Category: Insights
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Seeking Greatness and the Myth of Objectives
Let’s start with a riddle You’re lost in a labyrinth and you need to get out quickly. It’s a matter of survival. You chance upon two robots in this labyrinth. One robot has the algorithm: “I find novel spaces.” The other robot has the algorithm: “I seek the exit.” Which robot gives you the best…
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More useful as a shipwreck!
Evidently a lot of shipwrecks are being salvaged in order to reuse the metal for high specification technology. The metal in these wrecks are uncontaminated by the atmospheric radiation since 1945 so they’re highly prized and necessary. It blows my mind to think that this lead was mined by Romans. Incidentally a few days ago,…
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Clear Language is the Basis of Strategy – Talk
I recently gave a talk about the connection between language and strategy – effectively, how language is the technology that enables humans to strategise, and here are the slides.
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The Razor’s Edge
One of my favourite books is ‘The Razor’s Edge’ by Somerset Maugham. The opening epigraph is: The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over;thus the wise say the path to salvation is hard. It never made complete sense to me when I first read it in my twenties, and it still doesn’t.…
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The Joy of Sharing
Recently a colleague and shared a post about a book, The Timeless Way of Building’ that I had recommended to him. I was delighted to see him with the same joy I felt. I was prompted to write the following: I cannot think of anything more joyful than stumbling across something new and wonderful, then…
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The Last Frontier – A Sufi Journey
The Last Frontier – A Sufi Journey by Reshad Feild If thou wilt be observant and vigilant, thou wilt see at every moment the response to thy action. Be observant if thou wouldst have a pure heart, for something is born to thee in consequence of every action.– Mevlana Jelalu’ddin Rumi Like a lot of…
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Summary: Dhandho Investor – The Low Risk Method to High Returns
Mohnish Pabrai couldn’t figure out how on Earth the Patels – an small immigrant community that only arrived in the US a few decades ago with barely any assets to their name – managed to acquire $40bn worth of American motel and hotel assets. He came to realise that the answer is in their approach: low…
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Digital Escapism – What are We Running Away From?
Shantaram & underlying anxiety In the epic story, ‘Shantaram’, Gregory David Roberts talks about the constant anxiety he experienced in his everyday life. He was, after all, Australia’s most wanted man at the time. Since Gregory was on the run, his constant anxiety was hardly surprising: it was likely that at any time he could…
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Language as a basis for strategy
The connection between language and strategy Starting about 300,000 years ago language was used by groups of early human males to overthrow the alpha male of their group. According to Richard Wrangham, a researcher of anthropology, primate groups differ from human groups in that, typically, a group of primates has an alpha male with subordinate males.…
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The Bitter Feeling about Timeless Places
One of the qualities about something being ‘timeless’ is that it is slightly bitter – so says Christopher Alexander in his book, ‘The Timeless Way of Building’. I wondered what he meant by that – I found it peculiar especially since many of the other qualities seemed understandable (alive, comfortable, free, exact, etc). But I…