Looking back at 2024

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Write a newsletter every week: that was my new year resolution for 2024.

When I wrote my first newsletter on Jan 6th, 2024, I didn’t know if I would reach the finish line.

  • What if I ran out of topics?
  • What if some unforeseen situation forced my hand?
  • What if I just grew bored?
  • What if people shut me down: nay, nothing big here.

Luckily, I managed to somehow scrape through.

This is my 51st newsletter in a row.

Story behind the name

In my teens, I named my personal blog on an ultra-serious, philosophical (and boring) note.

Decades later, now a full-fledged marketer, I decided to name my newsletter after something catchy, memorable, and yet business-like. Among the business idioms, ‘Elephant in the Room’ stood out to me. According to Wiki, the idiom refers to an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about. The idea was that my newsletter would be the one talking about these problems.

In retrospect, I think I got the name alright. It’s relatable and easy-to-recollect. And, it also made my logo design easier. 🙂

My readership

Rob Henderson, in an interview, says: “Among authors, it is generally understood that none of your friends or family will actually read your book, and not to take it personally.”

My experience agrees. People I considered my loyal readership were conspicuous by their absence. At any rate, most never left any digital trail (likes, comments) that hinted that they were aware of my writing.

Yet, when I do meet these very people in-person, this is one of the first topics they bring up.

You write that “Elephant” something, right? Yes, sir.

A friend even spoke of an article that deeply touched him and recalled commenting. I cursed my poor memory and revisited the newsletter again. Nothing, Nil, Nada. He only thought he commented!

Why not show some digital love, sir, I rush to ask. But always hesitate.

I now better empathize with YouTube creators pleading to the point of boredom: “If you like this video, please like, share and subscribe.” Previously, I saw them with the same contempt I had for ads that interrupted DD era serials. 🙂

Snapshot

Humor aside, the newsletter was primarily intended for my own education.

It was my way:

  1. To summarize what I learned.
  2. To crystalize what I thought.
  3. To articulate what I knew.

If anyone else was entertained in this process, I would consider that an icing on the cake.

Here’s a snapshot of the number of newsletters I wrote on each of the below topics:

  1. Public Policy – 12
  2. Writing – 9
  3. Personal Development – 8
  4. Marketing – 6
  5. Politics/ Culture – 6
  6. Technology – 4
  7. Miscellaneous – 4
  8. Personal – 1

Thank you everyone.

May 2025 bring you great happiness and success.

PS:

For your quick reference, I’ve appended the links of all my newsletters below.

Public Policy

  1. Using Deadly Laws as a Proxy for Social Change
  2. How Elite Imitation Affects Public Policy
  3. The Market for Lemons
  4. Why Firms Are Important
  5. When is Government intervention in markets legitimate?
  6. Baptists and Bootleggers
  7. Compassion vs. Empathy
  8. The Seen and the Unseen
  9. The Cost of Luxury Beliefs
  10. Common Good vs. Self-interest
  11. Applying Systems Thinking to Population Problems
  12. Nonlinearity at Work

Personal Development

  1. Thinking 2024 on the Margins
  2. What I Learned from Peter Drucker
  3. Should You Chase Your Dream Job?
  4. Build on Strengths, Not Weaknesses
  5. How Systems Overcome Decision Fatigue
  6. How much knowledge is enough knowledge?
  7. Of Unearned Wisdom
  8. Achieving More With Less

Writing

  1. Nietzsche’s Three Metamorphoses
  2. The Write Way to Heal
  3. When Words Are Worth a Thousand Pictures
  4. Can AI replace artists?
  5. Bicycle for your Note-taking
  6. How Frugality fuels Creativity
  7. In Defense of Passive Writing
  8. Whom are you writing for? Humans or machines
  9. The Future of Reading

Marketing

  1. Is Any Publicity Really Good Publicity?
  2. Four Common Fallacies in the Marketing World
  3. Top 5 Reasons Why Your Marketing Personas Fail
  4. How re-imagining past shapes your strategic narrative
  5. Take Control of Your Personal Brand
  6. Authenticity and Political Correctness in Business Communication

Politics & Culture

  1. Using Deadly Laws as a Proxy for Social Change
  2. Family in the US Political Debate
  3. Why Political Discourse Seems So Stupid
  4. The Tyranny of the Minority
  5. Bhopal Gas Tragedy: A Case Against Globalization?
  6. How PV Narasimha Rao transformed India

Technology

  1. The Medium is the Metaphor
  2. Is your Cloud Provider the Hotel California?
  3. How AI impacts Copyright Laws
  4. The Rise of the Intangible Economy

Personal

  1. Education Never Ends

Misc.

  1. Are You a Hedgehog or a Fox?
  2. Are You Addicted to Social Media?
  3. Stories We Tell Ourselves
  4. Don’t Fix What’s Not Broken

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