The Warrior Poet

To paraphrase Joe Biden: Trust is a big f-ing deal. Sri mulls over 'servant leadership' and explains why trust in an organization is a one-way street.

📌 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.

Edward Norton returns to the program and helps Sri discuss his 'five illusions of leadership.'

It is easy to feel like you're succeeding as a leader. We all lie to ourselves, and Sri suggests five key ways that authority figures convince themselves that they are actually leading.

Sri relates stories from basic SEAL training (BUD/S), the private sector, and elementary school elections while you figure out which illusion is your delusion.

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

• Related episode: 
  • We talked about Paul Giamatti in #28: In Vino Veritas

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 offers tips on training the mind's attention on what really matters with help from Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau.

Mindfulness has been in the public consciousness for years, and Buddhism has been around for millenia. Sri argues that the way the mind is "wired to win" makes it even more important to train its focus.

Connect with Sri on Instagram: @sri_the_warrior_poet  + @sri_actually 

 
notes

• Related episodes: 
  • The “no-future-selves fallacy” was first introduced in episode #12. 

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

Roulette ball sound courtesy of here

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.

Doc Holliday helps Sri explore truth while under the influence.

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

• ‘WTF is a cortado?’ — an article by yours truly about hiring mistakes
• The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
• Mastery by Robert Greene
• Atomic Habits by blogger James Clear (start with his free blog first!)
• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
• When by Daniel Pink

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.

You can drown without knowing it. It happens. Under the right (wrong) circumstances, a diver underwater can get less oxygen than they need and pass out -- without even feeling like they are out of breath.

In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic tons of healthy adults have shown up in emergency rooms under their own power and in good spirits. When nurses check their vitals during triage they discover that these patients have deathly low oxygen concentrations in their blood. They have come to be known as the "happy hypoxics."
 
In this episode Sri explores how hypoxia (lack of oxygen) can be a metaphor for slow-boiling catastrophes in your relationships and business.

notes

• /Kafka on the Shore/ by Haruki Murakami
• Rolling Stone review of Van Halen’s Diver Down
• Hypoxia and Hypoxemia: Symptoms, Treatment, Causes
• diver down album and video
• Lines about how “life moves pretty fast” were from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

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

Credits: 

• Freesound - “Underwater sounds - loopable “ by carmsie
• Freesound - “r_vh-intro_filtered.ogg” by iktinus

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 explores paleo child-rearing and a$$h**$ in the workplace.

notes

• The Art of War by Sun Tzu —> The Kindle version right now is only 49 cents :)  (The audiobook is a mere 66 cents, but I doubt it’s possible to get the value without slowly pondering each line — which is challenging with the audio format.) 
• The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk. Nothing describes ship life as accurately as this bestselling classic. (I highly recommend the audiobook. I couldn’t stop listening.)
• Vitamin String Quartet performs “How Soon Is Now” by the Smiths, aka that “I am human” song (Youtube) 
• The only video I could find of Mike Tyson actually saying his most famous quote (which I believe was originally said to a journalist off-camera) (Youtube)
• Habits: Check out author James Clear — love his insights!

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.

What if you applied the logic of the paleo diet to your career -- and life?!

Connect with Sri on Instagram: @sri_the_warrior_poet  + @sri_actually

notes

• The Alliance by Reif Hoffman, et al
• Article on “tours of duty” in Harvard Business Review by Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn), et al
• The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha 
• The “career capital book” I referred to: So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
• Design the Life You Love by Ayse Birsel
• Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis

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.

Stop taking things for granted and come up with ideas that matter. Sri offers up his "Time Warner Cable" framework for ideation and distinguishes between "positive" and "negative" approaches to asking "why." Plus, thoughts on another great Pixies song.

This episode is a continuation from Episode #23, though there's a good chance you can start here and survive.

Connect with Sri on Instagram: @sri_the_warrior_poet + @sri_actually

notes

• Awesome Pixies songs: 
  • "Where Is My Mind"
    • Pixies live performance in 1988 of "Where Is My Mind" (Youtube)
    • Beautiful acoustic cover by Brittin Lane (Youtube) 
    • Another acoustic version worth a listen (Youtube)
  • "Debaser" (see Episode #23 for more)
    • OK Go's live cover of "Debaser" (Youtube)
• The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clay Christensen (Amazon)
• Podcasts to check out: 
  • "‎The Accidental Creative"
  • "The Edge of Sleep"  
  • "48 Days to Work You Love" 
• 1984 Apple’s First Macintosh Commercial (Youtube)
  
  
• Photos of Sri behind the scenes working on the show

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

Connect with Sri on Instagram: @sri_the_warrior_poet + @sri_actually 

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.

What are you taking for granted in your business, life, and society? The answer is most likely virtually everything even though so many are merely protocols or products of inertia. 

"Transformational vision comes from transformational ideas. Transformational ideas come from radical conceptions. Radical conceptions come from deep perception." -Sri

notes

• Un Chien Andalou by Luis Buñuel (Youtube)
• Covers of "Debaser”: 
  • Pixies - Debaser - Piano Vocal Cover - Christian D’Amico - YouTube by Christian D’Amico
  • play Debaser by Pixies - YouTube by Colin Surname 
• Road to Reality by Roger Penrose (Amazon)
• “Black Math” by the White Stripes (Spotify) 
• Explicit version of the famous “Do It Live” Bill O’Reilly video (Youtube)
• Thanks to Lance Lindley for the general-quarters sound used for a fill in this episode. 

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 ponders irreverence on the playing field and in the office while confusing Martin Lawrence with Martin Short. Joey Pants stays amazing.

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

• The book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (Amazon)
• The book Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (Amazon)
• Bad Boys, the original movie (Netflix); Bad Boys II isn't half bad either.
• Derek Mok's cover of the song "Bad Boys" (Youtube)
• Songs by Hole (Spotify) as follows: 
  • Celebrity Skin ("When I wake up, in my makeup") 
  • Malibu 

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.