Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Formula for learning

Do - record - reflect - eat - read - sleep - plan - do - record - reflect - eat - read - sleep - plan - do - record - reflect - eat - read - sleep...

The education system was meant to ensure just that. Instead, sit - sit - sit - sit - sit...

Thursday, April 25, 2013

You have it, but you don't!

For quite a while, I read so frequently about how information available on the internet would lead to better choices for the consumers. And I would say, it has, to quite an extent.

Here's a different reading.

While information is available, assimilation of information has become difficult. It has been difficult to squeeze out time for quite a few of us in spite of the efficiencies promoted by the internet - in the form of relentless publishing, communication and availability of information. And therefore, information still isn't uniformly grasped by all the parties participating in business.

According to wikipedia,
In economics and contract theoryinformation asymmetry deals with the study of decisions in transactions where one party has more or better information than the other.
In spite of availability of information, asymmetry exists.

So when information's available, what would make people grasp it, given that they have the time to do the grasping? What would reduce the asymmetry?

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Can I talk to Goldeena Loadlekar?



We released these two ads in succession earlier in the month. Day before this is what happened.

Mobile rings...
Me: Hello
A girl's voice: Hello! Sir, kya mein Goldeena Madam se baat kar sakti hoon? (Sir, can I talk to Goldeena Madam?)
It takes a few seconds for me to gather what's happening. The line's silent...
Me: Aap mujhe bata sakti hain... Bataiye kya kaam hai? (You can tell me... So what is it about?)
Girl: Sir, I am calling from "xyz" technologies. We are offering web-solutions...
She completes her pitch.
Me: We already have a website and, right now, there's no requirement. Thanks.
Girl: If you have any requirement, please call back on this number. My name is...

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Look what the kids found... p***!



There's this huge ground right beside the building where Mississippi is located. Sometimes, people are seen scavenging for whatever they can extract value/utility out of. A couple of days back, I spotted these two kids picking some papers up. I zoomed and clicked. This is what I found.

Incidents are symptoms. Society doesn't fail when incidents happen. Society fails when it lets such accidents happen. It fails when it doesn't have enough play spaces to offer to its young ones. It fails when it doesn't have enough people with time to spend wondering with its young ones.

The big similarity between facebook and newspaper

Both charge to reach my audience/friends. If I don't pay, it's difficult to reach them.

The thing about newspapers is they use so much of physical resources that they have to charge anyway.

FB's algorithms are, for obvious reasons, not public. In the realm of deliberate snuffing out of reach, I don't understand the viral phenomenon any better. Newspapers' reach and readership is anyway difficult to understand, no matter what the metrics.

Do you read the entire newspaper? No! Same goes for FB now. If you spend a lot of time amidst clutter, you don't have the space to create the clutter-breaking.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

xyzkart.com Platforms


Was intrigued by the kart.com names suddenly flooding the market. Found this. Highlighted in red above. :)

Flipkart started as a books company, so the words 'flip' (flipping pages) and kart. Now it sells a whole range of stuff. Including electronics, mobiles, fashion goods et al. In contrast, these guys are trying to build kart.coms for each and every category. Would be interesting to check the results after some time.

What do you think will happen most likely?

Objects in the room called memory

In some respects, memory is like physical space. It has limits to how much it can contain/hold.

For consumption of content on the internet, one needs to remember the names of all the 'places' where content is getting created. How many names do you remember?

Feeds and aggregators help in setting up a personal space where one can unburden oneself from remembering names and still consume content. But even if you consume content through feeds/aggregators, how many pieces of content and how many different sources of content do you tap into at any given time?

Whatever said, feeds/aggregators are more like your room. You can secure your belongings once and for all in this room. But you can't fill it like mad, you won't have space to move.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Institutions

The problem is institutions are inventions of organic minds. While inventions can be improved upon, organic minds like the familiarity, and the resulting stability, of habits.

In the shorter term, rotting institutions are mighty difficult to rejuvenate (so extremism takes place). In the longer term, we are so near death every moment, we don't want to risk rejuvenation.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Contain, Label, Stack

That's the formula for organization and good clean space. Make sure the stack's visible. You are done.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Between 'Like' and reach on Facebook

When I post something on FB, more than 'Like' I want to know who's gone through the words or seen the image I've posted. Many friends/visitors who go through the posts/see the images, might want to convey just that, instead of necessarily 'Like'ing it. In the absence of a means to convey they have done (read/viewed) so, they have no choice but to log a 'Like'.

Page-managers on FB do get data about the reach of their posts. But 'reach' is not the same as 'gone through' or 'seen'.

For such a phenomenon, I sense there should be 'Acknowledge'. That, to my mind, will be a very very rich source of information for the person who is posting something important.