| Sunday, 27 July 2025 |
A community-powered Sunday newsletter on mental models, self-reflection, learning, growth, photos, books, and more Subscribe here
Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Hello again. Wow, I did not realise pathos and sadness would resonate among so many of you.
I got 74 song submissions for the Pathos playlist, our highest ever! What a sappy lot we are, ha ha ha!
We have the Pathos playlist for you to wallow in this Sunday, of course. It’s at the end.
Today is also the first time I’m writing to you from an iPad. Ugh.
Gen Zs might be native to Tiktok and Gen Alphas might be native to ChatGPT. I am native to laptops and full keyboards.
I accidentally left my laptop behind after yesterday morning’s event on rethinking product making in the age of AI.
Ah, never mind, I thought to myself. This is exactly why I had bought the iPad’s “Magic” keyboard case a while back. I plugged the iPad into it and tried to write into the Word app (yes, I still write in Word) for iPad. It was so bad. I kept hitting the wrong keys. The screen was too small. I felt cramped, unable to express myself.
Don’t give up, Rohin, I consoled myself. We live in the Golden Age of USB-C. I plugged the iPad to my external monitor (yes, I use an external monitor at office and home), and boom, the iPad created a second display for me. Word could now live on a large screen I was used to.
Rohin, aren’t you glad you bought the Logitech Wave keyboard and mouse, which support up to three different devices? Sure I was.
So, I paired my external keyboard and mouse to the iPad.
Now, I was typing on a proper keyboard, using a proper mouse, and viewing my words on a proper display.
And yet, it doesn’t quite feel like you’re doing the exact same thing, just with a Macbook plugged into the monitor instead of the iPad.
The cursor arrows are different. The “speed” at which letters appear or the cursor moves is slow. I briefly considered dictating my thoughts via Claude or Gemini, but I could not imagine saying my unformed thoughts aloud.
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Hari Buggana
Chairman and MD, InvAscent
Transparent, Honest, Detailed. To me, The Ken has been this since the day I subscribed to them. The research that they put into each story and the way it is presented is thoroughly interesting. Personally, I’ve always had a great time interacting with the publication and reading the stories.
Harshil Mathur
CEO and Co-Founder, Razorpay
The Ken has proven naysayers wrong by successfully running a digital news publication on a pure-subscription business model in India. They have shown that discerning readers are willing to pay for well-researched, well-written, in-dept news articles.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
Executive Chairperson, Biocon Limited
As a designer, it’s easy to get lost in the craft of building products. As a business owner however, keeping up with a rapidly changing landscape is key to saying relevant. The Ken doesn’t just help me stay on top of what’s happening in India(and beyond), but makes it fun to do so.
Rahul Gonsalves
Co-founder and CEO, Obvious Ventures