Hello from Smoke House Deli.

And now from cab back home actually :p

Someone once told me never to work in a cab. If I have to, I should rather park myself at some cafe and finish things. And then make a move. I don’t know why but I have always taken that advice. Today, since I have a phone on low battery + nothing else to do for the next 40 mins + this piece to finish, I’ll take my liberties.

The day has been how days are. Part good, part bad. Equal proportions. But this post is not about that. Nimisha insisted I write about our conversations from the C4E table today. NimChan, here’s AK reporting. Some of these thoughts are inspired from our 3-hour chat.

One. If you ever have to stand in a line.

I’ve grown to like this particular protein bar from my college canteen. To get those, you have to stand in a queue, get coupons, trade coupon for the bar. A 10-minute activity, easily. I have great beef with having to do this. Many reasons — One. It’s so inefficient. Two. We greatly lack civic sense. Three. I don’t like standing in lines. It’s a random time sink.

So now, I ask my friends to add the bar to their orders. Or just wait for shorter lines. Or else, make friends with the cashier so I get it quicker. Either of these ways, I don’t want to be the one standing in long lines. Back to the point. I’ve been thinking about this — If you ever have to stand in any lines, you haven’t done enough in life. Canteens, concerts, airports, trial rooms, elevators, etc. You could make friends, buy your way, have wider distribution or have done work that makes lines shorter for you. Eventually, none.

I mean — I don’t know of anyone who has to never be in a line. But I don’t think Elon would spend time standing in random lines. And others of the ilk. I want to be that person. I should be that person. I must.

Two. Privilege.

If you have access to privilege of any kind in life, you better be using it to get ahead in life. If not, you’re doing disservice to your privilege. And others who could only ever dream of that access.

So, on the C4E table today, we discussed when and how using this privilege is right. And when does it become ego-maniacal. What’s the line between using and abusing it.

A thought experiment: If you are comfortable using your privilege/advantage to mould the world to your liking — how big should you go? And how small? When is it okay to be discomforted? And not?

Three. Power pose.

This is my opinion or hot-take, if I may. The power poses — particularly the joining your fingers and putting your hand forward thing, is a silly thing. Only people who know that this is a “power pose” perceive it as one. In this bubble, sitting and talking and acting by the power-playbook is just a function of how confident + comfortable you are assuming + taking that space. You just have to own it. For the remaining mortals, it’s just a silly posture. So that.

Four. The Inner Game of Tennis.

There’s this book I was reading today — The Inner Game of Tennis. Figured if I was on the road for an hour, I could make use of my time. The book talks about allowing yourself to do things — without putting excessive thought or pressure on how right or wrong you are.

My chapter was about focus. Here are a things I have underlined.

1. A child doesn’t have to break the habit of craving, because he doesn’t think he has a habit. He simply leaves it as he finds walking an easier way to get around.
2. When one has tried hard to perform an action “right,” it is difficult not to become either frustrated at failure or anxious about success. Both emotions are distracting to one’s focus, and prevent fill experiencing of what happens. Negative judgment of the results of one’s efforts tends to make one try even harder; positive evaluation tends to make one try to force oneself into the same pattern on the next shot.
3. In the context of tennis, but applies everywhere: So the question arises as to how to maintain focus for extended periods of time. The best way is to allow yourself to get interested in the ball. How do you do this? By not thinking you already know all about it, no matter how many thousands of balls you have seen in your life. Not assuming you already know is a powerful principle of focus.

Five. If you can think it out, it’s done.

So, were were talking about how the world would evolve 10 years in the future. Tech is going to be a huge part of this. Here’s an interesting idea.

Think of a designer. She wants to make a brand logo. What does she do?

20 years ago, she would sketch some concepts on pen and paper. Manually digitise them. Print some samples, see what works. Then came the tabs and styluses and note-taking tools. You could scribble, use multiple pen styles, save them, duplicate copies, revisit, etc etc. Eventually, you’d use some expensive software to make the final version. Then the Canvas and Figmas of the world came in. Collaborative. More supportive. Built-in shapes, better tools, all that.

But where are we now? Merlin and ChatGPT and Claude and Grok and Firefly and more can help you design things. Based off texts. You literally talk to an interface, add some references, iterate. And et voila, you can do most of the light-weight jobs like this. But you still have to transfer what’s in your mind to the computer and a lot of if gets lost in communication.

Now look forward. Don’t you think there could be tools that could capture our vision from our minds and make them into real things? Logos? Mood-boards? Prototypes? Imagine the efficiency. Exhilarating!

Six. The middle class of all industries will disappear.

AI is changing and will continue to change the job market a lot. While I’ve heard many takes and perspectives on this — here’s an interesting one. The middle class of any industry will disappear.

Now, this comes from an Analytics India Mag article specifically about tech. You can read the full piece here but let me give you a quick summary.

The tech job market is polarising — either you need engineers working on frontier tech. Or product builders who use AI to build independent products. Jobs in the middle are slowly vanishing. Thanks to AI, tasks that required large tech teams can be now automated and executed with higher efficiency. Thus, reduced hiring.

Thing is: Middle class for all industries will slowly vanish. You have highly skilled people who can continually offer better solutions with AI. And others who can work on what can’t be automated. There will be a chasm between the two. AI will be the bridge. And the longer you wait on the sidelines, the harder it becomes to cross.

Lastly. Micro-thoughts from the day.

1. Happy women’s day. This time around, I’m pretty cynical about it. Particularly irritated with all the brands using it to sell something. From their lens, its also fair. I’m not a fan though. However, I do realise the good that comes from the existence of these ear-marked days to celebrate women.
   1. Even if a tokenist policy touches the life of someone around the world, all the shebang is worth it.
2. Also, if it’s one day where some of reminded to take out time and geuninely appreciate the women in our lives, why not?
3. Was chilling with a few friends and felt like an observer. Un-embedded in the conversation. That’s a funny feeling.
4. Had some amazing dinner with folks from C4E at Smoke House Deli. You’ll find pictures!
5. Had a graphic design exam where I forgot how to make triangles in Illustrator. Made a silly visiting card instead.
6. Have started having Saurabh’s Sattoo smoothies for lunch and oh boy — they’re so filling.
7. Wore a pretty dress, felt cute after a long time. Didn’t have a friend to fit-check with.
8. Oh, NimChan, if you’re reading this. There was also a longer chat about building community that I didn’t write about. Call you tomorrow 🙂

And this is it folks. See you soon.