Aswath Krishnan

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...