MONTHLY MULLING 💡
The Stupid Test, Dunning-Kruger Effect, And Life Put In Perspective
Hi👋,
Tapan here.
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Happy Sunday y’all!
Firstly, an update on the personal front. After 4 years of working at PwC, I have finally bid the firm goodbye and joined Uber! The first week has been incredible and I am excited about the new challenge!
Secondly, we are closing in on 200 subscribers for Monthly Mulling! If you have been a reader, thank you so much!♥
If you have friends/family who are as curious as you are, can I please ask you to share this newsletter with them? It will help me a lot!
Onwards🚀
💭MULLING
🙈 The Stupid Test by David Perell
I really liked this short essay by David.
Just because it’s complex, doesn’t mean it’s right. The world rewards you for outcomes, not effort!
A question that was shared by Tim Ferriss should be a standard when solving problems - what would this look like it were simple?
😱 Life Put In Perspective by Tim Urban and Kurzgesagt
This post by Tim Urban put things in perspective for me. It looks at life from an outside perspective. It’s a reminder. If you don’t live your life today, you will regret it tomorrow.
And then I found this video by Kurzgesagt.
Wrapping your mind around your life is pretty hard because you are up to your neck in it. It's like trying to understand the ocean while learning how to swim. On most days you are busy just keeping your head above water.
So, it is not easy to figure out what to do with your life and how to spend your time. There are a million distractions. Your family, friends, and romantic partners, boring work, and exciting projects. Video games to play and books to read. And then there is your couch that somebody needs to lie on.
It’s easy to get lost. And in addition, you are at the tail-end of your time with a lot of people. So, start making decisions and try to minimize regret.
🤔 Dunning-Kruger Effect
Maybe it’s the new job but the Dunning-Kruger bias has been in my head for the past week. It’s a reminder to not be stupid.
It’s a type of cognitive bias in which people believe that they are smarter and more capable than they really are. Essentially, low ability people do not possess the skills needed to recognize their own incompetence.
Daniel Kahneman says “you will often find that knowing little makes it easier to fit everything you know in coherent patterns.“
It’s the reason, the person in your office who is least knowledgeable on a subject will talk a lot, use a lot of buzzwords. The more knowledgeable will be quiet because of the impostor syndrome. Another example is during a bull run, you will hear a lot from investment gurus.
Always remember - after the peak of stupidity, there is always a valley of despair. Only consistency, persistence, hard work, and creativity will help you reach the plateau of enlightenment.
📚TREAT YO’ SHELVES
You can find my favourite books on my site and add me on GoodReads.
🍛 Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors by Lizzie Collingham
About the book: I have said this before, I am a sucker for food and history. So when I found this book on Amazon, I knew I had to read it! I learned a lot about the history of food from Medieval India. And there lies my criticism. I was hoping the book will cover ancient India, Ayurveda, and such! In all honesty, you can skip this book if you watch all of Ranveer Brar’s recipes! However, if you’re curious about how food has evolved in the sub-continent over the centuries, it’s a fun quick read.
Important Lessons:
Columbus was certain that aji was a form of the pepper plant he was looking for and he named it ‘pepper of the Indies’. In fact, it was one of the many varieties of capsicum which the native American peoples had been cultivating to flavour their food since 4000 BC. The capsicum plants of America are unrelated to the pepper plants of Asia. But the name has stuck and the fruits of all capsicums have become known as peppers.
The potato was introduced to India by the Portuguese who used to call it batata. This is still the term used for potato in Gujarati/Marathi language in India. In addition, the Portuguese missed bread in India. The only kind of bread available was a flatbread called chapati. They started baking a sweet bread called pao. The Goan population over the years made this sweet bread into a savoury one and thus, we got the pav! Truly, we should thank the Portuguese for vada pav.
From Persia, pilau spread throughout the Muslim world. In Turkey it was called pilav; in Spain, with the addition of seafood and an emphasis on saffron, it became paella; in Italy, butter transformed it into risotto. In India, where Persian and central Asian culture fused with that of Hindustan, pilau was to undergo yet another transformation in the kitchens of the Mughal emperors. And thus, Biryani was created!
🗝 The History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra
About the book: Starting from 900 AD, Satish Chandra explains the socio-political environment until the conquest of the sub-continent by the British in 1757. It definitely put a lot of things in perspective and explained various stages of medieval Indian history. My complaint is that at certain times, it was very north India centric and ignored the history in the South. However, if your plan (similar to mine) is to understand the end-to-end Indian history, this is one of the important books. It’s a dry read so only pick it up if you’re really interested in the subject!
Important Lesson: Each emperor brought their culture to India and India is what it is today because of years of conquest and evolution. You cannot look at Indian history in silo. It is important to understand the complete history of a region at that time.
🎙PODCASTS
💰 COLD BREW MONEY
If you’re a listener, thank you so much! Can I ask you to share the podcast with one friend/family this weekend? It will really help us grow the podcast. We are now on YouTube too (if that’s your thing)! You can subscribe here.
👨🏽🏫 #66 – The U.S. Debt Ceiling Explained & Discussion On Unrealized Capital Gains Tax: We explain what’s the debt ceiling and if you should worry about your investments | Episode Page
🚗 #67 – Things To Consider When Buying Your First Car, $BABA, & Cryptocurrency Rally: Planning to buy your first car? We list down the things you should care about | Episode Page
📚 #68 – Ten Investing & Personal Finance Books That Everyone Should Read: We discuss our favourite personal finance and investing books | Episode Page
🧠 WHAT THE HAT!?
We launched season 3 of WTH!? and have a brilliant line-up of guests from the fields of leadership, management, entrepreneurship, and productivity.
🏗S3E2 - Dhruv Dewan Discusses Building A SaaS Business And Challenges For An Indian Entrepreneur | Episode Page
💰S3E3 - Khyati Mashru Discusses Investing, Personal Finance and Writing Your Money Story | Episode Page
💰S3E4 - Tumul Buch on Co-Founding Stupid Sid, Entrepreneurship, Best Country to Pursue Higher Studies | Episode Page
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