blog update — atharva kokane

alright so i have been writing blogs for over 2 years now, it is just that i did not migrate my old blog posts from my old website and i definitely will be migrating all my blog posts from here on out, provided that i do change my website. for now, i think my website is designed well enough (even though it does not fully reflect my taste), for now. but, i feel like my blog posts could do with some work.

i am trying to kind of scope out what readers would like to read and see on my blogs. i tend to avoid longer blog posts, just because i know some people are not readers and do not like reading a lengthy blog about something in life. i, myself, like shorter posts that can communicate information within a few 100 words, so i would like to continue with that format but the structure is what i want to improve.

nowadays, i post barely a blog per month and there is no real structure to when i put a post out. i want to kind of consolidate a few ideas for blog posts for each month or for each week. now, i know that i am not a writer and cannot sit behind a screen typing and editing blogs every single week. so yeah, i think i will stick to that monthly format. sort of like a monthly reflection on what happened that month and what does the next month look like for me. i also think i am going to do a list of media that changed my life every month.

why do i think this is important? well, for one i just wanted to put something out today, that is also a reason i decided to write this. but, i honestly also think that i will be starting a lot of new things this coming semester of university and i think this blog could help me vent, cope, celebrate, observe new moments as they come. you will also get a lot of updates from this month's reflection that will then help you connect the dots. actually that is what i should get into next.

July 2026

so, what exactly did happen this month? well i went to co/build a lot. i spoke to a lot of cool people on what they were building and got valuable advice on what i should be doing to get into the builder space and grow myself in the space. i also felt a hint of imposter syndrome hit me after i left every co/build session. but i think that's exactly where i found my footing. after a few hard weeks of not understanding what i should be doing a few ideas for me really hit it off.

most of this month i was honestly lost. i annoyed a friend that i met at co/build about it a bunch. she really helped me get out of my slump. i was so lost on where to even begin. i had no ideas, no projects open, nothing to work on. this was my lowest point in a while. i felt the burden of moving forward in life while doing nothing. i was completely burnt out.

something that i did not consider was my own health and mental when i was in this phase. i was not eating and trying to just find ideas. i was on youtube or x at 3 am trying to find ideas, losing my sleep. then i talked to my parents about it and they just said relax. i thought they were just telling me that because i am their son, but then i thought about it. even if i took their advice and took a break for a bit, it is my vacation. i honestly could take a break and nothing would happen except i would fall behind the competition for a bit. so i took their advice and enjoyed myself with a waterpark trip, food and hella movies (i am not kidding when i say hella, check my letterboxd out).

it took a few days, but it finally clicked. i was thinking about university again and realized virginia tech doesn't really have a builder space. no room where people who make things end up in the same place. that's the gap, and that's exactly what i want to build for my community back at tech. so i didn't wait. got on a call with a few talented builders from tech, and now it's two weeks until i'm back in blacksburg to keep going with them. the one question we couldn't answer: quality control. how do you keep it real without keeping it closed. there has to be a solution, but that is something to tackle when i get there. this is also something i am going to closely guard though.

i was also invited by my friend to a startup based in italy. now, i don't want to say much about it, but it is going great. we have an idea of where this thing could go and i also finished building the mvp. we also have a cracked team and everyone complements everyone so well. thank you to massimo giglio and sofia grassi for trusting me with my skills and for bringing such talented people together. that sounded like linkedin talk for a bit.

anyways it has been an eventful july and i hope there is more to come. now, why did i want to record the media that most influenced me through the month? because the amount of media i have consumed this month, is absolutely insane. so here is the list of media that influenced me that i promised:

youtube videos

movies

music albums and songs

now, yes most of this content is audio and visual, because i can't read for a long period of time for shit. i hope my next month will have some sort of written media on there. i really do want to get into reading. but that's all for now. see you next month, or when the eureka moment hits for me.

ask.