# Writings > Essays and field notes from Waqas Khan Pitafi on building durable companies, operating as a craft, investing in operators, and family inside a CEO's life. Source: https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/ --- Essays are the long arguments. Notes are the short ones, published as they land. Both live at permanent addresses. All Self Building Investing Family 23 pieces · newest first 1. [ July 6, 2026 ## What four thousand monthly salaries actually mean I am not an inventor. I am not building something the world has never seen. I run a services firm, and the way I think about its impact is through the salaries it has paid out, one month at a time, for sixteen years. 3 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/4000-kitchens) 2. [ June 22, 2026 ## The uneducated engineer Three buckets of education, and the one we have stopped filling. Why I think the modern engineering profession is graduating brilliant people who are still uneducated. 3 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/uneducated-engineer) 3. [ June 16, 2026 ## پاکستان کو چائنہ جیسی ترقی سے کون روک رہا ہے؟ ایک کاروباری شخص کا خاکہ کہ پاکستان اگلے بیس سال میں چین جیسی ترقی کیسے کر سکتا ہے، تسلسل، انسانی سرمائے، شاگردی، تارکینِ وطن اور اعتماد کے ستونوں پر۔ 9 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/pakistan-ko-kaun-rok-raha-hai) 4. [ June 16, 2026 ## Who Is Holding Pakistan Back? A founder's blueprint for how Pakistan could engineer a China-style rise over the next two decades, across continuity, human capital, apprenticeship, the diaspora, and trust. 7 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/who-is-holding-pakistan-back) 5. [ June 15, 2026 ## چین کی ترقی کا سفر ایک کاروباری شخص کا چین کی ترقی پر تجزیہ: نقل کرنے والی قوم کیسے ایجاد کرنے والی قوم بنی، انسانی سرمائے کی نظر سے۔ 9 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/china-ki-taraqqi) 6. [ June 15, 2026 ## How China Rose A founder's firsthand analysis of how China moved from the world's factory to a leader in quality and innovation, told through the lens of human capital. 6 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/how-china-rose) 7. [ June 13, 2026 Your first hundred blog posts will not be very good. Your first thirty talks will not be very good. Your first fifty essays for the newsletter will not be very good. Mine were not. The proof of that… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/first-100-blog-posts) 8. [ June 10, 2026 I am older now. I have driven a Mercedes for cash, and I now drive a car with two hundred and twenty thousand kilometers on it. My favorite food is masoor ki daal. My pants are old. My shoes have… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/nothing-really-matters) 9. [ June 8, 2026 ## Lessons in namaz for your startup Five times a day, every day, for as long as I am alive and conscious. The structure is its own lesson. 3 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/lessons-in-namaz) 10. [ June 6, 2026 A dream is not what you see in your sleep. A dream is what does not let you sleep. If the thing you are working on is not keeping you up at night, you are not working on the right thing. Or you are… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/dream-not-sleep) 11. [ June 4, 2026 ## How to Adopt AI in a Mid-Market Business Two public playbooks, one sector asymmetry, and a five-step framework for owners facing a generational technology shift. 18 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/how-to-adopt-ai-in-a-mid-market-business) 12. [ June 2, 2026 If you cannot say no, at least learn to say "give me a hundred years, I will come back to you." It is the same answer in practice. It is gentler in form. It buys you time to think and it tells the… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/100-years-no) 13. [ May 29, 2026 Make your word your bond. Contracts matter. Your word matters more. Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no, always. The spirit of a deal is as important as the words of the deal. The contract… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/your-word) 14. [ May 26, 2026 Five prayers a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. That is the consistency the religious tradition I was raised in asks of me. I run my company on the same shape. Small, meaningful,… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/consistency-and-prayer) 15. [ May 25, 2026 ## I fired the entrepreneur of myself For the first four years of DevBatch I was the entrepreneur. The company was me, doing the job. Then I fired that version of myself and tried to be a businessman. Here is what changed. 4 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/i-fired-the-entrepreneur-of-myself) 16. [ May 22, 2026 Pakistan crossed into the $300 billion economy club a few years ago. Most of the operators I talk to in the United States have a stale picture of this country. The picture is from a decade ago. It is… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/pakistan-economy-club) 17. [ May 19, 2026 There is a line I keep coming back to. "By the time I realized that my father was probably right, I had a son who thought I was wrong." It is a small line. It does most of the work of a fifty-year… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/sons-and-fathers) 18. [ May 18, 2026 ## The first time I started DevBatch I did not want to continue Sixteen years ago I tried to start a company three times in twelve months. The first two failed. I want to write down what I actually thought during the third try, before the success made the failure look like a story. 5 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/the-first-time-i-started-devbatch) 19. [ May 15, 2026 The trickiest moment in any hiring process is the salary negotiation. Eleven years and five jobs of being on the candidate side, then sixteen years and several hundred hires of being on the hiring… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/negotiate) 20. [ May 13, 2026 For ten years before DevBatch worked, almost everything I touched failed. Then I read a line that I cannot remember the author of. The line said: "mentally strong people give themselves permission."… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/give-yourself-permission) 21. [ May 11, 2026 ## What's in the name I have been called four different names in my life. Only one of them stuck. The story of the other three is the story of how my family raised me. 3 min ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/whats-in-the-name) 22. [ May 10, 2026 My first salary was 6,000 rupees, paid on 30 August 1999. I gave it to my mother. In today's money, that is roughly 12,000 rupees. It is also, almost exactly, what we pay our paid interns at… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/first-salary) 23. [ May 8, 2026 I have been called four different names in my life. Kashaan, Zeeshan, Waqas, and finally Waqas Khan Pitafi. The first three were my parents trying to give me something that worked. The fourth was… Note ](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/naming-things) Nothing under that pillar yet. Next step ## If this was worth your time, there is more of it I read every message that comes through the form. Specific asks get faster replies than open-ended ones. [Start a conversation](https://waqaspitafi.com/connect) [Read more writing](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings)