Vivek (Vik) Chaudhuri

Money advice nobody told you: The only way to make a lot of money is to create a lot of value. No one hands out money. No one is going to pay you just because they like you or think you're cool. That's not the way the world works. Money earned is a direct byproduct of value created. Create value, receive value. If money is the goal, value has to be the focus. This isn't just some vague idea: The only way to get rich is to create an enormous amount of value for others, and capture a small portion of that along the way. It's not talking about the thing, it's not brainstorming about the thing, it's not asking about the thing, it's not thinking about the thing. The only way to create value is by doing the thing. And if you don't know where to start, look around you. Customers, colleagues, bosses, shareholders, employees. Every single one of them has a problem. What problems can you solve for the people around you? Figure them out, solve them, scale that solution. That's how you make money.

We strongly condemn the brutal murder of Chandranath Rath in Madhyamgram tonight, along with the killing of three other TMC workers in incidents of post-poll violence allegedly carried out by BJP-backed miscreants over the last three days, despite the Model Code of Conduct being in force. We demand the strongest possible action in this matter, including a court-monitored CBI investigation so that those responsible are identified and brought to justice without delay. Violence and political killings have no place in a democracy and the guilty must be held accountable at the earliest.

A bunch of us travelled to Kolkata with our families and visited the Victoria Memorial and the Indian Museum. My first proper museum trip in Kolkata, and it’s easily the best museum city in India. The Victoria Memorial, conceived by Lord Curzon after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and opened in 1921, is stunning as architecture. But seeing it in India feels a bit off. Built with Indian money and marble from Rajasthan, it’s also a reminder of the scale of extraction during British rule. The Indian Museum is something else altogether. The range of archaeology, fossils, art, and anthropology is incredible. You can spend hours and still not be done. Sharing this because we don’t really have a strong museum-going culture in India. Maybe the long stretch of British rule has something to do with it. But if there are two museums to start with, these are a must-visit.

Most CEOs have no idea what’s really going on

I have just spoken with Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian. I called on him to put an immediate end to the unacceptable attacks Iran is carrying out against countries in the region, whether directly or through proxies, including in Lebanon and Iraq. I reminded him that France is acting within a strictly defensive framework aimed at protecting its interests, its regional partners, and freedom of navigation, and that it is unacceptable for our country to be targeted. The unchecked escalation we are witnessing is plunging the entire region into chaos, with major consequences today and for the years to come. The people of Iran, like those across the region, are paying the price. Only a new political and security framework can ensure peace and security for all. Such a framework must guarantee that Iran never acquires nuclear weapons, while also addressing the threats posed by its ballistic missile programme and its destabilising activities regionally and internationally. Freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz must be restored as soon as possible. I also urged the Iranian President to allow Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris to return safely to France as soon as possible. Their ordeal has gone on for far too long, and they belong with their loved ones.

Fair point. I’m not even a dev. For me, it’s not about being 2x or 10x faster. It’s simply the fact that I’m able to build something at all. I’m trying to solve a real problem in my real estate fix and flip business, so I decided to build an app to help me manage the whole renovation process. I used Claude Code to design the architecture of the app and Codex to actually build it. It’s not finished yet, but I can share a screenshot.