"Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly"
About
This Site
This website contains my personal profile -- including past projects, blogs and other writings. You can read more about me below.
About Me
I'm a Senior Analyst and a telecom strategist at Counterpoint Research, a market research firm that delivers in-depth intelligence on the technology markets to the C-levels of the mobile industry.
I started my career in investment banking research in 2015 after completing a master's with majors in business, finance and accounting from Warwick Business School. After a couple of years in investment banking, I went on to work as a policy analyst in the India office of the London-based Economist Group followed by a stint as a strategy consultant at a management consulting firm founded by a former McKinsey partner. There, I worked closely with the promoters, board members, CEOs and other CxOs of listed and non-listed companies with combined revenues of close to $100 billion at the time.
What I enjoy most at work is using data and information as pieces of a puzzle, which, when solved, can lead to meaningful and actionable insights. My corporate avatar inherited this interest in solving puzzles from its predecessor at school, three of whose favourite subjects, oddly enough, were biology, history and mathematics. Biology helped the curious, younger me figure out the secrets of how our body functions. History helped me understand how the world we live in came to be. And maths to me was the ultimate puzzle, that, unlike the other two, could almost always be solved.
Outside of work, I run Dialectical Discussion Forum, which organises discussions between experts and enthusiasts of subjects ranging from the evolution of democracy to the purpose of death. Another of my ventures is All Arete, an outcome-guided and data-driven admission, university and post-university support system.
My Philosophy
As aware, thinking beings, many of us often wonder what the purpose of our existence is. It is a question that almost every major religion and serious philosopher has tried to answer.
Another question -- that is equally important but the answer to which is easier to discover -- is what to do with this existence. While to many, Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra offers an answer with its camel, lion and child allegory; I, personally, consider the works of Albert Camus and Aristotle to be the most intriguing in this regard.
Albert Camus, the famous French philosopher, compared modern factory workers to Sisyphus, the Greek mythological figure who had been condemned by the Gods to roll a boulder up a hill, for it only to fall back down requiring him to roll it back up, thus having to perform a meaningless task repetitively and endlessly. My reading of Camus' analogy is that most living humans (or indeed those who ever lived), and not just modern industrial workers, are like Sisyphus in that little we do will leave a mark in the grand scheme of things. Followers of this school of thought would argue, therefore, that individuals need pay little attention to how their life pans out given how inconsequential their actions are. A dim view to take.
My argument is that such a view should liberate us from fears that hold us back from trying new, bold ideas. Something strongly recommended by Aristotle, who promoted the view that -- as aware, thinking beings -- it is our duty to better ourselves: to become successful, an idea represented by the Greek term, eudaimonia, which translates to accomplished.
If one broadens the perspective of this thought from individuals to institutions, organisations, societies and states, one gets another Greek term: Arete (pronounced ārāté), which represents excellence. By aiming for excellence, individuals can become accomplished, and in turn, successful.
Further, to achieve success, this excellence cannot be isolated: limited to or contained within one field of an individual's existence (spiritual, mental, or physical), but has to be all-encompassing so as to achieve the well-rounded success that comes from prosperity in spiritual, mental, physical, familial, social and professional lives. An individual who achieves this can claim to be truly successful.