Hi All, I hope you all are having a great week! This past week we lost two fine people who’d reached the pinnacle of their success in their own way. One was Kobe Bryant, whom even I, as someone who has never watched any sports, is familiar with. The other was Clayton Christensen who’s book made me want to go back to b-school. His 2010 article “How will you measure your life” is a truly worthy read. Imagine this from a b-school professor!
The lesson I learned from this is that it’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time. If you give in to “just this once,” based on a marginal cost analysis, as some of my former classmates have done, you’ll regret where you end up. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place.
Speaking of kind and good people, those of you who know me know that I love dogs and this article on store keepers allowing dogs in at night really warmed my heart. I saw something similar in Delhi when visiting Connaught place (and the photo below is from there) where some kind soul had given all these street dogs a blanket to keep them warm at night. With all the bad out there, there is also a lot of good. Love it!
Ok, this weeks reads!
Systems thinking is pretty hard but here is a neat set of things to think about to get your head around systems thinking.
Privilege and Success : This is a good and honest opinion but lets face it, someone who is so self aware is obviously super smart too. We need more people like Jason Ford
The real reason my startup was successful: privilege.
This article from David Perell on The Social Media Trap clearly articulates an old experiment.People don’t wash their hands are using the bathroom. We have a very different version of ourselves online and we’re scared when people are watching.
I’m taking a class at Berkeley called Edible Education (and you can take in live online too) and this weeks reading consists of an article called : Your Questions About Food and Climate Change, Answered. The article has practical tips on how to eat better as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Fintech : a16z on the payment functionality as a service. Reminds me a lot of fabless semiconductors and disintermediation of semiconductor manufacturing ; Every Company Will Be a Fintech Company
Podcasts : I’m not much into podcasts but this article (again from a16z) is a great deep dive into podcasting, types, revenue/monetization and why the podcasting frenzy has just begun
Investing in the Podcast Ecosystem in 2019
This HBR article talks about how to Turn Your Customers into Your Community. Your best customers are your marketing department
We are all drowning in a sea of information and this article has some good principles as well as tips on what one must read and what one must ignore. What's the minimum information required to live well?
Talk out loud to yourself. It’s good for you :)
A great article on the history of news, the problems with news. Centralization and decentralization of news and how to quit the news! We are in a decentralized cycle!
For anyone in the workplace B2B SaaS space this medium article was a good mapping on the different types of workplace startups
The lesson we need to unlearn is how to get good grades. Good grades teaches us nothing!