Hi!
I am back after a break of a week. I couldnt write. I was on the road. No, I am not beating myself over it (unlike past times). But I am acknowledging that I am not being consistent. I will try harder.
Now with that motivational self, pep-talk, lets get back to business.
The update for the last two weeks.
From the top of my head, a large part of update would be about Bangalore trip, health, personal brand and village. Lets see what else do I write.
💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past two weeks
A/ Anurag Sir
I want to start from here. You know, how heroes fall? That! I love the guy. I love his films. I love his storytelling. A large part of my life has been dictated trying to be what he and Vikram Sir have been.
But, the guy’s falling. Hard. I can say a lot but I dont want to. I just want to catalog that I am sad about him falling 🙁
PS: In case I forget in the future, note to self, read about what he said about Netflix launching in India with things apart from Sacred Games.
Staying on films, saw Khosla Ka Ghosla, at an event organised by Balram. Each time I see the film, I am amazed that the film captures Delhi nuances so well that I am inspired to do similar things!
And staying further on films, I really want to be in the films business. I know AI and all is gonna disrupt how this business works (we are already making short films using all the AI tools) but there’s something about visual storytelling that still moves people. I need to be a player in this space. Come on, universe…
B/ Bangalore
Many notes from this one. Lemme write in bullets.
- Played poker. Enjoyed it. Must play more. Met some really incredible people on the poker table. Must do more to be around Poker
- Realised that my personal brand needs a lot of work. I orgniased a meetup and I was unable to meet a lot of good folks. I HAVE to work on this
- Spent time with Sonam and each time I meet her, I want to be able to afford person like her to work with me (either at C4E or at Meru)
- Met a couple of really interesting folks (you know, the VC, startup kinds). I realised I enjoy meeting these people. I had this VERY strong urge to move to Bangalore, just for these connections. But I realised that I am chasing vanity and I would do well staying away, keeping my head down and building.
- Saw collective-thinking in action at a couple of places. A new fancy coffee shop has opening in Bangalore. I try to not go to these fancy places. And while I was not keen on going, I was taken there. By folks who apparantly “boycott” these places. Plus everyone famous at Bangalore seems to be there as well. It’s like how socialites want to flock the fancy places? No, I will not rant about it. Merely saying.
Ok this is it?
I thought I would have a lot to say about this trip to Bangalore. I clearly do not.
C/ Counter Strike
Recorded a video where I talked about how I am inspired by Counter Strike and how each thing their echos how I have structed C4E. In case you want to see, it’s here.
D/ Life Manual for the your 30s
On someone’s request, I wrote this manual where I talked about what . You may read this here.
On this note, please give me prompts that you want me to write on. I work the best when triggered!
E/ Build a new format to track what I am working on.
Each few days I have something new that I track. This time I have copied this from what I saw on screens of my new team at Meru. I’ve been at it for a few days now. Let’s see how long this lasts.
F/ FOXO
Got myself a FOXO subscription. This is the most expensive thing EVER that I’ve got for myself. Prior to this, the most expenisve thing was sgElectra.
So far the only tangible thing I know is that I can hold a plank for a minute and I am a diabetic. Oh, thrown in a gym, I can do 10 pushups. Plus my balance seems to be good and calcium in my bones seem to be ok as well. So, apart from my diabetes, most things are ok. I need to figure why and how do I have bad skin and less stamina. I need to work on my lower back and improve my posture. Let’s see what more I discover.
The other related thing is that I read this thread about Ray Kurzweil and one of the thing he says is that we will probably live forever. He says that “death will be optional” and there are three things he talks about – a, science seems to have learnt the secret of aging, companies like Neuralink seem to have found success in Brain Computer Interfaces and then the digital twins are already around (thanks to FOXO).
So, if we can live for the next few decades, we can be immortal. This is the frontier that no one knows (except Ashwatthama or may be Trivedi :D). Let’s see.
PS: I am an investor in FOXO. And C4E does some work for FOXO.
G/ Getting the AI FOMO
On a day to day basis, I have this HUGE AI FOMO. I have written about this in the past. And its all over my twitter. I think the only way to go about this is by actually doing this. I think the only way to do this is to carve time (now that I have agreed that I wont find anyone to work with me and support me). And I need to probably cut down on a lot of other things.
H/ Broke “H” on my laptop’s keyboard.
I tried to fix C’s laptop’s keyboard. I had fun. I was bored. On a whim, pried open the H on my keyboard and now I can’t fix it!
Grrr…
I/ Recorded an episode of The Optimist’s Manifesto Podcast with Subendhu (of FOXO).
He’s had a stellar life and has such a wide range of experiences that I want to be him! Spoke to him for two hours. I need to build a life where I have similar richness of stories!
J/ Jayant Mundhra
One of the conversations in the last two weeks was with Jayant. He’s an incredible writer and over the last 2 years, has built a community of about 100K folks that read general purpose advice from him. While I dont about each person I meet, Jayant is special. He’s doing EXACTLY what I want to. And he’s doing a GREAT job at it. And he’s consistent with it. If I could be a shade consistent of him, I would be elsewhere in life!
He also told me about Zero1 network, again something I want to be able to build. But unlike the Kamaths I dont have a lot of FCF. Maybe I will build a corpus as I go along? Let’s see.
K/ KP got hitched!
This means Pooja ka bachcha is growing up.
Poo saas ban gayi ;P
L/ High-Performance Org
One of the latest lessons from Hareesh Sir has been that I need to be a little more strict with my people. The idea is to build a high-performance organization that delivers on the promise to the stakeholders.
This is similar to the riff about idea people and people people from the last update. In fact this is something that I lack in my life.
I am way too kind when I work with people and I need to learn balance. I dont want to create weak people. May be that’s what I had done with other businesses? That in my unwavering support, did I create weak orgs there?
Lot to think!
M/ Mountain Goat
Thanks to J, discovered a new retaurant in Lokhandwala. Mountain Goat. They serve Wai Wai Sadeko. I think I will go there a lot (went there on May 28th and havent gone back, lol) if my sugar doesnt spike.
So this is it from the last 2 weeks. Lemme know what is interesting and what is not. And what would you like to see more.
📷 Some Photos from the week gone by
Here are some photos from week 22 and 23. A lot to be honest.
The one that I would like to plaster on my blog is…
🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?
Book 2
I didnt get time to even think about thinking. The person I was working with seems to have a lot on her plate and thus I am unable to move. No, I am not leaning onto her and blaming her for my inaction but I didnt move on this at all.
PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.
☑️ What did I get done last two weeks?
This is a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.
At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.
- Health
- Meru
- C4E
- Brand SG
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
- Book2
- Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)
Health. Got FOXO membership. Now I have a CGM (for a few days) that tells me how I recat to food and all. I am more aware. No action. No done. So a 0.
Meru. Was an ok week. Moved the needle. But still far from where I’d like to be. Thus, a 0.
C4E. No action. 0.
Brand SG. No action. The trip to Bangalore told me that I remain an insignificant person in the large scheme of things. I need to get more active. I want to give a -1 but one a day to day basis, in my world, I get by ok. So, a 0.
People. No action on this. I’d say 0.
Book 2. Lol! -1
Shauk. No large things. Bangalore trip, FOXO, Poker. So, a 0.
So the overall score is -1 for this week.
Trends from the previous weeks: 3, 0, -4, 0, -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.
📊 The tracker from the last week
This is the tracker for the last 2 weeks.
I really need to pull my socks on this. I cant be missing.
PS: I have noticed that each time I am on the road, I miss updating this. And once I am back to ground, I take a few days to get back to speed. And that causes the chaos. May be I need to find a way to do this better.
📖 Interesting Reads from the last week
Some links that I want to share…
- Rahul on Obvious – here
- Mary Meeker’s report on AI – here. Do not miss this.
- Derek O Brian was in a flight that got damaged in the hail. In this video, he talks about his near death experience.
- On “choice”, from David Ogilvy. Here. Thanks to Pradx for sharing this.
- From the top person at Snapchat – how to build companies – here.
- V told me about Navagunjara (no I did not know about this even though I claim to be a fan of Mahabharata)
- This is a great list of superpowerful maxims about life. From founders. The ones I love are as follows…
- 1. Money comes naturally as a result of service.
- 4. Be a professional opportunist.
- 7. You don’t need to be a genius; you just need to collect more information.
- 12. Mute the world, build your own.
- 17. Make yourself easy to interface with.
- 18. Relationships run the world.
- 20. Quality of your life is the direct result of the quality of your decisions.
- 23. Problems are opportunities in work clothes.
- 31. Actions express priorities.
- 32. The public praises people for what they practice in private.
- 36. Business is problems; the best companies are problem-solving machines.
- 40. Always more audacious.
- 44. Making mistakes is the privilege of the active.
- 46. Incentives rule everything around you.
- 50. Intensity is the price of excellence.
- 51. You can’t save souls in an empty church.
- 61. Imitation precedes creation.
- 63. Optimism is a moral duty.
- 69. Repeat, repeat, repeat; volume and consistency win.
- 72. The hard way is the right way.
- 73. Be intolerant of slowness.
- 74. Hire a professional critic.
- 79. “Action solves everything.”
- 88. Avoid boring people.
- 90. All good things in life come from compounding.
- 93. Have pride in creation, not consumption
PS: Are these useful? Do these help in any way? I read a LOT more than what I share here but these are what I think people I know must read. Skewed towards startups, hard work, deliberate living etc etc.
🧠 Reminders from last week
This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.
Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.
- Long term
- Professional pool / snooker / poker. I played poker in bangalore and it was fun. I dint win a lot but I was able to read some players. So that’s cool. Other thing (pool) saw no action.
- Health
- Kitchen setup (incomplete)
- Gym membership (incomplete)
- C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
- C4E Base
- Design
- Borderless agency
- Adding films
- Shauk / Personal
- Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
- Better dressed – lol
- Find love – lol!
- Demand more from life
- Speak better!
In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.
🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Grind.
That’s the world I would use for the last two weeks.
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.
—
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)
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.