Stoa Digest #15: Here we go!
The beginning of the end.
From the Writers’ Desk
Remote Work is tough
Most of us have made the shift to working remotely for around 18 months now.
Life is chaotic and full of surprises, some welcome ones, others not so much. So, this is your friendly neighbourhood reminder to take the time you need to help unwind.
With work being remote, all semblance of things outside of it, have kind of disappeared, because work has taken precedence over them all.
Its important to remember a few things:
Your work isn’t always who you are
You have more to give to life, than just what you bring to a screen.
Stop & smell the roses
While there may not be any roses nearby to stop & smell, remind yourself everyday to try & remain active.
It’s quite easy to forget, and remain seated in your work spot all day, engrossed in needing to meet deadlines.
Here’s a few things you can do when you take a break:
Drink a glass of water 🚰🥤
👀 Exercise your eyes 👀
Yeah you read that right! Look away from your screen, stare at an object 30ft away for 30s, every half hour, they say. (If you remember that at all, you probably deserve a 🍪.)Go for a mini walk or grocery run that’ll take about 10 minutes 🚶🏻🕥
Stretch 🙆🏻
Roll your shoulders back & relax them, and try and sit in this position, instead of slumped over at your desk.
This pandemic might go on a while, take a few minutes as many times as you can for yourself, to keep yourself sane.
Fellow Spotlight
Rahul formally studied to be an engineer, but it's never really been his calling in life. You'll find him frequently dabble in conversations about FinTech, Books, Impact and most importantly, Meme-based learning.
Currently, he's working on the ‘Prangan Foundation’ that was founded by him and 9 other friends he met at ‘Feeding India’. It was modelled after the ancient schooling idea of courtyard schools.
One of his big dreams is having large scale impact in the Social Sector. The plan is to create impact to 1mn students by 2025.
In the last few weeks, he’s also started doing live sessions for Prangan called ‘Taking the Plunge’ that you should definitely check out here where he interacts with industry leaders to have them impart knowledge to students of Prangan!
Speaking of meme-based learing, here's something he's been working on in that space
If you're unsure where to hit up Rahul, and check out his work click the links below
On LinkedIn / On Twitter / Prangan Foundation / Prangan’s YT
Birthday Parttaaayy! 🥳 🎂
Aman Daga & Mrinal Hinduja - 22nd September
Aashutosh Joshi - 21st September
Community Buzz 🐝
Another Case Weekend, another meet-up
From L-R: Abhay Sharma, Vikrant Mehra, Pranav Manie, Archit Varshney, Priyank Mody, Vedaang Prasad, Vartika Mittal, Shaurya Aggarwal, Akshit Gupta
Fun fact: Someone saw this photograph on Twitter, and asked if that was Akshit in the corner, and ended up being a friend of Akshit’s from school.
For context, Akshit isn’t even ON Twitter, but we do hope this prompts him to come join the platform. 🧑🏻💻🐦
BIG WINS:
Hritika from Cohort 2 has found a seat at the table of Threado.
We’re all waiting to cash-in when Threado IPOs, and we can say we’re friends with someone who was ‘Notable Alumni’ at the company. 🙈
She’s also going to do something special next week, so keep your eyes open. 👀
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We all know how Case Weekends kind of leave a mark on the fabric of our experience at Stoa, here’s proof.
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Our Speed Meetings have moved to a new platform as of last week, and we think you should come attend the one we have planned for next week! See you then!
Vikrant has made exhuastive notes on all the Sessions he’s attended, that you can find here.
Some cohort 3 fellows might find immense value in him having done this, on his behalf, You’re Welcome!If you’re still new to Discord, know that we strongly approve of fellows who know how/when/why to make threads. Confusion could exist here, so feel free to look at last week’s Digest to find out more!
Ms. T took a really good session for us on her Cold-e-mailing tips, tricks & hacks. If you want the slides to that session, you’ll find them here.
One of our most asked for emojis was launched this last week on the server!
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Best Discord messages this week:
CH4 Specific: If you haven’t got your swag yet, bear with your couriering partners please, thankyou!
All those with fomo and waiting to ask us about your own (looking at you Cohort 2 & 3 - bear with us too!)
CH3 Specific: A saga on Paneer
(Don’t fomo too hard, this is just a message link to the images I posted above)Digesting Vikrant Mehra’s beautiful 'Guest Feature' edition of the Digest.
What is your Modus Operandi(MO) when scheduling calls with someone?
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Fellows Rocket🚀Shipping🚢 Content
Writing as a Weapon (WaaW) ✍🏼⚔️
In the last month, as we’ve onboarded new fellows to Cohort 4, we opened up a Writing Course to help them up-skill while they wait patiently for Orientation to roll around. Here’s the content pieces they’ve published in the last week.
You know what to do - hype them, engage, follow them.
And if you have any feedback for them, please remember this:
Venkat wrote about his interaction with one of his favourite brands, Skechers, here
Ankit’s favourite brand - Srinidy tweeted about this brand too
It unites us across the country & world - but how did an integral part of this sport originate?
LinkedIn 🖇
What are your favourite problems teaching you? #SwapnilSays you should try this method out
Looking to be a YT creator? Find out how do you make a good YT thumbnail here.
Tweeple 🐦
Rahul has been looking for a sticky name he can use for his Weekly Wednesday threads - if you have suggestions, do hit him up! - this one was on the mental model of Inversion Thinking
Why indeed are customer acquisition costs skyrocketing? Abhay breaks it down for you here
We think one of the best ways for people to discover us is through our fellows, and when the content is this entertaining & quality, we just feel immense pride. What does Finance Week for Case Weekends feel like?
Srinidy is one of our prized ‘prodcasters’ in the community, so if you haven’t already, go be one of her new followers!
For Stoans by Stoans
Books 📚
Watchtime 🎥
Meme Wars 🥲
This week’s shiny new winner of Best Meme goes to …………
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
So much for that fight Abhay, Pranav & Saumya, heh. 😂😎
To end, we’ll leave you with this: 😂🎧
Some serious gems were dropped on the music channel this week, you’re very welcome.
Courtesy: One Shonik and Vignesh, respectively.