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Why Zombie Work Destroys Productivity
During my consulting days, I once worked 16-18 hours for two weeks straight, estimating the losses that US banks would suffer in the 2008 financial crisis. This was a big project for the company since a lot of clients wanted to know this. Finally,...
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Beyond comfort zones
One fine day in 2012, when I quit my job, the monthly SMS stopped -- no more salary updates saying ‘Rs XYZ has been credited to your bank account.’...
Life is not a race against time
When I left my last job to do a startup, I was in a hurry -- as if it was a race against time. Foolishly assuming that VC funding was the only way,...
Prioritizing meaning over pleasure
When I decided to write the Civil Services, I uncomplainingly slogged for 7 months. It was certainly not pleasurable in the normal sense and yet I...
Experience is just an opportunity to learn
A few years ago, in my startup, we were building a tech platform that was performing horribly. The screens would take forever to load -- clearly,...
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Pleasure of life
During the time we spent in terrorism-affected North-East (as part of the IPS training), you couldn’t step out without at least three machine-gun mounted vehicles, and everyone was armed with AK-47 rifles -- such was the security threat. After...
Truth is an assumption
I have lost track of the late nights I have done in my past life but here is the funny thing -- whenever I had a constraint, e.g., I had to go out for a dinner, say at 8 pm, I would somehow find that laser-focus in the afternoon and wrap up...
Peace of mind
During my stint with McKinsey, I was going through a period of intense stress -- my family moved back to India and I was all alone in the US. I could have kept pushing myself to the breaking point. Or I could take a break. So I took a break -- for...
Why are we so busy
Why the hell are we so busy all the time? This disease called “back-to-back meetings” is spreading faster than Covid’s Delta variant. In today’s hyper-connected, competitive world, some busyness is understandable, but a lot of it is artificially...