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LinkedIn Posts

Optionality Hinders Action

I write nearly every day. And I have done it for years. Because in my mind, writing is not optional. It is something I do on good days and bad, on busy days and idle days. Most importantly, I do it whether I feel like it or not. If something is optional, our mind will...

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Hardship Fuels Change

Had it been left to me, I suspect I would probably still be sitting on my 1st-year electrical engineering courses without completing them. Ok, I am exaggerating a bit. But without the external pressure of exams and getting a degree, few of us would voluntarily go...

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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 a...

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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...

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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 points. By...

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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 late at night. And he...

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The essence of simple writing

When I was in 6th grade, I read an abridged version of Mahatma Gandhi's "My Experiments with Truth" for a competition organized by our school. And despite my severely limited vocabulary back then, the book's simple language totally absorbed me. There were no big...

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We value things only when we lose them

A Trivandrum-based cardiologist once shared this story I am unable to forget. Two of his patients would often crib about life when they met him. Later, at different points, both got cancer. And when he met them in the hospital, both were nostalgic about their past...

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A Case for Dr. Malpani’s LinkedIn Return

About three years ago, Dr. Aniruddha Malpani’s account was permanently blocked by LinkedIn. I am not questioning LinkedIn’s judgment or decision – I respect their right to enforce their rules. But in the last two years, on other social platforms (Facebook, Twitter),...

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