‘Invaluable: Achieving Clarity on Value’, the transformative new book authored by Somik Raha, lets readers embark on a profound journey of self-discovery. ‘Invaluable’ inspires and enlightens readers without requiring any major life changes, and is a powerful guide for uncovering your true self and finding happiness with fresh perspectives and tools to transform your self-view and interactions, helping you discover and harness your unique qualities for a fulfilling life.
Raha’s new release is a groundbreaking book that helps readers clarify their values and integrate them into daily decisions, inspiring a fulfilling life. Each chapter empowers readers on a journey of self-discovery, guiding them to understand their unique values blueprint.
In today’s complex world, it can be difficult to make decisions that align with our values. ‘Invaluable’ fills an important gap in decision-making: achieving clarity on our values and integrating them into our decisions consciously.
You, dear reader, already have unique values waiting to be unpacked and articulated across diverse work contexts. ‘Invaluable’ offers a holistic framework to aid its discovery, testing and succinct communication. This homage to values is brought out through stories, philosophy, poetry, citizen science and embedded podcasts. By the end of the book, you will have a deeper understanding of your singular values blueprint, making intentional decision-making an enriching process. You will also be inspired to live a life that is true to your values.
Somik Raha, raised in India, brings together his Eastern upbringing with over two decades of Western experience. His journey from coding at age 12 to a deep exploration of philosophy, led him to examine the human aspect of technology. Holding a PhD from Stanford, his focus lies in achieving clarity on value. Currently based in the Bay Area, Somik continues to explore the intriguing intersection of technology, philosophy, and humanity.
In order to know more how one can delve deeper into the world of their own unique values, and introspect their importance when it comes to the crucial aspect of decision-making in life, Sonakshi Datta of GoaChronicle asked Somik Raha a few questions about his new book, ‘Invaluable’.
What clarity on values do you think people miss? How could one have the same?
People tend to find it easier to think about universal values like ‘integrity’, ‘honesty’, etc., as opposed to their unique values, which takes a little more work to discover. When one cannot find anything unique, the connection with values tends to get more intellectual instead of real. In an ironic way, the path to a sense of universal connection seems to be through our special uniqueness.
When we find and are inspired by our own uniqueness, we end up truly appreciating other people’s uniqueness. To find clarity on our unique values, we must start to connect with our feelings and use them as a guide in our exploration. There are three vectors that can help in this exploration: heart (or, emotional energy), habit (or, unstoppable energy), and head (or, intellectual energy). When taken together, the three vectors can reveal to us our unique values DNA that makes us feel understood.
We are not trying to imbibe values from someone else, or from a book. Instead, the goal is to listen very deeply to ourselves in special ways so we can find the gold that is already within us. Once we find it, we must externalise it so the rest of the world can engage with it.
What do you think is the most common problem among people when it comes to decision making?
With the advances in our understanding of cognitive biases, we are starting to systematically understand how emotion can lead us astray in decision-making. However, if we were to conclude that emotions are bad, then we might be led to believe that those who cannot feel should be the best decision-makers. This would be a mistaken conclusion.
Decades of neuroscience research on those, who, through brain injury, have lost the ability to process emotions, have actually turned out to be much worse decision-makers. We are learning that while emotions can lead us astray, the lack of an ability to feel leads to a pathetic situation – we are not able to form preferences. In such a situation, every alternative looks the same to us, and we would not be able to make decisions. The next time you are confused in a decision situation, pay close attention to how you feel, and in particular, note if you have lost the connection to your feelings.
How could one align their decisions with the values they have?
Once there is awareness about our unique values, we can ask ourselves – which of the alternatives respect those unique values? If none pass that test, perhaps we need to create new alternatives that are aligned with our unique values.
How do you think one could discover hitherto unknown values they have, and how could they be tapped into?
Whether it is ourselves we are helping to discover unique values, or someone else, we must make a big effort to listen non-judgmentally. For our heart value, we must reflect on what work truly makes us come alive. For our habit value, we must reflect on what we cannot turn off, and which shows up when we show up. For our head value, we must reflect on a profession that legitimizes our heart and where our habit value is an asset, and not a liability.
How do you think ‘Invaluable’ could be the right helping guide for better decision-making and communication?
‘Invaluable’ provides questions and tests that help the reader arrive at their heart, habit and head values, and test their validity. The book website provides these questions for those who would like to directly access them and share it with friends and well-wishers. The book is more than the questions, and it is written as a companion to nudge deep contemplation, not through easy answers, but through great questions, beautiful artwork, poetic verses and counter-culture stories that make us think and reconnect with ourselves.
The book focuses on counting – yes, that mundane counting that we learned in elementary school, and reinterprets based on its deep philosophical roots. It builds a new lens on metrics, and provocatively nudges us to find numinous metrics, or those metrics that light up our spirit, in the context of our daily work. The book is counter-culture because it does not ask us to become monks to find peace. Instead, it draws out hard questions from philosophical traditions, and then finds deep and accessible answers through the main tool of the accountant –bean-counting!
One other thing to mention, the book features art from an artist who lives in Goa, the immensely talented Anwesha Ganguly, and her art has added another dimension to the book.
