Extracts from a Diary

Examining claimed market failures, government intervention, and the regulatory alternatives that were ignored It’s not often that you get one clean-and-cut story that at the same time showcases: Government’s natural tendency to consolidate more power and reduce citizens’ freedoms, their swift movement in doing so, in a growing industry that has a large number of business-to-consumer users, and the overwhelming discourse, even among the otherwise basic economics educated individuals, is actually cheering them on in this move. But, that’s what happened. The government (of India) recently came out with a bill that effectively banned ‘real money gaming’ (RMG). It banned apps that allowed or facilitated gambling or fantasy leagues, where people bet actual money. It’s a 10 page bill and can be read here ( link ) if one is interested. It passed on Friday, 22nd August 2025 after the President Droupadi Murmu signed on it. In about 4 days from the time it re...

Nihilism: The Case for No Inherent Meaning to Life Two anchoring sets of facts: We’re on a pale blue dot called Earth that orbits a modest-sized star, barely noticeable in an otherwise average galaxy containing 10 11 other stars. This galaxy is part of a supercluster containing 100,000 other galaxies. There are probably about 10 million other superclusters in the observable universe. The universe began about 13.8 billion years ago. Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago. Modern Humans appeared around 300,000 years ago (~0.0067% of Earth’s current age), and all of written history — and any named human — are from less than 10,000 years ago (~0.00022% of Earth’s current age). These timelines and scales are so huge that they are humanly incomprehensible. People realise this and move in either direction — incredible religious awe as well as those around rejecting it. You could be like the young protagonist of Annie Hall (1977 movie), who on hearing that the universe is expanding ( 45 seconds ...

“AI is coming for your job!” “Government will need to step in and give a universal basic income (UBI) to everyone!” “There will be mass unemployment and civil unrest!” Or so I keep hearing these days in different groups. I am a bit more sceptical. I am simultaneously hyped about and underwhelmed by AI. Image generated using ChatGPT Some Famously Wrong Predictions We overestimate what can happen in the short run and underestimate what does in the long run. There are predictions from the 1950s, attributed to IBM’s then chairman, estimating the market size of computers to be 5 units. Not 5 million, not 5 thousand. Just 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1. IBM, probably in the 1980s, thought it would be mind-boggling if there were a use case of more than 128KBs memory. Bill Gates thought there was little commercial potential for this thing called the internet in 1990s, and predicted the end of spam emails “in two years,” in 2004. The prediction about the internet was echoed by subsequent Nobel laureate in E...

Introduction: How an AC Explains More Than You Think It’s peak summer. The temperature outside is 37°C. You’ve just switched on the AC and set it to cool to 24°C. A sensor detects the external temperature and notes it to be above the target temperature. The controller receives observes this gap and commands the system (in this case the cooling fan) to start the cooling effect. The fan begins cooling, initially with greater intensity due to the high error signal. A sensor constantly checks the room temperature. Gradually, the error signal shrinks, the fan slows, and eventually runs at the speed needed to maintain the target temperature. This post isn’t about how ACs cool a room; it’s about how most complex systems — teams, habits, cravings, cultures, and many other things — behave. We often think the world runs on linear relations and straight causal links. Instead, it runs on loops. This generalised flow: Goal → Sensing → Action → Feedback → Adjustment → Sensing → Repeat governs not j...

I had planned to write on another topic, but a recent experience proved far more compelling. Personal Context Yesterday, the wife, her parents, and I had gone for a musical theatrical play – Humare Ram ft Ashutosh Rana and Rahull Bhuchar ( link to BookMyShow listing of it; may expire in future). The wife and I had booked the tickets mostly hoping that the parents would enjoy it. And, generally expecting a great performance from Ashutosh Rana, who was playing Ravan. Myths, Biases, and a Misunderstood Ram Few disclaimers are in order – I’ve been an agnostic + atheist since mid-teens and between Mahabharat and Ramayan, I’ve always been a bigger admirer of Mahabharat. And so it goes between Shri Krishna and Shri Ram. I have not read the reputed translations of these epics but mostly relying on pop-culture and TV adaptations, I’ve found the Ramayan’s narrative fairly straight-forward as against the layered narrative of Mahabharat. The use of grey characters with different (and changing) m...

Unpacking the Hidden Signals, Status Games, and Feedback Loops Driving Human Behaviour Opening Illustrations: Four Scenes of Signalling in Action Scene 1: It’s about 11pm, and you’re walking down a dark street in an area with high crime rate. There’s a shabbily dressed drunk guy walking towards you. You can make out that they’re drunk, from the stagger in their steps. You switch over to the other side. The guy might be perfectly harmless but why take the risk, you think. Scene 2: You’re going for your school or college reunion after 25 odd years. You want the batchmates to see a certain side of you that the ‘school-you’ didn’t have. What dresses to wear, accessories to add, topics to bring up, that will best help highlight that. How do you showcase being a successful businessperson? Will they identify your Patek Philippe watch, or would you have to drop hints to its price? Will that be too obvious and be seen as lacking class? Or should you go for being more subtle? What if subtlety fa...

Between 2023 and 2024, the wife was studying in London for her second Masters’ and I was fortunate to make a few trips to London (and a few surrounding areas) through that period. The first time that I landed in London, at the Heathrow airport, I was very pleasantly surprised by some of the choices they had made. While there are many many great things to write about London – it is a legit great ‘international’ city with so many different nationalities and cultures (and their respective food/restaurants!), high density of public parks, high pedestrian friendliness, very well-connected public transport system, wonderfully informative (and so many!) museums, active theatre scene, the weekend/seasonal markets that come up etc. – I intend on only covering one (or related two!) tiny sliver(s) in this post. There may be some follow-ups – I don’t know. But, before that, some general housekeeping. Each of these points I mentioned above – they can be a separate post on its own merit. Also, yes –...