Guess who’s back?

I feel like this should have been a YouTube video given how much I want to say, but I think I am not ready for it yet 😂

Hello people! Wassup? It’s been a while. A long time actually.

I was not sure if I should do this. I was thinking “Am I ready to write this again?”.

But then I said fuck it. So, here I am - doing it.

A lot of things have happened since we last met in August 2024. A lot of things broke down in between (including me 😂) but I have managed to fix some. So, here’s a list of highlights:

1. I left Crework in September 2024.

2. Went to Goa again. I think I will just do it every year.

3. Got a job as a Product Manager in October 2024.

4. Attended the first wedding of the friend group. Life is getting real.

5. In December end, I decided to stop using all social media platforms - Insta, LinkedIn, even X. It lasted till March end. I think I rewired my brain in those 3 months.

6. Went to Mussoorie (finally!). It was lovely.

7. Watched Bassi’s show, he is very funny.

I know I slipped a few heavy things with the light ones, but that’s how life is. Things happen. Some big, some small.

But somehow, all of them matter.

I send out a newsletter on 1st Jan every year. This year, I didn’t do it.

Actually, I sat down to write it this year too but I didn’t have clarity. My feelings about my own life were a little bit weird, hence I decided to just skip it.

Then, in March, something happened - I became comfortable with my new life. So, I was finally able to ask - What’s Next?

It’s been 2 months now that I have been exploring this idea of “next” and I haven’t really found an answer yet.

I feel I have a lot to learn, a lot to do, a lot to experience but I don’t have the patience to wait for all of it to come to me. So, I try to reach there daily, but because of my impatience, I find it hard to sustain the progress.

This might sounds like a similar story. I know a lot of people who are in the same boat.

I have grown up thinking that I am supposed to be a builder, someone who builds products. But my track record till now doesn’t support this claim of mine.

So, now I think I want to focus on building things that are real and actually solve problems for an entity. Maybe a business (B2B SaaS ftw?). I am not sure if I am fit enough to build something in B2C again.

I have been toying with some ideas.

ChatGPT is basically my outsourced brain at this point.

Up until last month, I was using chatGPT for all my tasks. Thinking, documenting, replying to messages - all of this was outsourced to ChatGPT as if I did not have a brain.

Then, I realised what I am losing because of that.

So now I try to think as much as possible and document it myself before I go to ChatGPT to make it clear, better or just make it make sense.

AI is good for brainstorming, to act like a soundboard but you can’t give the most difficult and important task of “understanding” to it.

One thing I often find myself regretting is not having the skill to design products. I can come up with some UX ideas and workflows, create some wireframes maybe - all product management things. But when it comes to adding some colours, turning it into a good looking UI, I am dumb as fuck.

I know design is a skill that can be learned but I often regret not learning it before and now I think I am not patient enough to sit down and practice it.

Same is true for development maybe. I can code in the sense of solving some problems using a language. But when it comes to building things, I never learnt anything beyond HTML CSS. Today, tools like Lovable, Cursor etc. do take away the need of you knowing to know everything to build some basic things like a website, but the things I want to build are often way more complex.

On similar lines, I wish I had a constant set of friend circle who I could send some ideas to brainstorm and we can just build it in hours/days. Maybe I just need to hire 2 interns for my personal projects. If you feel the same, maybe we can help each other.