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Substance Over Optics
During my consulting days, while working for a healthcare client, we made a beautiful PowerPoint deck -- what else would a consultant do? 😊 But the client asked us to get the presentation jazzed up by their favorite visual graphics company....
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The Power of Simple Stories
In the summer of 2006, I was doing my summer internship with McKinsey in New York. My manager was an MD from a top medical school. One day, he and I...
Choose things that are right for you
You don't have to hustle -- if you don't want to. There is no law of nature that says -- "Everyone in the world has to hustle all the time." No...
Treat People Fairly
In my B-school course on 'Negotiations', we were split into groups of two and given a $10 bill each. The person who got the $10, had to split it...
Progress Over Perfection
The writer who produces the perfect first draft, produces nothing. The entrepreneur who 'makes sure' that his first startup is a unicorn, never...
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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...
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...
Use things without giving them power over you
I went to IIT for the brand and the academics, but what I loved the most about the place was its simplicity. On campus, there was no show-off, no flashiness. Students attached zero (in fact, negative) value to how you dressed or how you looked....
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...