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
The tracker from the week that went by.
Here’s the tracker from the week gone by.
Look at the averages column. Highlights…
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.
Some Photos from the week gone by
Here are some photos.
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.
Why Sur? Well, read this to find out.
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.
—
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.