Karthick Aravindan

How I think

Ideas I am using, not truths I have mastered.

Projects show what I do. These principles are my current explanation of why. They can be revised. Each one says what would change my mind.

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  1. A short stack of identical wooden blocks on a bench, with one more block waiting beside it. Illustration for Small improvements compound.
    01Small improvements compoundSmall improvements can produce meaningful long-term change when they sit inside a system I actually repeat.
  2. A sealed wooden cube beside an opened box whose inner mechanism is different. Illustration for Build something meaningfully different.
    02Build something meaningfully differentA product should start from a real problem and a reason it is not just a copy of what is already popular.
  3. A balance scale with a folded blank sheet in one pan and a worn chisel in the other. Illustration for Experiments beat assumptions.
    03Experiments beat assumptionsA product idea is a hypothesis until someone's behaviour says otherwise.
  4. A wooden gear train with one gear slipped off its axle, and a pencil on a blank sheet. Illustration for Learn by building and correcting.
    04Learn by building and correctingI understand an idea better after I have turned it into a working system, watched it fail, and written down why.
  5. A low stone wall holding a narrow stream, with a small gap where the water passes. Illustration for Risk must be understood before reward.
    05Risk must be understood before rewardI want to know how a position can lose money before I take seriously how it might make money.
  6. An empty chair pulled back from a table, with a single oil lamp lit beside it. Illustration for Think independently, remain open to correction.
    06Think independently, remain open to correctionI study people who have built serious things, and I still want the reason behind an idea before I keep it.