april '24 | curated, by kashvi.

exam season is here (again) 📘

i’m giving finals for the final time this week. college has been one hell of an experience that i’ll treasure forever. having said that, i couldn’t be happier that it’s over. i’ve learned so much through the ups and downs (especially the downs), but i wouldn’t have it any other way. here’s my top tips to survive college:

1. have a set of 3 to 5 friends that you can really count on. the rest are acquaintances, and should be treated as such.

2. build relationships with all your professors. it’ll help you more than you know, during and even after college.

3. always make your own notes. no one knows your shit better than you do, put in the extra effort to remember things.

4. save money on a frequent basis and don’t be afraid to start investing it. stock market, crypto, mutual funds - whatever floats your boat. secure your future today.

5. saying yes is overrated. you don’t have to be at every social event or a part of every society. be selective, and pour your energy into the people that bring you joy. i’ve made the mistake of spreading myself too thin, and it didn’t work out well.

6. try not to fail your tests, but if you do, it’s not the end of the world. just make sure that you’re always failing forward by taking things in your stride and finding creative ways to deal with it.

7. be resourceful and always help people around you, but only if they ask for it. otherwise you’ll come off as a know-it-all.

8. if you can, have a side hustle. it doesn’t even have to be something that makes you money, rather something that fuels your creativity and is a passion project. it can be a newsletter (like this one), an IG account, a small business, a trading group, a tutoring gig — anything that makes you happy, makes you smarter, or makes you money.

9. you need to sweat. i wish i has focused on this more, but going to the gym or having any hobby that’s around exercising will add so much value to your life. something as simple as walking everyday or going to a dance class is an effective mood booster, and is proven to be great for both your physical and your mental health.

10. these are the good old days. maximise fun, minimise regret. keep your grades up but don’t lock yourself away from everything. know when to leave the party, but at least show up and see where the night takes you! you’ll never get this time again.

so, that’s my raw take on what it takes to survive (not thrive - you could be doing more for that) college. but anyway, let’s dive into the best of what i consumed in april ‘24:

---

📘 what i’m reading:

1. cleopatra and frankenstein by coco mellors: if you like sally rooney, you’ll love cleo and frank. this book is exactly what i’d call a “page turner” but it gets intense. topics explored include marriage, mental illness, and adulting as a whole.

2. letters to a young poet by rainer maria rilke: a v short but wisdom-packed anthology of letters and poems written by a german poet, in response to a student at a military academy

---

🎧 what im listening to:

1. wtf is gaming in india (nikhil kamath): if you’ve followed me on socials recently, you’ll know that i absolutely cannot stop recommending this podcast to anyone who’s a budding entrepreneur or anyone who’s just curious to expand their horizons. in this episode of wtf, nikhil kamath invites some of the most reputable people in india’s gaming industry to talk about how it works and what are the career opportunities in the field. personally i’m hardly interested in any of the above, but i’ve always wanted to learn what drives gamers and gaming companies. objective achieved ✅

2. why you should de-optimise your life (maria cano): there’s always a voice in my head telling me that “you should be doing more.” i am guilty of obsessing over how to optimise for everything in my life, and i’ve been called out on it several times by close friends and potential boyfriends. apparently, our brains need moments of downtime to thrive. in this talk, maria dives into what that really means, and its impact on longevity.

3. kunal shah on winning in india, second order thinking and the philosophy of startups (lenny’s podcast): for this one, i took extremely detailed notes. i’ve been considering a career in product, and this show has become a regular commuting listen for me. i’ve followed the journey of CRED and kunal for YEARS now, so it was great to learn more about the mental models behind it all.

---

🎶 april playlist:

---

💭 a quote that i’m thinking about:

Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.

― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

---

📸 camera roll dump:

---

🌱 cool stuff from random places:

1. meet novie: ok fine i have baby fever. as a teenager, i absolutely loved watching alfie and zoe’s content. they had their second child and i could not be happier about it! watching this brings me a lot of comfort.

2. modern luxuries that i strive to own:

   

3. the decline of new age social platforms

4. 

5. paul graham’s framework to think about people in your life via a quadrant:

   

6. my biggest fear, and shaan puri’s thoughts on what to do about it:

   

7. switching up our IG content strategy at WoW, straight from Adelina (head of comms

   

---

thank you for reading this and for being subscribed to the newsletter! i appreciate all 888 of you so much 🙏 feel free to reply to this email with any thoughts that you’d like to share - i love hearing from you :) i hope that may will be a great month for us all, and i can’t wait to write to you again 💙

with gratitude,
kashvi 🦋