Author: manuscrypts

  • Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future

    Jeff Howe and Joi Ito

    Multiple waves of technological advancements, chief among them the internet and manifestations of Moore’s law, have rendered the world a complex place. Asymmetry, complexity and uncertainty are the defining ethos of this era, and not necessarily by choice. How can one navigate these times, that’s the theme of the book.

    Joi Ito and Jeff Howe have divided their approach into nine themes. Less prescription, more direction and food for thought. Many of them share an undercurrent of thought, or are even directly linked to each other. Emergent behaviour over institutional authority (Arab Spring and crowdsourcing are disparate examples of this), on-demand pull over push (e.g. Netflix over TV, and even large scale manufacturing) and the importance of weak ties, compasses over maps (direction more than a specific plan – this is my favourite, though I’d have liked more pages devoted to this), focus on risk over safety (the nimble nature of Shenzhen and its rapid development from knock offs to cutting edge tech), disobedience over compliance (the creation of Nylon at DuPont is a good example), practice over theory (there is an interesting sub-topic on privilege in this chapter), diversity over ability (“Ability matters, but in the aggregate, it offers diminishing returns” – Scott Page), resilience over strength (another favourite, and has parallels with Taleb’s anti-fragile), and finally, systems over objects (and understanding the larger implications of one’s work).

    The narrative zooms from physics to philosophy and biology to bitcoin in a matter of few seconds. Sometimes one feels that this is a book about the MIT Media Lab, or maybe it’s because it embraces all these principles in varying degrees.

    But whatever be the cause and effect relationship, it does serve as a good example of the principles in action.
    What the book stresses is the kind of adaptive thinking that will be required of the species and the individuals therein to continue thriving in a world that’s undergoing a profound structural change.

  • Woke it out for yourself!

    A couple of months ago, I wrote an article for afaqs on the challenges for brands trying to remain relevant by stepping into “woke” territory. To summarise, being selectively woke is not an option. Every action by an organisation is scrutinised, and sometimes, scored! Both McDonald’s and P&G were in the “danger zone” of being viewed as more exploitative than empowering. The former even got called out by NAACP for not supporting workers. However, this post is not to belabour that point, instead I’d like to hypothesise on the long term impact on consumption and brand building. (more…)

  • It Can’t Happen Here

    Sinclair Lewis

    A political novel written in 1935, “It can’t happen here” is quite amazingly (almost) prescient about how an authoritarian regime could happen in the USA. Based on a populist platform that promises prosperity and a return to traditional values, Buzz Windrip first beats his (fellow) Democrat Roosevelt and then his Republican opponent.

    But though it all begins with a perfectly democratic victory, the Chief, as he is known, soon begins a “corporatist” regime with its own paramilitary force called Minute Men, and systematically starts dismantling individuals and structures that oppose him. Funnily enough, most of the public continues to support the “Corpos” despite their dictatorial moves, and when those who don’t bring up the spectre of Fascism, they’re told “It can’t happen here”. (more…)

  • Incognito, ergo sum

    More than a year ago, in a post titled A plan to be, I wrote about how at different stages of life, one has the need to stand out, and the need to belong. Both driven by various combinations of happiness, self-image, and of course, the gene that just wants to get to the next generation. Though I didn’t really express it in the post, the “plan to be” had belonging as a large part of it. Exactly a year ago, I wrote The half of it, in which I took the thread further. I found “relevance” being rooted in “belonging”, and wondered whether we settle for that. At the cost of meaning. (more…)

  • The Happiness Hypothesis

    Jonathan Haidt

    I don’t remember how I discovered this book, but when it arrived, I really liked the title. Mostly because of the word “hypothesis”, because it signals a scientific approach to a challenge. And that’s exactly what the book sets out to do – take ten of the best ideas/concepts from history, religious texts and philosophers, and scrutinise it through a science filter. Positive psychology is the genre.

    The author begins with the idea of the divided self, and then goes deeper. Into the inbuilt “affective style” that plays a huge part in one’s personality and how that can be changed, the role of reciprocity, and our tendency towards hypocrisy – seeing the small faults in others while ignoring our own bigger ones. At a third of the book, we even come across a formula for happiness, which makes a lot of sense when viewed rationally.

    My only concern with the book started around this point. The author seemed to have reframed the original thought (happiness) and moved it to meaning, and he didn’t let me in on the reasoning. He tries to bridge this in the last chapter, but to me it seemed forced.

    If that is set aside, the rest of the book does an excellent job of parsing the “meaning of life” into two parts and answering the more important one. The author actually spells out the parsing only towards the end – “why are we here” and “how can I find meaning”? But the chapters before that do give a bunch of perspectives on the second – love and attachments, virtue, adversity, and divinity (agnostic of God).

    There are several ideas that I could take away from the book. Though the metaphor of the elephant and the driver is not original, the idea of approaching them in tandem and making them work towards a harmony has been elaborated well. It also serves as a good reminder that evolution is only interested in our “success” (survival) and happiness is only a nice-to-have. The framing of questions as metaphors is also something I found useful. e.g. What is life? Life is like a journey.

    Another very interesting concept was the the three layers of personality – basic traits, “characteristic adaptations” and “life story”. To me, it provides a clear actionable on how to approach meaning and happiness. The related concept of “arête”, as well as the nuanced difference between character and personality were also good finds.

    It takes a lot of intellect, experience and effort to get the Bhagavad Gita, St.Paul, Confucius, Marcus Aurelius, Buddha, Nietzsche, Benjamin Franklin, Epicurus etc to align in a book that’s only 240 pages. The good news is that the book does this quite well.