April 19, 2019

Kunal (@CrazyPolymath) – Crazy Wisdom

Key Takeaways

• The core principle of marketing:
  • You need to know who will find value from your product and where they are hanging out
• The internet has made it possible to learn and sell skills with great ease
• When creating a product, you need a twist somewhere – either in the product itself or in the marketing of it
  • You HAVE to do something different
• Most of the time, we procrastinate because of the presence of distractions
  • And often, that distraction is easy to indulge in (like easily being able to pick up your phone and scroll Twitter)
• “Stress kills creativity. Creativity needs space and time to grow.”
• If you love what you’re doing, hustling at it comes naturally
• “Always look for the truth. The truth is almost never visible on the surface – you have to dig deeper.”

Intro

• Kunal has a KILLER Twitter feed (@CrazyPolymath)
• He’s a self-described “normal brown guy from India”
  • Kunal is 27

Thinking From First Principles

• Kunal learned about first principles from this Elon Musk Reddit AMA
• How do you think from first principles?
  • It’s all about asking “Why?” and following the answers down to the root
• Recently, Kunal has been grappling with the first principles of marketing for his upcoming book
• Kunal explains:
  • When you read a book or blog on marketing, the knowledge you gain from doing so is limited by the author’s knowledge
  • A better route – ask yourself: “What are the core first principles of marketing?” 
    • And the answer Kunal has come up with – You need to know who will find value from your product and where they are hanging out
    • ^ THAT’S marketing

The Internet and It’s Effects on the Career Landscape

• Prior to the internet = limited places to learn skills and sell the ones you have
  • You had to find an in-person mentor to learn about a particular field
  • Then you had to physically approach companies you hoped to work for
• Post-internet = Unlimited places to learn skills, unlimited places to sell your skills
  • With the internet…
    • You can go to YouTube to learn about anything
    • You can send your resume to nearly anyone
• “The internet created the two most important things for building a career – building skills and market”

Why is Kunal so interested in learning?

• Related: Naval Ravikant has famously said – “The tools for learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”
• It largely results from his parents
  • Parents who pressure their children to pursue certain career paths DESTROY their interest in that particular field
  • Kunal’s parents never really forced him to do anything (like to do well in school or to pursue a certain field)
• “Curiosity is a superpower”

Kunal’s New Book – How to Monetize Your Passion

• He plans to sell it on Gumroad
• The overall goal with the book is to help people find their passions and package them in a way that others will then pay them to do that activity
  • He also plans to cover how to market that passion online
• Kunal and Stewart dive into Stewart’s passion of massage therapy/body work, and teaching yoga 1 on 1 online through Zoom
  • Kunal suggests that Stewart create an ebook or online course to market his services
    • Specifically about solving a particular problem his clients would face (but you need to do it in a different/fun/engaging way)
      • For example – A while back, when Kunal was creating programming tutorials, he did so in quite the unique way – through  a letter written from Batman to Superman
      • You NEED a twist somewhere – either in the product itself or in marketing it
  • Stewart wants to explore teaching people how to teach yoga online
    • Kunal examines – Back to marketing, you need to know who will find value from the service (potential yoga teachers) and where they are hanging out (probably online Facebook groups or Reddit)
      • So a few good routes:
        • Contact the Facebook group admins and offer them 50% profit if they allow you to market your course/service in the group
        • Reddit allows you to display ads on certain subreddits

What’s the biggest obstacle Kunal has faced in writing his book?

• Procrastination (he plans to dive deeper into how he’s actually solving procrastination in his book)
  • “Most of the time, we procrastinate because of the presence of distractions”
    • And often, that distraction is easy to indulge in (like easily being able to pick up your phone and scroll Twitter)
      • So to combat this – Kunal has started uninstalling addictive apps from his phone
  • Procrastination is NOT core laziness – it comes with layers
    • The topmost layer is distraction
    • The next level involves your skill level not matching your expectation level
    • Next is the self-doubt/fear of not being able to complete the task/do a good job

The Importance of Good Questions

• From Kapil Gupta‘s appearance on the Crazy Wisdom podcast (Podcast Notes), Kunal learned that the type of questions you ask literally give direction to your life
  • Another thing Kunal has learned from Kapil – the ability to search for the truth of all situations

The Creative Process

• “Stress kills creativity. Creativity needs space and time to grow.”
  • Kunal says he gets a lot of his best ideas during quiet times – like during a walk, or taking a shit (seriously), or while showering
  • “Relaxation is a huge part of the creative process”
    • How does Kunal relax? – Lots of long walks, watching sunrises and sunsets

Kunal’s 5-Year Plan

• He hopes to complete 3 books
  • The first, as mentioned, is about how to monetize your passion
  • The second will be about the first principles of mathematics
    • “Mathematics is a very beautiful subject, but it’s taught in the worst way possible in schools”
  • The third will be a children’s storybook
    • As society is moving away from religion, we need better stories/methods of teaching children life’s lessons

The Problem with Hustle Culture

• “I’m a big anti-hustle component. I hate hustle culture.”
• Kunal expands:
  • Everyone has a unique skill set – embrace yours
    • If it doesn’t work for you to hustle/grind your eyes out until you succeed, don’t 
    • As Kunal is a bit of a procrastinator, before realizing this, he used to be very hard on himself for not being able to work “hard” at something
• Kunal adds:
  • When you hate something and try to “hustle” your way to success, you’ll break down quickly
  • But if you love doing something, hustling comes naturally
  • Hustle culture Twitter tends to promote hard work/grinding/hustle, not so much the fact that the hustle is a side effect of loving what they do

What explains Kunal’s rapid Twitter growth?

• The answer may disappoint you, but mostly luck
  • One day Naval Ravikant retweeted a bunch of his tweets and he caught fire

What is Kunal reading right now?

• He doesn’t read books, just articles
  • If he’s researching something, he prefers to just read book summaries online
  • “I feel like there’s too much filler content in books”

Wrapping Up

• “Always look for the truth. Truth is almost never visible on the surface – you have to dig deeper.”
  • To make it easier to find the truth of situations, Kunal recommends journaling and mediation

These notes were edited by RoRoPa Editing Services