Lavish Weddings, Norwegian Parenting, And More
5 intriguing ideas from November
Hello,
Another month, another round-up.
[Sorry, ran out of motivation to write a longer and more boring intro]
Here are 5 ideas I enjoyed learning last month. Click on the links to dive deeper:
Indian Middle Class: After a euphoric phase, the Indian stock market is in the hangover phase where you puke thrice an hour and everything feels like dogshit. Why is this happening? There are a bunch of reasons. Firstly, India is witnessing a cyclical downtrend after a few years of crazy consumption. Secondly, the middle class is burdened thanks to higher household debt and is running a tight budget where even the price of dhaniya is being negotiated. And finally, we’re perhaps witnessing the reduction of administrative/clerical roles thanks to technology, which is further denting consumer appetite. Nobody can predict how this will play out (because until yesterday everyone was yelling about the India story in fireside chats). Only time will tell how long this headache will go on before the markets can hit the dance floor again and make everyone want to pivot their careers to full-time trading. [Source: Marcellus Investment Managers]
Norwegian Parenting: The Norwegian approach to parenting doesn’t believe in micromanaging kids. They try to treat kids as semi-adults and offer autonomy so they can become confident and independent early on. This attitude dates back to the Viking era. After the destruction of WW2, it cranked up, because kids were expected to contribute to the rebuilding process, and naturally ended up being seen as people who could contribute instead of young dummies who only know how to put their fingers up their noses. This is an interesting view of how to look at kids in an era where parents obssess over every tiny aspect of their lives and steer in the direction of mollycoddling.
Stocks & Weddings: We’re entering a larger-than-ever wedding season where normal weddings are being upgraded to luxury affairs, and people are splurging higher than usual amounts on lavish functions without really dipping into their savings accounts. But where’s the money coming from? The great Indian bull run. Thanks to the stock market greenery in the last few years, people have been able to redeem their market gains and splurge on their weddings. But there’s a dark side to this story. Many young couples end up spending way more than they can afford, and marriage loan recovery agents are readying themselves for an unpleasant recovery period in the early months of 2025.
What generational debt looks like AI-Proofing Your Career: What are some things people can do to steer clear of the threat posed by AI to their careers? Here are some useful ideas. Consider entering fields/jobs where the work isn’t rule-based but more principle-driven, where getting the right answer isn’t just a matter of using a formula/algo but is subjective and depends a lot on taste, cultural trends, and biases (think advertising or policy-making). Another idea is to hone the craft of storytelling- be it sales or product management, humans will most likely want to hear (and buy) stories from other humans. Finally, one must make time for mind-wandering so we can hone our insight-mining and idea-generation muscle by observing human behavior, trends, and culture and building on them. It’s something that AI may not become proficient at very soon.
Human Prosperity: This is a link-back to an important old article I wrote to answer the question “How did humans go from poor and starving to rich and healthy?” The short answer is that as our population kept growing, we produced more Einsteins and Ramanujans who invented new ideas, technologies, and products- improving our collective fate. We finally achieved escape velocity after the Industrial Revolution which allowed us to escape the Malthusian trap and build a world where food, healthcare, and energy came within the reach for most of the population. Do read the full thing (and the book it’s based on). It’s a fascinating story and makes a good case for why a declining population isn’t something to be celebrated.
That’s it for today folks. If you enjoyed this, also considering reading these: