Vicious Traps
Much like perfectionism and meritocracy can have their own shortcomings, Morgan Housel writes in this piece about how two different admirable personality traits by themselves when combined in the wrong way can turn vicious. He talks about the potentially harmful effects when patience combines with confidence, curiosity with boldness and humility with ambition and how […]
“The Perfection Trap” decries what it calls a “hidden epidemic”
The performance culture that modern capitalistic professional life is driven by seems to have its downsides. Social psychologist Thomas Curran’s new book ‘The Perfection Trap’ is reviewed here by the Economist. The author believes that “…the obsessive pursuit of ever higher standards, rather than propelling achievement, is mainly a scourge.” He reckons the causes are social and […]
Henry Kissinger’s Bloody Legacy
Last week, Henry Kissinger, America’s most famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) Secretary of State turned 100. For reasons we don’t fully understand, Kissinger and the President he served, Richard Nixon, harboured a deep antipathy towards India. The damage Kissinger did to Indo-US relations took 30 years to repair. Lest we forget […]
Belief, support and a long rope: how Chennai Super Kings have built a consistently odds-beating side
Yet another IPL related long piece this week. But this is neither about the game nor the economics of it. This piece is a Master Class in building teams with a people centric culture which all of us in our professions, business or otherwise can draw lessons from. This piece was published before the IPL […]
Buffett’s intriguing bet on Japan
Over the past three years, Warren Buffett has gradually accumulated stakes in five Japanese conglomerates, the so-called soga shosha, namely, Itochu Corp., Marubeni Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui, and Sumitomo Corp. As Japan recovers from what felt like a 30-year downturn, these Buffett’s investments in Japan (which are, intriguingly, funded by a yen denominated loan) are […]
Business Breakdowns podcast – IPL: The World’s Fastest Growing Sports League
Even by the high standards of Business Breakdowns, this is a super engrossing podcast on how cleverly the IPL has been constructed from its inception in 2008. Ed Cowan does a great job of explaining the business model of the IPL and the nuances which have allowed it to create tens of billions of dollars […]
She, the civil servant
One of the more powerful forces transforming the Indian economy and society is the rise of women in the work force. This rise is seen even in the prestigious Indian Civil Services as well. In the recent round of hiring for the elite services, more than a third of new recruits were women – the […]
Obituary – Robert Lucas, economist, , 1937-2023
Those of us who spent our youth studying economics came away stunned by the originality of thought demonstrated by Robert Lucas, the Nobel Prize winning economist from the University of Chicago. Especially for those of who lived through pre-liberalisation India and saw the damage that socialism and Keynesian thinking could unleash on an under-developed country, […]
The Great Disconnect
Anand Sridharan works at Nalanda Capital and writes a super interesting blog called Buggy Humans in a Messy World. In his latest blog, he draws upon a well-worn analogy between Test Cricket and long-term investing and then extends the analogy beautifully to highlight the insanity that is perpetrated by many investors. He begins with what […]
26 Empire State Buildings Could Fit Into New York’s Empty Office Space. That’s a Sign.
Office occupancy data in American cities suggests that the work from home (WFH) mode necessitated during Covid has persisted into permanence well after Covid has gone (almost). Yet in cities like New York, one cannot but feel that the buzz is back on the streets at least in certain times of the day and week. […]
U.S. Universities Are Building A New Semiconductor Workforce
The rising economic and hence strategic importance of semiconductors to nations looking to establish global supremacy has resulted in what’s now popularly referred to as the Chip War (thanks to the brilliant book with the same title by Chris Miller). The Chip War is manifesting in many ways, most prominently in the form of sanctions […]
How Facebook and Instagram became marketplaces for child sex trafficking
Did you know that “From January to September 2022, Facebook reported more than 73.3m pieces of content under “child nudity and physical abuse” and “child sexual exploitation” and Instagram reported 6.1m.” As you would expect, tech companies extol the virtues of the tech that they propagate. Most technologies however have a dark side which is revealed only […]
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