My little two year old breaks into a dance the moment she hears music. I wonder why I cannot be so uninhibited.
She always announces exactly how she feels about anything. I cannot. It seems pointless to announce "I am sad!" or "I am happy". Which adult does that?
She says "I love you" with the ease that only a child can possess. I cannot. That's not something adults say.
She eats only when she is hungry. She does not feel the need to sit down and eat three times a day just because those have been designated as meal times.
When she does eat, she eats with all her senses. Every meal is an adventure, an orgy of smell, sight and touch. I eat mostly because its something I have to do. For adults most meals are brief punctuations in the daily routine.
She wears what she wants. She picks clothes in an instinctive way. She does not care if pink and yellow do not go well together. Adults dress for others. With us its more about how others think we look. A child will never ask you "How do I look Mommy?" because she is sure that she looks great. The Mommy on the other hand......
She is comfortable naked. Totally not self-conscious about her body. We adults on the other hand get nervous at the swimming pool wondering how are bodies are being perceived.
She moves on and never lingers on a past issues. She will never tell me two days later that she was hurt by my refusal to take her to the park. Adults on the other hand.......we will hang on to a perceived slight for days.
And then she will "grow up". Become more of an adult. Responsible, practical, calculating, the child in her gone forever.
I have posted a link to a talk on children's education. It talks about how we need to tap into our inner child to be creative and how our education system is built to kill that kind of creativity.
How schools kill creativity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
The Little Giants
Sachin Tendulkar is India's greatest sportsman. A living legend who has broken all batting records and at the age of 36 is still going strong. At 5'5", he is a small man and an anomaly in the sporting world where mutant giants are more commonly found now than ever before. The list of small men who have gone on to do great things in the sporting arena is a very small one. The lack of stature has to be compensated by a freakish talent and a scheming mind. Today a small person can all but forget about a career in sport.
Individual sports have become the domain of the big and strong. Only a team sport like soccer and basketball allow for a small person to contribute by playing a specific supporting role. Ussain Bolt and Juan Martin Del Potro are just the start of a new generation of sportsmen that are bigger than any we have seen before. Old thinking used to be that the big guys will never be able to move as well as the smaller guys but modern training methods and nutrition is resulting in big fellas who can move like cats!
Where does that leave the Indians and the Chinese? The average height of the Indian male is 5'4". How are we expected to compete in a world of giants? Maybe we need to be smart about which sports we choose to play. The reason why Indians have had success in cricket is because it is predominantly a skill-based game. Its also the reason why we produce many great batsmen and spin bowlers but not enough fast bowlers because that's when being big and strong is a prerequisite.
Soccer is one game where we might have a chance. Skill and speed on the soccer pitch can go some ways to compensate the lack of height. It would still be a huge challenge. Imagine trying to stop a rampaging Didier Drogba; all 6'2" of him! Baseball is another game where you would think that being big would not be too much of an advantage. But this is far from true: Fast pitching requires big strong bodies and so does hitting home runs off those pitches. I looked up the Yankees roster for height information and was shocked to find that Derek Jeter, who does not look too big on TV, is 6'3"!
And so I live out my sporting dreams vicariously by watching the real "giants". Nothing gives me more pleasure than watching SRT coming down the track and hitting Glenn Mcgrath (all 6'5" of him) back over his head for a six. Or watching Maradona hustle and hoodwink his way through a wall of massive defenders! It is the ultimate triumph of will over circumstance, of guile over brute force, a real-life David-v-Goliath: how can you not cheer for that?
Human height averages around the world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height
Individual sports have become the domain of the big and strong. Only a team sport like soccer and basketball allow for a small person to contribute by playing a specific supporting role. Ussain Bolt and Juan Martin Del Potro are just the start of a new generation of sportsmen that are bigger than any we have seen before. Old thinking used to be that the big guys will never be able to move as well as the smaller guys but modern training methods and nutrition is resulting in big fellas who can move like cats!
Where does that leave the Indians and the Chinese? The average height of the Indian male is 5'4". How are we expected to compete in a world of giants? Maybe we need to be smart about which sports we choose to play. The reason why Indians have had success in cricket is because it is predominantly a skill-based game. Its also the reason why we produce many great batsmen and spin bowlers but not enough fast bowlers because that's when being big and strong is a prerequisite.
Soccer is one game where we might have a chance. Skill and speed on the soccer pitch can go some ways to compensate the lack of height. It would still be a huge challenge. Imagine trying to stop a rampaging Didier Drogba; all 6'2" of him! Baseball is another game where you would think that being big would not be too much of an advantage. But this is far from true: Fast pitching requires big strong bodies and so does hitting home runs off those pitches. I looked up the Yankees roster for height information and was shocked to find that Derek Jeter, who does not look too big on TV, is 6'3"!
And so I live out my sporting dreams vicariously by watching the real "giants". Nothing gives me more pleasure than watching SRT coming down the track and hitting Glenn Mcgrath (all 6'5" of him) back over his head for a six. Or watching Maradona hustle and hoodwink his way through a wall of massive defenders! It is the ultimate triumph of will over circumstance, of guile over brute force, a real-life David-v-Goliath: how can you not cheer for that?
Human height averages around the world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Head Scratchers.
1. Volume of ads on TV: Ever notice how the volume suddenly shoots up when a commercial starts playing on television? There I am watching my favourite show at a nice soft volume and all of a sudden the volume shoots up.......it feels like Billy Mays has suddenly walked into my living room. Why do they do this? Do they think that by shouting at me I will buy their product? What I do not understand is why my television's volume control does not attenuate the spikes in volume from the TV signal.
2. Junk mail from credit card companies: I get at least two offers from different banks asking me to sign up for a new credit card every week. Who is giving them my address? How do get I off this mailing list? Just how many credit cards does one man need anyway?
3. Designer Jeans: When you buy a 50,000 dollar car, you get something for that money: speed, luxury, safety, curb appeal. What exactly do a pair of jeans that cost 200$ do for you? They are just a pair of denim trousers! How different can they be than the ones in Costco?? What's the use of spending all that money when there is no easy way to tell them apart from the 20$ ones. I suggest that anybody wearing designer jeans has to wear them with a t-shirt that clearly states the maker and the cost. Something like "Denim Alert- 500$ Jeans below!"
4. Mattress ads on radio: Just what is up with those mattress ads on the radio? Sleep train/Sealy/That number bed.......I should not be knowing so much about mattresses! How often do people need to change mattresses anyway? Where I come from we never change mattresses; you use the same one till you die (or the flees asked you to leave). The mattresses in this country are built like tanks. What could possibly happen to a mattress like that? 800$ for a mattress!!! Are you kidding me?
5. License plate frames telling us which school you graduated from: Why do people have licence plate frames that have the names of their schools on them? Why, Sir, have you put that on your car? Is it to let us all know how smart and special you are that you went to this college? Are we supposed to assume that having a "Stanford Alum" frame means you are smarter than the rest of us? Do not tell me its out of pride for your Alma Mater. I do not see folks from Modesto Community College doing this. Are they not proud of the school they went to? Here's the rule: if you want to flaunt which "top-rated" school you went to, you need to be driving a S-class at the minimum. Makes no sense telling the world how special you are while you drive around in your 8 year old Honda Accord!
2. Junk mail from credit card companies: I get at least two offers from different banks asking me to sign up for a new credit card every week. Who is giving them my address? How do get I off this mailing list? Just how many credit cards does one man need anyway?
3. Designer Jeans: When you buy a 50,000 dollar car, you get something for that money: speed, luxury, safety, curb appeal. What exactly do a pair of jeans that cost 200$ do for you? They are just a pair of denim trousers! How different can they be than the ones in Costco?? What's the use of spending all that money when there is no easy way to tell them apart from the 20$ ones. I suggest that anybody wearing designer jeans has to wear them with a t-shirt that clearly states the maker and the cost. Something like "Denim Alert- 500$ Jeans below!"
4. Mattress ads on radio: Just what is up with those mattress ads on the radio? Sleep train/Sealy/That number bed.......I should not be knowing so much about mattresses! How often do people need to change mattresses anyway? Where I come from we never change mattresses; you use the same one till you die (or the flees asked you to leave). The mattresses in this country are built like tanks. What could possibly happen to a mattress like that? 800$ for a mattress!!! Are you kidding me?
5. License plate frames telling us which school you graduated from: Why do people have licence plate frames that have the names of their schools on them? Why, Sir, have you put that on your car? Is it to let us all know how smart and special you are that you went to this college? Are we supposed to assume that having a "Stanford Alum" frame means you are smarter than the rest of us? Do not tell me its out of pride for your Alma Mater. I do not see folks from Modesto Community College doing this. Are they not proud of the school they went to? Here's the rule: if you want to flaunt which "top-rated" school you went to, you need to be driving a S-class at the minimum. Makes no sense telling the world how special you are while you drive around in your 8 year old Honda Accord!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Its all been done!
A couple of years ago a young author, Kavya Vishwanathan, had her book pulled from the shelves because it turned out that certain passages of her book were almost identical to passages from some other author's books. Unfortunately, being charged with plagiarism can spell the end of an author's career.
This begs the question: How does one define "original" work? What characteristics does this work need to have to be considered truly original? Can anything be truly original? Take a look around and you will see many examples of new work being done that has more than a trace of some earlier work. The music industry is littered with examples of hit songs that have had parts of other songs. I have yet to hear of a singer or a band having their career destroyed because they wrote a hit song that sounded like another hit song!
Show me your favorite piece of software and I guarantee you that it has parts that have been re-used from other software. Just a small portion of any software is the secret sauce; the rest is just standard plumbing that is re-used again and again.
It is acceptable in certain professions to have your influences clearly visible in your work. Painters, fashion designers, architects and composers have all borrowed ideas from their influences to create new work and we never accuse them of plagiarism. Why is it so different with books? If I used a word-processor to cut and paste from 50 books to come up with my own original story, would that be stealing? Yes, you would find similar sentences and phrases but would that take away from the fact that I have created something new?
The fact of the matter is that very little around us is totally new. Its all been done before albeit in a slightly different form.
There is a famous story of an artist who took another artist's painting and created his own work by erasing parts of the original. Would this qualify as new art? Would creating a dish with leftovers from last night qualify as a new dish? Would it make a difference if the leftovers were made by me or were from a restaurant?
I am not condoning passing of somebody else's work as your own. All I am saying is that if you look real closely, almost all new work will have traces of something from the past.
The link below is a YouTube video created by taking clips from other existing videos on YouTube and creating a new piece of music. Take a look!
http://tinyurl.com/c9b4th
This begs the question: How does one define "original" work? What characteristics does this work need to have to be considered truly original? Can anything be truly original? Take a look around and you will see many examples of new work being done that has more than a trace of some earlier work. The music industry is littered with examples of hit songs that have had parts of other songs. I have yet to hear of a singer or a band having their career destroyed because they wrote a hit song that sounded like another hit song!
Show me your favorite piece of software and I guarantee you that it has parts that have been re-used from other software. Just a small portion of any software is the secret sauce; the rest is just standard plumbing that is re-used again and again.
It is acceptable in certain professions to have your influences clearly visible in your work. Painters, fashion designers, architects and composers have all borrowed ideas from their influences to create new work and we never accuse them of plagiarism. Why is it so different with books? If I used a word-processor to cut and paste from 50 books to come up with my own original story, would that be stealing? Yes, you would find similar sentences and phrases but would that take away from the fact that I have created something new?
The fact of the matter is that very little around us is totally new. Its all been done before albeit in a slightly different form.
There is a famous story of an artist who took another artist's painting and created his own work by erasing parts of the original. Would this qualify as new art? Would creating a dish with leftovers from last night qualify as a new dish? Would it make a difference if the leftovers were made by me or were from a restaurant?
I am not condoning passing of somebody else's work as your own. All I am saying is that if you look real closely, almost all new work will have traces of something from the past.
The link below is a YouTube video created by taking clips from other existing videos on YouTube and creating a new piece of music. Take a look!
http://tinyurl.com/c9b4th
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Practice! Practice! Practice!
I recently read an article about Jerry Rice (the legendary NFL wide receiver) which talks about how he has re-dedicated his life to trying to become a full-time professional golfer. He will be playing in a Nationwide tour event next year and hopes to make the cut.
Studies have shown that to be really great at something, a person has to spend close to 10,000 hours perfecting it. This means that if somebody were to practice 2 hours a day, every day of the week, it would take close to 14 years to reach their goal! Please keep in mind that all that this means is that you will get really good at something. It does not guarantee fame and fortune.
We all have a list of things we would like to take up. Somebody wants to learn the guitar while somebody else wants to paint. Some of us might even make an effort to join a class or two for a few months only to quit. Sometimes we quit because life intervenes( kids/job/career....) and sometimes we quit because we realise that this new activity actually requires a certain amount of dedication and practice! Take up any new activity and after the honeymoon period is over comes a time when things get tough. This first uphill climb is where most people question if this is really what they want to do. Some actually make it through only to encounter the next climb which is steeper!
Most of us will not be able to give 10,000 hours to something but the fact of the matter is that if you want to be good at anything, it requires dedication and hard work. Keep in mind that many of us have already been in our respective fields for over 14 years. How many of us can truly say that we are world class in our respective fields?
We live in an age where everybody expects instant gratification. Many of us have seen commercials on television describing a product that will give instant results. Exercise equipment manufactures will claim that you will see results within a couple of weeks. A software product will claim to teach a new language in weeks and a book will claim to be able to teach you a computer language in 21 days!
I was once told by a well known drummer that if I treated music like a mistress all I would get in return would be some decent sex but if I treated music like a lover then I would get a relationship that will last a lifetime. Never having had a mistress, I cannot confirm his theory but his point is well taken: We get back from our endeavours what we put in.
So while I sit around making up excuses as to why I cannot make time to practice, I will be watching Mr. Rice closely over the next few months and rooting for him.
Studies have shown that to be really great at something, a person has to spend close to 10,000 hours perfecting it. This means that if somebody were to practice 2 hours a day, every day of the week, it would take close to 14 years to reach their goal! Please keep in mind that all that this means is that you will get really good at something. It does not guarantee fame and fortune.
We all have a list of things we would like to take up. Somebody wants to learn the guitar while somebody else wants to paint. Some of us might even make an effort to join a class or two for a few months only to quit. Sometimes we quit because life intervenes( kids/job/career....) and sometimes we quit because we realise that this new activity actually requires a certain amount of dedication and practice! Take up any new activity and after the honeymoon period is over comes a time when things get tough. This first uphill climb is where most people question if this is really what they want to do. Some actually make it through only to encounter the next climb which is steeper!
Most of us will not be able to give 10,000 hours to something but the fact of the matter is that if you want to be good at anything, it requires dedication and hard work. Keep in mind that many of us have already been in our respective fields for over 14 years. How many of us can truly say that we are world class in our respective fields?
We live in an age where everybody expects instant gratification. Many of us have seen commercials on television describing a product that will give instant results. Exercise equipment manufactures will claim that you will see results within a couple of weeks. A software product will claim to teach a new language in weeks and a book will claim to be able to teach you a computer language in 21 days!
I was once told by a well known drummer that if I treated music like a mistress all I would get in return would be some decent sex but if I treated music like a lover then I would get a relationship that will last a lifetime. Never having had a mistress, I cannot confirm his theory but his point is well taken: We get back from our endeavours what we put in.
So while I sit around making up excuses as to why I cannot make time to practice, I will be watching Mr. Rice closely over the next few months and rooting for him.
Monday, September 21, 2009
The Walking Billboard.
Watching Nadal and Del Potro slug it out, I almost wondered if both men shared a wardrobe. They both wore near identical clothes with the Nike logo splashed on every inch of available real-estate.
I am getting a little tired of this "logo overload". Not a moment goes by when I am not being bombarded by the signage of some company or the other. Sachin's bat, Tigers glove, LeBron's shoes.......
The reason is obvious: Companies think that you will buy a product because your favorite star is using it. It’s the oldest trick in the advertiser's handbook. What the marketers are doing is not so much selling a product as they are an entry into an exclusive club. If you wear Jordan's shoes then he and you will have something in common. Nobody ever pauses to wonder if there might be a cheaper or better alternative in the market.
We are absolutely surrounded by Ads 24/7. There will be times when you will not know that you are seeing/hearing an Ad! Ads are being disguised as news reports, as magazine articles and some as official research papers. You will see Ads in the movies (subtle product placements), Ads in your email (spam) and Ads in your mailbox (junk mail). Ads will target your hidden fears and your insecurities. They will make you buy stuff to make you feel good about yourself, to keep up with the Joneses, to fit in with the "In" crowd. They will make you buy creams to look fair and pills to loose weight.
I recently saw an Ad for a brand of diapers on TV. The mother is being told by the Dr. that her baby has a cold because the cloth diapers she has been using result in the baby staying wet and cold! Can you imagine the guilt that mothers who are watching will feel when they are told that they are not doing the most for their children? It’s been shown that using cloth diapers will mean your child is potty-trained much faster. Also, cloth diapers are way more environmentally friendly than the chemical-filled ones.
It will not be long before everything around us is one big advertisement. You will find Ads on your phone, Ads at the gas station while you wait to fill up. Our kids’ schools will have Ads in the form of sponsorships, books will be subsidized with Ads in the margins....there is no escape.
I see a glimmer of hope in the form of services like Yelp! and other review sites on the internet. That seems like the right way to find products and services: you talk to people who have similar needs/budgets and hear what their experience has been with a particular product.
In the mad rush to rent out every available inch of real-estate to the advertisers, it was refreshing to see two examples where people did not sell out.
Barcelona Football Club is one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world with a world-wide fan following. They could have sold space on their jerseys for millions. Instead their jersey sports the logo of Unicef and they donate almost 2 million dollars per year to Unicef!
Golfer Ryan Moore plays without looking like a walking billboard. He has no logo on his bag, on his shoes or on his hat. It is the most refreshing thing to see! He claims that he wants the freedom to use any product without being tied to a certain brand. He is loosing out on some big money by going the logo-free route. Let’s see how long he can resist the temptation of big bucks.
Here’s a link to a Wikipedia entry that talks about the origins and the history of advertising.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising
I am getting a little tired of this "logo overload". Not a moment goes by when I am not being bombarded by the signage of some company or the other. Sachin's bat, Tigers glove, LeBron's shoes.......
The reason is obvious: Companies think that you will buy a product because your favorite star is using it. It’s the oldest trick in the advertiser's handbook. What the marketers are doing is not so much selling a product as they are an entry into an exclusive club. If you wear Jordan's shoes then he and you will have something in common. Nobody ever pauses to wonder if there might be a cheaper or better alternative in the market.
We are absolutely surrounded by Ads 24/7. There will be times when you will not know that you are seeing/hearing an Ad! Ads are being disguised as news reports, as magazine articles and some as official research papers. You will see Ads in the movies (subtle product placements), Ads in your email (spam) and Ads in your mailbox (junk mail). Ads will target your hidden fears and your insecurities. They will make you buy stuff to make you feel good about yourself, to keep up with the Joneses, to fit in with the "In" crowd. They will make you buy creams to look fair and pills to loose weight.
I recently saw an Ad for a brand of diapers on TV. The mother is being told by the Dr. that her baby has a cold because the cloth diapers she has been using result in the baby staying wet and cold! Can you imagine the guilt that mothers who are watching will feel when they are told that they are not doing the most for their children? It’s been shown that using cloth diapers will mean your child is potty-trained much faster. Also, cloth diapers are way more environmentally friendly than the chemical-filled ones.
It will not be long before everything around us is one big advertisement. You will find Ads on your phone, Ads at the gas station while you wait to fill up. Our kids’ schools will have Ads in the form of sponsorships, books will be subsidized with Ads in the margins....there is no escape.
I see a glimmer of hope in the form of services like Yelp! and other review sites on the internet. That seems like the right way to find products and services: you talk to people who have similar needs/budgets and hear what their experience has been with a particular product.
In the mad rush to rent out every available inch of real-estate to the advertisers, it was refreshing to see two examples where people did not sell out.
Barcelona Football Club is one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world with a world-wide fan following. They could have sold space on their jerseys for millions. Instead their jersey sports the logo of Unicef and they donate almost 2 million dollars per year to Unicef!
Golfer Ryan Moore plays without looking like a walking billboard. He has no logo on his bag, on his shoes or on his hat. It is the most refreshing thing to see! He claims that he wants the freedom to use any product without being tied to a certain brand. He is loosing out on some big money by going the logo-free route. Let’s see how long he can resist the temptation of big bucks.
Here’s a link to a Wikipedia entry that talks about the origins and the history of advertising.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Say something I want to hear!
There is no easier way to generate conflict then by just telling the truth. When it comes to dealing with people and relationships the rule is very clear: Always lie!
Now I do not mean big lies like:
"I was going to use the money to start an orphanage"
or
"I was holding the knife when he suddenly fell on it!"
No, I am talking about all the little half lies that any person with half a brain will say just to keep the status quo. We all have this skill and use it to great effect.For example.....
Q. "How do I look in this new dress, honey?"
What you really think is :
A:"Err....Like a color blind hooker who for some reason thinks that orange is the new black!"
What you end up saying:
A. Whoa! That looks killer on you!
Q. "How was the food, sir?"
What you really think:
A."Excellent! I am waiting for the heart attack from the oil....or I could just end it now by slitting my wrists with this hard piece of naan"
What you end up saying:
A. "Excellent! We will definitely come back again!"
These lies do not make us bad people. In fact, these lies are the glue that hold any relationship together. Think about it for a second: If you told your spouse EXACTLY what you felt, the moment you felt it, you wouldn't have a spouse. The same goes for your colleagues, your manager, your friends.....even your parents.
The fact of the matter is that people already know what they want to hear when they ask the question. So why not give it to them? The trick is to not ask a question that will force a person to lie. Do you really want to know what your friends think about you? Or what your wife finds most irritating about your behaviour?
Trust me , you are happier not knowing some of these answers!
Now I do not mean big lies like:
"I was going to use the money to start an orphanage"
or
"I was holding the knife when he suddenly fell on it!"
No, I am talking about all the little half lies that any person with half a brain will say just to keep the status quo. We all have this skill and use it to great effect.For example.....
Q. "How do I look in this new dress, honey?"
What you really think is :
A:"Err....Like a color blind hooker who for some reason thinks that orange is the new black!"
What you end up saying:
A. Whoa! That looks killer on you!
Q. "How was the food, sir?"
What you really think:
A."Excellent! I am waiting for the heart attack from the oil....or I could just end it now by slitting my wrists with this hard piece of naan"
What you end up saying:
A. "Excellent! We will definitely come back again!"
These lies do not make us bad people. In fact, these lies are the glue that hold any relationship together. Think about it for a second: If you told your spouse EXACTLY what you felt, the moment you felt it, you wouldn't have a spouse. The same goes for your colleagues, your manager, your friends.....even your parents.
The fact of the matter is that people already know what they want to hear when they ask the question. So why not give it to them? The trick is to not ask a question that will force a person to lie. Do you really want to know what your friends think about you? Or what your wife finds most irritating about your behaviour?
Trust me , you are happier not knowing some of these answers!
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