Stillfiguring

[Shubham Aggarwal @ShubhamAggarwl]

Indian School of Business (ISB) is India’s first private business school, not affiliated with AICTE or UGC but holding international accreditation.

What are the students from the first cohort (2001–2002) doing 22 years later?

A Thread 🧵👇

[Stillfiguring @abhi5217]

@dieworkwear You my friend are a rockstar!

[EDDIE CHENG @ecomEddie]

The most addictive drug in the world isn’t cocaine, heroin, or alcohol.

It’s comfort.

How to break free (and reach your true potential):

[Mukul Dekhane @dekhane_mukul]

Irrelevance is the new retirement.

Deloitte India with a retirement age of 62 years, gave golden handshake to 35 partners above 55.

They are removing those who have their past behind them and adding those who have their future ahead of them.

Guess who all will follow. Right, everyone!

When I came in, no one took you seriously until you had grey hair. Age got respect, credibility and deference.

Just when I got there, someone changed the rules of the game!

Now I know what Charlie Chaplin meant, “Time is my only enemy”.

So you see people trying to cover up their age.
The hair gets blacker.
Cosmetic procedures, shiny new wheels, trendy lingo.
In short my generation moved from trying to impress those older than us to those younger to us! And we all know the former is probable the latter are near impossible to please.

Ask anyone who has retired. They don’t miss the money. They miss the routine, meetings, travel, ringing phones- what they may have complained about. As humans we struggle for relevance. That our life matters. Without it there is void.

Along this time, you meet more Doctors than DJs. You may be paying heavy cost of your kids higher education and you realise that time is running out on you.

Henry Thoreau said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation and they go to their graves with the song still in them.”

In your fifties there are three possibilities.
One is disappointment of not getting that S Class Merc or you got it but think about what you missed in its chase and the third is laughing at the stupidity of ever wanting one. 

कभी किसी को मुकम्मल जहाँ नहीं मिलता
कहीं ज़मीन तो कहीं आसमान नहीं मिलता

No one gets everything, sometimes you get success but failed relationships, kids grew up and parents grew old without you and sometimes you get that right but fall short of success.

What’s funny is that growing old is compulsory but growing up seems optional.

I marvel at people’s ability to be childish, egoistic and ready to fight on trivial things. How did they miss the point of life!

Long back I stopped buying tickets to other people’s dramas. I see all around me with the attitude of the Polish adage, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”
A delayed flight, people venting on counter staff, cutting lines to board an aircraft early. Everything is stressful and everything is funny- depends on our lens.

Ageing well is moving from being a noisy mountain stream in your teens to a deep, calm ocean.

Fifties our ancients called Vanprastha ashram. Facing the forest. I have a different take to it. I think in fifties, one needs to build a Version 2, find our joie di vivre and burn the candle at both ends. Do what you need to do. Sing that song. If not now, when!

The pain of failure is less than the pain of regret. Go for it. Fifties is the new twenties with thirty years of experience! If you are in your twenties or thirties take it from me that time is a thief, it slips away. Buddha was right - The trouble is you think you have time!

Enjoy life to the fullest, as it comes....

😎😍😎😍😎

[Nathan Baugh @nathanbaugh27]

I collect the best opening lines from books.

10 gems – and what you can learn from them:

[Dickie Bush @dickiebush]

Something that has served me well:

Having a toolkit of high-quality questions to ask when talking to people ahead of me.

I never asked to "jump on a quick call to pick their brain."

Instead, I asked targeted questions they enjoyed thinking about.

Massively sped up progress.

[Shashank @ShashankSArora]

Who cares what they name the country. Give everybody access to clean water and food first. Build more hospitals and schools. We learnt nothing from covid. Fix the damn roads.

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

In 2009, Stanford business professor Tina Seelig split her class into groups and issued a challenge:

Each group had $5 and 2 hours to make the highest return on the initial money.

At the end, they'd give a short presentation on their strategy.

The results were fascinating...

Most of the groups followed a basic approach:

• Use the $5 to buy a few items.
• Barter or resell those items.
• Repeat
• Sell final items for (hopefully) more than $5.

These groups made a modest return on their initial $5.

A few groups ignored the $5.

They thought up ways to make the most money in the 2 hours of allotted time:

• Made and sold reservations at hot restaurants.
• Refilled bike tires on campus for $1 each.

These groups made a better return on their initial $5.

The winning group took an entirely different approach.

They had three core realizations:

1. The $5 was nothing more than a distraction.

2. The 2 hours of time was not enough to make an attractive, outsized return with a mini-business (like selling restaurant reservations or filling bike tires).

3. The most valuable "asset" was actually the presentation time in front of a class of Stanford students.

Realizing the value of this hidden asset, they offered the presentation time to companies looking to recruit Stanford students.

They struck a deal to sell the time slot for $650, netting a monstrous return on the $5 of initial capital.

The losing groups thought in linear, logical terms and achieved a linear, logical outcome.

The winning group thought differently.

So, what can we learn from this story?

There are two types of problems:

1. Low-Stakes: Lower potential, linear rewards. Decisions are easily reversible.

2. High-Stakes: Higher potential, asymmetric rewards. Decisions are not easily reversible.

With low-stakes problems, given the reward potential is low and the decisions are easily reversible, we can use shortcuts and heuristics to choose our path. We can take a logical, linear approach.

With high-stakes problems, the high, asymmetric reward potential means we need to think differently. We want to take a creative, non-linear approach.

Three steps to start thinking differently:

Step 1: Avoid the Distraction

There will always be an "obvious" solution that is simple, clear, and entirely wrong.

In the challenge, the $5 was nothing more than a distraction. It was a trap.

To find the best path, you have to avoid the distraction.

Step 2: Ask Foundational Questions

Ask and answer questions that expose and vet underlying assumptions and logic.

• What's the real problem you are trying to solve?
• What's your hypothesis? Why?
• What are your core assumptions? Why?
• What evidence do you have?
• What are your core options?
• What alternatives exist?

This takes time, but it's an essential exercise when facing a problem with the potential for non-linear rewards.

Step 3: Select the High Leverage Approach

Slow down and evaluate the options on the table.

Select the path most likely to generate the asymmetric, attractive risk-adjusted returns.

If the story teaches us one thing, it's this:

Creative, non-linear, asymmetric thinking generates creative, non-linear, asymmetric outcomes.

If you enjoyed this or learned something, follow me @SahilBloom for more in future.

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

WHERE TO BUY HIGH-QUALITY SHOES

Here's the follow-up to yesterday's thread on how to spot quality men's footwear. This thread is about where to buy such footwear. 🧵

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

HOW TO TELL IF SHOES ARE WELL-MADE

One of these shoes costs $150. The other costs $1,285.

Can you tell which is which? 🧵

[Chris Boettcher @chrisboettcher9]

Most people who work desk jobs struggle with:

• Mobility and flexibility
• Posture from excess sitting
• Shoulder, back, and neck pain

If this is you, this 15-minute beginner-level mobility program will change your life:

[Natasha Narwal @natasha_narwal]

While in Tihar, I met several women who were in prison for years for not having anyone to stand/furnish surety for them. One woman who was accused of stealing Rs 20 during the pandemic had a bail surety amount of Rs 20,000 to furnish.
https://t.co/YYMHO4a3FF via @scroll_in

[चंद्रकोर @Mooon_Shinee]

what an idea sir ji 💡
#innovative

[Kaushik Basu @kaushikcbasu]

My favorite cookbook on my shelf has a fish recipe, in which you’re told to “grind ginger & onions to a paste”. You put it aside & then mix the fish with curd, turmeric etc & do many other things. What’s amazing about this dish is you never return to the ginger & onion.

[TheLiverDoc™ @theliverdoc]

This is Dr. Dimple Jangda.
She makes us believe that she is an Ayurvedic practitioner.

But the fact is that she is not a doctor.
She is not even an Ayurvedic practitioner.
She has no formal training in real medicine or pseudomedicine of Ayurveda.

She was a television producer. Then an investment banker. Then a podcast host. And thereafter, a talk show host.

She has a masters degree in business administration. She has a virtual online degree from National American University in (?)management which she claims is "honorary." She has a diploma in Yoga from Yoga Mumbai Institute. She has a virtual and unidentifiable degree in (?) business management from Thames International University, Paris.

She has no formal training in any aspect of healthcare. She is a quack of quacks. A top of the line fearmongering "wellness fraud" - a bottom feeder in the ecosystem of healthcare business.

She is a female version of Sadhguru. Lots of confidently sounding English words that takes shape of a word salad containing some of the biggest health-related misinformation and disinformation in Indian social media today.

See this video for instance.
She tells gullible people (who are already fearmongered about modern medicine and have distrust in doctors and medical science) not to opt for gall bladder removal surgery even if it gets complicated with stones disease or inflammation (called acute cholecystitis).

A dangerous misinformation that can lead to loss of life.

The physiology of gall bladder function and the change in function after gall bladder surgery that she provides is top-class garbage.

Complicated gall stone disease require surgery for cure and to prevent further complications. If you remove the gall bladder, you do not develop more diseases like diabetes or obesity. The bile gets stored in the upper part of the small intestine in the absence of gall bladder and keeps helping in digestion.

There is no food or diet shortcut that can dissolve gall stones. The story that this lady speaks about - from her own father's experience of using Ayurveda to remove gall stones is complete fabrication. It is an unverifiable, anecdotal bluff. There is no way, gall stones can just disappear in a month.

There is only ONE method to diagnose and treat gall stones disease and it is the scientific method based consensus guidelines.

See this from the European Association for Study of Liver - Clinical Practice Guidelines on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of gallstones.
https://t.co/8jYIKbLcmI
It provides all information on
1. Prevention of gall stones
2. Diagnosis of gall bladder stones
3. Medical therapy of gall bladder stones
4. Surgical therapy of gall bladder stones
5. Diagnosis of bile duct stones
6. Endoscopic and surgical therapy of bile duct stones
7. Diagnosis and therapy of stones inside liver
8. Therapy of gall stones during pregnancy

Peppermint tea, hibiscus tea, lemon water and such easy sounding kitchen-hacks are not the treatment for gall bladder disease or complicated gall stones.

Gall bladder stones that are uncomplicated or incidentally detected do not require treatment. Do not worry about them unnecessarily. Gall stones that get stuck in the neck of the gall bladder or come down into the bile duct, causing bile duct obstruction, bile block and infection requires antibiotic therapy and after an interval, removal of gall bladder. Otherwise it could happen again and the second hit of infection could kill the person. It can also lead to gall stone pancreatitis that can lead to multiple organ failure.

No amount of hibiscus tea and lemon water will save you when you are in septic shock due to cholangitis and a ruptured gall bladder, on the ventilator inside an ICU.

High cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and fatty liver are not caused by removal of gall bladder, but are risk factors for development of the stones themselves - that is, metabolic diseases are associated with higher risk of developing gall stone disease and not the other way around.
https://t.co/HJ1ogYuGIx

The lady had gotten it all topsy-turvy - why?
Because she has no formal education in medicine and would probably have no clue on which side of the body the liver is.

Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in women aged 48-60 years prevented (a correlation) risk of complicated gall stone disease, and subsequent surgery, but is not in anyway same as not doing surgery for complicated gall stone disease. Once complicated, surgery is the best bet to prevent further complications.
https://t.co/qeJsSpGsRy

There is no evidence that drinking carrot and beetroot juice helps reduce complicated gall stone disease or dissolves gall stones. This is utter nonsense.

You may be wondering why my post is so long and I had to keep going on and on to debunk small points made by Dimple Jangda.

It is not so simple.

Its because of this: The Bullshit Asymmetry Principle, also known as Brandolini’s Law, states that the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

PS: Please dont share any more of this quack's videos for me to debunk. I am getting too old for this.

[The Figen @TheFigen_]

Drones used in the Wine Festival celebrations illuminated the night.
France, Bordeaux

[Ritesh Uttamchandani @photowallah]

There is absolutely nothing romantic and beautiful about the rains for the working class. 2 hours from Bandra to Parel, waterlogged streets, leaking buses, wet seats, jammed windows, no cabs, packed trains, missing footpaths, open drains, a broken city at best.

[Harsh Makadia @MakadiaHarsh]

6 Mobile Apps that provide on-the-go access to the GPT-4 🧵:

[Alex Hormozi @AlexHormozi]

At your funeral, friends and family will argue over who gets what.

People will want food to eat.

The topic will shift from your life to their lives.

They'll drive away thinking about their looming todo list.

Some people won't be able to make it because "something came up."

Do what you want.

[Rocky Singh 🇮🇳 @RockyEatsX]

The Pune to Mumbai trip so far has been full of surprises, revelations and reaffirmations and these highlights can barely capture all the fun! There is a lot more to come as the journey restarts tomorrow. Keep watching! #RoadTrippinWithRocky S5 #Maharashtra @HistoryTV18