2 years on Substack.

Fun ride!

It's been two years since I started writing on Substack, on my birthday just for fun, and I never thought about coming this far.

Here are few things i have learnt along the way

Stripping Away the Ego

Asking better questions and doubting your own beliefs is really important—the main idea you learn is to follow the basics of everything: how things started or how certain things work. Everything has an origin point, or sometimes multiple. When you start searching for these things, you will start thinking better. You have to leave all your thoughts in your backpack and start searching or asking questions without being in the ego of what other people think if you ask a “silly” question.

You will get two options in life: ask silly questions now and be a knowledgeable person in the future, or don’t ask any silly questions and be a silly person forever.

Like how weather apps work—how they use satellites to predict when snow or rain falls. You will learn the names of certain components, like airflow movements or seasons, where you can see clouds, and in which direction they travel. How do they predict it? How does all the ocean wave and temperature data transfer to a supercomputer, get calculated, and then show up as information on your screen Or, I should say, predictive information on your screen. (Playing Valorant on a supercomputer could help me reach Radiant; who knows?)

Knowledge Before Opinion

We live in a world where everyone has an opinion, but few have the “literacy” to back them up. Building opinions on certain topics or genres takes time. If I take the example of music in a movie, I can say based on my feelings that one feels good or another doesn’t, but I don’t know the basics of notes and tunes. I’m more of a lyrics person now; regarding the musical tune, I just say it is good or bad, but between two “good” pieces of music, I can’t distinguish what is better or what I like in one over the other.

However, in something like movie graphics CGI or VFX, I can definitely speak about which one is good or bad and make a proper distinction about what is really making it work. I can see what looks like proper physics, biology, and lighting. For example, if a superhuman is picking up a tree, I know how it should move and how to show muscle strain and facial reactions. I can speak about that in better words than I can for music. Building opinions takes knowledge about a certain field first; only then can you form a valid opinion. Now you can take help from GPT or other AI tools to get answers to your questions, compare them, and know different sources all together.

Depth Over Volume: The “Slow Reading”

At the end of every year, people brag about how many dozens of books they’ve finished. But finishing a thick book in a few days is often just reading for entertainment. To truly grow, you must engage in a mental battle with the author. I prefer to read three or four pages a day, letting those ideas marinate in my mind. I like asking questions: Is this evidence scientific, or is it just the author’s bias? If you read with an open mind, you realize there is rarely “one truth.” Perspective is everything. To some, Genghis Khan was a destroyer; to his family and the empire he built across Central Asia, he was a provider and a protector. Reading slowly allows you to see the world through different “shoes” of all shapes and sizes. There is an interesting fact: the Genghis Khan empire at its peak was equal in size to the African continent.

The Sword of Wisdom

Writing is the art of mastering language. You must use words like a Samurai uses a blade with precision, effectiveness, and purpose. Your thoughts are the sword, but your wisdom is the sharpness. I don’t quite have that yet, but I am working on it. Often, when I have an idea and try to speak or write about it, I can’t quite show how good it is; the “weight” of the idea gets dropped. There is a common fear in writing that I often feel: “If I get too technical—if I talk about certain specifics and share details without explaining what a camera lens size or focus really means—will it be good?” The key is to swing the blade with your own style. Whether you are using basic concepts or advanced techniques, the goal is clarity.

Breaking the Lens

We all view the world through a lens given to us by our families, teachers, and culture. True growth happens when you have the guts to doubt your own existence and remove that lens. By engaging with different cultures and perspectives, your writing gains an “honest view” of the world.

Two years of meaningful conversations, writing on Substack, and negotiating in real life have taught me that life is much broader than we think. When you communicate boundaries and opinions clearly, without obsessing over the judgment of others, you don’t just win deals; you win your freedom.

And yaa, it’s my birthday and I have spent the past few week thinking about what should i write but I haven’t gotten anything out of my head to write so i just wrote this short post for fun and nothing serious.

I switch up things, and I will just write some good content even if it takes more than 1-2 weeks; I will just deliver quality over quantity for now.