X (Engineering/Management) is a good career in India (contd.) Even the post-engineering MBA is such a cliche that supply of MBAs far exceeds demand. The salary of an engineering graduate from a good college matches or exceeds that of an MBA graduate from a so-so college . Just like in the engineering case, we’re not exactly graduating buckets loads of CEOs. When it comes to management practices, we’re still very informal, very jugaadu, and thus very backward and unproductive . It is something we almost cherish. The faux superficial specialisation of most degrees in India. You don’t need that many brain cells if you’re just running small warehouse with intuition, you need them if you’re going all six sigma/TPS and scaling the shit out of it efficiently.

“We didn’t do shady things to earn our money” and it’s cousins “Everyone who is rich did some shady shit”, “We’re not rich. But at least we have our pride” We can call this the nobility of poverty. This projection of evil on rich people or your successful relatives to assuage your own jealously with a fake moral judgement . Yes, businessfolks have to bribe and lobby but that’s standard shady shit and a fully accepted cost of doing business. 90% of people would do the exact same thing if they were in that situation . It is harder to swallow bitter pills like 1. Some people get lucky 2. Some people are more talented 3. Some professions have higher economic payoffs.

I have cousins who work in the merchant navy who earn probably thrice as me and don’t even pay taxes! I won the rat race by going to fancy colleges, I’ve even got higher social status; yet they’re getting richer faster! Felt so unfair, so I would project that their job is worse while the reality is half my cousins literally work on the Disney cruise line, which is amongst the fanciest cruise ships in the world. Now I’ve grown up and see things more clearly . They made the wise decision of competing in the global markets and for better employers. I compete in a crowded local market (Indian) and get rewarded proportionately . They stay away from their family but it’s a trade-off they made and my desk job is a trade-off I made. I no longer try to vilify them, their professions, or their lives in my mind.

Life will be sorted after X X here is 10th/12th/Engineering/MBA. Life never gets sorted. We change every day. Our needs, hopes, desires, and dreams are changing continuously. You are not a spare part rolling down the assembly line that is done . Your needs at 55 are different from your needs at 25. The system resets. Even dream jobs can get predictable and boring, relationships if not nurtured and renewed can start seeming pointless.

I got a mild shock recently when a boss of mine quit his job at Microsoft after 15 years. From the outside it would appear like he had it sorted. On speaking to him, I heard some of his recent challenges and how he was thinking about it . My realisation, life is a series of moments. And in this moment, my boss felt it’s better for him to move onto something new. He wasn’t thinking, oh I’ve been here for so long, how can I quit . We make those reductive thoughts from the outside.

The best man/product will win This is the starkest articulation of just-world fallacy. Apart from narrow arenas with well-defined rules like sports; winning and “merit” have a modest correlation . Even there, your country’s sports infrastructure determines whether you can succeed. There are tons of footballers, gymnasts and more in India; but with social pressure to leave, shitty infra, corruption, poor media coverage and a hundred roadblocks they have a remote chance of doing their best . Distribution beats product in the business world, connections beats character on a personal level.

Don’t invest in the stock market Might be a generational gap or lack of finance but lots of members in my family are against mutual funds or stock market investing. And me who’s been majored in finance thinks about nothing but equity for wealth creation. Don’t invest in crypto I traversed the whole IQ me spectrum on this one. There are few use-cases for crypto apart from the toyish ones. That said, toys of today often improve in performance and become serious things tomorrow . Second, you can play with bubbles and mint money, if you can exit well.

“When I see a bubble forming I rush in to buy.” - George Soros Most people will start believing the bullshit they’ve been peddled and hold on forever like idiots. When you’ve got enough gains, it is better to sell rather than holding on forever and eventually becoming the bag-holder . I bought bitcoin at $4K and sold it at $14K, I was happy with my gains. It spiked up to $21K but crashed to $6K later. I was happy with gains and didn’t care after I sold . The cost of monitoring bitcoin more closely and trying to exit at the ultra-optimal moment was a cost on my attention and emotions that I wasn’t willing to bear . The tripling of my money was a gift. I’ve sat out the second explosion happily. 1. Because I have enough 2. I have better things to do 3. I don’t like turning into a price-tracking trader person who attention is consumed by a chart beyond his control . I don’t get jealous of people who get rich off this, I understand my limitation and can manage my emotions.