Economy and Coaches on a Train

 You may have heard of the Comparison of Economies using a Burger's Price in various countries.

I have a new model to compare the economies of Cities. It's called the number of Coaches on Suburban Trains. Economy Size is directly proportional to the number of coaches on your Suburban trains (metro or otherwise).

Mumbai has suburban trains (local) with 12 coaches. So does the Delhi Metro, on most lines. 

Pune has 3-coach metro trains. Maybe more on suburban lines to Lonavala.. 

Hyderabad, likewise.

Kolkata has very few coaches on its metro trains.. maybe more on Suburban local trains to Belur and so on.

If you can do the Math, you will get an idea of the local economy. You can factor in the number of passengers using these as an additional factor in the calculation.

This is how new theories are born.. like an apple falling on your head!

Reflections From Academia

 Just as corporates have their learnings from the company they keep (or the company that keeps them), academics have our own.

When can one call an academic successful? When he publishes a huge amount of papers? When he earns a lot? 

Practically, I would say, in order of ranks 1 to many, these could measure his success-

1. Touching lives of students in some way- inspiring them or showing them the path to self-discovery.

2. Treating the students with respect- lots of teachers fail on this count.

3. Blending practice with theory or concepts in the same course, in a trimester or a semester.

4. Doing contemporary projects with or without industry cooperation. Case writing could be one kind.

5. Bringing his/her experiences into the class. Therefore, getting those experiences too..

6. Using innovative learning methods, experimenting with many.

Leadership Fundamentals

I think I'll give it a shot. I know there are a lot of leadership theories in vogue and out of it. I studied quite a few while doing my MBA and Ph.D. But these insights are mostly my own, though they may bear a resemblance to theories living or dead.

The first thing a good leader needs is not an MBA, but clarity of vision for his/her organisation. Many flounder on this count, I think. As some great man said, "If you don't know where you are headed, the rest of it is a waste of effort." Just like when you are shaving, it's a good mirror (and lighting) that is most useful, rather than a great razor (I beg your pardon, Gillette).

The ability to appoint the right people for the right job (skill needed- being a good judge of capabilities), and lay out a vision for the key people. So they can achieve it (if they are the right people, that is).

Motivation- the greatest motivation for each type of job may vary, but for some, it is autonomy. For others, it could be tight monitoring (sales type of jobs where targets are what make or break a company).

Courage to sack people is another important one, if you discover that you chose the wrong person or that she is not performing in tune with organisational needs. Merit should count.

I think I will stop here, or else I may be tempted into doing another Ph.D. 

The Meaning of Life

There is a great joke I heard on American T.V. that for me epitomizes the answer to this question.

 A guy from America was searching for the meaning of life (like all of us). He had heard of many great gurus in different countries, met many, but was unsatisfied. Then, someone mentioned a recluse who lived in the Himalayas, and said he would not disappoint him. Finding him after many months of trying, this American went up to the meditating man in some corner of the mountains. He waited until the guru opened his eyes.

 Explaining his quest, what pains he had to take, and the good things he had heard about the guru, the man asked him the question he had been longing to get an answer for. “What is life?” The guru replied instantly, “It is a fountain with water flowing out of it,” and fell silent.
After waiting for more, the American asked him,“That’s it? Is that why I came across the seven seas to you? This cannot be the answer to my question…blah, blah..”  “You have to give me the real answer.” “Ok”, the guru said. “I will tell you the real answer. Life is a fountain with no water flowing out of it”, and fell silent again, for good. I find this story hilarious, but also insightful. We are so full of ourselves that most of the time, we are blind to the abundance of life forms, and inanimate objects in nature. The universe is so big and unfathomable, that whatever we might achieve, we are dwarfed by it. Essentially, life is what you choose to make of it, or believe it to be.

 I find some writers particularly insightful at explaining the niceties of the inexplicable in a palatable way. J. Krishnamurty, the teacher-philosopher, is one of them. He advocates freedom from all dogma, and not to believe anything unless you have experienced it for yourself. If we look around, we will notice that everyone has an agenda. Also, everyone has limited experience, based on which they generalize. For example, before I visited the U.S., I could not have visualized what a 4-lane highway looks or feels like, because I had not seen or driven on one in India. Essentially, think and experience things for yourself before you start believing in anything, is the learning from this man. 

Another writer I found very good at philosophical yet understandable writing is Richard Bach. From Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, the story of a seagull who is grappling with questions about the meaning of life, to his other books, he has a good take on life, rebirth, reincarnation, religion, and many other issues.
 Among current writers bordering on the philosophical, Robin Sharma and Paulo Coelho are probably the best (also indicated by their sales). With a simple yet effective style, they are able to get beyond the ordinary stories that they tell.
 

I would also rate Osho as another great author. The sheer volume of his writings is amazing. His wide sweep of all possible religions, belief systems and his interpretations are a treat to read/listen to. He was a unique guru in many ways, who dared to confront the hypocritical ideas of all religions and yet explain the good things about each one of them. His persecution at the hands of the U.S. and other governments proves that they were really scared of what he was preaching, maybe because much of it was true. One other trait I liked in him is that he was not scared of the white man. Many of the ex-colonies of white nations seem to carry the slavery in their minds even today. 

I also have a theory of life. I call it my Mega Theory of Life, and it has a simple explanation for all that we do-BOREDOM. We are all trying to get ourselves out of a state of boredom, by doing whatever we do. See if it explains everything or not-the wars, the seeking of pleasure, the quest for money, the religious discourses, and so on.
 

Visiting Faculty

Visiting faculty are of many kinds. This is my observation based on "years of experience" with them.

1. The humble, do my job and get on kind.

2. The arrogant, I know it all kind-usually from industry

3. The crowd-pleasing types, equivalent to the populist politicians (both from industry and academia)

4. Extremely boring but technically proficient in a narrow field

5. Full of war stories-boasting about what they did (many of these are a result of wild imagination rather than fact)

6. Good blenders of theory and practice (many with modest experience of both industry and academia)

7. Good researchers with lots of publications to their credit, with little idea of how practicable any of their research is (academicians, of course)

8. Good communicators, and little else- they can speak on any subject under the sun.

That's all for now. Will be back when I can remember other types.

Book Review-The Evolution of Everything by Matt Ridley

I am in the middle of a fascinating book about how everything has evolved, and will evolve. No, it does not tell you what will be the end result, but says that it won't be planned. Instead, it will evolve as a result of various events, pulls, pressures and so on. And this covers every aspect of life as we know it.

Almost anything you can think of is covered, not just our evolution from a Darwinian standpoint. Culture, religion, morality, civilisation, institutions, the Law, and almost everything. The central argument of the author is that you can only achieve so much through planning, and free enterprise actually works better than control. Human action helps, but design, planning,...very little.

All you control freaks out there, you need to take a chill pill, if what he argues is even half-correct. For instance, he finds that the Epicurean principles espoused by an ancient author were suppressed a long time because they were inconvenient to, and contradicted the Church. The author's writings were accidentally found and propagated to an extent (or at least were out in print) in the fourteenth century.

Many interesting fields bound together by a common thread. There are references to another book I had read a long time ago, Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, about our evolution.

I can't wait to read the rest of it. See you later.

Car Colour and Personality

I am on the cusp of a breakthrough theory- that car colour is related to the personality of the guy/gal who chose that colour. Check this out-

Dark colours - these guys have dark secrets to them. Tough to unravel.

White- Apparently the most popular colour for a car in India- naive, transparent, find it difficult to hide their feelings, and can get into trouble in a world that prizes diplomacy.

Golden- Have a heart of gold, more valuable than the metal.

Silver- not quite there (Golden), but getting there. Some more effort needed.

Red- impatient, inclined to speeding, paying higher insurance premium (according to American insurance company data).

Blue- They are the people who will take on your blues, or give you the blues. Depends on the season.

Yellow- don't tell me there are guys with yellow cars! Eeeeks..

Conspiracy Theories

Did Modi want his supremacy stamped and did he therefore sideline Jaswant Singh?

Are criminal cases against MPs and MLAs motivated?

Did Chidambaram back out of Lok Sabha elections because he was certain he would lose?

Was Tarun Tejpal framed?

Did the Sahara chief get into trouble because he stopped sponsoring the Indian cricket team?

Is there fixing of every cricket match we see on TV?

Was the Malaysian plane really hijacked or is the truth being hidden from the world?

Did that guy in your office get an undeserved promotion?

No one really knows the answers. Therefore, the conspiracy theory is kept alive, and acquires a life of its own. Making the chai-pe-charcha (conversation over tea) an interesting thing.

Medicine for Stress

Actually, it is not a curative, but a preventive medicine. I hate to sound like a salesman on a TV promotional show for medicine, but don't worry. You don't have to go buy anything. Just hear me out. If you don't like what I am saying, you can leave nasty comments.

My new theory (2013, copyrighted but free for use)-

Stress comes from non-acceptance. Some comments, judgements, relationship break-ups, what have you, that we don't want to accept. That is the major cause of (undesirable levels of) stress.

Solution? Accept. Simple? Not really, but could be effective. Accept and move on. If you know yourself (that's a tough one, there), the acceptance of the adverse will result in the effect of the adverse stuff waning pretty quickly.

Try it. No, I am not into starting a cult, and I am NOT accepting disciples. Contrary to my advice, maybe.

Guide to Management Core Subjects-Statistics

It's one of the most misunderstood subjects in the world. Usually because (pardon me teachers) it is taught badly. With no appreciation that it can do wonders for you, if you don't seek perfection from it (like with most things in life, I might add).

Statistics is the art or science of estimating things, and sometimes calling these predictions- they are still estimates, and can be wrong to varying degrees. But within its limitations, you can estimate a lot of things using simple statistics. For instance, people visiting a store on a given day, or time of the day, can be observed, mapped, and used to determine how many staff would be needed, for example, at what times.

Or, you can look at purchase patterns and send out promotional offers to customers most likely to buy. Online marketers seem to have cottoned on to this, coz I am flooded with pop up ads for air tickets, if I have just browsed for a particular sector on yatra, without buying the ticket.

The trouble is, teaching starts at the wrong end- the theory, which is worse than nuclear physics, and hardly anyone understands it. Practice or application might be the place to start, and present a practical problem, and then go back to how statistics could help solve it (with a margin of error, naturally). And the discussion of errors of all kinds (Type 1, Type 2 are the least of them) goes on and on, that by the time you are done listing all of them you forget what problem it was you were trying to solve.

The other extreme is trying to fit a problem to a technique. As in, I want to use Regression (or Multidimensional Scaling, or whatever). How do I use it in my research? Or, after a questionnaire for a survey has been filled up, saying I want to use x,y,z, technique for analysis. That is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, surely? The scale of measurement determines what analysis can be performed. QED.

I will not even talk about probability, until I have understood how to make it better understood.