Serendipity and Learning

 I have three or four subscription programs of ecom sites. I wont name them here, but this is just my reflection after I cancelled one and decided to see how long I can live without a subscription program and some of my thoughts post that.  The moment I have a subscription program - my purchase from the entity goes up. And some of these entities also show you how much you have "saved" and that makes me purchase even more. And not in a binge purchase mode - but the fact that you have subscribed makes you rationalise the ordering in your head. I have already paid for it and they are offering me free/overnight/fast delivery, so I need to order that much to make up for it or it is paid for anyhow.  It obviously locks me up from having to try anything new - because I have paid for one and the second one will probably charge me more. And with all that, is there a significant value add? Possibly nothing that I can discern. One of these programs came for review. (By the way, one ...

 A few years back a recipe site would be like this: Google recipe --> Click --> Find recipe Now, it is like this: Google recipe -->Click-->Irrelevant story of the recipe -->Irrelevant picture ---> Still more irrelevant stories about the recipe --> Please check out my other recipes-->Useless version of recipe ---> Some more random pictures or ads --> and after what seems like 17 scroll downs is the recipe hidden away in the footer.  Obviously scroll through links pay in ads or page views I guess. Last week I went to the bank for a minor service issue. One of the "customer service" persons helpfully walks up, hears my problem so empathetically I actually make the mistake of thinking it is solved - and then helpfully says, "Sir, close the account and open another one" And after waiting for ages - when nobody could care about - suddenly on realising I was there for something more than a service issue - a swarm of people became interested in...

Most of Linkedin is filled with stories of how the pandemic will alter human behaviour and how we will change for the better. And this has been going on since the first lockdown was announced. As the lockdown extends it is fairly perceptible that people are itching to go back to their routines - though, we hope, they will go back with more compassion, more empathy and suchlike. Somehow I am not sanguine. We are creatures of habit. And current habit have been drilled into us for the last few decades. Will we really change? I am not so sure. Yes, we will, for the immediate short term, a few days or a few weeks, but after that, slowly but surely, we will get back to our old Climate changing, consumerism driven worlds (or different types of course). And yes, at an individual level change might happen, but a collective level, again, I doubt it. And yes, some micro behaviours might change, but other changes - no, they need far more than this to jolt us into a more sustainable existence....

Yes, why do people scooters on the flyover? We have all seen it. Rental scooters are left on the flyovers. Actually they are left on many random places - on the footpath, in alleys, fallen on the side and I have often wondered, as have you, that, why are people so irresponsible? Few days back my kids asked me; when people leave the scooter in the middle of a flyover, where do they go after that? We made a few wild guesses, we laughed and then we forgot about it. Today evening, I had the pleasure of talking to Keerthi, a cab driver who drove us from the airport to home. And as the conversation progressed, we noticed a bunch of scooters parked in odd places like this and then he asked, "Sir, why do people leave scooters on the flyover?" "And I see a few scooters even in the middle of the airport flyovers. The others I can understand - it is a 200 hundred metres walk, but what about the airport flyover? Something must be there. Is there an incentive to leave it on th...

Now, playing Loco has had a strange effect on our lives. Loco is all about general knowledge/trivia and suddenly the kids are interested in collecting general knowledge. This is good, IMO. Unlike a TV quiz show where you are shouting answers at the screen, this is visceral. You play, you get a response and you see others who got the answer right or wrong and you can empathise or feel jealous or elated depending on whether you reach the 10th question or win or lose on the way. The second change I saw was startling. The kids are not very social in general - and take time to talk to people. But at a recent gathering, I saw them talk to people and get them to install the app so that we can get a 'life'. I found this behaviour fascinating. Conversation is difficult in general, a sales conversation even more difficult. And the zillion times we have nudged them to talk to people especially at family functions - results have been mixed. But now that talking to people got them ...

Something struck me as I was working with someone recently. And the person pointed out that the feedback he got is the same thing that we had discussed a few years ago. This despite the fact that the circumstances had changed, the nature of work was different, the culture was different, the role was better, the future was better - indeed every possible dimension of the situation was diametrically opposite to what it was when he first decided to work on the behaviour. And today, few years later, all other things had changed, but the same behaviour was pointed out. Coming close on the heels of the story of industrial transformation - this story of human behaviour struck me as a great example - of how difficult it is to make changes to ones own behaviour and how it is a studied process that takes quite a lot of determined conscious effort. And as I thought about it I realized that I have encountered this many times in my career both for myself and hearing other talk/recount their o...

The economics of places where buses stop for night halts are usually very interesting. For a variety of reasons. Many a time the food quality is bad - like outrightly bad - but the bus staff get a good deal (usually free) so the bus stops there. They stop at random places sometimes - like a lime juice place or a tea place in the middle of the night. Or pick up boiled tapioca (this is a mind-blowing snack - try it sometime) sellers and then drop them off a kilometre or two away while getting their snacks in return. So, the bus passengers are dependent on the place and some often end up eating there. It was one such place the bus halted a few days ago. And this place, apart from the usual food - sometimes a 'pan' shop, sometimes a juice counter or an ice-cream counter or a general store had a few more things. One was a shop that sold pickles. One was a toy shop. One was pop corn counter. And one was a counter that sold 'Maths' books - a book that claimed to make Math...