Opening Remarks

December 18, 2022

Authors note: Since publishing this post, I have renamed the blog from The Majlis to Man In The Arena. In June of 2024, I had clarified my reasons for starting this blog, and who my intended audience is. For more on why I did all this, please read this post.

Why start this blog?

My goal is to create a blog that is centered around concepts that are interesting to me, and to document the experiences that have happened (or are happening) to me that fall under two broad themes: 1. Professional development2. Personal development

This means that I may share a wide range of ideas regarding investing, corporate strategy, branding, digital marketing, economic history, productivity, and well-being.I am by no means an expert in these subjects- just a curious student who is document his learnings.

I wanted my first blog post to be a list of the intentions I have in establishing a blog, and what I hope to get out of it. I think that starting anything with clear intent helps give direction, especially in times of uncertainty.

My intentions are (at least) fivefold:

  1. To establish a digital archive whereby I can gather my thoughts.

  2. Writing = thinking clearly, and I want to improve my writing and thinking capabilities.I want to be able to eloquently and simply communicate my thoughts to ensure I fully understand concepts. If I cannot communicate my thinking clearly and effectively, then I probably have not grasped the concept in its entirety.

  3. To establish a place of discussion, so that others may force me to think more deeply about the ideas that are presented in this blog, and so new or related ideas can be shared.

  4. To create a community / group / network of people with similar interests by leveraging media.

  5. Provide value. I hope that at least a few people benefit from the content found in this blog.

I also want my future children and grandchildren to benefit from the ideas in this blog. I hope they find the bits of knowledge and wisdom that are contained here useful. It would also be lovely to have them discuss the ideas in this blog with me, and to ask me about how I came across these ideas and what I was doing when I had them.

I think that the name of the blog, The Majlis, summarizes these intentions very well. Majlis is an Arabic term meaning "sitting room," used to describe various types of social gatherings among common interest groups. I hope that this website can act as a space where ideas at the intersection of business, economics, history, psychology, health and well-being are discussed.