Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

Charlie Munger’s Address: Deserved Trust

Charlie Munger delivered the 2007 Law School Commencement address at the University of Southern California on May 13th. Munger is a guru in the original sense of the Sanskrit word, a person who conveys wisdom. He begins the talk with “Safest way to get what you want is to deserve what you want.” The transcript of the talk is worth reading very very slowly. Take this line near the end, “The highest form a civilization can reach is a seamless web of deserved trust.”

There are too many lines that need highlighting. So I will just post the entire transcript below.
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Richard Dawkins’ Diary

Anyone who knows me soon realizes that I have few heroes, and I consider most entities of the human persuasion to be at least mildly stupid, if not outright moronic. Prof Richard Dawkins makes the very short list of my heroes. I am proud to say that I have even met him briefly when he visited UC Berkeley to deliver a fairly famous lecture (I forget which lecture considering that Berkeley has a truck-load of famous lectures) a few years ago. He signed my copy of the book by him, River out of Eden.

Of course I admire his intellect and his passion for rationality. What really amazes me is his indefatigable perseverance. Just listening to him repeatedly explain and defend his position in innumerable interviews on TV and radio, answering the same old questions that he has written eloquently and at length about in his many books, is itself tiring. I wonder how he can calmly and so politely deal with the steady barrage of nonsense that he faces relentlessly. That is what I admire the most about him — the Zen warrior who is not moved to distraction in his fight for sanity in a world that is given over to insanity. I bow deep in reverence to the Master.

Dawkins was recently at Time’s gala event celebrating ‘100 Most Influential People of the Year’. He wonders why he was chosen but most people who have read him would not hesitate to include him in the 100 most influential people alive in the world today.
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Dr Frankenstein, I presume

The makers of monsters and their fates are inextricably tied, both in fiction and in real life. Dr Frankenstein’s monster. Dr Faustus. Mrs Gandhi, the elder and Sant Bhindranwale. The CIA and Osama bin Laden. The CIA and the Taleban. Add your own favorite examples.

Dr MM Singh. VP Singh. The monsters created for gaining political power by legislating divisions of the country along caste and religious lines are beginning to have a life of their own.

Soon to be released, the sequel to the hit drama, “August 1947: The First Cut.” New updated imported Gandhi. Bigger bombs. In production, “August 2017: The Final Cut.” Totally new cast, with hundreds of specially recognized castes. Supporting mega roles by ISI in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Islamic terrorists and RDX will blow you away. You can’t miss it. You won’t be able to.

Lyre Bird

BBC’s David Attenborough shows us what an amazing artist the lyre bird is. The clip beings with David asking in a whispered voice, “What bird in the world has the most elaborate, the most complex, the most beautiful song in the world? My guess there must be lots of contenders but this bird must be one of them, the superb lyre bird . . . ” Go watch the three minute clip.

The Monk and the Philosopher

All the successful techniques for manipulating matter originated mainly in the West but the greater achievement of manipulating the mind – I am justifiably proud to claim – originated in India. In my opinion, the mind has precedence over matter. For the moment I will sidestep the other matter that it is a mistake to make a distinction between mind and matter – there isn’t in my opinion. But for the moment, I will treat them as being different as most people do.
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Bihar — Part 2

The more I see of the world, the more convinced I become of two generalizations I have constructed. Generalization #1: different parts of the world display different levels of economic prosperity and development, and with time the differences accumulate thus increasing regional disparities. Generalization #2: basically all humans are the same, and at their core they all have the same innate human abilities, desires and drives. The first generalization in light of the second begs the question: what accounts for the varying degrees of success of various peoples? Why are certain aggregations of people successful while others not?
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Pragati — June Issue

Here’s the lastest issue of Pragati. Go get it by clicking on the image below.

Pragati June Cover

Contents

PERSPECTIVE: Soft power, hard reality, Channel !ndia, The Indian corporate century, Climate change & international security

FILTER: On India-US relations; India’s consumer market; The Doha round and free trade in services; Productivity miracle; and Climate change and the Indian farmer

IN DEPTH: Leveraging Remittances

ROUNDUP: Microfinance: Charting new territory; Globalisation: Readying for the next round

BOOKS: In extenso: Six great revolutions; Review: PLU engaged in WMD

Bihar — Part 1

Yesterday’s Empires into Dust

The Buddha’s enlightenment was centered around the realization that the universe is characterized by impermanence (called annicha in Pali) and change, that nothing abides eternally. That event occurred when he was intensely meditating under a tree 2,500 years ago in a grove. That place is known today as Bodh Gaya, a small town in the state of Bihar. There is a certain aptness to the Buddha’s realization about impermanence when one considers Bihar.
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Back in Pune

Being lost is worth the coming home, as Neil Diamond observed in his song “Stones” many many years ago. Traveling to Delhi and Patna was worth the leaving behind of those places, I feel. Now I am back in Pune, the weather is awesome, and I am fully charged up with all sorts of interesting tales to tell. Well, if not to tell, at least to contemplate at leisure since for the past ten days I have been extremely busy. For every hour of observing I do, it takes me many hours of reflection to fully understand what I need to learn. This is not just a thinly-veiled attempt at justifying why I have not been blogging, mind you. I am sure that if you are a regular, you too are grateful for the break.

View from my room in Magarpatta So now the weather. Pune must be centrally airconditioned. At 5 pm, it is about 25 degrees Celcius — there is a gentle breeze blowing under an overcast sky. Here’s the view from out the window (11th floor).

Will be back with a real post real soon.

Mumbai, Delhi, Patna

If you have been wondering whatever happened to yours truly, wonder no more. The last few days I have been in Mumbai, attending the Sun Technovate ’07 — “INDIA — the Next Big Idea.” Got a chance to see Scott McNealy, chairman and co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Scott and three others students at Stanford University, including our very own Vinod Khosla, started Sun. (SUN — Stanford University Network!)
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