The gig workers strike raises a question we're not asking: Can workers exit? If yes, let market pressure work. If no, then regulate. But before we rush to "do something," we need to understand the difference between empathy and good policy.
2025, or What Happened When the Reservoir Ran Dry
When I started this newsletter (back in 2024), I had the confidence of someone who'd never run out of ideas. By this year, the reservoir had run dry. But I kept writing anyway. Here's what I learned from writing 51 newsletters in 2025: โ AI dominated my output (31%) when I planned to write about policy โ Being right about content marketing's comeback didn't prevent months of struggle โ The newsletter became less about expertise, more about documenting uncertainty โ Writing became thinking in public The biggest lesson? Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. And that applies to career too.
The Waiting Room We Never Left
"What if a demon were to creep after you one night... and say, 'This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more...' Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, 'Never have I heard anything more divine'?" - Friedrich... Continue Reading →
Wondering If You Should Follow Up After Interviews? Here’s The Answer.
Radio silence after an interview? Should you follow up? Or will it make you look desperate? I wrestled with this myself this year, sending dozens of follow-ups and tracking the results. My finding: while silence usually means rejection, there's a crucial 20% upside you're leaving on the table if you don't act strategically.
The Great Resume Paradox: How AI Broke the Job Market
AI in hiring has accidentally brought back the "sifarish" culture from 1970s & 80s Hindi movies, where referrals open the doors. I call it the Great Resume Paradox: tools designed to help you stand out made everyone identical instead.
India’s Op Sindoor: The End of Strategic Restraint, The Dawn of Deterrence
In response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack in India's Jammu and Kashmir on April 22nd, 2025, India launched a military campaign codenamed Operation Sindoor on May 7th, 2025. As a marketer, I cannot overstate how apt the codename was. This was indeed unprecedented, marking an end to decades of strategic restraint by the Indian state.... Continue Reading →
Reports of Content Marketer’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
"๐ช๐ฒ'๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐น๐ผ๐ผ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฎ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ด๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฒ ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ด๐..." Sounds like any generic job posting, right? Except this one's for ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐๐๐ฃ๐ง โ the juggernaut that was supposedly eliminating content jobs. Delicious irony, this. The very company poised to make content marketers obsolete... needs content marketers.
Dr. Ambedkar’s “Grammar of Anarchy”: A Constitutional Warning That Echoes Today
On this 79th Independence Day, Iโve been reflecting on Dr. B.R. Ambedkarโs "Grammar of Anarchy" speech. He asked us to abandon "unconstitutional methods," cautioned against the dangers of "hero-worship," and pointed out the profound "contradictions" of a nation with political equality but deep social inequality.
Beyond the AI Hype: Why Human Oversight Remains Non-Negotiable
While researching a topic recently, a GenAI tool presented several relevant statistics. I asked it to fact-check the numbers and cite sources. With a confidence that might inspire envy, it assured me they were all correct, even providing citations with a precision rivaling scientific journals. Except it was confidently wrong. When I dug deeper, a... Continue Reading →
Beyond Propaganda: Defending Art for Artโs Own Sake
I probe into the thin line that separates art from propaganda. Think about it: Why do some films from the past, like Salim-Javed's classics, still resonate while others, with their overt messages, fall flat? What made Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged feel like a lecture, while George Orwell's 1984 continues to expose truths across every political divide?
Musings by Madhav 