Thought Travels

This is a nugget of thought that has stayed with me. I like the portfolio approach to life.

The idea is one of the many portfolios will do well in any given situation. What is also important are the vectors :

1. Career/Success/Money
2. Relationships (primarily at home but can be at the workplace with friends)
3. Health/Fitness
4. Personal Interests (Hobbies, passions etc.)
5. Spirituality

• I believe in Freedom. Individual freedom. I believe that the government has any business controlling what people see, read, hear act as long as they are not impinging on other's liberty. Exactly for this reason, I support pornography, legal prostitution etc. I oppose drugs on the premise not of individual freedom but the broad social costs (medical costs) that might be borne by society at large. A reasonable dose of recreational drugs is fine. For evolution of my views see judicial reading 'the great diasent'.

• Exactly because of that I am an advocate of freedom of speech specially in the artistic sphere. So long as the artist is not advocating violence, till then all depictions are fine. If people do not like something, they should not look at it. That is also exercising freedom.  

• This is precisely the reason that I support democracy as the only viable model of government. There is an inherent attraction of a benevolent dictatorship (China/Singapore) but I am very afraid of the 'benevolence of power'. If there was a way to ensure benevolence, I would support a benevolent dictatorship, but since there isn't, I don't. Democracies are messy, slow and sub-optimal but till the time we invent another method of government, we will have to live with it.

• I am against violence. However, I do believe that the credible threat of retaliation is an important deterrent. While I (or nations) should not initiate violence, they should be able to so in self-defence. Believing that everyone in the world understands the messages of non-violence is being gullible.

• I believe in the concept of the nation-state. Fundamentally, civilization and cultural unity is something very important to people. Fundamentally this premises that the national state is based on a commonality of core values (could be religious, culture or world-views). This is the key reason that immigration is fraught with so much pain. The immigrants bring their own world views and continually cling on to their way - without necessarily assimilating to the ways of the host country.

• I am an unabashed capitalist. Again, all other forms of economic systems have failed. Of course, capitalism is not kind and leads to 'inequality' but I am OK with this.I also believe that companies while they can act as catalysts, they are not responsible for social change. Companies are profit making machines and focus on that. CSR if really believed by the promoters can be done but it is not the core premise of the enterprise.

• I believe equality of opportunity but not equality of outcome. For example I may support affirmative action in those areas aimed to provide equality of opportunity i.e. say education. I vehemently oppose affirmative action which aims at equality of outcome say promotions.

• I believe that inequality is a feature of the system. People are born with innate abilities. People are sometimes just lucky. There is nothing wrong with inequality as I do not believe that there is some great moral judge sitting evening the scales out in the course of a lifetime.

• I do not fear homosexuality or any other kind of sexual behavior so long as it is done with the informed consent of two adults.

• I am a 'feminist' in the sense that women should have equal rights as that of a man. I believe that women should work. Economic independence especially of women is a great leveller and a great good. Also, I believe that bringing up a child well is of greater consequence than say being morally ambivalent about abortion. If there is not a full commitment from the mother that she is ready for motherhood, it should be her choice weather to abort a foetus. 

• I believe that systems and incentives matter. Reducing individual discretion, digitization and random audits are great tools to reduce corruption.

• I believe in Science. Precisely because of that I do not support homeopathy (but believe in the placebo theory) or clairvoyance (palmistry, horoscope etc.). I vehemently support genetically modified foods.

• I believe that the human body is very complex and we yet do not understand the myraid ways in which it works. Shit happens to the body without any moral cause.

• I am a realist and understand that things will be bad in the short-term. Sometimes, you have to bash a few heads to do the right thing. To be unwilling to get your hands dirty for the right thing  (i.e. sitting on the high pedestral of an moral ivory tower) is cowardice, not courage. Leaders need to be philosophers and also doers. This is what failed Obama. I believe in real-politik.

• I also believe that outcomes in life are generally a matter of luck/chance/circumstance. One can do a few things (hard work, cultivate talent etc.) to swing things your way. But if it does not happen, it is largely luck or circumstance.

• I believe in the Risk-Reward trade-off in almost all facets of life.

• At a group level Culture eats strategy for Lunch. You can recreate strategy but not culture. At an individual level Strategy (hardwork) will compensate for talent but talent will never compensate for strategy

• While this is work-in-progress, sometimes, I believe that - "Nobody knows nothing" in management, finance, election-forecasting etc. Even the best pundits are wrong and are at best taking educated guesses.

• I do not believe in God. It is a psychological salve (and a very useful and important one at that). I also believe in transcendence and a psychological state of 'one-ness' with the universe. i.e. sprituality However, this is not 'religious' phenomenon but a human one. Every religion in the world has a mystical tradition which is this transcendence. I believe in a personal dharma.

• I do not believe in 'cosmic justice' i.e. that the karmic debt will be paid in this lifetime. Sometimes very bad people have very good lives and vice versa. The response of religion is to take a 'long-term' view across multiple lifetimes (the hindu view) and say that it evens out across lifetimes. This is specious.

• I believe in meditation. It helps immensely if done rightly.

• I do not believe in "soul". This has been one of the most difficult notions to get rid off. However, let me say this. We cannot believe in an anthropomorphic view that soul is only a quantity of humans. Science has proved that we occupy but an infinitesimal sliver of eternity. (Get this 96% of all species EVER evolved have perished leaving no trace of 'soul'. The dianosaur remains are now fueling our cars.) Religion and consequently souls was evolved to ensure good behaviour among early human bands/city-states in the absence of a formal authority. 
• TED is bullshit.
• There is a class of problems that Analytics cannot solve.