š Celebrating cents, Operationalizing Taste, Become Bangalore, Creative power of walking
Surprising ways siblings shape our lives, Find your people & more
Hello, this is post #214.
One downside of moving farther from work is spending a lot more time in traffic. The routes are new and unpredictableāevery day feels like an experiment. But Iām not complaining. Iāve actually started enjoying longer podcast episodes and Audible books again. Thereās no better company in slow-moving Bangalore traffic than a great conversation that leaves you with a fresh idea or two.
Expect more podcast recommendations and conversations in the coming days. Iām still catching up on the video episodesāare those called podcasts too? Most of what I follow works just as well in audio, and thatās good enough for now.
Iām really excited about todayās lineupāsome great discussions and beautiful ideas to dive into. Hereās a quick look:
Weāve a lot to cover today, letās get started.
š§ Celebrating Cents and Other Customer Experience Wisdom with Fidji Simo
Patrick O'Shaughnessyās conversation with Instacart CEO Fidji Simo spans a wide range of topics and is packed with sharp insights on building great products and creating delightful user experiences.
Here are a few highlights I loved:
On the culture of celebrating cents (focus on hard things & celebrating every win) in Instacartā¦
ā¦ during my first week at Instacart, I remember joining our weekly business review, and there was a team that had managed to save $0.01 per delivery through a set of optimization. And as soon as they announced that, the whole room erupted in applause. And I remember thinking, oh, we celebrate cents here.
How Facebook approached product buildingā¦
I think it was a lot about understanding exactly what consumers wanted and also understanding little demand. And what I mean by that is the playbook at Facebook was really understanding what users were already doing with a product that wasn't necessarily built for that use case as a sign that there was something there that you could productize and do something bigger with.
How AI can create a huge shift in online commerce experienceā¦
And I think the biggest change that we're seeing with generative AI is the shift towards natural language. Because if you think about commerce fundamentally, it is a pretty weird experience online because you already need to know exactly which products you want, go into a search box, type that product, select that product, add it to a cart.
It is not how people think about their lives. They've gotten used to it because that's all we could do with the tools that we had..
If youāre interested in knowing more about Instacartās approach to business, I had covered it in Stay Curious #124
š Tactical Advice for Operationalizing Taste
Taste and craft are not about endless design reviews. Taste is finely-tuned intuition for what differentiates good from great ā and perhaps more importantly, the ability to explain why.
And thatās exactly why building or operationalizing ātasteā in a team is so hard. Itās subjective, often seen as a luxury, and usually questioned for its ROI or its impact on speed. But if you want a team that values craft and elevates quality, you have to push through these hurdles.
First Round Reviewās post, āThe Unsung Ingredient in Stripe, Square, and Linearās Success: Taste,ā breaks this down beautifully. Itās the most actionable take Iāve read on the topicāhighly recommended if you care about building with taste.
Hereās my favorite takeaway from the post:
š Becoming Bangalore by Roopa Pai
Stories make experiences richer. Iāve lived in Bangalore for over two decades, but never felt a deep personal connection with the city. To change that, I tried a few walking toursāand the stories I heard helped connect the dots. That sense of belonging grew stronger.
Wanting more, I picked up Becoming Bangalore by Roopa Pai. Itās a delightful collection of short essays filled with anecdotes, history, and cultural nuggets about the city. Every chapter brings a little āahaā moment, and her vivid storytelling makes it hard to put down.
If you live in Bangalore, this book is a must-read. And if youāre visiting, itās the kind of lightweight pre-read that will make your trip a lot more meaningful.
š Surprising Ways Siblings Shape Our Lives
This summer break has been different from what the kids are used to. We traveled right as the holidays began, so no summer camps. They spent time at their grandparentsā place, and then everyone came over for the housewarming. With all the moving around, they barely got time in their familiar spaceāexcept with each other.
Theyāve been inseparableāsometimes playing, sometimes fighting. Meher copies almost everything Saanvi does and competes hard to keep up.
Weāve always believed that kids learn a lot from their siblings, and this bond plays a big role in shaping who they become.
This New York Times essay, āThe Surprising Ways That Siblings Shape Our Livesā (archived version here), offers research-backed insights that echo what weāre seeing at home.
āIf parents are the fixed stars in the childās universe, the vaguely understood, distant but constant celestial spheres, siblings are the dazzling, sometimes scorching comets nearby,ā
There is one idea that repeats and is noteworthy.
Psychologists have long believed that siblings tend to find ways to differentiate themselves from one another, sharpening some edges, softening others, forcing one another into roles that can coexist within the space of their family.
Based on your own experience, what do you make of this?
š Creative Power of Walking
Craig Mod is one of my favorite discoveries from the world of newsletters. His āwalksā are a unique concept, and the stories he shares through them take you to a world unlike any travel writing you've read. In a short essay, he reflects on the āCreative Power of Walkingāāa brilliant peek into the process and philosophy that shape his work.
When Iām not talking, just walking (which is most of the time), I try to cultivate the most bored state of mind imaginable. A total void of stimulation beyond the immediate environment. My rules: No news, no social media, no podcasts, no music. No āteleporting,ā you could say. The phone, the great teleportation device, the great murderer of boredom. And yet, boredom: the great engine of creativity. I now believe with all my heart that itās only in the crushing silences of boredomāwithout all that black-mirror dopamine ā that you can access your deepest creative wells.
š Find Your People
Itās graduation season. I honestly donāt remember a single word from my own graduation speech. Most of them fade away, but the truly memorable ones have a few things in common: personal stories and one or two clear takeaways.
Last year, Roger Federer nailed it with life lessons from tennis. This year, Jessica Livingstonās speech at Bucknell University stood out for me. Iām linking the blog post with the transcript (and the YouTube video, if youād rather watch). Hereās the core of her message:
āSo let me remind you what I've told you: you've been able to go through life so far without steering much. If you want to, you can become more ambitious now, but to do that you have to start steering. You can't just drift. Thereāre a huge number of options, and you have to actively figure out which is the best for you. And the best way to do that is people. Find the interesting people.ā
Itās a short, meaningful talk and totally worth your time. I found it deeply relatable. Most of the good things in my journey happened because of the people around meāpeople who inspired me, opened doors, or simply had my back. Maybe I got lucky. Or maybe, thatās the kind of luck you make for yourself.
š¼ļø Reconnecting with the Outdoors
Ashok Nairās photo essay āReconnecting with the Outdoorsā is a visual treatāstunning photos paired with sharp, thoughtful observations on outdoor life. Itās storytelling at its finest.
One bit that I caught my attention:
Wildlife photography taught me things removed from nature too.
One of them was respecting different perspectives.
If you are sharing your vehicle with other photographers, it is a given that all of you will take different photographs of the same scene in front of you. Some might zoom in for a close up, others might go wider, some might take it from the window of the vehicle, while others might lean out and try to take a ground level shot. We look at each otherās work and then each of us will mentally decide if that other perspective was a better one or if we would prefer the one that we had.
It struck me that we rarely take such a generous and liberal position at work or in life.
āØ Everything else
The global checkered past of Madras Plaid. A fascinating Juggernaut post explores how a pattern born in Chennai became a symbol of African resistance and a staple of American prep. Itās a striking story of fabric, colonialism, and cultural exchange.
A few years ago, John Scalzi bought a church and turned it into a studio-meets-office for his creative work. Naturally, people had questionsāso he put together a āChurch FAQā to explain it all. Itās full of quirky, practical insights and definitely worth a read!
Simone Rosenbauer created a photobook as a tribute to the keepers of Australiaās tiniestāand quirkiestācollections, archives, and museums. I havenāt seen the full book yet, but this post offers a fun glimpse into its charm. By the way, if youāre in Banglaore, weāve some cool tiny museums as well. This reel lists some of the more popular ones from the lot.
ICYMIā¦
Hereās a quick link to last weekās post:
That's all for this week, folks!
I hope I've earned the privilege of your time.
If this piece sparked something for you, Iād love to hear what stood outāleave a comment and letās keep the conversation alive. And if you know someone whoās always asking "why?" or "how come?", pass this along to them. The world gets more interesting every time a curious mind shares what theyāve found.