Category: Random Draws

Andrew Carnegie wrote his own epitaph which read, “Here Lies a Man Who Knew How to Enlist in His Service Better Men Than Himself.” He was a captain of American industry and his wealth is “estimated at anywhere from US$75 billion to US$297.8 billion adjusted for the late 2000s.” [Reference.] Clearly the man was no slouch when it came to creating wealth and his epitaph reveals an essential truth about the world — that specialization matters.
Continue reading “Specialization – Part 2”

A world-class sumo wrestler cannot possibly be even an average runner, leave alone being a world-class sprinter. The general principle is that there are endeavors where excelling in one necessarily makes it impossible to excel in others. You can be a successful politician in India, or you can be a visionary. But in India, you cannot expect a visionary to be a successful politician any more than you would expect a sumo wrestler to be a sprinter.
Continue reading “Specialization”

The USGS reports (details) that the earthquake was 7.6 in Oaxaca region of Mexico. I was in a meeting at the Instituto Thomas Jefferson in Mexico City.
Continue reading “Earthquake in Mexico”

A quick update to say I arrived am in Mexico City. I just checked into the hotel — Hotel Maria Barbara. The flight was fine (~4 hours) but the rest of it was bad. At SFO, the lines at the United check-in took about an hour and a half. Then security took another half hour. Upon arrival at Mexico, the immigration took another half hour. But anyhow, I am looking forward to a wonderful week here. More later.

Democracy, like the other great invention of mankind, is a great organizing principle underlying modern societies. But both have quite strict preconditions to be met before they deliver the goods. Economists understand that markets fail under specific circumstances and have figured out mechanisms to guard against those. Similarly, I believe that the implementation of the abstract idea of democracy depends on the specifics of the situation. In India’s case, the outcome is what I call a cargo cult democracy (see my post “Cargo Cult Democracy” May 2004). Kanchan Gupta’s article, “Dynasty above Democracy“, illustrates one particularly ugly feature of Indian democracy — the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and its baleful effect on India. Experts below, for the record.
Continue reading “Kanchan Gupta: Dynasty above Democracy”

End of 2011. It’s been a mixed year for me personally. I would give it a 7 out of 10. Today I am moving home. Not too far away, just moving from Santa Clara to San Jose. Nothing brings home the reality that we are material beings more than when you are moving — the stuff one accumulates! I will not have internet access for the next couple of days because of the move. New year resolution: deal with all emails within 24 hours of receipt. Best wishes for a happy new year.

The UPA has done quite a lot in the last seven years or so. Around 2004, India was at the take-off stage of a developing country. We could see a tiny light shining at what appeared to be the end of the tunnel. It looked like the country was finally out of the clutches of the Nehruvian socialist regime and had broken free of the 2-3% “Nehru rate of growth.” The NDA (led by the so-called “Hindu nationalist” BJP) had done a few things right and given India the 10% “Hindu rate of growth.” But then the UPA took over. They extinguished the light and the hope, and are doing everything to drag India back to Nehruvian poverty. Let’s do a quick review.
Continue reading “What’s Next on the UPA Agenda for India”