Nissue #51: Nish Nadaraja, Editor of In Search Of Lost Answers, Me.
What can I say about this next guest? I feel like I’ve known him my entire life. Born in Zambia to parents of Sri Lankan descent, his family moved to America in the early seventies. Soon after college, he and two Union College pals made the daring decision to drive across the country from New York City via Graceland, New Orleans, Aspen, and Las Vegas, before settling in San Francisco. This was 1998.
It’s now 2022 and a whole lifetime later. The world has changed, but does that mean we change along with it? I caught up with Nish, semi-retired and on the brink of turning fifty, to see if he had figured out any of his own answers.
Nish: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Nish: Relaxing with close friends up in wine country. With the kids off exploring or swimming nearby, forgetting their devices for a few moments. Pablo making the rounds, living his best life. All of us awaiting the sun to set and the music to the start, with tomorrow never quite arriving.
Otherwise, this is a close second.
Nish: What was your worst job ever?
Nish: After I left Yelp, the next phase of my career centered around consulting and advising companies both big and small. I got to work with hundreds of great teams, for the most part led by smart people with genuinely interesting ideas and ambitions. But of course, there were a few Juicero-level stinkers. If I had to pick the worst, that dishonor would go to NorCal Cannabis. They had something like 6 co-founders, high on greed, incompetent leadership, bloated egos, and too much money. It was no surprise when the whole thing imploded. I did manage to have custom voodoo dolls of them made, and yes I expensed those.
Nish: What was your first job ever?
Nish: It was at a music store in a shopping plaza in Rochester NY, and not a cool, independent one, either. CDs dominated, vinyl had seemingly died, but at least computers did not yet pick our tastes in music. I loved talking to the customers, mostly helping parents and grandparents navigate between Mariah Carey, R.E.M., George Michael, and Guns N’ Roses. It was nothing like High Fidelity, but still, those were glory days.
Nish: What was your best job ever?
Nish: Most people would think I would say Yelp, and I suppose it is the thing that most people associate me with. But doing this newsletter has been a real trip, and it’s become this rambling narrative of people I’ve come across in my career and life. I nish that I could do this for a living, just interview cool people who do interesting things! But I made a conscious decision to end In Search Of Lost Answers after a year (52 nissues), sort of to preserve the good times.
Nish: What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Nish: I’m an overthinker and I tend to hold grudges longer than necessary.
Nish: What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Nish: I have an ex-wife so not being on time and not communicating well are at the top of the list. There is also a very high chance that if you think Burning Man significantly changed your life, I will not like you.
Nish: What’s some advice you’d give to yourself at 23?
Nish: Go West, make movies and tell more stories.
Nish: What is your greatest extravagance?
Good food and wine. Nissues #3, #12, and #43 feature three of my favorite restaurateurs, and #14 is an interview with the founder of a company that makes the perfect toothpick.
In terms of blowing money, I recently splurged on a vintage 1972 Rolex — the year I was born — that I plan to pass on down the family tree. Time, in the end, is the biggest extravagance of all.
Nish: You have exclusive dinner reservations for 4 excluding family and close friends, who are the 3 people (alive, dead, or imaginary) you’d invite?
George Lucas for giving me my childhood, Oscar Wilde for his wit and wisdom, and 70’s era Mick Jagger for that swagger. Of course, Marcel Proust would probably stop by for dessert.
Nish: What is the theme song of your professional life?
Nish: Over my career, in order: Manic Monday, Bang On The Drum All Day, and I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. In ten more years, it will be My Way.
Nish: What is your motto?
Nish: I once had this dream that Hall & Oates was putting together a reunion tour and they asked me to name it, and I suggested It’s Never Too Late, Just Later Than It Was. I think that’s a good way to look at life.
If I have an epitaph, it will read: When he lived, he lived.
Nish: What is something you’re really excited about right now?
Nish: At this point, I’m just a passenger on my kid’s rocket ship. High school, here we come!
End Interview.
Brilliant!
Burning man completely changed my life!