Start Here

Thank You...

for being here. I hope I can do justice to the time you will be investing on this page.

Introduction

The idea of a "Start Here" post is to give a brief introduction to the type of articles the reader can hope to find in a particular place. It is also a curated list/index of the articles published for easy access. Ideally, I should have published this long back but being the serial procrastinator that I am, I managed to get through 19 posts before getting to this. Well, better late than never.

How it Started?

I was discussing a personal situation with a person I consider as a mentor. He suggested that I channel my energy into writing. We all go through different stages in life and capturing those and creating a historical record of sorts is a good idea. He did give me a long-term view of how it'll help my particular situation as well. My first reactions were, What the hell will I write about? Where will I get the topics? Aren't you supposed to keep your Thoughts locked up in a Secret Diary? What's the point? I don't have the time. Blah, blah, blah. Long story short, even though I came up with every possible (and predictable) reaction, I did think over it.

Christmas of 2020, I started an impromptu group where we would discuss 1 topic every Sunday. It was sort of a brainstorming session on a variety of topics. I think we managed to get to about 10~15 people in the calls based purely on references. I would suggest the topic in advance. During the session, everybody would share their understanding of the topic, and then I'd end up speaking for about 2hrs, sharing my thoughts. I think the longest we went was about 3.5hrs on one Sunday. We did this for about 4 months and it was an incredibly interesting experience for me. For some reason, people kept joining in even though it was completely voluntary. Listening to some dude blabber on for 2hrs must not have been easy. Even though I had to end it, I did make some really great friends. I believe 5~6 guys made significant changes to their outlook and life as well. Most importantly, I learned a lot in the process.

August 2021, I was able to negotiate a 5 day work week after having worked 6 days (and more) workweeks for my whole life. After a long time, I finally had some time over the weekends. Not wishing to waste it fooling around, I realized that I had finally run out of all excuses for not writing.

Content

One common question is How to get material/topics? Honestly, I don't think I have a scientific approach to this. Primarily, I try to read as many good books as I can. I also listen to a lot of long (really long) Youtube videos (at 2x speeds) over and over again. This is typically followed by thinking over topics that catch my fancy. That is how most topics come about. Sometimes, working on one topic gives me ideas about future topics, I try to put these into drafts otherwise, I'd most likely forget it. Once, I have the broad skeleton, what is left is multiple rounds of drafting, redrafting, and refining.

Experience (So Far)

Writing online has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I am blessed that I have received a lot of encouragement and love for my musings. There is a misconception that writing is done for publicity. It might be true for some people but I don't think that's true for me. In fact, LinkedIn as a platform doesn't reward long articles. If I put out a generic post, that'd get much more eyeballs than a long article. So, why do I still write and why do I wish to be able to keep writing?

• Bandwidth: The thoughts I share aren't new, most of these things exist in an immature form in my mind much before I publish anything. The trouble is they come and go. Forcing myself to write about a topic makes me empty everything I know about it (at the moment). Once published, it is truly out of my mind. This frees up a lot of mental bandwidth because I know that I have handled the thought already in the best way I knew how.
• Effort: While thoughts can exist as headlines or bullet points in the head, putting content online requires some more (focused) effort. Everything needs to be structured and presented coherently (to the extent possible). For me, it is just like writing an essay. The good thing about doing something effortful is that it helps improve willpower. Once, you can create a habit, you don't want to break the streak so it automatically becomes a high priority item.
• Research: Unstructured thoughts cannot be dumped online so, things need to be researched, processed, and evolved. I want to put out everything that I can think of on a given topic so I have to try and look at it from all possible angles. I have often forced myself to stop procrastinating and finish a book on the topic or finish listening to multiple podcasts to mature my own understanding of the topic before publishing. So, it forces me to learn more about the topic with a sense of urgency.
• Flow: I have realized that since I have set a target of 1 post/week, panic typically sets in around Wednesday if I haven't thought of a topic yet. On the other hand, if I already have a sense of what I want to deal with in the coming week, I can meditate over it every morning and then start adding a little bit to the draft every day. So, if I plan ahead, it is quite smooth and I get to enjoy "Flow".
• Blessings: I think a lot of people fear being "judged" online. "Log kya kahenge?". My experience, thankfully, has been quite the opposite. I have had many people send encouraging messages, love, and blessings which has further fueled my commitment to writing and has also raised the bar.

That's the short recap on how I got started. Why did I get started? and Why do I hope to be able to keep writing? might need a longer post.

I'll list my articles now. Some of the topics have been covered in a series so I'll put the link to the first of the series, the links to the following articles are there in the "Read Next" section of the respective post. This post will get updated as more and more articles are published.

Mindset

Attempting to understand Human Mindset has become an endless obsession for me. The more I explore, the more I get hooked on it. "A Man becomes what He Thinks about All Day". Who we are, what we can achieve, where we will go, everything is a byproduct of the mindset that we develop.

• Growth Mindset is the Way (1/2)
• Resistance 101 (1/3)
• Frequencies 101 (1/3)
• Earned, Not Bought
• Meditations 101 (1/2)
• Chasing Hard 101 (1/4)
• Progress 101: Static Friction

Inspiration

I love nature, I love spending time away from the city as much as possible. I can sit watching the cloud-covered mountains all day. Nature can heal. Nature can break Egos. Nature can Reward. Nature is unrelenting and it is constantly forcing you to compete or perish. Nature doesn't tolerate weakness. Just thinking about how big the world is, the universe is, gives me goosebumps.

• Give me some Sunshine
• Agents of Creation
• Chasing Hard 101 (1/4)
• Spiritually Perfect
• Tough Love
• Recycling 101

Minimalism

• Keep it Simple Silly (1/4)
• Not-To-Do List

Productivity

• Not-To-Do List

Relationships

• Co-Conspirators for Life