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Manu Joseph: the frequently told story about the power of self-belief is mostly hogwash

New Delhi, May 24 -- When motivational gurus say 'believe in yourself,' they mean delude yourself. But it works. Belief can make things happen, often by overriding caution and common sense. But the sa... Read More


Manu Joseph: Why do so many public figures have exaggerated tales of past poverty?

New Delhi, May 17 -- In his first speech as chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Joseph Vijay said in Tamil, "I have known poverty; I've known hunger. I am not from some royalty." This whole country seems to... Read More


Manu Joseph: Why people take pride in the achievements of others for truly odd reasons

New Delhi, May 10 -- I thought only I knew. The Tamil actor Vijay, whom people have suddenly taken to calling Joseph Vijay after his political rivals revealed his full name, and who now heads the larg... Read More


Manu Joseph: The business class seat says a lot about inequality that people don't always want to hear

New Delhi, May 3 -- The best business class flight I have ever taken was with Air India. As the flight was taxiing for take-off, it stopped on the tarmac. There was a snag, and we had to stay in the a... Read More


Manu Joseph: Why filming reality in India is nearly impossible-and what it says about freedom of expression

Visual, April 26 -- A narrow winding cobbled way in Paris. My voice: "It's far worse to be poor in a rich country than to be poor in India. To be poor in the spectacular beauty of Paris is like Assam... Read More


Manu Joseph: Don't read too much into the Noida violence-poverty does not transform people into criminals

New Delhi, April 19 -- Among the worst analyses of human nature is the notion that poverty creates criminal behaviour. Yet, this is a popular perception. As a result, every time an agitation of the po... Read More


Manu Joseph: Why we cannot be sure Bitcoin's secret creator is actually Adam Back

New Delhi, April 12 -- What I'm about to say was once obvious, yet it will seem less persuasive with each passing year: Bitcoin is nothing without its origin story. The story is that an unknown man wh... Read More


Manu Joseph: The young are everyone's hope-but has youth become the world's most overvalued asset?

New Delhi, April 5 -- At a dinner hosted by a family that owns a newspaper business, the conversation naturally drifted towards artificial intelligence, then doom. I said something I believe in, even ... Read More


Manu Joseph: The paradox of being both upper-caste and dark-skinned in a deeply unequal society

New Delhi, March 29 -- In the 1980s, India briefly adored a teenage leg-spinner, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. Then he faded, and later returned as a commentator. A few days ago, he was in the news after ... Read More


Manu Joseph: Why India's potholes seem poised to become a political issue at last

New Delhi, March 22 -- In my first job, one of my several bosses was managing a crisis at an event the magazine was hosting-police permission was not in place, the electricity had died and the whole t... Read More