Serendipity and Learning

I dont usually go out of my way to network. But over the last few years, I ensured that I spend some time creating new connections. It is a small fragment of my time that goes into it, but what I realised was that some of those networking events were not really working out. I also took time to post about the things I do (mostly on Linkedin) and here (nobody reads this - this is more of a note to myself).  It seemed to be the same set of people saying the same set of things. So, this year I have decided to step back.  Unless it is a truly unique event, I wont be going to any event - and thats how the unconference happened.  Unless it is a really significant update, I wont be posting about it.  And spend time creating and doing the things I like to do. Perhaps read more. Or write more. It is April now and I have done well so far.  Managed to read a few books. Actively working on a few creations. And then some. Lets see.  So for all I know, I might write less ...

 To a trickle.  I had written about this about 2 years ago, but back then I had a decent excuse. I was working (yes, really) on a few things.  But I realised that this is not a one off thing at all. I have actually reduced my reading. The book buying continues unabated, but reading has gone down.  Yes, I still consume textual information in general - but reading is now on the internet. There is substack and there is twitter. And there is a bit of instagram (not a huge fan, but hey, some of the content is too good). So I have decided to step back and read more. On things I need to know. On fun things. Will come back and share how that is going. 

 Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team.  I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference).  To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...

Decided not to attend any conferences this year. Atleast not the typical ones I have often ranted about here. Will be both choosy and intentional about which ones to attend.  The ones to attend are the ones put up by practitioners of a craft. The rest is marketing one way or other. 

 Long long ago, I always used to carry a small letterpad with me. To jot down ideas that might occur. Over the years, it has changed from a notepad to evernote to google keep, but the power of jotting down ideas is immense.  Small ideas go into keep.  Anything to be quickly typed goes into whatsapp as a self message.  Bigger or better formed ideas go into Google docs A few are still written, but I manage to copy them into a digital format sooner rather than later.  But the power of jotting down is immense. My google keep is an encyclopedia of ideas - most of which may never get implemented. 

 Elearning is one of those niches that does not deserve to exist. Yes, it was a novelty 20 years ago, but not now. It cannot exist. But somehow it does. Disclaimer: I used to head a content team once upon a time. And I used to ask those whom I hired - tell me the last thing you learnt from an e-learning. The answer is - pretty much nothing (and this is a good decade ago).  Why?  If you want to learn a recipe, you go to Youtube, or Reels or something like that. If you are terribly old fashioned - as in, you read - then you go to a website and read the recipe and make it.  Most other things you learn by doing or learning on the job or asking an expert.  If you have to learn something in depth, then there are other ways.  So, where does e-learning fit in all this? E-learning is one of those products that the customer hates, but has no choice, because someone has decided it is the best way. For instance, you have to learn a new CRM or some other product - you w...

 Future of L&D only, nothing more.  What will never change for employees? (Inspired the book Same as ever - by Morgan Housel )  Employees will want to learn - to grow, to deepen expertise, to stretch, to prove a point - many "humann" reasons. Employees will want to grow - laterally, vertically, monetarily, mentally etc etc. Almost always, growth will be accompanied by learning and many a time learning will be a pre-requisite to growth.  Learning will always be required - the mode might change, but learning will be required.  Multiple modes of learning will co-exist Whatever else happens, Human intelligence will need to be sharpened. Call it soft skills or call it real skills (I love this term), this will always need to be sharpened. And then there is raw intelligence, visioning, strategising - another set of skills. Every willing to be sharpened by technological aids.  So learning, growth, human skills will always be valuable.  Now within real ski...

 Employees want to learn and they want to develop. Yes. What does that mean? They want learning opportunities.  How does one get learning opportunities? How does one develop? As an employee/human being, I learn when I stretch (not necessarily in terms of hours) myself. I learn new things through the process of failure, unlearning and relearning. And as I learn I develop. Can there be development without learning? My take - almost always not - there can be exceptions, but every project I have picked up has resulted in  a learning.  And as an employee, I need such opportunities. When I stagnate in a job/role I dont learn or develop. I might also "develop" under a bad boss, but thats not really an opportunity or something to look forward to is it not?  So, as someone heading an L&D function what do I need to do? Enable these - simply put.  Learning skills might be a pre-requisite in terms of how I grow in my job. And I might also be able to develop on bein...

Namma Yatri - is a cab hailing app in Bangalore that ensures that 100% of the money goes to the driver. Based on the ONDC platform, it is quite remarkable - that it took time for this idea to be created. It does look like the app has reached critical mass.  But what is a cab hailing app? It is a system. A system of trust.  The same system can be implemented in any city - but the only city where it fully works in India is in Mumbai.  Metered prices. Drivers can choose to go or not. No surge pricing (or sometimes it exists). All the money goes to driver. Trust that the driver will not cheat - and it works for the most part. Nearly 99%. In other cities since this 'honour' system does not exist or someone always tries to break the system, an app is needed and like the proverbial monkey with the two cats, the apps take a chunk as commission. And that led to multiple levels of mistrust - between the app and the driver, sometimes between the passenger and the driver (since drive...

I am mildly fascinated by instruction manuals. My favourite is the Lego manual that we used to fondly refer to as the "idea book". The IKEA manual is as good.  I wish that a lot of typical communication is structured as well as Ikea's instruction manuals. We struggle with our Navaratri steps every year - and I dont see why that should be the case.  We sometimes struggle with game rules - ditto.  So, yes there is much room for looking at different types of communication in a different manner. 

 Two decades or so ago, blogging was a big thing. This blog was started in 2011 - 13 years ago to this month. Blogging was great, because now suddenly everybody got a place to write and you read thinkers off the mainstream and hear their raw thoughts. Among others, Seth Godin, Marginal Revolution and several others and quite a few in India as well. And I started off a blog in 2004 and wrote it till 2014. Parallely, I started this blog in 2011 and it continues.  But over the years, as twitter appeared, blogging disappeared and it became micro blogs and slowly blogging and bloggers disappeared.  But as it happens, it has made a rather lovely comeback - initially via medium - and now via substack. And we can read entrepreneurs, writers and their thoughts on substack.  So, one patterns repeat and two, on the internet, there will always be space for good content!

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 i...

 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 ne...

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. 

Just as we speak, I received a spam sales mail. As an L&D head, I receive a whole bunch of sales "spam". Not all of it classifies as spam, let me clarify. But a badly crafted sales message is spam. Similarly,  A mail that does not take the organization need into account. A mail that uses techniques like "can we meet this week or next" is pointless - because I dont intend to meet - because your mail did not connect to our need at all.  A mail that is not compelling.  A mail that has no differentiator.  Yes, you are a training company and yes, I am a potential client. Yes you need to get my attention and I might be happier ignoring it. So, how to make that transition? To me the method is to stand out, make the other curious and thats it. When the need arises the client will come (having been on the other side). Someone I had 5 years ago will be working with us because they are "different" - and that is what we seek now.  But my point is - unless your cus...

About 15 odd years ago, when the internet had not crept into all devices, we purchased a Nintendo Wii and we have all of one game CD on it. And it is crazy that even today the kids are able to derive enjoyment out of it and as they grow, the game is becoming a great de-stressor in the midst of exam prep.  Today we are at a stage when every app worth its salt sends updates every week, if not more. So, features can be added, newer levels can be introduced and all sorts of things can be done. But what do you when you have ship your product as "one and done". Or put in other words,  what if updating was a constraint.  Whatever the issue, what is impressive that is that it looks like the game will keep going on and on.  Here are some of the things they have discovered.  The game unlocks new characters as your achievements increase.  There are many such possible achievements - the race is done in reverse, mirror circuits There are many challenges As the players u...

 Found this gem in Lyndon Cerejos - Being Designerly newsletter. That is Stephen Fry reading Nick Caves letter on the creative process and ChatGPT.  Worth every second of those 4 minutes.