Editorial

What separates us humans from animals? Many things. Most of you would say our superior brain. But that's rather simplistic. What makes our brain superior? Is it our capability to retain more information? Or is it our superior prowess to process information?

I think the one thing about our brain that's different from the animals is imagination. We can not only learn from our mistakes in the past and adapt but look into many possible futures. We can picturize things that we have never seen and then perhaps even give it shape. We can imagine a God, we can imagine what would happen if I go venturing into the forest for food, but most of all we can imagine things that will bring happiness. 

Disclaimer: some of these ideas are inspired from the book by Peter Drucker called Innovation and Entrepreneurship. But I have been talking about this for a long time now. I spoke about this in the open group conference in 2015 and you can view my video on YouTube here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyy4A91VBTo&t=1s)

You can't beat a slot machine. No matter how systematic how organized or how complex a process you have. The odds are stacked against you so badly that it is next to impossible to beat it. Now what would you say to a person who is trying to get rich by trying to beat a slot machine?

Thinking that an idea will bring you great success is like beating the slot machines. You can't depend on one idea, one stroke of genius, one bolt from the blue to propel you to success? And let's say you do get lucky, the chances of which are infinitesimal. What after that?

It is innovation when, instead of depending on an idea, you constantly think of many new ideas. When you build a process around doing new things and doing things in new ways. When you are constantly thinking, "out with the old and in with the new". It is a mindset that requires conditioning because we are trained to get comfortable with the status quo.

But it is not just that it is also driving value through your "new". Not just new for new's sake, but for driving value. It isn't innovation if it doesn't make someone's life better. It isn't innovation if you can't practically bring it to life. And it is not innovation if it cannot be commercialized.

Organizations should constantly think about innovation. The only innovation that I see within organizations are those on which the business literally depends on. Patent based businesses like pharmaceuticals and healthcare, etc. But is that culture in all parts of the organization? What about HR or Accounting and Finance or IT...? Can we not do things differently? Can we not get out of our comfort zone? Can we not establish a framework and a culture where we celebrate the mistakes we make in innovating rather than the safety of maintaining the status quo? 

Countries that create usually lead. In break out nations Ruchir Sharma talks about innovation that is one of the most important factors that propels a developing country to break out and become a global leader. Israel does a pretty damn good job around innovation. I hear their cultures, traditions and their education systems are all focused around building rather than following orders. And "Make in India" was a pretty good initiative. I hope we invest more on research labs and our education system than we do in building statues. I hope we focus on building a more creative India.

Art probably started by creating cave paintings to tell a story. And the cave men that were able to better depict a real scenario were probably called "artists". Our will to create more life like pictures probably led to the invention of the camera. A camera was a machine imagined by a human that could replicate a real scene much better than any artist could ever draw. But then is recreating what you saw as accurately as possible a worthy goal of an artist? Isn't it just regurgitating information?

Art probably started taking a different shape at that point where the art work wasn't just an accurate depiction of the real thing but more (Abstract Art). Perhaps an explosion of artistic potential (Surrealism). Or describing not what the artist saw, but rather what the artist experienced or felt (expressionism). And it has long lasting repercussions too. Centuries from now when anthropologists will study our culture, they will look at our art and creativity and try to understand what kind of people we were.

But the one thing that has remained consistent in art since the cave paintings till modern day is the story. The more emotion in the story, the better artist you are.

I have spent most of my life trying to manage my emotions and experience taught me that if you manage your emotions in a narrow band, not too intense and not too dull, a moderation of sorts, you live a happy, trouble free life. So anger is good when you need but don't throw a fit. Love, sadness, laughter, all in moderation. Peaceful, but this has demerits too.

Lately I have been trying a lot to explore creativity and art. Whether it is photography or music and I have come understood what true artists need. It is the ability to experience and express intense emotions. I would be a true master when I am able to unleash my emotions at will and then bring them back into moderation when not needed. Long journey ahead.

In fitness my wife got COVID positive. So we were isolated for 1 week. Which means we didn't get out of the house at all.  No running, no gym. But I was determined to continue with my workout. So I did. I started jogging inside the house. In fact I inspired the boys (7and 10 years old) to workout. I bribed them. I told them that if they could beat me in any form of workout, I would get them an expensive gift. Now they are competing with me in skipping and jogging around the house.

Getting the upper body fit is easy. But getting legs back into shape is tough. So I decided I will do squats and lunges in the house. I overdid it. One day I did 70 squats and started doing lunges and pulled my hamstring. I had to stop exercising for 3 days. But I am out of isolation now. Started my barefoot running and started going to the gym. Once again I am on body weight training for at least two weeks until I get back my strength. Who knows, may be I was COVID positive too. Maybe that's why I pulled the hamstring. Heh heh...!

Fitness is a journey, not a destination. I am determined to take things further in 2022. I hope I don't have to bribe you readers to inspire you to start moving.

1. Noise by Daniel Kahneman - This book I started last month and finished this month. A very interesting perspective but a very heavy read. Starts by talking about how judges give out different sentences for the same crime to different people depending on the time of the day, race and religion of the convict and even the mood (happy or sad). And then Daniel goes on to give many such examples of how "noise" affects our judgement and we make errors. It is commonly assumed that as we reduce "noise" we become more accurate and reduce error. This book shows how we can become more precise with our errors and how we can uncover our biases with noise and that noise may not always be a bad thing at times. 
2. Absolute Power by Sucheta Dalal and Debashish Basu - This is light reading. Mostly like watching a movie. It recounts the historical events from pre-Harshad Mehta scam all the way to recent times. The power and its abuse thereof by the brokers of Bombay Stock Exchange and the creation of the National Stock Exchange and in the process how the Indian stock market became one of the most advanced in the world. Good read overall.
3. Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker - Innovation has always been an area of fascination for me. I have even spoken about it in the open group conference on how enterprise architecture can help us streamline innovation. Peter talks about how innovation should be a part of daily life and that depending on one bright idea is like slot machines. No matter how systematic you are or what process you follow, you can never beat the odds of winning a jackpot at a slot machine and beat your investments. The odds are just stacked against you. In the same way we mustn't rely on one bright idea to become successful. We must have a process of innovating constantly and how we can go about doing that. Very interesting ideas around risk appetite and comparisons between start ups and large enterprises.
4. Self Talk by Ian Turowsky - We constantly talk to ourselves. Some of it is future looking talk, some of it is looking into the past. We talk about others as well, but most of all we talk about ourselves. This is about how to train your mind to talk positive and change an outlook. I found this a little elementary, but considering I was reading Daniel Kahneman, I read this one as light reading.
5. Data Analytics 4 book bible by Daniel Jones - This is a bible of 4 books: (i) Data Analytics for beginners, (ii) tips and tricks, (iii) simple and (iv) effective strategies and best practices. If you are new to Data Analytics or are looking to use data analytics for business, this is a good book. If you are into IT and know what data analytics is, you may find this one elementary and may want to skip.

Niroj and I were in Arunachal Pradesh. The trip was such that we had a general idea of which area we are going to explore that day. But when we would start riding in the morning, we wouldn't know where we are going to sleep at night. We would start riding and around 3.00 pm we would decide where we are going to spend the night.

One of such days we decided we will go to Hayuliang. And from there we would go to Walong War Memorial. From Walong at a walking distance is Dong which is the eastern most part of India. The sun first rises in Dong at around 3.00 am that time of the year. So we started from Roing to go to Hayuliang. Roads were good initially. First there was a highway and then there were Border Road Organization (BRO) built roads which are usually very good. But then we really went into the hills. The roads were not dangerous as there was no cliff we would fall into and die, but they were bad. There were no roads most parts of the way and where there were roads, there were more pot holes than roads.

We were riding two rented Royal Enfield Himalayans and this is a very capable motorcycle. It can really go to places that you can't imagine going on other motorcycles. It can really take abuse. Now it started getting dark and we didn't have a place to stay. We had estimated that we would get there around 4.00 pm but it was already 5.00 pm and we were nowhere close. So we really picked up pace. It was the most fun ride have had in a long time. High speed riding in the hills where there were no roads and in the dark. 

Ultimately we reached Khuppa which is a village pretty close to Hayuliang. There was just one petrol pump in the area so we decided we will top up our tanks. We asked at the petrol pump for a place to stay and they said there is a "circuit house" where you can stay. We were told we would have to leave at 7.00 am because the rooms are already booked for the next day.

It had started raining and we didn't have much of a choice so we stayed there for the night. And then there was a downpour. We were just in time. Thunder, lightening and the works. Next morning we checked out of the circuit house and checked in to the Inspection Bungalow next door, which, by the way, was cheaper and more comfortable.

Ultimately it turns out we couldn't go to Walong and Dong. It was raining constantly and it wasn't safe to ride in the hills with the slush and water and we had to stay there 3 days before we could leave. Anyways it was so cloudy we would have seen the sunrise at 9.00 am instead of 3.00 am. But we met a police inspector there who was living next door to us in the inspection bungalow. He was a Naga and he told us the most fascinating about the lake of no return. The lake of no returns is a lake in Burma. In the second world war fighter planes would go over Burma to do bombing in China. On returning they would get low on fuel. Now the lake from above looks like a big field so they would decide to land there. But after their descent they would realize it is a lake. If they wouldn't have landed they would have easily glided back to a safer place to land but after the descent they wouldn't have enough fuel to rise again to higher altitudes and would ultimately crash into the lake. And hence it is called "the lake of no returns"

He also told us many stories of his encounters with various terrorist groups (ULFA, etc), about Tibet and Nagaland, which inspired me to go to Nagaland in my next trip.