Writing to think...
If you need just one metric to judge anything in your professional life, it's the success metric. Let's define the term so that we are on the same page: A success metric is a quantifiable measure you choose in advance to assess whether an effort has achieved its goal within a pre-defined timeline . A few things to note: It's a singular (success metric) and not plural (success metrics). You will…
I was reading an article 1 where the author says AI will not replace financial advisors, and one of the arguments was, "Trust is a big part of it. Humans like working with other humans." The article has additional arguments for why human advisors will sustain the AI era, but I want to focus on the role of "human trust" in AI job automation/replacement. We used to call brokers/agents to buy…
I understand the power of writing. It clears your thinking. Some say that it's the only form of thinking. I've been thinking for decades that I should write more. Everyone knows what is the right thing to do (like exercise/write more), but actually doing the thing is very, very tough. I was reading one of the PostHog articles today and realized that nearly every point had a link to their other…
Processes are easy to create, and there are so many around because creating a process gives you an easy way out with a false sense of victory that you’ve solved the problem. Whenever a process is introduced: There should be a mandatory formal devil’s advocate role to argue against the process. A process should always have a cost, a success metric, and an evaluation timeline. Without these, a…
Parents do a lot for their kids and hence expect a few things in return (maybe respect, maybe one visit per year, maybe don’t do drugs, …) Friends do a lot for friends. Helping friends in need, spending a lot of time/money/energy for them, calling them even when they don’t pick up, …. A spouse does a lot of things for their partner. Sacrificing/deprioritizing their career, moving across the…
As a Twitter user, I find that a lot of things can be improved in Twitter UX (user experience). I have been posting the feedback on Twitter but maintaining a feedback thread over the years seems to be though on Twitter hence this blog post. Here we go: Too many tweet-thread saving apps have cluttered the replies section. When a reader finds a few of them at the top of replies, the user (am using…
It was the year 2016. After my first failed attempt at building and growing a startup, I started looking for the next idea. I lost all my savings in the first startup and was broke, but I guess I still had the itch that I need to build a startup. When I told my intention to build the next startup to the guy who helped me develop the app for the first startup, he said that he wants to be my…
I shut down my first startup in 2016 so I guess it’s too late to write about it but I thought I’ll write it for myself for the sake of closure. I ran software startups so my thoughts are mostly relevant to that field. Key takeaways: If you are a non-tech founder, finding a tech cofounder should be the first step of your startup journey. "Learn to code" seems to be a common suggestion these days.…
I have worked with a lot of freelancers in my 2 startups and made a ton of mistakes so thought of writing lessons I learned here so that I don’t repeat those mistakes the next time. Here we go: Always define and record timelines/deadlines A goal without a plan is just a dream. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry I am a big advocate of deadlines. Without timelines: it's very easy to lose track of time. you…
There was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his exercise. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see. Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy throwing the starfish back into the ocean, one by one. Approaching the boy the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask…
“Ideas are cheap, execution is everything.’’ — Chris Sacca, Investor in Twitter & Uber We live in the “execution is the king” world. We have been told zillion times that an idea is worthless, overrated or, at the best, idea is just a multiplier of the execution. “Idea” (the startup idea) has been downplayed so much that we don’t pay the right attention to the idea part of a startup. Execution hogs…
I've been trying to hire programmers for my startup for the past 8 weeks and have learned a few important lessons. I hope some of these lessons will help a few people. Which is the best job site in India for startup hiring? I've tried nearly all the job sites. Yeah, you heard it right: All. Indian job sites as well as Indian editions of global websites. Paid sites as well as free sites. All these…
Are you thinking of working on your startup in parallel to your job? Here is the news: It won’t happen. A startup is tough. A startup is demanding. A startup is a roller coaster. You can’t do it while doing something else. You might be able to (very convincingly) fool yourself that you are doing your best while doing it in parallel but a startup is a 24x7 deal, you can’t do it part-time. You'll…
If you use MacBook you might have seen utterly confusing shortcuts like: If you are a recent convert to MacBook, just like me, then you will go crazy remembering these shortcuts. You don't see ⌥, ^ or ⇧ keys on the keyboard but still they are so prominent in every shortcut. You don't see them, so you can't relate to them hence they are so difficult to remember. I did some googling around and found…
Life is full of choices and we have to decide. Yes, there are choices even when you fool yourself into believing that you don't have any choice. Sometimes choices are for trivial stuff, other times decisions of life. Shall I do what is the norm or do what I think is right? Shall I bide time (and count miserable days) with people I don't like or go searching for something better? Shall I say it or…
Do I need to change my job? Shall I wait for another 3 months? Do I need to start a startup? Why should I be the one who stands up for this cause? Every question you ask yourself you are putting yourself in a defensive mode. Reasoning with self is good but asking "do I need to stand up for this?" at the start of reasoning means that subconsciously we've already told our mind that we should not do…
Codecademy is a great website for learning programming. It is helping thousands (maybe millions) of people learn how to code. Content-wise Codecademy rocks however there are few design areas where Codecademy can improve. Before I want to start I want to state categorically that am not a professional designer. I am just a grateful user who wants to give my feedback to a very useful website that is…
This might seem a bit extreme criteria to evaluate what you really want to work on but the answer to this will tell you whether the job that you are doing now is meant for you or not. Whatever you would love to work on your deathbed you should be doing that now . Earning a livelihood by doing some job will make you like so many people who want to just do their job, earn, retire early so that they…
How can you get an estimate (and trust the estimate) for a piece of work that can't estimate yourself? The most probable approach here is you ask for estimates and then try to validate the estimate. The moment you ask for an estimate from a person you are asking for his commitment, asking for his word. No one in this world wants to be proven wrong, even to himself. No one wants to go back on their…
If you feel that you’ll earn enough in 2 years and then you’ll start a startup, that’s not gonna happen. You’ll never earn enough (it’s the human psyche; ask Warren Buffett if he has earned enough). For you to start working on your dream project - passion, food, and shelter are all you need. If you feel that you’ll settle down in life first, and then you’ll start a startup, that’s not gonna…
What’s the worst thing about your product/service? What’s the worst thing about your website? What’s the worst thing about your team? When you seek feedback from people in superlative terms, it works. People answer more openly. If you ask “Name two things that can be improved in our product?”, it gives the impression that you are trying to be defensive or you created this questionnaire just…
I generally go to this sports complex for jogging. There is a mini football field where 20-25 kids play football regularly. Today, due to Monsoon rain, the football field was filled with water. Few of the kids were bantering in a group at a distance whereas a few others were standing dejected near the football field. While passing by I told them to ‘do something about the field. One of the kids…
When was the last time you set aside time for deliberate, conscious thinking? Thinking (more of mind wandering aimlessly), while you are waiting for something (your flight is delayed, etc), is different. Planning in reaction to something (launched product turned out a dud; missed promotion) is different. When you think in reaction to something, there is a worrying part attached to it and that…
Can you say "I’ve done all that I can do"? Or do you feel a tinge of remorse and recall the things that you could have done but didn’t? I was reading a biography of Steve Jobs when this line hit me like a thunderbolt. Jobs said this on the day he relinquished his CEO post at Apple (2011). That evening author of his biography (Walter Isaacson) came to meet him. By this time Jobs have already been…
Our ecosystem – education, family, or society – is hell-bent on creating intellectual midgets. We are taught to be Always Right. We are taught, “If you’re in doubt, don’t”. We are taught not to make a fool of ourselves by doing anything anti-majority. We are taught to avoid people's mockery. We are taught to avoid confrontation. We are taught to feign omniscience and not ask a question even if we…
At times, you get an issue/concern reported by just one team member, from just one client, or just one customer. Your first thought will be ‘exceptions are always there. Ignore it’ or ‘this guy is finicky’. Nope. In this diplomatic world, not everyone complains. Not everyone is courageous enough to raise a concern. The concern from that one person can be a concern of many more but others just…
There are times when we are running into deadlines and we have to deliver with some compromise on quality. There are times when your client is very demanding, but with no additional budget. There are times when your software developer will feel (or he may shout aloud) that you are becoming too finicky about small quality control details. There are times when your friends will feel that you are…
Everything is simple. Yes, everything. If something is complex, it means you didn’t spend the right amount of time on it, with the requisite focus. There must be times when you solved something and felt, “oh, that was simple”. It was not simple. You worked on it to make it simple. If something still perplexes you. You still didn’t get the right angle or right context. Steve Jobs said “That’s been…
Your plans are your faith in yourself. You plan something and you believe that it will succeed. Belief is never totally rational. There is always a pinch (sometimes tons) of emotions in a plan. Plans always succeed in mind. Plans are always a million-dollar idea. Plans always bring you fame. When you plan a startup, you believe in that idea. You do try to be logical and rational but faith is…
You might be encouraging your team to work harder by promising them a higher salary, provided they show results. Some managers promise better growth while others promise lesser work pressure in the future. But when a manager offers something, he is showing the carrot which is a carrot to the manager. You promise promotion, your team might be looking for frequent appreciation. You are offering a…
If you are not content with the status quo, you feel bored. Playing meeting-after-meeting job is status quo, am-looking-for-a-good-startup-idea inertia is status quo, am-waiting-for-my-chance excuse is status quo. The status quo doesn't help anything. The status quo is just inertia. By getting bored, your lizard brain is signaling to you that it’s time to change something, create something, or try…
Good talkers never get talker's block and many writers never get writer’s block . When you talk, you produce golden words during that journey. The same applies to writing. It might seem that few people produce excellent speech or excellent writing every single time they deliver. That’s an illusion. Because behind that great quality published work there lies tons of unpublished work. It’s rightly…
I am always surprised by the quarterly result of successful companies. A lot of successful companies relentlessly grow quarter on quarter. They strive for some targets, achieve them and then move on to higher, loftier targets. They don’t halt to take rest, they don’t brag too much, they don’t get tired, and they don’t give excuses. They do their best first and then better than the previous best…
People claim grandiose things, portray their best selves, and promise the moon in presentations. Is your management team claiming a lot in presentations? ‘Accrued saving of $50,000’, ‘possible saving of $225,000’, blah blah. Does this sound familiar? Why do all the presentations make things look good, rosy, and optimistic? People claim tall in presentations because: Presentations are not connected…
We make so many excuses, to ourselves. We make a fool of ourselves with those excuses. We want to believe in those excuses so that we won’t feel guilty about our lethargy, our cowardice, our inertia. Whenever you feel that you are shirking from something, anything, just tell yourself “This is just an Excuse” and you will know what to do. I don’t have time for exercise. It’s just an Excuse. I still…
Managers/Leaders/Executives often ask themselves: How do I build trust with my team. How to open floodgates of communications? How to tell team members to open up to seek real feedback? How to create an environment of openness? Writing, personally, to your team once a week (or once in 2 weeks) is the mantra that can make things happen. It can be a sort of blog but you send that in a mail to your…
Mobile number portability got introduced in India some days back. When an unhappy customer tried moving to another telecom operator she is offered a cheaper monthly rental and a very attractive call rates plan. An employee stays with a company for years but when desired growth doesn’t happen she finally resigns, disgruntled. Then the same company offers her a good salary hike plus other perks. A…
The other day I was at a clinic for an eye procedure. You tend to feel fidgety when someone is playing with your eyes, so was I. When the procedure was on, the doctor kept on reassuring me that everything is all right. She keeps on giving me updates on what’s going on and what's coming up. Every step was communicated, “we will fix your eyebrows so that you won’t blink”; “a machine will start and…
Sometimes something seems so interesting, enchanting, riveting that you feel that you are in love with that thing. But then due to certain circumstances, you move on. Then you wonder was that really Love? What do I really love? What are the things that are just a fad, what are the things that I do/did for the heck of it, and what are the things that are just chance occurrences? How do I…
I used to be an avid reader of Sramana’s blog (am not going to link to it) but of late there seems to be an ostentatious drive to increase the hit count for the website. I feel being milked and exploited daily. These days the blog primarily contains interviews with entrepreneurs/CEOs. Every interview is split into 6-10 parts and posted on daily basis for 6-10 days. Readers do like to read about…
Assuming something is absolutely fine. In fact, astute and calculated assumptions help us in moving forward with greater agility. Assumptions are made based on prior experience and from information currently available at hand. Gut feel, rough estimate, and assumptions strongly twine with each other. When people say ‘don’t assume anything’ they are downplaying the power of assumption. Assumption…
There are a few statements/events that hit me like a thunderbolt. They happen once and come back again and again in various manifestations. One statement of that caliber is “Limits, like fear, are just illusions” by Michael Jordon. I play football on Sundays and generally get tired after 45 mins of the game. But one day I promised a friend that I’ll score one goal. I couldn’t score even a single…
“It's nice”, “Good one”, “great job”, “fantastic”, “congrats” and other similar appreciative comments currently form the majority of the comments on the web. Appreciation is a great way to encourage people. These comments give feedback to the concerned person so play a vital role in the talent recognition ecosystem. But when appreciations just flood a website and drown other useful information…
You sell coffee and if your salesperson is drinking Tea, that too from another vendor, you need to speak to your hiring folks, Now. You sell chocolates and if your salesgirl --on being asked which choc is best--says, “you can take anyone, they are all chocolates after all” then you are not going too far. Your salespeople are your face to the customer. They are the real brand and create far more…
Data is omnipresent and omniscient, we just need to collect it and decipher it to make fruitful use of it. Data is still collected and used but often people treat data as sacrosanct and gather it only for valuable and important functions. This is because data collection and data mining are still costly affairs. Competition in this area will soon make it economical, in fact, dirt cheap and then…
Last week I bought a Reliance Broadband Data card and immediately encountered some issues with its activation. I called their customer support (aka call center) folks. The support representative listened to my problem patiently and asked a few probing questions. Then she conferenced me with various stakeholders (Sales Person, who sold the data card to me, and Field verification person, who has to…
There is always a thin line between: confidence and arrogance dressing smartly and overdressing pointing out the details and nitpicking loosely coupled business unit and the emergence of chaos in the company spending on comfort and spending on luxury Different people will see you on the different side of this thin line for any of your actions. Judging people is highly subjective and depends…
Last week I happened to visit a hospital’s waiting room. The TV was not working there. Everybody in the room was clueless about whom to contact. It seems to lie outside everyone’s domain of responsibility. Nurses, housekeeping staff, electricians, et al were either nonchalant or busy with their daily chores. How great it would have been if some trigger\feedback was sent to maintenance folks…
Nearly the entire world whines about customer support customer care's long waiting period. But not many organizations did anything substantial regarding this. Companies still have an average waiting period of 10 plus minutes before they entertain the customer. When a customer wants to speak to your support staff about a product or service it means either she needs some info or some action from the…
We are always told that failure is fine. We can learn from mistakes, improve and carry on. But what if you fail on your BIG day, the day you are most expected to deliver? Quite often, when a service/product is referred by a famous blogger/publisher or ranks high on Reddit/Hacker-news their website crashes because of a huge number of hits that day. This crash not only makes you lose your future…