Wk 26 - Weekly Notes

So, I write these weekly notes on my website where I try to relive the week gone by and capture thoughts and all. As an experiment, I am posting a redacted version of that here. If I find enough takers, I will make this a weekly feature.

In case you want to see the full post, you can read it here.

9 AM, Jun 29, 2025

Listening to this as I write.

The halfway mark to the year is here.

Normally, I would do some sort of analysis on how the year was, where am I on my goals and all that. But this time I did not work on the year plan and thus I dont know where am going.

I do know a few things - that I was supposed to be a billionaire by end of this year. And I was supposed to have climbed Mt Everest. And I was supposed to have impacted a billion lives. I am FAR from all three.

However, if I look at it from other lenses, I think I am ok. I continue to be divinely discontent. I am ok with what I have. And I would love to have a lot more. I am surrounded by family and a few friends who continue to wish me good. I live life on my terms (a lot of it, if not all). I believe I make a meaningful contribution to the ones around me. And I think I've made progress as a human being as well. I am still guided by the seven vices, but I think I am more aware, and I see some action on the right side.

Ok, let's go.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week

PS: As always, these are not in any order.

1/ Meditation

I want to restart with it. There was a time when I could do upto 60 minutes each day. I think it was around COVID when Naval asked folks to do 60 minutes of meditation each day as soon as they woke up. I am not sure. And no, I dont want to go back in the history and check. The point is, I want to build this again. I will start with 10 minutes of Headspace and then see where it goes.

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4/ Conversation with Rimjhim Agrawal

I recorded a podcast yesterday with Rimjhim. And I LOVED how she managed that conversation. I wish I could ask questions like that. She REALLY made me think about a lot of things that I would otherwise not think. I am so so glad that I did that chat with her.

Must find more people like that.

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5/ Definition of Good Friends The last two-three weeks have been tough. Because I've had to let go of some people. And in most cases these were friends. And I was unable to explain to myself that if I love them, why would I let them go.

And then I realised that the job of a good friend is not just to mollycoddle people. But show them the mirror, however harsh it may be. And then help them get better. I want to practise radical candor in each of my interactions. And that.

Also, this is far from where I have been in life - that all your mistakes can be forgiven. I want to get to a point where I am an ideas person (and not people person). You know, family over sports team over village.

And yes, I am WIP and it's important for me to capture this for my people. Afterall, the only people I have are the ones from work.

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11/ How to get ahead in life?

This has been a recurring theme of questions that I've got from a lot of folks over the last few days.

I think the answer is in being reliable, choosing action (over words) and thinking long-term.

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12/ CynLr on World Economic Forum

If there's one highlight of the week, it would be this.

CynLr is a startup based out of Bangalore where they are reimagining what manufacturing could be like in the future. I've spent a lot of time working for them. While I dont work with them anymore, I continue to be a well-wisher and a cheerleader. In fact, CynLr continues to be one of the stickers on my laptop.

Gokul N A had told me YEARS ago that he would be on WEF at some point in time.

And he is now!

Even though I had literally nothing to get them to this place, this feels like a personal victory. There's nothing I love more than seeing people I care for win.

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13/ Kevin Dahlstrom 's ideal end state.

I am in awe of everything Kevin does.

A few months ago, he posted about Ideal End State. I read it and I decided to make a document for that. I revisited it and it reminded me why I started what I started. Made more notes. So that.

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14/ Freedom

Enough said. If there's one word that I want to stand for, it would be freedom. In conversation with Rimjhim, many words came out - freedom, adventure, curious, people-chaser, movement (harkat) and more.

If I had to pick one thing that would define me, it would be this.

Freedom.

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16/ Yatin Sangoi show on RD Burman

Saw Yatin's show. This was the second time I was seeing it. And like the first time I saw it, I was amazed. To a point that I am inspired to help more people build shows of their own. Let's see when.

But there are many more takeaways. Here's a list.

16a/ Anil Kapoor, Robin Singh, Saurabh Garg.

In many of the tracks that Yatin showed, there were Anil Kapoor and Jeetendra. Now, when someone makes a list of the most successful actors of their time, Anil or Jeetendra would never show up. But they were consistent. Always. In fact, these folks are what they call, mild success.

Same for players like Robin Singh. He would never make it to any list. But he was consistently there. Read this (I wrote this a few months ago). Again, mild success.

Same with me. I will never be on any list. At least from the things that I've done so far. But from a lot of metrics, I am a mild success.

And I want to change that. I no longer want to be one. I would do whatever I can to be a wild success.

16b/ Fandom (for RD and others) Yatin's entire life seems to be dedicated to taking RD's work to the masses. I met Harshit there. A large part of his life is to take Hindi as a language to more people. Palash has a podcast where he talks about the obsessive passion of people and how they take large risks. The Manto play I saw seems to have been done by someone who's passionate about the work of Manto.

The point is, some people get so obsessive about some things that that becomes their raison d'être. And that I think helps them build world-class things.

In my case, I dont know what am obsessively passionate about. I am interested in way too many things. I like experimenting. I like the chase of the new. I love exploring. And may be this is why am a mild success at best?

Ok, moving on.

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18/ Micro-Drama I think the rules of filmmaking and storytelling are being rewritten by this new format. I will read more about it over the next few days.

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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 26.

The one that I would like to plaster here is...

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I have a lot to share, TBH, but I may not have the time to write about all of those. So, I will get to those in next week’s update.

The best place to get these updates is via my TIL WA group. It is inspired by Sunanda’s fabulous book, TIL, and on this WhatsApp group, I aim to post VERY VERY VERY frequently. Like MULTIPLE times a day. About things personal (rants, overshares, thoughts, etc), what I read, what I want to think about, what I need help o,n etc. Join here.

So, some links that I want to share…

1. Chamath's Annual Letter. Here. The best quote from there is, "Taste is judgment. Discipline is strategy. Stamina is alpha. In a world without free money, survival is the product."
2. Mammad Bhai, by Sadat Hasan Manto. Here.
3. Kevin's post on Ideal End State. Here. I've spoken about this earlier as well. But it's worth a revisit.
4. This list of lessons from Tim. Here. The ones that have stayed with me are, "26. People who are always joking are hard to take seriously so they rob themselves of opportunities" and "6. The wealthiest people have a psychopathic sense of urgency." among others.
5. This by Seth on using words. Especially in this post-AI world. Thanks, Prad for sharing.
6. This concept of Levered Beta. Incredible read. In Hindi, we often say, “seat pe rumaal rakhna”. This is the closest equivalent to that.
7. Mike's Build. Mike is quickly becoming my favorite Internet person. And while you are at it, read advice.
8. This NYT piece about one of the things in Grief Tech.

This is about it.

Do let me know in case this refacted version of my weekly newsletter is of value to you. If it is, i will make this a weekly feature.

Thanks!