Hey! Nice to meet you (or see you again)! It's Emaan, back at you with another hectic but jam-packed update. From working with a company valued at 17.7 billion (crazy, I know), progressing steadily, and making some pretty cool art along the way - it's been a blast. Stick around till the end to see some epic pictures. ;)

This month, my friends Tawsif, Anna, and Jibby tackled improving the customer experience @ Instacart! We focused on reaching out to ethnic and specialty grocery stores to make the service more accessible to a wide consumer base.

HUGE shoutout to my team! It was my first time being a PM and although it can be a lot at times, each individual member of my team was so driven, and we worked hard under pressure! Working on the challenge definitely made me realize the importance of...

Data.
Data, Data, Data.

I've been so used to making assumptions out of thin air and looking for data to back them up. So flipping that on its head was uncomfortable. But hey, you can't grow when you're comfortable, amirite. 

Stoicism, Perception, & Mastery of the Mind.
All things great, interesting to look into, countless aha moments, but implementation? Quite hard. As the month went on, my curiosity led me to questions that are still left unanswered

Can we really detach ourselves and live in the third person? How many ENFP's are there? And why do they so easily connect with each other? Can someone impulsive and emotional like me actually be hyper-rational one day? Does motivation even exist? Or is it momentum?

Too many thoughts, too many questions, it's currently 2am so I think they'll stay unanswered. ALSO??? On that note, for 2 weeks this month, I woke up at 4:30am. Holy heck, was I productive. I listened to this podcast where Navid Nathoo basically gave me the best advice for waking up.

Just don't hit snooze.

Okay, yes it sounds too good to be true and too hard BUT trust me, it. works. Just imagine your boss or Navid himself getting mad at you if you hit snooze. That split-second decision where I moved away from my impulse was so gratiying. (P.S. thank you Navid!!)

I came to the realization that there are two types of artists:

1. Use their emotion to drive their creativity - their art has no bounds
    aka technicality is out the window (literally me LOL)
2. Use technique and are articulate to evoke a specific emotion from
    the viewer (what I thought I should be)

I grew up drawing and painting, and found a lot of joy and utility in the process itself. This month, I realized I stopped using pencils as a whole, spent around 5-10 minutes on my art, and stopped looking for validation from my friends if it was good or not. I used to pay SO much attention to the details, but since I use art as a catalyst to ease my irrational brain, the process of making art is satisfying in of itself.

Funny enough, my friends really like my current art style. 

That's all for this month folks! Stay rad.
- Emaan