In October 1911, two teams of adventurers made their final preparations in their quest to be the first people in modern history to reach the South Pole. For one team, it would be a race to victory and a safe return home. For the second team, it would be a devastating defeat, reaching the Pole…
The irony is that you have take care of something FIRST so that it can take care of you. Look after your car first, it will take care of you. Take care of your community first, it will vote for you. Take care of your body first, it will carry you longer. When you look…
I was having a conversation with a colleague yesterday about the e-hailing business [Uber, Bolt] and also about the AirBnB business. One thing I realised as were chatting is the instant feedback nature of the business that you receive after you have rendered a service to a customer. You drop off a client, within a…
It is unreasonable to think of going to a book group meeting and opining about a book you did not even read. More rude: Going to a PhD seminar and participating in the discussion without reading the book first. And of course, no one wants a doctor operating on them if she has not read…
Our lives right now are built around consumption. Media companies have somehow convinced us that there are few things that matter more than staying up to date. So, we get free newsletters with stunning content and, generally, a link to subscribe to get more. Media personalities [and star entrepreneurs] all have podcasts and blogs for…
Our World in Data had a great piece on the impact of “learning curves”/”experience curves” in the production of electricity from renewable sources. Fossil fuel costs are driven by the cost of fuel and the operating costs of the plant. The key cost in a renewable plant on the other hand is the cost of the technology…
The woman on the other end of the line at the call centre hesitates. The change in her tone tells me she does not know the answer to my question. She hesitates. I hear the doubt in her voice. She is having to go off script, and she is terrified. She is trained to answer…
David Cain shared a nice post about lasts recently. An idea that stood out: ________________________________________________ “You always know when you are doing something for the first time, and you almost never know when you are doing something for the last time.“ ________________________________________________ True. Beautiful. Powerful. It resonated.
Growing up as an introvert, the greatest escape for me was books. It started with reading James Hardley Chase's Safer Dead, then his other novels, then Dean Koons's books, then John Grisham, by the time I started reading Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Bessie Head's Maru, the habit of reading had already set it.…
Business people walking on the street. The window on analysis is shrinking. There is a lot of isiphithiphithi [busy traffic] out there. People are moving so fast now that they do not have time to think. They are scanning, swiping, clicking, liking, tweeting and moving on at full velocity. They are making decisions based on…
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” -- Albus Dumbledore A teammate reminded me of this idea the other day. In Genesis 1 from verse 3 to 29 God said a number of things which came into existence. And God said, “Let there…
She wakes up every morning between 0600 and 0630 in her modest apartment. After checking the news, she prepares breakfast for her and her husband around 0800. At 0900 she heads to the office where she meets with her team and discusses the main agenda items for the day. Meetings kick off around 0930 and…
