You can’t chase productivity directly.

It's like happiness or wealth. The moment you pursue it head-on, it slips away.

Happiness, wealth, and productivity are side effects, not first-order results.

1/16

Happy people aren’t happy because they optimise for happiness.
They’re happy because they’re doing things that feel meaningful to them.

Wealth works the same way.
You don’t get rich by chasing money.
You get rich by creating value and knowing how to ask for your share.

2/16

Productivity, belongs in the same category.

You don’t become productive by obsessing over output, hacks, or tools.
You become productive when your life has direction.

3/16

For a long time, I tried the usual routes.
GTD
Notion dashboards
Todoist lists

Some worked for a while. Most didn’t stick.

Not because they were bad.
But because they weren’t mine.

4/16

What finally helped was stepping back and asking a different question:
“What kind of life am I trying to build?”

Not next year.
At the end.

Start with the end.

5/16

If you want to go somewhere, the best way is to enter the destination into Google Maps and follow the directions.

Yet, in life, we often believe we can wander aimlessly and still reach a great destination.

Not happening.

6/16

Stephen Covey suggests writing your own obituary.
That idea stayed with me.

What would my wife say?
My children?
The people I worked with?

That question quietly killed a lot of unnecessary goals.

7/16

I wrote my obituary here: https://www.jjude.com/my-obituary/

That one exercise alone brought me more clarity than anything else.

8/16

With that solid foundation, I wrote my life's objective

"Create wealth by systematically building skills to generate and exploit options"

9/16

Now everything I do revolve around "earning the obituary" or meeting "life's objective"

When I find something tough, I remind "why" I am doing what I'm doing.

I can then ask, is this suffering worth it? Should I undergo? Is there any other way to achieve what I want to do.

10/16

With this clarity my productivity system takes a different shape.

I start with "Areas" I want to improve or focus. Areas for me are:

Wealth
Insights
Network
Self

Every 12 weeks, I try to get WINS

11/16

For every area, I figure out what "Results" I want to achieve.

Talking about results (goals), we usually have only "have" goals:
- buy a house
- buy a car
- get promoted

Mostly these "have" goals are also mimetically borrowed.

12/16

For each "have" goal, I try to set "do" goals.

"Do" goals are the tasks I must do to get what I want to have.

Neither can be accomplished if your "being" is different. 

You need "be" goals—what you need to be in order to do and ultimately gain.

Three goals: https://www.jjude.com/three-goals/

13/16

These tasks need to be scheduled.

All time-bound tasks are in the calendar.

Other tasks are in a long text file. These tasks are in the next-action format. They are not vague; they are specific.

Every week, I set aside a block of time to pick tasks and complete them.

14/16

Every Sunday evening, I sit down to review my week and plan for the next week.

I primarily ask: 
- what did I do well, why? 
- what didn't go well, why?
- what changes I need to do
- what should I pursue 10x?
- what should I stop doing

More here: https://www.jjude.com/weekly-review/

15/16

Productivity Is A Side Benefit

My son is learning React coding via @coursera.

He is thinking of build an invoice generation app in React.

He might host on @sevalla_hosting 

I don’t hire job hoppers in tech.

Job hoppers believe they can earn more money with each job switch, and that's true. However, in tech, especially as an architect in a service business, you miss out on crucial lessons by frequently changing jobs.

Designing a highly scalable architecture on paper is relatively easy. But enduring the consequences of your design decisions through various challenges is much tougher.

When you stay long enough, every decision is tested under pressure, forcing you to confront and resolve difficult issues.

Imagine you chose a new, shiny web framework for your app. Initially, it seemed like a great decision because every developer was excited about it. If you left right after launching it into production, you wouldn't face situations like when the security team identifies a vulnerability that you can’t fix due to the framework's limitations.

Similarly, you chose to build a new app with the latest Microservices technology. You mention this on your resume and land a new job. What you didn't anticipate is the system now comprises 500 Microservices, resulting in a chaotic environment where cross-module releases are nearly impossible.

At a senior level, I seek individuals who have skin in the game—those who live with their decisions and tackle the challenges these decisions bring.

If you haven't done this in the past, how can I trust that you'll stay with the team when challenges arise and not leave after two years for a 10% raise?

Tech Job Hopping

If we don't punish children, the law and life will punish them.

How I approach punishing kids as part of my homeschooling 👇

1/7

Aesop’s fable of The Thief & His Mother is a guide

A boy steals a pencil. His mother praises him. Later he steals bigger things. He is caught.

Before jail he says, “If only you slapped me then, I wouldn’t be here”

That story is a warning.

Correct kids early

2/7

In my home, only two things are punishable:

• Lying
• Disrespecting elders

Everything else gets a lecture, not punishment.

3/7

Punishment should have a purpose. 

Not fear. 
Not venting anger. 

Its purpose is to build moral character.

4/7

Severity matters less than certainty. Kids must know: if I lie, I will face consequences. Certainty builds clarity.

5/7

Parents often transfer their anger instead of correcting. A bad day at work turns into yelling at kids. That is not discipline. That is misplaced frustration.

6/7

Correction, not cruelty. Consequences, not anger. 

I’d rather my kids learn this at home than out in the world where the lessons are far harsher.

What do you think?

7/7

Effective Kids' Discipline

How I helped my sons to fall in love with reading

And what I learned about how kids learn

1/11


I’m a voracious reader. Long before we started homeschooling, I wanted my boys to love books.

With my elder son, it was easy.

2/11

When he was four, I got him a set of science picture books — how planets move, how telephones work.

We read them together.

At six, I gave him a Bible picture book. He read it cover to cover.

From there, he moved on to Geronimo Stilton, then novels.

3/11

The younger one was different.

By the time he was three or four, we had shelves full of books. I tried reading to him, showing him his brother reading, buying new ones, even digital picture books.

Nothing worked.

4/11

He would run around, play games, but never sit with a book.

I felt guilty. Maybe I hadn’t spent enough time with him. I felt frustrated too, but I kept trying.

5/11

We joined the British Library. My elder son would pick books right away. The younger? He’d just wander around.

Until one day…

6/11

He found an auto magazine.

He sat down and started reading — telling me about car models, prices, features. He lit up in a way I had never seen before with books.

That’s when I realized — he’s a car guy.

7/11

I borrowed old magazines, bought car books, gadget guides. He devoured them.

Cars became his doorway into reading.

Once he walked through it, he started reading other books too — action stories, novels, even his brother’s favorites.

8/11

We keep the habit alive with monthly café reading sessions, weekend trips with books and a guitar, and treats for finishing a book or writing a summary.

Lesson: Every child has a door to reading.

9/11

It might be science, fantasy, history, or cars. Find that door, keep it open, and the learning will follow.

What was your doorway into reading? 📚

10/11

I homeschool two boys. I share my experience here.

If that interests you, follow me.

You can read all my posts about homeschooling here: 
https://www.jjude.com/tags/homeschool/

11/11

Nurturing Young Readers

Why homeschooling fails in India?

I have interacted with many parents who chose to homeschool their children but eventually returned to traditional schooling.

One primary reason is common among many of these cases.

Through my podcast, writing, and coverage of our homeschooling experiment by "The Indian Express," I connected with many who had started homeschooling their children.

https://x.com/jjude/status/1807645506895827082

Many families who began homeschooling returned to traditional schools within a year.

These families had everything necessary to sustain homeschooling:
• Well-educated parents
• One parent at home
• Strong social connections
• Lived in areas to have a social life

I spoke with them, and even met some, to understand their reasons—primarily to learn what mistakes I should avoid.

What I found:

This was the first contrarian decision they had made in their lives. Until then, they had gone with the flow of their family and society.

They studied what everyone else studied.
They married whoever their parents chose.
They mostly worked in IT.
They went abroad and earned well.

Everything followed society's accepted script.

So why did they want to homeschool?

They deeply cared about their children and genuinely wanted a better future for them. 

They were concerned that traditional schooling in India wasn't preparing their kids for a world where school-taught skills no longer ensured career success.

When they began, they encountered both family and societal pressure.

"Oh... my grandson will fall behind others in the family."
"You're making my grandkid asocial."
"Do you think you're better than all the other siblings in the family?"

and on and on....

They simply couldn't withstand the daily nagging and questions amidst the challenges of everyday life.

They found it difficult to navigate the social pressures.

Ultimately, they gave up and chose the comfortable path—returning to the traditional ways of schooling.

They still feel they're making a mistake, but they see no other choice.

They'd rather live with guilt than endure family and social pressure.

Even well-meaning, well-educated, and financially stable parents can't withstand constant pressure. They revert to old ways.

Me?

This is not the first contrarian decision I've taken in life.
• At 17, I dropped caste from my name
• Became an independent consultant in IT industry
• Work only 3 days a week
• Sons carry mother's surname than mine

Mom hesitates but eventually comes around.

Importantly, I live in a different city, far, far away from the daily gatherings of families.

No weekly gatherings.
No family celebration meetings.

We, as a family, meet once or twice a year. That's it. No other interactions. Or interference.

For me, homeschooling wasn't a leap into the unknown.

I had made many contrarian decisions regarding my life.

Homeschooling was an extension of that thought process for my kids.

That's why I could execute that decision well.

Why homeschooling fails in India?

Picture > 1000 words

You can reduce multiple iterations of wireframing and long descriptive texts with a vibe-coded prototype.

This is a good news for IT services companies. 

Vibe-coding will reduce feedback time like agile did for waterfall method.

Attitude > Skills

Do you know why most skill training fails (either in corporate or in country)?

Before skill training, foster positive attitude towards that technology that you are teaching.

If you are in L&D, this is important

From a research: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-025-05582-5

I am watching "The Network State Conference 2024" and picking up interesting points from the livestream

Thank you @balajis for making this available for free

First one is with @naval 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWEGg-ZTtSE&t=4163s

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/jjude/pR7m3Ze

The tech billionaire are “worth” billions but they can’t cash out. 

Govt officers (mayors etc) spend billions every year in cash. 

⇒ Govt officials are richer than tech billionaires 

Monacrchy is still around in the Europe which is lot more extractive than capitalistic entrepreneurs 

Wealth is not hoarding money (old defn)

Wealth is byproduct of knowledge 
Wealth is the ability to effect transformation 
(Oil to energy)

⇒ wealth = capital + know-how

Cavemen had access to all the resources we have now. 

They didn’t know what to do with them 

⇒ wealth is a byproduct of knowledge-how


specific knowledge > common knowledge 

Knowledge at the edge of what humanity wants = specific

What ChatGPT knows = common

We used to spend a lot of time on physical drudgery. Automation & tools (ex: dishwasher) solved them. 

Now we spend on intellectual drudgery (filling forms, filing reports)

GPTs (= natural language computing) are good at drudgery work

 creativity = problem solving 

Not just painting and writing books

Solve unsolved problems



AI = amplified intelligence 

Smarter you are better your prompts & hence better results 

⇒ amplifies your intelligence 

AI is good at solving bounded problems

• translation
• transcription
• driving assistance 
• coding assistance
• generation (art, text, video)
• categorisation & summarisation 
• extrapolation 



AI doesn’t have its own agency; its own thoughts. 

⇒ it doesn’t contradict you

making AI safe is logical contradiction

If we follow a line of thiught, it will lead to ideas that are controversial. 

Our problem Isnt illiteracy but innumeracy 

Master basic numeracy if you want to be wealthy 


The only real improvement is self-improvement
all rights are individual rights

We need groups to get things done

Means of learning are abundant
Desire to learn are scarce

Be obsessed abt something and follow it deeply

If you go deep into anything you’ll find same philosophical threads

Mob # Market

Market = independent actors punished or rewarded for their predictions & actions ⇒ cooperating crowd thinking independently 

Mob = crowd thinking the same; inherently powerful & violent; not truth seeking mechanism


Over a long scope certain movements become big that contain both x & opposite of x

Christianity led to fall of Roman Empire but also led to rise of Holy Roman Empire ; it was at once religion of slaves and kings


Countries shud have referral based immigration system much like companies

If whom you referred is bad it reflects on you
If whom you referred creates value you get a piece of it

Trust is broken in today’s heterogeneous society 

To govern such a group we impose same set of rules for all

But we can build a reputation based trust - who invited who, who did bad, who did good and all of that reflects back to the original invitee

Reputation system + Local governance leads to better governance

It is the lack of political will to create a fair system 

In the next war the US will be surprised 

There is no homegrown Drone industry in the US

China has developed drone swarms which are as lethal as nuclear 

Drones are guided bullets. If it can see it can kill. 

It is the level of freedom that creates innovation, creativity, and learning

When state is too large and disconnected from the ground it is more about control than creativity 

Too many government officials have not created anything of value. They are only interested in control

Historically the frontier was always on the city states - Greek city states (Athens), Italian, the US…when state rights were greater than federal frontier was the West (US)

In this era, where are the frontiers?


English is the language of the Internet. 

If you are ambitious and want to be at the frontier you got to lean English 

(AI translation could help; Translations are good for English & Chinese not for others; they are most surveiled languages)

Every revolution is driven by small number of people at the cutting edge of thought brainstorming with each other

Figure out how to get small number of innovative people who can cooperate to create next round of institutions.

Be curious ⇒ be ok with contradicting your previous self

Don’t try to be consistent with the image people have of you

What cant be bought by money:
• fit body
• a calm mind
• house full of love

They must be earned

Respect is an emergent property of the above

Having 10 people you admire listen to you is far more important than masses listening to you

conviction (thing that’s with you all the time) is a byproduct of thinking it through by yourself 

Other’s philosophy can inspire you 
But you have to find your conviction yourself 

Conviction changes your psyche / internal state

Deeply religious people or parents who love their kids have something to think abt other than themselves 

They escape depression

Insights from The Network State Conf 2024 - Naval Session

Chinese startup Manus is building an orchestration tool coordinate scores of AI agents for research.

The Chinese have moved beyond core AI research. They are building platforms to use AI based research in other domains.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-31/openai-challenger-manus-preps-big-upgrade-to-main-agent-platform