AI product strategy, payments, and tools by Sameer Bajaj — PM at Affirm in the cards platform.
My notes from Statistics Done Wrong by Alex Reinhart. This is one of those books that will change how you think when you come across findings from a study / research paper. From the basics of power of confidence intervals over p-values to the hidden incentives behind the studies - this book covers lots of ground and isn't very long to read. Read this!
My notes from The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson. This book is a distilled collection of Naval’s thinking on wealth, leverage, and living deliberately. It’s the rare kind of book that makes you pause mid-page -- not because it’s dense, but because a single paragraph reframes how you think about work, money, or happiness. You can open it at almost any point in life and walk away with…
My notes from The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel. This book is a collection of essays that will make you think differently about money. While some ideas for me were repeated, they're written in a way that'll stick.
My notes from Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon. Short book that will get you to share more of your work with others. If you have any hesitation with that, give this book a read.
My notes from The Anatomy of the Swipe by Ahmed Siddiqui. If you want to learn behind the scenes about what happens when you swipe a card, this is a great introductory book. With majority of our purchases moving to digital, this is a great book to understand behind the scenes.
My notes from Endurance by Alfred Lansing. An absolutely gut wrenching story of a shipwreck and the journey of Shackelton and his men. A story about dire circumstances, perserverance and leadership. Must read.
Quick thoughts on the pursuit of money and its true value.
My notes from Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon. Excellent book for those that have a creative block. Essentially - all creativity stems from ideas from other people. Originality comes from how you combine ideas and make it your own.
My notes from The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco. If you're looking to start your own business, I would start with this book first. Practical and engaging.
Three initial observations from my first few days as a new dad.
My reflections on the A-players behind Apple's most revolutionary products and the philosophy that drove their success.
Why Xerox, once a titan of innovation, lost its way and what we can learn from it.
Calmness is not a passive state but an active skill that can be honed. Steph Curry will always be that reminder for me.
How Cursor can win in a highly competitive AI coding assistant market by reducing friction, enabling collaboration, and personalizing user experience.
When was the last time you were truly bored?
My notes from The Courage To Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi. Don’t be deceived by the title - this is an excellent book. A book which discusses Alfred Adler’s theory of life between a practicing philosopher and the student. There were at least 4 core ideas that changed my perspective around relationships. Highly recommend.
My notes from Expecting Better by Emily Oster. Every new expecting parent should read this. Dad's as well
If you're not writing, you're not thinking. Be careful about what you outsource to AI.
A key Adlerian psychology concept and how it helped me let go of control
My brief thoughts on a concept from Courage to be Disliked that can help us adopt high agency
Two stories from Candice Millard's Hero of the Empire showing Churchill's agency and how it led to his success.
Penalties and serves may look like chance. Petr Cech's research and Andre Agassi's hidden tell show how specific preparation turns luck into skill.
My notes from Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard. A very well-written and engaging book on Churchill that deep-dives into his formative years. Started as a journalist and threw himself into the Boer war with the self belief that one day he will lead the nation. Great book!
My notes from How to Be a Writer by Ruskin Bond. Ruskin Bond was one of my favorite writers when I was a kid. This was a quick read on his writing process that I finished in a couple of hours.
My notes from Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. A book I know I will revisit again and again. If you're especially having a troubled time - read this gem - it has a calming effect.
My notes from The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland. Incredible biography of Walter and his survival under dire circumstances. His story is one of high-agency and pure determination. Read this and your modern struggles will feel trivial.
My notes from The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom. One of those books that genuinely made me think of my life choices – highly recommend reading. Especially in the order it is laid out. Sahil's perspective on time & social wealth resonated deeply. This will make you think.
My notes from Crypto Confidential by Nathaniel Eliason. If you were remotely involved in the crypto cycle during the pandemic you will heavily relate to this well written entertaining book. Read it so you know what to avoid in future cycles.
My notes from Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. Oliver Burkeman is one of my favorite writers. As suggested by him, I read a chapter each day and reflected on it through the day. Read if you're overwhelmed.
My notes from Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari. Parts of this book were really interesting – the witch-hunts, USSR stories and generally the historical context of technology but there was nothing groundbreaking from Yuval here.
My notes from Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, Tahl Raz. Incredible book on Negotiation. One of the few books where I really enjoyed the stories tied to the methodology. You will learn key techniques from a former FBI hostage negotiator that will stick you.
My notes from How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens. This book will go down as a classic - it shares the technique of never having to write from scratch. Instead, the best writing comes from taking atomic notes consistently as we come across interesting ideas each day. Read this book to increase your creativity and idea throughput.
My notes from Troubled by Rob Henderson. Highly recommend reading this memoir. You will realize how important it is to provide children stability when they are young. We over index on education but truly making children feel loved and giving them stability is likely more important for their development. Rob also details out luxury beliefs - you will see them everywhere after reading this.
My notes from Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly. This book is full of wisdom in short sentences. A lot of powerful sentences that make you think. There is no additional context added by Kevin Kelley here so you have to fill in the gaps yourself. I went through each of them and took notes here on my favorites
My notes from The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquhart. This book absolutely blew my mind. It's the story of a British soldier that was captured by the Japanese during WWII. I read this book during a stressful period in my life but reading this made made my day struggles seem miniscule. Highly recommend reading this but not for the faint of heart.
Summary and my notes from Slow Productivity by Cal Newport. Cal's latest book is the answer to the hustle culture. Main takeaway is to focus on doing less and improving your output quality. Lots of interesting stories of artists that balanced out had a 'slow' approach to their projects and the resulting benefits they observed with their output.
Summary and my notes from 7 Rules of Power by Jeffrey Pfeffer. A great fundamental book on power. I love his writing style and the blend of stories to convey the principles laid out in this book. My goal was to subconsciously be aware of this core aspect of our human nature.
Summary and my notes from Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad. I picked this book up right before my first trip to Japan. It's a witty and fun read on a Britisher’s experience living all across Japan. Made me appreciate the culture reading this throughout the trip.
Summary and my notes from Same As Ever by Morgan Housel. Morgan's first book Psychology of Money is one of my favorite books and I didn't think this one could top that but it did. Morgan's perspective on focusing on things around us that have remained the same over the long time horizon is one that I will think of often. Please read.
Summary and my notes from Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. A book that truly changed my perspective on the topic of gathering. We often gather on auto-pilot without being mindful. After reading this book, I have a heightened sense of gatherings large and small. There is a ton of actionable advice that I took away.
Summary and notes from Ali Abdaal's Feel-Good Productivity. This book is a mesh of ideas and research from other productivity related books that didn't present any new ideas for me personally.
Summary and my notes from Win Every Argument by Mehdi Hasan. I think Mehdi Hasan undersells his work through the title of this book. He has managed to blend in a ton of actionable advice with memorable stories and research to craft a compelling message. I highly recommend the audible version of this book since Mehdi has actual recordings of debates (including some very interesting past…
Summary and notes from Shane Parrish's Clear Thinking. I've enjoyed reading Shane's Farnam Street blog over the years, and I was eager to grab this book. It had a slow start, but the ending was powerful. I particularly liked the parts about challenging our default behaviors and creating safeguards. The concept of making the invisible visible through writing was intriguing. I highly recommend…
Summary and notes from Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk. There are aspects of this book that are thoroughly inspiring and other parts skippable. Inspiring parts – Musk's strong focus on first principles thinking to build products from 0*1, his 'algorithm' to build products, the idiot index to optimize resources and finally his ability to take massive risks to achieve a grandiose vision. Highly…
My notes and review of the book "Outlive" by Peter Attia. It's a great (and long) read on how to improve your overall health span – an objective that Peter lays out for Medicine 3.0.
This is the full transcript of Steve Job's interview in 1995. His wisdom in this interview is priceless and hence I decided to share the transcript with key sections and my favorite highlights from the interview.
Summary and notes from Richard Rumelt's Good Strategy Bad Strategy. This book is a primer on where most organizations go wrong with bad strategy, and where they excel.
Summary and notes from Joan Magretta's Understanding Michael Porter. All of Michael Porter's seminal work on strategy covered by Joan. Great book.
Summary and notes from Marty Cagan's INSPIRED - How to Create Tech Products Customers Love. Strongly recommend this book to all modern tech product managers.
In this article, I explore the subject of harmful conversations on Twitter, the needs of Twitter users in this context, hypothesis of what solutions can help fulfil those needs, and finally solutions that can make Twitter conversations healthier and constructive.