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By Krishna, January 31, 2007

The first month of 2007 ends today which means only 11 more months to complete all the New Year Resolutions. Here is what happened on the technology front.

1. I started writing my novel on Zoho Wiki. I hope to publish it sometime during this summer. Semi-autobiographical, it is a collection of stories and anecdotes. I planned to use JotSpot for this purpose, but I am tired of waiting this long. How many businesses have shut down their doors for months not serving their customers? What can I say – Google blew it with JotSpot.
2. My target of one post per day will be achieved for January with this post. I did cheat by making up for the days I didn’t do anything by posting several on some days. But I may have to continue like that because it is easier to keep track when I try to match the days in a month. Many thanks to Microsoft Live Writer which has made it easy for me to write in fits and starts. Technorati has been great in knowing about incoming links and visiting those websites. It provides the information faster than Google Alerts.
3. I like the new Skype add-in (Unyte) which allows desktop and application sharing. So far, I have been using Goto Meeting and, previously, Raindance. Goto Meeting has the advantage of not requiring users to install a separate application. But Skype is really convenient if both sides communicating are in fact Skype users. Today, I saw something in Yahoo! Messenger that smelled like a desktop sharing add-in, but I didn’t have the time to explore that.
4. Technology addicts like me hardly get any exercise because we are so glued to the screen pressing “j” on Google Reader. My friend Babu Sathish told me about an Yoga exercise that involves coordinated stretching and breathing. After a few days, I feel really refreshed and full of energy. Of course, I have to warn you – the first couple of days will really be painful if you have been out of practice. Babu also explained to me that it is easier to do these simple exercises and have them as part of one’s daily routine for years than it is to go to the gym a fixed number of times a week. I agree with him.
5. Most people seem to dismiss Orkut as something only popular in Brazil. But I am amazed at how many friends from India I have re-discovered in the past month using Orkut. My feeling is that Orkut is slowly growing and it will hit critical mass soon among the Indian community – which could mean a huge impact considering the large Indian population and Indian Diaspora.
6. Learning to use wireless in new ways: Bring the laptop to the kitchen and run through the reading to-do list while cutting cucumbers or peeling potatoes. Reply to emails in between commercials. Google a new word or phrase heard on TV and learn to stay away from urban legends and hoaxes.

January was really cold in NH – a bitter change from the unexpectedly warm December. But staying indoors helped in getting some work (electronic & paper) done. February is a short month. Hope to do something different and interesting!

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By Krishna, January 29, 2007

First of all, thanks to Robert Scoble for putting me on his link blog. Considering the recent controversy regarding the Intel videos, I thought an analysis of video blogs in terms of its potential audience may be an interesting topic to think and write about. Videos are a big hit on the Internet – the recent acquisition of YouTube has only fueled this trend. But every format has its challenges.

From my personal experience, here are the challenges faced by content providers who use video as their output:

1. Video places a greater demand on the time and effort of the individual. While a person is watching a video, they can rarely do any other work with their eyes or ears. Only activities that can be performed non-consciously like eating or exercising can be done at the same time. This means
   • It is very difficult to see longer lengths of video at work. And I mean this for both the junior team member as well as the top level executive. The former cannot be seen watching videos while they are supposed to be doing their work. And the latter is busy with activities like meetings, emails, phone conversations, etc.

     Compare this with a text posting. It is easy to browse through text while talking to someone on the phone. You can subscribe to RSS feeds in your email and read them along with other emails.

   • It is not possible to see video while driving (duh!). And that is if the video can be downloaded. If it is being streamed, you cannot take it with you on a device to view while commuting on a train or so.
   • And don’t even attempt to see videos (especially technical videos) at home without making your family mad at you. Here is how it goes: You are sitting with your partner on the couch and watching TV. Now try switching on your laptop and playing a video. And yes, you can go to your work area and watch videos there. But now you are adding the video-watching time to the “other work” you are bringing home. Soon, you have no life.
2. Videos on the Internet are very different from videos on TV. I am not talking about image quality, size or resolution. When you watch a video on TV, the only input device you have is a remote which is primarily used to enhance the watching experience (volume, contrast, etc.) Also there is nothing else playing at the same time on the TV that can divert your attention. When you watch Internet video on a computer sitting at a desk, you typically have many other applications (email client, blog reader, instant messaging) that make your experience interrupt-driven. The input devices also act as a temptation to drive you to do something different. Hence the “stickiness” factor is missing.
3. An Internet video typically does not come with a trailer or packaging that helps you identify what you are getting into, unlike a TV program or DVD. A text post has the benefit of quickly browsing the entire text by a simple drag of the mouse. To get a feel of the Internet video, you need to watch at least several seconds or a few minutes.
4. If a person likes the information in a video and wants to share it with other people, it is difficult to email that video to people as an attachment unless it is very short. They must provide a link. It is not easy to ensure that the person actually saw the video. With text, there is a greater hit ratio that people saw at least the general content of the message – such as bolded text.

How can this be remedied?

1. Provide different formats for the same content – a transcript and a downloadable audio file along with the video file. Each format attracts a different audience. Some content consumers (i.e., audience) may even use all three. They may start with the transcript, find that perhaps it is too long and download the audio file to their iPod. They find that the audio is about a medical procedure which encourages the person to go back and view the video file. The reverse may happen – someone sees the video of a speech and doesn’t quite get a sentence or two and can refer back to the transcript.

   To do this is HARD WORK and TIME-CONSUMING. But it will pay off.

2. Internet videos must be “rich” to keep the user engaged. For example, using shorter takes and incorporating music can make the experience better. It is also useful while doing an interview to use other footage instead of showing the person who is talking. Using strong emotions like humor, fear or excitement can help users stay on while the video runs.Once again, this is HARD WORK. In addition, it also requires good video taking, editing and mixing skills
3. If you have a large video, break it down into manageable pieces. I would suggest using 2-4 minute segments. Make sure that the first segment is really interesting and inviting. And do the same for the rest too. Do an usability test with people to understand if it can be bettered.
4. Provide a synopsis of the video and tell people why they must watch it. I am ready to watch funny cats on YouTube all day long because I already know what will happen. But if I have to see an interview with the CEO of a startup, I need to know why it is important that I tune in. Should I listen to him because his company is a good place to invest in? Or is it a potential vendor, partner, supplier, competitor?
5. Allow users to simultaneously email the transcript and link to the video. Use a video format that will not require end users to do something new with their browsers.

Different formats of communication co-exist. For example, newspapers were not made obsolete by radio. Same for radio by TV. And TV by the Internet. Each has its unique advantages and disadvantages. The challenge is to understand the limitations and rise above that.

If video blogs find an obstacle in constraints of time, effort and viewing habits of end users, then it must accept those constraints and work to turn them into its advantage. It is futile to fight reality.

[UPDATE: I remove the word "formats" from the heading as it made it seem as if I was talking about the technology like Flash, AVI, MPEG, etc.]

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By Krishna, January 28, 2007

One of my college juniors, Sijith Nair, who is now in Los Angeles, has started writing his blog http://kuttanskadhakal.blogspot.com in Malayalam. Great Work, Sijith. This is the first non-English blog I am reading and Sijith’s narration of his travel difficulties in Paris makes it very interesting. BTW, use Firefox to view the blog as I am having difficulties viewing it in Internet Explorer.

For those who are unfamiliar with Malayalam, it is the language of Kerala, the state lying below Karnataka (read “the state where Bangalore is”) state on the southern tip of India. The state is an aberration in India – it has 100% literacy and is the most educated (percentage-wise) state in India. It is also governed by an elected Communist government (one of the three states in India which has a sizeable Communist presence) – not that it matters as economic policies are set by the Central (Federal) government.

The state is densely populated. Past lack of good employment opportunities for educated youth led to massive emigration to other states in India and countries, primarily the Persian Gulf (or Arabian Gulf, based on your point of view) and the United States. A running joke among Malayalees and Keralites is that if every Malayalee comes back to Kerala from all over the world, there will not be any standing space there. The physicist George Sudharsan and writer Arundhati Roy are two famous people from Kerala.

The Information Technology industry has been slow to set up shop in Kerala, but things have changed in the past few years. Trivandrum (known as Thiruvananthapuram) and Cochin (or Kochi) are establishing themselves as IT centers building upon good engineering talent from the nearby engineering and technology universities and colleges (CUSAT, MGU and CET). Higher education tuition fees is heavily subsidized by the government. When I completed my Masters Degree in Computer Science, I paid the equivalent of just $50 (repeat, fifty US dollars) for two years tuition. My books and daily travel cost more. However, competition for the college seats is very tough - admission is based on performance in a standardized mass entrance exam usually heavy on logic and advanced mathematics.

One of the great advantages of the state (other than high education and health levels) is its natural beauty. While Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai are bigger centers, they do not compare favorably with the tropical forests, and lazy backwaters in Kerala. Every drive is a scenic drive – it is green everywhere all the time.

I am writing this from southern New Hampshire – another beautiful place which explodes into glorious heavenly colors when fall comes along. If you work in a scenic place, feel free to post links to pictures of your place in the comments section.

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By Krishna, January 27, 2007

As most people would have, I switched over to using Google Search the first time I tried it after a recommendation from a friend. Over the years, Google has added many products to their portfolio and I have tried to use many of them. Here is a quick review of my experiences with each product. The order of the products is according to a combination of my satisfaction as well as my usage level.

• Search: Still the leader with the more relevant search results. Others like Ask, Yahoo! and Live lag behind in number of sites indexed, frequency of indexes and search results returned. Sites like Clusty and Krugle offer variations and search niches, but not general search to topple Google. Google has other search features like Calculator and Weather that come in handy. I typically use the search across Images (my second choice: Altavista), Maps (second and third choice: Yahoo! Maps & MapQuest), News (I also like Techmeme), Groups (I use Yahoo! Groups, but search on Google Groups) and, less frequently, Video (YouTube is better for content, but Google Video should be better for “searching” videos in future). Search is pretty much a Google monopoly.
• Google Reader: Since its latest incarnation, it has become the must-use blog reader. Some notes on that here. I actually favor feeds coming to an online email client, but neither Gmail nor Yahoo! Mail does a good job of this.
• Google Analytics: It is easy to incorporate the functionality in your website or blog and the reports are really great. There is still room for improvement as some of the reports could have greater drill-down capability. Basically, the problem is that as you gain a greater knowledge of the functionality in Google Analytics, you start wanting to slice and dice the data in different ways and the tool starts showing its limitations. Still, it is the best accessible tool around.
• Google Desktop: While I think of myself as pretty organized in terms of files and emails, Google Desktop search increases productivity and effectiveness several times by locating old documents and communication easily. The sidebar allows me to see important information at a glance, launch searches and keep track of To-Do items. However, searching is not integrated into Windows Explorer and the existing gadget inventory probably needs to be improved. I haven’t really tried other tools because Google Desktop does most of what it needs to do really well.
• Google Calendar: Very user-friendly application. Since I am using Microsoft Outlook professionally, it is a challenge to use it regularly. I suppose they should build in some synching feature. Better than Yahoo! Calendar, which like many other of their products, has been dead for years.
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets: The product does a good job of allowing users to create online documents and spreadsheets and there is no competition from Yahoo or Microsoft. It is still a bit clunky and since it is not really anywhere near the desktop Microsoft Office product, it has limited use at this moment. Frankly, I would like to see this product integrated with Google Page Creator and JotSpot.
• Google Alerts: Not something unique that cannot be copied, but it is very useful and does its job perfectly.
• Gmail: Gmail turned the email market upside down when it launched with gigabytes of storage. But other email clients (especially Yahoo! Mail) have caught up with newer features and Gmail doesn’t seem to be innovating much these days. I still use it sometimes because it allows me to store Google Talk chat sessions automatically. It is still much better than Hotmail (or Live Mail) which has no clue about spam filtering or even basic user navigation.
• Picasa: I am using it to manage and edit all my photos. I haven’t used the online sharing service – still using Yahoo! Photos. Probably should give Picasa Web Albums or Flickr a try.
• Google Talk: Skype and Yahoo! Messenger are way ahead in features and looks. But Google Talk has the advantage of being integrated with Google Desktop Sidebar and easily saving chat sessions into Gmail. In recent times, I have experienced performance problems with Google Talk when talking with people in India.
• Google Book Search: I think the functionality is good, but I haven’t really used it all that much. There are too many books to read and too little time.
• Google Earth: Again, a great fun tool, but not much time to play around with it. Google Maps serves most day-to-day purposes.
• Froogle: Useful to know the price ranges of goods. I have not bought a single item from Froogle yet, but probably I am a more cautious and research-oriented online shopper.
• Toolbar: This was something nice to have when it came out. When IE came out, the search box allowed integration with Google Search, which removed a lot of the rationale behind the Google toolbar. The new IE interface also made it less attractive to reduce the viewing area by installing a toolbar. So I got rid of it. However, Yahoo! Bookmarks Beta has convinced me to install me to get the Yahoo! Beta toolbar, but as you can read from my previous post, I am questioning whether moving to that product was such a good idea.
• Google Co-op: Creating a custom search engine was a great touch by Google and I duly installed one for my website and blog. The only problem, I realized, was that it does not index the website in real-time and so it takes a few hours/days to get the content made searchable. Technorati Search is much better in this regard, but right now, it only works for blogs.
• Google Catalogs, Checkout, Directory, SketchUp, Translate, etc: Rarely used these and other products not named explicitly. This is primarily because I don’t use the functionality itself rather than there being a competing product.

The above is not a comprehensive list of all Google products just because I don’t have the need to use some of the products, including stuff like Google Suggest in Japanese. Google seems to be building a portfolio of products just like Yahoo! has done. Their key strength will continue to be in search and I think by leveraging that capability of being able to locate relevant information in any data in any format, their products will grow.

Integration between various products has been taking place, though very slowly in my opinion and in some cases, not effectively done (like Google Reader and Gmail). Providing users with the ability to access all the products they are using is also done in a rather clumsy way – a vertical list of big icons under My Account – instead of the Home Page. I am not sure why this is – possibly the lack (I am just guessing here) of a Google Product Integration team is partly responsible here.

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By Krishna, January 27, 2007

A few weeks back, I complained that Yahoo! Bookmarks was the lowest on my ratings of good bookmarking software. I learnt since that there was a beta version available. The initial good impression it conveyed convinced me enough to move all my bookmarks into it (from IE and Live Favorites) and also install the Yahoo! beta toolbar. Until a few hours ago, I was going to write a good review about it, but as I started using the application more, that feeling started to diminish until I finally hit the “screen of death”.

Application error – symfony application failed to start properly”

I am not sure what caused the failure, but maybe it comes up after 90 minutes of using the application.

Anyway, here’s a quick look at what I liked, first:

• The beta toolbar has a favorites dropdown that displays the favorites in a tree structure of folders. There are menu items to add a link to any folder directly. A frequently used section provides easy access to the most recently visited pages.
• Yahoo! bookmarks supports both folders and tags and allows organizing by either one.
• There are 4 different views for the bookmarks – two of which show a thumbnail impression of the website. [One problem though is that some sites do not display the thumbnail image immediately.]
• You can type your own description.
• There is Move, Merge, Delete and Rename functionality for the folders.
• The Bookmark functionality integrates into the Internet Explorer context menu.

What I didn’t like:

• The site crashing – I am still not able to access it, although I can get to my bookmarks through the toolbar. Hopefully somebody on the Yahoo! Bookmarks product team is reading this and fixes it.
• There are 5 textboxes for typing tags. Why not just have one long textbox and allow the user to separate the tags by commas? That is the standard on most sites.
• I cannot change the URL when I try to edit the bookmark.
• There is no way to customize how many bookmarks appear in a view. Right now, 20 bookmarks appear by default. If I have 21 bookmarks in a folder, I have to click Next to get there.
• When I merge a folder with another, the original folder should go away. Now I have to delete it manually.
• No drag-and-drop functionality for moving folders.
• No right-click on a folder to perform various functionality. Now I have to click on the folder, wait for it to finish loading and then click Edit.
• The lack of right-click functionality makes it really difficult to organize a folder full of unrelated bookmarks. In such a case, I want to delete some of them, move some of them and rename some of them. But each time, I have to keep using the buttons.
• If I want to edit a bookmark, I have to first select its checkbox and click Edit. Why not have an icon against each bookmark to make it easier? Since I cannot edit multiple bookmarks at the same time, this doesn’t make any sense. Also how about a Delete button/icon against each bookmark, while you are at it?
• If I want to create a folder within a folder, it makes me choose the parent folder again although I am inside the folder.
• The exported file from Live Favorites didn’t get imported. I had to import it into IE, export it out and then import it back into Yahoo! Bookmarks.
• Like Live Favorites, Yahoo! Bookmarks Beta also has the ridiculous feature of using a confirmation message on the screen itself instead of using a standard JavaScript confirmation box. 99% of the time, I really want to delete something and to have to wait for the message to appear because of a server round-trip is irritating.
• The site is slow.

Here is an advice to the testers of this product: Test it with real data with hundreds of bookmarks and at least tens of folders and tags. Try re-organizing the bookmarks into a new set of folders. Then you will understand how difficult it becomes.

In spite of my difficulties, I was still willing to spend the effort to re-organize the bookmarks because the Beta toolbar makes it really convenient once the initial setup is done. However, there is very little cost to leaving a bookmarking site (unlike an email web application) and joining another because of the ease of export and import. So Yahoo! should do a better job here before they come out of beta.

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By Krishna, January 24, 2007

A few days back, I praised the concept of balance in this post. But in December, I said that “balance is difficult.”

Did I totally, completely lose it?

Well, actually, there were 2 separate points I was trying to make:

1. One must prioritize certain values and ends over others. Trying to achieve everything at the same time is impossible because everyday each person is faced with choices on how to use his or her time, money and effort.
2. Any activity can be executed in different ways – each method has its advocates. If a person strongly believes that only one way is the right way, he or she may become blind to possible problems with that approach.

As an example of the first situation, there are many goals that I may have: Good health, quality time with my family, lots of friends, writing a novel, visiting places all over the world, helping the poor and the sick. All of these goals are worthwhile, but I have limited resources to achieve them. If I don’t prioritize, I may not do any one of them properly. But if I do set the importance of each goal in relation to the other, I may be able to achieve at least some of them.

Now, let us suppose I do choose to place a high priority on good health. If I spend too little effort on that, then I will not be able to achieve my goal. On the other hand, if I spend too much time on health-related activity, I will be getting increasingly diminished returns from that additional effort. Hence there is a need to balance the effort.

Similarly, in software development, there are goals: High quality, low cost and quick delivery. It is important to prioritize them so that the team can focus on what is important. The means to achieve each goal – process, tools, people – have to be balanced. Also, as I mentioned, in some cases, an extreme case is valid. For instance, if you are delivering mission-critical software, high quality is paramount and hence it may be appropriate and necessary to spend heavily on very structured and rigid processes, huge teams with specialized personnel and expensive design, production and testing tools. A project of a similar scale (using an archaic metric like LOC), but of less critical nature may need 5% of that expense. The point is that: The situation defines what is important and how to balance the merits and demerits of different solutions or approaches to a problem.

I am now reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – I had read it about 10 years ago and it has been well worth reading it again. The writing is superb, as are the stories and anecdotes. I mention it because Stephen Covey talks about P/PC (Production / Production Capability) balance. His point is that one must balance the ability to produce with the actual production. If a manager only focuses on short-term results (production), in the long run, the company will go out of business as it has failed to invest in itself. And if he or she only focuses on processes and tools to the detriment of production, the company will again go bankrupt as it has nothing to run on.

So, in conclusion, prioritization is necessary to understand the order of how things have to be done. It is necessary to understand what qualities must be paid higher attention when doing a particular task. Balance is necessary so that we spend enough resources (not too little and not too much) on the prioritized activities.

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By Krishna, January 21, 2007

I recently finished reading the book “Naked Conversations” by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. As an introduction to the various facets of business blogging, it fulfils its purpose. People who have already read “Blog!” (by Kline and Burstein) and “Permission Marketing” (by Seth Godin) will be familiar with some of the ideas expressed in it. Most avid blog readers and news followers will be familiar with a lot of the content – so for them, I would suggest skimming (rather than reading) the book for useful information.

The book starts with explaining about the growing importance of blogging in today’s business environment. While people who write or read blogs comprise a small minority of the population, nevertheless, they are a vocal and influential minority. Like “Blog!”, the book uses several examples of bloggers and their experiences and thoughts. One of the key differences is that “Naked Conversations” covers business blogging only and not culture and politics.

The authors discuss how organizational and national cultures can influence the prevalence of blogging. For example, the French blog more than Germans because the latter apparently dislike talking about themselves. There are more blogs at Microsoft and Sun than Apple and Google. The book suggests that the latter two companies, while highly respected for their innovation, may have a less open culture than people are led to believe.

My personal opinion is that this opinion about company environments may not necessarily be an accurate assessment. Google is currently the No. 1 employer to work for. Its brand is universally recognized and the perks are amazing. I don’t think that most reasonable employees would want to alienate their co-workers and managers by washing the company’s dirty linen in public. When you have a great thing going, why ruin it? Secondly, Google has a reputation for listening and acting on consumer feedback. It is highly probable that the way internal employee feedback is handled does not create a situation where people have to blog about the company to get someone to listen.

I was not very convinced that public blogs are a good forum to have such conversations within a company. Scoble was famous for making Microsoft seem more down-to-earth, but then Microsoft had a bad reputation to lose. Companies should have internal mechanisms to listen to employee concerns – if someone has to resort to public airing of grievances to draw attention, then something is wrong. Having a public conversation introduces very unique personality dynamics like ego into the discussion.

In fact, this principle can also be applied to customer complaints. Regardless of how well you think of your product, consumers will have problems with using the product or aspects of your service, packaging, pricing, return policy, etc. Such information comes through various sources (service desk, email, phone, etc.) and can be handled at different points and through different means in the organization. What I am trying to say is that customers must have easier ways of getting your company to listen to your complaints than blogging about it on the Internet and then you having to react.

Scoble and Israel provide the examples of Kryptonite and Intel to show that companies should pay close attention to any negative talk in the blogosphere. That is fine, but I really wonder what real options does a company have in such situations. In the Kryptonite case, once it was proved that the locks could be picked easily, the only option for the company was to fix the problem and change the locks. Period. Lack of a quick response may have cost some goodwill, but even if they had responded quickly, they would still have to incur the cost.

The situations where responsiveness can help is when the bad news is factually incorrect or is an aberration in the company’s service or products. If the company’s products and services are intrinsically poor, then any response will in fact be just a bunch of PR double-speak.

In summation, it is an easy to read, introductory book to the world of business blogs. Not inspiring, but just enough to make the user want to read more about the subject – which he or she should. A final thought: I really wish the name of the book could have been different – using the current name in a web page title is a sure way to get a reader in a business setting to close the browser window 2 seconds after they view it.

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By Krishna, January 21, 2007

Having the right people on your team is key to the success of your project or organization. What are the criteria to select such people? This answer may vary for different people and different organizations. One example of a framework for hiring is the 4-E and 1-P method advocated by Jack Welch.

As for me, here are the main factors that I would use to select the right people:

1. Energy and positive attitude: The person should have a good work ethic. I am not advocating a person who works at least 12 hours a day in the office. In fact, sometimes that is a sign of a person over-committing, under-prioritizing and under-delivering. An energetic person is one who is excited by the work they are doing. They bring new ideas and suggestions to improve the quality of work and life.

   They are positive – their first reaction to anything is “Yes, we can do it.” They energize other members of the team by spreading their enthusiasm. They like new challenges and opportunities. They have good team spirit. For them, work is its own reward and the rest is all a bonus.

   In case you are thinking: does such a person exist? The answer is: Yes, they do. In fact, I know several of them – some of my close friends, some current and previous employees in the companies I have worked for.

2. Logical ability and mentality to solve problems: I believe that this is a talent, not something that you can train people in. Some people are interested in solving problems. They are the ones who would gladly spend time in a jail cell if you constantly fed them with crosswords or Soduku puzzles. They have the ability to distill a problem into the simplest form possible and arrive at solutions to fix them.Why is this important? Every day in a manager’s life (and to a lesser extent, every employee’s life) is filled with conflicts, challenges and problems. A person who doesn’t like problem solving will be suffocated and strained by the daily decision making. A person who cannot eliminate unnecessary clutter in the problem and cut right to the chase will provide poor solutions to issues.
3. Candor and openness: In business, things can go wrong even with the best effort. With open, honest discussions about the problems that were encountered, it is easy to address the root causes of the problems and fix them. If the underlying issues are hidden because of some hidden agenda, then they continue to keep festering.It is effortless to work with employees who are very transparent in their dealings. It builds trust within the team. You can continuously feed greater challenges to such a person. A person who has candor will also tell you directly what mistakes you are making, even if you are his superior. This helps in your personal development. If it is a superior who is candid, then it is even better because you know that person will never go behind your back to do something against you.
4. Introspective with self-esteem: An employee who regularly does a self-evaluation honestly is on the path to self-development. Such an employee doesn’t need prodding to learn new skills or technologies. They are more open to constructive criticism about their problems and do not get defensive about mistakes they make.However, it is also necessary to maintain self-esteem and confidence in spite of one’s own defects. I have always seen that the toughest employees to work with are those who suffer from an inferiority complex. You can always get an egomaniacal employee to do something by challenging them. But employees with low self-esteem are very difficult to motivate.

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By Krishna, January 20, 2007

A useful metaphor for easier learning is the concept of the “learning ladder”. Imagine a ladder where you are standing at the bottom and the top rung is your end goal. You can reach the top without much effort by climbing one rung at a time. Now imagine someone saws a few rungs in between.

Learning is easy when it is steady and consistent. By focusing on the next step in the learning process, it is easy to assimilate incremental knowledge and reinforce the existing foundation of information gained. Progress may seem slow, but one gets to experiment with the ideas at that level and know what works and doesn’t work before moving to the next level.

When we see examples of great leaders (business, politics or religion), we normally focus on their present capabilities and qualities. But it is as much important to understand their journeys to their current positions including and especially how both their successes and failures have shaped their thinking and behavior. Reading biographies and autobiographies is a great way to learn these personal experiences.

The ladder metaphor also emphasizes the importance of the next step in relation to other steps. It is easier to reach the next level instead of trying to reach 2 or 3 levels up. Not that you shouldn’t try, but understand that it is much more difficult and error-prone. Also, if you have chosen the right path, you know that you will reach the right destination eventually. So spend more time on your current learning instead of worrying about the end result.

When I was doing my under-graduate and graduate studies, I saw many students worrying about whether they would get a job after their studies. Although they would spend a lot of time planning for job searching, they neglected what they had to do at that present time, namely, learning their courses properly and scoring well. Focusing on the end goals and neglecting the means and process resulted in the former also being lost.

In the workplace, I have seen many people worrying about career growth while neglecting to improve their skills (personality, technology and team capability). Sometimes, such neglect does not manifest itself until the person wants to move to a senior technical role or management ranks. At that point, it is generally too late, because it is very difficult to hide ignorance by mouthing cliches or regurgitating some web article. Or, the person himself or herself finds that he or she is incapable of handling the task or responsibility and ends up failing.

One sad observation is that many times, I have seen comparisons between two people – both intelligent, but only one open to learning. A few years later, the learning person has made incredible strides over the other person in both management and technology while the other person has remained at the same spot or even regressed. Even worse, sometimes the learning person started out with less knowledge and less intelligence than the stagnant one.

It is also useful to make consistent progress by proper time management. For example, if you can only read 10 pages of a book daily, that is fine. You will complete a book like Welch’s “Winning” in 40 days – that is 2 book renewals from a typical library. As you continue to do this, you will speed up and make faster progress. As the old saw goes, “Many drops make a bucket”.

By all means, dream big and try to accomplish the maximum according to your potential. But do what you can to maintain the momentum. Otherwise the net result will be lower than you expect.

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By Krishna, January 20, 2007

The developments in many Third World countries over the past few decades show that poor nations cannot go it alone in their development efforts. Richer nations are expected to help them. Many countries need a basic level of growth (at or above 6%) before they can see their poverty decline. These countries do not have the requisite amount of internal capital to achieve such a goal. With the advent of skewed globalization where poorer countries have little bargaining power in terms of lowering tariffs and eliminating trade barriers, they find themselves at the short end of the stick.

The basic problem in the Third World is the level of capital and production needed for sustenance. For example, in the book, “The End Of Poverty“, Jeffrey Sachs gives us the example of a family that is making $100 a month using their farm goods – just enough to meet their needs. Then he shows how external conditions can either help them develop (such as better infrastructure to sell their produce or reach new markets) or lead them to penury (lack of rain, family member falling ill).

The Third World countries are in such a situation. Many of them are ravaged by factors such as diseases like AIDS, drought, unfavorable climate, etc. Their corruption and tyrannical governments are partly a result rather than the cause of such problems. To stabilize their economies, large amounts of capital is required – so that disease (fatal or dehabilitating) can be eliminated or reduced and basic infrastructure can be created. The Gates Foundation and other NGOs have recognized this and have made the elimination of killer diseases one of the major priorities. Secondly, these countries don’t have the educational strength (and by extension, the legal and political framework) to take advantage of the global economy.

The reason why it is important for richer countries to help the poorer ones is very simple. We share the same planet and the same resources. For example, India and China have large populations because of poverty that results in lack of access to contraception and other medical facilities. Such large populations consume enormous resources including fuel (read “global warming“), water & food, and create massive social and political upheaval.

Poorer countries are also breeding grounds for mercenary interests, including, but not limited to terrorists, drug traders, gun runners, etc. People who make money through such activities have the power to directly or indirectly influence, control and manipulate Western governments. For example, the fact of terrorism in Afghanistan resulted in changing US defense policy and the Iraq war.

Real globalization can help. Right now, many poor countries depending on agricultural exports are thwarted by farm subsidies in Western nations. Outsourcing opponents also fail to understand how much poverty is being reduced by MNC operations in those countries while bring consumers cost benefits.

A final note: Help by richer nations doesn’t just mean “money”. Throwing a lot of cash at the problem without exploring the political, legal, social and geographical factors that create poverty may only translate into transient results.