Diary of a CEO: Hard Work Does Not Matter - Netflix Co-Founder Marc Randolph

The headline is a bit clickbait-y here. Hard work is important. In fact, Marc Randolph’s career is made of hard work. However, he treis to emphasize that hard work goes along with all the other priorities you have in life. It’s rare for a successful startup founder to speak on values, empathy, prioritizing family, etc. I think we always think of uber-successful founders to be assholes— think Mark Zuckerburg’s portrayal in The Social Network or Jeff Bezos. Marc Randolph embodies the opposing argument to that claim. His navigation of working with a cofounder, finding his wife, and having a balance is a refreshing take.

Good exercise. (Haven’t done it yet myself)

USVC and Why Crypto Should Pay Attention - OnKey

Good overview of USVC, which blew up this week. An alternative way to invest in private companies outside of the secondary market. Naval Ravikant’s fund which uses a fee structure for regular people to invest in spread of companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. The best part is the minimum commit of $500 which is rare and not the case for other popular companies like Fundrise, MicroVentures, etc

for the record

the cost of the unlived life

Watch the video diary of this topic on youtube…

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6 months ago · 15491 likes · 386 comments · sydney rheeder 𖣠

Feel like I’m going to keep having these weekly. Reading this felt like a good reminder to get out of your environment and live a little. I like the narrative structure too. It breaks up into different snapshots of a travel journey.

Ramp’s Head of Internal AI wrote this piece on Glass, an internal tool Ramp has recently developed for their employees. Big questions I had after reading it was— What is the future of AI internal tooling? Will companies start to just develop their own AI tools instead of buying external products? To me, it seems like a no-brainer for large enterprise organizations that value compliance and security to just start hiring for AI builders in an extremely dense talent pool market to start building out their internal AI organizations to build tools like Glass. What Ramp built here essentially is a replacement for buying five to six different AI products. And not only did they save money on buying products, they also trained their internal talent on how to build AI systems. It’s a win-win.

The improvement journal

An hour a day is all you need.

You’re Already Following a Routine, You Just Didn’t Design It…

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a year ago · 16759 likes · 154 comments · pathsofstoicism

A mental sanity piece of what it means to have a routine. Also which ways you can protect your routine. And how to keep certain hours of your day sacred. Short, simple article but just need it as a reminder sometimes.

Big Think

The real reason some people are instantly likable

by Francesca Tighinean…

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2 months ago · 5160 likes · 102 comments · Big Think and Francesca Tighinean

I feel like this was a timely article for summer in New York since people are coming out of hibernation now. Interesting points made in this article, especially some points being made about how the nervous system plays a role in your social interactions. we pre-defined our perceptions, and I feel like we’re so in our head when having social interactions. Sometimes it’s better to just take a deep breath and take a positive attitude on different interactions. Easier said than done, though. That’s also probably why alcohol works so well for people in social settings.

Here’s a sharper, more polished version with tighter logic and stronger flow:

The article lays out a clear vision for Block’s future organizational structure: a flat AI centric hierarchy. The core argument being modern middle management is no longer essential. As AI absorbs coordination, reporting, and execution layers, companies like Block are using this shift to justify cutting entire tiers of managers. Jack Dorsey’s argument is simple: there are no more layers needed.

What makes this especially consequential is not just the internal impact at Block, but the signal it sends externally. Block could be just the first of many. If CEOs and founders begin to adopt this mindset broadly, the implications are obvious. A purge for middle managers. This will especially be true in Silicon Valley where the MO has always been a copycat ecosystem, and ideas that demonstrate efficiency gains tend to spread quickly.

If Block’s AI-first model delivers strong outcomes, it could legitimize a new hiring philosophy and it’ll be interesting to keep an eye on Square to see how it performs in the following quarters.

Andrej Karpathy’s Twitter

Karpathy is a genius. His twitter is just an interesting read at the edge of AI research. His latest tweet should be considered for how people should structure their personal LLM tools to maximize context based learning. With the md and file structure highlighted in his tweet, you can create a knowledge base to answer questions for a specific topic, etc.

Diary of A CEO: Anti Aging

Dr. Rhonda Patrick breaks down the impact of common diet, lifestyle and sleep patterns that people commonly have and what effects they have on our aging process. From something as simple as the plans in your kitchen to more complex, like the breakdown of visceral fats, I found this podcast to be extremely compelling on how simple lifestyle changes can actually lead to anti-aging effects. Highly recommend this podcast as one you take notes on, as Dr. Patrick highlights, supplements, foods, and products you can buy to improve your health. Especially interested in the first 30 minutes on the dialogue on visceral fats: what they are, how you can detect them and why they are so bad. I’m getting a body scan immediately after listening to this.

How To Build Taste

Taste. It almost seems like that’s the word of 2026. We’ve heard from CEOs and thought leaders who have deemed ‘having taste’ an indicator for what success will be in the era of AI. But what the heck is taste? Andrew Yeung’s how-to guide provides an useful discourse on steps you can take to improve taste in your day-to-day. Some highlights include: articulating why through your actions, making coherent choices, being observant, and, my most favorite, stepping outside your algorithm.

I come from a naturally cost-conscious South Asian community in the Bay Area. Growing up, we were taught the “correct” path early: perform in high school, get into a top college, land a high-paying job, save aggressively, and build a stable life.

Deviation was a risk. Having fun, as a concept, was taboo, maybe even irresponsible.

Here’s the lesson I’ve learned early in life:

You’ll lose every time to someone who’s having more fun than you.

Not because they’re unserious.
But because they’re dangerous.

Almost every “advice for your 20s” article provides similar advice: live in a big metropolitan city.

The explanation is usually vague: opportunity, people, exposure.

The real reason is fear.

Fear of missing out.
Fear of falling behind.
Fear that if you don’t follow the proven path, you’ll lose your edge.

But there’s a quieter truth we rarely acknowledge: many of us were conditioned to take life seriously from the start. And carry that same mentality all the way through until we find safety in stability.

We learned early that responsibility equals virtue. That fun is something you can only find long after you achieve success.

And at some point, fun became synonymous with slacking off.

That’s a mistake.

One of my favorite people to study is Stephen Curry.

Not because of the way he shoots the basketball, but because of the way he approaches his craft.

He plays with joy. Miss or make, championship or not, he looks like someone who wants to be there. I grew up watching someone who frustrated his competition, not just because he dominated, but because he did it while smiling.

Joy creates a mentality: no quit, no resentment, no emotional fatigue.

People like Steph:

• practice longer because they enjoy repetition

• recover faster because losses don’t crush them

• take creative risks because failure isn’t fatal

They say yes faster. They stay free and stay in the present. They compound effort without burning out.

That’s the edge.

Fun isn’t a mood. It’s a strategy.

It generates energy.
Energy fuels consistency.
Consistency creates leverage.

You can’t outwork someone who enjoys the work.
You can’t outthink someone who isn’t exhausted by thinking.

Life isn’t always fun. It’s going through curveballs your way. Steph has had thousands thrown his direction.

But there’s a difference between difficulty that drains you and difficulty that sharpens you.

If something isn’t fun—even in a twisted, challenging way—you won’t last.
You might fake it for a year. Maybe two.

But eventually, resentment shows up.
And resentment kills your game.

In the past year, New York has challenged me socially, physically, and mentally.

It hasn’t always been easy.
It hasn’t always been comfortable.

But it’s been fun.

That fun created a feedback loop:
The more I enjoyed the challenge,
the more I grew,
the more I wanted to push.

You can analyze your life endlessly.
Optimize the company.
Model the career.
Pick the “right” path for you.

None of it matters if you don’t enjoy the process.

The people who win aren’t just grinding harder.
They’re enjoying longer.

So here’s my two cents— whether you’re in your 20s or not:

Find something fun.
Make it your competitive advantage.

Because in the long run, joy scales.
Discipline burns out.

And the person still smiling years from now usually wins.