Just out of college

Remote work — more than that meets the eye

“Hello, am I audible? Is my screen visible?”

The Virus (and its aftermath)

It’s evening. A train’s long whistle slowly makes itself heard. The sound grows louder with each second…

How to manage in the internet era?

“Move fast and break things”

Gatekeepers

I’ve a new peeve these days. As I enter the office, there are a couple of security guards to check people’s id. While I understand the…

Trust — Part 1

“Beware of strangers.”

Almost every kid hears that from his/her parents. More so, the middle-class kids…

De-layering humans

“We are similar people.”

“I just could not connect with them.”

We hear these often, and equally often, I wonder on what basis these statements are made. So I made an attempt to delayer people. In this attempt, a surprising finding has been that…

Balance

Nature is about balance.

Mountains and Seas.

Fire and ice.

Forests and deserts.

Disciplines are about balance.

Art and science.

Spiti Safari

In the midst of a rocky terrain, in an arduous 12-hour ride on a unpaved road, I’d asked Dad, “Why do you travel? Why take all this…

Tryst with phones

The weather had just cooled off after a drizzle. It was pleasant to be out, and quite some souls were sitting in the park…

Random walks

Bangalore is one conflicted place. On one hand, you have the urban mess — the poor road and public transport infrastructure leading to…

Zeitgeist, in offices

A few months ago, I happened to visit a 90-year old Indian brand, based out of Bombay. Their office, expectedly, was in…

Mirage

When I first learnt this word in school, I was impressed. Mirage, was first explained as a form of illusion, something that you could see but…

#50: Turbulence

The sky is dark, with a few stealthily moving greys in between. The clouds are grey, not their usual white, perhaps an omen of…

Business is war?

Gordon Gekko, famously quoted Sun Tzu in Wall Street –

Resilience and Plasticity

Resilience. We hear that word a lot — has been a colloquial term now, especially against the modern struggles of life. It’s also glorified a lot — many use it as the default way of leaving life.

Flow States

Imagine you had to run a 1-mile track. Not leisurely, but competitively. How would you run? Start with a bolt to get a headstart, then…

Seeking credibility — Part 2

As pondered in the earlier post, individual credibility might have much more validity than institutional ones. The tougher part though is creating it.

Here’s why it gets tougher. For starters, there are 7 billion people in this world! (you might argue…

Seeking credibility — Part 1

What drives people in a society? What are the carrots that make us run on the hamster? Money? Love? Fame? Oprah Winfrey mentioned that the one question all her guests asked after being interviewed was ‘Was that okay?’ A fundamental driver for people is indeed validation…

Hunger or contentment?

Life’s full of choices, we know. There are some that are trivial and have…

A bit out of college

A group of people from college gather over on a mundane weeknight. There are some obviously known faces, smiles of whom…

#42: Romanticized concepts in modern times

Humans are the only species to create and believe in fiction, Harari said. That’s…

Selfishness/altruism in individuals & organizations

Why do some organizations survive or thrive more than others? Why do some organizations fail massively even after their size? If you look at these questions, you’d find the same relevant for species as a whole! Why did dinosaurs get…