The author of Moneyball was asked to give a commencement speech at Princeton recently and he made this very obvious yet surprising remark to the so called IVY league graduates. To paraphrase - Success in most cases is a series of fortunate events that can be chalked up to dumb luck. I do think that once someone gets lucky it requires intellect to recognize it as such and put your whole effort behind it to maitain momentum and indeed savor the flavor of success.
The author Michael Lewis is himself a graduate of Princeton and has since had different careers including a bond salesman and now an author of popular books some that have become a movie.
He went on to emphasize that those lucky ones then somehow owe it to themselves and to society to return the favor in the form of helping others achieve what they seek, in most cases success itself. Although an intangible idea the message was to pay it forward.
He calls it the graduating generations' responsibilty to take the effort to help others.
He wrote a new book called Boomerang with ideas that I get and quoted here -
In Greece the banks didn't sink the country. The country sank the banks;
Fishermen are a lot like American investment bankers - like bankers, fishers' "overconfidence leads them to impoverish not just themselves but also their fishing grounds";
Countries borrow not only the best practices, but the worst;
Nothing lasts forever, even real estate.
Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
Although as I have noted somewhere before 'Success' itself is a very vague idea. After all its in the mind of the beholder. Just because a lot of people believe something does not make it gospel. A perfect heist is also considered a Successful Job in the mind of the one pulling said heist. As is the destruction caused by fundamentalists. One parent in Afghanistan may be overheard to say - Aziz went on to be a successful terrorist.
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