Swathi Bavanaka

A personal story about Satya Nadella's superpower from a Microsoft VP: "A few weeks after I joined Microsoft, Satya randomly called me and my manager to chat. During those 30 minutes, he only asked questions. He asked about our thoughts on the product strategy, Microsoft’s culture, and what we thought needed change. Here you have this CEO of a $2 trillion company just listening to two new employees instead of telling us what to do. That’s remarkable. Later on, I realized that this is how Satya gathers signal. He’s really good at getting different points of view from different sources and then connecting the dots on what needs to be fixed. It’s remarkable that he can do this without falling into the temptation of telling you what to do." As Satya himself wrote in his book, Hit Refresh: "Listening is the most important thing that I accomplished each day because it would build the foundation of my leadership for years to come."

My mom, at nearly 60 years of age, is pursuing a Masters in Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She says "anyone who stops learning is old." She never had the ability to study abroad, and I'm so proud of her for never giving up on her dream.

I love this Charlie Munger quote: "I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, but they are LEARNING MACHINES. They go to bed every night a little wiser than when they woke up." Be a learning machine.

I asked, “What are the best podcast episodes that you listened to this year?” Here are 15 MIND-BLOWING episodes that need to be at the top of your playlist: