Showing outcomes is hard

I knew an IPS officer who had cultivated the reputation of being a ‘crime fighter.’ And he did that by chasing petty criminals at night. But alas, all he was doing was the job of a head constable. Admittedly, he was good at it but that is not what he was hired for....

Just do it

During my childhood, since my father was in the armed forces, I ended up moving cities and schools a few times. And whenever I started a new school, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. In the first few days of a class, if I raised my hand to answer a question, I kept...

You are capable of more

You need a non-zero failure rate. And here is an experience of mine to prove that. In the second year of my MBA, as I was selecting my courses, I was faced with two options: Option A: Take a quant course that I could easily ace. Option B: Take up a course on...

Live on your own terms

During my MBA, a college classmate visited us in Philadelphia. He seemed happily settled in the US, doing a conventional tech job at a bank, drawing a $90k salary. His was a predictable job, with no growth prospects. Every year, his salary would go up by a few...

Brain needs a break

Years ago, we visited my wife’s aunt in California. When we opened her fridge door, it felt like the whole world came tumbling out – it was so jampacked. And that was not it – they had another industrial-scale freezer in their garage which was just as packed. In fact,...