life update, 2025 Q2

• in april, i wrote my exams at western university. i finished two years of college right now but i do not plan to go back to western. this year gave me conviction, spending the year feeling my agency stifled that western may be a great school, but it doesn't have what i want to learn + an environment that supports my ambition.

• i got an $80k grant and decided to spend this summer travelling 30+ countries to cover the stories of young ambitious people with unconventional paths. check out my instagram here or twitter here. 3M+ views so far, we’re getting there.

• on june 7th, faisal and i co-organized an event called tech gala in san francisco in 5 days. we posted a teaser video 5 days before the event, everyone paid $25, we had a $20k budget to play around with for a 3 hour gathering. 30+ people helped put it together as a joint effort. 200 ppl pulled up in formal attire. here's the final event video.

• i got in the habit of randomly approaching people, knocking on doors and pitching ideas to cool people. had a 1 hour amazing conversation with a lady in LA at a restaurant randomly, got some cool people for my content interviews (1)(2), made a new friend in Boston, met a random guy in a coffee shop in Berlin in the startup scene

• i got sick in Germany for 2.5 weeks.

• i got a motorcycle license.

• i rented a convertible BMW for the same price as a Honda Civic in LA.

• visited hacker houses and awesome people in: Toronto, SF, LA, Boston, Geneva, Cluj (Romania), Paris, and now Berlin.

• i started working seriously as part of the core team at localhost.

• got reached out to interview for a cool job, did 3 interviews, got rejected lmao.

1. 100% cold approach success rate: if i send a cold email beforehand to the person and make an effort to fly into a city (and mention this to them) and find them in-person, it guarantees me a 100% success rate. i don’t know where but sam altman once said in one of his essays that “when in doubt, always hop on the plane for a potential opportunity” and he is so right.

2. there is no speed limit. a friend sent me derek sivers' blog post about this. with this in mind, i left my hardest econ course untouched until 3 days before the 50% final. got a tutor, studied hard, scored 90%. reminder to self that systems are hackable - it's about strategy, not just being smart. hence, everything can be learned much faster, there is no speed limit.

3. less is more. i was planning for this summer to spend making content, learning a few things i was curious about, and potentially working a part-time job. then my coach pointed out and i realized that nothing good has come out of me having so many commitments. so i chose to have content as my main focus.

4. rest is productive. i was affected by this and constantly had this mental model that if i am up for 14 hours every day (i blame twitter), i need to maximize every waking minute for deep-work. i realize such sprints of effort are only possible for short periods of time. for longer periods, having rest is crucial. because if taken intentionally, it is productive. if i go hike for 10 km without music, i always find myself generating more ideas than i ever would by looking at my notes app sitting down in an all hands meeting labelled as work for 1 hour.

5. commitment and consistency. i have never been a consistent person for anything in my life for more than 1 year. and success is only guaranteed when i stop quitting things when they get hard and there is friction involved. that's why my goal this year is to be selective with the commitments i take on — i am taking on less than ever — and fully send the few to make the commitments (work/relationships/friendships) last >2 years.

6. good decision-making is invaluable. i used to be insecure about not being as technical in the valley, even though i knew from a long time ago technical pursuits would never be my strong suit. one of the realizations i came to recently was that good judgement, leading a team well and hiring good people is itself equally powerful skillset — one silicon valley often undermines. i don’t need to be the best designer or the best engineer. i could just be the best orchestrator, which is something i have historically done very well.

7. cringe is good: i realize truly the only way to greatness is by overcoming the fear of cringe. this linkedin post i saw a couple of months back best sums it up.

   

8. time is limited: my grandpa says “health is wealth” all the time, and it didn't hit me until recently when i was so sick i couldn’t get anything done. i realize my health and brain are only gonna have problems from now. the brain's neuroplasticity peaks at 24, meaning the intensity at which i process information is going to reduce. while i had the privilege to waste time at western last year, that luxury won't always exist. as time passes, responsibilities grow, health becomes more fragile, dumpster fires outside of my control happen in life and the window for maximum output narrows. this window of time with so much freedom is extremely limited if i don’t maximize it with getting good and building something heavy.

9. positive self-talk is extremely crucial: nothing good happens when i am against myself, this has been a major change. my self esteem skyrocketed after this.

• india, japan and china travels. i am pivoting away from travelling more countries and instead using the money to maximize the content i output by hiring more. (lmk if you are interested).

• getting a job soon with a lovely team — i have been working solo for a while and i wanna grow more.

• i'm a free-agent september onwards and i am looking for cracked teams that are:

  • high agency

  • great storytellers

  • artists at heart

  • huge nerds

  • super excited about the future of technology and contributing to it

    
    if some companies come to your mind i should talk to or some folks who might know some companies, let me know. the project though matters less, the team is what matters the most to me.

• i am hiring more people to join my content team, part-time and on-call, looking for another video editor, just a creative person to brainstorm ideas with, or whatever you can think of. if interested, lmk.

• jolie for keeping me accountable these days

• kei for giving me an awesome last few months with localhost — it's been fun working with someone who pushes my ambitions higher

• lily for inspiring me with just how consistently she posts with much less of a perfectionist mindset than me

• will for being the most wonderful host in berlin and a great friend.

rizzfully,
hardeep