Parijat Sarkar Archives

Wk 36-25 – Weekly Notes

Updates from the week 36 of 2025.

Sep 6, 2025
Starbucks, Versova

I am starting this on a Saturday. Let’s see if I get to publish this today. Last few weeks have been tough, accounting to all the work and meetings and all that.

Today’s Sunday. And I didn’t publish this on a Saturday! Lol!

Let’s continue.

Today’s track is from Lucky Ali. This one.

Nahi Rakhta Main – Lucky Ali

So, let’s go…

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order.

A/ Ember Months Lock In
Most of the startup world is talking about the great lock-in over the Ember Months. Funny I didnt know of this as a concept all this while. But now that I know, I am inspired to something. I think I will make it about fitness. Work, life, people, relationships, etc etc will come and go but fitness will stay with me. So that.

A part of this is that I will run a HM on 31st Dec. I am 14 odd weeks away from it. And as of today I can only run like 10 meters. Let’s see how it goes.

What are you gonna lock-in the next 4 months with?

B/ Teacher’s Day
A sum total of two people wished me Happy teachers’s day. Which is fine. I dont want adulation anyway. But I am very very big on learning and lessons and life and all that. And I want to believe that I am teaching a lot of people a lot of things. And while they may not acknowledge me, I hope they are using it.

On the flip side, I used to be big on wishing my teachers and my mentors each year. But since the last few years, I’ve stopped doing this. There are a couple of reasons.

1 – I am like eternally grateful to them. And I try and thank them a lot. And that means that I dont need a specific day to think about them and wish them.

2 – With time, these special days have stopped meaning a lot to me. Call it my laziness, call it my limitation but I no longer think a lot about these days.

3- I often thing that by wishing one, I am not wishing or thinking about others. And there have been way too many teachers that have made me who I am. So, my policy is, dont wish any. I know this is stupid – at least the ones I wish will feel good. But here I am.

C/ New Twitter / X handle
If you know me, you know how important it is for me to connect with people – new or known. And twitter has been an incredible source for that. But lately, even though I got a premium account, my reach has been limited. I can blame it on my content (probably true cos I dont get reach on any platform that I am active on) or I can blame it on the ago (lol). But I dont get reach.

One investigation (in my head) tells me that its probably because I’ve done things that may flag the account as a bot (following a lot, unfollowing a lot, posting links etc etc).

So, I want to build a new handle and see if I get more reach on it. Also, on the new handle, I will talk about one niche (the holy grail of growth on twitter). The only trouble is, I dont know what niche to talk about!

Oh, while I made a plea to the world to follow me on the new handle, I asked them to share a quote. Some people shared and some of these are gems! I think I will get someone to make posters, frame those and send to people who’ve shared those quotes. AK, up for a challenge?

D/ Fold Money + Kite by Zerodha
Thanks to Fold Money, I discovered that I had stock investments worth 80K! I thought I have no savings. But I was wrong. So I will sell those. And try to prepay some of my loan.

E/ Saurabh Garg’s raison d’être
Aka, why am I here. Aka, what gives me joy. Aka, why I do what I do.

This is tough question that I will never find an answer to. Most people dont. While most people are ok with the ambiguity, I am not. I want to find an answer. I know it may never dawn upon me but I will continue to try.

A thread in that direction is as follows. PS: This was an outcome of one of my free thinking sessions.

My salvation is in thinking, reading, knowing more. And not in doing.

I am an explorer. I am an organic. I can get things done from others (not from self). I can push people to do more than they would have imagined. But I like to move across (not around) and I want to open doors. My magic is in connecting people and getting them to work with each other.

The life of an executer is not for me. As I reflect on my work and life, I realize I never was a great executer. I’ve not been a finisher. I like to take things from 0 to 1. But not from 1 to 10 and not from 10 to 100. I’ve never taken anything to 10, let alone 100. And I am ok with this.

So, I want to do more of what it takes to be this organic, this explorer, this tinkerer, this door opener. And then whatever happens from there on, I want to let that happen!

Also, when I let this happen, how do I make an honest living?

One way it that I find 1000 true fans who will give me 1000 bucks a month to live and then I do things that support them. Till last year I would have scoffed at the idea. But now, I dont. Talk of changing philosophy ;P

So, here’s my plea. If you are reading this and you want to support me, here’s a test. You have my number. If you don’t ask me. Make a transfer of an amount that you are willing to fund me for month on month. And then DM me. Let’s see if I get any close to my dreams.

F/ Do things with hand
Dr H asked me to do things with hand. Last time I tried doing it, I learnt how to juggle three balls. This time I think I will go back to Uke.

My only problem is that my neuroplasticity with the Uke is way too strong. And not is a good way. So, let’s see.

G/ The fall of the heroes
This past week two things happened that reinforced the belief that heroes fall. The Balraj incident and the dinner of tech CEOs.

H/ MDI network
I am incredibly grateful to the network from MDI Gurgaon. There are so many times when I need help and inputs and support and the network ALWAYS comes thru. I hope to be able to help others when they need me.

I/ Zakir Khan
Saw this (from Rajiv Nema).
And OMG. I am in awe of the man. The thing am taking away from this story is riyaaz. Must do more riyaaz. With everything I work on.

PS: Lately a few young people have pointed out to me that Zakir has not really lived up to the responsibility he has as a strong voice. I want to say that it’s his choice. And I am sad at the same time. Especially now that I have started to see things that Punit Pania wants us to see.

I think on this, the final word would be of Parijat’s. He said and I concur, “A spine is rare, harmful at times but valuable, I daresay”.

And no, I dont have a spine. More on this some other day.

J/ Personal brand
See E above. And in continuation to that, I’ve started to think deeply about my personal brand. To be honest, this is not the first time. But this time I am committed. and this time, Riya is helping me like she’s never helped me before. I am hopeful something will come out of it.

I sent the following to some friends…

Hello Saurabh! I’m working on a personal branding exercise for my startup journey, and I need your help. Can you please take this short personal values test: https://personalvalu.es/personal-values-test

But instead of doing it for yourself, please do it while thinking about me — what values you feel represent me most strongly. At the end, you’ll get 5 values on the final page. Please take a quick screenshot of that page and send it back to me here. It’ll really help me understand how I’m perceived by the people close to me. Thank you!

I would love if you could take this and share what you think I stand for.

K/ Larger font.
I had to change the screen resolution of my laptop to a higher one!

Age, sigh!

L/ What does the life amount to?
Someone asked me, what does my life amount to. I mean I am 42 and I have -40 lakhs of net worth and literally no assets to call my own. Even my CA told my dad the other day that all I do is dream big and do nothing. And that was a rude shock. And I need to find a way to not be that. Anyhow, am digressing.

So someone asked me what does my life amount to and I didnt have an answer. Then someone else I know told me that that person has a different metric. They said, “maine paise nahi kamaya but izzat kamai hai, log kamaye hai”

And I was like OMG, I am this! All I’ve earned is izzat, people, exposure. But then, these things don’t give me no dal roti. Sigh!

M/ Michael Lopp
The discovery of the week has to be Michael Lopp and his blog. I found him via someone on twitter and I think I’ve read a large part of his website. He’s one of those, “why didnt I discover this person sooner” person.

The few that I want to highlight are…

1 – Organics vs Mechanics. I am clearly an… go find out ;P

2 – Bored People Quit.

3 – Minimum Viable Curiosity.

N/ What can be road block for us?
One of the things I am grateful to Meru for is continued patronage of Hareesh Sir. And all the lessons I get from him.

In the most recent one, for each thing we work on, he asks us, what can be a road block for us in this project. He asks us to list those and then ensure that we prevent ruin on that end.

This one lesson is worth its weight in gold!

Also, random #parkedIdea – For each such thing, am gonna build a razor. You know, like Occam’s Razor. And maybe evolve them into decision making frameworks like Charlie has (you know, psychology of human misjudgment).

O/ Disappear from internet?
I’ve been thinking lately that what would it be like to disappear from the Internet. I know I am far from it. In fact, if anything, I am hoping to bombard the internet with my face – you know, AI avatar, content, blogs, videos and all that. All in chase of that “personal brand” thing that will enable me to get more opportunities. That give me enough cash flow to take care of myself and my ilk.

I wish I had enough to not worry about anything and have access to everything. And then may be, I would actually go missing!

Ok, wait. I have a crazy idea. I dont login to social networks at all. I am only on email and whatsapp and all that. And I get my people to build / manage / operate those handles? As if Saurabh is a mere bot and there are people that run that bot!

What do you think?

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 36.

The highlight is this one…

More people must know that they are insignificant in the large cosmic plan of things. While we are on this, please see this.

🈺 The 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 – I sat with Bri and I got it restarted. No large output yet. But I’ve started to work on it. No, I am not counting this as a win but this is definitely a start (was on pause for a while).

Yearly Plan – I dropped it long ago. Now its time to think about the plan for the next year. Lol.

Health – No large actions.
PS: I track my health updates here, in case.

☑️ 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. I dont think it was on track. I did eat in moderation and I did try to be consistent. But I can do more. And I dont want to be randomly harsh. So, a 0.

Meru. No large updates in this week. So, a 0.

C4E. No action from my side. 0.

Brand SG. No action. Last week, at least I recorded a few things. This week, nothing. And this is an important plank. So, -1.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. I moved some needle but not enough. So, -1

Shauk. No action. No time. And I am not losing sleep over it. So a 0.

So the overall score is -2

📊 The tracker from the last week

Here is the tracker for the week gone by.

What trends do you see?

I see…

Inconsistent with sleep. But a couple of good days. I think it boils down to discipline.
Consistent steps. I think I need to find a way to do similar thing with workouts and I will be unbeatable!
LOT of coffee. And all of it at Starbucks. Need to reduce it. No, not

What do you see?

🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ 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.

1/ Sleep
This was better than last week. There were two 90+ recoveries. Need to continue to invest more on this.

2/ Exercise
Walks have been consistent. But havent been able to add any fitness yet. I must.

3/ Diet
I track each thing I eat on my food log.
This week was little easy going. I ate things that I typically I dont want to eat. Really looking forward to the next week cos I am gonna get onto OMAD / 2MAD / Keto or something.

4/ Community
No large movement on this. Didn’t have the time.

5/ Crowdfunding health
I will remove this from next week onward.

6/ Movement
No action.
🙁

7/ Meditation
No action. I will start this for sure this week. Lol!

📖 Interesting Reads / Views from the last week

Here’s a list of interesting things from the last week.

1/ This piece from Samarth.

2/ Visa’s homecoming. Very interesting read. I see myself in him. Like a lot of his fans.

3/ Advice from someone who turned 42.

4/ Incredible long read on AI Bots and its all-pervasive impact. And in fields like healthcare! Thanks to PradX⁩ for the recommendation

5/ Alan Watts on Game of Life.

Thats it for this week. I know I should have had more. But this is it.

🧠 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.
I think this will remain ignored for a few more weeks.
Let’s see when I get back to this.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Routine.

This is how it was last week as well.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… 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.

—
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, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed), 23, 24 (missed), 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35

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.

260421 – Morning Meditations

A longish rant on tough love and hard work and the kinds of people you encounter in life! Reader discretion advised.

6:40 AM
I woke up at around 5. I saw the time and the darkness inside and the blackness inside and I slept again. Woke at with an alarm at 6:10 interrupting a dream about a game of chess that I seem to be playing. Lol. In my dream.

So the weekend came and went in a jiffy. To a point that I did not realize where the time went. I did not do yoga. Neither did I write a lot. The to-do list is staring at me with all its fury. I hope this week is easy. I am implementing maker-manager strictly from today on. Today is a manager day – way too many meetings on a Monday.

I also realize that this always-on work that I am engaged in is not sustainable. I need to find a way out and create alternative revenue streams. Or do some startups.

In other news, I spoke to a friend last night (NG) and he said something that surprised me. He said, “tu action me nahi aata“. And I thought I was the one that jumps to actions like no one’s business. But when it comes from NG, I take it seriously. He is someone that I respect at multiple levels. So need to think on this.

In other news, SK sent me this video by this motivational speaker called Dan Pena. The 75ish-year-old man ~~talks~~ screams and hurls abuses about how “tough love” is what moves things. He says that in the day and age we live in, hard work is out of fashion. He says show me your friends and I will show you your future. Etc etc. You get the drift.

Now, I am the kinds to stay away from such motivational gurus and shamans. Especially the ones that are rude and obnoxious. But… but I seem to agree that hard work is out of fashion. The world wants to be kind and under the garb, hard work is indeed going out of fashion. People want to take breaks and recharge and sleep and handle their cats and whatnot. While all these are what makes us human but I sincerely believe that we need more people to work hard. Of course, the antidote is working smart. Inheriting great education. Scheming your way around. And all that. But these are things that a tiny percentage of people are capable of. At least I am not. I can only work hard, throw darts and then hope like hell that one of them hits.

Wait. I am not sure if I am articulating this well – I probably need to mull over it. May be talk to PS about it. He is on the other spectrum of where I am. Intelligent. Works hard. Discharges his duties as a family man. Contributes to society. Cares for pets. And yet believes in kindness.

The point is, there are people (let’s call these Cat A) that are comfortable with what they have – you know, a stable job, a fixed salary that goes up every year, enough and more time to chase hobbies and all that. Most of their lives are spent on auto-pilot and waiting for the next weekend. Weekends are full of social obligations like dinners and parties and getaways and drinking fests where most of the conversations tend to be about showering their employees and the world at large with abuse and talking about how they are miserable in a job and working from weekend to weekend. Of course, they are!

No, nothing wrong with it. It’s their choice. Who ~~are we~~ am I to question it. Oh, there are people (Cat B) who genuinely like the idea of working for the weekends. These people are the happiest! I have nothing to say to these people except wishing them luck! I am jealous of these people. Really am.

Then there are people (Cat C) that have little less than what Cat A people have. These people have some sort of stability, some sort of safety, some clarity where life is headed, some fun on the weekends et al. No, not to the degree that Cat A people have. But enough to be content, if they wanted to be. Most of these in Cat C will actually be content. They will accept their realities and succumb to them. Or may be live they would happily ever after. But if I were to take an educated guess, they will nudge towards becoming Cat A (not B) and would probably decline on the happiness chart. Probably is the operative word here.

Within C, there are people like me. Lemme call these Cat D. The ones that have tasted some blood and they want more. These people at different degrees of comfort (and if I may, discomfort) and yet not content. Still wanting more. These people probably will never be content. At least I wouldn’t be. Even when I am on the top of Everest, I would be like, “Ok, this is done. What next?” You know, people with super-high ambitions and expectations from themselves. Our life will not be spent chasing that mythical point where life is comfortable but delivering impact and in the process creating wealth and happiness and contentment for self and others. Lol. Do you see the paradox there?

Then there are people (Cat E) that are nobodies right now. You know, youngsters, aspiring talent, people without opportunities in the subsets I mentioned above, people just starting their careers and other such, etc.

Then there are people that grew up in cocoons (Cat F; kids of movie stars, spouses of famous people, people that grew up in business dynasties, the ones that have a sheltered upbringing, and all that). The only time these people troubled themselves was probably to switch on the AC and that too only when their “domestic help” and not “maid” was not around. They grew up with the proverbial silver spoon up their ass. Of course, these people have fancy lives which include getting the best of the education that makes them aware enough about moral issues that we are facing, especially around American culture. sadly they are bereft of any ideas about more immediate issues closer home. Which is ok. Cocoon. Of, these people mostly love virtue signaling. They have teams of “content creators” to help throw a signal out in the world. And of course, these are famous and are thus lusted upon by almost all other categories of people I spoke about.

And no, nothing wrong with it. You won the ovarian lottery and you better cash that cheque. Good luck. Again, I am envious of you guys :D. Wait, I don’t think any Cat F people are ever reading this people. Reading is a lot of work, you know. Maybe one of the “team members” (and not “employees”) could make a summary and deliver the Red Pill.

Cat G is the ones that have made it. You know, the role models. The ones that did not have a fancy upbringing and yet made that dent in the world. These are entrepreneurs, artists, doers, trouble makers, and more that have reached a point where they and their work is respected and creates impact at scale. Love you guys! The only request is that I hope you don’t let your kids drift into Cat F.

The rant from here on is about people like me and younger ones just starting their lives. Cat D and Cat E. For Cats A, B, C, F, and G, I have no advice to give. Good for them. Can only wish them luck. I may have a rant or two though, as you may have noticed already.

So, coming to Cat D junta. People like me. Who want to do more. Reach the famed Cat G. Excel. The question I have is, how can your vision of your success not inspire you enough to work so hard so much that you leave everyone behind? I am not saying that you become that hare in a mad rush. Be a tortoise. But keep at it. Work hard. Smart, if you can. But there’s no substitute for that. You can not become what you want to if you think it’s ok to work 7 hours a day for 4 days a week. And go on two foreign holidays twice a year and get out on each weekend. And attend each birthday party even if it’s the 4th cake of the pet of some other kid from the pilates class that your kid went to once about six months ago.

I don’t understand how Cat D people sleep at night knowing that they could have used the time they were taking a break at Lonavala to create more opportunities for themselves.

However, with the Cat E cohort, before I write more, lemme acknowledge that there are people that want to take different paths in life. I hope that most of these land up in Cat B, live comfortable lives for the rest of their lives. Not Cat A – these are probably the most unhappy of the lot – apart from cribfests, armchair activism, and socialite conversations with people that don’t really matter, they have nothing to show for.

So, if you are in Cat E and want to move to Cats A or D or even G, this is for you. Please know that this is NOT for everyone. Read at peril. If you are soft-hearted, quit. There’s more in life that you can do without this unsolicited advice of a have-been, old armchair activist. Who am I to talk about things? I have shown no signs of any success anywhere. Even when my friends introduce me, they use confusing and vague terms like, “he dons multiple hats”. I mean WTF!

So with that disclaimer out of the way, here’s what I have to say to you guys. I will use bullet points to avoid rambling.

There is no substitute for hard work. Do not let anyone fool you that you need to work smart. If you were the kind to know how to work smart, you would be in Cat C at least by now. Harsh. But that’s how it is.
Acknowledge that life is random and luck is real. You are the most talented person you know ever but unless you are lucky to find a giant that you can climb on the shoulder of, you are no one.
You may not be lucky but you can definitely increase your odds at being lucky. How? By working hard. See point 1. And throwing as many darts as you can. See what sticks. And then double down on it. There is a lot of text on this. Look up.
STOP idolizing people in Cat F. You are NOT one of those. If you were, you wouldn’t need to read such things or struggle through life.
In fact, stop idolizing altogether. Learn from each person – good or bad. Stop hero worship. In this day and age, heroes will more or less fail you.
Try and see what went behind the success of people in Cat G and look at the outward facade they put in. You see them partying but you need to see that they worked hard for 20 years non-stop to reach a point where they have people in Cat A and B manage their work. And thus, they can party.
Life values action more than it values potential. I learned this fairly late. I was one of those perfectionists. And I realized I wasted the best years of my life (my 20s) chasing perfection with things. This is one of the biggest mistakes I have made ever. To a point that I regret it. Do NOT make this mistake. Please ACT. please ship. Even if what you post is crap, it’s cool. Feedback from people would help you get better. The best comedians apparently work on their 10-second punchline for years before it is perfect enough to land the audience in thunderous applause. They practice their lines each day with audiences in smaller clubs, unknown places before they climb that large stage. Practise. Think. Be aware of your reputation. But PLEASE SHIP.
It’s ok to be wrong. Unless you are wrong enough times, you would not get right. So try things. Do things. Get told that you were wrong. Lift your chin up. And try again. Till you are right.
Friends are fleeting. This is probably the most counter-intuitive thing that I am putting on paper. Maybe because I did not have deep friendships in life. Maybe because I have turned a cynic – most of my friends refused to help me when I needed help. Maybe I have not seen friendship in action at work. Ok rant. Dont want to remove this even if I am tagged a sore loser by readers. The lesson is, stop living for your friends. Live for yourselves. You owe a moral responsibility to yourself, your success, your output. Friends will come and go. The business transactions that you make would stick. At least, in my case.
Act. This is important enough to repeat. See point 7. PLEASE.
Stay close to the ones that nudge you to act. You would meet people that will ask you to take a break. You would find people that would tell you that it’s ok to recharge batteries. Nah. Life is too short if you want to be in Cat G. They did not take breaks when they were growing up. They worked. Acted. So, find people that inspire you to act and not take breaks. Act till you are there.

That’s it for the time being.

If there’s one thing that you want to take away from this, please take home Point No. 10 and the one-word message. Act. Everything else will happen if you act.

Ok enough. It’s almost two hours (it’s 8:30) that I’ve been ~~writing~~ ranting. Need to get on with the day. I did not know I would have had so much to say about this. This is a 2500-word tome already and I am not even half done! May be I will pick this up tomorrow. For the time being, here’s streaks. Also logged here.

Morning Pages / Meditations – 134
#aPicADay – 115
10K steps a day – 2
OMAD – 0
#noCoffee – 47
#noCoke – 47
10 mins of meditation – 0
#book2 – 0
Killer Boogie – 0
Original Work (limited time only) – 0
Surya Namaskar – 0

And no, nothing on Roshan today either. Second day on the trot. I have a sinking feeling I will miss this :(. For all the rant I made above, I should’ve worked on the story. I can justify this by saying that I did work hard over the weekend and thus was left with no time. But that’s all that is – a justification. Damn!