“The U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself” – Benjamin Franklin We all know the below famous line from the US Declaration of Independence – “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with…
What’s common between the viral fever of my toddler son, fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, working-out at gym and start-up companies? They all are ‘Antifragile’. Nicholas Taleb coined this term in his classical work – Antifragile – Things that Gain from Disorder. Here is the simplest way to understand the concept: Porcelain cup can…
It was the summer of 1998 and my cousin and I were vacationing in Pondicherry, a small quaint town in South India known for this historic French heritage buildings, endless stretches of tranquil beaches and the famous Aurobindo Ashram. Peace and wellness seekers from all around the world flock to this historic town in search…
Apart from death and taxes, the one thing that is certain in life is ‘traffic jams’. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been late to my meetings and appointments mainly due to traffic jams. Yes there is an element of bad time management, but the fact remains that bad traffic is something that…
‘Too much of anything is bad’ – so says the age-old wisdom. Does it apply to education as well? Last week Bill Gates tweeted this chart to encourage students to complete college. I love the simplicity, completeness and elegance of the above chart. The message is pretty clear – ‘More school means more income’. But look…
This is what I noted to myself after what happened few hours ago. My wife, my toddler son and I drove back home after having dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant and we parked our car in our apartments’ parking lot. The routine is generally I get my son out of the car seat and…
I am a coffee enthusiast and my old Italian espresso machine at home have had few mechanical issues in the past couple of weeks. Over the weekend, we were at a nearby mall and I was strolling with my 18 months old son in the hallways of the mall. A big sign outside Williams-Sonoma (kitchen ware…
I learnt about an interesting concept in an unusual situation. Over the weekend, I was waiting in the check-out line in Costco (a local wholesale warehouse / store) with only couple of items bought to ring through the cash registers. Being a wholesale store, people buy stuff in large quantities and given the weekend, the lines were really…
I have a personal commitment to post at least one blog per week and it’s been more than a week since I wrote my last blog. The central theme of all my blogs is application of proven and time-tested mental models in day-to-day situations. Lot happened in the past couple of weeks and the reason…
The brilliance of ‘A Beautiful Mind’ was recognized again last week when John Nash the famous mathematician won the coveted Abel prize in Mathematics. John Nash is one of the very few mathematicians known in popular culture not only as a celebrity popularized by the movie ‘A Beautiful Mind’, but also for the ground breaking work…
chakshuRA - as i see it 