Being rich with Apple

Apple delivers quality products but they are costly - that's the common perception. And it's true. Apple products are of great quality and they are costly than similar offerings in the market. Yet, what makes them so successful? Why do we keep buying Apple products?

It's Apple's ability to make us all feel RICH. Apple products are costly but not as costly that someone will break their bank purchasing the products. It's not as costly as someone simply can not afford it like purchasing a personal jet. They are just above your usual limit. Combine that with the quality of the product. You suddenly has something in your hand that was heavy on the pocket, a great product and yet you purchased it. You start cherishing the product. It becomes your success icon. It's your status symbol in the crowd - a crowd where every alternate person has an Apple product and feeling equally rich as you. Aren't you longing for Apple watch already?  Isn't it going to make you feel richer?

That's what it is. Thank you Apple for making us feel rich. And in turn, we are making Apple rich!

Countdown counts!

"You’d get very rich if you thought of yourself as having a card with only twenty punches in a lifetime, and every financial decision used up one punch. You’d resist the temptation to dabble. You’d make more good decisions and you’d make more big decisions." —Warren Buffett , quoted in The Snowball, by Alice Schroeder

Countdowns are a wonderful thing. It is a negative sequence of number yet it generates a positive energy out of it. In the punch card analogy above Warren Buffet teaches the core of value investing or rather 'Quality' investing using countdown. You only have so many chances to take, be wise in using those.

I used to follow MyFitnessPal website for my calorie tracking (ahem! .. yes once upon a time!!). It gives a number of calories, let's say 2000 per day, for you to consume and as the day progresses and you eat into into calories. Goal is not to exceed 2000 calories a day in this example. And, viola, you'll loose weight. It create a small deficit in daily calories intake vs the requirement based on your body weight and other factors and that small deficit contributes to weight loss. Countdown concept effectively used.

Yoga emphasizes a lot on calming yourself, taking slow breaths - while doing pranayam you slowly breathe in and slowly breathe out! I had read or heard about a Yoga or ancient Indian concept somewhere that everyone's total breaths in a lifetime (the number of breaths a person will take in a lifetime) are predetermined; set in stone by destiny or karma even before a person is born. As you're breathing in and out, you are consuming your total breath quota. Now, if you want to leave longer, start breathing slowly elongating the time spent between each breath. Anyway, the total number of breaths you will take are determined then why to hurry in consuming those breaths by breathing faster in anger or under stress? Again, a concept of countdown effectively used.

Be it a countdown to new year or 'T-minus' countdown to a rocket launch - we all love countdowns!

Tell me about yourself

I came across an article on LinkedIn here. It was about the most important question asked in an interview. 

To me, interview is often a chess game. Interviewer is trying to see if you are the best fit for the job being offered and A) an average interviewee is often trying to get fitted into the job, where as, B) a smart interviewee is trying understand if this is the best job at a highest possible salary level he/she can get. Anyway, coming back to the most important question asked in an interview. In my opinion, the most important question asked in an interview is the one typically asked first right at the opening of the interview - "Please tell me about yourself" or "Could you please walk me through your experience and background" or similar variant.

It sets the tone of the entire interview. The first 2 to 5 minutes you'll take to answer this question can help you take control of the interview from interviewer. If you handle the question correctly, you not only make the first impression right, you can also help guide interviewer to the next set of questions that are more suited to your strengths. It takes a smart interviewer to understand this move and take control back. You can win the interview in first 2-5 minutes on psychological terms, what remains afterwards is assessing the suitability of candidate for the job function and assessing the suitability of job (responsibilities, position in the corporate hierarchy, salary etc. etc.) from the view of candidate. 

So, I think, it's very important to think through what you'll be talking in your first few minutes of your self speech and make the first move right!

I'm not a Millennial but I like technology

Mid-life crisis - how much time is left in my technology life? I'm at least 30-40 years away to my retirement (do not try to back-track and calculate my real age :) ) provided I continue with the job sector and do not become a billionaire by selling my next big thing in technology. The young generation - Millennials are already faster, smarter with technology. I'm not that old and seasoned to stand the respectable ranks in technology stable either. Ohh, it is my technology mid-life crisis. What do I do with those remaining 30-40 years of technology life?

I was once 7-8 years in my professional career and was on a assignment as a specialist testing consultant (!!) for a client in Chicago. A particular lady in one of the project teams was proving to be a tough nut, not budging to give me any requested data and refusing any kind of coordination. I tried various means to no fruit at last surrendering myself her, pleading her to give me the information I needed. She gave in with a small story on the back-drop. She was 2 years away from retirement, still very active in her domain and work and loved what she did. Problem was, she had been doing the same job for last many years and knew nothing else outside of that client and domain. Young kids from across the globe sitting in Offshore Development Centers were snatching away her bread. I felt sorry, but moved on with my professional assignment. (What? Did you expect me to solve this myself? Aahh..anyway) What I did not realize at the time is that I'm going to be in the same boat one day in future. I already see that day on the horizon and I'm 30-40 years away from retirement.

Alright, enough of problem context, here is what I think may help me:

- Get the next version of iPhone on day 1 of launch

- Facebook is old and WhatsApp is filled with same forwarded material, learn some new cooler stuff 

- Try and get Google Glass, Home/terrace edition of Hubble telescope

- Develop a technology vocabulary to speak with your wife E.g. #beep, it's dinner time

Ok folks, enough for the day, it's my time to think about an algorithm on testing iTMRYFS, caio!

P.S. I'm too young to get qualified as 'mid-life'  and too old for 'quarter-life'!

The city

I was born and brought up in Mumbai. Now, I stay in New York. Both cities make me feel home.  Both are beautiful cities but terrible places to stay(1). 

I think the most contributing factor that makes both of these cities what they are is an ability to make a person with any financial capacity or personal wealth profile feel at home. New York and Mumbai can cater to richest of the rich as well as the poorest of the poor. You have top class restaurants, expensive shopping areas, costliest real estates as well as dirt cheap street food, in-expensive street side shopping vendors and a place you can survive no matter what and how. One can earn, stay, enjoy life as per one's financial capability. Both cities offer good living conditions - parks, education institutes, hospitals, good public transportation and so on. Similarly both has usual other darker side as well - slums, poverty, violence, drugs and so on. But, no matter what, in New york or Mumbai - you are always home! You are always independent yet you feel so connected in the sea of people around.

I think, those who continue to stay, take time and appreciate what these large cities has to offer. They blend into the character of these cities. New York and Mumbai can suck you in, if you let it. I now stay in 'The burbs' and visit 'The city' on the weekends. It's my trade-off between the charm and laziness vs character and fast pace. 

(1) Stated earlier by architect Charles Correa in reference to Mumbai
 

Leading from the emerging future

"..leading an organization to constructive change begins by setting a direction — developing a vision of the future (often the distant future)..." - Written by John P. Kotter in HBR Whitepaper What Leaders Really Do

 

Now, there is ample material on Who, How, What etc. but is there any methodology for developing the vision for future?

 

I was browsing through the courses offered on EDX (http://www.edx.org) and came across an interesting course offered by MIT titled U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self. The course begins on Sept 24, 2014 and I'm looking forward to learning from this course. In the interim, let's have a quick look at interesting concept that caught my imagination.

 

The theory, termed Theory U,  is based on the premise of letting go of the past in order to learn from emerging future. We are taught to learn from the past, while most of the real leadership challenges in organizations require ability to learn from future possibilites. The theory also supposedly goes deeper towards inner awakening. It would be too premature, of course, to comment further and form any kind of perception without learning the theory.

 

An interesting concept indeed!

 

 

Reference: https://www.presencing.com/theoryu 

Islands in the sea

Substances at base divided,
In their summits are united.
There the holy essence rolls,
One through the seperated souls.
- From Celestial Love by Ralph Waldo Emers

Quantum superposition is an principal of quantum mechanics that implies that any physical entity (such as eletrons) exists partly in all its particular theoretically possible states simultaneously. In a classical world, there are 2 possible and distinct states - True or False, 0 or 1. In a quantum world, for example, an entity can be in a superposition state i.e. it can be be position 0 as well as 1 simultaneously. One more fundamental principle of quantum physics - quantum entanglement implies that a pair or group of entities (such as atoms) interact in a correlated way even if they are distanced from each other. We can not see the common connection, yet they appear to act in unison. This may sound difficult to comprehend. But let's have a look at from a little different angle.

 

An analogy can be given of a large number of islands in the sea. Each of these islands is in fact the top of a mountain which has its base in the seabed. From the surface of the sea the islands or the mountain peaks have individuality. Yet from the view-point of the seabed the islands or the individuals are seen to have their function in a common base. In other words, the islands which appear seperatre are actually connected with each other by the seabed. Yet, because we cannot see this common connection, we automatically assume that the islands are totally seperated and different from each other. 

 

Underlying all this science, theories and material universe is some deeper reality. It is even suggested that our present and assumptions regarding the nature of time and space are incorrect and unrealistic. Yogis, mystics and other wise men throughout the history may have found the answers but until they are available to common man in a commonly understandable way, the quest for knowledge and awareness continues.