Hi Reader,

Happy Thursday 💫

It feels good to be back in Oakland, California, after spending a week in scorching Phoenix, Arizona.

Quick side note: my video course, More Time Everyday, is launched and available to the public right now. If you’re in a stage in life where you think it’s time to rebuild your planning system, and want to use Notion, check out this course. 30 concise video lessons. 5+ Notion templates. 3.5 hours of content. 1 goal = help you live a life of balance.

This week’s newsletter centers around the theme of mindsets, psychedelics, and life experiences. If reading this sparks something in your mind, hit reply and share your thoughts. I’m having so much fun hearing from the community!

Alright, let’s begin.

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CM Long Reads

​Attending My First Creators Conference: (8 min) After a 2.5-year hiatus, I attended my first in-person conference, and my very first content creator conference ever. As I walked into the huge conference hall for the opening ceremony, I felt nervous. Seeing over 150 people swarming in front of me was overwhelming. But, once I got over that momentary fear, I walked up to someone and began with a “Hi!” In this article, I’ve shared a few surprising observations, new ideas, and a few people I’m grateful to have met from this event in Phoenix, Arizona.

​How Your Mindset Affects Your Health & Performance: (60 min) Did you know that your body feels full faster if you perceive your food to be indulgent instead of perceiving it to be healthy? In this insight-packed podcast, Dr. Alia Crum, an associate professor of psychology at Stanford University, breaks down the connection between our mindsets and how it affects our physiology when it comes to food, exercise, and stress. I’m a believer in the mind-body connection, and it was very interesting to hear Dr. Crum share real-life case studies of its impact. If you don’t have the time to watch the full podcast, you can read my short note on the same here!​

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CM Short Bites

​How Ketamine Affects Our Brain Connectivity: (3 min) If you’re curious about psychedelics or neuroscience, this will interest you. I’ve been long following Bryan Johnson, founder of the neurotech startup Kernel (and also founder of BrainTree, which was sold to Venmo). His startup, Kernel, has built a non-invasive neurotech device, called Kernel Flow, which was recently used to measure the effect of Ketamine (a psychedelic / anesthetic). The results are fun to observe. You can also watch a 2-min video of the experiment here.

​Onboarding New Employee Best Practices: (3 min) Having onboarded 6+ people to work with me (all part-time), I share some of the best practices in this short-note, especially relevant if you’re hiring people to work on short-term passion projects. A more seamless onboarding can lead to a faster path for the employee to get themselves plugged your world. Do you have any ideas based on your experience? Please share them with me, and I’d love to update the note!

​Dennis McKenna on Taking A Heroic Dose of Mushrooms: (8 min) In line with this newsletter’s theme of psychedelics and psychology, it felt fitting to share this video with you as a random but interesting plug for the week. Dennis Mckenna is an ethno-pharmacologist and author, and brother of Terence McKenna, a big name in the world of psychedelics. If this is the first time you’re hearing about psychedelics, watching this will give you a peek into the worldview. 👀

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Story of the week

If you’re part of my other newsletter (Making Of A Book series), you know how I spent the past weekend. I was in my room, brainstorming, reading, writing, and resting. But I did take my Saturday night off to spend it with two of my roommates.

We did something that is typical of the Western culture: we went to a bar.

…….

I had my first sip of alcohol on January 1st, 2018, when I was 21. It was with a few friends at Columbia in New York. My friend and I decided that it was time we broke our sobriety. So we got dressed, went to a bar, and excitedly ordered a… fruit punch.

Yep, that was my first drink.

I think I ordered that because I didn’t want to drink something too bitter. Surprisingly, although you hear that alcohol is an acquired taste, I still haven’t acquired it after 4 years. To this day, I flinch every time I drink it as it’s too bitter for my palette.

Coming to last weekend, the bar we went to closed soon after we ordered our drinks. Feeling like the night was unfinished, we drove to another bar… but could not find parking anywhere. Once again, typical San Francisco.

Eventually, we ended up making our own cocktail at our house, going up to my room, and drinking and talking until 1 AM.

Something I learned from living in community houses in San Francisco, and in general attending well-planned events, is the importance of the setting in catalyzing conversations.

As my roommates and I sat in my room chatting, I could see the topic of our conversations become more and more intimate and meaningful.

And I couldn’t help but think that the setting of that scenario – dim color-changing lamps, comfortable sofa cushions, and the vodka-guava in our hand – had a lot to do with that.

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That’s it for now, Reader.

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I soon plan to begin rewarding the most engaged people in the newsletter community: those who open all emails, reply to it thoughtfully, and forward it to their friends so they can join too. If you’re one of them, stay tuned! ;)

Thank you so much for reading till here. I feel lucky to get to share what I’m learning every week with you.

Sending you the best until next time!

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Yours truly,

Soundarya Balasubramani 💚

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My Top 5 Tools

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​Notion: Build anything from a to-do list to a relational database. A true all-in-one tool.

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​Roam Research: Build a second brain to capture your best ideas. Connect all of them automatically.

Some links above are affiliate links, which just means I get some reward for recommending a cool product to cool people like you.​
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Quote of the week: Don't just do something; stand there.

— Martin Gabel

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