Category Archives: Think

Checklist thinking

Leave a reply

Thinking is an art.

Winston Churchill once said “Most people think once a year, I practiced to think twice a week and that is why I am here”. So, what is so different and difficult in thinking?

Thinking is simple, but yet very complicated. If we just read what Churchill said, we can understand that there is something more to thinking what we do each day. All of us think, each day, each minute and each second. We are thinking of various things and we are thinking on how to solve problems.

We stop at thinking when we find an appropriate solutions, not necessarily the right solution. Many a times we restrict our thinking because we are given a checklist to think.

If you look at a developer, he starts coding when he receives Low Level Design and Algorithm. He will understand the problem, LLD and the Algorithm, but he might not necessarily know how to solve the problem. He has the blue print of the solution and his thinking is mostly towards writing code, based on the design and algorithm. What is wrong with this?

Limited thinking. That is the key here. Fortunately or unfortunately many of us are in this mode. We receive instructions and immediately our thinking stops. We follow the instructions. It is good and many a times it is encouraged to follow the laid out plan, but it is also very important to practice thinking and solving the problem.

In aviation, the Pilot has a series of checklists for any kind, for flying the airplane. There is a checklist for starting the engine, taxing to the runway, takeoff, crusing, decending, landing and parking the aircraft. Is the pilot not thinking then? He thinks. They are trained to think in simulations. Even though they follow the checklists, it is left to the pilots discretion as to how to handle the situation. This is checklist thinking.

I am sure many of you are aware of US Airways 1549 when Captain Sully landed the plan on the Hudson river. Take few moments to see the below videos.

Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1fVL4AQEW8&t=11s

Part 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2njlF0OOftQ&t=86s

Part 3 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6HYMpmxdaA

Part 4 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Ht6y0XA4c

What do you think? Was the pilot not thinking? He followed all the checklists and then made his judgement calls. That’s how he saved all the souls on board.

Checklist allows you not to forget simple things, and allows you think bigger.

Even though we have set guidelines to perform any tasks, what we need to practice is how to effectively solve the problem/address the situation following the checklist.

Challenge Assumptions

Leave a reply

The step to sharpen our thinking is to Challenging assumptions.

Challenging assumptions is developing our curiosity quotient. How do we practice curiosity? Start by asking Why? to things around. Why are we afraid of what we are afraid of?

Let me share my story. Long ago, I was afraid of the middle sex. When ever I saw them on the road coming towards me, my heart would pound. One day when I was with a good friend of mine, she noticed it and asked me. I told her. She asked me if I reasoned as to why I am afraid? I said no. The next week on a Saturday, she invited me to come to an NGO. I went. This was the NGO which was run by the middle sex for various social causes. She introduced me and told the gathering that I would be teaching them Fundamentals of Computers. With my inhibitions, I started to teach them. Over the next 2 months, everything changed for me. I got to know them better and I realized how wonderful and nice people they are. My fear was absolutely baseless. They loved me so much that after my sessions were over, they actually called me to come back few times.

Look around, start by asking simple questions. There are mostly no questions which have no answers. We just need to spend time with the question and we will get the answer.

If you are an Entrepreneur, ask yourself why you are solving the problem. If you work for a company ask why you are doing what you are doing.

Developing curiosity enhances your ability to challenge assumptions. When you challenge the assumptions, the way you look at dealing with things completely changes.

Asking the right questions

Leave a reply

All of us ask questions. Is there a right or wrong way to ask? I am sure once in your life you heard – “That’s a very good question”. How do we different the questions? Is there a logic behind asking what we want to ask.

The answer is Yes. There are patterns in which we ask questions. Few ask to know if the other person knows the subject or not; few genuinely ask; others ask to confirm if they understanding is correct and few ask for the sake of asking.

If you have taken a course on How to do presentations or teaching a class, you would have definitely covered the topic on how to manage your audience. Based on the tone and involvement of your participants, you know the genuinity of the question.

Asking the right question comes with the understanding of the subject. If the subject is new, the questioning pattern comes from inquisitiveness.

Based on my experiences, I identified 3 attributes which make it best.

– Start with the situation (Set the stage) – Before you ask a question, it makes it easier for the narrator/speaker to understand the context. So, highlight what he/she said and then start the question.

– Repeat what the other person said before you ask the question (Providing clarity) – After setting the stage, ensure you repeat the last line what you heard and then start with your question. This will help in connecting the story with the situation.

– Close the question with your understanding (if possible) – After the question is answered, close it by repeating what you have understood. This gives confidence to the speaker that their effort is valued.

Blackbox Thinking

Leave a reply

Every flight is equipped with a Blackbox, which records all the conversations in the Cockpit and each and every instruction given to the plane. There is no debate on how this is helpful to track how the plane has been operational.

Our brain is our blackbox and it records each and every instance of our life, making us what we are and how we behave and handle our thought process. What if we decode our brain from time to time and look at how it has been processing our experiences?

Many a times, our mind takes over our thoughts. It clubs our emotions to our feelings and gives out instructions on how we react to situations. Only few of us can actually note these reactions and understand the instructions from the brain and then take action. This comes out of practice. The practice of thinking and practice of handling instructions from brain and mind.

When it is a good news or success, we celebrate. But, when there is failure, we allow our mind to rule over and react according to what it feels.

Success comes from managing this reaction. This is the reason successful people become successful. They look at their failures and downtimes, practice thinking and understand the reactions from the brain and then take action.

So, the next time you experience failure, evaluate what your feelings are and act according to what the brain says. This will give you the required result rather than just allowing your brain and mind to wander around and control you.

Thinking as a function

Leave a reply

Times are changing. Even though you have the brightest of the ideas, investors and consumers are looking at the fact that it is not about only solving the problem, but reaching the consumers.

As entrepreneurs, we need to embrace the fact that solving the right problem is just not the only way, but what becomes important is how we message and help our consumers understand the solutions. There are two aspects which we need to consider seriously before embarking on the journey of building solutions – First, we need to understand the view of traditional logic and secondly, we have to employ the view of association theory.

What do these mean?

The view of traditional logic provides us the understanding of the problem and the kind of solutions which have traditionally been accepted by consumers. When you identify the problem, depict how consumers have accepted solutions to similar kind of problems earlier and design the solutions based on the principals of approachability.

Let us look at a simple case study of an online grocery store in India. Traditionally, the way we shopped groceries was to go to a Supermarket or a local vegetable market and purchased our daily needs. Over the period of time, it was acceptable for us to call the local grocery shop and have them deliver to us. As times changed, now, we do not even call the local grocery store, but open a website/app and select all the groceries we need and they get delivered home.

The progression happened step-by-step. First, consumers were accustomed to not requiring to go to the shop to select their goods, and then slowly, consumers have been introduced to the concept of shopping in more than one store and select what they like.

When you are designing a solution, if it is a progressive step to the daily workflow, it becomes easier for consumers to understand and use the solution appropriately.

Look at how banking has changed in India. Initially, it was ATM Cards, then Net Banking and now, API Banking, making it easier to send money by just using a mobile number. The transition was step-by-step.

This does not mean solutions cannot be radical. Few years ago, SpaceX said that they would put people on Mars and asked interested people to sign up and after their selection, they would undergo rigorous training before they are sent to mars. This is radical progression and the company was looking at not many people in their first batch, but a select few. Since the world is definitely made up of early adapters, they got their numbers.

It all depends on how you wish solve a problem and how you want to make your clients utilise your solution. Either make it a progressive approach or a radical one. But, before you begin solving a problem, spend time on understanding the progression of the domain/industry and illustrate to yourself how things have changed over the period of time. This makes it easier for you to design, educate your consumer and implement the solutions.

In view of association theory, what you would understand is the consumer behaviour. You can use various techniques and methodologies to understand this – Consumer interviews, survey’s, having conversations with potential users etc. These methodologies will help you understand what the user is looking forward as a progressive next step. To contradict this, Henry Ford famously said, “If I asked people what they wanted, they would ask for faster horses”. So, we should be very specific in what we are looking for and understand the trends and the industry before we even begin solving the problem.

The objective of this post is to help aspiring innovators/entrepreneurs ideate and provide a framework for the same.

Is AI Overrated?

1 Reply

This can be a controversial post, but I will still go ahead and share my thoughts.

#AI is not new today, it has been existing since the days of any online word document started highlighting spelling mistakes as you write. The next generation AI tools like Grammerly started showing you sentence construction mistakes and grammatical corrections. Most of the book writing softwares also help you with the same.

As times progressed, auto corrections started coming up in most of the technology we use, for instance when you misspel a place name on Google Maps, it automatically asks “Did you mean this?” or in when you do a Google search, and it does not for the exact match, it asks you “Did you mean this?”.

Even in photographic works, smart corrections for adjusting light, brightness etc have always existed since a long time.

So why suddenly all this AI powered advertisements?

Come 2023, Microsoft invested $10 Billion in OpenAI, founded in 2015 by Elon Musk and Sam Altman. This is when s*** hits the fan. All the world is going ga-ga about the game changing AI and how people are going to loose jobs. What happened between 2015-2022 or even before the launch all the work being done to make ChatGPT? 

I call this marketing. If you notice, almost every year since the 70’s there is something new which was coming along and the next few years will be centred around that term. Lets look at a timeline:

1944 – Neural Network

1965 – Expert System

1970 – Fault tolerant

1976 – Ethernet

1977 – Intranet

1979 – Logout

1980 – TCP / IP

1981 – LAN

1982 – Domain Name

1983 – Virtual Private Network, WAN

1984 – VPN

1985 – IP Address & C++

1986 – Internet

1987 – Virtual reality, JIF

1988 – Hyperlink, JPEG / MPEG

1989 – Cybersecurity

1990 – Internet Service Provider

1991 – Cybercrime

1992 – URL, Augmented Reality, PDF,

1993 – Website

1994 – Cyberterrorism

1995 – Livestream

1996 – Cloud Computing

1998 – Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

1999 – Blog

2001 – Internet of Things (IoT)

2002 – Vlog

2005 – Ransomwear, Microblogging

2007 – Netbook

2009 – Cryptocurrency

2011 – Blockchain

2016 – Machine Learning (ML)

2023 – Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Notice, its something what has been existing, but someone using a name to make it fad.

If you notice carefully, Apple never uses the word AI in any of its products or conversations? Why? Because they want something of their own, Machine Learning. ML has been doing the rounds for the last few years, but never gained so much attention like the AI. What is the difference?

AI is mainly concerned with utilising stored information to make it easier for you to accomplish tasks based on how you use that information. On the other hand, ML focuses on enabling systems to behave automatically even before receiving input.

All AI powered tools work in the similar fashion. After you give an input, they suggest you how you can better it. For instance, I am using Notion as my primary source of all writings and it does not automatically suggest anything, after i write, I can select the sentence and then ask AI to improve it.

So, do you think AI is overrated? I feel overrated is not the right word to use at all. No one will loose jobs, nothing will happen. It will become part of our daily use like how documentation software suggests you to correct a spelling or improve your writing style. And with regards to loosing jobs, the same was said when computers started taking over, did people loose jobs or adopt? The same will apply here.

What do you think?

Thinking as a function

Leave a reply

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.

Henry Ford

Times are changing. Even though you have the brightest of the ideas, investors and consumers are looking at the fact that it is not about only solving the problem, but reaching the consumers.

As entrepreneurs, we need to embrace the fact that solving the right problem is just not the only way, but what becomes important is how we message and help our consumers understand the solutions. There are two aspects which we need to consider seriously before embarking on the journey of building solutions – First, we need to understand the view of traditional logic and secondly, we have to employ the view of association theory.

What do these mean?

The view of traditional logic provides us the understanding of the problem and the kind of solutions which have traditionally been accepted by consumers. When you identify the problem, depict how consumers have accepted solutions to similar kind of problems earlier and design the solutions based on the principals of approachability.

Let us look at a simple case study of an online grocery store in India. Traditionally, the way we shopped groceries was to go to a Supermarket or a local vegetable market and purchased our daily needs. Over the period of time, it was acceptable for us to call the local grocery shop and have them deliver to us. As times changed, now, we do not even call the local grocery store, but open a website/app and select all the groceries we need and they get delivered home.

The progression happened step-by-step. First, consumers were accustomed to not requiring to go to the shop to select their goods, and then slowly, consumers have been introduced to the concept of shopping in more than one store and select what they like.

When you are designing a solution, if it is a progressive step to the daily workflow, it becomes easier for consumers to understand and use the solution appropriately.

Look at how banking has changed in India. Initially, it was ATM Cards, then Net Banking and now, API Banking, making it easier to send money by just using a mobile number. The transition was step-by-step.

This does not mean solutions cannot be radical. Few years ago, SpaceX said that they would put people on Mars and asked interested people to sign up and after their selection, they would undergo rigorous training before they are sent to mars. This is radical progression and the company was looking at not many people in their first batch, but a select few. Since the world is definitely made up of early adapters, they got their numbers.

It all depends on how you wish solve a problem and how you want to make your clients utilise your solution. Either make it a progressive approach or a radical one. But, before you begin solving a problem, spend time on understanding the progression of the domain/industry and illustrate to yourself how things have changed over the period of time. This makes it easier for you to design, educate your consumer and implement the solutions.

In view of association theory, what you would understand is the consumer behaviour. You can use various techniques and methodologies to understand this – Consumer interviews, survey’s, having conversations with potential users etc. These methodologies will help you understand what the user is looking forward as a progressive next step. To contradict this, Henry Ford famously said, “If I asked people what they wanted, they would ask for faster horses”. So, we should be very specific in what we are looking for and understand the trends and the industry before we even begin solving the problem.

The objective of this post is to help aspiring innovators/entrepreneurs ideate and provide a framework for the same.

Thinking like a pro

Leave a reply
Thinking is not art, but a skill which needs to be mastered.


In his book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. Winston Churchill once said, typically people think 2-4 hours a year and I practiced doing it each day and that is what got me here.


In today’s world of fast changing and adapting technology, only the one’s who practice thinking are making strides in every aspect of their lives. So, how do we begin thinking like a pro?


Thinking is the function of both the left and right brains. It needs constant practice and the will to make your thinking impactful. While the left brain focus’s on understanding the small picture, verbal communication, linear and logical thinking, positive emotions, math, and EQ; the right brain focus’s on understanding the big picture, non-verbal communication, IQ, math reasoning, information interpretation and negative emotions.


Thinking is a tight balancing act between the left and right brains. Like any other balance activities, even the brain needs to be taught and practiced thinking.


If we go with the statistics quoted by Churchill, we would not spend more than 240 hours thinking in our lifetime (3 Hours a year for 80 Years). For us to reach at least 50% of the mastery level, setting a goal of 10 years, we need to practice thinking 500 Hours a year. This translates to an average of 0.057 Hours each day, which is less than 20 minutes.


When you begin learning a 2 wheeler/4 wheeler, you focus on keeping the balance of the vehicle straight on the road while combining using the Accelerator, Brake, Clutch and the Gearbox. Initially, it would be difficult, but the more your practice, the easier it gets.


Similarly, thinking like a pro needs practice. Practicing a combination of activities will help sharpen our thinking. It is not mandatory that one understands every aspect of the functions of brain and practice them, but identifying the right combinations coupled with the passion helps better the chances of the thinking process.


Next time when you have to think about something, try a combination of the skills required and then your output will be much better than it was the last time.

Own the Road

Leave a reply
If you are a startup, owning the road is what makes the difference.
Creating a niche/competitive product is no longer what makes you differentiated. Everyone has something to offer. What makes the cut is, you creating a platform for yourself and/or your product.
In idea evaluation 50% weightage goes towards the differentiator. 5%goes to testing, 20% weighs towards what you are offering and 25% weighs towards you Idea itself.
So, create your platform and own it. Your client will drive your growth.

IoT and Healthcare

Leave a reply
Internet of Things will take some more time in playing a crucial role in our lives through Healthcare. I personally see two aspects which are important – Hesitation and Consistency.
Hesitation is in regard to using mobile devices to track Healthcare. Even though there are quite a few apps we use today, depending on them to take care of our health is not in practice by a common user. Giving confidence to users to use their phone as a dependable device is the first step in getting more people connected.
The consistency of Data is the next important aspect. How the data from the device is stored and integrated with other apps or synchronise with Doctor’s system plays a pivotal role.
Of course, Security is also an important aspect, but if we accept and the data is consistent, we can build safer systems.