Hello!
9 AM (of Sunday)
Versova Starbucks.
Finishing this post at 9 AM on Monday, the 11th August.
So, today, I am gonna make protein bars for myself. Yes, I wanna start with this. And this is monumental. For many reasons. For starters, I dont like my kitchen being used for cooking. I cant live with the mess it makes. And then second, I’ve always felt that cooking is a waste of time. And thanks to folks at FOXO, I am more mindful. And thanks to Abhinav, am walking!
Update from the morning of 11th – AK and I did it. More about it in the next week. Also from here on, I will go back to assuming that I am writing this on Sunday.
And as I write this, I am listening to this on loop. The mixing on this one is da bomb!
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I wish I could rap. I loved a lot of Gully Boy (ya ya, the rap purists, please dont come at me). And understand more raps. And probably write it. And probably perform it. Sigh.
Ok, let’s go.
💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
PS: As always, these are not in any order.
A/ Overthinker and Overcommunicator
I am the last person to ever give advice on relationships but I have a strong belief that an overthinker must be with an overcommunicator.
Like most things, I would have seen this on some insta reel or something but over time I have come to have a 100% belief in this one. And this is true not just in romantic relationships but also in other places (say, work).
Think about it.
PS: If you are an overthinker, please do see this video and this photo.
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B/ Linkedin Amplification #sgSunAmp
Since the last couple of weeks, every Sunday, I’ve been posting a tiny update on my linkedin where I talk about people and projects that more people need to know.
I dont know how long will I continue with this but I want to do whatever I can do to push more people to do more.
Here are those posts – 0, 1, 2 (today).
You can use this link to find other similar posts.
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C/ Cheap
Spotted this on twitter.
I saw it and I realised that each person in life MUST proudly announce the prices that they will work at. It could be a business, a freelancer, a company, an artist or whatever. But you MUST talk about what you want to charge for your time or services.
And it’s ok to discover that
Also see, E.
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D/ Uni-dimentional thinking and life
I was going through the reading list of the week. And I realised that my greatest influences come from tech-bros, startup folks, business leaders, hyper-successful businesspeople, famous artists and others of the ilk.
While there is nothing wrong with this, I would love to get more variety. I dont know where to look and what to do. Any inputs?
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E/ Hiring process
Prak posted this on her linkedin. Very very pertinent. And I have a lot of thoughts. I even went out of character and made a comment. I am willing to die on the hill that till you build a fanbase (or 1000 true fans), you will HAVE to bow down to CV, assignments, in-human things etc etc.
Also, this post from Prak made me realise a few things. Here’s a list.
- I must write more. I struggled to articulate my thoughts in 1250 characters. This can only get better if I write more.
- I must work harder on my personal brand. And each person I know has to do the same. If you do, you will probably not need to take up assignments. I remember there was a time when I was looking for work and I could say that I dont have a CV. My name is my CV. Everyone else must be in this same boat.
- Whole of point D above.
- Each person MUST read 1000 True Fans by KK everyday till the idea gets drilled in the head.
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F/ SoG
I HAVE TO GET BACK TO THIS.
And I dont know how.
Sigh.
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G/ Bad News ASAP
I learnt this at Meru.
If things are going ok or going well, I dont need to be informed. But if there’s bad news, I want to be informed as soon as possible.
For many reasons. These are personal (not Meru’s).
- I can plan for contingency.
- Same as 1 but if I know the bad news, I can try and figure the repercussions and prevent the next-order effects.
Also, most people dont like surprises because they dont know how they react to bad ones. I am ok in this department tbh. I continue to operate from problem-solution-action triad.
And to be able to do this, I know I must give enough comfort to the ones around me that the bearer of the bad news will not be shot at!
So if you work with me, always give me the bad news first.
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H/ Ask for EXACT timelines.
This is the second lesson from Meru in the last week.
When someone says they would work on something for you, you MUST request for an EXACT timeline (and not a vague “next week”). I was practising this already in life, but thanks to time spent at Meru, this has become a second nature. Must do this more often.
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I/ Futility of action.
See this.
The biggest lesson from this one is that while there is merit and effort and pain and reward in the action, the end result is often… nothing. It’s the act that is important.
Reminds me of Naval where he talked about how all you have is your present and intention. And everything else is immaterial.
Also reminds me of a question that Dr H and C asked me. Here’s my attempt to rearticulate. While I am eternal optimist and long on hope, how do I remain divinely discontent?
The answer is simple. On a day to day basis, I spend my time and attention and intention of the task at hand. And while I do that, each day has to nudge me towards getting better.
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J/ Feedback and change.
Lesson three this week from Meru. When you give input to people, do they change and try to implement the feedback?
If they try, they are good people. If they dont, you ought to move on.
To be honest, this is a tough one for me. I’ve lived my life as a people person and this shift to project person is proving to be harder than I had imagined. Even though I have seen mentors, friends, colleagues, clients talk about it. I know everyone says its not personal but I am finding it hard. I know the answers are within and I need to work on myself.
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K/ The underachievement mountain at 42
See this tweet.
I will not copy-paste. Just that the meeting made me realise that I seem to be the only one who’s not saved for the rainy day. And if I have only people to show for my life and time here, I need a reality check.
Reminds me of that dialogue from F1 – You are not a “has been”. You are a “never was”.
Oh, the other quote from the film that I love is, “hope is not a strategy”. Must get this tattooed on me. #superQuotes
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So this is it.
A lot was unpacked in these words.
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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by
Here are some photos from week 32.
The highlight photo has to be…
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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). Last week I added health. I am moving that section higher as I want that to become the priority as we go along.
Book 2 – no action.
Yearly Plan – I dropped it a few weeks ago.
Health – I have been actually good on this one.
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. I did ok on most departments except workout.
I need to get going on that.
But I can give myself a 0. Yay!
Meru. Was busy.
No large outcomes to show for. So -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. No action. No time.
And I am not losing sleep over it. So a 0.
So the overall score is -3.
Same as last week. Lol.
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📊 The tracker from the last week
Here is the tracker for the week gone by.
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Look at those steps!
w00t!
And yes, look at that state of emotion.
Will work towards that.
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🏃🏻♂️➡️ Health
Last week, I added Health as a key section. I am still discovering what to cover here. Let’s see how it goes.
I will start with updates on what am doing for health.
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.
So…
- Sleep
- Exercise
- Diet
- Community
- Crowdfunding my health.
- Movement (this should be part of exercise but I have a separate section)
- Meditation
- Some links: My food log, my daily health log channel.
Lets go…
1/ Sleep
I am ok on this department. I sleep well. I am trying to make my sleep environment better. I live on the mainroad and thus its very noisy at all hours. I use earplugs when I sleep to drown the noise. I will start using a humidifier. I have an ok mattress.
2/ Exercise
This is my Achilles Heel. I can NOT work out. I will find some alternative.
3/ Diet
This was my second largest problem. But thanks to FOXO and some awareness, I am doing better on this. I choose to avoid bad things. This is getting expensive to be honest but I can optimise other spends and ensure that I only put in good things into my system. I track each thing I eat on my food log.
4/ Community
This is the best across all counts. Even though I have quirks and all that. Dont want to jinx it. Will work hard to preserve it.
5/ Crowdfunding health
I thought hard about it. And I came to the convenient conclusion that the way you support your creator friends with money, commission, work and all that, I want my 1000 true fans to help me get healthy.
And I have two backers already. Both of them have committed 10K for 3 months.
And having said that, I dont want this early support to make me complacent. I want to earn it. And thus I’ve promised that by the time August ends, I would be 89 KGs (I am 91.3 as of today). So lets see.
Oh, I update this daily health log channel.
6/ Movement
I need to join something that makes me move. The week was good in terms of walks. I have averaged 12719 steps! I hope I continue this momentum.
7/ Meditation
I want to restart on this. Lets see when I get to.
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Apart from these, I will talk about what I am thinking about.
A/ Mindful Eating
Since I’ve got FOXO membership, I am very mindful of what I eat. I am not perfect but I am better for sure. And I need to do a lot more before I reach my ideal levels. Let’s see when.
B/ Making my own Protein Bar
Along with AK and C, I will make my Protein Bars today. Lets see how that experiment goes. Am doing this because no protein bar in India offers a gluten-free, dairy-free option! Plus it’s been a while since I did something new for the first time!
I will report on how this goes.
Update on Monday, the Aug 11 – we did it! We are taking orders. Shipping free ;P
C/ Money needed to be healthy
I am realising fast that it’s incredibly expensive to try and be healthy.
Must earn more.
Lol!
D/ Whoop Age of 46
So, I am 42. And Whoop tells me that as per that, my age is 46. Not that I didnt know. But seeing this on the app, in front of my eyes was, well, eye-opening.
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📖 Interesting Reads / Views from the last week
PS: I had added YT from last week onward. Cos a lot of my “reading” now happens via podcasts / YT videos that I consume while in commute.
Here’s a list of interesting things that caught my eye.
Oh, this week onward, I am making this a tad different. I will also write a tiny note on what am taking away from this piece.
1/ SHL on high-value jobs – here.
My biggest takeaway from this post is that it’s ok to invest time to get the things done if you know you are onto something valuable.
I saw another chart the other day where they talked about how it took Figma 3 years before they had a viable product or something.
2/ Paul’s essay on Persistence.
Spotted this on Vinod Khosla’s X.
I had read it a few months ago and re-reading was so refreshing!
My takeaway?
Dont bet against the Collision Brothers and Sam Altman 😀
Jokes apart, the takeaway is in this line – “The persistent are like boats whose engines can’t be throttled back. The obstinate are like boats whose rudders can’t be turned” and “The persistent are attached to the goal. The obstinate are attached to their ideas about how to reach it.”
3/ Balaji on AI. Here.
A lot to unpack in this seemingly simple list. To be honest, I loved all 10. But points 2 (verification part), 3 (the concept of amplified), 4 and 8 stood out. I specifically want to talk about 4. I am afraid of the time when there are no experts cos all of us will have trained via the LLMs. We are staring at a huge circle jerk!
Oh, point 8 opened my eyes about crypto. I see myself thinking more about it in the weeks to come.
Anyhow.
Let’s see where the future takes us.
4/ Kunal Shah’s Delta 4 Theory. Here.
See this in combination with Brian Chesky’s 10-star Experience video.
Both of them talk about almost the same thing – the importance of building something that the customers brag about.
5/ Tom Goodwin on Longevity. Here.
I dont want to write more – there is enough comments and chatter there.
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And here are some links that I havent had the time to think deeply about.
- Samarth on Craft vs Cash. Here.
- AML’s next in her series of India’s Tier 2 and 3 manufacturing. Here.
- This piece on comfort zones. Here.
- MFM with Tim. Yet to watch. Here.
- How to make friends and… Here.
🧠 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.
Again, skipping this. Will get back to it at an opportune time.
🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Blur.
This is the second time in the recent past when I felt that week went by very fast. So that.
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… 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, 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
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.