longevity, do read this piece from Lenny San’s newsletter.
11/ Ever wondered why do people touch their ears when they are talking about their teachers?
I knew this intuitively but then I got reading.
In one line, it’s usually a gesture of respect, apology, or humility. A more nuanced and detailed answer is that when you talk about a teacher, touching of ear is a symbolic acknowledgement that you are saying sorry even before you start talking because you may misspeak.
A deeper nuance is that even if you not misspeak, whatever you may say will always be a fraction of what your teacher already know. So, by touching your ears and apologizing, you are admitting that you are nothing compared to your teachers.
While I am not for any such subservient behaviour, this one, I quite like. Make what you will of this.
12/ India against India
In this post, the writer makes some very compelling arguments about India. shared this with a few friends.
On one side, some folks said this is a very biased view against india. And they were quick to dismiss.
On the others, mostly folks who love india deeply and are settled abroad, said that this was an objective piece.
You could be on either side but there is no denying that this is a compelling piece of writing and the author has a way with words. If nothing else, think of this as a satirical piece and enjoy for the sheer joy of reading.
13/ Creative Slop
In this thread, the writer argues that large cultural revolutions often start as slop. And in the world that we live in, we are often tend to dismiss the new!
A lot of groups that I am a part of are dissing work done by folks on AI as slop are not even acknowledging the effort!
14/ Conceptual stories vs Perceptual Stories
In this piece, the large takeaway is that brain remembers conceptual stories more than perceptual stories. There are different ways you could fill in the details of that story. You could give perceptual descriptions of how your food looked and tasted. Or you could focus more on conceptual experiences, such as what that food made you think and feel.
15/ Notes on India
In this piece, Jason talks about what he saw while he was in India.
I thought it was a very accurate understanding of India (and unbiased one at that). Do read to understand us. Made many highlights. Listing a couple points…
It seems that most Indians operate in a fundamentally open-ended and uncertain environment
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In India, cooperating with the rules almost always lands you in the sucker’s quadrant of the prisoner’s dilemma, whereas creative defection is generally net positive (perhaps in a macro sense, society operates less efficiently because of it, but in a personal sense, defecting wisely pays off).
16/ Jack and Jane of trades
In this tweet, the writer claims,
“Specialize or die” made sense in 1995. In 2025, it’s a death sentence. The future belongs to generalists, and the proof is in Systems Theory.”
Do read the thread.
17/ Naval on working for self. And work-life balance.
In this podcast, Naval talks about how when you work for yourself, the concept of work-life balance ceases to exist. He talks baout how the taste of freedom makes you “unemployable”.
Once you are “free” you are unable to find yourself fitting into any structures and you find ways to get back the call of the wild.
I can 100% resonate to this 🙂
18/ This post by Ankit Sawant on Cleartrip
I’ve always loved Cleartrip for their design and CX. This is a great post about the business in general and how design can play the central role in building business. Ofc, cleartrip is nowhere close to the top but still!
19/ On people
Saw this tweet and I was blown apart. Such a simple chart. Such a difficult lesson.
20/ On running
This piece on running is among the best you will ever read. Here are a couple of quotes that I am taking home…
I didn’t want my id to overcome my superego
One lesson I learned about running that also applies to writing: The best time to do something important is usually right now. And when you have to get something done in a short amount of time, it’s wise not to spend that time complaining about how little time you have.
21/ Andrej talks about how agency will be more important than intelligence
See this link.
Andrej talks about how agency is going to be more important than intelligence. And I agree. I’ve long believed that once AI commodities intelligence, we will need people to get things done! The question to ask – are you the kinds to “I’ll figure it out”
Also, I love how he talks about internal locus of control. A great way to explain agency.
22/ Social Capital Balance Sheet
Saw this tweet and I was blown apart. Such a simple chart. Such a difficult lesson.
Two large takeaways for me
- 1/ “Your ability to affect the world, to bring things into being, to convince people to work with you, work for you, and for investors to invest with you is based deeply in your reputation. And if you don’t care what people think about you, you will necessarily accomplish less, work with fewer people, raise less money.”
- 2/ “Humility is the delta between performance and ego”
🧠 Reminders from last week
This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates.
I’ve been skipping this for a while now.
Lets see when I get back to this.
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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Getting back in action.
Slow and steady but after a two week break, I am now trying to get back to churning the wheels. I am hopeful that the coming week will see solid action.
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Unsettling, Regular, Grind, Sad, Tough, Routine, Routine, Busy, Grind, Blur, Stress, Numb, Blur, Fast, Uncool, Disappeared, Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.
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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, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42
I’ve missed the following weeks: 9, 15, 17, 22, 24, 41, 43
PPS: Please do point typos.
Grammarly is not working with WordPress 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.