Serendipity and Learning

When something happens, everyone is happy to latch onto it as a trend. The latest in this is a story about a particular quick commerce brand is doing very well. There are similar such conversations - and they mostly pertain to what is currently making 'news'.  Very often what is making news is not necessarily a trend. It is trending for a variety of reasons - but to scratch the surface and see what it is about - that is not something that the news will tell you.  When AI suddenly became big, everybody latched onto it - and continues to - but in the days leading up to it, there was notorious silence - simply because for a lot of people the news is the trend - but that is too late.  So, beware of gyaanis who come bearing news as trends - if the trend makes it to the news, it is already old news and you are late to the party. 

  This note made me think about my childhood.  Yes, we were children of scarcity. Anything we wanted to buy would undergo multiple layers of scrutiny before we spent money on anything. Our needs were frugal - whatever we wanted was an excess unless we really believed it would add value.  There were entire train journeys (38 hours plus), where we were completely self satisfied. Did not even have to buy as much as a banana from outside. It was very rare for us to eat outside - we went out and came back and ate mom cooked stuff. When we went for picnics, we carried everything (and more). Resources were to be conserved. And definitely nothing was to be spoken in in the open - everything was a secret unless otherwise mentioned.  Todays children are children of abundance. They get what they want (within limits) immediately or even before they want it. We eat outside when we feel like trying out something new or when we are bored with home cooking or when we travel. Food is never a problem o

 I finished reading Breath by James Nestor and The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick Mckeown. Both absolutely fantastic books that make you think about breathing. In their own way both are thought provoking and even pathbreaking. I have not come across a book that does what these two books have managed to do.  So, grab a copy and read. PS: I did feel very strongly that such a book ought to have been written someone from India who is a yoga practitioner. Thats another topic for another time. For now, I am experimenting with mouth tape. 

 I have written a bit here , but perhaps it calls for a slightly longer post. Recently, I was at a panel discussion and the question of future of work came up. While the other panelists gave a typical view of work, as the last speaker, I was tempted to bring in a different point of view (because why have a panel where everybody is saying the same thing).  So, I shared this dystopian view of work.  In the future, work will happen via long mails, slack (or any other messenger) conversations. The great integration of all communication will happen. And not because of anyone else - because of AI. And you will have a situation where emails are talking to each other via co-pilots, documents are being reviewd, feedback is being taken and given, it is being incorporated. The net result is that work is happening in the background. And none of these co-pilot owners talk to other - atleast not with the articulation and empathy of a human conversation.  In that case, why do we need humans? Or so ma

This is a story from Betty Crocker - an old story quite well rehashed in many places.  As humans we like to think we are rational, we operate out of free will and all that, but at a very fundamental level, we are quite hackable.  For instance, if there is a mirror, we will peek into it.  At a specific time, we will feel hungry regardless of whether we are hungry at all.  So many things we do are a relic of marketing campaigns.  And in that case, where is our independence?

Podcasts bloat Ted talks bloat Online courses bloat Hell they have even managed to make reels bloat. One course I saw recently has 22 hours video on some innocuous topic. Many Ted talks can be compressed to 3 sentencs (or 5). Tip - read the transcript - it is way faster. Part of the reason I gave up listening to podcasts was bloat and ads.  So, why this bloat? What is the incentive to keep on adding layer after layer of meaningless information. Anything more and this post will bloat.  So, stop. Cut to the chase.