I want my “smart” phone to be just smart enough not too smart. “Smart” phones were revolutionary when they came out in the market around 2007 with iPhone announcement in macworld and following immediately with Android, phones exploded. We immediately had Phone, Music Player, Navigation, Browser all in one hardware that you can carry in your pocket. This was revolutionary. Our hardware become so powerful, our phones are simply a mini super computer we carry around.

According to Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of Spotify, “The value of your company is equal to the sum of the problems you are able to solve.” “Sometimes, your work is critical in ways you might not realize. It transforms the lives of those who use your product, solving problems for them. Often, whether you’re a junior or senior in your field, you might not grasp who you’re helping. I want to emphasize how vital your work is, as it translates to the benefits experienced by users.

This article is purely my opinion. Take it or leave it. People don’t realize mocking someone in name of fun with their body appearances, color or height or any other form of disability is not mocking the other, but showcasing oneself in poor light. I witnessed this in a recent encounter in a technical meet up. I know both folks, but one shaming the other in the name of joke was unacceptable.

I have never been prescriptive on my learning. But I felt there is a universal appeal to this set of learning I had. Everyone have their own learnings in their career, and they use it as their guiding north star. Here are my learnings that I learned hard way. To summarize, skills I want to write about are Being Assertive Effective Communication Healthy Boundaries Being Assertive There is a fine line between Being Assertive, Aggressive or Being an Asshole.

Before I even write about this, I have to thank my wife who supported and allowing me to take time to write. It means she took additional responsibility of dealing with newborn and elder one. So, thank you for her. Last year 2022, I made a decision to write one blog post weekly. I didn’t believe I can do that but still that is the purpose of goal setting to aim higher.

I am self reflecting in this blog. Every year brings everyone a new learning. I was once told by my friend,“ Instead of planning what to be done at the beginning of the year, let’s start reflecting the year went at the end. It will inform what you should do next year” We are in this world where constant education is a constant thing. We learn from books, blogs, videos, by observing others and sometimes good-hearted fellows will come and give you a suggestion.

Overthinking - Art of creating problems that didn’t exist in the first place. I wanted to do a job that I enjoy. We all do. But the challenge is figuring out what I enjoy. We are faced multitude of choices every day. The part I struggle when faced with a choice. What I enjoy ? Or Will it give me the satisfaction in long term ? Hard choices in life appear simple in its face value.

Past few months, I am working on changing few things in my life. I thought it is good time to document them and see down the line how they worked out. Did I persist with them ? What I learnt from them ? Notifications One I felt important to mention, is turning off notifications on my phone. It is the single influential change for me in recent times. I notice when I turned off notifications, I am picking up my phone less than what I am used to.

I work with leaders and I consider that a privilege to see them in action. I have worked with a lot of leaders from my present and past. Furthermore, I was thinking what made them to be in that position. Is it knowledge, or they know people or natural ability to lead or decision-making ? I am sure they are humans, and they are qualified to make mistakes. But what separates them out from the rest is their ability to do basic things with exceptional precision.

I was watching a cartoon series with my kid, and it was interesting to see a part where a tiger was questioning his father about all the things he is seeing from the car. The kid was curious and wanted to know all about things. Kid was a good observer. But as we grow up, we stop being curious and lack motivation to learn about anything. We are interested about saving money and taking care of problems at hand.

“I feel that I’m not entitled to have an opinion unless I can state the arguments against my position better than the people who are in opposition. ” - Charles T. Munger In this modern social media world, everyone has an opinion on everything. People argue to justify their position and belief. I would imagine what would world look like without arguments or dissents. But Arguments are essential to learn perspectives and to know we all don’t know a lot.

We call it peace of mind, but actually all we want is peace from mind - Naval Ravikanth I push myself to edge or point of no return. I encounter array of constant Zoom calls and meetings. My mind races to solve one technical problem after another. I get out of work to spend time with my family but hard to unwind. Mind still churning things from work. Pending tasks and things to prepare for tomorrow or an email I need to send.

I have my handful and far too many things pending in my to-do list. I am not sure where to focus. Let’s say 2 things in my to-do list like, Read the book that is sitting on my shelf for months Write the article for my blog These two to-do are from my current list. I am not able to pick which one to do first. Also, while doing one thing, I am thinking about the next on my list.

Successful innovators are conservative. They have to be. They are not ‘risk-focused’; they are ‘opportunity-focused. - Peter Drucker When Amazon reported a strong third-quarter revenue growth in year 2011, but indicated that they will spend more money to invest in continued growth, stock plummeted and traded lower at $181. Stocks was always bumpy when it came to Amazon in those years. It was due to the fact investors were derailed by short term results while company and its founder Jeff Bezos were playing long term game.

This is final part 5 of me documenting my journey into economics. In this I want to write about trade economics, generally called - Global Trade. Trade has grown so much in the past century, you can even define that it is an important development that has changed world. This integration of national economies has materialized into remarkable growth in trade between countries. World data from 2019 shows that trade openness (defined as country’s import-export as share of country’s GDP) has an average of 30% increased from 1950.