Blog – Value Investing Almanack – Safal Niveshak

BookWorm: Poke the Box

February 15, 2018

When was the last time you did something for the first time? It’s a powerful question because it would make most people very uncomfortable. Poke the Box could be the wake-up call that you’ve been waiting for till now to start something new.

In last two decades, Java has emerged as the most widely used programming language. Developers at Sun Microsystem created Java and it was later acquired by Oracle Corporation. Java 9, the latest version, has something called REPL feature. It stands for Read, Evaluate, Print, and Loop. REPL facilitates a quicker way to test few lines of code with minimal keystrokes.

Behaviouronomics: Benjamin Franklin Effect

February 10, 2018

Doing a favour to someone, as per reciprocity principle, is a great persuasion tool. However, can asking for a favour turn a hater into a fan? Yes, it can. And this trick was pioneered by the famous eighteenth-century statesman, Benjamin Franklin.

It was a hot Sunday afternoon and I was experimenting with “diffused mode of thinking.” It’s a learning technique where you read for a while, then keep the book aside and let your mind drift aimlessly. In other words, I was dozing off in my tattered beanbag with a book on my face.

My experiment was interrupted by the doorbell. It was a young salesman.

During those days, I had recently read Robert Cialdini’s book – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Cialdini, a professor of Psychology, argued that expert salespeople use many persuasion tricks to convince their customers and the best way to counter is to not give them a chance to talk to you at all.

The Most Important Future-Proof Skill

January 30, 2018

We are galloping towards a world when machines will be doing most of the work. That’s good news and bad news. On one hand, it means that most work will get done faster, cheaper and with fewer errors. On the other hand, it means a lot of people will lose their jobs, especially those who do things which a machine can do more efficiently, like driving cars or crunching numbers.

This demands that we build skills which artificial intelligence can’t copy, at least not as easily and not sometime shortly.

Writing is one such soft skill. The ability to form an emotional connection with other human being using words is a skill that can future-proof one’s career.

No matter who you are or what kind of job you do, ability to write well isn’t a “good to have” have skill anymore. It’s a prerequisite to survive the onslaught of technological disruption staring at you. It’s going to be the most important block in the future talent stack.

Now that I have convinced you why you should improve your writing skills let me offer you some insights on nuts and bolts of good writing skills.

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InvestorInsights: Saurabh Madaan

January 25, 2018

Saurabh Madaan is a Silicon Valley-based investor and a Senior Data Scientist at Google. He is well-known in the investing world for his more than 30 interviews with the world’s best investors through Talks@Google investing series.

Saurabh also teaches an award-winning Leadership and Teamwork course at Google, has previously addressed the global One Young World Summit to talk about leadership and education, with the likes of Richard Branson and Muhammad Yunus. Saurabh holds a B. Tech from IIT Madras (2006), MS in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania (2008), and MS in Physics from the University of Waterloo (2010). He was Literary Secretary and editor at IIT Madras, and the recipient of graduate scholarships at both Penn and Waterloo.

Over to Saurabh!

Safal Niveshak (SN): Please share about your background in education and what work do you do at Google?

Saurabh Madaan (SM): I grew up in Amritsar, India. I studied there before going to IIT Madras where I did material science and engineering. Then I got a scholarship to study masters in engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in the US. I had always wanted to study Physics, and did another masters in Physics (University of Waterloo) before I started working at Google.

Currently, I work as a Senior Data Scientist at Google. There is rich statistics and machine learning behind Google’s search and ads. My team focuses on the latter. My day job involves simulations, predictive models and business strategy. I am constantly thinking of risk and probabilities, concepts which also translate well in to investing.
[Read more…] about InvestorInsights: Saurabh Madaan

BookWorm: Win Bigly

January 15, 2018

Trump’s win in 2016 U.S. presidential election came as jaw dropping surprise. Those who concluded that Trump was nothing but a lucky clown, missed one of the most important perceptual shifts of present times. If you’re curious and open to changing your world view to become a better decision maker, Scott Adams’ book is for you.

Trump’s win in 2016 U.S. presidential election came as a jaw-dropping surprise. If you concluded that Trump was nothing but a lucky clown, you missed one of the most important perceptual shifts of present times. If you’re curious and open to changing your worldview to become a better decision maker, Scott Adams’ book is for you.

[Read more…] about BookWorm: Win Bigly