Misc

Let’s say 1% of kids are born with allergies. The statistic is useful for a public policy maker, someone who is setting up food menus in schools or regulating restaurants. However, the statistic is useless for you as a parent. Unless you are planning to have around 10+ kids, you are never going to experience the statistical outcome. If you have one child, either the child would have an allergy or he won’t. Statistical outcomes matter only when someone plays a game sufficient times.

When Sony’s Walkman was expensive, we used them with cheap earphones. Once the music players were cheap, we shifted to more expensive headphones as a status symbol.

Writing a blog post in plain text isn’t fun. Neither is writing it in a bulky word processor like Microsoft Word. The former is too constrained, the latter too unbridled. Writing in Markdown is fun. It has sufficient features without creating bloat. Building a backend in lambda functions has a strong lock-in. On the other hand, deploying web services on Virtual Machines (or physical machines!), while having little lock-in, is complicated....

One unique aspect of Indian culture is its desire to innovate in culinary. Tomato was first introduced to India in the 16th century. Now, it is an integral part of Indian cooking and is used in ways most others cultures won’t.

There are positive jobs and then there are double-negative jobs. Positive jobs when done well increase the revenue of the company. On the other hand, double-negative jobs when done well, prevent the loss of revenue. Consider HR, lawyer, physical/information security personnel, all are double-negative roles. If they do their job well, you won’t notice any harm. It is hard to justify spending on double-negative jobs. They don’t increase the bottom line....

The US is one of the few countries where the temperature measurements are in Fahrenheit. Elsewhere, Celsius is the norm. Usually, when traveling, I want an approximate mapping. Thankfully, it is linear and easy to memorize. To convert temperature in ºC to ºF - double and add 30 To convert temperature in ºF to ºC - subtract 30 and half

A sample of LinkedIn requests I receive these days. Hi Ashish, I’m the CEO of [redacted]. [redacted]. I’m looking for financial partners and would like to connect to see if we’re a fit. Hi Ashish, I’m the CEO of [redacted]. [redacted]. I’m looking for financial partners and would love to connect! - M Hey Ashish, I’m the CEO of [redacted] - [redacted]. I’m looking for introductions to financial partners and would like to connect to see if we’re a fit. - S Hi Ashish, I’m the CEO of [redacted]. [redacted]. I’m looking for introductions to financial partners and would love to connect! - K

Checklist for Good Health 3 servings of Beans 1 serving of Berries 3 servings of other fruits 1 serving of Cruciferous vegetables 2 servings of Greens 2 servings of Other Vegetables 1 serving of Flaxseed 1 serving of Nuts 1 serving of Spices 3 servings of Whole Grains 5 servings of Beverages 1 tablet of Vitamin B12 supplement 1 workout session

Some activities have binary outcomes while some have graded outcomes. Getting admission into a college is binary, either you get it or you don’t; how well you do in the college is graded. Clearing a job interview is binary, either you get selected or you don’t; how well you do the job isn’t that black and white. Getting a promotion is binary; while a pay raise is usually on a graded scale....

Cities have been central to the human civilization. Their dense population provides a platform for the serendipitous interactions and cross-pollination of ideas from different domains, their abandoned portions provide cost-effective real estate to struggling artists and entrepreneurs, their riches provides jobs, sometimes, side-jobs for the innovators to experiment. No wonder innovation in a city grows super-linearly (~(size)4/3) with its size. But the Internet was supposed to destroy all advantages a city has over the rural areas....