Hi, I'm Aswath! I write about living well, career, product management, startups. Subscribe for monthly newsletter.
When Saudi Arabia revealed their plans for “The Line”, a 105 mile long skyscraper city, a lot of people scoffed. I have to admit I didn’t think much of it either, and may even have laughed it off. But now, as they are actually building it and making progress, I’m wow-ed by both how unique the idea is, and the audacity and conviction to pursue such a huge and innovative project. 9 million people in…
Supabase announced today that they raised $200M at a $2B valuation. They offer “Backend as a Service” or BaaS. Essentially, building blocks like auth, database, push notifications, etc. so that you can focus on developing the unique aspects of your app instead of all the standard and annoying scaffolding. I used their competitor, Firebase, about 10 years ago to build a couple of side projects. I…
15 years into my career, it’s clear that peer groups are a powerful force. Many peers from university and from early/mid career roles at high performance companies are in key leadership roles, with influence, network, and insights to share. They have also become friends, advisors, and confidants. People want to bond with those who are higher up in the chain. But the leaders above you aren’t as…
It’s typically much easier to upskill on procedural or declarative skills (just follow these steps/checklist or memorize these facts), compared to cognitive or creative skills (like analyze a situation and come up with a solution, or to compose great music). The path to developing higher order general intelligence is murky and abstract; probably a mix of natural ability and years of varied…
Our media and information ecosystem isn’t optimized for truth. Or for helping us understand the world better. Or for calm. It’s optimized for engagement. And what gets the most engagement? Drama. Just think about it: which headline do you think gets more clicks—“Man landed on the moon” or “Man did not land on the moon”? It’s obviously the second one. It’s more provocative. It stirs doubt. It’s not…
On weeks like this, as stocks plummet 20% because of a senseless trade war, you see clearly that currency and stocks are just fiction. Intangible entries in a ledger, and only of value because of our fragile shared imaginations and agreements. This isn’t the first time. In 2022, the market crashed because of inflation and interest rate hikes — an after-effect of the COVID shutdowns and stimulus.…
When you consume information, you collect dots. But collecting dots isn’t enough. In fact, it can be confusing—especially when those dots are scattered, shallow, or incorrect. To make sense of them, you have to connect them. That’s where insight—and eventually wisdom—emerges. Connecting takes time. It requires thinking, pausing, synthesizing. This blog serves that purpose for me. But even that’s…
Most capable and healthy people enjoy their autonomy and boundaries - a way to exercise their own way of being and creativity. It tends to bring out their best and make them feel good. Conversely, most people have a visceral reaction to domination and authority. Demanding and commanding may be apt when the situation is dire and answer is somewhat clear; like during a war. Or with a low-trust and…
Why do you like people or music instantly — and not others? You didn’t do a structured analysis. You didn’t create a pros-cons list. You just felt something click — and that was that. The same goes for cities, coffee shops, relationships, products, and even presidents. Why Brad Pitt over Chris Evans? Why Tokyo over Paris? Toyota or Mercedes? Claude or GPT? Why does one place feel like home and…
They used to say you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. That was before the internet hijacked your attention span and filled your brain with digital sludge. Today, your closest companions aren’t friends, mentors, or thoughtful voices. They're algorithmically boosted, attention-seeking strangers yelling into the Internet void—clickbait journalists, TikTok dancers,…
If your goal is exceptional compensation, then you need to cultivate talent that's rare, in high demand, and visible and legible to hiring managers and execs. This typically involves deeply specialized or cross-discipline training, continual practice, and public demonstration of your skills through recognizable achievements, projects, or networking within your industry. But that isn't sufficient.…
I wrote earlier about the absurdity of reality . But paradoxically, this absurdity operates according to strict and predictable laws and mathematical formulae, like gravity, electromagnetism, or thermodynamics. Why these laws? Who or what defined them? Consider evolution: No one sat down and designed creatures, yet living beings have intricately fine-tuned features—eyes, wings, intelligence—purely…
There’s a certain pressure to have goals and wants; to do and achieve something with our lives. We make it a point of asking kids and adults what their goals are. What do you want to be when you grow up?! What are your new year resolutions?! Where do you see yourself in 5 years?! There are benefits of having a future vision, but it comes at a price. Every want and goal can take up time and mind…
I don’t think there are many shoulds in how to live life— because who knows, really? But if there’s one should , it’s this: radically live how you want to . Whatever that means to you. It sounds obvious, yet almost no one actually does it. Most haven’t even thought deeply about why and how they want to live. Let’s step back for a second. We spawned into this mysterious universe with zero…
If you are a farmer, you want a high yield from your crops. But if you are not a professional, you plant trees just because. You want the tree to take root, grow, bloom, and be healthy. You don’t have expectations about how tall the tree grows, what shape it takes, or how much fruit it yields. You don’t compare it to other trees. You just want it to be, and you take joy in its being. You care, but…
Nearly all companies ossify as they grow larger. Product, organization, and operations become more unwieldy, more complex, less agile, and less innovative, Newer and nimbler competitors slowly steal market share, and the cycle continues. The most resilient and durable companies - say, Apple, Facebook, Google, United Healthcare, LVMH, etc. have one essential quality to outweigh the forces of…
We are out of the ZIRP era, and Ubers and Lyfts are now back to costing the same as a taxi ride. As I’m taking more taxi rides, I’m noticing that taxi drivers drive much more recklessly than rideshare drivers and are also more distracted on their phones. Car cleanliness and politeness is also a hit or miss. I theorize the main driver of this difference is feedback. Rideshare drivers get a feedback…
We were doing a major renovation last year and a lot of rearrangement in our home this year. Both followed the same pattern - initial excitement, then a trying period of effort, doubt, and despair as things got messy, and finally light and joy at the end of the tunnel. This is true with many things in life - career transitions, relocations, starting a family, new business, hobby, or health…
Longevity is having its moment, thanks to the growing influence of thought leaders like Bryan Johnson, Peter Attia, and Andrew Huberman. Yet, it’s an unfortunate term, often misunderstood and criticized. For many, it seems like a futile and even vain fight against death, a sacrifice of the present day for questionable benefits in the far-off future, or dragging out life into decades riddled with…
We were bringing over a fragile gingerbread house, precariously placed on the floor of our car’s back row, to a Christmas party. With every stop, swerve, and bump, I felt an involuntary pang of worry. My body tensed, my thoughts raced, and I caught myself clenching, both mentally and physically. The gingerbread house arrived safely, and everyone loved it. But the ride wasn’t enjoyable for me. The…
I feel a rush of energy whenever I'm in NYC. It hits me the moment I step out of the airport, and it's there every time I leave my hotel or brother’s apartment. NYC has majestic buildings, thriving retail, and jam-packed roads. But the main catalyst for making it feel so alive is its people — Pedestrians. Everywhere. When I first left home to attend university in Singapore, my uncle (who had lived…
I was debating with friends about whether GDP should be the North Star for a country. What is GDP and why it matters GDP measures the total exchange of goods and services in a country, capturing the scale of economic activity and trade. It’s an effective shorthand for material prosperity. Historically, countries with high GDPs tend to offer better living standards, infrastructure, and public…
When you’re unkind to someone, you’re not just creating a fleeting moment of discomfort; you set off waves—within you, within them, and outward into the collective consciousness of those around you. Your behavior leaves an emotional residue and becomes part of your and someone else’s story and neural wiring. They carry that hurt forward—sometimes consciously, sometimes not—spreading it like an…
Many people lament about Elon Musk's outspoken views on government inefficiency and his plans for DOGE. They point to how government programs and regulations are helpful, and how his estimates for cost savings are overblown. They are technically right , but Elon is directionally right . It's more likely than not that the government has lots of wasteful spending and unnecessary bureaucracy. In…
You won’t find many miserable people lounging on a Hawaiian beach. There’s something transformative about the meeting of sea and shore that seems to wash away the burdens of the world. Even toddlers and their usually-under-duress parents are in good spirits. So, I’m only half-joking when I say the beach life might be a good vision for a happier humanity; much better than flying cars, immortality,…