First Blog Ever!

This is my first blog post ever. It is copied from my own website, is my first blog post on any website, and is the first blog post of 365+ more to come this year alone. In other words, I am now a daily blogger. Well, that’s not entirely true. I intend to be a daily blogger; I am not officially a daily blogger until I post daily for more than 1 day in a row. On this site, you will find some material that I cross-post from my own website, indranilmitra.com, and occasionally shorter pieces exclusively for Medium. Expect to see me on here about once a week.

I used to write pretty often. You’ll find a few pieces of mine: essays, research papers, and poetry, on teenink.com. I have written about everything from the drug economy to how pens are useful. As a little kid, I used to write poetry and short stories for yearly competitions (I even won sometimes). However, since I started college a few years ago I have found that my creativity has been stifled (ironic, right?). I’ve written about things that others wanted me to write about. I’ve written because school said I had to, not because I necessarily cared about the topic. I’ve written in a forced style where the order of words and arguments were more important than the material or message itself.

My blog is mine. I get to write about what I want to write about, and how I want to write about it.

I’m starting my blog and website for many reasons but one major reason is that I’m not doing enough. Don’t get me wrong, I do work hard. I have a job, I am a full time student at NYU, and I founded W(ft). As far as a pure volume of work goes, I do a decent amount. Yet, I’m not doing as much I can and need to do. This year, I want to do more than I have ever done. I want to help grow the company I work for, learn as much from NYU as possible, and get W(ft.) in front of as many people as possible. Furthermore, I want to give back to you, the readers, while getting information and advice from you. My blog should be helpful to us both; me, the writer, and you, the reader. I’ll give you something to look at everyday (on my website, not here), and will give you some insight into who I am and what I do. This will help me become better at the things I do and will help me become a better communicator. In the process, I hope to help you in many ways. I want my website to be interactive. Let’s help each other. Leave comments. Share my posts if you like them. Yell at me if you don’t like them. Help me get better at writing and communicating so I can get better information and advice to you.

Reasons for Starting my Blog:

1. Creativity.

I think a lot. We all do. We all have those ‘shower thoughts’ and sometimes they are our best thoughts. I think about the company I want to start, the challenges we will face, and all the things we can do at W(ft.) to get over those challenges. Thankfully, my daily thinking is not limited to the shower. I have the luxury of living in NYC where I get to walk around a lot. When you are walking alone for 20 minutes at a time, you occupy yourself with your thoughts. Furthermore, when you walk around NYC, you are constantly surrounded by stimuli that can spark amazing ideas and can provide color to your life and aspirations. I want to record and share these thoughts as they are the basis of my creativity.

2. No Filter.

I need a place to write about what I want to write about and to get my thoughts out there. Editing should be to make content readable, not to make it ‘correct.’ Fact-checking is important and if I present facts, I want the facts to be true, but if I’m presenting a thought, I just want to get it out there. Creative media shouldn’t be overly constrained.

3. I Need to Read/Write More.

I need to learn more. I’ll cover this in depth evenutally, but often I feel like I’m getting a degree but I’m not actually learning. I have 3 concentrations and a minor, but I feel like many of my classes exist to get me an Investment Banking job and nothing else. Marketing was beautiful. Professor Bonezzi inspired me to learn. Some professors inspired me to do nothing more than get a job. Jobs are important, but understanding more than your own job is essential to growth. Daily blogging forces me to read and write more. It forces me to do more. Hopefully, by reading to spark content for my site, we can learn together.

4. Culture.

This is pretty much the same as the last point. I need to learn more, and about things that I wouldn’t normally think about. We have the internet. We have access to anything we could ever want to know. It’s amazing how information can be related and we need to understand that inspiration and ideas in one field can originate in completely different places and fields.

5. Routine.

Life needs some order. Spontaneity is valuable, but you need a plan no matter how loose that plan is. Everyone is busy and the key to managing your time, is managing your time. I want to get a lot done and I have made too many excuses in the past. Daily blogging forces me to plan my day out in a way that I am thinking all day and working towards something that has to be done, every single day.

6. Sharing.

I like sharing things. I cook and enjoy cooking for others. W(ft.) is about sharing beautiful media and technology that we make with people to help them live their lives better. My website is me sharing bits of my life and thoughts with you. I hope you will share your thoughts and feedback with me.

7. Communication.

By now you have probably noticed that I’m not very good at this yet. My grammar is far from perfect (writing was my lowest SAT section, though I don’t think advanced grammar is all that important), my thoughts are not perfectly coherent, and my communication needs to improve. Hence my blog.

8. Relatability.

I think a lot, but I doubt my thoughts are perfectly unique. Out of 7 billion people, at least a few of you have thought the same things as me at some point. I’ll put my thoughts out there and you can let me know if you have thought them. It is my impression that people are pretty similar. I want to be a story-teller and the most important part of story telling is being relatable at least to the extent that people feel connected to the material. Obviously our experiences won’t be exactly the same. Many times, they will be vastly different. But again, I feel like we are all similar enough that what I put out there will be relatable by most.

9. Recapping.

Daily blogging will let me close out my day by gathering my thoughts and collecting them in one place. My website will keep me organized and help me tie up loose ends as far as thoughts go.

10. Remembering.

When I mean remembering, I don’t mean just about what I thought about throughout the day. I mean remembering throughout the year and over the years. How often do we look back at the year and think ‘Wow, where did the time go?’ We think back and try to remember and social media helps, but daily blogging will chronicle my year on a daily level. We’ll be able to go back to any day of the year and see what was relevant or what I was thinking about on that day. The ability to go back and see how ideas change over time is so valuable. Who knows where I will be in a year? I don’t, but now we will see how I get there, wherever ‘there’ is.

This process excites me and also scares me a little. I’m putting myself and my thoughts out there for all to see (though as of today, my SEO is so poor that I’m not even the most notable Indranil Mitra on Google). I’m going to be doing more work this year than I have ever done. So on this first day of 2016, let’s get started.

Please like and share this post with your friends and follow me on my various social media profiles. It means a lot to me and the more you like and share, the more people I can get out to and help out over time. Thanks for reading, and have a great 2016!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indranilmitra07/

My Website: http://www.indranilmitra.com/