Aswath Krishnan

I have two stories to share from last week. On Monday, I lost my keys and was upset about the effort and cost to replace them. Out of the blue, on Wednesday, I received an email from my local library saying that they have my keys. A kind stranger had found my keys at the train station, had noticed the library card and then taken the effort to return them to the library. The librarians took the time to look me up, notify me and hold on to the keys, despite the liability. I was elated and very thankful to these kind strangers. During the same week, I remarked to some colleagues about how our building's receptionist always welcomes me with a cheerful greeting every morning and then opens the elevator door for me. All my coworkers chimed in with deep appreciation of how she brightens their days too. One person said he brought in his baby during his paternity leave just to say hi to her. In Silicon Valley, impact and success is often defined and celebrated by its scale - "ho...

Yesterday, I was watching the Oscar winning movie, Green Book, which has some really wonderful music. I wondered about some things that we all take for granted - music, sounds and hearing. What is sound? How is it created? How do we hear it? Do we all hear the same thing? Sounds are vibrations that travel through a medium. Our ears have tiny hairs that convert these vibrations to electrical signals that the brain interprets as whatever we hear. How do these hairs work? What do the electrical signals looks like? How does the brain interpret the signal? Do some people hear music better? Why do we get so much pleasure from some sounds and irritated by others? There are so many questions, so many interesting details for every single thing that exists or happens around us. What motivates people? How does a television work? How did capitalism come about? How do financial markets work? How does your brain store memories? How do cells in your body age? What is the secret to great relati...

A few years ago, I became curious about figuring out how to learn effectively. I read a bunch on the topic, built an app and talked to my friends and coworkers about it. One day, a coworker casually mentioned that a mutual friend works at an education startup that was hiring. I now work for that company! I too have referred friends to jobs, shared articles, invited them to events and made introductions based on what they seemed genuinely interested in. I have worked for good managers who consciously look out for opportunities that fit their team's stated and demonstrated interests. I know people who are so into sports or their hobbies that others initiate insightful conversations and share tips or leads with them. There is a lot of upside to identifying your interests, acting on them passionately and expressing it to the world (you don't even have to as it'll be noticeable). Genuine passion shows and magically attracts opportunities. Put it out in the universe and th...

Every time I exercise, I feel like an idiot for not doing it more often! The boost in energy, happiness, clarity, stress relief lasts for an entire day. Daily exercise is a no-brainer and clearly improves our quality of life and yet, most of us find it hard to do. I’m still working on this habit, but a few tricks have helped me.  Do something every day, even if it's really small. If you don’t feel like going to the gym, take a brisk walk, go up and down your stairs for 15 mins, do the 7-minute workout, etc. Just move and break a sweat. Integrate exercise into your lifestyle. Bike or walk to work, take the stairs, use a stand-up desk, walk around during your thinking time, do chores at work.  Do something that's fun for you. Enjoyable and consistent activity is better than the most perfect or effective routine that you won't do.  Make it social. Work out with a friend, sign up for a class, play sports.  Sign up for a half marathon (or some other fitness event) th...

Stress is caused by worrying about a problem that isn't within our control - an impossible project, a sick family member, a hostile coworker, inability to pay the bills, politics, uncertainty about the future etc. Often times, these worries are subconscious - your monkey brain initiates and feeds these thoughts incessantly. 1. Catch yourself when you are getting anxious.  Take a pause - a few deep breaths - and think about what you are worried about. Maybe write it down. Does the worry make sense? Are you being too pessimistic or blowing it out of proportion? Why is this important to you? Most worries are unrelated to your immediate safety and have something to do with status, identity or questionable future aspirations. These are abstract, made-up concepts that don't really matter, especially if they are affecting your happiness now, which is way more real . 2. Remind yourself that there is absolutely no upside to worrying . It impacts your happiness and your ability to...

We spend a bulk of our life and energy in our jobs and careers, so it's really important to be intentional about choosing the right job career.  Here are some steps that can help: 

1. First rule of fishing is to know where to fish - Is the target market opportunity reasonably large, growing and underserved? - What matters to the business? What is the strategy to get there? - What are the biggest opportunities and most pressing problems to be working on? 2. A well-understood problem (and user) is half the solution - Who is the user(s)? What is the job to be done? Why does this matter to the user/persona and how much? Is it an aspirin or a vitamin? - What's their hiring criteria and which ones are important? Where and does this job fit into their lives? How do they solve the problem today? - Do plenty of user research - ask them to describe their problems, ask questions, show mocks, watch them using the prototypes/products

I recently completed a manager training with Lifelabs and learnt a few useful tricks for coaching and giving feedback Coaching someone through a problem 1) S uccess : Ask what success would look like. 2) O bstacle : Ask them to list out the obstacles that are blocking them. 3) O ptions:  Ask them for possible options to get around the obstacles. 4) N ext actions:  Ask them for a concrete next step they can take. Ask them when and how you can follow up with them. It's better if you simply play the role of a guide, listener and reflector to enable the person to think through these on their own. Most people, with some structure, clarity and help, can come up with a good solution for problems at their competency level. For situations that are critical or above the person's current competency level or where you know the right answer, you can step in more. Giving feedback 

Jeff Bezos famously said that it's better to invest more into what we expect to not change, rather than what we expect to change.   "I very frequently get the question: "What's going to change in the next 10 years?" And that is a very interesting question; it's a very common one. I almost never get the question: "What's not going to change in the next 10 years?" And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two -- because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time. ... [I]n our retail business, we know that customers want low prices, and I know that's going to be true 10 years from now. They want fast delivery; they want vast selection. And so the effort we put into those things, spinning those things up, we know the energy we put into it today will still be paying off dividends for our customers 10 years from now. When you have something that you know is true, even...

During the late 80s and early 90s, there was an alarming increase in New York City's crime rate. The head of police and mayor at that time were able to make dramatic improvements using new policing policies based on the " broken window " theory: "Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. A successful strategy for preventing vandalism is to address the problems when they are small. Repair the broken windows within a short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage" It strikes me that the broken window theory can apply to our personal selves as well. The broken windows in some parts of our lives, like not keeping our home tidy, dressing shoddily, not foll...