Sohan Joshi

a principle i follow: be outcome-aware and input-obsessed, not the other way around. outcome-aware means knowing where i’m headed: the growth areas out there, the roles where my strengths and innate talents line up, the places where i can create impact, and the kind of life i want. it works like a compass, giving me a general sense of direction without getting too specific or obsessed with the outcome. the trap with becoming obsessed with the outcome is that you paralyze yourself with anxiety about the future, chase shortcuts, or get discouraged when results don’t show up immediately, while the inputs stay average. input-obsessed means being insanely driven with my inputs, doing everything in my capacity to follow the general direction of the outcome. it does quite the opposite of the trap: i stay aware of the general direction, and make my inputs so aggressive that a specific outcome, or multiple outcomes, almost always show up as a byproduct of chasing them.

most people take advice at face value: someone says do steps x, y, z to get outcome a, b, c, and they copy the steps, hoping to get the same or similar outcome. a better way to fully absorb an advice is to get to the why, understand how they think and the principles they follow, along with the context they came from and where they want to go. then see if it applies to your own context and direction, which takes some self-awareness, and implement it in your own life instead of blindly following a template. ideally, take advice from people who also zoom out of their specific steps and share the principles or mental models they live by.

sunday eve reflection and planning for the upcoming week, and execution on monday first half definitely sets the tone for the rest of the week. so much fun! work feels like play

an essay on asking better questions: level 1: most people, when they meet someone a few years ahead in their journey, ask outcome-focused questions. "how did you get into that company?" or "how did you land that role?" the problem is that the person being asked didn't necessarily know that their specific inputs would lead to that specific outcome when they were in the input process. the answer you get is often a polished, surface-level version of events, and that's difficult to learn from. level 2: fewer people get to input-specific questions. instead of asking about the outcome, they start asking about the process: what specific inputs went into getting there? what was the actual work? how did the dots connect? there's infinite room for questions here, and you get much closer to understanding the inputs, the specific components of work that lead to success, the bar of work that you can take and put to work yourself. level 3: the rarest questions are the ones that go one layer deeper: the 'why' behind the input. these questions are only possible after doing genuine research on the person beforehand. you can't ask why someone made a specific choice at a specific moment without knowing what that moment was. that depth of preparation changes the quality of the conversation from both sides. when you ask why they went down that specific route, or why they made that specific choice at that specific moment, something interesting happens: it transports the person back to the mindset they had when they were making those decisions. what you get isn't steps a, b, c to get outcome x, y, z. it's a journey, a process, and a window into how someone actually thinks. you start to discover that they did that specific thing in their inputs because of an innate strength, a skill they were leaning into, an environment they were in, or a combination of all of it that they capitalized on as an unfair advantage. here's what happens when you ask level 3 questions to enough people: you stop collecting individual answers and start seeing patterns, not in what they did, but in how they think, while you build your own mental models in the process. once you have enough mental models in place, you shift from 'what to think' to 'how to think'. you learn from the best, add your own flavor to it, and what you build with all of that is something exceptionally unique and authentic to yourself.

my perception of teaching and creating content: i’ve created content across different formats over the last 5 years: started with a newsletter in 2021 where i documented my insights and learnings, which led me to starting an educational podcast in early 2022. alongside both, i started creating on instagram to explain what i was writing in late 2022, which introduced me to writing on x/twitter in early 2023. i quit instagram but continued all three until 2024, eventually quitting the podcast too, except writing on x which continues even today. in 2024 i started creating on youtube, teaching students about grad school applications. recently, i’ve started writing about my time and insights at nyu on linkedin, the only platform where i hadn’t experimented with before. across all of these experiences, i not only got good at understanding marketing by actually doing it, but also arrived at a conclusion: being a content creator with an ulterior motive of gaining followers, making revenue through it, and playing the game of creating every single day on the same/similar topics just because it's my 'job' doesn’t align with me. i love to create without obligations, with a free mind, for its own sake. that freedom comes in two layers: the first is teaching. a much better framing i use for all of this is that of a teacher, teaching what i learned myself, and hopefully, passing it on to others. documenting my mental models and writing notes to myself on x has helped me write more clearly and think even more clearly. my mom is a teacher, who taught bio and chem to pharmacy undergrads when i was young, and eventually taught middle and high school students for over 10 years. she held me to a high bar of understanding math, phy, and chem so deeply that i could teach her students at her coaching class. that shaped how i think about teaching more than anything else. the second is creation itself. i think i’m naturally blessed with an innate ability to create, probably in my genes: from sketching since childhood (i loved painting and designing cars), to evolving my modes of creation over time, including building communities at nyu. in the last 3 weeks alone, i conducted 3 sessions on product management at nyu, which were a mix of both, creating the platform from 0-1 myself last year, and teaching through it this year. one of the best feelings ever. when i post these essays, i get messages about the way i think and articulate ideas, and qs about how i come up with things to write abt. even today i get comments about how my linkedin posts or youtube videos help students. i own those compliments, because they come from years of thinking, creating and teaching in different forms. i’m not a content creator when i publish these essays. i’m just a writer and a teacher. i hold a strong belief that creation will continue to manifest itself through me in so many more forms. and so much is yet to be done :)

i can't recall a single thing i put honest effort into learning, even if i disliked it in the moment, that isn't helping me directly or indirectly at work every single day. the seemingly insignificant projects i started out of curiosity, every opportunity i said yes to, all the coursework and subjects i thought i'd never use again, the failed outreaches and pitches and interviews where i gave it my best shot, all those seemingly insignificant tasks during my internships and on-campus job: every single thing i showed up for, even the parts i liked less, compounded until now. "i've done this before" or "i've done a version of this before" is one of the most reassuring things i can say to myself at work, while also leaving enough room for "i've never done this before, but i know that if i set my mind to it, i can figure it out."

looking at job search through two different problem lenses: after talking to a lot of students going through their internship and job search, i've realized that almost every challenge they face falls into one of two buckets: a knowledge problem or an execution problem. i went through this exact thought process myself when i was recruiting, and breaking it down this way gave me a lot more clarity on where to focus my energy at any given point in time. here's the framework i came up with: 1/ the knowledge problem: this is about closing the skill and experience gap for the role you're targeting. it is solved through internships, academic and side projects, student clubs, hackathons, on-campus jobs, and self-initiated projects, while taking courses that align your skillset to the role, going deep into one area until you have a strong footing, and holding yourself to a high bar of work. the important thing to internalize here is that the knowledge problem never fully gets solved, it's an ever-expanding problem, but that's not a reason to wait. what you're doing is continuously leveling up: working on more complex projects, solving harder problems, and putting yourself in environments that demand more output in less time. you cannot get a successful output if your input isn't good, and the knowledge problem is entirely about strengthening that input. 2/ the execution problem: once you have things on your resume, the problem shifts to how you productize, position, and sell your work to the right people, because just because you've done excellent work doesn't mean opportunities will find you. the execution problem can broadly be solved through four methods, roughly in order of effectiveness: a. referrals and relationships: people who have seen you grow and can vouch for you, the highest leverage method regardless of company size. i wrote about how to build these relationships in my previous essay on 'reframing networking'. b. cold email: targeted, specific, and well researched outreach to the right people at the right companies. i'll be expanding on the exact format and approach in my next post. c. hackathons: using the work you've built as proof of work to land conversations and interviews. d. cold applications through portals: a method worth doing in parallel alongside either of the first three. 3/ the analogy: i drew this analogy from my own experience of going through competitive exams, and i think it maps well to the job search: think of it like a timed exam where you're simultaneously trying to improve your subject matter expertise, get as close to a perfect score as possible knowing you'll never fully get there, and devise a strategy to maximize your output in the time you have. the knowledge problem is the studying, and the execution problem is the test-taking strategy. the goal is to solve both simultaneously: keep leveling up your knowledge while figuring out the execution strategy that works best for you.

first 90 days on wall st, the things that matter the most as per my observation and experience: curiosity, raw input in terms of hard work, ambition, hunger to learn, teamwork, being easy to work with, energy and excitement, driving initiatives and being a self-starter, the ability to figure it out and get things done, communicating clearly (writing, speaking, listening), attention to detail, engaging with problems and being solutions oriented, structure and planning, learning new things quickly, context switching quickly, and patience, because success here is a marathon, not a sprint.

How to Write, Think, and Speak Clearly, an Essay: Over the last few years I've done 20+ public speaking sessions, written consistently for 5 years across different formats (newsletter, X, and LinkedIn), and what I've realized is that writing, thinking, and speaking are really one skill showing up in three forms. Here's what helped me get better at all three: 1/ Write and talk in points: whether it's a cold email, a tweet, a LinkedIn post, or an answer to a question, points are simply easier for your audience to follow, than paragraphs of blabbering (which might also help in your interviews). 2/ Write a lot across these three layers that build on each other: a. Experiences: writing about what happened (like my newsletter on visiting IIT Bombay for a week), which helps you retain your experiences. b. Learnings: writing about what you took from those experiences, (like how I built a YouTube channel to 1,000 subscribers in 25 weeks and how I did it), which helps you document your learnings. c. Mental models: zooming out from a single experience into patterns that hold across many, (like my essays on asking better questions or the five unfair advantages you can build as a student among several others that I've posted here), which help you develop your own thinking. 3/ Build your own mental models, which come from working on the first two points above, and from these three places: a. Talking to a lot of interesting people and asking better questions, which I wrote about in my essay on 'asking better questions'. b. Reading extensively, to the point where you can identify what kind of material you like reading, get into the author's perspective, understand why you like it, and try to imitate that style when you write, until you develop your own. c. Listening to podcasts, to learn how people articulate their thoughts, especially investors, entrepreneurs, and partners, because there is so much to learn from how they think out loud. As you do all three, it compounds, and over time you shift from 'what to think' to 'how to think' because the mental models are now your own. 4/ Get good at telling your own story: as you reflect on your experiences, learnings, and mental models and write about them consistently, you get better at telling your story to yourself and to the world, through writing or public speaking, and you add value while doing it because you're passing down what you learned, not just what you did. 5/ Aim for maximum value in minimum words: whether you're writing or speaking, the goal is to create as much value as possible for the reader or the audience in a limited number of words. All of these are incredibly helpful in my current job on a day-to-day basis, as a product manager working in finance.

“working with great people is one of the best parts of life.” ~blog.samaltman.com/what-i-wi…

it all starts with a dream, kid.

the best way to learn is to be a teacher and a student at the same time. asking the right questions forces your brain to dig past the surface, test what you think you know, and find the gaps. teaching others forces you to simplify what you know, and the moment you can't explain something simply, you've found your weak spot.