The Messy Middle | Report

26 Jul 2021 . category: report . Comments
#radicali #startup #singapore #fitness #finance

Welcome to #239, welcome to the messy middle of this man’s search for meaning.

Not to sound too philosophical, i’ve been reading Scott Belsky’s book on a startup’s journey towards product-market fit and i can relate to almost every page. It’s a great reminder that this journey is not just ours alone, and everyone goes through the self-doubt and introspection. At work, we are taking a few hard decisions around strategy and breaking our heads at trying to make things work in the next few weeks. Scott’s mantra - D.Y.F.J(Do Your Fucking Job) is quite useful in situations like these - tune out all external noise and do what i’m supposed to do.

Looking back at last week’s calendar seems wild now, we did so many product onboardings, investor meetings and also attended a high-profile meeting. i spent the weekend digesting everything and we debriefed on Sunday to plan ahead. Our latest features around no-code apps are still to be used and tested by users, and that’s what i’m excited about.

On the fitness front, i clocked in a couple runs standing at 42 kilometers for the month of July so far. i put in one gym workout(chest & shoulders) and one home workout(core), and have to contend with home workouts for the next four weeks due to the covid lockdown imposed yet again. i’m legitimately tired of these lockdown rules, but i’ve stopped caring or checking them anymore - i don’t understand why people care about them anyway. i went for two BJJ classes through the week where we worked on our mount position, and celebrated the weekend with an afternoon tennis session on a turf court on Saturday.

i relapsed on Day 7 of my NoFap streak, currently just starting out Day 3. i have been reading quite a bit about Stalin, and it has ignited within me a longing to visit Russia to see the historical remains of the Soviet era. i’ve been reading quite a bit nowadays, and turning up the notch over the weekends - there’s minimal YouTube consumption, and a lot of fiction/non-fiction from different books.

One of my friends left Singapore earlier this week, and i met her the day before to say goodbye. When i was younger, i didn’t realize what goodbyes meant, but as i’ve seen life pan out - many a times, goodbyes quite often mean permanent parting of ways. You can stay in touch online, but that’s just a mere placeholder for what your relationship was. Life is beautiful, and these goodbyes make me realize how precious the present is. Earlier, i used to be wary of making friendships or relationships with people because i was scared of the emotional toll of goodbyes - however, now i feel that this feeling of separation gives me opportunities to seize the present and make the most of it. i’ve definitely been listening to too much Fridman, but he makes me look at everyday life in a new light and he has somehow given me permission to express my fuzzy feelings of love towards life. Life is beautiful, did i say this already?

My family back home shifted their residences this weekend, and overnight the home for the past 18 years has now changed. i’d never thought that i’ll not go back to the place i grew up - makes me wonder how transient life is, and how everthing can change in a single instant. i can come under a bus tomorrow, or even worse, someone from my family could - this stoic style of thinking is important to enforce to make sure i don’t take the state of homeostasis for granted. These sort of things don’t really affect me much, as i don’t get attached to places or things, but it is still a bit too much to think that the childhood home is no longer home. As Naval says that there are always two ways of looking at almost everything, and now - i have the opportunity of visiting a new home when i go back :)

The weekend was solitary, as i spent time thinking about future plans at work and also working a bit on my finances and budgets. Made good progress, and aim to make things much more solidified in the weeks to come w.r.t my investments. On Thursday night, i caught up with the Pilani boys and chatted with them about life. Talked to Sid on Saturday night and discussed startup ideas, which is always energizing. Had fun, i need to laugh more often. Happiness is free, you know!

Keep hammerin’

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