11 May, 2026
5 AM
DN Nagar
I write this on a monday morning from the desk ast my home. I woke up 10 minutes ago, checked Instagram on texts from my crush (none for the last 5 days), had a sip of water and typing. It’s 5:15 AM AM and I aim to get this done by 5:45.
90% of this is being written by a Claude skill that I trained. Lets see if you can make it. Ofc, I wrote 100% of the balance 10% and I have edited baout 90% of the balance 90%.
The highlight of the week was my screentime. On the laptop and on Claude. And the fact that I asked my insta followers to recommend me some new music. Both experiences were interesting. Both overwhelmed me. Both are offering me the new that I am not used to.
The honest line of the week is something I scribbled into Roam a couple of days ago, “Claude is pulling me in all directions. I have multiple tabs open and that means I am not looking at any. And this is being a problem.” That’s where I am. The tools have multiplied faster than my attention. The bottleneck is no longer ideas or even building. It’s pick-and-finish. I will talk more about Claude subsequently, but on the music front, I will take the safe option of music I know. For example, this one by Bashir.
And with that, lets go to the week!
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Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from the week gone by.
In no order…
1/ The Peer Conversations
In the week gone by, I reached out to a few other marketers that I respect. And I was blown by the incredible clarity that those people had. Some realizations are…
One — I am not going back to a traditional agency model. AI has compressed agency-side economics by a LARGE factor on the client side. And in words of one of the folks I spke to, “all the kids are doing great work with AI — we are probably fossils.” A thousand agencies in the market, all playing catch-up. I’ve seen this movie before with social media. Don’t want to go again.
So, I dont think C4E in its current shape will survive. I dont think I’ve annnouced the death knell in these clear words. I am giving ourselves a year at max. I will bet that we would be irrelevant by end of the year. Let’s see.
Two — the offline business will thrive. Elon and Pradeep have been telling me to work on this. I have not paid heed. Maybe its the time to do so?
Three — there may be something in Soham. Need to chat with AK on that.
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2/ “Its expensive to be poor”
My access to a $200 a month Claude subscription is yet another proof point of the maxim that its expensive to be poor.
I’ve seen friends and strangers struggle with rate limits and all that. And I on the other hand can do 5 things in 3 tabs and apps and yet not hit even 10%. Heck, I can even “rent” out my limits.
Even though this is the most expensive subscription I have, I can see it save me so much time! Plus THE MOST INCREDIBLE THING is that Claude is pulling me in all directions and giving me the kick that probably drugs give you. I am not sleeping, I am not distracted. I am in the flow. Am dreaming of possibilities. It’s made me realise that I need to be fit enough to “enjoy” this “grind” for a long-term. I can see the “why” that will make me fix the “how” and the “what”. I want to be fitter and more active and I want to ship things. For once, I want to put Seneca to rest and not die.
In words of Andrew, Claude is helping me reduce the time and friction from an idea to its execution. Do see this podcast.
PS: The other expensive purchase (Airpods Pro Max) is being a dud.
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3/ 101 on Indian Arts, and the AI Distortion Problem
Sonali talked to me about her passion project – Indian art. She has an interesting thesis on it. I will not explain it here. But in one line, she argues that AI does more disservice to Indian art to anything else. Since the training data is skewed to English and Western artforms, the misrepresentation and omissions and hallucinations are real. AI is actively rewriting what Indian art “is” – kolam loses its geometric precision, Kali gets hypersexualized, and once distorted versions dominate search, the correct version disappears from collective consciousness.
That is her “large battle.”
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4/ The Ghostwriting Book Project
As part of sgwashere.com, my latest book (the one am ghostwriting) has moved from “shaping” to “executing” this week. We’ve despatched the book to beta readers are we are now in the editing phase. My sense is that we would have a publishing ready book by end of May.
Yay!
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5/ Lessons from Nimisha and Himanshu and Others
Many threads in this one
One (the highlight),
Nimisha gave me a 90-minute growth marketing masterclass that I am still digesting. Here are some takeaways…
1. Reddit is criminally underrated. She grew a subreddit to 2,000+ members in 15 days. And she said shes not even the best. So I have been told to focus on that
2. Faceless AI accounts for TikTok / IG. Audit competitor accounts for the last 6–12 months. Find what’s working. Replicate format. Don’t over-invest in tooling. Test format first.
3. Read Brian Balfour’s 4 Fits framework. Product–Market → Product–Channel → Channel–Model → Model–Market. Each fit must be validated in sequence. A mismatch at any stage breaks the growth loop. She told me on my face that we are have the wrong channel for its product and model. I agree.
4. Viral vs trending is a real distinction. Viral = millions of views on one piece. Trending = 1,500 posts about you across the platform. The mechanic? Viral spike creates a traffic bump. Use that window to release a second high-potential piece while the audience is primed. Compound.
5. She connected me with other young people. The highligt being Kaashvi. She also gave me many lessons. Post for the next week.
Two,
Himanshu (a student at MDI) has blown me with his hardwork and enthusiam for work. Wish I was that when I was 21. He’s like Aarya. Insane potential that makes me afraid. And inspires me enough to work harder to be able to give them a platform worth their talent.
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6/ The ’56 Hours’ Update
56 Hours has its own page on the blog now. From “told friends about” to “linked from the homepage.”
While I am writing the script, talked to Naman on Sunday about turning it into an AI film. He is excited. I am excited. Built character dossiers on Tuesday. Here’s one of the outputs…
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7/ People…
Met and spoke with many people.
- A producer friend who’s struggling.
- A seasoned entrepreneur who wanted intros to CMOs. I hate when I am used like that.
- Varsha.
- Saw Tanzila‘s show on Thursday. Incredible! Bumped into Sampat while I was there.
- Saw Roshan Abbas on stage. Loved it! I will try to take a leaf from his book and try to become a listener. I may even convert my “daily” soloCast into a live radio of sorts. Afterall, we are all stories. And I love to gather those! #sgtodo
- Did a long call with a friend who I had lost touch with.
- A client+friend who made me make this video about commandments for young people.
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8/ Other things worth noting…
- HelioCoach is chuggling slower than I had imagined. I will push it more.
- shipshit.in has started to come together well.
- Read Dr Pradip Jamnadas on hugs and inflammation earlier in the week. Go hug someone.
- I HAVE to do a TinyDesk clone in India. This has been on my list for a 1000 years.
- I need to make a list of things that I do NOT want to be associated with. And I want to make a list of people who I do NOT want to become.
- I need to reduce the gap between my impulse. And my response. Say, I want to check what my crush is upto. I need to WAIT before I take action of lifting my phone and seeing her insta.
- I want to be able to have intensity drip through my work. The only work I know is writing. And I dont know how to showcase my intensity in this day and age. But I need to think on this.
- This tweet by Elon…
So that.
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📷 Photos from the week gone by
Stopped this a few weeks ago.
In case you want to get photos from me, DM me.
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📈 Trackers…
Was not a good week. The sleep was all over the place. Worse I didnt track a lot. I am down on all counts. Overspent. Had many Diet Cokes. Sleeping less, walking less, more screen time (on Claude lol), missed trackers etc.
No screenshots this week.
I hope to get back on track this week.
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✅ Action on LARGE objectives for the year
In this section, I will capture my progress on large objectives for the year.
In 2026, I plan to do the following three things…
- Book2
- Human Flag Pole
- Save a million dollars
Book2 – made some progress. Yet to get to a point where I can talk. But its no a 0.
Human Flag Pole – no action.
Save a million dollars – no action. In fact, last 2 months have seen financial stress.
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📌 So, what did I get done last few weeks? And what will I do next 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.
So, this year, I want to track the following…
- Health. I will work on sleep, food and movement. Not a good week. Sleep broken. No workouts. ~5K steps. Will work on it.
- C4E / Work. I want to shortlist some idea to work on. No new ideas. I am running behind on this one.
- Brand SG / Distribution. No large action but I am. started to see some traction. Got a premium X. Started to do videos. Wrote a few pieces. But no outcome.
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc). No large action.
- Book2. No large thing.
- Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc). Nothing additional.
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🏃➡️ Health
I added Health as a key section last year. 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.
This week was bad. Again.
Bad sleep
Bad food
No supplements.
No workouts.
Stress and dissatisfaction – good!
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⏲️ Reminders from last few days
This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office.
A few things…
- Update C4E’s Culture Book. This is still WIP.
- C4E’s website. This is new and WIP. Parth showed me some updates. Lets see when we ship it.
- Sparring Partner as a Service. Added this new thing.
I have a suspicion that this list will grow and will become unmanageable in a few weeks. I will find a solution when I get to it. For the time being, here’s a sheet where I track my actions.
Here are the things that I’ve closed previously…
Start a podcast with C and AK. This remains open and will probably get shut. I dont see the excitement in the three of us.Storytelling presentation for the session on the 7th March. I missed this. And I will do this in March. Maybe on the 28th or the 29th? I missed this again. I dont think am doing this. So closing and moving on.
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🗓️ So, one thing that defines the past week?
Excitement.
Love all that I did with Claude this week. Super excited.
The other words for this year have been: Embarrassment, Blur, Whiling, Movement, Blur, Activity, Movement, Regular (again), Regular, Easy, Journey, Downtime.
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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. Previous editions from 2026 are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (missed these three), 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
PPS: Please do point typos.
PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.
PPPPS: This one was 90% “written” by Claude and edited heavily by me. Tell me what bits do you think I wrote?