Do we need a teacher?
Can we not acquire wisdom seeking self-learning?
Why do we need bait for our judgments and decisions in our life?
Why do we have to pay in money or surrender for curing our ignorance?
Why can’t we acquire self-knowledge?
values
Values are the core of any organization. It can make or break them. Same applied to us individuals as well. For some, it is a sermon or principle of life.
It is important to have your value without any fear or pressure. A value should be out of the religious, social or cultural purview. It should be our identity and based on our independent belief.
Granted
We take so many things for granted in our life. We forget the fact that we age.
When was the last time you spoke to your grandparents? Do you know they are getting old, their memories are fading with time? This is the moment they need you around them.
The bedtime story, the mangoes, and love they showered at you.
It is the time when you should take some time for them. They are here not for long.
Epictetus
Epictetus wrote Enchoridian centuries ago.
The paragraph where he mentions about what things we have in our control and we don’t have has been a principle for me. Luckily I read the book.
Many things we do in our life with our best efforts. But if we decide the result or expect the outcome in our favor and it goes opposite we get miserable. At times anger, sadness, misery takes over.
Going by Epictetus, I know it is a difficult life to lead. Leaving the outcome aside and focusing on putting the best effort. Life is more contend. We do not regret not trying.
Life with action as prime motivation does more wonders that a goal-driven one.
Perfection
Why do we have to be perfect? What is this definition of perfection?
Was Mozart a perfectionist? How perfect was Van Gogh?
The perfection evangelists are new-age sophists. Who decides the epitome of perfection? Some czar or uber god, seeking for I am right status?
As long as we are true to ourselves, I don’t see the point of running after perfection.
These perfectionists would have found many faults in Monalisa smile. Leonardo da Vinci would have died making those edits seeking perfection.
I have made peace with my imperfection. It keeps checking on my insanity.
want
I don’t know what I want. But I know what I don’t want. This way of seeing the world has made things easier for me.
Thanks to Chalie Munger’s trick of inversion. When I know what I don’t want, I will stay away from it. As a result, end up getting what I deserve.
Hope it helps.
data
We are living in a connected world. A world where news spreads in a second. Thanks to the internet and our smartphone. Our confirmation bias and group thinking take over our consciousness.
Nobody cares about the authenticity of the source. All we care about attaching ourselves and our emotions. As a result like a headless chicken, we join the noise.
India has witnessed riot, killing because of the spread of these fake news and information.
Fuzzing data is a widely known practice in the research industry. A trial on dozen-odd samples results in writing a lengthy paper. Media likes sensations they love publishing such stories.
Look for the sample size and exclusions from these popular research https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/popular
Other bigger impact of fudging data is propaganda.
Another one: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/gigs-are-hot-jobs-are-not-4408083/
Aug 2019 reading
Read 2 books this month:
- Made in America by sam walton (walmart founder)
- Delivering Happiness by tony heish (zappos founder)
I found similarity in reading both.
- Building something meaningful takes time.
- Struggle is part of entrepreneurship.
- A defined process differentiates between an average and great company.
- Solving customers pain should be the core product, service, mantra. Everything else is just noise.
- Trust, transparency and openness thrives great leadership.
- Things will break, people will move on, failures will be everyday things. Self belief, a culture of trust will help in sailing the rocket-ship long way.
- Avoid taking advice from those who have no skin in the game. Listen, talk, empathetic with the real users. They will give you the product ideas.
- Best sales comes after delighting your customers and making them the brand evangelists.
- Screw ups should be delivered immediately to the stakeholders.
I hope you will find this useful.
dream
Dreams are like fiction. They are imaginary. In every stage of our life we build new dreams. From settling down with our college sweetheart to buying a specific car, every dream has a role – of growing into someone someday.
We end up achieving some dreams while others are never met. This does not mean we should stop dreaming.
confidence
Are we living in a world where being confident is limited to a few? Why is somebody’s confidence taken distinctly in a group? Is being confident is a sign or proud or arrogance? Is the virtue confidence uncommon? Is it because since birth we are told what we cannot do? Is it our conditioning via parents, society, school, college, peers to be blamed for making us a lame duck?
Socrates died by attaining self-knowledge. Man has conquered the moon.
But what about our confidence? The confidence to speak up again the evils. The being ourselves is missing in most of us. We are just trying to fit in with life, situations, adjustments. We cry, weep, feel miserable.