Jayant Rana's Blog

The Choice to be Made – to Cherish or to Self-Destruct

2014-06-01T11:10:00.000+05:30

Modern man, arguably perhaps the most intelligent of all beings on this fragile planet Earth, arrived here not so long ago; about 200,000 years back…a tiny speck of dust in the vastness of cosmic time-scales. But in spite of that fleeting presence, he has made his impact felt. He has risen up the evolutionary ranks, facing some of the fiercest battles with other species, and countless other ordeals with nature’s occasional fury. But he has survived...at least so far. Nature in her series of great experiments, in a succession of trials and errors, was finally able to create that super-species. Little did she know that he’ll one day come to be her own nemesis.


Antaeus emerging from the Earth (Gaia), who was his mother and the source of all his strength

It was all there, even when we weren't

Let’s rewind a little, and go back to the time when intelligent modern man had not yet evolved and life was much simpler. Hmm…let’s see. OK, all the land was still there, with its majestic mountain ranges and snow-capped peaks, the exquisite plateaus that run miles, the flourishing plains and the incredible variety of flora & fauna that they support. So the land as we know it today, was more or less already there. The water was there too, within the gigantic glacial rivers that are the sources of almost all of the freshwater in the world, powerful streams that carve hard rock to create beautiful canyons, wondrous waterfalls that multiply any place’s beauty, the shallow seas that harbour some of the most exotic and diverse life on Earth, and the mysterious ocean deep. So, essentially, water was there too. The land was there, the water was there, and all the other organisms were there too already, created by that skilled artist called nature. Everything perfect to the last detail, and a system that maintained its own equilibrium over millennia.

Then one fine day (well, not exactly a day, but probably more like a few thousands of years) nature decided to push her limits and create a new model of perfection. And man evolved. At first, while he was still mostly at her mercy, man used to worship nature. But later, as he started to get more sense of his place, he slowly but surely lost touch with his creator. His knowledge grew, but his wisdom nonetheless decreased over time. But with that knowledge, something else grew too, which was soon to tilt the scales more profoundly in man’s favour than perhaps any other species, ever…

Man - worshipping even nature gods in HIS own form

...and then it happened

With knowledge came power, and it exposed that one flaw that nature had been reckless enough to overlook while creating man…the greed for even more power. So much so that one day, not too long ago, man with his new-found obsession with power, decided to control nature herself, grossly overestimating his own power and underestimating that of his creator. He modified, disturbed and destroyed life on this planet as he pleased…he violated that sacred covenant that binds all natural beings. He tried to dominate, not co-exist, with all life forms on all the few places on this Earth where he’s been able to set his feet. Till today that thought of co-existence seldom crosses his power-inebriated mind, and he continues to wreak havoc on ecosystems and destroy prehistoric equilibria, the world over. And the balance that nature was so carefully able to maintain for over millions of years, has now been tampered with. Nature, in her turn, will now come back with her full vengeful force and would restore that natural order. Maybe not tomorrow, but maybe in a decade or so, quite soon anyway.

Nature has seen and had enough of this

So what now? Is this it for us?

It’s going to be soon, even amongst the most enlightened and yet the most deluded species of all time, some folks do realise that (see here and here). And it’s their responsibility that their kind gets this crucial message and acts on it, responsibly, as befitting for a creature with so much power, and not as a mindless idiot he behaves like today. Probably then sense would prevail, and perhaps we could still make it right, perhaps there’s still some time and hope left for the human race.

We’ve been too proud for too long, and it’s time we realise that it was all there before we came to this Earth, and in all likelihood, most of it would still be there long after we’re gone. The choice is right in front of us – do we choose to be grateful for all that there is and cherish it, or do we choose to destroy it and with it, eventually, self-destruct.

Image credit: Foter.com / mandymama / CC BY-NC-ND; srgpicker / CC BY; Malinda Rathnayake / CC BY

True Descendant of the Survivors

2014-05-25T20:59:00.000+05:30

Humans are everywhere. There are over 7 billion of them on this planet we call our home. And that number is still growing. But the stories of the origins of our species are the stuff of legend and are intriguing and exciting.

Modern man has his roots in the place we know today as Africa. Evidence from archaeology, anthropology and genetics all points to the fact that it was this great continent where human life took its first steps around 200,000 years ago. And they stayed put in that magnificent cradle for a while…in fact for about a good 100,000 years. That’s an important number, and to put it in perspective, just consider that of all the time humanity has spent on this planet, almost half of it was spent exclusively in Africa! But then some folks did try to venture out. In fact, many tried…

Geographically, Africa is a vast continent with even vaster oceans surrounding it from all sides, some sides more than others. So even though many explorers would have made attempts to venture out and go on epic voyages, it’d have been really difficult, to the point of being all but impossible at that time. It’s only in the north that a few plausible routes can be identified, but those wouldn’t have been a cakewalk either, because of the blazing and brazen Sahara, and still plenty of sea to cross beyond that.

Researchers have now unearthed that the first and perhaps the only group among those early explorers that was finally able to manage to cross over their home continent did so from a very narrow region in north-east Africa into the deserts of Arabia. And all of that epic adventure was made possible due to certain rare and favourable environmental variations that existed during that time and only briefly so. And due to that lucky happenstance, a small group (estimates of a few hundred only) was finally able to venture outside their home.

Solid evidence through robust DNA analyses has proved beyond question that every single one of us humans, who isn’t an African, is a descendant of that small group of pioneers…and that is simply mind-boggling!

It takes a while for the full impact of that fact to sink in, but eventually you know that your ancestors (who evolved into somewhat varied races later on) actually descended from just a handful of audacious and courageous adventurers, who dared to go into the unknown, who challenged the status quo, and who really were the true survivors. And that’s inspirational, and enough to lift your spirits whenever you come to think of the fact that whatever challenges you’re facing these days or have faced in your entire lives (whether at work, or at home, or elsewhere), wouldn’t even come close to what your ancestors have faced and already conquered. They survived…and if you’re a true descendant of those survivors, then so can you.

Image credit: Foter.com / Ryan Somma / CC BY-SA; midwestnerd / CC BY

Blindsided by Inspiration? How to never lose that million dollar idea...again!

2014-02-11T21:53:00.000+05:30

Did I just say a million? Um, well please forget that. I actually meant a billion. Er, wait...maybe I meant thousands. Well, the point is that the idea may not be worth a million dollars all the time, besides it might be really difficult to arrive at an appropriate methodology for instant valuation of ideas, but that’s again beside the point. The actual objective of this post is to talk about how to generate ideas and to keep them securely, so that given appropriate motivation and resources you could pursue them in future (and hopefully even realize that coveted valuation). Essentially, we’ll ideate on ideas.

Hmm...interesting. But what about those million dollars you were talking about?

Oh! You’re still hung on that? We’ll come to that, worry not. Let’s first attempt to understand how ideas work. I always think (and sometimes say) that what is but man, if not a collection of ideas. One may contend that a man has identity and personality and is much more than just a notion. And I say that if you observe carefully, right down at the biochemical level we’re all so similar that it’d be hard to distinguish one from the other, and at that level the concept of identity is almost reduced to cipher (unless of course in DNA fingerprinting).

Moving up the biochemical level, however, we find that man, unlike most other living beings, has developed higher cognitive functions that enable him to generate ideas, and those ideas in turn confer upon him his identity, personality and other related concepts. Most animals don’t seem to have a very pronounced personality, and that's because of their limited ideation capabilities. Humans, however, have a very characteristic personality that is defined by their ideas. Even the word ‘personality’ derives itself from Latin personalis meaning ‘of a person’. So there you have it.

The human brain, with its immensely unique cognitive capabilities, is evolved for generating ideas and critical thinking. There is so much more to it than the basal reptilian component (or lizard brain), which we tend to express so often in the form of fear, territoriality, aggression, etc. To generate ideas, one needs to rise above these basic instincts and focus on higher cognitive functions (more about basic instincts in an upcoming post).

Well said, but how do we really generate ideas, I mean like for real?

Idea generation is an extremely complex multivariate process, and the subject matter of high science. However, our brains make it appear so simple and instinctive that we hardly even give a thought to how ideas are really generated. You could take one of those multiple variables that govern this process as being the amount of exposure you get to different kinds of information. Another important variable would be how you (and more importantly, your brain) classify and catalog that information. Yet another crucial variable would be the time you allow for the processing of that information. The time is of essence as it allows the formation of those neuronal connections that then enable a cross-fertilization of those seemingly random bits of information and churn out fascinating ideas. And then your brain churns some more, iterating those smaller ideas some more, and you have bigger ideas. And so on.

So, in order to simplify a really complex neurological phenomenon, one can generate ideas by exposing oneself to as much of world literature and different kinds of media as possible, preferably in an organized/structured fashion, and then allow some time for all that information to assimilate and cross-fertilize, et voilà! Your idea is ready.

Ooh...so now that I have my idea, how do I know if it’s worth a million dollars?

For goodness’ sake get over the dollars already! The next logical step after generating an idea would be to identify if you actually want to keep it. So yes, it does matter if you know it’s a million dollar opportunity, but we’re talking about still bigger things here.

Keeping an idea costs time and effort, so you want to be almost sure that that’s what you want to do. How do you decide on that? Well, it could differ for different people, but generally if your idea has any of the below characteristics you may want to keep it (thanks to Farnoosh Brock for such an exhaustive list):

hear the idea in your head frequently
feel the urge to immediately write it down
find that you keep telling it to yourself
think about it – a lot
feel butterflies in your stomach from thinking about it
imagine what if you turned the idea into action
love hearing it said
love the idea itself, period
delight in saying it just to hear it to dissolve on your tongue
daydream about it
dream about it
lose sleep over it
wake up to it after a sweet slumber
stare out in space and visualize the idea materializing before you
obsess with the very thought of it
believe in it
want to keep it entirely to yourself until you are ready to reveal it
want to reveal it with passion, zest, enthusiasm and energy
defend it against naysayers or “the realists” after you do reveal it
know that the only way you can stop thinking about the idea is if you did something – anything – about it.

Yay! My idea qualifies. But why do I need to capture it? I mean it’s such a chore doing it every time I have a brainwave!

A chore, is it? Well, I understand where you’re coming from, because ideas, particularly the great ones, strike us at the least convenient of times - during a shower, for example. And let’s settle on it that inspiration really does have this nasty habit of blindsiding you, striking when you least expect. Furthermore, I wish I could tell you there is a magical wand to foster and enable creativity, but let’s face it that in our workaholic lives we spend most of our time trying to force productivity. No wonder then that in such a ‘forced set-up’ our brains don’t always have the luxury of mixing up the right blend of those aforementioned variables to brew the greatest of ideas. Let’s just accept it, and move on. Move on to accepting that we can’t afford to lose an idea just because it strikes us at an inopportune moment. No can’t do, sir.

If you’re already convinced enough that you should capture your ideas as and when they come, move on to the next paragraph, else allow me to strengthen my case further. Ideas don’t just happen when you’re sitting there with a notepad...they happen all the flippin’ time! And great ideas that have a high probability of success, develop from smaller ideas. Literature is replete with stories that some of the most brilliant ideas of our civilization have occurred by serendipity and in the least likely of situations - bathtubs, bus commute, sitting underneath apple trees, you get the idea. Same goes for the ideas that have spawned some of the most successful businesses of today. It pays to capture and organize your ideas, because - it keeps you from losing them, gives you peace of mind, saves you time looking for those ideas, and finally gives you a sense of clarity and purpose. Evidently, you just can’t afford to not capture these ideas, and I don’t mean just memorize them, because memory is fallible (though it does work brilliantly for a gifted few).

To sum it up, the human mind is not bound by the same physical limitations as us mortal beings. So when your eureka moment finally arrives, it would help if you’re mindful and ready to capture it. You can’t just leave ideas to chance, it’s too risky!

OK, OK! Got it. But that cross-fertilization thing sounds so chaotic. Is there an actual system to capture ideas?

It is true that ideas do thrive in a seemingly chaotic environment. Whereas, we humans are naturally inclined, even more so in the artificially ‘forced set-ups’ of today, to organize and structure anything we see, hear, smell, taste or touch. Therefore, in order to reconcile and bridge these apparently opposing concepts, we do need a system to structure the chaotic mess that our ideas may appear otherwise. That system would then enable us to develop them further.

Allow me to share the system that I personally use and find quite useful for capturing and organizing my ideas. It’s fairly straightforward. Once I have an idea, I capture it ASAP. This first bit is largely influenced by willpower. Then comes the more crucial part of classifying and organizing the ideas into various categories, using very specific and robust tools. Listed below are the categories I use, and the corresponding tool recommendations:

To-do Ideas

These are ideas that lead to clear, definite actions, for which the timeframe may or may not be defined.

Examples: Take the Statistics 101 course, try out a T'ai chi session, learn to make cupcakes at home, update résumé, write an email to uncle, medication reminders, etc.

Tools of the Trade

Any.do - super neat interface, does the job, and then some; super feature called Any.do Moment
Wunderlist - all the features you could possibly desire from a ToDo app
Astrid - was the reigning champion of all ToDo apps until Yahoo! first acquired it, and then killed it. Hoping against hope that one day it’ll rise from its ashes!

Draft To-be-developed Ideas

These are ideas that come as fragments, are vague, and need to be developed further to see what actions you want to take based on them. Often quite big and exciting, they typically require additional research to develop further, and may turn into multiple actions or even transform into full projects.

Examples: Computer Programming (learn/not learn? worth while/not useful? career/fun? which language? etc.), Trip to China (when to travel? requirements? what to see? best deals? etc.), Essay on global warming (what’s causing it? can it be mitigated? who are affected? impact...numbers, species? etc.), Relocate to a new city (pros/cons? is it really necessary? packing and moving? new service providers? etc.).

Tools of the Trade

Evernote - collect snippets/stuff from all over the place, and bring it all in one single organised dashboard
Google Keep - simplified, neat, Google, need I say more!
MindMup - smoothest and most “frictionless” mind-mapping app, visualize your ideas, see the dots connect, super clean UI.

Calendar Appointment/Event Ideas

These are ideas that do not require much deliberation, and enter straight into your schedule. Nevertheless, they may be quite important and missing them could negatively impact you.

Examples: Birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, sporting events, deadlines, upcoming conference, etc.

Tools of the Trade

Google Calendar - simple, straightforward, delivers on what it promises
Cal - gorgeous, functional, syncs with Any.do
Sunrise Calendar - for iOS users who don’t like iCal and use Google Calendar anyway!

Ideas/Inspiration from the Interesting Randomness of the Web

Ideas you stumble upon while surfing the web and find interesting. You may want to read further on them, or actually implement them in your life, or you might just be short on time and save them to read/view/share later.

Examples: DIY ideas on redecorating your living room, interesting links and resources from your Twitter/Facebook/G+ news feed, a really long but interesting The Economist article, a step-by-step tutorial video of how to assemble your mountain bike, etc.

Tools of the Trade

Pocket - super clean UI, offline support, extensive 3rd party integration, as awesome as they come
Pinterest - capture visual inspiration and organize in a pinboard style, fastest growing content sharing platform!

Whoa! Some system that! Don’t you think our good ol’ paper notepad and sticky notes be the best?

Most of us naturally tend towards actual physical notes, and for all the right reasons. It’s just preferable most of the time to have a concrete list at hand to review and quickly make changes. Some like it as a back-up to the digital versions. While some of us just enjoy the feel of putting pen to paper. All valid and good reasons. The point here is don’t throw away your existing idea-capture system, just for the sake of change. If it works, and works the way you want, stick to it by all means. And you might’ve heard/experienced that thing about too much of automation. Take calculators for example - use them too much and you forget how to add in your head (unless you’re an Indian, in which case you’ve been hardwired by the system to cram and crunch numbers even in your sleep!).

But if you have doubts about your system, or your system doesn’t work at all, it’s time for change. Let technology help you get organised and productive. If you must use a physical notebook for capturing ideas, and many of us do need to, get a special, aesthetically appealing notebook for the purpose. It keeps the task of jotting down interesting and you do want to look at it every now and then. DON’T note your idea on some flimsy piece of paper that just blows with the wind, and you discover it months (or years) later only to regret that there’s the idea I so wanted to pursue months (or years!) ago. Damn, that would be frustrating!

Yo! I prepared this massive list in Excel and when I actually needed it, realized it’s at home, on my PC!

We live in a world of multiple screens and multiple platforms. There’s a fine line between having just the right number of gadgets that peak your productivity, and getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of devices you own! Worry not, friend. Help is at hand to make you truly independent of these device and platform dependencies.

Device-dependency is the first thing to tackle, and to that end the #1 lifehacking tip anyone can give you, is to SYNC. Build an idea-capture system that enables you to - one, capture ideas as soon as you get them, and two, store them in a location which you can revisit whenever you want. If your present system doesn’t allow you to perform either of these tasks, you need to reconsider it. Most of the tools recommended in the list above are offered as suites of cloud and desktop/mobile applications, and can be installed/accessed on almost any device that you own (desktops, laptops, mobile, tablet, etc.). Browser extensions and bookmarklets, available for most of them, make your experience even more smooth.

The next thing to tackle is platform-dependency. Your idea-capture tools might work just fine on Windows, but what about your iOS device, or Android, or Kindle even! Relax. It doesn’t have to work across all of those, but at least find something that works across the devices and platforms that you use regularly. Even though most of the tools these days work across multiple platforms, you might want to check if your idea-capture system is working fine across all the platforms that you’re using.
What, you own a BlackBerry 10 device? Don’t you worry mate, have faith that the free markets will sort it out eventually, until then they’ve allowed Android apps to sneak in! So there you have it.

But what if I get those million dollar ideas ONLY during a shower? What if I really have to have to write down while I’m in shower? What if...I were Aquaman?!!

There, there. Let’s clear the air. You don’t want to be Aquaman. Nobody does! Duh. But just in case, and an extreme one at that, there is actually “apparatus” available for writing underwater, and I’m not even kidding. See here, an entire category of stationery! I can still understand if you’d want to use the gadget when you get that million dollar idea during a shower, but I’m really skeptical people would take additional gadgets with them during a SCUBA diving session just in the hope that the idea might hit them 100 ft under water. You would never need that gear, unless you’re one of those who want to maintain a dive-log (yeah, that’s a real thing too), note down marine biology stuff, or maybe you’re someone who takes notes of the whale songs! Anyway, maybe there are people who actually take notes of whale songs, what do I know.

Assuming you’re not that much into water (see what I did there?), for all general purposes, just use some memory technique to keep that idea in your mind so long as you’re in the shower and then transfer it to your idea-capture tool, as soon as you get out of it.

Sounds like a plan...and then again, it sounds like a chore still! Besides why haven’t you disclosed much about those million dollars?

Boy! You’re a persistent one, aren’t you? Not letting go of those million dollars, are we? Anyway, your resistance to build/adopt a new idea-capture system is understandable. It’s easy to say that it’s a chore, but understand that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to actually build your system and get it up and running. It takes a little willpower though, I’ll give you that.

The hardest part of this system is to get your ideas out of your head and put them into a format where you can review them and create action items based on them. You need to start doing it consciously. You don’t need to write entire paragraphs; trust your brain, it can create full-length stories out of brief snippets. Use reminders, they take only seconds to set-up, and the app would ensure the idea reaches execution stage.

It’s like developing a habit. It takes time. Try to make it fun, and it might get easier. Find the right tools that work for you. You need to like/love your idea-capture tools. It doesn’t come naturally to most of us, relax! But the good thing is we all are capable of developing those habits. The rest is plain old automation, doesn’t take much doing from your end.

I have like ten pages full of earth-shattering ideas jotted down in my notepad, and I still don’t see myself getting a million dollars. Why?

Well alright, let’s talk about your million dollars now. See, there’s one last step that I haven’t told you about so far. Once you’ve generated that awesome idea, and have taken efforts to properly capture it as well, the last thing you need to do is to ACT on that idea. Yeah, apparently this last step is quite critical to unlock the value of your idea. So, just a word of caution, don’t get too enamored by some or the other part of the process and forget that the end objective is to ACT on those captured ideas! That’s not to say that the previous two steps are a way to distract and get you away from the final step. In fact, they actually preserve, sharpen, and bring your idea to this stage where it can finally be acted upon. To act on those ideas however you would require a lot of tolerance, which we would discuss in an upcoming post.

Not every idea would be in your priority list at a time, and hence only capturing ideas is not enough. It is pertinent to review your ideas from time to time. You must do it, there is no option. Keep them in a place you’d like to or at least have to revisit frequently. This way no idea will ever pass you by. Keep them fresh and in front of you all the time – eyeshot, earshot, and complete-senses-shot so that they don’t get shot down to pieces before you’ve had the time to act upon them. Reflect on them and allow your brain to form those neuronal connections, and given the right environment the thoughts would surely cross-fertilize and bloom into even more beautiful and creative ideas.

Review is the key. Heard that ol’ saying “out of sight, out of mind?” It is very easy to forget what we do not see.

So what you’re saying is?

In the words of Alexander Pope -

“Order is Heaven’s first law.”

Ideas could spring upon us any time from apparent chaos, and inspiration has an old tendency to blindside. Hence, it is important to be mindful of this fact, and be ready with an effective system to capture and organize those ideas. There’s no ideal system for this purpose, and each of us needs to build our own individual systems. Only once we capture ideas in the right format can our brains process them and enable us to act upon them, which ultimately unlocks the idea’s true value.

Hope you found this post useful. I’m sure you too maintain you own personalized idea capture system. Do share it with us so we could learn from each other.

Image credit: Foter.com / csm_web / CC BY; James Nash (aka Cirrus) / CC BY-SA; MGoBlog / CC BY-NC; Leif (Bryne) / CC BY-NC-ND; dbwilldo / CC BY-NC-SA; Bunches and Bits {Karina} / CC BY-NC-ND; Inha Leex Hale / CC BY; eugeniot / CC BY-NC-SA; Pete Labrozzi / CC BY-NC-ND; Sean MacEntee / CC BY; adihrespati / CC BY; ecstaticist / CC BY-NC-SA

Religion and Science - Origins and Ends

2013-12-07T18:19:00.000+05:30

Most of the natural systems, most of which concern humans anyway, are inherently chaotic. What that means, in the words of Edward Lorenz, is that although the present does determine the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future. Simply put, this means that even minute variations in the initial conditions may yield incredibly diverging outcomes; this is also known as the butterfly effect. This presents an interesting problem for the human mind. It knows that the future can be predicted, given that the present (with all its zillions of variables) is perfectly known, but achieving perfect knowledge is an unending pursuit, mythical even.

Okay, I lost you at butterfly! What are we discussing here again?

Since the beginning of time, randomness has presented humans with great discomfort. Be it the sudden changes in weather, the migration of birds & animals, the seasonality of crops, sudden outbreak of disease, and many other such equally baffling natural phenomena, which have a direct bearing on our survival. And for the same length of time, humans have made consistent efforts to reduce that randomness by actively seeking to know more about their world and its inhabitants. This need to know is one of the most basic human needs. Humans seek knowledge to identify patterns in nature, to find conformity in apparent chaos. Conformity is comforting, knowledge of the future is comforting. Uncertainty is distressing, not knowing is uncomfortable. It has a psychological cost.

That sounds fair. So what about Religion and Science?

We’ve established that the need to know, the curiosity about not only our future, but also our past, is a basic human need. This need can only be satisfied by faith, i.e. by a belief in a body of ideas addressing those questions of past, present and future. That's why faith is such a powerful thing. It gives you assurance, a sense of comfort in this otherwise seemingly random world. Faith, therefore, is something that the human mind naturally strives for. The essence of every belief system is a pattern which predicts not only the future based on our present, but also tells what was our past, which has led us to this present condition. Science and Religion, in that sense, have the same common origins. Both arise from that singular all pervasive need to know. Also, the ultimate objective of both is to attain knowledge of all that there is...that state of spiritual nirvana. The means of both may be different but the ends are quite the same.

You keep saying Religion and Science, but hasn't it always been Religion versus Science?

The human civilization of today has been shaped by countless battles of seemingly conflicting ideas. It all starts with a belief in anything that gives us some ability to predict the future. Take for instance, the belief in astrology. Astrology is so popular because we humans have always liked to think of ourselves connected with the universe. We like to believe that the universe, and more specifically the positions of stars and planets at the exact moment of our birth have an almost direct bearing on our lives. You only need to take a look around, be it newspapers, TV or the internet, to see how popular astrology is. Our belief in astrology in early times was so strong that anything untoward was blamed on an unfavorable position of a planet or a star, explaining the origins of the word disaster, derived from Greek dus- + astron, meaning "bad star". Thus, astrology is/was a great system, all based on careful observations, record-keeping and memorization on the part of astrologers, and it did seem to explain the past and predict the future, partly at least.

Observations alone led to the belief that the Earth is at the centre of the universe. And why not? The Earth was a stable, solid surface and apparently all other “heavenly” bodies seemed to revolve around it each day. It seemed only natural to assume that. This Ptolemy's model seemed to explain most of the natural phenomena and worked well for that time. Copernicus, at long last tried to change that view in light of his new set of observations, but people had grown comfortable with the Earth being at the centre of everything. It seemed quite convenient too. People had faith in it. Copernicus was called a heretic and was ostracised. It was only much later that his observations gained credence in light of new evidence from later scientists like Johannes Kepler. But Kepler too was initially looking to find God's great plan for himself and his world, which led him to an obsessive pursuit of geometric patterns and the motions of "heavenly" bodies. The difference was that he was using the scientific method and hypotheses testing and gathered immense amounts of his own observations and other previously recorded data. And even though a lot of his hypotheses would explain a natural phenomenon almost entirely, but at times failed to explain some exceptions. It would have been convenient for him to ignore those observations as irrelevant, but he did not. It took him a lot of heart to discard his original views and hypothesis in light of new observations. But he persisted. It would have been tremendously frustrating. To test again and again his ideas and theories would have taken not only patience, but also a lot of courage. That's the scientific method. That's just the way it is. At the heart of science is the acceptance of uncomfortable facts, a preference for hard truths over your dearest illusions.

It all begins with a burning desire to know. Science, the word itself is derived from Latin sciens, the present participle stem of scire (meaning “to know”). Following up that desire with a curious heart and a rational brain is the next most important ingredient. Science is at the intersection of observation AND theory. One completes the other. Neither can alone explain or predict countless natural phenomena that we humans attempt to understand. It is by rigorous pursuit of hard facts combined with imaginative thinking that leads to scientific discoveries and inventions. Serendipity too only happens to the ones who are looking for it, and are ready to take notes when it happens! Curiosity is one of the most basic of human qualities. That alone has led to the dominance of the human species on this planet.

New ideas, in most societies, have always been resisted (with the exception of perhaps during the Renaissance). Science is about keeping that desire to know even in the face of that resistance. If one has a closed mind then every new scientific discovery is always a choice between either an uncomfortable truth or a convenient lie. And blind, unquestioning faith doesn't allow for reevaluation of conventional wisdom, and in that sense is closed minded. That's one of the major reasons why Religion and Science always seem to be in conflict.

Religion on the other hand, and to be fair, is the most instinctive and perfect source of faith, which completely satisfies that human need to know. According to some estimates, there are approximately 4200 religions in the world. One of the common themes which run across most of the religions or belief systems is the legend of some individuals or a single individual who stumbled upon great truths in their inspiring quest for knowledge. As varied and difficult a task it may then seem to define the word religion, it is popularly defined as an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and worldviews that relate humanity to an order of existence. Essentially, religions are great collections of ancient human wisdom which prescribe adherence to a particular set of beliefs and practices, the rationales for which are embedded deep into the immutable laws of that religion.

There are so many questions we humans relentlessly seek answers to. We wish to know about not only the future, but also the past. We want to know where we came from, how did we come to inhabit this planet, how did such an incredible diversity of plants and animals arise, and how did we happen to be the dominant species among them all. Moreover, we want to know what we are going through in the present too, what impact are we having on the world around us and vice versa. How are we one with the universe? We always have wanted to be aware of our cosmic connection. Both Science and Religion do a great job of telling their believers consistent and coherent stories that answer all of those existential questions of their minds, and give them psychological comfort and peace.

Finally, when we've made our peace with our past and our future, we think about the present. There too Religion and Science lay out a clear step-by-step protocol as to what we need to do to lead healthy, happy and satisfied lives. Also, they lay out the knowledge of what consequences we might have to face if we deviate from the scientific or the divine path. Again the ends are the same, the means maybe not so much.

The Best of Both Worlds

The passion to explore is at the heart of being human. You have to understand that our passion for learning is really a tool for our very survival. Science and Religion both aim to fulfil that same pristine need to know. The scientific method as well as the multiple religions of this world provide a structured belief system, which forms the foundation for faith in that system. If you take away a man's faith, what do you have left except for randomness? That’s a notion which is psychologically distressing and discomforting. Therefore, a mutual respect for all the belief systems and all the religions is really the true form of respect for that primitive and basic human need to know.

The scientific method has come into being relatively recently, while Religion has been around for millennia. As a result Science is still very young on that timescale and although science is a fast learner and inherently a self-correcting process, there are perhaps some things that both Science and Religion can learn from each other. Obviously, that would need an open mind and a desire to know. And I guess we don't need to worry too much about the latter.

Exploration is in our nature. In the words of the great astronomer Carl Sagan, “We began as wanderers and we are wanderers still. We make our world significant only by the courage of our questions and the depths of our answers.”

Do share with us your thoughts on Religion and Science here in comments.

Image credit: Foter.com / h.koppdelaney / CC BY-ND; kennymatic / CC BY; jessleecuizon / CC BY; Remko van Dokkum / CC BY; Mr. T in DC / CC BY-ND; write_adam / CC BY-NC; Eddi van W. / CC BY-SA; The Flying Trilobite / CC BY-NC-ND

You Are Here – How to Never Lose Your Way in a New City

2013-09-22T19:03:00.002+05:30

"Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen." I wish it was my original quote, but Benjamin Disraeli wouldn't let me have that honour; still I completely agree with his words. Okay, so first of all I know the post is titled “how to never lose your way in a new city”, but that's kind of inevitable, even impossible. I mean you could lose your way in your own sweet city. So in that sense this post essentially tries to share some tips with you on how to minimise the probability of getting/ feeling lost in a new city and have a great experience while you're at it! Does that sound fair to you? Okay then, let's start sticking pins on a map and threading our way through the city of your choosing.

Know thy city

Every city in this world follows a pattern, from the most planned to the most chaotic, every city in this world still follows a pattern – be it its layout, its architecture, its public transportation, its health services, its culture and customs, including even the general attitude of its people. And city exploration, in that sense, is a glorified pattern recognition exercise. You might need to pay a little more attention sometimes, but you’ll find it eventually. If not, then keep looking, the time you invest in recognising these patterns, would save you a lot of time later during the remainder of your stay there.

Make no mistake, cities are living entities, with memories, personalities and everything, and hence you can glean a lot of insights by finding about their past. Check out the history of the city, and the more you begin to do so, the more sense everything starts to make.

It’s great to be spirited like Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus, but you don't have to be as adventurous to just go out there and make your own maps on the go. Today you have far more advanced navigation technology available in the palm of your hand than the greatest of explorers in the past. So use it. Download maps, apps, reviews and use GPS to find your way to your destination.

If you like tangible maps, then by all means do get a paper map, and then get another one, and then another – yeah from three different sources. Never rely entirely on a single one, especially if it’s a sponsored tourist map. There's only so much space on a map, so the sponsored one would only contain key things of interest from the point of view of the sponsor/publisher and their partners. And it would almost never be comprehensive (and it’s not supposed to), but what would happen is that you’d miss out on critical pieces of information if you rely only on a single map. The true map (if at all there is such a thing) is the mean of all these three maps that you have (obviously with an associated confidence interval).

But if you're more the believer in 'the journey' than ‘the destination’, and I think all of us should be like that every once in a while (depending on the time you have), then don't fuss too much about the tech or the maps, you'll get there eventually like many others have before you. Just enjoy the ride.

Know thy neighbour

There's a reason why testimonials are such a powerful tool in marketing, because we're programmed to believe more in what “real people” say than what's written on a website. So an endorsement by a third person helps in alleviating our scepticism, and provides us with trust and comfort. It's just an instinct.

So, don’t always take the tourism and other marketing literature on “must-see” and “must-do” things as word of the gospel. Read the reviews of real travellers from reliable unbiased sources, or better still from the people you know who’ve already been there, to get some practical and “real-world” information.

Most important...know thyself

As with almost everything in life, planning your travel starts with your objective for the trip. Depending on what you want to achieve, your itinerary might change dramatically. Many things in many cities are seasonal, so check out if it’s a good time of the year for the activity of your choosing and plan ahead for it (although off-season has its own benefits). For example if you’re the cultural explorer type like me, and want to see the city’s popular concerts and museums, then check out when does the cultural season start in the city, or if that museum you want to visit isn’t shut down for renovation.

Also dependent on that season are the prices and availability of tickets and accommodation, among others. Knowing about the seasonality can save you a considerable amount of money, and more importantly make sure that you get timely reservations for things you actually desire to see/ do. Some days you might need to pay a fortune, while on select few you might actually be lucky enough to be treated to a free performance. Well, I guess that’s definitely something worth planning for!

Know thy locals

Never go with the idea that the local language would be same as/ similar to your mother tongue or even English for that matter. Have a plan in place to deal with the local language at your destination; learn some common greetings and phrases essential for survival. Some locals appreciate the fact that you respect them enough to have at least tried to learn their language, and in turn they might be more forthcoming in helping you out in whatever ways they can. I can’t stress enough that it might work with most people but sometimes you might just get unlucky and encounter a grumpy one, who'll spoil your first impression of the city forever!

The best way to get information out from the locals is by, well you know, talking to them. More often than not, they’d be quite willing to talk to you, especially after they’ve had a business transaction with you – like that waiter at the restaurant, or that cab driver, and obviously the hotel concierge.

Two's better than one. Although I have no reservations in travelling solo, but if you have company, at times it can help you in getting some leverage in terms of bargaining with the locals (you can even try the ‘good-cop bad-cop’ tactic in negotiating deals in your favour!) as well as being better from a security point of view.

Know thy plans and thine contingencies

Choose a base camp! Preferable would be in the heart of the city, or more importantly near a major transport hub from where you can get direct connections to everywhere in the city. That makes getting around easier, and you don’t waste precious time in commuting.

Secure your belongings. Once that’s done, you’d feel more comfortable and can focus on your exploration rather than wondering who might be rummaging through your luggage, while you’re out there taking selfies with unabashed confidence.

Bear in mind that your luggage might get misplaced on arrival (yeah, the one in which you packed your favourite polka-dot garments and jumpsuits!), and you might not have access to it for about the next 24 hours. Plan for that contingency.

Also, don’t just sit in the base camp and keep planning, get onto the city transport – tram, metro, bus, etc. This way you can see around while you plan, and more importantly you can also get quick and valuable tips from the locals while on your way, which you may not find that easy on the internet!

Buy a single ticket/ city pass to save some costs and the inconvenience of standing in queues, but absolutely make sure that the places you want to explore are covered by that.

Do not lose data – be it your photos (yep those same selfies taken with unabashed confidence), your maps with all those detailed annotations, or any other critical information and documents. Plan for backup...always. It’s easier than you think.

Food is something you’re going to have probably not more than three times a day, so there are only so many places you can explore, and assuming your hotel charges already include breakfast, that leaves you with only two opportunities. Don’t rely entirely on the locals for recommendations. Do check out sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp, Zomato, etc. for a taste of local flavour. You can find reviews, prices, menus, even ideas on what to order with what accompaniments! Again don’t overdo it, relax, talk to restaurant folks, don’t be afraid of trying the chef’s speciality (there’s a reason they call it that) and let them impress you by creating some magic of their own.

If you’re on a budget, don’t let that discourage you from going out and exploring, as there are ALWAYS (in caps) plenty of things to see/ do in a city that would cost you zilch but can give you that top-class local experience of the city, without any significant compromise.

Not all those who wander are lost

Travel is the best way to explore, discover and experience realms unknown, through which many a time we discover self. Finding your way in a new city isn’t that much of a science, as it is common sense. Planning in advance, using all the resources at your disposal, is a great way to make sure your upcoming trip would be an amazing, and even life-changing experience. But don’t overdo it, otherwise what’s the fun in exploration. Leave a little to imagination as well; it’s an amusing little thing!

Did you find some of these tips useful? I'm sure you have plenty of travel experiences of your own, both great and not-so-great. Please do share them with all of us fellow travellers in comments below.

Image credit: Foter.com / practicalowl / CC BY-NC; TaylorMiles / CC BY-NC-SA; Kalexanderson / CC BY-NC-SA; Don Sullivan / CC BY-NC-ND; JD Hancock / CC BY; ShironekoEuro / CC BY-ND

Dude, where’s my Patent?

2013-08-25T13:03:00.000+05:30

You think the title’s a little cheesy, eh? Well tell it to the guy whose patent just got infringed; he doesn’t agree with you. Or for that matter neither do any of those other innovators and artists, who don’t feel motivated enough to do great work, because what good is it anyway if others steal it, or pass it off as their own! Yes we’re going to talk about intellectual property rights (IPRs) in this post, and how they are driving the growth of our society. People can choose to ignore them if they please, but it's a choice we make as a society, and its implications are far and wide.

TL;DR version: IPRs are good for the society as they incentivize creativity and innovation. Protecting them by way of legal frameworks is hence critical for the growth of our civilization.

Ok, calm down…intellectual what?

Assuming that’s an honest question let me tell you what we’re dealing with here and set

some context. Ideas have shaped the human civilization over the ages. Had it not been for innovative ideas, the human society would have been much different and inchoate than we know it today. But, as with everything else, humans need incentives to ideate and innovate. This primitive need gave birth to the concept of Intellectual Property Rights (copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial designs, trade secrets, geographical indications, etc.), which grant the authors, inventors and innovators ownership rights to the creations of their intellect whereby they can choose to share those freely or to control their use in certain ways.

What good are these IPRs for?

Let’s take it from the top, shall we? The omnipresence of Intellectual Property can’t be underrated. We see IP almost everywhere – books, records, films, computers, cars, drugs, varieties of plants, the designs that help us identify one product from another, and even places of origin of products, like Champagne in France. So, the benefits of IPRs are manifold. They provide an incentive to create, which motivates people to invest time and resources to foster innovation and enhance knowledge. This leads to various ground-breaking inventions and creative masterpieces which we see around us. They also help in encouraging a competitive marketplace by way of promoting disclosure of innovation through grant of full economic and moral rights to the innovator for a limited period of time. This disclosure is of great essence as it allows other members of the society to learn from that idea to further improve and build upon it to broaden the knowledge horizon of our civilization, while also helping to prevent repetitive work or reinventing that proverbial wheel. Hence for the effective and efficient functioning of a market, IPRs are vital. In other creative areas like literature and audio-visual arts, IPRs are incentive for creation of a rich and diverse cultural wealth for a society. This also translates into the enrichment of public knowledge and culture.

So what’s the deal with IPR infringement?

The theft of IPR protection by way of infringement and piracy of cultural works can be

potentially disastrous from the point of view of the society. The threat has only increased with technological advancements and the emergence of internet in today’s super-modern and inter-connected society. Because of this, around the world many new works of art never actually emerge because there exists simply no incentive for the artists to take any risk. Reports of movie industries worldwide suffering losses worth millions of dollars every year because of piracy are not new, nor have been reports of artists raising demands for better anti-piracy legislations from the governments. Also, the issue of counterfeiting is very serious from the health and safety point of view of the society. Most international organizations like the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and UNESCO recognize these threats and hence work sincerely for providing a legal framework for IPR protection through cooperation among various countries.

So what you’re saying is…

IPRs drive the growth of our society by incentivizing creativity and innovation. Infringement of IPRs is a serious matter and a global legal framework is critical for their protection. It’s hard to imagine that the human society today can achieve its long-term objectives of social, cultural and economic development without recognizing sufficiently the importance of IPRs.

Images courtesy: Foter / JD Hancock / CC BY ; Jian Awe / CC BY; FreeDigitalPhotos.net / Stuart Miles; nongpimmy

How to use Hashtags like a Marketing Ninja

2013-08-17T18:33:00.000+05:30

Everybody uses hashtags these days, some more than others, and for all sorts of reasons. But the humble looking pound (#) sign can be a powerful tool in the hands of a marketing ninja. It’s not so much about the symbol itself, but the way it’s used in marketing communication which decides how much impact it can and will wield with your target audience.

Wait, I thought “#LoL #my #cat’s #so #cute” is all that there is to Hashtags!

Well, not really. Like the symbol itself, the hashtag had humble beginnings in the year 2007, and has come a long way since.

how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?
— Chris Messina™ (@chrismessina) August 23, 2007

The First Ever Hashtag Posted on Twitter

Its innate superpower to be so simple and yet to connect people in a way that was never possible before, led to its explosion on Twitterverse, and Twitter decided in Jul 2009 to allow its usage for categorizing Tweets and for searching them easily. Mass popularity followed (what with it being named the word of the year and babies being named Hashtag - because of its aforementioned superpower) and drove the hashtag to god-level on almost all popular social networks, with the most recent (and perhaps most debated) introduction on Facebook. Hashtags in essence, give context to content, and a great context+content combo is arguably the most effective tool in the hands of a seasoned marketer.

Er...so apart from “#LoL #my #cat’s #so #cute” what else can you use hashtags for?

Great marketers can think of almost any number of creative ways in which they wish to unleash the power of context+content. Here’s a small list of ways in which hashtags can be used in marketing:

creating and maintaining a unified and consistent brand messaging across multiple social platforms
driving engagement and participation across multiple networks by changing the way people discover content
identifying in real-time what your audience is saying about your brand and engaging with them in live conversations
increasing the reach for your brand outside of your established network, without even having to pay for sponsored content
and very important, giving context to visual content, which needs it more as opposed to text which is easy to search, on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to enable users to find your content more easily

Owing to these great applications, hashtags, for most of the top brands, have already become an essential part of their social media repertoire and the trend is only going north from here.

Sooper! So how do I use these hashtags? Is this fine - “#LoL #my #cat’s #so #cute”?

NO. With great #power comes great #responsibility, so never overuse the hashtags. It looks like spam and desperate marketing, and is a sure-fire way to rapidly lose your fans & followers.

Aspiring marketing ninjas should consider the below things when using hashtags:

That guy just wrote funny in 20 different ways!! He can do it, but strict no-no for marketers.

nothing works better than coming up with an original hashtag that’s relevant as well as unique to your brand
the choice of hashtag is also important because it’s not only meant for your network, but also for others outside of it who’ll discover your content using that hashtag - don’t be too generic, or too obscure
before implementing one, validate your hashtag - does it already exist, what other kind of content shows up with it, does it confuse/ turn-off your audience and waste their time?
less is more, try not to use more than two hashtags per post - rotate them, space ‘em out in subsequent ones, but don’t overuse...ever.
keep your hashtag simple and consistent across platforms

Hashtags are powerful tools that can lead to exponential increase in reach and generate massive impact for a brand. The key is to understand how they work and creating a unified social media strategy to be implemented across all the various platforms that allow the use of that humble-yet-powerful symbol.

Images courtesy: misspixels / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Global Convergence of Consumer Tastes – Fact or Fiction?

2013-08-10T16:20:00.000+05:30

There's a secret dream that every international marketer's heart harbours, whether it remains a distant dream for long or not is the question. The underlying thread that weaves through all the hype surrounding catchphrases like ‘glocalisation' is but the convergence of consumer preferences globally. And that's sort of the holy grail of international marketing!

TL;DR version : Global convergence of consumer preferences is a reality we're witnessing each day. This has profound implications for international marketers. Concerted strategic marketing efforts can shape & drive this convergence.

Holy Grail, eh? Just break it down for me, would you?

The ‘Global Village' is no more a myth thanks to the rise of global capitalism, falling of barriers to international trade, increasing interconnectedness and a cross-fertilisation of ideas, which has been further fuelled by the convergence of media, income and technology. Today, we see a certain degree of homogenisation in the global consumption patterns as national borders and traditional cultural boundaries blur rapidly, leading to the identification of global segments. Yet, the idea itself isn't novel; Theodore Levitt in his landmark 1983 article had argued that this homogenisation of needs and wants was inevitable as the rational consumer would invariably prefer standardised products of high quality and low price. So when we see McDonald's prospering around the globe, western fashions becoming common in many eastern countries and cross border music channels like MTV becoming a rage everywhere, it's of little surprise to the international marketer. The evidence is for everyone to see mainly in the form of various marketing messages of omnipresent brand identities predominantly in the FMCG and technology sector. People around the globe are developing preferences for the same products, wearing the same type of clothing, watching the same TV programs, and playing the same digital games on their computers! And these consumer behaviour trends are being reinforced all the more by the print media, radio, TV and to an increasingly great extent, the Internet.

Then why do we still see so many differences across markets?

All said and done, the convergence isn't perfect and its foundations are regularly questioned in view of the substantial variance in consumer behaviour across nations. But with differences of per capita GNP progressively disappearing, culture has become a powerful variable to explain this trend, and which the Hofstede studies also corroborate. National culture, which is broadly the values, beliefs, norms and behavioural patterns of a national group, is subject to global culture's continual influence, which in turn is instrumental in reshaping an individual's personal culture. Even as these global cultural values get transmitted to the individual, he retains a set of core common values, which helps explain this partial heterogeneity in consumer behaviour. Still, the consumer tastes appear to be driven less and less by long-standing local and regional traditions, and more by perceived desirability of global brands. Simultaneously, there seems to be shift in values as well towards standardisation.

Sounds pretty cool, but is this thing for real?

Commodities of culture-association, like alcoholic beverages, etc. are harbingers of the degree of cultural convergence. Research shows an increasing health consciousness of the consumers as they switch to beverages containing less alcohol, also a switch from the local traditional drinks to beverages that are seen as more fashionable as well as healthful has been observed. Apart from such commodities, digital convergence too is being largely guided by consumer preference. Consumers globally have shown a preference for mobile telecommunication handset size similar to that of the current PDA or mobile while adopting a considerably larger display, thereby directing R&D to increasing the pixels per inch, while still maintaining the portability. But obviously, given some degree of heterogeneity in this trend, partial, rather than perfect, convergence is expected. But the good news is that research also shows that concerted strategic marketing efforts can affect consumer perceptions and actually alter consumer choices. This means that to be effective, the various marketing activities like standardising the product, identical brand names, uniform packaging, synchronised product introductions, similar advertising messages across markets in various countries, have to be integrated and coordinated well. Advertising should seek to portray products in idealised and desirable context, because globally consumers buy the products that they believe express their identities.

Alright, so what's the lesson for the international marketer?

The global marketer should take heart from this fact that cultural traditions aren't impenetrable, and that consumer choices can be affected by intelligent strategic marketing, which is an interactive and evolutionary process. Tempting, though it may be to read the consumer psyche every day and regularly adjust your marketing model to it in consonance with local traditions, it is not sustainable in the long run from an international marketing perspective. The key is to identify homogenous global segments so that if at all any customisation is required, it is minimal. Standardised marketing strategies and products are actually the future drivers of cultural change and consumer convergence.

Images courtesy: Foter / sebr / CC BY-NC-SA; heiwa4126 / CC BY; Express Monorail / CC BY-NC-ND; kateboydell / CC BY-NC

The Social Web & Graded Influence - Why You Should Care

2013-07-13T20:29:00.000+05:30

The Web, as we knew it a few years back is no more. Broadcast is now an outcast. It’s social now, and the transformation from seeing the Web as a megaphone to as a telephone is all but complete. Also, as the conversation shifts online, we are witnessing another remarkable shift – that of influence. And the implications of that are nothing short of profound.

Is social a radical new concept?

Not really. I mean if you come to think of it, this transformation of the Web is quite intuitive and follows naturally from the fact that humans by nature are social. And from that perspective it becomes easy to understand the rapid evolution of multiple platform technologies that have enabled the present day Web to be more natural and easy-to-use than the machine-inspired, static code of the older times. As a result, people of all ages from all the various strata of society have been able to find a channel for making their presence felt online and are sharing their ideas freely, frequently, and globally. We exist today in what is being called as the 'knowledge economy'.

So how does this impact me?

Well, it all comes down to differentiation. Think of it this way, why do you need to get into a great school? Why do you need awesome CV points? To differentiate yourself from your competition...to stand out. This goes as much for individuals as for consumer products. When everyone you know is online, the game is not anymore about visibility – the real thing is credibility. And credibility is what builds influence, and influence drives action. Therefore, whether you’re looking for a new career, or connecting with other like-minded people, or growing in your current profession, or even promoting and selling your product, building influence for your personal or business brand is key.

Got it, but how do I know how influential I am...by the number of my connections?

As you might have guessed, your online influence is only partially determined by the number of your connections. What’s key really is how your connections engage with you, which translates into the strength of your network. Measuring influence is still an evolving area, but there are multiple metrics out there that are attempting to build standards for online influence. Needless to say, it’s not an exact science and depending on who you ask, there are strong opinions on both why they are inaccurate and only activity-based, as well as why they are doing quite a great job at analysing influence.

Let me briefly introduce you to some of the most popular measures of online influence these days:

KLOUT

The Klout Score is a number between 1-100, which essentially represents your influence. Klout claims to arrive at this composite score by measuring data/signals from multiple social networks as well as “real world data” from say LinkedIn, Bing, Wikipedia, etc. Broadly determined by a ratio of the engagement you generate with your social network compared to the amount of content that you share, the Klout score remains arguably the most popular of all influence metrics out there right now.

KRED

The Kred Score, in addition to influence, measures something known as “Outreach”, which reflects on how you interact with others and help them spread their message online. Influence is measured on a 1000 point scale, whereas Outreach is measured on an infinite scale, as generosity is assumed to be infinite! Kred also claims to be more transparent than others, as it tells you exactly how your score has been calculated and what actions have impacted it, though critics argue that its transparency in turn makes it quite vulnerable to manipulation.

PeerIndex

Although having an approach similar to Klout and Kred for measuring influence, PeerIndex relates more to the type of content you generate and the people who consume and interact with it. Aiming to identify your authority on a particular topic, the PeerIndex helps you understand the kind of people you influence online and to what extent.

And your point is?

The world has gone online and the social web is a reality, which has redefined the entire scope and scale of conversations among people. To drive action in this super-connected and super-social world, one needs to grow in influence, which too is gradually shifting online. Influence is impacted by various factors and the most important amongst them are credibility, expertise and the ability to convince others. Many new start-ups are intently focused on grading this influence and have developed multiple tools for the purpose. Even though there remain many limitations of these novel methods, depending on the context these new metrics provide quite useful information about one’s ability to drive action or one's social capital, and that has profound implications from a business perspective. The accuracy of these tools is only going to improve further, and true influencers would play a very important role in the new knowledge economy.

What do you think of these new approaches to quantify influence? Share with us in the comments.

Images courtesy: photoraidz / KROMKRATHOG / FreeDigitalPhotos.net; Salty Waffle; Thomas Hawk / Foter / CC BY-NC

Sachin Tendulkar: the man, the Indian, the legend…

2013-04-28T00:29:00.000+05:30

Few and far in between are men in a nation’s history, who change its course with the impact they have on the consciousness of its people, and who leave behind an unparalleled legacy. One such man is Sachin Tendulkar. Heroes rarely exist in real life, but here’s a man who came so close to being one in the true sense that most of his fans almost deify him as a god, and believe me, in a country of multiple faiths and multiple gods, where people take their religion quite seriously, that really is a big deal! Both adulation and criticism rarely got to this man, and all the overwhelming number of records that he not just broke, but completely obliterated leave you with so much to talk and yet all you can think of is his humility, courage, determination and patriotism. Volumes upon volumes have been written about his cricketing abilities, and the batting wizard that he is, so in that sense this post doesn't dwell upon those topics. What this post does explore instead is the legend of Sachin Tendulkar through the eyes of a true fan, which gives us a perspective into what he was doing to the heart and minds of a billion plus people, and which is really the essence of what he represented.

Few people I know, who have followed Sachin as closely as my dear friend Karan Rampal. He is also one of the more balanced and objective people I know, so an ideal person to interview on this topic. Sachin for him is the reason why he even started following cricket in the first place, and he’s a self-confessed true fan. Surprisingly, Karan’s earliest memory of Sachin isn't one of his dominating and aggressive batting, but actually one of his most amazing bowling spells ever. He’s reminded of the night of 24 November 1993, the semi-final of Hero Cup at the Eden Gardens, where India were playing South Africa, with Brian McMillan on strike and SA needing only 6 runs to win from the final over. That’s when the then captain Md. Azharuddin, to the entire nation’s perplexity, played an incredible gambit by turning to Sachin to bowl the last over. The rest is history, and India obviously won the match because of that dexterous over from Sachin, and eventually lifted the cup in the final, but that incident was just one of the many that displayed the determination and hunger Sachin had to always be in the thick of the battle. Then of course Karan can recount those innings in Sharjah against Pakistan which displayed Sachin's extraordinary might with the bat, by which time he was following his every match.

But his domination of bowling attacks the world over wasn't really why people swore by his name, Karan tells us there was a lot more to it. More than anything it was the consistency with which he performed for India, and the way he conducted himself both on and off the field with immaculate humility and politeness, being a true gentleman and a great ambassador for the sport. Besides, if there’s one single thing that binds India together, in spite of its awe-inspiring diversity, it most certainly is cricket. You can get an idea of how serious the Indians are about the game by the fact that even during the 90s, when in most towns and cities of India DoorDarshan (DD) was the only channel available, and even though DD wouldn't have the television rights for most tournaments, if there was a match India was playing, it had to be broadcasted on DD. And Sachin was at the pinnacle of the sport, giving hope to a billion Indians that one of their own can get out there and be the best in business. That hope, that silent promise, that inspiration meant the world to an eager yet shy, courageous yet sceptic India, only just opening up to the outside world. That’s why Sachin had that unique charm about him that transcended generations and made almost every Indian to turn on their TVs whenever he came out to bat, and to turn them off as soon as he got out (without even bothering about the outcome of the match), and in a sense uniting the incredible diversity of this country with a single thread, for so long. People just wanted him to go on and on without ever retiring, ‘cause somewhere deep inside their hearts they didn't want that inspired and excited child within them, which had followed Sachin through his entire career, to retire. There certainly was some wizardry to what he was doing with that piece of willow.

Over the years, Sachin captured the nation’s imagination in ways that few others had done before him, and in the eyes of his fans he became much more than titles like master-blaster, etc. and rose to a different level altogether where they started deifying him. Karan believes that it is justified to a great extent. One of the fundamental qualities in the idea of any god is to provide the followers with a source of faith, and Sachin performed at the highest level of professional cricket for so long and so consistently that it is only natural that his followers put that level of rock-solid trust in him. It most certainly is no mean feat to perform on a top-class level for 24 years in an era when so many matches are being played in a year (not like the old times when only a few tests and ODIs were played each year), and in that process shatter every batting record worthy of mention, and it’s something Karan believes which only Sachin himself could do. Moreover, the thing that made him ever so endearing and special to his fans is that he never considered himself above the game, respected the weight of the billion plus expectations, which he bore on his shoulders every time he came out to bat, and had unmatched love and dedication for the game. Maybe in those moments of intense hard work and determination, he did become much more than just a man, maybe even for some fleeting moments he did become a god.

But beneath that steely exterior, Sachin had his human side as well. Karan tells us that the problem with being Sachin Tendulkar is that once you start performing and achieving great things so consistently, your critics take that for granted, and only look for that Achilles’ heel. Like any other person, Sachin has had his fair share of criticism too. The only difference was that he handled it all with sheer grace and composure. Karan reminisces some of the many instances where Sachin dedicated himself completely to the team and hence the nation – like the time during the 1999 World Cup, when his father passed away and he took just a match off for the funeral and was back for the next to perform for his country. The kind of super-human strength of character that would have taken is incredible. Sachin himself understood his limitations and to what extent he could push them, and he always focused on being a good cricketer keeping the team’s interest always in mind.

ODIs featuring Sachin Tendulkar were a definitive force that shaped the Indian psyche all through the 90s and the better part of the first decade of the 2000s. Now that he’s taken retirement from the shorter format of the game, and in near future might retire from the tests as well, Karan feels every cricket fan regardless of their nationality would miss the legend on field. But he’s also excited about Sachin’s love for the game and believes that he won’t be able to stay away from the game for long, and that he will continue to contribute in some way or the other to cricket in general and society in particular.

Update:

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar retired from all forms of cricket on 16 November 2013 after playing his 200th test match, returning to his home ground - the Wankhede, Mumbai. He consummated his career after playing in 664 international matches scoring a supermassive 34,357 runs, including an earth-shattering 100 centuries.

But beyond these colossal statistics, he's remembered much more fondly as a great Indian, and here's how he dedicated all his achievements in his retirement speech:

To honour Sachin's contributions to Indian cricket in particular and India in general, the Indian government conferred upon him the Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award, and making him the first sportsperson to be bestowed with the honour.

Do share with us your thoughts on Sachin, and what impact has he had on your life.

Photo credit: B. Sandman /CC BY; Vikas /CC BY; vijay_chennupati /CC BY; Birsha /CC BY-NC-SA; Guppydas / Foter.com /CC BY

What If Banks Didn’t Control Your Money, Machines Did?

2013-04-14T00:57:00.000+05:30

What if the concept of money as we know it today were to change forever? What if instead of central authorities like banks, your money was controlled by machines? As fictional as these concepts may have sounded only a couple of years ago, the wheels of this incredible change have already been set in motion. We are witness to one of the biggest social experiments of our time: crypto-currency, the most popular and controversial example of which is the Bitcoin.

What’s all the fuss about crypto-whatever or this Bitcoin thing?

Bitcoin is a digital, decentralized, global crypto-currency. On the 29th of March this year, the market cap of the Bitcoin network (combined value of all Bitcoins) crossed the USD 1 Billion mark, on the 10th of April it crossed the USD 2 Billion mark, and on the 11th of April the USD 2.5 Billion mark. But astonishing as that sharp rise in value is, it’s not the only reason for the unprecedented interest in Bitcoins. The coincidental timing of the sharp rise in its value and the Cypriot financial crisis of 2012-13 has sparked major speculation that many European savers used it as a financial haven in the face of the government contemplating high bank deposit levies and freezing of bank accounts (see here, here and here). Of course it’s difficult to verify this for sure as Bitcoin transactions are next to anonymous, and make it one of the best and most ingenious payment mechanisms our world has ever seen. Reviews from analysts the world over are rife with speculation that Bitcoin might soon become an accepted currency around the world. But guess what, it already is getting there and people are buying stuff right from pizzas through Porsches with Bitcoins!

Uh-huh, but how does this Bitcoin thing work?

GigaOm puts it concisely,

Bitcoin is to state-issued currencies – often referred to as fiat money – as P2P file-sharing is to traditional broadcast media.

A simplified way of understanding how Bitcoins work is this:

First, you obtain Bitcoins (BTC), for example by buying them from a currency exchange like Mt.Gox
Store them in a digital wallet (on your computer or in a cloud-based service), which contains cryptographic addresses and keys that confirm that the wallet holder owns the Bitcoins
To receive payment, the seller or the payee gives one of their addresses to the buyer or the payer
The buyer, in turn, using the seller’s address and his/her own key signs-in the decentralized Bitcoin network and initiates the transaction
The transaction is processed and certified by a network of computers (known as the ‘miners’), and added to a log (a public record of all Bitcoin transactions that have ever taken place) and the seller receives the payment

The miners solve complex mathematical problems of varying difficulty to process such transactions and create new Bitcoins (to avoid double-spending). Those interested can read and understand the technical details here.

Hmm…so what makes Bitcoin so awesome?

The designer of the original Bitcoin protocol and network was Satoshi Nakamoto, who shortly afterwards moved on to “other things”. The name was later found out to be a pseudonym and the real identity of the actual creator (or maybe even creators) hasn't been confirmed to date, in spite of multiple investigations (see here, here and here)!
But it’s not the legend of Satoshi Nakamoto that makes Bitcoins so popular. Some of the reasons why the Bitcoin popularity is climbing through the roof are:

Bitcoins are transferred straight from payer to payee, without any intermediation from a bank or any other third-party, reducing/eliminating among other things the usually high processing fees (think PayPal, etc.)
Safer than real money, which is subject to political risk, plus your account can’t be frozen (something the Cypriots recently had to face)
Makes possible highly secure and almost anonymous transactions
A single global currency, which can be used in every country

Multiple other factors contribute to its popularity, and every day Bitcoin is receiving more and more endorsement from organizations that now accept its usage like Reddit, WordPress, and Expensify, among others.

Okay, so where’s the catch?

Well, like most other investments, Bitcoins too are subject to theft. And apart from this obvious thing, there are others that are deterring a wider acceptance of Bitcoin:

The dollar value of Bitocoins is simply too volatile right now (just to give you some perspective, the price of Bitcoins, in just the last couple of months, has varied between ~15% and ~205%)
Then there are issues associated with its inherent deflationary nature (the Bitcoin network is designed to increase the money supply as a geometric series until the hard-limit of 21 million Bitcoins is reached; out of that, 11 million have already been produced, and the rest are projected to be produced within the year 2140)
There have been multiple hacking attempts (some of them even successful) on Mt.Gox as well as many cloud-based wallets (notable among them, the hacking of Instawallet)
And as you might have figured by now, it’s simply too intimidating for most folks, aside from a few tech-savvy enthusiasts

Because of these and other reasons (botnet mining, DDoS attacks, negative associations with the underground market Silk Road, etc.), Bitcoin has generated a lot of criticism and heated debate over its stability and legitimacy as a potential currency.

So your point is?

These are exciting times we live in. The debate over Bitcoins is still at equipoise, there are some who are heralding it as a disruptive technology, while some are downplaying it as just a digital collectible. Even its developers say it’s still experimental. It certainly has put a lot of focus back on crypto-currency, generating immense interest from VCs, and other competitors, and this open-source and decentralized approach to the concept of money, will surely have very interesting and important consequences. The Bitocin experiment represents a paradigm of novel thinking that the digital world has unleashed, and whether this incredible experiment succeeds or fails, it would have some really amazing repercussions…and the world would be closely watching.

What do you think about this experimental new currency, and crypto-currencies in general? Do share with us in comments.

Photo credit: zcopley / Foter.com / CC BY-SA; Adam Crowe / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA; suphakit73 / njaj/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Discussions on Digital Marketing

2013-04-08T00:09:00.000+05:30

Just the other day I was having this discussion on digital marketing with a dear friend, who I consider almost an authority on all things D, and engrossing as it was, there were some really key insights that came out of it, which I’m sharing below.

The Problem called Digital

Digital is hot…digital is hype…digital is now…digital is right! There’s just too much noise out there, and while some of it is really sensible, quite often a lot of it is misleading and hyped-up. And that's because while most folks were starting to come to terms with the Web, out of nowhere came Web 2.0, and now while they are still figuring out the definitions of 2.0 this and 2.0 that, there are people talking already about a Web 3.0!

This confusion leads to reckless, impulsive, and short-sighted decisions on part of marketers who’re already under pressure to meet the ever-increasing expectations of various stakeholders. And then questions are raised about the good ol’ RoI, fingers are pointed, and all of this happens because the ‘digital efforts’ weren’t tied to appropriate measurable goals, and were more tactical than strategic, etc.

The Solution called Digital

It’s critical to understand that digital is not some alien concept; it’s just the way the world has become, and hence the entire business. The moment marketers come to embrace that fact, the going gets easy.

It’s also easy to forget that ancient (and original) approach to marketing, which says that the entire objective of marketing is to provide solutions for customer’s needs, and that’s really where all of it should begin. To understand those needs, you have to first understand your customer very thoroughly. Digital is just another way to engage with your customer in that process of understanding his/her needs and serving those better.

Taking the First Steps towards Digital

The only way to succeed in digital is to tie it to strategic goals, and not being simply tactical. Thus, to begin with there must be a commitment from the senior management to drive digital in the entire organization and to get appropriate engagement from everyone internally. Now let’s cut to the chase and assume that you have the right product that meets the unmet needs of the customers and that you’ve framed your entire marketing strategy by integrating the insights from consumer behavior (life-cycle stage/ buyer readiness stage/ etc.), and the general business environment. Then from that overall marketing strategy you distill out appropriate strategic imperatives for a specific planning period, which then guide your digital marketing strategy.

The finer aspects of it involve the selection (over time) of the most suitable digital channels for achieving your marketing objectives, identifying precisely what to measure and putting a robust analytics framework in place (you’d be surprised by the level of detail digital can measure at), and then the actual execution. Understand that it’s an iterative process, and if the strategy is effective you follow a cycle of ‘rinse and repeat’ optimizing your efforts with each iteration, or discontinuing if it doesn’t work out and taking lessons from why it didn’t and moving on to the next plan of action.

Finally, understand that change from traditional ways of working isn’t easy, and hence it would take some time and coaching for people to get that agility, which the digital way of doing business requires.

What has your experience been with digital and how did you integrate it in your strategy, do share with us in comments.

Image courtesy of KROMKRATHOG / dream designs / Kittisak / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So, Why MBA?

2013-03-03T16:10:00.000+05:30

Quite paradoxically, it’s both the easiest and the toughest question faced by prospective candidates in the MBA selection interviews. And guess what, it’s the most frequently asked one too! So, why indeed?

Why so serious?

Well, quite simply it boils down to the very fundamental question of what are one’s goals in life. And though it may seem quite straightforward at first, it’s not always that people have a ready list of their lives’ goals. What they do have instead is an information overload of all sorts of things, which makes it quite challenging for them to choose a few short and long-term targets from among a plethora of options. So when they think about pursuing an MBA, there could be any number of reasons they can think of and yet they find it’s hard to convince themselves to believe strongly enough in any one of those reasons. The interviewers are aware of this pattern, and they’ll grill the candidate till the time s/he either makes them believe in his/her convictions, or till s/he concedes that what s/he is aiming for can very well be achieved without an MBA! In fact, the rationales for giving the MBA a skip are quite solid and range from why it no longer makes sense from a return-on-investment (RoI) perspective, to how the current MBAs are taught an insufficient style of management, to how the program itself is detached from real-world issues and needs an overhaul. So the point is, while the arguments against an MBA are piling up, there’s a corresponding pressure on the candidate’s end to have a compelling reason to go for it.

So, um…is it even any good?

Yes. Understand that the MBA is a professional course, which means it is meant for those who WANT to be professionals, and from those who already are into some profession it is for those who WANT to be trained better at their respective professions. This is not to say that you couldn’t learn those things on your own without an MBA, but you may take a lot of time in the process and the whole thing might turn out to be quite inefficient. Having a certain amount of professional experience is helpful in the sense that it exposes you to a degree of workplace culture, the different styles of work people follow, and the way work gets done. When you start looking at questions like what are the kind of day-to-day operations and processes you have to execute and the critical points where productivity gets reduced, are you targeting the right customers, is your money circulating well enough, what are the challenges that are faced not just by the managers, but by each and every individual supporting the value chain, it is then that you realise the value of learning certain tools and techniques which can help in answering and managing these issues. And that right there is your reason to go for an MBA, which is one of the best tools a businessperson can have to solve these critical business challenges. And it not just gives you an advantage in the competitive global marketplace, but also teaches you the adaptability needed to prevail in an extremely dynamic economy that we exist in.

Isn’t it well…just an experience?

There would be people who’ll tell you that at the end of the day it’s just an “experience”, which is a fair thing to say, but the crux is what you learn from that experience. One experiences a lot of things, but unless you learn something useful from that experience how does that leave you better off than you were without it! Thus, if you have that list of questions ready, questions that really matter to you and the ones for which you are ready to invest a substantial part of your time and money, you’ll be able to make the most of the MBA experience, because you know exactly what you want out of it.

So essentially what you’re saying is…?

People have different motivations for taking that all important decision of going for an MBA – some want the brand of the institution, some just want a job, some are looking for a seal of approval to go out in the world, and some simply want to have the experience, and many are doing it for all the wrong reasons. Some, when they think of MBA automatically think of entrepreneurship as an answer to why MBA, because that B in MBA makes people think of starting one of their own, which is actually a really desirable and the right thing to do if you have the right motivations and are willing to go that extra mile for that dream idea of yours. But if you’re not sure, and still try to convince the interview panel that you want to be an entrepreneur, they might even believe you and select you ultimately, but understand that it’s not they who need the convincing, it’s you. If you’re making up reasons on the go, and are simply doing an MBA because even though you do want to become a “professional”, but that’s only because you want a job (and an MBA, in all likelihood, will land you a job), your MBA experience would at best be utilised only sub-optimally.
So to make the most out of your MBA, you have to be very clear on your objectives, which is actually something that goes for everything else in life too! And that’s why “why MBA?” is both the easiest and the toughest question you’ll face in the selection process.

What are your views on this and how would you approach this question, share with us in comments.

Photo credits: Poster Boy NYC / Foter.com / CC BY, macropoulos / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND, Socceraholic / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

The Timelessness of Tolkien’s Tales

2013-01-18T00:03:00.000+05:30

“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it” said Lloyd Alexander. And in that magical, fantastic world, which existed on Middle Earth, we find ourselves lost and absorbed whenever we read those masterpieces by one of our favorite authors J.R.R. Tolkien, or watch one of the movies based on those. This behavior really isn’t that hard to explain, since clearly Tolkien’s works – most notably The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, even though woven into the fabric of fantasy, actually help us in understanding reality.

Image courtesy: FilmThrasher.com

Timelessness is a quality which is rare, and especially in the age where a great volume of new content is being generated every passing day, it becomes almost a special trait. Tolkien’s works are some of the older pieces of high-fantasy literature out there, but they seem to have this timeless appeal about them that makes them seem fresh and relevant even today. The tales themselves aren’t based in a real setting; well, not unless you are a believer that the Middle Earth legendarium isn’t fantasy and the Elves are still out there somewhere! And it’s not just the Elves, Tolkien created a whole bunch of fantasy characters, creatures, and even constructed different languages for them (how cool is this guy!). You come across the immortal Elves, the industrious Dwarves, the powerful Wizards, the mystical Dragons, the dim-witted Trolls, the experienced Ents, the ugly Goblins, the scary Orcs, the brave Hobbits, and the power-hungry Men, and you get fascinated. You get to know of their adventures, and you get inspired. But, impressive as these features are, they don’t even begin to explain what’s really timeless about Tolkien’s tales.

Image courtesy: picgifs.com

Beneath all of this epic-fantasy and stories of adventure, Tolkien has laid a foundation of the very basic elements of life. It definitely does build upon the realities of human life. It builds upon those experiences and emotions that we undergo every single day, and even though at times they may get hidden by a blind spot, but in the back of our minds we are aware of their existence. And even if those blind spots are the size of Jupiter at times, we still are conscious of some sense of morality. It is all of those basic realities and emotions of life - like avarice, fear, courage, love, friendship, hope, and honesty that his tales build upon and are thus in a sense more holistic than others. They are stories about human relationships and personal character, stories about what makes each of us special even though we may feel ourselves insignificant in the overall scheme of things, but howsoever little, our efforts do have an impact. And that it is our intentions that matter and even all of the world’s evil can’t prevail over the goodness of a few determined and noble souls. They remind us of those human values which would never go out of fashion, and which truly are eternal. Those are the things which an everyday person lives through, can relate to, and eventually believes in, and that’s what renders that timelessness to his tales. He makes it all very elemental and quintessential, there’s nothing complex there.

Image courtesy: Lucia Whittaker via photopin cc

Here are some of my favorite (and timeless) Tolkien quotes:

“It's a dangerous business Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.”

“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love”, said Gandalf.

“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

“I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise! 'Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee.' And I don't mean to! I don't mean to.”

“There is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.”
.

A Matter of Perspective

2012-12-21T20:46:00.001+05:30

So how many astronauts does it take to change a light bulb? Okay, so you’ve heard that one before, great, but why do you think it’s supposed to be a joke? I mean what if they were trying to change 85 light bulbs, that’s a big deal, right? No, I mean seriously. What, you still think I’m onto some joke? So what if those light bulbs they’re replacing are on the International Space Station (ISS)? A-ha, now you finally think it’s not funny. Phew! Well, so much for changing a perspective…

Just in case there still remains a shred of doubt that it’s a joke, go check this out. NASA’s actually re-fitting new light bulbs on the ISS, and one of the reasons for it is that they’re concerned that the astronauts aren’t getting enough sleep in space. Okay, debate all you want the merits and demerits of the $11Mn upgrade, but the point I wanted to convey was that I wasn’t making a joke. However, it certainly felt like that at the first instance, right? And then what happened? You got presented with more facts, assimilated those, and your perspective changed. That’s just a very small example of how our brains are conditioned to draw conclusions at the drop of a hat, and in the process trick us of the big picture at times. And that’s perhaps a reflex that either evolution or we ourselves hard-wired into us, to deal with certain fight & flight situations, but we let that happen all the while. And our perspective is what shapes up our reality, which in turn may actually not be the true reality if we do not have the correct perspective of things. Moreover, even though our reality might be the popular and contemporary version, it could still be different from the actual reality (a challenge which folks like Galileo & Copernicus had to deal with a few hundred years back; so to calm your curiosity, yes that’s possible). As goes a popular saying – “there are three sides to every story - yours, mine, and the truth.”

Image courtesy of Suvro Datta / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Now, what comprises the true reality and whether it is possible to have a full perspective of it, might be the questions we can let the philosophers wrangle with for the moment. For our and for simplicity’s sake, let’s commit this to our memory that in most situations in life, it helps to have a keen observational mind, rather than a mind which keeps jumping to conclusions. That said, it is not implied that it’s wrong to draw conclusions or to judge situations, rather I’m just highlighting the fact that it helps to have more data points before you make an assumption, or in other words, before you frame a perspective.

But then again, that’s my perspective. What’s yours? Share with us here in comments.

P.S.: Sounds a bit too much, right, spending $11Mn just for refurbishing the lighting? But hey, who am I to judge, that’s NASA’s perspective!

International Marketing: A Nebulous Continuum

2012-12-14T23:36:00.000+05:30

There are opportunities in the life of a firm that have the potential to make it a truly world-renowned company. That’s when the momentous decision of going international has to be taken by that firm. But taking the decision to go international, howsoever obvious it may seem, can be quite dicey.

Image courtesy of twobee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Consumers today are spoilt for choice in this age of world-class products. Opportunities are ripe for firms as markets around the world are opening up and demand for their products is increasing exponentially. Conversely, it means that a purely domestic firm faces a significant competitive threat from abroad, and so it must take the international route sooner than later. The million dollar question is, how?

Export is usually considered the safest mode, where the effort to market the product abroad is minimal. When some particular country market begins to appear especially attractive, then the firm might want to enter them on an ad-hoc basis, but still there is little marketing effort involved in this case as the firm tries to adapt its product to the local requirements each time it enters a new market, which involves high cost and inefficiencies in the value chain. Hence, there’s a strong incentive for a multinational firm to standardize its product offering in that scenario, but it’s easier said than done. It involves optimization according to needs of various regions and countries, and is a time-taking process that entails continual learning. Firms that succeed in this optimization process achieve the enviable dream of being truly global.

These stages actually symbolize a continuum, and all international firms lie somewhere in between these two extremes of being either purely domestic or being truly global. But this continuum is nebulous as taking firm-wide decisions to move in that continuum to reach that global stage are complicated by several factors, which are the subject matter of International Marketing. These factors include macroeconomic factors like exchange rates, GDP, Balance of Payments, population, as well as geo-political factors like political stability, cross-border laws, trade agreements, etc. Another vital factor is culture, which involves variation in knowledge, beliefs, language, art, morals, customs, and other social dimensions. Overgeneralising these factors can be a potentially disastrous decision as many international failed-entry stories have proved time and again.

Image courtesy of tungphoto/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

These complexities have to be dealt with utmost care and would involve stepwise measures beginning from a detailed cross-cultural market research. Making the right entry decision is the most important aspect in this scenario. The basic marketing tools of segmenting, targeting and positioning retain their importance, only their context and scale becomes more global. Choosing the right entry mode from exporting to licensing and franchising to turnkey projects to contract manufacturing to direct entry, requires great deal of deliberation and far greater research. Important decisions regarding the marketing mix are what the firm has to decide upon at a later stage.

These nebulous complexities are what International Marketing attempts to simplify, and hence its importance in today’s increasingly globalizing marketplace cannot be underrated. What do you think about it? Do share your thoughts with us here in comments.

Is Your Social Network Worth It?

2012-12-09T00:47:00.000+05:30

The rise of social media has been nothing short of phenomenal. It has brought about a paradigm-shift in the way people consume online media. Corporations worldwide are bemused by the present scope of social media, and the predictions about its future don’t help much in easing their anxieties. With social networks on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. growing stronger by the millions, marketers see social media as a lucrative channel to market their products and services and covet longingly for those Fans & Followers present “out there”.

Image courtesy of Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

But when the social marketer’s fantasy confronts reality, questions arise about the good ol’ ROI. Marketers these days are invariably held answerable for the financial ramifications of their decisions. The rationale behind it is quite elementary – it’s impossible today for companies to survive without having enough metrics, objectives, analytics data, and actionable intelligence about business performance. Hence, there’s a vital need for the marketers to understand the nuances of social media marketing (SMM) metrics.

In the old world of communicating, marketers could communicate with their prospects only in a broadcast-style, one way, using traditional mass media channels. But, in the new world of communicating, spawned by social media, the communication strategy has a built-in participatory component that permits the prospects to not only receive information but also to participate in the actual creation and distribution of content. Hence, fundamental to the success of a SMM campaign is building a targeted following on a social network, because even if you rarely make sales on social media, you yield great financial value in the long run by building trust, reputation, human value, influence and loyal customers.

It’s important for the marketer, right at the outset, to fully comprehend that SMM isn’t alien from marketing; identifying measurable goals and formulating well-planned strategies is highly relevant to both. And since it is just another form of ‘media’, you use the same yardstick to determine its profitability as for other media.

So, the first thing to do is to determine your goal or the business outcome that you desire out of social media marketing, because the metrics you choose to gauge your performance would depend entirely on that cherished goal of yours. One may be interested in tracking how many people are sharing one’s website, or a particular social media campaign, or maybe just trends related to a specific online phenomenon. The requisite tools and focus for each are quite different from the other.

The main broad types of social media are – social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn), Blogging (WordPress, Tumblr), Microblogging (Twitter), Bookmarking (Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg) and Media Sharing (YouTube, Flickr). To track performance on any of these platforms, the main goals marketers must commit to memory are – raising revenue, lowering costs and increasing customer satisfaction. Some key SMM metrics that are generally used to track SMM campaigns are,

Unique Visitors (individuals or browsers that have been served unique content)

Page Views (actual viewing of the web-page by the user)
Membership and Active Network Size (no. of fans, followers, etc. who regularly interact with your content)
Engagement Duration (how much time members spend on interacting with your content)
Bounce (number of visitors coming to your landing page from SM sites, but quickly leaving after that)
Return Visits (no. of times a user returns to your site)
Activity Ratio (ratio of active members to total membership)
Virality (your content being re-shared by the members and their networks)
Conversions (members converting into sales, subscriptions, etc.)

These metrics must also be supplemented by noting down the milestones achieved in your SMM plan, to keep track of your efforts. Using complex metrics like ‘multiple moving averages’ can further show the periodic trends, thereby providing you with a holistic view of the health of your social network.

Image courtesy of tungphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Even though marketers understand that the best campaigns are the ones that can be measured, perfectly measuring SMM campaigns is still an elusive dream. SMM is totally about relations between people, and what the marketers sometimes tend to forget is that customers are but people only. Hence, in this new world of social media the focus has to be on drawing the attention of your customers, making sure they like you and interact with you, which ultimately motivates them to buy rather than you channelizing all your energies on selling.

Social media marketing is here to shatter the conventional wisdom about the relationship between the marketer and the prospect, but the final decision on whether a social network is worth having or not would depend on meticulous planning and careful use of suitable social media marketing metrics.

© Jayant Rana, 2012-Present

Two Things

2012-11-24T12:12:00.003+05:30

I learnt an interesting thing recently about learning itself. It’s common experience that when we go over something new, there are perhaps a lot of lessons that we’d think that we could take from it. For example think of an interesting marketing lecture you attended in college (you’d note that I have this habit of referring to marketing lectures every now and then, I think that’s probably because those were the lectures I most enjoyed during my MBA). Okay so once you go back from the lecture, you’d probably mull over it and find that there were a lot of new things that you learned during that lecture, and if you’re me you’d probably even feel quite happy about it. The question is, would you retain and recall all of those things the next day?

Well, maybe you’re that awesome and exceptional and would perhaps recall all of those new things to the last detail. But then most of us would find it somewhat difficult to remember all of those new ideas, and which would progressively fade out of our memory (which makes me think, it would be an interesting research topic to understand the variables that affect the rate of fading or decay of ideas, and maybe even derive a certain formula to calculate the average half-life of a certain kind of idea). Sorry for drifting away there for a bit. So, you see the point that ideas, by virtue of their dynamic nature, have this tendency to evolve and metamorphose into something big and entirely different from the original stimulus that triggered them in the first place, to the extent that sometimes you may even forget what the starting point of it all was! The point is that it is but natural that you tend to lose out on a lot of apparently valuable ideas over a period of time (unless you relentlessly jot all of them down, and refer to those notes every once in a while).

Now coming to what I learnt recently, when you go over a large amount of content in a relatively short period of time, it’s helpful to follow a simple process, which as my trainers from whom I learned it would call it the ‘Two Things’. Just think about the session and imagine that if you were to retain just two things from this session what they would be. Remember the key is to do this as soon as the session gets over, and framing your two things in a way that broadly capture all of your learning from that session. And the good thing is while you’re framing those two things, your brain sets-up all the necessary connections in the background, which would at a later point in time help you to recall most of what you learnt that day. That sounds really simple but is actually very effective (as most simple things are!).

Try that out and share your experience here in comments, also if you have a similar simple method that you think works great for you do share it with us.

© Jayant Rana 2012-Present

Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning in the Real World

2012-11-10T01:05:00.000+05:30

There's a lot that's been said and written about marketing strategy already, so why this post, you may ask. Well, frankly this post isn't really the best source in case you're looking to learn the very basic concepts of marketing strategy, but what it is good for is understanding the kind of hard choices and robust logic that goes behind it in the real-world.

Most of you would remember those early morning (or any other equally sleepy hour) lectures when your marketing professor used to harp on and on about the customer being the be-all and end-all of marketing, and by the end of the course some of you probably were even convinced that it was true. But then work caught on and you got so focussed internally on your processes, protocols, etc. that you forgot that learning and started ignoring that customer. That's exactly where your marketing starts to falter.

Now as much as you'd like to focus only on making a great product (or service), and hope that everybody buys it, unfortunately that's not how it works in the real-world. People, right from the DNA level above, are quite dissimilar from each other, and while most of them may agree that a higher resolution camera is better than a lower resolution one, they may not feel the same way for a higher sized shoe, or a shirt, as that's a preference based on 'fit!' Because of that reason your product would be the 'perfect fit' only for one category of people, while for many others it may not and they'll never buy it. Question is, can you still make money and grow?

That's why segmentation should really start by understanding the potential sources of growth - grouping customers into multiple buckets based on the choices that they make. And to understand those customer choices, is by no means an easy task. It's a thorough process involving referring to multiple data sources, and often involving primary market research, meaning it requires hard cash! And spending a lot of hard cash on something suboptimal isn't going to help much with your popularity. And thus to make solid business sense your segmentation study should actually try to answer not just who (socio-demographic) your customers are or what (behavioural) they do, but go beyond and answer that why (attitudes and needs) they make such choices.

So now that you've understood the various groups which can be your potential sources of growth, you need to choose from them the ones against which you'll direct your marketing resources. One of the temptations marketers tend to give in is to go blindly after the biggest segment (in volume or value). While it can be the segment with the biggest potential in itself, but the question to ask oneself is that can you even begin to serve the specific needs of that segment, and are you, given your present strengths, well placed to succeed in that segment, which will be targeted by multiple other competitors for obvious reasons. So even though some segments may be big and very attractive, but your likelihood of succeeding with them may be very slim. You understood their attitudes in the segmentation study, but you also further need to understand what will their attitude be towards the product you have conceptualised. You also need to be clear that you have a competitive advantage for the target segment and that your choices are driven by robust data, and not merely intuition. Hence, targeting is more about in-depth analysis and making the right (and sometimes very hard) choices and sacrifices. You MUST match your target segment's needs with your own strengths (likelihood to win) by making informed choices about your target audience, and IGNORE the others.

So now that you've put in so much of hard work into heavy-duty data analysis focusing on your potential customer and making some very tough choices, you'd now probably want to take some rest by shutting that customer out and finding peace in your internal protocols and processes. But, tough luck mate! Now is when the real thing begins...

Positioning is something which isn't done to your product, but actually in the mind of your prospect (as most people use their minds, rather than their brains, to make a lot of choices). It is the space you want to own in the mind of the prospect and as the name suggests, the process involves positioning your brand of the product in a unique way within the mind of your target audience. Notice the operating word 'unique' in the last sentence. You cannot have two brands share the same position in the prospect's mind. It's like parking two cars in the same spot...quite impossible, right? The second operating word is 'differentiated'. If your smartphone isn't different from the others, then it's simply a product... just another smartphone. I'm sure you don't feel the same way about a Samsung Galaxy or an Apple iPhone (which are differentiated brands of smartphones). The third operating word is 'ownable'. Is your smartphone's differentiation based on the fact that it's an Android device. Well sorry, in that case you're again one of those hundreds of others based on Android ('cause hello, you don't own it)...it's not your phone that's differentiated, but rather it's actually Android! Probably not something you wanted, right? And it's difficult to own something of that much criticality, unless protected by law, lest you'll have hundreds of other copies in the market in no time. That's done by using IPRs, which we'll discuss in a later post. And finally the last operating word is 'sustainable'. Can you deliver a pizza in under 30 minutes? Well, you might, but can you do it over and over again, hundreds of times (can you sustain it)? If not, then probably not a good idea to position yourself on the basis of a 30-minute delivery. Because even though you may claim that positioning for your product, but the customers would only remember the one who can actually DO that kind of thing repeatedly (remember what I earlier mentioned about positioning being what you do in the mind of the prospect). These four operating words drive the positioning of a brand. And thus, for conceptualizing and executing a successful positioning strategy you need to decide on a positioning that's unique, differentiated, ownable and sustainable over the long-term, while keeping in mind your target audience's profile, the competitive frame in which you operate, and your key point of differentiation.

It's a challenging task to summarise all that goes behind formulating a successful marketing strategy in this short post, but this should help you understand the kind of effort and resources it takes to formulate one. There are whole lot of intermediate processes and activities involved, like insight generation, setting up specific business and strategic objectives, developing a strong value proposition, etc. which need to be executed in just the right manner in order to succeed in the market.

How has your marketing experience been lately, and what real world challenges did you face? Let us know in comments...

Surviving the First Six Months on the Job

2012-10-14T07:05:00.000+05:30

I just completed the first six months of my professional career. There is a lot that I learned in this time, not only about my job, but also about life in the corporate world. I am sharing my learning of those first six months here.

One of the most important things to understand is that choosing the right organisation matters a lot. Any organization, essentially, is only but a set of ideas, a set of principles. If your own principles are in constant dissonance with your organisation’s principles then dissatisfaction would be the only natural response. The only option then is that either you align your principles with your organisation or you find another one to which your principles more closely align. It also extends to the organisation’s culture, which by virtue of its very nature would have a great deal of impact on your personal life. So if you can properly understand and interweave into the fabric of your organisation’s culture, half your problems would be solved at that instant.

Attending all the trainings as part of the induction program is essential as their objective is to equip you with all the necessary information in a capsule. And even though at first it may seem that some of those trainings are irrelevant for you at present, believe me it would save you much more time in the future by making sure nothing really comes as a surprise to you. Moreover, sometimes you’ll have the need for the most unexpected information at the most unexpected hour, and it is then that you’d be able to fully appreciate the value of attending every module of your induction.

On a similar note, it seems quite cumbersome to read those numerous policy manuals at first, but howsoever much you may dislike that activity, it is being aware of the policies that will save your face one day. In an increasingly complex business environment, to work without proper policies in place can be very unwieldy and risky. That’s the reason why organisations have elaborate policies for everything imaginable. But understanding that they are there to make you more efficient and safe from potential risks is important. As they say, better safe than sorry!

Complete all necessary paperwork, get all the IT systems in place (double-check just to make sure they’ll work when you really need them to), organise your workstation, and keep it clutter free. Remember, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So, howsoever efficient you may think you are, but if your infrastructure doesn’t support you to work at your peak capacity, then you’d only be working at sub-optimal levels, and that’s probably not something neither you nor your boss would like.

First impressions matter, it has been scientifically proven. So try and be polite and understanding to make positive first impressions with everyone at work whether you directly work with them or not, because people talk among themselves. And even though you may think when you’re not having a direct conversation with someone, you’re not making any impressions, but that may not be correct. Anyone who sees you carries an impression of you. So basically in the first six months, you’re making first impressions all the time. Be cognizant of that fact, and make positive impressions.

Many organisations assign you a buddy or a mentor at the beginning. In case you haven’t been assigned any, try to find one for yourself, preferably one who is somewhat experienced in the organisation and understands your work. It will make your everyday life much easier. Right from knowing which form to submit where, to which item is the best on the cafeteria menu your buddy can help save you time on almost everything, and help you adjust faster to the new place.

The most important step in doing a task right is understanding exactly what is required to be done, and what do you need to finally deliver and in what format. When you’re being assigned a task, it is easy in your initial days to be distracted by any number of things and lose focus on important bits of instruction, leading to misunderstandings and sub-optimal output. Hence it is important to listen, listen and listen again to what is being told and if something is not clear even after that then ask again, but get absolute clarity on what is being asked. Then set the expectations right with your customers and/or stakeholders by explaining what you understand is to be done and agreeing on what you would be delivering and in exactly what format, so that there is nothing lost translation and you deliver a high-quality output.

People generally have a tendency to set very many goals for their future, goals for the short term, goals for the long term and all along in that process they forget execution. But it is so important to focus on the present day, minute and second, and to DO the right things, which eventually set the stage for a better tomorrow. Be aware of your surroundings, watch your step and know where you’re going. At any cost, STAY IN THE PRESENT, as that’s what will decide both your past and future.

It is so important you seek intellectual stimulation and involve yourself in some cerebral processing so that you have something to look forward to each day at work. And I’m not just referring to learning new technical skills and increasing your knowledge, but also soft skills like listening, comprehending and presenting your ideas to maximise their impact in a limited period of time. These ensure that you don’t get a feeling that you’re stuck in a rut, and stay positive and receptive.

Also, you’re bound to encounter a lot of challenges at work, as well as new business problems that crop-up every now and then. Don’t always run to your manager or superiors with just the problems. Try to think of various approaches in which you can address the issues and solve the problems. Then tell your manager the problem and alongside offer your solutions. Even if you aren’t in a position to find the right solution, it is fine. What really matters is that you at least tried to think of ways to solve the problem, which makes you a part of the solution, rather than a part of the problem. People appreciate that.

Ask WHY. Asking these whys would help you to understand the set paradigms, and why or why don’t they work. It will help you to understand the logic behind doing things in a particular way and help you evaluate the merits of possible alternatives, and that process would foster innovation and increased productivity.

Everybody around you has work to do, there’s no point in cribbing about how much work you have on your hands. Rather try and be more efficient and find ways to manage that work within the constraints of time and other resources. And besides, nobody likes a whiner! Try to stay away from other whiners and those who would find umpteen excuses for stalling work. Stay away from such energy-suckers!

Get to know people, and grow your network. Now, networking is one of the most discussed yet misunderstood concepts. A ‘growing’ network doesn’t really mean it will also help you to grow. You only truly grow by helping others to grow. Everyone is working to be successful. Try and be an enabler to that success. Try and empower people and then that’s the kind of network that will help you grow.

Be open to feedback, and try and be objective about it. Understand the areas for improvement and keep innovating. The more objective you are about it, the faster you’ll grow, by enabling others to help you.

Towards the end, it is vital to understand that change is the only constant, and clutching to the old ways just because you’re used to them isn’t wise at all. It is but true what Victor Hugo once remarked – “you can resist an invading army, but you cannot resist an idea whose time has come.” One must understand this natural law and be more proactive and receptive to ride the crest when the time comes. Accepting and adapting to change will save you a lot of time and make you more effective, rather than cribbing about how it displaces the old paradigms and being all negative about it. To sum this up in the words of Alvin Toffler – “The illiterates of the 21^st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Lastly, but most importantly, keep a sense of humour, especially about yourself as you stumble through not just your first six months at work but also life in general, and always take time out for your family and friends, as they are the people who really matter the most and who’ll be your source of strength when nothing else will.

I’m sure you too have your own set of experiences and learning from your first six months, and I would like you to share them with us here in the comments below.

A Theory on the Explosion of Ideas

2011-02-06T07:40:00.000+05:30

A word of caution: the views expressed below may not conform to established schools of thought, hence the following ideas are meant for a very select category of audience, and may not be appealing to most of the casual readers.

There are times when idea after idea explodes in your mind…and all you want is to capture them, but then again another one explodes, and after that another one… Deep within you know it’s pertinent to hold on to a few, if not all of those ideas, so that your existence may get some respite from the mundane series of aberrant, unimaginative and intermittent ideas that your brain usually comes up with, when called for duty. You also know beforehand that after these explosions are over, and apparent calm engulfs your neurons for another uncertainly long phase of those dry ideas, that this entire thing is going to leave you somewhat frustrated afterwards.

And that’s because howsoever much your heart may pine, it’s impossible to catch hold of all of those ideas once they’ve exploded, because ideas travel faster than the speed of light, and so, their escape velocity when they explode is totally unimaginable. Because imagination itself is an idea, and to imagine (or to take a rough measure of) those exploded ideas would mean backtracking them with imagination, which according to the laws of basic physics (if at all they're still applicable at those imaginary levels) would present another impossibility, as the relative speed of that imagination as compared to an exploded idea would further be unimaginable, since by virtue of their motion in perfectly opposite directions their absolute velocities would add up! To cut a long story short, an explosion of ideas is bound to leave you somewhat frustrated!

It happens with all of us, maybe with a higher frequency for a few; but all of us definitely do experience explosions of ideas often in our lives. But then the question is, why do concepts of ‘dry’, ‘unimaginative’,and ‘run-of-the-mill’ ideas exist in human society? Maybe, it’s all because of a vicious cycle of frustrations and creative explosions that has conditioned in us a reflex, which has created in us an aversion to imagination. My question is, could this be a possible explanation for the drying up of ideas in humans, or is there a more insidious dimension to it?

As a child, every human very nearly survives on those explosions in the mind, as the child senses the outside world and tries to absorb and assimilate the outwardly physical manifestations in the form of inwardly psychological impressions. S/he is forced to create a first impression of everything that s/he happens to come in contact with, initially physically, and at a later stage, even mentally through parental guidance and other media. At times though, s/he has to wipe clean his old impressions and rewrite them as per others' instructions, but that process of rewriting is not very easy, as impressions on a tender mind can be more difficult to erase than etchings on steel. So, the crux is that a multitude of explosions through childhood create an almost equal amount of first-impressions, and those impressions are hard to displace by others' ideas and impressions.

Hence, out of that difficulty in displacement and a subsequent replacement of impressions, a need for the same was felt and eventually was born the concept of training or teaching. And only those minds respond best to teaching that are most tender and which have not already turned into steel-plated entities. So thereby results a variety of learning capabilities and a whole big normal distribution of students, which only but represents a normal distribution of their mental capabilities. So the part about being born with equal amount of mental capability might just be correct, who knows? And the modern funny quote that goes something like this – ‘I was born intelligent but education ruined me’, may to a certain, extent be correct, because even though education was a perfectly natural concept, but it had to be delivered through artificial agents…that is humans.

So, there comes into play the quintessential ‘man vs. wild’ concept, or the inherent incompatibility between the artificial and the natural, which incidentally are antonyms too. So the concept of teaching of man by man was fundamentally flawed, or at least, very, very far-fetched, even if we consider the premise that teaching can somehow be perfected to be totally natural. But that premise itself is again flawed, as it completely ignores the earlier notion that two minds are totally unique in their impressions (because of totally unique and possibly mutually exclusive environment variables) and hence, one mind trying to replace another’s impressions with its own, presents a near impossibility (unless of course things like ‘Inception’ become possible!). Also there additionally might be a purely physical concept like that of a resonance frequency for every brain, at which it might be possible to write or rewrite something on to it with complete ease, or in other words, totally naturally! It’s a world full of possibilities…

So where does this theory leave us? Well, for one, it forces us to question that whether the artificial (man-made) and institutionalised system of formal education is in the best interest of human race? Does scope exist for any possible perfection of present education delivery system to replicate the natural process of learning? Was the idea of education itself man-made, and not natural…?

Well, maybe it’s that continual process of formal teaching that almost invariably tried to wipe out your own impression and replace them with more collectively accepted impressions, and which somewhere calms down those explosions of ideas in one's mind. And this slow but sure process of slowing down those explosions can then lead to unconventional reactions from individuals who have a high resistance for being weaned away from those natural outbursts of ideas. And many a times, those people are the ones who create wonders and great inventions which we all amaze at; and when they’re asked how they did it…they always have the simple, but obviously natural, answer that all they did was listen to their hearts! Isn’t that a perfectly logical explanation to what people like Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney and countless other similarly great humans have demonstrated to us in reality. The fact that we called them all irrational and stupid at first, when they dropped out of school and with it the formal education system to follow their hearts, only to be glorified by us ultimately, gives even more credence to this theory. All of them had one thing in common, that they refused to be common.

Meanwhile, others, who weren’t so confident of their convictions, were restrained by the artificial education system and they were forced to ignore their internal explosions and concentrate only on what the so-called ‘conventional wisdom’ had to offer. That had a devastating effect on the human race. A majority of capable, fertile, and enthusiastic minds that could have been the fountainheads of novel ideas and inventions. But everything imploded into that ‘could have been’…

But the ideas still exploded, although with a lesser regularity than before, but now the shackles of conventional wisdom slowed down that once vigorous and virile mind from pursuing those ideas or at least, creating lasting impressions of all of them. Only a few made impressions…others faded away…and with further passage of time and many subsequent attempts at rewriting of first-impressions, the dust from that explosion finally settled down and our minds receded into a sinister calm. A calm that would come back to haunt us every time creativity would be demanded of us...hence resulting in frustration. And that completes that vicious cycle of explosion of ideas and subsequent frustration, which further lead to the latent build-up of newer ideas culminating again in an explosion of those pent-up ideas. It is only natural that as we get used to that frustration at not being able to pursue our hearts, that pressure of pent-up ideas takes longer and longer to build up and thus leads to lesser and lesser frequent explosions of ideas.

This radical new theory raises some very fundamental questions, which if answered, have the potential to transform the understanding we humans have of our modern world. I would love much to philosophise further and explore deeper into it and shape-up my new theory, but then it is not without reason why mankind drifted so much from the fountainhead it was born as. Formal education requires me to submit an assignment, and prepare two presentations for tomorrow, which means I am forced to quit on my imagination and drift unwittingly in the dry river of our good ol' conventional wisdom. The final question is – when would my next explosion of ideas hit me with a jolt that would force me to think again and get frustrated enough so that enough pressure builds up once more for the subsequent explosion…!

P.S.: I hope soon.