Rational skepticism

No matter how intelligent you are, one thing can screw up your rationality — ideology. Because ideology presupposes the right answers. And these right answers will pervade every aspect of your life, be it your political, economic, or social beliefs. Ideology is...

Life does not offer risk-free upside

When the UPSC Civil Services results came out last year, somebody apparently commented that if Sundar Pichai had cleared the exam, he would today be the collector of Greater Noida. So is Civil Services the right choice? Or is it Google, Microsoft, et al.? To think...

Dig deep and take your own decisions

During my MBA, like in many other B-schools, you couldn’t just register for any course you wanted at Wharton — you had to win them in an auction. And naturally, everybody wanted the most sought-after courses from star professors, which cost nearly 10,000...

Resume can’t substitute for competence

In my consulting days, one of my managers had built a unique personal brand — he loved all-nighters and had an aversion to sleep. He was known as an ‘intense’ person but I soon found that his intensity boiled down to only one thing — staying...