Don’t be Paranoid – Be Pronoid
4th Aug, 2023 I got introduced to a new word – Pronoia in psychologist Adam Grants book I read recently, ‘Give and Take’ in which, he writes about pronoia. Pronoia describes a state of mind that is the opposite of paranoia. Whereas a person suffering from paranoia feels that persons or entities are conspiring against […]
‘Accumulative Advantage’
3rd Aug, 2023 Have you ever wondered, why do a few people, teams, and organizations enjoy the bulk of the rewards in life? The Amazon rainforest is one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. Scientists have cataloged approximately 16,000 different tree species in the Amazon. But despite this remarkable level of diversity, researchers have […]
The Bus Ticket theory of genius
2nd August,2023 Paul Graham is an investor, especially known for having founded Y Combinator, a successful incubation platform in Silicon Valley, having incubated companies such as Airbnb, Drobox, Door dash, etc. In a particularly insightful blog he wrote in 2019 (http://www.paulgraham.com/genius.html) Paul highlights “Everyone knows that to do great work you need both natural ability […]
Order In Your Surroundings, Order In Your Head
1st August,2023 Rafael Nadal says the toughest opponent in professional tennis is his internal dialogue. “What I battle hardest to do in a tennis match,” he writes in ‘Rafa,’ “is to quiet the voices in my head, to shut everything out of my mind but the contest itself and concentrate every atom of my being […]
Are you Ready to Grow 100 X
1st Aug,2023 I recently wrote a blog on the ‘Pygmalion Effect’ (https://sandeepsahni.com/the-pygmalion-effect-2/ ) which essentially talks about Expectations, and how they are a self-fulfilling prophecy. High expectations shape high performance – Low expectations shape low performance. Pygmalion Effect is named from the Greek myth of Pygmalion, the sculptor who carved a statue of a beautiful […]
Take responsibility
31st July,2023 Here’s a story from John Rossman’s book ‘Think Like Amazon’: Steve Jobs told employees a short story when they were promoted to vice president at Apple. Jobs would tell the VP that if the garbage in his office was not being emptied, Jobs would naturally demand an explanation from the janitor. “Well, the […]
Schedule your priorities
30th July,2023 Most people feel guilty about taking a day off or spending some time during the working day pursuing non-work-related interests. Ideally, you should work to live, not live to work. Do you get the difference? Of course, we all need to work, but your job shouldn’t identify who you are as a person […]
‘The secret of happiness’
29th July,2023 A shopkeeper sent his son to learn about the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world. The lad wandered through the desert for 40 days, and finally came upon a beautiful castle, high atop a mountain.It was there that the wise man lived. Rather than finding a saintly man, though, […]
‘The Pygmalion Effect’
28th July, 2023 In the 1960s, the psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson went to 18 classrooms and told teachers that some of their students had an “unusual potential for intellectual gains.” The students identified as having unusual potential, in reality, were selected at random. When later tested, the “unusual” students became unusual, showing greater […]
The Luck Razor
27th July,2023 The concept used more in the Startup eco system is applicable universally. It essentially means, when choosing between two paths, choose the path that has a larger luck surface area. It’s hard to get lucky watching TV at home—it’s easy to get lucky when you’re engaging and learning, physically or digitally. Put yourself […]