| Sunday, 16 March 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%],
It’s another Sunday already! Where did the week go by? No, really. I can almost smell the Panchagavya in the air.
These last few Sundays, I’ve been spraying “Panchagavya”, a potent and smelly mix of five different cow byproducts, on the flowering mango and water apple trees in our backyard. The yard and I both reek of it for hours. But I think it’s helping. The mango tree is covered with blossoms and tiny fruit.
Inside the house, I’ve been giving Gabru elaborate coconut oil baths to ease his coat and skin through the dryness and change in season. After getting all oiled up, he and I are relegated to one room for a few hours, to prevent getting oil stains all over the house. It’s our chill time. Here’s Gabru lazing about yesterday.
Smothered trees, smothered dogs. Growth and renewal. Sundays.
And outside, on the roads, Bengaluru’s beautiful trees do their own magic. Here are a few yellow Tabebuias on our morning-walk route. They are an explosion of colour (note, my younger friends and colleagues, not a “literal” explosion of colour!).
Here’s everything we have for you today:
1. Breaking patterns
2. Six degrees of Ergonomics: Community responses 💭
3. Stories of storytellers 📚
4. Shades of spring 📸
5. Two by Two: How big is the market for treating farmed animals humanely? 🎙️
1. Breaking patterns
Earlier last month, we put out a job description to hire for a Product Designer to join The Ken. I wrote the job description roughly in the form of a “tour of duty” (because when I tell you that I use the First Principles newsletter to evolve my own thinking and behaviour, I mean it).
We interviewed a bunch of talented, eager, and ambitious designers over a few weeks and ended up hiring a great person.
We also ended up hiring a second, junior product designer. It’s interesting how that happened.
It happened because she wrote an authentic and thoughtful email in response to my rejection email to her.
I enjoy reading The Ken because it is informative, the articles are well researched, well written, without the spin and bias. I admire The Ken team for their dedication to getting closer to the true picture.
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