BlogSat

A couple of weeks ago, someone said something that sounded really smart. The idea seemed bold, incisive and very original....until I heard it again a little bit later from someone else... and then once more from yet another person. Each of these people seemed to imply they came up with the idea themselves. Now there are very few truly original ideas. Most of us come up with stuff by applying what we've learned in another domains to a new one, or by building on the work of others. The most "original" ideas and thoughts can come from the conscious or unconscious application of standard tools, patterns, and frameworks to new field and applications. (A professor I had once said" Convert every problem to a nail so that you can use this hammer that you have") So variance in ideas can come from either applying different tools and patterns, or learning from different sources. However, over time (especially in small groups where everyone gets really busy and everyone h...

Sometimes an "aha" moment or two is all I need to turn my day around (or at least make me think it turned around!) I had one such aha insight about why FriendFeed is so frikkin awesome in its simplicity, and a better understanding of how a certain UI choice can influence user behavior (in this case mine!) Mental note: Learn some more about Friendfeed! "Aha" moment explanation to come later. I feel its going to turn into one of my amatuer-ish clearly-just-out-of-bschool ramblings, and I don't have the time for that right now. :) But here's the video that got me started on that:

A few days ago, I had to explain the difference between 2 technologies to someone. His response at the end was "Isn't that just a little bit better than the first technology though? Why would anyone find that all that useful? No one would be willing to spend more money on that?" I couldn't help feeling that while he had a point, but he was also missing it all together. Isn't innovation often just figuring out how to make things just a little bit better/little bit easier. That "little bit" is sometimes enough (think DVRs replacing the old VCRs leading to the increase in people time-shifting though it was always possible before; think Apple making listening to music easier by intergrating the entire stack though finding music online and putting it on MP3 players was always possible before.) Of course, many times it just isn't enough and thats why so many products don't really catch fire. But the lesson is kinda obvious, if you're short of ideas...

I'm not sure how I ended up on Scott Adams' blog last week, but this post really resonated....for a number of reasons. First of all after 2 years at UChicago, I agree that an exposure to a lot of economists/economics will change the way you think forever. You're constantly questioning why you're thinking in a certain way, why you're believing what you do and under what circumstances that belief will change. It can make life a little more complicated, but oh-so-much more interesting.:) Anyway, the main part of Scott Adams post is about cognitive dissonance. He described his reaction to an episode of the Real Time with Bill Maher show, where essentially an economist made an unconventional argument: (i.e. the cost of measures we're taking to fight global warming may basically not be worth it.) I don't know if the argument is true, but the data to prove it definitively false isn't there either. Its a classic economic argument. It should've been hea...

Umm...more than a week of blog-less days. There goes yet another resolution.:) As one of the reading for this class, I read this chapter (When Talk Substitutes For Action) from this book (The Knowing-Doing Gap) . BTW, isn't Google Print awesome!? The take-away from the chapter: that business school can be dangerous in that it can leave MBAs believing that victory is merely successfully articulating a good idea. The case method and discussions help foster that view. I've definitely observed that in myself and many (if not most) of my peers. Success is seen in successfully arguing for one's own point of view and intelligence or cleverness is being able to cut down someone else's point. The chapter also notes the tragedy that it is easier to appear smart by disagreeing with someone rather than agreeing with them. I've caught myself doing (and actually done) this literally hundreds of times. Some of this skepticism is necessary to test the idea on the table, but is so...

Well, first of all I think after a year and half, I'm finally ready to write a little code. I might start slow to avoid the shock. Yahoo! Pipes seems an interesting way to get started. I'm glad to see Yahoo! doing something cool after such a while, especially given all the problems they've had lately. Now, about that innovation thingy: here's the idea. Well actually, before that you need some context. Last weekend, in yet another successful effort to waste what should have been productive time, I ended up watching this movie on YouTube (surprisingly funny and stylistically interesting actually!) Now, some random user took the trouble to rip, split and upload the movie on YouTube. His/her only motivation seems to be: the "thank yous" that other users posted. YouTube's motivation to keep the content on there: the ad revenue. The content owner gets nothing, even though they've done most of the work, and the classic economic argument is that eventually ...