Random Musings

Nice talk by Michael Sandel on markets and morality. And how the 2008 subprime crisis illustrates our drift from a market economy to a market society i.e everything is a market even if it is at the expense of others... Some of the good things in life are corrupted or degraded if we turn them into market commodities. So when we decide when to use markets, it’s not enough to think about efficiency. It’s not even enough to think about market freedom. We also have to decide how to value the goods in question, be they health, education, national defense, criminal justice, environmental protection, and so on. These are moral and political questions, not merely economic ones. And to decide them democratically we have to debate them, case by case, just as we have begun to do here, the moral meaning of these goods and the proper way of valuing them. This is the debate that we didn’t have in the age of market triumphalism. And as a result, without quite realizing it, without ever deciding to do...

Was reminded of this recently and can concur from experience how valuable this advice is... "What do you do if you receive a nasty email from a customer/partner? Reply in full steam? Tell them how they suck badly and you don’t give a damn to who they are/what they do? That you don’t need them and they can eff anywhere? Hang on. One of the most important lesson I have learnt over the last few years is to not reply to nasty emails immediately, especially if its from somebody who matters (business partner/potential customer). Take a deep breath. Take a walk. Go for a smoke. Do whatever that helps you unwind a little bit. In some cases, simply calling up the other person is better than carrying the conversation over email. Email is a great communication device and will continue to remain so (atleast for businesses), but do not take that as a discussion device. It’s a tool and serves as a means to achieve a much bigger goal." http://www.pluggd.in/email-etiquette-for-entrepreneurs-...

In tribute to the ongoing 2010 football World Cup presenting the Vuvuzela blown by fans across the stadium.. truly annoying :-) Click to listen And if you missed this youtube just added the Vuvuzela to their football videos...!! http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/23/bzzzzzz-youtube-gets-a-vuvuzela-button-seriously/

If only these guys would add this Power Distance indicator for each organization they measure would be good know how really "flat" an organization is from the seats of power.

Calling out for all you super-rich Indians to be part of this. http://givingpledge.org/ Am sure the site owners would be happy to include the Indian oligarchs( Ambani's, Birla's,Godrej's ) as part of this movement.. While hear read Warren Buffets pledge.. http://givingpledge.org/Content/media/My%20Philanthropic%20Pledge.pdf The line that was most interesting by the Worlds Richest Man was this... "Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends."

Is the internet really making us dumb.. ?? Nicholar Carr says yes Steven Pinker says no Two things that sprang to my mind of reading these of what internet can do in a bad way .... - Polarization of thoughts The fact that information is more pull based rather than push based we might run the risk of having to circle ourselves with only the information we like to see and thus not respect or appreciate the diversity that an issue could have from a very unrelated source. - TIME SINK!!! This is the mother of all. How many times have you felt that if you just spend time doing something more productive... and darn not have wasted all the time "just browsing" ......

What motivates us.... money...is more the better NO!!!.....

" Iterate ", " Iterative " or " Iteration " seems to get the most traction these days on how to build anything large or deal with complexity. A nice definition is “Keep trying until you get it right,” And to say this is new, a 1980 paper http://www.billbuxton.com/iteration.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/magazine/13FOB-onlanguage-t.html?ref=magazine

"Avoiding problems you need to face is avoiding the life you need to live" - Paul Coehello

How many of these you still see today... a lot Ponzi from Strike Anywhere on Vimeo .

Now am a witness of two Black Swan events since this blog started.... - 2008 Financial Crisis - 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil spill What is a Black Swan Event ... " This was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain 1) the disproportionate role of high-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, and technology, and 2) the psychological biases that make people individually and collectively blind to uncertainty and unaware of the role of the rare event." Or in more simpler terms an extreme outlier whose probability of happening is very very rare but when it does its impact is so huge that its pretty much shake's out the system and the assumptions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory

A nice bluff metric....created by Washington Post Where possible, we will adopt the following standard in fact-checking the claims of a political candidate or interest group. One Pinocchio Some shading of the facts. Selective telling of the truth. Some omissions and exaggerations, but no outright falsehoods. Two Pinocchios Significant omissions and/or exaggerations. Some factual error may be involved but not necessarily. A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing with words and using legalistic language that means little to ordinary people. Three Pinocchios Significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions. Four Pinocchios Whoppers. The Geppetto Checkmark Statements and claims that contain "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" will be recognized with our prized Geppetto checkmark. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/09/about_the_fact_checker.html#pinocchio

This one for BP who is as of this blog post trying to manage the worst environmental disaster in history i.e Deep Horizon oil spill - 2010 http://www.logomyway.com/contestView.php?contestId=1746 Leaders beware!!.. .. What democratization of information can do the reputation of a 100 year old organization