Human beings are self-centered. When I perform an act of altruism or a ‘good deed’, all that I’m doing is meeting my own self-interest – the need for acknowledgement from my peers, an addiction to the warm afterglow or in some cases a quest for glory. This is true for you, me and everyone else. … Continue reading On Philanthropy
Tag: Economics
The Narrow Corridor, the Cage of Norms and the Red Queen Effect
Thomas Hobbes, was born in the year of the Spanish Armada and lived through the English Civil War. When Charles I lost his head, he lived in exile in France and only returned after the monarchy was restored under Charles II. (I had written a bit about this period here). To understand his political philosophy, … Continue reading The Narrow Corridor, the Cage of Norms and the Red Queen Effect
Once Upon a Time in Bengal
The invention of the shipping container as a mode of transport by Malcolm McLean is considered to be a watershed moment in the history of global trade and logistics. By standardizing the size of the container (most are eight feet wide, eight and a half feet high and forty feet long), shipping became efficient and … Continue reading Once Upon a Time in Bengal
The Empire of Cotton
Most of the iconic structures of Bombay were built by the profits from the cotton trade. To understand this, one needs to grasp how cotton emerged as the key commodity driving imperialists, plantation owners and bankers for almost three hundred years. Columbus’ discovery of America and Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the sea route to … Continue reading The Empire of Cotton
The Chip Wars
China used more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. used in the entire 20th Century. Yes, you heard that right! Now, with this knowledge, it’s not unnatural to imagine China importing lots of crude oil, heavy machinery or vehicles. But the fact is that China’s largest category of imports is an entirely unrelated category … Continue reading The Chip Wars
Order without Design
China has 1100. South Korea 86, Malaysia 61, Indonesia 48 and India a paltry 24. What am I referring to? If you guessed ‘billionaires’, the answer is wrong. It’s the number of skyscrapers taller than 200 meters! Why is India an outlier in this otherwise pan-Asian phenomenon? One answer to this is the low Floor … Continue reading Order without Design
On Quitting
Grit is the technical term for persevering and being passionate about a project. Reading Angela Duckworth’s work on this subject a few years back, was my first encounter with ‘quitting’ as a psychological concept. According to Duckworth, every pursuit driven by grit has to be regularly assessed against the rationality of quitting. Annie Duke’s dedicated … Continue reading On Quitting
The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
I spent last weekend with Alex Epstein’s 2014 “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels’ and his recent 2020 work “Fossil Future”. However controversial his defense of fossil fuels may be, I must admit that his whole approach had a convincing ring. With a background in philosophy, Epstein frames the whole debate using the concept of … Continue reading The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
RS Nilakantan’s “South vs North”
When one spends (wastes?) a lot of time on Twitter, one generally ends up looking forward to the tweets of specific handles for the freshness they bring in. Nilakantan RS has been one such handle. So when he had a book out, I had to pick it up. Contrary to what the title (South vs … Continue reading RS Nilakantan’s “South vs North”
