Articles

Here’s a list of articles i’ve found interesting

• Technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives has arrived. Are we ready? – Personally, I believe tech like this would only worsen grief than help. With AI getting significantly better each day, there’s going to be more dilemmas like these that we need to be prepared to handle.
• How to Think for yourself – In this article, Paul Graham talks about importance of independent thinking. He also lists out what it means to be an independent thinker and the components of independent thinking and how we can nurture it.  I resonate with the thought that you are largely influenced by the kind of people you surround yourself with, so be open to diverse experiences, meeting and learning from new people.
• Non-linear workdays changing the shape of productivity – 9 to 5 work model is dead and as the world shifted to the hybrid work model employees now can craft their work schedules that suits them the best and takes into account their natural working rhythms. While greater flexibility will lead to greater productivity, it is important to have a clearly defined process and guideposts that prevent employees from straying too far away from a collaborative working schedule.
• How much would you pay for a box that beeps! – This article had interesting nuggets on how to pitch a product to the customer and set the price for it. It underscores the fact that customers don’t buy your product for its cutting-edge spec or features, they are buying it for solving their problem, so focus on the problem and you’ll never have to worry about lack of customers. This is applicable for everything that we do, day in and day out.
• 3 Types of Meetings — and How to Do Each One Well – A refresher on how to handle meetings in a hybrid work model and how to ensure everyone can make the most of meetings.
• How to have better Arguments? – Arguments are inevitable these days and it’s extremely important for us to understand the basics around arguing (why/how/when etc.). In addition to arming us with information, knowing these will help both us and the other person to get more out of the exchange.
• Why It’s Hard To Learn From Our Mistakes – Though a clickbait-y title, there’s some key information shared in this article around common reasons for why it’s easy to make mistakes and how neuroplasticity can help overcome this.
• How to deal with difficult people without losing your mind – Conflicts are inevitable in all walks of life and having an approach that works for us and learning the alternatives  definitely helps. From the article – “ While most of us admit we are far less than perfect, we often find it quite difficult to accept others’ imperfection. If we are to handle difficult situations successfully, we must accept that people can be both flawed and fabulous.”
• Chesterton’s Fence – A Lesson in Second Order Thinking – As Modernization, Reorganization, Consolidation etc. become part of our usual work vocabulary, it’s imperative we understand the importance of second order thinking. As the article points out ” A core component of making great decisions is understanding the rationale behind previous decisions. If we don’t understand how we got “here,” we run the risk of making things much worse “
• Why Facts Don’t change Minds – “ The way to change people’s minds is to become friends with them, to integrate them into your tribe, to bring them into your circle. Now, they can change their beliefs without the risk of being abandoned socially ” – In this article, James talks about why facts don’t usually change minds and what does it take to get people to accept a different point of view
• Lifestyles – Morgan Housel – A well written piece that talks about how important mindsets are and how finding a balance between external vs internal measures of success or happiness are core to our wellbeing.
• An Engineering team where everyone is a leader – A very well written piece with practical tips for managers and leaders on how to build a team where each engineer is empowered to make decisions and leads from the front.
• How to mend your broken pandemic brain – COVID-19 pandemic has truly hit the humankind in all possible areas including messing up our brains. As the world slowly starts its recovery journey, this article talks about some of the impacts to our brain and how we can help fix it faster.
• Ask HN: I’m in a rut. How did you get out of yours? – This active thread on HackerNews has lot of tips and discussions on how to handle and recover from Burnout and languishing. What intrigued me was, how a simple question when asked in a powerful forum could lead to tons of learning. Never be afraid to ask questions!
• How can I become a Director? – A very well written piece by Guru Bhat on what it takes to become a director. Eloquent as always, Guru hits the bulls eye on some key attributes that everyone should aspire to attain if they are on a quest for this title. I’ve been fortunate to learn by experience how “Bias for Action” can be a key differentiator in creating value for our stakeholders.
• Injections that edit Genes to stop diseases! – I’m filled with both hope and fear when I read articles like this. While this has the power to save millions of people, what stops someone from using the same tech for nefarious purposes.
• How to work with someone you can’t stand – “ Like it or not, your job and reputation can rely on an ability to get along with others.” Valdes-Dapena says there are steps you can take to make the situation more bearable.”
• The Top Idea in your mind – Another one of those gems from Tim’s newsletter where Paul Graham writes about ambient thought.