It took me four years to realize the power of optimization. A founder’s life is on a roller coaster. Someday an employee will leave, some other day customers, there will be days when you will feel like giving up, and another day your personal life will be a wreck. The sooner we accept and optimize …
Author Archives: Atul
Relaters
The lazy brain of mine has built its relater mechanism. Last Sunday, I met and had a conversation with a few people. PESIT, my friend is also from there. His name is X. My friend, who is also and Odiya, is looking for a marketer. Can you help? I know another UX fellow who has …
highway
Ramkumar would be 5 ft tall, wearing a black kurta pajama, turban, and loverly smile on his face. He looked perfect for Instagram, just I had no smartphone, and we were in the Orkut era. He was preparing the fire as November evening gets much colder in north India. I was with Ashish on our …
hide
How do a few of us hide the entire world of sorrow within ourselves? I have known a friend who never let the sad part of theirs be known to us all. One fine day he called adios. It is difficult to find what was going on? It surprises me how behind the broad smile, …
meaning
How many of us look for purpose in every action of ours? Is it possible to have meaning out of everything? We should let ourselves free and let our mind wander if we are seeking creativity. The meaninglessness has its advantage and magic. The way we are utilizing our time, always being busy, and compartmentalizing …
Money
How much importance of money plays in our life? The answer is subjective. Need for money for a farmer whose harvest has suffered him a loss. The struggle of loan repayments. The constant threats from loan sharks. How will they live without money? A daughter who graduated got a job to fulfill her parent’s checklist: …
Bidi
Ahmed looked younger than his age. His broad face, long beard, and dyed hair made him unique. Paan was over his face like a lipstick. I wonder if he was waiting for a passenger or someone he could talk to at midnight. I was smoking Godan Garam, beating Delhi’s winter after finishing a plate of …
Lead with context, not control
In Reed Hastings’s book: no rules rules, one chapter is titled “Lead with context, not control.” When you hire smart, super talented people and give them proper specification of developments and let them decide. They will end up building the best. You just gave them context and, they took it from there. They will dislike …
team
In his book ‘no rules rules’; Reed Hastings talks about building an organization on an analogy of a sports team, not as a family. When you are building a sports team, you will pick the best. People will compete and perform at their peak and byproduct being team winning. There will be no mediocrity. When …
Akash
I met Akash on a cold winter morning and, his eyes were red, like someone returning from a long night shift. He was wearing a Hawai chappal and, minuscule clothes were on his body. He was sitting outside our main gate. I used to live in Muniraka Gaon those days, a buzzing ghetto in south …