| Sunday, 20 August 2023 |
A community-powered Sunday newsletter on mental models, self-reflection, learning, growth, photos, books, and more Subscribe here
Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
It’s 8 pm on a Friday night and I’m on a Zoom call with Ronnie Screwvala, the chairperson and co-founder of upGrad, an online higher education company last valued at over US$2.2 billion.
Screwvala is in a car and the light from passing cars lights up his face on and off as we’re speaking. I’m on my Mac and Screwvala is on his phone.
“Each of us are a part and product of the choices we make,” he says. He is replying to my question about his favourite mental model or First Principle when it comes to major decisions at upGrad.
I’m lost for a moment as I try to process what he said. To a question about how to make the right choices, Screwvala had just told me that we are a product of those choices. That was very, umm, meta.
Mind you, metacognition is a thing when it comes to decision making. While “typical” decision making is about evaluating the pros and cons required to arrive at a decision, metacognitive decision making zooms out one level and looks at how you’re making decisions about decisions.
I ask Screwvala to elaborate on what he meant. “I’m talking about placing yourself at the centre of your choices and decision making. In the first person. Most of us place ourselves in the third person. We don’t own our choices,” he says.
I think I’m starting to get his answer. The “first person versus third person” is an important construct for both writers and journalists. The vantage point or perspective of a storyteller changes the way a story is perceived by a reader. The “Rashomon Effect”.
But is the same true of decision making? We end up making a lot of decisions on auto mode, with no sense of how we’re placed as the decision makers. If a storyteller’s vantage point affects the story, wouldn’t a decision maker’s vantage point affect the decision?
“Third-person” decision-making, to me, is when we haven’t spent enough time interrogating ourselves on why we’re making a decision, and what we truly believe in.
I enjoy reading The Ken because it is informative, the articles are well researched, well written, without the spin and bias. I admire The Ken team for their dedication to getting closer to the true picture.
Hari Buggana
Chairman and MD, InvAscent
Transparent, Honest, Detailed. To me, The Ken has been this since the day I subscribed to them. The research that they put into each story and the way it is presented is thoroughly interesting. Personally, I’ve always had a great time interacting with the publication and reading the stories.
Harshil Mathur
CEO and Co-Founder, Razorpay
The Ken has proven naysayers wrong by successfully running a digital news publication on a pure-subscription business model in India. They have shown that discerning readers are willing to pay for well-researched, well-written, in-dept news articles.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
Executive Chairperson, Biocon Limited
As a designer, it’s easy to get lost in the craft of building products. As a business owner however, keeping up with a rapidly changing landscape is key to saying relevant. The Ken doesn’t just help me stay on top of what’s happening in India(and beyond), but makes it fun to do so.
Rahul Gonsalves
Co-founder and CEO, Obvious Ventures