Elpis is an ancient Greek word that means "hope" for the future

Asha is a Hindi word that means “hope” or “wish”

Meet Asha Makur

aka Dear Elpis

As my name and the name of this website suggests, I am a born optimist. I am a Silicon Valley Executive on hiatus. I had a lot of highs and lows during my 22 year software career. Every time, my support system of friends, coaches, and online forums pulled me through while keeping me grounded.

I now help dozens of mentees navigate their career. Sometimes, they have small questions like “when is a good time to ask for a raise?”, and sometimes they need weeks long support to successfully get to a new job.

To scale out and help more people, I found www.dearelpis.com. It is designed to be your mentor, soundingboard, friend, and mirror. The advice provided is one person’s opinion and purely optional.

Solving problems the Elpis way

  • Introspection

    The first step towards a solution is to look inside and understand your own principles and values about the situation. This is achieved by asking yourself simple questions. For example:

    - Are you running towards something, or running away from something?

    - If you did not have any budget constraints, what actions would you take?

    - What is the worst that could happen?

    - What if everything went right (you read that right)?

    - If you belonged to a more privileged class/gender, what actions would you take?

    - What is it the primary thing that you are trying to optimize? What is the secondary thing that you are trying to optimize?

  • Practicality

    After introspection, the next step is to bring in the worldly constraints one by one and work towards a practical solution. These constraints could be:

    - Family situation

    - Monetary needs

    - Limited skills

    - Mental health

    - Tendencies based on personality

    Making our mind go through the process of thinking deeply about practical considerations is essential for some good and creative solutions to emerge.

    These solutions can then be compared with a framework like a pro/con list.

  • Clarity

    The role of any problem solving framework is not to find a perfect solution. Rather, it is to find a solution that is suitable to the person, based on factors such as their values, personality and life situations.

    This kind of solution has the highest chances of being accepted by the brain, making the person happy to take complete ownership of taking it forward.

    As Dear Elpis, my goal is to help readers have clarity on how and why they chose a certain path.