I'm Arjun. This is my digital garden.

If there was one thing that I wish someone would have insisted that I learn early in my career, it should have been to recognise and implement the power of aligning my incentives with the incentives of the people I was dealing with day-in-day-out. It’s such a simple concept and appears to be so obvious, but in my experience, it is also one of the most under-utilised psychological frameworks used by us humans. “There is only one way to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.” - Dale Carnegie I’ve spent days, weeks, months and years in trying to close deals that never closed, in trying to prove to my managers that I deserved a promotion or a raise, in trying to persuade recruiters that I was a good fit for the role I was applying for. I’ve also spent an inordinate amount of time in personal relationships that just fizzled away eventually. In hindsight, had I understood what these clients‘, bosses‘, recruiters‘ and friends‘ incentives were, perhap

Lockdown 3.0: The case of Moral Hazard So, the lockdown has extended for another two weeks and a lot has been, is being and will be written about its good and bad. I have been thinking about the implications of principal-agent relationship between the central and various state governments and how the latest guidelines open a doorway for Moral Hazard . Here's why: The central government has designated districts as Red, Orange and Green Zones based on active cases present in any district. However, this information is provided to the central government by various state governments as health care is a state subject. Each state has formulated its own testing strategy. Some states are going for aggressive testing, some states are sticking to necessary (read minimal) contract tracing testing. There is bound to be a skew in the number of red zone districts in states that test more vs states that do not. Two maps. See anything? Map on left is redzone districts. Map on right i

Jobs & SMBs Many people are going to lose their jobs. Sectors directly affected will see this happening sooner, for example travel, hotels and restaurants, malls and multiplexes, shared economy etc. However, employment impact will trickle down to even other verticals - ITeS, Medical Services etc. Revenue roles (sales) are going to become much more stressful. Cost roles (IT, Admin, HR) are going to see redundancies.  MSMEs will probably be heavily distressed and many will be wiped out. Looking at glass half empty, the best placed SMB entrepreneurs right now are the ones who have no costs and no (or little) revenues.  Status quo is a bad thing right now Whether it's about any decisions in your personal life, in your professional life or as an entrepreneur. Don't "wait this out until it gets over". Any alternative will be high risk + high reward, but status quo will almost certainly be low risk + diminished returns.  Life from home Work from home,