Abhishek Chakraborty (Page 9)

Why Work Doesn’t Look Like Work

If you are a knowledge worker, your biggest job is thinking. But if all day all night you are busy being busy, ‘thinking’ takes a backseat, and you end up doing a lot of things without getting anything done. You don’t waste the hours, but you waste the years.

The 85% Rule: Why You Should Not Do Your Best

“Do your best and forget about the rest” is good advice. It prevents you from the anxiety of results, but that’s half of the problem. The other half of the problem is the continuous pressure while performing at full-throttle. Truth is, you don’t produce your best work when you give your 100%.

Compound Thinking: How to Make Time Work For You

When we plan to improve ourselves or grow a business, we pursue dramatic changes like, run 10 km everyday, or grow 10x a month. It’s not sustainable. There’s a better approach.

Demand-Side Sales: Everybody Wants to Buy, But Nobody Wants to be Sold to

The art of selling has got a bad rap. For some reason, it feels icky. Like an unnatural push to get people to buy what you’re offering. Mostly because we’ve got the whole narrative of selling backwards.

Giving Advice is Not Giving Solutions

On an average, I get asked at least 10 times a day for some kind of advice related to business, management, relationship, productivity, negotiation, mental health, life, etc. To make sure I don’t do a sloppy job, I’ve devised a framework to give advice that I’ve polished over the years.

Alternative Histories: How to Judge The Quality of a Decision

In the real world, it’s very hard to know if a [decision is correct] even if the outcome is positive. Due to randomness, the positive outcome might just be a fluke. If you flip a coin to make an investment decision, not matter how much money you make, it’s still a bad decision.

The Novelty-Familiarity Gap: Be Original, Just Not Too Much.

Arijit Singh is an extremely popular Bollywood singer. Have you wondered why all his hit songs sound similar? Also, why are all talkshow and sitcom formats so similar? Why are franchises more popular than standalone films?

Conformity: Why Everything Popular is Wrong

No matter how rational you are, consensus is hard to resist. Even if you choose to stick to your guns in the beginning, you are bound to capitulate at the end. It’s hard to look like a bozo for a long time, especially when you are the only bozo in the room.