The New New Thing

I was wodnering what could be a few Weapons of Mass Distraction. The top three I could think of are …

1. Internet
2. Twitter (I am @Saurabh on twitter)
3. Facebook

What do you think are your Weapons of Mass Distraction? Can a brand become such a weapon?

Just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. According to Gladwell, an outlier

is a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience.

The big idea in the book is that you need at least 10, 000 hours of exposure (I will not call it experience) in a particular art/science/talent before you can make it big. The claim has been substantiated by citing examples from lives of Bill Joy, Bill Gates, Beatles etc.

The book also claims that success is a function of not only an individual’s brilliance or talent but host of other factors that might include opportunities, ethnicity, time when someone is born and even arbitrary reasons (not necessarily all of them, or in that order).

Here are the lines that I underlined while I was reading the book.

• Network effect plays an important role
• As WEB says, even ovarian lottery plays a critical role.
• Self fulfilling prophecy – a situation where a false definition in the beginning evokes a new behaviour which makes the original false conception come true.
• “teachers often confuse maturity with ability”
• “It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success.”
• “Success is the result of what sociologists like to call ‘accumulative advantage’”
• “we are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail”
• “(success is a) combination of ability, opportunity and utterly arbitrary advantage”
• “Achievement is talent plus preparation”
• “Successful people don’t do it alone. Where they come from matters. They’re products of particular places and environments”
• “…buried in that setback was a golden opportunity”
• “Those three things – autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward – are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.”
• “success arises out of the steady accumulation of advantages”
• “success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard …”
• “Outliers are those who have been given opportunities – and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them”

Lots of ideas and insights. And here are my thoughts on the book and the idea of 10, 000 hours and notion that sucess depends on multiple factors.

• I think with Internet, even if you lost the ovarian lottery and you can still offset a few disadvantages. Though you will still need to get those 10, 000 hours of “exposure”.
• You need to be able to connect with apparent “successes” if you have any hopes of offsetting those “accumulated disadvantages”.
• And finally I was wondering, what is that one thing that I have done for more than 10, 000 hours? 10, 000 mean 3 years of full time activity or 10 years of part time activity. I have been blogging PART TIME for 5 years, writing PART TIME for 6 years, gathering information FULL TIME for more than 10 years. Which of these can be a commercially viable activity?

I would recommend the book for sure. The Outliers is an easy to read book with lots of examples and interesting anecdotes (like the other two Gladwell books – The Tipping Point and Blink). And btw the book also says “the higher your (IQ) score, the more education you’ll get, the more money you’re like to make, and – believe it or not – the longer you’ll live”.

Am doing a 1v1 after a long time. Experience vs Obsolescence.

A typical dictionary would define experience as “have first hand knowledge of states, situations, emotions, or sensations” (link). A person would be called experienced if he has been there and done that. And done that over and over again for a long duration. In many cases, people spend their entire lives earning experience in their chosen field of work. Doctors, Engineers, Marketers to name a few. And then drivers, professional sportsmen, lift operators etc. Experience is respected, revered and often acts as a selling proposition. However, like all good things, it has its limitations. It blocks a person’s mind. Since an experienced person thinks that he is an authority on his subject, he starts discarding anything that might potentially change the very thing that he is expert at.

On the other hand, someone would call something obsolete when “loses value because the outside world has changed” (link). An object or a person becomes obsolete when by the fact that its environment changes, its no longer of use. Think of pagers, telegrams, post boxes, floppy disks, audio cassettes etc. They are were wonderful inventions but with time, better things were invented that (pretty much did what the obsolete things did) were faster, better, easier and cheaper. Often experienced people tend to become obsolete. And no, not everyone becomes one. The ones who refuse to listen and fail to identify the signals in time are the ones who would be experienced and obsolete. And that in my opinion is the worst place to be.

And like a lot of things, these two go hand in hand. More experienced you get, more ingrained the beliefs become, more difficult it becomes to accept the reality and more risk you run of obsolescence. The need of the hour is to learn with these rapidly changing times and adopt new realities as and when they emerge. And hopefully, stay just a little bit ahead of the curve.

Image you are a person who has spent 25 years of your life working with the postal department and suddenly there is something called email and there is no work for you. You cant work anywhere else because all you can do is stamp letters and all you know is pincodes of 400 districts in the country.

And, in the end, what would you want to be? Experienced? Obsolete? What would you push for? Experience? Obsolescence?

Other 1v1s
- 1v1: Thinking vs Meditating
- 1v1: Whether vs When
- Analyze vs Act
- 1v1: Excellence vs Mediocrity
- 1v1: Expert vs Employee
- 1v1: Popular vs Pertinent

Whatever could have been said, has already been said.

- Saurabh Garg

P.S.: Hope in future, I dont look back at this quote and regret ;P

How about creating a twitter account (they are free :D) and using it to post quotes, snippets, texts, insights or any other wisecrack in less than 140 words?

Why would you do it?

1. Since these insights are small ideas that you build on, you need to save them somewhere. I do maintain a notepad where I scribble nearly anything and everything, there are times when you want them to be digitized.
2. They are too small and are in early stages of conception. Cant clutter blog with tons of those.
3. Twitter allows retrival using numerous methods. It is available for the world to see and comment.
4. I can use hashtags and Twitter Search to retrieve thoughts that get old.

All in all looks a good idea. Let me try it out and see. I created this twitter account tumblr account for the same.

Any thoughts anyone? How do you keep your ideas in context? How do you develop them further?

Ok, here is the deal. I want to read / speak to / understand / talk about / debate on / take lessons from Korean Internet and Mobile phone culture. Google searches on the same have proved futile. I could not find a single Twitter user who can help me understand Korean youth and their online lives. There are no websites that has case studies or reports on the same.

Can someone point at few blogs that I should read? Or few twitterers who I should follow and engage in conversations with? Or a few interesting Korean youth who hang out on Facebook or Flickr? If there is someone who does anthropological studies on Korean youth, it will be even better. May be few yahoo or google groups?

This is important for me because I keep on hearing about Korea and how users there are leaps ahead in terms of Internet and Mobile phone adoption and usage. Obvisouly I can share what India and Internet here is like (if that sounds a good enough barter?).

Resources

• Websites/Blog – KoreanInsight
• Links – Korea Internet Usage Stats via Labellagorda

Just posted this on twitter

Wondering when would we (wow 5 w’s in a row) Indians start living our lives without any fear or complications or inhibitions? for ourselvs?

Permalink

To make a lot of money, you need to have ideas and time. And to come up with ideas, you need to have a lot of free time. And to need a lot of free time, you need to have financial freedom.

Talk of vicious circles of life.

What motivates people to do sundry, little, insignificant jobs? again and again?

For their whole lives where the possibility of advancement or even recognition is remote?

Gaurav (@gsik) asked me write something on the Quarter-Life Crisis. Wikipedia defines QLC as

period of life immediately following the major changes of adolescence, usually ranging from the ages of 21 – 30

This definition is hardly sufficient to really explain what it really is. If I can take liberties to explain, in my own words, QLC is that phase of life when you have grown out of your college, you find everyone around you doing great with their lives and you are all confused and dont have a clue what to do with your life.

So I have to answer following questions

1. Why do I think I suffer from Quarter Life Crisis?
2. How do I deal with it?
3. And do I see it as positive or negative energy?

So why do I think I am suffering from QLC?
Few hard facts first. I think I have one of the best jobs in the world with a lot of freedom to do things the way I want to do. My boss is as supportive as anyone can be. My employer is a growing company that will be a powerhouse to reckon with in times to come. I am paid enough money to stay comfortably even in a city like Mumbai. Everything looks hunky-dory. On paper.

While advertising is a great place to be amidst the thick of actions, contributing to few of the biggest brands, trying to create new media and brand businesses, there are times when I feel that I am destined to do things larger and grander than just advertising or brain-storming. I have no clue what this grand dream is. I have been running after for all 25 years of my life and I still dont have a clue where to go with it. There are times when I feel as if I am stuck. And this is the exact reason why I think I am suffering from QLC.

I know that I have had a great education and I am ready to take on the world. But the entire exercise of taking on the world is not even starting. Everything I do, however grand it may be from my perspective looks insignificant compared to the entire world.

And then there are my friends. Everyone seems to be making more money than me. Everyone seems to be having an absolute blast in life with global travels, time for themselves, relationships, carer advancements and latest gadgets whereas I am stuck in Mumbai with nothing of this sort happening. And not even remote chances of it in the sight.

I know I am a future rich famous and important guy but I dont know how and when would I reach there. I have opinions on things around me. Rather strong ones at that. I think everyone around me is mediocre and needs improvement. I dont want to spend time with these people and I would rather sit online trying to discover a new new thing rather than meeting people in social settings. I still laugh and cry with them but mentally I am very detached from them.

I am told that all these symptoms (and thousands others that I am not writing about) point to one thing. And one thing only. That I do suffer from Quarter-Life Crisis.

And how do I deal with it?
Since there are no medications available that might help someone suffering from QLC, I have to resort to home grown ideas. I am giving away an entire list of remedies that I use.

1. Get busy. As simple as that. I have been told zillion times that an idle mind is devil’s workshop. Most of my friends are really happy with what they do because they dont really have time to think. They get up, goto work, come back, have dinner and sleep. The entire long day makes them tired and all they can do at the end of the day is sleep.
2. Write. Writing is tough. And especially when its me. I am not really known for my writing and literary skills and it makes the task all the more frustrating. You try to write so that you might get an avenue to channel your frustration through (because you dont really have any friends and the ones that you have dont have time to hear you whine and the ones who actually listen to you dont really understand the predicament you are in). And once the words dont come out, you are left with a half written text, that you save on your hard drive to never open again and eventually delete after 5 years (assuming that you would not want to read what you wrote five years ago).
3. Motivate yourself. You take examples from what everyone is doing around you. You start dreaming that you can also live their lives if you tried. You start buying bling shirts and star studded jeans and start frequenting the “happening” places. You initially get laughed at. Once you get used to it, you start thinking that you are just being unlucky the first time (and everyone else boasts about the luck of the first-timers). Then after the vanity of first timing fades out, you realize that people have moved on from clubbing to mundane activities like lounge bars and coffee conversations. Moment you reach there, they move on further. Its always like trying to catch that train whose driver is like a kid trying to take a revenge for all the beating you gave him in school.
4. Get more secluded. If none of the above work, its best to confine yourself to isolation. For one simple reason. You would not break more walls and retain the damage to yourself. In fact I am planning to do exactly this in next couple of months.

Finally I was asked if I see this as negative or positive energy.
I think energy is more positive than negative (at least for me). Reasons are very simple. Moment I see someone doing better than me, I would want to better him at his own game. I know I am not meant to do all the things in the world but at least I get to know more things. And this is something that moves me like no other thing. I can spend my entire life chasing that new thing and once accomplished, move on to the next one. And next one and the next one.

Secondly I also realize that end of the day I am human. However large things I may do, I will always remain a mere mortal that cant live beyond a certain comfort zone. My creations will always be lesser than all the mountains, oceans, Mother Nature. But again, can I get bigger than her? Can I beat her at her own game? Time shall tell and all of us shall stand witness to the confrontation.

And to end it all, yes I do suffer from QLC and I am still trying to find out a solution for the same. Prashant has a very interesting take on the entire thing. Please see his perspective also.

P.S.: Although I do suffer from QLC, the text above is a piece of fiction written on @gsik’s request.