Serendipity and Learning

At the end of any premier event, there is a rash of posts on Linked in. And therefore,  I dread Linkedin the day after the world cup. Leadership lessons from Rohit. Coaching fundamentals by Rahul. How to hold your head under pressure despite being a star on Virat. How to work the team on the Netherlands captain. How to play in adversity on the Afghanistan wicketkeeper. How to serve like the 12th man selflessly. Pages upon pages from people who may have last bowled in kindergarten (or 7th grade). In their gully. With a plastic ball. Underam. In a 5 over match. With one bounce out. Nothing might be factually wrong, but a lot of it is hearsay. The same thing happened with Chandrayaan. Everybody who had thrown a paper plane in the air was suddenly giving gyan about the work culture at ISRO and the humility of the scientists there. (Again, nothing factually wrong there) The same thing happened a few years back with the pandemic. And still happening with AI. Now, note, I absolutely love ...

A few years back, we poured out milk from a toned milk packet for the cat. The cat came hungrily, sniffed at the milk, looked at us with nonchalance and walked off. It did not recognise this toned milk as milk - it failed the smell test.  Milk branded in cartons or tetrapack, written in bold and colour, white in colour, equally liquid - the cat doesnt care. If it doesnt smell like milk, I am out.  Humans otoh, can believe anything... So, who is better, cats or humans? My vote is for cats. 

If the process were gamified... Log in to the app. You reach level 1. Level 1, fail - there are no slots available If you pass Level 1 Level 2, fail - if you cant find what you want. [In some version of grocery games L1 and L2 are swapped] Level 3 - As you log in, slots are available, but just as you click checkout - the app says, sorry, the slot is no longer available or the item is no longer available. [Killing off main characters is a thing, I suppose] And then they tell you they serviced X000 orders - so that makes one feel even more miserable. "I am not good enough". Social Leaderboard Mega fail, but I dont give up. Each day I wake up, try the slot machine and go back...

The internet is a world of information. In an age of information everything is but a google search away. Take the example of science. When I was studying, if my textbook said water froze at 0 degrees, we took at as the truth. We did not have a doubt. Today, the internet is a great doubt clearing machine and ever so often when the kids come up with a doubt, we google and get an answer (or sometimes more confused). Apart from this, I am a huge fan of serendipity and believe it builds my divergent thinking muscle. The other day I was at an office and noticed a book called 'The Lego Architect' and bought it on Amazon. This book, while it is about Lego and architecture, taught me many words which I had no idea existed. Brutalism, for example. Leaded windows. How does water behave at 0 degrees (trust me the answer will surprise you) How to install CustomRom on a phone (yes, he got the bright idea that he can do it - luckily I dissuaded him). We dismantled an old mechanical ...

Over the last few weeks, I have got rid of Facebook, Instagram from my phone and leaving only Twitter and LinkedIn as Social media. And of course, Whatsapp because it has become a default communication medium. What I realised that much time was being spent in meaningless scrolling and the best part is that I am not missing it. And that there are better things one can do with the internet in your pocket! What are those better things? Well, one is serendipity (post coming soon). The other is to use the time saved for better things and ideas. And of course, save your eyes.

530 am...wake up and plan to do a whole lot of work 530 to 6 - snooze all alarms 6 to 7...rush hour. Kids are sent to school...Wife is off to work 7 to 9...a morning walk, breakfast and just about time to open the laptop. What a beautiful day apt for working... 9 am...Wife calls. I am in a meeting. Please tell the maid what has to be cooked for lunch. 9 to 10...start work by checking email - click some random link and browse 71 sites in the name of research (but actually twitter, news, random social media) 10 am...Maid walks in complaining about traffic. Instructions are passed on to her on what is to be made. 10.01 am...Maid returns with a list, saying, unless these items are purchased, cooking wont happen for the day. 11 am...1 hour wasted in shopping for essentials. Day is saved. 11.05 am...Maid wants to share stories of her life - all pointing to how she badly needs a raise after last months raise. In the spirit of employee engagement, give her a patient ear. 1...

Or Atul Gawande. Or your favorite writer (mostly, except the repetitive kinds and I dont count pulp authors. Other exceptions are random and arbitrary). So, cut to the chase. When you read Malcolm Gladwell (or your favorite writer) they make you think - first. Then, just as you begin to think - they have hooked you. Now you want to know more. And they take you through that journey. They tease you, make you wait and you tag along, like that fish snagged to the bait. You float, you whizz (its not as bad as it is for the fish) and then the writer reels you into the final. And repeat that, over plots, sub plots like in Harry Potter. Or if it is a Malcolm Gladwell, the number of aha moments you get when you are exposed to new concepts (I had no idea umami was a taste) and new connections. Or if it is Atul Gawande  - who writes on something as droll as 'The Checklist Manifesto'  and healthcare and yet manages to fill you with a-ha moments. Or if it is Michael Lewis - who ...

What is the motivation for someone to play a game? How to create a cool new game that everybody wants to play? How to create stickiness for an event? How to build a bridge so that the audience in an event takes away something meaningful? How to change a team culture? Why does an organization need vendor co-ordinators? [Alert: Coordination is not a skill!] How to create a course that delivers what it promises! Hoping to find creative solutions to every one of these questions and many other questions!

Leapfrogging is a technology concept, where countries (typically) skip a development mode of an developed country and directly reach the next level. So, if one takes the case of India - India never really achieved landline connectivity in phones and leapfrogged into the mobile phone age - and achieved far greater connectivity and much faster. Most likely, the power revolution will go the same way - we may achieve far greater green power reach without the intermediate step of dirty power. Extend that to the personal world. Sometimes, refusing to upgrade to a new technology immediately, assures one of a technological leapfrog later. For example, if one had skipped purchasing a high end DVD player - the door is open to invest in a streaming device - which is what the world is moving to. Waiting a little longer for a new technology to emerge may result in some benefits later on. Organizations typically invest in a big ticket technology or system and then are saddled with it for a wh...

Recently, someone called me up and spoke about  <Insert Famous name> and then just as my ears perked up said, <his son> is coming down for an event, would you like to attend. My instant response was a 'whyever'. Why would I ever want to meet a famous persons son, however famous that persons father may be. If at all, I would be interested in meeting the man himself. At any rate, on googling, I found that this son had established himself quite well - but, if that were the case, these guys were getting the marketing wrong. If the son had established himself well, he did not need the additional tag of the father. And that tag is actually a hindrance from getting the son to establish his own name. And if he has not established himself, it would be a waste of time. After all, nobody likes dynasties. We all like self achievers. Those who have come up the hard way, from a simple background. The world does not really like people born of silver spoons and who think tha...

One of the best ways to spend time with the little ones is doing something - rather - making something. This process is a very energizing process for all of us. We identify what we want to make, scout materials, make it, commit mistakes, patch up and finally we make something. We are seized with the energy and passion of getting to make something. A whirlwind of activity takes over the house and the floor is strewn with things - one might think we are in the process of reimagining the whole world. The entire process is just great fun and at some point, the outcome kind of becomes immaterial - the fun is in the journey. And thus it was that we started off this time too. Project 1: Snow Globe Project 2: Pinhold Camera Project 3: Solar Cooker. As you can see, our scale of ambition was unlimited - and not related to our capability at all. Result wise, Project 1 was a success, if you leave out the fact that we did not account for the refractiveness of thick glass which led to some ...

Just last week, we were all playing Lego Minotaurus , and while the game is similar to Ludo - it has its own tricks and very cool variations. But the thought was that any Ludo-like game is placed on not letting someone win. And while that may be how one plays games, fundamentally, the aspect of other real games is about wining - by being better and not winning by preventing someone else. That may be a rather thin line, but it does lead to a difference in thought process. While playing Ludo, I am not trying to get better (and I cannot get better at throwing dice) - I am only using my chance against my opponents chance in order to not let the other person win. While playing sports however, I have to consistently get better at doing something so that I beat my opponent by virtue of being better. In that case, my real competition is myself and not the other person. And in real life, the latter is a surefire way to satisfaction while the former method is a surefire method to feelin...