vipassana on S Anand

My Year in 2025

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 07:51:58 +0000

Here’s the report card for my 2025 goals bingo.

Domain	Repeat	Stretch	New
People	🟢 Better husband	🔴 Meet all first cousins 🟢 Interview 10 experts	🔴 Live with a stranger
Education	🟢 50 books	🟢 Teach 5,000 students	🟢 Run a course only with AI
Technology	🟢 20 data stories	🔴 LLM Foundry: 5K MaU 🟢 300 days of GitHub	🔴 Build a robot 🟢 Co-present with an AI
Health	🟢 300 days of yoga	🔴 80 heart points/day 🔴 Bike 1,000 km	🟢 Vipassana
Wealth	🔴 Buy low	🔴 Beat inflation 5%	🟢 Donate $10K 🔴 Fund a startup

The “Education” and “Technology” rows have a BINGO! Repeat goals were easier than new goals were easier than strech goals (no surprise). 11/20 wins means I’m picking realistic and ambitious goals.

Let’s dive into what worked.

Better husband. I asked my wife “Was I a better husband in 2025 than 2024?”. “You set a goal right? (Long pause.) Yeah… (sigh)”.
Interview 10 experts. I went way over 20. The key learning is that transcription + AI analysis mines insights from normal conversations, so expertise amplifies.
50 books. I stopped after 6 books in Feb. But I learnt how AI can remix books so I “read” the rest last week of the year. Same learning, less time.
Teach 5,000 students. I did a rough count. ~1,500 students x 3 terms at IIT Madras plus 10-300 people in my ~30-40 talks/workshops this year. I’m ahead.
Run a course only with AI. The earliest was a Vibe Coding workshop @ SETU. Just me and AI, no prep. Many followed, e.g. Mining Digital Exhaust, Dec 2025.
20 data stories. Since coding agents generate data stories better and faster than I can, this goal was easy. I created over 50 data stories, many of which are at published here.
300 days of GitHub. As of 25 Dec 2025, I was active on GitHub for 300 days this year. Last year, I was only coding. This year, 12% was reviewing PRs, thanks to AI coding agents.
Co-present with an AI. I co-presented with ChatGPT at The Hindu webinar on AI and twice after that. Unfortunately, it stole the show! So, I’m exploring balance.
300 days of yoga. I didn’t miss a single day this year. Actually, I only had 364 biological days this year due to time zones and a US flight. So, I practiced 12 Surya Namaskars every biological day!
Vipassana. I did a 10-day course in July 2025. Here’s my experience.
Donate $10K. I donated to Sanskrit College, Vipassana and 3 developers: Anton Medvedev, Isaac Schlueter, and Sindre Sorhus.

Here’s what didn’t work.

Meet all first cousins. I met 9/14. (Missed 2 in Chennai, 2 in Coimbatore, and 1 in the US).
Live with a stranger. I tried a homestay at Bangalore, but I don’t think that counts. It felt like a hotel.
LLM Foundry: 5K MaU. Straive’s internal AI portal was transitioned to the IT team in Feb 2025 and I could no longer live-deploy changes.
Build a robot. I didn’t even start, which is strange.
Bike 1,000 km. My wife banned cycling unless I ate more, so I gave up after a month.
80 heart points/day. Without cycling, I didn’t have a chance.
Buy low. I followed ChatGPT’s advice on investment and didn’t time the market.
Beat inflation 5%. Nowhere near it.
Fund a startup. Started exploring but far from it.

These apart, I also:

Lost 25 kg from Jan - Jun just by skipping lunch / dinner. No exercise or diet change. This works for me, but YMMV. Being flexible (type of food, which meal to skip, etc.) helps me sustain habits.
Published Things I learnt weekly and wrote 150+ blog posts.
AI-podcasted my code and a Gen AI WhatsApp Group.

Here’re my 2026 goals:

Domain	Repeat	Stretch	New
People	Better father	Monthly service	Live with a stranger
Education	360 books	Publish 2 books	2 non-English books
Technology	330 days of GitHub	Make TDS self-serve	Build a robot
Health	360 days of yoga	Learn to dance	Build muscle
Wealth	Donate $10K	Monetize AI	Automate finance + tax

I’ll add metrics in a few weeks. But here’s why I added/changed:

Better father. Why? I shouldn’t take my daughter for granted.
Monthly service. Why? Retirement activity planning.
360 books. Why? To build AI-reading muscle.
Publish 2 books. Why? To scale writing/organizing skills.
2 non-English books. Why? To blow my mind with world literature.
Make TDS self-serve. Why? Today, only IITians can fully participate.
Learn to dance. Why? I’ve always wanted to. (Why under “Health”? Um…)
Build muscle. Why? Muscles sag with age and it hurts.
Monetize AI. Why? Practice for my next adventure.
Automate finance + tax. Why? AI beats humans and I lack skill/interest

What are YOUR plans?

Giving Back Money

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 03:08:58 +0000

At the end of my 2021 graduation interview, All India Radio asked:

Interviewer: What would, if you are asked to give back something to the country, what would be that?

Anand: I really don’t know. At this stage, I don’t know what I’m capable of and what I can contribute, but whatever it will be, I suspect the bulk of it will come later towards my career.

25 years later, I think I’ve given back three things.

Knowledge
Peace (so I’m told)
Code

Money is not one of them.

I’m stingy and unemotional. At 14, a beggar clutched me for five minutes asking for money. I didn’t move. I haven’t changed.

But after the Gramener acquisition, I have more money.

Last month, I gave money for the first time. I want to make it a habit.

Rs 5 lakhs to Sanskrit College. My mother would have wanted it.
Rs 1 lakh to Vipassana. I liked their approach.
Rs 1 lakh annually to Isaac Schlueter and Sindre Sorhus for the code they’ve written.

These gifts (accidentally) matched my theme: knowledge, peace, and code!

I see two kinds of contribution:

Funding - you encourage something.
Thanking - you repay a debt.

Mine were all thanks, not funding. I hope to learn the other kind too.

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For those curious about my Vipassana meditation experience, here’s the summary.

I attended a 10-day Vipassana meditation center.
Each day had 12 hours of meditation, 7 hours sleep, 3 hours rest, and 2 hours to eat.

You live like a monk. It’s a hostel life.
The food is basic. You wash utensils and your room.

There are rules. No phone, laptop, no communication.
You can’t speak to anyone. As an introvert, I enjoyed this!
You can’t kill. Sparing cockroaches and mosquitos were hard.
You can’t mix meditations. But I continued daily Yoga.
You can’t steal. But I did smuggle a peanut chikki out.
No intoxicants or sexual misconducts.

You’re woken up by bell at 4 am daily.
You sit cross-legged without moving, which I found impossible.
I was the sole attendee who needed a backrest.
I blame back muscle loss which accompanied my weight loss.

You observe your sensations calmly.
Don’t imagine sensations. Don’t like or hate them.
It’s pragmatic. Accept what works. Reject what doesn’t.
There’s no dogma. More science than religion.
I discovered several cravings and aversions, like fear of losing money and an efficiency obsession.
Also that humor, curiosity and compassion really help.

It was 10 days well spent. I strongly recommend it.

Comic story: https://sanand0.github.io/datastories/vipassana-chatgpt/
ChatGPT conversation: https://chatgpt.com/share/687629fc-c3f4-800c-9ba7-107d542f4373

Download the PDF.

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 14:33:22 +0000

I’m off for a 10-day Vipassana meditation program.

WHAT? A 10-day residential meditation. No phone, laptop, or speaking. https://www.dhamma.org/
WHEN? From today until next Sunday (13 July)
WHERE? Near Chennai. https://maps.app.goo.gl/PnGkLoZ8U6aG2RKk8
WHY? I’ve heard good things and am curious.
SURE? I’ve never been away from tech for this long. Let’s see!

I’ve scheduled LinkedIn posts, so you’ll still see stuff. But I won’t be replying.