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Leadership Means Deciding Without Complete Data
A colleague of mine at McKinsey used to once work at Capital One, an extremely data-driven company. It was understandable that a fintech company would love data but even their senior management took decisions off spreadsheets. And sometimes, it led...
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Use things without giving them power over you
I went to IIT for the brand and the academics, but what I loved the most about the place was its simplicity. On campus, there was no show-off, no...
Rational skepticism
No matter how intelligent you are, one thing can screw up your rationality -- ideology. Because ideology presupposes the right answers. And these...
Life does not offer risk-free upside
When the UPSC Civil Services results came out last year, somebody apparently commented that if Sundar Pichai had cleared the exam, he would today be...
Focus is the most non-linear productivity tool
"I have too little time" -- almost always, this is a lie. I have found that when I work for 5-6 hrs with intense focus, I have no more cognitive...
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Dig deep and take your own decisions
During my MBA, like in many other B-schools, you couldn't just register for any course you wanted at Wharton -- you had to win them in an auction. And naturally, everybody wanted the most sought-after courses from star professors, which cost nearly...
Resume can’t substitute for competence
In my consulting days, one of my managers had built a unique personal brand -- he loved all-nighters and had an aversion to sleep. He was known as an 'intense' person but I soon found that his intensity boiled down to only one thing -- staying late...
Why AI alone won’t build your career
Unpopular opinion: Knowing how to use AI, by itself, will NOT build you a great career. Here is why. Technology makes you more efficient -- no question about it. But when EVERYONE is using the same technology, everybody's efficiency goes up...
The essence of simple writing
When I was in 6th grade, I read an abridged version of Mahatma Gandhi's "My Experiments with Truth" for a competition organized by our school. And despite my severely limited vocabulary back then, the book's simple language totally absorbed me....