Happy New Year!
Here’s wishing you a Happy 2010… May your resolutions hold up longer than those of the years past. And may you find peace, happiness, good health and prosperity.
Work and Life
Work and Life
My thoughts on corporate life, work-life balance or the lack thereof and so on.
Work and Life, Life and Death
Giving What We Can
I found this charity initiative that I believe will make a real difference. It is called “Giving What We Can,” and it lists a few recommended organizations that are efficient and focus on the extremely poor. Helping others can be more rewarding that helping yourself.
Philosophy, Corporate Life, Life and Death
Midlife Crisis
On what is important in life. And what is not.
Candle that Burns Bright
Memories of a classmate of mine from IIT who passed away recently. When I heard the shocking news, I wanted to write something about him. What came to mind were a couple of disjointed memories, and I thought I would share them here.
Work and Life, Quantitative Finance
How to Make Money
Switching from God, philosophy and other higher pursuits, here is a topic close to home. How do people make a lot of money? Can I do it too?
Corporate Life, Physics, Quantitative Finance, Columns, The Wilmott Magazine
Modeling the Models
Mathematical finance is built on a couple of assumptions. The most fundamental of them is the one on market efficiency. Is it wise to trust this assumption? Are there limits to it? Are we operating at the right scale to ignore the shakiness of the market efficiency assumption?
The Wilmott Magazine, Work and Life, Corporate Life, Quantitative Finance, Columns
Group Dynamics
People tend to follow the money gradient. When a particular field is lucrative, more people tend to end up there. During the IT boom time of the previous decade, most of the talent flowed in there. Finance also has been a not-so-strange attractor for academics. Here is a look at the culture shock associated. Another excerpt from my upcoming column in the Wilmott Magazine.
Columns, Coming Soon, The Wilmott Magazine, Corporate Life, Quantitative Finance
Philosophy of Money
This short piece is part of a column coming up in the Wilmott Magazine. Although summarily treated as a sort of curiosity, this idea may indeed blossom into a full-length book. For that reason, you will find more posts on related topics soon. For instance, why is it that hard work does not always equate to enhanced bank balance? Why do celebrities and entrepreneurs make so much more than normal employees? Want to know? Stay tuned…
Columns, Corporate Life
Back to Blogging…
It has been a while since I wrote anything on my blog. I was writing furiously, though, for my second book (http://pqd.thulasidas.com). After turning my sleep deprivation into a habitual insomnia, I turned in my draft manuscript, and I am ready to blog again.
The Wilmott Magazine, Corporate Life, Quantitative Finance, Columns
Slippery Slopes
The last post in this series, this one exposes the extreme cases both in allowing and in denying bonuses, and their implications. Both the options imply our acceptance of certain economic idea. And, as with most things in life, it is not quite clear which is right, once you think long enough about it. A happy and stable middle ground is what we should seek and find.
The Wilmott Magazine, Corporate Life, Quantitative Finance, Columns
Profit Sharing
If you generate profit, don’t you deserve a share of it? Profit generation and increasing shareholder value — these are the hallmarks of top talent in our capitalistic world view now. What is good for the shareholder is certainly good for the talent as well.
Columns, The Wilmott Magazine, Corporate Life, Quantitative Finance
Talent Retention
Another common argument is that bonuses are necessary to retail the so-called “talent.” Are they?