It's a fun book, and Elon has cracked the hologram code. But this book is too early - written before Alexander set off from Macedonia. The game has onIt's a fun book, and Elon has cracked the hologram code. But this book is too early - written before Alexander set off from Macedonia. The game has only started....more
Pretty standard staple for the most part - a few early stories about an entrepreneurial childhood mindset, some early formative mistakes, and then thePretty standard staple for the most part - a few early stories about an entrepreneurial childhood mindset, some early formative mistakes, and then the suspense of keeping a business afloat... The last third redeems the book somewhat. ...more
There are three Acts to this short explosive novel.
The first is Pastoral. The second is Modern And the third is Post-Modern
Vivek traces many patterns inThere are three Acts to this short explosive novel.
The first is Pastoral. The second is Modern And the third is Post-Modern
Vivek traces many patterns in this beguiling work. Invokes nostalgia, aversion, and unease. He examines the evolution of family life, he examines the evolution of city life, he examines the nation’s morality over time, he examines the attitude to authority, he examines our proclivity to authoritarianism, he examines the role of journalism� what else? Quite a bit more, or so I felt a day after reading it in a mad rush. That is the beauty of a symbolic work that keeps all symbolism at a pole’s length. Vivek stays surely in the concrete small story he is weaving, while the reader starts rushing all over the place...
These small passages summarise the three Acts of this powdering of a novel that ends so abruptly that you’re left picking up the pieces and seeing the whole thing in a new light once it is all over:
This first passage captures what I felt was the essence of the book for most of my reading. It's a glimpse into the everyday life of an ordinary Indian family. There's nothing extraordinary in it. Life is what is extraordinary. Good fiction is capable of showing us Life with clarity. I was lucky I read this immediately after watching Pixar's 'Soul', which tries to tell us that Life is the reason for living, there are no additional reasons required. The full lived experience of our emotions and all the moments that pack our lives - that is all that is needed for a meaningful life.
Examine this passage if you can. See how your emotions draw a line around the scene. See how you might be thinking about the quaintness and the innocence of the scene, of their excitement at such a basic thing in life. Something we take for granted. It's almost sad isn't it, all that excitement for such a small thing?
But now perhaps think of the small things that might have given you as much joy? Is the misery of getting something so late in life greater than the sheer joy of the moment - a moment when you can expect your life to change so significantly so easily? Would future readers read similar scenes about the generation which unboxed phones (or drones, or whatever is deemed a bare necessity by the future reader) and made whole youtube videos about them?
"Chikkappa saved for months from his small income before managing to bring cooking gas to our kitchen. Along with it came a table for the stove to rest on. There was such a bustle of excitement and anticipation at home the day gas arrived. The workmen who brought home the cylinder and stove only placed them in the middle of the kitchen, put them together, showed us the flame, and left. We had already decided where to install the stove, but we went over the matter again at some length just to prolong the moment. Amma repeated at least ten times that she’d heard tea could be made in five minutes on a gas stove. She wondered if food cooked standing up would be as tasty. She joked: ‘Don’t ask me for tea again and again simply because it will be quick to make.� We had a long session about how the gas cylinder ought to be turned on and off to ensure maximum safety. Appa warned Amma: ‘Watch carefully now. You’ll forget everything otherwise.� And she listened quietly without putting up a fight. Amma had surveyed the neighborhood about its gas usage patterns. She told us how long a cylinder lasted in each neighbour’s house and how it could be stretched. ‘If it’s used only for urgent cooking, it lasts two months,� she said. ‘Even when it’s run out, it seems you can turn the cylinder upside down and get a little more.� The inaugural preparation was to be a round of tea. I was sent out to buy some chivda for accompaniment."
If you can live such moments fully, that's Life. --
The second act surprised me. This passage was the segue. The beautiful nostalgic narrative was starting to get uncomfortable and starting to ask questions� Again examine it honestly and see if you haven’t acted in some similar way, having ceded control to your purchasing power like some kind of out-of-control wish-fulfilling genie.
It’s true what they say � it’s not we who control money, it’s the money that controls us. When there’s only a little, it behaves meekly; when it grows, it becomes brash and has its way with us. We spent helplessly on Malati’s wedding. I say helplessly because no one asked us to; we simply didn’t know how to stop. The main actors in that month-long orgy of lavishness were Amma and Malati. I don’t think they even knew what they wanted. They’d set out every morning to shop. And when they were at home they spoke of nothing but saris and jewellery. The most expensive wedding hall we could find was booked. The caterer was dumbstruck by the number of dishes he was asked to serve. He’d come home to enquire about the menu and when he gave options of chiroti, holige, jalebi, pheni for the sweet, they said yes to all. He only had to mention a vegetable for them to say, ‘All right. Add that one too.�
The final act cannot be captured. It has to be examined in the aftermath of the abrupt explosion to have meaning. Read it....more
Capitalism works on data, on knowing its consumers ever better. It will create a utopia in which it knowInfo-communism - The End Stage of Capitalism.
Capitalism works on data, on knowing its consumers ever better. It will create a utopia in which it knows all and helps all. This was the communist dream, wasn't it? Yes, that's where we are headed.
Info-communism. Privacy is Theft.
It is glorious, it is imminent. Pray for it....more
1. People act from their experiences. Don't judge from yours.
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2. Luck & Risk is all around you. They
Pithy book. Here's some for you:
1. People act from their experiences. Don't judge from yours.
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2. Luck & Risk is all around you. They don't fit the stories you want to tell.
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3. If you can't recognize when you have enough, you will soon have nothing.
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4. Warren Buffet could have been an ordinary investor if not for his longevity. Investing - if done well - is utterly boring. It’s because the chief ingredient in the growth of a portfolio is time.
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5. More than big returns, be financially unbreakable. If you are unbreakable you actually will get the biggest returns, because will be able to stick around long enough for compounding to work wonders.
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6. The tail wags the dog in Finance and Business. Long tails—the farthest ends of a distribution of outcomes—have tremendous influence, where a small number of events can account for the majority of outcomes.
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7. People want to become wealthier to make them happier. Happiness is a complicated subject because everyone’s different. But if there’s a common denominator in happiness—a universal fuel of joy—it’s that people want to control their lives. It is the highest dividend money pays.
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8. The Man in the Fancy Car is irrelevant, because the observers are busy imagining themselves in it.
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9. There is no faster way to feel rich than to spend lots of money on really nice things. There's no faster way to not be rich as well. That's the paradox of wealth.
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10. One of the most powerful ways to increase your savings isn’t to raise your income. It’s to raise your humility. Dont spend money to show you have money. Savings = Income - Ego
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11. Adopt a reasonable strategy, not an ultra rational one. The plan that you are able to stick to is better than the one that looks good on a spreadsheet.
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12. "Things that have never happened before happen all the time.� History is mostly the study of surprising events. 2020 should have taught us this, of course.
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13. Margin of Safety—you can also call it room for error—is the only effective way to safely navigate a world that is governed by odds, not certainties.
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14. An underpinning of psychology is that people are poor forecasters of their future selves. Imagining a goal is easy and fun. Imagining a goal in the context of the realistic life stresses that grow with competitive pursuits is something entirely different.
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15. Don't think of market losses from fluctuations as a fine, but as an admission fee. It'll help you stay in longer.
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16. The financial game has one fundamental parameter - the time horizon. Never copy someone working with a different time horizon than you.
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17. Optimism is the best bet for most people because the world tends to get better for most people most of the time. Progress happens too slowly to notice, but setbacks happen too quickly to ignore. Pessimism sounds smarter, but optimism is the long game.
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18. Trying to make sense of the world is the cause of most mistakes. Psychologist Philip Tetlock once wrote: “We need to believe we live in a predictable, controllable world, so we turn to authoritative-sounding people who promise to satisfy that need.� Respect the mess.
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