Aswath Krishnan

I try to be a minimalist. Everything we own comes at a cost - the upfront price we pay for it (and the number of work hours that translates to), the clutter it adds to our space and mind, the complexity it adds to our life and the waste and impacts it has on the world. So I try only to buy few high-quality things that will "spark joy" and be regularly useful. That's not always fool-proof, so I also try to return, donate or trash stuff that I don't use.  So I'm not a big fan of the season of gifting. It's very wasteful. People spend hard-earned money to give you stuff you likely don't need and you have to reciprocate by giving them things they don't need. It's also hard work and stressful - you have to think/shop/wrap and also hope the receiver likes it. Then you have to find use for your stuff or stow it away somehow.  But I'm not a total grinch either. I recognize that there is joy, however short-lived, in exchanging gifts. The tradition isn...

With the pandemic and growing political nastiness, 2020 really needed Ted Lasso and Soul. I definitely did.  Ted Lasso gave us a role model of a kind, uplifting, ever-positive, ego-less person who lights up the lives of people around him (more on Ted Lasso in this post ).  Soul helps us tackle the deep universal question about the meaning of life and finding joys in every day life.  Soul deconstructs and models spirituality, similar to what Inside Out does with emotions and memories. Strangely enough, despite tackling a seemingly more complex topic, Soul seems simpler, with fewer concepts, than Inside Out. Maybe that's a lesson in itself about how life is simple, but our emotions aren't.  If you haven't watched it yet, stop here and watch it! The rest of the post is full of spoilers. 

I visited One Medical in Seattle recently for my annual physical. The clinic had tall ceilings, gentle lighting and colors, and modern decor that blended well together. It was a calming and welcoming space.  The receptionist checked me in with a warm smile and a gentle voice. In a few minutes, the doctor met me in the reception and led me to her office. She showed similar warmth and genuine care. She asked me how I have been feeling, walked me through the process, gave me heads up and asked for permission before each procedure, then explained the results along with reassuring and firm advice on how to take care of myself.  There was no medicine or treatment, but the visit had boosted my mood and wellness. I left feeling good and positive. Let me contrast this with a couple of recent experiences. Last week, I clicked on a link to Forbes or Fortune article. As soon as I scrolled down past the first paragraph, there was a pop up asking me to enter my email, then without warning, ...

Whether you are working on a project, document, presentation, or a plan, I'd recommend this 20-80 approach (not to be confused with the 80-20 or Pareto approach of picking the most valuable parts of the project to do) First get to the 20% Skeleton Start with the goals of the projects, the audience, and what will make this tick for the audience. Lay out the plan for the plan - milestones and dates to get to the finish line.  Then you identify the main structure, sections and themes.  You get to this by gathering context, research and knowledge from different sources, doing a lot of deep solo thinking on the problem and solution, brainstorming and testing ideas in 1:1 or small group discussions with smart and knowledgeable people, and working backwards from the end goals and deliverable.  Add high level notes and ideas for content for each section.  Write all of the above down clearly in a doc or deck. Make sure that it flows logically and is understandable to others....

If I had to recommend only one self-help book to anyone, it'd have to be 7 Habits.  I first read the book when I was in high school. I had a used hard cover version and I remember reading it somewhat seriously, probably to find some advice for more academic success. Some of the concepts helped, but not too much as I didn't have enough experience or hard failings to appreciate the wisdom. I have since re-read it a couple of times and each time, I have appreciated it more and been able to reflect on the habits using my successes and failings.  As one of my friends put it, 7 Habits is a book to be studied, not just read . You realize the true value of the book when you actually reflect, do the exercises after every chapter, practice the habits and revisit the book every once in a while. This may take many months or even years, but hey - you only need to practice one great self-help book rather than read a hundred and follow nothing.  Here's the summary of the book from my la...

I have been interested in and closely following the "Financially Independent, Retire Early" (FIRE) movement thanks to the influences of some friends and the passionate  r/fire community.  The FIRE approach recommends reducing spending and saving up aggressively so that you can retire in your ~40s with the investment returns from the money you saved. I fundamentally agree with the premise of getting out of the rat race and not sacrificing your precious life years to work that you don't enjoy. Freedom to not have to work in a job you don't like or in a tough situation sounds quite amazing.  But I think the FIRE framing is problematic in a few ways: The entire concept of retirement is defined around what not to do (work), rather than defining what you'd rather do with your life. Most people don't have a good answer to "What would you do if you never have to work again?" or "What kind of job would you actually enjoy doing?" Even those who do, ...

A super power for both life and career is to be able to both zoom out to think of the full and big picture, and to zoom in to define and execute on concrete details.  During annual plannings at my previous companies, teams defined and shared high level strategy and key goals/results (OKRs) for the year. At my current company, we go a step further and define specific projects, timelines and staffing gantt chart. It takes more effort and feels "non-agile" to plan that far ahead, but after the initial skepticism, I find this exercise immensely useful as it forces me and my team to think of details and come up with a practical plan.  In my personal life, I am guilty of spending way more time overthinking, contemplating 10,000 ft philosophies and frameworks on life and career. But what actually creates tangible positive change are light thinking, followed by simple, concrete plans and decisive execution. For e.g.: If you want to improve your health, spending a day researching on e...

Every time I browse Twitter or Reddit, it feels like the most popular sport of the day is mudslinging. People are mean, angry and ruthlessly judge, ridicule and deflate others. Social mobs are ready to get cancel hashtags trending for anything or anyone who doesn't meet their finicky standard of perfection that they can neither articulate or pass themselves. These attitudes have also inevitably crept from online to in-person interactions as well.  We have become less tolerant of differences, innocent mistakes or unfortunate circumstances of colleagues or friends, we shit talk about other people more, and we take more glee at other people's fall. Kindness and acceptance have become rare.  When we draw more lines between us and "others" and when we judge and hate, we box and limit our own experience of friendship, love and happiness. Hate, anger, judgement and tribalism take as much or more away from us as they do to the person they are directed at. These attitudes are ...

I'm somewhat soft at work and avoid ruffling feathers, so this tweet struck a chord. Heard this today from a coach, and resonated: stop chasing being liked by everyone, start chasing being respected by everyone. — Akshay Kothari (@akothari) November 20, 2020 Don't misunderstand me. Being liked feels good and being nice builds healthy and enjoyable relationships. But I find that when I'm mainly driven by wanting to please or not offend people, I end up making suboptimal or unprincipled decisions that make me unhappy and unsuccessful in the long run.  You can't control what others think of you. People have various reasons to like or dislike you. Many of these reasons are selfish, irrational, short-term and finicky. Putting your self-worth, purpose and actions at the whims and fancies of this black box is a recipe for unhappiness and insecurity. The reasons to like or dislike are also often at odds with other people's and even your welfare, principles and goals. So ai...

We get upset and unhappy about many things.  Someone something said or did upset you. Your parents, partner, friends, or kids are asking you to do things you don't want to, or they misunderstand you. They don't act in a way that you feel is right or helpful.  Your manager, colleague, or customer criticized your work, or they aren't cooperating. You didn't get the promotion or award you wanted or think you deserved.  You are running low on savings and income and worried that you can't support yourself and your family. You are in physical pain or your health is declining and you have unusual body aches and insomnias.  Your country or community is divided. The system seems broken, leaders seem corrupt, and people seem selfish and ignorant.   So many flavors of unhappiness, incessantly knocking at your door! But all of these worries and unhappiness are rooted in these four main causes. If you conquer or make peace with those causes, you can rise above all unhap...

In a West Wing episode, President Bartlett returns from a trip to India with chess sets. He challenges Toby and Sam to games, while simultaneously dealing with China's aggression in Taiwan. When Sam tries to guess the right solution, Bartlett responds "Look at the whole board". Chess is a good example to understand what it means to be strategic in business, politics or any other aspect of life.  To be a chess player, you need to first understand the rules, and the advantages and disadvantages of pieces and positions. This comes through learning, practice and reflection.  To be a good chess player, you have to look at the whole board. You have to think about and use all the pieces and positions at your disposal, not just some of them.  You have to think of multiple moves ahead to try and create advantages and ultimately, a win. You have to predict the opponent's responses, keeping in mind past behaviors, strengths and weaknesses.  Things change - there are surprises ...

I received a powerful advice yesterday that's likely going to change how I communicate. I was putting together a product roadmap deck for an exec review meeting. The deck was organized by initiatives and features, with slides that had text descriptions and mocks. It was pretty dry and soulless. My manager suggested framing it as a customer journey and making it more concrete.  My UX partner and I took the advice and changed the deck to frame it as a story of a user. We gave the user a name, a photo, and shared imagery and details about the user's life and goals. We added a realistic journey of the user's day-to-day and weaved in natural interactions with the product and new features. We included how the user would come across a feature, how they'd react and how they'd feel. In between the story lines, we added discussion sections to dive into the functionality and business details of the product features.  The deck turned out remarkably better - it was much more eng...

We tend to overestimate the short-term, and underestimate the longer-term and power of compounding.  One advice that has served me well when making decisions - whether on choosing my next job, making a hire, investing in a stock or idea, or pursuing an interest - is to focus more on the trajectory, rather than where the options are right now. An article that I read recently advices to pick " springboard careers " - the ones that take you to the next job or life that you want. Chamath Paliapitiya advices to evaluate stocks by as a multiple of their expected revenue in 3 years.  Investing 101: Whether it’s been my job, my life or my investing, I’ve learned that ”longterm-ism” is an important key to success. I’ve gotten the most back when I invested my time, vulnerability and money with very few short term expectations but many long term ones. — Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) September 17, 2020 Consider 2 companies - Company A is valued at $300M and Company B is valued at $1B....

Some of my friends tell me they want to start a blog. Most never do; some stop after just one or two posts. I have had similar starts and stops too. This isn't unlike what happens with other hobbies too. One common reason why people stop is because they write or do the hobby for others. They write to self-promote. They write as they expect others to read, share, comment, or give them a shout out. They write to get viral or famous. When those things don't happen and they likely don't for a long time, they stop.   I think the best way to keep yourself motivated to keep writing (or any other hobby) is to do it for the joy of doing, rather than for any outside recognition or outcome. I write to get clarity. I write to systematically explore a topic and understand my thoughts and conclusions on it. I write to remember and consolidate things I learn or insights I think of, so that I can look back on them 10 or 30 years from now. I write to be creative and play with words. I write...

All of us, however rich, old, smart we are, start with 24 hours every day. How we fill these 24 boxes is how we live our lives.  Most of us need 8 hours of sleep on average. 😴 What is life without even an hour of relaxation?. Maybe read a book, hang out with friends or watch a TV show. 😊  We need an hour to eat our 2-3 meals, shower, poop etc. 🍴 Most of us have chores (or people) to take care of - cooking, dishes, washing clothes, tidying up. Let's set aside an hour for that. 🧹  We need to take care of our body. Let's take 30-60 mins of exercise. 💪  🏁 We are halfway through the day! 🏁 Note that all these activities are kind of essential to survive, not just now but for the rest of our lives. If you have an existential crisis, you should have just half an existential crisis with this realization :). 

  Each of us are a part of many systems. We are born into some systems, like family or government, and we opt into others like jobs, partnerships, friends or neighborhoods.  Systems generally give us something (increase survival, convenience, or joy) and place obligations (like taxes or rules) on us in return. Systems can have significant consequences on our lives. For example, taxes to governments are the largest spend for many of us and we give the government permission to imprison us and take away our freedom if we don't abide by its rules.  The fundamental requirement of healthy systems is that they should benefit all members in them - i.e. belonging to the system should be better than going solo.  Individuals forced to be in a system that doesn't improve their well being is oppression.  Living in healthy systems can be better than going solo for many reasons - many things are more efficient at scale, specialization+cooperation increases productivity, and gr...

Our generation - the first one to have started a career after the internet and social media boom - has been inundated with advice to "pick a career you are passionate about" or to do your "life's work". Every new age company, at least in Silicon Valley - from food delivery to marketing automation - now uses the passion playbook to pitch their employees or candidates on why their mission to deliver burritos is so world changing and the most important part of your life.  Not surprisingly, we have collectively developed a borderline obsession with our careers. We spend a lot of time working and thinking or talking about our work, we expect to love it, we are anxious about our path, we feel the pressure to grow quickly and update our Linkedin with fancy titles, and we try to derive our status and purpose from it. This is quite a change from our parents and grandparents who had fewer options, stayed at one or two jobs their entire lives, and hardly talked about their...

Most of us worry often and a lot. We worry about things that happened in the past. We worry about mistakes we made (or think we made). We worry about what others think of us. We worry about our future. We worry about our close ones or society at large. Worrying sucks. It takes us away from the present and makes us unhappy. It makes us overthink and assume the worst. Worrying itself doesn't solve problems. It can instigate actions or change future behaviors that can. So why not just focus on the action and behaviors, and skip the worrying? Catch yourself worrying and examine why. Write down your worries and follow ups to get them out of your mind. Only care about a few important things and be carefree about everything else. Remind yourself you can't change the past or anything that you don't have control over.  Tell yourself that you are human, you aren't perfect and you make mistakes. You can only learn, grow and do better next time. Be more thoughtful about the things ...

Many years ago, I was trying to pick between a couple of jobs. This was my first job change and I was very confused and anxious. So I asked a few friends for their advice.  Most friends jumped to tell me to pick Job A or B because they have heard such and such about Company A or something bad about Company B etc. They didn't even ask me about the roles or offer package.  One friend, on the other hand, just asked me questions - what's different between the roles, the companies, the pros/cons that I see, what I value in my career and in my next job etc. Whenever I didn't have a clear answer, he asked more questions to help me clarify or shared some opinions. He succinctly and clearly summarized and played back my answers. He later checked in with me as well to see how I was leaning and why. He refused to give me an answer on A vs B, even when I asked for it, because he felt that it was my decision to make and his opinion may not fit my situation or goals.  The first flavor ...

As consumers and business managers, we often confuse price, cost and value.  Price is what customers pay for a product or service.  Cost is what it costs to make or offer.  Value, the most abstract of the three, is what customers "get out of it".  Value is a harder concept because it is subjective for every customer depending on their life, needs, moods and perceptions. An avid art collector may significantly value owning an original Picasso, whereas for it may not mean anything for a regular person. Value also changes over time as the customer and environment changes.  As consumers, deciding if a product or service is worth $X is a hard question because we need to compare a tangible price to an abstract and unquantifiable "value". So we tend to make mistakes - like passing up on a good purchase because they seem cheap to make (food at a restaurant) or because the value is hard to quantify (hiring a career coach for $100/hour), or by purchasing cheap but wo...

Dos Equis beer's Most interesting man persona Let’s start off with a quick exercise: try answering the following questions. What should be the key features of a food ordering app? List the qualities of an excellent restaurant waiter. Unless you are a gifted product guru, you found it easier to answer the second question and that answer, also, is likely the better one. To build a great product, you first need a clear picture of what your product should be; what it should look and feel like, what is the user experience, what are the features and workflows. This isn’t an easy process, these aren’t easy questions. Intrinsically, products are alien to us; humans aren’t. We can’t spec out great products as easily or correctly as we can characterize ideal people. Possibly a result of spending countless more hours interacting with people and tying those experiences to underlying human characteristics.

I have been helping my dad with his new venture, Bridge with Kista , that aims to help Bridge players improve their game with deliberate practice - by playing tournaments and then hearing my dad's expert analysis and feedback of the boards they played. We have been able to get this going remarkably quickly - from idea to 150 weekly paying users in just 3 weeks.  The joy of working on any new venture is the energy, creativity and speed of execution. It is also a critical phase where your decisions and approach can make or break the product or your enthusiasm for the venture.  Here's my framework for developing and evolving early stage products.  4 phases of early stage products Product Evolution Customer base Evolution

Product Strategy is one of my favorite aspects of Product Management. As a Product lead at Lyft, Quizlet and Opower, I have started and led teams on several new product areas. When starting on a new product area, one of my main priorities is to "Map out the space" and figure out our path (The other priority is to bond with the team and understand team dynamics). I aim to share the strategy with my team and execs within 3 months of starting as it informs the roadmap, helps me ramp up and demonstrate product leadership.  Repeat practice and feedback have helped me become better and quicker at defining strategy. I have tried to distill my approach into these discrete steps.  What is strategy? Strategy is an optimal path to achieving a goal - which can be either solving a problem or realizing an opportunity. Good strategy is usually simple and clear, ambitious but achievable, long-term and durable, leverages core strengths and mitigates risks. Good strategy also explicitly identi...

We are a few months into this pandemic now. Remote work and Zoom social hangouts are the new normals and the word on the street is that they are here to stay. Video chats are functionally great - latency and quality are pretty good (well, except for the "hey, you are on mute" problem), there are good tools to collaborate well, work gets done, and most don't miss a long commute or dressing up. What I'm missing in remote work is human connection. I'm not surprised as most of us don't have any close friends who we have met only online.  Talking pictures on a screen don't evoke the same emotion and empathy as physical presence. Remote work interactions are structured and mostly transactional - through meetings with a set goal, agenda and attendees; you share your work, check in on status or ask for help. I miss the serendipitous and casual interactions. The water cooler or pantry chats, team lunches, corridor run ins and waves, casual desk drop by, walking 1:1...

I watched  Robert Reich's Inequality for All on Netflix. He talks about how capitalism has created extreme inequality in the US, even though other economic measures are improving. (One stat that stood out to me is that the richest 400 people have more wealth than the bottom half -150 million people!)  I tried to understand his explanation better with this simplistic example of an economy with 4 stick people - Mr. Blue, Mr. Yellow, Mr. Green and Mr. Red. They all produce the same product - the Back Box-- and earn something for what they produce. But Mr.Blue is more entrepreneurial (and luckier) than the rest.  See how that unfolds over 3 decades: 

I'm enjoying writing and reading on my new Apple Pencil + iPad. The beauty of the iPad is how much it feels like a book. The Pencil and finger on surface feel much more natural than 1-step-removed interfaces mouses or keyboards. The UI is clean and fake constructs like windows, tabs or tool bars are all muted.  It transforms into a blank slate where you can create or a paper that you read.  The creator and the content shine, everything else is invisible. The ultimate technology is invisible. They are tools that empower users but get out of the way.  In the words of Steve Jobs: “And it’s the same with Toy Story. The audience isn’t gonna care about the Pixar animation system, they’re not gonna care about the Pixar production system, they’re not gonna care about anything–except what they will be able to judge for themselves, and that’s the end result, which they can appreciate without having to understand what went into it, what went into creating it. And that, I love."

Over the last few years, I have embraced  Buddhism  and  Stoicism . Both philosophies preach acceptance of the present moment, non-judgement and love, and exercising control over your response to stimuli. They are excellent defensive philosophies and regular practice has brought me peace and equanimity.  Now I am realizing that these are philosophies are essential, but not sufficient. They don't give me a forward direction - an answer to "what should I do every day". Lacking a direction and simply going with the flow makes life dull and may lead to regrets. So I have been converging on this new directional philosophy to supplement these defensive philosophies. Life is an improv - every day and every moment, you are creating and acting new scenes in your life. You get to act solo, or with other people, with different sets, and many props. While there may be no grand meaning or purpose to this show, they mean everything to you as they make up everything that you...

We can't get good unless we get going -VisualizeValue I fell into a classic writer trap. I started off publishing blog posts very frequently - short ones, 2 or 3 times a week. But after a few months of doing that, I felt my regular posts lacked depth or novelty to attract an audience and that I should focus on more quality writing than quantity. Well, that's harder to do and as a result, I stopped publishing frequently.  The path to quality is often quantity. To become a better and quicker writer, you should aim to write frequently, rather than aiming to write a handful of high quality pieces. Regular reps improve your clarity, speed, and quality. I feel it and I know it. Aiming for just great essays can become the enemy of regular repetition and daily improvement.  I think this applies to skills and habits beyond writing too. Doing something regularly and thoughtfully is a better strategy to learning and improvement, than starting (and getting stuck) with long and hard p...

I was at a meeting yesterday where we were trying to make a difficult decision. We all had our points to say and passionately expressed them, but did little to acknowledge each others' points or to identify and bridge our differences. We ended up talking past each other . Such meetings aren't very productive, and most people don't feel good or united after them.   In retrospect, we could all have been better listeners and made others felt heard.   Being a good listener means :  You can clearly articulate the other person's point and rationale. Even if they are unclear about and even if you disagree with their point, you try to bring clarity to it.  You understand how they feel about the topic, discussion, people involved, and underlying beliefs.  You can gauge their level of understanding and gaps about other points discussed. When you set this standard of listening and understanding for yourself, you'll pay a lot more attention to what others say and ...

Today's Congressional hearing with CEOs of large tech companies made me think about question of why and how companies should be regulated.  Goal of an economic system Firstly, the economic and legal system of a society is merely a tool to serve the goals of the society. So in order to judge an economic system or to recommend an improvement, we'll have to start with an understanding or definition of the goals of the society.  The goal of a society, just like the goal of individual life, is philosophical, with no absolute right or wrong answers. There is typically a starting definition of a society's collective philosophy that the founders have agreed on, but over time and generations, the situations and philosophies tend to evolve and diverge. The philosophy I currently hold is that the goal of a society is to improve the long-term welfare and freedom of all its citizens and future generations . There are other equally valid (or invalid) philosophies.  In capitalism, ...

Leading people can be joyful and fulfilling as it enables you to broaden and achieve your purpose, and because you can enable your team to experience that same joy too.  It's a magical feeling when a team works well together and makes great things happen.  It is not an easy to be an effective leader and I'm keeping an ongoing list of what it takes here: 1) Bring clarity around what the organization does and why (mission) .  You don't have to come up with these answers by yourself, but it is your responsibility to consolidate, edit, and develop a deep shared understanding.  If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. 2) Establish and embody how to work together, treat customers/partners, make decisions (values and culture).  Establish and embody a culture where everyone can do their best work towards the mission - a culture of high integrity, c...

My top highlight from Satya Nadella's book, Hit Refresh, is this advice to Microsoft's employees: "Instead of thinking of you working for Microsoft, think of how Microsoft can work for you." If you want your work and career to be meaningful long-term and if you want to be exceptionally good at it, you should start by defining what is meaningful to you  and then finding (or creating) a career or company that serves that purpose . We spend such an immense portion of our waking lives doing our jobs that it doesn't make sense any other way.  Such clarity and pursuit of purpose don't happen by default and are rare. In today's world with infinite options, it is hard to know, with confidence, what we truly want to do without broad exploration, experience, self awareness and maturity.

Some purchases happen once in a consumer's lifetime or a decade - booking a wedding venue, purchasing a house, buying an engagement ring, buying a mattress, hiring a lawyer for a law suit, finding a job, making funeral arrangements etc.  These episodic transactions are challenging for consumers because they don't have enough knowledge of the market to select the right vendor, pick the right product or service, negotiate reasonable prices, assess quality of the services, or pursue remedies if things don't right. When I was looking for decorators and catering for my wedding, I was pretty lost - is $5000 a reasonable price for flower decorations? Should I order 2 trays or 4 trays of dessert? Would it make my experience better with a wedding coordinator?

Marketplaces - like Uber, Amazon, Youtube, Thumbtack - connect demand and supply. They are brokers that make deals happen. Once established and scaled with positive unit economics, marketplaces can be lucrative and high-margin businesses. Here are some key steps for starting and scaling marketplaces:  1. Curate the parties  Define the purpose of the marketplace. Attract the parties that constitute supply and demand. For e.g., Airbnb needs to recruit and retain home renters and travelers. One main challenge is to get past the cold-start, chicken-and-egg problem. Even after you solve the that initially, you have to constantly maintain the balance between demand and supply. Users don't stick to marketplaces that only work some of the time.  2. Connect the parties

Six months into my job at Lyft, I was given the opportunity to take over another large product area. There were several projects in flight and I had partial or no context on most of them. During my first week on the team, I was invited to many large meetings and discussions. One of my reflections was that I may have been too opinionated and have spoken too much in those meetings, before fully understanding the new domain, projects, and status.  Without understanding, opinions aren't very helpful and possibly annoying. More opining, less listening and less asking slows down the pace of learning and understanding. It may also leave a bad first impression with your teammates, break trust, and hurt future collaboration.  The strength of our opinions on a topic should correspond to our depth of understanding of a topic . When you are new, consciously listen, do your homework, ask and be curious. If you have ideas or opinions, offer them softly ("would it make sense to ..." etc...

Most Likely Things go back to normal in six to twelve months if the stay-home orders only last for a couple of months. This situation is similar to a computer being shut down and turned on again - most programs will reopen and function as-is (unlike in 2009 where there was a software error and we had to delete and rewrite programs). Likely Acceleration in the "physical to digital" conversion that was already happening. Movie theaters to streaming, restaurants to food deliveries and cloud kitchens, shops to online grocery and regular shopping. Companies that enable this switch or can adapt quickly will benefit. Less discretionary spending, travel, home/vehicle purchases, and more savings due to unemployment,  recession, and fear of travel and going outside. More remote work as companies encourage work from home whenever employees are sick and during the regular flu season.  New wave of young entrepreneurs and digitization of small business that will replace ...

I find that having different perspectives of looking at the world and life helps. One interesting one is to imagine the world as a movie that's continually being shot: The movie opens with an explosion and a hot gaseous rock. Several chemicals and heat somehow lead to the first living cell. Chemicals, minerals, cells, astroids, an endless array of species shape the world over millions of years. Then, humans come into existence, live along with countless other species, and do a lot of strange and interesting things. How would this perspective guide your life? Enjoy and appreciate the diversity of scenes and actors. No scene is objectively better than the other.  Create a scene that you want to. If you have an idea for a scene, make it happen. If you like someone else's scene idea, join them.  Don't worry about how your scene will be received or how many see it. Enjoy your act. There are no awards for this movie. Don't hoard the stage. Know that you are a ...

The COVID-19 spread and shut down has simplified life. Everything now falls into two buckets:   1. The "essentials" or what keeps us alive like food and healthcare, and 2. The "non-essentials" or what makes it worth living like social gatherings, restaurants and theaters. The effect of the shut down of "non-essentials" on our moods and sanity makes it clear that while the former is more urgent and necessary, both are essential to living a good life. There's a joke that goes - "Not drinking and not smoking don't make you live longer, it just seems longer." I think there's a significant imbalance in our investment between these buckets even during non-COVID times. We put in a disproportional amount of effort into staying alive, by investing in our education, jobs, finances etc, and this often comes at the cost of our happiness. While this seems silly now as it's apparent that we are a point where staying alive is fairly easy...

COVID-19 spread is a once in a lifetime situation and there are many reasons to be worried about health, family, and finances. One thing that seems certain is that things will be back to normal in a year or two for most of us. There is a silver lining to most of the recent disruptions and changes: Office closed and WFH: bonus commute time and energy to exercise, read, pursue a hobby. Slow down at work or business: great, more time to flesh out that strategy, idea, side project, or to sharpen the tools that we never seem to have the time to do usually. Financial concerns: audit and clean up unnecessary spending and organize accounts. Social distancing: spend time alone, reflect, think of what you want to do and make some plans. Schools closed: enjoy the family time, figure out creative and fun ways to engage with kids. Panic and worry around you: practice empathy, kindness, service. There are ways to emerge stronger than the alternative of spending all our time reading the same...

The last few weeks have been quite eventful. My brother and sis-in-law were visiting us, then we were at my brother-in-law's multi-day wedding celebration, and then, we have been working from home because of the virus. I realized last week that I was feeling a bit meh, tired, and foggy brained. It didn't take much reflection to realize why - my routine had been disrupted. I hadn't been doing the many simple things that brought balance to my day, and helped maintain my mental and physical health. Since I had been working from home, I wasn't doing many things that were a part of "getting ready and getting to work" like waking up early, taking my vitamins, walking to the train station, and reading or meditating on the train. Working from home itself shifted my day's patterns - I wasn't taking breaks during the day by walking around or chatting with people, but by checking twitter, youtube, or the news, which doesn't really help me relax. And beca...

What you measure is what you get. So it's important that we pick the right metrics, especially for something as important as measuring welfare of a country. The most commonly used measurement of welfare and progress is GDP - the sum total of goods and services produced in your country. But it is flawed on several counts - not all goods produced and sold are good for people, the benefits of the production aren't evenly distributed, someone can be unhappy but still be productive, it doesn't take negative externalities and non-monetary activities into account etc. This is a hard problem and I definitely don't have an answer :).  But here's an idea. Welfare is subjective i.e. someone is doing well if they think they are. So maybe we should just ask people. I wonder if a simple survey with questions like these can give us a measure of welfare and progress. How do you feel about the quality of your life? 1-10 How is the quality of your life compared to last year?...

An approach that's helping me deal with problems positively is to consider them as a challenge and as a puzzle that needs to be solved, rather than as an annoyance. Colleague or partner not working well with you? Figure out how you can form a better relationship, why they are acting the way they are, or get help to fix the situation. Stuck on a project or career that's going nowhere? Write a retrospective on why, get thoughts from friends/mentors, figure out an actionable plan and change course. Feeling lack of motivation or energy? Reflect on why your brain and body are responding the way they are, and how you can take small steps get out of the rut. Getting frustrated and then complaining or wallowing in self-pity doesn't solve a problem. It makes you feel out of control and stops you from learning and growing. The expectation that life will always be smooth and without problems is absolutely unreasonable. So expect that that things won't go your way and be ...

I just watched "Formula 1: Drive to survive" on Netflix. I was awed at how contesters push the limits on car technology, driving, repairs, and monitoring. Watching it also made me more interested in cars Racing provides a playground for car companies to really innovate by offering a different set of requirements and constraints than their regular business. The excitement of it all has attracted a massive, engaged audience, which has helped fund the activity. It is a brilliant setup. In any field, competitive events push the limits, exhibit and celebrate top performers, inspire others, and generate excitement. Olympics and marathons push limits of fitness, training, and sports wear technology. Toastmasters competitions push on public speaking abilities. It makes me wonder if we should be extending this model and creating competitions for other professional areas to spur innovation and excitement. Say, a competition for plumbers to see who fixes a leak the quickest, a co...

This weekend I attended a Buddhism class where we discussed a couple of questions  - what would you do if you feel safer and how can you make others feel safer. The discussion revealed that nearly all of us felt unsafe and we'd live our lives more happily, generously, and ambitiously if we felt safer. Life is inherently unsafe and conditional. If you don't eat, you die. If you don't stay healthy, you die. If you don't do your job well, you'll be fired. If you aren't useful, others may not help you. If you don't have caretakers as you grow old and dependent, life is going to be tough. So, how do you create more safety for yourself and others in this world? The ultimate trick is to always accept life and the present moment as it happens, with no judgement. Every feeling of worry is because of an internal desire or expectation, and if you end that desire, you end the feeling. This requires a lot of practice - of awareness and renunciation. Find and imm...

Based on my own behaviors over the years and observing colleagues, I have noticed different levels of communication in meetings and other situations.   Level 1 -  Disruptor -  High expression, High noise Expresses many opinions with high conviction and confidence. Many opinions are wrong, impractical, or irrelevant. Derails discussions. Level 2 -  Participant -  Low expression, Low noise  Starts to understand gaps in personal knowledge and complexity of problems, so offers fewer opinions and asks more questions. Level 3 -  Driver -  High expression, High signal More competent in role and organization. Expresses many thoughtful and correct opinions, but not all are important or relevant. Drives discussions. Level 4 -  Leader -  Low expression, High signal Expresses few important opinions, but highly insightful, memorable, and inspiring. Opinions get repeated around the organization and impact decisions. Empowers and coac...

I spent the last 3 days in Vegas and played a couple of hours of poker every day. Playing poker is quite fun - it combines uncertainty, probability, psychology, reflection, and the thrill of winning (or losing) money. You get to make many decisions with incomplete information, in a compressed timeframe, and get feedback on it. On one of the days, my wife asked me what my winning goal was for the day, and I stoically responded that my goal for the day is to learn more. In situations where the outcomes are highly variable, you can only focus on your effort. I don't wish to be a professional player as I think there other things to do in the world that aren't zero-sum games and don't have the arbitrary constraints on performance or high dependency on luck. But I'll continue playing occasional games for the thrill and learning. At the end of the 3 days, I came out losing $300 but I still claim I learned a bit :). Here are some things I learned and how it can apply in re...