Asymmetries are like signals, once you start seeing asymmetries, you cannot unsee them. To show what I mean let me cite a few grandmother-wisdoms I heard growing up. 1) Never walk with your hands in your pockets: Imagine you have your hands warm and cozy, inside your pockets, and one…

First Principles Thinking is a concept simple in theory. It can be easily summarized as “Five Whys”. You just have to ask five whys, unti you reach some unquestionable fact. That’s it. But as simple as it sounds in theory, it’s equally hard in practice. …

Thinking well is a prerequisite to living well. Thoughts can be sterile or fertile. Sterile thoughts are the ones on which you do not bet anything. Fertile thoughts lead to actions. Your thoughts about the stock market are fertile only if you also put your money where your mouth(thoughts in…

Why “Safe” is not safe? (this is NN Taleb inspired, any flaws in this article are not his but mine, anything good in this article is not mine but his.) “Short exposure to extreme cold and heat is good for you”, I said. “But why?” my friend asked. Despite trying…

We’re social animals. It is the reason why we have been so dominant as a species. We’re the primates who took the meaning of social to a whole new level. Before us, only social insects like ants and bees used to gather by millions to solve complex problems. We’re different…

We’re living in a world built by teams. From cars to iPhones to computers, even pens, and pencils we use every day, almost every physical man-made we see or touch was built by a team. The era of the individual is long gone. Of course, we only hear about Steve…

“While differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.” — Karl Popper We all are unique and have different strengths and talents but in the infinite universe what we know is just a drop compared to the ocean of what we do…

“Negotiation is won by whoever cares less.” This is a tweet by Naval Ravikant. These words, I believe, couldn’t be any truer. However, as with all things, there are always the indispensable it-depends and there-is-more-to-it factors. Is caring less truly essential for victory, or will it be enough if the…

Motivation, put simply, is a desire to act. Motivation can be categorized by intensity, or by how long it lasts. Some motivation might make one jump out of bed every day, while others might be far lesser in strength and shorter in time. There can be as many types of…