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Stoa Digest #32: To Hype & to Hodl

The Community, Crypto & Conversations of Stoa.

Jan 24, 2022

✍🏼 From an Alumni’s Editorial Desk ✍🏼

An excerpt by Anurag Srivastava

History lectures in school introduced us to the concept of ‘Before Christ’ (BC) and After Death (AD) to define the passing of historical time.
Me, personally? I wasn’t sold on the idea, and instead, divided it into my own separate halves, namely, Pre Internet and Post Internet.
Little did I know, that another distinction would soon emerge and the world be bifurcated into Pre-pandemic and Post-pandemic timelines.

Both of the above timeline separation concepts are integral to the genesis of this robust community called Stoa.
The internet made it possible, and the pandemic made it relevant.
This cohort based learning engagement has now enriched almost five hundred bright, curious and young minds spread across time-zones.

I often get asked, “Why Stoa?” having undergone traditional business education with robust work experience of almost two decades spent across the globe.

Well, the answer is simple, as well as, complex.

‘We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience’ – John Dewey

I first read the above quote many years ago and it lit me up.
Upon careful reflection, it became clear that experience implies ‘action’ while, reflecting on the experience signifies ‘careful thought’.
Most learnings are a result of careful thought.
Therefore, ‘experiencing’ became second nature to me and Stoa is part of that journey. Over the course of the program, sessions, virtual sessions and meet-ups, I’ve had multiple learnings.
So, do not discount the journey and immerse as long and as deep as possible for discovering one’s own self through this process.

There are a couple of phrases which are synonymous with Stoa, which are, Community and CBC.
In every community there are rights and duties and this place is no different.

1. It is our right to have access to knowledge, collaterals and treated with equality.
2. It is our duty to exercise our rights responsibly.

In a CBC, everyone is a learner as well as a teacher. Participation is critical to raise the collective intellect of the Community.

Here’s a few of my Careful Thoughts on the Program

‘Ikigai’ being introduced early on in the program, provokes us to reflect and identify our own ‘superpowers’.
The concept of superpowers could be easily misleading, because the words ‘super’ and ‘power’ together, manifest the images of robust, concrete, muscular, fast and mighty.
However, there is immense power in the abstract. Being vulnerable, able to cry, empathetic, asking questions, listening and caring are all superpowers.

In my personal opinion, there is one such power I try to master consciously, and that is - Understanding the difference between ‘stimulus’ and ‘response’.
It’s a biological concept at it’s very core, and we are subjected to it multiple times a day and it is responsible for how we feel on a daily basis.

The real superpower lies in able to expand the gap between stimulus and response. Just imagine, what would happen if we can control and choose to react to stimulus, instead of just reacting spontaneously. Imagine what a conscious, careful and thoughtful response could do to our existence.
Networking. Ever heard this word at Stoa?
Networking is good. Mindless networking is not.
One doesn’t need to interact with all the people in their cohort.
I have a bias towards building a ‘tribe’ instead of a ‘network’.
However, both are well worth being practiced, based on context.
Also, working with large and diverse groups and sets of individuals is something each one of you will be exposed to during the program.
This will be most amplified during case weekends when creating a cohesive unit, delegating responsibilities and managing time is the critical challenge.
It’s a small simulation of how organisations work, where some people execute, while other may/may not be ‘free-loaders’.
Use these case weekends to fully engage, contribute and experience the dilemma of being a ‘manager’. At some stage, most of you will be moving into roles which involve managing people and teams.
This experience would come in handy then.

Lastly, these six months will pass on quickly.
Show up for meetups. Hang out on the Café. Call the fluff out. Participate in the events. Drive at least one session of your own. Find camaraderie.
Build your tribe!
This investment will compound well, for most of you.

To end with, I would like to leave you with this:

“By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
second by imitation, which is easiest;
and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius

PS: Never forget that there was a cohort which pulled off a highly improbable mega-meet-up in Goa with not even one pledge pulling out at the last minute.

Sincerely,
Anurag Srivastava, Alum - C3

🥳 🎂Birthday Parttaaayy! 🥳 🎂

26th - Alok Chauhan, Nishant Menon

28th - Ankit Ruparel, Deepesh Singh

30th - Shivam Agarwal

31st - Nidhi Singh

🔦 Fellow Spotlight 🔦

What did you want to be as a kid?

Dude, this is going to sound so funny, but like you remember we used to have Slam Books when we were kids, no? So, it always had a question about, what you want to be when you grow up and I actually wrote, “I want to be a Software Developer” - and that came true so 🤷🏻

What inspired you to want to be an SDE?

I had a lot of cousins who were SDEs, and they seemed to be doing cool things, so I guess that was part of it. And then of course as I grew older I learnt that I didnt enjoy Biology or Physics or whatever, but Computer Science? That was my jam, I loved it, and I used to do really well in it as well.

What do you end up gravitating towards in conversations?

My conversations are almost always a reflection of who I’m having a conversation with. There’s not much I won't share some level of interest or curiosity about - and when you see someone be excited about something, it’s pretty easy for that to rub off on you as well.

Is there a lesson you’ve learnt that’s stuck with you as you’ve grown older?

Something that I remember most prominently is you know how when you’re kids your parents decide what’s good and bad, as influences, habits, practices, activities - whatever? It’s funny to see that shatter and completely change as you become an adult.

What’s a dream you want to be real?

I’ve always wanted to build something that exists at the intersection of Art, Tech and Fashion - it’s still one of the things that excites me most. And all three of these things also individually excite me to participate in & be involved with.

Tell me about some of your hobbies!

Well, this might get me into either some really cool places or trouble, but oh well. I come from the Dark Side of the internet - so I have access to more things than people think. And in my free time, I also produce music sometimes.

How did you find out about the Blockchain space?

Oh mannn. I remember back in 2013 is when Bitcoin started getting spoken about a lot, and cause I used to be using the Dark Side, etc. I knew about it & got to learn more about it. It was everywhere you consume content - Youtube, Twitter, Reddit

Ever since I've been around and sort of toying with it, I guess. So now it actually feels like I’ve cracked a whole new level, where I get to know about drops before they happen, or like find out about word before it spreads. That’s probably the best way I can explain it - but it still feels kinda crazy to be in on the fun.

You’ll find Vaishak here: On LinkedIn / On Twitter

📣 📣Announcements📣 📣

If you haven’t had a chance yet, do let us know what you want to see us get better at in the Community.
There’s a Community Feedback Form on the #Announcements channel on Discord - we await getting better! 🥳
We also launched a new change for the Help-Me-Out channel, where we’d like every query on the channel of #Help-Me-Out to be led with:
”Status: Open, Closed or Waiting”
as the first sentence of your query.
If in a week or 10 days your query isn’t resolved, you can repost or reply to the original message.
We’re hoping this makes it easier than someone seeing a query 3 weeks later and asking, “Is this closed?”. 🙈
There’s an upcoming Discord revamp, so incase you think we’ve been missing a channel, feature, improvement, or something you think should be included, do hit up Nicaia and let her know.
Also doston, threads banalo 😭

Events in the Coming Week

Tomorrow, we have Vikrant Mehra running a session on Business Writing.
You ever been caught off guard by being asked to write a blog, or plagued by writing the perfect mail?
Well, Vikrant’s going to give you the tips he can tomorrow!
And then on Thursday, after many weeks of not having had a Quiz, we have the Boat Club Quiz Club(BCQC in short) running a Quiz for us.
I promise this is one you’re going to participate in - it might be the biggest engagement night our Community sees, unfortunately for Boat Club, they have a fair bit to live up to with the last 3 quizzes our fellows have run!