Aswath Krishnan

I have recently been spending more time with my baby nephews and niece. Babies are simple. They eat, sleep, poop, explore, and cry or laugh depending on how well the situation supports this survival and comfort [1]. When you observe babies, it's very apparent that we are all just survival programs. Adults just play more complicated, indirect, and longer-term survival games.  We begin as bootstrapped programs that function as follows: (a) feel pain and act distraught when we experience something threatening to survival, (b) feel pleasure and act happy when we experience something positive for survival, and (c) seek more pleasure and avoid pain, and be curious about the environment, presumably to look out for those sources.  Then the program learns rapidly over time, through memory and imitation - avoiding the pain, doubling down on the pleasurable, and exploring to discover more. There is a fair bit of randomness in there too. Many of the learnings are then passed on to offspri...

These are turbulent times - with inflation, market crashes, fears of a recession, a war in Ukraine, supply chain issues, climate scares, and political division. It's natural to get distracted, dismayed, or fearful of everything that's going on.  In your personal life, business, or career, you can get around it is by focusing on your mission and what's in your control.  For this to be possible, (a) your mission needs to be robust - something you really want to do, are capable of doing distinctly well, and something that others need and support, even during hard times, (b) you have partners who are aligned with you on mission and values, and (c) you need to live and operate well below your means and independently. 

I realized my investment portfolio is complex. I have investments across 6 different accounts and own over 25 individual stocks.   This may not be that complex for someone who's a finance expert or actively manages their investments. I'm not that. Managing finances is essential but not the area of my life where I want to excel - I'd instead focus on interests and differentiated skills in building products, businesses, or writing. I'd be happy with a B+ than an A+ (satisficer vs. maximizer).  The complexity prevents me from monitoring and managing effectively. I don't have enough knowledge, skills, or regular focus in this area to deal with the complexity either.  A more straightforward strategy like - (a) Automated investment and dollar-cost averaging, (b) Investing into a balanced portfolio of cash, stock indices, and a very few individual stocks, bonds, real-estate, and (c) Buy & hold and then, rebalancing twice a year and as needed to adjust for disturbances ...

Credit scores are like your gums. You know you need to take care of them now, or it'll be a pain in some distant future.  I'm trying to buy a home now and realized how consequential they can be.  Mortgage lenders, I was told, look at the middle of the scores from the 3 main credit bureaus/mafia (Experian, Equifax, and Transunion). If you're applying with a partner, they will pick the lowest one between you.  You need a middle of at least 680 to qualify for a jumbo loan (over ~$650k in WA state).  A middle of 680-700 can have an interest rate of ~5.6% vs. the ~4.8% that you get if it's >750. On a $1M loan, that's a significant ~$800 a month!  A single collections account (usually >$100) can impact your credit report by 100 points and stay on your credit report for up to 7 years. So missing a one-time $150 payment can end up costing you $800/month for many years or even disqualify you from getting a loan and home (If you can, you can pay the creditor - eith...

We were clearing up our house of unloved and unnecessary possessions before a move and decided to sell around 40 books that we'd never read or likely never reread.   We hauled them to a Half Price Book store. The lady at the counter told me that they have a computer program that calculates the offer price for each book.  That's an interesting programming puzzle.  There are 3 factors I'd take into consideration: (1) the price at which it will sell, (2) the average time to sell (payback period), (3) risk and profit buffer  These are related variables that can influence each other, but we can simplify the problem by treating them as independent varibles. For (1), we can assume it's half the average retail price across Amazon and maybe a couple of retailers. (2) is tricky as it involves predicting the future. We can use the past book sale date to do that. I'd use a weighted average of the recent average time to sell for (a) the very same book, (b) for the author, (c...

The most fundamental question to understand, IMO, is the existential one...What the heck is all this?! Why and how are we here? What are we supposed to do? Elon Musk is an incredibly smart guy - he has a track record of making things happen - both in the physical world (batteries, cars, rockets) and within human society (leading businesses, making money, acquiring a following). He's also a clear, first principles thinker and shares a lot about how he thinks about the world. So I think he can play a part in helping us understand life and the world*. So what is Elon's answer to the foundational question? Elon has two answers - one explicit and another implicit.   Elon recalls that at the age of 11 or 12, he had an existential crisis because he didn't understand why or how we are here. He concluded that we may never know but we may be able to find out if we expand the scope and scale of civilization and consciousness , and that's what he wants to do.  I like Elon's fra...

I have come across some research that showed that people with mentors are more successful in life and career, and I totally buy that. The world is a large and complex place. None of us know all the possibilities or how to navigate them well. But we can know a lot more by tapping into the experiences and wisdom of other people.  1. Seek advice  If you are doing something new or trying to make a difficult decision, in your personal or professional life, reach out to a few wise people who have walked the path before. It's also helpful to simply chat with wiser people about their lives and your life, without any specific topic in mind.  There are many good strategies on how to develop these relationships. I'd call out these three -  Be genuine - seek advice on topics or questions that you truly care about and can't figure out elsewhere (say, by just googling online). Don't do it to just "develop your network" or get something else from the other person.  Make it ...

I had a recent breakthrough in my pursuit of equanimity and joy .  I have been trying the Buddhist / Stoic principle of not fighting with reality for a couple of years now.   It's pretty sensible. We get flustered when the reality is different from our expectations and therefore, we'd be more equanimous if we fully accept and appreciate reality because it is what it is and focus on what we can do.  But despite the intellectual acceptance of this principle, I'd still occasionally get upset with reality and feel like I'm falling short of this principle. When I was discussing this with someone, they pointed out that it isn't healthy or self-compassionate to deny or resent the emotions I feel.  Then it clicked inside me that emotions are a part of reality too.  We feel emotions because of how we are wired.   So don't fight with emotions either. Let them happen, feel them, observe them, and focus on what you can do.  Aha!  I was assuming reality is onl...

My wife and I were chatting yesterday about how whenever we feel like we are in a rut, it's almost always because we stopped taking care of "basic shit".  Basic shit includes -  Sleeping well  Time in the morning to relax, meditate, plan, and get ready for the day Walking outside and/or exercising   Taking a lunch break and breaks during work Winding down from work and doing other things we enjoy  Taking some alone time to think reflect, read, write Drinking enough water and eating healthy Doing the chores to keep our homes and lives in order  Keeping phone, social media, and TV time low  Relaxing and self-care nighttime rituals like tea, board games, reading, journaling  Using weekends well to do fun stuff, wind down, and do chores Connecting regularly with close friends and family Focusing on what you have, balance, and what's in control. Not overdoing, overcommitting, being obsessed, greedy, jealous, fearful, judgemental, or worried Having...

It's now somewhat common best practice (inconsistently practiced though) for Product Managers to talk to customers and use the product regularly. The reasoning is pretty straightforward - if you aren't really understanding what customers need and experience, then how can you successfully prioritize what to build and build it well? But product leaders (PM Manager) can feel a push away from talking to customers directly or using the products as they take on more team management and strategy tasks (based on my true story). I'd posit that's going to hurt your effectiveness, especially if you are new to the domain or company. How are you going to set or vet the right team strategy, provide feedback, or take bold bets/changes if you aren't familiar with customers? How can you stop falling for availability bias (over-index on a limited set of user insights presented to you to develop an incorrect or incomplete model)? How are you going to stay connected to the ground reali...

I was upset and having a particularly rough day. We were meeting a few of our close friends couples that day. Not wanting to be a downer (and likely to avoid being judged), I covered it up and put on my regular act. But I couldn’t fully hide it towards the end of the day. One of my friends noticed something was off and when we had a moment, he  asked me if I was okay and even texted me later that day. I felt loved and supported, and it helped.  People around you may be silently suffering. If you want to help, you can’t expect them to express an ask…you have to pay attention, listen closely to pick cues, and care and act thoughtfully. And that can make a big difference. 

I was tasked with starting a "big bets" team at a startup I was working at. The goal of the team was loosely defined as to achieve step-level or 10X outcomes -- either in the core job-to-be-done or through a new job-to-be-done.  I was previously leading growth for the core product and I set this team's key performance indicator (KPI) or key result (KR in OKR) similarly -- X monthly active users.  And that was a mistake.  Done right, a KPI is a measure of the most important thing, provides directional guidance, and is a measure of progress. A wrong KPI can be useless, misleading, and demotivating.  For a new product area, the most important thing is to identify the problem space to play in and to achieve product-market fit. The goal of X monthly active users is a big step removed from that. It didn't provide us directional guidance, didn't provide a measure of progress to either the team or the execs, and it felt pretty demotivating to declare failure against that ...

I may have stumbled onto a life-changing practice on Twitter yesterday. I have only practiced it a couple of times so far and I feel a dramatic effect on happiness and equanimity each time.  Whenever a life-changing practice works out, it...well, changes your life. So well worth trying out strong recommendations.  Here's how it starts:  **** Hm well so all day I’m either talking to my parts or thinking “how can humanity become more alive” and diving into that question. That’s what my head is doing Body is doing whatever it feels like basically on autopilot — Nick Cammarata (@nickcammarata)  June 11, 2021 **** wait hold up. all day you're talking to your parts? can we get a monologue demonstration? — visa is doing final edits (99.2%) ✍🏾📖 (@visakanv)  June 11, 2021 **** I'm glad that Visa actually caught the casual mention and asks Nick for a demonstration (I'd probably have simply brushed through the tweet, so this is a good lesson in paying attention and being...

It's the start of a new year - a wonderful and optimistic time where we start off with a clean slate, lots of hope, goals, and resolutions. The general practice is to set lofty goals to read 25 books, pursue 3 hobbies, travel to 5 places, etc. My story below might make you consider an alternate approach of aiming to do less.  I think I read only one book in 2019. It wasn't even a big book. It was ~100 pages on the Buddhist Eightfold path.  The book had 8 key chapters and each chapter had 4 activities. I was reading this as a part of the program organized by Insights Meditation center. We read one chapter a month, then met for a group session, and practiced one activity per week, before moving to the next chapter.  The group sessions were usually 1-2 hours long. The experts leading the program would give an hour talk explaining the summary and nuances of the topic covered in the chapter. We'd break out into small groups a few times to share our opinions and experiences on ...

December is the reflective time of the year. In December 2020, I spent 3 days in this beautiful cabin, scribbling down many thoughts - old and new - that eventually became  this post on peace and joy . During breaks, I indulged in short walks and drives around the beautiful Olympic National Park, and studied a Buddhist book on the Eightfold path and the Almanac of Naval Ravikant. I have hugely benefited from this "inner work" that's helped me understand my existence and what I want to do with it. That elaborate exercise, weekly check-ins, and the resulting clarity have kept me grounded and led me to make some bold and positive changes over this year.  Inner work sounds like a suspect Indian guru term, but I think it’s quite apt. It is "work" because it takes systematic effort and the subject of the work is largely your mind.  Beliefs, habits, needs, environment, triggers -> Thoughts and actions -> Feelings and outcomes.  We have all developed beliefs, thou...

Passions are activities that bring us joy and can be sustained over a long time. We feel joyful doing these activities because they get us into a "flow state" or "in the zone", where you are fully absorbed, chugging away almost effortlessly. You get there when you achieve a balance between the level of challenge and ability that lets you perform without interruptions and produce desirable results, which in turn motivate you and provide you resources to do more of the activity and improve your ability.  People who have and pursue passions live more fulfilled, exciting, and joyful lives, which is why it's worthwhile to nurture a few different passions. I say nurture and not just "find" because we don't develop passions by default - we aren't born with them and we don't simply find them. I say nurture a few passions and not just one because it's good to diversify for variety and just in case you lose the ability or interest to pursue some ...

It struck me today that there are many similarities between a human body and a company. Similarities and metaphors are useful because you can extrapolate the understanding of one system, usually a simpler or more understood one, to another.  The mind (or conscious brain) is like the CEO and executive team. The brain is like middle management. The organs are like various departments.  The mind, like the CEO, makes infrequent (still multiple times an hour) but consequential judgment decisions, the brain makes more frequent but more habitual calls, and the organs, are like various departments, do routine functions with occasional fire fighting. The vascular and nervous systems help distribute messages and resources.  The mind, like a CEO, is important but not all-powerful. The mind doesn't have visibility or direct control over the organs (like how much insulin the pancreas is secreting). It largely relies on the brain and organs to function independently and reliably on a d...

This is one piece of wisdom that's nearly universally relevant for everything we do - personal or professional - but is so often forgotten and worth repeating often.  Start with Why What's the goal or problem? Why does it matter? Is it actually important? This is the foundational step that determines the success of anything we do but is so often missed or glanced over. We get into execution details before understanding why; we get swayed by what others are saying or doing; we continue doing things out of habit, even though they are ineffective or irrelevant. Projects often become chaotic, fail or lose steam during execution because the why isn't clear or important It's very important to clearly understand, believe in, and align on with stakeholders. One of Amazon's core principles is to "Work Backwards"; i.e. define success and even write up the future press release, and then work backward from that. Clarity on why and where you are going gives you clarity...

Imagine if someone gave you 3 crystal balls and said your life depends on them. If they get dirty or cracked, your life suffers. If they break, your life ends. If they are spotless and well kept, your life will be a joy.  Now imagine how much you'd care for them. You'd keep them in a safe place, polish and shine them, examine them every day for any damage, and never let anything or anyone harm them.  It makes life simple, doesn't it? Just take care of 3 crystal balls and all is good!  I'm now going to give you those 3 crystal balls that determine the quality of your life.  I can hear some of you groan, "Ah not this mind body spirit hocus pocus again!" or "I already knew that. My grandma told me this." To you all, I say, most of the precious life wisdom is actually simple and know for ages (see Lindy effect). We know them, but we simply don't follow them and chase after the latest trend. Repetition and clarity don't spoil the prayer. So let...

I was playing a few games of Codenames with some colleagues. For those who aren't familiar, Codenames is a game where the "spymaster" can give one clue word that can help their "operatives" guess a bunch of team words (say, blue) while avoiding a bunch of opponent team's words (say, red). It's a wonderful team game that is fun and strategic.  I was the spymaster in one of the games, meaning I could see all the team words and the opponent team's words and I had to give clues to my team of 5 to make them guess my team's words. It gave me a unique vantage point to observe team discussions, dynamics, and decision-making while knowing the right answer.  I said "Greece" to hint at "Atlantis" and "State" (not the best clue!). I felt good when a teammate immediately suggested Atlantis and State to the rest of the team. But another teammate more strongly proposed "War" and that Greece is a country and not a state. T...

The majority of us get our news and along with it, our world view, morality, opinions, and daily furies, from scrolling the social feeds across Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Google, and others. Given the amount of exposure, we think media reflects reality. I'm convinced that is absolutely not true.  There were a couple of recent stories that made me realize how lopsided and low-quality social media is.  Recently, Eric Adams got nominated for mayor of New York City. If you are on Twitter, you may have not even heard of him because of his nearly absent social media presence and measly sub-100K following. You'd have assumed that Andrew Yang, who ended up fourth in the election with just a fraction of the votes, is going to be the obvious nominee because of the #yanggang fame with 2M fervent followers.  Another recent study revealed that just 12 people were responsible for the majority of COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation! If you are looking to get a ba...

The main role of a product manager to identify and prioritize product investments within your area that'd have the most impact on the overall business goals (aka roadmap).  Usually, you don't make just one investment. You make a portfolio of bets. You can place bets across multiple core pillars or themes as I have suggested in a previous post on product strategy .  It's also helpful to assess your portfolio mix across the type of product improvements:  1. Ah, finally improvements (bugs, annoyances)  These are fixes for obvious annoyances or broken parts of the experience. Users know it and product teams usually know it. These experiences can cause casual users to churn immediately and fans to churn eventually.  Regularly identifying and fixing these before they snowball is a good defense and good for building trust, pride, and quality (reduce broken windows!).  2. Yeah, that's better  improvements (iterative improvements) Products aren't perfect out ...

Often times products and features are doomed to fail even before you start working on them because the customer, problem, their evaluation criteria, usefulness and usability of the solution, go-to-market and customer acquisition mechanisms, and business model are not understood or well defined.  This mad lib forces you to research, articulate and iterate on all of those questions before you start implementation.  People like [specific segments, demographics]  Who are faced with [specific problems]   and care about [key criteria] Will use [solution]  To do [steps to use solution]  and it would help them [impact on problem and satisfaction].  They'd discover this solution through [acquisition channels]  And they'd use it whenever [need] Which happens once every [need frequency]  And they'd pay [price, payment or revenue model] As the old adage goes, if you had 1 hour to solve a problem, then spend 40 mins thinking about the problem and 20 ...

I recently had to face some unexpected illnesses and deaths in my family.  Sickness and death are powerful reminders of the impermanence, fragility, and mystery of life - about how little time we all have, how little control we have, how we are a small transient part of a grand timeless machinery, and how little we know.  They are also powerful reminders of the colorfulness and meaning in every individual life, regardless of how transient or small it is in the grand scheme.  We fondly remember the departed's endearing and unique traits. We recall and cherish their remarkable or amusing stories. We feel grateful for their kindness, love, and joy. We celebrate their path and accomplishments. We learn from their wisdom and missteps. We mourn missed interactions, their unfulfilled dreams, the void of their absence, and for those who are close to them.  Death teaches us what we value, gives us the urgency to prioritize meaningful pursuits and interactions, and to live fre...

I'm currently on a staycation at home, with no plans. I used to take vacations only for certain specific or special purposes like traveling to new places or social events, and there was a certain pressure to make the most of them, so this is a change.  Thanks to COVID travel restrictions, aging into my 30s, my philosophy on LYWE and  peace & joy , I have revisited and expanded my definition of vacations to the following:  Spending time on self-care and peace-promoting activities.  Spending time on any joyful activity or hobby. This expanded definition lets me plan and take time off for a lot more things than to just travel - to write on my blog, think, read, just relax and do nothing, sleep in, catch up on chores, enjoy leisurely coffee, walks, hikes, and hangouts, etc. When I travel, my agenda is more relaxed rather than packed and I even take a day off after travel to do the above.  Taking time for yourself and doing less or nothing are vastly underrated....

High customer retention is the holy grail of most businesses. If customers keep coming back to your business, it increases lifetime revenue per customer (LTV) and you earn more per cost and effort of acquisition (CAC).  Customer retention may be hard to execute, but really simple to understand. There are three main factors that impact retention:  Customer retention = Frequency of Need X Mind share X Fulfillment Frequency of Need  Users use products to satisfy their needs. Some needs recur on a daily basis, like the need to eat, sleep, talk to people, hear the news, commute, or shopping. Some needs recur on a monthly or yearly basis, like doctor visits, car maintenance, or vacations. Some needs are episodic and happen a few times per lifetime, like dating, wedding planning, home or car purchase, teeth alignment, or funeral services.  If you are serving a need that's recurring frequently, you have more potential for retaining customers. If it's less frequent, it's like...

I believe that time is all we have and how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. Well...until someone recently introduced me to the concept of "energized time".  Let's say you want to create more time for a project. So you reduce family dinner time and sleep time by 30 mins. It works well for a couple of days. But after that initial gain, you start feeling less productive or energized during your project time. I think we all intuitively understand and agree with this.  So it isn't just time that matters. How we feel during that time matters too.  So now I believe that "energized time" is all we have.  Understanding Energized Time Life is a series of activities - things you think and do, and also how, where, and with who.  Your  energy  levels - physical, mental, and emotional -  vary because of the activities. Higher energy levels mean you feel present, lucid, sharp, at ease, happy, and ready to run a mile. There are recharging activities ...

I have changed my jobs several times and I have struggled with the decision every time. Am I doing the right thing? Should I stay or try something else? Am I growing quickly enough? There’s a lot of career advice out there, but they can be incompatible, overwhelming, and unhelpful. So I have simplified it for myself here. As with every life question, the answer starts with the big why. Understand life and decide what you want to do and experience. And then follow it. The best life hack is clarity and intent.    My scorecard and purpose in life  are to experience peace and joy for myself and for others.  Career or profession is “what we do for others”. Career is not a separate or siloed-off section of life - it is embedded and entangled in it, ideally harmoniously.  A career or profession that is harmonious with my life purpose (1) increases peace and joy for others, (2) while doing something that’s joyful and interesting for myself, and also enabling (or at leas...

For the first time ever, I learned the same principle in THREE different contexts on the same day! And it was surprisingly relevant for the mood I have been in over the last couple of weeks. So I'm going to memorialize it here.   In the morning , a friend shared a scene and a quote from the movie Bridge of Spies, where the character is oddly calm when he's on the verge of being sentenced to the death penalty.   “You don’t seem alarmed.” “Would it help?” “Don’t you ever worry?” “Would it help?” “You’re not worried.” Would it help?” At noon , during lunch, my workplace hosted a fireside chat with Lori Gottlieb, author of  "Maybe you should talk to someone ." That was thrilling as I'd read and enjoyed the book just a few months back. She said the person we talk most to in our life is not our spouse, kids, nor parents...it is ourselves! We do a lot of self-talk in our heads, which significantly influences how we feel, act, and think. And unfortunately, we...

It's sometimes easier to think of what will make you fail at something than what will make you succeed. That's why I like the technique of "inversion" - instead of trying to be successful, just avoid the things that cause failure and you will succeed. I also like the practice of doing "pre-mortems" before starting on any project or team - imagine you failed, think of all the reasons why, and then prioritize and mitigate them.  Here are some common failure modes that you can try to avoid when you are pursuing anything - personal, career, business, relationships, etc. 1. No burning curiosity, desire, intent, or conviction . Most hard-to-achieve things take a long time and a ton of effort. So if aren't really emotionally, rationally, and intellectually drawn to a pursuit or excited about the process, just pursue something else you actually are drawn to. Seriously, why pursue things you don't want or need?! 2. Lack of deep understanding (and failure to k...

An ongoing exploration of my goals and purpose. Inspired by the Naval, Buddha, and Seinfeld. Background "How was the first person born? Who will bury the last dead person?" I was six years old, and out of the blue, I had posed child versions of existential questions to my amused and proud mother. I don't remember any answers, and if there was one, it probably went over my little head. I grew up in a middle-class family in Chennai, a bustling metropolis in India. My ambitions were driven by my culture's obsession and a necessity for meritocracy. In my world, academic achievement, prestigious jobs, and wealth were universally celebrated and recognized as marks of success. The lack of those was pitifully shunned or quickly shamed as failures. With strong support, encouragement, and occasional chiding from family, teachers, peers, and scorecards, I pursued that purpose with vigor. The pursuit was an emotional roller coaster. Celebratory milestones and fun activities punct...