Monday, December 14, 2009
Mozilla Project - The uncut story
Thursday, December 10, 2009
If everything is the same, where on earth is creativity?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Top 10 I wish I had written this
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Why is there a joy in the obvious?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
It's a people's business, stupid
- The average time spent at work is anywhere between 10-15 hours a day, sometimes weekends too. Most of them are youngsters who repose complete faith on their bosses to guide them. Do I need to stress the importance of work culture and leadership?
- The average salary of a person with 7-8 years experience (probably a Group Head or Account Director) is roughly 40% less than a person in Marketing with similar experience (or even less)
- The average time it takes for a person to understand the client’s business (and needs) is 2-3 months. Match this to the fact that the average life-span of an agency bloke in the business is roughly 15 months (Attrition level is roughly 25%-40%) So a person barely has settled in when he can’t wait to get out
Sunday, November 15, 2009
7 reasons why I think social media is a woman
- If you want to make some headway, shut the f*ck up and listen
- Remains a conundrum in spite of all the experts and guru’s
- Has a long memory and never lets you forget your missteps
- Dismissive of fakes and prefers real men
- Believes healthy relationships are built when expressing innermost feelings
- Needs constant care and attention
- Headache, when you desperately want to control it
Monday, November 2, 2009
Are hashtags an useful barometer of sentiment?
There is also one more use. Sometimes a quick read of tweets pertaining to a ‘hashtag’ can be an indicator of trends or sentiment. Just yesterday my 13-year old niece wanted some help for an essay on wildlife. #wildlife gave me a quick summary on the topic which was not way off the mark. The links provided the support.
Any thoughts?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Is selling creative without the bullshit possible?
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Contradictions work
All I can say to all those who harbor a doubt about whether contradictions work or not. There is proof. And it is over 10000 years old.
India!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Top 10 I wish I had written this
Thursday, October 8, 2009
When our strength trips us
Indian movie production and distribution until the 60’s was dominated by large studios. A studio’s fortune (or strength) rested on the popularity of the actors and technicians in their ‘portfolio’. Studio’s felt that they needed to have a vice-like grip on them (bonded labourers). Little did they realise that once an actor became a star, it is the public who had control over them. The stars threatened and demanded exorbitant fees. When the studios couldn’t cough up, they simply walked out to work with independent producers.
There are various reasons for this phenomenon. Strength tends to blind-side us, strength tends to makes us play it safe, strength creates inertia to change, strength becomes irrelevant with dramatic changes in the eco-system and so on.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Bombardiers
Read this book if you haven’t already and when the economy tanks next time, you can say with confidence “I know why it happened!”
(Update: I would also recommend Liar's Poker which is a true story of a young man's experience working in an investment bank. It is funny and brilliant.)
Monday, September 14, 2009
Rumours, Lies and Social Media
It is rightly said that bad news, rumours and lies spreads faster than good news. Magnifying the speed a zillion times is Social Media. More than the speed, it is the erroneous opinion one tends to form about a person or event that makes it so damned dangerous.
I came across this post by Nassim Taleb wherein he accuses Guardian of distorting his views and comments on a particular topic. In this particular case though, one knows the source (Guardian) and what they represent. But is it realistic to expect to know the source of content always?
Theoretically, Social Media provides an equal platform for extreme views. But such is the power of misrepresentation (and Social Media) that more often than not the damage is done before one can react.
While the premise of this post is negative, it is with a reason. I do not want Social Media to become like 'traditional media'. Whatever be the debate amongst pundits about Social Media, I can confidently say that I am deriving enormous benefits from it. Social Media represents the hope that I have for getting information, knowledge and entertainment in a manner devoid of prejudices. Even if there were prejudices, it is out there in the open. This is not true of traditional media.
Traditional media(journalism) professes to be balanced, but that is hardly the case. For example, the newspaper that epitomised balanced journalism and which most Indians in the South like me grew up with is now increasingly sounding like Pravda. I continue to read it not because I am a leftist or that I have any sort of political inclination (far from it) The irony that is not lost on me is that the options to this paper are far worse. The reason for this deterioration in standards is pretty straight forward.
Media houses have sold their souls at the altar of rating points and readership. They are peddling conjectures and rumours as facts. Probably, the influence of electronic media and its inherent superficiality has a role to play. What is worse is that even the dead are not spared. I am not just talking about celebrities like MJ.
An incident that upset me and other like-minded Indians was the coverage of the murder of a 14-year old girl. The media circus that followed must be one of the most shameful episodes in India’s journalistic history. Indian media in collusion with the authorities tore that poor child’s name as well as that of her family to shreds. They reminded me of a pack of hyena’s circling an innocent prey.
I hope Social Media does not become an instrument to perpetuate social lie. Crap detection in Social Media is very easy. But for that we need to shake ourselves out of the habit (from time to time) of being mere passive consumers of information.
One cannot justify lies and rumours under the guise of freedom of speech. The enormous freedom and reach that Social Media gives us, comes with a rider. Responsibility!
(Image courtesy: somebody)
Monday, September 7, 2009
"There is no reason not to follow your heart"
(Courtesy: Success Electrons via @dennisprice)
I have read this speech many times. However, when I viewed this video for the first time last week it gave me goose-bumps. It is about life said by a man who has seen it all. Awesome.