HOW MICHELE HANSEN LANDED HER JOB

 

HOW MICHELE HANSEN LANDED HER JOB
Adam Grant elucidates in Think Again

In 2014, Michele Hansen came across a job opening for a product manager at an investment company. She was excited about the position. But she wasn't qualified for it. She had no background in finance and lacked the required number of years of experience.

Yet she applied for the the position. Rather than tryiing to hide her shortcomings, she began with them.

"I'm probably not the candidate you've been envisioning. I don't have a decade of experience as a Product Manager nor am I a Certified Financial Planner." 

Then she went on:

"But what I do have are skills that can't be taught. I take ownership of projects far beyond my pay grade and what is in my defined scope of responsibilities. I don't wait for people to tell me what to do and go seek for myself what needs to be done.  I invest myself deeply in my projects and it shows in everything I do, from my projects at work to my projects that I undertake on my own time at night. I'm entrpreneurial. I get things done. And I know I would make an excellent right hand for the co-founder leading this project. I love breaking new ground and starting witha blank slate.

(And any of my previous bosses would be able to attest to these traits.)"

Michele didn't preach her qualifications. She demonstrated she was self aware of her shortcomings and was secure enough to admit them.

A week later she had a phone interview that was followed by another. On the calls she asked about experiments they'd run recently that had surprised them.

Eventually, Michele got the job., thrived and was promoted to lead product development

This is not unique. 

People are more interested in hiring candidates who acknowledge weaknesses as opposed to bragging or humblebragging

SMARTPHONE MAKES YOU OLDER

 

Dr. Baby Chakrapani P S writes in The Times of India of 9th april 2026
Is your smartphone making you older?
Alarming link between Screen Addiction and Brain Aging

When you scroll before bed, the blue light emitted by your screen suppresses melantonin --    -- the hormone that signals the body to wind down. LED screens, which are present in every smartphone, tablet and laptop emit far higher  concentrations of short wavelength blue light than older light sources such as incandescent bulbs. While the scrolling feels like harmless entertainment, your body registers them as a health hazard. The more you scroll at night, the worse you sleep.

The damage runs deeper than a groggy morning, as blue light exposure can reduce dendritic spines -- the tiny protrusions on neurons where memories form and are stored.  Think of them as the branches on which your recollections grow. When these wither, so does your ability to learn and remember. There could be incidence of depression and cognitive decline as well.

When we repeatedly expose our brains to blue light during evolutionarily inappropriate hours, we create what researchers now describe as a state of chronic internal jet lag --and neural tissue pays the price.

It has been observed that more than four hours of daily use of a blue light device is associated with poorer sleep efficiency, greater daytime dysfunction and irregular sleep timing. Moreover, individuals who sleep fewer than six hours per night experience dramatically steeper decline in memory, executive function and attention. Sleep disorders due to late night scrolling induce physical inactivity that in turn cause the onset of dementia and hypertension.

Disruptions in sleep patterns disturb the delicate equilibrium of the gut microbiota, causing dysbiosis - alterations in microbial composition and function that cascade through body's most essential systems.

When your gut suffers, your emotional resilience suffers with it. 

The very device you reach for to relax may be quietly dismatling your mental resilience. The unbridled use of smartphones is, science suggests, a measure of a national health risk hiding in plain sight.

Smartphone addiction could be fought off with following steps.

1. No devices in the bedroom.

2. Morning light exposure.

3. Phone free walks.

4. Digital sabbaths

5. Dietary support.

The solution will come from reclaiming time for what the brain requires -- rest, real connection, and the natural rhythms that sustained human health for millenia.

Your phone is a tool. It was never designed to be a lifeline. And your brain -- that magnificent three pound universe inside your skull -- deserves better than to be collateral damage in the attention economy. 

So today, when you are tempted to scroll "just for a few minutes", ask youself: is this worth a night of disrupted sleep, a gut ecosystem thrown off balance, another morning of brain fog? Or is it time to let your body do what it has been quietly waiting to do -- heal?

The choice is yours.

PLIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PLEASER

 

PLIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PLEASER

Adam Grant  writes in  Think Again

As long as I can remember, I've been determined to keep the peace. May be it's genetic. May be it's because my parents got divorced. Whatever the cause, in Psychology there is a name for my affliction. 

It's called Agreeableness. 

It is one of the major personality traits around the world. 

Agreeable people tend to be nice, friendly, polite. 

My first impulse is to avoid even the most trivial of conflicts. When I am riding in an Uber and the air conditioning is blasting, I struggle to bring myself to ask the driver to turn it down ---I just sit there shivering in silence until my teeth start to chatter.

When someone steps on my shoe, I've actually apologised for inconveniently leaving my foot in his path. When students fill out course evaluation, one of their most common complaints is that I'm "too supportive of stupid comments."

My answer to the question, "Why I avoid conflict," is :

1.It saves time.
2. It might save the friendship
3. It might not help to argue.
4. I don't want anyone to be mad at me.

On the contra, Disagreeable people tend to be more crotical, skeptical and challenging. They are not just cofortable with conflict. 

It energises them.

PARENTING EARLIER PARENTING NOW

 

Parenting much earlier and parenting now is very different. It's just the opposite. These days, you have to be a friend to your children. You need to have a  reason when you tell your children that something is not allowed. Now, it's all about reasoning and giving a logical answer behind what you say to your children. It can't be "because I said so.." You need to have logic behind it. Then, being respectful to elders or anyone the children meet is very important. Equally important is,  children have to be taught to give respect to the people who work for or with the parents. 

When these qualities are imbued in the children, people would evaluate them as brave, sensitive and well mannered. As we all know very well, kids of this generation mature way earlier. They are much more aware and intelligent. They are empathetic too.

You have to be a friend to your children. In fact you have to be their best friend. It's very important to allow your children to speak. Let them speak their mind. Encourage them to do that. Listen to them. But have the courage to say 'No' to sleepovers.

True, children learn a lot from school. However, we cannot forget that they learn a lot more from their own homes as well. 

No doubt, dynamism in parenting style alone can bring the best out of children at the current juncture.

........................

Excerpts from an interview with Neelam Kothari by Sidhi Kapoor in the Sunday Times of India of 12thApril2026

Neelam Kothari was 15 when she debuted in 1984 in Bollywood. In 2000 she had stepped away from the limelight to focus on her family life and the jewellery designing business.

KUTTIMULLA OR JASMINE

                                                        KUTTIMULLA OR JASMINE

                                                                   

                                                                                   

                                                                
  

PARIJATHAM OR NITHYAKALYANI

 

                                                   PARIJATHAM OR NITHYAKALYANI

                                                                   

RIOT OF YELLOW

                                                                 RIOT OF YELLOW

                                     YELLOW FLOWERS EXTENDED AN INVITATION

                                                  I COULDN'T RESIST OR IGNORE