Brag, sometimes

This essay is going to be a tad bit personal. It's an attempt to share an important viewpoint I hold and explain something about myself. This essay is also one that could serve as my response to Peter Thiel's famous question: "What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"

If you've read my blog's about-me section or visited my company's about-us page, you've probably noticed that I frequently mention my volunteering efforts. I mention them in my essays and post about them on my Instagram as well. Some might find this off-putting, which raises interesting questions: Why do I continue to talk about it openly? Why do I believe others should do the same? And perhaps most intriguingly, why does this make some people uncomfortable?

Read more

Deep Work and AI

There's an interesting parallel that I found in the mechanism that Cal Newport has proposed to quantify 'shallow work' in his book 'Deep Work' and in the mechanism that Andrew Ng has proposed to gauge what current LLMs (think ChatGPT, Google's Gemini or Microsoft Copilot) can or cannot do in DeepLearning.AI's course 'Generative AI for Everyone.'

Solo founders, your startup is not exactly a baby

If you have ever listened to entrepreneurs, whether publicly or in private, you would have, at some point, heard them refer to their startups as their babies.

There are indeed enough similarities between babies and startups. Founders create their startups. They care for it and are proud of it. They can't help but talk about it incessantly, dreaming of its success even in their sleep. They want it to be successful even after they're gone. It takes over their entire life and every decision they make. It doesn't care if they're asleep. It becomes entwined with their identity. The early days are exciting but also a struggle. If everything goes right, then after a point, it doesn't need them anymore to function correctly and succeed. It's a long-term commitment. Not everyone wants to or is naturally suited to have kids, and not everyone wants to or is naturally suited to start a company. But everyone can become better suited to it with some effort.

But lately, I noticed a fundamental similarity between babies and startups that bears many consequences for solo founders. Just like babies, startups take on the identities and values of their founders. This nuance makes solo-founder-led startups way harder.

Read more

AI Companies, but not for long

Nearly all companies claiming to be AI companies today, including mine, would not call themselves AI companies in a few years. There's a fascinating transformation underway, and understanding its nuances not only reveals the trajectory of AI but also unravels key insights into the dynamics of startups and technology.