A Beginner's Mind

Just finished The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Easily amongst the best books I've ever read. There is a saying, "An intellectual tells a simple thing in a complicated way, an artist does the opposite". Mukherjee is an artist. The ease with which he describes a topic as complicated as genetics, makes this book a must read for everyone. Here are 3 takeaways from the book: 1.      There are over 20k genes in humans and all our pharmaceuticals target only 500 of them. While the world is thinking about AI and conscious machines that might someday code themselves, we miss a very important fact - we are the first machine to see its code for the first time in the history of evolution and we have just taken the first step to understand it. You might have heard about our code, its called The Human Genome. 2.      Biology is way more complex than any other scientific discipline. There are two reasons for this: ·          its all these other disciplines (physics,

Being in digital marketing for the last 10 years, I get a lot of queries from fresh graduates on how to start their career in this domain. This post is for them. This is how I think about digital marketing.  The first step is to understand that digital marketing is not a radically new discipline but an extension of traditional marketing. The goal of marketing is to connect the sellers with the buyers and provide value to the buyer whilst making a profit for the seller. There are two major differences in traditional marketing(TM) and digital marketing(DM). 1. Reach 2. ROI With digital you can reach only a small % of the overall population as not everyone is on digital mediums viz. online, mobile & social networks.  For e.g. internet penetration in India is only 26%. So, if your Target Audience is digital only then can you expect to reach them via DM. To reach others you will need to use the traditional channels such as radio or TV. Measuring ROI is much simpler in d

How do you define success? We all have our own definitions. But are there any standard definitions? Is there an absolute definition? Let’s find out. The  first step  in defining success is to understand its context. What are you successful in? Who sees you as successful - do you have your own criteria for success or you measure your success as its generally understood? After understanding the context of success, the  second step  is to define the criterion for success. There are two ways to do this: First are the generally acceptable criteria: ·          Fame: If most people across the world or at least in your country know you (or your work), you are successful. ·          Impact: If you are in a position (either through wealth, influence or power) to make a lasting impact on lives of people you have never met or will never meet, you are successful Then there are personal definitions of success, this is how most of us lesser mortals define it. T