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Anshumani Ruddra

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Category: Learning

A Personal AI Manifesto

Posted on April 28, 2025April 28, 2025 by Anshumani Ruddra

I remember the very first time I played Super Mario Brothers on an NES console. It was 1989 and I was down with chicken pox. To stop me from scratching myself and keep me distracted, my dad rented a console and I played Mario (and Contra) non-stop over the next few days (with my mom…

A Year of Quizzing – 2024 Retrospective

Posted on January 24, 2025January 24, 2025 by Anshumani Ruddra

I used to quiz fairly regularly both in school and college and also loved setting and hosting quizzes (the high point was co-hosting the inaugural IIT Madras Open Quiz in 2004). But then I lost touch with it for over two decades. A chance meeting at a kid’s birthday party with a parent who I…

Language and Science

Posted on January 9, 2025January 9, 2025 by Anshumani Ruddra

Or Why Metaphors are Dangerous Language is imprecise. Language is especially imprecise and imperfect when it comes to describing scientific concepts. And the irony of using the tools of language to write about its own shortcomings is not lost on me. Think about the oft repeated phrase – “survival of the fittest” and how it…

Gratitude

Posted on December 30, 2024December 30, 2024 by Anshumani Ruddra

I love good teachers and classrooms. Something about the act of learning – sitting in a room, completely distraction-free and being a complete sponge – listening intently to a teacher at the peak of their craft, sparring with your fellow students and building new neural connections – lights me up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas…

Do Transformers Hallucinate of Softer Skin?

Posted on February 26, 2023March 2, 2023 by Anshumani Ruddra

Cover image generated on Dall-E with the prompt: “A robot similar to Optimus Prime standing on a barren landscape looking at his human hand, cartoon style” All new technology in its early phase is highly disruptive to the status quo. I call this the “dynamite” phase – you can use it to blow things to…

Why Manage?

Posted on January 24, 2023January 24, 2023 by Anshumani Ruddra

The single biggest mistake every first-time manager makes in tech companies (especially product, design and engg) is in believing that they no longer have to contribute as ICs (individual contributors).  It doesn’t matter where you are on the spectrum of company size – a handful of people fighting for survival and trying to launch a…

What Users Want

Posted on January 15, 2023January 15, 2023 by Anshumani Ruddra

Kapi Pe Charcha #005 – Venture Highway “What do users care about? What do they need?” In our previous posts, we talked about speaking to users and validating our ideas (https://lnkd.in/dHdft3x7 and https://lnkd.in/dc2vVnBk). The Hierarchy of User Needs by Aarron Walter is a model that explains the needs users have when using products or services. This hierarchy…

Speaking to Customers

Posted on January 15, 2023January 15, 2023 by Anshumani Ruddra

Kapi Pe Charcha #003 – Venture Highway “Would I need to speak to people/ users/ customers?” In our last two posts, we have discussed ways of coming up with new ideas and then creating a shortlist out of them: 1. https://lnkd.in/gXHstMvM2. https://lnkd.in/gngtAunA A skill that will help you throughout your entrepreneurial journey is user research. It’s a…

Shortlisting Ideas

Posted on November 23, 2022November 23, 2022 by Anshumani Ruddra

Kapi Pe Charcha #002 – Venture Highway “OK – so I have a set of ideas now. How do I check if they are any good?”  In our last post, we came up with a set of methods to help us constantly come up with new ideas. We weren’t worried about originality, quality, feasibility or the…

Generating Ideas

Posted on November 16, 2022November 16, 2022 by Anshumani Ruddra

Kapi Pe Charcha #001 – Venture Highway I am often asked: “How do I constantly come up with new ideas?”  While coming up with ideas, do not worry about their originality, quality, feasibility or the opportunity size that they represent. Forget all that.  Focus on idea generation. Keep reminding yourself – there are no bad…

Playbooks

Posted on July 27, 2021July 27, 2021 by Anshumani Ruddra

A playbook has three attributes: (1) it gives you plays that can be reliably repeated, (2) these plays can be taught to others, and (3) one can look back and check whether the plays were used properly. In the context of product building, there are multiple playbooks: how to hire, how to build an organization,…

Transitioning into Product Management

Posted on February 9, 2021August 12, 2021 by Anshumani Ruddra

To say that I have followed an unconventional path to becoming a product manager is a little bit of an understatement.  Engineering → Writing → Game Design → General Management → Product Management So one of the most frequent questions I get asked is: “how do I transition to a product management role?”. And while…

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Recent Posts

  • A Personal AI Manifesto
  • Father of Man
  • A Year of Quizzing – 2024 Retrospective

Recent Comments

  • A Personal AI Manifesto - Anshumani Ruddra on Career Choices in the Wisdom Economy
  • Venkata Subba Raju on Rethinking the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
  • Shortlisting Ideas - Anshumani Ruddra on Generating Ideas

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