The realities of pleasure and pain that drive the enjoyment of daily life
In this article Mark Manson ruminates about the joys of ordinary life. Some of the examples he gives impart another lesson - pleasure and pain are relative. An ordinary cup of tea on an ordinary morning would taste like the best thing in the world when you have experienced a debilitating illness previously. On the other hand […]
Arguments about transient issues do not deserve your time
One of the major drains on one's productivity is the time spent in arguing about transient issues. You will find people who are passionately on either side of an argument and would go on for hours, when the resolution of the issue is already there somewhere or is going to manifest itself in some time. […]
Ask Atul : How do I stop the compulsive desire of helping others when they do not seem to need the help?
You are in a WhatsApp group and someone asks a question. It is directed to specific people - you are not included in the list of those people. You somehow feel you should have been asked. And probably the person who asked the question did intend to ask it to you. It is just that […]
Ask Atul : What has been your biggest career mistake?
The biggest career mistake I have made is to assume that there is something called career mistake. Let me explain. When we use the word "career mistake", we are referring to an incident in our lives when we took a certain decision that turned out to be "wrong" later. It may be that we rejected a […]
Finance and Investing Books
Over the last thirty years, I have read several finance and investing books. Finance and Investing is not only interesting, but is a very important topic for anyone who wants to lead a balanced life, doing what one wants to do. It includes personal finance, portfolio design and stock picking. I have made a list […]
Small things
It is the tiny habits that become one's nature. It is very important to be disciplined in every day things.
Nudge
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein argued in their influential book, “Nudge”, that if we redesign our daily environment in such a way that it makes it easier to do things that we want to do and more difficult to do things that we want, it is more likely that our behavior would change in the […]
The Tyranny of Perfect
Leonard Cohen crooned, rather perfectly:Ring the bells that still can ringForget your perfect offeringThere is a crack, a crack in everythingThat's how the light gets in These are the kinds of lines that set you free. Free from the compulsion of producing something that is perfect. Free from the obligation of creating something that can […]
Establishing A Daily Routine
One of the essential practices in the vein of Slow Compounding is to establish a daily routine. Daily routine is essentially a set of activities that you do every day and have specific time market out or a specific goal chalked out. Most successful creative artists have a rigorous daily routine that they practice for decades. One […]
The perpetual amateur
Kids and Adults - A Contrast From the balcony of my house, I can see the kids' playground. It is fun observing kids play for hours, seemingly achieving nothing, trying the same thing over and over and still having so much fun. It is instructive to contrast that behavior with the group of adults. Just […]