Serendipity and Learning

 There are series and there are series. One particular series that caught my attention is Thermae Novae and its unique premise. You can read up to see what that premise is and all that, but I liked the juxtaposition of two things that would never imagine to come up with a something totally different.  The imagination, the execution, the premise, the creativity - all blew me away.  As you might imagine, many series are like many other series. And once there is a trendsetter, it is tough to think beyond that. So, after Apollo 13, many space sci-fi's are an enhanced version of the first movie (which is as close as it was to reality). After Sherlock Holmes (or Poirot) - many others are just versions. Ditto Lord of the rings. And I am sure you can think of many more.  This one (atleast from my limited knowledge) is a break out. Enjoying it!

Ever since our house discovered Wordle, there is a family ritual. Each day, we solve the clues independently. Until now, I am the only one who has a loss to his name. The others have an unbeaten winning streak. Why is solving wordle so good from a psychological perspective? You get a boost - I solved something, I overcame a challenge There is a social angle - you share with each other It is not too much - the time investment is a maximum of 10 minutes There is no race - there is only wordle a day - unless you want to try out the numerous clones it has spawned. It is just enough Except on rare occasions, failure rate is low And in the 10 minutes, the brain is sufficiently challenged! Thats a nice dopamine boost.

 For those of you who know me, I have had a rather zig zag career.  And found my (current) calling in learning and development, innovation and game design. There is a single thread that ties it all together - which is the creativity process and problem solving - which if you narrow down what I really like to do. Creatively solve problems.  In this process I have learnt several other things - game design principles, leadership development, training, coaching and then some. I remain a fan of business and ideas. And I am often a brainstormer for hire - people and companies talk to me when they want ideas.  And yet, I also feel that most of my ideas are not necessarily original. I just join the dots differently - and most of those dots are already out there.  And thats when in a conversation with a designer, I came across this word - Multipotentiality. Now I dont know if that is indeed me or not, but it made me think enough to write this out. And that led me to this...

I have coached quite a few people of different age groups, experience levels and standing in life. One thing I find common is how much underplay their own uniqueness/strength. This is the -tva suffix of Sanskrit - which signifies "-ness". This is hard to explain and I probably will attempt to do so at some time.  People often either underplay themselves or do not see their own strength - which is so visible to you as a coach/manager/mentor/teacer/guide. Of course, your job is enable them to see it and then they realise it works and it becomes a Eureka moment. Again, they may or may not take it directly - they go through a process of discounting it or telling themselves, "This is no good" or some version of the imposter syndrone. But the process of seeing your client/friend go through the journey to realise it is an satisfying moment...

Its been a few months since the wordle craze took over. The beauty and the simplicity and the "limit" of the game and the sharing have all contributed to the popularity of the game. We all play it at home and share our scores - plus we share it with a few wordle friends.  And now there are clones of it - Nerdle, Stackle, Tamil Wordle, Worldle, Word master and so on and many others I dont know of. Where were these ideas till now? Probably in peoples heads - but ideas which never came out. And that is often how it is with ideas. One idea opens up the proverbial floodgates. On the other hand - in a limitless world of word games or other games that want you to do things endlessly - Wordle wants you to something in a limited way. Just one thing. Just once a day. And thats how the pendulum swings. 

 We replaced our washing machine after 15 odd years. In those 15 years, we had used exactly one setting of the machine. Everything else was pointless (and not for lack of exploring).  The older one had 4 options. This one has 8.  Water level options are the same though (I suspect you cant do much with it) - there seems to be a mapping of the level to the wash program - I havent cracked it yet. But the automatic function has been messing up things. It apparently weighs the load and then decides - but almost always its decisions seem to be wrong with the result that the clothes were not washed properly.  The beeps of the older machine were different - this one sounds odd (for now) We are still getting used to this machine.  So, ultimately, it is a washing machine. What would make it more user friendly? (No, please dont think IOT and app driven sms, notifications for a wash). I somehow feel it can be far more intuitive.  Clothes are X. Water level has to be Y ...

Today I was listening to someone talk. The topic of was the future of work in a post pandemic world.  What was striking that the leader was saying the right things - yet nothing was strikingly new. It was what everyone has been saying on Linkedin or in any other report. And that led me to think - given that there is the internet and what people write typically and know as typical - it is very easy to believe that "you know everything" because everybody knows it and believes it to be  true.  To find original thought, you have to go beyond that. Else you will be taken by surprise when a different thought comes along. Or caught unawares when the market moves.  Sometimes our confidence in what we know is foolhardly  (this was written when the pandemic had just made an appearance) and will prevent us from seeing beyond what we know. So, at every point, how do we ask this question of ourselves? The title of the post is a question that is ostensibly asked by Jeff Bezos...