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Bird by Bird
When you are overwhelmed, what do you do? Read this quote from Anne Lamott's book 'Bird by Bird.' "Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to...
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Excellence through hard work and intelligent practice
In IIT hostels, the worst insult was to call someone a ‘maggu’, i.e., a studious, hard-working plodder. But how was that an insult when we all...
The value of deep work and focused effort
A few years ago, a friend volunteered to help me for a few days with my startup. He showed up at my office and after a long discussion, offered to...
The risks of learned helplessness: pessimism and depression
During my middle school in a small town in Assam, we had a very strict English teacher (Goswami Sir). Kids who couldn't answer his grammar questions...
Defending your time and attention
When my wife was the District Collector, Trivandrum, she was heading 200 odd committees. If the average committee met twice a year, you end up with...
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Improving systems from the inside out
During my stint with the Indian Police Service, a top police official once said this to me with immense pride: 'I only travel to countries where I am not frisked at the airport. I go to Dubai because I am not frisked, but I won't go to the US or...
The Power of Social Contagion
A few years ago, I was attending a dreadfully boring conference, where we were listlessly sitting around a table. During a break, out of sheer boredom, I picked up a bottle of water to drink. As soon as I did that, 2-3 other people on the table...
Fix your day
Two years ago, one evening, a team member called me and said, “Today, we are going to work the whole night.” He was leading a team of 5-6 people and intended to work overnight to fix a problem. Here was the problem: Our startup had created...
Aim before you shoot
Once a renowned fund manager told me that for two years, he made no investments at all. The US markets were overpriced and good deals were hard to come by. For those two years, every day, he would dress up in the morning and go to office. He would...