Filtered Gyan

  I haven't read such a lucid and impactful book in a long time. I am amazed how beautifully Yuval Noah Harari has presented the entire history with facts, interpretation of the data and logical reasoning which leaves you mesmerized as it helps you answer so many questions you had about history - be it regarding how human beings evolved, how they transformed over the entire course of history, how and why various expeditions were carried out, why British were able to colonize and rule so many countries and so on. A must read if you are interested in human history.

  In today’s connected world a variety of gadgets, apps, connected devices and virtual assistants are constantly feeding us information and push notifications to catch our attention. Few of the most popular apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and other news apps are capable of generating an endless feed. One can keep browsing from one post to another till the eyes start hurting but the feed does not end.  In a quest to assimilate this endless flow of information we forget to acknowledge that we are in effect abusing our mind and body. Not only this strains our system as we are not allowing our mind and body any rest but also the information itself creates a lot of stress. Slowly this starts showing up as fatigue, irritation and lack of focus. Hence it is very important that we acknowledge the role of digital information and social media in our lives. It is important to stay updated and there is also a fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) but not at the cost of everythi...

  Naval Ravikant is an icon in Silicon Valley and startup culture around the world. He founded multiple successful companies  (Epinions during the 2000 dot-com crash, AngelList in 2010). Naval is also an angel investor, betting early on companies like  Uber, Twitter, Postmates, and hundreds more. More than a financial success, Naval has been sharing his own philosophy of life and happiness, attracting readers and listeners  throughout the world. Naval is broadly followed because he is a rare combination of successful and happy. After a lifetime  of study and application of philosophy, economics, and wealth creation, he has proven the impact of his principles. This book collects and organizes the pieces of wisdom he has shared and shows you how to achieve the same for yourself. This book is available in various formats for free download on  his website .

  I bought this book a few months ago when we had the opportunity to listen to the man himself,  Mr. Chandra , Chairman of the Board of Tata Sons at an event hosted by  Cathy Bessant , the Chief Operation & Technology Officer at Bank of America. When two such stalwarts come together for a fireside chat then the range of topics and the depth of discussion is mesmerizing.  During the session Mr. Chandra mentioned about his book " Bridgital Nation " and its contents. I promptly ordered the same from Amazon. This book has a wealth of insights specific to the problems faced by India and he points out with examples how India can leapfrog from where it is today by the prudent use of technology and automation. In the current scenario the book becomes even more relevant as India tries to evolve as a business and manufacturing hub. He points out that if there is support from government in the form of policy then by the right use of technology we can overcome the many chall...

  Did you notice - As soon as you die your identity becomes a "Body". People use phrases like: "Bring the Body", "Lower the Body in the Grave", "Take the Body to the Grave yard", etc...People Don't Even call you by your Name, whom you tried to impress your whole Life.... Live a Life to Impress the Creator not the Creation. Take chances.. Tell the truth... Learn to say "NO"... Listen to your Heart... Spend money on the things you love... Laugh till your stomach hurts... Dance even if you are too bad at it... Pose stupidly for photos... Be child-like.... Moral - Death is not the greatest loss in life...Loss is when life dies inside you while you are still alive...Celebrate this journey called LIFE... Enjoy life...

  According to research we remember 10% of what we Read 20% of what we Hear 30% of what we See & Hear 50% of what we Discuss with others 75% of what we Experience ourselves   and a staggering 90% of what we TEACH to someone else. So the best way to get a grip on a topic is to TEACH the same to someone else. This forces your brain to connect the dots and helps you imbibe the knowledge in a manner where you understand the topic and are able to explain it to others in your own words.   So go forth share your knowledge with others, it will actually benefit you more than the those being taught. It will help you understand and retain that topic much better.

  Year 2020 will be remembered for a long time for the string of unexpected and unpredictable events that have happened and continue to happen, impacting lives of people across the globe. This has caused us to adapt to a lot of changes very very rapidly in a very short span of time. Staying indoors, maintaining personal hygiene, social distancing, work from home, wearing mask, valuing human lives etc. It has surprised everyone how a tiny virus can bring the entire world on its knees. And people are now bracing themselves for biological warfare as experts say that this is definitely not the last pandemic... In the Pre-covid era, there was a lot of discussion around 'CHANGE’ and being a change agent - how the world is changing very fast and that we all need to embrace change with examples of giants like Kodak and Nokia who failed to change with time and so on.  However, in the last few months everyone has embraced change either voluntarily, forcibly or reluctantly. People have ...

  If you want exceptional results then you have to be prepared to do things that exceptional people do. They challenge themselves. The push the envelope continuously.   You can also fulfil your dreams. Get out of your comfort zone. Quit playing safe. Do something new! Embrace change. Face your fears. Push the envelope. Achieve stellar results

  This is by far one of my favourite stories which is truly timeless and very apt for the corporate world. And the perspective this story/experiment  provides is so powerful that once you read it, the lesson will stay with you for the rest of your life and will help you be a better leader. As leaders, many of us have to manage a diverse group of people, who are often, scattered geographically and usually from different cultural backgrounds. Now throw in couple of more ingredients into the mix - remote working and the various modes of collaboration like text chat, emails, online meetings and you will realise how important it is to communicate effectively and get your ideas across to the other team members, colleagues and even to your own supervisors.  In 1990, a psychology student at Stanford University, conducted an interesting experiment.  It was referred to as the " Tappers & Listeners " experiment.  The rest of the world first heard of it when the authors...

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her.  She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up.  She was tired of fighting and struggling.  It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose. Her mother took her to the kitchen.  She filled three pots with water.  In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.  In about twenty minute she turned off the burners.  She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl.  She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.  Then she ladled the coffee into a bowl.  Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see?” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied. She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots.  She did and noted that they were soft.  She then aske...

A true story from the Reader’s Digest... I was having a great morning until I sat down in front of my office computer “your password has expired” a server message flashed on my screen, with instructions for changing it. Coming up with a new code doesn’t seem like a big deal, unless you work at my company, where we have to change it monthly, using at least one uppercase character, one lower case character, one symbol and one number. Oh and the password can’t be fewer than eight characters. And I can’t use any of the same passwords I’ve used in the past three months. Suddenly I was furious, what didn’t make it any better was that I was deeply depressed after my recent divorce. Disbelief over what she had done to me was what I thought all day. That didn’t mean anything to the empty field with the pulsating cursor, waiting for me to type a password that I have to reenter many times – for the next 30 days. I remembered a tip I’d heard from my former boss . He’d said “ I’m go...

ON EARNINGS "Never depend on single income. Make investment to create a second source." ON SPENDING "If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need." ON SAVINGS "Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving." ON TAKING RISK "Never test the depth of a river with both feet." ON INVESTMENT "Do not put all eggs in one basket." ON EXPECTATIONS "Honesty is a very expensive gift. Do not expect it from cheap people."

   "If—" is a poem by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling, written in 1895. He wrote a number of children stories. The all time favourite "Jungle Book" was also written by Rudyard Kipling. If --- If you can keep your head when all about you        Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,      But make allowance for their doubting too;    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,      Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,  Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,      And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:  If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;        If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster      And treat those tw...

A few weeks ago, I had attended a birthday party of my daughter’s friend. There they played a game, the age old ‘Passing the parcel’, however, what was different was the way it was played. The child who was caught with the parcel when the music stopped was asked to leave the circle, but with that parcel as the gift, and then a new parcel was introduced. The game continued till every child got a gift. I asked the mother what was wrong with the earlier version, the version we had all grown up with. She said – “I do not like kids to be disappointed. See, here every child is happy as he or she gets to take a gift home.” In another instance, I was in the park with my daughter. She was playing lock and key with her friends. Now, one of her friends fell down. Her mother, who was on the other side of the park ran to his son, all confused and upset. She scooped her son in her lap and started inquiring – “Are you hurt? Let me see! Do no cry! Shush, mama is here.” The child, had a scr...

* If poison expires, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous? * Which letter is silent in the word "Scent," the S or the C? * Do twins ever realize that one of them is unplanned? * Why is the letter W, in English, called double U?     Shouldn't it be called double V? * Maybe oxygen is slowly killing you & It just takes 75-100 years to fully work. * Every time you clean something, you just make something else dirty. * The word "swims" upside-down is still "swims". * Intentionally losing a game of rock, paper, scissors is just as hard as trying to win. * 100 years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars.     Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses. * Your future self is watching you right now through memories. * The doctors that told Stephen Hawking he had two years to live in 1953 are probably dead. * If you replace "W" with "T" in "What, Where and Wh...

Location:  Botanical Gardens, Kondapur, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India If you take the 3 kms walkers trail in Botanical Gardens, you will come across this very strange rock approximately halfway down the path. This rock resembles a human face as you can see in the picture above - it has two eyes, a nose and lips. It is really amazing feeling to look at the creation of nature.  If you are in Hyderabad and happen to visit the Botanical Gardens then I would encourage you to go take a look at this mysteriously strange piece of work by Nature.

"This story is about a beautiful, expensively dressed lady who complained to her psychiatrist that she felt that her whole life was empty, it had no meaning. So, the lady went to visit a counsellor to seek out happiness. The counsellor called over the old lady who cleaned the office floors. The counsellor then said to the rich lady "I'm going to ask Mary here to tell you how she found happiness. All I want u to do is listen to her." So the old lady put down her broom and sat on a chair and told her story: "Well, my husband died of malaria and three months later my only son was killed by a car. I had nobody. I had nothing left. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I never smiled at anyone, I even thought of taking my own life. Then one evening a little kitten followed me home from work. Somehow I felt sorry for that kitten. It was cold outside, so I decided to let the kitten in. I got some milk, and the kitten licked the plate clean. Then ...

Life is like a journey on a train... with its stations... with changes of routes... and with accidents ! We board this train when we are born and our parents are the ones who get our ticket.  We believe they will always travel on this train with us.  However, at some station our parents will get off the train, leaving us alone on this journey.  As time goes by, other passengers will board the train,  many of whom will be significant - our siblings, friends, children, and even the love of our life. Many will get off during the journey and leave a permanent vacuum in our lives.  Many will go so unnoticed that we won't even know when they vacated their seats and got off the train ! This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, good-byes, and farewells. A good journey is helping, loving, having a good relationship with all co passengers...and making sure that we give our best to make their journey comfortable....

This beautiful paper advertisement caught my eye and hence clicked it even though the product in question is a brand of cigarette.  I surely do not endorse the product.