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Intelligent people find it hard to say no, when asked for a solution to a problem 

Intelligent people think that if something takes “just a little time” it should be done right away 

Intelligent people think handling urgency is helpful 

Intelligent people are addicted to instant gratification (and acknowledgement) 

Intelligent people are always flexible with their plans. I am accommodating, they say. 

Intelligent people are cursed. 

By their own intelligence. 

Those who are not, are called smart 

Smart people recognize that the work they are doing right now is for a reason. 

It may not have an output in 2 days, but if their postpone it to pick something else, they will delay the future. 

Smart people know the difference between urgent and important 

Smart people are not flexible with their plans. Only with their thoughts. 

And that’s why you find intelligence in abundance

And smartness rarely

My road to office is a pretty smooth one. Takes me around 35 mins to reach and it’s a fairly uninterrupted ride.

Occasionally, we get stuck. Maybe a truck broke down, or someone hit someone else.

At that point, when we are in a jam, it doesn’t matter whether you car can do 0-60 in 3 seconds, it doesn’t matter how much fuel you have, it doesn’t matter how expensive your car is and it doesn’t matter when you left and how far you have to go.

Instead, other strange things seem to take over

– the music you are listening to

– the company you have

– the patience you have

– what you tell yourself

When stuck in life, the things that brought you to that point might not be the things that get you out of the jam. 

I have red-green color blindness. Which means, when you see the image below you see a number. And I don’t see anything 

No pattern at all. Just dots 

  
But hey, that’s the world I was born in. It’s my world. 

And it’s perfect. 

Except

It’s not! 

My world is not perfect. It’s incomplete. It’s perhaps even inadequate. How would I even know. 

Yes, I can make do with what I have and still rule the world. But the fact doesn’t change of what my world really is. 

And the sooner I realize this fact and accept it, the better I will be at dealing with it. 

Imperfections are like humans. They need recognition. And acknowledgment. 

Mathematicians and physicists are trained to always identify the boundaries and operating constraints, while solving a problem. 

And yet, the best ones perhaps didn’t pay any heed to those boundaries. 

They started from first principles. 

The minute you start your problem with identifying the boundary, you have closed some doors. Closed some perspective. Perhaps closed your mind too. 

“We only have this much money” 

“We don’t have more than these people”

“This technology doesn’t exist”

“No one has done this before”

“We have never done this before”

The best solutions never defined the starting boundaries. 

They didn’t even acknowledge their existence. 

You toss a coin. There is a 50% chance it will land as tails. But it doesn’t. Heads it is. 

You toss again. Heads again

And heads again

And heads again

And heads again

With 5 heads in a row, when you toss the coin the 6th time, guess what’s the likelihood of tails landing up? 

Again 50% 

Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result is insanity (Einstein) 

It’s also probability (Warikoo) 

And probability only changes when you change something material. 

The next time you are working really hard, hoping that the work itself will influence probability, ask yourself – what did you change from what you used to do? 

If nothing – go back and change the probability. 

One always wonders – what makes people successful. 

Ambition

Determination

Hard work

Intelligence

Passion

Several other powerful words

To me, it’s a lot simpler. 

Those who are successful BELIEVE that they are worthy of that success. 

ISB taught me a lot. But I don’t remember much of the classes. 

Michigan State changed my life. And I aced the exams too. Wouldn’t be able to reproduce anything from the classes today, if I had to. 

Same for Delhi university. 

The best learning has come from what’s happened outside of the class. While I was living life. 

The best learning has come when no one was teaching.

Instead when I was listening. Observing. Not with the intent to reply. Rather with the intent to learn. 

It’s not what they teach you that matters. 

It’s what you learn instead. 

At the gym, You don’t burn out mentally. Because you always burn out physically. 

It’s opposite at work. 

Ironically, the side that’s still not burnt out, is the one that can get the other side out of its state. 

At the gym – it’s your mental state that can get you of the physical burn out. 

At work – it’s your physical state that does the same for your mental burn out. 

Don’t sit – stand and walk. 

Don’t take the elevator – climb up. 

Don’t type. Write

Don’t eat shit. 

Don’t whine. 

Smile. Jump. Play. Focus!

Energy grows where focus flows. 

I took a solo trip this weekend. The first planned one in my life. 

Intent was to be around things that I wanted to do but couldn’t find the opportunity to. And to gather my thoughts around them. 

I watched TED videos, saw Ship of Theseus again, read a whole bunch, wrote even more. 

And in one such conversation with myself, I started speaking out what is it that I truly want to achieve in life. Why do I get up every morning. What drives me. 

And as I thought about it and spoke about it, I realized I was crying. Involuntarily. 

And I didn’t stop. Crying. Or talking. Or thinking. 

And all three continued. 

And then I remembered this video

And I was suddenly at peace. Knowing that my emotions were my strength. Not my weakness.