Category: Blog

On Loan

While talking to a colleague this afternoon, the topic of life, parents and death came up. He shared a thought that has moved me a bit. His thought is along the lines that nothing on this planet is permanent including the relatives we have and the relationships we have, it is all on loan. One moment we have a parent, friend, uncle, aunty, grand dad and the next moment they might be gone. Gone for good to never come back.

Brings back the point that cherish everything that you have on this planet, your friends, relatives, relationships, parents, time, nature etc. It’s all on loan. Once it is gone, it’s gone for good. Enjoy it while you can.

 

Toys Design and Development Role – Steve Jobs Needed

Problem: To design really cool, functional and appealing toys

Situation: The market is full of expensive and cheap crap and most of it is shit design and crap products [in Steve Jobs terms]

Required: A person/organisation who can lead the way and design usable and appealing toys both for parents and children alike

Ninja Mehca

As a parent of two kids, toy shopping has never been a pleasant experience for me. Key reason, most of the stuff on the shelves is badly packaged including over packaging, toys not designed well and are not really appealing. This might be more the case when you start loving and appreciating the design and user experience philosophy.

A toy should not only be appealing to it’s main users – children but adults alike. It should be a joy thing to use just like using iPhone or iPad is for the young kids! There is a huge room for a person or an organisation to make their mark in the toy industry. Someone like with abilities of Steve Jobs! Comeon and revolutionise the world!

Media Consumption #IYW

So how many blogs are you subscribed to? How many Twitter followers do you have? How many Facebook feeds are you subscribed to? How many readings apps do you use on your iPad/hand held device and how much time did you spend using them this past week just reading blog posts and watching videos?

Generally speaking it seems that we are over consuming  media these days. As writers get smart in crafting the headlines of their web posts and video tag lines, we feel the urgency to rush and consume that piece of media. Sometimes we feel angry and frustrated by the time we reach the end of the article or the video, as the content failed to provide us the return on investment for our time.

I am no exception and I admit that I am an information addict. But every now and then I consciously ask myself these questions:

  • Would watching this video or reading this article increase my knowledge base or add value in my life?  [This is before I consume the media]
  • [After I consume the media] What are the chances that I will remember the name of the author and/or contents of this article in a weeks time? [If the answer is no, then it is a lesson/reminder to minimise such content consumption moving forward]
How do you decide on what media you will consume? What patters have you identified? Are you on any information diet?

Your Opinion

You are entitled to your opinion, but that does not mean you are right. Your opinion does not matter.

 I have a problem with people who are opinionated and are neither an expert on the subject being discussed nor do they have any leverage on the subject or situation. The most common example that comes to my mind is people discussing cricket and football and who they think should be playing in the team or how the shot should have been taken!

 This post from Seth Godin sums this up pretty well.

 So if your opinion is important and you think it should be heard, what would you do to make it heard?

Pleasure/Achievement Principle #IYW

Happiness comes down to doing things that are fulfilling and to have a happy life, you need to have a fulfilling life. I read about an interesting principle leading into this theory called Pleasure/Achievement Principle by Chris Skellet.

In order to live a fulfilling life, we must strike a considered balance between pleasure and achievement.

So just filling your life with small and big pleasure is not going to make you happy and fulfilled neither will a life of being the richest person on the planet. One needs to strike a good balance.

Such is Execution

So the “new iPad”  is announced  today among other Apple products. No big deal you say, sure. But what was the big deal was the manner in which things were executed. The launched started, the launch finished and at the same time the “new iPad” images are seen on Apple websites throughout the world all updated and ready for pre-orders. Now that is what I call execution! Yes, I am a fanboy and such execution makes me one Big Fanboy. Yes, you say that it’s not a big deal with today’s technology, but then how many examples do you see of such execution. Please tell me so that I am follow more of such organisations and products.

Constraints

A friend of mine lost one of his parent recently and was traveling overseas for the rituals and be with his family. Seeing him and his family off at the air port I inquired about his return plans, he tells me quickly that he will be back in two weeks time and before I could even think about it, tells me ” I will have to come back otherwise my job is on the line..”

This to me is an example of a constraint that he faced which will bring him back away from the family and before he is finished with his mourning. Loss of a parent is something where people and families take ages before they can move on and may be it does not happen at all. But such can be life that it forces us to think about our jobs and pay checks before we forget about the biggest loss in our lives.

Sadness

<This is an unfinished post, while I don’t have words nor the content to write it now>

Product Distribution Strategy

Chris Dixon writes

If you are launching a new website or app, you should have a distribution strategy beyond just “people will love it and tell their friends about it”. Your strategy should probably involve at least one major platform. And you should think through the distribution characteristics of the platform and decide if they are a good fit for your product and how best to mitigate the risks.

So simple but so true. This becomes more important when you think you have the coolest idea for your web service or app and people are going to love it and you don’t need any marketing efforts. Yes, people will love it but only when they can get to know about your website or your mobile app. In this cluttered world have a strategy that till be more than word of mouth marketing.

Talking about marketing, Seth Godin’s recent post is just in time as well.