Visual notes on business, tech & philosophy | 💼 @foundingf @howindialives ex-Forbes India, Economic Times | 📚 The Aadhaar Effect (2018); The Contrarian (Soon)
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NS Ramnath retweeted
Bengaluru Jatre invites designers, architects, artists and students to submit practical ideas to redesign everyday urban spaces, including bus stops, streetlights, benches, waste bins, signage, shopfronts & 500-metre road stretches.
Bengaluru Development Minister @krishnabgowda said initiative aims to make public spaces more accessible, inclusive and liveable.
Submissions close on November 15, 2026. Shortlisted designs will be showcased at Bengaluru Jatre from December 4-13, with a GBA jury selecting best proposals for discussion & possible implementation. Entries can be sent to [email protected]
You have no right to see your characters as good or bad. Such words have nothing to do with people you write about.
~ Lillian Hellman
Writing demands a different kind of intelligence.
Like J Krishnamurti said, "the ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence."
NS Ramnath retweeted
At the heart of the structural problem of AI.
Concentrated benefits and widely dispersed losses.
The job losses will eventually shrink economy too.
Why it is difficult to be seen as a 'public good' and why the role of State becomes central.
Without wisdom, we will fail as a whole by succeeding in the particular.
The $10-$15 trillion total addressable market for AI, if it is successful, is actually "terrifying".
- The famous "Dean of Valuation", Professor Aswath Damodaran, of NYU Stern School of Business.
The reason: AI as a tool is a much smaller market; AI as a replacement for human-jobs is where the giant market story comes from.
"The best-case scenario for AI, that $10 to $15 trillion market, will happen if ONLY it replaces people.
If AI is a tool, it’s going to be a much smaller market than if AI replaces people. So, the stories we’re telling about $10, $20 or $25 trillion markets are actually terrifying stories for the rest of the world.
Why? Because if that story comes true, half of all white-collar people are going to lose their jobs. And what are they going to do instead? Who’s going to come up with the income to buy the products and services?
If AI works as well as it’s supposed to and replaces people, how do we deal with that as a society? Because people lose their jobs. Not only do you lose your income, you lose your life’s meaning.."
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Full video on "Excess Returns" podcast Youtube channel (link in comment)
There's a Buddhist meditation practice called maraṇassati, being mindfulness of death and remembering that death can strike at any time.
Practicing a version of it, applying it to jobs, will help us navigate these times better.
NS Ramnath retweeted
A tribe full of centenarians attributes its longevity to a simple rule: leave the dinner table while still slightly hungry, feeling unfinished.
The principle is similar in writing & conversation. Resist the compulsion to say everything there is to say on the topic.
In the giant shadow of Dante’s wing, for instance, we are nobody and should never forget it. So we should always write out of our ignorance and desire and ambition, never out of some sense of false wellbeing, some tinge of success.
~ James Wright
NS Ramnath retweeted
Wake up.
Every profession deemed white-collar, the middle class dream, is about to be decimated by AI, at a much faster pace than anticipated, with monstrous social consequences.
NS Ramnath retweeted
Politeness in China is on the rise. Giving a lecture in China, I made a mathematics mistake on the board. A student raised his hand and said, “In China, we do it differently.”
NS Ramnath retweeted
Why India should think several times before allowing Starlink to launch its services here.
Incredible scoop by my @WSJ colleagues: Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of Starlink relied on by Ukraine, a decision that sparked panic in Kyiv and confusion inside the Trump administration. wsj.com/world/ukraine-starli…
