The Warrior Poet

When you're a midshipman at the Naval Academy, you often recalculate something called "the Happiness Factor" to encourage yourself (or torture said self, depending on the circumstances). The idea that one's happiness is a calculable quantity somehow distinct from the self is interesting on its own. Meanwhile, Sri discusses how happiness in the workplace might not be all it's cracked up to be.

EXPLICIT EPISODE: If you have kids in the car, we hope you’ll choose another.

Connect with Sri on Instagram: @sri_the_warrior_poet  + @sri_actually

notes

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar ( Spotify ).

Episode thumbnail photo courtesy of Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 

📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅

_____

Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: 
➡️  LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar  + @sri_actually 

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

Sri discusses the bestselling book The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. Plus, what serving as an altar boy has to do with building assets. 

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 

📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅

_____

Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: 
➡️  LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar  + @sri_actually 

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

Sri and The Gang from Always Sunny bring the ABCs of leadership back again from Motown to Philly.

Keith Rabois is a highly successful startup leader, venture capitalist, and member of the Paypal mafia. Sri goes over some of Keith's leadership lessons and compares those from the military.

Hat tip to Delian Asparouhov, who distilled his in-person lessons from Mr. Rabois into a helpful blog post called "How to be an Effective Executive." It is one of a series on leaderrship in the startup world. Not in the series but also worth reading is Delian's acclaimed "Everyone Poops," a story of love and loss involving Sergey Brin.

notes

• Motownphilly | Boyz II Men | Music Video Cover by Elisium - YouTube
• It’s Always Sunny - The Gang sings “Motown Philly” by Boyz II Men - YouTube
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bivins
• High Output Management by Andy Grove

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 

📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅

_____

Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: 
➡️  LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar  + @sri_actually 

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

Is it possible to choose things you want to believe even if you currently think they're ludicrous? And then even come to actually believe them just by reciting what originally was nonsense?

This is what Don Gately mulls over while in an AA session in David Foster Wallace's book Infinite Jest. While Gately happens to be a fictional character, the success of AA, religion, and military training suggest that we can actually succeed by "going through the motions."

notes 

• Books by Chuck Palahniuk: 
  • Fight Club (though you probably already saw the movie) 
  • Choke, which I really liked
• Related episodes: 
  • #29: Train Your Spotlight 
  • #39: (the next one after this -- coming soon!)

Connect with Sri on Instagram: @sri_the_warrior_poet  + @sri_actually

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar ( Spotify ). 

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 

📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅

_____

Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: 
➡️  LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar  + @sri_actually 

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

"Burning in" is a euphemism for what happens when your parachute doesn't open. In a shorter form than usual Sri muses on what carpe diem really means. 

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 

📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅

_____

Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: 
➡️  LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar  + @sri_actually 

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

Feeling stuck? You can use the tactics for responding to an ambush to propel you in a productive direction (any direction). Sri shows you how.

Plus, the interesting group Massive Attack. And what hospital show has the best theme song.

Connect with Sri on Instagram: @sri_the_warrior_poet  + @sri_actually

notes 

• Cover of Massive Attack's song "Angel" is by Mikka Almeida et al via Youtube
• Books
  • Strategy: A History by Lawrence Freedman 
  • How Music Works by David Byrne

Thanks to “amholma” for the wave crash fill (Freesound).

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar ( Spotify ). 

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 

📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅

_____

Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: 
➡️  LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar  + @sri_actually 

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

Marty McFly in the Back to the Future movies is the perfect caricature of our own gut reactions to others in life and work. Marty's nemesis, Biff had a recurring line throughout the trilogy: "What's a matter, McFly -- are ya chicken?!"

Many of us fall for this kind of challenge all too easily. And what's worse is that clever manipulators are *much* more subtle than Biff.

Sri's no replacement for Doc Brown, but he's here to help.

Connect with Sri on Instagram: @sri_the_warrior_poet  + @sri_actually

notes

• Books: 
  • Presuasion by Cialdini (Amazon)
  • The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
• Related episodes: 
  • #7: Screenwriting 
• Cover of the theme song from Back to the Future was by Niall Stenson via Youtube

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar ( Spotify ). 

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 

📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅

_____

Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: 
➡️  LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar  + @sri_actually 

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

Why do we not listen to common sense? Do you ever "discover" lessons that Ben Franklin made catch-phrases of long ago or that your parents preached to you?

Sri suggests ways to better internalize such principles.

Connect with Sri on Instagram: @sri_the_warrior_poet  + @sri_actually

notes

• The Underground Sounds Of America: Bars Of Gold — Kerrang!
• Highly recommend this TV series in which Saffron Burrows plays a major role: Mozart in the Jungle (Amazon Prime Video) 
• “Bunko artists” are explained by Ken Jennings and his cohost in the podcast The Omnibus
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace 
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz 
• The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
• The Code of Conduct | Association of the United States Army
• A live performance by the band Madness, surprisingly cool and touring after all this years, doing their hit “Our House” (Youtube)
• Related episodes: 
  • #3: Outbreak 
  • #33: Different Strokes

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar ( Spotify ). 

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 

📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅

_____

Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: 
➡️  LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar  + @sri_actually 

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

Sri does what few others will by taking a dispassionate look at team diversity. 

Unsurprisingly, corporate leaders are more concerned with looking good — and good intentions — than truth or nuanced approaches. The “hotness” of the topic also means that usually no one in an organization is brave enough to have a reasoned discussion. Is it possible that this results in a de facto blind faith that diversity is better in every situation?

Plus, the golden nuggets that everyone misses in Scott Page’s “diversity bonus.” 

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 

📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅

_____

Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: 
➡️  LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar  + @sri_actually 

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

The mind is a software creation machine -- that consumes its own output.

Sri throws his Amazon Echo against the wall and, in a somewhat more mature state of mind, explores what features of ourselves are features vs. bugs. And gets real about high-school hangups.

EXPLICIT EPISODE: If you have kids in the car, we hope you’ll choose another.

Connect with Sri on Instagram: @sri_the_warrior_poet  + @sri_actually 

notes

• My first Youtube video cited in the episode: How to Properly Throw Your Alexa Device
• Radiohead stuff 
  • MUST LISTEN: Idioteque by Radiohead (cover by Alexa Melo) 
  • If you’ve never listened to the OK Computer album before, listening with the Vinyl Junkies channel is highly recommended. Old Guy Listens to Radiohead OK Computer FIRST REACTION | VJ Pirate Radio (Youtube) 
  • Commentary worth watching: 
    • Why is OK COMPUTER so good?
    • KID A, The Greatest Left Turn In Music History”
  • Cover by young South Koreans of “Electioneering” (Youtube) 
  • The “Creep” sample was from this remastered live performance (Youtube) 
• Ruth B’s lovely live cover of  “Heart of Gold” originally by Neil Young (Youtube)
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry)

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar ( Spotify ). 

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck. 

📩 Get free elite performance tools weekly through the Warrior Poet newsletter 👉 join ✅

_____

Follow Sri for elite leadership tips: 
➡️  LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar  + @sri_actually 

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

Disclaimer: Any audio clips are included with every intent and steps taken to abide by Fair Use and serve the purpose(s) of illustration, education, augmentation, or promotion of source content.