You can’t read the label from inside the bottle.

It is easy to give advice to someone else. But it is extremely difficult to see the situation clearly when it comes to ourselves. This is because we are ‘inside the bottle’. We need to step out and see the bottle in full. Try playing ‘consultant’ to yourself. You will realise you had the “what […]

Beyond Comprehension

AI and Us (a 3-part story about the complicated emerging relationship between humanity and AGI). Part 1: Beyond comprehension. Some of you may know that I used to play chess competitively in my childhood. Represented my state(s) in the Nationals, trained with the masters of the age, my contemporaries went on to become India’s first […]

A full-bodied yes

✅ A ‘full-bodied yes’. The next time you are faced with a possibly life-altering choice (choice of life partner, career, location etc), where you feel that it is a critical fork in the road or as Bezos calls it a ‘one-way door’, always look for a full-bodied yes. What’s a ‘full-bodied yes’? It is not […]

Resolving conflicts, internally

There is only one type of conflict in this world: All conflict is interpersonal (please read ‘The Courage To Be Disliked’ to understand this more). Imagine a world where you don’t interact with anyone else. Say you live alone on an island. Would there be any conflict? All conflicts at work, or home, or anywhere, […]

Power = Speed of thought to Action

Procrastination is the unhappy place where brilliance goes to die. The world is full of great ideas that never saw the light of day. So how can we stop this self-sabotage and make things happen? It is a long process but I want to give you a new way of looking at ‘just doing it’ […]

The power of getting started

I spent 5 years trying to get my podcast off the ground. Spent years agonising over the brand name, domain name, traffic sources, launch strategy and whatnot. One day, I decided, screw this quest for the ultimate perfection, let me just get started and get one episode off the ground. Called a few friends, got […]

Every action is a vote

Every action you take is a vote for the kind of person you want to be. Who are you voting for today? A relentless, ambitious, go-getter, or a self-defeatist procrastinator? You get to choose. Multiple times every day.

Momentum > Velocity > Speed

👉 Momentum > Velocity > Speed. A few months back, I had written about how Velocity is much more important than Speed. Velocity is speed + direction. Just running at top speed without direction is at best a waste of time; at worst it can be reversing your progress. Velocity is a lot more important. […]

Think on paper

👉 The #1 productivity hack? Thinking on paper. Want to unlock ideas in the morning? Keep all devices away. Write and draw. For anything that needs 2D or 3D thinking, paper is a great way to start. Diagrams, mindmaps, charts, doodles etc. Use multiple colours for more effect. Journaling, taking notes, even collecting highlights from […]

The CEO of you

Imagine you were hired to be the CEO of You Inc. How would you plan to grow your company? You would create goals, assign resources, give regular feedback, try to inspire great performance by empowering and enabling. You would use words of encouragement, be patient, focus on inputs as much as you would focus on […]

Happy Diwali!

Asatoma satgamaya,Tamasaoma Jyotirgamaya,Mrutyorma Amritamgayama,Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. From Asat (untruth), to Sat (truth),From Tamas (inaction, ignorance, darkness), to Jyoti (light, enlightenment),From Mrutyu (death, end, destruction) to Amritam (immortality, regeneration).Om, Peace, Peace, Peace. —————- May the festival of light dispel all the darkness in your lives and bring truth, beauty, happiness, and most importantly, peace to […]

Do it today

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” – Abraham Lincoln. Procrastination is an affliction that debilitates even the best of us. But Future You is not going to be very happy with Present You if you keep delegating your tasks to him / her. Procrastination is a symptom of lack of […]

The 40% rule

Ex US Navy Seal David Goggins (also known as the ‘Toughest man alive’) has a penchant for pushing himself beyond human limits every single day. His most famous story is about how he ran his first ultramarathon (100 miles) with broken bones in his foot and a kidney failure. You can read more about his […]

From Worrier to Warrior

Go from being a worrier to being a Warrior. A worrier is paralysed by fear of the unknown. A Warrior knows that the unknown is exciting, and proactively seeks it. A worrier thinks too much about the future, and is paralysed by inaction and indecision. A Warrior in the battlefield thinks only about the here […]

This too shall pass

The ‘pursuit’ of happiness is thus named because you keep pursuing it, never attaining it. Happiness (or unhappiness) is transient, it is an emotion caused by an external stimulus. Something makes you happy means some other thing makes you unhappy. Seek stillness of mind, not happiness. Seek calmness as your default state. Seek to be […]

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

Sachin’s straight drive, AR Rahman’s composition, Feynman’s teaching, Tommy Emmanuel’s strumming, Usain Bolt’s sprinting. There’s something in their performance that always seems so simple, so effortless, so naturally poetic. There’s a simplicity that lies on the other side of complexity. That comes after you has struggled and summitted a craft. The zen that you get […]

Professionals ship. Amateurs make excuses.

The tools don’t matter. Start creating. I spent almost a decade waiting to get everything perfect before I started putting stuff out. I had thought of creating videos, but I never seemed to have the right camera, the right lenses, the right lights. When I was producing music, I never seemed to have the right […]

Milk packet marketing

High reach, low cost, great ROI way of spreading the word about the International Chess Olympiad in Chennai. I am so glad the sport is getting the love and attention it deserves. 26 of the 74 Grandmasters in India come from TN so I am not surprised with the support.

10x your team’s output

⚡️ Three simple tips to 10x your team’s output: Leverage. Process. Simplification. Let me explain: 👉 10x via leverage: Andy Grove, in his seminal book ‘High Output Management’ says: Managerial output = L1 × A1 + L2 × A2 +… where A = Activity and L = Leverage. So a manager should spend most of […]

12 questions

[This is a follow up to my previous post about conscious consumption.] How to consume consciously and build a network / web of content of your own that will keep getting richer over time? Instead of letting yourself get awash with the sea of daily content, adopt the framework of 12 questions. Richard Feynman (renowned […]

Don’t watch the news

Ours is an era of information overload. A time when there is such a glut of information from all the infinity pools of our news feeds, that will we always run out of time before we run out of ‘new’. We have gone from a time when information was scarce and knowledge was power, to […]

Normalise Kindness

👉 Normalise kindness to others. You don’t need to go to war each time you go to work. You don’t need to crush competition, beat your peers, exterminate everyone around you to achieve success. The world has enough Alexanders and Genghis Khans. It needs more Nelson Mandelas. Warlords were winners in a world of scarcity. […]

The Law of Forced Efficiency

“There’s never enough time to do everything, but there’s always enough time to do the most important thing.” What’s your most important thing for today? What’s the one thing that you will absolutely, positively accomplish today that will significantly move your work and life forward?

‘World-class’ in one thing > ‘Good’ in many things

Real art, success and value creation happens at the periphery of human achievement. You can be a jack of all trades (width of knowledge and an ability to connect different disciplines is much appreciated in today’s chaotic world), but you have to be a master of at least one. Disproportionate rewards await these ‘T-shaped’ professionals. […]

The Centipede’s Dilemma

“The Centipede’s Dilemma” A centipede was happy – quite! Until a toad in fun Said, “Pray, which leg moves after which?” This raised her doubts to such a pitch, She fell exhausted in the ditch Not knowing how to run. —- Flow is found post rational thinking. “Darr ke aage jeet hai” they say. “Doubt […]

How to build high-performance teams?

Learn from David Beckham and Real Madrid. 👉 A reporter once asked David Beckham if there were any language problems in Real Madrid, since the players were from about eight different countries. He said it was never an issue, because everyone was so good, they never had to talk. They all just did the right […]

Get curious

🔥 Don’t get furious. Get curious. Curiosity fuels imagination. Imagination fuels solutions. Children are always curious, imaginative and solution oriented. For them, the world is a puzzle. They encounter new pieces of the puzzle (or even entirely new puzzles) every day. Someone’s behaviour making you steam from your ears? Stop to think about the ‘why’ […]

The Epiphany toilet. Let your mind wander.

Any idea why most of your original ideas come when you are showering, or on the pot, or going on a long walk alone or going on a long drive? When your body is doing some task on autopilot, it is the perfect time for the brain to drift into its imaginative state. To make […]

The surprising theory behind motivation

Or how to develop intrinsically motivated, high-performing teams? In 1970, a British sociologist warned that paying individuals for blood donations would not only be immoral, but actually reduce the overall blood supply in the country. The theory was ridiculed at the time, so two Swedish economists decided to test the idea twenty-five years later. It […]

The most important role of a manager

What is the most important role of a manager? The most important role of a manager is that of a ‘coach’. This quote about the legendary Bill Campbell from ‘Trillion Dollar Coach’ captures is quite well:“Great coaches lie awake at night thinking about how to make you better. They relish creating an environment where you […]

Make your work ‘un-icky’

👉 The only way to make progress when you don’t know how: make your work ‘un-icky’. Happy Monday! When you are starting the week and the day, if you are feeling overwhelmed, just remember the # 1 rule of beating procrastination: Define the undefined (or as Tim Urban calls it, ‘Make it un-icky’. Icky is vague, […]

You are a miracle

You are a miracle. Start behaving like one. 13.8 billion years of atoms coming together -> galaxies forming -> supernovae exploding -> planets -> 4 billions years of life -> 200K years of homosapiens -> your direct ancestors -> you. An unbroken chain of infinitely impossible events right from the Big bang to your birth […]

If you don’t have a map, use a compass

Early voyagers set off the explore the seas without a map. All they had was a compass and the North Star to guide them on their arduous and dangerous journeys, but more often than not, this was enough to keep them on track and help them discover many new lands (and riches) along the way. […]

Don’t negotiate with yourself

Don’t negotiate with yourself. You know that voice in your head that says, “It’s ok, you don’t need to work out today. You will absolutely do it tomorrow” or “I know you had decided on 10 minutes of YouTube, but let’s just watch one more video.” That’s the Instant Gratification Monkey or IGM for short […]

On focusing on the present and not dwelling in the past

“Finish every day and be done with it. For manners and for wise living it is a vice to remember. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. To-morrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely, and with […]

Trust the soup

Trust the soup. What to do when you are in a creative endeavour and are doubting yourself? When you hit a wall and you think, “I can’t do this”, or “This will never work”, or “this idea is just not good enough”. Trust the soup. From Steven Pressfield’s ‘Do the work’: 👉 When we say […]

Single tabbing

Single-tabbing. The best way to get things done today. As I have written before, multi-tasking is multi-failing. So how to focus in a world of a hundred open Chrome tabs? 1) First step is to block time for your most important task of the day.2) Once you are in that time block, close all other […]

Beginner’s mindset

Be a beginner. Be unafraid. A beginner has everything to learn and nothing to lose. “I don’t know anything in this topic anyways, and the only way is up!”, they think. An expert has nothing to learn and everything to lose. A beginner has no reputation, only curiosity. A beginner says, “Hey, I don’t know […]

Conscious creation and conscious consumption

At this very moment, you are consuming instead of creating. You are scrolling through a feed. Is it a (well earned) break for entertainment / information, or are you procrastinating, running away from something that is tough / uncertain / unclear? Procrastination is a sign of pain avoidance. Pain that arises from the resistance to […]

A celebration of human ambition

In 1994, the Hubble space telescope was pointed at a small, tiny square part of the dark sky, seemingly no more interesting than any other dark patch. The telescope collected light, photon after photon, and delivered the below image. What we thought was an empty, inconsequential speck of the night sky, was teeming with millions […]

Influencing without authority

Q: How can one influence without authority? 👉 A: 1) Give full trust. That builds deep relationships faster than anything else.2) Go with data. Have a watertight POV on what you need.3) Help the other parties see how your POV will benefit them.4) Get to a common ground and then progress together.

Where to build your career?

Q: How do you know the one area you want to grow & build your career in? What if there are multiple interests/skills an individual has? 👉 A: It is a process of experimentation / elimination. Passion follows flow and not the other way around. And flow comes from being good at something, overcoming obstacles that […]

Career peaking

Q. How do you know when your career has peaked? Is there even such a thing? If you do know, how do you battle this feeling of being stuck/not growing? 👉 A: No, there isn’t such a thing. Humans are capable of infinite ingenuity and improvement, so you can keep getting better at your craft, […]

Your to-do list is your enemy

Your to-do list is your enemy; Your calendar is your best friend. The to-do list is the demand for your time. Anything and everything that is seeking your attention goes on that list. But who is checking this demand vs the supply of your time? If your to-do list has 20 items, who is helping […]

No new resolutions, but a new theme

1) This new year, I didn’t add any new resolutions. No great plans to be achieved in this calendar year, no big goals to be chased. For me, this year is the year where I will make a few important habits stick (regular exercise, mindfulness in everyday activities, writing / teaching / helping on a […]

The ‘4 minute mile’

For the longest time, running a mile under 4 minutes was considered to be impossible. Anyone who jogs / runs knows that sustaining any speed above 10km/hr for a long period of time is a physically & mentally demanding task. And running a mile (i.e 1.6km) in 4 minutes translates to an incredible speed of […]

Regret and anxiety

Regret is worrying about the past and anxiety is worrying about the future. Both are equally useless. “We suffer more in our imagination than in reality.” – Seneca. Try to minimise both of these emotions and focus on the present.

Be bored. Everyday.

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal. Have you had a situation where you worked on a problem for a long time to no avail, and then took a walk or slept on it and the solution magically emerged? That’s the power of your […]

Encouragement

To enable by giving courage. When someone in your team is struggling to find an answer, don’t give them the answer. Spoon-feeding readymade solutions will not help them develop their problem solving muscle; it will only make them dependent on you and eventually it will create a team of yes-men / executors (as opposed to […]

The first two hours

👉 In the first two hours of the work day, work on the most important priority that will move your most important goal forward. Every ping, every notification, every email is someone else asking you to work on their priority. All of that can wait during those first few hours. Once you get a solid […]