Rational, Rationale
#MakingBetterDecisions, #Goals, #focusonwhatmatters, #Wealth, #Careers
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” — Francis of Assisi
Recently, I was engaged in a serious discussion with a senior technically oriented person about determining next steps at the current crossroads in his career. He already took up a post-graduate level educational degree program to land his next career opportunity. The choice of this particularly arduous educational program is motivated by learning as much as getting a suitable break in his career. On the face of it, this comes across as a rational choice of preparation to address an important goal. Only that it may not be optimal. It is my belief that this person will instead be much better served by a combination of self-learning, active networking within the industry and harvesting his existing professional network. While my suggestion may not be as structured as an educational program, it is aimed directly at his need and offers much better chances of ROI.
It is common to believe that If one gets certified in AWS Cloud Architecture or as an Agile Scrum Leader or a CFA or a Project Management Professional or something else, one will be able to get their coveted job. If one does an MBA from a reputed school, one will be able to get a better role.
This does work — but sometimes, not always. Most times, doing an MBA may not really get you to a higher role. Most technical certifications serve little purpose beyond decorating one’s CV and making an announcement on LinkedIn.
It is not that you do not learn stuff when you take up such programs. But there is a very big difference between “learning about something” and “learning something”. Software architecture cannot be taught in a classroom — building blocks can be taught and paradigms can be learnt but not the ability to make day-to-day architectural decisions. This is because an architect’s role is more a mindset thing than just about building blocks. Much of the mindset is learnt from making a lot of small and big material decisions and learning from their consequences. You certainly can’t teach someone how to run a large business or start a new business in a classroom setting, even if it involves case studies or even a string of internships.
“Do what is right, not what is easy nor what is popular.” ― Roy T. Bennett
Make no mistake, an MBA can be very useful in elevating your game — MBA education puts you through heavy case load while competing with ambitious colleagues. MBA education allows you to become part of a powerful network of future leaders. MBA education allows you to change your career track in a short period of two years. So, MBA can be very powerful — even seminal — contributor to your career but not so much from teaching you technical aspects (“academic education”) but providing structural advantages (such as a networking, delivering under pressure, campus placements etc). The nature of these advantages is such that the onus is on you to grab them — your professors cannot hand them down.
Similarly, a technical certification will furnish you with “technical” building blocks but cannot train your mindset. A PMP certification can teach you about various disciplines of project management but cannot really teach you how to mitigate a tricky project risk. Clearing all three levels of CFA certification is a very tough ordeal but it cannot teach you the art of discovering multi-bagger stocks.
Again, I’m not saying that technical certifications are no good — they are useful and can play a very instrumental in progressing your career but certification alone is generally not sufficient.
Using rational logic to create rationale for your actions is one of the highest forms of self-deception. As long as your directed actions are resulting in empirical progress, you are on the right path — it does not matter whether you can rationally justify it or not. The problem is that measuring empirical progress is a tricky affair. It does not always lend itself to conventional tools of measurement. Sometimes, progress takes the form of “one step forward, two steps backward and then five steps forward” — you may make good net-progress overall but, along the way it may feel like you are regressing.
On the other hand, “rational” actions may lull you into a false sense of progress. You may not regress in the short term by taking these actions but mostly they only help with reducing guilt of not really addressing your problems.
This rational logic is holds in the short term and the immediate context. However, in the long run, a different kind of logic works. For example, most growth happens by regular, even if small, improvements over a long period of time. This kind of compounding growth does not fit in conventional logic because in compounding, most of the magnitude of growth materializes towards the end. Initially, day-to-day or even year-to-year, not much progress may be seen or felt. This is somewhat like Newton’s laws. Newton’s laws do not work at cosmic level but work reasonably well at terrestrial level. We should not resort to them when the scale moves from earth to cosmos.
Bottomline
“I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. That is when I start counting, because then it really counts. That’s what makes you a champion.” — Muhammad Ali
Often, we use conventional logic in justifying not doing what really needs to be done, in postponing appropriate action and substituting it with alternative but less effective actions. Most progress happens in doing than in preparing. Preparing is important but only the right kind of preparation. In the name of preparation, we tend to do things that are easier for us to do than doing what is most appropriate. All rational logic that we use to justify our actions is meaningless if it does not result in real empirical progress on the ground. The only rationale that stands the test of progress is actual progress itself.
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Thanks for taking time to read this. In this newsletter, I share my learnings that could help you improve your decisions and make meaningful progress on your goals and desires. I share stuff that I have personally experienced or experimented with. If you find this newsletter worthwhile, please do share it with others — of course, only if you do not mind it.
A bit on my background
I worked in India and the USA with most of my work experience with large global organizations. My last corporate role was the Head of Technology for “Treasury and Trade Management Solutions” for Citigroup South Asia cluster. At Citi, I set up from my Business Unit and grew it from a team size of 1 to over 1900 Citi employees in a span of eight years.
I quit Citi in 2021 to focus exclusively on my interest area of improving decision making. In the last 2 years, I studied this topic closely and developed a training course to systematically improve decision making ability. I’m also an Investment Advisor (RIA) registered with the Securities and the Exchange Board of India (SEBI). As an RIA, I analyze and prepare financial plans to help people achieve their financial goals.
I have done MBA in Strategy and Finance from Carlson School of Management at University of Minnesota and B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.
More about me
Rama on Linkedin (CV and Blogs)
