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Light the wick.

One small flame in your inbox each weekday morning.
Read it before your second sip of coffee.

What you'll get

Two formats, both careful — rotating across the week:

  • Mon · Wed · Fri — Micro (200-350 words). Idea, one question, today's action, a short closing reflection.
  • Tue · Thu — Essay (900-1500 words). One question, the argument for it, the strongest counterpoint, and what to actually do with all of it.

Every issue ends with If this hooked you — a small set of curated next reads (books, talks, papers) so the rabbit hole has signposts.

The cadence

One email each weekday morning, at 06:30 Pacific (09:30 Eastern, 14:30 UTC, 19:00 Indian Standard). Micros take about 2 minutes to read; essays about 6-8.

Each calendar month follows a single theme — Foundations, Attention, Resilience, Craft, Friction, Gratitude — and each issue is one angle on it.

How posts are made

Each issue is drafted with help from a language model and edited by a human curator before it ships. Sources are real. Quotes are checked. Read our editorial standards if you'd like the full picture.

The fine print

  • Free. No paywall. No upsell.
  • Unsubscribe in one click — every email has the link at the bottom.
  • The full archive lives at buttondown.com/rahulkarda.
  • You can also subscribe via RSS.