Why Indians need to take more space in the world | Prakhar Gupta's fireside chat at LSE
Executive Summary
In a fireside chat with LSE students, Prakhar Gupta turns the tables on the interview chair and argues that India's missing ingredient is intent, not talent. His own path - quitting chartered accountancy after a six-month battle with his father, secretly applying abroad, getting rejected by Oxford and shaped by Columbia - taught him that success is a two-point formula: 'delusion and courage.' On India's biggest obstacle, he is blunt: the country is programmed by scarcity - the trauma of visible poverty at every red light produces short-term, crab-well thinking - and the missing link is the intent of the political and bureaucratic machinery, not talent or resources, which the internet age keeps proving (Zomato, Tanmay Bhat, Samay Raina). He connects the dots students rarely connect: the Iran conflict, a BRICS currency threatening dollar hegemony, $200 drones rewriting war in Ukraine, China's rare-earth leverage, H1B hate as a jobs-anxiety story, and tokenized AI intelligence - 'nobody knows what's coming.' His advice to Indians abroad: take more space in the room - the people who dislike you won't care either way, and the people who admire you want your full, loud, cultural self. On brain drain he is oddly optimistic: if 50,000 Indians return with savings and world-class experience, plus capital, 'so much of India's highest IP will return to India.' In the age of AI, he argues the only alpha left is courage and capital - 'the most honest human emotion, an emotion that cannot be faked is courage' - and ambition tuned by self-awareness. He attacks the romanticization of jugaad and the 'spirit of Mumbai' as rationalized pain, blames Goodhart's law for an education system that hacks marks instead of learning, and closes with a definition of spirituality as 'the attempt to perfectly understand the conversation you're having with yourself.' Rapid fire: read 12 Rules for Life, the most overrated career advice is 'work hard,' a belief he changed is 'that I'm not enough,' and to his 21-year-old self: have more fun, it goes by fast.
Key Takeaways
Success = delusion + courage
Successful people he meets were chasing 'the next obvious thing' with absurd confidence. It's a two-point formula - delusion and courage - and most people have the means to run it.
India's missing link is intent
Talent and resources exist; scarcity psychology from visible poverty produces short-term thinking. The gap is the intent of the political and bureaucratic machinery - plus slow infrastructure.
Geopolitics is one connected system
Iran, BRICS currency, Ukraine's $200 drones, rare earths, H1B backlash and AI job anxiety are not separate stories - they are one contest over multipolarity, energy and jobs.
Take up space abroad
Two kinds of people abroad: those who dislike you (unswayed by niceness) and those who admire you (who want your full expression). 'Take more space... Don't waste a room.'
Courage is the last alpha
If intelligence is tokenized and agentic, intelligence stops differentiating. 'The most honest human emotion... is courage' - it cannot be faked - so the edge is courage plus capital.
Stop glorifying jugaad
Jugaad and the 'spirit of Mumbai' are rationalized pain - inventiveness forced by failed infrastructure. Romanticizing them lets the system off the hook; demand better instead.
Goodhart's law runs Indian education
When the measure becomes the goal, it stops being a good measure. Optimizing for marks replaces learning physics; Western universities are for learning, Indian ones for coming of age.
The Conversation Breakdown
From CA dropout to Columbia
⏱ Untimed topicThe six-month battle with his father, secret applications, Oxford's rejection, and how Columbia channeled his energy from 'having fun' into the intellectual arenas that built his career.
What's holding India back
⏱ Untimed topicScarcity psychology, crab-well thinking, the intent gap in the bureaucratic-political machinery, and why India eats at the global table regardless of infrastructure.
One connected world
⏱ Untimed topicIran and multipolarity fears, the BRICS currency threat to dollar hegemony, drones rewriting war, rare-earth leverage, H1B hate as job anxiety, and tokenized intelligence nobody can predict.
Indians abroad: space and return
⏱ Untimed topicWhy Indians assimilate so well, the case for taking more space in the room, and why reverse brain drain plus capital could produce India's next wave of venture and manufacturing outcomes.
Courage, jugaad, education, spirit
⏱ Untimed topicCourage as the unfakeable alpha in the AI age, Goodhart's law in education, the case against romanticizing jugaad and city 'spirit,' and spirituality as understanding your conversation with yourself.
Core Frameworks & Ideas
The two-point success formula
Delusion plus courage: be irrational enough about your 20s to attempt the outcome, then take the next obvious step repeatedly. Confidence, not planning, is the bottleneck.
The scarcity loop
Visible poverty at every red light triggers survival psychology, which programs short-term, zero-sum (crab-well) behavior, which suppresses collective intent - the loop behind India's execution gap.
Courage as terminal alpha
As AI tokenizes and distributes intelligence, intelligence commoditizes. What cannot be faked or tokenized - courage - plus capital becomes the only remaining edge.
Goodhart's law in education
When the measure (marks) becomes the goal, learning stops. Systems and students hack the metric; the fix is separating evaluation from learning, not more IITs by count.
Actionable Next Steps
- ✓In your next conversation or interview, say the first thing that comes to mind and genuinely care - stop performing from notes.
- ✓Pick one thing you've been rationally deferring and take the 'next obvious step' on it this week, before confidence arrives.
- ✓If you live abroad, deliberately take more space in one room this week - full expression, no shrinking.
- ✓Audit one area where you're optimizing a metric (marks, views, titles) instead of the thing the metric was meant to measure.
- ✓Write down which axis - family, fun, building, selling - your ambition should run on, and triple down on that one.
Notable Quotes
“Always say the first thing that comes to your mind.”
“Just that it's a two point formula delusion and courage.”
“The most honest human emotion, an emotion that cannot be faked is courage.”
“Spirituality is the attempt to perfectly understand the conversation you're having with yourself.”
The One Thing to Remember
Talent and resources are already there; the only thing standing between you and the outcome you want is intent backed by delusional courage - so say fuck it and take up space.