Expect

Bhagwad Gita says that expectation is evil & cause of all our misery. Epictetus talks about things in your control is your consciousness.

We are living in a society trapped with materialistic needs and making everyone happy around us. Marriage and relationships with loved ones have turned into a transaction. We have gone into undefined wants and needs causing enormous pain ourselves.

What actions of others will make us sad, unhappy, or pleasureful: even we don’t know. The expectation of respect, reciprocity, power, and love from others makes us sicker.

child

I am halfway through “the body keeps its score.” It talks about the human mind and trauma. In one chapter author talks about how traumatic childhood results in making a monster as an adult. The negligence of parents resulting in physical torture and sexual abuse leaving a scar for life.

It takes a village to raise a child, a famous quote. We live in a fast pace & matchbox (apartments) in isolation makes it traumatic for the baby. When everyone is working and busy, the kid becomes a piece of furniture. They miss love and care for their emotional growth.

Your kid ends up growing immature and emotionally imbalanced and does more havoc on society. So be very careful before deciding to raise a child.

Your kid needs more than a babysitter, cartoon network, and YouTube ad-free on mobile. They need all your attention, love, comfort, and care.

Some of my friends are wise. They have adopted cats instead of having a kid because they know how impossible it will be for them to raise kids.

core

We are in funding winter.
Companies are firing left and right.
Every founder is trying to survive somehow.
The treadmill of growth is at a standstill.

EdTech or HealthTech are suffering because they expanded, built solutions, or burnt millions giving freebies. They went ahead to increase the market size for valuation.

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.

— Warren Buffet.

We are in the phase now where most companies who forgot their core are suffering. An EdTech firm should impart quality education, not tablets. A D2C skin care brand should focus on innovation in product quality not discounts.

I found these tweets very relevant in current time.

Hype

I have been seeing CVs of freshers for the last 5-6 years for hiring at our firm. I consistently see a trend of hype element in it. I am not sure if it is the student, college, or faculty who drives this.

From blockchain to crypto to AI/ML to DevOps, whatever is hot in the season, CVs get crafted accordingly. It goes against the fundamentals of hiring.

One can get an interview or even clear it. But in due course, what matters is performance. So these hype terms and all should not matter. Instead, the focus should be on learning the fundamentals of the database, web development, and product development paradigm.

As a budding software developer, your Github, Gitlab, or code contribution to some open-source project should speak for you.

The hype machine and swimming in it for a career are not sustainable in the long run.

burn

One part of my brain cannot comprehend seeing P&L and cash flow-related stories of popular startups news like Meesho, Fi, Snapdeal and dozen others.

Like their cash burn, why these companies exist, or if a bot had replaced the founders, companies might have burnt less cash. But the other side speaks another story.

The reason startup exists is to build high-growth companies that attain market leadership, becomes defacto, and brings innovative technology play. The resource and technology required come at a price. What works and what does not in a short period.

You have to fly or die quickly. It is like a race where everyone invests in repetitive winners.

The people putting money into these ideas are private players and AIFs. So even if all ideas fail, the country is not going into recession.

Most employees working in these companies are well paid; some bring their generation out of poverty by constructing houses, buying lands, or saving enough for higher studies.

In short, these startups are making dreams come true for some by employing them in all sectors, sizes, and classes, be it a white or blue color.

build

One of the learning in the early days of building taghash is about what to add or extend. Listening to customers and learning from them and their workflow, the pain has been helpful.

We are a small team and don’t have a product or growth team for guiding with surveys and analyzing customers.

Time and again, what has worked for us is listening to customers and building the next product set. We have a list of features mapped to customers who requested and asked for them.

Knowing what to build when you know who you are building for eases product adoption.

Dhandho framework

I am halfway through the book: Dhandho investor. I liked it as the author shares stories about many businesses built on frugality, long bets, and arbitrage.  

The author talks about the Dhandho framework, and I felt like sharing. 

  • Invest in an existing business. 
  • Invest in a simple business.
  • Invest in distressed businesses in distressed industries. 
  • Invest in businesses with durable moats. 
  • Few bets, big bets, and infrequent bets.
  • Fixate on arbitrage. 
  • Margin of safety – always. 
  • Invest in low risk, high uncertainty businesses.
  • Invest in the copycats rather than the innovators.

Victim

You have to get over the victim mindset. You have to stop blaming others for your failures. You and feeling that will make you move and take steps forward.

No one can teach you how to be happy. You have to have your rules and habits to get into happiness.

Lastly, get over the status game and comparing your life with others. Stop competing and falling into the wrong comparison. You have to be authentic and be who you are.

2023

2023 is waiting. How bad is it going to be? Are we going back into lockdown? I understand we are already fucked economically, and healthcare globally has given up long back.

What more do we need in 2023 other than sailing in it without dying?

paint

We have painted ourselves with pedigree, caste, color, and nationality. Our existence is painted self.

Who are we? Is it the reality we make choices and take decisions in our life or the painted monster “me” basking in the glory?

Some realize this in their later life about this painting, while many others die living a painted life.