Right questions not answers

Solutions to problems, that's what most of us are searching for everyday and every moment of our lives, personal and professional.

We're always concerned about something or the other or stressed about the oncoming headwinds, but most of the time, we don't even understand what the problem is to begin with. We go on a quest to find the solution, and either never really understand the problem, or somehow get lost on the way and forget the original problem and finally come up with a solution which is irrelevant.

So next time when you get started on something, document what the objective was in the first place and keep on track. Project mangers might be able to keep you on schedule with their Gantt Charts, but won't be able to tell you if the problem is the right one.

Wrong problem => Wrong Solution => Bad Strategy => Concern about new things=> New problem...

Sh*t Entrepreneurs Say

Coffee prices: Growers vs. Reetailers

Coffee growers which include mostly developing countries, gained a higher increase in prices vs. retailers over the 90's. But the differentials are fairly evident. Given the prices(stated in US $'s per pound), we observe that retailers sell the coffee for 100x the prices paid to growers. 

 We'll have to wait for the ICO to publish data on the 2000's to see what the most recent stats are.
source: ICO

Feed your mind the good stuff

"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes" - Mahatma Gandhi
Our lives are filled with events. Good events bring good thoughts to us, and bad events bring bad thoughts. The amount of media we consume today over social platforms has just exploded and we have full control to switch out of content we do not wish to see or dislike. 
Feed your mind good things which keep your attitude positive and your ideas afloat. A day filled with regret / remorse of any kind will probably destroy your mood and kill productivity. We are a reflection of our thoughts and keeping them optimistic will not only make your life better, but will also make the lives of people around you better. 

Twitter Digest

• Now You Can Use A Fake Name On Google+ read.bi/yiR9kU
• Seth's Blog: Who cares? bit.ly/A4R026
• Seth's Blog: The paradox of pictures bit.ly/yZprx6
• Drone pilot finds “river of blood” outside Dallas meatpacking plant | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News yhoo.it/wOC8lr

Statistical Likelihood and leadership

A student who has taken some elementary statistics or philosophy on reasoning and argumentation is probably aware of something called 'statistical significance'.
Fundamentally, the confidence with which you state that a result was not by random chance is directly proportional with the sample size. As the sample size increases, the confidence increases, but the higher the confidence, the larger increases in sample sizes you need to improve your results.

Confidence of result = (signal/noise)  x  square-root(sample size)

Leaders at the workplace are found in the same fashion.
Competent leaders = square-root(all potential leaders)
Great leaders = cube-root( all potential leaders)

Increase the size of potential leaders and you will realize the the results you see a  significantly better. It might involve more and more search pain as you go along the way, but I assure you that it will be worth the investment. 

The Last Lecture

Twitter Digest

• Bill Gates: His Life in Pictures - CNBC bit.ly/zWFx1n
• Stop What You're Doing, And Go See What Google Thinks It Knows About You | It came pretty damn close for me...read.bi/wmGOgF
• CONFESSIONS OF A FACEBOOK EMPLOYEE: What It's Really Like Working For Zuckerberg read.bi/ApmApY
• Morpheus, Pea Brain, Big Cheese: 13 crazy corporate titles - CBS News bit.ly/xf573R
• The Funniest Newspaper Corrections Ever: Retracting The Ridiculous (PICTURES) huff.to/xRxswU
• FAQ: Google’s new privacy policy - The Washington Post wapo.st/y5vx1z
• Whoa, best recruiting video ever: At Twitter, The Future is You!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vccZkELgEsU /via @elunt
• 180 Reasons NASA Thinks We Should Have A Moon Basehttp://read.bi/zgHUE8
• The Ultimate Guide to Launching a WordPress-Powered Blog -http://bit.ly/yikGpR #smallbiz #scrm

Billion Dollar Gram

Powered by Tableau

Best super bowl commercial 2012

Volkswagon wins my vote again this year for the best commercial.
Although Godaddy came close. 

Diagram: Cheese eating and regrets

via: thisisindexed

Twitter Digest

• Marriage: Hazardous to your Career? - Forbes onforb.es/AwCD3s
• Set Match: Five Minutes of Muslim Speed Dating - Lifestyle - GOOD bit.ly/zQ2Eo6
• The distorting of the human sex ratio | The Rational Optimist… bit.ly/xaU16A
• "Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few." - Pythagoras
• These Amazing McDonald's Ads Will Never Be Seen in America read.bi/x2yn6E
• A Microsoft Turnaround in the Making: Ballmer Gets Religion - Forbes onforb.es/AqznD5
• Wind Power Without the Blades: Big Pics : Discovery News bit.ly/o7BCRE
• "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." Bill Gates, Chairman and former CEO, Microsof
• Yves Smith: Debunking Michael Lewis' The Big Short huff.to/zHgrfr

Charts: What makes people join rebel groups?

source: WDI

TED VIDEO: Teach every child about food

Atheism 2.0

You many not agree with religion, but religions are so subtle, complicated and intelligent, that they are not fit to be abandoned by the religious and hence not everyone. 

Urban Dictionary: Eye Broccoli

via: UD

Google Trends: Talking vs. Thinking

Seems like we're doing a lot more talking these days instead thinking:

speaking

1.00

thinking

1.16

talking

1.52

tools we use

Everyday we use tools at home, at the workplace and in other course of actions. For a tool to be declared good, the user of tool, provided the tool is made well, need not know anything about it. But more often than than usual, we are offered tools that we can't wrap our heads around, even after an unquantifiable amount of in-person training is offered. 

Furthermore, to make my statement stronger, the user of the tool SHOULD NOT know anything about it to make it an excellent tool. The best creators understand that easier adaptability is extremely important.

Get yourself the right tools. The caveman didn't realize what he could have done with a wheel until the day he invented it. Your life at home or at the workplace isn't any different.

Twitter Digest

• Famous UK Model Jordan Suddenly Starts Tweeting About The Eurozone Crisis And Quantitative Easingread.bi/AD1LB3
• What Are Good Things About Having A Lousy Boss? - Bob Sutton bit.ly/vpajfp
• Google: "A place where it simply isn't efficient to act like an asshole." - Bob Sutton bit.ly/xSyzEm
• the root of all evil: marketing and society bit.ly/w8DQf9

Returns and the Chinese Zodiac

via Economist

Thinkers vs. Expressors

People in every walk of life have ideas. Everyone thinks about things they love, hate, couldn't care less about every moment they live and breathe. But there's one thing which prevents ideas from truly being harnessed, and that's as simple as where they end up.
Most ideas never leave the minds they are created and die in because the people who generate them can't express them properly or as some put it, are non-expressor's.
So, next time you have an idea, put it down on a piece of paper(or digitally) if you're the writing kind or record it if you're the talking kind. Whats critical here is to hold on to it and understand how you can build on it.
Its not there aren't enough solutions in this world, but its that the solutions never reach to the problems.

Mathematical proofs and leadership

Back when I was a true mathematician and was studying abstract mathematical theory, was when I first hear that: 
'It's not in the length and the complexitiy, but in the simplicity and elegance that lies a mathematical proofs true beauty"

Leadership is like that as well. True leaders understand what it takes to lead positive change anywhere. They tackle the complexity, ambiguity and create something elegant and easy to use, that when it clicks, seems so simple anyone could have done it. 

On the surface, when people actually talk about success, they see all success as rags to riches, get rich quick stories and don't see the years of dedication, hard work and consistent effort than went into making something or someone successful.  

Don't lose motivation and keep working towards it. Don't let the public eye fool you. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Everyone wants a things that are quick and easy. Unfortunately, rarely do they ever cross each others path.

Twitter Digest

• Lego Is for Girls - Businessweek buswk.co/yOw64I
• 12 Most Ridiculous Job Titles in Social Media bit.ly/lSOj7g via @12most
• Why Should You Fear SOPA and PIPA? - Forbes onforb.es/yKXIj5
• “A ship is safe in harbour, but that’s not what ships are for.” – William Shedd
• 70 percent fat free - One Week Of Partial Blindness |  http://70percentfatfree.com/OneWeekOf/PartialBlindness.html via@Cmrn_DP

Death of the PC

source

Strategic Humor

SO WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 5 MONTHS?

via: HBR

[VIDEO]Steven Pinker: Would you like to come see my etchings?

You can't change who you are

"You can't change who you are".

I've heard the above statement enough times before, and it couldn't be more wrong. 

People people change all the time, and as situations change, their perspectives change. You can change yourself for the better if you work at it. Have grit and overcome your problems. Of course a prerequisite for that would be knowing what they are in the first place. So from this point on, ask for feedback and make sure that people are being honest with their feedback and are telling you what you need to hear. 

Work towards the things that are holding you back. Change who you are for the better everyday. 

Twitter Digest

• Pasta Geometries - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com nyti.ms/w3HjK4 @CMRN_DP
• Mrs. Gorf, 'Sideways Stories from Wayside School' - Top 10 Bad Teachers - TIME ti.me/w6Uidj
• I'm the founding partner of Proteus International, the author of Growing Great Employees and Being Strategic, and an i… onforb.es/xlkMsL
• The New Atlantis » Abraham Maslow and the All-American Self bit.ly/xgxxTs

first love vs. first hate

"For a lot of people, their first love is what they'll always remember. For me it's always been the first hate, and I think that hatred, though it provides often rather junky energy, is a terrific way of getting you out of bed in the morning and keeping you going."

-Christopher Hitchens

If you don't love going to work, working out, eating healthy, being close to certain things etc., perhaps all you need is a contrarian view. 

As Christopher Hitchens put it, maybe you need to realize what you hate the most and use that as a motivation tool. Hate is stronger than love in many aspects and using it in your favour can be critical to your success. Make the most of it.

Can you send me those synergistical ROI metrics by EOD?

Here's some buzzwords:

• Touch base
• Hindsight being 20/20
• Optimize __
• PLEASE ADVISE
• ROI
• Value add
• Success Metrics
• Pushback
• EOD(end of day)
• Grow

What do the above mean...you don't want to know. What I want you to do...stop using them.

Instead of using buzzwords, focus on explaining what they mean in a more lucid manner. Don't let buzzwords cloud your thinking and conversation. If it confuses someone else, why use it? Or should I say - whats the value add in that (pun intended)?  

Charts: Hollywood Movies 2011

Found an interesting data set on movies for 2011 and here's what I saw in charts ...

Top 10 should be fairly expected.

Disney clearly wins the battle with foreign gross $'s flowing in: 

This is top 10, but not core $'s. Its the profitability on the movie(Budget vs. Revenue):

And the unexpected genre battle:

The stories?

Perhaps it is a good idea to treat rotten-tomatoes with a grain of salt:

source: Infoisbeautiful

Twitter Digest

• 10 Things Not To Do When Traveling Internationally With Your Boss read.bi/Afcl7Z
• These Are The Gorgeous Kodak Ads That Made Photography Popular read.bi/z5wneT
• Forget Commodity Costs, It's Clear What Really Drove Hostess Into Bankruptcy read.bi/AwBIw4
• Seth's Blog: The problem with reassurance bit.ly/wq8UpS

Good leaders unlearn

Years of practice, reading, expanding your knowledge and developing cognitive reasoning skills etc.. teach you how to be a leader.
But along the way, we develop a comfort zone of doing things, and when things change(which is inevitable considering the rate with which technology changes), it becomes hard to accept it because its different than what we learned and its anti-historically proven.
True leaders unlearn, and forget about things along the way(Technology/people related things both)
Gandhi once said-"You must be the change you want to see".  Unlearn the traditional practices, sacred cows and know why the appropriate change is needed. Then do it. 

Made in America, Again

Chinese wages are growing fast enough that manufacturing will come back to America. The true question is when...

source: BCG

Compensation and grocery flyers

Some major grocery retails are good at discounting on a regular basis and usually have the $X.99 priced flyers and typically attach the "save!! $2/3/4" on top of that.

Take Walmart on the other hand…and look at how it does its pricing. All its prices are NOT rounded and in non-X.99 format(2.38, 5.37..etc) because it gives people the truth or at least the idea about what true value is and that they are being given the best and the lowest possible price.

Whereas in the other case, the consumer says "so Save $ 4 means you could have given me $4 off on that everyday if you wanted to, so you cheated me all along !".

Compensation is like that.Giving people what they deserve and what their true value is better(inversely to a grocery flyer…giving people the perception that if they make 12.7K a year is better vs. 10K) even if the latter still isn’t a stretch.

Employees are assets, not liabilities. Compensate them with the best possible value or at least give them the perception that they are being given the best possible value, because if he/she finds out that they were being cheated all along, chances are if you try and match their compensation in a potential departure to a competitor situation, they won't look back.

No one likes the feeling of being cheated on food. Why should compensation be any different.

Biased coins and initiative

I've never seen a biased coin in my life, but I'm sure some metallurgists out there know how to make one.As far as most of us go, we probably don't see one everyday.

Initiative is like that as well. As always, all initiatives can lead to only two distinct outcomes(ok maybe not distinct all the time), but the beauty here is that if you never flip it, you'll never know which side it landed.

Take the initiative, and throw yourself into the water....maybe the coin will be biased in your favour.  

Twitter Digest

Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes. - William Zinsser

Seth's Blog: Take the ball and go home bit.ly/yQbM3m

15 Worst Corporate Logo Fails read.bi/AneM9d

Business books quarterly: Pricing the future | The Economist econ.st/xtMR8P

Global abortion rates

via: Economist

Cheat day at work

Any of you on a diet (4 hour body, weight watchers, etc..) will have probably heard of the concept of cheat day and live by it.

A cheat day for someone on a diet is the day where they are allowed to eat whatever they want and typically, the individual involved is allowed only one cheat day a week.

The theory behind the cheat day concept is that it lets people keep their motivation but prevents them from cheating all the time since you are not allowed to break up the cheat day into cheat meals..which is probably a terrible idea since you’re bound to have too many cheat meals, but you’re likely to stick to a single cheat day.

You can have cheat days at work as well. 

Of course, that doesn't mean you don’t do any work …that’s bound to get you fired, but instead, take the cheat day to take some time off things that can be put off. Do the grunt work ( bite-the-bullet work) some other day. Instead use the time to:

• talk to people
• share links about common interests
• meet someone you don’t know in the building
• Learn something new about someone you already know 

Perhaps that will be the motivation, and will keep you going for the next week. 

Cheat days at work can be as amazing as cheat days on a diet. Its upto you on how you make the most of it. 

Formula for success

via: TomPeters

Why can't people just follow the damn instructions?

Why can't people just follow the damn instructions..why can't they just do what they are told to do in the first place...why can't they just go with the piece of paper that tells them exactly what to do...
All else being equal, the above statements relate to one common statement - "status quo". 

Don't just follow the instructions and don't do something you were told to do just because that's the way its supposed to be done, but instead, ask questions about the instructions. At the same time, don't stretch this and go further beyond and do something that you perceive is right rather than asking the person giving the instructions.
 
Question the status quo and ask the right questions and soon you will see that the creator him/her-self doesn't know either. Change is invevitable and its your responsibility to question everything and find improvements. 
Screw the instructions.

The back-channel talk phenomenon

We've all done it, and we've all tried to avoid it. But here's some thoughts.
Next time, someone tries to back-channel talk about someone else stop him / her right there. If they really must vent, let them vent first and listen but don't disagree or agree.

Stop back-channel talking about people not present in the room. Instead do yourself and everyone else a favour and go walk up to the person being "back-channeled" and tell them politely in a constructive-feedback like fashion what the problem is. Chances are that they'll appreciate it.

Customer service is like that as well. Consumers have problems with products and if they never voice them (or the company just doesn't listen...in which case they are doomed anyways), the manufacturer will never know what's wrong and how to fix it. Feedback is the lifeblood of how society works and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably the one being back-channeled right now.

Twitter Digest

• What The Shawshank Redemption Can Teach You About Entrepreneurship | Business Pundit bit.ly/wK9jHI
• Stop Bashing HR - Ron Ashkenas - Harvard Business Review bit.ly/zUwx43
• Why Private Equity Still Makes Us a Little Queasy - Walter Kiechel - Harvard Business Review bit.ly/yssZXG
• Millennial Women Are Burning Out At Work By 30... And It's Great For Business - Forbes onforb.es/zgj1nk
• Kids And Religion: Why I Dont Talk To My Son About God - StumbleUpon bit.ly/w0wfkY
• You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions – Naguib Mahfouz
• Why Private Equity Still Makes Us a Little Queasy - Walter Kiechel - Harvard Business Review bit.ly/zBre8k
• INFOGRAPHIC: Why You Should Get More Sleep read.bi/xrzWGO
• Daily chart: Life on Mars (and elsewhere) | The Economist econ.st/xq2t65
• 10 and 1/2 Lessons Learned from Forrest Gump | Michael Gaigg: Über UI/UX Design bit.ly/w1Jh2q

The "we" or "I" dilemma

Not to long ago, someone I knew was going through some rounds of interviewing at some major tier one companies. She had a great skill-set, personality and I definitely saw her fitting in both roles and getting offers from both. Both jobs had extensive interviewing procedures which made her work through group and individual assessments.
During her interviews with the first company, being the amazing team player she was, she constantly used "we" when in group situations, and shared credit with the team. Turned out she didn't get that job because one of the leaders at that company didn't like that she didn't really use "I"  enough.
With the second company, she went through the same thing, learning her lesson from the past one and used "I" and "we". Turned out that the company didn't like the use of "I" at all.

I hope you don't get stuck in a situation like this in your career. Not knowing what to expect can be rough on you. All the preparation that you would usually do studying the company website, probably won't get you minor cultural details like this one. But instead, try catch a hold of some of the potential leaders in the organization and ask them what's the make or break thing that you can say. Hopefully, you'll use it in your favor and land the gig.

PS. She's doing great now...and found her place where she is respected for both her "we" & "I".

Bill Gates Speech at Harvard

Meetings and Opinions

A team is susceptible to dysfunctions. And one of them is, being invited to the wrong meetings(and not pushing decline on that invite). But when you do go to meetings, you should be prepared to have an opinion.
If you go around the room after a fact has been presented, and no one has an opinion, then there's only two possible explanations:
A) People don't respect the presenter of the fact, and are just waiting to get the hell out of the room.
B) People don't want to argue against the presenter since they are concerned about their position in the organizational hierarchy
sidenote: Chance are if B happens, the org chart looks like this

source

But both these things are bad for an organization and usually indicate towards poor organizational health.
So next time, encourage vulnerability; let your guard down and let others freely express their opinions.
Because a meeting without CONSTRUCTIVE CONFLICT is just time wasted. 

JK Rowling Harvard Commencement Speech

Funny and touching at the same time.

Screw Work life balance

Work-life balance: One of the most overrated corporate sayings in the world.
Truth be told, its an incorrect concept, because its based on the fact that work is bad and life is good. But if you like what you do everyday and make the most of it, work doesn't have to be bad, it can be good or really good. So why obsess about something that doesn't make sense in the first place? 

Next time you see that co-worker staying forever at the office and toiling away hours working on things outside his daily responsibility, don't label him/her as the person who doesn't have a good work-life balance, but instead understand why he/she choose to be there for extended hours. Perhaps they were working on the next innovative idea that could turn the company around, or maybe they just didn't get anything done all day, but nonetheless, don't think they don't have a life because for its worth, they think work is the 'good' part of the work-life equation.

Misconception about America which needs to die

via: ritholtz

Braille at Wimpy's

Most people saw the Wimpy's brand disappeared from their dictonary, but here's something from South Africa that will impress you: 

8 steps to winning people over

Amazing story of winning people over:

1. Seize the initiative
2. Anticipate the Objection
3. Don’t Over Rely on a Business Case
4. Action Bias
5. Seize the Moral High Ground
6. Don’t Forget Politics
7. It is Better to Ask for Forgiveness then Permission
8. Theory of Mind

via: Forbes

Twitter Digest

• People Are Awesome: The Coffee Shop Where Everyone Pays for Everyone Else's Drinks - News - GOOD bit.ly/yGuQG4
• Could Cancer Cure Barbie? Mattel vs. Beautiful and Bald Barbie - Forbes onforb.es/AhIqnE#Crowdsourcing #FAIL
• Seth's Blog: Your voice will give you away bit.ly/wZyXTH
• I Was Shitting You People - A Message From Ayn Rand bit.ly/xA7CTY
• Chart of the Day: Greek workers work 48% more hours than Germans | Credit Writedownsbit.ly/wrlLbC
• Top 10 Places To Find Alien Life : Discovery News bit.ly/zOQUxk
• "I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying.” - Michael Jordan
• BBC - History - Historic Figures: Pythagoras (c.580 BC - c.500 BC) bbc.in/zR1xiK
• Why Warren Buffett Disdains The Private Equity Crowd - Forbes onforb.es/z3Hu5B
• Are You Ready For Sexy Pepper Spray Cop Perfume? read.bi/Afrwa4
• Amazingly motivational: Leadership Secrets from a Navy SEAL - Forbes onforb.es/A1RZGq
• 16 Fresh Insights That Challenged What We Thought We Knew About Investing read.bi/zftWPg

Charts: Food trends(Years 1800-2000)

Even the google ngram has shared its fair bit of criticism, its still fun to see how things have evolved through the ages. Here's some trends on food.

Wondering why the world is getting fatter:


I love sushi, and seems like so does the world:

No doubt on this one since mustard has many uses other than just being a condiment:

This one is a shocker:

Seems like the world is confused with which stimulant to use:

The death of aspartame:

Fruits losing the battle to vegetables:


source: GoogleNgram

Oprah Winfrey's Stanford Address