Codex Vitae

1: Meta-beliefs about Life Principles

• The only way to know if a principle is right for you is to live with it. And even then your situation will change. Therefore, the beliefs in this document represent strong opinions loosely held. They will change.

2: Personal Principles

• Love, Curiosity, Courage & Faith are values that I embody.

• Motto: Nirbhav Nirvair

• Don't kill your what-ifs, and don't let your what-ifs kill you.

• Character > Reputation

1: Productivity

• Focus on starting. 

• When in doubt, manufacture momentum. Write a bad first draft.

• Creativity Faucet: Visualize your creativity as a backed-up pipe of water. The first mile is packed with wastewater. This wastewater must be emptied before the clear water arrives. Because your pipe has only one faucet, there's no shortcut to achieving clarity other than first emptying the wastewater.

• I am happiest when I’m learning or building something.

2: Emotional Health

• Always try to avoid social comparison — it is a common root of unhappiness and poor decisions.

• Speak to a friend or a family member every day. 

• Nature provides a spiritual reset, more so the further you get from civilization. 

1: Career

• Optimise for Feel, Impact and Value. 

• It is okay to not have a perfectly charted trajectory. I approach work as a gradient descent problem.

2: Business

• Trust is most important. 

• I am not a theoretical maximalist entrepreneur. Optimize for business principles that are right for me.

• "At all costs" is a dangerous path that I will avoid at all costs. (I am aware this is a paradox)

• Marketing is the moral obligation of a product person — people need to hear about wonderful things.

1: Strangers

• People are inherently good. Bad actions come from bad situations.

• Everyone knows something I don't. 

• People around the world are very similar while being very different.

• Travelling the world is the best way to expand your mind.

2: Friends

• Friendship springs from two sources, shared experience, and natural chemistry. Watch for the chemistry and bet on it, because chemistry is forever.

• Know who your close friends are and invest in them.

• True friends require low upkeep - they are the ones you can pick up with after months or even years of radio silence, as if no time has passed at all. 

• Friendship cannot be measured in the frequency of our interactions, but in the depth of our connections.

• Welham is a brotherhood. Every senior is a role model (positive or negative). Set high standards for your juniors. 

• Avoid balance-sheet friendships. 

• Friends with partners have not abandoned you. They are actually prisoners in their own lives.

1: Food

• Best Ice Cream: Amorino's Dulce de Leche. (Blog about my favourite ice creams from around the world)

• Best Pizza: Diavola at L’antica pizzeria da Michele, Berlin, Germany

• Best Fizzy Drink: Almdudler

2: Books

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

• Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom

• 1984 - George Orwell

• The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

3: Movies 

Bollywood

• Taare Zameen Par

• Dil Dhadakne Do 

• 3 Idiots 

• Swades

• Ankhon Dekhi

• Rang De Basanti

• Jab We Met

• Kal Ho Na Ho 

• Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

• Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

• Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

• Haider

• The Lunchbox

• Tamasha 

• Masaan 

Not Bollywood

• About Time

• Interstellar

• Most Marvel Movie 

• Inglorious Bastards

• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

• Triangle of Sadness

• The Pursuit of Happiness

• The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

• Everything Everywhere All at Once

• Amélie 

• The Dark Knight

• Avatar

• Inside Out

• The Lion King 

• Wall-E

• Jerry Maguire