OM / 60 Facts

01/60 – “I have a fondness for food and the artists who create it.” — Om Malik

02/60 – “I like the idea of fewer and better clothes.” — Om Malik

03/60 – “And when the day ends, I grab my favorite sparkling water and savor the view one last time.” — Om Malik

04/60 – “If you don’t try, you don’t fail. You don’t fail, you don’t learn. You don’t learn, you will have failed anyway.” — Om Malik

05/60 – “fashion is transient, but style is forever.” — Om Malik

06/60 – “The question was never whether the clothes have a point of view. The question is whether you do.” — Om Malik

07/60 – “My all time current favorite, Piccino.” — Om Malik

08/60 – “We had a nice simple lunch, sitting outside Flour + Water Pasta Shop…” — Om Malik

09/60 – “BUILD, LEARN, EVOLVE, IMPROVE” — Om Malik

10/60 – Baseball was part of becoming American. Om fell in love with the Yankees in the 1990s, when he was a new immigrant in New York. For him, baseball became a way into American culture — and the Yankees stuck.

11/60 – “Time is the ultimate gift — don’t you think?” — Om Malik

12/60 – “We often worry about what’s next instead of being okay with not knowing. Let whatever is next come to you. In time you will know the answer. And that’s all you can hope for.” — Om Malik

13/60 – “I use the twin lenses of technology and humanism to connect the dots and understand our present and future” — Om Malik

14/60 – “Books have been my teachers, my travel machines, and my muses.” — Om Malik

15/60 – “Being disciplined about the act of creating is as important as creativity itself.” — Om Malik

16/60 – “Music is such a wonderful mile marker.” — Om Malik

17/60 – “Food is my primary reason to travel. Photography is a close second.” — Om Malik

18/60 – “I often get ideas for a blog post, and when that happens I start writing.” — Om Malik

19/60 – “Progress can only begin when we devote less energy to outrage about technology and focus more on deliberation about what change should look like in the future.” — Om Malik

20/60 – “…learn from the past, anticipate tomorrow, but embrace the now.” — Om Malik

21/60 – Om was always seeking the subtle. A faint line in the snow. A horizon dissolving into fog. Solitude so complete that even a polar bear, a whale, or a grizzly could feel like an intrusion. His photographs seemed to ask how much could be taken away and still leave us with wonder. That was Om’s gift: reducing the world until only the essential remained. (REF)

22/60 – Om called his Leica TL2 “now aging.” He packed it anway. It was still part of his travel kit in 2022.

23/60 – “[I] have become a bit of a coffee snob — and I am perfectly fine with it.” — Om Malik

24/60 – “Bridges mean connection.” — Om Malik

25/60 – “The future of journalism is simply what it has always been – stories which people want to read, watch and talk about.” — Om Malik

26/60 – “Music, movie, food, and book recommendations are supposed to be very human — they mean much more when they come from a friend. They allow us to build a memory, which in turn then makes them valuable.” — Om Malik

27/60 – “…when you empower people, they, in turn, empower you. Remember that –- especially when things get really, really tough.” — Om Malik

28/60 – “I get to learn from super smart people – every day, every conversation; every story is like going to school.” — Om Malik

29/60 – Om wrote that traveling allowed him to learn about people and their reasons for doing things. He said it made him feel “more human,” less judgmental, and more open to food, culture and ideas.

30/60 – “I don’t like to dwell in the past – unless of course it is music, movies and sometimes lost loves – and future is always brighter and more exciting, present just more real.” — Om Malik

31/60 – “Yeah, I know, I am a Seiko fanboy.” — Om Malik

32/60 – “My big glasses say I want to see the world in HD vision because there is so much to see. My fluid clothes that are not defined by the vagaries of modern fashion are less about style and more about where I am in life. And my love of the color blue is because I believe it is the color of the proletariat, and no matter how far I am from my roots, they will always be there anchoring me.” — Om Malik

33/60 – “…ideas fascinate me. People amaze me.” — Om Malik

34/60 – “Sometimes we have to look behind to make sense of the journey forward.” — Om Malik

35/60 – “…it is success is having friends who know you so well, that you don’t have to ever feel alone.” — Om Malik

36/60 – “Writing, thinking, and creating is how my soul works, and AI can’t replace that.” — Om Malik

37/60 – “Being disciplined about the act of creating is as important as creativity itself.” — Om Malik

38/60 – Om found WordPress early. He found a best friend, too.

39/60 – “We tell the story of us.” — Om Malik

40/60 – “New York is very special to me. It is the place where I found myself as a writer and as a man.” — Om Malik (Om lived in New York and considered it an important chapter in finding his place in the world).

41/60 – “The now is the only truth.” — Om Malik

42/60 – New York’s Other Music was hugely meaningful to Om. He described going there to “lose myself and find something new” and discovered artists including Portishead, LTJ Bukem, Thievery Corporation, Kruder & Dorfmeister, and Nitin Sawhney through the store.

43/60 – Even after using Spotify and other streaming services, Om said much of his music discovery was analog — through friends, magazines and music blogs.

44/60 – Growing up in India, coffee was a rare treat for Om. After discovering Madras Filter Coffee, Turkish coffee, and eventually espresso in London, he became what he happily called “a bit of a coffee snob.”

45/60 – “Curious. Interesting. Sarcastic. Optimistic. Cool. Forever young.” — Om Malik

46/60 – “…one has to live in the present and experience it to the fullest while simultaneously imagining future possibilities.” — Om Malik

47/60 – When Om mentioned SeaQuake Brewery, he had one very specific note: “amazing kombucha.”

48/60 – Om was hard to miss. So were his glasses. These frames were pulled from Jacques Marie Mage’s archive of the pairs Om wore.

49/60 – “23 years later, it looks like I have found that place. I don’t yearn to leave.” — Om Malik

Om came to San Francisco expecting to stay for two years. Twenty-three years later, he wrote that the city had given him more than he had given it.

50/60 – “Socks are just part of my love for color and whimsy. They are a way for me to brighten a day. They also are great triggers for conversation and also indicate to the world that you are not all work and no play.” — Om Malik

51/60 – “I am putting more I in the “AI” — as a way to stand out and stay ahead.” — Om Malik

52/60 – “It was a taste I carried to my new life in America…” — Om Malik, on Maggi noodles.

53/60 – “The clothes are the vocabulary. I write the sentence.” — Om Malik

54/60 – “My choices are a shield and a bridge. They help me architect and design the life I want. For me, not for others. And it starts by constantly learning about myself.” — Om Malik

55/60 – “Stay hopeful. Be amazing” — Om Malik

56/60 – “Every month I try and get rid of few things, making space in my life for things that bring true joy — often from new experiences. (I make an exception for shoes, which are my one true addiction, a better and less expensive one compared to smoking.)” — Om Malik

57/60 – “If you don’t leave the routine and spend time in non-routine situations, life can’t reward you with moments of joy.” — Om Malik

58/60 – “I try to write with my photos as well.” — Om Malik

59/60 – “I have found a passion for perfumes and their components, which reconnected me to chemistry.” — Om Malik

60/60 – “Be Well.” — the final words of Om’s last post on om.co.