"What job would you do if you were not paid any money to do it?"| Sriram Kalyanaraman

[00:02:03] Sriram’s Question: Why invite me to be on this podcast?

[00:03:14] Defying Expectations: The confidence to take contrary decisions

[00:04:50] Sriram’s Current Role: Inner healing and inner transformation

[00:08:02] Taking Contrarian Decisions: Support and inward attention

[00:10:17] Happiness, Habits and Success Course: Why was it created?

[0014:55] The Mechanics of the Course: What does it involve?

[00:22:12] Engineering Education: Emphasis on hard skills rather than soft skills

[00:26:08] Era of Digital Screens: Structured interventions are necessary

[00:31:22] Origin of the HHS Course: The moment that spurred its creation

[00:35:14] The Miracle: Alumni involvement in course development

[00:36:28] Inner Transformation: The logic behind it and the joy of teaching happiness

[00:38:21] Growing Student Pool: Alumni interest in the course

[00:39:22] Habit Formation: The challenges of forming a habit

[00:41:10] Course Impact on Students: How is it measured?

[00:42:56] Choose Your Beliefs: Happiness and empathy can lead to success

[00:47:47] Sriram’s Journey: Computer Science to people development

[00:55:54] Headspace Subscription: The beginning of his meditation practice

[00:58:51] Two Takeaways from IIT: Understanding of logic and empathy 

[01:03:10] Barrier to Self-Growth: Not seeking help with self-development

[01:06:59] Sriram’s Father’s Journey: A journey of lifelong learning

[00:03:30] IIT Madras 

[00:15:18] Sriram went to Harvard University after completing his degree at IIT Madras

[00:33:46] Dr. Martin Seligman is the Director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center and Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

[00:42:39] Amaidhi School for Transformation is the organization set up by Sriram.

[00:52:52] Sriram went to the Harvard Kennedy School after leaving his role at Pratham Education

[01:07:36] Sriram’s father, after his voluntary retirement, enrolled for a LLB program in Bangalore University

[01:07:42] After completing his LLB, Sriram’s father enrolled for a diploma in the National Law School

[01:07:49] Sriram’s father is an advocate with the High Court of Karnataka now

[00:07:33] IITs were set up for the transformation of the nation by Jawaharlal Nehru.

[00:31:23] Professor Sivakumar Srinivasan noticed that students were struggling with loneliness and handling pressures and expectations

[00:32:18] Sriram’s senior at McKinsey, Prashanth Vasu was teaching meditation courses in IIT Madras 

[00:33:40] Dr. Martin Seligman, considered one of the fathers of positive psychology, is largely responsible for the research on Positive Psychology. 

[00:35:44] Sathya Sriram is a PhD in Neuroscience and came in to facilitate the HHS course

[00:35:53] Sridhar Boovaraghavan is currently the head of the Alumni Affairs association and a facilitator of the HHS course

[00:37:56] Professor Balaraman Ravindran’s first Reinforcement Learning course only had 6 - 10 students

[00:45:50] Sriram talks about Bill Gates and Warren Buffet’s world philanthropy tour.  

[00:51:58] Pratham Education is co-founded by Madhav Chavan, who used to be an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Virginia University.

[00:56:35] Andy Puddicombe had just started the Headspace app after returning to Britian to promote meditation

[00:15:29] Sriram worked at McKinsey & Company after completing his education at Harvard University

[00:50:19] Sriram quit McKinsey and joined Pratham Education Foundation who work in rural primary education

[00:54:38] Sriram joined the Harvard Kennedy School to join the World Bank

[01:07:13] Sriram’s father worked in the State Bank of Mysore for three decades.

[00:34:00] One of Dr. Martin’s students, Shawn Achor, has written a book called The Happiness Advantage.

[00:55:54] Sriram was one of the first 1000 subscribers of Headspace 

[00:17:46] Experiential Learning is a process of learning by doing and reflecting on experiences, connecting classroom knowledge to real-world situations.

[00:22:31] IIT Madras offers a minor degree in PPD (Personal and Professional Development), which you can get if you do some of the soft skills courses.

[00:36:25] Root Cause Analysis is a systematic problem-solving method used to identify the fundamental reasons for issues or defects, rather than just addressing the surface-level symptoms.

[00:41:28] PSS (Percieved Stress Score) and the MHWB (Mental Health and Well Being) instrument are the two instruments used to measure the impact of the HHS course

[00:41:46] In Statistics, Cronbach’s Alpha Score is a measure of the internal consistency, or reliability, of a scale or test. It measures the validity of an instrument.

[00:47:22] Scarcity Mindset is a way of thinking that focuses on what one lacks rather than what they possess, leading to a belief that resources like time, money, or love are limited.

[00:50:47] Pratham Education Foundation runs the ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) surveys every year. The surveys collect information on children’s schooling status and basic learning outcomes in almost every rural district in the country.