Rajan’s Linkedin posts

Don’t Freeze, Keep Moving

Long ago, a friend who took the NDA/military career route was telling me about the bayonet charge routine in the army. In a bayonet charge, you run towards and attack an enemy bunker typically defended by a machine gun firing 10 bullets per second. What are the odds...

Why Consultants Always Have ‘Three Things’

Whenever consultants want to say something, they always have 'three things.' And we mock them for that 🙂 But if you want to communicate well, there is some real science here -- the science of working memory. It turns out that our working memory can hold about 7...

Simple Diet, Strong Health

A former McKinsey colleague of mine from Australia once said that his father would claim insulin from the Australian Health System and give it to their dog. But how did the dog become diabetic? Aren't animals supposed to be naturally healthy? Actually, we are all...

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Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.

Job-Hopping vs. Staying Long-Term

At an investment fund I worked with, one of my bosses (Victor Menezes) did something remarkable — after graduating from MIT’s MBA program, he never changed jobs. He worked at the same firm (Citi) all his life, becoming the global CEO of Citibank, and retiring as a...

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Choose a job that aligns with your life

When I decided to leave consulting and join private equity, my biggest consideration was not money — instead, I wanted my life back. I wanted to rediscover my health and peace of mind. I wanted to see the sunset and sunrise, at least on some days. I wanted to feel...

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The Importance of Non-Urgent Stuff

Stop hoarding PDFs, podcasts, videos, e-books, and online courses. We already have enough. The problem is something else. Can you guess what? Our reflex answer -- 'I don't have time.' Not true. Here is what is going on. When we have to pick a task, we only pick the...

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Step-by-step guide to experience flow

Flow, the 'secret to happiness,' is closer than you think 🙂 Here is a step-by-step guide for experiencing flow (almost) every day. Quick recap: What is flow? It is such a deep immersion in a task that you lose track of everything, including the passage of time. Like...

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The Value of Knowledge Across Domains

I was once talking to a UX designer in Bangalore, who was supposed to be quite good at her craft. And she explained to me some nuances of UX design quite well. But when our discussion shifted to other social issues, she seemed quite lost. At one point, she decried why...

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The Power of Analytical Thinking

As a consultant with McKinsey, one of my projects was to advise a Fortune 500 healthcare company on whether to launch a new service line. And here was the funny part -- the company had already done the study they hired us for! They had put two people on the project,...

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How to break phone addictions

Your smartphone is useful but dangerously addictive. And every day, we are sucked into it for hours on end not because we love it, but because we think we have no choice. We often assume that we only have two options: Give up our phones, OR Use the phone without any...

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Humans value what they lose

A few years ago, I was visiting the Chittorgarh fort, which is extremely imposing, to say the least. But if you look at the quarters in which the king used to stay, you realize that a modern 3 BHK has a better finish and amenities. This is not to imply that the kings...

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Don’t quit. Just restart

I suspect this post will save you from unnecessary failure. When you aim to build a good habit or achieve a long-term goal, what is the first advice you get? Consistency, consistency, consistency... Yes, that is true. But here is the thing nobody tells you -- you need...

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The Corruption of Startups

Apparently, standing on the World Startup Convention stage in Noida, are not the investors from Sequoia or Accel, but cops from the Uttar Pradesh Police. This convention was billed as a mega startup event, with a not-so-implicit promise that startups will have a great...

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Weird Times Ahead: The AI Takeover

It is soon going to get very weird. And we are not realizing it. A small gang of people, probably based in Silicon Valley, will increasingly have so much concentrated wealth and influence that in comparison, today's world may look like a socialist utopia. To be clear,...

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Small, intermediate wins can keep you going

Over the last year, after my parents moved in with us, I have been hounding my mother to go for a daily walk. She has put on a fair bit of weight, possibly due to her slowing metabolism. But despite my pestering, my mother was very reluctant. Nevertheless, she started...

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We learn to value things when we lose them

When I was a kid, we were living in a remote military station in Assam, surrounded by hills and jungle-like vegetation. In those days, power cuts there were a daily thing. But one day, the transmission system got knocked off so badly that for more than 3-4 days, we...

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The Power of Vipassana

2,500 years ago, without fMRI machines, research labs, or any understanding of neuroscience, one man single-handedly figured out how to end all human suffering. The Buddha created the world's best mental health program. We now call it Vipaassana. And today, with all...

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Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.