Miracles and Expectations

I hope for miracles.
But I do not expect it.
Even if it is something as big as the Copenhagen meet.

I certainly do not expect that one Mr. Obama will go to his country and tell his people that he has agreed to a huge cut in our carbon emission because we are rich enough. So please slow down your growth, divert your valuable resources to find greener solutions; so what if unemployment grows for some time. After all saving Earth is more important that unemployment, right? And oh by the way, I have also pledged huge amount of money to the developing and underdeveloped country.

I also do not expect one Mr. Manmohan Singh to go to his (and my) country and tell his countrymen that he has agreed to huge cuts in carbon emission since we have achieved sufficient progress. The world knows we could become an economic power some day. So for some time let us not worry about the millions who still live under or very near the poverty line. Let's get the environment under control, let us save our future generations; so what if the present generation suffers a little.

You actually think heads of nation can solve this mess?
Then you are naive.

Yeah you have heard / seen those massive protest rallies; but you seriously think the rest of the world is worried. We may tut-tut for some time, but then drive down to a shop 10 minutes from our house in a car.

We human have a peculiar characteristic. We think that we take actions taking into account long-term effect but actually we react only when the danger is imminent and effects us. In this way we are different from animals. They also react when the danger is imminent. But at least they do not claim to take long-term into consideration.

Yes I do believe in miracles.
I will continue to do so.

"Hum ko maloom hai jannat ki hakikat lekin;
Dil ko khush rakhney ko Ghalib yeh khayal achcha hai"
I know the truth about heaven; however it is a happy thought to have.

Free Ebook and Great Links

Seth Godin has done it again.
He is the face of innovation on the Internet and he offers this ebook free.
It is called What Matters Now.
Even if you haven't heard of him (unlikely!) or do not appreciate his style of writing (possible!), I would recommend that you download this ebook.
For this e-book is a compilation of 70 cutting edge thinkers and innovators.
A must read for everyone. Highly recommended.
What have you got to lose anyway? It is free!
And if you like it, spread the word around.
By the way, to me the ebook is a rich source of great links. Every author who has written an article has a link to either a blog, or a tweet, or a website or a book, or all of these. And I intend to follow up every link within the next week or so.

Worst Case Scenarios

"If the worst-case scenario played itself out - not the potential or likely, but the worst - would that be acceptable?"
This is the advise that James M. Wilson offers clinical scientists. This comes from experience of the saddest kind. In 1999, James M. Wilson was the head of the institute that ran a gene therapy experiment that resulted in death of a 18 year old boy. (See! That's the thing. You get to hear a lot about the miracles of stem cell therapy. How many times have you heard voices of sanity that says, "Slow down! Reflect!") - you can read all about it; just click on the link above.
If you think about it, the above warning is applicable to all those who are in the position to influence. Whether it is IPCC, or World Leaders, or CEO of a company, or a Project Manager or a Parent. The question remains the same: Would the worst-case scenario be acceptable to you?
One might argue that this could lead to paralytic inaction. On the other hand, this could well turn out to be the basis of meaningful, positive action.

Of Antibiotics and Myths

You go to a doctor with fever. He recommends a blood test and then scribbles out a almost-undecipherable prescription of an antibiotic course.
But wait, have you ever thought what these antibodies are?
I certainly didn't.
Not until I came across this in the September 2009 issue (Yeah! I know. I am running late) of Scientific American India: "Most medically important antibiotics come from soil bacteria. Conventional wisdom holds that dirt microbes evolved these compounds as lethal weapons in the fierce battle waged beneath out feet for food and territory."
This Special Issue of the Scientific American is one of the best in recent years. It covers the origins of as diverse a topic as The Mind to Ball Bearings to Scotch Tape to Computing. In other words, a treasure trove for those who like their information in small packages.
I think it is possible to order back issues. Try your luck here and see if they still have a copy for you.
Before I leave you another snippet: "A popular factoid claims that water running down a drain turns in one direction in the Southern Hemisphere and the opposite in the Northern Hemisphere. The idea is a myth: although the Coriolis force is strong enough to direct the winds of hurricanes when acting over hundreds of miles for days, it is far too weak to stir a small bowl of water in the scant seconds the water takes to run down the drain." And I have been teaching my sons all the wrong things.

Bad Politician Good Politician

In a previous post I had proposed that the following extract from Economics In One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlitt applies to managers too:

The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond. The bad economist sees only the direct consequence of a proposed course; the good economist looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad economist sees only what effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good economist inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups.

However, it is more apt for the politicians. Just replace the word economist with politician in the above extract and you have the snapshot of the chaos that is created by the government's knee-jerk reaction to the Telegana problem.

In fact, the paragraph actually describes all politicians. All. So it is worth repeating the whole paragraph with appropriate words:

The bad politician sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good politician also looks beyond. The bad politician sees only the direct consequence of a proposed course; the good politician looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad politician sees only what effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good politician inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups.

Of course, some of you may argue that 'good politician' is something of an oxymoron.

Seth Godin on Alpha Inventions

Well ... well ... well. Seth Godin's Blog is doing rounds on Alpha inventions. Can you believe it? He, whose blog is read by 1000's, if not more, is testing out Alpha Inventions.

Unless someone else has submitted it or Alpha Inventions has picked it up on its own, it definitely means Alpha Inventions has come of age and is earning respectability in blogging circles.

But this is something we regular users of Alpha Inventions always knew, didn't we?

See Two definite ways of increasing blog traffic and Are hits from Alphainventions.com for real?

One can expect a clever analysis of Alphainventions from Seth Godin soon.

Is your job meaningful?

It is obvious that any sensible person would do meaningful tasks as opposed to what could be called a drudgery. So what makes a task - your job, blogging, serving others - meaningful?

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, Outliers, lists out three characteristics that make any task meaningful:

These are:

1. There should be a clear relationship between effort and reward.
2. The task should be complex. It should engage your mind and imagination.
3. One should have autonomy. You should be your own boss.

Now, evaluate your job satisfaction around these factors.

Hmmm... come to think of it, I now know why blogging is so hugely popular. It requires imagination and the mind is engaged. You are your own boss and most of the time there is a relationship between effort and rewards (readership, money, whatever). The more you blog, the more are the chances that you will be discovered. Or you can hop on to the Alphainventions gravy train.

Are the hits from Alphainventions.com for real?

Many of the Alphainventions users must be having the same doubt as I: How real are the hits referred by Alphainventions? Or are they just visitors passing by?

To find exactly this I a) recently installed Google Analytics in my blog and b) did not submit my blog to the alphainventions reading cycle.

Here are the results for the period 27th Feb to March 1st, both inclusive (basically 3 days)

No. of visits = 147
Pages / visit = 9.03 (note: repeated visit of a single page are counted)
Average Time on Site = 0:43:27
New Visits = 87.76%
Bounce rate = 23.13% (meaning, 1 in 5 visitor did not explore my blog beyond the page first visited.)

The answer to the question we all are asking is now very clear.

Yes, Alphainventions brings you new visitors.
Yes, the hits referred by alphainventions to your blog are real people.
Yes, the visitors stay on for a prolonged period of time exploring your blog.

Do you have similar statistics that can throw light on alphainventions?

Alphainventions - an update on paid subscription

Quite some time ago I blogged about Alpha Inventions. It is manna from heaven for bloggers. You get traffic and you get to see many blogs - both highly desirable.

Traffic in 100's is a given. However, if you want an explosion in traffic then you must try out the paid subscription of Alpha Inventions.

I used the AIID (Stands for Alpha Inventions IDentification, I think) subscription for two months.

Here’s what it does to you and your blog.

1) You are down by $10 per month.

2) Your blog witnesses an explosion of traffic. On days, I managed to get 2000+ visits with corresponding increased advertisement clicks (that sort of neutralizes point 1 above)

3) It reduces your effort to increase hits. Submit your blog once along with your AIID# and go do other jobs.

The Alphainventions team is prompt with dispatching your AIID#.

I benefited from the paid subscription. So this is something I would recommend trying out if HUGE traffic is your goal.

Caution: To capture the fickle bloggers' attention is entirely up to your content and attractiveness of your presentation. Most of the views on your blog actually represent a short term exposure of your blog to the numerous viewers who are viewing Alpha Inventions at any given time.

For those who are wondering if I will continue using AIID subscription ... I would have loved to continue but what I wish to promote using AIID subscription currently blocks the reading cycle. So till the Alpha Inventions finds a solution, I am off AIID subscription and back to normal free submission.

And yes, I do miss the 1000’s of visits already.