| Sunday, 04 June 2023 |
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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
If I told you that “ignorance is strength”, we wouldn’t get off on very good terms this Sunday, right?
Of course we wouldn’t. Because those of us who have read George Orwell’s ridiculously prescient and timeless novel 1984 would recognise the phrase as Ingsoc Doublethink.
WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Even those of us who are perhaps yet to read 1984 (what are you waiting for?) will recoil at the idea that ignorance could be a strength.
How are you this Sunday? I’m back again with the second edition of the First Principles newsletter. And today I hope to change your mind about ignorance.
Baskar Subramanian is the co-founder and CEO of Amagi, a company that provides cloud-based software and infrastructure for video delivery. Last valued at over US$1.5 billion, Amagi processes, hosts, and delivers video for TV and OTT companies globally.
I’ve known Baskar since 2012, when I first met him as a journalist with Forbes India. He’s one of those founders who are always curious, always learning, and always ON. He says he’s been a self-learner all his life.
He dropped out of his master’s program from the prestigious IIT Bombay because the entire system was geared towards courses and professors that would ensure good grades and, hopefully, good careers. Baskar had gone there for the seemingly quaint purpose of… learning.
When he found a course he really liked, he tried enrolling for it. Only to find it cancelled.
“I went to the professor. And the professor said, ‘You know what? I cannot take this course because you’re the only person who wants it. I need at least three people.’,” says Baskar.
“And I couldn’t really convince any of my classmates, because everybody was looking for a career. For them, grades mattered. They didn’t matter to me. I just got frustrated. So I just packed my bags and called my dad and said, I’m going to come back. And I just came back,” he says.
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