At times it pays to be a generalist, and by the way, how much do you pay for your latte?
Last week, I was alone at home, with no traveling, and that meant more time to read. Here are a few interesting podcast/stories that I came across:
Tim Ferris might have written some questionable pseudoscience hack books, however, when it comes to interviewing thought leaders on their productivity habits and learning routines, he is one of the best. Last week, he interviewed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. I listen to most of Ferris’ interviews, and this is one of the best I have heard so far. Tyson talks about learning, and how his parents exposed him and his siblings to a variety of topics earlier in their lives (for instance, arts, science, music). After experimentations, when the kids eventually showed interest in a particular field of their choosing, the parents provided the environment to nurture these interests further. Of course, early experimentation also means early and perhaps repeated failures. But that may not be a bad thing in the long run. Recently, a study came out that found that failing early in your career sets you up for more success down the road. Coincidentally, I am reading a book, Range, that captures the same essence. The author of the book, Epstein, claims that many a times being a generalist with shallow experience across multiple fields (being a ‘visionary bird’) is a better preparation towards success than being a specialist in a particular field (‘focused frog’). The underlying idea is that making connections between disparate fields is a skill worth possessing. I will summarise the book in another newsletter. Back to Tyson’s interview. A few other points stayed with me from the podcast. First, being a good student is different from being a student with good grades. Tyson passionately argues about this point, for grades alone are not a sufficient and a comprehensive indicator of learning. Second, preparation doesn’t disappoint. Tyson prepares heavily before any of his TV interviews and that has served him well. He covers many other points and though at 1,5 hours, it’s a lengthy podcast, but it deserves a listen.
A fascinating long-form story that I read about — one that may be of interest to a narrow audience only — was on the ongoing debate of whether the Aryans migrated to India and co-mingled with the locals, or whether Indians are indigenous people. This piece by Tony Joseph, author of Early Indians, came out in The Hindu a few weeks back. But I only got to read it in full last week. The story summarises the findings from this paper that claims that the Aryan migration to the Indian subcontinent did happen between 2000-1500 BC, despite the opposing claims by populist advocates. The migrants from Africa, the hunter-gathers, first came to the Indian subcontinent around 65000 years ago. Over centuries, these settlers mixed with hunter-gathers who came from what’s now Iran. The settlers eventually led the agricultural revolution, which subsequently gave rise to the Harappan Civilisation. The paper claims that the pastoralist Aryans descended from the steppes in Central Asia around the time when Harappan Civilisation was already in decline, and mixed with the local population, which then bifurcated into Ancestral South Indians and Ancestral North Indians. Joseph ends his story with a thoughtful quote that will remain with me for the time to come: ‘We are a multi-source civilisation, not a single-source one, drawing our cultural impulses, traditions and practices from a variety of heredities and migration histories. We are all Indians. We are all migrants. And we are all mixed’.
Finally, if you are interested to compare how much your Starbucks latte costs in different countries, here in an index that was published last week (simply put, it’s analogous to the Big Mac survey). It costs a whopping $6.05 in Denmark! Sweden is at $4.34 per latte, which is still more expensive than what you would pay for the same cup in the US (though only by $0.04). The cheapest you can get is in Turkey. But then why would you go to Starbucks there instead of heading to the nearest souk and getting yourself a robust Turkish coffee instead.
A quote that I came across last week:
They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.
- Mexican proverb
