Tag: short-and-straight

The Two Ideas Deal

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

It seems that whenever I read/hear/watch anything interesting (eg. TED talks), it is usually full of many ideas. In them, almost always, few ideas are completely convincing to me, many I feel need more exploration to be convincing and some completely repel me.

There isn’t always enough time to be able to explore all the ideas that get thrown at me, of course. But in the spirit of being able to still absorb something of value from the time spent in being immersed in those ideas, I’ve thought of signing ‘the two ideas deal’ with myself.

According to the deal, of the many ideas that came my way in that time, I will incorporate/share/use one idea that completely convinced me and I will debate/explore/learn about one idea that completely repelled me.

Fighting the Introspection Principle

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

Introspection Principle states that the act of self-reflection is the most important for making big life decisions.

This principle is too ingrained in our psyche and is not the most effective way to build a compelling career. Fighting the principle means accepting that the path of finding compelling work is ambiguous. 

Cal Newport’s advice seems more convincing:

Compelling careers unfold as follows: You choose something. You work hard at building skills. You fail at some things and respond by shifting your attention to other things that work better. Over time, as you become more valuable to the world and confident in your ability, interesting opportunities finally start to arise.

Placebo x Nocebo

Akshat RathiLeave a comment

Just like the perceived presence of a medicine (placebo) can have an effect to alleviate the condition, the perceived absence of a medicine (nocebo) can have the opposite effect.

This is interesting because just as the brain can stimulate the presence of a drug (placebo), it can also negate the presence of a drug (nocebo)!

This is important because the nocebo effect means that side-effects which may not normally occur, may occur because the patient has been warned about them.