Vibeart #1

 

The 'difference' market

There is a whole market we're all categorically ignoring. 

Let's call it the 'difference market.' A collective of various small markets. 

This market thrives on doing things differently. 

This market operates with a different set of values. 

A different set of morals. 

They see, perceive, communicate differently. 

Does not mean they do not make sense. 

Just means that the mainstream chooses to interpret it as nonsense. 

The way the mainstream operates is to 'correct' everything in templatized formats. 

'x' condition = 'y' treatment. 'z' behavior = 'a' corrective measure. 

Or create an environment so toxic that whoever doesn't seem compliant is categorically marginalized. 

And that marginalization leads to behaviors and manifestations and presentations that are then sought to be corrected. 

And through it, money made. 

There's business in creating the false illusion of order. 

There's business in the mainstream because the mainstream is rewarded. 

There's isolation in marginalization because difference is penalized. 

In order to make business out of the difference market, 

Difference needs to come out of isolation. 

And be integrated into the mainstream. 

Market Research A-Z done!

How cool. Did a short certificate course from Udemy and got a certificate for it. 

One which doesn't even have my last name on it. Like it's such a cazh thing. 

Am I so excited about it that I'll put it up on LI and make a post about it? Mmm... don't think so. 

Do I love it and am proud of myself now? Oh yeah. 

Course was decent. 

Today's meetings and other work

Had two of 'em.

Prateek Shah runs www.digitaldefynd.com, a website that provides and links back to different kinds of courses from around the Internet. 

I've been following him on LinkedIn for about 5 or 6 years. He's got this zen approach to life and his work that I really resonate with. Unlike most mainstream entrepreneur stories, I find his to be most relatable.

A few days ago he put out a message on LI saying he was looking to connect to entrepreneurs, and coach and mentor the younger lot. I may not be a whole lot younger than him, but I took this opportunity and sent him a message. I said I would like to speak to him, and he was so nice and agreed almost immediately. 

We set it up for 9 pm tonight, and I got off the call with him just a couple hours ago.

Key takeaways: 

1. Entrepreneurship is all about mental fitness. 
   
   
2. When everything goes wrong... the people who can survive those phases, that's real entrepreneurship. 
   
   
3. An easy business is an oxymoron. 
   
   
4. You learn to become tougher, wiser, and outgrow certain things. 
   
   
5. Most entrepreneurship is behind the scenes work. 

We spoke about the loneliness most entrepreneurs deal with. And that incessant networking is a total waste of time, and time spent on product iteration is time better spent. 

Going to keep in touch with him and connect every so often just to check in and exchange stories. Gots to make friends on this journey, or it'll always be lonely. 

Our second meeting was with Ferose VR. It was about something we might be planning to work on together. 

The Ferose meeting went on for 2 hours, and some decent ideas were discussed. 

We might be going to the India Inclusion Fest, which he runs, in Bengaluru next month. 

Also, we sat and mastered the Spectrum showreel today, voiced by none other than Ashwin Mushran. 

I think it's come out pretty solid. Think the plan is to post it tomorrow, but will have to check with the boss. 

That's all. Onto work stuff. 

G'bye. 

10K on Instaaalalalala :)

What a day to hit 10K on IG.

First - it's 10/10. 

Second - it's World Mental Health day. 

My mental health hasn't been the best of late, just because of the sheer amount of work there is. 

I find it hard to keep pace with my schedule. Almost every day, two or three things from my check list keep getting pushed over into the next day. And this has been happening for at least two-three months now, so I'm kind of exhausted trying to find a solution to it. 

I keep nodding off during my Headspace breaks. I don't know what that is, but it's literally never happened before. So mindfulness breaks haven't been too effective of late, either. 

But all that takes a backseat just temporarily when you see the IG counter nudge from 9,999 to 10K. And it comes to the front again when it rolls back to 9,999. 

And this happens a couple of times, before it finally crosses 10,100 later that day and you can rest assured it won't go back.

Or will it? 

So yes, that's about it. 

Here's a link: our IG 

Lived Experience ft Rahul Jindal

We did a short interview with Rahul on our Hyderabad trip two months ago. In it we discussed a bunch of things, including his connection to Neurodiversity and the work he's done in this space at Google.

It was quite a free flowing chat. We came back, put all of it on a timeline, and after some serious consideration were able to find ~3 episodes worth of good material. That's a decent amount for a ~2 hour chat. Goes to show what an amazing speaker he is, not to mention a powerhouse of information. 

We released episode 1 of the chat today. 

And since we're already running a property on IG by the name of Lived Experience, it just made sense to go with the same name on YT as well. 

Who's going to consolidate and keep so many properties running? 

Us, that's who.

Yes, that was a rhetorical question, Jim, and you failed. Idiot. 

So here goes:

Identity shifting and us

I was talking to KP earlier today and he mentioned something about identities.

He says identity shifting is a thing among Autistics. Like you have different identities, and you shift between them depending on who you're with and where you are.

I relate so hard. 

It's a technique actors employ because it helps them explore the full potential of their craft. 

The bottomline is - you can literally construct whatever identity you want of yourself. All you need to do is keep mentally reinforcing it, and you push yourself to become that person. 

Almost made me wonder what the different aspects of my identity are. 

What they are currently, and also where I see myself in the future, so what identities I could take on in the present for me to get organically to my future ideal self? 

Gotta sit and spend some time on this. 

Small joys that make sense

So been having a pretty fuck all week. Can't really pinpoint why. But it's usually quite bad mental health-wise around Dussehra-Diwali. 

So anyway, guess what (of all things) took away a huge chunk of my stress today? 

Discovering Premiere Pro has a transcription mode! And it's quite kickass.

We were at edits and meddling around with Premiere when I spotted this open Effects box that read 'Transcript'. I had our editor click on it, and a progress bar popped up. There was a video in the timeline that we had been working, and the bar took about 5 minutes to fill up, during which time nothing happened.

So I threw on the latest Brian Eno track on Spotify. 

Brian fucking Eno is a millionaire. His net worth is $60 million! 60 fucking million dollars! Not only is he a first-rate genius, he's a goddamned rich genius. The best kind there is to be. 

Anyway, so by this time the progress bar had reached the other end. And guess what awaited us on the other side?

Oh sweet subtitles, transcribed almost 95% correctly. Except for a few names (Rahul became David... fuck knows how) and some places, everything else (including the font, placement and text size) was bang on. 

I became delirious for a bit. These are the small joys that make sense in life. Like saving so much time (and a little bit of money) commissioning subtitles for each and every fucking video we do. 

This is going to sort things out quite well. 

On a separate note, a few days ago I took out our old 5G router and connected it to the existing router we have. I put out a long LAN cable from the new router to the old one and voila! we now have high-speed Internet in the office! It was like 20 Mbps earlier, and now it's a crazy 200 Mbps. 

This is another one of those small joys that really make sense. Also turned around an otherwise pretty shit day.

Anywho - here's hoping the future is full of shit days so small joys that make sense can happen more and more frequently.