| Sunday, 21 January 2024 |
A community-powered Sunday newsletter on mental models, self-reflection, learning, growth, photos, books, and more Subscribe here
Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Good morning. While much of north India continues to experience bone-chilling cold weather, we down south are already transitioning out of winter. The days have started to get pretty warm. I shudder to think what summer will be like this year, especially because we don’t own an air conditioner (AC).
It used to be that Bengaluru didn’t need air conditioning. That, alas, is no longer true. But it is true that peak summer in Bengaluru is roughly 45 days. So, if you can get through that without an AC, you can get through the entire year without an AC.
Each year I wonder, will this be the year that we capitulate? Or will we add another year to our unbroken no-AC “streak” (currently 23 years). Personally, I’d love to get to the quarter-century mark, but our teenager would vehemently disagree.
“No air conditioning builds character,” I tell him. “I have enough,” he tells me.
Welcome back to First Principles, our Sunday group tête-à-tête. Well, a very large group. Here’s what we have for you today.
1. 10- to 20-year journeys
2. #SilentSunday photos 📸
3. #FPBooks 📚
4. #FPPlaylist—“The Zone” 🎧 🎶
5. #FPLinks 🔖
1. 10- to 20-year journeys
One of my favourite mental prisms with which to see the world is “goals versus journeys”. When we’re young, whether as individuals or as organisations, our default prism is the goal.
The next job title. The latest car. The fancy house. The next fund-raise. The next valuation.
But, as we grow older, most of us begin to realise that immediate goals lose their charm after a while. There are only so many times we can motivate ourselves by climbing another rung on the ladder that we’ve been on for years.
And as we realise this, we begin to wonder if there really was something to that most cliched of interview questions, “What do you want to be in 10 years?”
It’s another matter to dole out a prepared answer to an interviewer in the hopes of landing a better job, but we can’t fool ourselves as easily.
Thinking about what we want to be in 10 years is hard.
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