Convincing Ourselves

Introduction The tragic and unforgivable killing of Shinzo Abe put a spotlight back on the defining characteristic of his time as Prime Minister i.e. Abenomics. The success of his economic policies is still debated due to mixed results over a number of years. Personally, I don't think judging an economic policy is that simple. A country like Japan does not operate in a vacuum and is affected by unforeseen events around the world. However, I still believe there is a lot we can learn from the shortcomings of his economic policy   Abenomics and why it couldn't fulfill the promise: The 1990s and the 2000s were a two-decade period of Japan essentially stalling. Its industry, once the envy of the world, stopped innovating, and its trade surpluses, once the biggest in the world, stopped being so big. On top of that Japan, started suffering from degrading living standards and demographic problems.  Abenomics was an attempt to use, easy monetary policy, loose fiscal policy, and structu...

  Trends move the world. It doesn't matter who we are, where we live, what social strata we belong to, or how educated we are, the world, and the society at large, moves in trends. Ideas, social norms, thoughts, products, people, books, political ideologies, and everything else, that everyone seems to be going towards, and sometimes like waves, die out as well.   Trends are real A woman in Los Angeles tries out a new restaurant because it's ‘fashionable’. The hype is so great that she herself ends up hyping it up. After all, it's considered ‘trendy’ to be seen here. Similarly, liberal human rights activists suddenly out of the blue, starts to tweet against what is happening in South Sudan because George Clooney started campaigning about what is doing in Darfur. It's on peoples minds and being a human rights activist A trader in New York buys up Amazon stock. There was a great news article probably published by Amazon’s PR but it has pushed higher and the trader's in...

The below discussion was a result of an argument between me and an Indian nationalist on Quora.  This might be considered controversial, however, I feel facts or more important than nationalist feelings and propaganda.  Feel free to leave a comment. In my discussions with many Liberal Indian Nationalists, I have come across a sort of victim mentality and bitter resentment towards the British Raj on the subcontinent. The 'complaints' are of two nature in my experience. The first is that the 'Indian Subcontinent' was looted and it was this money that financed the Industrial Revolution in mainland Britain. The second is that if the British had not 'looted' the subcontinent, it would have been a far more developed and prosperous land. More conservative Indian religious nationalists also make a similar argument against 'the Muslims'. However below I am only going to discuss the claims against the British. To begin with, it is important to understand that when...

  Investing is not an overly complicated process if you have the basics right. Everyone wants to be like a techie, sitting in front of the computer, clicking or typing away, and making money. But the reality, as many have already said, is quite boring. It requires research, grit, and also knowing one’s own preferred style of investing which can be based on the ability to take the risk, family background, available resources, aims, and so on. I myself have always been interested in seeing opportunities arise through reading macroeconomics and wider trends in the economy. Without a doubt, I read a lot and my intuition (the ability to see patterns) plays a role as well. This doesn’t mean I am Nostradamus, or that I can actually make money in the markets. However, I can write about what I feel are good opportunities. In 2012, it was quite obvious to me that the US is a great market for real estate investment. At the same time I predicted that by the end of the decade, Pakistan’s water ...

  We know high performers, in the field of management, sports, art, academia and other crafts, have to go through a considerable level of daily stressors. In fact, it is often thought that stress and anxiety are inevitable when achieving high-quality results in a competitive environment, especially one where the margin of error is small or there are time constraints.   This is a common stream of thinking, in high-performance fields as well as everyday perception. We have all seen Gordon Ramsay screaming at his staff when things go wrong at a Michelin starred restaurant. We have seen Serena Williams erupt into a bullying frenzy when she lost. We all know of stern bosses who have no problem in confronting and resolving problems, even if requires a considerable amount of screaming.   But the question is, is that how one is supposed to feel in a high-performance situation? Is there a correct ‘feeling to feel’ in a high-performance situation?   Well, as is usually the cas...

      I have been reading about luck and probability and its part in the equation for success. We have all heard the age-old phrases of how ‘successful people create their own luck’, or ‘the harder you work, the luckier you get’ and even ‘luck favours the prepared’. But can luck actually be created? Well yes and no. There are two things overall involved in making ‘chance work for you’. One is about positive reframing so that you feel lucky and the other is to get the odds in your favour. In fact, both of these feed into each other as well. Lets break it down.     Reframing the past events Our past has lead us to our present. Many view their past as a series of events that were partly random and partly by design. When we reframe our past as ‘good luck’ that has brought us to today and recognize how our life is better than it was yesterday, you suddenly loose the cynicism and embrace a kind of gracious attitude towards life. Not only does it make one happier, but ...