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The Annual Return of a Book I Finished Reading But Have Not Escaped Yet
A reflection on why Marshall Smith’s book returned to my life and what it reveals about ambition
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The Power of Noticing: Lessons from Great Gifters
Lessons from the few who gifted well by doing the rarest thing of all: paying attention — a small rebellion against the annual flood of candles, gift cards, bath sets, and other objects that politely announce, “I didn’t know what else to get you
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Jog Past Sunnyvale Farmers Market: Why Availability Trumps Everything Else
Note: These views do not represent those of my employer. This piece was composed entirely in my personal time, using my own resources. This Saturday morning, between 7 and 8 a.m., I jogged past the Sunnyvale Farmers Market — it’s a small theatre of capitalism where everything smells faintly of fruit, ambition, and the anxiety…
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Little Acts of Negligence, Irreversible Ends — Rail Safety Week
PrologueThis has taken a lot of courage to share. Part of me believes that giving too much of yourself away is inviting weakness. But this story has lived in me like fog — heavy, unshakable. I finally found the courage to speak it, because silence itself costs too much. Recently, I took time off from…
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It’s Not About the Players, It’s About Getting on Base
Opinions are mine alone, not my employer’s. Typed on my personal Mac. “It’s not about the players, it’s about getting on base.” That single line from Moneyball explains why baseball changed forever — and why product managers are still stuck chasing batting averages. In the movie, Brad Pitt had to explain to a room of…
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Six Out of Ten
Most feedback is noise dressed up as forms and ratings. But every once in a while someone, who isn’t even paid to care, says or does something that rewires you. This is my collection of those six-out-of-ten moments
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The Bug That Could Have Retired Me
The content of this piece does not represent the views of my employer. The character names are fictional — though the absurdity is, regrettably, real. Retirement, I always thought, would come from mutual funds, launching AI startups and owning real estate. But over the years in software, I realized there are other avenues like stumbling…
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Behavior Bible: The RTO Edition
Some time during COVID-19 when the whole world was working from home and had lost complete touch with civilization, I made a list I called the Behavior Bible. With my commute reduced from bed to table, I would read it like a prayer reminding myself of ways to get the most done when in-person influence…
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Four Experiments in Being Human
Hey everyone — it’s been almost four years since I last wrote a blog post. Once in four years feels like the Olympics, except with fewer medals. Over these years, I’ve run several “A/B tests” on myself. Except, if we’re being precise, they weren’t A/B tests at all. They were pre-post dramas where you change…
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Communities, Cohorts and the Rise of Post University Career Launchpads
Born from the internet and for the internet, a new paradigm of professional education is opening up through cohort-based courses. I dive into what has led to its arrival and its advantages over traditional degree programs, on-demand MOOCs and YouTube education. Bonus: I’ve added links to some of the best CBCs for Software Engineering, Marketing,…
Observation Book: a blog on software, art, business and other pre-occupations of Vandana Guru
Observation Book 