July 2025

Books, YouTube, and TV show recommendations

Vikra Vardhan

Jul 29, 2025

Before I share my best recommendations from July, some life updates:

I enrolled in a super sexy gym. It is huge. I love high ceilings and lots of free space. It has glass windows on both sides; I am a sucker for natural light. I have access to a pool, yoga and zumba within the membership. Not much of a Yoga, Zumba guy, but I am not missing out on 15 minutes of swimming after the gym. Plus there’s a café.
Picked up sketching as a hobby. I am on a 21-day workshop.
I made chilli paneer.

I will share all the pictures in the end. Keep reading.

Books

1/ What if by Randall Munroe

I am embarrassed to admit I am still reading this book. I haven’t dedicated time to reading at all and only since Monday, I added a mandatory 30-minute reading session in my calendar.

My stance on What if stays the same. It’s one of the sexiest science books I’ve read and you don’t even need to be a science guy. Feels like Sci-Fi with good humour.

2/ Cashvertising by Drew E. Whitman

I am rereading (rather listening) to Cashvertising.

Each marketer has a book to return to whenever they want to touch base. It’s cashvertising for me.

I have consumed way too many blogs, books, and podcasts on advertising. Nothing articulates what incentivizes humans to purchase in alignment with advertising to make customers act better than Cashieeee.

PS: I have paused Win Bigly by Scott Adams. I’ll finish What if, then resume WB.

Podcasts and YouTube

I got so drawn into a TV series I didn’t bother consuming anything else. Now I see how I fucked up.

Anyway - I managed to watch one or two cool videos.

1/ Why AI is overrated - with Neil deGrasse Tyson

I have to consume what’s happening with AI regularly for work. Astrophysicist’s take on AI was kinda refreshing. It was nothing new, but I love how Neil presented his thoughts. I should listen to more of his interviews.

More cool videos:

Blogs, Newsletters, or something

I only want to share one blog this month because it’s life-changing.

For me, it’s “Being too ambitious is a clever form of self-sabotage.”

I read it 40ish days ago. It was during the time (and for a really long time) when I didn’t publish enough because I wanted to produce a perfect output.

This essay just shattered my beliefs and showed me that to create perfect outputs, I must output high volumes.

Ofc, it sounds obvious when I put it that way. But you must read it if you consider yourself a perfectionist.

Movies and TV shows

The Rookie (Season 1, 2, 3, 4): I love this show. Everyone should at least watch one season. It’s a crime-comedy, great to pass the time. Plus, some heartwarming (sometimes heartbreaking) scenes. I forced myself to stop this show because it’s taking time away from books, podcasts, and newsletters.
Special Ops Season 2: Okay, if you’ve liked Special Ops 1 and 1.5, you will enjoy the latest season. It’s a gripping story. You always want to know what’s happening next. There are a couple of scenes where R&AW agents made silly mistakes. The kind of mistakes any civilian in the same situation would be cautious about. That I felt was a poor representation of R&AW. Take that away, it’s a good seven episodes to spend time on.