Jul 28, 2025, Monday, 8 AM I am not in the best of health but I have to write. Am trying to be consistent. And since I couldnt write yesterday, it had to be done. Also, if I dont write now, I will not be able to and that means I will have to skip. And that’s not happening.
So, lets go.
As always, some sections that I will talk within.
Oh, and listening to this. On loop.
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💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
PS: As always, these are not in any order.
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a/ Anshika + the muscle to ship. Read this. See this. And I wish I could show you a 100 things that AK shipped in the last few days. I need that energy around me. The kid has been so good with juggling all balls the last two weeks. It’s incredible. She’s eating healthy, going to the gym, showing up and all that.
That’s it. Nothing more to say.
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b/ Session at IIM Mumbai Took a session for some folks at IIM Mumbai. These folks are from some MSME board and this was a continuation learning program for them. I didnt really enjoy taking the session but I think it was interesting for them. I could see that they were engaged. Just that it was tough to get folks to open up and talk.
Also, I realised that I love teaching. And for more than anything else, the questions that come my way are the ones that I cherish more than anything else. This slide from Vishal Khandelwal on Dr Feynman defines the why and how…
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I need to find more opportunities to teach. But then I dont want to not work either. So, the conundrum. Sigh.
But I would love to teach nonetheless. Come on, universe.
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c/ Chatter on longevity Since I got myself a FOXO membership, I’ve been reading and thinking about longevity. Plus I read this long piece on Bryan Johnosn. And this online chatter on twitter. See twotweets.
It’s incredible that all it took was one person to literally spawn so much chatter. It’s probably these unreasonable people that move moutains and push us forward.
I need to learn how to become unreasonable like that. Any clues anyone?
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d/ Poker Have put about 2000 bucks on online poker the last few days.
More than anything, I find it insanely enjoyable. If there was no chase of largeness or greatness, I would just do this! I’ve played micro stakes cash games and some micro stakes tourneys. I continue to suck at cash games. In tourneys, I’ve got to ITM a few times.
Oh, I also trained a chat on chatGPT into becoming my poker coach. No, its not helping. Cos I’ve lost most of the 2K I had put in : D
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e/ Events Wrote this on Twitter. Reproducing it here with minor edits.
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Overshare coming. I’ve had one of the most transcendental moments of my life.
Last time I felt like that, it was in 2021 and I was en route to the Everest Base Camp. The sight of the sun rising from behind the clouds, mountains, early in the morning left me awe struck.
Coming back.
I normally dont cry. I escape. If I have to, I walk in the rain.
But today, since I woke up, I’ve cried twice. Both to the music of ARR. I dont know if it’s caused it or it was the last straw on the camel’s back. You know, causation or correlation. A lot’s been happening lately, and just say whatever is happening is not routine for me, and I know a lot is bubbled inside of me.
So, this happened as I stepped out of the shower. I had put on some music. And the algorithm of YT played ARR’s Berklee piece. And it played Kun Faya Kun.
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The first time, I was listening to the aalap about Ali (see from 6:28 for about a minute). The aalap is followed by one of the greatest lines ever written about spirituality, bhakti, devotion, submission, ask, request or whatever you want call it.
It goes, “mujh pe karam sarkar tera, araz tujhe, karde mujhe, mujh se hi riha”
This “mujh se hi riha” is like the epitome of self-actualisation. I dont know if I will ever be there. But in those few seconds I didn’t have pain, didn’t have a want, dint have a worry, dint even probably have a self. I was probably what they call “the one”. I will never know.
The second time was when YT played Vande Mataram after a bit. And this happened around the lines, “tu hi zindagi hai, tu hi meri mohabbat hai, tere hi pairo me jannat hai, tu hi dil, tu hi jaa” etc.
This time, the lines were not important. Important was the way the two performers looked at ARR.
See this first.
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These ladies looked at him not once, but probably for all the time they shared the stage.
In their eyes and body language, and the entire being, I saw awe, devotion, respect, want, love, submission and everything else that you can imagine. All for ARR.
When I was growing up, I’ve always wanted to have that North Star to submit to. To guide me home. Or a large super nova to suck me towards it (astronomy nerds, please tell me what is the strongest force that pulls you? Black holes? Supernovas?). Never found one.
Rather, I took comfort in many many stars, all shining bright, and I navigated through those. I still do. I am glad and grateful that I have many folks who’ve agreed to be my guiding lights. You know, shoulders of giants. I am nothing without them. I would have never seen what I’ve seen if I didnt have their shoulders to stand on.
And as I grow up and start to think about the meaning of life and the universe and my life of potential (jiska aachar bhi nahi dal raha) etc etc, I realised that I have this insane need to help others see the light.
I dont know why. I dont know if I am capable. I dont know if I am good. I dont know what it even means.
But that. Phew. Glad I wrote.
Oh, and no I dont think I let out 100%. I will need more such sessions. I dont know when it would happen next time. The last one was almost 4 years ago when I was in a different funk (life’s much better now and I am thankful for that). But I know I need at least one more such outpouring.
And yes, I am ok. 100% there. I haven’t lost it. I still want to make a billion dollars (should upgrade to trillion) and impact the lives of a billion people. And I still want chaand taare and all that (thanks, SRK, Abhijeet and others).
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f/ long term games C read TNKS and reminded me about the thank you page.
And it stuck me that the page dates back to 2013 or 2012 or something. And even though it’s been 10+ years, I am still in touch with a lot of those folks that I’ve credited in the book! Talk about long-term games. Naval would be proud of me.
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g/ Gravity Crew. Mrs Mohan. Anna and others. Recently, Anna’s son got married. And the team from Gravity went to attend the wedding. While I was aware of it and had seen some pics, I was amazed to see a pic of Mrs Mohan and Anna on Roshan Abbas’ insta!
I have nothig but fond memories of the kindness of Mrs Mohan while I was there. She operated with grace, took care of the entire mad house and was one of the glues that kept the “greatest force known to mankind” ticking.
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h/ what ChatGPT / Claude thinks about me. The other day, I asked some LLMs what they thought about me. Here’s what they had to say. Here – Claude. Perplexity.
I am embedding a few things…
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i/ the second screen So, I use a second screen at home. And I think, the additional monitor is game changer. To a point that I am thinking that I will get another monitor (so, two extra screens).
But then, I dont work from home. Or may be I will start to work from home? Actually, the thing is, more than work or home or screens, I dont want to be tethered. I dont want my things to end up owning me. So, I want to take a hard look and rethink. The easy answer is to avoid attachment in case I have to leave. But the investment and the thinking that goes alongside.
I would like to post the following photo on the blog. This is the homepage of a website. 100% marks for the copy. Thanks to Nimchan for letting me know about this. I love that my community tells me about things that I need to know about.
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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?
Book 2 – no action. I will not drop this. I know I am gonna be busy I think I love the feeling of writing things. So that.
PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago. This is after probably 10 years that I dont have an yearly plan!
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☑️ 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. No action. I will give myself a -1 on this. I am starting a new regimen from today. Let’s see how is the next week.
Meru. Was busy. But I dont think I moved the needle as much as I would have liked to. -1.
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 -4 yet again for this week.
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📊 The tracker from the last week
I did not fill this in this week. So, no updates here. Not even sharing the blank one.
About Bryan Johnson and pursuit of immortality. Here. Oh, I want to do such long-form, deep-dive interviews. May be on The Optimist’s Manifesto?
This from DHH on life and death. Here. A quote from in it, “That life is long enough if you spend it well, but spending it well requires embracing life’s shortness.”
This from Jason. Here. On craft. On fulfillment. On meaning.
This is not a read per se but I see this video often.
This tweet from Erik. Here. I love this line, “My favorite relationship advice is to do whatever it takes to become more secure and positive-sum.”
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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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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
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This went past by too fast. There was a lot of work and very very long days at Meru. Need to find a way to streamline those.
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… 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
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.
This one comes from Bangalore. And I am listening to this as I write this.
So, I had decided that I will not take flights this year. But I took one. I have talked about why I did that. And oh boy, am I glad I took it! I missed that entire grind of cheap yet comfortable travel, seeing new things, meeting new people, and observing things. The curious cat old man in me is thrilled!
Must reconsider the decision to not take flights. The largest reason for not taking flights is that it fucks with the routine but at least I’ve been consistent with my daily tracker. And if I can be ok with that, I think I can add other things (food, yoga etc). Just that I will not be able to travel light. And that’s ok.
Ok moving on. Here’s my update.
What I was supposed to do in the week gone by. And my report on the same.
A/ 2025 plan. This remains open. I will work on this someday 😀
Vivek often calls it the State of the Union. Lol!
B/ Health I took my weight before I left for Bangalore (I was 89 KGs). I will measure it again once I am back. While I am here, I am being mindful about what I eat and how I eat and all that. I am also walking a lot more. It helps that I picked a guest house near the client’s office.
I am yet to fully assume the identity of a healthy person but it’s WIP. Last night I was craving for a pizza. But I replaced that with chips etc. Lol!
Like I said last week, my health will be my north star.
What did I get done this week?
I am adding this here from this week on.
At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.
Health
C4E
Brand SG
Startup (this may take up C4E’s place in the list)
People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
Book2
Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)
I will give a one-line report on things I got done. Done. Shipped. Not WIP. As I go along, I will add more to this but today, one line update.
Health – Walked an average of 9K steps this week. Meditated twice this week. At some point, will add yoga and muscle-building things.
C4E – In Bangalore to meet a client. Put in the process for the team to work without me. So far, we seem to be ok with it. However, we’ve not been stress tested yet. C and F seem to be doing well with it. On the Labs piece, the website is live. AK is leading the team of BK, SJ, KA and others and shipping things. So that’s cool.
Brand SG – I am a lot more visible on the internet. Thanks to AK in large. I also kickstarted the Cockroach podcast. We call it The Optimists Manifesto. Read more about it here. The idea is to talk to people who’ve survived despite everything around them!
Startup – Helped team get ready for launch. There’ve been hiccups (new team and all that) but learning!
People – Did nothing.
Book 2 – “Wrote” a few chapters with the help of Claude. Shared some of those with the beat readers group (in case you want to help me, join this).
Shauk – Nothing on this.
I will also make a tracker on this. Oh my love for forms and trackers ;P
I am incredibly stoked that I averaged 10K steps. Subendhu averaged almost 12K steps in the last year. On the YTD, I am at 8900 steps. I need to be able to beat him. Let’s see how it goes.
I also added meditation. I haven’t added for the 23rd (today).
Finally, sleep seems to be at a 6-hour average mark. I’ve tried everything but I am unable to get more than 6 on average, unless I am tired. Once I start with the workouts, this will probably go down. Let’s see.
This one is a mix of app screenshots and photos that I took. Nothing special to be honest. If you see something interesting, please let me know.
Interesting Reads
Here’s a list of things that I read / saw / consumed that left an impact on it. In some cases, I went and stirred up debate in my network.
Here’s a list. In no particular order.
This video on Instagram – link. Hits you in the gut about how you let go of your life.
Blume’s Annual Report – link – yet to read it. I typically take a print and read this. Yet to do so.
Buffett’s annual letter is here. Again, yet to read.
This tweet. I want to grow my account as well! Only for this reason (access)
This thread on Reddit about how people in Nepal are building a video editing agency. Must replicate this in India for C4E.
This post by Ankush Datar on legacy. And why it’s overrated.
Ian Chappell retires from writing. Love such writing!
Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.
In no order…
A/ People Business It became evident that at C4E, we are not an agency. We are in the people business! Over the week, met multiple people and held multiple conversations where this was reaffirmed. What we do at C4E is communication but we are in the people business. As Pradeep San often said about Gravity – we are in the business of saving jobs. That’s a separate story for another day. But at this time, we are in people business and we need to reorient ourselves to that.
B/ Hemant and Gokul The two of them are different as chalk and cheese. And yet both of them are very very intriguing and inspiring. Each time I spend time with either, I am amazed at the capacity of a human mind to think that much. The other thing that is common to both, is, that their ideas are dense and the depth of their thoughts makes it tough for an average Aman (like me) to comprehend their ideas. I wish I could find a way to make their thoughts more accessible to the world!
Wait. Who’s permission do I need? A lot of their inputs are in the public domain. Why can’t I start repurposing and talk about that in my words, on my blogs. What say? And, any volunteers?
C/ Sur This dawned onto on Saturday. I am seeing C now run the business. I have played a tiny part in her life and now I need to find a way to not get into her way. More on this on my roam. But had to be captured.
D/ Poker + Writing + Teaching One of my lifegoals is to be on the road, meet people and never worry about money. Sometime in the past I had imagined that I would be able to become a professional poker player (touring the world, playing in tourneys), teach at various colleges (while I am on the road) and write about my experiences while I do first two.
It’s great on paper. Except that I don’t have poker skills. And I have tried to learn and yet I am not good. Something in the week gone by reminded me of this goal. May be I will put a deadline on my life experiments and pick this up. May be when my parents are gone, I will become a full-time hippie traveller. A bald hippie.
And no, it’s not easy to imagine a life where my parents are not around.
E/ Ego in action I saw my Ego in action. On at least two occasions. One with an old client. One with a potential client.
Must prevent this.
I don’t want to get into too many details (clients or whatever) but what I did was wrong and I shouldn’t have been told by my team to not do this. I know that some time this will come and bite me in the back but I must check this.
PS: I also saw my humility in action 😀 I will not talk about this.
F/ Manas Ayare (linkedin) Met this boy at a Starbucks. Spotted some crazy stickers on his laptop. Got talking. And then from there on, one thing led to another. Now, his company and C4E are offering a workshop!
AK is leading this from C4E. Here are the details.
G/ Nakul Kumar (Cashify) Met Nakul for dinner. And it was incredible. Each time I meet him, its incredible. Got so many lessons. The biggest one is that I need to build a process-first company. So far we are not. There’s more. On my Roam.
Oh while I was there, I bumped into a classmate from MDI. Each time I meet him, its at a lounge, a restaurant etc. Love these serendipitous meetings.
H/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words on those.
Must build media! The new podcast may be helpful.
Must invest more in young people.
Gave a 10K INR grant to a 16-year-old. SoG in action!
Saw this news about Tyreplex. Reminded me of xTyres.
This one by Bri is nice. I wish I had this clarity at the age of 19. Or whatever her age is.
Talked to Dr Malpani. Inspired to do more. Especially his idea of building an ecosystem of startups in India.
Got access to NeoSapien. Playing with it. Let’s see where we get with it.
I love eggs!
I cleaned by followers / following list on X, Insta and other places. I am getting more mindful about how I curate my conversations.
Removed the cover from the new phone. TBH, I don’t like it much. But now that I have bought it, I am with it for a year at least. And then we shall see what to do with it.
Guess this is it.
So, one large takeaway from the week?
In one word? Taste.
I’ve read, thought, and talked about it so much that it’s funny. In fact it has spilled from various conversations over the last week as well. But taste it is.
The close second is community. But at this time, I will stick with taste. I even recorded a podcast on it. Here.
For context, last week, it was Respect. And it was Money and People before that.
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Ok! This is it! Lemme know what you think. Gotta go. See you around.
Oh, here are the previous editions: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07
PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.
