I tweeted this morning about an article which proposes to help your productivity by urging you not to empty your mailbox or at least not be fussy about emptying it every day. The best advice on productivity in today's age of information overload - trying to empty ur inbox is a waste of time https://t.co/QNVXL2CyBy — Nikhil Kulkarni (@kulkarninikhil) October 21, 2016 Does the advice mean that you should procrastinate or as some one sarcastically put on my Facebook wall - "[Don't bother with replying to an email the moment you get it] If they are important enough they will be resent and sent again ...." :-) Such conclusions drawn from the article above only make the message weak. Organizing the Inbox and emptying it are two different issues. Those who don't use Inbox as a todo list might have other ways of managing to-do. The article above is meant for those who rather than organize emails and prioritize them according to their importance, choose to use

Read Hillary Clinton 's answer to Is bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US a realistic venture, given that manufacturing is so much cheaper elsewhere? on Quora So, now Hillary wants you to "Make It in America", Modi wants you to "Make in India" and China has already built factories to make the whole world's output inside its borders. If all of them succeed, at best manufacturing capacities will meet the same fate as undersea Fibre optic networks, which subsidized the second wave of the Internet by providing cheap communication infrastructure at the cost of bankrupt companies who laid those cables in the first place. But chances are that all of them will fail and the world will rise to a post manufacturing world as Alvin Toffler predicted . There are 3 major trends which will determine the future of manufacturing in a post globalization world (note that a post globalization world is where the rules of globalization such as manufacture where i

In my previous post , I advocated that learning for the purpose of making ends meet (making a living) is soon going to be passe. So people are going to learn for the sake of learning! Some rights reserved   by  LeanForward lf This also means that the paraphernalia built by Universities across the globe - that of placement cells, industry-institute-partnerships, alumni programs and all such stuff to ensure that their students get 'placed' in the corporate world  - are soon becoming effete. But as technology and tech entrepreneurs continue to disrupt methods and means of education; possibly even the basic infrastructure - classrooms, campuses, hostels, dorms, auditoriums - might start becoming defunct. The future of learning will possibly just need an internet connection and a device (laptop or tablet or even a phone) to get connected to the internet. The shift is not merely converting the physical to virtual. Using the power of 'virtual', apps and services li

  Some rights reserved  by  Kevin Steinhardt Learning today is assumed to be meant to lead to jobs. The objective of learning today is not to enable us to perform greats, it simply is expected to get us closer to the job where we will earn a loving for ourselves. Calling education as learning is probably misleading in today's world when there is more clamour for 'employable skills' to be imparted to our kids. From India to Europe to the US, we are all squalling for education in STEM or teaching kids to Code so that they can get jobs which give them better lives. The purpose of education to merely ready you to earn a living, live a life is an ancient concept now and needs to be deprecated as early as possible. In this age where some developed societies are planning to provide for minimum basic income to all citizens [ Reference ], the concept of education for earning a living is soon going to be defunct. In such scenario, how do we motivate you people to aspire for

  Some rights reserved  by  Kevin Steinhardt Learning today is assumed to be meant to lead to jobs. The objective of learning today is not to enable us to perform greats, it simply is expected to get us closer to the job where we will earn a loving for ourselves. Calling education as learning is probably misleading in today's world when there is more clamour for 'employable skills' to be imparted to our kids. From India to Europe to the US, we are all squalling for education in STEM or teaching kids to Code so that they can get jobs which give them better lives. The purpose of education to merely ready you to earn a living, live a life is an ancient concept now and needs to be deprecated as early as possible. In this age where some developed societies are planning to provide for minimum basic income to all citizens [ Reference ], the concept of education for earning a living is soon going to be defunct. In such scenario, how do we motivate you people to aspire for

Reproduced from a Quora Answer by me here . There are many possible answers to this question depending upon what stage of life you are in - just graduating, within 5 years of work experience, beyond 5 years etc.; and whether you plan to get a good job or want to start on your own. I will provide the most generic answer here and refer you to few blog posts of mine for variations of it for different scenarios. What value does an MBA provide: Network : As you go forward in life, you will realize that success depends on what kind of people you are connected to who can help in climbing the ladder of success. For example, as an entrepreneur, your company requires to connect to stakeholders - customers who buy your product / service, service providers who can feed into your product with minimal cost, investors who provide funding etc. Similarly, in a job, if you are connected to your superiors, you get more opportunities to excel and play a more impactful role. An MBA gets you tha

I have written previously on Education, my own bias towards Gandhiji's Nai Talim philosophy and my mentor Prof. Prasad's attempts to implement Nai Talim in Post Graduate studies. However, I keep getting disappointed at the lack of any support whatsoever to this (almost 80 year) old but pragmatic approach in primary and secondary education, even when the need for this is observed. I read this article in Mint by senior policy managers for J-PAL South Asia, they talk about "concern(s) that while enrolment in elementary education has increased, education outcomes have declined, with abilities in reading, writing and other comprehensive skills deteriorating"; suggest " Pedagogical solutions such as restructuring classes by learning level, rather than by age or grade and improving School governance like incentivizing teacher presence and effort, and putting in place properly designed monitoring and accountability structures ". What is lacking however

My daughter was watching one of those Kindergarten videos on shapes [ YouTube ] and at this scene where a car is waiting for the 'Shape Train' to cross the level crossing; I ruminated a conversation between the vehicles where ... The car wonders to itself  - "I wish I could go as fast as the train!" The train itself responds "I wish I could roam anywhere like the car does!" [ and not be forced to run only where the track goes ] I realized my rumination had a lot of similarity to the differences, perceptions and expectations of 'Corporate' vs. 'Entrepreneur' career paths. Corporate career is like the Railway - you have a defined career path to progress up, if you perform well, play your moves properly (including living with or harnessing office politics and networking), you can reach the top echelons very fast and without much financial risk on yourself. Entrepreneurship is like driving a car on the road - you have a lot of freedom w

The irony of our times ... Those who oppose crimes against themselves, inflict crimes on their own people  Those who want peace within, advocate bombing the 'criminal' states  Those who oppose 'repressive' regimes, side with them when the 'rebels' start bombing their countries  Those who work for off-shoring IT businesses, condemn governments for allowing cheap Chinese imports  'Export' cloth manufacturers encourage laws restricting of foreign manufactured vehicles Families who built houses with repatriation money castigate illegal immigrants from neighboring countries  Those who worship most feverishly are also those who preach hatred People conduct 'culture' festivals at the Bank of rivers damaging fragile ecosystems on the riverbed  Those who find affirmation action 'unfair' to the majority cringe when the government taxes their savings  Minorities always cite the law; majorities make the law!  My opportunity is fair -

I had a roadside Dosa after a long time today, and realized how different it tasted compared to the one I am used to having either at home or in the usual fine dining joints. As I was thinking as to why there was a difference in taste, I wondered if this Dosa (a Mysore Masala variety) has the dreaded MSG for which Maggi was banned last year [ read about MSG controversy ]. When the Maggi controversy broke out, most defendants of Maggi had claimed that there is more MSG in street food than Maggi; and this goes unnoticed because India does not have strict vigilance processes for street food vendors. Why do street food vendors add MSG if it is bad for health? One of the side effects of running a street food joint is that it must remain cheap, but for the vendor to earn sufficient profits so as to recover rentals etc, from such street food, they must ensure that they sell more and for the food to sell more, the food must be tastier and hence street food vendors add MSG (not as an i

Just finished reading highlights of the Rail budget (sorry! I am little slow); here are some forward looking initiatives I noted. Prabhu is doing a good job! Draft Bill on regulator - Restructuring Railway Board on business lines  Sale of platform tickets through ticket vending machines both cash and card compatible  Facility of cancellation through the 139 helpline using ‘One Time Password’  ‘Clean my Coach’ service through SMS  Periodic third party audit of stations of A1 & A category  Cold storage facilities on vacant land near freight terminals  Rail side logistic parks and warehousing Appointing Key Customer Managers to liaison with our major freight stakeholders  Hourly booking of retiring rooms to be allowed instead of the existing minimum of 12 hours.  Baby foods, hot milk and hot water to be made available on stations  Changing boards for babies would be provided in train toilets.  CCTV cameras would continue to be installed in coaches  Wi-Fi at 400 sta

davewinerabttwtr As  @DaveWiner , tweeted about twitter's innovation stalling because it closed its API than open it, another friend of mine emailed me asking about which Social Bookmarking service I use. To put it in context, in 2008-9, I too had started to build a social bookmarking application Bloozle , which was aimed at sharing links (bookmarks) by users, tagging them (to create 'folksonomies), enable sharing and finally presenting a technology curated 'magazine' for end users to browse. What we envisaged as bloozle, is today available as a combination of Twitter / Facebook based link sharing (with #hashtags acting as tags) and Flipboard based 'curation' of those links for you to read. Long story short - this friend of mine was a part of the team for Bloozle and hence, we share the love to hate Twitter-Flipboard combo for 'stealing' away our success! :-) My friend commented (sic)- "i am just back on delicious and find it way b

This post by Seth Godin made me think back about a post I made 10 years ago in context of India. Here's what Seth says: If you're moving forward and moving fast, you've no doubt heard it: People who look like you aren't qualified to do this work.  I'm not sure you're a good cultural fit.  I once knew someone your age/race/demographic and they let me down.  I wrote this : ... castiesm manifests itself not just in form of ancestral caste but also in new found castiest approaches like lobbying and groupism. The mindset of preferential treatment to a set of people at the cost of others while violating the principles of fair play and meritocracy is wrong and needs to be uprooted. Seth claims that today is the time when we can all challenge this with " Now, more than ever, attitude trumps background! " Caste also represents 'typecasting' individuals based on their background - in India background may mean birth (i.e. caste), regi

The IT geek world is unequivocally undivided since more than a decade on the superiority of the Command Line Interface over the GUI! For the uninitiated, Command Line is the black screen, that comes up when you go to 'Start Menu' > 'Run' and Type 'cmd', which you often use to do a 'ping' or 'ipconfig'. GUI expands to Graphical User Interface, a technical name to the point-and-click interface we all use in computers today.  The geekdom has had debates  on why we haven't evolved from a purely textual entry mode into something better, a debate which always concludes accepting that Command line is a superior form of human-computer interaction . With introduction of Siri, Google Now and Cortana - while we have added voice commands also to the debate; its uses are currently limited to searching, giving pre-ordained commands like calling someone in your contacts list. For performing complex tasks such as say formatting your hard disk, ch

India start-ups at risk as investors close taps, Modi fund falls short http://flip.it/W._CM India will step up as China's economy slows, says Josh Frydenberg http://flip.it/nt3uI

 तरकश से मिली आज़ादी का हश्र मुकम्मल कहाँ होता है? वही होता है जो मंजूर-ए-खुदा होता है । अब तो इस ज़िद को छोड़ दे ऐ बन्दे की मज़हब तेरा मुझसे जुदा होता है । हमने तो कभी बोला न था तुम्हे इस चमन के टुकड़े करने को तुम्ही केहते थे की अल्लाह की मर्ज़ी पे एक मुल्क खड़ा होता है| अल्लाह ने तो अब मुल्क के मेरे टुकड़े को भी तर्रक्की से नवाज़ा है, अब बता कैसे तेरे टुकड़े को पाकीज़ा मैं मानू समझा दे मुझे काहाँ से रब तेरा और मेरा जुदा होता है?  तरकश से मिली आज़ादी का हश्र मुकम्मल कहाँ होता है? वही होता है जो मंजूर-ए-खुदा होता है । My reaction to this news item from yesterday:

An interesting counterpoint to the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's decision to ban management quota in Delhi Schools is that it attacks autonomy, and also that it reduces incentive for private players to open schools. This old article on RTE gives similar arguments for that law as well. https://realitycheck.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/delhi-nursery-admissions-meets-the-rte/ "Is it not likely that by taking away private incentives to open schools, in which the management quota is one attraction, he too will end up closing more schools than making the admissions process more rational. Even laws like  RTE will shrink capacity, undermine property rights, equal protection, and freedom of occupation." However, the point to ponder is that by allowing elite 'Ivy league' schools to have huge management quotas, aren't we allowing the principle of equality to be breached? Having said that, would you be comfortable to allow your kid to be educated alongside

The photograph below is a scene from the incredibly buzzing and busy Tier 2 city - Ujjain - in India; a center of religious tourism in central India. The precise location - a service lane to a otherwise important highway connecting the city of Ujjain to three other nearby cities of Bhopal, Indore and Gwalior. A marriage procession ( Baraat, बारात ) on its way blocking the whole road while the car (silver grey, Maruti Suzuki WagonR) patiently awaits passage. An impatient lady on the scooter tries to manoeuvre from the gap on the side, when an unchivalrous biker coming from the opposite end blocks her way. While in this logjam, the lady's mobile phone rings and without regard for the cacophony she is in, she decides to take the call. Moments later the procession will move on, the car will find its way forward and both the woman and the biker shall hurry towards their respective destinations. The ensemble cast in this photo will reach their respective destinations and discuss

Seeing a lot of people ridiculing Laloo's son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav for merely being a 9th grade pass - in my view this is an insult to the democratic institutions we live in and a complete misunderstanding of the educated gentry! Education is not the right barometer for intelligence! Steve jobs was not even a graduate, neither was Edison. But in the western society which is driven by technology, they are both paragons of hi-tech for their respective generations. The Indian society is a typical eastern society where relations and not technology define your social status, and the Yadav family has just shown us a brilliant use of their political brains to win in this relationship based society. What is despicable is that Laloo and may be his family are going to use this power not for the upliftment of Bihar but for their personal gains. If you want to oppose that, you have a right to do so - but do not scoff at Tejashwi Prasad Yadav merely because the traditional educational s

Watched PK today on Sony TV; I hadn't seen the movie when it was released. Firstly, I haven't been watching new releases of late anyway, secondly I had gotten bored of patronizing tone of Raju Hirani's movies. But on watching the movie, here are my thoughts. Overall, an average movie for 3 reasons: 1. Predictable story: the movie takes the same twists as Munnabhai MBBS, all the way down to the style and positioning of the climax. 2. Poor and unrealistic storyline; blatant directorial missouts. This is surprising as Hirani's previous productions have never had directorial missouts. The movie also lacks the depth of Munnabhai series; the sub-plots are poorly researched and realism which marked earlier ones is missing. 3. Blatant copying of the core concept from Paresh Rawal's "Oh My God!". Before I end, a praise for Anushka Sharma for her work; Amir doesn't need praise - he played the part well; the others were all cast in the same type of characters