Husan Isomiddinov

Agora Walk-and-Talks! At Agora, we intend to create our own form of “intellectual walks,” furthering our goal as a knowledge lab. And so we introduce Agora’s Walk-and-Talks. A walk-and-talk is a mobile salon where a small group walks together on Sunday mornings, engaging in casual, side-by-side conversations and discussions of any intellectual sort. The walks take place in the greenery of the city: gardens, parks, and streets free of noise pollution. This way, we hope to make our walks accessible for everyone. Through regular participation, anyone can develop deep conversations, develop ideas that inspire college admissions officers, and touch on thoughts that one day will--perhaps--change the lives of many. Read the manual: Link Register for the next walk-and-talk: Link agorawriting.com

With The Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun attempts to create a science of how civilizations work. It is written as an introduction to his world history, but it became far more influential than the history itself. Khaldun writes about the concept called Assabiyah. It is about social cohesion and group solidarity. Khaldun says it is that strong group loyalty that builds empires. As per Ibn Khaldun’s observations, groups from the desert or countryside, who are bound tightly together, conquer wealthy cities easily. They have an easier time establishing dynasties. But the luxury they create leads to the erosion of social cohesion that made their dynasty even possible to begin with. So, they too get conquered by similar villagers coming from the deserts. He speculates that this cycle takes about four generations. Ibn Khaldun doesn’t write about the “morality” side of the political calculus that had dominated medieval history writing. Sinful kings and wicked traditions didn’t have much to do with the collapse of the empires. He instead treated economics, geography, climate, and population as real forces shaping societies. This evidence-based framework came centuries before similar European thinking started to form. The cycle he writes about fits well with the North African and Middle Eastern societal narratives (which makes sense because he studied them better than anywhere else). The base of his observations was the medieval Islamic world plus some Greek and Roman sources. So he couldn't account for radically different political frameworks. Some sections include medieval pseudoscience (astrology, outdated medicine). The writing is dense and somewhat repetitive at times. Ibn Khaldun essentially invented the systematic study of history and society 500 years early. He looked for patterns through observation and evidence when European scholars were still writing simple chronicles of events. Later historians like Arnold Toynbee openly credited his influence. The theory has a few gaps, but the approach of finding patterns through careful observation instead of morality tales was genuinely revolutionary for its time. husanisomiddinov.com

Majors are overrated [I was having a talk with Javohir Akramov (X: @VCinTown) today. And we talked about a few things about career, education, startups, and F1. I wanted to share a quick snippet from our conversation.] What is a college major? It is a certain educational path you take that builds up the foundation of the career/social ladder you may want to climb later in your life. When you declare a major, you are also declaring what some future version of you will be doing and thinking about. So you are essentially caging your future-self with your current self's keys. Am I saying it is bad? I don't know. But Bohr says an expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. On the premise that being an expert is something good, we should strive to--then--niche down to specificities, which ofc requires one to choose a major. Yes? No. Not necessarily. You can still have deep dives (husanisomiddinov.com/deep-dives) into whatever field you want, not entirely limiting yourself to a certain path. But again, I don't know. One thing I know for sure is one would wanna be in an instituition with multitude of options. If you can go to a university interested in law, but leave as a physicist, that's good. That's what a good university should offer. I will excerpt a text below that'll explain my point better (it is not about me btw): ~ I think re-frame the what to do as --> what do I want to learn about. I think you'll go nuts trying to craft a perfect path. People who constantly do well follow their curiosities and obsessions. Like you, I was obsessed with VC and breaking in for a bit of time. I still love it, but realized that my curiosities currently were somewhere else. So I joined a startup. Was this in my plan when I graduated? Certainly not. But it's what gives me the most energy right now and it just so happens that I did banking / VC to get here. In short, the actual occupation is not what gets you what you want. It's your curiosity and willingness to tell your story and why you are interested + how your experience is best suited for things that will help you ~ And again, I don't know)

I read Taleb's The Black Swan this summer. Right after realizing that I wasn't going to college (again). Right after realizing that most of what we're taught to predict is unpredictable anyway. The book argues that rare, unpredictable outlier events shape our world far more than we admit. But humans consistently retrospectively create simplistic explanations and their little patterns for these events to make them appear more predictable than they actually were. Google's success was a Black Swan. So was 9/11. We're taught to learn specifics when we should focus on generalities. We concentrate on what we already know and fail to consider what we don't. And, it perfectly makes sense. Any pattern, statistic, a prediction is all based on what we know. But there are way more things that we simply don't know. Taleb doesn't advocate for predicting Black Swans. It would be bullshit if he did. He just says we should build robustness to negative events and leverage positive ones. I stopped trying to plan five years ahead (always knew it was useless. I'd end up scraping them after two months anyway). I also stopped pretending I could predict which skills would matter or which industry would boom. Instead, I expose myself to positive Black Swans. Learn to code. Read widely. Build things. Write more. Things that would open up new gates, a new set of decisions, and a new set of paths for me. Sometimes I think we're all just pretending we know more than we do. Sometimes (and actually oftentimes), we should simply say "I don't know" than "I know" because it is simply more accurate. So I don't know. husan

Ultimately though, books aren't the best source of knowledge. Conversations are. And Twitter seems like the best place to watch those conversations happen. And this is right about the time for my shameless plug to unfold as I ask everyone to follow me on Twitter (i am trying to grow) Link: https://x.com/HusanIsamiddin

Have I actually read 50+ books? Yes and No Yes, because this list doesn't contain all the books I touched. No, because I don't think when you pick up a book, you necessarily have to read every single line from the first page to the last. I think one should be very choosy (about what books they read and which chapters they read within those books). And I am choosy. I don't read all the chapters. I first read the reviews and read the chapters accordingly. I don't think every chapter is necessary since any author can have this habit of lingering their point. And I think I probably finished one or two books fully. Be choosy. Be efficient. husan

They are discussing Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus tomorrow. I will be there too)

Agora - Knowledge Lab We intended Agora to be a knowledge lab from the very start. Agora was meant to be Agora, an ancient ancient Greek gathering places where people exchanged ideas, practiced democracy, and shared knowledge. And perhaps we could even argue that Agora would fulfill a role of a liberal arts institution. (Ofc it is far from it, but we are trying). And we intend to build on that tradition: creating spaces where learning occurs through conversation, feedback, and, especially, writing. A small update, but now the team is realizing the conversation part with Agora Talks. As Montaigne put it, "The most fruitful and natural exercise of our minds is, in my opinion, conversation." Listen to Montaigne. Join the discussion tomorrow. No registration required)

LINK: https://t.me/Agora_talks/80

@husan_thinking

You can register your startup and give a quick pitch. There will be a networking/pizza party at the end too I'll be there too)

28-noyabrda 18:00'da ko'rishguncha! Founders Circle'ni keyingi meetupiga tayyormisiz? Format: - 10 ta asoschi - Har biriga 3 daqiqa demo/prezentatsiya (garajda ishlangan prototip, yoki slaydlar) - Har pitchdan so‘ng 2 daqiqa savol–javob - Pitsa va norasmiy suhbatlar Founders Circle har ikki haftada ish tugagan vaqtda to‘planadi. Hech qanday rasmiyatchilik yo‘q — faqat pitsa, ochiq suhbatlar va yaxshi odamlar bir-biriga yordam beradi. 🔗 Ro‘yxatdan o‘tish Qachon: 28-noyabr, 18:00 (UTC+5) Qayerda: American University of Technology @founders_circle

This one is a gem) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd10x8LiuBc

I was adding quotes to the things section on my blog. And I was curious to know what were some of the quotes you guys found powerful. So, drop the quotes below)

Calculate the Empires with Kate Crawford's masterpiece! There is almost no difference between art and visualizing knowledge in such a manner. calculatingempires.net @agora_writing @husan_thinking

They made a song about the bubble ahah

Pro tools I have used & my thoughts: 1. X (Twitter) - 5 dollars/month. - A lot of new features for 5 dollars a month. I am not the most active poster on Twitter, but I'd wanna keep paying 5 dollars just to enjoy the pro benefits. (My Twitter: x.com/HusanIsamiddin) 2. Telegram - 3.99 dollars/month - I am willing to pay 4 dollars just not to get random voice messages and calls from strangers. And since I run my own blog here, it also comes with a few great perks. Def, worth it. 3. Audible (Premium Plus tariff) - 15 dollars/month - Gives access to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts, but I don't usually listen to those. The books I want usually require credits (1 credit per book). This tariff gives one credit per month, and one audibook per month is not bad. Last month I listened to "Greenlights" by Matthew McConaughey. 4. Cursor - 20 dollars/month - I used it for two months during the last summer. It was worth its money. Gives a good amount of tokens to finish your project. But the problems arise when you start using more advanced models (like opus 4.1 of claude's). Stopped using it because I moved to Claude Code later. 5. Claude (Pro) - 20 dollars/month - Comes with Claude Code. The best LLM for ideation and creative industries. And Claude Code is very strong coding too. The only problem is that Pro tariff has limited tokens (for me at least). I'd wanna upgrade to a higher tariff, but the next one is literally 100 bucks per month. Would be glad if they added something in the middle--maybe like a tariff for 35-40 dollars a month. I'd be willing to pay. 6. ChatGpt - 20 dollars/month - I used once this spring, but didn't see much benefit. Maybe they have changed now and added a few more features. But I'd not be willing to invest 20 bucks per month for what they offer, especially when I have free perplexity with equally great features. (Haven't tried "Codex" tho) 7. Todoist - 6 dollars/month - I was interested in their calendar view, but franlly it wasn't worth money whatsoever. Not recommended. Use notebook (physical) to-do lists. 8. Grok - 30 dollars/month - Hallucinates often. The X team prolly tweaked with a few variables in the system, and a change in one variable affects the entire network. As good as Claude Pro, but Claude was 10 dollars cheaper. So I don't recommend. 9. Grammarly Premium - 30 dollars/month - Sorry, but it is not worth 30 bucks a month. Just correct your grammar with any of the llms tools if you are concerned. Didn't see much benefit 10. Obsidian - 5 dollars/month - Obsidian saves everything locally, so when I broke my laptop last january, I lost everything. Their premium feature allows you to save things remotely, so I immediately invested. Been paying 5 dollars a month, but not been using obsidian much these days, so I might as well cancel my subscription. 11. Zoom Pro - 17 dollars/month - If you have a lot of online meetings, it is worth investing 17 bucks. But you can do those meetings with Google Meet too. 12. Burnfit - 5 dollars/month - The only fitness app in the list. You may invest 5 dollars if you'r a gym-goer. It just easier to track your progress. They also have a great feature that shows the visual of what muscles you have trained a lot in a week. It just my personal preference. You may use telegram "saved messages" too. I might have missed a few premium memberships. It is a personal list that comes from my needs and background. (A designer would have figma or adobe, for example). But in any case, these are my subjective assessments on the premium tools I have used. I actively use some of them, and I have cancelled a few. @husan_thinking

@agora_writing x @unlockuz

A bonus one: Watch Star Wars

19 Life Heuristics for the Last 19 Years on the Planet! 1. Faster Decisions. "More potential is wasted in action than in incompetence" 2. Prioritize Health. You have ten different problems until you have a health problem. 3. Buy a good macbook. Makes your life faster. 4. Be an autodidact. Any great learner is a self-learner. Even the best teacher can't help you unless you are willing to help yourself. 5. Don't say "no" to convos during the rain. An evening chat with any soul carrying a curious mind is always interesting. 6. Sleep at 10pm; Wake up at 6am. No comments on this one. 7. Write Morning Pages. Control your thoughts to control your life. 8. Open a Twitter account. It is our age's House of Wisdom. 9. Buy an Audible subscription. You will start finishing books 10 times faster. 10. Use notebook to-do lists. When you can see the tasks in real life, it is usually better. 11. Invest in a great chair. Protect your spine. 12. Take up running. Expensive dopamine. 13. Say "thank you" more often. Be grateful to people who deserve it. 14. Track your expenses monthly. Control your money, or it will control you. 15. Say "I don't know" without apologizing. No one is knowledgeable in everything. Be "vulnerable" to know more. 16. Learn to touch type properly. If you can't write 60 words per minute, you are done. 17. Carry a water bottle with you. Dehydration causes headaches. 18. Delete one social media app ruthlessly. The one that takes your most time. 19. Invest in a physical library. Visualize your knowledge. @husan_thinking

A little left! It was a long journey! @Inkzyio @agora_writing

Found on twitter