Jeevan Sivasubramaniam's Blog – April 2010 Archive (6)

I guess defending Goldman Sachs would be an extreme, but hear me out. I used to share the standard view of investment house folks as greedy, Patrick Bateman-types, then I met a Wall Street guy named Peter Ressler. Peter is a good guy and no great fan of Wall Street values, but he did make some very good points about brokers and traders that made me re-think a few things:



1.… Continue

Is it so necessary to separate work and life? Why can't work be a part of life? Or vice-versa? I can see the point of a boundary, but is there anything wrong with not having that boundary?



I need work. Without it, I go insane. I can't go on vacation for more than five days. By the fourth day, I'm already bored and annoyed. No matter how exotic the locale or varied the activities and sights, I want to get back to work. If I was laid off or lost my job, I would take the first… Continue

I never wanted to be Keith or Mick. I wanted to be Charlie -- a solid and supportive presence who's not the leader but the backbone (unlike Ron, who's, well, nothing much). I never wanted to be Paul or John. I wanted to be George -- someone who is key to the group but wishes to stay in the background (unlike Ringo, who's the poster-child for the benefits of just being at the right place at the right time).



I wouldn't make a good leader, and I'm perfectly okay with that. I… Continue

BK author John Schuster is working on a book about using the past to inform the present and the future. In many ways it's the opposite of the "be in the present" thinking that's so common today.



I was talking to a friend about John's book yesterday when she asked me what I thought about the development of the controversial… Continue

Because DRM can't always stop people from copying proprietary media, there are also laws that carry hefty punishments for copyright violations. I saw one on a DVD with a neon warning label stating that violating copyright is punishable by up to five years in a federal penitentiary.



I know it's not funny, but it is. I mean, can you imagine someone doing a stretch in San Quentin or Sing Sing for copying electronic media? Imagine the conversation in the exercise yard where… Continue

My intern Amol and I often joke about aspects of our South Asian culture. One aspect of our culture that we joke about is directly related to Chris Rabb's upcoming book for us, "Invisible Capital." As Chris discusses in his work, the Horatio Alger myth that suggests that all anyone needs to succeed is drive, ambition, and pluck is a… Continue