Patina vs. shine

Yet another interesting piece from Seth Godin.

Patina vs. shine:

Shine is fresh and new and it sparkles. Shiny catches the eye and it appeals to the neophiliac, to the person in search of polish.
Patina, on the other hand, can only be earned. Patina communicates trust (because the untrusted don't last long enough to earn a patina) and it appeals to a very different audience.
The old guy at the gym in spandex, taking steroids and brutalizing himself on the big machine--he's trying to be both and accomplishing neither.
Brands and organizations face the same choice. A book like Permission Marketing could be updated weekly, in a vain attempt on my part to keep it shiny. But that makes no sense, as the ideas in it are important because they've been right for a decade, not because they're new. That's what a new title is for.
The challenge, then, is to let your classics thrive precisely because they've earned the right, because they have a patina of quality--but not to rest on those laurels, but to get busy inventing the new shiny thing for those that demand it.

Wikipedia vs Quora

It was a casual conversation and the question of why quora when wikipedia exists came up. So let me  make an attempt at answering this question. Is quora any different from wikipedia? Why should I, as a consumer of knowledge and information, go to quora instead of wikipedia?

I think the fundamental difference between wikipedia and quora is the distance between the producer and the consumer of information. While wikipedia is a library or a collection of facts scrutinized by a committee, quora is a question and answer site where answers are voted up or down, or in other words, a consensus is achieved through crowd-sourcing. While wikipedia articles can be flagged by users and taken down by members of a committee, the information displayed is often times interpreted as factually correct and sacrosanct by consumers, largely due to its presentation. In contrast, quora rank orders answers to a question based on the number of votes received.

It is this social layer and process through which the most preferred answer to a question emerges that makes quora more suitable to emerging, lesser known or new topics. Quora is better suited for consumption of information as it gets created while the wikipedia repository is more factual in nature.

The Transit of Venus

Something to look forward to this week:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/the-transit-of-venus/263090-60-119.html

It will happen next in 2117.

Internet side effects

A friend came over today. We were talking until I got the internet set up at my new home. And then there was silence. Makes we wonder:

• How has the internet changed attention span?
• Are social networking and the internet sufficient to replace "offline social experiences"?
• Do power users of the internet burn out quicker at jobs that require extensive use of computers i.e. most jobs?
• Can digital ever match or supersede the serendipitous discovery process that happens offline?
• Are power users of the internet asocial in face to face settings?
• Do power users of the internet have withdrawal symptoms when they are away from their devices? (Compulsively checking email, facebook, twitter what have you)

Politics = weekend entertainment

Sometimes politicians also get what they deserve:
Sorry Ma’am, but I am not a Maoist

Excerpt of the condign punishment :)

"You have spoken of the brain drain from Bengal so many times. I hold offers from the University College London and the School of Oriental and African Studies to study development and administration. I too will probably leave, and now you know the reason why."

Contentment

So the return from the US of A to India is finally complete. Now that I have graduated from business school (and likely to stay away from full time school) and am a month old at work in Bangalore, I feel content about where I am at this point.

I freaked out most about the thought of wearing formals and business casuals and all that jazz - doesn't work for me, gets in the way, I can't think right with all of that on me!

Bangalore is an awesome place but for the traffic. Cliched I know, but true. To set things in perspective, I ate at approx. 25 restaurants over the last 30 days, mostly within a 5 km radius from where I live. Did I mention that this is without counting breakfast & lunch at the office?

Book Review: Games Indians Play

The book is written by V. Raghunathan, ex-chairman of the PGP programme at IIM-A (http://www.vraghunathan.com/home.html) and impressed on me. Business school made me cognizant of systematic cognitive biases and heuristics in decision making (read shortcuts). This book takes it one step further and qualifies the generalization in the Indian context and attempts to explain "why we are the way we are".

I like the book because it works its way up from first principles to identify the root of all inefficiencies, bureaucracy and red tape in India. The author uses an economics 101 Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) setting and game theoretic framework to make his point.

Read more on PD here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma

Below is an example of the payoff matrix in a PD setting:

The equilibrium in a PD setting, is defect-defect. While A & B's actions are individually optimal, the collective result (defect-defect) is socially sub-optimal or inferior. The author claims that real life scenarios are akin to an iterative PD problem where a defect-defect loop will spiral into systemic chaos due to negative reinforcement.

The 'intelligent Indian' interpretes real life scenarios as a one-shot PD. Say A & B refer to people waiting on either side of a traffic light. On both sides, people stray to the wrong side of the road to rush past the rest. In other words, they defect. And so do the others on the opposite side. When the light turns green, the only possible result is a traffic jam.

When results or consequences depend upon actions of the past and the present, a defect strategy will not work. We see this today in the parliament and in most day to day situations in the country.

The book is a good way to educate oneself to do the right thing because it tells you the consequences of not doing so. So it answers the why question. It's an easy read and is only 150 pages.

The 'intelligent Indian' will continue to exhibit defect-defect behavior and won't bother with this book and will question the generalization that it makes sense to do the right thing without worrying about others' actions. I hope he doesn't.