Henry Valentine Miller, an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist devised and adhered to a stringent daily routine to propel his writing. This list of eleven commandments is mentioned Henry Miller on Writing.

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.

2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’

3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, and recklessly on whatever is in hand.

4. Work according to the Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!

5. When you can’t create you can work.

6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.

7. Keep human! See people, go places, and drink if you feel like it.

8. Don’t be a draught horse! Work with pleasure only.

9. Discard the Program when you feel like it, but go back to it the next day. Concentrate, narrow down, and exclude.

10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.

11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterward.

The above points are universal and timeless. They fit in any domain, not just writing. I believe that if one could read between the lines, one would uncover a lot. Following is my commentary on a few of them.

Work according to program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!

Discipline is more important than work. “Work according to program” means following a pre-planned schedule or a system, regardless of fluctuating emotions or moods. “Stop at the appointed time” prevents overworking or burnout. Routine is key to success.

When you can’t create you can work.

There is a difference between work and creation. Working is an action, while creation is an outcome. Work should never stop, while creation has many more moving parts and dependencies.

Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’

Miller felt he was done with Black Spring and only then started Tropic of Capricorn. The theme of the novel “The Black Spring” is freedom and self-expression. Its plot is non-linear, and it has a stream-of-consciousness narrative and experimental style. Perhaps what he wanted to remind himself was that there’s a clear “done” point while you are writing a book. Don’t mix the next book in first even when you see connections. More here.

Discard the Program when you feel like it, but go back to it the next day. Concentrate, narrow down, and exclude.

Great people often contradict themselves and that’s fine. This 9th commandment suggests that while it’s okay to deviate from a structured program when you’re feeling uninspired or need a break, returning to it the next day is crucial to maintaining progress. But as Jodi Picoult (American writer) said “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” So keep writing.

Let me know in the comments sections, which commandment you follow or which resonates with you the most.

The 2026 job market is brutal. Mass layoffs across tech, design and product roles. AI absorbing entry and mid level work. Hundreds of resumes per posting. Recruiters ghosting. ATS filters. Hiring freezes that get announced and then randomly extended. If you are an experienced professional in your late thirties, forties or fifties, you are also competing with younger candidates who cost companies less.

I recently had Joseph Louis Tan on The Gyaan Project. He has seen both sides of the hiring table. He walked away from a 200k role, with a mortgage, two boys under four, and no real backup plan, to coach experienced designers who have hit a wall in their job search. His clients are landing offers for roles that were never even posted.

What he shared reframed how I think about job hunting in this market. So I am putting it down here as ten practical shifts. None of these are hacks.

1. Enter through the backdoor

The traditional job search path looks like this: scroll LinkedIn jobs → upload resume, fill out the same form again → click submit → wait → repeat. Then the silence and doubts creeping your mind.

Joseph calls this the front door. And the front door is broken in 2026.

Picture a club. There are three queues outside.

The first is the main queue.

Hundreds of people, sometimes thousands, all trying to squeeze past the bouncer. In a job hunt, the bouncer is the recruiter or the applicant tracking system. Their job is not to find you. Their job is to filter you out so the hiring manager does not waste time.

The second queue is the VIP line.

The referral queue. Someone inside the company brings you onto the red carpet. Faster response, yes, but you still pass through the same bouncer.

The third entrance is the staff door - ‘the backdoor’.

This is the backdoor. It is how the staff walk in. It is the conversation that happens before a role is posted. It is the coffee chat that becomes “we are about to open a role, you should apply when it goes live.”

Joseph shared a real example. For a lecturer role at NTU in Singapore, the director reached out to him on WhatsApp for a casual chat. By the end of that chat, he had an informal offer. The role was posted online later the same day, purely for compliance. He was already in.

This is not rare. About 70 percent of roles are part of the hidden job market. They either never get advertised, or they get advertised after someone is already shortlisted. The front door is shut for most of the real opportunities in tech, design, product and other senior roles.

2. Know your own archetype

If your job search has stalled, you are probably one of three types. Joseph sees these patterns in every cohort of designers he coaches. He calls himself all three at different points in his 18 year career.

The over applier.

Does everything right on paper. Tailors the resume for every role. Polishes the portfolio. Applies to 100, 200, sometimes a thousand roles. Then doubles down on what is not working. Sends more applications. Tweaks the resume again. The system is selecting against them and they are just adding more fuel to it. Confidence erodes by month four or five. Eventually they start wondering if they should even stay in their field.

The drifter.

They have reinvented themselves multiple times across their career. Opens the job board, scrolls through postings, and nothing pulls them forward. So they wait. Waiting for clarity to arrive on its own. But clarity does not come from thinking. It comes from conversations. Meanwhile the resume gap keeps growing and slowly becomes the story they have to explain to every recruiter.

The veteran.

Fifteen plus years of experience. Hardest time of the three because they never had to sell themselves. Work always spoke for them. Referrals showed up. Then the market shifted and they did not. Their LinkedIn profile reads like a list of job titles, not a story. The depth of their experience is buried.

3. Stop blaming the ATS

The myth that the applicant tracking system is auto rejecting your resume is one of the most damaging beliefs in the modern job search.

Joseph built the workflow for one and has interviewed hundreds of recruiters about how they actually use these tools. The ATS is mostly an organisation system. The only thing that auto rejects you is the knockout questions. Do you have a visa to work here. Yes or no. That is the filter. Beyond that, a human, usually a recruiter, is still reading.

So if you are not getting interview callbacks, the ATS is not the villain. The signal you are sending is unclear. That is fixable. But you have to stop blaming the machine and start auditing what you are actually communicating in your resume, your LinkedIn profile and your portfolio.

4. Get clarity about yourself before you fix your resume or portfolio

Most career advice in 2026 goes straight to the tools. New resume. Better portfolio. Sharper LinkedIn headline. Learn the latest AI tool. None of that moves the needle in your job search if you are not clear about yourself first.

He compares it to fixing your boat when you do not even know where you are going. Maybe you need a different vehicle entirely.

Three questions every job seeker should ask themselves:

1. What problems have you actually solved in your earlier job? What is the common thread across your roles?

2. What are your real strengths? Why does the room shift when you walk in? Not your skill, your judgment.

3. What unique problems are you positioned to solve that someone else cannot?

Once you can answer these 3 questions honestly, the resume, portfolio, LinkedIn profile and outreach all become translations of something you already know.

Joseph’s point was that visual craft and technical skill are now table stakes. Figma themselves shared that 60 plus percent of files on the platform are made by non designers using generative AI. So the differentiator has moved. It is now your ownership, your decision making, the judgment you bring beyond the skillset. The same is true across product management, engineering, marketing and most knowledge work in 2026.

5. Not “I” to but “you”

This is where most cold outreach on LinkedIn dies before it begins.

Look at your last cold message to a hiring manager or recruiter. It probably starts with “I am interested in the role” or “I have five years of experience in” or “I would love to connect because I am exploring opportunities.” Every sentence begins with I.

A hiring manager reads dozens of these LinkedIn messages a week. They all sound the same. They all feel like a pitch from a job seeker to a gatekeeper.

Look at their LinkedIn profile. Did they move from a big agency to an in house role? Did they jump from a large company to a small startup? Did they pivot from consumer to B2B? There is always a story behind those moves. Lead with that. Ask about that. Make the first message about them.

6. Earn the conversation

Even with a thoughtful opener, most job seekers fumble the ask. They end with “Can I get 30 minutes of your time” or “Can I pick your brain” or “Would you mind reviewing my portfolio.” Each of these costs the other person real energy.

Back when Joseph was hiring, he would spend 10 to 30 minutes reviewing portfolios people asked him to look at. Sometimes he would even record a Loom video. What did he get back? Thank you. Or silence. The exchange of value just was not there.

So he recommends - end your LinkedIn message with a multiple choice question. Something the other person can answer in five seconds.

Example. “When you made that shift, was it the mission of the company that pulled you in, or the scope of the work?”

Or. “When you joined that team, was it the people that drew you in, or the problem space that got you excited?”

It is a two hit combo. First you get them to connect. Then you get them to reply. From there, the informational interview breathes on its own.

People are smart. They can spot a “let us grab a coffee so I can pick your brain” message from across the room. You cannot skip to the ask. You have to earn the conversation first.

7. Design the “tell me more” moment

When the relationship works, there comes a moment where the other person turns the conversation around. “Enough about me. Tell me about yourself.”

This is the moment in any informational interview or networking conversation where the dynamic flips. You are no longer a stranger asking for something. You are a peer worth knowing.

But you cannot force this moment. You earn it by listening first. People rarely get asked thoughtful questions about themselves. Not even by their spouse, Joseph said. When you do it, it lands as a gift.

We are hyper connected but not close. Closeness is built one real conversation at a time.

8. Give before you ask. Always.

This is the one piece of career advice almost no career coach gives. Most coaches push you to do more. Better resume. Better portfolio. Learn a new tool. Apply to more roles.

Start by giving.

Go back through every job you have held. Pull up the people you genuinely worked with. The ones who helped you. The ones who shaped how you think. The ones who gave you a chance when you were not ready. The colleague who covered your back when the deadline was coming.

Write each of them an unrequested LinkedIn recommendation. No agenda. No “by the way, I am looking.” Just a note that says, “I was reviewing my career recently and realised I never wrote you one. Here it is.”

No ask. No follow up. Just give.

Joseph has 77 plus recommendations on his LinkedIn profile. What happens next is that conversations restart. Relationships rejuvenate. Goodwill accumulates. And weeks or months later, when you actually need help in your job search, you do not have to ask. People reach out to you. He called it karma. He figured the Indian readers would recognise the word.

In his own career across nine different chapters, the roles that mattered did not come from the strongest portfolio. Sometimes his portfolio was not even ready. They came from relationships he had been building before he knew he needed them. Especially in Asia, in markets like Singapore and India, trust has to come before the ask. You cannot go straight to “let us grab a coffee so I can pick your brain.” It reads wrong and people can feel it.

9. Conversation > Application

Here is the math on job search response rates that should help gain a nuanced perspective.

If you apply through a job board like LinkedIn or Indeed, your callback rate is between 1 and 4% on a good day. So out of 100 job applications, you might hear back from one or two real people.

If you reach out warmly to people inside your target companies, the response rate is 20 to 30%. So out of 10 well chosen LinkedIn messages, you can expect two or three real conversations.

That is five to ten times better. And the conversations are with the actual humans who decide hiring. Not the recruiter. Not the applicant tracking system. Not a black hole.

End of the day, people hire people. They do not hire applications. They do not hire portfolios. They do not hire resumes. They hire people.

10. Depth > Volume of job search

This was the line Joseph closed our conversation on, and it might be the most important one for any job seeker in 2026.

Go for depth over volume. Go for the quality of conversations, not the quantity. You do not need 200 of them. You need three, four, five real ones. That alone can move you further than 100 applications.

His clients typically build a target company map of 10 to 15 companies. Inside each, they identify around 10 people to connect with on LinkedIn. Not to ask for a job. To start a conversation. To be top of mind. To bring an idea or a perspective that is relevant to what those people are dealing with.

This is the bit most people get wrong. They think the backdoor job search means a clever shortcut. It is not a shortcut. It is the longer, slower, more human path. It just happens to also be the one that works.

Build that target company map this week. Ten companies you would love to work at. For each, three people you could reach out to. Start with one.

This conversation with Joseph has many more insights, so do give it a listen. If you wish to get in touch with Joseph, please reach out to him at CareerCreators.com. He has a six week The Backdoor program that help you land the right role paying $30K to $80K, more than you expected. Through direct conversations with hiring managers. Without feeling pushy, applying online, or getting ghosted. Of course, Joseph is on linkedin with 40K+ followers, has helped 50+ Designers land their dream job.

If you know someone navigating layoffs or a long job search, share this with them. Sometimes the most generous thing you can do is hand someone the right door.

Reference links

• Connect with Joseph Louis Tan (Linkedin)

• Career Creators

• Joseph's free 18 question hiring signal quiz

• Joseph Louis Tan Instagram

• Land the next role, faster

• The Gyaan Project Podcast Youtube Channel

• The Gyaan Project Podcast Link

• The Gyaan Project Podcast Instagram

R.K. Joshi

Prof. Raghunath K. Joshi (1936–2008) was a versatile figure—a calligrapher, designer, poet, researcher, and teacher. With 30 years in the mass communication industry, he later taught design courses at IDC/IIT in Mumbai for 15 years. He also contributed to font design software, Indian language word processing packages, and Indic fonts for Windows and Linux. Prof. Joshi organised exhibitions, workshops, and seminars on Indian letterforms, showcased his calligraphic works, and conducted pioneering research on Indian manuscripts and epigraphic writings. He was a renowned speaker on Indian design and calligraphy and received prestigious awards such as the CAG Hall of Fame (1992) and the Ad Club Distinguished Achievement Award (2004). Prof. Joshi passed away in San Francisco on February 5th, 2008, at the age of 72.

Following is a transcript of his 5-part interview on TypeRadio (adapted to reading). This was at ATP 2006 in Lisbon, Portugal. Donald and Liza speak to R.K Joshi.

Part 1

Liza (Host): What sparked your interest in typography?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Actually I was interested in letter forms per se, not so much of typography in my childhood. I saw signboards all around the town. They were really good and I got impressed. I use to wonder who drew these forms? Who are the people? I grew up in this environment. Later in our school, as a part of my higher education, we had this topic called lettering, L E T T E R I N G. No name of typography at the time. And, nothing on calligraphy at the time. We had to do all the Roman alphabet by hand. It was a very tedious job for all students in those days. I’m talking about 1950s’. Yeah. Without understanding the whole historical significance of all these typefaces or the inscriptions or the manuscripts. Great people did contribute to this entire civilisation of humanity. Our teachers didn’t give you any guidance. They just made you practice. They’d say “copy this, copy that and do it correctly”. What is correct and what is not correct. At that time, you had to copy some sheets. We copied them as a teacher would say. But at that time, I was exposed to an interesting article in a book. I forgot the name of the book. There was an article, The Romance of Calligraphy. I didn’t understand at that time - what is this romance of calligraphy. Because that word was unknown at that time.

Donald (Host): Was it a western book?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Yes. It’s a western book. We had some type of specimen book in our school. We tried to copy them. Millimeter, height, serif, sans-serif, this series and that…

Liza (Host): Were you good? We were you good student?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Yes. We did this and then I forgot. It was fantastic. All the proportions match and everything is happening. But who does all these things work? You know, still we do not know the type designer, the breed of type designer at that time at all. We thought that we will have an exhibition. So in 1955, I had an exhibition at my art school called, “Know Thy Character”. I thought that each and every typeface has a character. Almost has a life. So the type can talk to me, as I’m talking to you now. That’s how I got interested in this without actually knowing it, but actually feeling it. If I had to use a Bodoni, then I had to be careful. If I had to use Garamond or Gill Sans you know, it’s sans serif. I really got deeper into it and that’s how my interest in, type and typography came up.

Liza (Host): But was there anybody in your family that was also interested in this?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): No, no, no. They say, that you have to have a background in the family or you are an born artist. But, no… I just said that I want to be an artist.

Donald (Host): So was that your conception of your future when you were taking this education? You wanted to be an artist or you wanted to be… (Joshi cuts him)

R.K. Joshi (Guest): See, at that time we didn’t even not know the difference in between art and design. I’m talking about 50s. We called it either commercial arts or fine arts. It came from British to India… So, we also did not know the term called graphic design. In India, after your art school, you go to advertising agency. That’s all.

After my education, I went to an advertising agency and I did my work so well in typography that they said, “Well, you are a typographer”. I said, “Well, thats nice.”

But actually I was really inspired by calligraphy. By great writing masters - Arrighi, Palatino, Tagliente. I saw their work in books and I was very impressed and I tried to copy it.

Donald (Host): I wanted to ask you… there are so many Indian writing systems and very different. How did you try to emanate to these systems?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Good question. Actually, all the time I was exposed to western typography, calligraphy and designs. But, I was always thinking about Indian letter forms. The aesthetics, tradition, cultural importance of Indian letter forms, Indian scripts, Indian languages. All the time I was comparing - “This can happen for Roman script in English, why can’t it happen for my Hindi language in India?” I said, I must know about it. But the answers are not readily available. I had to go to a printing press and do an apprenticeship of composing the Indian alphabets by my own hand for a few years. But it felt complicated and I said, “Why so much of a complication? Why aren’t we able to solve our own issues, our own problems?”

That’s why I always say, “I have inspirations from the West, but something has to happen in the Indian environment.”

Part 2

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Indian sounds, Indian alphabet, visual forms. Such a fantastic treasure is there in India. There are 22 languages about 10+ different scripts, but there is some common thread. I may call it as a phonetics, the utterances. They are planned in some definite way. There are two sounds together, three sounds together, and we have got an entire system in that way. So, the Indian letter forms, from many angles. Aesthetic, historic, calligraphic, typographic, religious, angles. I got involved in so many seminars, exhibitions. Oh, plenty of things to do. And I did it, and still I have to do a lot more, but I get tired these days.

Donald (Host): I understood, it must feel like a struggle to bring all these different languages, cultures, religions together. Are you actually looking for a one singular form in which like the Indian language… (Joshi cuts him)

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Ahhh! You talk to my heart. Because this was the thing I thought in 1968. I said, God, I have to really think of some way. Because these challenges must be there in all Indian languages. I don’t know all languages. I know only a few. So how do I do it? Then, I tried to evolve my own script of that time. You know… if some participant was absent, then I would stand over and read the poem, say in Kannada, which I do not know. So, in 1968, I tried to do a project called Desha Nagari, a common script for all Indian languages. These were exciting moments.

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Of course, you know, the reality on the ground, people always oppose. “No, no. Our language, our script, this common script is no good.” Even you had problems here and in all of Europe. Bernard Shaw said that “Roman script is phonetically absolutely bad, spelling is a problem.” He tried to reform the script himself. Declared a big prize until he was alive. But nobody could get the prize. Afterwards, Kingsley Read, did some work on that and it is based on the Indian phonetics. So, you come back to the same source again. Right? That’s how this whole thing has evolved. In fact, I have some of my type designs done long time back in the 1960s. But at that time, there was no environment. In India, it was hand casting. Who will cut the punches? Who will strike the matrix? Who will cut the type? No real environment was over there. And even people asked. “why do you need new types? We have some types”.

But then I realised, the types are based on calligraphy. Great example was Hermann Zapf in Germany, whom I met and we had long chats that way. So I always felt that unless somebody writes well and appreciates the handwritten forms, no new styles can really come in. Then I plunged like a devil into the area of calligraphy. So my name is always associated with the revival of calligraphy in India. It’s a single man’s work for last 50 years, I’m struggling to reintroduce calligraphy. I mean, Indian calligraphy in India.

Liza (Host): But there are people who will continue the project, no?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Well, I mean, there are now students. Now the students have become teachers, and it’s our third or the fourth generation. All going on. But, look, India is a big country and if I do it in one art school, it does not mean that I have done it in other art schools. You have to go there and talk to them. “Tamil script is so beautiful. Please check your palm leaves and, how nice is your entire calligraphic tradition”... So you have to really move around and do it as a missionary work. This is almost in that way, life’s mission, I could say, that to revive the aesthetics of Indian letter forms.

And, now in context to all the technologies. That’s a more important thing. I did work in hot metal. I did work in prototype setting. Then the digital things is also introduced in seventies there. So immediately I have to check, what can happen to Indian scripts. I worked with few great computer scientist in India. They were happy to see something very interesting is coming up over here. I’m also working epigraphist. I said, look, “Trajan’s Column, Rome’s inscription has inspired hundreds and thousands of type designers in the entire Europe. And we have got thousands and thousands of beautiful inscriptions in each and every Indian script. Why don’t you do something about it?” He said, “What to do? We only can read inscriptions, who donated whom? who killed whom? or, you know, the war details., how will we know?”

I said, “Let’s just appreciate the beauty of these letter forms.” So now I go to epigraphist conferences. And I talk about some of the calligraphy on stones. It is also equally important. I have been involved in this entire research work. I know that who was the first guy in India, in 200BC, who first wrote text on the stone at King Ashoka. His name is “Chapada”. Because he engraved his name by writing, “Chapadena likhitam idam.” Which means, “the great guy called Chapada has written this”. That way I have traced more than 40 names of the calligraphers who wrote on stone, their names are there for the first time in India and it’s whole historical aspect of it.

Part 3

Liza (Host): Also, have you written your name and said, the great calligrapher, Joshi has written this?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. (Laughing out loud). Thats a good one… Actually, in the Indian scene we have no care for our names.

Donald (Host): So you don’t sign your work?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Ha. No. I sign my work. But generally, in Indian Philosophy, you will not see too many people signing their work, because they, really didn’t believe in that in terms of a philosophy itself. Now you may ask, “what is that philosophy?”

You are not a master of your own creative work. It is your assignment. This assignment has come from some unknown source, place or power. You are supposed to do it! You do it and then leave this world. So, you do great things, good things, almost with the sense of responsibility of completing an assignment - given to you by some unknown power.

Donald (Host): And this is like a general Indian notion?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Actually, you’ll find this in so many pockets in India. Faraway places, not in the cities. If you got to Bombay and talk to an industrialists or an artist, they will not agree. They don’t believe in that. They will say, I’m a creator. My name is there and I did this.

One day, I was talking about this with my eye doctor. He was testing my eyes, because I’m almost blind now. He examined me.

Joshi to doctor: Sir, I want to give you a small piece of my work.

Doctor: What is it?

Joshi to doctor: It’s written in Devanagari and it means this

Doctor: Joshi, I don’t agree with you.

Joshi to doctor: Okay sir!

Doctor: When I fix your eyes, I do your entire surgery, with my hands, my skill and I’m doing it.

Joshi to doctor: Sure you are doing it.

(After about six months, in my next visit…)

Doctor: Joshi, in the last visit, you told me something. I thought about it. I talked to my wife and I think we now agree with you. It’s the correct thing.

R.K. Joshi (Guest): So, it’s there and also it’s not there. Right? We can’t say “don’t sign your work or sign your work”. As far as my work, I have treated it as a passion. Mission of my life - on educational front, on professional front, at R&D front, and also on technology front. So it’s there and people can see it. I have many students. They go abroad and then they call me over there, “I’m so happy that you scolded me on that day, etc, etc…”

On the academic side, I’ve introduced calligraphy as part of a syllabus, so few art school in India are now really taking it seriously. A few have not still, so I have to go there and talk to them. (In Hindi, “kuch karo.” - which means, “do something.”) because you are Indians, and you have to care for Indian culture, Indian scripts, Indian language, and Indian aesthetics. So, hopefully things will improve, I’m sure.

Donald (Host): Do you have a favourite dish?

Liza (Host): We’re changing the subject.

R.K. Joshi (Guest): You are asking me all questions (laughs) which are so interesting. You know, I have gone through very, bad patches of hardships. Food was a big problem. I couldn’t get my food. So, now I value it a lot. I enjoy each and every dish. Of course, I don’t eat any meat. But in vegetarian I enjoy all of it. So there is no problem for my wife to cook. My daughters also don’t say that I want this or that.

Liza (Host): Can you cook?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Yes, I used to cook in twenty minutes back then when I was a bachelor. And, yes, I still cook sometimes. I can do some interesting pickles, you know.

Donald (Host): How long have you been married?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): I got married in, um, sixty four. No sixty six.

Donald (Host): Sixty six, so that makes forty years. Forty four years?

Liza (Host): Forty two? No? Yes. No, forty?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Now you calculate. I’ve lost the track. (laughs aloud)

Donald (Host): You mentioned you had daughters?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Yes, I have two daughters. Both are good in their studies and they’re quite career oriented.

Liza (Host): Are they interested in calligraphy?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): I have not forced my views on anybody but one is a good poet, and I’m also poet. I’m a concrete poet. All my visual poetry is in archives throughout the world, somewhere in America and in Oxford here. I’m the only guy in India who has done this work in concrete poetry, visual poetry, sound points, typographic poems. So people exclaim, gosh! “here is another experiment by R.K. Joshi”.

So, ya… the younger one writes poems. The elder daughter is good with computers.

Liza (Host): Do you write poems with your daughter? Do you work together?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): No. Her poems are also published. She writes in English. I don’t write in English. I write in my own language.

Donald (Host): Which language is that?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Marathi. It’s a language in Bombay area. I write in Marathi and nowadays I translate them in English also. Few of these poems I have read in conferences in Tokyo, and...

Liza (Host): Could you? That’s it! You know the question!

R.K. Joshi (Guest): (Laughing out loud) This afternoon is really fantastic. I did not know until this morning that I will be revealing my entire life through your great radio to this entire world. Here we are, good friends and we are talking!

Part 4

Donald (Host): Do you have a hero?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): I have two books as my gurus. That’s all. Books are my heroes. I had a teacher who taught me calligraphy, but books taught me more. Ordinary books you know.

First book, when I saw Penguin Type, I said, such work is done by these great people. Who are they? And how did they know about this whole thing? So, that’s book number one. Book number two is more on the Palaeographic study of all ancient inscription by Pandit Ojha. (He was referring to Pandit Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha). He is no longer alive. Oh, yes! I must say that there are three books, instead of two books. The third book is a really the great book called Siddham. S I D D H A M. That’s actually how the Indian script, Devanagari went to China and Japan in about 7th or 8th century AD. Few Hindu priests went with few Buddhist travelers and shared the entire knowledge. That book was entire Sanskrit written by their own tools. You know how Chinese and Japanese are so sensitive to their calligraphic tools. Such a fantastic forms they created and that book was about that. Interestingly this story is written by a Dutch guy. (In Hindi, “Kya hai”, which means “what a wonder”), you know this whole world is just so fascinating.

One Dutch guy, who had gone to China and wrote this in his preface. I really wish and I hope that some day, some Indian artist will see this book, study this whole style and try to bring back the entire beautiful style which has gone from India to China and Japan. That is the book I’m talking about.

Then I fell in love with the whole process of how you concentrate and how you take care of your tools and how they bring the strokes through you. I studied the whole thing and I experienced this great spiritualism of calligraphy which Zen monks have, and India is also spiritual at heart. And, then I tried so many experiments with huge tools which I cut myself. Dipped into bucket full of ink, did some strokes and an interesting exhibition happened in Germany in 1998 with another great calligrapher, Werner Schneider from Wiesbaden Art School. So, three books are my heroes.

Liza (Host): Which is the most beautiful word for you in any language? Not necessarily its meaning, maybe what it sounds like?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): That’s a nice question. You people are really professionals. Yes, I’m interested in the sounds of the words. Meaning is all right but the sound. Sound of the word “OM”. A U M. To chant it… I really love the whole aspect of it. The chanting of the OM. The priest and the yoga people do it, but I have some different take to that in terms of how these variation in sounds can be put in calligraphy.

I always kept my base quite strong all the time. OM is that word. You can call it a word although it is a single syllable but yes, OM is the word to answer your question.

Donald (Host): What profession you would have chosen other than being a calligrapher, poet, whatever, what you’re doing now?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Actually, I would still be born as a teacher if I ever had a second life. It’s because that, it gives me a great satisfaction… not really being a teacher in a normal sense. But a teacher is always a student, in that sense because only then you can study a lot more and impart the things. I always tell my student, I have taken 25 years to think about this, and I’m sharing this to you this afternoon, so that you can use those 25 years of your life in some better ways or advanced thinking. Don’t spend that much of a time on that. That’s a great feeling. You become empty every day and you have to get filled in every day. You come there next day and you are a new man. Last night, you were empty. You had to again face these young people. They are going to ask you hundreds of questions. So, it’s a great challenge. Poorly paid. Poorly looked after. But, money is not the thing. So, I would be a teacher again, so that I can learn and share many more things.

Part 5

Donald (Host): So does money make the world go round?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): No. But actually, I have nothing against money. In fact, I’ve lived a miserable life without money. So I know the value of money. But you know, you don;t have to be after it all the time. It will come to you. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “There is everything plenty in this world for your needs, but not for your greed.”

Obviously one has to travel. Now I’ve come from here, I had to beg, borrow or request someone, or take it off from the kitty, but it’s not a big deal. If you put a price for your knowledge giving activity, you are doomed. I know that people downstairs will not agree with it (Laughs), but that’s okay. They have their views, I have mine.

Liza (Host): Do you have any rituals you do? Is there something that you do every morning before you start work?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Yes. I think, I haven’t told this to anybody so far; even to my people back home. As soon as I get up, first thing I’ll do is… I will give some water to some plant. Any plant. If there is no plant, I will just say, “this is for the plant”. In Indian systems, there is a provision for this. If there is no plant in the hotel, I don’t open the door and search. Yes. This is the first thing I do it everyday, giving water to a plant.

Then I stand facing to the East. Knowing East is important for me; not for travelling around but for my morning ritual. I stand facing the East, I sip some and sprinkle some water in all ten directions - East, West, North, South, Up, down and so on…

Then, while facing the Sun, I hold some water in my hand. I try to stand on 1 leg and chant the Gayatri Mantra 10 times. Of course, my one leg is stronger than the other, so I switch - 5 times on one leg and 5 times on another, reciting the Gayatri Mantra and then drink the water. This is the ritual for me everyday, anywhere I go, India or abroad.

Donald (Host): We have one more request. Could you recite one of your poems for us?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Actually, I am a very bad poet. I say this because, I don’t have any of poems by heart. You know, in India, especially from the North belt, they recite poems like mad. One page after another page. They don’t look anywhere. It just comes out of their mouth. I say, kya karte hai? Kahan se aata hai? From where did it come? How can they recite their poem about eight pages long without stumbling, or stuttering. But I’m dead opposite. I don’t remember any of my poems. Also, when I write a poem, I can’t find my poems in my house. So I write a new poem.

Liza (Host): That’s a good solution. (All of them laugh)

Donald (Host): I have one last question, which is more powerful, the written word or the spoken word?

R.K. Joshi (Guest): Always spoken word. I’m saying this, though I’m attending this conference, who believe in written word.

Yesterday, they asked us, what are the areas you think are important for us to probe into? Few people suggested their things and I said, another area is speech. We really now get our attention to the speech, the spoken word, otherwise we will lag behind.

It takes so many years for calligraphers, typographers, type designers, printers and all those people who have worked so hard to reach here. But spoken word comes first.

To end, I would like to share a Sanskrit line,

“ākāśasya dharmaha śravaṇasya pratītiḥ.” ākāśasya dharmaha means, “the words are everywhere in the sky”. śravaṇasya pratītiḥ means, the experience of listening. It’s the experience of listening to words. So spoken words come first.

Donald & Liza (Host): Which is the point of Type Radio. (All of them laugh out aloud)

Hope you like it? You can tune into the conversation here. Please do share this post with as many people as you can. Especially Designers in India. We are reaping the fruits of all their life long hard work. We are standing on shoulders of giants. A small way to celebrate these giants.

This post is a growing collection of podcast episodes that have stretched my thinking about language, and its capacity to make us more human.

This is a living list. As you remember episodes that moved you, drop them in the comments.

It’s an ongoing list of podcast episodes. Please do comment if you find more.

What really counts as news today? Manisha Pande, editorial director at Newslaundry and host of TV Newsance, joins Kedar to talk about how Indian newsrooms work, why TV anchors stopped reporting, and how fake news, sources and sutras shape what we believe. A grounded, sharp conversation on the state of Indian media and how to stay sane while consuming news in a noisy country.

About the guest

Manisha Pande is the editorial director at Newslaundry and the writer and host of TV Newsance, a weekly critique of Indian television news. She has previously worked with DNA and Business Standard.

Who should listen

• Journalists and journalism students who want to understand how Indian newsrooms actually work and what separates a reporter from an anchor

• News consumers who feel overwhelmed, confused or numb after watching prime time and want to build a smarter news diet

• Designers, content creators and storytellers who care about how information is shaped, framed and sold to an audience

• Anyone curious about how Newslaundry survives without ads and why independent journalism in India still has a future

Topics discussed in the episode

• What is news, what qualifies as news and what qualifies as breaking news?

• What is the difference between a reporter, a journalist, a news anchor and an editor?

• What is Newslaundry and how does the business model of an independent organization work?

• What is the biggest difference between a traditional media house and an independent news studio?

• Why critique news shows like Newsance instead of just focusing on reporting?

• How do you define fake news, misinformation, disinformation and propaganda?

• What travels faster in India, fake news or disinformation, and why?

• How should one read, spot and consume news with the right checks and balances?

• Are there traits or principles a layman can follow to design their news diet?

• What is the future of independent journalism and Newslaundry in India?

Chapters

• (00:00) Introduction

• (03:03) What is news?

• (06:36) Roles of different journalists in the news ecosystem

• (11:35) What is Newslaundry?

• (16:56) Why critique news and not just report news?

• (21:34) How do you define misinformation, disinformation and fake news?

• (25:49) What travels faster in India?

• (32:22) How to read news?

• (40:29) What is the future of independent news?

Reference links

• https://www.newslaundry.com/subscription

• https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60981318

• https://covid19dashboard.mohfw.gov.in/resource.html

• https://covid19dashboard.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/def.pdf

• https://prsindia.org/covid-19/cases

• https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1789899&reg=3&lang=2

• https://www.theindiaforum.in/health/will-government-india-finally-acknowledge-scale-indias-covid-tragedy

• https://www.newslaundry.com/2023/07/19/who-owns-your-media-network18s-journey-from-a-production-house-to-a-broadcast-behemoth

• https://www.instagram.com/manisha.pande/

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/manisha-pande-24909680/

• https://www.newslaundry.com/author/manisha-pande

• https://x.com/MnshaP

• https://www.reporters-collective.in/

• https://theprint.in/

• https://scroll.in/

• https://www.youtube.com/@thegyaanproject

• https://www.instagram.com/thegyaanprojectpodcast/

• https://www.youtube.com/@ravishkumar.official

• https://www.themediarumble.com/

• https://www.newslaundry.com/2026/03/05/hpv-vaccine-rollout-faces-wild-theories-and-real-questions-the-govt-is-unready-for-both

• https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/08/23/how-adani-is-taking-over-ndtv-without-consulting-the-roys

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Prayag_Maha_Kumbh_Mela_crowd_crush

• https://hindi.newslaundry.com/collection/nl-tippani-video-newslaundry-hindi

• https://www.newslaundry.com/collection/tv-newsance-tv

  ---

Hope you enjoyed this episode and found it helpful. If you had to pay for just one news source in India, which one would it be?

Today, I am making a small request with a lot of mixed feelings.

The YouTube Partner Program is now turned on. If my work of last 10 years has meant something and added some value in your life, you can now support it.

• Open any of your favourite TGP episode

• Tap the “Thanks” icon (Next to share, like icons with $ symbol)

• Contribute any amount. (Generously 😉)

• You can also consider making a recurring payment of $2/ month to support The Gyaan Project by Joining

Of course, you can do this for upcoming episodes also.

This amount will be used for upcoming book, better quality production, deeper research, and running the project. Hopefully, I do this full time someday.

Thanks for your support!

Kedar.

We discuss four bold initiatives the Maharashtra government to help non-Marathi rickshaw drivers learn to read and speak Marathi.

Recently, Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik announced that starting May 1, 2026 (Maharashtra Day) every licensed rickshaw and taxi driver in the state must be able to read, write, and speak Marathi. If they fail the test at one of the state's 59 Regional Transport Offices, and they will lose their permit.

That’s roughly 5 lakh drivers across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and about 15 lakh permits statewide who now have to demonstrate proficiency in a classical language with gendered nouns, postpositions, and a script.

Here are 4 pillars to make this happen smoothly honouring all rickshaw drivers of our free and independent India. (actually Maharashtra for now)

Pillar 1: A Free Duolingo-for-Drivers Partnership

Every registered non-Marathi rickshaw driver will have Duolingo pre-installed on their device, with the full Marathi course unlocked.

Duolingo doesn’t actually offer a Marathi course. Marathi is the 19th most-spoken language in the world with over 83 million native speakers, but Duolingo shut down its volunteer Incubator program. So there is no course.

But not to worry. Since Marathi was granted Classical Language status by the Union Cabinet on October 3, 2024, the Maharashtra government is just now in “active negotiations” with Duolingo HQ in Pittsburgh to have a full course built, tested, and deployed before May 1, 2026.

Drivers will be required to practice five minutes a day, with compliance monitored via the Sanchar Saathi app — the government’s telecom fraud-tracking platform. This is part of Skill India Mission.

Pillar 2: One Marathi Play Every Weekend, On the House

The average Mumbai rickshaw driver, after CNG and permit fees, takes home roughly ₹500–600 a day for driving ~75 km over a 12-hour shift. A ticket to a any local theatre play costs more than that. So the state will organise 52 free Marathi plays per year.

Drivers must photograph their ticket stubs and upload them to DigiLocker. Twelve plays minimum to qualify as “Marathi-speaking.” This will also boost local culture, and Marathi asmita. A rickshaw driver who works 12-hour shifts will now entertain and learn in one go.

Pillar 3: ₹500 Ladki Bahin Top-Up for Female Drivers Who Pass the Marathi Test

Women rickshaw drivers who clear a basic Marathi examination; conducted weekly at schools and colleges across the state will receive a ₹500 top-up to their existing Ladki Bahin Yojana payout of ₹1,500/month.

The promised hike from ₹1,500 to ₹2,100 announced in the 2025–26 budget still hasn’t materialised as of April 2026. Also nearly 25 lakh women were recently purged from the beneficiary list for being “ineligible.” But I am sure ₹500 more for passing a Marathi promise will be fulfilled. A small price for cultural assimilation.

Pillar 4: AI-Translated IPL Commentary in Marathi

India AI Summit was a roaring success and we are Digital Bharat now. This 4th pillars is called “entertainment as education.” The government has commissioned an AI team to work on auto-translating all IPL commentary and all songs on YouTube, and radio into Marathi for the drivers’ real time on the device. These new SDKs will be installed just like Sanchar Saathi App.

This is not the first time the state has tried this. In early 2016, the government issued an almost identical circular. It was challenged by driver unions. In March 2017, the Bombay High Court quashed it as illegal, noting that Mumbai’s ~2 lakh rickshaw drivers are overwhelmingly migrants from Bihar and UP and that the rule effectively deprived them of a livelihood.

The current attempt is built to strengthened language norms. Worth also noting that the man whose complaint triggered the entire verification drive is BJP MLA Narendra Mehta of Mira-Bhayandar from Pali district, Rajasthan, is demanding stricter scrutiny of migrant rickshaw permits.

He pointed out significant inconsistencies in the issuance of permits, badges, and licences in his Mira-Bhayandar constituency. Newly arrived migrants were allegedly being granted permits too quickly, without proper checks.

Keeping all of that into account, the government decided to not ask the license-issuing authorities any questions, but decided to audit the drivers instead. I think Mr. Mehta is inspired by Albert Einstein’s famous quote:

“We cannot solve problems with the same thinking that created them”

Leaders chosen by the people have to serve the people, and they are doing that most diligently. Please ignore the noise and see the intent of the government, as the Honourable Prime Minister himself reminded us recently. Intent is everything.

I wish all non-Marathi drivers the very best of luck in passing these exams. There are, as we've seen, so many wonderful initiatives rolled out by the government to ensure you learn peacefully, without ever feeling threatened of losing your livelihood. Take it easy. Download that Duolingo course. Book your Marathi play. I'm sure you'll learn Marathi by May 1.

Amit Das, SVP of design at Urban Company, has spent years understanding how Indians actually live with their appliances. In this episode, he breaks down what designing for India's plurality really means, from durability and shared usage to what premium looks like across different households. He also challenges the popular idea of smart living and makes a case for convenience over complexity.

About the guest

SVP of design and native products at Urban Company, Amit Das is a software and hardware designer, blogger and hobby artist. He has previously worked at Housing.com, FusionCharts and Fab.com, and has co-founded two startups.

Who should listen

• Product and industrial designers who want to understand what designing for India’s real and diverse user base actually looks like on the ground.

• Founders and product teams building consumer hardware or home appliances for the Indian market.

• Anyone curious about how culture, affordability and everyday behaviour shape the products we live with.

• Design students and early career professionals looking for honest, practical perspective on what the field demands beyond aesthetics and trends.

Topics discussed in the episode

• Rapid fire round: one appliance Indians buy more for hope than utility, buttons or dials, one everyday object that teaches good design, one button you would delete, your favourite industrial product and why, which product has the most emotional value, should products behave like tools or companions, the most over designed product in Indian homes, and manuals or no manuals?

• You write about designing for moments rather than steps. How do you see household appliances in daily lives, and does this philosophy apply to digital products too?

• India has many Indias. What are the most defining differences you observe in how people use products across different economic and social contexts?

• What framework does Urban Company use to understand these diverse user dynamics, and how do you conduct ground level research including in home visits and shadowing?

• Why did Urban Company venture into building native hardware products like RO water purifiers, and what was the origin story behind that decision?

• How do different Indias define premiumness, and what does premium actually mean across social strata, geographies and product categories?

• How should designers think about CMF for durable appliances that sit in a home for many years, compared to trend driven shorter shelf life products?

• What does smart living actually mean for Indian homes, and why does the current definition of smartness often increase cognitive load rather than solve for convenience?

• How do you balance aspiration versus affordability at scale, and what are the hardest trade offs between design aspiration, cost, reliability and repairability?

• How did you transition from digital to hardware design, and what skills, mindsets and experiences should young designers build if they want to get into industrial design?

Reference links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/dasamit88/

• https://www.godgeez.com/about

• https://www.instagram.com/godgeez/

• https://www.instagram.com/one.more.colour/

• https://medium.com/uc-design/amit-das-633fb92042e0

• https://medium.com/@godgeez

• How to Become a Senior UI/UX Designer? | The Ultimate Career Framework by Urban Company’s Design SVP

• https://www.quora.com/profile/Amit-Das-5

• https://x.com/Godgeez

• https://www.instagram.com/urbancompany/

• https://www.urbancompany.com/

What is one appliance in your home that you think is badly designed for how you actually use it?

Mumbai artist Vishwa Shroff reveals how drawing and not painting captures urban memory through cracks, stains & architecture. A deep dive into slow observation, creative discipline, boredom as a tool, and sustaining an art practice from Baroda, Basel, Tokyo to Mumbai.

This episode is part of a series of conversations with Matter. Matter is an architecture, design and curatorial practice with a deep interest in design discourse in India.

About the guest

Vishwa Shroff is a Mumbai-based artist represented by TARQ Gallery and co-founder of SQW Lab. Rooted in urban drawing and observation, her work explores memory and built space, and has been exhibited in London, Basel, and Tokyo.

Why and who should listen

Vishwa Shroff offers rare insight into sustaining a drawing practice, seeing architecture differently, and using slow observation as a creative method. Whether you sketch, design, or simply want to see the world more intentionally, this conversation delivers. This is a must listen for artists, architects, urban sketchers, designers & curious creatives interested in contemporary Indian art, observational drawing, creative process, and building a disciplined art practice. If you want to see the world differently, this episode is for you.

Topics discussed in this episode

• What is drawing — really? Vishwa unpacks how she defines drawing not by medium but by mindset, and why she draws a sharp distinction between drawing and painting in the post-camera age.

• How did you arrive at architecture and urban spaces as your subject matter? From drawing pigeons in Baroda to noticing where they roost — and how a family home transition sparked a lifelong interest in memory, space, and the traces left in built environments.

• What do cracks, stains, and scars in buildings tell us? Vishwa explains how she reads the details of urban surfaces as time capsules of human presence — and why drawing, unlike photography, lets her edit and focus on only what matters.

• How does your sketchbook and daily practice actually work? A practical look at her note-taking process, how photographs feed into finished works, and why her sketchbook functions as a living database of observations, spirals, and discoveries.

• What advice do you have for young artists and creatives? On discipline as a daily non-negotiable, embracing boredom as the gateway to creativity, finding gallery representation, and why the act of making is an addiction with no exit strategy.

Reference links

1. https://studiomatter.in/

2. https://www.frameconclave.com/

3. https://thinkmatter.in/

4. https://thinkmatter.in/inside-volume-03-issue-01/

5. https://themeritlist.com/

6. https://formfolio.in/

7. https://www.instagram.com/vishwashroff/?hl=en

8. https://www.tarq.in/artists/50-vishwa-shroff/biography/

9. https://www.studioell.org/studiovisit/vishwa-shroff/

10. https://www.exhibit320.com/cms/overview.php?artist_id=188

11. https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishwa-shroff-5abb5a6a/?originalSubdomain=in

12. https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/the-music-of-buildings-vishwa-shroff-explores-the-streets-of-basel-through-her-art/

13. https://www.artsy.net/artist/vishwa-shroff/cv

14. https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Vishwa-Shroff/361048FE06E8E2A2/Biography

15. https://www.joinpaperplanes.com/vishwa-shroff/

16. https://www.architecturaldigest.in/content/mumbai-vishwa-shroff-folly-measures-exhibition-architecture-inhabited-used-spaces/

17. https://vishwashroff.wordpress.com/

18. https://indiaartfair.in/programme/the-music-of-buildings-vishwa-shroff

19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyoti_Bhatt

20. https://aaa.org.hk/en/collections/search/archive/jyoti-bhatt-archive

21. https://www.artsy.net/artist/jyoti-bhatt

22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kosuth

23. https://www.instagram.com/josephkosuthstudio/

24. https://www.skny.com/artists/joseph-kosuth

25. https://www.moma.org/artists/3228-joseph-kosuth

If this conversation sparked something in you, I would love to hear your thoughts. What resonated with you the most? Let us keep the conversation going in the comments.

I'm curating 101 questions and answers from over 300 conversations on The Gyaan Project Podcast. It argues to change how you see Design.

What this book hopes to do - Expand your definition of design through a series of 101 questions and answers.

Who this book is for - Curious minds and creative souls from any background. Those who desire to see design in places they’ve never seen before

The book is still taking shape. No launch date yet. But you're seeing this first.

A short survey. Your vote goes directly on the cover. It will take 2 mins and will really mean a lot to me.

The survey has a few more fields if you wish to follow the journey.

More soon. And thank you.

Kedar

P.S. The manuscript is 99% ready. Permissions, typesetting, cover design and more to go. If you have suggestions or feedback, comment below or email me at thegyaanprojectpodcast.

What does it really mean to teach design in India today? In this powerful conversation, Dinesh S, an architect with 35 years of practice and founder of Bangalore School of Design and Technology, challenges everything we think we know about design education. From the factory-like classrooms stuffing 90 students together to architecture syllabi unchanged since the 1980s, Dinesh unpacks the uncomfortable truths holding back Indian design innovation. This episode is for students, educators, and anyone who believes India can do better with how we teach creativity, curiosity, and aspirational design thinking.

Topics we discussed

1. How do you define design, education, and design education in general?

2. Would you differentiate between education in general versus design education and if so, how?

3. Could you explain what is aspirational design?

4. What are the building blocks or framework that you use to make an aspirational designer?

5. What are the gaps that you see when students are entering into the market and getting a job?

6. How do you explain to break the rules before knowing the rules?

7. How can a well rounded multidisciplinary learning experience happen if a design student is wanting to learn design?

8. Is curiosity diminishing in students and what is stopping innovation in design at a radical level?

9. If a design school has to have some measure or metric of success, what would be the measure of it?

10. How do you see the future of design education in India?

Reference reading

1. Bangalore School of Design and Technology

2. Bangalore School of Design and Technology LinkedIn

3. Bangalore School of Design and Technology Instagram

4. BSDT Facebook

5. Ken Robinson TED Talk

6. T-Shaped Designer Concept

7. Bangalore Interior Design Industry

8. New National Institute of Design

9. Articles by Dineshwar on higher education

If this conversation sparked something in you, I would love to hear your thoughts. What resonated with you the most? Let us keep the conversation going in the comments. Design is a language.

This week’s SamaChar is slightly different. Instead of sharing 4 Q&A from past episodes, I am sharing my 30 learnings from a Poet - Mohammad Muneem Nazir (Alif). We spoke about poetry, pain, philosophy and art in episode 265 (Feb 2023). The episode ends with a beautiful recital from him. Do tune and listen to the amazing conversation.

Mohammad Muneem Nazir (Alif) is a singer, songwriter and poet who sings and writes in the Kashmiri, Urdu and Hindi languages.

Micro Gyaan (from a poet to all artists).

1. A poet is anyone who can transport you from one state to another. If a thing has that capacity, it is poetry for you.

2. Ghalib could have gone to a therapist in BKC. What you do with your pain is your choice.

3. If you decode the magic, it is not magic anymore.

4. Do not try to control what your art does to other people. If you try to control that, you will have a lot of anxiety.

5. As a creator, the choice is only yours. You can create to be liked by the audience, to express a piece of yourself, or a bit of both. It is your choice and there is nothing wrong with any of it.

6. It does not give you any high if you cannot take risks.

7. Fans get hooked on a certain version of you. When you change your style, you face rejection. That is the cost of growth.

8. You are not born an artist. You get comfortable in the skin of an artist because you choose it.

9. A prerequisite for any artist is the comfort in wanting to express yourself.

10. Experience is the biggest thing to acquire. Experience of making mistakes, experience of doing things, experience of riyaz.

11. Creativity is a feeling, but there are tangible ways and rules to express it. If you know the rules, you can break them.

12. If you do not know the rules, you are lost. You have to know how to sing in key to be able to sing anything.

13. Even poetry has mathematical balance. If it does not have that balance, it cannot be called a ghazal.

14. Sometimes the masters will not tell you how to crack it. That hustle to figure it out yourself is part of the learning.

15. Music and words are something people can take back home.

16. Presenting your work is like serving a meal. When do you put the dessert cup, when do you put the tea cup. That sense comes from the experience of making mistakes.

17. Sometimes your work makes people uncomfortable. Sometimes people may leave. That is part of sharing what you believe.

18. Ishq-e-Majazi (worldly love) is often the doorway to Ishq-e-Hakiki (love for the divine). Your earthly passions and desires are the path.

19. How you react to things is the most beautiful thing. That comes with training.

20. Be okay with not being okay.

21. If you decide today you are an artist, you are an artist. The journey from one person to 15 lakh people liking your work is a matter of time.

22. You do not know who you are, you decide who you are. You do not have to take permission to be yourself.

23. The greats - Muhammad Ali, Steve Jobs, or Virat Kohli - They were already that thing in their minds before they became it in reality. Identity precedes achievement.

24. We often do not do things because we are scared to fail. Imagine what magic would happen if you and the universe decide to take this decision together.

25. Allow yourself to be nothing and to be everything.

26. Everybody has a different process to find their muse. Some run, some need dim lights. As you grow, you figure out what your muse is.

27. What you think in a language, it is very easy to express in that language. The ring of a language cannot be explained in another language.

28. What you cannot express in words, you show visually. What you cannot express visually, you say in words. Where one stops, the other takes it forward.

29. You aspire to be inspired daily. The day you do not feel like doing your work, force yourself to do five minutes more. That is when you understand your strength and passion.

30. If you cannot explain it simply, you have not understood it enough.

Mohammad Muneem Nazir (Alif) ends by saying, I’m learning from wrongs. What I have to say may not work for you. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.

Do tune into the full conversation:

What do you think of today’s SamaChar? Please let me know in the comments if these takeaway are helpful and please share in your network.

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Welcome to SamaChar - A newsletter from The Gyaan Project podcast that brings you char (4) insightful Q&A from the past episodes. This week we revisit our episode 201 with Architect A Srivathsan released in Nov 2020 - Designing temples.

Dr. A. Srivathsan is an architectural scholar with more than twenty-five years of experience. Before joining his role as the Executive Director of CAU, Srivathsan served as the Academic Director of CEPT University for five years. He holds a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology along with a Master’s degree in Urban Design, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

We spoke about Ram Mandir’s architecture in Ayodhya. There are 2 main issues with it’s architecture. First, it’s more of a political project than a religious project. Thats why we see South Indian, Eastern and Northern styles fused together in the architecture. This is to appeal to larger national group of Hindus - so there is nothing new or inspiring in the design. Second, it’s built on a problematic site where you can not erase the history of demolition and fights. Even if you ignore the politics and look at it purely as design, much better could have to done.

Following are 4 Q&A from my conversation with him around design of contemporary sacred spaces, mainly the Hindu temples. This is a must read for architects and anybody interested in design.

1️⃣ If temples are public spaces, why exclude certain people?

Short answer:
Open doors, closed minds.

Long answer:
Theoretically, all temples are public spaces and open to everyone. That is the common perception. But the reality on the ground is very different. The Travancore temple was among the first to open temples for various castes, and that was only in 1936. In Vaikom (Kerala), it was a struggle to get even the streets around the temple open for people. Gandhi accepted to inaugurate the Lakshmi Narayan temple in Delhi in 1939 on a condition that it will be open to everyone, including Dalits. But the architecture itself didn’t have physical blocks. These prohibitions are social prohibitions, which are far more powerful. The upper castes having complete control on lower castes, men having control on women, that is the most effective restriction. Architecturally speaking, there were no devices. The walls were inside people’s heads. And that struggle continues even today.

Is it good to ban non-Hindus from entering temples? Let me know what do you think in the comments section.

2️⃣ Why are temples so ornamental?

Short answer:
To tell stories.

Long answer:
Ornament is not to be viewed as we now view it, as some extra thing, some excess that is embellished after building and can be removed if you don’t need it. Ornament traditionally is very much part of completion. Without the ornament, a building will not be complete. It plays multiple roles. At a simple level, it helps you tell a story. It is part of the narrative. But at another level, these are not only symbols of prosperity, they are that itself. Even in a traditional residence, at the entrance you would find elements which to an ignorant eye will look like ornamentation. But those are the ones which produce a sense of wellbeing into that house. They are not superfluous. So in traditional temples, ornaments are not decoration. They complete the building. Remove the ornament and the temple is incomplete.

Out of 7,50,000 registered temples in India, which is your favourite?

3️⃣ Which is the most sacred material to build temples?

Short answer:
Stone was for the dead.

Long answer:
There is a very interesting history here. The most preferred material according to traditional texts is not stone as we now think of it as the best and most expensive material. The most preferred material is wood. Then followed by stucco, brick and stucco. Stone comes later. In fact, some archaeologists think stone was actually a taboo. At least in South India (which I am more familiar with), stone was associated with funeral rites. For a long time it was not used. Much later, post sixth or seventh century, stone became a preferred material. Same goes with the deity’s idol as well. So materials have changed over time. This pattern was certainly prevalent in South India, but since some of the original texts trace their origin to Kashmir and the north, it would have had a wider prevalence. Currently, for various reasons, concrete is the most common material in temple construction.

Praveen Mohan’s Youtube Channel is great in decoding ancient religious architecture.

4️⃣ How are contemporary architects innovating in temple design?

Short answer:
Perforated walls, radical temples.

Long answer:
I have looked at eight to nine temples built in recent times and each architect has adopted different strategies. For instance, Sameep Padora (from SPA) designed a Shiva temple where the Shikara and sanctum are fused into one monolithic structure without any ornamentation. Unlike a traditional temple where the top is closed, he opens it out for sunlight. It sits beautifully in the landscape and local citizens have embraced it. Then there is a temple near Hyderabad designed by a young architect S. Krishna. He used long bricks turned around to create a very abstract Shikara. But his most important move is that he perforated the boundary wall. Normally that wall separates sacred space from the outside. You never perforate that. But he did. You can see the temple inside and the village tree outside where people gather. He is redefining the temple as an extended social space.

An amazing talk and list of modern temples from an architecture’s lens at Studio Matter’s Frame 2019

If you wish to listen to more details, here are links to the full 50 minutes conversation with Dr. A. Srivathsan

TGP has been labour of love since 2016 and I would highly appreciate if you can share this to as many people in your network. The subscriber count isn’t increasing and I need your help.

I’ve published a form where design and art students or early career professionals can ask any question they have around career, design philosophy, tools, skills, or anything that’s a creative roadblock in their way. This link will always be open for ongoing questions. I will be answering a few of these in long form episodes in our Off Grid episodes - so please do subscribe to the The Gyaan Project Youtube Channel.

In the first episode, we discussed a question from Bangalore posted on 8th December 2025.

The actual question was,

“We often describe ourselves as “multidisciplinary designers,” but why don’t we see more people actually living multidisciplinary careers? For instance: a product designer who works in tech during the week, and also takes paid furniture commissions or runs a ceramics studio on the side professionally, not as a hobby.”

Umesh and I tried to unpack it and came up with different ways of looking at this. We don’t have much context for the question but still tried to address it to the best of our abilities.

Context switching is tough

When you work deeply on a product, you’re thinking about it even when you’re not at your computer. Walking, taking a shower, everywhere. Only execution happens at the desk, but everything else is in your head constantly. Switching between two serious practices is genuinely hard. It’s not about time but about mental bandwidth.

We don’t see many people living truly multidisciplinary careers because serious work demands deep focus, not just time.

What is being multidisciplinary?

Most people can realistically manage only two or three major buckets in life. Work, family, and one personal pursuit maybe. Doing a job and being a mother, in my opinion, is still being multidisciplinary. We in India still have a lot of responsibilities. Physically we might have moved to become nuclear families, but emotionally we are bound by the society around us.

These days, the third bucket is often consumed by social media or recovery time. Adding a fourth bucket like furniture commissions means something else must be sacrificed. What do you think one should let go? (Let me know in the comments)

Indian economic reality

Money changes the equation. A gig worker juggles three jobs out of necessity, not passion. Artists and poets diversify because one medium rarely pays enough. But a Senior Product Designer in tech is making good money. They don’t have to do screen printing or print wedding cards on weekend.

The financial friction of starting a second professional practice isn’t worth it when one stream is already comfortable. Multidisciplinary drive usually comes from either curiosity (refusing to be boxed in) or necessity (needing multiple income streams to survive).

We see many international artists who work with glass and textile, or UI and LED lamps. That’s because if they fail, their government is not going to let them die of hunger or go without shelter. The ecosystem is designed to support art and design.

They exist. You’re just looking in the wrong places.

It’s not as bad in India as it sounds. There are people actually doing multidisciplinary work. They just aren’t loud or openly talking about it on social media platforms. Because they’re too busy actually doing the work.

Lafa Labs in Goa does material science and stationery. Rock Paper Scissors experiments with materials alongside client work. Ink & Gradient in Koramangala are architects now doing letterpress professionally. There’s a designer from Uber India who runs sold out pop up dining clubs. A guy in Singapore ran a letterpress studio while doing graphic design as his main job.

Once you get into these smaller communities, you will know how deep the rabbit hole goes. Lot of people are doing multidisciplinary work in their own ways.

To summarise

A long LinkedIn bio? Being busy in real action? Taking care of old parents? Helping kids with school assignments? Posting on social media? All are different jobs and according to me all are being multidisciplinary. There are no right answers to what one should prioritise over another or what gives them more joy. It’s best if we define what multidisciplinary means to us and become one. Hope this helps. Please let me know in the comments sections what do you think?

1. Thumbnail → Click Through Rate

Your thumbnail is the billboard. It needs to be impressive, relatable, and click-worthy. YouTube watches whether people click when your video shows up. No clicks, no distribution.

2. Title → Search Discovery

Your title should work like a search engine answer. When someone types something into YouTube’s search box, your title should feel like exactly what they were looking for. Be useful before being clever.

3. First 1–3 Minutes → Retention

YouTube tracks whether people stay after clicking. Did the video deliver on the promise the thumbnail and title made? If yes, it gets pushed to more people. If not, it gets buried. Those opening minutes are your audition, for every single video.

Everything on YouTube is designed to be helpful. We just need to understand the mechanics well enough to make sure our content lands correctly.

Making intros that hold attention

1. Option 1 — Show episode highlights. Pull the best moments from the episode and stack them upfront. Examples: Sunita Williams On 286 Days in Space, NASA Missions & Astronaut Mindset | FO461 Raj Shamani, OR Naravane, Parliament Chaos to Moral Potatoes & Trump’s Monkey to Trade Deals | Teen Taal S2 Ep 142.

2. Option 2 — Host-driven teaser. The host walks through what’s coming, with lots of B-roll. Example: Ep. 313 - The Philosophy of Order in Design with Prof. Kirti Trivedi.

No right answer. Keep experimenting till you hit a sweet spot, then keep inventing as consumption behaviour changes.

The more, the better

Each episode can be sliced into multiple short-form clips that drive traffic back to the main video. Alex Hormozi says, 1 post a day is not enough. 450 posts a month minimum.

Great references

Following videos / channels are master class on understanding Youtube

1. Paddy Galloway

2. Think Media

3. TubeBuddy

4. Alex Hormozi

5. Ali Abdaal

6. How Mr. Beast Get Over 100,000,000 Views Per Video

7. MrBeast Shares His Best YouTube Advice

8. GaryVee is one guy to follow

Where to find B-rolls & audio

1. Pexels Videos

2. Pixabay Videos

3. Paid B-roll: Storyblocks ($21/m, unlimited downloads)

4. Motion Array ($16/m)

5. Personal hack - Screen grabs from YouTube videos work too — just keep any single clip under 6-8 seconds to avoid copyright issues.

6. Royalty-free audio: YouTube’s built-in library + NoCopyrightMusic channel

7. AI-generated stock footage & music:

   1. Suno (music)

   2. Sora (video)

   3. Kling (video)

Where and how to record interview

1. Recording & editing: Riverside — record, edit, and repurpose in one place. Cuts post-production time by 50%.

2. Repurposing: Opus Pro — AI-powered clipping of best moments. Great tutorials on site. You can also try Cast Magic.

3. Descript - AI-editing for every kind of video

There are many good alternatives. These are which I have used and worked fine.

How to distribute

1. Buffer — post to X, IG, YT, LinkedIn with one click.

2. Hootsuite — pricier, but deeper analytics.

Hope this helps. Please let me know in the comments section if you got questions or more things to be added to the cheat sheet.

Dhawal Ashar is a Head of Sustainable Cities & Transport program at WRI, India. His work integrates transport engineering and urban design to improve safety and sustainability in cities. The following SamaChar has 4 interesting questions and answers from the main episode. Know how Mumbai moves, how transport planning process happens, why do we have traffic jams and hopeful future of Mumbai’s transport design.

It’s an essential read for designers, planners, students, and citizens who care about cities. Listen to the full episode and share it with friends, family, and design and art communities.

1️⃣ How does Mumbai travel?

In short

51% on foot.

In detail

First let me explain what a trip is. Assume you are going from your house to office on a train - thats one trip. (your return journey is another trip). This trip has 3 legs. First leg, from your house to station, then your train journey and third is from station to office. You can walk, get an auto, ride a bike - That doesn’t matter.

We are looking at over 15 million trips that the city of Mumbai makes each day. I am quoting this from a study that BMC did in 2014 called the Comprehensive Mobility Plan. About 70%+ commutes by the train. Then you have the BEST, followed by IPTs - taxis, auto rickshaws and now the Ubers and Olas, followed by motorcycle, followed by car. All of this is just the motorised trips. The study estimated that about 51% of all trips in Mumbai happen on foot. Personal automobiles are 5-7% of all trips that happen in Mumbai. So largely this is how Mumbai travels.

2️⃣ How does transport planning process happen?

In short

Surveys, mapping and projections.

In detail

Transport planning is a four step process. Trip generation, trip distribution, mode split and trip assignment. We do surveys, go to households and ask people about their daily trips. This is what we call a trip diary. That becomes our base model of what is happening right now. It tells us how many trips are being made and why they are being made.

Based on that, we do projections based on many scenarios. We then assign trips to every link (road). We know the capacity of that road and we also know the volume on that road. When the volume is more than the capacity, then that is a jam. That is how problems get identified.

For smaller projects, we do a traffic impact assessment. For city level studies, we divide the city into zones. This entire process helps us understand where pressure exists and where interventions are required.

3️⃣ Why is there so much traffic on Indian streets?

In short

We are loosening the belt than becoming healthier.

In detail

First, we put traffic signals. When jams go past the previous signal, we make the road one way. Many roads in Pune and Bangalore became one ways for this reason. When one way gets saturated, we build a flyover. When the flyover gets saturated, we build another flyover on top. But thats not solving the problem. We are worsening it. We are loosening our belt as we keep growing inches. We are not figuring out ways to become healthier. At some point, we need modal shifts.

We have to figure out ways to get people out of their cars, and make them use some form of public transport. Decision making, should be driven by whether we care about moving cars or we care about moving people.

4️⃣ What gives you hope for Mumbai’s transport future?

In short

Walking population.

In detail

One thing that makes me very hopeful is that majority of Mumbaikar’s walk. We will have to transform at some point soon. Every city in Europe has gone through these phases at some point in the fifties and the seventies. It is not like they were pedestrian friendly cities always. Everyone had an automobile peak at some point. But then through well documented strategies and changes, they have become more walking friendly now - the best destinations for travel. It is not uncommon to go to Paris and walk 10KMs a day.

What gives me hope for Mumbai is that we know what the problem is. We have enough experience to provide solutions are fairly low cost. We are seeing a lot of focus on public transport and metro construction. Hopefully, in a decade from now, we should be in a much better place.

If you wish to listen to more details, here are links to the full 60 minutes fun conversation - Youtube | TGP Website | Spotify | Apple Podcast

Let me know what stood out to you the most in the comments section. TGP has been labour of love since 2016 and I would highly appreciate if you can share this to as many people in your network. The subscriber count isn’t increasing and I need your help.

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Stay tuned for more SamaChar and episodes from The Gyaan Project!

Part 4 with Randy Hunt

In this concluding episode of the Craft series, I speak with Randy Hunt, Head of Design at Notion and Chair of the MFA Design program at SVA. Randy reflects on craft as a combination of skill, practice, and judgment, and shares how taste shapes meaningful software experiences. The conversation explores speed versus quality, scale versus care, and why momentum can sometimes improve craft. Randy also offers an interesting perspective on how he sees, AI as a material, and explains what stays as tools as technologies change. This episode is for designers, product leaders, engineers, and makers who care deeply about building thoughtful, well made digital products for the long term.

Topics discussed in the episode

(02:14) What is Abecedarium?
(04:14) What does craft mean to you?
(08:12) How has your definition of craft changed over time?
(14:45) Should craft be visible to the end user?
(18:04) Can craft and scale go together?
(22:28) Any example of great quality with speed?
(28:18) Can taste be taught?
(38:17) Can craft bring value at an enterprise level?
(43:32) How do you look at craft at Notion?
(46:57) How do you see the future of craft in the world of AI?
(48:43) How do you practice craft at Notion with AI?
(51:17) What would your poster say about design?
(52:00) How do you see craft evolving in the next 10 years?

Reference links

• https://www.instagram.com/randyjhunt

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/randyjhunt

• https://www.randyjhunt.com

• https://www.notion.com/blog/meet-randy

• https://books.google.com.sg/books/about/Product_Design_for_the_Web.html?id=paKPAQAAQBAJ&source=kp_author_description&redir_esc=y

• https://pda.designsingapore.org/jurors/2020/randy-hunt/

• https://design.sva.edu/cofaculty/randy-hunt/

• On Design Leadership with Katie Dill (Stripe) & Randy Hunt (Notion)

• https://www.designweek.co.uk/a-lot-of-this-is-about-rituals-an-hour-with-notion-design-chief-randy-hunt/

• Think in 4D with Randy J. Hunt

• Randy J. Hunt: How Design Enables Fantasies to Become Real

• Tom Harman (Ep 319 - Part 1 of the Craft Series)

• Caio Orio (Ep 320 - Part 2 of the Craft Series)

• Ep. 321: Craft, taste and the future of Design at Canva with Lucy Datyner

Part 2 with Lucy Datyner

In this 3rd part of the Series on Craft, I speak with Lucy Datyner, Principal Designer at Canva, about craft, taste, and the future of product design in the age of AI. Lucy shares how craft goes beyond polish into problem solving, why simplicity is always informed by context, and how designers can build taste through curiosity, critique, and making. The conversation explores AI as a co-creator, the importance of keeping humans in the loop, and why junior designers still matter. This episode is for designers, product leaders, and creators navigating design, craft, and AI today.

Topics discussed in the episode

(00:00) Introduction
(02:09) What does craft mean to you?
(04:16) Is craft about aesthetics?
(04:57) How do you bring craft into your work?
(07:29) What is informed simplicity at Canva?
(08:38) How does AI fit into the world of craft?
(11:05) How do you define taste?
(13:19) Any rituals at Canva to build taste?
(16:08) How do design critique sessions happen at Canva?
(17:31) How does Canva handle not being monotonous?
(20:13) What is the role of research in craft and AI?
(22:55) Will designers be left only to curate?
(24:51) Will we lose the faculty of crafting with hand after AI takes over?
(26:59) What excites you the most about AI?
(29:24) What worries you the most with AI?
(31:11) What will your poster say?

Reference links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucydatyner/

• https://lucydatyner.com/

• https://contentseoul.com/speaker-profile-lucy-datyner/

• https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/design--canva/episodes/E10-Lucy-Datyner--Content-Strategy--Experience-Design-Lead-e2i8mak

• Tom Harman (Ep 319 - Part 1 of the Craft Series)

• Caio Orio (Ep 320 - Part 2 of the Craft Series)

Part 2 with Caio Orio

In this episode of the Craft series, I speak to Caio Orio, Principal Brand Designer at Wise, about the role of craft, taste, and practice in modern digital product design. Drawing from his advertising background and work on global fintech products, Caio explains how craft goes beyond visuals to include strategy, care, and attention to detail. The conversation explores taste, open mindedness, brand consistency, design systems, AI, and building meaningful product experiences. This episode is ideal for product designers, brand designers, and design leaders seeking depth beyond tools and trends.

Topics discussed in the episode

(00:00) Intro
(00:01:00) What does craft mean in digital products?
(00:02:30) How Caio’s understanding of craft evolved?
(00:03:53) Why craft is essential for designers?
(00:06:16) Craft in brand design and digital products
(00:09:16) How Wise maintains consistency in craft?
(00:10:43) Rituals and practices that support craft
(00:12:07) Bringing craft into the smallest elements
(00:15:02) How Caio defines taste in design?
(00:16:03) Translating taste into digital products
(00:16:59) How designers can develop taste?
(00:18:03) Caio’s personal journey of developing taste
(00:20:59) Communicating taste across teams
(00:23:55) How Wise inspires designers and design culture?
(00:25:21) Balancing speed and craft in product design
(00:27:14) Prioritising craft without clear business metrics
(00:28:50) Digital products admired for taste and craft
(00:30:05) One essential mindset for future designers?

Reference links

• https://c-orio.com/

• https://www.instagram.com/c_orio/

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/caio-orio/

• https://www.behance.net/orio

• https://friends.figma.com/events/details/figma-singapore-presents-designing-wise-the-hidden-layers-in-our-creative-process/

• https://wise.com/

• https://wise.design/

Part 1 with Tom Harman

Tom Harman, a design leader with twenty years of experience at Monzo and BuzzFeed, joins The Gyaan Project to explore craft, taste and the role of AI in modern product teams. He explains how clarity, judgment and shared language shape high quality work. A useful episode for designers, PMs and founders who want to sharpen decision making, move with speed and build trust through thoughtful design.

Topics discussed in the episode

00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:03) What does craft mean to you
(00:06:00) Rituals to improve craft
(00:11:43) How do you define what great looks like
(00:14:21) What does taste mean to you
(00:18:57) How do you instill taste
(00:22:44) How to keep pushing the boundaries
(00:28:49) How is AI a copilot for craft and taste
(00:32:38) How to work with AI
(00:39:17) Can AI create serendipity
(00:41:53) How do we ensure maximum impact and quality
(00:47:06) How to handle uninformed decision makers
(00:49:26) One poster idea on craft
(00:51:32) Future of craft in the world of AI

Reference links

• https://intentional.partners/

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomharman/

• https://x.com/tomharman

• https://mastodon.social/@tomharman