5:30 PM. Oct 18, 2025, Starbucks, Versova.
6:40 AM. Oct 19, 2025, Mumbai Airport.
6:30 PM. Oct 19, 2025, Home (DG).
So, I am back to writing these notes after a week.
The last two weeks have not been the best and I a lot of it was things that I couldnt control. The good part is that I was travelling and I was reading (I read Morgan Housel’s new book; more on that later). And thus I was ok.
I think there’s a lot to unpack today. So, lets get going.
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💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
PS: As always, these are not in any order.
A/ Most thanked person in Oscar Acceptance Speeches
I was talking to AD and someone else and I happened to mention that one of the lifegoals is to impact lives of so many people at such large level that I get to compete with Steven.
For context, Steven Spielberg is THE most thanked person at the Oscars.
I would love to be in this club some day! I mean can you imagine the effort and the hard work it would’ve taken for a Steven to have these many people in gratitude?
Oh, and apart from just this, I would like to be in the acknowledgements page of books and biographies. So far, I am in a few and I would want to have chapters dedicated in there. And no, the point is not a shot at legacy or immortality, but at enabling more people do more.
And this reminds me of another tweet that I saw…
Peter Keating anyone? SoG?
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B/ Postcard Club.
Another idea from Thej that I am stealing.
Read his post here.
The premise is simple. I will send postcards, with stamps and all that to folks who opt-in to receive it. And at some point in time, I would invite other folks to send postcards to more people. And then we shall see where it goes.
Here are the first two postcards I sent.
In case you want to be a part of this club, DM me. And disclaimer – like most things that I think a lot about, there are no guarantees that I will do this.
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C/ Morgan Housel’s Art of Spending Money
Read this book over the last few days.
Way too many notes.
Underlined a large part of the book.
A lot of what I read, I knew that already but there was a lot of reaffirmation and at times that’s the value of what you read. And since a lot of words were clustered together in the book and I was in the thinking zone, the reading was even more impactful. I think thats the point of reading books. Dense content about one topic. And reinforcement of the same via multiple examples and stories and chapters.
I think I will write an entire post on this, assuming I get time. I even did a YT live today. Not so happy but I did it and here it is.
On the live, at the peak, I 6 people joining in. At some point, I want to have a lot more people listening in. Not because I crave for an audience but because I want a platform large enough for me to have a large impact in life.
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D/ 43
The other day, someone asked they wanted to create a meetup of young people. And I commented on it and said, if 43-year olds are allowed and young at heart are welcome I would love to be in.
Right after I posted this, I feel awkward and weird and sad. It sucked that I am having to justify that age is a number. I think it’s about time I accept that I am a never-was.
So that!
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E/ AI Film Festival
Some kids are doing this AI Film Festival in Mumbai.
And wow.
Many emotions.
Here’s a list.
- We had the same idea at C4E but we couldn’t do it. This is nothing but a slap on the face. I need to build a stronger muscle for action. Plus I need to inspire my people to do more. And do so faster. And ensure that we followup on action. And I want to encourage them to think larger. Each thing we start, we start with a small vision. I encourage that. And I want to change it.
- I love the fact that AI is democratizing otherwise gatekept industries. Of course incumbents will catch up and bring things back to the mud but some new folks will arrive, shine and make hay!
- My bachpan ka want of making films resurfaced. I made attempts with Red Carbon. But I was unable to sustain the partnership. I was very very hopeful when we did the tnks trailer. But I was unable to inspire my people to actually do. Maybe I should start taking matters and things in my own hands and being a pesky boss?
- Glad that someone is doing it. Even better that young people. More power to them and other young folks. I am so very often reminded that so many young people are so fearless and so action oriented and so resourceful that I am often left ashamed and gawking at their greatness. Must surround myself with more young people.
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F/ Updated the Vision Board
Here.
Not open for public access.
Made update in the Wheel of Life and while I did that, I realised that this is the tiniest I’ve been in my life!
Here’s the template that you may want to use to fill yours.
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G/ Made a list of Regrets in life. Here.
This is WIP at this time.
Will evolve this as I go along.
The idea is that I want to live an open life and I want to not hide anything about myself from anyone at anytime. And this must include the goods and the bads, and the highs and the lows, the wins and the losses and everything in the middle.
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H/ Theatre
One of the things I really enjoy in life, is, to indulge in theatre. You know, live performances.
While I love the feeling sitting face to face with the performers, I dont understand why the theatre artists invest their time and energy in theatre. Each ticket is like 200 bucks and even on great days, you hardly get some 100 people in the audience. So, a crew of 10 will make like 20K per show. And if they were to divide all the money between them (not even the expenses), they would get like 2K per day. And it’s pittance!
I dont get why people so this.
I asked some of my friends. And the answers weren’t very convincing. There are two plausible ones.
Someone mentioned that its the pitstop needed to get to Bollywood. But even in that, the possibility of a great outcome is like negligible. The returns are way too asymmetric to be logical about it!
Someone else mentioned that its the way of life and the purest artwork there is. Again, I am not convinced about that. I am sure there are other means to feel alive?
Neither is convincing enough to me. Any clues?
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I/ Focus
One of these days, on my way back from Starbucks, I was walking with C and we were reflecting about life and all.
I popped a question.
If I were to look at 100 of the most successful people in the world and we listed top 5 traits that they had, at the most I will get a list of 500 traits and if there is a perfect overlap of traits, I would have 5 traits only.
I asked some LLMs about and this is what they had to say. So, lets say there are 20 traits that are shared by a lot of successful people.
Here is a list I made (a combination of what I learnt from AI and from my intuition).
I can say with a large certainty, that the list of traits would have things like hard work, ambition, focus, creativity, persuasion, discipline, growth mindset, perseverance, people skills, confidence, self-belief, humility and all that.
And then I said to myself, I seem to have almost ALL of these and yet I am not even a mild success. I even tweeted about it.
I could make a mental nod against each thing and I could demonstrate actions and all against each. Except one.
Focus.
I’ve been told since I was child that I am way too all over the place and I need to focus. And I have strongly objected to any sort of focus ever. I have laughed at people who’ve told me to focus. I have even blamed it on my undetected ADHD.
And maybe, just maybe, I will focus on focus!
Lol!
So, may be, I will focus and see what I would achieve if I did one thing for one year.
PS: The effort on Meru has been as focussed as they come – I have not thought about anything else since late last year. While it is not yet any close to success but thanks to HT, MK, KP, VS and others, I am certain that it would be LARGE!
Bonus: Here’s my library of quotes around focus.
Bonus 2: Here’s a list of my values, as suggested by friends and others.
Bonus 3: Another tweet from a D2C founder.
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J/ Self Cringe
Riya has been working hard to help me build distribution. And its incredible how much effort that young girl is putting! I am beyond inspired! Yet another case of young people doing superhuman things that make you wide eyed!
The only trouble is, I get cringed out each time I see myself.
For starters, I don’t like to see my face. And then a deeper reason – I’ve not done anything large or substantial to be able to give gyaan to people. Plus I am making tall promises to “teach” people to do more. I am not sure if this is correct!
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K/ Mahabharata Series has crossed 25 posts
A few days ago, I promised that I will write a post a day on linkedin. And I thought it would be a good idea to write about management lesson from Mahabharata. It would kill many birds.
Some are…
- I would get to explore Mahabharata as a subject. I love it and this will force me to carve time to read more, discuss more and think more.
- I will get the daily writing Riyaaz.
- I will get to build my distribution on linkedin – something that I’ve thought a lot about.
- I will meet more people via this.
And somehow, I’ve been very very consistent with it. Yesterday I posted the 26th update. This link has all posts.
But, the series is not performing well. I have not seen a bumper jump in my followers. There are hardly any comments or shares. I havent made new connections.
Maybe I need to accept that I dont write well?
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L/ SG’s Patrons. AKA LifeIPO
I’ve been thinking about Patrons and 1000 True Fans. And I think I am ready to take the experiment to the next stage. See this tweet.
A few weeks ago, I asked for 1000 bucks a month, in exchange of gratitude. I got two subscribers (Prak and Shruti). Now I want to offer a 1% of my life for 10 lakhs. You pay me 10 lakhs to get one share of my life (there are a total of 100 shares outstanding) and you get 1% of my time here on (you must use it yearly) and 1% of my future earnings and assets. Imagine if I become a billionaire, your 1% could be worth 10 million.
Think of this as any startup raising money. You have an idea. You peg that idea to a value. Then you add execution risk on top of it. And then you invest in the idea. That!
I am yet to get into specifics (risks, reputation, relationships, liquidity, legality etc) but I am warming up to the idea.
What do you think?
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M/ Grok’s interpretation of my content
I asked Gork to analyse my recent tweets. This is what it had to say.
I love how we can use these tools to spot patterns. Over the next few days I want to use more tools to discover more about me. At some point in time I want to explore the possibility of having my second brain uploaded on the internet and then analyse data from there on.
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N/ Goa
I was in Goa almost after a year. This time around, I spent more time going out to the temples, local beaches, eating at vegetarian restaurants, and all that. I didnt do any of my regular things. And that made me realise a few things. Here’s a list.
- I love modern conveniences and comforts. And this means I would want to be at places that have reliable connectivity, fast internet, public transport, high-trust economy and a density of great talent.
- I am not a naturist. I do not get excited by beaches or greens or mountains or anything like that. If need be, I would like to be in not so extreme weathers.
- I love vibrance around me. So, I can not be at a place that is secluded.
- I am an early bird. I love places that are open early. Once Mumbai starts 24X7 operations, I will find cafes that are open at 430 AM and make them into my havens.
As I start to think about where I want to live, these things are at the top of my head!
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O/ Fear of Flying
I would have taken at least 500 flights in life, if not 1000. And I’ve taken them in all sorts of planes (including helicopters) for all sorts of durations (from 30 minutes to 14 hours) and since 2005 (I think my first flight was from Del to Blr, though I am not sure). And I’ve experienced all kinds of turbulence and even air pockets. Though I’ve never had oxygen masks deployed and I have never been on slides.
And I have not been afraid ever. In fact, I would find excuses to get onto flights to give people hugs!
However, lately, I am afraid to fly. What if the plane goes down? I know the odds of that are a one in a million or whatever but when that one occurrence happens, the loss is 100%!
I am afraid that if that happens, it would be such a colossal waste of life and a stupid way to go! I anyway have mixed feelings towards the concept of death (I know its important but I dont get the reason why we spend so much time and effort and energy to learn things and then when the times comes to capitalise on it and be of service to the world, your time is almost up).
Ok, I digressed. The point is, I have this thing deep in the pit of my stomach or conscious or whatever each time I have to fly. And this is a new feeling! And no, I don’t enjoy this. I have wanted to live my life free of fear. And in chase of excitement and adventure. This fear bit is not core to my identity! And I need to work on it and change it.
PS: I am writing this from a comfortable, business class seat of a fairly new Air India plane and from my seat I saw that there are three pilots in the cockpit – all three fit and alert and had their spines straight, including the lady who’s the captain on this flight. So, I am hopefully safe on this one!
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I had imagined I would have a lot more to write. But clearly I dont.
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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by
Some photos that I took and saved in the last two weeks are here. And if I had to pick one, I would say, this would be it…
Show me some of your photos?
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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.
Yearly Plan – I dropped it long ago.
Now its time to think about the plan for the next year. Lol.
Health – I have made small changes in how I eat and what I eat. I am also walking more. I did some 5 pushups a couple of days. I now take stairs. Small steps. Nothing large. But I remain committed. I will ensure that come November, I am a gym and I am running.
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 a bad one. All over the place. Not just the physical health but also mental health. So, a -1.
Meru. Incredible progress. LOVE the hard work being put in by all the people. I wish I knew this team earlier. Most days I am left in awe of all that we do, despite everything. Oh, still no launch. And thus a 0.
C4E. No action from my side. No comments. A 0.
Brand SG. Riya has been shipping consistently. I am not sure I like how things are going out. I would let that continue till end of this month. And then take a call. I would give this a +1. Only because of Riya.
People. No action on this. 0.
Book 2. Nothing. -1.
Shauk. No action. No time. But not beating myself over it. So, 0.
So the overall score for the week is -1
Few weeks ago, I had decided that I want to get a positive score each week. I had to organise my life but I havent been able to. I will try in the coming week. Will report once I do.
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📊 The tracker from the last week
Here is the tracker for the last two weeks…
The last two weeks have been tough. And I have fallen off the radar. I am not keeping up on what I am eating, neither am I being good when it comes to tracking. I am on the road next week as well. And I expect similar all-over-the-place-ness.
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🏃🏻♂️➡️ Health
I added Health as a key section some days ago. I am still discovering what to cover here. Let’s see how it goes.
I read somewhere that you need 4 things to live long – sleep, exercise, diet and community. I will track all four. And then some more variables that I feel are important to me. Let’s see what comes out. Also, I log a few things at these links – food log, my daily health log channel.
This week, I am skipping reporting on this as for the last two weeks, this has been all over the place.
Will get back to this after the Diwali week.
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📖 Interesting Reads / Views
Since this is for two weeks, I have a LOT of links to share. I am thinking how to fit all these here and make things useful. Lemme try.
And no, not in any order.
1/ This is an incredible read. Titled, “Taylor Swift, Sora, and Slop vs. Substance”, I dont want to give you a TLDR on this one (hint, it talks of Taste as well). Touches many interesting facets.
2/ This piece from Finshots talks about how and why Rakesh Gangwal chose to step away from Indigo. Must read how people still stand for principles in this day and age. While on this, also read this piece on the friendship of the two founders.
3/ Harnidh is soon evolving into my favorite Internet writer. She wrote about PR-FAQ. Incredible read. Here.
4/ This piece about Prashant Kishore tells me that he charges 11 crores for 2 hours. I refuse to believe that he added that much value!
5/ This document talks about maxims from Kunal Shah. Which is your favorite?
6/ One of the BEST investigative reads that I’ve read in a while. I think I would love to build something GFM once I get to a point when I have enough. Do read.
7/ This piece from New Yorker talks about how all of us have started to think the same. Prak would love this piece. This is also the reason why all apps seems to look similar (have you noticed those purple websites?) and there is this insane use of em-dashes?
8/ Kevin Kelly, in yet another incredible essay makes a very convincing argument on why he wants AI to read his books. Read here.
9/ Kuldeep (or KD, as he is known all over the internet) wrote about the history of Whatsapp. Incredible read. He writes so well that I want to get him to quit everything and and just write! Another bonus read from him is this.
10/ This ad by Apple caught my eye. To a point that I want to embed this here.
11/ This hierarchy of “traits” of a top-performer is incredible. Do see.
12/ This piece about impatience and sense of urgency. I’ve read so much about this that I dont know how to not work at speed. And yet…
13/ Each thing from Ashutosh Rana, I dig! In this video, he talks about what made him do things that he did. I wish I had more folks who would listen to me. And I need to find a way to meet more young people.
There was a time when I would get a lot of people write into me. Lately that flow has died. And I need to restart that. Somehow.
Do see this.
14/ This piece by the creator of Oatmeal about AI and Art. Very very interesting read. He says, “consuming AI art is like eating styrofoam”. He goes onto make a lot of more convincing arguments about how and why AI is good or bad.
15/ If you are young, in your 20s, this piece of advice by the CEO of Palantir is incredible. Read here.
He says,
I’ve never met someone successful who had a great social life at 20. If that’s what you want, that’s great. But you’re not going to be successful, and don’t blame anyone else.
I cant say I agree to this (who am I to agree – I am not successful)
16/ This intro of Steve. Uff. Here.
17/ This post about what makes YC, YC.
For all the hate it gets, I love that they’ve been able to institutionalize starting up. I would love to go thru it. I mean I may not be able to anymore, age is not on my side. But I love them and their impact.
18/ This piece by Karthik about the public outcry from the founder of LuluLemon (Chip Wilson) about how that company has lost direction is a must read.
19/ I’ve been thinking a lot about Punit Pania and his work. Saw this insta reel and had to share.
Phew!
I am left wondering, what is the point of all these links. I get like three people to read these. Unless I find a way to internalise these. No?
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🧠 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?
Unsettling.
There is no other word that I would use for the two weeks gone by. Close people have quit on me, I have fallen off the grid, I am not taking notes, not reflecting on life and things, money seems to be a problem, fitness is a problem. I mean, each thing that I can think of seems to be not working for me!
I hope I am back in black soon.
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… 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
I’ve missed the following weeks: 9, 15, 17, 22, 24, 41
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.
