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My Second Book – Main Batata Hoon

My recently published book, ‘Main Batata Hoon’, is now available in paperback and Kindle formats on most if not all regional Amazon sites around the world. An aunt was so amused with the title, she said she couldn’t wait to read the stories themselves. I clarified that I had used all the humour in the…

Leopard 2 Tanks and the Irony

I can’t seem to get over the irony of how once upon a time, Russian tanks helped turn the fate of a world war against invading Germany..; to current times where multiple European countries are now sending German-made (Leopard 2) tanks to Ukraine to help save it from the invading Russians.   Somewhere between these…

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An Indian Survivorship Bias Example

Many of you must have seen that drawing of a World War II plane with red dots on it. It explains Survivorship bias, a bias that statistician Abraham Wald figured out. Pic: source Simply put, survivor bias is our tendency to view a situation or pattern as a comprehensive representative sample, often without considering what…

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How About a Mass Behavioural Improvement before India’s 100th Independence Day

  The beautiful tri-colour waving at Connaught Place, Central Park, Delhi. It’s 75 years since India got Independence! A proud milestone for all of us Indians. Also one to reflect on and carefully choose the path forward. I happened to read a 75th Independence Day post on Instagram a short while ago, that took a…

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The Hostile World for Women

The normal-seeming world of us men is often a battle zone that most women need to navigate each day.
Places and experiences we might not give a second thought about, can be horribly taxing on the attentional space of women.
We all need to educate, be considerate, and design safer and more thoughtful spaces and processes for them.

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Plastic Diet – Trying to Predict Big Pharma’s Next Big Thing

Image: source Since plastic is pretty much an inescapable part of our diets now, and since we humans are inclined to prefer selling/buying a solution rather than inconveniencing ourselves with rollbacks or preventive efforts, my prediction for big pharma is that their next big offering will be pills (or some other form) of supplements to…

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All We Need is Somebody to Lean On

Sometime before lockdown, I was in another city, attending a wedding. The reception was in this beautiful open ground. I’m no fan of wedding ceremonies, so once I was done admiring the place, I was a little bored. After some time at the bar, I caught up with a few people, and was back to…

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Even Flow

Image: source In the past few months, I happened to come across some books and a lot of articles around habits. What at least some of us who struggle to build a good habit (or get rid of a bad one) assume, is that habits are like finding a nice, quiet spot somewhere (at a…

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The ‘Sample Size of One’ Concept Simplified

Given my growing interest in behavioural science and behavioural economics, when there was quite some news about the replication crisis in the field, it got me wondering if there might be a better way to undertake studies so that they remain relevant, if not replicable. The thought was triggered by a random interaction in the…

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Counterintuitiveness – Psyched vs Calm

Pic: source Counterintuitive Series: Psyched vs Calm Counterintuitiveness makes life more interesting. It also briefly reveals gaps or lags in our understanding or mindsets. From time to time, life demands that we get charged for something. Could be the commencement of a big project, a project with a tight deadline, a school or college assignment…