This month, China has overtaken USA as the No.1 Technology king with 3 announcements in different fields of Technology:
1. Deepseek outperforming OpenAI alternatives
2. Chinese Quantum Computers beats Google benchmarks
3. BYD unveils 5 min EV charging
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/byd-unveils-battery-system-that-charges-evs-in-5-minutes
RIP USA! Our condolences!
Hyderabad is one of the most experience-rich cities in India—if you know where to look.
One of the easiest ways to improve your Experience Portfolio is to systematically explore what your city already offers.
Here’s my curated Experience Map of Hyderabad.
1. Annual Events & Festivals
These are recurring experiences worth putting on your calendar every year.
January
Kite Festival during Sankranti
February
March
Holi celebrations across the city
April
World Jazz Festival at Shilpakala Vedika
August
September
Design Democracy at HITEX
October
Navratri celebrations and Garba events
December
Throughout the year
One of Hyderabad’s hidden gems.
A community-driven cultural space that hosts:
There are also active board game communities that regularly host meetups across Hyderabad.
Fun, casual, and surprisingly competitive.
A unique experience most people never try. In Madhapur.
A niche hobby with a dedicated community. In Secunderabad. (Preferably with at least 4 people so that it is fun)
Several venues across the city offer immersive experiences.
Classic social games that never get old. At multiple places in the city.
One of the most underrated experience categories.
https://in.bookmyshow.com/explore/events-hyderabad
Workshops frequently available include:
https://in.bookmyshow.com/explore/events-hyderabad
Watch professionals.Hyderabad regularly hosts major artists and touring performers.
https://in.bookmyshow.com/explore/events-hyderabad
https://insider.in/all-events-in-hyderabad
Multiple styles available throughout the city.
Learn:
One lesson can become a lifelong hobby.
Meet complete strangers.
Practice conversation.
Expand your social circle.
Even if romance isn’t your goal, it’s a fascinating social experiment.
One of the easiest ways to discover communities built around shared interests.
Experiences that test comfort zones while improving recovery and resilience.
Learn cuisines, techniques, and cultures through food.
The experience stays with you long after the meal is over.
Explore events hosted by:
German cultural groups - https://hyderabad.german.in/events
Language communities
Embassy-linked programs - https://hyderabad.afindia.org/events/categories/events/
A small glimpse into other parts of the world without boarding a plane.
A reminder that films can be experiences, not just entertainment.
One of life's simple pleasures is music.
Unfortunately, we do not spend time to discover new types of music which can bring us peace or uplifting spirits or make us curious. Also, when we hear some amazing music, rarely do we find out the song and the artist, store it and go home and add them to our playlist. Even, sharing of good songs has got limited in today's individualistic society.
Over the last 1 year or so, I have discovered and got into 3 music cycles.
These music cycles are "current" list of liked songs which I hear frequently keeps changing every 6 months or some based on some new discoveries and mood.
A year ago, I was in love this this artist and song and kept hearing it again and again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWOrd50HYa4
Here are a few amazing library of songs from Hamidshax on Amazon Music:
Crazy, Lose Control, In my life, With me, Together, Let it be, Wait for me, Dreams and many more
Here are a few uplifting songs with fantastic beats:
https://youtu.be/d4u_N7NU6LA?si=cup4IEZ1vB0ewI_K
https://youtu.be/6r9slZ3wKgI?si=iDxPEjUoLjvcpTAJ
https://youtu.be/tqUdnXaMPI4?si=e5YmtPvNcZBJoIo-
Sometime over the last few months, I heard a podcast which said the following:
If the challenge is greater than the capability, it is demotivating.
If the challenge is less than the capability, it is boring.
To be motivated, the challenge should be slightly more than the capability. This leads to figuring it out, learning and growing.
In the book, 12 rules for life, Jordan Peterson talks about order and chaos in the form of the famous yin and yang Chinese symbol.
One side is order and the other is chaos.
Too much order and nothing grows.
Too much chaos and it is overwhelming and no growth.
The middle curved line is the balance between order and chaos which leads to growth.
2 different ways to understand and express how to achieve growth.
We should be planning our goals, tasks, to be on this middle line in multiple aspects of life.
Over the last 20 years, there has been multiple disquiets about the de-dollarisation.
1. It has been stated that USA went to war with Iraq overthrowing Saddam Hussain and Libya overthrowing Gadaffi as these oil producers were exploring selling oil in currencies other than dollars, thereby removing USD hegemony.
2. Wars - The USA didn't do any favours for itself by constantly raising it's debt levels and printing more dollars and starting wars around the world directly like Iraq, Afghanistan or indirectly in Ukraine by expanding NATO countries continuously and then funding Ukraine. Also, funding Israel for it's war in Gaza.
3. BRICS - Over the last 10 years, the formation of the BRICS currency gained ground which would compete with the US dollar globally and almost all nations in the world trade with one or more of the BRICS countries.
The inter trade itself among BRICS countries itself is huge. Plus, the potential of Saudi Arabia, being the world's largest oil producer, joining this alliance adds weight to the the new currency and more transactions.
4. Crypto currencies - The other counter weight underdog which has been waiting in the wings is crypto currencies. These have certain features of non-manipulation which is necessary to avoid the manipulation of countries and bring accountability to the countries.
The call of the imminent fall of the dollar is increasingly going up. The following are evidences.
5. Big US based investors/ companies have accumulated crypto currencies. The current US administration of declaring to having a strategic crypto currency reserve. This means that it is moving away from Gold reserves to this.
6. The open talk by the current US administration of auditing fort Knox to check if the US gold is really there. This further highlights that maybe there is no actual gold there and it is a bogus trust. Adding Crypto currencies is a countermeasure to add value and trust.
7. Maybe, this in consonance with the tariff wars will bring down the value of the dollar and make it competitive enough to start manufacturing again. But, can the USA citizens afford the high cost of imports once the dollar goes down?
This would degrade the lifestyles and would become a true developing class nation which got hidden as a developed country just because of printing own money and having it's value just because it was a reserve currency and everyone traded in it.
I have been watching these signs over the years and for the last 2 years came to the conclusion that the USD would fall substantially over the next 5-10 years.
My prediction gets more substantiated when a famous investor like Ray Dalio starts ads on instagram on a book on the fall of nations indirectly or directly talks about the USA.
Update 4 Apr 2025: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has joined the chorus of voices warning that the U.S. dollar's reserve currency status is at risk. Unlike most, however, he has gone one step further to suggest a likely replacement: Bitcoin.
Put effort to pull or push someone up in life
or
To leave people where they are.
The Dilemma occurs when you really want someone to succeed and want to push them to achieve things but they are not that serious about it and you are left wondering is it worth the time and effort to do this.
For a first generation entrepreneur, not being in the right circles, it is difficult to find mentors.
I have almost lost a decade without the mentors for which I regret.
But, the interesting part I have recently discovered and explored is that you can make certain popular people your mentors and follow their fantastic advice to advance in all aspects of life.
A few people I consider my mentors today and follow their articles rigourously and are actively shaping my thoughts:
Naval Ravikant - Philosophy, leverage (https://www.instagram.com/naval/?hl=en)
Dan Koe - Purpose, Self, The future skills, writing, creativity (https://www.instagram.com/thedankoe/?hl=en)
Hormozi - Productivity and leveling up (https://www.instagram.com/hormozi/?hl=en)
Vusi Thembekwayo - Entrepreneurship, Business marketing and sales (https://www.instagram.com/vusithembekwayo/?hl=en)
Benjamin Hardy - The future you (https://www.instagram.com/drbenjaminhardy/?hl=en)
Jesse Itzler - Living life to the fullest (https://www.instagram.com/jesseitzler/?hl=en)
Mark Manson - Insightful topics on self
A year ago, I considered the following as my mentors:
Patrick Bet David - Entrepreneurship, Strategy (https://www.instagram.com/patrickbetdavid/?hl=en)
Elon Musk - For his hard working ethics.
John Wick - for fire fighting insane number of problems as an entrepreneur.
As I now realise, the today's mentors I follow are more relevant to learn from and the previous mentors are more inspirational than anything particular to learn from.
Finding the right mentors and changing them as part of our evolution of changing needs is progress.
Some statistics I got to know recently:
1. 1 in 9 people or 11% are expected to get cancer
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36510887/
2. 10-15% of couples in India have infertility issues
3. In US, the age of first menstruation has reduced by over 4 years compared to history from 16 to 12 years. One of the reasons stated is higher estrogen release due to effect of ingestion of micro plastics.
4. Obesity and heart disease is on the increase everywhere.
The health issues trends we are seeing are not encouraging as a society.
The attitudes, the priorities, the marketing of non-sense things have eaten up the upcoming generation wholly, and a huge part of the existing working generation. The retired generation was only partially affected by this.
However, our granparents generation are least affected by it as at that time, there wasn't that much communication and marketing. They lived on basic, healthy and sustainable things unlike the future generations where contamination started.
What kinds of contamination?
1. Food - from natural to genetically modified, excess use of pesticides and fertilizers, harmones and antibiotics in farmed animals, synthetics and colours.
2. Drinks and beverages - chemical concoctions as carbonated drinks, excess drinking by people, a lot of things being consumed in plastics enabling ingestion of microplastics (from tea bags, cool drinks, etc)
3. Promoting Immediate gratification with negative effects versus over long term gratification with real benefits.
4. Pharma Businesses buying out the researches and giving bad advice and concocting grand schemes to make more money.
5. Fake news confusing everyone.
In these kinds of times, it is best to adopt philosophies on food, health, items from not this generation but from what our grandparents had used as they were pure, raw and uncontaminated.
