Rethinking the IIT entrance; Drama of Indian firms; Vitalik Buterin conversation; Everything is everything, Ep7,8

Rethinking the IIT entrance process

The IIT JEE has long been considered a Mount Everest of Indian intellectual accomplishment. Nitin Pai and I have a column in the Business Standard yesterday where we worry about the extent to which this has gone astray. The JEE selects for a particular kind of investment of money and time into coaching classes, it selects for a certain kind of regimentation from age 13-17, which is increasingly out of touch with what it should be. We propose a solution: A two stage process where an exam is followed by randomised allocation.

The drama of Indian firms

Akshay Jaitly and I did a conversation on 14 August for the Trilegal video magazine, Tune in, titled The rise of the Indian firm, where I talk about some big ideas that shape our understanding of the world and beg for more research.

Vitalik Buterin conversation

Vitalik Buterin is more than the Linus of Etherium; he is an under-appreciated thinker and philosopher. I helped Amit Varma build a podcast episode with Vitalik for The seen and the unseen.

Episodes 7,8 of Everything is everything

Episode 7, “Newton the alchemist, Gandhi the black swan”, 11 August, has chapters —
Introduction: Ajay is an escaped convict;
Isaac Newton — The last of the magicians;
Mohandas Gandhi — A black swan event?;
Ajay recommends; and
Amit recommends.

Episode 8, “Why talent comes in clusters”, 18 August, has chapters —
Introduction: Rolling cameras and skeumorphic design;
Clusters of talent;
Training wheels for state power;
Amit recommends; and
Ajay recommends.