Fail your way to a billion dollars: life lessons from J.K. Rowling

Posted in: Life, Money, Work- Mar 17, 2010 1 Comment

Llloyd Jones (who tragically/hilariously failed to grad­u­ate uni­ver­sity because of library fines) once said that ‘’the men who try to do some­thing and fail are infi­nitely bet­ter than those who try to do noth­ing and suc­ceed.’’ We’ve all heard a lot of quotes like this grow­ing up (though rarely from peo­ple who failed to graduate […]

What teachers know

Posted in: Goals, Life, Work- Mar 11, 2010 No Comments

Today’s grad­u­ates face a new breed of chal­lenges as they enter the work­force. They will con­front messier, intractable prob­lems such as cli­mate change, global ter­ror­ism, antibi­otic resis­tant dis­eases and per­sis­tent mar­ket weak­ness. The same tech­nolo­gies that empow­ered them as learn­ers at the same time also mul­ti­plied the poten­tial for global havoc. And this has changed the definition […]

The secret of happiness (from Daniel Kahneman and Jerry Seinfeld)

Posted in: Life- Mar 06, 2010 No Comments

I am by day a mild-mannered Econ­o­mist, qui­etly cor­rect­ing stu­dents’ sup­ply and demand dia­grams, dis­cussing the long-term profit pos­si­bil­i­ties in oli­gop­o­lies. But by night, I get to pur­sue my real pas­sion in life: surf­ing –both chan­nel and web. Some­times I do both at once! So I live a pretty full exis­tence. Some­times on my quests, […]

Inside the Mind of Roger Federer: The Mental Advantage of a Tennis Legend

Posted in: Goals, Health, Life, Work- Jun 26, 2009 2 Comments

I have been a fan of Roger Fed­erer since I first saw him inter­viewed in 2003. I was struck then by his poise and his grace and the way he thinks about the game. And now, at just 27 years old, with 14 Grand Slam titles to his name, he’s still as con­sis­tent as ever. Federer’s […]

The Scientific Recipe for Greatness

Posted in: Health, Life- May 16, 2009 7 Comments

Sixty years in the mak­ing a study of 268 Har­vard grad­u­ates has iden­ti­fied seven pri­mary fac­tors that pre­dict healthy phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal living.