Ukraine is basically Putin’s white whale. This is what he wants, and he’s not going to stop until he gets it, or until he’s convinced that he can’t get it”

Nate Reynolds

"Ukraine is basically Putin’s white whale. This is what he wants, and he’s not going to stop until he gets it, or until he’s convinced that he can’t get it” said: Nate Reynolds, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Russia director at the National Security Council.

Reynolds was quoted saying this in an analysis by Robyn Dixon and Catherine Belton published in today's Washington Post. 

Russia is sticking to maximalist goals in the conflict and has not been open to the compromises needed for a Trump-led peace agreement. “Part of the reason that Russia is unwilling to bend reflects the fact that Ukraine is basically Putin’s white whale. This is what he wants, and he’s not going to stop until he gets it, or until he’s convinced that he can’t get it,” said Nate Reynolds, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Russia director at the National Security Council.

At times, he said, Russia seemed to struggle to get its message through to the Trump administration.

“The Russians, to some extent, probably have been surprised by a couple of things. One, that they can’t get the U.S. to understand what they’re asking for, and two, that they can’t get the United States to accept it,” he said. “Putin and his advisers keep coming out of these meetings with U.S. interlocutors, who then highlight what seem to be misunderstandings, frankly, about what the Russian demands are.”

Recent summits in Anchorage and Washington over Ukraine’s future revealed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s overplayed hand in seeking a favorable resolution to the ongoing conflict. Despite a chance to leverage his rapport with U.S. President Donald Trump, Putin’s inflexible stance and insistence on military victory have stalled progress. Russia’s continued obstacles, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s demand for a veto over Ukraine’s security arrangements, underscore Putin’s reluctance to align with the White House’s push for a swift resolution. While Putin secured a temporary reprieve from tougher U.S. sanctions by persuading Trump to prioritize a long-term peace deal, the subsequent Washington summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders reaffirmed strong support for Ukraine’s independence. This shift places pressure on Putin to engage directly with Zelensky, a move Russia resists, citing the need for pre-negotiated terms that favor Moscow’s maximalist goals, including Ukraine’s capitulation. Analysts note Putin’s pursuit of Ukraine as a personal obsession, viewing it as central to restoring Russia’s global influence and reversing the Soviet Union’s Cold War losses. However, Moscow’s demands for territorial concessions and control over Ukraine’s sovereignty have been rejected by U.S. officials, highlighting a disconnect in U.S.-Russia talks. As Russia remains confident in a battlefield victory, the prospect of a quick peace deal fades, with experts warning that complex issues could delay resolution for months or years, leaving Putin’s strategic ambitions at risk.

Read the full Washington Post article here.

"Walk out of a meeting when it is obvious, you aren’t adding value. It’s not rude to leave, it’s rude to make someone stay and waste their time."

"Walk out of a meeting when it is obvious, you aren’t adding value. It’s not rude to leave, it’s rude to make someone stay and waste their time" said: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, in an email to the company employees on April 17, 2018. His full email was published by Jalopnik. 

Elon Musk

In a lengthy email, Musk laid out a number of changes he planned for the company with respect to production, hiring, expenses and earnings, and overall progress. 

At the end of the email he made certain productivity recommendations which are reproduced below:

"Btw, here are a few productivity recommendations:

• Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get of all large meetings, unless you're certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short.
• Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved.
• Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren't adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.
• Don't use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software or processes at Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don't want people to have to memorize a glossary just to function at Tesla.
• Communication should travel via the shortest path necessary to get the job done, not through the "chain of command". Any manager who attempts to enforce chain of command communication will soon find themselves working elsewhere.
• A major source of issues is poor communication between depts. The way to solve this is allow free flow of information between all levels. If, in order to get something done between depts, an individual contributor has to talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen. It must be ok for people to talk directly and just make the right thing happen.
• In general, always pick common sense as your guide. If following a "company rule" is obviously ridiculous in a particular situation, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change."

Read Jalopnik's full coverage here.

"Of course, the US is not reliable, but it's indispensable."

 "Of course, the US is not reliable, but it's indispensable," Said former Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan during a a thought-provoking discussion during the 3rd India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) in New Delhi on 13 August 2025.

Bilahari Kausikan

Kausikan, who served as Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1995 to 1998, highlighted India’s historical commitment to autonomy. He noted that India has cultivated a stronger relationship with the United States for strategic reasons but remains fundamentally self-reliant.

Addressing India’s complex relationship with China, Kausikan dismissed the notion that India’s tensions with Beijing are motivated by a desire to align with U.S. interests. Instead, he pointed to longstanding disputes in the Himalayas and a competitive dynamic encapsulated by the Chinese proverb, “One mountain can only have one tiger.”

Kausikan also contextualized India’s evolving relationship with the United States by reflecting on its historical alignment with the Soviet Union under successive governments following India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. While this alignment was strategically sound during the Cold War, the dissolution of the Soviet Union diminished Russia’s role as a counterbalance in global geopolitics. India’s continued relationship with Russia, though still significant, no longer offers the strategic leverage it once did, making closer ties with the U.S. a logical step. Kausikan described this shift as a pragmatic adaptation to a transformed global landscape.

Commenting on the reliability of the United States as a partner, Kausikan offered a candid assessment, stating, “Of course, the U.S. is not reliable, but it’s indispensable.” He pointed to the volatility of American politics, where shifts in administration every four years can upend policy continuity, even within the same political party. Despite this unpredictability, Kausikan stressed that the U.S. remains a critical global player, and countries like Singapore and India must find ways to work within this reality. He emphasized that neither Singapore nor India relies on the U.S. for direct defense. Instead, both nations look to the U.S. to maintain the broader balance of power in the region, driven by Washington’s own interests rather than as a favor to its partners.

The total cost of operations (TCO) of our chips is so good that even when the competitors' chips are free, it's not cheap enough.

Said Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA Corporation, world's largest chip maker having a market cap of more than four trillions. 

When asked, “Is it possible that you'll face competition?” Jensen Huang responded:

Jensen Huang

“People who buy and sell chips think about the price of chips. People who operate data centers think about the cost of operations. Our time to deployment, our performance, our utilization, and our flexibility across all these different applications collectively impact the total cost of operations—what they call TCO. Our TCO is so good that even when competitors’ chips are free, they’re still not cheap enough. That’s our goal: to add so much value that the alternative isn’t about cost.”

Jensen Huang (born February 17, 1963, Tainan, Taiwan) is a Taiwanese-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the American semiconductor company NVIDIA Corporation. Under Huang’s leadership, NVIDIA has become one of the leading providers of graphics processing units (GPUs) and has taken center stage in the current artificial intelligence (AI) boom.