Inspired by Thej and his weekly notes, am starting this weekend, a series of weekly notes. I plan to do this every week and I plan to capture what I’ve done in the week gone by. I have earmarked two hours every Sunday for this on my calendar and once something goes my calendar, well…
Welcome to Weekly Notes!
Snce this is the first time I am doing this, I dont have a structure yet but I hope with time I will evolve. I did write a lot of morning pages back in the day and I did arrive at some structure.
And now, first things first.
Why am I doing this?
Well, many reasons.
Here’s a no-filter, stream-of-consciousness list.
- I love writing
- I haven’t been writing as much as I want to. To blame is work, travel, life, and in general fuckery
- I want to be internet famous. This means I need to be known by more people. Dont ask me why I want to be internet famous. But I want to be. And I dont know any other way to do so apart from writing.
- This is like therapy to me. Most people in my age need someone to talk to and unlike others, I don’t have any one. So I use my writing as my therapist.
- I love the idea of living a “quantified self” life and while I am not a nerd about it, I like to track what am thinking, what am doing etc etc. Writing morning pages, journals etc has been helpful in the past. I can go back to this date and see what I was thinking! In fact, I have public blogposts going back to Jan 2004!
So that.
Ok, coming to notes from the week.
This was the first week of 2025 and I think I’ve had a good start. I’ve largely been consistent. Keyword is largely. I want to be 100%. I want to be like the JILA clock. Always on time. Always doing what it’s supposed to do. I have a long way to go on that.
What did I learn / realised / discovered etc etc?
In one line, a lot!
Too much to capture but I will try.
A/ Someone said that the world is a malleable place.
This gets reinforced each time I see someone make things happen. In this case, the startup I am trying to build, the oldest member there pushes us more than I thought anyone else could!
If he can, why can’t I?
B/ I love the idea of giving gifts to people.
I dont know what need of mine am I trying to fulfil with this. Often these are the gifts that I can’t afford even for myself. But that’s ok.
C/ I realised that dressing well can actually pay off.
I dont know how to find better dresses. But let’s see. Oh, this realisation came to me after I saw a post from Anthony Bourdain about linen shirts and leather jackets. I didn’t save it and thus I can’t find it.
D/ I need to stop the ‘Garg NGO‘ – my offer for help for free.
While I dont want to charge anyone anything that they cant afford, I need to be more protective and mindful of my time and offer help to only those who deserve.
E/ I am not the only one who finds Taleb uncool.
He recently got in a spat with Bryan Johnson and Bryan is not wrong. And yeah, this is important cos Taleb has blocked me on Twitter.
F/ Respect needs to be earned and not demanded.
Can’t get into specifics but it’s on my Roam. Ask me if you know me 😀
What went well for me? for C4E? for my village?
In general am a tad harsh on myself.
So this part would mostly be empty.
A/ I am working on a new startup.
And things are moving fast on that. We may annouce it to be the world as early as end of Jan.
I have known one of the co-founders for almost 10 years now. He’s someone I’ve worked for and is someone I’d like to work for me. Plus, one of the investors is part of the unofficial board of C4E. C needs to decide if she wants him on the official board.
Once this takes shape and we announce, I will officially hand over the C4E baton to C. I had thought I would retire with C4E on my epitaph. But as life would have it, never say never 🙂
B/ I have started to live in public.
Here’s a tracker I fill in most days. So far, I’ve NOT missed a single day. I am also updating this thread, in case. I think I will get someone to put this on LinkedIn as well. Let’s see.
C/ I got paid by a client AFTER 6 months!
One of my clients had not paid me in over 6 months. They finally paid me. This has helped me pay back part of the loan that I had to take to run my business. The ambition now is to get to a point where I am able to pay back all the loan.
What didn’t go well?
A lot.
Like I said, am a tad harsh on myself.
So read with that lens.
A/ Nothing on #in2025
I haven’t had the time to write my 2025 goals (this includes my review of the past year) and to me this is a BIG BIG loss.
I am very very big on planning my life and time and all that – been doing this for a while. And I want to do this asap. So may in the coming week.
If you are bored, you may want to read my #in2024 goals.
B/ I wasted time on conversing about cricket
The last few days, the chatter about cricket was maddening (India vs Australia ofc). Even though I have blocked the words from all the places I hang out at, the chatter was so pervasive and palpable that I gave in.
The worst part is that I dont even follow the game and I dont know the names of more than 5 players. And yet, I engaged in meaningless watching of cricket. Must exercise more control and restraint.
C/ No workout etc etc
I had decided that I will work out (at least do yoga) but it’s been 5 days and I have not done shit about it.
The only saving grace is that I am eating in moderation. Today, as I write this, I feel bloated for some reason but otherwise, last few days I’ve been ok.
D/ I dont like to wear pants 😀
Even though I’ve said above that I would like to be better dressed, I’ve realised that I dont like garmi. At this point, I am ok but in a few weeks, I will need to find a solution for that.
E/ One of the C4E Villagers quit
While this shouldn’t affect me, I am affected to a point that it has made to this list. One of the people who I wanted to work with for the rest of my life chose to walk out. And while I should be ok about it, I am not. I want to give each of my people a life that they have to think VERY hard before moving on from. So when someone leaves me, I feel bad and sad and I get into a spiral that is tough to get out of. In fact it was so bad that on Saturday, I merely vegetated for like 3 hours!
PS: After I published this, some people pointed flaws in my thinking. I am grateful for that. I will change!
Ok, coming to what I look forward in the next week
Two things.
A/ The biggest thing for the next week would be work on the aforementioned startup. And succession planning for C4E, if it comes to that.
B/ I will also try and make time to write my #in2025 piece. I’ve started on it but it’s nowhere close to where I want it to be.
I think these two things are all for the next week.
Also, to be honest, more often than not, I dont really have any large attachments to any outcomes or anything like that.
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I think this is it for the week.
Lemme know what you think!
Over and out.