Writing

Technology, perfumery, production, and everything else

My own essays first, then selected posts from the three companies' blogs.

Agent Micho Society of Scents & Spirits Konkan Sun Productions
Between the Marks

My own writing, apart from the three companies.

Personal · Two-Part Series

What Does It Mean to Be Overdressed Now?

Dressing up used to be the safe mistake. Part one asks why that changed; part two is the actual list of rules I use.

Personal

The Best Manners Are Usually Invisible

The best manners are the ones nobody catches you performing. What that instinct looks like when it crosses from Chennai to New York.

Personal

Why Use a Fountain Pen When a Ballpoint Works Better?

Nibs, ink, urushi lacquer, and why a pen that asks more of you is the whole point, not a flaw.

Personal

Loneliness Has a Calendar

Four days of COVID isolation taught me how much I need people nearby. It also made me think about my mother, and everyone like her.

Read more at Between the Marks → Back to Top ↑
Additional Writing

Selected posts from Agent Micho, Society of Scents & Spirits, and Konkan Sun Productions.

Articles from Agent Micho, Society of Scents & Spirits, and Konkan Sun Productions get added here as each one publishes.

Agent Micho

AI automation, four recent posts

Agent Micho

What the Bank Is Actually Asking

Your vendor form goes quiet after you submit it. What a bank's risk team looks for in your AI answers, and what a silent model swap costs them.

Agent Micho

What IKEA Did With 8,500 People

IKEA reskilled 8,500 workers instead of cutting them. At five employees, that same decision looks nothing like it did at IKEA.

Agent Micho

The AI Questions on Vendor Forms, and How to Answer Them

Vendor forms now ask how you use AI. What the person asking actually wants to know, and how to answer without overclaiming.

Agent Micho

The Automation Stopped and Nothing Told Us

Error alerts only fire when something errors. A workflow that stops running produces none at all, and looks fine until someone asks why.

Read more at Agent Micho: The Stack → Back to Top ↑
Society of Scents & Spirits

Fragrance and spirits, four recent posts

Society of Scents & Spirits

National Coffee Day: The Espresso Martini I Shake Too Long, and Three Coffee Fragrances

National Coffee Day was September 29. Three fragrances with coffee in the notes, ranked by how they wear on me, plus an espresso martini.

Society of Scents & Spirits

Negroni Week: A Template Built to Be Messed With

Negroni Week runs September 21–27. Why a three-ingredient, equal-parts drink has stayed interesting for over a century.

Society of Scents & Spirits

Smoke: From the Braai to the Glass

A braai, peated whisky, cigar, and smoky perfumery share overlapping smoke chemistry built around phenolic compounds.

Society of Scents & Spirits

Roja Parfums and the Rise of Gulf Fragrance Capital

Free full article. A Gulf-based distributor becomes an owner after years of Roja building ties in the region.

Read more at The Society of Scents & Spirits: The Journal → Back to Top ↑
Konkan Sun Productions

Video production, four recent posts

Konkan Sun Productions

Working with a Skeleton Crew: What You Can and Can't Cut

Every producer eventually gets asked to shoot with fewer people than the job needs. Which roles actually flex, and what it costs when you cut the wrong one.

Konkan Sun Productions

How to Produce a Film Like a Wall Street Financier

Twenty years in program management at three financial institutions, applied directly to how an independent production actually gets planned and run.

Konkan Sun Productions

The Real Job of a Line Producer

Line producer gets reduced to budget spreadsheet in most people's heads. The real job is triage, made fast, under pressure.

Konkan Sun Productions

What My First Day on Set Taught Me, From the Actor's Side

Being talent on someone else's set for the first time, and what that taught a production company founder about running his own.

Read more at Konkan Sun Productions: The Frame → Back to Top ↑
Books

Published under Society of Scents & Spirits

Your First Five Bottles cover
Society of Scents & Spirits

Your First Five Bottles

The Fragrance Starter Guide. Five fragrances chosen to cover the most occasions and moods, pulled from a working collection past a thousand bottles.

Free, pay what you want · PDF, 11 pages →
The Fragrance Field Guide cover
Society of Scents & Spirits

The Fragrance Field Guide

35 fragrances worth knowing across designer, niche, and clone tiers, with notes, occasion, price tier, and longevity for each.

$14.99 · PDF, 34 pages →

A third title, The Collector's Guide to Fragrance, is in progress and will be released soon on the shop page.