राम सरूप तुम्हार

I am posting this here as its one of my favourites from ramcharitmanas sung by lata mangeshkar and since its in hindi, whenever i have to read it it takes a ton of time to find. Besides she has not sung all the doha's and i wanted it here in one place.

Starts at Ayodhyakand - doha 126 - ram swarup tumhar

* राम सरूप तुम्हार बचन अगोचर बुद्धिपर।
अबिगत अकथ अपार नेति नेति नित निगम कह।126॥

भावार्थ:-हे राम! आपका स्वरूप वाणी के अगोचर, बुद्धि से परे, अव्यक्त, अकथनीय और अपार है। वेद निरंतर उसका 'नेति-नेति' कहकर वर्णन करते हैं॥126॥

* सुनहु राम अब कहउँ निकेता। जहाँ बसहु सिय लखन समेता॥
जिन्ह के श्रवन समुद्र समाना। कथा तुम्हारि सुभग सरि नाना॥2॥

भावार्थ:-हे रामजी! सुनिए, अब मैं वे स्थान बताता हूँ, जहाँ आप, सीताजी और लक्ष्मणजी समेत निवास कीजिए। जिनके कान समुद्र की भाँति आपकी सुंदर कथा रूपी अनेक सुंदर नदियों से-॥2॥

* भरहिं निरंतर होहिं न पूरे। तिन्ह के हिय तुम्ह कहुँ गुह रूरे॥
लोचन चातक जिन्ह करि राखे। रहहिं दरस जलधर अभिलाषे॥3॥

भावार्थ:-निरंतर भरते रहते हैं, परन्तु कभी पूरे (तृप्त) नहीं होते, उनके हृदय आपके लिए सुंदर घर हैं और जिन्होंने अपने नेत्रों को चातक बना रखा है, जो आपके दर्शन रूपी मेघ के लिए सदा लालायित रहते हैं,॥3॥

* जसु तुम्हार मानस बिमल हंसिनि जीहा जासु।
मुकताहल गुन गन चुनइ राम बसहु हियँ तासु॥128॥

भावार्थ:-आपके यश रूपी निर्मल मानसरोवर में जिसकी जीभ हंसिनी बनी हुई आपके गुण समूह रूपी मोतियों को चुगती रहती है, हे रामजी! आप उसके हृदय में बसिए॥128॥

* प्रभु प्रसाद सुचि सुभग सुबासा। सादर जासु लहइ नित नासा॥
तुम्हहि निबेदित भोजन करहीं। प्रभु प्रसाद पट भूषन धरहीं॥1॥

भावार्थ:-जिसकी नासिका प्रभु (आप) के पवित्र और सुगंधित (पुष्पादि) सुंदर प्रसाद को नित्य आदर के साथ ग्रहण करती (सूँघती) है और जो आपको अर्पण करके भोजन करते हैं और आपके प्रसाद रूप ही वस्त्राभूषण धारण करते हैं,॥1॥

कर नित करहिं राम पद पूजा। राम भरोस हृदयँ नहिं दूजा॥2॥

भावार्थ:-जिनके मस्तक देवता, गुरु और ब्राह्मणों को देखकर बड़ी नम्रता के साथ प्रेम सहित झुक जाते हैं, जिनके हाथ नित्य श्री रामचन्द्रजी (आप) के चरणों की पूजा करते हैं और जिनके हृदय में श्री रामचन्द्रजी (आप) का ही भरोसा है, दूसरा नहीं,॥2॥

* चरन राम तीरथ चलि जाहीं। राम बसहु तिन्ह के मन माहीं॥

भावार्थ:-तथा जिनके चरण श्री रामचन्द्रजी (आप) के तीर्थों में चलकर जाते हैं, हे रामजी! आप उनके मन में निवास कीजिए। जो नित्य आपके (राम नाम रूप) मंत्रराज को जपते हैं और परिवार (परिकर) सहित आपकी पूजा करते हैं॥3॥

* सबु करि मागहिं एक फलु राम चरन रति होउ।
तिन्ह कें मन मंदिर बसहु सिय रघुनंदन दोउ॥129॥

भावार्थ:-और ये सब कर्म करके सबका एक मात्र यही फल माँगते हैं कि श्री रामचन्द्रजी के चरणों में हमारी प्रीति हो, उन लोगों के मन रूपी मंदिरों में सीताजी और रघुकुल को आनंदित करने वाले आप दोनों बसिए॥129॥

* काम कोह मद मान न मोहा। लोभ न छोभ न राग न द्रोहा॥
जिन्ह कें कपट दंभ नहिं माया। तिन्ह कें हृदय बसहु रघुराया॥1॥

भावार्थ:-जिनके न तो काम, क्रोध, मद, अभिमान और मोह हैं, न लोभ है, न क्षोभ है, न राग है, न द्वेष है और न कपट, दम्भ और माया ही है- हे रघुराज! आप उनके हृदय में निवास कीजिए॥1॥

कहहिं सत्य प्रिय बचन बिचारी। जागत सोवत सरन तुम्हारी॥2॥

भावार्थ:-जो सबके प्रिय और सबका हित करने वाले हैं, जिन्हें दुःख और सुख तथा प्रशंसा (बड़ाई) और गाली (निंदा) समान है, जो विचारकर सत्य और प्रिय वचन बोलते हैं तथा जो जागते-सोते आपकी ही शरण हैं,॥2॥

* तुम्हहि छाड़ि गति दूसरि नाहीं। राम बसहु तिन्ह के मन माहीं॥

भावार्थ:-और आपको छोड़कर जिनके दूसरे कोई गति (आश्रय) नहीं है, हे रामजी! आप उनके मन में बसिए। जो पराई स्त्री को जन्म देने वाली माता के समान जानते हैं और पराया धन जिन्हें विष से भी भारी विष है,॥3॥

* स्वामि सखा पितु मातु गुर जिन्ह के सब तुम्ह तात।
मन मंदिर तिन्ह कें बसहु सीय सहित दोउ भ्रात॥130॥

भावार्थ:-हे तात! जिनके स्वामी, सखा, पिता, माता और गुरु सब कुछ आप ही हैं, उनके मन रूपी मंदिर में सीता सहित आप दोनों भाई निवास कीजिए॥130॥

* गुन तुम्हार समुझइ निज दोसा। जेहि सब भाँति तुम्हार भरोसा॥
राम भगत प्रिय लागहिं जेही। तेहि उर बसहु सहित बैदेही॥2॥

भावार्थ:-जो गुणों को आपका और दोषों को अपना समझता है, जिसे सब प्रकार से आपका ही भरोसा है और राम भक्त जिसे प्यारे लगते हैं, उसके हृदय में आप सीता सहित निवास कीजिए॥2॥

* जाति पाँति धनु धरमु बड़ाई। प्रिय परिवार सदन सुखदाई॥
सब तजि तुम्हहि रहइ उर लाई। तेहि के हृदयँ रहहु रघुराई॥3॥

भावार्थ:-जाति, पाँति, धन, धर्म, बड़ाई, प्यारा परिवार और सुख देने वाला घर, सबको छोड़कर जो केवल आपको ही हृदय में धारण किए रहता है, हे रघुनाथजी! आप उसके हृदय में रहिए॥3॥

* जाहि न चाहिअ कबहुँ कछु तुम्ह सन सहज सनेहु।
बसहु निरंतर तासु मन सो राउर निज गेहु॥131॥

भावार्थ:-जिसको कभी कुछ भी नहीं चाहिए और जिसका आपसे स्वाभाविक प्रेम है, आप उसके मन में निरंतर निवास कीजिए, वह आपका अपना घर है॥131॥

Go Set A Watchman - I want to eat my hat

(these are my personal views, they are not aimed at hurting any business or sentiments, but based more on experience of what has happened in such events)

Harper Lee's latest book was discovered in attic after 50 years. The entire publishing world and especially the publishers are electrified.

The cover tells us the more about the readers than the author. If people have to be told who harper lee is by mentioning "to kill a mocking bird", on the cover, either the quality of reading has gone downhill, or the publisher didn't want to take chances. 

The real fun will be to watch all the "literary critics" falling over each other to proclaim it as the next classic, and how harper lee still has it, why harper lee is harper lee. Criticism of the author would just be like spitting at the sun. 

Once a decade such and event happens when a book  is a sure bestseller in the literary world before it's even published, just riding on reviews. No one will talk of the reorders that will come, just the number of copies in print. 


This is what will happen.The only winner here will be e-books. People will flock to the store to buy their showoff physical copy. Go to coffeeshops and read it there. Sit and read it on the trains and airports . Will quote from it. 

All in effort to create that perception of taste and intellectualism. The book will reach NewYork Times best seller list, as anyways Harper Lee is a brand name when her books have been prescribed reading in entire america. Some rumours will also surface from "real literati" if this book too is authored by Truman Capote, and in rarified atmosphere this will be a good topic of discussion for 3 months.

After that the machinery will stop. The rumour mills and the world will move on to the next hip thing. Re-orders perish. Stock stuck. A brief surge during year end when the best books of the year list comes out, or harper lee is given a second pulitzer. Some push for the Nobel prize in literature given all the racism in news and political focus. But i am sure that publishers would have bet on a HUGE print run, and even after all this, i feel You will be buying this book for 2 dollars next year for sure.

Very possibly another "Rhett Butler's people" in the making. If the author had not published it for 50 years, may be there was a reason. You just don't write a book and then just forget about it.

I hope that for such an author my predictions turn out wrong and i eat my hat. But in the world of 50 shades of grey, i doubt that will happen.

What's the Dollar Value of Your Linkedin Profile?

What's the Dollar Value of Your Linkedin Profile?

Now this seems like a strange question isn't it? I agree. But I think, it has an answer, or at least a rough way of estimation for a feel good factor, so read on.

Linkedin is influential

Linkedin has been the single most influential platform to connect with professionals all over the world. One of the ways in which you can use Linkedin to the fullest is by buying premium accounts which means access to In-mail, and a little more reach via special features + metrics on how are you faring in profile views & rankings.

This directly means spend, if not Investment.

In my last pulse article, I tried to say that the subscription services are too expensive, unless you are making more back (unless its a corporate account in which case accounting is complex). By the end of this page, you find more reasons, and a different way of achieving the same objective.

How do you calculate a dollar value of your profile?

Which leads us to the question, How do you know the dollar value of your profile?

And to answer this, lets use a Linkedin feature itself. Its called Linkedin Business Solutions. 

Using this, you can create SUPER Targeted Ads. Its almost  sniper accurate, if you know what you want out of it. And it even proclaims so.

So, while fishing around it, i checked out the pricing models and what were they charging for a profile view. (Since at present i am in Tokyo, around 100yen= 1 dollar for a rough approximation)

Right now, 1000 ad views on Linkedin = 2 to 4 USD

The CPC (cost per click) on an AD = 2 to 4 USD.

Here is a screen shot from the Advertisement tool.

Let's calculate

So, If you bought the premium account and your profile views jumped, it means that for every 1 click, to visit your page, is getting 2 dollars in your virtual piggy bank.

Dollar value of profile = 2 dollars X number of additional view your profile got

You can easily check the growth from your profile metrics page. It looks something like this.

Linkedin also provides you with your own vanity metric which you can keep trying to push up.

So if you are getting 100 profile views a week without doing anything, then thats 200 dollars of virtual value. So your profile is worth 200 Dollars a week. 

Remember, to reach your profile, your profile tile had to come up in a search or another page, and make the user click. If you were trying to do that using Linkedin Ads, linkedin would charge you 200 dollars.

You can also take a different approach and say suppose you had a commercial message on your profile. In such a case your profile would generate 1000 views = 2 dollars in 5 weeks. So your page value is 0.4 dollars.

Which means, if you are buying, its worth 200 dollars. But if you are selling, its worth 40 cents. (sorry to break it to you, but thats how advertising works).

An Arbitrage exists to benefit without Linkedin premium

Bottom line is that if you are paying 7-10 dollars a month for basic subscription, and you managed to get 5 extra profile views in that particular month, then you are even (by Linkedin standards). 

Now you can always claim that Linkedin advert is overpriced, but thats not the point here. The point is to achieve the same objective for less.

If you are an advertiser, you can see that there is an arbitrage here. The cost of an In-mail also happens to be around 4 Dollars each. 

So instead of buying an in-mail, its always better to create a tightly targeted ad on a CPM basis, and get your 1000 views.You will get access to all the same metrics, if you have targeted it to your profile page.

Want to reach out to Bill Gates?

In mail lets you write stuff, and guarantees a response, but if i have to reach out to Bill Gates, i would rather create an AD that would follow him everywhere on Linkedin and get a 1000 views than buy 10 In-mails via a premium account and then send him one. (if we wanted to do this just by spending money and nothing else)

Crazy right?  Do you think it will work?

A Note on Linkedin like subscriptions

I am a premium member on linkedin, and have been pretty active this month. This resulted in a nasty surprise today.

Today, Linkedin suggested that my activity is reaching "commercial level" of usage, and therefore i cannot search more unless i update to the next level on my monthly subscription.

The entire tech industry is working like a big classroom, where one solution is being copied endlessly by everyone. A decade ago, everyone was selling Software, and now every one is intent on selling subscriptions to help their top line. This is making companies make mistakes and ignore the bigger picture.

Strengths of a subscription based model

There are very simple reasons why any corporation wants to go into subscription based model

- Making sure that the income is steady and predictable

- Higher price can be charged on the whole, over a year, once price is converted to Byte sized amount. This is same as taking an instalment for a loan.

- The pricing can be flexible and can be easily changed for the exact same product and affected on a monthly basis. This means inflation can immediately be built into the price, rather than waiting for the next version of the product or going into a complex real world price changes.

Issues with subscription based models

But there are some issues, and they are more from Customer centric perspective

- The biggest being that customers do realize that they are paying more than they should.

- Inadvertently an organization on subscription model starts competing with random companies for the same share of customers wallet. Let me explain this phenomenon a little bit more.

- A company might delude in thinking that they are just charging 7 dollars a month, but a customer knows that he/she is paying a pile of 7 dollars every month.

- A customer is constantly evaluating his/her purchase decision on a monthly basis, and a call to opt out of subscription has a long effect.

Customers are making purchasing decisions every month : BAD

Suppose you bought linkedin as a lone standing product with a yearly subscription paid out once. In such a scenario, you would have made the decision to pay once. It would have been similar to deciding to purchase a car. But now that you are paying it every month, you are thinking of its viability every month.

This is bad for business. This means that even though the service might look affordable, you are constantly evaluating it and that leaves no margin for mistake, plus requires you to be useful + Cost effective every single month.

One can always argue for a premium pricing with better service, but with technology and technology products getting commoditised, this differentiation is getting harder and harder to achieve.

A Service ends up competing on product AND share of wallet.

Also now a service like linkedin would be competing with my netflix subscription, spotify subscription, car payments, rent, cable subscriptions, phone bills, Onedrive subscription, magazine subscriptions and virtually everything that i pay for every month.

If i had paid once, there was nothing that i could have done. But now if on a particular month, i want to cut down on the expenses, i can do so by unsubscribing. Think for a minute, what would happen. Which service would get the boot.

Also, with the low cost of exit from a subscription, if i have dropbox subscription, i may not go ahead and buy any other storage service. At least not in that particular month. So a company has my loyalty, but only till they are price competitive and don't make mistakes.

Acquisition costs are real, but no lock-in guarantee on retention

Which means dropbox has me till Microsoft doesn't lower the price on one drive. In such an economy, cost of customer acquisition is real without substantial control on customer retention. The lock in period is just 4 weeks.

You can't compete against free

In a bullish economy with flaky customers, there would be a VC fund out there willing to invest in a new start-up and there would be a service who would give what you are doing for free or at lower price to get your customers. If its not happening right now, means that there are other problems being solved.

Think of it in this way, Whats stopping Facebook (free service) from starting a linkedin kind of a service? Nothing actually.

If facebook does launch a free service, how much runway do you have with a subscription model? May be a couple of months. But with a licence based product like Windows, microsoft has been able to reiterate and find out ways to keep growing.

If facebook is the exact same platform and can be free, why should we be paying for linkedin?

Suggestion? 

As far as on my premium subscription, i immediately cancelled it, as the same search functionality is provided by google.

The suggestion? Right now the premium subscription is more of a tax on the money that you are going to make than an actual charge for value. Premium subscription is not costing linkedin any substantial spend.

So if you want to charge subscription, there has to be an actual difference in value than a tax over my profit.

Also keeping a subscription price comparative to more essential services doesn't make sense. If the prices are high due to lower conversion, and few are paying for many, then linkedin should make sure that they sell to the bottom of the pyramid at even lower prices.

Conclusions

If linkedin was advertisement free, i would have been happy to pay and bear the cost for some free users. I recently checked linkedin ad rates and they are charging around 80 rupees CPC. Then it doesn't make sense. Above all, search is a prime feature on any website, and the thought of putting a price on it, that too to UPSELL you to the next level seems a lot more customer negative. That was the whole point. Linkedin is playing like a monopoly, and i think the time is ripe for FB or others to jump in and increase the competition.

Would love to hear your views

Touched up Profile Photograph

Nothing tells me more about a person than a touched up profile photograph.

When i see such a photograph, its not just  a touch up that i see. I see a person trying to get a perfect shot and then trying again and again till they get the best picture. I then see them taking a look at that best shot with a look of dissatisfaction on how it turned out.

It turned out different from the way you think about yourself. You look different than how you think you look, and no amount of angle or lighting could capture that.

Then i see a dissatisfied person getting an app. Loading that photo on the app, and in more cases than not, adding that glow, removing that blemish, and making the skin look a little more fair.(i came across such a profile on linkedin)

Because these are the important things right? How people look at you and how they perceive you is being determined by the shade of your skin, and you wanted to look your best. Then you would go out in the world and judge everyone who was a little more tan than you.

You also wanted to successfully communicate it to people through a photo that you have made sure that your inner beauty is being reflected on your exterior self. Just in case they misunderstood it as a vain exercise.

People who put in a profile photo of salman khan, are in my world a little better than the people who touch up their photos. Why you ask? I don't know, but that is how it is.

All of this and tonnes of our other actions keep making our world a little more superficial and a little more phony. And a day comes when reality and fiction just crossover into each other.

Successful but not religious? Think again

The aim of any religion in the world has been to make good humans out of us. To bring happiness in our lives to walk on the path of righteousness.

The definition of righteous has changed from time to time, but the essence has remained the same. Don't harm human being. Earlier, the essence used to be that don't harm human beings because i said so. Now the essence is don't harm human beings because it will cause you harm.

To achieve this objective all major religions in the world have relied on stories. Stories that told of a hero or god's struggle, and how they remained righteous and overcame the struggle. The reasons for following and reading scriptures has been to understand what is good behaviour by examples as well as remember these people who walked the right path.

In our present world, the scriptures have lost value, but the human behaviour has remained the same. We still have the stories, we call them case studies.

We still follow lives, they are autobiographies. We still follow stories which tell us how to be good and successful. We think we are doing it to achieve more in life. But in the end, the principles of true success still remain the same.

 People who are successful know it inside them, that there are some things that you simply cannot do without repercussions . Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you are religious you will use terms like "karma".

Check out the life of any fortune 500 CEO. You can't drink to excess, you can't commit crime, you have to watch what you say, you have to be fair to people. All of these are the same values that any religion teaches us. The reasoning has changed.

To be successful, you have to be kind, thoughtful, considerate and polite. These values and behaviours are what oils the wheels of society. If you learn them, you are considered team player, and you grow and you succeed.

No religion explicitly forbids killing. There have been soldiers whose livelihood was to kill. But the reason behind the killing needed to be virtuous. We have had holy wars, and crusades all sanctified.

But all religions have considered it as an extreme solution. And when you have taken this path as the first option, there have been penalties.

Similarly in business, the tools of deceit, manipulations and frank underwoodian principles are deemed acceptable, but not as the first choice. Because any successful person out there will tell you, if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. If you live by deceit and manipulation, they will get you ahead, but only in the short run. Remember 2008 financial crisis.

You can think whatever you want. All religions punish you on your actions and not thoughts, and if you have had to change your actions, because of a company policy, or your greed, or your realisation or ambition, its all the same. Action matters, not the reason .

Of course the available business literature doesn't give you these learnings in biblical language. All career focused books, and businesses looking at long term vision use similar language to explain it.

We use terms like skills development, communication, transparency and equality. We talk of equal opportunity, Corporate social responsibility and other things, which in my opinion is the new way of saying what's good and what's not good.

Be it a secular or a religious environment, we as people have taken a long time to realise that there are some truths that have to be held in high esteem to ensure survival. We have tried all other solutions to eliminate differences including wars and genocides, and the only solution that has come back and worked is the solution of acceptance.

Accepting people as they are and working on ensuring a fair and equal system. In business and In governance.

In My opinion, all successful people have had this in common along with many other things . All of them really old learnings, but with new branding. No actually strike that, the same learning minus the branding.
Thats all religion is. Following a path. Not the name by which you call it. The path still leaves, the name , may be not.
So look at your corporate behaviour again, with this new light. Do you think there is some truth to it?

Deconstructing American Action Series (Arrow series 3 actually)

After going through 16 hours of american TV series Arrow. I am a champion on the corny dialogues. I am sure the entire series is being written by some nascent script writing computer program, as there is no other way that the human mind can be so devoid of creativity.Its not just our saas bahu serials that have corny dialogues,but hollywood has them too.

Arrow season 3 explained in 10 sentences (for that matter any action series)

- How could you do this to me

Something shitty will happen, after which 5 episodes will go into hiding it, and then some one will eventually come to know about it, and this is the dialogue that will be delivered.


- I am doing this to protect you

Used to justify any irrational or inconsistent actor which is just being done by the character to further the plot and complicate things, so that after this they can mope around in one on one conversations for 3-4 episodes.

- I trusted you

Again after the character says this, go to the kitchen make your coffee, and when you come back after 10 minutes, you have not missed anything. Generally the 10 minutes will go into a volley of all the dialogues listed here in no specific order.

- (any random reasoning) + Because you are family

For example: I was lying to you because i love you and you are family. I did not come home for 5 years because you are my family. I lied to protect you because you are my family. You get where this is going.

- (illogical choice) + That is my decision to make

This means that the next episode is going to be this character moping, some water works and long flash backs. Example : This character after 5 boxing lessons wears a fancy superhero costume and gets beaten to a pulp on the streets by the thugs. The next time when all the heroes are rushing out, she is still going back the reasoning being "Its my choice to make"

- (some dead person) + Would have(or not have) wanted this

I am wearing costumes and going out on the streets to fight crime without any training as "x person would have wanted it". 2 episodes later, i am not going out on the streets any more as the same "x person would NOT  have wanted it". Bravo.

- i know you are hurting right now

I know you are hurting right now directly leads to heavy arguments + anger issues with one person storming out on other. So if you want to keep the issues unresolved and the communication NOT  to progress or may be you want to plug something in the next episode while you are thinking on the arc, this is the line to use.

- I know what you are going to say

This is a substitute for " i know you are hurting right now" line


- You are keeping secrets from me

Well when the character has been keeping secrets for arbitrary reasons and needs to kill 10 minutes in random dialogue before the next action sequence can happen throw in this line. The moment this line comes out, expect some pouting or storming out. Only once has this line successfully forced the person to actually go ahead and reveal the secret.


- I have to do this

When the writers have literally given up on writing any logical reasons, or know that the character's action can not be explained by ANY explainable reason, just throw in this line. This line is the epitome of lazy writing.

That's all for now, will add more if i find any.

What is Big Data? It is Matrix Reloaded

What is Big Data?
Is it really about technology where large data sets are being analysed by computers? Not exactly. It is the culmination of all the Organizational and behavioral theories being approached by Maths.

See one of the objectives of marketing has been The Issue of Choice, more like an issue of someone being able to control your choice without you realizing it, leading to you parting with your cash. The marketeer wants to modify your behaviour. He wants you to like the brand, leading to a particular action which in some simple steps leads to profit. Traditionally this is known as AIDA model.

This requires a certain amount predictability on the marketeers side to gauge your response to stimulus as a collective . Which means the message A will Lead to action X and message B will lead to action Y. The variable here is CHOICE. The consumers inalienable right to choose.

Since 1920's this has led to a lot of research in psychology to find the inherent reasons behind choice.  An attempt to understand the Black box and reach answers like, emotional responses supercede logical responses. Most of the creative people are still trying to follow and decipher this Black Box called Mind. Some things which will be universally liked and responded to. And the learnings now go into advertisements, movies, speech writing, Politics, product design and all the creative processes, where one product has to suite many people.

In such a scenario, the goal is maximization of acceptance. This means that it is understood that not everyone will be influenced, but as long as a profitable majority of the population is affected by the creative product, its viable. Therefore a Hit movie, a moving speech, a good advertisement, an iPhone are products which were successful to get a favorable response to the message in larger percentage than others.

Some science has crept into this process by focus groups, with a small population set to put some data behind creativity. People realized that one person saying "yes" is choice, many people saying "yes", is a market.This also led to the development of customer demographics and targeting.

 As population grew and products became specialized, it became important to market it only to a certain set of people. With growing population, it became possible to cater to a small set of people and still achieve the economy of scale to break into profit.

Science and creativity really mixed with the coming of computers. It is virtually a mind, but that runs on materials science & mathematics. Computers are actually machines that mimic the mind (for now) and as the mimicry becomes complex and accurate, it sometimes becomes difficult to separate the original and the fake. You might say that Brain also is a computer but a biological one, and i wouldn't dispute your argument, but would just say that the process of learning is different.

So as i was saying, as science and maths entered the creative realm, the natural progressive question was, How many demographics actually exist in a population? Are we missing any? Is there a Gap? and someone came back with the answer x^n. If population is X and the number of dimensions being looked into is n, then there are X*X*X*....X(n times) demographics. But that is very vast. Also some of these demographics and psychographics might sit too close together and might not be useful at all. So what is a good answer. Then it dawned. The best estimate of demographics in a population is

Number of Demographics in Population = Population itself = each individual is one demographic

We called it Personalization. When a product or service is made specifically for you as per your own choice. A product that reflects your individual demographic and psychographic. A product as similar, or as Unique as you are in this world.

Something that was being done in services since ages. When you got a haircut, or ordered a food, it was as you wanted (theoretically). It is possible that two people might ask the same order, but theoretically you could just have 3 strands of hair removed and have the most unique haircut in the world. 

But that doesn't happen in real life, people's choices can often be grouped together. When you look at all the individual choices that people make in a barbershop, you can see that they will fall under a particular bell shaped curve. Some choices really rare, and others made more often and similar. It is a result of sharing this world and the experiences that come with it.

Till now, these individual choices could only be studied using grouping, which simplified things and works on maximization rather than accuracy. This meant that we could only gather data and analyze it in the broader sense on a population or group level. But as computing is becoming cheaper, keeping a track of these choices and making a truly personalized product is increasingly becoming possible. And this chunk of data, a set of all those choices you made, is BIG DATA.

There is an issue with Freedom to Choose. We think that we make unique choices. But thats not true. Because to choose, you can only choose freely, when you have infinite things to choose from. If you are choosing from a finite set, the number of choices have already been limited to a finite set. You are actually choosing freely from inside the finite set. Ever had to make a choice between the Devil and the Deep blue sea? Will that choice be called a free choice?

So if the set of choices you make in an instance is finite, we can always assign a probability of that choice happening. When you stack a set of choices in sequence, we can still calculate the probability. However, it becomes a little difficult to do so. But if you have cheap computing, its mighty easy. Because its too difficult for an ordinary mind to calculate, it gives us an illusion of freedom. But in actual its is pretty much pre-determined.

In my opinion, If you have a large enough data set for a system to learn from, and enough time and computing power, you can actually predict an entire person's or human race's future. (theoretically, and i know it may sound absurd, but its true)

In the above scene with architect, this is what the architect shows in his multiple screens. After every question, you see all these screens, with all the Neo's, with all the possible things that Neo can say, and then Neo says one thing.At no point, Neo can say anything, thats not already thought out or expected. There is never a blank screen.

This sequence of choices is what makes us feel that our life is unique. it gives us an illusionary sense of purpose and meaning. But if you really had a free choice, you would have kept trying to burn your hand again and never modify your choice based on previous outcome. You would have exercised your freedom. You would give up smoking the next cigarette once you realized that this choice was not good.

When we change choices based on previous experience, we call it learning.

When we keep on making bad choices, and not learn from experience, its addiction.

Ever seen a Mad man. He does something. And we can be pretty sure that it must be making sense to him, and we can be pretty sure that he is exercising his freedom to choose as well. Then whats wrong there? His set of actions are not following the rules of addiction or learning or predictability.

If BIG DATA keeps on expanding and becoming all pervasive, we might stop thinking at one point. What happens when a system becomes really good at predicting your choices. And what happens when it keeps on giving you a set to choose from, which is exactly the kind of set you wanted to choose from. After sometime, you will learn, that if the system is telling you it works.

In sometime, all you need to do is say, i need blue shirt. And the system will know what kind of shirt, what shade of blue, what size. All pretty much decided for you. And you will love the first 500 times its right, and then you will accept it as right.

Next, all you will do is ask for a blue shirt, and buy what the system predicts. But then, how will you try out something new. Something that is truly unique or different. 

How will you change your choices, when all that is being offered is a set of products based on your previous choices?

Economy is not growing but moving

The economy is moving, its shifting. Not moving as motion, but moving as in its being taken piecemeal and replicated in other parts of the world. We call it growth.

Think of All the things that make developed countries developed, as colorful blue, green, yellow, Lego blocks. And now imagine a country like India with brown dusty Lego blocks. Now take off a brown Lego block from India, and replace it with a colorful Lego block from US or Japan or any other developed country.

Its important because it means, every smallest piece of lego block will eventually follow others and move.

That is today's economy.
For the longest time, i used to think that the Indian entrepreneur was a specialist in copying Ideas from the west. But today i had an epiphany, and i realize that they are not being copied. I think this is what is happening, and will continue to happen.

Each human being has needs. These needs are fulfilled by products. Then a product (say mobiles) comes along which is a paradigm shift in all the products. It fulfills a need, which cannot taken care of by the current products in the economy, and then that product needs to be either imported, or either copied as is.

When you look at competing economies, they are like a net. Each product and service exists in the economy because it fulfills a need, a gap, in the system. All the products and services are therefore interdependent. You can't take away a hand without a body attached to it. Since it happens over time, we don't see it as an immediate cause an effect.

Lets expand the idea further using the same example of Mobiles  as above.

So you got computers. But then more Mobile companies follow, because if one company is making profits here, other companies need that too. Above all these companies can't let another company play unfair by simply expanding the geographical area in which they were playing. If company A and B were competing within US market, both of them were focused on customers and creating efficient processes. Now that company B adds India as a market, company A needs to join India too, to be not at a disadvantage. So end result, Company A & B are in in India now.

Now what has started is a Lego piece of US economy landed in India. And this piece needs other pieces to be efficient and be in natural environment, just like its DNA. Some of the needs are immediately fulfilled by local Lego pieces, but there's just too much difference.
The company C meanwhile which was catering to company B, now decides that it already has a ready customer in India, and it opens up an India office..and then so does D & E & F...all the way to the end of the alphabet.

The only way to stop this migration, is to copy the Lego piece as soon as the company B lands here. So that there is no place for company C to follow. More like a prosthetic arm, so that you don't need the original arm.
But even then, from a customers perspective, the need for mobile phone creates other needs which needs to be fulfilled. Higher data speeds, local repair shops, and various other things.

These are the same needs which rose in US, and then companies were formed to fill the gap. Similarly, companies here will rise with the same DNA, fulfilling the same needs that came up in US. If that doesn't happen, some one will come from US to fulfill the needs.

This means that there are two kinds of companies.
One that is copying the Lego bricks locally creating competition and others that are Moving the Lego bricks.

Two strategies. Competition or Expansion.
This will keep on happening till the world is homogeneous.

Once this is understood, its very easy to see source for new business ideas.
Either blindly copy the next step of evolution in the exact same sequence as it happened in US.
Or either compete with the latest  sequence  which has just landed in the local market and compete.

First is a little more risky, the second a little less risky. The choice depends on your risk appetite, means the funding available to you.

On Karma vs Free Will

One of the philosophical confusions that people face is
"If bad things are happening to me because of past bad karma i accumulated, then whoever did bad things to me doesn't seem to be exercising free will, and is bound by the law of karma itself"

In short my bad karma made another person do bad things, and therefore, there is no free will.

The argument looks viable, and the gentleman here  has very nicely (bazinga) attributed it to following

" If you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. This is a very simplistic way of understanding karma. This is what we tell children. But actually there are a lot of things along with karma influencing your decision...blah..blah..blah"

Essentially, if you can't solve a philosophical problem, then just go ahead and change the construct to suite your needs. Perhaps, the gentleman is learned and wants to stick to vedanta stream of thought and there is no good solution inside the thought stream.

I think this is the solution. But let me build some context by quoting ram charit manas, kishkindha kaand from here

धर्म हेतु अवतरेहु गोसाईं। मारेहु मोहि ब्याध की नाईं॥

मैं बैरी सुग्रीव पिआरा। अवगुन कवन नाथ मोहि मारा॥3॥

भावार्थ:-हे गोसाईं। आपने धर्म की रक्षा के लिए अवतार लिया है और मुझे व्याध की तरह (छिपकर) मारा? मैं बैरी और सुग्रीव प्यारा? हे नाथ! किस दोष से आपने मुझे मारा?॥3॥

English: Oh Lord, you took birth to protect Dharma and still you chose to ignore the laws of war and killed me, hidden like a hunter? What was my fault? How is it that i became your enemy and sugreev became your dear.

* अनुज बधू भगिनी सुत नारी। सुनु सठ कन्या सम ए चारी॥

इन्हहि कुदृष्टि बिलोकइ जोई। ताहि बधें कछु पाप न होई॥4॥

भावार्थ:-(श्री रामजी ने कहा-) हे मूर्ख! सुन, छोटे भाई की स्त्री, बहिन, पुत्र की स्त्री और कन्या- ये चारों समान हैं। इनको जो कोई बुरी दृष्टि से देखता है, उसे मारने में कुछ भी पाप नहीं होता॥4॥

English: (Lord says) Your younger brother's wife, your sister, your son's wife and your daughter are all equals. And killing anyone who casts an evil eye towards them, is not a sin.

The point being, an action that is bad for you, doesn't define the action. The Karma of the action is defined from the viewpoint of the "Karta" or the doer. So Something might be bad for you and be the result of your accumulated bad karma, but such a thing might actually be accumulating good karma for the other person, since punishing a sinner, is a good deed.

If someone steals a bag belonging to you, and you catch him. His act of stealing was bad. Your act of catching him was good as well as your act of catching him was bad for him.

Whether you catch the person or let go of him, is your free will. Whether you punish the sinner or not is your free will. The sinner chooses to commit a sin is his free will.

In essence there is no conflict between the law of karma and the free will. Free will is the act of choosing an action. Karma is the result of such an action.

The only time Karma will stop working out is when no one in the world is capable of making a good choice or executing a good action. Which means no one is accumulating good karma, the clock needs to be reset, and the Lord himself has to appear to kill off the sinners.

जब जब होहिं धर्म की हानि।

बाढ़हिं असुर महा अभिमानी।।

तब तब प्रभु धरि मनुज शरीरा।

हरहिं शोक मम सज्जन पीरा।।

Translation: Whenever Dharma is lost from the world, and the world is full of sinners, then, the Lord takes human form to take away the pain of the oppressed.

How does the clock for karma reset if the Lord kills you? Well here is what Ravana thinks when her sister tells him that his equals  Khar & Dushan have been killed by Lord Rama.

* सुर रंजन भंजन महि भारा। जौं भगवंत लीन्ह अवतारा॥

तौ मैं जाइ बैरु हठि करऊँ। प्रभु सर प्रान तजें भव तरऊँ॥2॥

भावार्थ:-देवताओं को आनंद देने वाले और पृथ्वी का भार हरण करने वाले भगवान ने ही यदि अवतार लिया है, तो मैं जाकर उनसे हठपूर्वक वैर करूँगा और प्रभु के बाण (के आघात) से प्राण छोड़कर भवसागर से तर जाऊँगा॥2॥

English: If it is indeed Lord who has taken a human from, then i will go and fight him. When i get killed, i will be out of this cycle of birth and rebirth and will attain heaven.

Tip: Shortest way to heaven is getting killed by the Lord himself.

On Books & E-Books Pricing

Just read a Gigaom Article on "new tips in books pricing"

Summary of article

Nothing new suggested here but still highlighting the points made just in case... and then taking forward from there.
The article discusses 2 /3  "new" strategies for e-books.

• Bundling
• Free - 
• Giving the first book for free in a series
• Giving an earlier title from an author free when new one is coming out. 

The article seems to be aimed at softening publishers and authors  by applying a stamp of approval on the strategy. Since most of the times publishers and authors resist the idea, and the holy promise in the article should help them bring around.

As the "strategy" has always been known to retailers. There's no surprise that Free Works.

Above all, all the article is focusing on is an electronic application of offline models. Internet and technology provide many more opportunities which most e-book sellers seem to be missing. Instead of going into that, i will quickly go into more relevant offline models which have not yet been ported online.

Thoughts

Free has always worked and always will. But every time you give out something for free, you raise customer expectations and mis-inform them. If you just made things free, how did you add value? Free was always an option.Why would you make your products compete with free?

There are only some scenario where price doesn't affect customer choices, or is not the prime consideration at-least.

• Value Vs. Perceived Value - Gym membership models.
• Occasion - Gifting, Airports, etc.
• Monopoly of content - Prescribed textbooks etc.

Loyalty based Models.

Rather it will make more sense  if we built more loyalty based models like Book clubs which allows you to get special prices. Most of profits can come from a GYM membership kind of models, where non-readers are taxed more than readers.

Gifting E-Books

Gifting is another model which tech/e-books haven't explored much. People always want to gift things to people. In this age of social media, where you may just know the e-mail address of a good online friend, gifting is tough.

Conclusion

Technology and Big Data seem to have removed the premium placed on editorial selections, but in reality, the editorial selection has become a hidden player. So must not be underestimated.

Data based electronic selection models are vicious circle which feeds itself, and keeps driving the selection quality down (includes shopping cart based models). There will always be more fiction readers than non-fiction readers. And since most models treat all books similar, fiction keeps on coming up as suggestions to a reader and it keeps growing.

With the same data, publishers realize they need to print more fiction than non-fiction, so more fiction gets published and so on..you know where it goes.

Social Responsibility

If you are an author or a publisher, its not just a job. You have a moral and social responsibility. That is the reason that society in many countries doesn't levy sales tax.

If you feel that there is a social responsibility in selling books, then just be more aware of the larger picture, and please consciously try to improve situations.

If its just a job, then screw society, and welcome profits, till you find you are selling glorified porn. 50 shades is a start. At some point in my life, i can see myself writing an article on how we can implement porn pricing models on books.

Start-ups are like Rock Bands, Orchestras like corporations

"Its very important to realize early in life, whether you are a rock band player or you thrive in an orchestra."

I was recently watching this movie called "Whiplash'. The story is about a guy in a music school who wants to be the best drummer he can be, but is facing a challenge from a demanding and vicious conductor/teacher who feels "good job" are the two most damaging words to an individuals progress.

Anyways, this got me thinking on the level of coordination required in an orchestra vs. a band.

I realized this.

Orchestras like Corporations

• Every person in the orchestra has to be supremely talented to be playing in it, more than most rock artists.
• Each person needs to be supremely coordinated with the other people in it.
• There is a structure, harmony and coordination, every one facing towards the conductor.
• The music largely still remains the compositions of the masters, replayed over and over again, with emphasis on interpretation/movement and excellence of performance than the music itself. 
• New music is created by the composer often the conductor, but follows the rules laid out by the previous masters, and needs to use the entire team.
• Its very hard to become a conductor/composer and takes years of hard work.
• Orchestras don't depend on people, and live beyond a person's life.
• Organized seating, everyone facing the conductor.
• You need to develop taste to appreciate what.
• You will not have personal glory, but a stable life.

Rock Bands like start-ups

• The number of people is very limited when the band is formed.
• The emphasis is always on a new kind of sound or music.
• As the band becomes popular, the artists become rich, and the staff increases multi-fold, but the people playing generally remain same.
• A lot of bands fail.
• When a band succeeds, its because they found a sound that people loved, and they remain a success till they follow people's taste.
• Band players may not be  very talented, or synchronized by rule, but should sound good together. That's the only metric.
• Very people dependent, if the people move out, some can be replaced, but definitely impacts success.
• Universal music, generally doesn't need a lot of education in taste to appreciate the music.
• You can have personal glory, but the chances of that happening are very tough.

The point

Its very important to realize early in life whether you are a rock band player or you thrive in orchestra.

Both are playing music, but have a very different approach to music.

Picture both the scenarios in your head, and find out which picture looks more appealing. Then build the strength required to succeed.

For a Corporation - Warm

Political - Social super intelligence + Political awareness + Idea hunting + Replicate

Neat - Quality over speed. Do it right every time. Neat

Pitch - People feeling work was done = Work was done.

For a Start-up

Execution - Idea + Execution + Common objectives based relationships

Messy - Speed over quality. One can always reiterate. messy.

Measure - Growth & Profitability not achieved = No work was done.

Man made things to measure a man's life

Came and read my own blog after 2 years of last posting. It was really interesting. A lot of things happened at once.

• Why did i stop writing?
• Oh..how true...wait..i wrote that.
• Umm...i still think that way
• I wish i had written more, so that i could have read more.

Its like the song "photograph" from movie Her. I have a snapshot of my mind right here on these pages! I wish i had more snapshots. Not because i am in love with myself. But because some of these thoughts are so familiar yet forgotten.

Forgotten in the humdrum of life.
Making sense of things.
Acquiring more.
Being on top
Running.
Forever
More
Fast.
Yes.
?
Why.
What for.
How much?
How much time?
Will i really be on TOP?
Sense of things that change?
Life? Snake eating its own tail?

Hhhmmmph....empty your lungs in one go. Take a shallow breath. let it out.Stop.Close your eyes. Open them. Look at everything around you. How does a baby look at these things. Imagine that. Look at things again. Your stuff. All around you. this is you. So much time spent acquiring it. hoarding it. saving it.caring for it. Take a deep breath. Look at it again. As a baby does.

Look at that bag in the corner..Imagine all the places that it has been.Imagine how it was manufactured. How it was designed.Go back, when the bag was just an idea in some one's head. Some one in this world. Is he alive? is he dead? he contributed to your life. Who? the bag designer? No.Not just Him. Everyone who ever touched everything that you have.

Do you see what i see? First feel the wonder. How much stuff is there in the world. And some of it is yours. and the entire world came together to make it happen.

And then feel the sadness. The world came together. but for what? These things? Things that sum up your life. Quantify it? things that are the measure of your life?

Man made things to measure a man's life.

Do you feel the sadness? Why did we not grow as people?

Moral Arbitrage

If you have ever asked, "Why me lord", here is a post.

Well all of us have our world view or as Germans will call it Weltanschauung, which tells us how to work around in the world, what will work and what will not, including if the world is going to hell. Most of it is based on 3 things

• Parents
• Books and Teachings, including religion
• Our own observations.

All of the above make a core of your world view, which is your philosophy of the world. You might hate the term philosophy, but you have it.

So if you combine your answers to all the questions and the little rules that you follow in dealing with people, its a philosophy. collate all the knowledge you have that makes understanding people and the world possible, its a philosophy. Is there a GOD? Is there a heaven or a hell? What actions are GOOD? What happens when we die? Is the world fair? Why do we suffer? Was Sholay a good movie? etc.

If you are not a philosopher by vocation, You might be under two impressions

• You have a unique philosophy
• You donot have a philosophy

If you are a philosopher, you might have a name for your type which might sound something like "platonic existentialist  Jansenist fideism"

If YOU Are Not a Philosopher

if you are not a philosopher, In both the above cases, you might be wrong. Because most of your belief on what is good and what is not good has come from this world, and the society. 

So you might not even know it, but there is a label for it out there, as well as a big name associated with it as well as a big critique too, on why it is wrong. If it really was a new one, you would be too miserable to even carry on daily life, as you would be engrossed in your own thoughts trying to find answers. 

If you find these answers, then you will have followers. If you don't have answers, you might be sitting in front of a closed laptop, thinking what is the purpose of this laptop. why should i go online. what should i try to accumulate knowledge. what is knowledge.. what is the purpose of life..and so on. You can see where its going. 

It is very much possible that you are stuck somewhere in the above paragraph, and will never reach this sentence.

Because Philosophy is like the bacteria that lives in the gut. Its the good kind of bacteria, and we all need it. But if it grows out of control, you are sick, and if it cleans out, you are sick. In this case not physically but mentally. and virtually any kind of sickness is a sickness if it shortens your life span or obstructs the normal functioning of life.

If you think, you do not have  or follow a philosophy, thats easy. You are just poorly read, and a quick jog to the book store and a flip through "sophie's world by jostein gaarder", " The story of philosophy, by will durant", should fill in the gaps and let you find your label. But i would caution you that just read the labels, and not the critiques or else you might fall into an existential abyss, and not recover.

It will also make you feel good about yourself,as now you would be able to pepper your conversations with words like Utilitarianism, nihilistic, jurisprudence etc. This will sharply define your image as an intellectual (Good) as well as push people and chicks away from you (Bad).

And don't you worry as most of these philosophies are a lot of gobbledygook where the major differences in opinion are where should the comma be placed and likes. 

For instance a great deal of the centuries were spent over "if a soul exists". Now then a lot of very intelligent people will come up with every possible answer like in this case yes and no. Then they would go ahead and form two philosophical thought streams.

Once that was done with, the question came "where does it exist" and so on and so forth. Each of these answers would form a school of thought, and every answer is acceptable. So you can say "soul is in everything" and you would be following animism." you could say that our intellect is the soul, and you would be aristotle. You could say that the breath is the soul, and you would be a believer in "aatman" 

Since most of the learned people were following ideas from Greek and Latin  and continuing from there, they also wrote in these languages and so, a lot of terms were coined in these languages. So you have terms like "Psyche", "forms" "essence" ,"animism", "intellect", "substance" and many more.

Like if you believe in one god and based on geography you could be "abrahamic ", "vedantic" or something else. If you think there are many Gods then you might be following "pantheistic" philosophy and chances in all certainty are "pagan"

So most of you think that you don't have a philosophy because you don't know Greek. If you knew Greek, most probably phoenician would have been the language of philosophy, but thats another discussion. This is the same with sciences, where to put a layman off, we have terms like Homo sapiens. If these terms were coined in plain English, you would already know it! then why would you pay for knowing these terms? I mean there are people in western world taking courses and paying thousands to know words like "atman" and "dharma", while you got it for free. Isn't it? So its okay if you don't know sciences either which is more greek except sciences also use greek alphabets like "alpha", "omega" and sorts.

This was just done by early scientists to give credence to their scientific efforts in converting objects to Gold as a proper science. This idea of writing in greek alphabets was also picked up later by people with radical proposals like earth moves around sun, so that they are not clobbered to death by common people and clergy.

You might wonder how, but its pretty simple. Common people didn't read Greek.

Clergy read greek, but to them a formula like below, really confused them

You see, they simply read it as T=m(du/dy)...which looked like something written about some guy named Dudy, and not a formula relating to viscosity and so the scientists flew under the scanner. Some times some scientists were foolish enough to write in plain Italian or something, and at that time were promptly burnt at the stake.

Did you know that when Aristotle said physics, it actually came from "physis" which means nature. And talked of natural world. "Psyche" of psychology  actually means soul.

This was also a brilliant way in which scientists used to fool the clergy. So say a scientist would ask Galileo about his trade, and if Galileo said scientist, he would not have lasted long. But if he said Physicist  then the clergy would be on their way thinking he was a simple folk who loved nature and plants etc.


I mean if you look at management, which the Greeks didn't write about much, you will find that the Terms in management sound like "five forces model", "balanced scorecard", "Branding" where you can understand what they mean. I mean you at least have a vague idea, that balanced score card would be something to do with balance and a score card. right! Sadly now a lot of fight even in management is also about placing of commas, where some one would write a paper expounding why a "Value Chain" framework is Dead and instead they should go with a new methodology, where the same wine will be poured in a new bottle. 



 Since the older times didn't have television or radio, they had to write an awfully lot of books and letters to convince and tell people of what they thought. so the entire conversation happened over a lot of books and letters. Something like Blogs, which are the modern parallel. Imagine if you didnot have phone, and you had to fight with your girlfriend with a bunch of letters, and then some one was collecting those letters and publishing them in a book. something like that.

So by now you know that you follow a philosophy, and that it has some unpronounceable name, most probably in Greek and since you don't speak Greek and so you don't know its name.
By now you also agree that there are a lot of books and letters which are out there, which you would want to read but since there is a lot of greek and latin in them which you don't read, you are not reading them.





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