Tag: Simon Sinek

Wk 38-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts, highlights and other things from the week 38 of 2025.

Sunday the 21st,
Starbucks Versova,

The week gone by was interesting, to say the least.

Health was all over the place and this is when I am trying to be more conscious of what I eat and how I eat.

Work was ok – no large complaints but hectic for sure. On other things, I wasn’t as consistent as I would have liked to be.

Also, this review will be a short one compared to others.

Like I said, I am not 100%. I had the choice of skipping it or doing a half-hearted shoddy job.

I chose later. I am trying to be consistent even if quality goes down the drain. Plus this (my consistency) has been my Achilles Heel and thus I want to not stop with it.

So with that, here we go.

Wait. The song of the week. This.

Chalo, let’s go…

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order. And this week, please expect these to be a tad less than previous ones.

A/ How people use ChatGPT
Open AI released this report that talks about how people use Chat GPT. I am sure you have seen it. But if you live under the rock and you havent, here’s a chart.

Chart from openAI on how people use ChatGPT.

These are very interesting tidbits. I would love to get even more granular data on this to know more. I love how large companies that mine data are able to predict human behaviour so well!

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B/ ChatGPT as a therapist.
I found this prompt and I think I will use this to get chatgpt to be my therapist.

“ask me 10 – 12 questions to identify my limiting beliefs and what is holding me back.

Ask the questions one by one and ensure you get to the root cause and not just surface level answers, provide insights and rationale on aspects of myself I am not currently aware of.

After the 10 questions, use advanced Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) to wire my brain to push past these limiting beliefs.”

WARNING: PLEASE try at your own risk

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C/ Why do you do hard things? Who do you do hard things for?
First, read this post. And here I am, quoting some words from it…

I thought I fought for a cause but I realize I fought because he fought. Because one afternoon he let me witness his humanity. 

It has been a long time since that afternoon but that hour changed me permanently. You do hard things because of the people who you do it with and they do it with you because you do it with them. I know to let people around me see the cracks. I remember that I need to witness an d be witnessed.

In my life I’ve wanted people to succeed and I have worked for that. I’ve worked with them at my own cost and at the cost of building opportunities. I dont take names normally but there are some people who’s ambition and dreams are unbounded and I want to be shoulder that enables them to do more! Aastha, Anubhab, Pritam. Shikha and Prakruti in the past. AK and C lately. The ones who put their faith in me. The ones that allowed me to steer them. I failed in most of those. But I did try.

I know when (not if) most of these folks reach the altar, they probably wouldn’t remember me. And that’s ok. I dont seek to be the person who gets to ring the bell on your IPO but I want to be around in the trenches when you need me. I want to be with the underdog. I want to be the person who has the honor to sit in the mud with you when the chips are down.

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D/ Rocky
Saw this. And I want to run. Lol!

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E/ Management Lessons from Mahabharata
While talking to Riya the other day, an idea popped into my head. What if I could divide Mahabharata in smaller chunks and created some lessons for young people. If I were to offer this as a cohort, how many of you would want to take this up?

PLEASE do let me know!

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F/ SG Patrons (#sgPatrons)
I mentioned a few weeks ago, I now have three patrons.
I need 997 more.
Need to work for those.

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G/ Aint No Sunshine on Jazz
I said last week that I am listening to a lot of Jazz lately. Here’s a cover of one of my favorite songs of all time. Here’s another cover (this one takes a bit to start). Oh man, I love listening to various versions of tracks that I love!

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H/ H1B row and Apple in China
In the last few days the world for Indians in the US seems to have turned upside down. There are new regulations on H1B Visa. While I am not as well read (reminds me of this from Calvin and Hobbs), I can understand the pain and anxiety in the minds of people.

Also, I am reading Apple in China.

And I am thinking and reading about global business and all that.

All three things are very very very unsettling to me as a person. On one side, I want to live as borderless, free life. And on the other, I am contained in India. And then there are stories of countries and economies closing their doors. And then there’s this thing where I know am growing old. And fast. And to a point that I dont know how long do I have! To a point that I dont even want to get on to a plane – why give fate even a fleeting chance?

Ok, I dont know where am going with this. The point is, kaafi khichdi hai. Lol!

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Ok, this is it.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos that I took and saved in the last week. Here.

Lemme know which one do you like the most. And do share some of your photos with me!

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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 – Was not in the pink of health last week. So -1.
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.

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

Health. Was unwell. No one or nothing to blame on. Just life. Lol. I even tried to cook but that was a disaster. So, 0.

Meru. Apart from other things, did a session with some folks about how to write their biographies. Doing another one on the 5th Oct. Details here.
Still a 0, TBH.

C4E. No action from my side.
September looks tough. Let’s see.
C tells me that the pipeline looks ok but let’s see.

Brand SG. No action.
Nothing to be shared.
-1

People. No action on this.
I’d say 0.

Book 2. Nothing.
So, -1

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

So the overall score is -2.
Has been -2 for some weeks now.

📊 The tracker from the last week

Here is the tracker for the week gone by.

What trends do you see?

I see…

  1. Terrible recovery. The last five days have been like less than 50 and one day it was 9!
  2. Food’s all over the place.
  3. Emotions are all over the place.

Lol, life’s all over the place ;P

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
In one word, last week was FUCKED!

2/ Exercise
No action. Despite my 100% intentions.

3/ Diet
I track each thing I eat on my food log.
Was terrible.

I tried sprouts and boiled eggs and all that. But didn’t work out. I think I will give up on it and get catered meals. I will pay more than I can afford but I will not have to waste headspace.

4/ Community
No large movement on this. It’s as ok as it could be. Nothing great, nothing bad.

5/ REDACTED
This was being tracked till the last week. I have stopped this from this week onward.

6/ Movement
No action. Even the steps are down 🙁

7/ Meditation
No action.

Overall, the last week has been terrible. The first half was bad cos of work. The second half cos I ate something bad.

📖 Interesting Reads / Views from the last week

Since I was not working a lot, I had time to read a lot. And I started reading a book as well (Apple in China – see this). So, here are some links that I want to share.

1/ This LinkedIn post talks shows the income of Indians across tax groups (only the ones that file tax). The surprising part was the number of people making more than 10 lakhs is like 1 crore only (assuming 10 crore people file tax and 10% of those are in this category)! What does this mean for us? 

2/ Interesting post about how the Aggarwals cant seem to find enough brides. More pertinent cos this is the community that I come from.

3/ This tweet implores you to find your Spartans. Like I said, I have 2. How many do you have? Oh, while on Spartans, please see this video to get the real meaning of what Spartans mean!

4/ I saw this tweet and I want to take the no-smart phone challenge. I will probably do this towards the end of the year. #sgtodo

5/ Read this tweet on swimming. Gold!

6/ Read this post about who would you like to be without an audience. Very very deep and inspiring and interesting. A conundrum that I have faced for a long long time now.

7/ This tweet by Kunal Shah is very interesting. I would love to get into some sin business. Any ideas?

8/ This long post on how twitter / X algo works. Do read. I am yet to implement this in my work but I plan to.

9/ Re-read this long post (from 2014) on why Bitcoin is doomed. Some of the reasons are no longer valid in 2025 but some are! Do read and lemme know what you think.

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I want to share more links but this week’s update is a truncated one. So may be next week?

🧠 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.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Sad.

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

—
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, 36, 37

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.

Wk 31-25 – Weekly Notes

Updates from Week 31 of 2025.

10 AM.
Versova Starbucks.
AK’s spot!

I dont know how this came to be called AK’s spot. Like most things, it would have started with me sitting at one specific place, and then my people finding a place around me. AK being AK would’ve picked one opposite and then like each thing, this became a habit.

So, am AK’s spot. And here is my recap of what probably was one of the most stressful and yet exciting weeks in a long long time. For starters, see this…

Screenshot of Whoop data from last week.

Ok, I am still listening to Ray.

Today, it’s this version. On loop. I encourage you to play this while you read the rest of the post. Can’t stop thanking Starbucks for introducing me to this voice and track.

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I must find a way to do these unplugged gigs. You know, like NPR’s Tiny Desk, Sofar, David Letterman’s and all that.

Anyhow. Let’s go.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

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

A/ WTF to write?
So, letting you all in on a secret. I copy-paste the secions an headings and content from the previous week’s post. Then I edit ALL the sections execpt this one. And then I take my time to go thru my notes and lessons and and all that and I add those here.

Today when I opened my notes, I realised that this week was so busy that I was unable to capture a lot of things. And that means that I dont have a lot of things to write here.

But we shall prevail and let’s see what I write.

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B/ Linkedin Shoutouts
Starting this week, I will give shoutout to at least 3 people each Sunday on my linkedin.

This week, I gave a shoutout to Nikunj, Roohi and Nipun. See here.

In case you need me to talk about you, you know who to reach.

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C/ Hard things that don’t scale
I am often reminded of doing things that don’t scale and now that I am in the middle of doing things, I am learning the deeper meaning.

Things that scale need time to put rails and then, well, scale. The things that dont scale are built to get to the market the fastest.

And that nuance is what makes a LOT of difference.

And no, I am not advocating one over another. You gotta pick what works for you and what you want to work on.

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D/ Raanjhanaa’s alt ending
The neck of the woods that discusses films is going berserk about how the producers have used AI to recreate the ending of a film.

There are notes from people about how the director was not consulted, how the nostalgia induced by film now seems cheated, how the consumers deserve more. Etc etc.

Before I write more,

No, I havent seen the film.
No, I dont care about the fandom.

But what I do care is that AI is here.

And especially in disciplines like filmmaking that have been gatekept for long. After code, this is the one that needed disruption and is getting disrupted. I love that I am around to see this revolution. I just hope I was bang in the middle of it.

Oh, and couple this with Shekhar Kapur’s Warlord. And with attempt from C4E folks of doing a feature with TNKS (see this). And while editing, just saw this.

All I can say is that change is coming. And either we embrace it. Or we die a slow, painful, agonising death.

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E/ Founding Creator Roles and JDs
In this video, Balaji talks about why EACH startup needs a Founding Creator. And wow, eyes opened. I’ve remained on the sidelines for too long. And I need to now advice the same to all my younger friends.

This is one of those life changing advices that need no more words to be split. I’ve been guilty of remaining a private person for too long and I need to change that. I wish I was more adaptable while I was younger!

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F/ F1, the Film
I havent had the time to write about F1 yet. I will probably sit on it today.

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G/ New kids to learn from
I am starting to feel the need of finding new people to learn from. In a different era, this was SoG (see this). But with time, that got faded. And now I have no one.

SoG and my life’s work

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Thing is, lately that supply of new, fresh, young talent has dried down. I need to build another group / cohort or something that I can be a part of, to learn new things.

If I had more time, I would teach (each teaching session requires a lot of prep). And since I dont have that, I want to rather build some group. Any ideas anyone? How are you doing this? How do you think others are doing?

I do have some groups that I run where I overshare. Here’s a list.

  1. SG’s Braintrust
  2. TIL
  3. 2025 Mentees (private link)
  4. Taste for Makers

And I am sure there are more. But I need this structured manner in which I can learn from young ones.

Come on, universe! Help me! tw

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H/ Safe Word.
Was reminded of this. See this. And yes, inspired by Simon Sinek.

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Ok, so words are not wording. See A. And see this. May be next week.

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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 31.

I would love to highlight this quote from Om, from this post about Meta’s MSL.

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🈺 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 couldnt).

Book 2 – no action.

Yearly Plan – I dropped it a few weeks ago.

And starting today, I am adding a new large life objective. Health. More in the next few lines.

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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.

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

Health. More awareness. Tiny actions. I am also building a new section on this weekly review. But the metrics remain off the chart. So, a -1.

Meru. Was busy. Did some things that showed outcomes! A 0. Yay!

C4E. No action from my side. 0.

Brand SG. No action. And no action does not mean 0. It means a -1.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. I started with poker. So a step in the direction. But a 0.

So the overall score is -3.

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📊 The tracker from the last week

Here is the tracker.

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Ya ya.
Far fewer greens.
I will fix it. Especially cos health seems to be a recurring theme here.

I need to find the cause and then eliminate that.

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📖 Interesting Reads / Views from the last week

I have added views as part of the reads from this week onward. This is cos a lot of my “reading” now happens via podcasts / YT videos that I consume while in commute.

Here’s a list.

Oh, while each of these links is interesting and important, I am highlighting some.

  1. Microsoft Research’s note on what jobs are in demand and the ones that are gonna go out. Here. If you are the one who thinks will get impacted, please talk to me and I will try to help.
  2. The Philosophy of Sridhar Vembu (of Zoho), according to Notebook LM. Via this.
  3. Om’s MASTERpiece on Meta, Zuck and MSL. Here.
  4. Balaji talks about why EACH startup needs a Founding Creator. Here.
  5. This is a very interesing post on Reddit about how to build wealth as a young person. Here.
  6. Cheaper by the Dozen. Here. Funny that English language paperback version is not available. The Marathi edition is.
  7. An interview of Brian Chesky where he reflects on his IPO conversation. I love him! Also, I love the quote – “your culture is often forged in the darkest moments”.
  8. This thread by Tim. On investments and money.
  9. Taleb on Stoicism. Here. I love the guy. Sad that he’s blocked me on X. This video reshaped how I thought about stoics. I realise that I have much to learn! In fact, you must subscribe to Picking Nuggets – one of THE best channels on YT.
  10. Mahesh Murthy’s interview. TBH, I havent watched this in full and I know he may not carry the cleanest reputation. So that.

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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.

So, I’ve been skipping this for the last few weeks. I am skipping this week as well. Havent had the time TBH to work on this. Again, this week is tough but I will get to it soon.

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🏃🏻‍♂️‍➡️ Health

Today on, I am introducing a new categoery. Health.

I will track it here as a seperate section.

A/ So few things that are at the top of my mind.
I am 42. And probably with a body of a 50-year old. And thus I need to work on it.

I am not getting younger and since I love the idea of living, I really want to do something about it. See this photo that a friend sent me.

I’ve been tryin to be 31″ since 2012. We are on the 31st week of 2025. 13 years. And I was supposed to have climbed Mt Everest by 1 Jan of 2026. I cant climb my bed most days.

So that.

B/ sgHealth
I plan to share some updates about my life and all on this WA channel. You are welcome to join. Here. Expect frequent updates. At least once a day.

C/ Crowdsourcing my health
I’ve often said and believed that getting healthy is easy for rich people. And I’ve never had the money. So, I could stand on the sidelines.

And I can no longer do that. So, to test my thesis, I approached some friends with an offer. Give me 10K each for 3 months. If I can get tangibly better (health wise), I will goto even more people!

While the two people who’ve agreed to help me can pay 10K today, I’ve told them that I will have lost 2 KGs by end of August (I was 91.3 while naked) on 30th July. If I am 89ish, I will take their money for OND and see how it goes.

D/ Use of AI
I wrote this following query to help LLMs help me with my food.

Hi, you are my food ordering guide and companion.

Each day I will give you places where am hanging out at. I need to know what should I order there which is low in calories and high in protein, with high satiety. 

Please note…

1/ Give me a list of gluten free, low carb, no daily, no oil foods that I can eat as someone living in india.

2/ Please know that I am a diabetic, lactose intolerant.

3/ I want this to be made without oil. Not even ghee, no butter.

4/ Please know that I am gluten intolerant and I am lactose intolerant.

5/ I dont eat non-veg. I can eat eggs, though. 

Here are more details..
a/ Cooking methods: I dont want no oil. I am okay with steamed, boiled, grilled (dry), or tandoor-cooked items.
b/ Nuts and seeds: I am okay with almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc
c/ Legumes: I am comfortable with dal, chickpeas, black beans, etc. but I will try to give you more details as we start.
d/ Sweeteners: complete avoidance of sweeteners

When I give you a restaurant name, please browse the internet, find menu from reputable sources, analyse macros of promising menu options, find 5 most suitable menu options, and suggest a reasonable 1 line simple request for each which I could convey to the waiter or chef to either lower calories, increase protein, increase satiety of that particular menu option

For each meal, I want to eat portions that are at max 400 grams. And I want a lot of fibre and protein. Followed by fat. And then if in case, carbs. I am ok with spicy.

Finally, before recommending, check your recommendation against the 5 things that I have told you.

Also, I will tell you what I fianlly ate. I will also upload the photo. keep a tab of the time am eating, whwat am eating, macros and all that. And then give me a weekly report.

Ask me any questions that may help you do your job better.

Thanks!

Let’s see what comes out of it.

So, that.
Let’s see if I am any better.

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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Stress.

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

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.