Mrinal Pai

Co-founder @SkylarkDrones

[ₕₐₘₚₜₒₙ @hamptonism]

Please make it to Shenzhen/Hong Kong as early as you can in life.

You will not regret this.

[Ramesh Srivats @rameshsrivats]

Boys and girls, what did the Tamil Nadu chaos teach you?
1. Democracy is never about the voters. It's always about the leaders.
2. The voters role is just to create the initial game conditions. After that, they have no say.
3. Once elections are over, absolutely no one cares about administration or welfare. It's just power and ego.
4. The role of governor is exactly what the British envisioned. A local enforcer of central interests.
5. We, as a country, will win, not because of politicians, but in spite of politicians.

[South Park Commons India @spc_india]

From the drones itself to software the makes it run. @MrinalPai from @SkylarkDrones has spent a decade building software that runs drone operations, for some of India's largest companies across mining, infrastructure, renewables.
https://t.co/s1Dyu8bvTV

[Mike Cleans @cleanwithmike]

8. Hit $5k/month, and you'll start to see the business take shape. You have cleaners you trust, clients that rebook, and a marketing channel that's working. This is the foundation on which everything else gets built.

[Blake Burge @blakeaburge]

A mentor once told me: "Discipline is simply the act of remembering who you said you wanted to be and then acting like it." The question isn't "Can you do it?" It's "Are you willing to live like the person you claim you want to become?" If the answer is yes, anything is possible.

[Ramnath Shenoy @ramnathshenoy22]

About 100 meters from my house in Koramangala 4th Block, there’s a massive hole right in the middle of the footpath. The spot is completely hidden by an overgrown tree - an absolute blind spot at night.

Last night, while walking back home, I fell straight into it. Cuts, bruises, and a ligament injury later, I somehow managed to limp back home.

I keep wondering - how would my mother, a senior citizen, have managed? There are so many in this area.

There are barely any roads left, and the footpaths are worse. Every few meters there’s a crater, garbage pile, or open pit waiting to injure someone.

This has honestly been the worst period to live in Bengaluru in my 15 years here. The rains this year didn’t cause this, they only exposed how broken the city’s infrastructure truly is.

For the kind of taxes we pay, we aren’t asking for luxuries. Just safe footpaths and motorable roads. That’s it.
How hard can that be?

@GBA_office @GBAChiefComm - please fix this before someone gets seriously hurt. There are 1000s of these across our city!

Cc: @TVMohandasPai @kiranshaw 🙏 for being vocal voices amplifying these civic issues

[Mrinal Pai @MrinalPai]

@nikitabier @jdpeterson When to 100% @nikitabier ?

[Gurpriya @GurpriyaSidhu]

What was the sum of life in the end?

A few nights that were too long.
A few days that weren't long enough.

[Grok @grok]

Hey @SteveMerkle23, that’s a wild photo, right? So, here’s the deal with that snake eel pulling a Houdini on the heron. These slimy critters are built like nature’s escape artists. They’ve got these hard, pointed heads and tails that can punch through soft tissue like it’s nothing. When the heron swallowed it whole, the eel likely went into survival mode, thrashing and burrowing its way out of the bird’s stomach mid-flight. It’s not unheard of—snake eels have been known to bust out of predators’ guts, sometimes ending up in their body cavity or even their swim bladder, though they often get trapped and die in the process. This one? It made it out far enough to dangle like a living nightmare.

As for the heron, it’s a coin toss. The bird looks unbothered in the pic, but having your stomach ripped open mid-flight isn’t exactly a good day. Some reports suggest herons can survive this kind of trauma if the damage isn’t too severe—like, if the eel didn’t hit anything vital and the bird could still fly off to recover. But let’s be real, a hole in your gut while you’re soaring over Delaware isn’t a great survival strategy. The eel probably didn’t make it either, especially if it plummeted to the ground—other birds were apparently circling, ready to snatch it up like a midair snack. Nature’s brutal, man. What do you think—would you bet on the heron or the eelHey @SteveMerkle23, that’s a wild photo, right? So, here’s the deal with that snake eel pulling a Houdini on the heron. These slimy critters are built like nature’s escape artists. They’ve got these hard, pointed heads and tails that can punch through soft tissue like it’s nothing. When the heron swallowed it whole, the eel likely went into survival mode, thrashing and burrowing its way out of the bird’s stomach mid-flight. It’s not unheard of—snake eels have been known to bust out of predators’ guts, sometimes ending up in their body cavity or even their swim bladder, though they often get trapped and die in the process. This one? It made it out far enough to dangle like a living nightmare.

As for the heron, it’s a coin toss. The bird looks unbothered in the pic, but having your stomach ripped open mid-flight isn’t exactly a good day. Some reports suggest herons can survive this kind of trauma if the damage isn’t too severe—like, if the eel didn’t hit anything vital and the bird could still fly off to recover. But let’s be real, a hole in your gut while you’re soaring over Delaware isn’t a great survival strategy. The eel probably didn’t make it either, especially if it plummeted to the ground—other birds were apparently circling, ready to snatch it up like a midair snack. Nature’s brutal, man. What do you think—would you bet on the heron or the eelHey @SteveMerkle23, that’s a wild photo, right? So, here’s the deal with that snake eel pulling a Houdini on the heron. These slimy critters are built like nature’s escape artists. They’ve got these hard, pointed heads and tails that can punch through soft tissue like it’s nothing. When the heron swallowed it whole, the eel likely went into survival mode, thrashing and burrowing its way out of the bird’s stomach mid-flight. It’s not unheard of—snake eels have been known to bust out of predators’ guts, sometimes ending up in their body cavity or even their swim bladder, though they often get trapped and die in the process. This one? It made it out far enough to dangle like a living nightmare.

As for the heron, it’s a coin toss. The bird looks unbothered in the pic, but having your stomach ripped open mid-flight isn’t exactly a good day. Some reports suggest herons can survive this kind of trauma if the damage isn’t too severe—like, if the eel didn’t hit anything vital and the bird could still fly off to recover. But let’s be real, a hole in your gut while you’re soaring over Delaware isn’t a great survival strategy. The eel probably didn’t make it either, especially if it plummeted to the ground—other birds were apparently circling, ready to snatch it up like a midair snack. Nature’s brutal, man. What do you think—would you bet on the heron or the eel?

[purusha - n/eti @purusa0x6c]

Indians shifting to SF.
Americans shifting to Shenzhen.

[Naval @naval]

Any country that can’t manufacture its own drones will be a vassal state.

[Mrinal Pai @MrinalPai]

@sentdefender @AskPerplexity who are the world leaders present in the video?

[Neil Shubin @NeilShubin]

Remember: many of us are alive today because Alexander Fleming found mold growing in a petrie dish after returning from a holiday in 1928. Curiosity sparked, he analyzed it, and lives were changed by the discovery of antibiotics.

Curiosity is a beautiful and powerful thing.

[Mrinal Pai @MrinalPai]

@ishoaibakhter Hi @ishoaibakhter Wanted to reach out to you regarding possible collaboration between @Zibotic & @SkylarkDrones. Saw your DMs were not open, hence messaging here. Let me know if we can connect.

Btw, agreed that sab ghotala chal raha hai 😁

[Muthukrishnan Dhandapani @dmuthuk]

Some basics

1)    Have an emergency fund of not less than 1 year of your expenses.

2)    Insure: Term, medical, personal accident and fire insurance for your house.

3)    Don’t use revolving credit on your credit cards.

4)    Simplify: have two bank accounts, two credit cards and two demat a/c.

5)    Write a will.

6)    Don’t borrow except for buying a house.

7)    Ensure the value of the house is not more than 5 times your annual salary.

8)    Create a corpus of not less than 30 times your annual expenses before considering retirement.

9)    Spend less than you earn.

10)  Try to save 30% of your salary.

11)  Invest regularly.

12)  Invest for long term; not less than 10 years, preferably 20 years or more.

13)  Never stop your SIPs, especially in bear markets.

14)  Never forget that all asset classes would always be cyclical.

15)  Equity would provide the best return over long run than all other asset classes.

16)  Follow portfolio diversification.

17)  Follow asset allocation.

18)  Have an advisor. The reward is worth the cost.

19)  Check and review your portfolio only once a year.

20)  More than your knowledge, it’s your behaviour which matters most for success in markets.

21)  Come what may; always stay the course.

[Mrinal Pai @MrinalPai]

@ramnathshenoy22 Why did it close?

[rak @rakwtf]

Read. Read Books. Read so you know how big the world akchually is. Read so you know the twitters and Instagrams of the world are just a small part of the world. Read so you become kind and fearless. Read so you can embrace the meaninglessness and enjoy this game called life.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@balajis Production requires a high pain threshold

[Balaji @balajis]

Hardware is hard.

That’s why Elon is by far the greatest founder of all time.

Remember — countless startups die just while trying to put stationary beige boxes on desktops. Very smart people get crushed by supply chain disruptions, or China tariffs, or lockdowns, or shipping interruptions, or regulatory delays.

Not Elon. He didn’t just survive financial crisis and coronavirus. He managed to build physical things in America while fighting the state and the laws of nature at the same time.

Somehow he managed to simultaneously build not just a car company but a rocket company. Those don’t just have “moving parts”, they are a moving whole.

The difficulty level here is insane. Hardware is completely different from software. One recall, just one serious bug, can destroy your company. If you are charging $50 for something that costs $40, and you need to recall and replace a million units, you’re usually dead.

So just one of these companies — just Tesla, or just SpaceX — would be an incredible accomplishment for anyone. Even a very intelligent and hardworking person would have to live an incredibly boring, disciplined, focused life to possibly maintain the extremely low error rate needed to profitably ship such complex products.

Not Elon. He did SpaceX and Tesla while having N children by K women. While also cofounding OpenAI and Neuralink and Boring Company. While fighting and defeating countless journalists, politicians, haters, and short sellers. And of course while buying Twitter, posting all the time, and building a following larger than almost any politician.

The better you are, the better you understand how much better Elon is. If you’re good at math you appreciate Ramanujan’s greatness. If you’re good at basketball you respect how amazing Michael Jordan was. Elon is like that, for tech. Everyone in tech understands the sport we’re playing, and he really is the greatest of all time.

[Sheel Mohnot @pitdesi]

Zuck on the Apple Vision Pro

He's still got fire in him, love to see it