By Suraj Chaudhary Best friend Read on my website Hey Reader, Suraj here– This week, I wanted to share with you an observation about friendship. Let’s begin. Let’s imagine that one of your closest friends is going through a tough time. This tough time doesn’t necessarily have to be related to goals or career; it can be related to anything. Maybe it’s personal, related to family, or related to a struggle about the self. If that was the case, if this closest friend of yours, whom you knew and...
7 days ago • 1 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary Chapters Read on my website Dear Reader, I don't really share personal matters in this newsletter. Even today, I won't get into the nitty-gritty of things, but I'm going through a major life event right now—a difficult one. So I've been pondering multiple questions. How does one stay hopeful in life? How does one look forward to life even when nothing seems to be working out or when one is just tired of things? This has led me to tap into an analogy I used to use once upon...
14 days ago • 1 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary The Notebook Read on my website Hey Reader, As I continue on with the LID challenge, I’ve come to realize that multi-purpose devices are a lot harder to use for a singular purpose. If I open my laptop to add one task to my to-do list, or to glance at my calendar, it’s very likely that I’ll end up either checking my email or quickly checking if any of the YouTubers I regularly watch have uploaded any newer videos or something. This realization came in my Psychology class....
21 days ago • 1 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary The Puzzle Piece Dear Reader, This past week, I traveled to Chicago on a service trip sponsored by our Campus Ministry. It was an amazing, truly transformative experience with the Campus Ministers and other students. What I want to do in this week's issue is share one of the many profound insights I gained while there. This week's focus: The puzzle piece. While navigating Chicago's public transportation, we found ourselves discussing how our friend Jawad is like the...
28 days ago • 2 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary The LID Challenge Dear Reader, The short version: A 30-day challenge to stop learning, watching, and listening to information (even the ones that seem useful) The long version with more details: I have a problem (actually more than one). Even though, over the years, I’ve been able to reduce my time spent scrolling on social media, I’ve realized that there are other, bigger problems. Problem 1: Uncertainty As some of you may know, I’m an international student currently...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary The Dip Dear Reader, There is a pattern that’s prevalent in everyone’s life. Here is how it goes: You find something interesting (a career/job/hobby/goal/project) You start working towards it and see some progress It becomes hard You try some more It gets harder You give up and move on to something else This point where you give up is called “The Dip.” The Dip is what keeps a category from getting overly saturated. It is what differentiates the mediocre from the experts....
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary Deadlines Dear Reader, I am writing this issue with only 25 minutes scheduled for it. Before this scheduled time, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to write about. But when I have a scheduled time block in my calendar to do a specific task, and I am committed to get it done within the specified time, it becomes more possible. I usually think coming up with a good idea to write about for this newsletter, to write it, create a cover image, would take at least a couple of...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary Greatest findings of all times Dear Reader, This week I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of sharing interesting ideas or realizations like I always do, I wanted to share with you some of the sources of those ideas. Below are some of the videos and podcast episodes that I’ve found to be incredibly useful and impactful in my own life. If you do check any of these out and find them interesting, I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can simply respond to this...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
By Suraj Chaudhary Inputs and Outputs Hey, Nice to be in your inbox again. It’s been a while. There’s this metaphor I’ve been thinking about. It’s related to programming, but I’m sure you’ll find it interesting. So, below is what is known as a function in programming. Let me break it down for you. We use “def” to define a function, in this case, a function named “growthEngine.” Here, “a, b, c, d” are all inputs (a.k.a parameters) that are passed into the function. Then, in the function, some...
2 months ago • 1 min read