Seriously
This is an increasingly hot and humid city, but every time I step out, almost all the men are wearing pants
(Even jeans)
Shorts are so much more comfortable in this weather, but in Delhi, it seems to be mostly a home-clothes thing
Especially true for men - women still wear shorts more often outdoors than men
You'd expect culture to eventually catch up to climate reality
So I’m Indian and have a house in Delhi
But wife and I have always wanted a second base in case things don’t completely pan out as planned here
I’ve been to Dubai several times before for business and think its a good fit for my family. Seriously considered buying an apartment here last year but decided to postpone it
Now after the war, I’ve received mixed messages from all the people I know. Some say that its back to normal, others say its dead
Would appreciate any insight on what’s actually happening and if I can still think of Dubai as a second base
Every time I try to build something with Claude, it keeps circling to safety, regulations, and keeps petitioning me to fix X way before its ever needed
Even when I explicitly tell it that I'm building something only local and for testing, it will keep hammering safety and regulatory issues
It's really hard to do anything experimental with it beacuse its constantly trying to gaslight me into thinking that whatever I'm doing needs to be thoroughly checked and vetted and confirmed
And don't even get me started on Claude ending every single discussion with "One thing worth flagging..."
Just stop flagging things man and just let me build
Very painful, and its becoming worse with every new versio
I was a decently successful freelancer for nearly a decade from 2010 to 2020. Then I built a business on the side, scaled that up and sold it during the pandemic.
Since then, I've survived mostly on trading and investment money. I haven't worked properly in almost 6 years
Now I bought a house and that's exhausted most of my savings and I want to shore up some capital with some gigs that can pay me $1-2k/month
How different is the freelancing landscape now vs 6 years ago?
Back then, I could rely on my network and good cold email to constantly land me clients. But I suppose some of that has become tougher because of AI?
Are the platforms still viable - assuming I can afford to spend $100-200 on Upwork connects?
I have a strong but outdated portfolio. I'm also really good at cold email and okay with client calls
Moved to a south delhi locality in 2020. My rent was Rs 45,000
The owner passed away and I had to move out in 2024. Rent for most decent apartments became Rs 65,000-75,000
Now I might have to temporarily shift again and rent in the same area is hitting Rs 1-1.2L
Wtf man this is an insane increase. Rent almost doubling in two years is just wild
Who the hell is even paying 1.2L rent in a shitty delhi locality?!?
Yesterday, I smelled sewage-like smell in the house. I thought it might have been a choked drain so added drain cleaner and went to work
Then today I read a news report in Indian Express about sewage in water supply in Gulmohar Park
I live nearby so I’m now paranoid that there is sewage in the water. Already replaced my drinking water with Bisleri but idk what to do about washing water
Anyone else in the Saket/Malviya Nagar area faced anything like this? If it happened in Gulmohar Park which is one of the richest areas in the city, it could happen here as well
Did some rough analysis on returns from Indian markets if priced in dollars
Basically, if you're a dollar holder, whatever you might make in the market, you lose in currency exchange
Over the last 5 years, a dollar investor made just 14% on a $10k investment
When compared with the performance of their own domestic market, it's little wonder foreign investors are exiting the Indian market. You could have literally doubled your money in 5 years in Nasdaq, and 18xd it in 20 years just buying the index
Even against what some here called a "dead market" - Kospi - the returns from the Indian market are susbtantially poorer except over a 20 year mark
Genuinely looking for some coping advice. AI stocks of major corporations have 10xd within a year and I have almost zero exposure to them. I've seen the South Korean index go up 200% in a year and my portfolio has just kept bleeding
The names that have gone up insanely weren't obscure stocks or low caps. You could've bought the KOSPI index and turned Rs. 10L into 30L
If you were even remotely interested in stock picking, you could've bought the biggest names in the AI trade - safe bets like Samsung - and turned those 10L into 50L
If you had taken out even a little bit of effort into research, you could've turned 10L into 1cr with names like Micron
And if you were truly interested, you could've bought more obscure smaller corporations that are up 5000%+
You can cope and say that there will always be another run, but I really don't think you get booms like the AI boom so easily. It's a one in 20 year run
I'm genuinely very angry with myself for missing this and really looking for some advice on coping with it