Short read: The Way of Mediocre Man
One might wonder about the title about the article – why would anyone care writing about let alone celebrate mediocrity. To be sure, the author is referring to mediocrity as perceived by the world at large in professional life. It distinguishes the grind that most professionals go through in jobs and careers they don’t love […]
Short read: ‘Dad: 5’6”, son: 6’2”’: Is this the reason why most kids of younger generation are much taller than their parents?
Those of us who spent our teenage years watching Wasim & Waqar lead a superfast Pakistani line-up now get even more pleasure as we watch Jasprit Bumrah & friends do the same for India. At 6’2” Bumrah is a big guy and so are fellow Indian fast bowlers like Siraj & Arshdeep. In fact, almost […]
Short read: A law unto itself’: India’s tax service targets multinationals
As India’s economy enters the second year of a cyclical downturn, the Exchequer is having a hard time keeping up with the Government’s revenue collection targets. The result is plenty of acrimonious disputes between the taxman and corporates. Chris Kay’s article captures the litigious environment: “Indian tax authorities have levied a series of huge tax […]
Long read: How the U.S. Became A Science Superpower
The subject of the article might implicitly suggest that the days of the US being a science superpower are numbered given the emergence of China as a credible contender. Whilst that might be premature and debatable, the historical context of the US getting to this position is worth understanding. The author, Steve Blank’s timing of […]
Long read: Nobody Knows (Yet Again)
Every now and then, we are reminded of Warren Buffett’s statement about how when Howard Marks’ memo lands, you stop everything else and read it. This one which came on 9th April shows why Buffett said what he said. It is a good follow up to the Dunning-Kruger piece we featured earlier this month. Whilst all of us […]
Long read: Delhi’s Women’s Football League has lawyers, teachers, mothers as players. It’s a safe space
For decades now Delhi has enjoyed a bad reputation in terms of what it offers working women. In recent years however things have begun to change. This lovely story in The Print by Udit Hinduja (a graduate from the first batch trained at The Print School of Journalism) captures changes in Delhi that we can […]
Short read: What to do
Paul Graham is at his inquisitive best asking this question – what should one do, as in generally in life: “One should help people, and take care of the world. Those two are obvious. But is there anything else? When I ask that, the answer that pops up is Make good new things.” Why? “The most impressive […]
Short read: What is Risk?
The title might sound trivial but as Joe Wiggins, who writes about behavioural aspects of investing, writes in this blog, most of us don’t understand what we mean by risk. As he puts it, jumping from a tall sky-scraper with no parachute is not risky – as the outcome is certain, in this case death. […]
Short read: The US’s 2,000-year-old mystery mounds
Believe it or not, there are stranger things happening in America than Trump’s trade policies. For example, did you know that the USA has massive mounds built a mysterious civilisation over 2000 years ago? Brandon Withrow writes for the BBC: “Autumn leaves crackled under our shoes as dozens of eager tourists and I followed a […]
Long read: Crashing the Car of Pax Americana
The American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Psychologists call it cognitive flexibility or dialectical thinking, a rare ability to navigate complex situations. Ben Hunt who writes this […]
Long read: A Tamil IPS officer is transforming sports in Bihar. From shame to pride
One of the many privileges of working at Marcellus is that we get to travel around India and meet the people who are changing the country for the better. On one such trip to Patna in 2022 met a police officer – IPS Raveendran Sankaran. We stayed in touch with him, learnt several things about […]
Long read: Distinguished Indian Economists: Swaying Minds and Shaping the Modern Indian Economy
India is an unusual developing economy for several reasons one of which is that unlike most other such economies, for many decades now India has been blessed with enormously capable minds when it comes to economic policymaking. For those who have had the privilege of having seen brilliant minds like Amiya Kumar Dasgupta or IG […]
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