My Musings

The human capacity for stress is boundless. Give us a problem, and we'll worry. Take the problem away, and we'll find something else. Stress is such a stressful topic amongst the chatterati. To assess the quality of challenges in a given society, look at what the local newspaper in the city is fretting over.  I visited a country last month where food allergens and bullying at school were among the most stressful issues for the community. The local newspaper reported food mislabeling as one of the gravest crises of the century. The locals were stricken with grief when they heard about employees back in my country working nine hours a day! They claimed to have empathy burnout by merely hearing the story! A Child getting bullied at school can cause deep distress in this community. As a child, I remember getting thrashed at the playground. I come back home with a deep gash in my hand. My grandmother glanced at it and suddenly remembered that she urgently needed a half-liter of milk...

The summer of 1996 holds a significant place in my memory. I vividly recall the experience of watching the epic movie DDLJ on a Video Cassette in the comfort of my home. Just around the climax, the sound system started screeching (VHS tapes of terrible 90s). I was tearing up and pining for Simran to join her beloved Raj, but I couldn't hear what Simran's wretched father was saying! It spoiled my entire movie experience and scarred my memory in ways one can't imagine. Twenty years later, the screech still rings in my ears, giving me jitters.   It was weeks later that I learned about the iconic dialogue, much to my dismay- Jaa Simran jaa ! While I enjoyed the 3-hour-long movie to bits, smiling, weeping, and praying for Simran, the last 3 minutes wrecked my memory of the iconic film.     Tyranny of the Remembering Self The moment stuck with me for many years. Why did three hours of sheer joy not matter? Why did those three minutes of agony shape my experience? It was on...

This is a momentous week to recall the pivotal year of 1991 in India's history. 1991 was a remarkable period in the country's history. India was at a crossroads, which was a fancy way of saying we were bankrupt. The cabinet secretary handed a note to the newly sworn-in PM. He looked at it bewildered and asked, " Is the economic situation that bad?"  The non challant response — "No Sir... It's worse!" Thus began unraveling the story of the reforms. The options for the intellectual and the diligent finance minister were straightforward: a simple three-point plan: devaluing the rupee, liberalizing trade, and disrobing the license raj.    Unlike a corporate leader who could simply draft a policy, issue a memo, and expect compliance, the economic reforms were not corporate boardroom drama. The Oxford-educated finance minister was not making chess moves but making strategic maneuvers. But there was a democracy at pla...

A troubling trend of glamorizing ' early quits' is gaining momentum. A Google search will throw up a plethora of blogs on how empowering it is to quit your day job. Those blogs will subtly remind you that the author is a so-and-so from IIT or NIT. Just as your eyebrows perk up, will follow the next sentence: worked in Mckinsey, Goldman, or other such hallowed enterprise. Now you are mighty impressed. Hey, hold on! Did you miss that the person was a Managing director or a company co-founder? He gave it all up to lead a mundane life. Now, a small tear escapes your eyes as if you were likening them to Buddha or Gandhi. The rest of the fleeting essay concerns renunciation. One can't help but make a virtue out of giving up the Outlook mailbox. Of course, who can slip the virtue signal about letting go of a payslip? Here is where Gandhi and Ambedkar appear. Gandhi was an upper-caste Baniya whose family consisted of uber-rich merchants. His father was a prime minister of Porbandar...

  The new year is upon us. Most board rooms are locked up, planning for the future. The obvious question everyone asks is, what's changing? What is going to be the new trend? Talking about change captures our imagination. Speculation is exciting and has the facade of intelligence. However, these may be futile questions to ask. The important events and trends that will shape the future are but unpredictable. Instead, we could try a different question. What will remain the same for the coming decade? What will perhaps never change?  You will always find people seeking the secret to a happy life. Companies seek certainty when none exists. We will always see overconfidence and shortsightedness that remind us of people's behavior today. Some things never change.  Another timeless lesson is that stability leads to instability. For the past five decades, the world has not encountered a pandemic. However, through the early nineteenth century, pandemics occurred every decade. Our ...

 J oe Biden is playing with the rotating globe in his desk at the oval office. His critics are hysterically shrieking on the TV screen,"   by Jove, The US spent two trillion-dollar over two decades on the war in Afghanistan. That's 300 million dollars per day and legacies of four presidents! America can't throw away all that. " Biden bides his time and proffers to his aide- " That money is already gone - down the drain. We have lost the taxpayers' money, whether we stay or leave. That sunk cost should not play a role in our decision. A decision to stay the course is not decision-making. A decision to change course is decision-making-by-the-balls.   " His aide twists his face as if he bit off a lemon wedge and whimpers a lame " Yes, Mr. President, you are so prescient !      Sunk cost fallacy is the only accounting principle that doesn't account for today's costs but our past Karma ! Sunk cost fallacy is a thinking error. The sunk cost fallac...