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Most major Tennis tournaments (for that matter any major tournaments like cricket or football) are seeded!  This means that the top-seeded players are much more likely to meet in the latter stages of the tournament. This is helpful from a number of aspects. A top player who has trained hard doesn’t really want to go out to the world number one in the first round. 

Basically if world number one and two meet very early in the tournament and each game is elimination round then very early in the tournament you have a big upset! The second place is decided later but the person who is actually deserving to get the second place may go out early! 

Even from a sponsorship and commercial perspective, a tournament that builds to a clash of the titans in the final few rounds, is exactly where you want to be!

The mathematics of tournaments actually needs every player and team to play with each other and get subsequently eliminated! The IPL is one example which is a better format to get the good team or players! But this cannot be used for all the games since it is time and resource consuming. 

Of course the introduction of seeded tournament has given a possible balance to games and tournaments but even seeded tournaments are not perfect! It is however better than non seeded ones! 

A popular game like tennis was in the early years, non seeded! So you can very well imagine the shock of a seeded player getting eliminated in the early rounds! Come a mathematician called Charles Dodgson. 

Charles also was also interested in lawn tennis and frustrated with the non seeded nature of the tournament.  He wanted to make them fairer, more logical, more mathematically perfect!  

Charles wrote about the rules of lawn tennis tournaments after talking to somebody who was upset after he lost in the first round and then saw a player much weaker than himself make his way into the finals!

Those days the games were played by draws which were composed randomly, so the best and second-best players could very easily meet in the first round!

Charles offered his solution in an essay named, “Lawn Tennis Tournaments, The True Method of Assigning Prizes with a Proof of the Fallacy of the Present Method.”

While novel his system wasn’t as simple as the method in use today. He created a complex tournament structure in which players could not be eliminated in the first round.  Losers kept playing until they had three superiors, three people who had beaten them or beaten someone who had beaten them!

Now of course this method may not work since the time and effort required would have been huge! But monographs and materials like these were responsible for the change in the game play and the way tournaments were conducted including the introduction of the seeded method!

Now there is a chance that not many took Charles seriously when they found his pen name and he had written a book about a girl called Alice who goes down a hole following a talking rabbit! You would have heard of the book! and his pen name! The Author of many books including Alice in Wonderland! Charles Dogson also known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll! Just because he was a mathematician does not mean that he does not have imagination! TV serials and some movies especially in India also needs lots of imagination and to play roles which are routine looks simple only because of the talent of the actor! One such actor was Rituraj Singh; Gone too soon…

Heartfelt condolences, OM SHANTHI…

Now did you know that Alice in Wonderland is told in the format or idea of a dream!? Sleep and  try to dream part 2!

Good Night!

A fast scribe sketch! Happy with the outcome since I can’t shade or erase!

This particular fruit is one of the most commonly used in Indian cooking! The sambar and the most rasams (or Saru!) of the south to the chutney in the north Indian chats cannot be done without this!

When this fruit came to Persians and the Arabs; they looked at its shape and appearance and called it “tamar e hindi” (Indian date, from the date-like appearance of the dried pulp!),

Unfortunately or (fortunately for that matter); if they thought that it is like a date then they were mistaken from the first bite! Like some songs and people, the sour taste of this fruit may not make you like it at first but then when you go on tasting it, it grows on you and you cannot do without it!

The fruit is so commonly used in Tamil Nadu that there is a whole rice dedicated to it and when you make it with Sesame oil, the taste is high!

Being rich in polyphenols and flavonoids, this has been shown to decrease LDL cholesterol and increase HDL cholesterol, thereby lowering the risk of atherosclerosis. The dried pulp was also found to have anti-hypertensive effects, reducing diastolic blood pressure. Of course it is effective only if you take in the right quantity! One of the few fruits which has a high beneficial Magnesium level!

Other possible benefits of eating this fruit are that it may have an anthelminthic potential, it may be an antioxidant, it can also be a carminative (relieves gas) and may be a laxative (cures constipation). Like a double edge sword though, higher quantities may increase gastritis! Remember that even nectar is bad in large quantities and this is after all a fruit!

The best way to take the essence of this fruit is to soak it in hot water and squeeze! My mother used to use the left over squeezed pulp to clean the lamps! It used to give them a good shine! The pulp can thus also be used as a metal polish. It contains tartaric acid, which helps remove tarnish from copper and bronze!

The leaves and flowers are used as a mordant in dyeing. The seeds produce an amber-coloured oil that is used as lighting fuel and for varnishing dolls and idols. The hard, heavy timber is used to make furniture, boats and tool handles. The wood is also valued as a fuel as it gives off an intense heat and makes high quality charcoal for use in gunpowder!

Of course the self proclaimed intelligent people would want to anglicize the name so that it would sound wise! (at least to them!); so the “tamar e hind” was simplified and is now known worldwide as…Tamarind!

The thought of tamarind chutney with hot samosa and maybe aloo tikki is music to my ears! Nice music and great lesson is also the hallmark of movies like Shankarabharanam and Sagara Sangamam by Birthday celebrity Kasinadhuni Viswanath popularly known as “Kalatapasvi”! Have some tamarind rice or bisi bele bath and check them out!

Now stop eating chats in the night and sleep!
Good Night!

We blame the population for lots of things! For once let me give some praise! Do you know that the growth of population and the counting of population or Census is the root reason for the development and final invention of a product which is one of the most useful devices in the world today!? Read on!

In a book called Algorithms to live by; the computer science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griggiths; the authors narrate about the growing population of US and the huge task of compiling and tabulating the data! The whole task of census is done every ten years and there reached a situation in which the data collected for the census in 1880 was so much that the compiling and indexing was completed only in 1888 just in time for the next census!

It had become a mind-numbingly boring, monotonous, error-prone, clerical exercise of a magnitude rarely seen! A simple error and you can bid the census good bye! Since the population was evidently continuing to grow at a rapid pace, those with sufficient imagination could foresee that processing the 1890 census would be gruesome indeed without some change in procedure!

Trust a doctor to come to rescue! It was John Shaw Billings, a physician assigned to assist the Census Office with compiling health statistics who had closely observed the immense tabulation efforts required to deal with the raw data of 1880. He expressed his concerns to a young mechanical engineer assisting with the census, Herman Hollerith, a recent graduate of the Columbia School of Mines and fresh to innovate!

The technological solutions devised by Hollerith involved a suite of mechanical and electrical devices. The first crucial innovation was to translate data on handwritten census tally sheets to patterns of holes punched in cards.

A hole (please read it separately!!) is thus punched corresponding to person, then a hole according as person is a male or female, another recording whether native or foreign born, another either white or Colored (colorful would have been better!)

This process required developing special machinery to ensure that holes could be punched with accuracy and efficiency which Hollerith then devised to “read” the card, by probing the card with pins, so that only where there was a hole would the pin pass through the card to make an electrical connection, resulting in an advance of the appropriate counter!

For example, if a card for a white male farmer passed through the machine, a counter for each of these categories would be increased by one. The card was made sturdy enough to allow passage through the card reading machine multiple times, for counting different categories or checking results!
The count proceeded so rapidly that the state-by-state numbers needed for congressional apportionment were certified before the end of November 1890!

After his census success, Hollerith went into business selling this technology. The company he founded would, after he retired, become this company which led the way in perfecting card technology for recording and tabulating large sets of data for a variety of purposes!

By the 1930s, many businesses were using cards for record-keeping procedures, such as payroll and inventory. Some data-intensive scientists, especially astronomers, were also finding the cards convenient. The company by then had standardized an 80-column card and had developed keypunch machines that would change little for decades!

Card processing served as a scaffolding for vastly more rapid and space-efficient purely electronic computers that now dominate, with little evidence remaining of the old regime! The name of the company? International Business Machines or as we all know it; IBM!

Interesting piece of history of card scaffolding and computer! Another bit of history is Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya who was the second woman officer in Indian Police Service (IPS) in India, the first being Kiran Bedi! Incidentally her younger sister Kavita Chaudhary under her sister’s ‘scaffolding’ directed and starred in series called Udaan based on the life of Kanchan which was inspirational to many girls of that time! We lost her the other day. Heartfelt condolences to Kavita Ji; You will be missed…
Heartfelt condolences; om shanti…

Now shut down the card punch machine, I mean the computer and sleep!
Good Night!

Dunki is a tragedy; not a comedy.

If you remember this line and watch the movie then you will not have any expectation from the movie. When it is a Raju Hirani movie then you will expect some mushy syrupy and an emotional roller coaster with comic elements!

The difference in Raju’s comedy is that it usually filled with so much pain or sadness! It can be showing the state of Raju Rastogi’s house in 3 idiots. If you think about it, the scene is actually very sad! The way his mother uses the Belan to scratch his father’s eczema is hilarious to us! But if you analyse the situation, the poor guy is paralyzed and lying down on a bed with a leaky roof and he cannot even scratch the itch!

Then you have the scene in Lage raho where Munna is telling circuit that someone is breaking and entering Jhanvi’s house! Typical circuit will tell that he is close by and finally realise that it is him! It is so hilarious but really sad!

Even in Sanju you have so many scenes which are funny like the Pinky scene! But the situation is really sad.

Raju has tried his best to elevate Dunki to the level that it becomes entertaining and funny but the issue itself is so sad and depressing that it is an arduous task indeed!

When someone decides to leave his or her country and somehow escape to another better country it is a lifechanging decision! He or she is sacrificing so much! He or she will not be involved in any minor incidents in his family back home. He or she will not be there for kids growing up or parents and elders growing old. He or she may not make it in emergency. Money is the main driving force otherwise no one will ever leave his or her country and go somewhere else.

Even now those who are settled outside yearn for that holiday to the country! Those few days go so fast with the blink of your eye! You have so many things to do and so many people to meet and so many things to eat! And with a clock like a hammer hanging on the top you try to squeeze how much every you can before the long journey back!

Now this is for those who have gone legally and properly which is actually minority! Many who use the DUNKI route have so much more to bear and suffer! Many may not even make it to their destination and even if they do, it is a daily struggle to leave and send money and be a NRI! They would have been poor in their own country but they had fresh air and open fields and an air of independence while many live in deplorable conditions with nothing much to write home about!
In these lines there is an excellent Malayam movie called Pathemari; it is one of the most emotionally true movie showing the trials faced by those who decide to emigrate and are stuck in a loop of work and work. In the movie when he brings some dry fruits to his relatives, one of them offers him and then utters, “Oh, you may be eating this everyday!”. The hero laments how he has never tasted them!

With these points in mind you may not be very surprised at the ending of both Pathemari and Dunki; a regular viewer of course may not be able to digest it!
One thing is for sure, Dunki is actually a much better movie than Pathaan, Jawaan, Tiger and even Animal!

It will make you sad especially if you are an NRI! Of course if you want to laugh with another country migration movie then check out this classic comedy by the birthday celebrity Indra Sen Johar called; ‘Johar Mehmood in Hong Kong’! It is a laugh riot!

Another day, another night, do not smirk, tomorrow you have to work!
Good Night!

In the 1920s, a mysterious disease was killing livestock

In the 1920s, cattle and sheep just bled to death with small wounds! Some of them started vomiting blood and simply died! Many previously healthy animals who were posted for routine and simple veterinary procedures simply bled to death!

The common point was that they did not stop bleeding!  A small nick became a flood and a bleeder was tsunami!

With so much blood in their hands (literally!), an investigation of sorts was ordered though only some took it seriously. One of them was a young Canadian Vet called Frank Schofield who took it upon himself to get to the root of the matter with sweat and blood!

He found that those animals who had previously or at some time fed on a bunch of moldy sweet clover hay (he may not know they were sweet though!) were the ones who had this issue! 

Frank Schofield, concluded that the moldy hay contained an anticoagulant that was preventing their blood from clotting! 

In 1940, scientists at the University of Wisconsin, led by biochemist Karl Link, had isolated the anticoagulant compound in the moldy hay! A particularly powerful derivative of the compound was patented, named after the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) that funded its development. Yes you guessed it! Warfarin! 

Now since it causes internal bleeding and was very effective in killing animals, it was first used to kill the animal which was the most troublesome pest! Rat! In 1948, it was officially approved as a rat killer or rodenticide! 

Then in 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a heart attack and it was found that he suffered from plaques which used to increase stoppage or stasis of blood or clotting! Blood should always flow and not stop, because if it slows or stops then it clots! Then the anti clotting property of warfarin came into limelight and he was treated with the previously effective rat poison! Of course he was not the first person to get the drug! But he was amongst the early patients! The fact that he was getting rat poison was not informed to him of course since the dose was less! 

So from moldy hay to the president’s heart! Feels like the screenplay of a movie like the one starring birthday celebrity Oduvil Unnikrishnan in a supporting but amazing role!

Now, like the blood, you must keep moving!

This story as picked up from a tabloid looks like a story straight out of the latest episode of a crime thriller! 

It’s the 21st March 1998, the first day of spring, and four men are having lunch in a restaurant.

A waiter serves one of them some cranberry juice,  chosen for dessert. This man, immediately after the first sip, suddenly gets up as if he’s gone crazy, he holds his hands around his neck, he loses his breath, runs out into the parking lot, collapses to the ground and pronounces his last words “they poisoned me”!!

Steve Robinette, the lead detective on the case, collected the testimonies of everyone in the parking lot, including the final disturbing words of a man immediately identified as Stanley Meyer, a citizen of Grove City. His brother Stephen was one of the four at the table, and he heard the words spoken at the end of his life. Robinette is not one for interminable investigations. He performed a toxicology analysis, which gave no significant results, and he also spoke to the coroner, who attributed his death to a brain aneurysm, compatible with previous episodes of hypertension. In just three months, he closed the case file, sealed it wrote on the cover “death by natural causes”. Formally, the case was now resolved!

Stephen Meyer claimed that one week after Stanley’s death, unidentified people had stolen the Stanley’s car from his garage!

Now why is this so suspicious you may ask?!

Well Stanley Meyer had claimed to have invented the very first working car which could run on water! Yes, WATER!

Meyer thought that the way to get out of oil dependency was through water propulsion. He created a fuel cell, based on the principle of splitting water atoms into its elemental form, burning hydrogen to create energy and releasing oxygen, along with water residues, through the exhaust pipe, thus generating harmless emissions! 

After a few months he managed to develop his water-powered engine, mounting it onto a dune buggy painted with the conspicuous writing: “water powered car”! 

Meyer claimed his vehicle was able to travel 180 km. With just 4 litres of water, and nothing else! Forty-five kilometres with just a litre of something that cost hardly anything is unbelievable! Even now!

Stanley had previously stated that he had been threatened many times by representatives from oil companies from around the world. He also claimed he had been offered the hyperbolic sum of a million dollars (some even say a billion dollars) to kill all evidence of his technology, and that he had refused!

Now, that is a mystery we can never get an answer to! Whether it was an accidental death or…

There may be so many inventions which have been kept under wraps and many mysteries like this which always raises questions like how!

Now don’t fry your brain thinking about it! Fried brain or Bheja Fry brings into mind the movie Bheja Fry with the birthday celebrity Rajat Kapoor!

Now charge your brain with some warm water and sleep!

Good Night!

Audiobook

Narrated by the author

The voice of the author is so serene and simple and mellow that the book has the risk of putting you to sleep! In any case it does calm you! 

The author states that this book will change you! But do not try to intellectualize what you learn! He says that your life will transform in ways you could not even imagine!

What he tells will be simple and your brain and ego will prevent it from accepting it!

It may lead to an increase in wealth by many times! You may end up more happy and have a better health! These are his bold promises!

Truth is always simple is his starting line and he says that thinking is the only thing which is stopping you! This is the core point of the book; do not think! Bad thoughts or in fact any thoughts are not good for you! 

He says how children are happy all the time since they do not think!

In a way he begins by giving gratitude to the listener for giving time to the author and yourself!

The author tells the listener to come with him on a journey to find out the root cause of suffering!

The Budha and the two arrows! The parable here is that any time we suffer misfortune, two arrows fly our way. Being stuck with the first is the issue and the second arrow which is more painful is to think about the suffering! Basically it means that the first arrow is inevitable and cannot be avoided but the more painful second arrow is basically our thought about it! Which can be avoided!

The author tells about his journey to find the solution to his problems including diet meditation, structured living and the author claims that if there is something to do, he would have probably done it!

Still he felt helpless and hopeless! Then in the darkest of times he found the light and the coach who told him that one who looks around him is intelligent but one who looks within him is wise!

And finally he realized the answer was clear! Thinking is the cause of all suffering!

Then the story of the Monk who used to get angry when he tried to meditate and his mentor finally made him realize that he is not angry at others but himself! Or rather his reactions to the people and situations which caused him to be angry! And like the Panda in Kung fu Panda, found his inner peace! 

Mind is always to keep us alive while our consciousness is for fulfilment! We must try to reach out for the consciousness! 

Here he talks about how everyone is connected to everyone else and the universe and about the Universal mind by Sidney Banks! 

This universal mind is the Divine inspiration and this no boundary no limit. I liked section since it is similar to the Hindu philosophy! God is everywhere and within us!

Every few times he makes you pause! He will ask you a question like what is your happiness? or what made you happy? Or what were you doing the last time you were happy? and so on. He deliberately tells you to stop and think about these before you answer! 

Faith and trust is the only way to realise this inner peace which you can call 

Inner feeling or gut feelings or intuition or GOD!

Think what you want is enough! Not how or what! Think that you will get it and the universe will handle the rest! 

Thoughts in our minds are not facts! The problems are only in our thoughts! So even grammatically speaking, Thinking and thought are not the same!

We are part of the universe and connected to one another and thinking prevents the download of universal consciousness! 

Universal intelligence is there everywhere! We are the source and part of Infinite intelligence! All you need to do is trust your intuition and do not think!

We are only always one thought away from peace love or joy! If you not think like how a child does then you get back to the factory default setting full of love and joy and part of infinite intelligence!

Make space in your mind so that the infinite intelligence can get in! The story of the monk and the new student has been told to reinforce this! Here the monk wants to teach a new student who had so many doubts. He offered him tea and poured it to the brim but did not stop! When the tea dripped over, the student exclaimed, “Stop! There is no space left in the cup to receive more tea!” The Monk then smiled and said, “Your brain also is like the full cup of tea! make some space for it to receive and then come back to me!”

Framework to stop thinking- realise that thinkin is the root cause of all problems! Do not be afraid to be alone with your thinking! and finally 

Allow yourself to enjoy the positive feelings by not thinking!

In the conclusion the author has mentioned how you can do this by Maintaining a journal or Divide into categories  and slowly but steadily come to your true potential. 

He has also advised to use his methods available for download from his website and also partner with him in case you have any explosive idea!

Read it if like me you think a lot and are over anxious! It may help!

Do you know what’s Panpsychism?

Don’t believe everything you think by Joseph Nguyen (when you pronounce his name, the N is silent!); is a book where the author promises you that your life will not be the same after you read the book! Luckily I am listening to the book so I am hoping it may not be applicable to me!

One of the things he talks about is the Universal mind! Or Panpsychism! It refers to the the view that mind (psyche) is found everywhere (pan)!

Panpsychism is one of the oldest of all philosophical doctrines extant and was put forth by the ancient Greeks, in particular Thales of Miletus and Plato. Philosopher Baruch Spinoza and mathematician and universal genius Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who laid down the intellectual foundations for the Age of Enlightenment, argued for panpsychism, as did philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, father of American psychology William James, and Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin. It declined in popularity with the rise of positivism in the 20th century.

A revival of sorts was by Sydney Banks who similarly told about the power of mind! Sydney Banks first formulated what has come to be known as the three principles understanding (aka Inside-Out Understanding, Innate Health, & Health Realization), in the 1970s. 

The 3 Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought, in his words are that the MIND is the universal intelligence behind life, consciousness creates an awareness of what we call reality, and thought is the power to create our moment to moment existence!

If that is too philosophical then the idea of mind or consciousness being fundamental to the Universe has often taken center stage in the field of even quantum physics! (which is the study of sub-atomic particles and one of the chief contender for explaining the origin of Universe!). 

Max Planck, who is the father of Quantum Theory and received the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics had this to say: “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”

Now the critical part of this theory for its practical application is Banks’ view that people’s behavior is perfectly aligned with how the three principles interact for them as individuals. In other words, whether we are saints or sinners, our everyday behavior is perfectly synchronized with the way we create our personal reality via the three principles. If we can change our psychological state from the inside out, we can change our behavior at the same time!

In essence, the model states that we create our own psychological and emotional reality via our thoughts from the inside out, and that fresh thought is available in any given moment. This means we are constantly creating new realities although we may not be aware of it.  For people suffering with addictions, mental health issues or repeated unhealthy behaviors it means that they are no longer under the control of powerful emotions associated with past events!

Now all these make you feel like Neo in the Matrix and you may think that there is a Morpheus who has the answer to all your questions! If that confuses you then read about today’s birthday celebrity Dattātreya Rāmachandra Bēndre! 

A multidisciplinary genius, his library is said to have held books spanning 102 subjects, including Quantum Physics, Mathematics, and Physiology. From very early on, Bendre published his poetry as Ambikātanayadatta (lit. ’Datta, son of Ambika’). Often mistaken for a pseudonym or pen name, Bendre described Ambikatanayadatta as the “universal inner voice” within him that dictated what he, Bendre, then presented in Kannada to the world! 

Like it is said in the movie Baba (which I later found out that it was initially quoted by Isaac Newton!) and which is one of my favorite quotes, ‘What we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean’!

Now calm your mind and sleep!

Good Nigth!

“Same as ever” by Morgan Housel the author of Psychology of money

Audio book
Running length around 5-6 hours

Narrated by the author

This is second book after the very successful book called the Psychology of money. Though not in series it’s a good idea to read that book first.

Or at least read that book summary first!

https://ramadocblog.wordpress.com/2022/03/27/the-psychology-of-money-by-morgan-housel/

Long post warning!

This is non fiction book on financial planning so the review is a summary for those who don’t want to read or listen to it and a preview for those who may read in the future.

There are some stories which are told in third narration and some points of inspiration.

One of the first stories is of Warren Buffet who was asked about the change and about things which are constant. He tells about how Snickers being the best chocolate for ages!

He then tells about Jeff Bezos who had realized that in spite of so many things which may or may not change, people will always prefer discount or low pricing and fast shipping! That will not change so he used to place his focus on these things!

The author then tells about his own story of his narrow escape by just a small decision of avoiding the ski and not getting trapped in the avalanche which kills his friends. A decision he made without any thought and only luck which saved him.

He tells objectively how risk is what you do not see! If you know something then that’s not risk! By definition risk is unexpected and unknown!

How economists can’t predict the stock collapse since it happens once in a while though over a period of time, every stock will collapse and will rise!

How over the billion of minutes of the life of humans you can have things happen once in a million! (A similar analogy was given by Carl Sagan!)

How Yuval is a famous author because he is a good story teller and not necessarily a good anthropology expert! So evey success is accepted if there is a good story.

How the famous I have a dream speech was an accident and not intended that way! Martin had another speech written and when flew, his assistant nudged him to tell about the I have a dream! And then of course as they say; rest is history!

How Dale Carnegie wrote his book! It was not a complicated thing but only a summary of routine things but with a story! People love stories!

He also tells about a person who survived because he had less hope and less optimism since then the failure is expected while those who had lot of hope had more failure!

How parking so many cars, a dent is actually highly probable! Most of us may escape a dent in the car but the author was offical Parker and with the huge volume involved, it was natural to have more incidents of dent! With such a huge number it’s just a law of averages!

How though many consider 1950s to be good or the best of times, it was in comparison actually a very bad time! High interest, low income, no house, no job but since the comparison was less it was great!
This whole section tells about comparison and how that’s the key to happiness or satisfaction many times!

So the essence here was comparison!
How Truman is counted as a great president now was actually thought to be a bad choice but the matter changed because of lowered expectations! Truman is actually now counted as one of the best presidents ever!

Sometimes some things which are not measurable are important! Human behaviour for one is a quantity which cannot be calculated with accuracy!

The one thing which they did not count on was the irrational behavior of Hitler! A logical deep thinking person would have surrendered long ago but this was desperate and irrational Hitler! Completely unpredictable! Just the fact that the war went on for so long shows the unpredictability of human behaviour!


He talks about the endless cycle of happiness and grief! How an economist Minsky talks about optimism leading to debt leading to recession leading to growth!

He also talks about unlimited growth also is bad! Case in point was Starbucks! Starbucks started opening branches like a rabbit multiplying! That led to drop in quality and service and finally they were forced to close many branches and lay off many people. Then they only do a controlled expansion now.


Complex to make simple to break! I loved this simple but profound take on complicated things which are so difficult to make but so easy to break!
Good things are things that did not happen while bad ones are those which did! Like you cannot quantify or grade a good thing like say a bomb which did not go off! Even some very complex things like a peace talk can break with a simple grudge! Peace is complex, while it’s simple to break into war!


Short cut does not pay; in this section the author talks about the fishes in warm water and cold. He tells about being patient, about having more pessimism which is actually good for the future!
Here he tells about the Donner party which took an unknown supposed short cut which actually turned out to be more long and tortuous. Time and supply was lost and they ended up in bad terrain at the peak of winter. Ending up in survival crisis and even cannibalism!

Enduring the pain when necessary rather than assuming there is a hack for everything is not right! Basically it means that there is no shortcut to success! In fact, success is supposed to be hard!

Free time is the best motivation was an important observation in the life of many successful people! In this context he tells about Warren Buffet and even Elon Musk who have used their free time to declutter their brain and come up with new ideas!

Of course he also mentions that one of the best ways to get a work done is to have incentives which is one of the biggest motivators! In fact he states that it is one of the most powerful force in the world!

In various chapters he also talks about expectations versus reality and how overnight tragedies if endured can lead to long term miracles!

For all the craze for a life hack! There actually isn’t any! Basically it means that you have to work and wait! There is no fast and constant success!
The best way to get what you want is to deserve what you want!

Scientific discussions are necessarily complex to make them sound intellectual while in fact most complex things can be broken up into simple understandable things! In fact the author tells that most of the financial literature essentially focusses on more saving, less spending and long term goal! Rest everything is just data!

He also talks about how wounds heal but scars remain in context of world war survivors and extrapolates it to the financial world in that people who have had big tragedy are normally reluctant to make risky decisions or take risk.

In the end the author asks some key questions which are like a revision of what you have leant and the message the author is trying to convey!

Starts with a discussion of Roosevelt with his wife just before the D Day. “To be nearly 60 and still rebel at uncertainty is ridiculous isn’t it was her reply!”

The author says how instead of worrying about future he started reading more about history!

The final chapter is a list of questions based on the book and is like a summary of what you can learn and teach yourself. The book may or may not help you in answering these questions but the questions are pertinent in finance and otherwise!

Who has the right answers but I ignore because they are not articulate?
Which of my current views I would disagree with if I was born in a different country or generation?
What do I desperately want to be true so much that I want it to be true when it is clearly not?
Problem which only applies to other country, industry, careers which will eventually hit me?
What do I think is true but is actually just good marketing?
What haven’t I experienced that leaves me naive about something?
What looks unsustainable but is actually a new trend which we have not accepted yet?
Who do I think is smart but is actually full of it?
Am I prepared to handle risk I cannot even envision?
Which of my current views would change if my incentives were different?
What are we ignoring today that will seem shockingly obvious in the future?
What events nearly happened that would have nearly changed the world I know if they had happened?
How much of things outside my control contribute to things I take credit for?
How do I know if I am being patient which is a skill or stubborn which is a flaw?
Who do I look up to that is secretly miserable?
What hassle I am trying to avoid which is actually the cost of success?
What crazy genius I aspire to emulate is just crazy?
What strong belief do I hold that is most likely to change?
What is always been true and What is SAME AS EVER!!?

All in all a good book to read after ‘psychology of money’; easy to listen and easy to comprehend! Somethings are just SAME AS EVER!

In the book Same as ever, Morgan Housel says how some of the most or all of the most complicated things can actually be broken up into simple understandable points! In fact he indirectly says that for all the finance books and management courses out there, they all are an amalgamation and extension of simplest things like; spend less, earn more and save for long term! These three rules are in one way or the other the chief cardinal rules of your financial decisions! 

This is very similar to another rule in the economic world called the 80-20 rule or the Pareto principle. 

In 1941, management consultant Joseph M. Juran developed the concept in the context of quality control and improvement after reading the works of Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto, who wrote in 1906 about the 80/20 connection while teaching at the University of Lausanne. In his first work, Cours d’économie politique, Pareto showed that approximately 80% of the land in the Kingdom of Italy was owned by 20% of the population!

Similar observations have been seen in many areas and they essentially point to the fact that roughly 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes! Some observations which support this hypothesis are 20% of a plant contains 80% of the fruit! and 

80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of customers and 20% of players (like in a game like say cricket) result in 80% of points scored!

Even in highly successful situations, almost 80 percent of the work is actually done by 20 percent of people! 

It has been suggested that you can get 80 percent of the outcome by simply doing 20 percent of the important task! In other words if you concentrate on that 20 percent, then almost 80 percent of your work is done! In finance, this principle is to identify an entity’s best assets and use them  efficiently to create maximum value!

If you are in charge of a team or overseeing a project, using the Pareto Principle can help you identify your team’s high-priority tasks.  The 80/20 Rule assumes that even if your team spends an equal amount of time on each task on the to-do list, only two of those tasks will carry the bulk of the results for the project!

The 80/20 Rule can help you make tough business decisions, too! If you have a list of projects for several different clients, but you’re running short on time. You’ll want to focus your time and efforts on pleasing and developing solid relationships with the 20% of your clients who yield the most results for you!

Even in studies and examinations you know that almost 20 percent of important topics or subjects will form around 80 percent of the questions! So you can concentrate your 80 percent effort on those 20 percent!

The most important thing to note here is that 80 and 20 are not absolute numbers! Life and decisions are not statistics! It does not mean that you concentrate only on the 20 percent and ignore the 80! It is simply a methodology to prioritize your effort for maximum efficacy! Of course numbers may be misleading since almost 80 percent of movies made and directed by birthday celebrity Priyadarshan have made 100 percent profits! Pareto cannot work everywhere!

Now have only 80 percent of the food as dinner as you intended to have and have a 100 percent peaceful sleep!

Good Night!