I joined my first job (Indian Police Service) in my early twenties and was among the younger officers. I joined my second job (McKinsey) in my mid-thirties and was among the older lot in my batch. Does it mean I was successful the first time and a failure the second...

A guest speaker at Wharton told us – ‘Every time you open your mouth, your earn or burn market share.’ In today’s world, articulation is like oxygen – you need it to survive. - Persuading your boss to give you a raise is articulation. - The debates and discussions at...

When preparing for my Civil Services interview, I did so many mock interviews that when I went for the real one, it was a cakewalk – there was no curveball the interviewers could throw that I was not prepared for. And I aced that interview. Similarly, when I prepared...

If you call my colleague Nisha on her phone, you will hear a ticking sound in the background. That is the secret of her insane productivity – I have never seen a person get more work done. Here is what she does: 1. From morning till late afternoon, she only works in...

Habit formation happens in 21 days? WRONG. If you understand the science behind it, you can build any habit. And here it is. For a drug like cocaine, some people can get hooked in just one dose – others may take longer but still, it can be less than 21 days. On the...

In 2017, one day at around midnight, my colleague Nisha called me in panic. Virtually in tears, she said that our e-learning app had stopped working. At that time, I was running my previous startup, ConceptOwl. When I asked what happened, she said, “It is all gone....

The problem with Netflix binge is not that it is ‘wrong’ – it is about how you feel AFTER the binge. If someone feels great even after a 6-hour binge, maybe, they should do more of it. I may not agree with their choice, but it is not for me to judge. However, very...

A few months after I was posted as Trivandrum Police Commissioner, one senior DIG (Deputy Inspector General of Police) pulled me aside and said, “You are too quiet. Not much is heard about you.” “Look at these other police chiefs who are always making news. You should...

During my BTech days, when my classmates aiming for a Master’s or PhD in the US were slogging hard, the aimless folks like me were taking it easy. I remember often pitying those people, and occasionally, even making fun of them. But very soon, the tables were turned....

At McKinsey, the skill I needed the most was not maths. In fact, the most advanced maths I ever used was multiple regression. Surprisingly, even more than ‘problem-solving’, the skill I used the most was 'articulation' - writing, explaining, and crafting persuasive...

When I was in school, I believed that the ‘real life’ would start in college – school was just a prep for it. But during college, I felt that real life will start once I begin working. When I took up my first job in the Indian Police Service (IPS), I got so busy that...

I discovered the effectiveness of this note-taking technique during my Civil Services exam preparation. At that time, I barely had 1.5 months for the preliminary exam. So this is what I did – I would read the questions from the question bank one by one, evaluate the...

Here is a simple life-changing habit -- sleep an hour before you normally do, and then see what happens. Not convinced? For a few days, log what you do between 7 pm and the time you go to sleep. Chances are, a lot of that evening time just goes waste on doomscrolling,...

During my IPS training, we were attached to a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) unit that was fighting militancy in Tripura. In this remote CRPF camp, we were staying in mud huts with thatched roofs. Inside the hut, there was a fan and a clean bed. Nothing else. And...

During a training program at McKinsey, we were split into groups of 4-5 people and given a task – we had to build paper planes using a kit given to us. To win, you had to build the most number of planes in the given time. Naturally, all the groups started in haste....