Author: Atul
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Transformations of Different Kind
Any kind of change, especially radical change, brings with it many challenges for all the people involved. It is therefore insightful to take a look at them as a whole. Let’s look at corporate transformations, startup pivots, and individual career transformations as one thing and see if we can learn something by comparing the similarities…
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Fascination with the Mundane
As I watch “The Disciple” – a painfully pessimistic movie in which the protagonist does not go through the typical character arc recommended by most screenplay experts, a friend’s question rings in my ear, “Who wants to read books about losers?”. The protagonist typically follows the character arc of the hero. He is someone who…
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Ring the bells that still can ring
Leonard Cohen crooned, rather perfectly:Ring the bells that still can ringForget your perfect offeringThere is a crack, a crack in everythingThat’s how the light gets in These are the kinds of lines that set you free. Free from the compulsion of producing something perfect. Free from the obligation of creating something that can not be…
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Wittgenstein’s Duck-rabbit Metaphor
Wittgenstein’s duck-rabbit metaphor highlights the challenges of understanding the ambiguities in the environment. Besides being a philosophical problem dealing with change and cognition, it is a practical tool to understand the multiple aspects of reality. In real-life business situations, we encounter duck-rabbits every day that turn into sheep or lions weeks later. It is important…
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My Best Stock Investment
It is 1999. Besides some punts made with my flatmates, I have not invested in any stocks. I am getting interested in stocks, but I think the stock market is a gambling den. I have a visitor for dinner, a friend of mine, a senior guy at a broking house with experience at a mutual…
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Book Review – Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Eleanor Oliphant is an office worker with zero social life. She dreads the weekends, waiting for Monday to arrive. Her colleagues laugh at her; she can not carry out even a single conversation without awkward remarks and has not cut her hair for years. At the beginning of the book, she meets the IT person…
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National Startup Day
The honorable Prime Minister has declared the 16th of January as National Startup Day. This is a fascinating development and a piece of excellent news for the Indian startup ecosystem. As a humble contribution from my side, I plan to give the kindle copy of my book, “Reclaim Your Inner Entrepreneur,” free today and tomorrow.…
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Are you the drunk searching under the streetlight?
Are you the drunk searching under the streetlight? The streetlight effect is a type of observational bias. It comes from the often-quoted story about the drunk and the streetlight and appears first in Mulla Nasruddin tales. It goes like this: A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what…
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Neighbourhood Creativity
Kevin Kelly’s article I linked to yesterday made one point which I have been thinking about and telling everyone I meet. The fact that you reading this, a weblog created by a non-entity, non-celebrity, makes that point too. And since you are reading it, you quietly believe in it too. The take-away in bold then…
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Two of my books in Prime Reading
Two of my books, “Brothers Sen Gogh”, and “Whiskey and Suicide” are selected to be a part of “Amazon Prime Reading”. According to their website, Prime Reading is “1,000 carefully curated books, magazines, comics and Kindle Singles”. I am happy for this recognition, and also happy that more readers will find these books. If you…