Independent cafés are spaces where small communities come together, “back of the napkin” business ideas manifest, passioned writing can happen, a book can be read slowly, a podcast can be listened to, sweaters can be knit. Wherever I am in the world, I make it a point to visit the most-loved cafés of the neighbourhood I’m staying in. From these spaces, a city can reveal much of its culture — the ebb and flow of people and their chatter, slow work and how good the coffee is (or isn't). Occasionally, I discover new cafés in familiar places, like this past weekend. And that’s always an unexpected delight.

Last week, NYT declared the extinction of the mass-market paperback. It’s increasingly difficult to build a sustainable business around physical products whose values approach close to zero once consumed and can be delivered digitally at a similar or lower price, e.g. glued-together paperbacks, daily newspapers, textbooks. It’s slightly easier to build a business around long-lasting physical objects you cherish to own, e.g. hardcovers, publications you want to collect, special editions of stuff, high-end watches.

Some fascinating stats in that piece, like physical books still account for 75% of book sales.

On that note, lately, I’ve been trying to avoid buying physical books off Amazon. I want to resist supporting a business model that doesn’t pay its frontline workers well, when there are better, more fun options. If I want to read or listen to a particular book, first I always check whether my local library has it. Libby is an app that makes this easy to track. If it’s not available at the library, I try to look for it at a local bookstore. Indie Bookstores offers a useful search tool for this in Canada — an initiative of the Canadian Independent Bookstores Association and funded by the Government of Canada. If I don’t find it there, a reputed independent bookstore can often stock a copy if you call them, without any obligation to buy till it arrives. Exhausting those options, I’ll look for it at a chain like Indigo/Coles — at least, a Canadian company with respectable corporate social responsibility initiatives and DEI policies.

That said, if I need it for the Kindle e-reader, I generally have no option than to get the e-book from Amazon, thanks to the walled garden of the Kindle (Kindle in Canada doesn’t let you read library books.. Kobo does, but I’ve never like the Kobo e-reader). While it’s not transparent what Amazon takes from the publisher or author (if self-published) for an e-book sale, it may be somewhere between 35-70%, with plenty of strings attached. Apple Books takes the 30% flat that’s standard across all of Apple's services, including apps. Just some options for your next book.

I like the Libby app. I particularly like its Paperback font which creates a consistently good reading experience. I’ve got holds on several books in Libby at the moment. One of them is journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929, a new book about the market crash of 1929 — the wait is ~5 weeks, but I’ve got enough books to finish before then.

Speaking of market crashes, after my column in Issue #9, the market rebounded sharply. Dow Jones hit an all-time high. I don’t think this detracts from anything I wrote. In fact, it's pretty eerie. The GMO report I linked to in that issue explicitly mentioned that the stock markets don’t seem to be at a top yet, but with indicators like the Shiller P/E or CAPE at over 40, one can’t help but wonder when the music will stop. The only other times it was this high was 1929 and 1999. Knowing that, it’s more a matter of when than if. (Not financial advice).

Michael Lewis (author of Liar’s Poker, The Big Short and Moneyball) did a nice episode with Sorkin on Lewis’ podcast series.

I like podcasts. They’re great for many reasons. Like for one, they make long drives in harsh Ontario winters bearable. And secondly, if you notice, when you hear an ad for a podcast, it always ends with: “available wherever you get your podcasts.” As a consumer, you get to decide which app you like the most, whether it’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast or a dozen other podcast players (for me it's Apple’s built-in app). Not satisfied with a particular podcasting app? You could even build your own. This is because podcasts are built on a simple, open standard called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). It's how the web was supposed to work.

Then, the creators of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter went in the opposite direction of walled gardens. As a result, we live in a world where if you have a million followers on Instagram, it’s not you that has those followers — it’s Instagram (i.e. Meta, the parent company). You are allowed access to your account at Instagram’s discretion, filtered more and more through their algorithm, while Meta’s ad revenue multiplies. Unhealthy economics for consumers, especially as AI risks commoditization of content on these networks.

Speaking of AI, I’ve fully migrated from ChatGPT to Anthropic’s Claude for my daily AI usage. I believe I was in the first million of ChatGPT users, as per their 2025 year in review. Now, it has almost a billion users. Despite that, I didn’t feel a thing while switching. No nostalgia, nothing. Think what you will about Anthropic’s Superbowl ad campaign:

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It clearly takes a dig at ChatGPT. People in the tech industry have called the ad deceptive. Their argument is that Anthropic is an enterprise company (with a ~$10 billion/year revenue run rate), not a consumer one like OpenAI, so they shouldn’t advertise that they’re not going to surface you ads in chats.

Sure, but that’s the nature of advertising. In a note in April 2025 on my blog, I wrote that because AI models / LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude are increasingly becoming a commodity, the model makers can say anything they want to differentiate themselves. Like Don Draper’s “it’s toasted” bit from Mad Men in the show’s pilot. Tomorrow, if I had to switch from Claude to some other AI, I don’t think it would be a big point of friction.

I like Claude and its tone is useful in many ways that ChatGPT simply wasn’t. There was an interesting piece in The Wall Street Journal that large language models shouldn’t be used for financial advice "because they are the digital equivalent of sociopaths—smooth, persuasive and devoid of empathy.” There is truth to that.

Last week, I also switched to DuckDuckGo as my default search engine in Safari from Google. Google Search has become a cesspool of sponsored results. I don’t always want AI summaries of everything I search. DuckDuckGo’s search has fewer ads and respects privacy in ways Google never will.

With all that’s happening in the world at this present moment of history, it’s comforting to know that we are on a tiny planet that’s slowly spinning in the middle of empty space inside a galaxy that is one of many billions. The universe is vast.

I leave you with a song called Yun Hi Chala from the movie Swades. Mohan, a project manager at NASA’s satellite-based water detection program, played by Shahrukh Khan, is on a journey to a rural Indian village. The song’s core sentiment, among many things: “Wherever the road takes me, I’ll keep walking. The world is a beautiful place.” 🎶

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Have a mindful week.
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—Siddharth

~ That's it for this week's edition. The journey itself is the point. ~

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