Raghav Poddar

CEO some stuff at @columbia @ycombinator.

Free market maximalist.

[Jay Alto @theJayAlto]

never trust anyone who's liked by everyone

[Will Manidis @WillManidis]

the greatest regret i have is underestimating the value of long term compounding.

friendships, people, places, all get better with decades. beautiful things dont even start to reveal themselves for years. it is entirely what life is about. a few good things for a long time.

[gaurav @gaxrav]

"embarrassment is an underexplored emotion. go out there and make a fool of yourself."

[positivity moon @arrtnem]

You don’t really understand this until you’ve had a few almosts

A few dates where the conversation was fine, the food was decent, they laughed at the right moments, you nodded, you smiled, you did all the human things, and then you went home and felt nothing. Not heartbreak. Not excitement. Just this blank, polite calm like you finished a meeting. You lay in bed at 00:26 scrolling for a little dopamine hit because the whole night didn’t land anywhere in your body

Or you meet someone who is objectively great on paper and your brain keeps trying to force it. They’re kind. They show up. They text back. They’re stable Your friends approve. And still, when you’re alone with them, something in you stays locked. You can’t explain it without sounding insane. “They’re perfect, I just… don’t feel it.” So you keep going for a while because you want to be normal and grateful and adult. Then one day you realize you’ve been living on a mild sedation. Not unhappy, not alive.

That’s when the math hits you.

Real connection is not common.
not even close

We talk about it like it should be easy because there are billions of people and apps and “put yourself out there” and a culture that makes love sound like a buffet. Pick someone. Swipe. Upgrade. Repeat. But genuine click is not about access. It’s about alignment. And alignment is rare in a way people don’t want to admit because it makes the world feel colder.

Think about what has to line up for it to happen

Two nervous systems that don’t trigger each other into shutdown.
Two senses of humor that match.
Two levels of intensity that don’t leave one person feeling chased and the other feeling abandoned.
Two life rhythms that can actually share air.
Two people who find each other at the same time in their lives, not one ready and the other half asleep.
Two sets of wounds that don’t hook into each other like velcro.
Two people whose idea of “home” is compatible.

That’s before you even get to attraction. Before you get to values. Before you get to sex. Before you get to the boring reality of laundry and bills and sickness and family and the way people change.

then add the fact that we are all walking around with invisible histories. Old loves. Old betrayals. Childhood stuff. Self-protection habits we pretend are personality traits. Half the time you’re not even meeting the person. You’re meeting the version of them they think will be safe to show.

when you genuinely click with someone, it feels like a miracle not because you’re dramatic, but because your body knows the odds.

It knows how many conversations you’ve had where you were translating yourself.
How many times you laughed a second late.
How many times you edited your excitement so you wouldn’t seem like too much.
How many times you didn’t say what you meant because you didn’t trust the room to hold it.

Then one day you say something stupidly specific, like a childhood memory nobody else cares about, and they don’t just listen - they light up. They understand the joke inside it. They catch the tone behind the words. They respond like they’ve been waiting for that exact frequency.

That moment is fragile in a way people don’t respect.

Because it’s not just “we get along.” It’s “my nervous system recognizes yours.”

And you can lose it so easily. Not always through some dramatic betrayal. Sometimes just through timing. Distance. Life getting heavy. People getting scared. Someone’s depression turning them into fog. Someone’s ambition turning them into absence. One bad season where you stop choosing each other and start surviving side by side. It doesn’t take a villain. It just takes neglect, which is so much more common.

That’s why connection is beautiful. Not because it’s poetic.

Because THIS improbable

[toly 🇺🇸 @toly]

Never fails

[Jay Alto @theJayAlto]

i regret to inform everyone that suffering does in fact lead to happiness

[signüll @signulll]

a great relationship is one where conflict doesn’t threaten the bond.

you can disagree, stay curious about each other’s position, & neither person needs to win.

[Jay Yang @Jayyanginspires]

this hits

[Jordi Hays @jordihays]

Low IQ high agency continues to be one of the most OP human builds

[Alex Bouaziz @Bouazizalex]

You can't force someone to work hard if they don't want to work hard. It doesn't matter how talented they are or how much you pay them. You can't turn a slow athlete into a fast athlete with a bunch of rules.
Founders want to be in person to control people's productivity, but the best people don’t need to be micromanaged. And if they do, they shouldn't be at your company anyway.

[Jay Alto @theJayAlto]

you pity the moth confusing a lamp for the moon, yet here you are confusing a screen for the world

[Naval @naval]

Envy is the acknowledgment of having lost a secret race.

[Alec Stapp @AlecStapp]

Narrative violation:

The world is becoming less unequal.

[aadilpickle @aadilpickle]

some notes from actively trying to make close friends for the past 7 years:

- deep talks are overrated. closeness is felt not heard. do stuff together, happy and sad. the deep talks are a byproduct that'll happen naturally but you can't talk your way into closeness

- it's paradoxical but the only way to make a close friend is to treat them like you're already best friends. if you meet someone you like, think about how you'd treat this if you're already close. you wouldn't think twice about double texting or calling or asking them to hang.

- everyone is lonely even people you think are way cooler or richer or otherwise better than you. everyone wants oxytocin and a pack. everyone poops.

- put less pressure on each hang. abundance mindset in you know that you'll always be able to hang again in life. life is long, everyone will be around you for 10 years minimum, you're going to sit on rocking chairs and talk shit about the neighbours when you're 70. it's ok if you have arguments or multi year solo arcs. that's grandpa lore.

- expect nothing and give like you're competing in a giving competition. don't look for anything in return. you will feel taken advantage of a lot, then you'll realize giving is super fun. people want to feel wanted not needed, and putting expectations on others for them to fulfil means giving them a job they didn't sign up for. if there's a prolonged imbalance, it'll be obvious when you should stop, you don't need to evaluate for it.

- you can never make old friends. there's no substitute for time. seeing someone over all their arcs makes it so much harder to get mad at them. major thing that kills long term friendships is built up resentment. understanding kills resentment.

hope this helps someone <3

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

I want to live a “boring” life. Wake up early. Move my body. Eat real foods. Avoid drama. Focus. Think. Love. The boring is beautiful.

[signüll @signulll]

intellectual compatibility is the operating system.

chemistry is the ux.

character is the security model.

[EM🚀🛸 @em80echo]

If you are stuck in analysis paralysis about a person who has hurt you, I recommend reading the Russian fable about the scorpion and the frog

[signüll @signulll]

high agency ppl are rarely "happy" because happiness isn’t the objective function.

meaning, coherence, &amp; forward motion matter more. at that point happiness becomes a side effect, not an explicit goal.

[Gokul Rajaram @gokulr]

Founders: every rule (about fundraising and everything else) is artificial and meant to be broken.

For example, consider the oft-cited “rule” that the lead investor should invest at least X% of the entire round. It’s BS. For example, the amazing Kirsten Green led Bonobos’ $30m Series C round with $1m (and helped the founder raise the remaining $29m).

Ignore the so-called rules. Do the right thing for your company. Be the exception.

[DAN KOE @thedankoe]

be harder on yourself