If you want confusion and heartache, ask vague questions; if you want uncommon clarity and results, ask uncommonly clear questions.

What did you learn today?

It’s such a lovely and deceptively simple question. Just the mere mention of this question reminds of the importance of learning continuously. It has an inherent bias towards action (go learn something new); good questions often do.

The power of good questions is often understated. They enable us to innovate, solve problems, and make progress. They allow us to gain perspective, come at things from different angles, and build clarity.

Asking uncommonly clear questions is a superpower that can help improve outcomes many folds if used correctly. For example, Newton’s innocent question - why did an apple fall straight down, led to the discovery of the Law of Gravitation.

Give luck a chance. Create serendipity.

I heard this phrase again on twitter a few days back. Ironically, from the same person.

Ashish Gupta, https://twitter.com/Primevp_in/status/1296339689553575937?s=20

It always seems impossible until it’s done - Nelson Mandela

Something extraordinary happened this week. Apple became the first tech company in the world to cross the $2 trillion in market cap. Some of us have been running a small side bet on which will be the first amongst the FAANG/FAAMG to cross that milestone; no prizes for guessing my bet. It’s ironic that in the world of mega aggregators like Google, Facebook, and to some extent - Amazon, it was a brand that won the race.

It’s a crazy milestone.

Apple is a unique company. And I mean that objectively. Rather than talking about their exceptional financial results - which certainly are unprecedented; or the adorable line of products they make - which definitely is a tremendous feat to achieve; or the legends (like Steve Jobs, Johny Ive etc.) who have worked there, about which enough has been written already; I want to talk about three things they do that is contrary to how most other successful companies operate.

Some time back, I read this book called Letters that Changed the World by Simone Sebag. It’s a collection of letters - some from centuries ago, others more recent - that somehow changed the human affairs, whether in war or peace, art or culture. Some letters were intended to act as publicity, some to remain absolutely secret.

One such letter from the book that I wanted to share with you is a letter written by Babur, to his son Humayun, in 1529. At age 45, shortly before his death, Emperor Babur writes this beautiful letter sharing his wisdom with his son, who had just ascended the throne.

Make your kids aware of it from a very early age, the teacher told us. It will help them develop empathy, she added.

My daughter’s school organizes a weekly parent training session on Saturdays; they train us on how to teach the kids the basic concepts of language and math through various activities. This week instead, they chose to talk about privilege and showed us this video.