Serendipity and Learning

Over the past few gatherings, where we have had so called professional photographers at functions, I have seen this trend of taking more than one picture at a time. The photographer takes a picture and holds up the hand with the index finger and clicks one more picture. Now, back in the days of analog photography, there was no way one could be sure, but yet, very rarely, we took backup pictures. And of course, the film storage method was price intensive, and the results were not visible until the film was 'washed' and 'developed'. But in the age of instant gratification, the picture takers tend to take up back up pictures - when in reality that is not needed. Why does this happen? One possibility - is that the picture takers are not 'professional' photographers. And in many weddings, 5 year olds crowd around with digital cameras taking pictures - so it is not a big deal for anyone to be taking pictures - even with an SLR - and many of them rarely adjust the...

Yesterday, I had a privilege of attending a lecture by Dr. Simon Priest on facilitation organized by the good OELT . The title of the session said, How to Design better experiential training programs, though I read it as How to design better training programs. The event even had a Graphic Facilitation alongside. But more important was what I learnt about facilitation skills. Even though the context of Dr. Priest was about experiential learning, what he said would be useful to practically any type of training.  His classification of experiential learning types was an eye-opener (and how people mix one for the other or ask for one type of session and expect the results of another session, and the level of facilitators required for each of them). As was the way he expounded many a 'facilitation skill'. And the techniques used to generate the appropriate response. Perhaps many of us know this intuitively, but knowing the technique is a great thing (As I have learnt across di...

One of the most asked for, repeated and perhaps most pedestrian of all trainings is the Presentation skills. In terms of numbers it is possibly the most delivered session across the service industry. And yet, it remains one of the trainings that can be continuously re-imagined. Those two words, Presentation skills are more two words - they are a world of stuff to do there. There are many who deliver it using theatre, art and many more technology oriented modes - while there are others who help it the traditional way - including the Toastmasters. So, this is also not an easy session to deliver since the audience knows a lot of things anyway. The last time I did this was a few years back. As I went through the slides of that time now, I found myself cringing at the quality of the presentation. And that is the beauty of presentation skills - each time there is scope for it to be made more contemporary. So, this time around, I put some thought to it and am thinking how to make it more...

Through a series of coincidences, a book on philosophy landed on my reading list. And the book was not meant to be read, but to be returned. But in the process of returning, I decided to take a shot at reading it. And, while it did not change my life (if that was what you expected), I read through what are known as logical fallacies. Take a look at this list here... Seemingly sound arguments fall by the wayside when one looks at them from this perspective. The next time you are in a meeting, count how many logical fallacies are used by people while advancing their arguments. My favourite one out of all those is the argument from personal incredulity. Whats yours? Whatever else, you wont be bored!!

Last night, I was reading a book that talks about high performance teams and how to create a high performance team culture. The book made for very interesting reading and had a few aha moments for me. While the premise is simple - and I thought I knew it all - the way the book structured its story seemed simple and more importable - doable and replicable. All went well, till I reached a chapter where the example was 'Lance Armstrong'. Now, I myself used to admire Lance Armstrong. I read his book, 'Its not about the bike' and thought about this man who kept on winning despite the odds. All that seems so long ago now given the recent news around him. And once I read this part, I kind of put the book away. In all probability, I will return to the book since it did have many an a-ha moment in it. But the example of Lance set me thinking. Is management theory or theorizing only about present heroes (and of course, past successes?). But talking only about past successe...

In the age of the mobile internet and gps, a tourist guide is a bit of an anachronism. All the information is already out there - the history, the details, the maps, the guidebooks (in many languages that too) - much more than what a human guide can hold or comprehend. All this makes the job of a guide that much difficult. But when we went to Hampi, we hired a guide for a day. Chandru, was his name. We were not that well prepared as many others - we had read up a bit of history, read two books on Hampi and generally had some idea of the main things we wanted to see. So, we were reasonably aware. But the way the guide brings a place alive is through stories. He told us of the Muslim invaders who destroyed the Hindu kingdom. He brought alive the palace with his vivid descriptions of the functions. He was able to bring life into the old performances. He was able to describe battle scenes with elan. He spoke about the elaborate rituals, the grand feasts, the magnificent festivals, the...

 An example of a great signage at Hampi...Relevant, Informative and Appealing. And seen at many places in Hampi, another one, relevant, but nothing else. Tells nothing about what is the protected monument all about... Interesting eh?

Recently, I travelled on work. As part of work, I had to lug a laptop along. And I wondered if I should carry a tablet device as well while at it. After a bit of thought of carrying two devices through airport security, I decided against it and settled just for my phone. Now my phone is a smartphone - with wifi access even in airplane mode (yes, I am not rich enough to afford international roaming). And my laptop takes about the duration of one ice age to boot - among other things. So, through the duration of the travel, I used my phone for everything - mail, twitter, skype, reading stuff - which I would have used a tablet device. Sure, it makes for better reading etc., but other than that, the phone works just as well. And that set me thinking. The tablet is perhaps an overrated device - since one cannot do without a phone. Therefore, a phone does all what a tablet can do is much better than the other way round. So, is a mini-tablet the way of the future?

A city is not a museum. A lot of things about a city remain what they are -unlike a museum, where you can have travelling exhibits and themes and so on. It is a little difficult to do that for a city. By and large atleast. And cities need to be the ‘same’ in order to preserve character as they call it. Boston is a great example of a ‘happening’ city with a deep underlying character – yet, there is only so many ways and so many times you can see a city. Why would you come to a city a second time to see and do the exact same thing? And that is what struck me this time while I walked around Boston. I have been to Boston before and used one of the trolley bus tours to see the place. This time I opted to explore it on foot. But there are still more options to explore the city which have come up in the past few years. There is a bike (bicycle) option and there is a Segway option. The same damn city – yet some 5-6 different ways to see it. Each of those trolley tours are slightly different –...

Right outside Fanueil Hall in Boston was this set of street performers. While I watched them, it did not immediately strike me, but as usual, I got the thought a little later. A street performance is really, like a training. Except that, you and I, walking on the street have no obligation, much less motivation, to attend and cannot be ‘pushed’ to attend the performance. So, they have to do much more to attract and retain an audience – which for a trainer is easier, since his audience is atleast in the room. And the techniques these guys used were so simple, so good… First, as they were about to start their performance, they get the audience to come closer – near the markers they have set up. They do this very respectfully, though at this point, many people are not even sure if they want to see the performance. They realize that. And while doing this, one of them begins his spiel. He tells the audience (mostly whites) that they have nothing to fear from them (blacks). And the...

Sometime last year, I purchased an iPad. And that was purchased outside the country. All went well until one fine day the little one somehow managed to get gravitys attention to it from the sofa. Gravity, promptly pulled it towards the center of the earth. Luckily, the fall was broken by our floor. And coincidentally, post that the 'home' button stopped working. And for good measure, the iPad refused to recognize electricity as well - it stopped getting charged. Our iPad was bricked more or less. Taking it to the US was out of question and we thought of exploring some local service options. After all, a company like Apple would have some service center somewhere in Bangalore. Turns out they do . Now, one does not expect an Apple product to fail. And in any case, most companies do not have anything called an international warranty. With the foresight that comes with experience, I had destroyed any proof of me having purchased the iPad. The chances that I will find the re...

Last week, I discussing with a friend on career moves.  And my career has been anything but linear. And when I say that I don’t mean stratospheric growth, it means that over time I have moved my career in many a direction before finding my feet. I have worked in many a function, technical, operations, support before settling down on what I think is what I want to do.  That decision has not been easy. You see, my qualifications are different – as per my qualifications I should be doing something else. As per my experience, I should be doing something else. If one combines qualification and experience it is something else (whatever that is).  There are no established rules for success - your qualifications need not hold you back at all. And the real world is all about such people. I am sure you have met such people. As much as it is great to have your interest building up your qualifications leading to your experience, it is also equally great to build...

Ever so often, be it in our work lives or in our personal lives, there are problems that need resolution. Sometimes something happens, something breaks and each time a problem strikes we are dumbstruck or blindsided and worse clueless how to go about in future. Typically, a problem breaks an 'established' routine which leaves us feeling lost as well. At this point, we typically have two choices: Fix the problem or Do something different. Most often, we go for the former (and many a time that is the right thing to do) - and try and see if there is a way that we can fix the problem. By and large that works, but sometimes, a fixed problem reappears in a different avatar. That is when most of us realize that the problem was only partially solved - or fixed. However, if one takes a different approach - take a look at every problem as an opportunity to redefine a process, there is a great chance that the problem will be resolved for good and be used as a chance to make things ...

I recently read Switch, a book by Chip and Dan Heath - same guys who wrote, Made to Stick. The book is about how to push change, be it in teams, organizations, villages and perhaps even countries. What I liked about the book is that it is almost like a to-do manual on bringing about change. They have characterised the human mind as an elephant and rider. The former, the emotional side of the brain and the latter as the rational side of the brain need to be co-opted in order for the change to be accepted, implemented and not reversed. They have used it give several examples of successes and failures of implementing change. Another thing we often do not do while attacking a problem is to not look at bright spots (as I discovered myself recently) within the affected area - which may have a solution in itself, many a time. So, the next time you are implementing a large change management initiative, this is a good book to have by your side!

Appearances are important - in everything. A part of being in business is the appearance of doing business. Exhibit 1: I was travelling in a bus a few years back - and the bus made a halt at some unearthly hour for 'tea'. The tea-shop was a bustling place with atleast 10 buses at that specific point while we halted and I am sure over the night, serviced many more vehicles. For 3 am, the place sure was busy. But what was intriguing was that a biscuit stall owner, right next to the tea stall was busy, incredibly busy arranging his biscuits, moving them a bit here, a bit there and generally appearing busy. And he was doing brisk business. There was no reason to be cleaning the shop at 3 am which in all probability was his busiest part of the day. Perhaps. Exhibit 2: There is this 'pressure cooker' repairman I often see. To be fair, I have seen him handle a real customer just once. At all other times, he is incredibly busy. Walks up and down, cleans the co...

Arguably, the greatest show on earth, the London Olympics 2012 has come to an end. Until the next edition in 2016, Rio De Janerio Brazil, all will be quiet -for people like you and me, the armchair viewers and keyboard experts though. It is anything but quiet for those aspiring to be there in 2016. Those athletes who will make a mark in 2016 are likely training each day in quest of that elusive gold medal. There are a few from 2012 who will be around in 2012, but a big chunk of them will be new. They will spend the next four years doggedly in pursuit of that goal. They will rise in the morning, focus themselves and get into training. Day and day out. For the next four years – perhaps exceeding 10 hours each day. That will roughly give them 10,000 hours of practice just in the next four years. And most likely, these athletes, sportspersons would have already reached that 10,000 hours milestone multiple times in their lives already. And each 10,000 hours they will perfect one more nuanc...

This lovely post from Big Think, got me thinking . A long time fan of Malcolm Gladwells writings, it was nice to see this insight. What Gladwell says is very simple, keep doing what you love, whether you see an immediate payoff or not. And we know it, instinctively, but we keep getting distracted by short term speedbreakers. And we have known the same in the Bhagavad Gita, as perhaps the most (mis)quoted stanza of all time , Keep focused on work and don’t worry about the results. Which can be reinterpreted as Do what you love and success will follow. Which is essentially what Mr. Gladwel is saying. Therefore as he says, Do what you love – whether it succeeds or not, you will still be doing what you love! And what is a greater payoff than that! Sometimes, random reading and thoughts come and pop into our minds at the right time (call it coincidence, providence, confirmation bias or anything else). Just when you thought you had it all figured out, there is a ...

No, this is not a post that evokes memories of a bygone era and wishes that we were still in an era where there was socialism and a radio. Now that I got that out of the way, lets get onto the topic. When I grew up, we heard songs on the radio – at home, at the barber shop, sometimes in a shop - more than on television. Since televisions were far and few to begin with and there was just one channel, so the chances of seeing a song was quite rare and chancy. Thus it was, that our mind created images of the song in the way that we created our own picturization of a song. So, when I heard a song, I would have no idea who it is picturized on (though sometimes I did) and how. And our mind creates a mental map of how the song would possibly look like. And later, when you see that song on say, a youtube or even a TV, sometimes you go – what? This song was picturized this badly? Or I did not know this song was picturized on XYZ. On the other hand, there are those tha...

The arrival of IT companies in India (both India and MNC) has opened to the door to a very different work culture. A lof of the IT companies let you work from time, work flexi time, sometimes across locations. Some of the more progressive ones do not even measure (or track) your attendance. Whether you come by to work or not each day is not important as long as you deliver what you are supposed to to deliver. And that sounds quite right, does it not? Why do people have to assemble at a place for working together like an industrial age factory - in which it was required because the equipment and raw material would be available only in the factory. But today? In an age of cloud computing, BYOD, computers as powerful as anything available at ones home - do people really have to assemble and dissemble each day in order to work? Why not work and collaborate virtually? Sure, there are security concerns and the like, but other than that? Well, the future is work is at home and the compani...

The original quote goes Birds of a feather, flock together, but when you think it is true for a ideas as well. Take any thought process and you will find a remarkable similarity across ideas in a particular generation. This struck me as particularly obvious as part of our ongoing googling on car designs, something struck me as quite amazing. When you see car designs over a period, say the 50's, 60's or any other period - the majority of cars look similar. When I say similar, I mean that their overall structure, proportions, shape and lines are similar. There are variations in engine, accessories, interior layout and so on, but by and large they do appear same. In the sense, if you picked out a particular car it is easy even an untrained eye to observe the, quite obvious, similarity. This was something I knew intuitively as a "car watcher", but the fact that this has repeated consistently over many eras was quite something. There is an explanation for why this i...

Google boy at work: Think of a car brand. Type it into the Google box -which I suspect is his worm hole for reaching out into other dimensions. Wait for auto-suggest to kick in. Wonder what are each of those suggestions, click them one by one and expand knowledge. Said modus operandi has worked very well. One day, Googleboy was typing Morgan (yes, it is a car company) into the Google box - And google helpfully suggested, "Freeman". With the result, that from staring at cars one moment, Googleboy found himself staring at the pictures of an oldish man in a French beard. Much peevishness resulted from the incredulity that Google could not figure out that Morgan was a car manufacturer and when combined with Freeman, it was a person not a car. And for us, that caused much hilarity...while for Google, that might be some feedback!

Imagine -how creativity works is the title of a book by Jonah Lehrer. There are numerous books on creativity and yet creativity is one of those topics that is quite tough to be captured inside a book. And yet, Imagine does this quite well. What Imagine does is it looks at examples of people across disciplines - music, sports, literature, technology among others and also explores the science behind these and tries to connect the two. That makes for very engrossing reading. One part that had me enthralled was the part about how population density and people interactions in cities can give rise to ideas. Another section was on the way the Pixar workplace is designed so as to increase interaction and give rise to higher levels of creativity. Both these are great reading for someone who wants creativity in their workplace and are all worth thinking about. As we think about this for the next generation, education is definitely an area that can be looked at in a different perspective, ...

I am a superhero. Googleman. Without google, I am the ordinary human being. But with Google at my disposal, I become the superhero.  I also strongly suspect that between the age range of 3 and 8, children believe their parents are superheroes. Post this age, the power of the internet is available to kids and they discover googlesearches themselves. Parents the world over should be thankful to google for increasing their question answering by an exponential factor. Earlier there were a zillion questions that could go unanswered. But not any more. The internet gives parents the power to answer the most obscure of questions. I am not sure if this is good or bad, but it does seem like the fact that answers are available means that more questions can be asked. Sample this: Why do buses have bigger steering wheels? Why does Audi name their cars one way and BMW another way? Who invented soap (and this screaming from the bathroom)? Who invented shampoo? Who i...

Many things around us, as adults, we often take for granted. Which is why questions like the one above from children, often leave us stumped for answers.  A bus steering is bigger than a car steering, and that is quite obvious. Why does it have to be so, nobody ever asked. And thankfully, on the internet, there are answers to such questions as well and we did get the answer. Do google the question and see what the answer is - the answer in itself is quite interesting. Which brings me to the point that as adults, we often take many things around us for granted. And since we take a lot of things for granted, there is no enquiry in that direction and thus no learning happens in that space.Where there is no enquiry, there can be no learning.  How does one keep oneself curious and asking questions and enquiring and learning, in an organization? And if you run training, how do you do that?

The Internet is a wonderful place. A few months back, we had successfully created paper airplane designs from the web. And then, I thought, surely, there must be good boat designs available. And thus it was that I stumbled onto the design of a putt putt boat . It was tempting to try and make it. The steamboat as a toy was available when I was a child, but not very easily. And despite searching high and low for it, I never managed to own one. So I went through the site and figured most of the things required, bar one, were easily available. The one that was not available - glue gun - was also procured after some investigations and some asking around. So far so good. We spent a few weeks collecting the requirements one by one - soft drink cans, straws, epoxy, cardboard, tape and so on. And then yesterday we embarked on this project. After a day of hard work, it worked beautifully. The joy of making things with ones own hands is amazing and the learning stays for a lifetime......

When you train under a pro, the way they teach you is different. Especially, if you are going to learn something as a pro that you have already played as an amateur. If you are learning for the first time, there is no unlearning or what you typically want to call as instinctive.But if you have played the game before, a long time goes off in erasing those bad habits and learning the new way. The new way, or coach way you will observe in most of the games is all about technique. Each day you have to go through a warm up, a few routines, learn a few things and then try it out and see if you can bring it all together. They key here is learning those techniques and replacing those old methods with these new methods until it becomes "instinct". At that point, you will always, no matter what, not run to pick the shuttle in the court, but take steps. You will, no matter what, keep your guard up, not down. Your footwork will, no matter what, never let you down. How does that happ...

There is a big difference in learning something in an amateur way and learning it in a "professional" way. And by professional, I dont mean, learning it in a way so as to make money out of it. When I say professional, I mean, learning it from a coach than by learning it yourself. Or learning it the right way is perhaps a better way to put it. We all learn to play badminton for instance. The way we play is an antithesis to way it is played in a "real" game. In the way we learn, the objective is to hit the shuttle at the player -so that the amateur game does not get spoilt by having to pick up the shuttle. Also remember, most of the time, the amateur game is played not on real courts, but just a few lines that define the boundaries. And really, we are playing, "goodminton" not badminton - where the objective is to keep the shuttle in play, not outwit your opponent. You play this way for a few years and then by chance hit the courts for a "real" ...

I was discussing with an uncle on Professional Courses and in those few minutes, we ended up discussing quite a few thoughts. Like, the effect of having coaching classes for professional courses. Like, how everything is broken down to beat the system. Like, how does one find ones own intrinsic motivation. Like, the need to know how to break through the first inflection point during studies and get to the next level. Like, the need to work with ones own hands right from childhood. The answer for each of these may not be intuitively believe to be wrong (and there may not even be a right or wrong answer) and I hope to examine each of these over the coming few weeks.

Each time I have had a discussion on strengths and weaknesses, the question I have been asked or faced with is should I work on my weak areas or areas of strength. Conventional wisdom states the former, but over the last few years the view has veered towards the latter. Certain weaknesses are "fatal flaws", but other than that I believe that working on your strengths are far more rewarding in the long run. I cant think of a better example than sports. And in particular, this story comes to mind. The story of the one armed boy who learnt judo. But think about it. Think of how Virender Sehwag would have felt when he was drafted into the Indian cricket team to partner with a certain Sachin Tendulkar. It is a different matter altogether that not too many people have as de-cluttered a mind as Sehwag (read this interview of his) , but any other person in his place would have worried about how they can ever keep pace with Tendulkar. So, if you were Sehwag and you were in the...

Mahatma Gandhi once said, Stone walls do not a prison make, nor do iron bars a cage. He was probably talking about human imagination that cannot be shackled. Thats why bad ideas like thought policing will never survive, even though there are societies where there are, quite literally, thought police! To Gandhis quote, I might add, A cape makes you superman, fly all you want. As you might have seen, children need just a small straw to clutch at and leap into the clouds of imagination. A few days back it was "Superman" . All they need is a cape to leap into the wonderous land of imagination. The cape gives them superpowers to leap over buildings, climb over mountains and do things that they never thought possible in their "human" avatar. These days, the little one sleeps with the said "cape" one so that she continues to be "superman" in her dreams as well. Whats your cape? Wheres your cape? Why are you not wearing it often and leaping off a ...

I recently purchased this book from Flipkart (where else). The title of the book is Ramayana, Divine Loophole. I got the link from Varnam , a blog I hugely respect. So, without thinking much, I ordered the book. The book is basically Ramayana, but the way Sanjay tells the epic with graphic, technicolour illustrations is quite nice. The structuring of the book is quite simple and it retells the story so familiar to all of us - but I just liked it. Who knows, you may too!!

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo . Via Brainpicker  

Our activities together involves a lot of imagination - sometimes it is storytelling, sometimes it is sports, sometimes both of us will be poring over a screen learning about seaplanes or “the worlds largest car” or “satellites” or something else. But the biggest joy we derive comes from creation. We have made paper airplanes off the net, made random things that show up in childrens shows (MAD used to be a favourite and we made quite a few things out of that) and made other even more random things – like cutting out a cardboard phone or a gun or creating a "scene" using cardboard. And more often than not the idea comes to the little one when he looks at the raw material. So, he holds up a soap box and then he will say “let us make something with this” or at other times, it is a shoebox “make me a guitar out of this” and sometimes we succeed and at other times we do not.  So much so that he now has a box in which he fills all this raw material with which ...

Recently, I had to chance to attend a session on "Strategy" by two people. Let us call them Professor and Trainer.  (No, the ending is not what you think it is) The Professor had a lively interactive discussion - as did the Trainer. The Professor spoke for the same time as the trainer - but the Trainer was more interactive, had exercises for us to complete and had reading material. The Professor spoke about experiences from his work and around the world including historical examples- the Trainer spoke about data points around the world. The Professor was not the most suave, articulate - the Trainer got all his accents right and could speak like a dream. So, whose talk do you think we enjoyed? If you thought that we enjoyed the Trainer, you got it wrong. The Professor beat the Trainer by a wide wide margin. And therein lies an important lesson for me. That is about understanding the audience. Sometimes, we focus on making trainings interactive, lively, fill it up...

During my chat with the students through the Science Exhibition, I casually enquired with them about the components that they had put together. The list of things included, LDRs, Solar Cell assemblies, Flexible LED panels, Programmable robots, Assembled Helicopters, Spy Cameras and the usual assortment of Batteries, Motors and Bulbs. Each time the answer was, SP road, short for Sardar Patrappa Road. It was nice hearing that from them. Most people here know this place. Sardar Patrappa Road or SP road as it is known is at one end of the road leading to Chickpet (an adventure in itself, but this much I can say – If you have not visited Chickpet, you have missed much in Bangalore). This is the place for electronic junkies. Bangalores answer to Funan Square, to put it mildly, but much more exciting, in my humble opinion. You want to assemble your own computer, check. You want newer electronic toys, check. You want to buy some gizmos or connectors to some gizmo you got or want replacem...

Over the weekend, I chanced upon a board at a school which was holding a science expo. The board said, “Open to all”. So, in a bid to give “exposure” to Science to the little one, we landed there. And walked around, talking to students – who were explaining things with a lot of gusto. The little one was, of course, impressed, seeing children do stuff and explain to him was a thrill in itself. Also, to see them demonstrate concepts such as robotics, electronics was something else. I can imagine the rush of adrenaline he must have had on seeing it. More on that in a moment. But first, a word on the exhibition itself. The Chemistry and Biology section were quite ordinary – not in terms of the exhibit itself – or on the enthusiasm of the students. What I mean here is that, as concepts go, the concepts that the chemistry and biology section were talking about are all atleast 50 years old. When I was in school (and that was not 50 years ago), we had pretty much the same exhibits then...

Quite simply, the best opening para I read in a long long time. " When the first Harry Potter book appeared, in 1997, it was just a year before the universal search engine Google was launched. And so Hermione Granger, that charming grind, still goes to the Hogwarts library and spends hours and hours working her way through the stacks, finding out what a basilisk is or how to make a love potion. The idea that a wizard in training might have, instead, a magic pad where she could inscribe a name and in half a second have an avalanche of news stories, scholarly articles, books, and images (including images she shouldn’t be looking at) was a Quidditch broom too far. Now, having been stuck with the library shtick, she has to go on working the stacks in the Harry Potter movies, while the kids who have since come of age nudge their parents. “Why is she doing that?” they whisper. “Why doesn’t she just Google it?” That the reality of machines can outpace the imagination of magic, and ...

Once upon a time at the beginning of my career, I was poring over some data. That data happened to be in MS Excel. And I tried to sort it, sum it all of it to no avail. I was facing a classic problem that we see. Whenever any new technology replaces an older one, we look for it to be incremental or the same. So, in this case, technology had replaced paper, but we were still using technology as paper. So, the spellings in the sheet were not organized, they were entered as text and there was no uniformity in the sheet at all. Hence most of the standard functions were useless, unless the sheet was cleaned up. After about a week, I finally was able to produce a sheet that blew the minds of the people who saw it. And it was nothing great. Just totals, subtotals and a reverse sort by value. Which was difficult to come by in a paper mode, but far far easier when we move technologies. Why did initial digital cameras have the sound of the shutter? Same reason. Why does the ipad ...

and they gave me an office person! said the little one. He was playing Scribblenauts Remix on the iPad. If you have an iPad please download Scribblenauts Remix and read the rest of the post. If not read it anyway. The game has a simple premise. You are given a situation to solve – pretty simple ones – like giving someone a haircut or painting a car. And how do you solve it? By asking for tools that help you resolve the issue at hand. How do you ask for tools? You spell it out and the game provides it. That’s it. Simple as the premise is, the little one (and his dad) has gone crazy over playing it and in the process both his spellings and his imagination have gone up. Take a scenario – where the character of the game has to reach something in the sky. You could ask for a hot-air balloon, a winged horse, a magic carpet or an aeroplane! If he is hungry, you can ask for a idli, a burger or anything. We once asked for a nuclear bomb and as you might imagine, it killed everyone in ...

Keynote1.0 And the actual speech , atleast, a part of it:     View more presentations from neelearning

A few weeks back, I was invited to deliver a keynote at a college in Mumbai. Since, I have not delivered any keynote ever before, my initial gut feel reaction was to say No. And then I thought about The Flinch and stepping into uncomfortable territories and then said yes! That was the easy part. The tough part was to put the keynote together; in a way that  it goes down well with the audience and then, deliver it as well. First week: So, I started off. Finding out about the audience, what they might be interested, what I could cover and so on and so forth. The initial part of the presentation was reviewed by a few close people and they all felt while, it was good, something was missing. Second week: Search for the missing ingredient meant more reviews, more googling, more reading. And then I got the feedback that “I was not in it” – meaning, what I stood for and why I was delivering the keynote was not getting captured at all. Third week: So, again it was down in t...