Serendipity and Learning

Meanwhile we are getting bigger and smaller on Clash Royale. There are good days when we win a ton of trophies. There are bad days when we get thrashed. We spend time discussing various battle strategies (and this is where I love how games make children think). There is a cheapo strategy - that seemed to work well, until we lost a few times. And then tweaked it. Then there is a attack from both sides strategy. Then there is a 'Prince' strategy. Then there is a 'Defense' strategy - worked beautifully once and then never thereafter. Then there is an 'All out offense' strategy - ditto. Then just for kicks, we tried out an aerial route only strategy - this one was an out and out disaster. Now the best part of it is that - there is very little that is useless in the battle deck. And that makes us all think (adult brain, child brain alike) about how we are going to do it. There is discussions on options, choices, priorities, limited gold or gems (both alw...

A few years ago, I was at a panel discussion. And I realized that I was able to articulate my points way better than I perhaps did a few years ago. The difference? At first, I patted myself on the back and gave myself extra brownie points for the growth of my intelligence, articulation and felt smug about it. But when I analyzed it further, I realized that the process of writing it out had made the process easier. And the cause for it was my blog. This blog. I realized this unconsciously, but it just struck me how writing enables the speaking process. The fact that I had written about various kinds of learning experiences over the few years made a difference. When we write, we are channelizing our thoughts (which are unorganized, in a cloud) into a more tangible means. This is a far more stickier process than thinking about it or reading about it (atleast for me). And as you write more, more of thoughts are taken out of the waiting queue and newer thoughts (hopefully better e...

If I were not a trainer, I would have been a designer. Hey, but I am also a training designer. So, when the countries premier design institute announced a Design Thinking workshop, I decided to give it a go. Also, having done a little bit of work on 'Design Thinking' approaches in my work, I thought it was worth exploring further... Design Thinking, Creativity, Insights... And it was an interesting session. With immersive experiences on gathering user insights and so on... Hope to do a longer post on it someday!

We have been fans for Clash for Clans for a while now. Clash of clans was and continues to remain an interesting game. But the truth was that many found it quite complex and too involved. And perhaps Supercell recognized that. And came up with Clash Royale. Having played both CoC and CR, I can say that the thought of Clash Royale has been incredible. This is not an easy path. There are quite a few who have tried. But following up on one success, retaining some elements of it and still making a playable game that is as engaging and does not cannibalize the earlier version (among other things) is not easy. But they have done it. From the earlier format of CoC, they have come up with a simpler format. This is easier to play. No elaborate building. No waiting for troops to get experience, but it is not instant. And with all this there is still an interesting element of gameplay strategy. Indeed, the gameplay strategy is so unique that I don't think I have seen anything like th...

As I thought about my previous post, it set me thinking. On the one hand, there are a lot of regulations on who can open a school, who can run it - what you need and so on and so forth. And on the other hand, there is technology and there are people. Why does one need to transport children in uniform across thousands of (cumulative) kilometres, when they can learn very well where they are? Yes, maybe in the industrial age, it had to be done, but why now? India already has a National Institute of Open Schooling. And a Virtual Open School. Why aren't enough parents taking more advantage of it? Why are we still sending children to school (I still am, even as I write this)? Is it because that schools are also a place where children go daily - thus allowing parents to work? Why cant this be extended to simplify the process of licensing schools? (I think some part of licensing is free atleast in Karnataka - for some types of schools). So why cant it be simplified further? To make ...

India is a unique country. With 122 odd major languages and 1599 other languages. And yet, the languages available in schools is dependent on many factors - like demand, availability of teachers and so on. So, on the one hand, there are a range of options of choose from, on the other hand it is not uniform. Here is where the power of the internet can be used. If for every language, the government made courses available online with tests and practice lessons - anybody can learn any language at home. Without having to depend on the quality of teachers, number of students and suchlike. All they need is a standard question paper that gets delivered (and this can be automated from a huge question bank) to do the tests. Wonder if something like this is already available? The truth is also that schools with non English mediums of instructions are closing down in urban areas - slowly but surely. And English is the language of opportunities, the other languages deserve to be learnt -...

I read this piece with some amusement. That Infosys is de-layering itself . The interesting part for me in that article was this: As India's largest software firms have added tens of thousands of employees over the past decade, many layers of middle management have in the process also been under-utilised since they are not billable employees anymore as they are not directly involved in day-to-day software coding.  "We've seen that people who are not getting billed, they also tend to get a ittle bit away from technology and so on. The best way to address that is o make them more active in project execution - that's  ..  In a way this is the hands-on crisis in the Indian IT industry. Few years on, people lose their ability to work hands on - and that usually translates into lesser billing for the company. Unless of course, they have taken their abilities and become consultants - which can then be billed by the company.  The fact is that unless you keep at ...