| Sunday, 14 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 dear reader, the genesis of today’s edition was sown less than eight hours after last Sunday’s edition.
“Hi Rohin – I’m sorry to bother you – but what’s your 3rd value for children?” emailed a subscriber.
It took me a moment to comprehend.
“Before I read your piece – mine would have been curiosity, fearlessness, and resilience (especially for failure). But I really like “believing” – and so would love to understand your 3rd value,” he explained.
It took me a few days to reply to him. Because, honestly, I had not decided yet what the third value that was most important to me was. I knew curiosity and believing were both in the top three (I’ve no relative preference between them), but didn’t know what value would round them off to form the all important “Top 3”.
I spent a few days thinking about the answer, and it wasn’t easy. But I’m happy that I was forced to spend time introspecting. Because I went in searching for one answer, but came back with two.
The first was the third value.
The second was the realisation that I had been oblivious to the fact that smarter members of the First Principles community had already been emailing me with suggestions, ideas, and questions for a while now. I was just not listening closely enough.
Which is why today’s theme is both the third value, and Community. Here’s what we have for you this edition:
1. The Third Value
2. Community View 🧑🤝🧑
3. #FPBooks 📚
4. #SilentSunday photographs 📷
5. First Principles podcast🎙️
I would also like to introduce two of my wonderful and talented colleagues—Anushka Mukherjee and Jonathan Ananda. The three of us form a tight First Principles team—Anushka helping me on the podcast side as producer and Jonathan on the newsletter side as an editor. I’ve used my, erm, authority, to rope them in to author a few sections in the Sunday newsletters too. They didn’t complain too much. 🙂
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