I don't know any more about Google than the average consumer, which limits my knowledge to the contention that it is one of the most successful companies of this century, to go along with the paranoid opinion that they will soon take over the world. So it was no surprise that Google was named one of the most innovative companies by Business Week. The surprise was that they were number 2. Since such lists are equal parts fact, opinion and conjecture, we can assume they are as good, if not better, than the number one company in the list, Apple.
So what makes Google so good? How can a start-up become an indispensable part of the life of an average person in less than a decade? Did the patented ranking algorithm for the Google search engine hold some fantastic magical power that has by now taken hold over the human race? Doesn't seem likely.
I once read a quote from a scientist in some scientific magazine (it may have been Popular Science; does that count as a legitimate magazine to which scientists give interviews?). To paraphrase he said that most new technologies that revolutionize life for the average person are really not that new. They have either been building up incrementally in a small community of innovators or scientists, or somebody developed them long ago and shelved them after finding no worthwhile use at the time.
I believe that is true. It is not so much the technology, but how you apply it that separates the merely smart from the insanely successful. That is not to say that the Google page ranking system wasn't all new and shiny - I wouldn't know; nor is it to say that Messrs Brin and Page aren't smart. Not only are they smarter than the average bear (me), but it's not too far fetched to say that they have genius in spades. But the reason Google is successful is not that the founders were good enough to go to Stanford, but that they knew how to apply all those smarts to figure out exactly what the people wanted, and exactly what they would pay for. Google did not benefit from the slavish cultishness of Apple consumers who would do anything to push, pull or drag Apple to the top of the heap despite their ridiculous prices or obvious shortcomings. They did, however, benefit from being the outsider - a sleeker, hipper, and, even more importantly, freer alternative to Microsoft. They used the hate and mistrust people had for the giant and all-encompassing behemoth to become one themselves, and were able to maintain the love of the people all along the way. Now there's a magic trick if I ever saw one.
As if to prove the point of how Google really gets it, Yahoo!, the search engine that started it all, is now going through its death throes even as Google and Microsoft fight to take over the corpse. Yahoo got too cluttered and obese for it's own good. The home page became bloated, the mail, news and music sites were just pale imitations of others, or bought off the shelf and re-branded. There was no innovation. They either didn't 'get' what the consumer wanted, or didn't care. Google gets it. The home page is practically unchanged since inception. They don't do new stuff for the sake of doing it. In fact, the brilliance is that they know what people will want tomorrow, and they cater to that need. I remember when Google Maps came out, there was an afternoon wasted with colleagues marveling at the genius of it. What had come before from others and what we had thought of as cutting edge had been blown out of the water. Google's other apps like Earth, Sketch-up, Orkut, News, Finance all live up to that standard (let's no talk about Froogle in this space). Acquisitions like Youtube and Blogger are opportune and improve the brand instead of bloating it. Yeah, I think Google's number one in my list.
I hope they stay there and don't go the way of Apple, of creating something funky and cool and completely useless and racking up sales by convincing people they can't live without using this funky, cool and completely useless thing (yes I desire an iphone, no I can't afford the data plan, yes you can go ahead and call me sour grapes).
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Live to Tell
I wonder when the obsession with getting older starts for most people. There are those lucky few who never think about it. They age without seeming to get old, get laugh lines instead of getting worry lines, and look dignified instead of stale.
I didn't think turning thirty was such a big deal. That is, I didn't think it was such a big deal until I actually turned thirty. Now it seems as if time has passed me by and that no matter how much I scramble and scrape, it will forever be out of reach. It seems as if I will never lose this feeling of having let it go without giving my all to grab it, corral it and dominate it for the rest of my life. There are so many things that I wanted to do, but never got an opportunity - or made one. And then I think, hey I'm only thirty, not sixty. I still have enough time to sing those songs, write those books, direct those movies and climb those peaks.
Then comes this gnawing realization that I'm probably no closer to achieving any of those things than I was five years ago and the added frustration of being a part of the rat race. I wasn't designed to be a 9 to 5 kind of guy. Carpe Diem they say in Latin. Well, I didn't and with each day that passes I feel more entrenched in the rat race. Age brings responsibility, and the added burden of expectation. We are expected to follow the usual road - education, job, marriage, kids, savings, retirement. And with each day that passes without carpeing the diem there are fewer exits to get off that road.
Such is the agony and ecstasy of living in the United States. Whereas in India I would have likely not even entertained thoughts of breaking from the pack, here I feel the ecstasy of limitless potential - and the agony of being an alien who is not allowed by law to reach it.
Despite the doom and gloom nature of this post, however, I am an optimist. My nature is to chip away. Chip away at a block of stone and soon there will be a beautiful sculpture. Where others see a block of stone, the sculptor sees a Madonna and child. All I have to do is chip away.
Word of the day: Stability
I didn't think turning thirty was such a big deal. That is, I didn't think it was such a big deal until I actually turned thirty. Now it seems as if time has passed me by and that no matter how much I scramble and scrape, it will forever be out of reach. It seems as if I will never lose this feeling of having let it go without giving my all to grab it, corral it and dominate it for the rest of my life. There are so many things that I wanted to do, but never got an opportunity - or made one. And then I think, hey I'm only thirty, not sixty. I still have enough time to sing those songs, write those books, direct those movies and climb those peaks.
Then comes this gnawing realization that I'm probably no closer to achieving any of those things than I was five years ago and the added frustration of being a part of the rat race. I wasn't designed to be a 9 to 5 kind of guy. Carpe Diem they say in Latin. Well, I didn't and with each day that passes I feel more entrenched in the rat race. Age brings responsibility, and the added burden of expectation. We are expected to follow the usual road - education, job, marriage, kids, savings, retirement. And with each day that passes without carpeing the diem there are fewer exits to get off that road.
Such is the agony and ecstasy of living in the United States. Whereas in India I would have likely not even entertained thoughts of breaking from the pack, here I feel the ecstasy of limitless potential - and the agony of being an alien who is not allowed by law to reach it.
Despite the doom and gloom nature of this post, however, I am an optimist. My nature is to chip away. Chip away at a block of stone and soon there will be a beautiful sculpture. Where others see a block of stone, the sculptor sees a Madonna and child. All I have to do is chip away.
Word of the day: Stability
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Pride (In the name of Love)
Recently an email I received - one of the myriad emails that are forwarded everyday to my account - stood out starkly from the rest. Forwarded emails have become so the norm these days that most don’t get more than a cursory glance. What struck me about this particular one was not something unusual, but rather a particularly vile example of an attitude that I have been noticing with increasing frequency amongst my compatriots. I will quote the email in its entirety and then try to explain why it bothered me enough to want to write about it:
I couldn't' stop making this comparison..
inches of rain in new Orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1
population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500
deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37
number of people to be evacuated in new orleans...entire city
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000
Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE
Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours
status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricity
Status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual
USA...world's most developed nation
India...JUST A DEVELOPING NATION..oopss...did i get the last fact wrong??? Or am I just being proud of being an INDIAN
It is not possible to explain with mere words how shallow some people can be, and I will not even begin to attempt that here. When I first read this email, I immediately dismissed it as so much nonsense. But even a week later it kept tugging at my mind. I finally went back and reread it to understand the swirling cloud of anger and frustration it had managed to create in me. It disturbed me that someone could find pride in comparing death tolls of tragedies of such magnitude. In one unthinking swipe of the keyboard, the person brushed aside tens of thousands of people made homeless in the Mumbai rains. Entire slums were wiped out in 48 hours. The death toll was 1000 at the end of one week. In the US, entire cities along the coastline of two states have been completely wiped out, with countless people losing all their life's possessions. This is hardly a matter for a game of one-upmanship. Had Mumbai been in the same situation as New Orleans, the magnitude of the tragedy would have been too horrifying to comprehend. A category 4 hurricane with winds upto 250 kmph hitting a city of twelve million, with its average height below sea level and surrounded by high water on three sides ... I don't think I need to do the math. As it is, the severe rains caused floods the likes of which haven’t been seen in a long time. A city built out of reclaimed land with no drainage to speak of, built in an area lashed by severe monsoons every year. It was a tragedy waiting to happen, just like the New Orleans soupbowl. The rains exacerbated the wounds of the city. Old, dilapidated buildings which seemed to cling on to that last breath forever before collapsing have all but given up hope. There have been three collapses in the last month itself. As a gleaming new city rises in its place, the old city is dying and it’s taking its poor people with it. The rains were not good to Mumbai. It is sad to think someone feels the need to twist facts to somehow feel superior, and while in itself this attitude is not unusual, it is more frustrating because this email will be forwarded mechanically by every Indian to every other Indian in their contact list and most of them will read it and feel proud without really understanding what they are feeling proud about.
And therein lies the crux of the problem. It is this overwhelming need all Indians feel to be recognised as superior to all Westerners. After 150 years of foreign rule and the socialist mind-stifling policies of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, we are at last finding our place in this world, and this attitude keeps dragging us back. As long as we feel a need to put someone else down to prove our worth, we are lying to the world and we are lying to ourselves. We are trying to win a battle that exists only in our minds. This generation - my generation - is the first one to break the shackles of our self-imposed inferiority complex and take our country through those first tentative steps towards the greatness that all Indians like to see in their motherland. But we don't need false victories in non-existent battles to do that. Today we have Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune as arguably the IT capitals of the world. We are self sustaining in almost all grain and food products. In 60 years we have gone from a country of farmers to a nuclear power. For the first time in 200 years any young Indian has not only the ability, but also the self-belief to stand up to any other person in the world and be as intelligent, articulate, productive and creative as them. There is no need for us to shrilly proclaim our superiority, because we are not superior - we are equal - and our deeds will do all the proclaiming for us. And while it's one thing to point up to the sky and see India Rising, one should always cast their eyes towards their feet and see the 500 million people whose backs one is grinding into the ground to feel as tall as the rest of the world.
Be proud to be an Indian - I am. But don't have delusions of grandeur. No, India is not a developed nation. But it is in our hands to take her there - and we won’t let her down.
I couldn't' stop making this comparison..
inches of rain in new Orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1
population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500
deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37
number of people to be evacuated in new orleans...entire city
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000
Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE
Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours
status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricity
Status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual
USA...world's most developed nation
India...JUST A DEVELOPING NATION..oopss...did i get the last fact wrong??? Or am I just being proud of being an INDIAN
It is not possible to explain with mere words how shallow some people can be, and I will not even begin to attempt that here. When I first read this email, I immediately dismissed it as so much nonsense. But even a week later it kept tugging at my mind. I finally went back and reread it to understand the swirling cloud of anger and frustration it had managed to create in me. It disturbed me that someone could find pride in comparing death tolls of tragedies of such magnitude. In one unthinking swipe of the keyboard, the person brushed aside tens of thousands of people made homeless in the Mumbai rains. Entire slums were wiped out in 48 hours. The death toll was 1000 at the end of one week. In the US, entire cities along the coastline of two states have been completely wiped out, with countless people losing all their life's possessions. This is hardly a matter for a game of one-upmanship. Had Mumbai been in the same situation as New Orleans, the magnitude of the tragedy would have been too horrifying to comprehend. A category 4 hurricane with winds upto 250 kmph hitting a city of twelve million, with its average height below sea level and surrounded by high water on three sides ... I don't think I need to do the math. As it is, the severe rains caused floods the likes of which haven’t been seen in a long time. A city built out of reclaimed land with no drainage to speak of, built in an area lashed by severe monsoons every year. It was a tragedy waiting to happen, just like the New Orleans soupbowl. The rains exacerbated the wounds of the city. Old, dilapidated buildings which seemed to cling on to that last breath forever before collapsing have all but given up hope. There have been three collapses in the last month itself. As a gleaming new city rises in its place, the old city is dying and it’s taking its poor people with it. The rains were not good to Mumbai. It is sad to think someone feels the need to twist facts to somehow feel superior, and while in itself this attitude is not unusual, it is more frustrating because this email will be forwarded mechanically by every Indian to every other Indian in their contact list and most of them will read it and feel proud without really understanding what they are feeling proud about.
And therein lies the crux of the problem. It is this overwhelming need all Indians feel to be recognised as superior to all Westerners. After 150 years of foreign rule and the socialist mind-stifling policies of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, we are at last finding our place in this world, and this attitude keeps dragging us back. As long as we feel a need to put someone else down to prove our worth, we are lying to the world and we are lying to ourselves. We are trying to win a battle that exists only in our minds. This generation - my generation - is the first one to break the shackles of our self-imposed inferiority complex and take our country through those first tentative steps towards the greatness that all Indians like to see in their motherland. But we don't need false victories in non-existent battles to do that. Today we have Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune as arguably the IT capitals of the world. We are self sustaining in almost all grain and food products. In 60 years we have gone from a country of farmers to a nuclear power. For the first time in 200 years any young Indian has not only the ability, but also the self-belief to stand up to any other person in the world and be as intelligent, articulate, productive and creative as them. There is no need for us to shrilly proclaim our superiority, because we are not superior - we are equal - and our deeds will do all the proclaiming for us. And while it's one thing to point up to the sky and see India Rising, one should always cast their eyes towards their feet and see the 500 million people whose backs one is grinding into the ground to feel as tall as the rest of the world.
Be proud to be an Indian - I am. But don't have delusions of grandeur. No, India is not a developed nation. But it is in our hands to take her there - and we won’t let her down.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Ah, Calvin.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Musicology
At the behest of a certain single celled organism floating about in Philly, I am writing a post about music. Now being asked to write a post about music by Katz is akin to being asked to write a post about universal love by Adolf Hitler - it just doesn't happen. Only it just has. While it gives a warm, fuzzy feeling to know that a person who previously could not distinguish a nail scratching a blackboard from Mozart's fourth symphony has come into the fold, it makes me wonder what Vidy, I and Atul were doing wrong that we could not convert her despite two years worth of efforts.
Nonetheless, I can still say with some pride that I had at least some small part to play in the musical growth of my two erstwhile roommates, Messrs Atul and Rohit. To be fair though Rohit is a walking encyclopedia of Hindi music and was in great part responsible for increasing the repertoire of Hindi songs I listen to. Atul, as is his wont, has far surpassed me in the intensity he shows in his approach towards music and guitaring.
I pondered for a while what a blog on music should really be about. I could have listed the songs and artists I like, or am listening to right now, but these things are very transitory. What you like is very much about the person you are at that particular point in time. Fifteen years ago I couldn't go an entire week without listening to Wham!. Now I cannot listen to more than a couple of Wham! songs in a row. Ten years ago I spent a lot of money on The Wall by Pink Floyd. I threw away the cassettes in a week because the songs were trash. Now I can't go an entire week without listening to Pink Floyd.
Tastes might be transitory, but good music lasts forever. I might not listen to Wham! anymore, but I hum along whenever I hear one of their songs on the radio. I might not understand Indian classical music, but I never cease to be amazed by the complexity of the compositions or the virtuosity of the masters. But just the fact that a piece of art is intrinsically good does not mean that one has to like it or that it should matter enough to every person to make them emotional about it. For that to happen one must be attached to the music on a personal level and when that happens it doesn't matter whether that piece of music or song is perceived as critically good or not, only that you feel a special attachment to it for some reason.
Music, in one form or another, has probably spanned the entire existance of the human race. We carried it out from Africa, where our ape ancestors were probably beating on earthen drums before they could even speak to each other. Cavemen probably smoked psychotropic weed and gathered round in circles uttering rhythmic chants in some long forgotten language. Then they went and drew animals on the walls - hey, you can expect only so much from cavemen. Music strikes a chord in humans (no pun intended) and the power it has to make one feel happy, sad, angry, inspired or a myriad of other emotions is what eventually enables us to connect to it.
Music has the power to enhance moods, but it also has the power to bring back old memories. It reminds me of the time when a bunch of us gathered in a friends apartment and belted out Hotel California till we were hoarse (yes even the guitar riffs). It is something I have done alone innumerable times, but that memory has still stuck with me. Or the song that we played in our bus the entire class trip in 10th grade. That one song can trigger memories of that time in my life. Or the time when, for months on end, each time we went out in Dev's car it was a rule to have Dil Se playing first up (followed by the soundtrack for I Know What You Did Last Summer - my excuse is that we were young and didn't know any better).
But, the most surreal effect music has on me is when I just put on a CD on and get completely lost in the music. Who needs dope when I have music. Well, dope with music would be even better but I can't advocate anything illegal on the blog, can I?
So come along folks, turn up the volume and take a ride out into your inner world. Strap on those seat-belts - this roller coaster never ends.
Nonetheless, I can still say with some pride that I had at least some small part to play in the musical growth of my two erstwhile roommates, Messrs Atul and Rohit. To be fair though Rohit is a walking encyclopedia of Hindi music and was in great part responsible for increasing the repertoire of Hindi songs I listen to. Atul, as is his wont, has far surpassed me in the intensity he shows in his approach towards music and guitaring.
I pondered for a while what a blog on music should really be about. I could have listed the songs and artists I like, or am listening to right now, but these things are very transitory. What you like is very much about the person you are at that particular point in time. Fifteen years ago I couldn't go an entire week without listening to Wham!. Now I cannot listen to more than a couple of Wham! songs in a row. Ten years ago I spent a lot of money on The Wall by Pink Floyd. I threw away the cassettes in a week because the songs were trash. Now I can't go an entire week without listening to Pink Floyd.
Tastes might be transitory, but good music lasts forever. I might not listen to Wham! anymore, but I hum along whenever I hear one of their songs on the radio. I might not understand Indian classical music, but I never cease to be amazed by the complexity of the compositions or the virtuosity of the masters. But just the fact that a piece of art is intrinsically good does not mean that one has to like it or that it should matter enough to every person to make them emotional about it. For that to happen one must be attached to the music on a personal level and when that happens it doesn't matter whether that piece of music or song is perceived as critically good or not, only that you feel a special attachment to it for some reason.
Music, in one form or another, has probably spanned the entire existance of the human race. We carried it out from Africa, where our ape ancestors were probably beating on earthen drums before they could even speak to each other. Cavemen probably smoked psychotropic weed and gathered round in circles uttering rhythmic chants in some long forgotten language. Then they went and drew animals on the walls - hey, you can expect only so much from cavemen. Music strikes a chord in humans (no pun intended) and the power it has to make one feel happy, sad, angry, inspired or a myriad of other emotions is what eventually enables us to connect to it.
Music has the power to enhance moods, but it also has the power to bring back old memories. It reminds me of the time when a bunch of us gathered in a friends apartment and belted out Hotel California till we were hoarse (yes even the guitar riffs). It is something I have done alone innumerable times, but that memory has still stuck with me. Or the song that we played in our bus the entire class trip in 10th grade. That one song can trigger memories of that time in my life. Or the time when, for months on end, each time we went out in Dev's car it was a rule to have Dil Se playing first up (followed by the soundtrack for I Know What You Did Last Summer - my excuse is that we were young and didn't know any better).
But, the most surreal effect music has on me is when I just put on a CD on and get completely lost in the music. Who needs dope when I have music. Well, dope with music would be even better but I can't advocate anything illegal on the blog, can I?
So come along folks, turn up the volume and take a ride out into your inner world. Strap on those seat-belts - this roller coaster never ends.
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