| Sunday, 25 February 2024 |
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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Good morning! It’s the last Sunday of February and in Bengaluru, we are already in summer. From chemically-ripened early-season mangoes in the markets to dire water shortage warnings to brush fires in dry urban landscapes to frazzled traffic nerves, we are undoubtedly in for a tough and hard summer down south this year.
Even Gabru isn’t as excited to walk through the dry and arid landscapes these days.
But, as longtime reader Hareesha reminded me earlier this week, the weather up north is still in its winter transition.
“Spring, thankfully, is still around the corner for us in Delhi, when the Magnolia & Silk Floss trees will start to bloom, and the city will suddenly be full of pink & white flowers, followed by the beautiful Bougainvillaea in April/May.
For now, we are making peace with the walks in the parks of Delhi, which is a pleasure at this time of the year. 🙂 Sunder Nursery has replaced Lodhi Garden as our favourite for this year’s winter. As for blossoms, we are currently making peace with the lineup of Tulips in the city.”
Also, over 300 of you have shared absolutely wonderful thoughts and ideas with us for the Fitness Quest (we’re keeping responses open for a few more days). A bunch of us inside The Ken are currently figuring out how best to channel your ideas into a delightful and insightful fitness edition soon. I’m excited! 🏋🏾♂️⏳🏃🏾♂️
Welcome to edition #34 of First Principles. It’s nice to be with you again. 😊
Here’s what we have for you today.
1. Write to convince yourself first
2. The Album Hypothesis [#FPHabits ✅]
3. The First Filters [#SilentSunday photos 📸]
4. Looking at the world a little differently [#FPBooks 📚]
5. Interesting links
1. Writing to convince yourself first
I’ve known Archit Gupta, the co-founder and CEO of Clear, for close to a decade now. In an earlier life (for me), we worked out of the same office in Bengaluru’s HSR Layout, overlooking Agara Lake. Archit was a few years into Clear (then called Cleartax) and I was starting my first business. His enthusiasm and drive were abundantly apparent and infectious.
Since then, Clear has repositioned itself primarily as a cloud-based software provider for businesses to manage their financial operations. I spoke with Archit in August last year for the First Principles podcast. I also spoke with him a few days ago to ask him about his favourite decision-making mental model.
“Writing,” he replied. “It’s extremely valuable for us. I spend a lot of time doing it. And we try to do it at various levels at Clear—writing one-page memos, three-page memos, six-page memos, PRs, FAQs, etc.”
This is, of course, the Amazon “narrative thinking” playbook, as Archit himself pointed out to me before I could.
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Executive Chairperson, Biocon Limited
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Co-founder and CEO, Obvious Ventures