I have been reading a lot of books lately. I will quote 2 today.
MapHead- http://www.amazon.com/Maphead-Charting-Weird-World-Geography/dp/1439167184
this book has made me think a lot of Maps and Geography.
The usual understanding - Geography = maps + country/capitals is not correct according to this book.
Cartography is the art of making maps. I didn't know that! ( you did . .I know .I know..)
The olden hand- drawn maps sells for Thousands for $$ while the Google Maps and Waze( I love this app - Google owns them now!) helps us navigate the complex world -made complicated by us and our greed/need.
There are some weird folks who visit all tallest points in the country which are not man-made and other crazy folks who visit every starbucks and every McDonalds. I am not kidding.
The last time I had a $10 coupon to spend in Kohls - buy $50 and get $10 off on your next visit kind of stuff.. my car was in more than 5 kohls in the next few hours trying to find the 'right' item to buy other than socks.
Who said spending money is easy?
If Geography is not maps then is it country,state name and countries? May be..
When you are in the mall you are using geography imagining you at the star - you are here and the rest room is in the far right corner.. atleast 15min away..yes you are never close to what you are looking for - atleast in a mall!
Every interesting fiction movie and books worth their salt(salt = salary!) must contain a map. The protagonist(Why not say the word Hero which is more simpler!) pulls the map and is looking for the next place to go...finally landing in a place in the map where he needs to go (remember - she was already taken by bad guys and kept in the jail or in the bad guy's palace refusing to eat..and crying) ...
In the 16th or 17th century people looked at maps and filled it ..named it.. Today our kids color it.. we need to go to Mars fast..
Now lets go to the social theme of Equity and Equality.
The ships that sailed from Spain and all colonist powers were going after 'plundering' the resources of the people they colonized.
Should everyone in the ship take the wealth equally or in proportion to their rank?
This is the basic question that is raised even today. Walmart makes millions in profit. The CEO must get the largest share and the cashier in Walmart the lowest share of profit. This is Equity in proportion to contribution.
When we are kids - all kids must get the same number of candies must once we grow up one kid should get more than the other based on talent.
Candies are substituted by Money and we believe money should be shared based on the contribution in a capitalistic society.
In a communist society according to Karl Marx everyone has to have the same wealth - I don't know any communist nation that exists today.I will leave it at that.. cos most of them are ruled by a single person and that person gets more than everyone else.Is it then equally shared?
This topic was discussed in detail in the book 'I havent written it' yet - just kidding... once I write a book I will include this.
Let's continue with my favorite economist (other than Daniel Kahneman) Dan Ariely. to digress..
Dan Ariely discusses about how we perceive locksmith and their job. Unless you are in America or one of those high end countries (notice I defer from using the work Developed ,Developing and UnderDeveloped) you may not know the locksmith typically can charge upto $200 to open your locked door(and ofcourse when you lost your keys .. otherwise it may be considered theft or breakin!)
Assume for a minute you lost your home keys and wait for a locksmith. A young locksmith comes and struggles for 110 mins(close to 2 hours!) and finally opens the door, Most people will give him his $200 and sometimes a small tip of $5 or $10 as they feel he worked hard to earn this.
Now assume there is another locksmith who comes to your house and opens the door in 5min.
How will you feel to pay him his $200?
Hard work is important. Smart working is more important. You have to be smart to show off to other people that you are working hard.
Understood?
Next time when you hear someone in office complaining how hard they work do understand that they might be playing this part of experienced locksmith who wants to justify his/her $200. (So don't be fooled and if you are one complaining use swearing words to make it sound realistic!)
Now to Vantage points..
Take a piece of paper and draw a coffee cup/mug
I know you are lazy and in your mind you mind have drawn one of these without your artistic ability (which I know will be bad and that is why you didnt draw.. most of us are ashamed of our drawing )
I went to son's school and since I am involved in starting a new chess club I asked 2nd graders to do this experiment except that I asked them to draw a bucket!
What's the point?
The point being- Why didn't you draw any of the following? Did you draw any of the following?
The Vantage point that we look at for coffee mug is always the side way image - the one we face and not the top or bottoms
Now lets move to the basic measure of life - money and power.
'How will you measure your life' - by Clay Christensen is a must Read book for people who like Analytics and Big Data.
Read this article first - http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7007.html
which explains the concept of 100 Percent Of The Time Is Easier Than 98 Percent Of The Time
It is important that in life we follow certain values and stand by them all the time. Anytime we find ourselves giving an excuse - that is a bad starting point for a lot of stuff.
Here is the key takeaway .. about Big Data and God
According to Clay (once you read a book you can call the author as though you know him on a first name basis.. try it.. when you refer this blog to someone mention Siva said that Clay said...) God will not aggregate at the individual achievement level but at the individual level .
God is always a He.in most of my books so stay with me..( I dont want to be politically correct cos I am not in Politics!)
God will ask you about not much you made ( an aggregate of data about your wealth), not what was your position (A Board member, President,CEO ,VP ,Director are aggregate data of your achievement in terms of your work sucess ) but he will ask you this
Why did I use Big data - Because everyone wants to talk about Big Data , IoT - Internet of Things.. so why not use the same analogy to bring god's infinite memory in context of Big Data. God doesn't have storage or memory problems as far as I can image... so You better have a good answer when you meet him about what you did with your talents cos that might determine where you land - not on your job but in Heaven or Hell.. Hope to see you in heaven.
Keep Helping
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran
MapHead- http://www.amazon.com/Maphead-Charting-Weird-World-Geography/dp/1439167184
this book has made me think a lot of Maps and Geography.
The usual understanding - Geography = maps + country/capitals is not correct according to this book.
Cartography is the art of making maps. I didn't know that! ( you did . .I know .I know..)
The olden hand- drawn maps sells for Thousands for $$ while the Google Maps and Waze( I love this app - Google owns them now!) helps us navigate the complex world -made complicated by us and our greed/need.
There are some weird folks who visit all tallest points in the country which are not man-made and other crazy folks who visit every starbucks and every McDonalds. I am not kidding.
The last time I had a $10 coupon to spend in Kohls - buy $50 and get $10 off on your next visit kind of stuff.. my car was in more than 5 kohls in the next few hours trying to find the 'right' item to buy other than socks.
Who said spending money is easy?
If Geography is not maps then is it country,state name and countries? May be..
When you are in the mall you are using geography imagining you at the star - you are here and the rest room is in the far right corner.. atleast 15min away..yes you are never close to what you are looking for - atleast in a mall!
Every interesting fiction movie and books worth their salt(salt = salary!) must contain a map. The protagonist(Why not say the word Hero which is more simpler!) pulls the map and is looking for the next place to go...finally landing in a place in the map where he needs to go (remember - she was already taken by bad guys and kept in the jail or in the bad guy's palace refusing to eat..and crying) ...
In the 16th or 17th century people looked at maps and filled it ..named it.. Today our kids color it.. we need to go to Mars fast..
Now lets go to the social theme of Equity and Equality.
The ships that sailed from Spain and all colonist powers were going after 'plundering' the resources of the people they colonized.
Should everyone in the ship take the wealth equally or in proportion to their rank?
This is the basic question that is raised even today. Walmart makes millions in profit. The CEO must get the largest share and the cashier in Walmart the lowest share of profit. This is Equity in proportion to contribution.
When we are kids - all kids must get the same number of candies must once we grow up one kid should get more than the other based on talent.
Candies are substituted by Money and we believe money should be shared based on the contribution in a capitalistic society.
In a communist society according to Karl Marx everyone has to have the same wealth - I don't know any communist nation that exists today.I will leave it at that.. cos most of them are ruled by a single person and that person gets more than everyone else.Is it then equally shared?
This topic was discussed in detail in the book 'I havent written it' yet - just kidding... once I write a book I will include this.
Let's continue with my favorite economist (other than Daniel Kahneman) Dan Ariely. to digress..
Dan Ariely discusses about how we perceive locksmith and their job. Unless you are in America or one of those high end countries (notice I defer from using the work Developed ,Developing and UnderDeveloped) you may not know the locksmith typically can charge upto $200 to open your locked door(and ofcourse when you lost your keys .. otherwise it may be considered theft or breakin!)
Assume for a minute you lost your home keys and wait for a locksmith. A young locksmith comes and struggles for 110 mins(close to 2 hours!) and finally opens the door, Most people will give him his $200 and sometimes a small tip of $5 or $10 as they feel he worked hard to earn this.
Now assume there is another locksmith who comes to your house and opens the door in 5min.
How will you feel to pay him his $200?
Hard work is important. Smart working is more important. You have to be smart to show off to other people that you are working hard.
Understood?
Next time when you hear someone in office complaining how hard they work do understand that they might be playing this part of experienced locksmith who wants to justify his/her $200. (So don't be fooled and if you are one complaining use swearing words to make it sound realistic!)
Now to Vantage points..
Take a piece of paper and draw a coffee cup/mug
I know you are lazy and in your mind you mind have drawn one of these without your artistic ability (which I know will be bad and that is why you didnt draw.. most of us are ashamed of our drawing )
I went to son's school and since I am involved in starting a new chess club I asked 2nd graders to do this experiment except that I asked them to draw a bucket!
What's the point?
The point being- Why didn't you draw any of the following? Did you draw any of the following?
The Vantage point that we look at for coffee mug is always the side way image - the one we face and not the top or bottoms
Now lets move to the basic measure of life - money and power.
'How will you measure your life' - by Clay Christensen is a must Read book for people who like Analytics and Big Data.
Read this article first - http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7007.html
which explains the concept of 100 Percent Of The Time Is Easier Than 98 Percent Of The Time
It is important that in life we follow certain values and stand by them all the time. Anytime we find ourselves giving an excuse - that is a bad starting point for a lot of stuff.
Here is the key takeaway .. about Big Data and God
According to Clay (once you read a book you can call the author as though you know him on a first name basis.. try it.. when you refer this blog to someone mention Siva said that Clay said...) God will not aggregate at the individual achievement level but at the individual level .
God is always a He.in most of my books so stay with me..( I dont want to be politically correct cos I am not in Politics!)
God will ask you about not much you made ( an aggregate of data about your wealth), not what was your position (A Board member, President,CEO ,VP ,Director are aggregate data of your achievement in terms of your work sucess ) but he will ask you this
" I put you in such and such situation. What did you do with the talent I gave you to help another human or make that situation better'
Why did I use Big data - Because everyone wants to talk about Big Data , IoT - Internet of Things.. so why not use the same analogy to bring god's infinite memory in context of Big Data. God doesn't have storage or memory problems as far as I can image... so You better have a good answer when you meet him about what you did with your talents cos that might determine where you land - not on your job but in Heaven or Hell.. Hope to see you in heaven.
Keep Helping
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran
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