Serendipity and Learning

I dont remember clearly, how I stumbled onto Shivakumars website for learning Carnatic Music . It was a sheer coincidence, but this is probably the single best learning site ever. And it is completely free. The site has lessons from basic to very advanced, songs sung at different pitches, the 'swarams' and the 'sahityams', downloadable mp3, explanations - I could go on and on. It is a treasure trove for anyone who wants to learn music or is learning music. And with this wealth of information, it could very easily have been a 'paid' site. But keeping in tune with how music has spread over the years - the site is just that - free. From a learners perspective, it has everything one needs to know. Especially if you are learning Carnatic music and want a little bit of guidance or want to know more at any level or to revise your knowledge or have fun listening or practicing, it is a great site. Comprehensive is the one word for it. And perhaps one of the great ...

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...

I found this really cool video From Cathy Moores website that talks more about Training Design Ideas. Lots of things there resonated with me. The latest post there which is about Tips for webinars or Virtual Training is just what everybody would want these days. 

I stumbled upon this recently - on the Time Span of Discretion - a theory propounded by the Late Elliott Jaques . Jaques also noted that effective organizations were comprised of workers of differing time spans of discretion, each working at a level of natural comfort. If a worker's job was beyond their natural time span of discretion, they would fail. If it was less, they would be insufficiently challenged, and thus unhappy. Time span of discretion is about achieving intents that have explicit time frames. And in Jaques model, one can rank discretionary capacity in a tiered system. Level 1 encompasses jobs such as sales associates or line workers handling routine tasks with a time horizon of up to three months. Levels 2 to 4 encompass various managerial positions with time horizons between one to five years. Level 5 crosses over to five to 10 years and is the domain of small company CEOs and large company executive vice presidents. Beyond Level 5, one enters th...

Over the last two weeks, I had a school reunion and I resumed my reading of David and Goliath - a book by Malcolm Gladwell. While I will post a longer review of the book at some point in time but, the meeting with the batch that we passed out made for some interesting thoughts. Two things stood out in particular. One was that the best students in school - those who topped the exams, those who did well in studies - are all in one band. The band that does the 'predictable' stuff. Perhaps in marquee names, perhaps in the big companies, perhaps with the so called bigger destinations - but working on what I call as 'predictable' careers. On the other hand, are those who were not 'great' at studies at school, but are following their passion and /or working on non-mainstream fields. These are the guys doing the unpredictable stuff. Those who took a leap of faith and found themselves rewarded in the end. Now not great does not mean bad in studies - and I believe th...