Why are some goals harder than others? Why do certain skills feel forever out of reach? Why do some long-awaited milestones shower only fleeting happiness? Why does not competing for feel liberating at times? How do people reach a level of performance that seems divine? First, The Mind Games Take a few moments to think… Continue reading The Tyranny of Chasing Goals
Author: Rohit Malekar
A Longing for Belonging
The anxiety with which you search for a hometown delicacy in a new land is the same with which you look for familiar people and places when you visit your place of upbringing. In either case, you are slightly disappointed. When you move out, things also move on. A Story of Belonging I left my… Continue reading A Longing for Belonging
Why Do Careers Get Stuck in the Middle Management?
Hypothesis Most high-performing careers hit a wall in middle management because practitioners shy away from taking risks to address high-quality problems. The conditioned responses to seek career progression act as traps that make it harder to develop skills required to expand the circle of influence. Let us unpack the hypothesis by solving the following questions:… Continue reading Why Do Careers Get Stuck in the Middle Management?
Codifying Quality of Life
Couple of years ago, I wrote an article reflecting on the decision to move back home to India after a decade in the U.S. I mentioned an approach to understanding quality of life in terms of quality of your thoughts and left it there, not having enough vocabulary to outline the specifics. This is a… Continue reading Codifying Quality of Life
Personal Takeaways from Dr. Kapil Gupta’s Book “Direct Truth”
Things I have internalized from prior experience that were helpful to understand the book - The Creator's Paradox How do ideas originate? As a creator, can you think of the last time an original idea flashed in the inner eye of your mind? It must have felt like a spontaneous spark out of nowhere. Are… Continue reading Personal Takeaways from Dr. Kapil Gupta’s Book “Direct Truth”
Building Sustainable Careers in Product
Source: Conversations with Vikrama Dhiman on "Demystifying Product Management Titles" on Leher (https://leher.co/9NQj), March 24th, 2021
Nailing the Interview as an Interviewer
A lot has been written about how candidates should approach interviews, not so much on how interviewers should. Candidate experience is a hard problem to solve if you are trying to do it at scale and especially if people helping you in scouting and interviewing already have a day job. However, it is critically important… Continue reading Nailing the Interview as an Interviewer
10 Questions to Ask Interviewers on Work Culture
“There are no stupid questions” is a nice sentiment that may be appropriate in some contexts, however, the art of asking questions is an underrated skill, especially when we look for our next career move. For example, asking “How is the culture at your organization?” to an interviewer is like asking “What kind of a… Continue reading 10 Questions to Ask Interviewers on Work Culture
A rant and a wishlist for ed-tech in India
(This article was “written in public”. After a skeleton draft was posted on LinkedIn and Twitter seeking feedback, the attributed responses below were used to further refine and add to the key takeaways.) The term “Ed Tech” feels like an oxymoron in India, an attempt to change the cover of a book when the book itself needs a replacement. Most… Continue reading A rant and a wishlist for ed-tech in India
The Unsolicited Fortunes – Fifty Things I Am Grateful For
The word in Pali language for gratitude is kataññutā. The word consists of two parts: kata, which means that which has been done, especially to oneself; and annuta means knowing or recognizing. I am likely missing yet another fifty but doing this exercise revealed the many things that are easy to take for granted. — The… Continue reading The Unsolicited Fortunes – Fifty Things I Am Grateful For
Rohit Malekar 