#002: Divorce Lady Luck; bet on yourself instead
2020 is almost over. Don't let COVID-19's new mutated cousin stop you from thriving in 2021
Disclaimer: This edition was written by our community member, Varun Choraria.
Last week, we sent out our very first community newsletter , which brought in a lot of people to join our hermitage on slack. We spent most of the week acquainting ourselves, and so it felt right to share a few mental models around annual planning and introspection, that would help the community come closer to sharing progress and achieving goals.
How to thrive in a world that resists predictions, and why life is like a game of poker
2020 is almost over, and while you’re all busy with annual review and goal planning for the next year, introspect a little and ask yourself which were your best and worst decisions from the year. Chances are, you’ll land up naming your best and worst results, not your best and worst decisions. The reason we do this is because of hindsight bias and sunk cost fallacy.
Outcomes are largely path dependent, more than being isolated functions of either skill or luck alone. The way you game every outcome and mitigate risks and place bets carefully makes a world of a difference in increasing your decision-making quality, and therefore your eventual results.
Paras, how do you practise being grateful?
One of the things we are all trying to optimise for is serendipity, or a more happier life in general that is based on sincere gratefulness. As someone who has spent years building a mid-sized company, Paras had an interesting take on this, which he shared in #general:
Paras blocks time on his calendar to deeply think about who he is lucky to have in life, and makes active effort to gift them something memorable.
As someone young, I personally have made attempts to stick with a static goal, and upon achieving that, just focus on relaxation and enjoying the fruit of labor. It’s easy to fetishise about unlimited growth, but taking little pockets of time out to simply remain content with how far you’ve come is a great way to be more grateful.
On #random, another community member had shared this sometime ago, which explains the importance of being grateful precisely:
And so it grows
With a lot of people joining in this week, and here’s a quick intro about them. If you relate, do drop them a hello!
Saurabh Manwani, is soon joining an LMS startup as a BA. Aniket Kulkarni, from Pune, is a Mechanical Engineer who ended up in IT is now an MBA aspirant and is interested in early/mid-stage startups across various domains. Kapil Dev Soni is a Sr. Manager, Product Management and Market Intelligence with Enphase Energy. He loves to read and consume various forms of content!
Sumanth, from Bangalore, is helping maintain the India team of Anti-Money Laundering platforms, and is set to complete his MBA in BA in March’21. Sean Conner joined us from Austin, TX and runs a boutique litigation and support consulting firm, and tinkers a lot with ML, AI and NLP.
These were some of the people who’ve recently joined us, so head over to #general and network with so many others!
Many curious minds shared a lot of useful links and videos, that enabled us to expand our resonance calendar to more filters, like strategy, product management, marketing and growth.
Simple head over to our notion, filter the database, and binge away. We’re actively updating the database every week, so our very own curated knowledge base for community members is set to become immortal, but not overwhelming.
The more, the merrier.
Like any product or community, our growth is going to be open- we're always looking for people and ideas to test so we can grow more effectively, adding more value to a person than anyone else. You can check out this open stats page, where we’re attempting to document some interesting growth hacks and strategies to grow this community.
Ajay Balamurugadas, another one of our moderators, recently had an hour-long catchup with another member, Saurabh. It’s a really wonderful informal conversation you can listen in!
Also, do share this newsletter with your friends and colleagues. We’re already bribed all known deities across multiple universes, so your seat in heaven is secured for sure.
Some great discussions constantly happen in our slack channels. Be sure to take part!
Your friends and colleagues might be missing out
But they don’t have to. If you’re receiving this newsletter for the first time, or know someone who might love to join our community, then getting in is as easy and quick as hitting the button below.