And now…when Twitter won’t work

So soon it happened. Can’t agree more this with this article on TechCrunch. The article is not really about tweets breaking the news out from Fort Hood base. But more why we as a society has gone to egoist and deprived of human emotions. With as the sociological and psychological part of it left aside, such situations are always a challenge posed by rule-changing innovations.

Back when Sony first introduced Walkman, it changed the society’s view towards music. It became more like I am enjoying my music and you keep guessing what it is. iPods took it to next level and it was like forget the music, I look so cool listen to it. iPhones did same in mobile phone arena. So the innovations at times are really more about more to make us egoist people be more egocentric.

Same will happen to Twitter and to every such innovation. Soon they loose focus of the actual purpose and end up being a tool to feed our egos. It’s a never ending cycle. If you carefully notice, many twitter clients are not how well we can listen to others. Rather how quickly we can say what we have to (without bothering if there is anyone caring to listen). Most people follow others so they get followed back and get to show a bigger count. For the same reason, they won’t block the spam bots as they inflate their followers count.

As a society we really need some innovations that we make us realize we are humans. We need innovations to teach us manners again. So that, ‘compassion’ doesn’t become a word that we hear only at beauty pageants.

 

Internet and Browser

We can’t imagine the world without Internet anymore. It’s into our life so deep and even those who would vow against computers unknowingly are so dependent on it. Superstores, ATMs, reservations, where not?

Browsers has been the way we access it. Start with text only like Lynx. Then came Mozilla and IE. And with that started something new. Standards. We started talking about standards. Open standards, to be more specific. Standards are like Law. You are supposed to follow them but if you want to get faster, richer, better than other then you have to bend few and break some. That’s what IE did too. And now chrome doing the same. Trying to optimize the browsers in favor of particular format for the content. But that’s another debate.

So the content is what makes the Internet. And the content is getting richer by the day. It can be so because the bandwidth is increasingly getting cheaper. We start with text, then images, then videos and now we are already talking about real time streaming HD quality. So will the browsers remain relevant in next decade? I certainly don’t think so. We are probably seeing the end of them. In two more years, as enter next decade, they will become much incapable to cope up with the amount of content and the processing required to present it.

How we will be browsing net in next decade?

Before trying to envision that, lets quickly check the kind of data we be dealing with. HD quality video stream, 3 D worlds like SecondLife, IP TV, VoIP, Maps, Gaming, MMOs and MMORPGs. Today we have separate desktop application to deal with each of them. So, of course, a new platform has to come that can present this rich content. That platform needs to be hardware accelerated. That is, it need to take help of your graphics cards and you need to have a good one. Quality graphic cards might be luxury today but so were CD drives and sound cards once. Near future we can expect them so be standard part of motherboards.

Does this mean we will be browsing using sophisticated browser?

Again, we will have to glance back to predict this. With the internet and dot com boom of late 90s a variety of browsers became available. Many couldn’t sustain or perform with time and hence, gone obsolete. History will repeat itself. We will have variety of paltforms for rich content delivery. Few will win.

What about standards?

Well, we will gradually start writing standards too but then who will follow them? I will be equivolcal here though. Because we do need standards. And the way it will work in reality will be that there will be some standard and everyone will be deviating away from it. But the deviation will be much controlled and lesser copared to abscence of standards. You can say the variance will be much lesser and that will be a good thing.

Who will be causality?

Browsers shall be first. Then, the technologies that can not support rich contents like XML. Yes, I don’t see the future of XML in content delivery. Doesn’t mean XML will die. XML will remain and hopefully be used only were its really needed. Next will be the companies, the sites and the platforms which won’t support rich contents. Google is slowly moving that direction already. Microsoft made a head start ( we are already seeing early prototypes of photosynth, etc from them).

Conclusion

Changing times ahead. Once this economic depression is over and the IT industry is weeded out of non-IT thinking brains ( there was a time when everybody thought they could code). And with that IT industry will probably come of age. Internet would have penetrated much deeper in out lives. The way we look at computers and internet will change. Because the way computer and internet look will also change. With all this technological biggest casuality will be PRIVACY!!

 

Next is what?

Lets start a new series. New year. New chain of thoughts. Lets try and think and innovate. Lets glance back and gauge where we stand today. And from this lets try to extrapolate tomorrow. It’ll be fun. Let me know if you had any premonitions

 

Buck up

It is so easy get lost. So easy to loose the motivation. There are so many distractions that its unbelievably hard to remain focused on your goals. I am going through the same these days. Office work and family life keeps me so busy that I am getting hardly any motivation to pursue my goals for this year. And time is running out fast.

We once discussed about the perseverance. Habits of Innovative People : Habit 6.

We should preach what we follow. But today am in situation where I need to follow what I preach. I realized that as you grow up the ladder in your organization. It becomes harder and harder to remain focused. How to get out of this situation?

Let me take this as an opportunity to experiment with myself. And try to find a way to deal with it. So here is what I am going to do. Firstly, I need a way to keep reminding myself of the tasks which are getting delayed. Alarms or To Dos won’t work because they will remind me when I will be busy doing some other work. I am taking few post-its and pasting them over my work desk, on TV and on door of my bathroom. This should remind me when I am not technically busy.

Memory is taken care of. What about motivation? Rather Self-motivation.

I should now do a SWOT to take stock of my situation.

This shows high degree in Threats and Weakness. Unless I make opportunity quadrant heavier or Weakness quadrant lighter, it will remain a very uphill task. So to achieve this, I am now marking each day 10 to 11pm for my tasks. This shall remove the time management from weakness. Now if I add brainstorming activity this dedicated slot, I see opportunity for new ideas. This should now balance my SWOT. Lets see how it goes now. Will keep you posted.

 

Half knowledge is worse than ignorance

I was discussing this with Praveen the other day. And he brought this interesting point. People would start learning something and then will leave midway (why?). Then, they are left with half knowledge. Now not only they would suffer from misusing it but will cause pain for many innocent victims too.

The problem Praveen mentioned was application of Design Patterns. This everyone agrees that patterns are grossly misapplied. And many times they create unwanted trouble instead of help. That’s why Anti-Patterns where published. To warn people of they traps.

Lets generalize it here. Like Dilbert’s boss, we will find many people who would start learning something new. Not because of need, but they want to use the jargon like others. Now they would loose the patience half way. Off course, any subject gets complicated after few chapters. Then it becomes a test of learning ability and patience. Which we know these kind of people lack. Now starts the massacre of technology. Such people will start with throwing the new jargon they picked…left and right. You will look for a corner where you can go and scream. Like Praveen said…”If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. So this monkey will now take the knife and will start cutting whatever comes its way.

I feel taming such people is the biggest challenge for managers. Not because they themselves suffer from this problem. I am talking about those who know that this is a problem and are technically sound too. (I have a manager like that. At least at the point of writing.)  Such people prove as liability than asset if part of design team.

How you deal with such people?

Caution. Never get into argument with such people. If you can not get rid of them, then only way is to help them improve. If you are their manager, enroll them to trainings. The money spent on their training will get justified by the bugs they will not be introducing. Which will improve others productive too. Now, if you are their peer or worse, their subordinate. Motivate them to learn. Throw advanced jargon so that curosity drives them to learn. If you have a manager like that, make presentations and involve them in discussions so that they get a better hang of things. Its not an easy job. But its your only chance that can save you from night outs. Fixing the design issues they brought in with their half knowledge.

 

Make most of what you have got

We haven’t discussed about innovation for quite sometime. Today lets talk about dealing in innovation with limited resources. This is the case quite often too. We feel the spark of great ideas but then we let it go due to a seeming resource crunch. Seldom its money. Mostly its time that we say we don’t have. But I am not going to talk about time management. That’s one topic beaten to death. So lets focus on the other important issues.

So the crunch you would generally feel, other than time, will be either be money or technical know how. The money is not so important. We will come back to it later. The technical skill is a much bigger hurdle than generally anticipated. And later you discover it, the more it hurts. Because it completely blocks you. No amount of time or money will then help.

Now obvious thing to say would be to update your skills and keep learning and blah blah blah. I prefer different approach.

Just in Time learning

Basically, you don’t learn something, until you know you will need it soon. It doesn’t mean you wait till the very moment you need it, then block the work and start learning. Its Just in time. Just when you anticipate its the right time to update or acquire certain skills. No bullet lines Use common sense. Evaluate you learning speed, available time, etc and figure it out.

This way you can mitigate the risk of technical know how to a certain extent. But some time the JIT learning will tell you that the time required is not feasible or perhaps, the technicalities are way too complicated for you. In such case, I suggest you extend your team. Or build one, if one is not there already. Its better to collaborate with subject matter experts, rather than trying to learn and become one. But to ensure control over things, I suggest you acquire basic knowledge, even if you are taking services/help of an expert.

Now about the money. Well that’s where the real test of innovation is. Before you start looking for innovative ways of raising funds. Spend some time over what resources you have at hand. What can be borrowed feasibly. Brainstorm over ways you can implement your idea with whatever you have got. You will find mostly you can use inexpensive ways to simulate the actual implementation. This would help you gathering funds because you will have a working proof of concept.

 

Think New

Always think of something new; this helps you forget your last rotten idea.

                                                             Seth Frankel

Look at this way. The only way to erase old memories is to create new memory. Now its upto you; what kind of memories you create. Be careful, because they are the only thing that will stay with you….till the very end.

 

Habit 9: Agents of Change

If The Joker be an agent of chaos, the innovative people are Agents of Change. They don’t fear change. They bring change. They adapt and evolve with change.

Why is it so important to change? No, I don’t say that you would perish if you do not adapt. Otherwise old wouldn’t be gold. I have different thoughts about it. I feel it is important to change if you want to innovate. Let me explain it further. We are used to working in a routine fashion. With time, we slowly become expert in that routine. So far things remains in that well accustomed domain, we are good. We grow so used-to of the situations that we stop thinking about improvements and improvisations. And slowly mediocrity starts sinking into us. We start getting habitual of sub-standard stuff. Now you are intelligent enough to know its ramifications.

My focus today is not why you should learn to change. It is up-to you, you want to or not. But if you want to be a successful innovator, you will have learn to create change and to adapt with change. That is the point am trying to highlight.

Innovation demands change. The demand itself is the problem. And that problem, if solved, will lead to a better solution. An innovative solution. So you should not wait for circumstances to change. And then follow the wind and adapt with change. This is what you do to survive. not to innovate.

Innovators do it other way. They innovate and thus, cause change.

 

Habit 8: Passion to succeed

Nothing tastes sweeter than success. And once you taste it, you want to taste it more. Till you get addicted to it. Let’s not focus on the vices. But lets talk about the passion behind it. That positive energy which you can derive from it to achieve. Goals. Success. Happiness. The passion to succeed leads you to achievements.

Initially it looks difficult. And we easily tend to get complacent. But the innovative people drive themselves from the desire to succeed. And this desire slowly turns into passion which makes winning a habit.

How you develop this passion? You have to first free your mind. And think. What is that you REALLY want to achieve. Don’t be vague like “I want to successful.” Be precise. “I want to be successful in my job by achieving so-and-so position in this much time”. Be realistic with your goals. You need to be really really sure about it. No Ifs or Buts. No compromises. We all want to be rich. But that’s not a goal. Define how rich in how much time.

Most importantly you should be clear why you want to achieve that goal. When you have cleared your doubts. And you have clear vision of your goal. Then only can you focus on it. And then only the desire to achieve that goal starts driving you. What will happen next? You will succeed. You succeed and you like it. You savor the feeling. Then you set a new goal. And achieve it. Then next. And next. You won’t even notice when the desire to achieve goals turns into passion to succeed.

And when this happens, you will see how WILL MAKES ITS WAY.

 

Innovators are Lazy!!

That smile on your face tell me I am correct. Innovators are lazy. Necessity might be mother of inventions. But laziness is Big Momma of innovation However, this laziness is different. It not action-less. This kind of innovations are driven by the boredom of performing repeating mundane tasks. And then some one, who is lazy enough to not to like it doing it, yet not lazy enough to not do something about it. In short, laziness too drives innovation.

 

Can’t think of anything new

Last 3 days I have been thinking of many ideas. But each time I turn to Google, someone has already thought of it. Not just that, they took the pain of implementing it too. And posted it on Internet. For me to read and think of the guy who said “You can’t think impossible. And what is impossible, you can not imagine.” I think I will make that guy eat his words.

"I want to date Paris Hilton". 

"Well, its technically possible. If have enough money you can."

He’s got a point there. I may not be able to think impossible. Only some. Okay. MOST of them are  improbable. But what do I do now? How do I think what’s not been done before. I must be doing something wrong.

I guess I stand better chance if I mash-up something. What if I smash-up apples and oranges together. Lets see what I get.

 

The joy of creation

There is nothing like the joy of creation. We can only imagine how God must have felt after creating this world. You remember how joyous it felt. Back n school days. When you completed the first craft model. Your first creation. The feeling is a great motivator. And keeps driving the innovators and inventors.

The creation give you experience. You learn a lot. You make mistakes. You fail. And when you finally succeed, the learning stay with you. That is why bookish knowledge can never match experience.

Not only that. This joy create memories. The memories that make you feel worthy. When you will look back and recall what you achieved. This joy will be first to come back to you. It will want to relive it again. It will give you a very satisfactory feeling.

And then you reach a stage where you don’t need to prove yourself. You know what you are. This becomes a shield. That protects you from criticism and negative comments.

The joy of creation. There is nothing like it. What are YOU waiting for?

 

Habit 7: Self Belief

Kung Fu Panda. Wasn’t the Master Shifu innovative. The way he trained Po to be Dragon warrior was pure innovation. But he couldn’t give him the self belief. Po needed a dragon scroll for that.  The secret ingredient. But that was movie. How you would find THAT scroll – that will make you believe in yourself.

How to have faith in yourself?

The key to self belief is honesty. It you make honest efforts, you will get the faith that you did your best. Make this a habit and it will instill your faith in yourself. Then even if you fail, it won’t hurt. And as side-effect you loose regrets.

Self belief guides you too. The habits of innovative people are isolated traits. They come from each other. One habit imbibes the other. Self Belief helps you gauge you abilities and you become a calculated risk taker. Persevering with honest efforts leads to self belief. So we can find a cause and effect between their habits.

This also makes imbibing these habits difficult. You can’t just try to develop few of them. They are inter-related. You need to take-all to accomplish them. The more you will give it a serious thought, easier will become the need and tougher it will get to develop them ( as you realize its not going to be easy). But its not the easy road you are choosing. Are you?

 

Habit 6: Perseverance

Tortoise won. Where rabbit would have reached had it been persevering. This is what you need to be – A Rabbit and Persevering.

If you wish to travel the road of innovation, failures are bound to come. And then unless you are persevering, you won’t succeed. But then how to be persevering? Well, vaguely speaking, you need to be self motivating, need to know how to handle failure and be sure of yourself to ward off self-doubts.

Innovative people are prepared for failures even before they come their way. No. They are not pessimists. Just that, they are ready for eventualities. So if one thing doesn’t work out, they get ready for next and next and next.

 

Habit 5: Mentoring

Mentoring is an often neglected. A good mentor is priceless. And innovative people knows this very well. It is a very efficient way of knowledge building. And knowledge replicating.

We might be fast learners. We can also upgrade skills quickly. But there is no substitute for experience. And there is no way you can quickly get that. So the best way is to become mentee and let your mentor enlighten you with his/her experience.

How to choose a Mentor?

First analyze what is that you wish to gain from a mentor. Are you looking for technical directions? Career development? People management skills? etc. Once you know that, then start looking for the best person to approach. If you don’t know such a person personally; use your friend circle to find a suitable mentor. These are the times when you realize the importance of networking.

Once a mentor has acepted you as mentee, decide on how frequency of meetings, goals and progress evaluation process, etc. It is not formal process but its important to keep track. You are not reaching out to some guru for fundas of life.