Annus Mirabilis

You either die a hero, or live long enough to become a podcaster

I abhor year-end retrospectives for two reasons. One, it is an arbitrary milestone¹. Two, it seems particularly solipsistic. Like, you know the rest of us lived through the full year too, right? Why must we now endure reliving your year as well?

In Pic: Not Me.

For 2024, and possibly just this once, I’ll make an exception and tell you about my year. No clickbait intended, but I’ll explain my rationale after I’ve thrown some numbers at you. Let me lead with the stat I’m most proud of:

I put out 201 substack posts this year (202 if you count this one). If you’re new here, you’re probably thinking, “What the Fuck?!” Fair. Let’s unpack that a bit. 33 of those were on Not Priced In, my finance/business newsletter. I started the year in the same breezy “here’s an insight, here’s some context” tone, but in the back half I veered towards deeper corporate histories, culminating in a 9000-word piece on Herman Miller, the furniture company. It was fascinating going from hammering out a story in 30 minutes to researching and writing one over a month.²

The other 168 posts were on this newsletter. A friend reached out to thank me for sharing interesting content on various mutual WhatsApp groups. They suggested I do this in a more organised and monetizable manner.³ That’s it. Starting April 1^st (because new Financial Year, new me), I began putting out a post a day. Mostly, it was just – here’s a nice YouTube channel or here’s a lovely article.

Quite unintentionally, I witnessed a truth both profound and banal – doing a little bit of something everyday really, REALLY adds up. Some posts on the light, curation-minded newsletter became long, intense and personal. None of this was planned. All I did was make a commitment to put something out before I started my work day. And yes, there were times when my heart was not in it. But once in a while, the stars aligned. Maybe my subconscious mind was always working on these pieces in the background. Maybe not having something to share forced me to look inward. Either ways, I’m real proud of what resulted: whether it was a meditation on addiction, consumption, or loss.

As I got into the zone, I could see a thought framework start to form. When one writes on a broad and undefined range of topics, the same pattern emerges in unexpected places. I can only imagine what kind of mental framework Paul Graham, Gurwinder or Amit Varma have developed.

Still, in 6 months or so, I was all wrung out. It felt like I was just going through the motions every morning. Worse, my content habits had changed, as I sought out newer stuff to recommend. For the first time in my life, I empathised with influencers and content creators: if you’re not careful, the tail starts to wag the dog. And so, I took a break from the daily posts. The Luxottica and G-Wagon stories resulted- I still wanted to write, but without the pressure to publish constantly. Besides, writing everyday leaves little time for research and deep dives, which I wanted to do more of.

The second stat – I read 52 books this year. And yes, I’m stepping on the scales a bit: some of these were more 40–50-page short stories than books. Shifting to a kindle helped a lot, as did normalising reading at my desk during slow hours. For years, I had unwittingly drifted towards non-fiction. My idiot logic was to only read serious stuff that I can get something out of. But this year I did tick-tock, alternating between fiction and non-fiction. Highly recommend!

Third- today was day 258 of my Duolingo streak. Hopefully this leads to a trip to Japan this year or the next, as I mentioned in my Shogun piece.

Fourth – I cleared the final level of the Chartered Financial Analyst certification in August. This was the culmination of three years of study, and possibly the start of mid-career shift. But whether that pans out or not, I’m grateful for all the learning it enabled.

Now you’re probably wondering- is he done bragging? And that’s the reason I’m writing this: I can’t believe these numbers either. It sure didn’t feel like I was embarking on some epic journey, or that I was doing Great Things™. All I did was show up, and work on stuff a little bit every day. That’s it. I built all these new habits into my routine, so I no longer had to opt in, but opt out of doing them.

Still, you’re probably thinking I’m some time management savant. How does one find the hours? That brings me to what might be my only original insight today. There is one thing I did differently this year. I inverted the way I thought about my time: as a precious, non-renewable resource, instead of just background hum. What I chose to spend my time on, who I chose to spend it with, was no longer the default, go with the flow, inertia driven chaos of past years. Most days, most hours were deliberate choices. Not necessarily good ones, mind you. And not all expectations driven. But they were deliberate, not default.

It's this rewiring that led to more trips, more coffees, more WhatsApp chats. I sought out people and communities I admire, love and respect. And foisted myself on them. I kid, I kid. Turns out, smart, deep thinking, successful people are incredibly generous with their time and thoughts if you ask in good faith and without expectations. This may seem simple to you, but was a revelation for me. Who knew? All I had to do all these years was ask, and some fascinating conversations and deep friendships awaited!

I’ll end this navel gazing with just that unsolicited advice: stop living inside your own head, and start taking little steps every day. Reach out to people you admire, and show up for people who count on you. Most of all, be mindful of your time. The results will stun you.⁴

1. Yeah, I’m not so great at new year parties.

2. Also, much new found respect for writers of web series and serialised content- maintaining excitement, pace and tonal continuity is hard!

3. While also pledging and becoming subscriber #1. Sudhirbhai, if you’re reading this, you rock!

4. I’m nauseous at how much this reads like a self-help article. Let that be a lesson too: Self discovery is always two steps forward, one step back. Otherwise, you become the douchebag spouting gyan on random podcasts, or polluting pristine WhatsApp groups with your “insights”.