How many roads must a man walk down

I like being a Pakistani because…

2012-01-19T08:41:00.001-08:00

…we’re the energizer bunny of countries – we just keep going

…we produce cricket wizards like a magician produces rabbits from a hat

…we keep things interesting – we walk right up to the edge of the precipice before we recover

…we’re just cool

…we have the most entertaining politicians in the world – they’re not much at governing, but at least we’re never bored

…we have this amazing ability to keep functional with only a few hours of electricity and gas

…we can be small-minded in everyday life, but we’re still amazingly generous: Edhi trust, hospitals, schools, all running on collective big heartedness

…we have mangoes in summer and kinnos in winter

…did I mention we have amazing cricket talent ? just ask the Brits – they’ll tell you !

…we’re not so sure where we’re going but we sure as heck are having fun while we get there

…hmmm, what else….?

Three stages of a career - take 6

2011-12-30T21:32:00.001-08:00

Stage 1: Nobody listens to you

Stage 2: People start noticing what you have to say

Stage 3: People over-analyze what you say, reading more into it than intended !

For previous takes,
http://howmanyroads.blogspot.com/2011/03/three-stages-of-careertake-5.html

Rambling

2011-12-29T07:22:00.000-08:00

The longer you live, the more you start believing in destiny.

There is simply too much going on in my life for me to pretend that I'm controlling it. There are too many connections, too many layers, too many externalities, too much history to account for.

I'd go crazy even trying to put this confusing mass of circumstances into any cause and effect order. Control is usually an illusion. Success is mostly circumstances.

Destiny has a way of getting us where it wants us.......stop fighting your destiny.

Discovering discovery

2011-12-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

Clearly, I have babies on my mind these days.

They are fascinating to watch. Their behavior is not yet shaped by too many experiences, learning, or influences. They are exhibiting pure human nature.

And so it is that watching Amal trying to sit up is a wonderful lesson in why we do many of the things we do as grownups.

Till a few weeks ago she was quite content to simply lie down and look at things. Then she discovered that she can sit up (with a little help), and now all she wants to do is sit. Lying down she gets restless. It's not as if she has anything urgent to do which requires sitting up, it is not like she won't be fed if she does not sit. There is no real material incentive for her to make the effort of sitting - and it is quite an effort at this point.

It seems to be a simple mix of boredom with the status quo, a spirit of adventure, curiosity, and the excitement of discovering something new.

Sounds familiar does't it ? I know I'm stretching it too far, but I think one could say that most human development comes from a mix of these factors. This is why continents were discovered, and computers were invented, and mountains were climbed, and space explored.

We as humans appear to be hard wired to explore.

Economists like to think of the "rational" consumer, who makes all choices based on maximizing utility. Maybe. But we also do things for the joy of doing things. Perhaps as we grow older, we are forced to make more and more 'rational' choices when we are faced with responsibilities and constraints.

But deep down, all we want to do is to move one step ahead to see what else we can find.

Apps to amuse babies

2011-12-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

Trying to calm down a crying baby ? There's an App for that !

Here are three Android apps which I've personally tested with my 5 month old:

Android Rattle Toy:

This is the all time favorite. I've tried it with a really cranky baby-mood and it almost always puts the brakes on the crying. It's a rattle with many different themes. Each of these has delightfully different graphics and sounds. This means as soon as the baby is bored with one you can quickly shift to the next.

Shake the phone, move it upside down, or touch the phone to play sounds and move the on-screen graphics.

The App is quite baby-proof as all buttons are disabled except the home button. Which means you let your baby touch the screen and make the sounds herself.

2. Kids Musical Toy

As the name promises,this comes with built-in tunes to play. From Twinkle twinkle to the itsy bitsy spider. Plus it has a set of rattle toys, so you can shake the phone to sound a rattle, while a rhyme plays out in the background.

The only downside of this one is that there is is an ad at the bottom of the screen so the app is not as baby-proof as could be. The chances of accidentally touching the screen ad and going out of the application are higher. So this is more for holding yourself and amusing the baby by showing her the screen and rattling away for all you're worth.

3. Kids Piano Lite

This one is a simple piano as the name implies. It has a play mode as you would expect, but it also has a mode in which you can set it to play some rythmes. In this mode, the correct notes will play for a rhyme whichever piano key you press. Or you choose auto-play and the rhyme will play out.

It has a special baby-mode in which most phone buttons are disabled, so you can put it in front of the baby and let her touch the screen and delight in making sounds.

There are a tone of baby-apps on the Android market, but these three are officially baby-tested by my 5-month old !

PS: Make sure your phone is drool-proof before setting it in front of your baby. Mine has survived about a ton of drool and one helping of thrown-up milk so far, so use with care ! On the whole it is safer to hold the phone yourself in front of the baby rather than putting it down in front of her.

About aging

2011-12-18T06:53:00.000-08:00

Aging is a bit like the revolution of the earth aroud the sun.

We know it is happening - the earth orbits the sun at 107,218 km/h - but we don't feel it moving. As far is we are concerned, the earth is absolutely still. But the effects of the earth's motion become apparent as the weather changes.

And so it is with aging. You don't feel like you are aging from day to day. Indeed I could almost pretend that it is not happening at all. But sooner or later, its effects start appearing. The memory starts to fade, the eyesight starts to go and some white hairs start to make their inevitable appearance.

But while the earth will complete its circuit around the sun and return to where it started off a year ago, aging is a one way street.

I wish I could draw some deep philosophical meaning from this - but I cannot. Except that life happens, whether we like it to or not. We might speed up, slow down, sit back and observe it, or rush ahead to meet it, but life will keep on moving forward at a constant pace.

So lighten up and enjoy the ride !

Happiness is…

2011-12-02T07:49:00.001-08:00

Look into the face of a smiling baby and you are looking at pure happiness.

Pure, unadulterated, unselfish, uncomplicated, unconditional happiness.

No wonder we spend our adult lives looking for happiness. We’re not looking for some obscure, philosophical nirvana. We’re simply trying to find what we lost while growing up.

The curious case of the land with everything

2011-11-19T08:37:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time there was a land with everything.

There were flowing rivers and open plains, lovely mountains and wonderful beaches. There was gold and silver, and the fields were filled with the most amazing assortment of fruits and flowers. There were people with easy laughter, big hearts, and bigger smiles.

But then a sad thing happened; the people of the land started closing their eyes.

They were still surrounded by beauty but they could no longer see it. They were still in the midst of splendor but they could no longer feel it. The rivers still flowed, the flowers still bloomed, the rain was still musical, but no one paid any attention. Fear started closing in on them, and they started to become isolated and miserable.

And they started turning on each other - each suspicious of the other. Their hearts – once so mighty and generous – started to close. Hate started to replace love.

People started leaving the land. They were trying to find a place that looked like the beauty they had once lived in. They travelled everywhere, looked far and wide, asked everyone. They were desperate to be happy, willing to go anywhere, wanting to try anything.They would trade their lives, abandon their homes, and mortgage their futures. But they would not open their eyes.

………..

……until one day, tired and depressed, one of them decided to return to his land for one last look.

As he opened his eyes he was amazed. Everything he had ever desired was right there – exactly the way he remembered it. It dawned on him that his land still had everything, he’d simply become so caught up in the vicious circle of hate, cynicism, and fear that he had been blinded. The land had never changed – the people had changed when they started closing their eyes.

And then another one opened his eyes. And another, and another…….

and the land was beautiful again.

The End. (and hopefully also the beginning).

Book Review: Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson

2011-11-12T23:19:00.001-08:00

Steve Jobs was an interesting guy – to put it mildly.

For someone so famous, so much in the news, so idolized, and so associated with the image of his company, large parts of his story are already well known, and so reading his biography is a bit like reading a novel when you’ve already seen bits and pieces of the movie.

It is a fascinating tale nevertheless.

As the tale weaves from his adopted childhood, to his days selling Apple I with Steve Wozniack, to launching the Macintosh, to leaving Apple, to unveiling NeXT computers, to taking charge of Pixar movies and helping make Toy Story, to coming back to Apple and launching the iMac, the iPod, the iTunes store, the iPhone, and the iPad, you are constantly amazed at how much he accomplished in a short, single lifetime, while fighting his personal demons all the time.

You are also struck by how extraordinarily lucky he was to be coming of age just when the computer industry was being born. And how fortunate he was to have people around him who – hate him or love him – always knew they had genius on their hands and made allowances for him and let him have his way.

Steve was well known for his ‘reality distortion field’, his mood swings, and his emotional outbursts. So Walter Issacson tries to take a balanced approach where different accounts of some incidents are presented as recollected by the different people involved. This leads to some interesting passages where Steve is quoted and then immediately corrected by the writer himself. As we are told, Jobs wanted it this way so that the book would come off as balanced and believable. So you get Steve as he was – foibles and all. You get to hear from his friends, but also from those who fell out with him; you get to see how his sense of design led to Apple’s iconic products, but also how it led him astray at times; you find out how he wanted to build a world class team around him at Apple, but you also get to see how much he tore them down.

As you read of his strokes of genius interspersed with his emotional outbursts and the costs he paid for them, you may end up liking him or hating him. But you do come away convinced that he was one of a kind.

Self-aware computers ? I don’t think so !

2011-11-02T09:26:00.001-07:00

Self aware computers are a staple of science fiction movies.

In the movie ‘Terminator’, the event is called ‘singularity’ – when the machines become self-aware and take over the world. Artificial Intelligence experts have talked about it and even predicted dates for when this will happen.

Somehow though, I don’t see this happening anytime soon.

Because last time I checked, even most humans were not self-aware !!

Why Imran Khan has already delivered for Pakistan

2011-10-31T08:06:00.001-07:00

I saw three people at the office today who were trying to register to vote – just because they were inspired by Imran Khan’s rally last night.

I saw a 100,000+ people gather to hear Imran speak yesterday, and I’m ready to make a pretty big wager that at least half of them were attending their first ever political rally.

Whatever happens in the elections, Imran Khan has already delivered.

He has brought a whole new class of people into the political fold. He’s finally gotten the urban middle class interested. Even if these people go on to vote for someone else down the road, at least they are taking an interest in their country’s future instead of simply shrugging their shoulders.

Who knows how many of the young people in yesterday’s rally will go on to enter politics themselves ? Who knows how many of them will be inspired to become change agents instead of armchair critics ? Even if 10 bright young people do this out of the 100,000+ it will be a service to Pakistan.

This is what democracy should look like, with people genuinely excited about the choices they make – whatever choice they make.

Imran has single-handedly changed the shape of Pakistani politics. Suddenly the old clichés don’t apply any more.

No educated people will ever come to jalsas, or vote.

No new person can make a dent in the established parties.

There is no way to get into politics other than to join one of the big parties or the establishment.

We’ve all grown up thinking and feeling like this. And we’ve accepted these as the established truths for a long time. Unchanging.

But here’s the funny thing about change. The longer something remains unchanged, the closer it is to a change – even though it seems like the reverse.

Because everything changes.

And Pakistan is changing. Bit by bit, one event at a time. What it changes into is up to all of us.

I don’t care who anyone votes for. I have no illusions that Imran will sweep the next polls. But he is the biggest catalyst of change we’ve seen for a while. And for that we should thank him. He has given fifteen years of his life to making this change, the least we can do is to say Thank you.

The death of common sense

2011-10-15T00:11:00.001-07:00

Back in LUMS, I took a subject called Quantitative Methods (don’t worry, this blog is not about maths !). It was taken by a professor by the name of Don Wallace. I remember the first class in which Don came in, and without much introduction wrote out a problem on the board and invited the class to solve it with him.

It was a simple business situation with an intuitive answer, but since this was a quants class, we started solving it mathematically. The class played along and after a number of mathematical steps we reached what appeared to be a very neat solution.

Except that it made no sense.

So I raised my hand I remember and said so. “I don’t know how we’ve reached here, but this solution on the board makes no business sense – it’s just wrong”. That’s when Don tipped his hand. He turned around dramatically and asked the class:

“How did we reach at this absurd conclusion ?”

The effect was dramatic. Everyone had been following the maths, the numbers, the steps, which all seemed logical, but somewhere along the way we’d lost track of the original problem, forgotten that we were trying to solve a real world issue. Obviously, we’d made an incorrect assumption somewhere along the way, or applied a perfectly good method to a problem which could not be solved with it.

In other words, we’d left common sense at the door.

“Method and Judgment” were what we needed, thundered Don Wallace. And he was absolutely right. Having a sophisticated method, or a complex algorithm, or a really neat argument should not distract us from applying method and judgment to our solutions. Common sense is our guardian angel.

Looking around the world today, I’m just saddened by the death of common sense:

Look at the financial meltdown. All the bankers had sophisticated models and the best of training. But somewhere along the way, didn’t someone say: “hold on, this makes no sense – there can’t be that much value in those mortgages, surely we’ve stretched it too far”. Really ??

Look at the US foreign policy of recent years where everything is solvable by a sufficient application of the war machinery. There are no political solutions ! Really ?!

Look at the Pakistani people bouncing from one disaster to the next and constantly blaming everyone but themselves. It’s not our fault ! Really ?!

Look at the Europeans all angry and upset by what happened to their pensions and saving. They didn’t see that coming with a 35-hour work week and cradle-to-grave social security ? Really ?

What’s wrong with all of us ? we’re smarter than this surely; what happened to common sense ?

Rogue Neutrinos

2011-09-24T23:06:00.001-07:00

Neutrinos are trouble. Apparently they’re now travelling faster than light when they’ve been told not to.

And this is not the first time they’ve had the physicists in a tizzy. The last time they made trouble was when they caused the Solar Neutrino Problem. To quote from Wikipedia:

“The solar neutrino problem was a major discrepancy between measurements of the numbers of neutrinos flowing through the Earth and theoretical models of the solar interior, lasting from the mid-1960s to about 2002. The discrepancy has since been resolved by new understanding of neutrino physics, requiring a modification of the Standard Model of particle physics – specifically, neutrino oscillation. Essentially, as neutrinos have mass, they can change from the type that had been expected to be produced in the Sun's interior into two types that would not be caught by the detectors in use at the time.”

Now I don’t pretend to understand all of this, but the bottom line is clear: neutrinos are trouble. Why can’t they just behave and follow the laws of physics like all the other well behaved particles out there ? This time around though, they’ve gone too far – or perhaps I should say too fast – and the consequences can be rather amazing: if faster than light travel is possible it would mean that you will not see things until after they hit you.

On the other hand, that sounds vaguely familiar. I’m sure I’ve been hit by things before I could see them…..deadlines, car breakdowns, stock market crashes – come to think of it, most troubles tend to hit you before you see them. Does that mean troubles move faster than light ? does it mean they are made of neutrinos ?

Who knows.

In another sense though, if the faster than speed measurement is indeed proven correct, there will be nothing very unusual about it. Along the centuries humans have changed their views of the world several times; remember when we thought earth was at the center of the universe ? But we haven’t had a big challenge to our view of the world in a long while now, so that we’ve started looking at our current theories as final and inviolable. The shock of finding something so fundamentally new would therefore be immense.

It is an important point. Things change. In fact the longer they’ve remained unchanged, the more likely they are to change – even though it can feel like it should be the other way around. Indeed, what if everything you ever knew about something was wrong ?

The Neutrino discrepancy might turn out to be a red herring, but change will continue one way or another. “Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.”

About Babies

2011-09-22T10:28:00.001-07:00

Having a baby in the house again is reminding me of all the wonderful things about my first two.

Babies make you smile a lot more.

Babies are infinitely watchable – you can watch them for hours and not get bored, and you don’t even need a remote.

If you are sitting idle you look lazy and someone will hand you a chore. But if you are holding a baby you can sit idle as long as you like.

Babies simplify choices. If a baby is crying you drop everything and pick them up – no second thoughts, no hesitations.

Babies make you remember things you thought you had forgotten.

Babies are an excellent excuse to sing, dance, hop, make faces, and generally do all the stupid things you sometimes want to do but feel silly doing otherwise.

Babies don’t hold grudges. Crying one minute, they will give you a big smile the next minute (they have a quick recovery).

Babies look so peaceful when sleeping – they make you believe in fairies and gnomes and angels.

Babies are people magnets, they bring everyone closer.

OS Wars

2011-09-13T10:45:00.001-07:00

Windows nut ? Apple fanatic ? Android junkie ?

Whatever OS you look at, you find fanatical followers of that OS, confidently predicting the imminent demise of all its competition.

Consumer loyalty comes in all flavors and in many product categories, but perhaps none as intense as in operating systems. People tend to defend their favored OS beyond rationality. I know. I’ve done it myself.

Why is that ?

Well, here’s a thought. Microsoft has dominated the OS space for so long and so heavily that we’ve become used to the idea of the OS monopoly. Maybe we feel that this will continue forever, and that one OS will come to rule them all, and so we support our chosen OS because we feel that if we don’t, it will be killed off by whoever wins. It’s a survival thing.

The truth of the matter is that times have changed. Today, with the number of devices, form factors, user segments. and price points, it is likely that many more OSes will peacefully co-exist in the future. So even if the one we favor is not the winner it can be a comfortable number 2 or 3. There is nothing wrong with being number 2.

Maybe.

Naaaah. we do it because Windows is the best and the rest are just wimpy wannabees !! :)

“I’m not in love”

2011-09-13T10:08:00.001-07:00

“I'm not in love, so don't forget it
It's just a silly phase I'm going through”

and hopefully I’ll stay in this phase for a long long time…….

lyrics from “I’m not in love” by 10cc

About Crying

2011-09-10T05:03:00.001-07:00

The latest addition to our family is little Amal; and at six weeks old she has the entire house under control.

Her method is simple. Whenever she needs something, she cries. Immediate results follow, the entire household comes running around to pick up, change, feed, or entertain as necessary.

We've all experienced the power of crying when we were babies. But at some point we grow out of it. We might still cry but it only earns us scorn, and and impatient “oh grow up !”.

And yet as we grow older we tend to relapse. Not actually crying perhaps but just wailing about the world and expecting the world to come running around and help us, with predictable disappointment and self pity when this fails to happen.

This is perhaps the biggest lesson of growing up. To make things happen you have to do more than just cry, but the learned behavior of our childhood is so strong that it can take years to grow out of it.

So repeat after me: Crying is for babies only.

Of trees, and the simple life

2011-08-11T11:13:00.001-07:00

I’ve often thought that trees are the smartest living things on earth.

Think about it. They stay in one place all their lives, and everything that they need simply comes to them – water, sun, and nutrients from soil. And many of them live contentedly in one place for decades – even as people rush around them just trying to survive.

How do they do it ?

Well for one thing they live simple lives. Sure their ‘food’ arrives at their doorstep, but they’re also not choosy. They don’t demand fine cuisine, they take what is available – and thrive.

They’re also generous. While they demand little, they give a lot; they bear fruit, give shade, their bark is put to many uses, many have leaves with healing powers, even their branches are burned for warmth.

They are not competitive. When one tree is watered first, the other one doesn’t sulk and brood – just waits patiently for what fate will bring to it.

They’re grounded – literally. Their deep roots let them face all manner of gales and storms. They don’t run away, but stand their ground.

They adapt. When fall comes, they shed their leaves to conserve energy and survive, sure in the knowledge that times will change, that spring will roll around again - and that the leaves will be back.

Really, it makes you wonder why people cannot be more like trees sometimes.

PS: You might also like my somewhat similar take on flowers here

Gold and the Recession

2011-08-07T11:01:00.001-07:00

It’s funny how Gold is thought to be a ‘safe haven’ investment every time there is talk of a recession.

If you look at the historical prices of Gold, you see that it is not always a one-way street. It has fallen in the past and has also remained flat for long periods of time.

(Source: http://www.goldprice.org/30-year-gold-price-history.html)

I’m no Economist, but the current wave of gold speculation looks suspiciously like the one around 1980.

Neither should it be a surprise. Beyond it’s inherent utility as an ornamental product and some industrial applications, gold has little utility. Unless I am mistaken, it is not linked directly to any currency since 1971 (see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock)

So what good is it ? Why is it’s price going up ? As far as I can see it is speculative. And the trouble with speculative wealth is that it is only “wealth” as long as someone is willing to buy it from you. Sooner or later a price level will be reached at which there would be no buyers left, and at that time a panic sell-off might well start.

As I mentioned above, I’m not an Economist, so if I’ve got something wrong here, I’d love to be corrected by some expert – because I also want to find a safe haven if there is one !

iPad and the downfall of the super-geek

2011-07-30T02:12:00.001-07:00

Being a techie in the late nineties was great fun.

Previous era techies were largely thought of as nerds – and treated accordingly. But then came Windows, and more importantly the web. Desktop prices fell, computing went mainstream and suddenly every house had to have a Windows PC – and most people were clueless on what to do when something went wrong with it.

Enter the super-geek.

Suddenly, we were hot stuff. From the next-cubicle colleague, to the clueless aunt; from your boss to the guy you just met at a party – everyone needed us! All you had to do to become popular was to mention you know about computers and suddenly you were mobbed by desperate people wondering why their computers were freezing randomly, or failing to boot, or eating up their files. And only we could help them !! Almost overnight we went from being social outcasts to becoming totally cool.

And then came the iPad. Sigh.

I just got one for my wife. And while I love the device and think that it is a beautiful piece of technology, it is clear to me that I am also looking at the beginning of the end for the super-geek. The thing is dead simple to use, it never crashes, installing apps is a cinch, and even un-installing apps is ridiculously simple once you know how – so who needs geeks when things don’t break ?

Really. With the iPad, computers have finally started to make the transition from being high-tech awe-inspiring, slightly scary things to becoming a household appliance.

Everything about it is designed to turn it into an appliance. You press a button – it’s on. No boot time, and no wondering whether the log-in screen would even come up after the few minutes of mysterious hard-drive whirring and blinking lights. Once it is on, the iPad presents you with a screen of things to do. Contrast it with a desktop which, by default, presents you with a blank screen and a list of icons at the bottom. While the desktop asks what you want to do, the iPad suggests things for you to do. The touch interface of course makes things intuitive anyway. I’ve seen so many early users of Windows struggle with a double-click that the ability to just touch things to make them work is alone making things easier for a lot of people.

Of course, the iPad cannot do a lot of things a laptop can do. But that is kind of the point.

While the PC prided itself on being the everything-machine for everyone, the iPad is focused intensely on a specific type of usage – which happens to be what 90% of the users want to do with their computers anyway. Less powerful, sure. But also less things to go wrong –and super-good at doing the things it does do.

I could go on. But the writing is on the wall. We techies had our time in the sun, but I think our ten minutes of fame are just about up!

PS: For my take on the iPod from its early days, see here.

History of Work Ethic

2011-07-16T09:35:00.001-07:00

I was railing again about the 9-to-5 routine and where did it come from, when it was pointed out to me (by Uzma, thanks) that there is in fact a history behind it, and that it is often attributed to the Protestant work ethic.

After some more poking around on the web, I ran across this: Historical Context of the Work Ethic (Roger B. Hill, Ph.D.).

It’s a fascinating history of the work ethic from Greek times all the way to the twentieth century. I will not attempt to summarize it here – it is a highly engaging article and deserves a full read. It’s good to step back and put things in context and to realize that what we practice today has been shaped by centauries of social evolution.

Recommended.

How you see things depends on where you stand

2011-07-12T07:49:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of the earth – taken from Voyager-1 at a distance of 6.1 Billion Kilometers away.

As Wikipedia puts it : “Seen from 6.1 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles), Earth appears as a tiny dot (the blueish-white speck approximately halfway down the brown band to the right) within the darkness of deep space.”

Clearly, how you see things depends on where you stand…….

What is Google Plus good for ?

2011-07-11T08:03:00.001-07:00

Having played around with Google+ for a couple of days, I can see that from my perspective it solves a very definite problem (or at least it can if it catches on).

Currently, I have three scenarios for sharing stuff:

I use Twitter for stuff I want to share with the widest possible audience – such as my blog posts which are basically in the public domain.
I use Facebook for stuff which I don’t want to share with the world but only with people I know.
Finally, I use Email to share stuff which is meant only for close friends or family – typically pictures of family

With Google+ I can do all three from one place.

Public posts from Google+ are visible on the web to anyone. And anyone can subscriber to them by adding me, I don’t have to ‘Accept’ their requests for this to happen (though I can block people if I want) – this is Twitter-like behavior.

Posts restricted to a circle of friends or family can be seen only by the intended audience, which serves the other two scenarios.

This is nice and gives me a lot of control, but it does create some additional complexity. I wonder how many people will end up accidentally make something ‘Public’ when they meant to share it with their friends only. A lot depends on this and on whether the majority of the users ‘get’ the scenarios and when to use what. Once you get used to it though, it is very useful.

Facebook, of course can replicate this behavior. Technically there is nothing here which cannot be replicated. But Facebook’s millions of users have gotten used to the Facebook way of doing things and might baulk if Facebook changes itself too much to add the functionality from Google+. This is the classic first-mover trap: your very popularity means that you are trapped into your current offering and can’t change it too much – Microsoft has had to deal with it since forever. In the past Facebook has proven quite good at updating and changing it’s interface as it evolved so they might not worry about this too much. But that was when they had no competition. Now that they have competition, a big interface change might drive users to the rival camp.

At the very least though, Google+ shows that the social media space is far from done. There is still a lot of room for innovation. In the final analysis, competition will be good for the users as both services will improve. So sit back and enjoy the show, it should be an absorbing battle.

Sanity - and the definition of infinity

2011-07-11T05:52:00.001-07:00

Here's the basic math of sanity:

The number of things I own will always be finite.

The number of things I don't own will always be infinite.

This will be true even if I own everything that is on my must-have list today. Because there will be things I don't want today but might start wanting tommorrow. And there will be things which I don't know exist, but as soon as I discover their existance I will start wanting them. And there will be things which have not even been invented yet, but as soon as they are invented and as soon as I discover their existance, I will start wantng them. As I said, this category is fundamentally infinite.

Therefore what I have (finite) will always be less than what I don't have (infinite)

Chasing infinity is a recepie for madness. Sanity is rejoicing in the finite.

Innovation

2011-07-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

This is part of a presentation I recently used in a talk about innovation
Innovation

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