18 Insights from 2023 | #103

A Year of Lessons, Growth, and Discovery

Dec 29, 2023

Every Friday, I share my process, thoughts, stories, ideas, and weekly recommendations. We're a community of 150+ curious people reading these newsletters.

2023 is about to end. I did a lot of things this year and I feel it was one of the best years of my life. I started doing internships this year, earned money, content creation, met new people, etc. It was no less than a roller coaster ride.

I made a lot of mistakes, but there were people to guide me and correct those mistakes. This year was full of learning. In this newsletter, I’ll share 18 lessons of this year and how I spent 2023.

Learnings from internships

Be consistent in whatever you are doing. Some of my work was repetitive, and I felt bored doing it. But after doing that, I learnt a lot about how to do work and do work every day, no matter how the environment or the work is.
Since I was getting bored by doing repetitive work, I spoke to a founder friend of mine about this and he advised me to have a goal or purpose in whatever you are doing. It can be money or learning, and have a motive attached to it. It will help me have motivation throughout the journey.
Nikhil, the founder of Hive School and a PGP student of Masters’ Union, asked me if I could join his startup in the founders’ office for website making and design work. I knew very less about website making and design, but still, I said yes to joining. Later on, we decided to make a website on Framer. I was very new to the tool. It supported the import of the website from Figma. Since I had tried using it, I decided to make a website on Figma and Framer and since I had the deadline for it, I learnt both tools in a week.
Moral: Even if you don’t know something, say yes to the opportunity and learn it faster. It helps to get out of procrastination and helps you get out of your comfort zone.
I saw a tweet from Vensy Krishna about her hiring an intern to manage her social media and she said if anyone was interested in applying, reply with ‘I’m interested’ and she’ll DM the details. Everyone was typing just ‘I’m interested’, but I went one step ahead and introduced myself in one sentence and shared my Proof of Work. That put me ahead in the queue and she noticed me. Be a little different and think out of the box.

Learnings from life

Boredom is great. I tried spending time with myself without any electronics. I realise it was great for generating random ideas. I learnt to spend time with myself.
I journaled and wrote newsletters consistently. Writing is great as it helps me generate ideas new ideas, do more research and learn new things, open my mind, tell stories and improve my writing. Writing is like talking to yourself as you are sitting with a pen and paper and just thinking and writing and reflecting upon it.
I am a very humorous person. I crack really bad jokes. Many people are really irritated by hearing my jokes, but I enjoy it. It’s like a laughter therapy for me.
I was reading The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and I read a quote that said “Inspiration is perishable, act on it immediately”. Whatever I did, I tried to take action immediately on it. I am still learning not to procrastinate to start doing work, but whenever I procrastinate, I try reflecting on the quote and start doing work.
I didn’t take the stress that was not in my hand. I saw a video of Varun Duggirala, where he was talking about Stoicism and he mentioned the point that resonated with me. I focused on what I could do, instead of thinking what might happen. If it was studying and scoring marks, I focused on studying or while writing a newsletter, I just focused on writing and not how many people will read it.
I started meeting amazing people on Twitter and I was reflecting on why I started doing it and I realised curiosity helped me a lot in it. There’s a lot to learn from others. Be curious and ask them questions. Ask them about their background, and the work they do, and talk about their culture, food, etc. There will be many unended answers and you can ask follow-ups on it.
I feel, that learning some skills is important. It will give you unfair advantages. I joined Hive School just because I learnt a few tools and I showed up. Start learning a few skills and start showing your Proof of Work.

Learnings from College

We like to teach others and we are not always learning. But wherever you go, go with the intent of learning and not teaching. In college, whenever I go to a CXO session or meet anyone, I ask them questions and learn from them. Be the stupidest person in the room and learn from everyone.
After coming to college and the hostel, I realised I had lost many things. Silence, privacy (to come extent), good food, etc. My parents told me to focus on what I have and don’t complain. I’ll gain some things and lose a few things. Focus on positivity and not complain every time.
Be aware of who you are friends with and do not go in the flow of what your friends say. Stick to what you think is right and do not say yes to everything that your friends say.
Coming to college and hostel made me realise the importance of family, good friends, food, good chai, home, etc. You don’t realise what you have until it’s gone.
If you are good at something but do not show up, people won’t know what you are good at. I was good with Notion and had worked with Vensy Krishna, Notion India Ambesator. My college planned to host a session on Notion and teach our UG batch Notuon. I told them I was good at it and could take a one-hour session on Notio 101. And I took it. Now, I a known as the Notion Guy in my college. If I hadn’t shown up, people would’ve known about me and what other things I do.

Learnings from content creation

I have been writing my newsletters consistently every Friday. It taught me to be consistent and no matter what, I have to post a newsletter every week.
Many times, you won’t feel creative. You won’t feel like doing creative work. But you have to force yourself and do it. It’s not like a river where creativity will always flow.

Weekly Recommendations

See all the precious weekly recommendations here: weeklyrecommendations.super.site

READ

Here are 50 simple things that you need to here: Read Here
Here are 100 simple truths that will inspire you a lot: Read Here

In this together,

Pranav ✌️

Reach out anytime! Email or DM me and I'll read it all and reply too.

My Email- aninquisitivestoryteller@gmail.com

Hit that 💚 if you liked today’s issue

The Diary of An Inquisitive Kid

Discussion about this post