Vijay Sarathy’s Post

We live in a world where it is hard to discern between truth and falsehood. Mahatma Gandhi’s powerful message about the self-sustaining nature of truth should give us some comfort. Happy 155th bitrthday Gandhiji!

“Efficient Markets in Action” - cartoon first appeared in the Economist perhaps three decades ago. Still true!

Arthur C. Brooks argues that a great way to celebrate Independence Day would be to follow the Founder’s broad message: “The independence we seek as people with a God-given right to pursue our happiness goes beyond freedom from an external tyrant such as King George III. True independence involves release from the subjugation of personal urges and weaknesses. We must stand up to our destructive desires to spend more than we have, to drink more than we should, to admire our own image, to fritter away our time, to seek the admiration of others.”

Came across this picture in my LinkedIn feed. (Source: upscworldofficial). My first reaction was sadness but that was quickly replaced by hope. The mother is clearly of very limited means. Yet she must see a brighter future for her daughter than her own lot - why else would she invest the child’s education. This scene plays out in countless villages and shantytowns across India. This, more than the shiny airports and highways, is the reason we can be hopeful about India’s future.

The catch that won India the T20 cricket World Cup. Congratulations Team India!

Truly inspiring story. Proves that our society does have the capacity to overcome fear, hate and bigotry in a relatively short time. It requires someone to take the first step and show the way. Like the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts did two decades ago.

A cubic millimeter of the human brain—an area about half the size of a grain of rice- was found to be overflowing with 1.4 million gigabytes of information—containing about 57,000 cells, 230 millimeters of blood vessels and 150 million synapses. Scientists were surprised to find neurons within this sample with as many as 50 synapses each! Over 99% of neurons in the human brain have fewer than 3 synapses. Given the location of the sample, the left anterior temporal lobe, they are hypothesizing that they may have stumbled into physical evidence of how learning takes place.

Really well made and inspiring. Swami Vivekananda’s message is as relevant today as it was over a 100 years ago; perhaps more. If you have a quiet hour to spare - or indeed if you are able to MAKE a quiet hour- I would urge you to watch this video.

Amazing progress is being made by start-ups trying to restore vision. Some really good news in a world that has lately been filled with bad news.

Good to see a Nobel prize winning economist finally coming around to what the common man always knew! The good professor acknowledges that since the winners and losers of globalization are different people, saying “nett-nett it is a positive” may be mathematically correct but unacceptable to most people, especially those who happen to be on the losing end of the trade. This is the crucial real-world perspective that many theoreticians and free-market purists often ignore. In any case, kudos to the professor for having the courage to acknowledge in public that he was wrong.