At the Speed of Light

The Community Run Wedding

The evolution of complex, expensive and intricate weddings over the last ninety years has led to an environment in which wedding receptions are outsourced to teams of professionals.  The average amount spent on a wedding reception in 1930 (adjusted for inflation) was $714.  In 2013, American couples spent on average $30,882.  It’s no wonder couples need teams of experts to help them deploy that…

Regressing in our behavior

Over the past few years, I strove for self-improvement in showing empathy, caring less about “hoops” (e.g. ratings at work) and practicing patience.  These last few months I did not excel at these goals.  In discussing my disappointment with my friend who practices psychiatry, I learned that adults as well as children can “regress” in stressful times and situations.

Overall, I feel grateful for…

Post Vacation Reflections on Vacations

I got back on Friday from a 12-day vacation to New Zealand.  Besides feeling lucky and jet-lagged, I feel fortunate to remember one of the main reasons I love traveling: traveling reminds me that there are other ways to live.

I like my life in NYC and all that comes with it, but traveling (or, as I call it, “living in”) a new place reminds me that there are many places and lifestyles that could…

Risk taking means taking risks

I spent a lot of time during the past few weeks talking with friends, classmates and peers about jobs that are not working out.  There are many different reasons why: unexpected clashes with a boss, a lack of meaning in the work, little autonomy, geographical coordination etc.  One common thing I found myself reminding these people of during these conversations is that when you take a risk, a…

What do you want to do next?

I was hesitant to attend the HBS Five year reunion.  I thought it might be a lot of posturing on how happy and successful people felt.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find people humble and still a bit confused.  Many people continue to try to figure out what it is we want to do with their lives.  On that front, one HBS career counselor gave advice that resonated with me.  She suggested…

Getting off the hedonistic treadmill

In the past few months, I attended a few talks and read a bunch about how education is changing.  Kahn academy is personalizing it and bringing it online.  The NYTimes did a profile on Summit Schools.

All of this focus made me think about what the current education system provided me.  On the positive end, I think going to an all girls school helped me feel entitled to ask questions.  It gave me…

For your next role: consider a big company

Over the past week, I helped several Googlers and others think through what to do next in their careers. When speaking with people who didn’t work at Google or a different large company, we discussed next roles and next companies. However, when speaking with people who work at Google, the conversations centered exclusively on what to do next within Google.

I don’t think large companies advertise…

Write down your ten big bets

At the beginning of the new year, sales organizations get their new quotas. Something that accompanies that delivery is figuring out how in the world the organization will make this new, seemingly huge number. One action that helps is writing down your plan — and I think this applies to accomplishing many goals not just a sales number.

For me, I am easily distracted. A new project, goal or…

“There’s a point at which”

I had conversations with more than one person this week where he or she told me something along the lines of “there’s a point at which I need to just switch roles”, “there’s a point at which I just need to give my manager XYZ feedback even though he / she won’t want to hear it” or even “there’s a point at which I need to leave this company because I can’t take the work life balance”.

When I am…

A “jobs” progress report

In one of my meetings earlier today, a colleague mentioned that she writes down her personal and professional goals at the beginning of each week because it helps her stay accountable to them. I want to use this blog to hold me accountable to my desire to contribute to a meaningful project or field.

So, like the government puts out a “jobs” report, here’s mine (based on one of my areas of focus…

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Here are a few things I think I would find meaningful to work on in 2019.

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean- the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down- who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and…

Do you know a veteran?

People often ask me why I decided to go to business school and if I think the experience was worth the time and the money. In my response, I talk about how the exposure I gained to a range of  people’s life views and experiences made it worth it alone. One of my most cherished exposures was to the military through two veteran friends.

Growing up, I knew that my grandpa served in World War II as a…

How to ask for advice

As I progress in my career, I get more and more requests for advice.  People that helped me ask that I return the favor, colleagues or friends want to learn from a step I took or, commonly, people want to get a job at Google.

The preparation I see for these meetings varies widely.  After reflecting on the meetings I’ve had plus discussing “the advice session” with a few colleagues and mentors, I…

Share your losses too

A few months ago, I wrote a post advocating that we should share the risks we take. At dinner with a friend tonight, I realized that I want to take my suggestion a step further: share your losses too.

Tonight, we talked about a situation where someone got asked to step aside from their role and find another.  Actually, we just think this person got asked but (definitely) do not know for sure…

New Year Resolutions for 5779: More five minute favors

Tomorrow is the Jewish New Year. We move from the year 5778 to 5779.

In preparation for the holiday, I started to think about my New Year resolutions. At the same time, I just finished reading a book draft one of my friends wrote about Bill Campbell, a legendary coach in Silicon Valley.

The authors touch on the concept of the five minute favor briefly, an idea I want to add as a resolution this…

I read an HBR article tonight about managing work stress and how it is important that we do not rely on just one person to cope. We need a larger circle. In fact, ideally, in addition to people, we should strive to maintain hobbies and interests outside of work to de-stress.

This article reminded me of a commencement speech I read a few months ago that I wanted to share.

The theme of the speech…

No fee ETFs, and the future of finance

In business school, I developed an interest in finance. Technology and finance share many traits. For example, when, at school, some former financiers appeared to think they owned a monopoly on smart logic, I argued that a financial model looks a lot like the algorithms I’d seen in tech. Each solves complex problems with a series of if/then scenarios. So, to prove that technologists could take on…